Are you looking for innovative and effective free traffic sources to attract more visitors to your affiliate marketing website(s)? Well, you’ve come to the right place. There’s a ton of free ways to get traffic that you may not have tried yet.
In this article you’ll find the best sources and techniques you can leverage to get free traffic. Who knows? One of them might just be the secret you’ve been waiting for to skyrocket the audience for your affiliate site. Check out these 10 free traffic sources and see for yourself!
How to get unlimited free traffic to any affiliate link?
Free traffic to an affiliate link primarily requires a comprehensive content marketing strategy. This includes creating content on social media, blogging and engaging with other influencers. Additionally, engaging with other affiliates in the same niche, doing keyword research, leveraging SEO and utilizing influencer marketing will allow you to reach potential customers and drive more traffic to your affiliate link. Utilizing multiple channels with proper outreach and leveraging each opportunity will increase the chances of generating more leads and driving more traffic to the given link.
Free traffic sources/ promotional methods:
Here’s a quick overview of our selection of 10 free traffic sources for affiliate marketing:
- SEO
- Youtube
- TikTok
- Snapchat
- Q&A Websites and Forums
- SEO Again
- Bonus Tips
- Conclusion
10 affiliate marketing traffic sources
We’ll start by looking at the best sources for free traffic. You’re probably already using some of these, but it’s always a good idea to be on the lookout for new free traffic sources to add to your arsenal. So let’s dive in and find the cheapest way to drive traffic to a website.
Free traffic source #1: SEO
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”, and it means that you optimise your content and website in such a way that your pages are visible in Google’s search results.
This is a great source of free organic traffic for your website, as opposed to advertising in Google’s search results, where you have to pay for every click. When you manage to get good Google rankings, this ensures you with an ongoing flow of free visitors that are actively searching for the information you have to offer. Now does that sound great or what?!
If you’re looking for ways to grow your traffic from SEO, be sure to check out these SEO tips for affiliate marketing, brought to you by thought leaders in the market.
With a worldwide search engine market share of more than 92%, Google needs no introduction. The company was founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and is a subsidiary of the holding company Alphabet Inc.
Google went public through an initial public offering (IPO) in 2004 on the NASDAQ Global Select Market Composite under the symbol “GOOG”. And in 2015, the holding company Alphabet Inc. was created.
Sergey and Larry stepped down in 2019 after handing control to Sundar Pichai. However, they returned in 2023 to help combat potential threats from AI companies like OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT.
As of May 2023, Alphabet (Google) has a market capitalization exceeding $1.4 Trillion.
What is organic traffic?
Organic traffic is the unpaid traffic generated by search engine listings of websites. It is considered to be an important part of any online marketing or SEO strategy as it brings high quality and targeted visitors to a website without any cost. This type of traffic is powered by organic algorithms that are designed to give the highest possible return on investment.
Free traffic source #2: YouTube
Did you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google? Millions of people come here looking for inspiration, entertainment, and information every day.
Uploading videos doesn’t cost you anything, and if it fits what people are searching for you’ll have a great chance of attracting organic views through YouTube’s algorithm, just as you would in Google by leveraging SEO.
It’s quite easy to upload informative videos nowadays. This means that YouTube might be a great free traffic source for your affiliate business, especially if you’re in a niche that is suitable for this kind of content. Some videos that work especially well include:
- Unboxing of popular items
- How-to videos
- Reviews, seeing the product in action
You can leverage the video description to add keywords, further increasing the chances of attracting a free audience to your videos. The description is also a great place to add your affiliate links, allowing you to push your viewers on to your affiliate website as free traffic. Despite being a great source for free traffic you also have the chance to promote your affiliate offers with Youtube ads, by linking your Google Ads and Youtube accounts.
YouTube was registered on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, who met while working at PayPal.
On October 9, 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock.
According to Consumer Insights, 68% of YouTube users watch YouTube to help them make purchase decisions.
Free traffic source #3: TikTok
TikTok launched in September 2016 under the name A.me – in December 2016, it was rebranded as Douyin and still uses that name in China. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance.
It went international in 2017 as TikTok – derived from tick-tock – the sound a large clock makes while ticking.
There are calls to ban TikTok in the U.S. because the data of its users might be compromised and fall into the wrong hands. However, many feel the real reason is that social media platforms like Facebook have lost users to TikTok and are lobbying the U.S. government to take action against a Chinese-owned company.
If you’re looking to get free traffic amongst a young audience, then you simply must try TikTok.
TikTok is an app that is built around the sharing of short (music)videos. You might say it is the video-based version of Instagram. It is immensely popular amongst the younger generation, but since it is quite new, the competition on this platform is still relatively low.
This makes TikTok a massive opportunity and a great source of free traffic when your content is aimed at a young audience.
One of the easiest ways to get started is by placing affiliate links on your profile bio. You can use tools like hoo.be or linktr.ee to create bridge pages that contain several affiliate links and can display products you’re promoting.
TikTok is a potential free traffic source that relatively few marketers are utilising at the moment and they also offer the chance to create TikTok ads (paid) campaigns that can boost even further your affiliate performance.
