Affiliate marketing is often associated with having a large following, but guess what? You don’t need an audience to make money through affiliate links. I’ve personally made money from affiliate marketing through different methods — even when no one was reading my blog, aside from people who found me through Google. Here's how you can get started with affiliate marketing with no followers.
Joining affiliate programs
Before we talk about how you can market your affiliate links with no audience, you need to have some to share in the first place! Sadly a lot of affiliate programs requires you to have a big audience and some of them even require you to deliver results within a certain time, if not you'll be kicked out. This is of course hard for someone with no audience to achieve.
One of the most known affiliate programs is Amazon affiliates, but I advice you to not focus too much on that one. You also have platforms like Adtraction and lots of other affiliate networks. The issue with being an affiliate for online shops is that the comissions are usually very low, usually from 2-10 %.
My tip for you is take some online courses in things you are interested in/ things that are relevant in your business and focus on these instead, as many people who run online courses let every student be an affiliate, and the commissions are usually between 40-50 percent! If you take a look at my recommended programs hub, every single link there is an affiliate link available to all students/members. So if you see something interesting there, these affiliate programs are available for you too if you purchase any of the offers by these creators (they have many more than the ones I link to) through my link.
Since my focus on this blog is design, passive income and online business, the courses I've taken are in line with this, cause this reflects what I'm interested in! But there is plenty of other courses out there, so no matter what your interests are, you can find something great that will suit your nieche.
Focus on SEO for Your Blog
There's many ways to do affiliate marketing, but since I'm not active on Tiktok or Instagram, I won't mention those platforms. The first thing I did was starting a blog. When you’re starting an affiliate blog with no followers, search engine optimization (SEO) is your best friend.
By researching and using the right keywords, you can drive organic traffic from Google and other search engines to your site. This means targeting low-competition keywords that people are actively searching for. My tool of choice is Keywordrevealer, cause it's cheap and very simple to use. Read more about it in this blog post if you'd like to learn more.
If your content is valuable and informative, Google will rank it higher, even if your audience is small or nonexistent. But keep in mind that getting good placements in search rankings is a result of not only using good keywords and opitimizing every blog post, but also about updating regularly.
I post one post a month and get around 1000 hits from search engines organically, but the more often (yet consistently you post the better, as long as you write quality content of course). But the key is to find out what is realistic for you to stay on a regular blogging schedule.
In theory posting twice a month or even weekly would mean a lot for my traffic, but at the time once a month is a goal I manage to stick to, which is the most important thing.
Create Freebies and Promote on Pinterest
Another great way to dive into affiliate marketing with no followers is by creating freebies that people can download, like a checklist, eBook, or guide. Inside these freebies, you can strategically place affiliate links. Pinterest is a fantastic platform to promote these downloads—because you don’t need a huge following there either! Pinterest operates more like a search engine than a social media site, so by optimizing your pins with the right keywords and descriptions, you can get your content in front of people actively searching for your topic.
But forget about posting product pictures that directly leads to your affiliate link. This was a well-used strategy for affiliate marketers in the past, but today the advice is to lead to a page like a blog post (or a download, Youtube video etc) to prevent your account from being banned. Pinterest also requires that you post often, preferable several times a day, so unless you have a lot of time on your hands or already a large following, I wouldn't choose this as your main channel.
For a period of 6 months, I posted on Pinterest once a day, which I already think is enough work, and only got around 10-25 clicks overall a month. But I still use Pinterest once in a while because I believe in the long game, and want to spread links to my content as many places as possible, even if I don't see results for months.
Offer Digital Products with Embedded Affiliate Links
Selling digital products is another powerful strategy to boost affiliate marketing without a following. I’ve sold digital items on platforms like Etsy and Creative Fabrica, where I also included a downloadable PDF with affiliate links inside. People who purchase your product get value from it, and if they click your links for more resources or tools, you could earn commissions from their purchases!
Build an Affiliate Hub
One of my favorite strategies is creating an affiliate hub—a single webpage dedicated to sharing my favorite tools, courses, and products (with affiliate links, of course!). Even without a lot of traffic, you can promote this hub on Pinterest, in freebies, and on your blog. You can even include the link in emails or products you sell to direct people to it. This hub is made using Teachery, which is a super affordable online course platform.
But you could also make a similar page on your website!
Is it easy to do affiliate marketing without followers?
While the idea of affiliate marketing sounds simple—promote products, get paid when people buy—it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. Success takes time, strategy, and patience. On average, only about 1-2% of people who click an affiliate link actually make a purchase. That means for every 100 clicks, you might only get 1 or 2 sales.
So, while the process itself is easy to start, consistent effort and testing different approaches are key to seeing meaningful results. The low average sales percentage also makes it pretty clear why it's smart to focus on programs where you can make high comissions.
Learn from the best and keep experimenting
I’m always learning and taking online courses, which has helped me fine-tune my affiliate marketing strategies. Whether you're promoting your affiliate blog, freebies, or products, remember that persistence is key. Try different tactics, measure what works, and build from there.
If you want to learn more, one of my favourite online business coaches has a program on affiliate marketing. I don't know Lizzie personally, but I've taken many of her courses and love how she teaches and her ideas that I've never heard of anywhere else. She also has a private podcast feed for all her courses, so if you're like me, and hate looking at someone talking into the camera, this is perfect for you!
I wish you the best of luck. If you have any questions, leave a comment below!
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