If you've been an affiliate marketer for any length of time at all, then you know there's a lot more involved than just creating content or building websites. You have to get traffic too! And it turns out that getting traffic from other people (often referred to as "paid" or "organic") is easier said than done. But not if you're using these top 10 free traffic sources.
Paid traffic has its pros and cons. It's not always easy to find high-quality visitors who will actually convert on your website. However, there are ways around this problem. In fact, you might be surprised by which methods turn out to be successful. For example, here are five proven strategies for driving targeted traffic to your site...and they don't cost anything but your own hard earned cash.
The short answer is yes. If you want to build up your list fast, create buzz about yourself, or sell products to customers, you'll absolutely need free traffic. The reason why is simple: Without traffic, no one knows who you are or where to find you. This means that unless you spend hundreds of dollars per month on ads, you won't be able to generate enough sales to justify your efforts. So instead, we recommend finding effective ways to earn free traffic through SEO, social media optimization, video creation, and article writing. All of these tactics require very little investment upfront.
And while there are plenty of ways to obtain quality free traffic, it doesn't mean you should stop trying to acquire paying customers. After all, if you want to run a profitable business, you must be prepared to invest in both types of traffic.
Yes, it absolutely works. Free traffic is often generated by word-of-mouth referrals and search engine results pages (SERPs). These two forms of natural traffic help new affiliates grow their businesses quickly because they provide instant exposure without requiring them to pay for advertising.
However, when you start looking beyond the SERPs and focus on PPC (pay-per click) networks like Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, Bing Ads, etc., you'll discover that paid traffic also offers numerous benefits. Let's take a look at some of them below.
1. Paid traffic gives you control. With PPC traffic, you decide exactly how long someone sees your ad before being redirected to another page. On average, most users see their landing page within seconds. Meanwhile, search engines give you full control over the kind of keywords used to show your ad to prospective buyers. As such, you can optimize your campaigns to target specific niche groups, demographics, regions, etc.
2. Paid traffic provides better conversion rates. One of the biggest challenges faced by online marketers is converting leads into actual purchases. People rarely purchase items right away after clicking on an advertisement or seeing an offer on Twitter. They typically wait until they receive something in return for making the transaction. When you combine this delay with the fact that potential customers may already have made similar decisions elsewhere, you realize that paid traffic helps boost conversions significantly.
3. Paid traffic increases profits dramatically. While it's true that free traffic brings in lots of new subscribers and followers, it doesn't produce nearly as large of revenue streams. A study conducted by Forbes found that only 1% of clicks result in a sale. That's barely half of what you'd expect with traditional advertising techniques. Even worse, the same report showed that only 0.15% of clicks lead to a sale via PPC advertising. Not surprisingly, this number drops even further once you factor in the costs associated with running ads.
4. Paid traffic builds trust faster. Once you begin receiving positive reviews from your audience, you'll soon notice that their level of engagement rises substantially. Users become loyal fans, and they feel compelled to spread the news about your brand far and wide. Because of this, they tend to share links to your posts or articles with others who could benefit from the information contained therein.
5. Paid traffic drives higher ROI. Most people assume that the main goal behind PPC advertising is simply generating more income. Unfortunately, the truth is that it has nothing to do with finances. Instead, the primary objective is increasing customer retention, boosting word-of-mouth referrals, and growing your mailing lists. All three factors increase your chances of selling additional goods or services down the road.
So now let's talk about the next step: Which is the best free traffic source for affiliate marketing?
You really shouldn't limit yourself to one method of attracting free traffic. Rather, you should diversify your approach, taking advantage of different platforms whenever possible. Here are our top four picks for doing so.
1. Article Marketing
When it comes to free traffic generation, there's no shortage of opportunities available. Many bloggers publish free ebooks every day, and you can easily write your own blog post and submit it directly to major directories like EzineArticles and HubPages. If you're interested in learning more advanced methods, check out these sites dedicated to helping you promote your work effectively.