If you’re interested in TikTok ads for affiliate marketing you can check out wecantrack‘s guide on how to get started
Free traffic source #4: Twitter
It might be one of the early birds in the social media landscape, but when it comes to free social media traffic, Twitter still rules! Just look at how a single tweet from Elon Musk can influence an entire crypto-rate and you understand how influential the blue-white birdie can still be. You can easily get free clicks and visits with a free account, even if you don’t have Musk’s following.
To achieve this goal, use Twitter to promote your content and chime in to discussions and conversations around your topic. You can use hashtags to be part of a conversation that is promising for your business. Include affiliate links in your tweets whenever they fit nicely without being too spammy or self-promoting. Focus on adding something to the conversation, not on promoting your links, and Twitter might really be worth your while.
Twitter was founded by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July 2006.
After leaving Twitter in 2008, Dorsey returned as CEO in October 2015. He stepped down in 2021, and Parag Agrawal took over as CEO.
Twitter became a public company in November 2013, raising $1.8 billion in its initial public offering (IPO), giving it a market capitalization of $31 billion.
In 2022, Elon Musk completed a deal to acquire Twitter for $54.20 a share at a total cost of about $44 billion.
If you’re already a blogger or you have a website that provides valuable product reviews, comparisons, or buyer guides for the best products you should also have a presence on twitter and reach a different audience that can drive more website traffic and affiliate sales.
Free traffic source #5: Instagram
We called number one on this list from social media platforms – TikTok – the video version of Instagram for a reason. Instagram is huge, there’s no denying it. With millions of users everyday, this is probably where your audience is browsing, looking for inspiration or just wanting to be entertained.
And let’s face it: you have to go where your audience is in order to get free traffic. This makes Instagram a free traffic source you can’t miss out on. If the topic of your affiliate site lends itself for visual content and you don’t leverage Instagram yet, setting up your account today might be your best bet to attract additional free traffic tomorrow.
The only downside to free traffic from this social platform is that not everyone gets free targeted visitors to their page. Instagram limits each post to only 30 people at one time even if your account has thousands of followers via hashtags or geotags! But wait, there are ways to work around this 60-30 rule.
Instagram was founded in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who launched the app on October 6, 2010. Less than two years later, in 2012, Facebook acquired the young startup for $1 billion.
According to statistics, Instagram has more than 143 million users in the United States alone!
Free traffic source #6: Snapchat
Last but not least on this list of free traffic sources, is yet another very popular social media platform. Where Pinterest focuses on high quality visual content, Snapchat is about creating content that is only visible for a short amount of time.
Snapchat allows users to create “snaps”: short videos of 15 seconds or pictures. The key to attracting a free audience via Snapchat is consistency: you’ll have to post on a regular basis in order to build up a following. Snapchat is all about grabbing the short attention span of the younger generation.
Snapchat also offers a paid option with Snapchat ads that can help you drive more traffic. If you’re curious about how to get started with Snapchat ads for affiliate marketing you can check out wecantrack‘s page about how to properly set up affiliate conversion tracking in Snapchat ads.
Snapchat was founded on September 16, 2011, by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown, who met at Stanford University. Reggie was reportedly kicked out after a few months due to his excessive partying.
Earlier in 2011, the trio launched Picaboo, but it did not gain any traction, and after making some improvements to the app, they relaunched it as Snapchat.
Snapchat became a public company on March 2, 2017. It has 290+ million daily active users and a current market capitalization of $13+ billion.
Free traffic source #7: Q&A Websites and Forums
Q&A sites and forums like Quora are places where people can ask questions that other visitors then answer while discussing the topic itself. If you want free targeted traffic to your website, you can try to become a part of these discussions by creating an account in a good quality Q&A site related to your niche.
Leave helpful comments to people’s questions, adding a backlinks pointing to content on your site for more information whenever relevant. Take care however to stay within the rules of the forum. Note that these sites usually don’t allow self-promotional content and each comment or answer should be in principle focussed on helping the one asking the question.
Quora was founded on June 25, 2009, by former Facebook employees Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever. However, it was only released to the public the following year, in 2010.
Here is an explanation from Charlie on how they came up with the name Quora:
Quora is not the only question & answer site. However, with 747+ million visits monthly, according to Similarweb.com, it is the #1 question & answer site by far.
Free traffic source #8: Pinterest
It may not be free to create free account on Pinterest but free organic traffic to any website is free. Talking about visual topics: another great free traffic source for promoting your affiliate content via visuals is Pinterest. Even more than Instagram, Pinterest is where people can get inspired and find stunning designs, home interior ideas, or anything else that’s creative.
The key to getting free visits from Pinterest is creating beautiful content that connects with your audience. Follow popular “boards” that are in the same niche as you are for inspiration, and find ways to add something to what’s already out there! Your ultimate goal is putting out stuff that people find cool enough to want to repin it: the Pinterest equivalent for sharing your post. Of course, the more free repins you get, the more free traffic you will get too!
