I’m not talking about the compelling copy that gets you to click. I’m talking about the actual structure of the email – the bones, the anatomy of an email. 

People often think that emails are just blocks of text that happen to feature images, but I’m here to tell you that there’s WAY more to them than just that!

Emails are made up of multiple components, each working together to create one successful campaign. 

These components are located within three “stages” of a sent email:

1. Inbox: Helps a reader determine if they want to open the email
2. Body: Communicates the main message and hopes to drive the reader to act
3. Footer: Contains important legal compliance and cross-channel promotion

Each one serves to captivate, inform, and inspire the reader to take action. 

Understanding how these components work will determine whether or not your email program will see results. Let’s break them down!

The 17 Parts of an Email

Here is the basic structure that most marketing emails fall into:

While the components you see above form the basic “template” of a marketing email, you might not include all of them in every email you write.

That’s because the structure of an email will vary wildly depending on the purpose behind that email: what message you want to send and what goal you want to achieve. 

A newsletter may rely heavily on images and body copy to showcase different stories, while a welcome email might instead focus more on a main headline and CTA to convey a welcome message. 

If you’re writing a marketing email, you could use plain text and let your words speak for you, or you could let your images do most of the talking. 

Splitting your email into columns might help it read better, but sometimes it’s better to keep everything in a line.

Emails are highly customizable depending on what you want to do with them, but with that being said, most emails will have the majority of the sections shown off in the graphic above.

Let’s get into them.

Email Inbox

Before your recipient opens your email, they’ll be exposed to certain elements in their inbox. These elements are the main factors determining whether your email gets opened or read.

1) Sender Identification

When you receive an email, the first thing that will likely catch your eye is a little circle of color with an initial inside. This is a Sender Icon, a visual representation that helps a subscriber quickly identify the sender of an email. 

While these typically look like off-brand M&Ms, a new email standard called BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) now allows brands to display a logo inside the icon. 

Brands that adopt BIMI will see their logo showing up alongside their email message in many different inbox providers, like Apple, Google, Yahoo, and AOL. Unfortunately, Outlook and Office 365 have yet to adopt BIMI, so your emails will still get the M&M treatment. 

BIMI emails not only improve engagement metrics by helping your message stand out in a sea of other messages, but they also help build trust with your audience. BIMI has multiple compliance checks in place to ensure that you are who you say you are, and audiences really appreciate that.

BIMI takes quite a bit to set up, but it’s not the only identifying feature that will be shown to your subscribers. All emails come with both a “From Name” and a sender email address that will also help your viewers recognize who the email is coming from. 

Like a sender icon, a “from name” plays a huge role in building trust, familiarity, and humanizing your email. Yours should allow your audience to immediately recognize who the email is coming from. You can do that by using:

• Your personal name: Lauren Britton
• The name of your brand or company: ClickBank
• The name of your department or role at your company: Marketing Team
• The name of the product or service that the recipient has subscribed to: Spark Education
• A combination of two of the above: Lauren at ClickBank

Whatever you choose needs to match your identity. If you are an affiliate promoting a pet product, you can use your name, the title of your affiliate business, or the product’s name as your “from name.” You cannot claim to be PetSmart just to get a click. 

When you choose an identity, stick to it. If you’re consistently swapping names or icons, the mailbox providers will flag you as potential spam.

2) Subject Line

After looking at who sent the email in the first place, a subscriber will move on to reading the subject line. Subject lines are bold sentences that appear directly next to or under the “from name” and act as the headline for the entire email. 

At around only 4-7 words, subject lines may be short, but they pack a powerful punch. They’re actually the main determining factor in whether an email will get opened.

That’s because subject lines catch subscribers’ attention, tell them what they should expect from the message, and encourage them to learn more by opening the email. If a subject line doesn’t pique a reader’s interest, they’ll just scroll away or delete the message. You’ve really got to capture their attention if you want to earn their click. 

A subject line should always be true to the email, accurate, informative, and inviting. It should also avoid spammy, scammy, and clickbait tactics. 

Try to avoid using words or phrases that can trigger spam filters, like:

• Purchase
• Free
• NEVER
• Cures
• Reverses
• Guaranteed 
• Buy here
• Double your income
• As seen on
• Moneymoneymoney
• Lowest price ever!
• No investment needed
• Join millions

Instead, try to use words or phrases like:

• Invitation
• You 
• [The recipient’s name]
• News
• [Month]
• [Year]
• Event
• Quick question about
• Did you find what you were looking for?
• Ready to help
• Tips for [pain point]
• Here’s what I promised you

3) Preview Text

Just below the subject line will be another, non-bolded, line of text. That’s called preview text, which helps add more context to the subject line. Its main goal is to function as a teaser of sorts for the email itself – building a reader’s curiosity and enticing them to open the email.

Preview text is quite odd, unlike every other part of an email. That’s because you can choose whether or not you’d like to customize your preview text. 

By default, preview text will be the first two lines of your email. However, most email service providers allow you to choose precisely what you want to say in your preview text.

This allows you to give additional information, highlight key benefits, or reinforce an upcoming CTA to help increase your chances of your recipients engaging with your message!

Email Body

If the components in the inbox portion of your email do their job, your recipient will open your email! That’s where they’ll be introduced to the next portion of the email: the body.

An email’s body contains the main meat of your message, communicated using a mix of copy and images (more on those later). Email body content is meant to provide value to the reader and follow through on exactly what the subject line promised. The body should be kept concise, engaging, and aligned with your reader’s expectations.

The body of an email can be divided into two subsections: above the fold and below the fold.

Above the Fold

This part of the email body gets its name from a popular strategy in the newspaper industry. Because of their size, newspapers are typically folded in half and placed on a display stand. Newspaper companies want to capture people’s attention as they walk by, so they place the most important or eye-catching information at the very top of the page.

This can be applied to email marketing as well. Depending on the size of your reader’s screen, some, if not most, of your email will end up getting cut off. You want to stop your reader in their tracks to ensure they read your email, so you should follow the same guidelines as a newspaper. 

Put your most important and eye-catching information up at the top using the following elements:

4) Logo

Your logo will sit at the very top of your email, ready to help your viewers recognize your brand. I like to say that a logo should be Goldilocks-sized—not too small, not too big, but just right so that it’s visible but doesn’t take over the entire screen. 

While the logo helps improve brand recall in the email itself, it also helps make the customer journey feel more seamless. If your reader clicks a link in your email and sees your logo on the landing page they were taken to, they know that they’re in the right place and that you are who you said you were.

5) Headline / Email Headers

Located directly underneath that logo in big, bold letters is your headline. Its job is to state the main message or point of your email, as well as to reiterate why the reader opened the email in the first place. To do that, your headline may actually be rephrased or extended from the subject line of your email.

Let’s say that my subject line reads “Profit = The Right Product.” My reader will automatically assume that I’ll be teaching them how the two correlate and what they need to do to pick the right product within my email. I’ve implied that unless they pick the right product, they won’t be able to profit as affiliates.

My headline restates the information from my subject line, “The Product You Promote Helps Determine What You’ll Make as an Affiliate.” This not only corroborates the information they got from my subject line but also segways into a solution to the problem I originally implied. 

Essentially, your headline should reiterate why your reader opened the email, provide additional information that further piques their interest, and then compel them to keep reading to learn more.

Main CTA (Call to Action)

You write emails because you want people to do something. Whether that’s reading a blog, watching a video, or visiting a sales page, your CTA gives your reader a clear pathway to complete that desired action, instead of just hoping they end up searching the internet to do what you want. 

If you’re an affiliate, the CTAs in your email are where you’ll end up placing your hoplink or affiliate link. This will help you track how well each email that you send performs, as well as get credit for any sales made from your email.

You’ll likely have multiple CTA buttons, images, or hyperlinks within your email, with the most important being your main CTA. This should show up “above the fold” so people can be directed to what you want them to do without the need to scroll. 

This main CTA should tie directly into your headline and can act like an “answer” to the question that may present itself within the reader’s mind. If we use the example above, my reader will probably ask themselves, “How do I find a product that will allow me to make money as an affiliate?” A CTA like “Find Your Winning Product Here” answers that question by giving them an actionable step to complete. 

CTAs should ALWAYS contain some actionable instruction for the reader, but we’ll get into that later.

6) Hero Image

Sometimes, words alone cannot convey exactly what you want to say. In that case, your headline may be accompanied by a hero image. Serving the same purpose as the headline, a hero image is meant to draw people’s eyes and help communicate the email’s core message. 

Hero images add visual excitement to an email and can draw the eye better than just a headline alone. But that’s not to say that hero images must be in every email you make. 

Keep in mind that sometimes, the headline will perform just fine by itself, and you won’t need that additional image. You might also be writing a plain-text email, as is the case with many affiliate emails, and won’t need to use images practically at all.

7) Affiliate Email Exceptions

Now, all of the parts of an email we just went over can be found in some way, shape, or form in almost every email style out there. But if you’re looking at an affiliate email, it might seem a bit… weird.

On a first look, affiliate emails might not seem to follow any of those “above the fold” guidelines that we just went over. Forget headlines, main CTAs, and hero images; affiliate emails tend to jump directly into the body copy after a personalized hello. 

That’s because affiliate emails tend to be what’s called a “Plain Text” style of email, characterised by no flashy design work, little to no images, and the use of embedded hyperlinks instead of buttons. They look like they were sent from the average person’s inbox, rather than a professional Email Service Provider’s platform. 

While plain text emails lack those main parts of an email “above the fold,” that doesn’t mean the purpose behind them is lost. There might not be a headline, but that email’s most important information will surely live right at the top. The CTA’s might not stand out without a button backdrop, but hyperlinks seamlessly blend into the text, answering questions immediately once people ask.

The concepts are all still there, even if the visuals aren’t. So, whether you’re creating an affiliate email or just wanting to try something new, be sure to follow the “above the fold” principles.

Main Body/Below the Fold

A reader may have to scroll to this part of the email, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less important than what’s “above the fold.” This is where you get to explain things, drive your message home, and really showcase what makes your email worth the read. 

Think about it like this. Everything “above the fold” is just an introduction to what you’ll write in your email’s main body. If it does its job, people will want to read your email fully. So take some time and make the body of your email shine.

8) Email Body Copy

This is a fancy term for the bulk of the writing you’ll find within an email. The amount and type of body copy you’ll use heavily depends on what you’re writing and the message you’re trying to show off. 

Promoting a sale might only require a few words, instead relying on images and bolded headlines to showcase the product and sales details. 

Newsletter emails will have multiple sections containing whole paragraphs of copy to fully convey their message. 

Plain text or affiliate emails will also have loads of copy, but may be broken down into short sentences or bullet points to keep a reader’s visual interest. 

It is a good rule of thumb to avoid being too wordy when writing your copy. People hate reading large blocks of text, and will often exit an email if they’re greeted with multiple paragraphs. That’s not to say avoid writing lots of words altogether; you just need to reconsider how you write those words.

• Have each “paragraph” be only 1-2 sentences long
• Use bullets instead of commas
• Write in clear, conversational language
• Avoid fluff by addressing the reader’s real pain points
• Make use of color and bolding to emphasize certain information
• Demonstrate the value of the email by sharing insights, tips, case studies, or stories
• Writing informative, but enjoyable copy

Remember to use only as much copy as you need to fully get your message across. No rule says you must have it, so use as much (or as little) as your email needs.

9) Images

An image is worth a thousand words; nowhere does that hold more true than in email marketing. Showcasing everything from best-selling products and top-notch deals to thumbnails of your latest content or visual representations of data, images have tons of jobs in the email world. 

We already covered the purpose of hero images, but regular images can also:

• Add visual excitement to an email
• Act as CTAs
• Allow you to cut out words or break up blocks of text
• Draw people’s eyes to bits of information
• Keep people engaged in reading
• Help you clearly explain complex concepts involving time or numbers
• Give your readers a visual break

Copy and images are powerful tools in email marketers’ arsenals to get their point across. If used properly, they can truly be the difference between a visit to your landing page and an unsubscribe. 

Don’t use too many images, and don’t use too much copy. You need to strike a balance between information and aesthetics for every email you write. Be sure to keep that in mind.

10) General CTAs

In the main CTA section, we mentioned that you’d likely have multiple CTAs within one email, and these are those CTAs. 

Like the main CTA, every single CTA within an email gives a reader something to do. You want to be as clear, compelling, and actionable as possible when writing a CTA so your audience isn’t left guessing at what they need to do next. You can theoretically have as many CTAs as you’d like within an email, as long as the asks within them are the same. 

Your CTA needs to fall within the same “theme” as the subject line, email headline, and landing page that you’ll be sending the reader to. It should feel like one part of a whole, which helps contribute to creating a natural “path” for the reader to follow.

Let’s say you’ve written an email announcing that a product you promote is currently on sale. You’ve got four CTAs in the email, each asking something different:

• A headline that reads “Buy this product 50% Off”
• An image showing off your blog
• A hyperlink to check out a completely different product
• A button advertising your latest YouTube video

Your audience is faced with four completely different tasks that you’re asking them to choose from. That can only lead to confusion, decision paralysis, or a complete exit from the email.

Now, let’s take that same hypothetical email and make those four CTAs all ask the same thing:

• A hyperlinked headline that says “Get 50% Off”
• An image showcasing the product
• A hyperlink on the words “get more info here!”
• A button that says “Shop the sale”

This new email uses buttons, images, and hyperlinks to encourage the reader to check out the sale. Every CTA drives home one message, and all four of them only ask the reader to do one thing. There is no confusion, no decision paralysis, just a clear, actionable task to consider.

Try using these actionable words in your CTAs:

• Click 
• Subscribe
• ____ Here
• Sign Up
• Learn More
• Buy Now
• Download 
• Contact Us
• Watch
• Save my spot
• Book now

The general rule of “one ask per email” holds true for almost every type of email, with the most notable exception being Newsletter emails. Newsletters are meant to showcase multiple things, so they need multiple CTAs leading to multiple places. 

If you want to avoid decision paralysis when writing a newsletter, clearly divide your emails into sections using dividers, color blocks, or other formatting. Each story, blog, video, or podcast should be in its own section.

11) Closing / Email Signature

A closing is simply the send-off to your email that sits right under your CTA and right above your footer. It’s typically a short farewell message followed by either your name or the name of your business. You can also include your title, personal social media links, contact details, and a headshot or logo in your closing if you’d like.

You can change how you write a closing message based on how you define your brand identity. If you want to convey a more professional tone, we suggest using something like:

• To your success
• Best regards
• Sincerely

If your brand identity is more approachable, you can use a more casual goodbye like:

• Cheers
• Talk to you soon
• See you there

These goodbyes can help humanize your brand and show that the email your recipient just read came from an actual person. 

Closings aren’t necessary in every email, but they help tie the whole thing together if you’re writing plain text or an affiliate email.

12) Postscript

If you have more information you’d like to tell your reader that couldn’t fit into the main email, you can put it in the postscript! It’s a brief note at the very end of an email, sitting below the closing email signature.

Postscripts (P.S.) serve to:

• Include extra information
• Add a personal touch
• Emphasise an offer 
• Act as another CTA
• Serve as a reminder
• Function as a preview for a future email

Email Footer

You’ve had your fun designing and writing the first part of the email, but the footer is where you need to put your creativity to rest. This is the end of the email, and it’s chock full of important information that needs to be clearly laid out. 

I’m talking about information that not only adds credibility to your email but also protects you from potential legal issues. 

13) Social Media Links

Have you heard the saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket?” That holds true for marketing platforms as well!

If you’re an email marketer, don’t rely solely on email to complete the job. Try branching out to social media as well!

Your social media links will likely be the first thing in your footer. These links create a pathway between your marketing channels, allowing subscribers to check out and subscribe to you on other platforms. As an added benefit, people who click these links will see more of your marketing messaging.

14) Physical Address

If you’re sending emails to recipients in the United States, you must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act. Part of this act states that you must include a physical address within your email footer, but the following are also acceptable:

• PO box
• A virtual mailbox service
• UPS Store 
• A commercial mail receiving service
• Main address supplied by a third-party business provider (they must be willing to receive your mail)

If you choose to use an alternative address from this list, first make sure that you can receive mail there and that the location meets CAN-SPAM Act requirements. Other countries have similar laws and acts, so please research their compliance requirements as well.

