When you first get into affiliate marketing and decide to promote affiliate links, you may ask yourself some questions…
Is it better to promote on social media platforms or do I need a personal website?
And if I want to use social media, what is the best platform for me?
A lot of thoughts will cross your mind until you know how to start, this is why I will try to help you find your way
Disclaimer: This content contains affiliate links – it will cost you nothing if you take action (purchase, or subscription) know more about my affiliate disclosure in my privacy policy
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is when you promote a service, product, or just a referral link for a specific website
And after someone clicks on this link and takes an action such as buying or signing up ..etc
You will get a commission depending on the offer you’re promoting
I talked in detail about affiliate marketing in this article
This topic or question is so popular and a lot of people are asking about it
This is why when someone wants to start affiliate marketing always gets confused and doesn’t know what to do
Because if you searched enough you surely have come across videos and articles that lead you to use social media
While some others recommend you to have your own website
See I know very overwhelming opinions around there
Now, I will try to make a comparison between a personal website & social media platforms
And depending on your business or goal you will know at the end of this post where to start
How a website can help my affiliate marketing?
If you have a website or you are considering starting a blog and you want to do affiliate marketing then you’re on the right path
Because having your own personal website will make you look more professional and trustworthy to customers and affiliate companies
And this is because a lot of affiliate programs will accept your application faster if you have a website compared to just a social media account
And on a website, there are a lot of ways to promote your affiliate links without the fear of taking your content down or even shutting off your site
Some of the ways to promote are:
- Create a page full of resources or referral links
- Add an ad space on your website (sidebar-in content-top of the page)
- Put referral links inside any blog post
- Make an ebook that contains affiliate links and offer it to your audience
When you blog and test a lot of ways you will learn what will work for your niche
As for promoting affiliate links on social media platforms, I will mention some of the benefits and the cons to help you
There is no denying that social media is super effective for affiliate marketing these days since people spend hours daily on it
And by sharing your links you will lead traffic to your website or the affiliate offer
But you need to keep in mind that social media lack the search intent
By that I mean every second there is a new post and a new interesting thing that caught our attention and leaves us in this social world without taking any action on the links
This means when using social media for promotion you can’t guarantee to get clicks and sales
The best platforms for affiliate promotion on social media are Instagram-Facebook-Pinterest
First, let’s answer a popular question which is:
The answer is yes you can promote affiliate links on social media platforms
But some social media platforms may forbid you to share direct affiliate links or even remove your content if they think you’re scamming
So be careful before you choose a social platform to read their policy terms about affiliate promoting
Here are some tips to avoid getting your links banned:
- Shorten your links (don’t put a direct link) try Split & Sniply
- Always put a disclaimer that your content contains affiliate links
- Create good content and don’t spam
I already wrote an article about how to increase traffic on social media -> Check it here
Final thoughts and conclusion
If you’re someone that doesn’t want to pay anything or you don’t have any writing skills
And if you don’t consider affiliate marketing as a future work for you then social media to promote affiliate links is your way to go
But don’t forget to learn some social media marketing strategies to be successful
And if your goal is to make affiliate marketing a full job and want to grow your business with time
So for sure choose a personal website first to promote your affiliate links then you can also use a social media platform or two
Because you can’t risk your hard work on a rented space such as a social media platform where they can remove your links when they see something they don’t like
The final word and my advice is to take advantage of both to increase your chance of growing your affiliate income
In case you don’t want to pay for a domain and hosting you can always try free platforms for blogging such as Medium & Publish0x
Share your thoughts down below to help more people start affiliate marketing
