While you are creating content on any platform, you can start building an email list or an SMS list. There are two main reasons to do this:
You own your contact list
So you don't need to rely on social media platforms to engage with your audience. All major platforms have glitches from time to time, so when they fail, you can always reach out to your audience via email.
You can take advantage of affiliate links
While some affiliate programs don't allow you to include affiliate links in your emails (Amazon's affiliate program being the main one), you can still email links to content that you think contains an affiliate link; sending traffic to any of your content.
Using your email list is a great opportunity to add even more value to your audience, building even more authority on your niche topic. Some ideas to help you get started with your email list content include:
Industry reports or news
Links to new blog posts or videos.
Summaries or interviews
Behind the scenes of your life or business
Promotional offers (occasionally)
Free digital downloads
When building an email list, there are many email marketing software providers that offer free plans, including Shopify Email, Mailchimp, and MailerLite. It's worth comparing to see which one suits you best.
And once you build trust with an audience, you can start promoting high-value affiliate programs.
Send traffic to your links
Now that you’ve built trust with your audience, it’s time to start driving traffic to your affiliate links. This step is where your efforts start to pay off, but it requires a delicate balance between promoting and maintaining your audience’s trust.
Start by incorporating your affiliate links canada phone number format naturally into your content. This could be through:
Product Reviews
Tutorials
"Best of" lists
Comparative articles
For example, if you're in the fitness niche, you could create a video showing your workout routine, mentioning the equipment you use, and linking to it in the description.
Don't forget to use clear calls to action (CTAs) that encourage your audience to click on your links. These could be as simple as "Check out the product here" or more engaging like "Get an exclusive 10% discount through my link."
Respond and chat with your audience
The final tip for growing your affiliate marketing business with no money is to engage with your audience. Generating conversation not only helps your followers or subscribers feel heard, but it also works in your favor with social media algorithms.
When people engage with your content, it's usually a signal to algorithms that your content is worth boosting and showing to more people who might be interested.
On TikTok, for example, when you like and respond to comments on your videos, those comments will have a special “Creator Like” badge that stands out among other comments.
In this example from influencer and affiliate Lauren Loveless, she is responding to comments from fans to help them make a purchase of her recommended Rare Beauty product. Lauren has multiple affiliate links accessible from the link in bio page attached to her TikTok account.