Having your address in your email footer helps to demonstrate that you are a legitimate business to both the email recipient and the email giants (Google, Apple, Yahoo). Some email inbox services have content filters that will block any emails that do not contain an address, so it’s in your best interest to get this set up.

15) One-Click Unsubscribe

A one-click unsubscribe is precisely what it sounds like: a simple button that lets your subscribers exit your list if they ever change their mind about wanting your emails. 

This might sound scary at first. Why would you ever want to shrink an email list that you spent so long building? But think about it for a moment. If someone who doesn’t want to get your emails receives one, will they open it? Will they read it and follow through on your CTAs? 

No! They’re going to delete, ignore, or report it as spam – all ways to ruin your deliverability and engagement metrics. 

So, why not give those people a way out? They’ll get away from the emails they don’t want, and you won’t be harmed by their actions. It’s a win-win. 

One-click unsubscribes also keep you in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act and other international marketing laws, just in case you needed another push to add one to your footer. 

There are a few guidelines that you must follow when making your one-click unsubscribe links.

1. They must truly be one-click links. You cannot make your email subscribers jump through hoops to get off your list. 
2. They need to be clear and conspicuous, and cannot be hidden by making the text the same color as the background. 
3. You must promptly honor the request. Ideally, you should remove the subscriber from your list in two days.
4. All bulk marketing emails (5,000+ a day) must include a one-click unsubscribe link.

If you don’t follow these guidelines or if you don’t include this link, you run the risk of getting branded as a scammer or spammer.

That could result in you being suspended from the ability to send any emails at all!

16) Manage Preferences

Sometimes people are interested in some, but not all of your emails. This is where a “manage preferences” link comes in handy. 

Instead of unsubscribing from everything, a “manage preferences” option allows people to choose what kind of emails they’d like to receive from you. 

For example, if someone is interested in newsletters and event content but not marketing promotions, preferences allow them to receive only the emails they actively want to receive. 

This gives you happy subscribers and a healthy email list.

17) Legal Information

If you have any legal information, such as disclaimers, confidentiality notices, company notices, or privacy policies, you should include them in your footer as well. Their inclusion will help protect you from potential liability or misuse of information. 

If you’re acting as an affiliate, please disclose that to your recipients here.

Affiliate Email Structure Wrap-Up

Every single little bit of space on an email is precious real estate. Everything you use, every line, image, CTA, word, even the punctuation and spacing, needs to be strategically placed if you want your audience to do exactly what you want them to do. 

Why? Because each and every element of an email has a purpose. 

Your sender information introduces who you are. Your email subject line introduces the concept behind the email. The headline expands on that concept. Copy and images bring the idea to life. The CTA invites your reader to explore the concept. Then the footer brings everything together.

Full mastery of each of these sections is absolutely necessary if you want your email program to perform at its best. 

So, re-read this blog, take all of the information to heart, and then, when you’re ready, get out there and write that email.

Here at ClickBank, we’ve seen countless affiliates go from zero to consistent double- or triple-digit commissions without ever having to spend a dollar on paid ads. But if you want to go the “free traffic” route, then instead of paying for clicks, you’re going to be investing other resources: time, sweat equity, and creativity.

With that said, there’s a HUGE upside to free traffic for affiliate marketing: unlike with paid ads, free traffic sources compound over time! A single blog post, YouTube video, or Pinterest pin you create today could still be sending you traffic and commissions months (or even years) down the road.

Sound interesting? In this guide, I’m going to break down the 7 best free traffic sources for affiliate marketing right now:

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
2. AI optimization
3. Organic social media
4. Community forums
5. Email marketing and newsletters
6. Community building
7. Guest posting and podcast appearances

I’ll also share plenty of practical tips to help you get started. Let’s dive in!

Why Free Traffic?

First things first: what is free traffic and why should you bother with it?

Free traffic (or “organic traffic”) refers to visitors whose attention you earn without paying for it, usually by creating content that people can find on major social media sites or from search engines like Google. 

Here are the 3 biggest advantages of free traffic:

1. It’s basically free. While some aspects of content creation can cost money, it’s also possible to do this work with no overhead expenses beyond a phone, a laptop, and some basic software.
2. You earn credibility. Anyone with some cash can pay for their ads to show up in a prospect’s Google search results, website article, or social media feed – but if your content shows up organically in Google search, the TikTok For You feed, or a related video on YouTube, that’s a position you EARNED. When people encounter your brand this way, they’re more likely to take you seriously (which extends to your affiliate product recommendations).
3. The work compounds. If you’re a media buyer affiliate and you stop paying for ads, you shut off the engine of your affiliate business. But with FREE traffic sources, you can compound your traffic and sales as the search and social algorithms get to know who likes your content.

Overall, free traffic allows you to generate more and more affiliate sales over time without a corresponding rise in cost. 

Like I explained in my last article about if affiliate marketing is profitable, you won’t always be able to scale your total sales as high with free traffic as you can with paid traffic, but you keep MUCH more of the affiliate commission revenue you generate!

At ClickBank, we believe in free traffic SO much that we actually just released a free traffic mega-course teaching affiliate marketing with top social media platforms and SEO blogging – so check it out inside of our official affiliate education portal Spark by ClickBank if you’re interested in leveling up your free traffic game as an affiliate.

With all this in mind, let’s look at the top 7 ways to do affiliate marketing with free traffic!

1) Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is basically the original “free traffic” opportunity of the whole internet. 

SEO has allowed businesses, brands, and online marketers to get in front of an audience for the past 3+ decades, and it’s still not going anywhere as a free traffic source!

By creating website content that answers what people actively search for, you can pull in highly targeted traffic from traditional search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo – visitors who are more likely to convert for your chosen affiliate products.

Now, here’s why SEO still works so well for affiliates:

• Compounding traffic. Quality content can (and does!) rank for years, sending you consistent, qualified clicks long after you hit “publish.”
• Authority building. The more content you post on your website or blog, the more credible you are to both search engine algorithms and your actual human audience.
• Leverage for growth. Once you have reliable traffic, you can funnel those visitors into versatile new growth levers, such as an email list, different affiliate offers, or even your own products.

SEO is my personal bread-and-butter, and I’ve had an affiliate website in the music niche for years. By creating content that answers questions people have about songwriting, I’ve been able to attract thousands of monthly visitors AND make affiliate sales.

As of the time of this writing, I just made a new sale of a ClickBank product through my blog:

Now, don’t get me wrong… that’s exciting!

But if you think of traditional search strictly as Google, you may be disappointed at the performance of a pure affiliate site or content site with Google these days.

Right now, articles of mine that used to rank on page 1 of Google are languishing on page 6 of its search engine results pages (SERPs).

At the same time, search queries that Google no longer gives me any organic love for are still performing super well on Bing (of all places!).

For example, “songwriting inspiration” is a keyword my site ranks in position #1 for on Bing, and that specific page even appears in Microsoft’s version of “AI Overviews,” the “Copilot Answer.”

But it’s nowhere near page 1 in Google.

My point?

You can still make the affiliate site business model work – but it’s harder.

So while you can – and should – create your own affiliate blog, you should be prepared to do more than just that to get the most out of your blog. (I’m talking about the other free traffic sources in this list, especially social media and email.)

Read my article on how to build an affiliate website to get started with this free traffic opportunity!

But in the meantime, there’s a new “free traffic” elephant in the room we have to talk about next: AI search.

2) AI Optimization: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini

Large language models (LLMs) and generative AI (gen AI) chatbots represent the newest frontier for free traffic – and it’s just getting started!

If you’re anything like me, you’re already in the habit of turning to a tool like ChatGPT when you may have otherwise just done a Google search a few years ago. And you’re asking things you probably wouldn’t type into Google, like this prompt I gave it the other day:

“If I want to have a new mile run record at Orange Theory, how fast do I need to maintain a speed in miles per hour on the treadmill? I think my previous one is somewhere in the 8-minute range. So, I’d love to know what would allow me to get under 8 minutes.”

In the era of Google, I might have searched, “How long does it take to run a mile at different speeds?” – or maybe just “mile run speed times chart.”

All that to say, AI and LLM optimization overlaps with traditional search engine optimization, but it’s not exactly the same.

And as this category of free traffic grows, it’ll siphon plenty of attention away from traditional search (sort of like radio did with newspapers, or television did with radio). 

The bottom line? You need your website content to be AI-friendly (and secondarily, publish it in places where AI likes to cite its sources – more on that in a bit). 

Here’s how to make it happen:

• Answer questions directly. Write your content in a Q&A style when possible. This increases your odds of being cited or summarized.
• Keep it structured. Use subheadings (H2s/H3s), bullet points, and short paragraphs to make it easier for AI systems to parse your content.
• Show credibility. Use stats, examples, or personal experience to stand out. The more authoritative you are (both on-page and off-page), the more likely you’ll be pulled into an AI summary.
• Add unique takes. Don’t just copy what’s already ranking – share frameworks, formulas, or lessons from your own experience. AI loves fresh perspectives.

In my case creating content for ClickBank, I’m tracking how we appear for common questions like: “What are the best affiliate networks for beginners?”

Because ClickBank is authoritative in the affiliate marketing space, we show up pretty often in AI answers.

However, optimizing for LLMs and AI isn’t an exact science – yet – which makes it a potential gold mine.

Any affiliates who figure out AI early could be setting themselves up for a massive edge over the competition for years to come!

If you want to learn more, I’ve got a whole resource about how to optimize your content for LLMs and AI search.

Now, there’s another important place that AI pulls from, and that’s social media! Let’s talk about those platforms next.

3) Organic Social Media: YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok

Social media is still one of the best free traffic sources for affiliates – and is honestly still growing as an opportunity, as long as you’re willing to play by each individual platform’s rules and quirks.

The key is native platform optimization. 

In other words, you should craft the type of organic content that each platform’s algorithm naturally gravitates toward showing its users.

Here’s the cheat code for affiliate content on each platform:

• YouTube: Create 10-20 minute educational videos – how-to guides and tutorials, product reviews, unboxing videos, product roundups.
• Pinterest: Create visual, evergreen static images with keyword-rich pin descriptions. Aim for both informational and commercial keywords to maximize outbound links.
• LinkedIn: Create authority-building text posts with images that lean into your niche expertise. Experiment with short-form video as an up-and-coming format.
• Instagram: Create polished short-form reels and carousels that deliver quick value in 30-60 seconds.
• TikTok: Create shareable short-form videos in the range of 30-60 seconds.

Every platform rewards creators who keep people engaged (whether you call that average watch time or view duration).

If you give the platform what it wants, it’ll give you more reach!

Pro tip: Don’t try to master every channel at once. Pick one or two platforms where your audience is most active and get consistent. You’ll see way better results than spreading yourself too thin.

I have some experience with a few organic channels: YouTube for ClickBank, Pinterest for my affiliate blog, and LinkedIn for my professional life. Every strategy requires a different approach.

But since we’re talking about free traffic for affiliate marketing specifically, I recommend you do your homework: get extremely specific about your niche and audience, define a small number of pain points your content will address, then create that dialed-in content consistently for at least 6-12 months.

I’ve written and published plenty of other helpful resources about affiliate marketing with popular social media platforms, if you want to know more about any of them:

• Instagram affiliate marketing
• TikTok affiliate marketing
• Pinterest affiliate marketing

Now, let’s talk about the best places to engage with potential followers and grow your authority in the space: discussion forum sites.

4) Discussion Forums: Reddit & Quora

The word “forum” might feel a little “old school” – even if you’re NOT picturing an ancient Roman city when you hear it like I am…

But forums are still an absolute goldmine for free affiliate traffic in a few key ways.

Now, there are likely dedicated discussion forums still chugging along online around specific topics or communities – think “internet of the early 2000s.”

But realistically, you’ll find most of the discussion on the web on two platforms: Reddit and Quora.

These are both massive websites full of people asking very specific, niche questions every single day.

These users helpfully sort themselves into communities and threads around every topic under the sun, making it super easy to find the ones that are relevant to your niche or product category.

So if YOU can be the one to give them a clear, helpful answer, you’ll earn trust – and maybe even some traffic for your blog, website, or social media accounts.

Here’s how to make discussion forums work for you:

• Lead with value. Don’t just drop a link. It’s in bad taste and probably against the rules. Instead, give a full, thoughtful answer that actually helps.
• Add links sparingly. Use links as a supplement, not the whole answer. A single well-placed link in a useful post can drive traffic for months. (Or you may encourage people to click the link you’ve included in your user profile, rather than adding a link to individual posts. It’s up to you!)
• Go niche. Instead of broad subreddits, look for targeted communities where your advice and your chosen affiliate product will be a natural fit (think r/keto for health products or r/sidehustle for make money online).

Now, while you can get direct traffic from these forum sites, there are a few other big benefits to them:

1. Reddit and Quora posts actually rank in Google search results pretty frequently (and also get cited by AI tools a lot!). That means a helpful comment you write today on one of these platforms could show up in search results or AI responses years from now – giving you traffic long after you forgot about it.
2. You can build your personal or business brand by engaging with people where they are. A lot of them will get to know you directly this way, even if it’s hard to get them to engage with you on your owned channels at first.

Read more in my posts about Quora affiliate marketing and Reddit affiliate marketing.

And of course, read on for a great place to share the insights you put out on online forums: your email marketing and email newsletters.

5) Email Marketing and Newsletters

If there’s one “free” traffic source that affiliates tend to overlook, it’s email marketing.

I get it.

Email marketing is extra work and yet another thing to manage outside of your primary traffic source, but relying on traffic you don’t control for your livelihood is risky.

Social platforms change their algorithms, Google updates its rules, and ad platforms can shut you down. 

But an email list? That’s yours.

Once someone subscribes, you can reach them anytime at basically zero additional cost.

Here’s why email is such a powerful free traffic channel for affiliates:

• It’s direct. No algorithm in the way.
• It’s cheap. Except for the cost of your email service provider, sending messages is basically free – and insanely scalable.
• It converts. A warm list of subscribers will buy more, more often, compared to cold traffic.

Think of email as the glue that holds your free traffic strategy together. Whether you’re pulling in visitors from SEO, AI overviews, or social media, one of your top priorities should always be getting them opted into your list.

Then, once they’ve joined your email list, you can nurture them with tips, stories, and even complementary affiliate offers in a way that feel natural instead of pushy.

Want to know more about email? I’ve got an epic guide on how to launch your first email affiliate campaign. Go check it out!

Now, let’s talk about another approach to growing your own ready-made group of followers and customers: an online community.

6) Community Building: Facebook Groups, Discord, Skool

To take control and capitalize on your owned channels, you can create a reliable, steady stream of free traffic with your own community.

Think of platforms like Facebook Groups, Discord servers, or Skool communities as a personal hub where people gather around a shared interest.

Instead of chasing traffic, you’re creating a space where the traffic comes to you.

Here’s why communities are so powerful for affiliates:

• Built-in trust. Members see you as the leader of the space.
• Ongoing engagement. A post today can spark conversations for weeks.
• Multiple monetization paths. Beyond affiliate links, communities can open doors to other money-making avenues like digital products, coaching, or partnerships.
• Market research. Not sure what your audience is struggling with or what kind of solutions they’re interested in? Just ask them!

Pro tip: Don’t overcomplicate this. Start small. Even a group of 100 engaged members can drive more sales than thousands of cold clicks from an ad. And many of these platforms are low-cost or even free!

Like with organic content, your online community should be a place where you deliver value first and only try to extract value through self-promotion (affiliate offers, your own products, etc.) once people know, like, and trust you.

If this one looks interesting, then guess what? I’ve got another resource for you!

Click to learn more about popular community platforms for affiliate marketing!

And now, the last “free traffic” method I recommend for up-and-coming affiliates…

7) Guest Posting and Podcast Appearances

Sometimes, the fastest way to grow is to “borrow” someone else’s audience.

Guest posting on niche blogs or appearing on podcasts probably isn’t the first way a ClickBank affiliate would think to get traffic, but it does count as a free way to gain exposure, build authority, grow your list or community, and send new eyeballs to your offers.

Here’s the playbook:

• Target niche sites or podcasts. Don’t go after huge publications right away – look for smaller blogs that accept guest posts. If you have a tool like Ahrefs, start by aiming for sites with a domain authority between 25 and 50. These are big enough to have audiences and referral traffic for you, but not so big that you can’t get their attention.
• Lead with value. Pitch a guest post or podcast topic that helps their audience first and promotes you second.
• Plug wisely. End your guest article or podcast appearance with a call-to-action that sends people to your blog, freebie, or affiliate-friendly funnel.

