How to Do Affiliate Marketing Without Followers (6 EASY Ways to Get Started) [2024]
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, meaning that if you purchase something through the links below, I will receive a commission at no cost to you. Learn more.
TL;DR:
- You can leverage SEO and content creation to build an audience over time without needing a large social media following.
- There are effective paid advertising methods to kickstart commissions if utilized correctly.
- Building trust and credibility with an audience is key; focus on solving their problems rather than flashy promotions.
- It requires patience and consistency, but with the right niche and promotion strategies you can find success even starting from scratch.
- Check out my FREE training if you want to learn the best strategy for making money online
Ever wondered if you could be successful in affiliate marketing without an army of followers?
Well, you’re in luck because affiliate marketing is filled with opportunities that don’t require you to be an influencer. In fact, successful affiliate marketers are making a significant income without a single social media follower.
In this article, I’ll unveil the strategies that can help you crack the code of how to do affiliate marketing without followers. From leveraging SEO to engaging in email marketing, I’ll guide you through the most effective methods that have nothing to do with your follower count.
Stick around, and you might just discover the path to your own affiliate success story.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a revenue-sharing model where as a publisher, you promote products or services offered by a company and receive a commission for every sale, click, or lead generated through your unique affiliate links.
It’s a mutually beneficial relationship between merchants and affiliates. Businesses get more customers and you can potentially earn passive income without creating products of your own.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work? (The Basics)
If you are completely new to affiliate marketing, let me break the basics down for you.
There are three key players involved: the merchant, the affiliate, and the consumer.
As an affiliate, you select products you trust and promote them.
When consumers click on your affiliate links and make a purchase, you earn a commission from the merchant.
Through affiliate networks, you can gain access to various affiliate programs, which are agreements outlining commission rates and payment structures.
What stands out in affiliate marketing is its performance-based nature. You are compensated strictly based on the results generated, which means your income reflects the effectiveness of your promotion.
New to affiliate marketing? Check out my list of best affiliate programs for beginners (by niche)
How to Promote Your Affiliate Links Without a Social Media Following
Finding success in affiliate marketing is about the quality of traffic sent and how well you can engage with potential buyers, whether you have zero followers or a million.
Below are a few of the best traffic channels for starting an affiliate marketing business without needing followers on social media👇
1. Start a Blog
Starting a niche blog is one of the most effective long-term strategies for affiliate marketing, even without a pre-existing audience.
The great thing about content sites is that through SEO (search engine optimization) and consistently publishing valuable articles, you can organically build traffic and establish yourself as a trusted authority over time.
When first launching your blog, do in-depth keyword research to identify buyer queries and topics of interest related to your niche.
As you create posts, focus on addressing common pain points, questions, or needs for your target reader base. Provide genuinely useful, comprehensive articles that solve the issues they face.
By creating content people find reliably helpful over time, you grow real trust and credibility.
PRO TIP
For the best results, try to integrate affiliate links seamlessly where relevant products or services could aid readers.
Done right, organic search, word-of-mouth, and return visits will compound, ultimately establishing your blog as a go-to authority site readers want to buy through.
2. Launch a YouTube Channel
YouTube is an incredibly powerful platform for affiliate marketers, even if you’re just starting out without an audience.
By consistently publishing valuable, engaging video content centered around your niche, you can organically build a subscriber base over time.
When first launching your channel, research popular and rising topics in your industry to help gain initial views and subscribers.
Make sure to focus on searchable content that people are actively looking for on YouTube. Address common questions, solve problems, or provide informative tutorials around your products—establish your expertise and provide real value.
PRO TIP
I place my affiliate links in the video descriptions, making sure they align with the content, to maintain trust and transparency with my audience.
The great thing about YouTube is once you begin building a loyal viewership around your niche, you can introduce and endorse products more naturally in your videos.
Leverage your influence to spotlight affiliate offers that you genuinely believe your subscribers will appreciate and benefit from.
3. Build an Email List
Building and nurturing an email subscriber list can become one of the most lucrative assets for affiliate marketers over time.
With your own list, you have direct access to an engaged audience interested in your niche whenever you send out an email. This allows for promoting relevant affiliate offers at strategic points in the buyer’s journey.
When starting completely from scratch, create an opt-in page that offers a compelling freebie like an ebook or email course in exchange for someone’s email address.
Share this landing page through your various marketing channels to start capturing subscribers.
Just be sure to deliver on your lead magnet promise!
Want to learn how to build a proper affiliate funnel for FREE? Check out my post on how to start out as an affiliate marketer with no money
As your list starts growing, segment contacts based on factors like interests, purchase history, etc. to target campaigns accordingly.
In your emails, share affiliate links to products or services that genuinely provide solutions or value to current needs along your audience’s journey.