2. YouTube Videos
YouTube is home to countless videos discussing various topics related to web design, programming, blogging, internet security, and more. Some of these videos go viral immediately, giving rise to thousands of views overnight. Others attract attention gradually, slowly gaining momentum as viewers continue watching each week. Either way, YouTube is a fantastic place to host educational videos and gain valuable insights. Plus, since everyone loves cats, you can probably figure out how to monetize your channel pretty easily.
3. Social Media Posts
Social media plays an important role in today's digital landscape. Whether you prefer Instagram or Pinterest, Snapchat or Tumblr, LinkedIn or Reddit, these platforms allow you to connect with a massive network of individuals across the globe. By sharing interesting stories and engaging in conversations with other members, you stand a chance of earning backlinks to your profile and spreading awareness of your brand.
4. Email Subscribers
As mentioned above, email remains one of the best ways to reach a huge amount of people. Simply put, you'll never run out of prospects to contact. Furthermore, unlike social media accounts, emails aren't limited to certain niches. Therefore, you can send promotional messages to anyone who subscribes, regardless of whether they fit your ideal customer base.
There are dozens of other options waiting to be explored. From podcasts to blogs, audio files to live streaming events, you can literally draw inspiration anywhere. Just remember to keep track of the channels you visit regularly so you can stay consistent.
Once you've decided on the type of traffic you wish to pursue, you'll need to develop several creative ideas for promoting your business. Fortunately, tools like Ecomdash are designed specifically to help you come up with good ideas. For instance, you can upload a picture of a product, add a few lines of text describing it, and set a price point. Then, enter the URL of your affiliate link in the field provided. Finally, select the desired location(s), schedule date/time, and hit Start Promotion.
With the exception of the last option, everything else happens automatically. Your promotion will appear on all of the selected locations simultaneously. Depending on the settings, it can take anywhere between 15 minutes and 24 hours to finish. Now, you're ready to watch your earnings skyrocket.
In case you missed it, here are five reasons why you should consider joining an MLM company.
There's a lot of confusion about paid traffic versus free traffic in affiliate marketing. Paid traffic comes from various methods that drive people to websites where they'll click on an offer or make a purchase. The most common method is pay-per-click advertising (PPC), which pays affiliates based upon each visitor clicking through their link.
If there was no cost involved with driving them to your site, then it would be considered "free" traffic. But because you're paying someone else to send visitors to your website or landing page, it's called paid traffic. It's important to note that while PPC is often referred to as "paid", it does not mean that you have to spend any money at all. Instead, you merely agree to pay the advertiser when one of their ads directs a person to your site.
You may also hear this term used when referring to other types of online traffic such as social media, email, display advertisements, etc., but we will focus on PPC for now since it is by far the most popular type of paid traffic available today.
So, if I'm using PPC to bring new customers to my business, why do I want to spend money doing it? Here are some things you should consider before deciding whether or not to invest in paid traffic.
Affiliates who promote products and services find themselves in a tricky situation. They know that getting more leads means making more sales. However, if too many leads flood onto their site without enough conversions, they risk losing credibility among both buyers and sellers.
In order to keep up with demand, they must either increase the number of offers being promoted, hire additional staff members, or expand into different markets. While these options certainly help grow revenue, they come at a price - time, effort, resources, and even finances.
To gain more leads and convert them into sales, affiliates turn to paid traffic. This is especially true if they don't already have a large following or fan base. If you've been trying to build a brand around yourself and attract followers, chances are good that you'd benefit greatly from investing in paid traffic.
But just like anything else, there's always going to be a tradeoff between quality and quantity. You get what you put in! That said, here are 5 reasons why you should consider spending money on paid traffic.
1) Increased ROI. Your conversion rate could potentially double if you were able to capture more qualified prospects. With less competition and higher engagement rates, paid traffic has proven to generate the highest return on investment compared to any other form of internet marketing.