Plus, the backlinks you earn from guest posting and podcasts will boost your SEO if you have an affiliate blog or website… Two birds, one stone!

Again, I would say this strategy is probably more of an amplifier for you once you have an owned audience from another free traffic source, like an SEO blog, social account, email list, or online community.

But it’s an invaluable way to get exposure for your brand and attract new eyeballs to your chosen affiliate product, so experiment with it and see what it can do for you!

A Simple 3-Step Content Repurposing Model

All of the 7 sources I’ve shared so far are fantastic avenues for growing your free traffic. 

But HERE is the secret that ties all these free traffic sources together: content repurposing.

Most affiliates burn out because they try to create totally fresh content for every platform. Not only is that not scalable, it also isn’t necessary. 

Now, it’s not always a perfect fit to take a format for one platform – say, a 90-second vertical short video for TikTok – and publish it as-is on another platform (such as YouTube).

But perfect is the enemy of the good, and if you can get 80-90% of the value as if you’d developed content for that platform from scratch, why wouldn’t you capture it?

Here’s a simple 3-step process you can follow:

1. Create one pillar piece. This pillar content could be an email newsletter, epic blog post, long-form YouTube video, or podcast episode. In my case, the pillar content is usually a blog or YouTube video that we can repurpose into the other format, as well as a weekly email and a few social media posts. Produce as much as you can while still keeping the quality high!
2. Repurpose into smaller assets. Chop the initial pillar content into clips, quotes, graphics, or carousel posts. Note: even if you can’t copy and paste the exact asset over as-is, you should at least use the idea you had. This will maximize the work that you already put into research, writing, and design for that original piece of content.
3. Distribute natively. Share the pieces of content you’ve repurposed across social platforms, forums, email, and social media – optimized for each channel.

If you do this regularly, then one solid piece of content will become 5-10 touchpoints across different platforms. That means a lot more reach with less effort!

Ultimately, organic will take more time to get eyeballs than paid traffic, so content repurposing will eke out as much value as possible from your hard work.

Free Traffic for Affiliate Marketing Wrap-up

Free traffic for affiliate marketing isn’t the fastest way to scale sales, but it is powerful!

With time and consistency, these strategies and traffic sources can build a business that’s more stable and trustworthy than one that relies on paid ads alone.

So, what now?

Start simple: pick one or two free traffic sources and commit for at least 3-6 months. Once you’re seeing some traction and have built a rhythm that’s working, you can start to layer in more channels and use repurposing to make your efforts go even further.

Throughout this process, never forget that you’re not really in the “content creator” game like a lot of the people you’ll see producing content online – those people are entertainers first.

But you? You’re in the “affiliate marketer” game, and everything you publish should be “conversion content” with an ever-watchful eye toward the sale.

In the end, the best affiliates aren’t just traffic-getters – they’re business builders.

You may establish a foundation using free traffic and affiliate products, but it’s wise to combine this approach with paid strategies and other monetization methods, from advertising and sponsorship to products of your own!

If you’re ready to take the next step, now is a great time to join Spark by ClickBank.

We just released a new “mega-course” called the ClickBank Social Media Affiliate mega-playbook, featuring individual courses in Pinterest, Instagram and TikTok, YouTube, and email marketing.

You’ll be able to take the tactical lessons you learn in Spark and grow your free traffic faster than you ever thought possible.

See you inside!

The short answer is yes, affiliate marketing can be wildly profitable in 2025. The longer, more in-depth answer starts with “it depends.”

In this article, I’ll break it down from ClickBank’s perspective as a top affiliate network, diving into the actual profitability of affiliate marketing across 5 types and revealing how to maximize your own profits as an affiliate!

Let’s dive in.

Is Affiliate Marketing Profitable?

Affiliate marketing can certainly be profitable, and it’s also relatively easy to generate a lot of sales through scaled channels like paid media and email marketing.

However, as any successful business owner will tell you:

In business, you calculate profitability with the following formula:

Revenue – Expenses = Profit

For example, say I’m an affiliate and it costs me $100 to promote an offer with a Meta Ads campaign. If I make $150 in affiliate commissions, then:

$150 – $100 = $50 Profit

Simple enough!

Now, in my role as Senior Content Manager at ClickBank, I have personally chatted with dozens of ClickBank Platinum and Diamond clients who generate hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in sales per year on our platform!

At ClickBank, we’re actually the merchant, which means we process the transaction for each sale – see my guide on how ClickBank works for more details. But the bottom line is, ClickBank can see how many total sales are generated through our platform for both affiliates and sellers.

With that said, we have NO visibility into our clients’ business expenses.

Seller Profitability

On the seller side, getting top affiliates to promote your offer might mean paying out a 50%, 75%, or even 90% commission per sale, which takes a huge chunk off the top – and on the affiliate side, those top affiliates often use paid ads to drive traffic, which has a high fixed cost attached to it.

Anecdotally, I’ve heard that many ClickBank sellers just try to break even with affiliates, meaning they’re paying affiliates to bring them brand-new customers for FREE (still a great deal compared to most options for acquiring a new customer).

From there, they can continue to sell more of the same offer, promote other internal offers, or promote external affiliate offers to their email list to generate a profit.

Affiliate Profitability

And for affiliates, profit varies wildly, but a return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) of 1.3 is about the bare minimum that makes it worth it – in other words, for every $1 they spend, they can expect $1.30 back, or a profit of $0.30.

Just keep in mind, there are more costs in business besides affiliate commissions or ad spend, including software subscriptions, web hosting, labor, office space, professional services like accounting, and of course, taxes!

With all of this nuance in mind, let’s take a look at the profit potential for each of the most popular affiliate types!

Profit Potential by Affiliate Type (5 Options!)

At ClickBank, we’ve identified five common types of affiliate marketing on our platform with the highest potential for success.

Of course, no matter which one you choose, there’s always a tradeoff between time and money. Let’s talk through the most common affiliate types and consider the profit potential of each one!

1) Media Buying

Media buying involves using pay-per-click (PPC) ads on popular, proven platforms. These ads usually send traffic to a landing page (sometimes called an affiliate bridge page), and from there, through an affiliate tracking link to the offer owner’s pitch page to make the sale right away.

Media buying is the fastest method of driving affiliate traffic and it has the highest earning potential, because you’re literally paying to get your message in front of as many potential buyers as you can afford to reach.

You can run ads with popular paid traffic sources like Meta Ads (Facebook or Instagram), YouTube Ads, Google Ads, and native advertising (Taboola, NewsBreak, etc.).

In the grand scheme, you won’t need to spend as much time and money creating “content” for paid like you would for organic traffic sources, and you can theoretically start seeing profits in just a week or two, assuming you have the right combination of ad creative, copy, and landing page for your target audience.

How Profitable is Paid Media?

• Startup cost: ~$3,000 (to test + scale)
• First sale timeline: 1–2 weeks
• Avg. profit margins: 20-30%
• Break-even ROAS target: 1.0 (aim for 1.3+)
• Great ROAS target: 2.0+

So, is affiliate marketing profitable for media buyers?

It definitely can be, but there are some caveats!

While running paid media allows you to see sales as an affiliate quickly, it also costs the most of anything on this list to implement. In fact, one of our Platinum clients, Ernesto Mejia, recommends a budget of $3 to 5k per month for affiliate marketing success with YouTube Ads – that’s clearly a big investment.

When it comes to return on ad spend (ROAS), you only profit if your ROAS is greater than 1 – in other words, if you’re earning more in affiliate commissions than you spend to run ads. (And of course, you also have to factor in your time, the cost of software subscriptions, and any other miscellaneous expenses that go into your paid campaigns!)

I know that sounds intense, but the most successful affiliates on ClickBank are all media buyers. I’ve interviewed a long list of ClickBank Platinum affiliates (those who generate at least $250k in sales on the platform in one year). Most of them hit that $250k milestone because of the scale they can achieve running paid traffic – primarily through Meta or YouTube Ads, with native ads coming in as another strong paid alternative right now.

Obviously, if you earn more than you spend on ads, then you can make a profit – but margins can be tight. (Between you and me, I’ve heard one ClickBank client say they basically break even on ad spend and all of their upside is credit card reward points!).

That’s why paid is the highest-risk, highest-reward path for affiliate marketing.

Media Buying Tips to Become a Successful Affiliate:

• Start with the Right Product: Focus on affiliate products with high-converting sales pages, typically featuring quality video sales letters (VSLs). The first few pages of top affiliate offers in ClickBank’s marketplace tend to perform well with cold traffic from paid ads.
• Start Small: Test the waters before you dive in. You can gather a lot of data without overspending. (And even after you’re successful with an offer, be prepared to keep testing other offers so you can optimize your spend for what’s working.)
• Metrics Matter: What gets measured gets improved. You can’t know how you’re doing if you don’t measure results. Keep an eye on your ads, track performance, and see if you’re actually getting conversions. Test new targeting, ad networks, copy, and landing pages, and ditch any ad or ad sets that aren’t performing.

2) Blogging

Blogging is a time-tested method for affiliate success. Much of the internet was built around publishing written content on a website and then monetizing it with affiliate products.

Building an affiliate website means you can focus on a topic for a specific audience that interests you and promote relevant products to them!

How Profitable is Affiliate Blogging?

• Startup cost: ~$100-300 (domain, hosting, theme)
• First sale timeline: 2-6 months
• Avg. profit margins: 60-85%
• Traffic threshold for $500+/mo: ~10,000 monthly visitors
• Monetization Stacking: Combine with display ads on Ezoic or Mediavine to boost earnings by 50%

Is affiliate marketing profitable for bloggers?

Absolutely, if you stick with it for the long term! You do need to learn key skills like search engine optimization (SEO), how to build a website, writing, and research. These days, the secret sauce to blogging is providing real value that readers can’t easily find elsewhere (either from other human creators or from AI chatbots like ChatGPT).

But when you get it right, affiliate blogging can be a real money-maker!

The numbers speak for themselves. Content marketing (including blogging) is a $400 billion per year business. Almost half (47%) of buyers consider blogger/vlogger recommendations when shopping. Over a third (34%) have made an unplanned purchase because of high-quality, persuasive content.

The trade-off? It can take a long time to learn the ropes, publish enough content to drive traffic, earn Google’s trust, boost your site’s domain authority, and become a trusted name in your niche.

Once you have a decent amount of content and are driving thousands of search visitors per month, you can earn passive income for years to come. In fact, this is my chosen method of affiliate marketing, which I’ve used to generate affiliate sales with a popular digital product on ClickBank:

But just as a personal note here, it seems more and more likely that affiliate blogging on its own isn’t a self-contained business model, because Google isn’t giving pure content sites a lot of love anymore. However, affiliate blogging still works great when paired with other “free traffic” channels like YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and email.

The best thing about affiliate blogging is that it’s so low-cost. Aside from web host expenses and any outsourcing of content creation, your fixed costs are minimal – so whatever revenue you can generate is mostly profit!

Affiliate blogging is a low-risk, moderate time investment, and high-potential profit option. If you’re patient and determined, you can see tremendous and compounding success as an affiliate blogger!

Blogging Tips to Become a Successful Affiliate:

• Manage Expectations: Don’t rush it, put in the time and effort, and don’t expect to get rich overnight. Blogging is a long game – but momentum builds on itself.
• Choose Carefully: Pick a niche you truly enjoy reading, writing, and thinking about. Otherwise, it’ll be much harder to build an audience’s trust and they won’t be persuaded to follow your affiliate product recommendations.
• Be Trustworthy: Don’t just promote any product with a decent commission. Pick products you believe in that you truly think will help your readers.

3) Influencer

Influencers are popular public figures on social media. The most prominent example of influencers is the Kardashians, who built up a strong reputation for trend-setting and high-quality, luxury taste. When one of the Kardashians uses a product, it makes waves and gets people talking (and buying).

Of course, most people aren’t anywhere close to as famous or influential as the Kardashians, but even smaller influencers can make money promoting products to an engaged audience!

How Profitable is Social Media Influencing?

• Startup cost: $0-$500 (smartphone, Canva, link-in-bio tool, optional video gear)
• First sale timeline: 1-3 months (if starting from scratch)
• Avg. profit margins: 70-90% (unless you pay for editing or UGC creation)
• Follower threshold for $500+/mo: ~5,000-10,000 engaged followers
• Monetization Stacking: Combine with brand sponsorships or your own products to boost revenue

Is affiliate marketing profitable for influencers?

Yes, becoming an influencer has an earning potential ranging from decent to cha-ching, depending on audience size. And that’s the catch: You have to have an audience.

Unlike paid media or blogging, where there’s a built-in mechanism for reaching new people with your ad or article, social media influencing works best when you have a large group of people following you. This doesn’t mean you can’t get discovered or populate someone’s For-You Page with your posts on TikTok and Instagram, but influence is the name of the game when promoting affiliate products.

There’s almost zero chance of a lookie-loo who randomly sees your post or short video deciding to go to your link-in-bio, click through to a landing page, click your tracking link, and go on to buy something – not if they don’t already know, like, and trust you!

Instead, you need to naturally build an audience by creating engaging and/or helpful content over time. People need a good reason to follow you. Eventually, the more trust you have, the better your conversion rate will be with affiliate marketing (along with other money-making opportunities like brand sponsorships or sales of your own product).

While being an influencer requires a minimal financial investment, it does take a LOT of time! If you’re interested in being an influencer or already have an audience, this could be a great opportunity for you to monetize. However, if you’re looking for a simple side hustle to earn affiliate income, you should know how long it takes to master the social media game.

I’d recommend picking just one or two platforms covering the same format (i.e. short-form video, long-form video, or text) to master and get some traction.

Influencer Tips to Become a Successful Affiliate:

• Build an Audience Organically: You won’t attract an audience if all you do is promote products. You need a way to provide some value to grow your following.
• Be Authentic: Authenticity is key. Don’t promote products you don’t use or believe in. Every recommendation reflects back on you.
• Align Your Products and Audience: You need to understand who follows you and why. Make sure every product you promote accounts for that.

4) Email Marketing

Email marketing is an incredible opportunity for affiliate marketers, but it’s a little different from the other types of affiliate marketing on our list.

The first three affiliate types are end-to-end strategies you can pursue and still see success. But let’s face it: you can’t just be an email marketing affiliate, right? Who would you email? How would you get those subscribers to opt in to your list?

The reality is, email serves as a great multiplier or amplifier for other affiliate marketing methods you’ve mastered.

For example, if you grow your email list as a blogger or influencer, you can use those emails to send newsletters with info about what you’re into right now. You can talk about your main focus, what software or equipment you love, and what products you use.

How Profitable is Email Marketing?

• Startup cost: $50-$300 (ESP, landing page builder, lead magnet)
• First sale timeline: 1-4 weeks (if you already have a list – longer if building one from scratch)
• Avg. profit margins: 60-90% (email = low cost; list-building = higher cost)
• List size for $500+/mo: ~1,000-2,000 subscribers (depending on offer, CTR, send frequency)

Is affiliate marketing profitable for email marketers?

Yes, very profitable!

Email is a great way to promote products to a qualified pool of potential (or existing!) buyers. After all, if they gave you their email address, they likely have more devotion and/or trust than casual followers.

Email marketing is a pretty low-cost process, and it has the highest ROI of any marketing tactic. For every dollar you spend, you make $42 back. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Of course, email marketing isn’t free. If you have a large enough list, professional email service providers can cost you tens or even hundreds of dollars per month.

And as I mentioned earlier, you need a way to populate your email list with engaged subscribers. To do that as an affiliate, you’ll generally want to seed the list with an organic or paid traffic funnel, like so:

This may lower your conversion rate for initial sales, but it will allow you to market and promote to your audience later!

Email Marketing Tips to Become a Successful Affiliate:

• Provide Value: Just like with influencer marketing, you can’t just promote products and expect people to keep following. You need to provide value to receive value.
• Be Consistent, But Not Annoying: People subscribe to get regular updates. If you email once a month, they might forget they’re subscribed and why. If you email people three times a day, though, they’re probably going to unsubscribe out of sheer exhaustion. Iw times per week is usually a good balance.
• A/B Test: Email marketing is still marketing. Gather data, test different formats, copy, and CTA, track changes, and keep improving. Know your affiliate email marketing metrics!