Pinterest founders Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp started developing the platform in 2009. On August 10, 2012, it became accessible to the public.
The company went public in April 2019, raising $1.43 billion in its IPO, giving it a market cap of $10+ billion.
With 463+ million monthly users, Pinterest can provide you with a significant amount of free traffic!
Free traffic source #9: Reddit
Reddit is probably one of the best – but massively underused – free traffic sources out there. Never heard of it before? Well, that’s why it’s underused!
Reddit is a forum-like social media platform where users submit content and discuss all kinds of topics in various subreddits or boards according to their interests. The best content will be upvoted by users, meaning free promotion and a wider audience.
Reddit was founded in 2005 by University of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. In October 2006, Condé Nast Publications acquired the site for a reported $10 million to $20 million.
In 2011, Reddit became an independent subsidiary of Condé Nast’s parent company, Advance Publications.
The company had several funding rounds throughout the years and raised $700 million in August 2021 for a $10+ billion valuation. Expectations are that Reddit will become a publicly listed company in 2023.
Reddit hosts more than 100K active communities and 13+ billion posts & comments. And with 57+ million daily unique visitors, it is one of the most frequently visited websites worldwide.
Free traffic source #10: SEO again!
We’ve already discussed SEO as a great way to attract an ongoing stream of organic, free traffic via Google. But if you’re doing SEO anyway, there’s another great opportunity to be on the lookout for. Why not build your SEO while getting some extra free traffic from other sources at the same time?
Here’s what we mean by that.
An important part of building your SEO is working on your backlink profile. This means the number of websites linking to your content, indicating that it is quality stuff and increasing the chances of it ranking in the Google results. One way of doing this is by writing guest posts for blogs and websites in your niche. You can offer to write the article for free, if you can put a link pointing to your website in return. Not only will this strengthen your backlink profile with a link from a good website in your niche, it will also act as a free traffic source of its own, by sending people your way that read your guest post and hit that link.
If you manage to build a website based on an SEO strategy that gets a significant amount of traffic, or you already have one. There’s an additional way to monetise your traffic and increase your affiliate revenue even further by signing up to the best pay per click affiliate programs today. Make sure to check that out!
Bonus tips for more free traffic from existing sources
Adding new channels is not the only way to grow your free audience, of course. The most effective way might be getting more free traffic from your existing sources and efforts. Let’s wrap this article up by looking at some best practises that might boost your free reach even further.
Try guest posting on other blogs in your niche
Guest posting is still one of the best ways to get free traffic. Build your reputation as an expert in your niche, gain backlinks for future SEO purposes, and get some free traffic from the people reading your stuff on other people’s blogs in the process.
If you haven’t tried guest posting, there’s no time like the present to dive right in!
Write articles and submit them to article directories
Here’s a great way to get even more free traffic from the articles you’re writing. Try and upload your content to free article directories like Medium. This will get your articles under the digital eyes of the many visitors these websites attract on a daily basis, building your brand reputation and of course your organic reach. Spamming your content with promotional links is mostly not permitted, but you can add links to content on your website that enriches the piece you’ve written.
Writing is only a part of getting the most from your content. Promote!
Many people make the mistake of just writing an article, plopping it on their affiliate site, and then just sitting back and waiting for the free traffic to pour in. This is a waste of all the time you’ve put in writing that article. Writing is only half of it: you need to promote your content to get the highest possible amount of free traffic through it.
This means putting your content out there on social media. We’ve discussed quite a few free traffic sources in this article that you might use in this way. What’s even better: by promoting your articles on social media, you’re putting something on there that is really relevant and worthwhile, which will add to your reach and number of followers there.
Promotion of your content is probably even more important than creating it in attracting the highest number of free traffic to your platform.
Some additional thoughts on how to get traffic for affiliate marketing
The main takeaway of this article should be that there isn’t a single best way to get traffic for affiliate marketing. It’s getting the traffic that counts because it’s the traffic that allows you to earn your commissions and fees. This means that the best way for getting traffic depends on your audience. If it’s something that people buy on impulse or “didn’t know they wanted”, social media is probably how you get your traffic. For highly visual or inspirational products Pinterest might be a safe bet. And if you’re promoting something that people have lots of questions about, it makes sense to focus on SEO.
In short: there are lots of ways to get traffic for affiliate marketing. We’ve inspired you with a few in this article. Your best way of getting traffic, however, is simply to keep an open mind and stay on the lookout for additional ways that work for you.
Conclusion about the best ways for more free traffic
Guest posting is still one of the best ways to get free traffic. You’re casting a wider net by becoming visible on other websites, while at the same time working on your backlink profile and strengthening your SEO.
If you’re putting lots of time in writing rich, informative content, you should at least devote some time to promoting that content on social media as well. This will increase the amount of free traffic from one article, which will make it even more worth your while.
In this article, we’ve discussed some of the best free traffic sources for affiliate marketing promotion. Try and find creative ways to translate your content to the platform that best suits your market and audience, by turning it into Pins, videos, Snaps, TikTok’s or Posts. Good luck!
