If you want to make money with affiliate marketing then you are going to need traffic. Traffic is divided into two, paid and free. Free means you have to invest time upfront to make it work but it’s going to pay off for a longer period of time.
In this Traffic Ultimate guide, I have listed the best free traffic sources you can start with and start making money as fast as today. I will explain in detail and all you need to know before you start using each of these traffic sources for your affiliate marketing efforts.
If you have no time to waste then this is a list of the best free traffic sources for affiliate marketing for any time of reading this guide. I recommend you choose one and then double your efforts on that specific platform because consistency is the key to generating free traffic on any of these Platforms.
Disclaimer: This guide contains affiliate links which means I get paid for any purchase made after clicking an affiliate link. However, this doesn’t affect the product pricing. I have tested the software and tools I recommend here so you are in good hands thanks : )
1. Youtube.
Youtube is a video based platform and it is one of the best traffic sources for affiliate marketing you can get started with. The Traffic sources on Youtube are by far better than blogging in general. You can get a lot of traffic which means views to your videos if you optimize your videos well.
With Youtube, you can start getting views instantly even as a brand new channel only if you optimize your videos for the low competition keywords and niche down as possible.
Niching down can help you see exponential growth because you are specific and your videos are actively based on topics people are searching for. So this means that you need to optimize your videos search traffic.
With Youtube, all you need to master is how to improve your Click Through Rate (CTR) and audience retention each and every other time you upload a video.
Your strategy should be a better Thumbnail than the previous video, You can also split test thumbnails monthly to see what works and what doesn’t.
To create your Thumbnails I recommend a software called Thumbnail Blaster that creates Clickable Thumbnails. If you can’t afford that then I would recommend the free tool every marketer needs Canva.
On my Youtube Channel, I create up to 5 thumbnails for each video I upload. If I don’t get my CTR to 7% and above then I keep rotating thumbnails, I change up the color of the text to see how it affects the CTR and if it doesn’t at all then I recreate a new thumbnail.
Audience retention is the hardest part for most people. And talking of Youtube do me a huge favor and Subscribe to my Youtube channel here at this very moment.
But in order to crack this mystery, you need to also split test different introductions. In the first 10 seconds give a sneak peek of what your audience should expect from your video.
This works because it keeps them hooked and eager to close that open loop. They will always want to know more so they keep watching.
With Youtube, you should only target keywords that have channels with less than 10K subscribers ranking in the top 5. If you can find that keyword with small channels then you have a winner.
Add that keyword in the title, in the first three lines of your descriptions alongside some variations for related search traffic. Add some tags used by the top-ranking video to get that suggested traffic as well. You should be good if you do all these.
Youtube is easier and it is the best free traffic source for new and established affiliates. This is because not everyone can make a video and many can write articles that is why the number of blogs created each day is more than we can imagine.
2. Google sites.
Google sites is the best free traffic platform you should use because it ranks so well on Google. It is important to note that you should never write articles that are under the YMYL niches. They would also rank trust me. Below is a video that explains which niches are under that category.
In the video, you will learn how to also find underserved topics, which can be helpful for your start-up in blogging. If you need an in-depth video on Google sites then I have already explained this topic in my Google sites affiliate marketing guide.
3. Blogger.
Here is a brief breakdown on what you should do to generate free affiliate traffic from Blogger.
- Create a free blog using Blogger, choose a similar title as your free URL
- Optimize your Blogger website with a custom-made SEO responsive theme. ( Watch the playlist below to learn more)
- Add a logo and a favicon.
- Connect all the necessary social media platforms on the social plugin of your blogger website.
- Do keyword research to find Underserved topics in your niche. ( Watch playlist to see how I do this step by step)
- Write content and share it out on those respective social media platforms (Pinterest, Reddit, Facebook work well for all niches)
- Repeat by writing 3-4 articles of 1500 words weekly on underserved topics in your niche.
With Blogger I have a full playlist that walks you through step by step on how you can use blogger for the generation of free Google traffic. You can access that playlist below as well. Enjoy!
4. Medium.
Medium Affiliate marketing is easier when you are being compliant with their rules this is because any mistake you make will cost you all work hard work. Meaning all ranking articles will no longer be displayed on Google. watch the video below or refer to my Medium guide.
Medium is an authoritative site that ranks well on Google so you can write your content with a keyword-rich Title and optimize your SEO meta description in the Medium SEO settings so that Google can rank your articles even better.
With Medium Keyword difficulty is not an issue but I recommend you clearly target underserved topics with high traffic potential.
Below is a video that demonstrates exactly how you can rank your Medium articles with Affiliate links on Google.
5. Bebee.
When it comes to blog promotion and generating Free organic traffic to your blog you are going to need to try Bebee. This site allows you to easily post articles, which is producing honey as they call it. Inside these articles, you can link out to a helpful resource on your website.
- So Head over to Bebee and create your own professional account.
- Join hives with many members and produce honey. Articles can be between 400-500 words don’t complicate it.
- Repeat daily.
6. LinkedIn.
Sign up for this platform and start creating content. LinkedIn has a blogging feature so you can target SEO keywords using LinkedIn to rank on Google and get free traffic. This has the best organic reach than Facebook hands down.
They have a number of groups to help your even build connections with new people. Once you connect you should be able to share videos, posts and polls and all your connections shall see it trust me. Better than Facebook.
With LinkedIn you should focus on building that brand with new people so take the time and craft a nice looking bio. It is that simple for this platform.
7. Quora
Quora is a powerful source of traffic for both Bloggers, marketers, and other brands. With Quora, all you need to know is how to find the right questions to answer. It is really important to note that not all questions on this platform get a lot of traffic.