5) Community Management

This can come in many forms, and while the term is unfamiliar to many people, the concept isn’t. Think Facebook groups, Slack channels, Skool communities, and Discord servers. As the name suggests, the idea is to create and manage your own community – but many people can find some success with existing communities they’re just members of.  

Like with email marketing, community management tends to work best as a multiplier or amplifier rather than its own dedicated affiliate strategy. Running a community can have high costs, especially if it’s through paid online community platforms like Circle or Mighty Networks. But when successful, you got direct access to a group of loyal fans who will take your affiliate product recommendations very seriously.

I won’t lie – managing a community is a long-term game that’s tough to pull off. It takes a lot of time and energy to build and maintain a community like this, especially if you’re doing it all on your own. It requires not only original content, but also active interaction with your community.

How Profitable Is Community Management?

• Startup cost: $100-$500 (platform fees, branding, onboarding)
• First sale timeline: 1-3 months (if building a community from scratch)
• Avg. profit margins: 40-75% (depends on whether you charge for access or just use affiliate links)
• Community size for $500+/mo: ~100–300 engaged members
• Monetization Stacking: Combine affiliate promos with memberships, coaching, or other product sales.

Is affiliate marketing profitable for community managers?

It can be, but it takes a lot of work and a delicate touch!

And if you’re going to all the trouble to grow your own community, let’s be real: the most profitable way to monetize it is probably charging a membership fee.

Affiliate marketing makes for a fantastic revenue stream in your community, but you’re leaving money on the table if you don’t find other ways to monetize it: services, software, coaching, or your own products.

Community Management Tips to Become a Successful Affiliate:

• Build on a Solid Foundation: Build up a community on a specific topic or shared interest. This works best when you’re dialed in on a pain point you can solve for your target audience.
• Position Yourself as an Expert: Affiliate links work best when framed as informed recommendations from a trusted source.
• Don’t Overdo It: If you provide no value, all product links, people won’t stay.

Putting It All Together

So, now that we’ve looked at five different types of affiliate marketing and how profitable each one, what does the overall picture look like for affiliate profitability?

The biggest caveats when predicting affiliate profitability are skill level, scale, and product type.

1) Skill Level

First, a skilled blogger or email marketer can dramatically outperform an average media buyer affiliate in terms of profitability.

While the scale of paid media can help you reach meaningful profitability fast, every opportunity has the potential for incredible profits if you know what you’re doing!

That’s why skill level matters. Mastering your channel and understanding your audience is essential, no matter what type of affiliate marketing you’re doing!

2) Scale

Second, there’s a world of difference between profit margins and actual profit in absolute terms.

For example, if I make 100% on $10, that means I made $10 – meh.

If I make just 1% on $1 million, that’s $10,000. Nice!

If you apply this lesson to affiliate marketing, you can see how much scale matters.

There’s nothing wrong with having a social media account or a blog for fun, but if you want it to actually be worth your while, then you need to reach a certain threshold for these numbers to “math.”

Say you have 1000 blog pageviews per month, convert 0.5% of total visits to your blog into affiliate sales, and make $50 per commission. That means you can expect roughly five sales (or $250 per month) in affiliate commissions from your blog. If you pay $25 per month in expenses, you’ve got a 90% profit margin – but your total profits are only $225, which isn’t super interesting.

Now let’s scale that same scenario up, assuming your conversion rate and margins hold steady:

• At 10,000 views/month, you’d earn $2,250 in monthly profit
• At 100,000 views/month, that’s $22,500 in monthly profit

Same margin. Very different outcome.

Compare that to paid media. You may have just a 15% profit margin – but if you spend $1 million on ads that convert well, you’d pocket $150,000 on that investment. You should expect lower margins at higher scale, but it’s your absolute profits that really matter!

Actual profit is what pays your mortgage or buys you time and location freedom.

3) Product Type

Lastly, I want to point out that different channels lend themselves better to different kinds of products. Many of the top products on ClickBank are designed to convert on cold traffic from paid ads. This direct response approach is more transactional and less relationship-based.

The average payout per sale for those products is in the $120-150 range, which means you spend more, but also can expect more revenue with every commission you make – and you make a LOT of commissions when you can drive scale as a media buyer.

For organic traffic channels like a blog or social media, you’ll be looking at products that convert better when you’ve built up an audience – usually a digital product in a realm like business, dating, spirituality, or survival.

For this class of digital programs, $50 commission is more common of an unexpected payout.

Ultimately, you’re playing two very different games when you consider paid traffic versus organic traffic, and comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges.

The profit potential is there in both cases, but you have to fully commit to playing that particular game in order to become as profitable as possible!

Affiliate Marketing Profitability Wrap-Up

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this post, but now, let’s go back to the original question: is affiliate marketing profitable?

The answer is yes!

If you do it right and don’t expect a get-rich-quick scheme that requires no effort, affiliate marketing can be extremely profitable! You just need to build up the skills and execute on your campaigns to achieve consistent income over time.

If you’re committed to putting in the work to be successful, ClickBank is a great starting point for your affiliate marketing journey. Be sure to sign up for a FREE ClickBank account now!

And to kick off your journey toward a profitable affiliate business, I recommend Spark by ClickBank, the official affiliate marketing education platform from ClickBank. In our quality free and paid traffic coursework, you’ll learn how to make your first $2,000 in just 90 days.

After that, the sky’s the limit…

Happy scaling!

But did you know it’s also a powerful tool for affiliate marketers? If you can choose one of the best Pinterest niches for affiliate marketing, you can turn casual pinning into a steady income stream.

As both a social media app and visual search engine, Pinterest can connect you with audiences through content that converts. This platform has always been popular among marketers for its high engagement, but right now is an especially great time to become a Pinterest affiliate marketer.

Ready to learn more? Let’s dive into the 10 best Pinterest niches for affiliates!

Is Pinterest Good for Affiliate Marketing?

Pinterest affiliate marketing is a great way to make money from your Pinterest content!

First, you need to create pin-worthy content for the right audience. Think about eye-catching pins, infographics, and even carousels or videos that invoke your audience’s curiosity and tee up your chosen affiliate product. When someone clicks on your pin and goes to your blog post, website, or landing page, then clicks your affiliate link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission!

Pinterest’s visual social media platform is perfect for affiliate marketers because people come to Pinterest looking both for inspiration and solutions to their problems. By creating engage content and then promoting relevant affiliate products, affiliates have a huge opportunity to tap into that “problem-solving” mindset.

Before we jump into the top Pinterest niches, if you’re still learning the ropes of affiliate marketing, check out my post on ClickBank for Beginners to get the rundown. And if you’re serious about mastering affiliate marketing, Spark by ClickBank is a fantastic resource featuring my just-released Pinterest affiliate marketing course to help you get started!

Now, onto the niches!

10 Best Niches for Pinterest Affiliate Marketing

To choose the right Pinterest niche for affiliate marketing, ask yourself which niches (1) resonate with audiences through eye-catching visuals and (2) have enough interest to support your affiliate business.

You can find out for yourself just by browsing Pinterest in a private or incognito window (so the algorithm doesn’t get in the way), or by going to the Pinterest Explore tab for a hand-picked list of what’s performing on Pinterest.

You can also use a tool like PinClicks to do some topic research and see relative search volumes for different interests to see where the most demand is.

Now, these approaches will give you a good idea of what Pinterest users engage with, but just because these types of pins get a lot of views, clicks, or saves doesn’t mean all of these topics will earn you the most affiliate sales.

Generally, the most effective niches in affiliate marketing address a strong need or desire, which can be identified as the “Big 3” categories of health, wealth, and relationships.

These niches are wildly popular with strong affiliate offers ready to promote, so if you want to be a Pinterest affiliate marketer, you just need to pair a niche or subniche in one of the Big 3 categories niche with what performs well on Pinterest.

Fortunately, I’ve already done that hard work for you. Let’s break down the 10 top affiliate marketing niches for Pinterest!

1) Beauty

The beauty niche is consistently featured on Pinterest’s trending page, covering everything from nail designs to hair care to makeup. Hundreds of thousands of Pinterest users are looking for new beauty routines, inspiration, and product recommendations!

For a more business-y reason to check out the beauty niche, it doesn’t hurt that beauty products tend to have a high average order value (sometimes as much as $300 per sale for popular ClickBank beauty products), which means the economics of promoting beauty products can work in your favor as an affiliate marketer.

If you can produce striking visuals on this image-driven platform and move audiences to buy, then you can do very well in the beauty niche.

Pro Tip: Kick things off with some high-quality beauty tutorials or skincare routines. Creating niche Pinterest boards with pins that highlight before-and-after results with affiliate links to the products used is a great place to get started in this niche.

Affiliate Opportunity: Using ClickBank’s marketplace, you can promote beauty products like hair care, antifungal, skincare, and more. The beauty offers on ClickBank’s marketplace make for great Pinterest-friendly products. 

2) Health and Fitness

If you’re looking for an evergreen niche on Pinterest, look no further than health and fitness. People are always seeking ways to improve their health and well-being, including general wellness, strength training, diet, exercise, and weight loss.

Pins highlighting meal plans, motivation, and workout routines all perform well in this niche! Like with beauty, the general health niche

Pro Tip: Create pins that feature workout routines and product recommendations, such as fitness gear or dietary supplements. Healthy recipes or links to affiliate meal plans are very popular. 

Affiliate Opportunity: ClickBank offers a wide selection of health-related affiliate products, from fitness equipment and weight loss programs, for you to choose from. Fitness influencers earn a strong income from this niche by promoting products they’ve used and love.

3) Dating

If you’re looking for another big 3 niche, dating and relationships may be what you want. People are always looking for ways to meet the right person or improve their current relationships. From online dating tips to relationship advice, this niche is very popular on Pinterest because people love pinning attraction strategies, dating tips, and relationship advice. 

Pro Tip: Craft pins with dating strategies, advice on improving your love life, and relationship-building tips. You can include affiliate links to dating courses or ebooks, which are perfect affiliate products to promote to this audience.

Affiliate Opportunity: ClickBank offers many dating ebooks and courses with great advice and strategies for attracting a romantic partner. Lower-ticket digital products like these are a great way to learn about your audience and the angles and hooks that will move them toward the sale.

4) Personal Finance

Personal finance is one of the best niches for Pinterest affiliate marketing these days. People look for ways to invest wisely, manage debt, and save money, so personal finance content brings in a lot of traffic. Pinterest users interested in this niche love to pin financial goal trackers, budgeting tips, and money-saving hacks.

Pro Tip: Create pins with easy-to-understand budget templates and financial tips with affiliate links to financial planning tools and online courses.

Affiliate Opportunity: ClickBank offers a great selection of personal finance products, including budgeting tools and investment courses, for Pinterest users seeking financial freedom.

5) Cooking

Who doesn’t love a good recipe? Who doesn’t want to expand their culinary repertoire? Pinterest is an ultra-popular online destination for food lovers who want to discover new recipes, cooking techniques, and culinary inspiration. Whether you’re looking for healthy dinner ideas or decadent desserts, cooking does incredibly well on Pinterest.

Pro Tip: Create pins with affiliate links to cookbooks, special ingredients, and kitchen gadgets. Sharing these pins makes it super easy for your audience to shop for everything they need to prep a delicious new meal or dessert.

Affiliate Opportunity: ClickBank offers cooking courses, meal planning tools, and specialized kitchen equipment that your audience will love.

6) Pets

Pet-related content is among the most sought-after on the internet. If you’re a pet lover, this niche is perfect for you. Content about pets is highly shareable and drives traffic on Pinterest, particularly tips on care, cute photos, and training.

Pro Tip: Share pins with pet care tips, product recommendations, and training guides. Pair them with product suggestions like pet grooming tools and pet toys for ideal affiliate links.

Affiliate Opportunity: ClickBank offers top-quality pet products, including health supplements and training courses, that make great affiliate offers.

7) Home Decor

Home decor ranks among the best niches for Pinterest affiliate marketing because it thrives on visual inspiration and user engagement. People enjoy exploring creative ways to style their spaces, from budget makeovers to DIY projects. This makes it an effective niche for promoting decorative items, improvement guides, and stylish furniture.

Pro Tip: Share pins with DIY home projects, home styling tips, and stunning before-and-after transformations. Pair them with affiliate links to decor products and furniture to make the most of this niche.

Affiliate Opportunity: Find decor products like DIY improvement guides and eco-friendly decor items that are available through ClickBank to promote.

8) Travel

Travel is fun, and it lends itself well to a visually driven niche. Pinterest users spend hours searching for destination ideas, hotel recommendations, packing lists, and travel tips. Travel blogs pair affiliate orders for accommodations, gear, and tours to earn a growing income.

Pro Tips: Share pins with guides to beautiful destinations, packing tips, and travel itineraries. Post them with affiliate travel offers like guidebooks, luggage sets, and tours.

Affiliate Opportunity: Some of the best travel affiliate programs include Viator, Travelpayouts, and TripAdvisor.

9) Fashion

Fashion is a lucrative niche on Pinterest, particularly for affiliate marketers. Users visit Pinterest every day looking for the latest trends, seasonal looks, and style inspiration. When paired with affiliate links to accessories, clothing, or fashion styling guides, the fashion niche thrives.

Pro Tip: Create pins featuring outfit ideas, seasonal trends, and style guides that link to affiliate products like accessories or clothing. Select inspirational and stylish images.

Affiliate Opportunity: There are all kinds of fashion-related affiliate products to promote, such as ebooks, fashion styling, and online clothing stores.

10) DIY and Survival

If you have an independent streak, then the DIY or survival niche might be what you’re seeking. Pinterest has tons of users looking for innovative ideas on how to do things, from home improvement projects to generating their own electricity.

Affiliate marketers with creative expertise and an understanding of this type of audience can do well in the DIY/hobby niche!

Pro Tip: Create pins featuring project ideas, step-by-step guides, and tutorials. In your pin’s outbound link or on your landing page, point to the tools, equipment, or plans your audience needs to get started.

Affiliate Opportunity: From survival to home and garden programs, ClickBank has the DIY and survival affiliate products you need to succeed in this niche.

Picking Your Pinterest Niche

Selecting the right niche for affiliate marketing on Pinterest depends on your interests and how it resonates with your audience.

How do you pick the best niche for you? Consider the following priorities:

• Interest & Passion: The more passionate you are about your niche or topic, the easier it’ll be for you to create engaging content about it. If you can, choose something you’re really interested in!
• Competition & Demand: Study the niche first and figure out how competitive it is before you start. Some niches, like beauty and health, are highly competitive, but also have massive demand. You have to decide if you’d rather be a small piece of an enormous pie or a big piece of a smaller pie.
• Affiliate Products: Make sure there are plenty of affiliate products in your chosen niche. ClickBank offers thousands of affiliate products across 23 product categories, so if you sign up for a free ClickBank account, you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of high-converting offers to promote!

Pinterest Niches for Affiliate Marketing Wrap-up

Thanks to its highly visual platform and engaged user base, Pinterest is one of the most effective affiliate marketing platforms available for affiliate marketers.

Personally, I’ve found decent success in the music niche on Pinterest with content about songwriting that promotes a digital ClickBank product for learning piano.

In the end, the 10 popular niches we’ve covered here are all fantastic places to start, but ClickBank has a ton of niches and sub-niches filled to the brim with high-converting offers – so as long as you can find interest from an audience segment on Pinterest, you have everything ti takes to start making money as a Pinterest affiliate!

Ready to learn how to start making money with affiliate marketing?

Check out Spark by ClickBank, the ultimate affiliate marketing education platform. I’ve personally created several free traffic affiliate marketing courses inside of Spark to help you get excellent results, including my brand-new “Pin to Win” course for affiliate marketing on Pinterest. Check it out!

For the latest trending products to promote on Pinterest, check out the most recent update on our ClickBank top products post. I highlight the most successful products from the past month and update it regularly to help you stay on top of the latest affiliate marketing trends.

Get started today to find Pinterest affiliate marketing success. Happy scaling!

And I don’t just mean having a link to your website in your bio, plus a generic description of your business. No, I mean TRULY standing out and making the user experience for people who enter into your social media orbit absolutely stellar – and doing so through social media profile optimization! 

If we haven’t met (virtually or otherwise) before, I’m Keely… Small-time content creator, and social media and influencer manager here at ClickBank. I’ve spent the last few months writing up guides for social media creators to find success as an affiliate!