2) Better Quality Leads. Having access to high-quality leads means having better opportunities to close deals. When you receive targeted traffic, you stand a greater chance of attracting the right kind of customer. In fact, according to Hubspot, 60% of consumers say that they trust Google results more than Facebook posts, articles, videos, or tweets. So if you're looking to reach potential clients, you might actually be wasting time reaching out to your audience when you could simply target highly relevant traffic instead.
3) More Conversions. A study conducted by Forbes indicates that 70% of B2B companies report that paid search increases lead generation significantly. And when you combine increased conversions with improved ROI, you see significant returns.
4) Lower Risk & Cost. One way to reduce risk is to avoid scammers or fraudsters altogether. By targeting real users, you won't lose sleep wondering if anyone will ever click on your ad or signup. Plus, you won't waste valuable time chasing down fake accounts.
5) Targeting Potential Customers Who Are Ready To Buy. For example, let's say you own a physical store. Most people aren't likely to stop by unless they plan to shop and browse. Those same shoppers may be interested in purchasing items online rather than buying everything in stores.
With paid traffic, you can quickly identify those individuals who are ready to buy and deliver exactly what they want. Then you can position your content accordingly and start building relationships with them. Once they become fans of your blog or webinar series, you can begin selling products directly from your website.
While paid traffic is undoubtedly great, you still need to decide if it fits within your budget. There are several ways to determine if paid traffic works well for your specific niche. Keep in mind that everyone likes to save money, so finding the perfect balance between quality and quantity is key.
Here are 4 factors that affect how effective paid traffic is for your particular market.
1) Traffic Source. What kinds of sites do you think are most attractive to readers? Is it news outlets or review blogs? Are they local businesses or national brands? Or maybe they're ecommerce merchants or Amazon influencers. Whatever the case, take a look at the variety of places where your desired traffic appears.
For example, if your goal is to sell books, then book reviews are probably ideal. On the other hand, if you're thinking of promoting weight loss supplements, health tips might be more appropriate.
It doesn't matter if you only want to advertise on certain sites, though. Try searching for keywords related to your product and see which ones draw the most attention.
2) Competition. How competitive is your industry? Do you have multiple competitors vying for the top spot? Even if you don't have direct competitors (yet), you may face fierce competition indirectly.
This is particularly prevalent in industries that rely heavily on referrals. If a service provider gets a single referral, he/she immediately becomes very visible. Conversely, if you try to compete against hundreds or thousands of providers, you'll struggle to break through.
However, if you provide something unique, you can create strong value. People appreciate recommendations, so if you recommend another company or product that solves their problem, they're more inclined to give you permission to share information about it.
When you focus solely on generating traffic via PPC, you run the risk of competing with millions of others. Unless you have deep pockets or are willing to spend months learning SEO techniques, you'll never rank on the first few pages of SERPs.
Instead, focus on creating value for your subscribers. Provide them with helpful advice or useful guides. Help them solve problems or develop solutions. Show them how to maximize their profits. Make sure you include links back to your primary resource center whenever possible.
3) Timeframe. Depending on your goals, you may prefer short-term strategies or long-term efforts. Either way, you'll want to evaluate your success after 2 weeks or 6 months. After all, a quick fix isn't worth sacrificing your future income stream.
If your ultimate goal is to earn a six figure salary, then you're unlikely to reap rewards in under two years. Therefore, you'll need to stick with a strategy that allows you to test its effectiveness over time.
On the flip side, if you're hoping to launch a successful small business and scale rapidly, you'll want to commit full steam ahead. Otherwise, you risk failing miserably, leaving tons of wasted cash behind.
Again, you need to assess your needs. Don't forget that you can easily adjust your plan once you get feedback. Perhaps you realize that your current strategy isn't working after 3 months. At that point, you'll no longer feel obligated to stick with it.
4) Budget. Before you jump headfirst into a massive campaign, you'll need to figure out how much capital you can afford to spend. If you don't have a ton of extra cash lying around, you'll probably end up choosing a low-cost option.
That's fine if you're planning to slowly transition towards larger campaigns. But if you want to achieve immediate results, you'll need to set aside more funds upfront.