With a tailored, value-driven approach, your email list can become a dynamic asset to leverage affiliate marketing regardless of your current following.
Just stay focused on serving your subscribers’ interests first!
4. Buy Paid Traffic
While building organic reach is critical for long-term growth, buying paid traffic through targeted ads can serve as an effective short-term strategy to help kickstart affiliate commissions.
Platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and native advertising provide instant access to engaged users who are actively searching for solutions in your niche.
The key is narrowly honing your target audience—analyzing customer demographics and interests to identify subgroups most likely to convert on your chosen affiliate offers.
PRO TIP
Craft compelling ad copy and landing pages tailored specifically to what those potential buyers want or need to hear.
Pay close attention to conversion rates, earnings per click(EPC), cost per lead/sale, etc. and refine underperforming campaigns promptly to maintain a positive ROI. Scale your top-converting ads aggressively to maximize your affiliate promotion potential.
Combined with solid organic groundwork afterward, paid ads can greatly accelerate earning potential.
5. Parasite SEO
Parasite SEO refers to a growth hacking tactic where affiliate marketers leverage the power of authoritative sites by contributing guest posts with backlinks pointing back to their own affiliate offer.
By essentially “piggybacking” on the domain authority, trust indicators, and existing organic traffic of high-DA websites, you can accelerate the SEO viability of your affiliate content exponentially.
While the concept of parasite SEO is brilliant for accelerating affiliate sites’ rankings, the reality is that most high-authority websites now charge for the placement of guest posts.
The key is identifying relevant, reputable sites related to your niche that actively welcome contributor posts, like blogs, newspapers, magazines, directories, etc.
For example, as a fitness affiliate, you could write an evidence-based guest post on “Top 5 Supplements for Muscle Growth” on a high-DA website, seamlessly mentioning your hand-picked recommendations and including your affiliate links.
This piece would then get quickly indexed on that powerful domain and hopefully rank high in search engines for your target keyword(s) creating an additional traffic source for your affiliate offers.
Although it may seem easy, implementing a successful parasite SEO campaign calls for extensive outreach and excellent copywriting. The secret is to budget your money well so that the affiliate commissions you earn eventually outweigh the costs you incur.
6. Get Some Followers!
While gaining organic reach is possible even from scratch, actively building a targeted following in your niche can become a powerful asset amplifying your affiliate potential over time.
Leveraging communities across key social platforms like Facebook, Twitter(X), LinkedIn, and Reddit is a great initial strategy to identify and engage subgroups passionate about topics related to your affiliate offers.
Provide quality content like helpful discussions, how-to advice, trending news, and more.
Position yourself as an educator first rather than an overt product promoter.
Over time, this nurtures trust and establishes you as a thought leader in the space, encouraging the organic growth of your follower base.
Overcoming Challenges
Starting affiliate marketing without an existing following poses unique challenges that can feel daunting.
Let’s explore some of the hurdles along with actionable advice for overcoming them…
Building Trust and Credibility
In affiliate marketing, the golden rule is to provide genuine value, which in turn builds trust and credibility with potential buyers.
PRO TIP
Make it your mission to understand the audience’s needs, offering solutions to their problems through your content.
This genuine approach is far more valuable than just a flashy social media presence. In order to connect with my readers, I avoid using clichés and instead include a lot of personal stories in my writing.
Competing with Established Affiliates
The affiliate marketing space is crowded, and as a new player, competing with established affiliates seems daunting.
It’s a no-brainer that you need to create outstanding content, but the step that most new affiliate marketers neglect is: conducting a thorough competitor analysis.
Focus not only on what others are doing but also on what they’re not; that’s where the opportunities lie.
Remember, it’s not about going head-to-head but rather finding a unique angle or untapped market that they’ve overlooked.
Staying Consistent and Patient
Patience and consistency are key to succeeding in affiliate marketing without a built-in audience.
With almost a decade of affiliate marketing under my belt, I’ve learned that it’s a gradual process to build a loyal following.
It may take time, but the effort pays off when customers start recognizing the reliability and quality of your recommendations.
PRO TIP
Growth in affiliate marketing is a marathon, not a sprint, and you have to stay committed to the path, knowing that consistency is not just beneficial but necessary.
I focus on selecting profitable niches and devote my time and resources to developing expertise in those areas, knowing that the compound effect of my efforts will manifest with time.
Final Thoughts…
I’ve walked you through a variety of strategies to succeed in affiliate marketing, even if you’re starting without a following.
Remember, the key is to focus on creating content that provides real value to your audience.
Whether that’s through a well-crafted blog, engaging YouTube videos, informative newsletters, or smartly targeted paid ads, your efforts can lead to affiliate success.
With patience and persistence, you’ll find that you don’t need a massive following to make a significant impact in the world of affiliate marketing.