NOW, I want to take some of that knowledge and share it with YOU when it comes to building out your social media presence. Whether you’re starting from scratch or just looking to optimize your profile a bit more, we’ll cover everything it takes to craft the perfect social media bio for affiliate marketing (as well as key mistakes to avoid).

Let’s dive in!

Building a Great Social Media Page | Crafting the Perfect Profile

To kick things off, think about what it’s like when you look up a business online.

If they don’t have a quality social media presence, or a responsive user-friendly website, you’re not likely to stick around, right?

Well, the same thing goes for YOU as you build your presence and community as an affiliate marketer! To help with that, we’re going to optimize our social media pages to be ideal for people trying to discover creators in your niche! 

Like I mentioned, we’re gonna take this whole process step-by-step. I know, I know, thinking about how to brand your social media can feel daunting. But by the end of this, you’ll feel like the whole process was a breeze! 

How Do You Create an Affiliate Marketing Social Media Page Step-by-Step? 

There are four simple steps to follow to create an affiliate marketing bio or social media page:

1. Create your social media account.
2. Choose a username.
3. Publish a bio with your profile photos, cover photo, and other branded elements.
4. Utilize your social media page in your organic affiliate marketing funnel.

Before we can start talking about growing your social media audience, we’ll want to start at the very beginning of the process, which is signing up for a social media account!

Whether you’re going to start creating on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, or even X (formerly known as Twitter), you’ve got to have a profile on the platform! 

To do that, the process is pretty simple and pretty universal. Just head to your social media channel of choice and follow the steps.

But with that said, I’ll walk you through each popular social media platform for affiliate marketers below.

Step 1: Create Your Social Media Account

Setting Up an Instagram Page

We’ll start on Instagram, one of the more popular social media channels for making money online as an affiliate marketer. (Learn more in our Instagram affiliate marketing guide.)

In 3 easy steps, you can get started on Instagram! 

1) Download the Instagram App

If you haven’t already downloaded the Instagram app, that’s the best place to start! While you can create a page on Instagram web, it’s WAY easier and more user-friendly to just use the Instagram mobile app for your page creation. 

2) Sign Up For an Account

All this requires is an email and password. Easy as that, right?! Input that information, and it will take you to step three. 

3) Create a Username

This is honestly where a lot of people get stuck in the process. It seems like such a simple step, but it’s a very weighted one. Picking a username should align with what your niche is, what kind of promotions you may be doing, and the type of content you’ll be creating. For my own brand, I am in the world of women’s health, fitness, and wellness. I chose my own username because I felt like it aligned well with my penchant for promoting movement, as I teach yoga on the side.

I’m also an avid climber, mountain biker, and serial hobbyist. So I didn’t want to pigeon-hole myself with my username. I picked the username “KeelyInMotion” as I felt like it covered the array of movement that I promote. It also allowed me room to be able to promote fitness and wellness products as the movement aspect aligns with the wellness and fitness aspect of my niche. No matter what you choose, make sure that it aligns with your niche and audience, and what they expect to see from you. 

Setting Up a TikTok Account

Getting set up on TikTok is just as easy. Not to mention, as the #1 growing social media site currently out there, TikTok is a great place for you to be, whether you’re an entrepreneur, business, or affiliate marketer. (Find out more in our TikTok affiliate marketing guide.)

In just 3 easy steps, we can get set up on TikTok! 

1) Download the TikTok App

Much like Instagram, TikTok is best used via a phone! You can just head to the app store on your smart-phone or device, and download the TIkTok app! 

2) Sign-Up for an Account

Once your download is complete, it’s time to sign up for an account! You can use an email address or phone number to get your account set up, and then simply input your password of choice. From there, it’ll prompt you to select a username.

Like I mentioned in the Instagram setup section above, there’s a lot that goes into selecting a username for your brand or business on TikTok. If you’re feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of getting a username set-up, don’t fret – I’ll go into further detail in a few sections about the best way to set up a username, so for now, you can always go with whatever default username TikTok gives you, and come back to this step later once you’re happy with a username. 

3) Set Your Profile to “Business”

If you want to make money on TikTok, this next step will be an important one. You’ll want to make sure your account is set up as a business account.

You can do this by:

• Heading to your profile.
• Selecting the hamburger menu in the top right corner.
• Selecting “Settings and privacy”.
• Selecting “Account” at the top of the menu.
• Selecting “Switch to Business Account”.
• Following the prompts to move your profile over to a business account.

When you set up for a business account, this allows you to be able to promote items, add a link in your bio, and earn money on TikTok!

Setting Up a YouTube Account

YouTube is an amazing way for you to make money online with video content. Since you’re able to house so much information and so many links in the description of every video, it’s an awesome place to make money online as an affiliate! (Find out more about affiliate marketing on YouTube .)

Getting your account set up is super simple. 

1) Set Up Your Account with an Email and Password

Just like any other account, you’ll want to set yourself up using your desired email and password.

I personally like to have an email account set up with Google, and use that account to manage my YouTube. Since YouTube is owned by Google, it’s super easy to manage through your Gmail account.

However, even if you don’t have a Gmail account, you can use whatever email and password combo you’d like to get your account set up!

2) Create a Username

Once you’ve logged in to your initial account, you can go to the top right corner of your YouTube page. It will say in blue letters, “Create a Channel.”

Click that, and then keep going with your official name to finish your setup!

3) Set Up Your Name

Your name is how you’ll appear on YouTube to others! You can pick whatever your business or entrepreneur name may be. Then, maybe add in 2 or 3 words that describe you, your channel, and your niche.

I said “Keely | Movement and Wellness” because that encompasses the majority of my niche and my channel’s purpose.

NOTE: If you have other social media channels, this is a good place to add the same username for cohesiveness. If you’re not sure what you want your username to be just yet, you can skip this part for now and go back and change it later if you need to. I’ll dive deeper into how to set up a username for your niche in a few sections, so you’ll have some time to really think about it! 

Setting Up a LinkedIn Page

LinkedIn is a budding space for affiliates to make money online and grow their influence!

While LinkedIn’s target demographics may differ from those of other sites like Instagram and TikTok, it’s still an amazing space – and depending on your audience, LinkedIn might be your MOST productive social platform!

1) Set Up Your Account

Set up your account with an email, password, and name or business name. This part is simply the sign-up process. It’s super easy to walk through, as LinkedIn prompts you through every step! Then, you’re ready to create a username! 

2) Create a Page Name

Real quick, I want to distinguish between a LinkedIn personal profile and a business page. You should definitely have your own LinkedIn profile as an individual – but typically, your affiliate business would be a page instead of a profile.

Like I’ve mentioned in previous sections, this is something you can come back to if you need! However, the base of creating a good name for your LinkedIn page is to simply identify the kind of messaging you want to be putting out there to your niche, what kind of content you’ll be creating, and what aligns with your niche!

I’ll break this down as you keep reading, but if you’ve got a username set and ready to rock, this is where you’ll put it in! 

Setting Up a Pinterest Business Profile

Pinterest has quickly risen in the ranks as one of the best ways for people to make money online with content.

It’s truly as easy as researching keywords within your niche, creating some free graphics, building some bridge pages, and promoting your links on Pinterest. 

1) Choose an Email and Password

As with any social media site, or really anything these days, setting up a Pinterest account will require inputting an email and password. Easy enough, yes? Go ahead and do that! 

2) Create a Username/Account Name

Once your email and password have been set up, it’s time to create a username or account name! This can be anything that has to do with your niche, how you want to talk to your audience, and the kind of content you’ll be creating on Pinterest. Make sure it aligns with your overall brand messaging.

Step 2: Choose the Perfect Social Media Username for Your Niche

When it comes to finding the perfect social media username,, there’s a few things to keep in mind when setting up your username or account name. What does the audience in your niche want to see from you? What information will you be delivering to them? What type of content will you be generating? 

So, as promised, it’s time to lay out my top five tips for choosing the perfect social media username for your niche. The most important things are to keep it short, memorable, and aligned with your niche and overall messaging. 

1. Make It Memorable, Easy to Spell, and Short: The simpler, the better. You’ll want to avoid complicated spellings or numbers that may make your name hard to search or tag. Throughout your process, the more you can think of the ease of use for the end user, the more you will be able to see scalable growth as you build your brand on social media. 
2. Include any niche-specific keywords: For example, if you’re in the fitness niche, some keywords like “fit” “wellness” “movement” or any iterations on those. Perhaps you’re a stay at home mom! Keywords like “mama” “sahm” or things that signal to others in your niche that you are in alignment with the kind of content they want to consume! Your username is the first thing a social media sees, so making sure that it instantly signals what you’re all about is key! 
3. Maintain Brand Consistency Across All Platforms: If you’re on a multitude of platforms, like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, or Facebook, making sure that you can have the same handle across social media platforms, or at least very close variations, is keey to memorability and consistency. 
4. Use Name Generators for Inspiration, and Then Customize to Fit YOUR Brand: You can use tools like Namecheckr or social media handle generators to help you brainstorm ideas! Then, you can tweak those ideas to fit your brand, niche, audience, and overall personal vibe. At the end of the day, you’re speaking with PEOPLE! How will they feel when they see your username; what will be communicated to them through your username? Consider all of this as you craft the perfect username for your social media profile! 
5. Avoid Trendy Slang: As much fun as calling yourself the “rizz-master” may be, avoiding slang that isn’t going to last, and won’t age well is going to be key. Instead, make sure that your username is timeless, clear, and brandable, as opposed to following what’s ‘in’ right now. If it won’t fit your identity long-term, it’s not worth the trouble! 

How to Write a Social Media Bio That Converts

Now, your username is where you hook people, but it’s your bio that truly gets a user to convert so that you can make money online as a content creator. In that case, your bio is arguably one of the most important parts of your profile set-up journey, in my opinion.

I have 5 tips for how to get a user to take action on your bio. 

1. Lead With What You Do & Who You Help: What is your mission? Why are you here? What value do you bring to your audience? Clearly state these things, including your value or niche in the very first sentence of your bio. Your bio is truly untapped real estate for helping you to make money online. So, for instance, if you’re an affiliate or creator  in the food, stay-at-home-mom, or family space, you could write something like “Helping busy moms meal prep in 30 minutes or less”. This clearly states your mission, what value you bring to your audience, and what they can expect from the content on your page. 
2. Use Niche-Relevant Keywords: By doing this, you can boost your discoverability within the platform or platforms of your choice. Social media channels have basically become search engines in their own right, so using relevant keywords that you have through diligent keyword research into your niche can truly help boost your profile on social media channels. 
3. Include a Strong Call-to-Action (CTA): THIS is where you can get users to convert! You’ve already proven what value you bring to the end user on social media. Now, it’s time to help them with the products you’re promoting as well! When you’re promoting products, you’re not selling an item, you’re solving a problem. Your mission, your channel, and the content you create does all of that. Having the right call to action will make sure that your followers and audience know where to go to find the products that will help solve their problems! For example, “Grab my Free Guide!” or “Shop My Favorite Tools Here!”. Make sure your call-to-action is clear, concise, and easy to see in your bio! 
4. Add a Personal Touch to Your Bio: Whether that’s emojis, changing the tone of your bio, or adding in a fun fact to help keep you feeling human and relatable to your audience. The more personable you can be, the easier it will be to speak with your audience. You don’t wanna come across too salesy, or impersonal. This is where you can add your touch of flair! 
5. Have a Link-In-Bio and Use It Wisely: Tools like Accelerator by ClickBank, Linktree, or Beacons can help you effectively drive more affiliate traffic. You should mention your best freebie or your top product in your CTA. Your link-in-bio should also be clean, concise, and easy to navigate. A link-in-bio tool is massively helpful and effective to maintain a clean brand presence in your bio, while still being able to promote or share multiple links in one space! Your link-in-bio should clearly state what each link is, be easy to navigate, and should be cohesive with the rest of your profile and branding. (Which we’ll get to in a moment!)
   • In mine, I’ve got a few affiliate or ambassador links for brands I’m partnered with. This is gonna be really important, because you’ll want to drive people to click the link in your bio whenever you’re promoting a product, so make sure you take some time to make this look REALLY nice and cohesive. You should have working links, make sure the links are in order of priority or importance, and align with the calls to action you’ve got on your page. On social media, the simpler, the better when it comes to your landing page. Simple, clear, readable links are going to perform best. 

Profile Photo Tips for Personal Branding and Trust-Building

Once you’ve got your username and bio set up, the next step for a successful make money on social media journey is having an amazing profile photo.

I know, it may sound conceited, but it’s truly a huge part of your online branding, identity, and overall vibe on your social media page. 

1. Have a High-Quality, Clear Image: Your profile picture should very clearly depict who you or your brand is, and be easy to remember. Whether it’s a nice headshot, or a clean logo, making sure your profile photo is simple, clear, and high-quality is super important to your credibility. Any blurry or dark photos can possibly turn away potential followers and hurt your credibility. 
2. If Your Face Is In the Profile Photo, Make Eye Contact With the Camera: This builds trust and creates an approachable presence for your audience! Additionally, if your face and/or body are going to be in the photo, make sure what you’re wearing is in line with you and your niche. For instance, if you’re a fitness coach, wear activewear! If you’re in the beauty niche, go for a more glam photo. Make sure it’s very personal to YOU and your niche and audience! 
3. If Your Profile Photo is a Logo, Make Sure the Logo Is Clear, Concise, and Easily Depicts Your Brand. Again, this helps to build trust among your audience and helps to establish your brand identity on social media. 
4. Use Brand Colors or Backgrounds: A solid-colored background or a brand-colored border can make you INSTANTLY recognizable. That kind of memorability and brand identity is super important as you continue to build up your brand page on social media. Plus, if you’re using a logo, having your logo colors clearly in the photo and throughout your social media page helps to establish brand authority. 
5. Avoid Overcrowded, Busy, and Distracting Photos: The focus of your profile photo should be on your face or logo. Consider how small that tiny circle is on mobile screens that show your profile photo. You want the important things, whether that’s your face or your logo, to be front and center without distracting background noise. 

Tips for Branded and Click-Worthy Cover Photos

So now you’ve got your username, bio, and profile photo set up. These are some of the most important elements to set up your profile! 

However, if you’re on a social media channel that requires cover photos, like X(formerly known as Twitter), YouTube, Facebook, or Pinterest, you’ll also want to add in a click-worthy cover photo. 

1. The first thing you’ll want to do for your cover photo is highlight a bit about yourself, what you offer, or promote. You can think of your cover photo or banner as a sort of banner ad! You should include a headline, tagline, or some kind of promo in this! Think: “Start Learning Today!” or whatever a good CTA for your offers may be. 
2. As always, you should use branded fonts, colors, and visuals: Make sure that your cover photo is completely cohesive with your profile, including your graphics you may be posting on your profile. The more cohesive everything is, the more your brand stands out as professional and memorable. 
3. Showcase a Clear CTA or Lead Magnet: You can add something like “DM me “Start” to Learn More!” Or “Download Your Free Checklist”, or something of the sort. If your user hasn’t taken action up to this point, your cover photo is a great way to encourage that action to take place to help you with conversions! 
4. Include a photo of you, your logo, or your top product. Something that again aligns with your brand, who you are, and the services and quality you’ll be delivering to your audience. 
5. Update your cover photo when applicable: If you have special promotions, launches, or new offers, you should essentially treat your cover photo as a rotating billboard space! Use it often as a way to help increase conversions as an affiliate on social media. 

Branding Basics: Elements Every Affiliate Should Use

We’ve mentioned having a clear and concise brand throughout this guide as we talk about how to set up a social media page that converts.

What does that actually look like, and how do you create a consistent brand aesthetic across platforms? 

1) Choose 2 to 3 brand colors and really stick with them.

Like I mentioned, your brand colors should be easily spotted throughout all of your content. From your logo or profile photo, to the emojis you use, and the content you create. It should all have a consistent theme that aligns with your brand and aesthetic. This will help your brand stand out and be memorable to users across the internet! 

2) Pick 1 to 2 fonts that are easy to read and align with your niche.

Then, use those fonts EVERYWHERE! Whether it’s on your stories, in graphics, for freebies you give out, on your pages, or even in your captions, this helps you stand out as a content creator and maintain brand consistency for people who are new or returning to your page! 

3) Whenever applicable, create branded highlight covers! If you create content on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, or even Facebook, your graphics or covers on your reels or videos should all remain within your brand as well. Think of this as another way to stay cohesive, memorable, and easily identifiable! 