The amount depends largely on your personal situation. Some examples include:
a) Number of employees: Each employee costs $50 per month.
b) Amount spent on monthly hosting fees ($20): Hosting expenses add up fast.
c) Monthly rent ($500): Rent prices vary depending on location, size, and amenities offered.
d) Monthly utilities ($100): Electricity bills alone can range anywhere from $100-$300.
e) Annual property taxes ($200): Taxes are calculated annually.
f) Insurance ($150): Premiums fluctuate depending on coverage and deductibles.
g) Office supplies ($75): Businesses typically charge for paperclips, pens, staplers, copiers, printers, fax machines, phones, and computers.
h) Employee training ($250): Training programs usually last 1 week to 10 days.
i) Marketing materials ($1000): Printing costs depend on the number of copies required, color schemes, and file formats.
Keep in mind that every dollar counts. As mentioned above, you can tweak your plans once you gather data. Just remember to factor in all costs associated with running your business.
Do you want to make money online fast but don't know where to start? This article will help you understand how to get started making money from home using affiliate marketing. It's a great way to begin building an income stream that works for you 24/7 without having to worry about working long hours or sacrificing time away from family & friends. You'll learn how to build your own website and promote products through it while making passive income on autopilot!
If you're new to affiliate marketing, I'd suggest checking out this beginner guide first before moving on to more advanced topics like backlinks and social media. The beginners guide explains everything you need to know to set up your site, create content, drive traffic, and earn commissions using simple methods anyone can follow. If you've already been doing affiliate marketing for awhile, then feel free to skip ahead to any section below.
I recommend starting small by signing up for one platform at a time. For example, if you plan on promoting Amazon products, sign up for just Amazon and see how things go there. Then once you have success there, move onto other platforms like Clickbank as well. Or even try testing different networks (like AdSense) for yourself. Eventually you'll be able to experiment with all these options together instead of trying them separately. And remember, the key to succeed with affiliate marketing is consistency. So stay consistent and keep going until you finally find something that works for you.
This question comes up often when people ask me "what is affiliate marketing?" When someone asks me that question, they usually mean whether it's possible to market products for others using only advertisements. That doesn't sound very exciting! But yes, it is possible to do affiliate marketing without ever creating websites, blog posts, videos, etc., which means no hard work and minimal investment. In fact, most marketers spend less than $100 per month on advertising, sometimes as low as $5-10 per day!
The reason why paid advertising has become such a popular method of earning extra revenue online is because it allows you to reach potential customers who wouldn't otherwise come across your brand or product. Paid traffic also helps you avoid competition since advertisers pay big bucks to advertise their products directly to consumers. Plus, paid ads allow you to target specific demographics based on age, gender, location, interests, hobbies, job titles, education levels, household incomes, marital statuses, political affiliations, religious beliefs, and more. All of these factors play a huge role in determining ad placement rates which greatly affects the amount of traffic generated.
So, does paid traffic work for affiliate marketing? Yes, absolutely. Just take a look at my case study below to see how I used paid traffic to generate thousands of dollars worth of sales every single month. Of course, not everyone gets results like mine, but if you put enough effort into finding targeted keywords that convert well, you should eventually hit your goals too.
Yes, paid ads are definitely a viable option for generating leads and driving traffic. They're especially useful if you're looking to sell physical goods, services, courses, or digital downloads. However, when compared against organic search engine optimization (SEO), paid ads tend to produce lower conversion rates due to several reasons.
One major disadvantage of paid ads is that they cost between 5% - 15% each click depending on what type of campaign you run. Another drawback is that you won't always know exactly how effective your ads were until you receive your reports later on. Some campaigns may end up costing you hundreds or even thousands of dollars before you actually see positive ROIs. Lastly, paid ads are completely dependent on the quality of the keyword phrases you select. If you pick bad keywords, your clicks will plummet right after launch, ruining your entire budget.