8. Facebook Groups
With Facebook, you simply need to join a couple of groups related to your niche and then create a couple of posts to keep the people engaging, and then whoever likes your post add them as a friend.
Once you have already done so then go ahead and add them to a friend list. continue to post engaging content in the group to build up trust as a non-spammer.
A friend list allows you to group your friends into categories. Once your profile attracts engagement then that post will be pushed to a wider similar audience which helps you because these people are interested in your content. This is how you outsmart Facebook without having to pay for any ads.
In your bio you should have a link to your website. This is the best way to get traffic from Facebook groups. You can post video content also to get more personal and build trust. In your videos you can encourage your friends to get your free lead magnet which brings them to your email list.
This is how you build a fan base on Facebook using Groups. You can go ahead and create a fan page then invite them to like it then on that page post your website links. It is that simple, though it takes time.
9. Instagram
With Instagram, you will have to do some work. It is hard unless you have about 10K followers. And similar to Facebook they want people on the platform. So I recommend if you have some money to pay for some promos from big accounts in your niche to enable that swipe-up feature.
The promos will cost you any where from $20-$40 depending on the size of the account. You can also do polls but many people are not willing to leave Instagram unless you have something undeniable to offer them.
Once you have 10K followers you can link out in your stories to landing pages, Youtube videos, and even your website. It is that simple when you have the volume of followers.
10. Flipboard
Similar to News360 to benefit the most out of Flipboard you will need to join their publisher program. You should have a website with very helpful content, fewer ads, and fewer affiliate or promotional posts. You should have a working RSS feed. This is really important because most videos about this traffic source never talk about it.
Always use your website URL others your request will be rejected. They want you to have a professional website that you truly own.
If you want to learn more about the Flipboard Publisher program then reach the guide here. IF you are in need of more traffic then the guide below should be able to solve your problem.
11. Mix
Mix is never talked about and this is because most people never use it right., The platform is not for all niches. If your niche has no audience then don’t waste time.
You can find the list of topics popular on the platform when you sign up. some of the best niches For Mix include
- Technology
- Politics
- Sciences
- Cars
- DIY
- Nature
- Music
The list is endless you should go ahead and find out if your niche is represented. If it is then great go ahead and join Mix and add your links from your website. It is that simple. If you have a Youtube channel you should be able to share the video soon after your publish it from your Youtube studio.
12. Tumblr
Tumblr is a great traffic source but you should learn how to use it because not all niches will perform well on Tumblr. So it is important to always find a popular niche to get in-front of targeted people.
Here is how you grow on Tumblr.
- Search for huge accounts in your niche and follow a couple.
- Follow some of their followers to get your account going.
- Post up 10 times daily.
- Add hashtags for more reach
Tumblr requires more experimentation but these tricks should get you started. So go ahead and try it today.
13. News360
News360 is a news aggregator platform that relies on publishers like you. If you have a website then great you can join the publisher program. Ensure you submit your domain email when signing up because this increases the chances of getting approved.
Once approved the platform directly pulls in the content from your website using the RSS feed so you just have to sit and wait for the traffic to flow in. Some reasons for not being approved may be having content that doesn’t comply with the publisher terms and policies.
So always take the time to see if you are eligible by reading the terms and policies of this platform.
14. Podcast.
Podcasts have always been a good traffic source. Though you have to spend most of the time promoting the podcast. So I recommend you convert your video content or blog articles to audio. You can use a platform called bCast. This platform will help you transform your blogs to audio or even videos after distributing them to sites like apple podcasts for a one-time fee.
Incredible right! Yes it really is trust me
15. Reddit.
With Reddit, all you need to drive traffic to your site is to join relevant subreddits in your niche and then write articles with valuable information and add a link to your site.
This is not guaranteed but if you can’t post a link in the sub reddit
Reddit is really powerful if you can get your article link on the front page of the site then your site will get a ton of visitors and if your host doesn’t offer the unlimited traffic feature then your site won’t handle that traffic and will experience downtimes.
It is of course had to get on the first page but all you need is a few visitors from your specific subreddit and this will alert the search engines that your content is good and worth ranking higher.
Here is an example of a post I got to rank on top of the one subreddit.
The strategy is simple all you need to do is search for news articles in your niche on google read as many as you can and get an idea of what is trending then rewrite your own copy in your own words on your blog and share it in the most relevant subreddits.
It is that simple. Just watch the video case study below to see how I get 50-60 visitors daily form one subreddit.
16. WordPress.
With this you don’t even need to own a website. You can use the free WordPress.com platform to get traffic to your affiliate links. This means you can get free traffic without ever owning a website, no backlinks needed because that is how this works on the platform everyone gets traffic.
You only need to write 400-500 words of articles and you can just rewrite the top ranking articles on Google in your own wards to create unique content. Summarize it in your own words then publish and engage on blogs of other publishers. The readers will find your blog comment and click on your profile to even learn more about you similar to Instagram or Facebook.
The more relevant the keyword is on the title the better chances of even ranking on Google. If the keyword has low competition the a Google ranking is guaranteed. No need for backlinks or domain authority.
Get the tool recommended in the video here, This tool automates the entire process without having a to-do blog commenting and engaging yourself. You never need to even login.
That is it for this guide, choose your best and go ahead to generate that traffic.
Final Quote
By the end of this guide, you should be able to generate free traffic for affiliate marketing using any or all of the traffic sources on this page. So All you have to do is go and try the methods for yourself. Don’t forget to join the official newsletter where we share such information on a daily basis.
Goodluck!