4) Design branded templates to batch content.

This will help you stay consistent even if you’re in a hurry! 

5) Add a watermark or logo to key content.

A watermark or logo will help you to build recognition and protect your work. If you’ve really worked hard on a piece of content, making sure it’s branded to increase traffic to your channel is super helpful! 

How to Optimize Your Profile to Drive Affiliate Link Clicks

The final tip I want to pass along is how to optimize your profile to drive affiliate link clicks. This is essentially utilizing your social media profile page as an affiliate marketing funnel for organic social media. In simpler terms, think of it as a roadmap. 

At the beginning of the map, you’ve got a social media post that brings users on social media to your page. As they continue on in their journey, they check out your social media profile, including your bio, profile photo, links, and other content.

Then, they continue on in their journey to click on your link in your bio, or other promotional links you may have readily available. As they reach the end of their journey, they come to your sales page or pitch page. This is where the conversion happens, and you’re able to make money online from your organic social media posting. 

SO, how do you optimize that journey for the end user so that you can convert your audience with your social media profile and content with calls-to-action? 

1) Use Your Link-in-bio Strategically!

Your LIB should have clear, concise, easily navigable links that guide users to the product they are interested in purchasing. At the top of your LIB, you could even consider having a link to a freebie, or some other landing page. You want your LIB to be useful for you. Whether that’s gathering email addresses for an email list, or sending users to a landing page, you should make this real estate work for you! Don’t just add a link to your homepage on your website and hope for the best. 

Where applicable, on social media channels like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, you should take the time to pin key posts that showcase YOU, your brand, and some of your top offers. Whether that’s tutorials, testimonials, education, or before/after content. This is the first thing a user sees after your initial profile settings like your username and bio. The content should be easily identifiable to your brand, and educational to your audience so that they can make an educated purchase from you! 

2) Create Content That Naturally Leads to Your Links!

I’ve talked about it a LOT before, but your content should bring overall value to your audience.Your content should be valuable on its own!  Educate them, create value, and THEN, make your sale. You don’t want every piece of your content to be promotional, or you end up being too salesy and people leave. Instead, create content that is helpful to your audience, and THEN, when applicable, make your pitch! 

Again, when applicable, add calls-to-action to highlights, stories, or anything else easily clicked on within your page! For example, you could have a story post like “Shop my faves” when talking about some of your favorite wellness brands, for instance. Then, include an affiliate link where people can check out your product promotions. 

3) Track the Affiliate Links That Drive Conversions!

There’s tons of tools out there for this, like Accelerator from ClickBank, Bit.Ly, or something like Beacons. This information you glean is super helpful to figure out what’s working and what isn’t and continue to progress from there. 

Know Your Niche and Your People

Once your social media profile is created, it’s time to develop a social media strategy! This comes from doing LOTS of diligent research. I like to suggest looking up other creators in your niche, which helps you see the type of content that other people in your niche are interested in. Since I’m in the wellness space, I found a few creators who truly inspire me, and I took some notes on my key takeaways. 

I’ve found that educational and inspirational content performs best in my niche. This information helps to drive my overall social media strategy and confirm the type of content that other people in my niche are interested in, from the language of the copy to the types of photos or videos that resonate. 

Once you’ve done a bit of analysis, you’ll also wanna dive into your niche more and understand your audience. 

What this means is essentially figuring out what makes your audience tick! These are simple social media engagement strategies that will make sure your audience connects with your content. 

I won’t go into too great of detail here, since I’ve actually got a video where we talk deeply about digging into your niche and audience! If you wanna take some time for that, you can watch below! 

Social Media Branding Tips

Now that your social media profiles are all set up, I wanted to briefly touch on your social media strategy and content planning. 

My biggest suggestion in support of your professional social media profile is having a content calendar. Using any information you may have for your social media strategy and research, you can then use that information to inform a calendar that keeps you organized and helps you to put to use all the data and information that you’ve discovered. 

I have a whole video where we break down DEEP social media research and strategy. You can watch that here for all my tips and tricks, and then come back to keep working on your content calendar and building trust on social media. 

I’ve often said that social media channels are the wild west of content creation, with fast-moving trends, new types of content to create, and nearly unlimited ability to reach people in all corners of the world. That’s why social media content creation is so great as an affiliate!

Growing Your Social Media Audience | Creating Shareable, Valuable Content

As we talked previously, we’ve got a specific audience we want to be talking to, and we should cater any content creation strategy TOWARD that audience! This is a great way to inform your social media strategy to ensure that you’re talking to the people in your niche that will truly make a difference. Growing your social media audience is more than just having a few semi-viral videos and designing a cohesive feed. It’s all about the valuable content you can deliver to your audience. 

Using the information on your audience, you can build out things like: posting timing, type of content, and different ways to engage. For me, since I’m talking mainly to women in the health and wellness niche, I’ve found based on my research, that posting in the mornings typically works best, since most people check Instagram in the morning to afternoon! The content my demographic likes to see is more movement and wellness education. AND, I engage with my audience through questions in my content, and fun posts on my stories that are relatable to my audience. Use information like that to help inform your specific audience strategy. 

You’ll also want to narrow down four pillars of posting. Think of these pillars like a roman building. These are the foundation of your content strategy, and what you can keep coming back to to ensure your audience is happy and engaged. These pillars can be determined by what you think is most important for your audience. 

The most common content pillars are: 

• Educational, Value Based Content: Think of this content as anything that brings value to your audience. Whether it’s a “how-to” post, tips and tricks, industry secrets, or anything of that nature that educates the people in your niche about something specific IN your niche. This kind of content is great for establishing authority in your domain and building trust on social media.
• Personal, Relatable Content: This is the behind-the-scenes, day-in-the-life content that shares a story and makes YOU as a content creator, more relatable. This is super helpful for building a loyal community with your audience! 
• Promotional Content: This is any sort of affiliate promotion, event promotion, or anything in between that you may be promoting to help monetize your audience. Use this sparingly, as you don’t want to wear your audience out with this kind of content. 
• Entertaining Content: This is one of my favorite types of content! This can be anything from memes, trends, or anything in between! This helps to boost engagement and drive new traffic to your page to continue building your community! 

The last thing to consider when growing your social media audience is posting frequency. On Instagram specifically, this can truly be make-or-break. Your posting frequency can be the difference between the right people in your niche viewing your content and never being exposed to it. 

On Instagram, there’s a happy medium. Post too much, and your page gets flagged as spam, and your content is no longer shared to the public. Post too little, and your content is STILL no longer shared to the public.

I always suggest beginners start with a posting frequency of three times per week and then increase from there! Keep an eye on your stats as you do so. You’ll notice rises or declines in growth, and you can adjust your posting frequency to ensure that the algorithm is happy. This same rule can be said for LinkedIn, Facebook, and X. 

On TikTok, there aren’t actually any hard and fast rules. While a lot of people are used to having certain times of day be ideal for posting on other social media platforms, TikTok is unique in the fact that your content could show up on someone’s For You Page weeks or even MONTHS after you’ve posted it, regardless of time of day or any other time factors.

With that being said, you don’t want to over-post and get flagged as spam. So find a happy medium! Start off with a posting frequency of three times per week, and then increase from there! Keep an eye on your stats as you do so. You’ll notice rises or declines in growth, and you can cater your posting frequency to ensure that the algorithm is happy. 

How to Get More Followers Organically

So now you’ve got your social media set up, you’re creating content, and you’re ready to grow your audience, which is awesome! I’ve got an ENTIRE video talking about different ways to monetize your audience once you’ve got one, which you can watch below! 

As you’ve built up more of an audience, take some time to talk and interact with the people in your niche! Ask questions, build a rapport, and continue to build up your own credibility within your niche. Maybe that looks like taking polls to improve performance, or asking questions to help you better understand the needs, wants, and lifestyle of those within your niche.

All of these will help you to better talk to and market to the consumers in your niche. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. Building your community and engaging with your community is such a huge key to success! 

At the end of the day, you have to remember that the people within your niche are more than numbers, data, and dollar signs. They’re REAL humans behind the screen, so remember to talk to them as such! You have the opportunity to build an incredible community of people, and when you go about it with joy and humanity, you’ll find people much prefer to feel included like that.

Social Media Presence For Beginners: Common Mistakes to Avoid

There are a few common mistakes to avoid when it comes to social media engagement strategies. 

Being inconsistent with posting

Like I mentioned, inconsistency can mean the difference between someone potentially in your audience seeing your content versus not. With decent consistency, it’s easy to be able to be seen by new and old audience member alike, helping to expand your brand, and maintain brand image with those that are currently within your audience orbit already. 

Ignoring your audience

People want to be a part of a community, there’s no doubt about that! Ignoring your audience doesn’t make them feel valued, and doesn’t establish trust as a content creator for you. Take the time to make your audience seen, heard, and felt, and they will reciprocate! 

Posting only promotional content

You know when you go to a car dealership and there’s suddenly like fourteen salesmen hounding you to make a purchase immediately? That’s kind of what it’s like for your audience when you ONLY post promotional content. It doesn’t provide any value or establish trust with your people. Find a good mix of value-added content and promotion to ensure you’re building community, and still allowing yourself space as a creator to monetize your audience. 

Not optimizing for each platform

Whatever platform you decide to create on, or if you decide to post and grow your social media presence on multiple social media channels, you should make sure to optimize for each platform. That means ensuring that the size and format of each media piece is the right size for the platform. You should also ensure that your copy and captions are aligned with the popular keywords and relevant searches within your niche on that platform.

Optimize Your Social Media Profile | FAQs

How Do I Grow a Loyal Social Media Following?

To grow a loyal social media following, you need to master the art of creating shareable content. This means creating content that delivers so much value to your audience that they feel a need to repost or share it, send it to a friend, or hit that little “save” button! This is something even Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, has recommended as a way to attract an organic audience faster. 

How Do I Brand My Personal Social Media?

Whether you’re looking at how to create an aesthetic Instagram page, or looking for tips for a professional LinkedIn profile, there’s a special format for branding your social media! Like I’ve previously suggested, a lot of your social media presence comes from diligent research. While I can’t tell you EXACTLY how your social media page should look, there’s a few things to keep in mind when it comes to branding your personal social media.

I like to consider my niche, my audience, and the kind of content I want to be creating. There is a good amount of importance of visual branding, and it’s helpful to know what your audience wants to see from that standpoint. From there, you can get as gritty as deciding on a color scheme that aligns with those things, the kind of keywords that should be in your bio, and even the types of emojis to use. Your research will help drive a lot of your decisions in this area. And honestly, I can’t tell you how to choose a social media aesthetic. It is entirely up to you, your personal branding, and what aligns with your niche. 

How Do I Write an Engaging Social Media Bio?

To write an engaging social media bio, you should quickly consider the best practices for social media profiles. I like to think about what would be most helpful and valuable to my audience. What do they expect to see on my page that will bring value to their social media journey?

If you’re in the supplement and health niche, maybe your audience wants to see health-related content. So your bio should reflect that. You should also make sure you’ve got a link-in-bio that houses your affiliate links, and anything else you may have as a helpful call-to-action in your content! 

Creating a Bio for Affiliate Marketing: Conclusion

Between creating content pillars for social media branding, and even covering some of the top social media mistakes to avoid for beginners, we’ve touched on a LOT of valuable information that will help you grow your social media.

A strong profile with clear branding and value-added content is gonna be key! Your audience is here to have fun with you and be a part of YOUR community! Remember that as you go about your social media journey. Your social media presence is a constant evolution, not a one-time task where you can set it and forget it. Remembering that will be one of the best ways to improve your social media engagement. And remember, most of all, HAVE FUN! 

If you’re looking for an incredible page builder and link-in-bio tool for your social media presence, I’d highly recommend checking out ClickBank’s Accelerator! It’s incredibly easy to use and specifically built for affiliate marketers!

Other than that, I wish you the best of luck on your social media bio and your affiliate marketing journey!

And honestly, you should! Who wants to waste their valuable time and effort on something that has no chance of panning out?

So, if you’re wondering whether affiliate marketing can be a viable opportunity for you, then allow me to answer the question that’s on a LOT of people’s minds: “Is affiliate marketing oversaturated?”

And if it IS, how do you find affiliate success anyway? Let’s dive in!

What Does Affiliate Marketing Look Like in 2025?

Warren Buffett is quoted as saying:

“It doesn’t matter how hard you row, it matters which boat you get in.”

All that to say, if you want to build a business or make some money online, it’s really important to choose a proven approach!

Think about it: you could take your skills and effort and apply them toward different business models – such as dropshipping, ecommerce, freelancing, or affiliate marketing – and end up with very different results, just based on macro factors outside of your control, such as consumer demand, logistics/fulfillment costs, and overall industry trends.

So, what is affiliate marketing, and what does it look like in 2025?

BigCommerce defines affiliate marketing in the following terms: 

Affiliate marketing is the process by which an affiliate earns a commission for marketing another person’s or company’s products. The affiliate searches for a product they enjoy then promotes it and earns a piece of the profit from each sale they make.

This model benefits both the affiliate marketer and the product owner/seller. And with a massive internet, it’s no wonder that affiliate marketing has taken off as it has! Statistics show that the industry will be worth $27.78 billion by 2027.

Affiliate marketing is a major driver of online sales for businesses across dozens of industries and verticals, and it’s not going anywhere any time soon. This is the sort of statistic that should make you feel confident that the affiliate marketing space has plenty of room for anyone who wants to be a part of it.

I believe oversaturation of the broader affiliate marketing industry is basically impossible, as long it’s growing at such a high rate. But with that said, you CAN still run into saturation on a brand or product level. That’s why it’s important to identify which aspects of affiliate marketing are already saturated and which still have plenty of growth opportunities!

Product-Level vs Industry-Wide Saturation

As an affiliate, it’s your job to identify parts of the industry that are on a positive trajectory. So, let’s talk about the difference between product-level and industry-wide saturation levels!

There’s no doubt that affiliate marketing within certain pockets of products, niches, and traffic sources have become oversaturated in 2025. (For example, dietary supplements have been on fire for at least the past 3-5 years among ClickBank affiliates, and there are now signs that the VSL-powered supplement business is slowing down – at least in certain verticals.)

However, plucking those individual examples out and believing that they represent the entire landscape of affiliate marketing is a big mistake! There’s a huge difference between the natural cycle of individual products and services maturing compared to the wider market as a whole.

Another factor that can lead to oversaturation of an affiliate product is the online channel where it’s being promoted. For example, an e-business info product on ClickBank may have already been spread far and wide on Facebook Ads, but hasn’t yet received that same circulation across YouTube Ads (or native ads, or email, or organic social, or blogs…).

By testing a particular product in different places online, you may be able to find opportunity with the exact same high-converting affiliate product! All you have to do is promote it on channels where it hasn’t gained widespread traction or adoption yet.

It’s definitely reasonable to be wary of oversaturation with certain products on certain online channels. However, it’s not fair to say that affiliate marketing itself is oversaturated. There are plenty of opportunities for affiliate marketing growth and income in 2025!

3 Tips to Avoid Oversaturation 

Nobody wants to get out over their skis at any point and find that they can’t make the kind of money they had hoped to make with affiliate marketing. That’s why you need some way of identifying the “right” opportunity, as well as the “wrong” one.

On ClickBank, for example, it’s easy to stumble across “oversaturated” products, because they have the highest rank or Gravity score in the marketplace!

That’s a double-edged sword you need to be aware of, as more affiliates promoting a product and getting sales means more competition for YOU!

If you’re hoping to avoid saturated products, niches, and online channels as an affiliate, here are a few concrete tips to help you out:

1) Select a Growth Niche

Get out your pencil and paper (or Excel spreadsheet) and take some notes. You’ll want to do some research to discover whether the niche you’re getting involved with is expanding (growing) or contracting (shrinking).

In other words, you stand to benefit from a niche that already has momentum behind it and plenty of products available for you to promote. As long as you stay within the lanes of a growing industry, you should be able to capitalize on the momentum that has already begun to build in that space. 

Put another way, think of the common phrase, “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Or maybe you’d prefer a metaphor around grabbing the same slice of an ever-growing pie? Regardless, you make it a LOT easier for yourself if the niche you choose is already big and getting bigger.

There are many ways to find a stable or growing niche to build your affiliate business around. One simple one is to check out a site like Google Trends and search for a broad keyword related to the niche you’re thinking about.