In addition to the above disadvantages, paid ads aren't ideal for selling affiliate products because they require you to provide personal information for verification purposes. Since you don't really offer anything tangible, buyers will be hesitant to purchase your products. Although it isn't impossible to pull off, it's highly unlikely you'll be successful unless you invest lots of time upfront researching high converting niches and writing compelling copy. And in order to write good copy, you need to have experience writing articles.
Google Ads is another tried-and-true paid traffic source for affiliates. As you probably guessed, Google Ads is basically a PPC program that lets users bid on certain keywords related to whatever niche you're targeting. Unlike Facebook ads, Google Ads offers a lot more flexibility thanks to its ability to show contextual ads based on user behavior. To maximize profits, you'll want to focus on showing relevant ads to potential clients.
You can either manually manage your account or let Google handle all the bidding for you. Either way, there's certainly no shortage of tools available to optimize your bids within the interface itself. Plus, you can automate the process of bidding by setting daily budgets, choosing specific days and times during the week to bid, specifying landing pages, and selecting exact matches and broad match criteria.
When running a campaign, you'll want to ensure that the keywords you selected are both profitable and competitive. Once you've done that, check your analytics regularly to view your performance metrics including CTR, average position, impressions, and conversions. With a little bit of trial and error, you'll soon discover which keywords perform better for you and which ones bring in higher paying customers. Also, consider adjusting your bids according to your spending limits. Remember, the goal here is to consistently increase your earnings. So if you're constantly losing money, stop wasting cash and switch to a new strategy altogether.
To sum things up...
Paid ads can be a legitimate alternative to SEO if you're willing to commit to investing tons of time in research, writing good copy, and optimizing your site. Otherwise, stick with SEO.
Using Google Ads, you can boost your rankings quickly by focusing on relevant keywords. Once you establish a solid list of keywords, you can continue tweaking your bids to achieve maximum profit.
Keep in mind that paid ads typically yield lower conversion rates than organic searches. So be sure to test your landing page design carefully before launching a campaign.
As you grow your business and scale up your efforts, you'll need to diversify your traffic sources. One thing is clear though—you shouldn't rely solely on paid traffic alone. Instead, combine paid traffic with organic traffic whenever possible. The combination produces a more powerful result than either channel individually.
YouTube is still the second largest search engine behind Google. More importantly, it's the third largest video sharing network in terms of total views, meaning it attracts millions upon millions of unique visitors each month. Most people watch videos on YouTube because it feels like a place that caters specifically toward entertainment. What makes it perfect for affiliate marketing is that it's extremely easy to upload videos and share them via social sites like Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
You can easily set up automated campaigns to send traffic to your site using YouTube's built-in tracking features. These campaigns include pre-made templates for uploading videos, scheduling them, and sending viewers straight to your designated landing pages.
What I love about YouTube is that it provides you with instant feedback and stats. Even if you're new to YouTube, you can track your progress via analytics and compare your numbers to competitors'. Plus, you can measure your performance by viewing your subscriber count, engagement rate, bounce rate, top referring domains, and other important statistics.
But wait, there's more...
Aside from YouTube, there are plenty of other ways you can leverage paid traffic for your affiliate marketing endeavors. Here are three additional examples:
1). Create a YouTube playlist filled with your favorite videos related to your niche. Upload it to your YouTube Channel and embed a call to action button inside each video encouraging viewers to subscribe to your email list.
2.) Create an auto responder series featuring similar content and host a giveaway contest in exchange for subscribers.
3.) Use Google Search Console to identify trending videos related to your topic and add links to them in your emails.
Facebook is a powerhouse of social networking power. Not only is it the biggest social network in existence today, but it's one of the fastest growing as well. According to Statista's data, Facebook had 1 billion active monthly users worldwide at the beginning of 2020. Additionally, the company reported 4 million businesses were actively advertising on Facebook last year. These figures only reflect the number of active accounts, of course.
With that being said, Facebook is a fantastic tool for increasing awareness around your brand and boosting your visibility among prospective customers. Your ultimate objective is to attract the attention of individuals who might be interested in learning more about your products. That's why you need to use Facebook properly.
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.