As an example, I’m in the music niche – and I can see that broad interest in songwriting and playing piano has stayed roughly the same over the past year.

That’s not bad – certainly not compared to a niche that’s actively losing interest – but in this niche, I have to work harder to see success when overall interest isn’t increasing either! I recommend taking a look at your niche in a tool like Google Trends to make sure it’s going in the right direction.

Another handy way to find out which niche is doing well is by paying attention to ClickBank’s list of the top affiliate marketing niches. Periodically, I refresh this helpful resource for the ClickBank community based on the niches that are seeing the most actual sales volume on ClickBank – so you can easily track how your chosen niche is trending from year to year to decide if it’s where you want to focus.

Lastly, you can make a big difference in your business when choosing a niche by specializing. I already mentioned how massive the dietary supplements business is, and weight loss is far and away the biggest category there, which means the competition among weight loss affiliates is intense!

But by choosing a sub-niche within the dietary supplement niche, whether that’s men’s health, women’s health, dental health, etc. – you get most of the benefit of a popular niche without the fiercest possible competition.

I did the same thing in the music niche by narrowing in on the sub-niche of songwriting.

2) Diversify Your Traffic Sources

It’s easy to get a little too comfortable relying on a single platform to do all of your affiliate marketing. Understandably, you might prefer certain platforms, but you should diversify your affiliate marketing channels whenever and wherever you can.

When you get comfortable with different traffic channels, ad networks, and software tools, you can reach the broadest audience and get more eyeballs on your affiliate bridge pages. This is also helpful because it this keeps you on your toes and always learning new strategies and ways of reaching your audience.

Consider mixing up the various ways you do affiliate marketing to keep things interesting and avoid oversaturation. If a sudden algorithm change on Google search or Facebook Ads has you feeling down, but you have other traffic sources (or the experience to pivot to them quickly), then your business isn’t at risk of disappearing overnight!

I’ve felt this myself as an SEO affiliate with a blog that was growing in organic search traffic from Google for years – until a “helpful” content update changed its fortunes overnight. Now, I’m wising up and expanding to email, YouTube, and paid ads to diversify where my traffic comes from.

3) Build Your Brand

If you have the interest, consider building your chosen affiliate business into a brand. It’s easy to think transactionally as an affiliate marketer, where you promote this one product as long as it converts, and then move on to the next one. That’s fine – but you’re essentially starting from square one and building a new business from scratch each time you do this.

When you build a brand with a website, organic socials, an email list, and maybe even an online store (featuring your own products for sale), then you become a lot more resistant to concerns about saturation in affiliate marketing – because you’re not JUST an affiliate marketer anymore!

At the same time, you’re able to play a longer and more sophisticated game than most other affiliates can, because the customers you acquire will come with a much higher customer lifetime value (LTV). Ultimately, diversifying your income streams is your very best long-term strategy to beat the competition.

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to stop being an affiliate or give up on affiliate products as a revenue stream, but after you’ve found success with affiliate marketing, it’s definitely worth thinking about other ways to keep expanding your business… especially if affiliate marketing saturation is something that keeps you up at night!

Again, for me personally, I started out strictly as an affiliate and that’s been just fine so far. But eventually, I want to create a product of my own to sell under my brand, leveraging all of the content I’ve created with my name and my business’s name.

Anyway, I hope these tips get you thinking! They’re just a few of the basic strategies you should rely on to avoid succumbing to oversaturation as an affiliate. By following these principles, you can set up your business to weather the economic storms and always come out on top! 

How to Measure Your Success in Affiliate Marketing in 2025

I’ve alluded to some ways to avoid the pitfalls of oversaturation in affiliate marketing, but how do you know if you’re actually successful? What lets you know that you’re on target to where you’re trying to go in the industry?

Well, it might seem cliche, but I highly recommend goal-setting to ensure you’re thinking through your whole affiliate strategy. By taking a deliberate look at the market and your own place in it, you can ensure you’re putting the odds on your side.

Here are a few quick ideas on how setting proper affiliate marketing goals: 

Specific

Know exactly what you want to accomplish as an affiliate. Saying “I want to be a better affiliate marketer” is not enough. Lay out a roadmap for yourself to get you from Point A to Point B.

Measurable

Set out metrics you can quantify and measure yourself against to understand how you are doing. This could include things like total hops, conversion rate, number of impressions on your landing page, or total number of sales – but it could also be as simple as input you accomplished, like “created 1 ad.”

Allow yourself to set intermediary goals on the way to your ultimate goal.

Achievable

Did you know that roughly 80% of people quit a new diet within their first month of trying it? This is often because people’s ideal goals are often totally out of whack with reality.

As part of this aspect of your goal, do research to make sure you’ve got a goal that you can truly accomplish with where you’re at in your journey. Perfectionism is the poison pill that kills many goals.

In the case of affiliate marketing, that probably means NOT setting a goal of $10k a month (or even $1k a month) until you’ve focused on making your first $100 as an affiliate!

Relevant

Be sure your goal is relevant to what you’re trying to accomplish. Generally, as an affiliate, you’ll have an earnings goal, but you should also set smaller goals related to the other milestones in your journey.

This might include choosing a niche, choosing a traffic source, choosing a product to promote, deciding on the right affiliate marketing education… The important thing is that the SMART goal is relevant to whatever you’re trying to achieve as an affiliate.

Time-Bound

Set up specific time parameters that you can use as benchmarks to see how well you’re doing in the affiliate marketing game. When you have time constraints on yourself, you’re far more likely to reach your objectives.

Deadlines are powerful! There’s a reason corporations have project due dates, quarterly goals, and annual company objectives. By tying your numbers to specific time frames, you force yourself to spring into action to make things happen!

These SMART goals truly are a smart way to approach your affiliate business. As long as you set goals this way, you have a much better chance of reaching your objectives!

And even in competitive markets, being deliberate about your goals and strategy will set you apart and help you overcome any obstacles in your way.

Avoiding Oversaturated Affiliate Marketing Niches Wrap-up

Before we wrap up this article, let’s briefly talk financial considerations – these are a big deal when you’re starting affiliate marketing!

Typically, the newer you are, the harder it is to go toe-to-toe with established affiliates in competitive niches. That’s why it’s so important to steer clear of oversaturated niches or markets, because they may not give you the breathing room you need to make sales early on!

At ClickBank, we want to help you stay in the game for the long term, instead of spinning your wheels because you’re not at the same level of experience or resources as your competitors.

So, as a quick rehash, here’s what you need to do to start earning more from affiliate marketing: 

• Select Your Niche. Determine which affiliate marketing niche (or sub-niche) is the perfect balance of demand/sales to competition level. You may find more success getting a bigger slice of a smaller pie, rather than trying to get a smaller slice of a bigger pie. 
• Choose Your Traffic Source. Decide which of the organic and paid traffic sources will help you best reach the target audience of people interested in your products. Once you’ve picked this, you’ll want to be able to do it at scale so you can keep growing your sales.
• Create a Brand. One way to help yourself stand out and avoid the negatives of oversaturation is to create a brand that gets known in the space. Create a unique experience like this and you’ll be resistant to algorithm changes, high customer acquisition costs, and other affiliate headaches. 

If you put all of this together, you should be able to find the success you’re looking for! We hope you enjoy your affiliate marketing experience and earn more from your affiliate business. 

Lastly, check out Spark by ClickBank to learn how to choose a niche or product, familiarize yourself with affiliate marketing strategies, and master your chosen free or paid traffic source – from organic social and SEO to Facebook Ads and YouTube Ads.

Best of luck!

This evolution is changing how marketers and brands must think about their visibility online.

If you want your content to show up in these AI-generated responses, it’s time to go beyond traditional SEO. Now, you need to optimize content for LLMs (large language models) and AI search, whether the content is on your website, your social media, or in third-party mentions from influencers, websites, and podcasts.

Read on to find out how LLMs work, how they decide what to cite, and how to position your content for AI-powered discovery. This guide will show you exactly how it’s done in 25 tips!

Let’s dive in!

What Is LLM Optimization?

LLM optimization is the practice of creating and structuring content in a way that makes it more likely to be selected, synthesized, and cited by AI tools powered by large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others.

This is a proactive approach to digital content strategy and marketing, whether you’re a brand, offer owner, affiliate marketer, or content creator.

LLMs don’t “crawl” websites like traditional search engines do. Instead, they are trained on huge datasets. These datasets may include publicly available web pages, forums, books, and licensed sources. They use this training to generate human-like responses to user queries.

Some LLMs can also access real-time web content via plugins, APIs, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

Optimizing for LLMs means understanding how they source and generate responses. It also means making your content more “machine-readable,” reliable, and contextually useful to those models. This specialized form of optimization ensures your information is ready for the new AI frontier!

Why Brands Should Optimize Content for LLMs

The digital landscape is changing at a rapid pace.

Traditional SEO still plays a crucial role, but LLM optimization adds another layer. Ignoring it could mean your brand loses relevance and eventually becomes completely invisible online – and nobody wants that!

Here’s why LLM optimization matters:

• Visibility is shifting from blue links to AI answers. Users are increasingly satisfied with AI-generated summaries, so they may not click through to source websites as often. This makes a direct citation or mention by an LLM incredibly valuable.
• Attribution is scarce, so being cited or mentioned matters more than ever. When an LLM provides a direct answer, it may only cite one or two sources (if it cites any at all). Being one of the chosen sources means your brand gets direct exposure.
• Trust signals like authority, clarity, and structure now influence whether your content is selected for summarization. LLMs are designed to provide accurate and helpful responses. They favor content that exhibits strong trust and credibility.
• Voice search and conversational interfaces are growing, and they rely heavily on LLM-generated outputs. People are using voice assistants more for quick facts and comprehensive answers. Your content needs to be ready for these conversational queries.
• Enhanced brand authority and reputation. When an authoritative AI tool references your brand, it inherently boosts your perceived expertise. This can lead to increased trust among your target audience.
• Future-proofing your content strategy. AI technology is here to stay. Investing in LLM optimization now positions your brand for long-term success in the evolving search landscape.
• Meeting users where they are. Users are adopting AI tools quickly for their informational needs, so if you want to remain relevant, your content must be accessible through these new channels.

In short, if you want your brand to show up in AI responses, your content must speak the language of large language models, while still effectively speaking to humans and traditional search engines too.

This holistic approach is key if you want visibility for your content and brand today!

How LLMs Find and Use Your Content

To optimize your content for LLMs, it’s important to understand how they process and retrieve information.

Here’s a simplified breakdown covering 3 common ways LLMs will source your content:

1) Pretraining and Fine-Tuning

LLMs are first trained on massive datasets. These datasets contain books, articles, websites, and other text.

This step helps them develop a general understanding of language, facts, and relationships between concepts. An initial training phase builds the core intelligence of the model.

Some LLMs are later fine-tuned using specific data or user feedback. This fine-tuning helps them become more specialized. It can also improve their ability to follow instructions or generate particular types of responses (for example, a medical LLM might be fine-tuned on medical journals).

2) Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

When LLMs are connected to external sources, they use retrieval systems.

These systems fetch the most relevant documents in real time. This is common with tools like Bing, Perplexity, or through real-time APIs. The fetched documents are then summarized and cited in responses. This process helps LLMs provide up-to-date information and attribute sources.

If your content is accessible, authoritative, and well-structured, it’s more likely to be pulled into these answers. This is a critical aspect of LLM optimization. It means your content needs to be discoverable and highly relevant to the user’s query.

3) Citation and Recommendation

Some LLMs, like Perplexity and ChatGPT with Browse, will cite or reference specific sources. Others, like Google’s AI Overviews, synthesize information from multiple websites.

Either way, content that is clear, concise, well-categorized, and semantically rich is more likely to be selected.

The goal is to be the authoritative source for a particular piece of information. When your content is chosen, it significantly boosts your brand’s visibility. This direct attribution is a powerful endorsement from the AI itself!

Understanding Different LLM Behaviors

Not all LLMs behave identically. Their training data, fine-tuning, and access to real-time information can vary.

Here are the different types you should know about:

• Closed-source models: Models like ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Gemini (Google) have proprietary training sets. Their specific mechanisms for source selection are not fully transparent.
• Open-source models: Models like Llama 2 (Meta) allow more insight into their architecture. This can help developers understand how they process information.
• Search-integrated models: Tools like Perplexity.ai and Google’s AI Overviews are designed to browse and summarize. They often prioritize content that traditional SEO also favors. This includes well-ranking pages and authoritative sources.
• Conversational AI: Assistants like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant are focused on delivering quick, concise responses. Your content needs to be easily digestible for these platforms.

Tailoring your content for these different behaviors enhances your overall LLM optimization strategy. With that, let’s look at the 25 essential tips that will help you optimize your content for LLMs and AI tools!

The 25 Best LLM Optimization Tips

Tip 1: Use Your Brand Name in Context

Many websites speak in the first person. They use phrases like “we recommend this” or “we’ve found that.”

Often, they do so without ever naming who “we” is. AI models don’t always connect these dots.

So, you need to be explicit: Use your brand name consistently and naturally throughout your content, especially when you’re talking about topics you want your brand associated with.

For example:

• “At BrandMoth, we’ve seen that early-stage startups benefit most from two-part names with metaphorical relevance.”
• “According to the latest research by TechSolutions Inc., renewable energy adoption is accelerating.”
• “Our team at GreenLeaf Organics developed this recipe to maximize nutrient absorption.”

This careful phrasing might seem a little unnecessary, but being explicit helps AI tools associate your brand with your ideas and insights.

It’s especially important when the LLM is summarizing multiple sources, because brand mentions add credibility and context. By consistently naming your brand within your content, you’re reinforcing your brand as a recognized entity in your niche and boosting your overall visibility!

Tip 2: Earn Quality Backlinks (and Rankings)

While LLMs don’t rely on PageRank in the traditional SEO sense, they still use trust signals to determine authority. Pages with strong backlinks tend to rank higher in SERPs. LLMs like ChatGPT (with Browse) and Perplexity often prefer highly ranked sources.

Many AI tools have a preference for content that already performs well in Google. If you’re ranking for relevant queries, you’re more likely to be included in AI-generated summaries. High-quality backlinks signal to both search engines and LLMs that your content is valuable and trustworthy.

So, what should you do?

Like with traditional SEO practices, you should invest in digital PR, guest blogging, thought leadership, and partnerships with other organizations to earn high-authority backlinks.

Prioritize links from trusted domains in your niche. Think about reputable .edu, .gov, or well-known industry sites. These links demonstrate your site’s authority and improve your visibility in the eyes of AI.

Tip 3: Target Questions Instead of Just Keywords

Traditional SEO often focused on short-tail keywords. But LLMs respond best to complete questions. They are designed to understand natural language queries.

So…

• Instead of optimizing for “aligner benefits,” try answering “What are the advantages of clear aligners over traditional braces?”
• Instead of “best running shoes,” address “Which running shoes are best for long-distance training?”
• Instead of “website speed,” answer “How does website speed affect user experience and SEO?”

Write FAQ-style content that directly answers user questions in clear, natural language. Use tools like AnswerThePublic or AlsoAsked to discover real user questions.

These tools provide data-backed insights into what people are actually asking!

Example: A dental practice might add a section titled “Are clear aligners safe for teens?” and provide a short, structured answer. This query has a much better chance of being cited in an LLM-generated response than vague or keyword-stuffed content, and you want the information you publish to be highly accessible to LLMs.

Tip 4: Use Structured Data and Schema Markup

Structured data helps machines understand your content better. Specifically, Schema markup can clarify what your content is about, who wrote it, and what entities are involved. It provides explicit clues to LLMs about the meaning of your information.

Some of the most helpful schema types for LLM optimization include:

• FAQPage: For question and answer sections.
• HowTo: For step-by-step guides.
• Article: For general articles, blog posts, and news.
• Organization: To identify your brand and its official name.
• Author: To attribute content to specific individuals.
• Product: For detailed product information.
• Recipe: For cooking instructions and ingredients.
• Review: For user or editorial reviews of products or services.

Adding schema doesn’t guarantee you’ll be cited, but it significantly increases your chances. It makes your content more machine-readable and easy to reference, which provides a clear framework for LLMs to process your information efficiently.

Pro tip: Validate your schema using Google’s Rich Results Test. Regularly audit it for errors. Errors can prevent your structured data from being used effectively.

Tip 5: Use Lists, Tables, and Semantic Keywords

LLMs love structure. We’re talking about bulleted or numbered lists, comparison tables, and well-organized sections that help AI models quickly extract and summarize your content.

Clear formatting in your content aids in rapid information retrieval!

Use Lists to Make Content Skimmable and Scannable

For example, instead of writing a paragraph about the benefits of clear aligners, structure it like this:

Benefits of Clear Aligners:

• Nearly invisible
• Removable for meals and cleaning
• More comfortable than metal braces
• Require fewer dental visits
• Often result in shorter treatment times
• Easier to maintain oral hygiene

This format makes it easier for LLMs to pick up and include your points in responses, especially when users ask for a quick rundown or comparison. It enhances the discoverability of key facts.

Include Semantic Keywords and Related Concepts

Semantic keywords are conceptually related terms that provide context. For instance, if you’re writing about electric cars, include terms like:

• EV
• Charging station
• Range anxiety
• Battery life
• Tesla, Nissan Leaf, Ford Mustang Mach-E, etc.
• Sustainable transportation
• Emissions-free driving
• Public charging infrastructure

This helps LLMs build a deeper understanding of the topic. It increases your chances of appearing in long-form, nuanced answers. Semantic density signals comprehensive coverage to AI.

Tools to find semantic keywords:

• Google’s “People Also Ask” and “Related Searches” sections
• SurferSEO
• Clearscope
• SEMrush or Ahrefs keyword tools
• Google Keyword Planner (for related terms)
• Topic clusters generated by AI content tools

Tip 6: Optimize for Entities, Not Just Keywords

LLMs are trained to understand entities. These are real-world objects, people, organizations, and concepts – not just strings of text.

Understanding entities allows LLMs to grasp context and relationships. If you want to be seen as an authority on a topic, make sure to:

• Clearly identify people and companies (e.g., “Dr. Mark Green, a Chicago-based dentist specializing in root canals, has over 20 years of experience.”).
• Link out to credible sources when referencing major entities (e.g., linking to Wikipedia or official company pages).
• Use consistent naming conventions throughout your content. Avoid variations that could confuse the AI.
• Provide attributes for entities (e.g., “Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla,” or “The Eiffel Tower, a landmark in Paris, France”).

Also, consider building out your own entity with the following steps:

• Create or claim your Google Knowledge Graph. This is a crucial practice for brand recognition.
• Get listed on Wikipedia or Wikidata if your brand meets their notability criteria.
• Encourage coverage on reputable third-party websites. This builds external validation.
• Ensure your social media profiles are consistent and clearly linked.

When your brand or name becomes an entity that LLMs recognize, you’re more likely to be cited directly. This will directly contribute to your brand’s visibility and authority!

Tip 7: Publish Authoritative, Long-Form Content

LLMs prioritize depth, clarity, and usefulness over fluff. One of the best ways to get cited is to publish comprehensive, long-form content. In the parlance of traditional SEO, you might call this type of content “link bait.”

But ultimately, this type of content involves answering complex questions better than anyone else and demonstrating true expertise!

What makes content authoritative for LLMs?

• Written by subject-matter experts with verifiable credentials.
• Includes firsthand insights, proprietary data, original research, or detailed case studies.
• Has a clear structure with headings, lists, and examples.
• Is frequently updated to remain current and reflect the latest information.
• Offers multiple perspectives or delves into the nuances of a topic.
• Provides actionable advice or practical solutions.

Example: Instead of writing a 500-word blog post titled “Why Branding Matters,” write a 2,000+ word guide called “How Branding Impacts Business Growth: A Comprehensive Guide for Series A Startups.” This comprehensive and detailed approach will satisfy the LLM’s need for in-depth information.

Tip 8: Improve E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)

Although originally a Google concept, the same E-E-A-T principles will help content stand out to LLMs too. That’s because AI models are trained to favor content that reflects credibility and expert knowledge and avoid misinformation.

Here are a few ways to build E-E-A-T:

• Include author bios with credentials, experience, and links to other works.
• Link to reputable external sources for data and claims.
• Add client testimonials, case studies, or success stories.
• Use HTTPS and secure hosting for your website.
• Make your site easy to navigate and free from spammy ads.
• Clearly display contact information and About Us pages.
• Showcase awards, certifications, or industry affiliations.
• Implement a clear editorial process for content creation and review.

Pro tip: Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines still influence what appears as output in AI overviews and SERP-adjacent answers. LLMs often use those same content types in training data. Adhering to E-E-A-T builds a strong foundation for LLM optimization and overall visibility.

Tip 9: Answer Questions in a Standalone Format

LLMs look for short, clear passages that directly answer user questions.

A good rule of thumb: Write answers that could be read aloud by a voice assistant. This makes the information highly accessible.

Bad example:

“We think there are many reasons people choose our aligners. One of the main reasons is comfort, though there are others like appearance, and the ability to take them out for meals. Our patients often tell us how much they appreciate these aspects.”

Good example:

“Clear aligners are popular because they’re comfortable, discreet, and removable. Most patients also appreciate that treatment times are often shorter than with traditional braces, and they make oral hygiene easier.”

Even better if this appears directly under an H2 or H3 subheading like the following example:

Why Are Clear Aligners So Popular?

These mini, standalone answers are ideal candidates for AI tools to grab and summarize. They provide concise, direct responses that LLMs can easily process and present, which greatly improves your chances of direct citation and sourcing.

Tip 10: Use Author Markup and Content Attribution

When possible, include metadata that clearly attributes content to a real author or organization.

This helps both search engines and AI tools know who to credit. Attribution is key for establishing trust and visibility!

Every time you publish a piece of content, be sure to add:

• Author name, title, and bio on the page, ideally with a link to their professional profile.
• <meta name=”author” content=”Dr. Mark Green”> in the HTML head.
• Schema.org’s author and publisher properties.
• Link to social media profiles (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter) of the author.

LLMs may not always show citations, but they often “remember” which brands produce high-quality content.

Attribution helps reinforce that memory. This is part of building your entity reputation and improving your chances of mentions in future responses.

Tip 11: Update Old Content for AI Relevance

Like traditional search engines, LLMs and Google’s AI Overviews usually prioritize content that is:

• Recently published or updated.
• Dated to reflect its relevance (e.g., “2025 Guide to Digital Marketing”).
• Structured to match modern search intent and AI query patterns.

If you already have top-performing articles, go update them to:

• Include your brand name in the intro and throughout the content.
• Add structured data and lists where appropriate.
• Target question-based headings and provide direct answers.
• Link to fresh, credible sources, and remove outdated ones.
• Ensure all data and statistics are current.
• Add new sections covering recent developments in the topic.
• Improve overall readability and user experience.

You don’t always need to create new content. Sometimes, updating older assets is the fastest path to AI visibility.

This optimization technique leverages your existing authority and is a good practice for traditional search as well!

Tip 12: Test Your Content in AI Tools

Just like you check rankings in Google, you can easily test whether your content is cited in:

• ChatGPT (Plus) using the Browse tool. Ask specific questions that your content aims to answer.
• Perplexity.ai. See which sources it pulls and how it summarizes your information.
• Google’s AI Overviews or AI Mode (if available in your country). Observe whether your site is listed as a source.
• You.com or Claude.ai. These LLMs also process information differently.
• Bing Chat (Microsoft Copilot). If you’re optimized for organic search in Bing, you have a good chance of appearing in Copilot too.

Ask questions your content should answer and see if it appears and how it’s represented. For example, with ClickBank, we might ask ChatGPT about the best affiliate networks for beginners. And ClickBank does appear in the response, as of the time of this writing:

Now, if your content or brand isn’t showing up, consider whether your page:

• Uses enough semantically related terms.
• Answers the question directly and comprehensively.
• Has enough authority (links, brand signals, E-E-A-T, etc.).
• Is technically accessible and well-structured for machine parsing.
• Offers unique value or a unique perspective.

Use these insights to refine how your content is structured and presented. This iterative testing is crucial for effective LLM optimization!

Tip 13: Build a Clear Site Architecture

A well-organized website isn’t just good for human visitors – it also helps LLMs and AI-powered crawlers understand how your content fits together.

A logical structure aids in information discovery and contextual understanding. So, here’s what you need to know.

Keep Your Content Hierarchical and Logical

Structure your site like a knowledge tree:

• Homepage ➝ Service Overview ➝ Detailed Pages ➝ Blog Posts.
• Use descriptive URLs (e.g., /dental/clear-aligners/ instead of /page-id-52).
• Make sure each topic lives in a logical section of your site, forming topic clusters with interlinking resources or a hub-and-spoke model.
• Categorize and tag content consistently to aid navigation and understanding.
• Avoid orphan pages that are not linked to from anywhere on your site.

Use Internal Linking Thoughtfully

You should link related pages together using contextual anchor text, for example:

• “Learn more about how clear aligners compare to traditional braces in our detailed guide.”
• “See what Dr. Mark Green recommends for teenage dental care in his latest article.”
• “Explore our range of eco-friendly cleaning products for a sustainable home.”

Internal links with relevant anchor text are a strong signal to AI and search engines which pages are semantically related to each other and which ones are most important overall.

Good internal linking helps distribute authority and guide the LLMs through your data architecture.

Tip 14: Build a Reputation Outside Your Own Site

LLMs don’t just rely on your website to judge your authority. In fact, some anecdotal analysis I’ve seen from SEO experts on LinkedIn suggest that a lot of the answers will pull from popular sites like Wikipedia, Reddit, and YouTube – as well as other authorititative websites and publications.

In a nutshell, LLMs “read” the rest of the internet to form a comprehensive view of your brand, products, and . This external validation is vital for LLM optimization.

You want you and your brand to be:

• Quoted in reputable media outlets and industry publications.
• Listed in authoritative business directories (e.g., Crunchbase, Healthgrades, Clutch, industry-specific directories).
• Cited on reputable forums like Reddit or Quora (in relevant, positive contexts).
• Reviewed on third-party platforms (e.g., Google Reviews, Yelp, industry review sites).
• Mentioned in academic papers or research reports.
• Featured in podcasts or webinars.

Do these things and you’re more likely to be recognized and referenced. This creates a robust digital footprint for your brand!

Pro Tip: Use Digital PR to Your Advantage

Reach out directly to journalists or bloggers or use Help a Reporter Out (HARO), offer your quotes as a subject-matter expert, and participate in podcast interviews or webinars.

The more visibility you earn across the web, the more LLMs will associate your brand with your area of expertise. This strategic approach builds holistic authority!

Example: If Perplexity.ai sees that “BrandMoth” is cited in naming guides, startup resources, and branding Q&A threads, it will be more likely to feature the brand in AI answers about naming strategies. This demonstrates the power of cross-platform visibility.

Tip 15: Improve Page Speed and Accessibility

Some AI models access real-time content using retrieval tools. If your site loads slowly or is hard to parse, it may be ignored.

Like with traditional search, a fast, accessible site signals quality and ease of information extraction for AI tools to pull from.

Here’s a quick page speed checklist to run through for your site:

• Use a fast, secure web hosting service.
• Optimize images for quick loading (compress files and use modern formats like WebP).
• Implement lazy loading for images and videos.
• Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML code.
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for faster delivery to global users.
• Ensure mobile-friendliness and keyboard accessibility.
• Use semantic HTML tags (<article>, <section>, <header>, <footer>, <nav>, <aside>, <main>). These tags provide inherent structure that LLMs can understand.
• Provide alt text for all images and transcripts for audio/video content.

Pro tip: Use tools like PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse to find and fix performance and accessibility issues. These tools offer specific, actionable recommendations for site optimization.

Tip 16: Publish Content in Multiple Formats

LLMs can pull from a variety of content types, not just traditional text articles, blog posts, and web pages.

By diversifying your content types and ensuring they’re published with accessible metadata, you increase the ways AI tools can “see” your content and extract relevant information.

LLMs can pull from:

• Text articles and blog posts.
• PDFs and whitepapers (ensure text is selectable and not just images).
• FAQ sections.
• Videos (via transcripts, captions, or well-described metadata).
• Podcasts (via summaries, show notes, or automatically generated transcripts).
• Infographics (if accompanied by descriptive text).
• Webinars and online courses (with summaries and key takeaways).

Thankfully, it’s easy to leverage AI itself to take an initial piece of content and repurpose it in several different formats.

Example: Turn a long-form blog post into:

• A short video with subtitles for platforms like YouTube or TikTok.
• A downloadable checklist or infographic.
• A series of FAQ questions published on a dedicated page.
• A podcast episode or audio summary available on streaming platforms.
• A concise social media thread highlighting key points.

All of this content reinforces your authority and expands your presence across different AI-accessible formats. A multi-format approach will boost your visibility much more than sticking with a single content format.

Tip 17: Use AI Tools to Analyze and Refine Your Content

To optimize for AI, use AI!

There are tools out there that simulate LLM behavior. They evaluate content for clarity, authority, and completeness. This approach can give you a significant edge in your optimization efforts, because you’re speaking AI’s language from the very beginning of your content creation process.

Here are a handful of excellent AI tools to consider:

• SurferSEO – for semantic keywords, topic clusters, and structure suggestions. It analyzes top-ranking content for gaps.
• Clearscope – helps ensure content covers topics comprehensively and uses relevant terms.
• Content at Scale AI Detector – while not perfect, it can give an indication of machine-like tone versus human writing.
• ChatGPT (or Claude) – to simulate what an AI might generate from your content or identify gaps. Ask it to summarize your article or identify key arguments.
• Yoast or RankMath – for readability, SEO best practices, and structured data analysis within WordPress.
• Grammarly Business – for enhancing clarity, conciseness, and overall writing quality.
• AI summarization tools – paste your content into one and see what it picks up. Does it capture your main points accurately?

Exercise: Paste your article into ChatGPT and ask:

• “What are the five most important takeaways from this article?”
• “Summarize this article for someone who has five minutes.”
• “What questions does this article answer, and are the answers clear?”
• “What is the main topic, and what are the sub-topics discussed?”

If the key points you intended don’t show up, your structure or clarity might need improvement. This iterative testing helps you refine your content for optimal LLM understanding!

Tip 18: Track Mentions and Citations in AI Tools

While traditional analytics show traffic and rankings, LLM optimization calls for a new kind of tracking. You need to monitor how your brand and content appear in AI responses.

How do you do it?

Try this:

• Run a Google search for your brand name alongside the kinds of questions you want to rank for (e.g., “BrandMoth startup naming guide”). Look for AI Overviews in Google search and see what comes up.
• Search your domain in tools like Perplexity.ai and see how it’s cited and summarized.
• Set up alerts using Google Alerts or Mention for brand mentions across the web.
• Use ChatGPT to simulate user prompts like:
  • “What’s a good brand naming agency for startups?”
  • “Who is Dr. Mark Green?”
  • “Tell me about the benefits of clear aligners.”
• Monitor AI news feeds and industry publications that discuss AI sourcing.
• Check specific AI tools and platforms that are gaining traction as a way to track AI mentions. At the time of this writing, Ahrefs’ Brand Radar is looking interesting.

Seeing where and how your brand or name appears can guide future content and positioning. This feedback loop is essential for continuous optimization and improving your visibility!

Tip 19: Include Clear CTAs (Calls to Action)

It’s easy to focus solely on citations or mentions and forget your actual business goals.

Even if you’re cited in an AI result, this doesn’t automatically mean someone will click through or convert. You need to give them a compelling reason.

Consider the following CTA tips:

• Place a clear, benefit-driven CTA at the end of every major content section.
• Make the CTA relevant to the question answered or the information provided.
• Include options like “Speak to an Expert,” “Download the Guide,” “Explore Our Services,” “Get a Free Quote,” or “Sign Up for Our Newsletter.”
• Use concise and actionable language.
• Ensure CTAs are visually distinct and easy to find.

CTA Example:

• Want to learn more about clear aligner treatment in Chicago? Book a consultation with Dr. Mark Green today and achieve your perfect smile.
• Ready to streamline your content strategy for LLMs? Download our comprehensive guide to LLM optimization now!

These CTAs are helpful to human users. LLMs may even include them in summaries if phrased clearly and are highly relevant to the context. This links your visibility directly to business outcomes.

Tip 20: Focus on Trust, Not Just Traffic

The ultimate goal of LLM optimization isn’t just to be mentioned – it’s to be trusted.

If a user sees your brand cited in an AI tool, they’re more likely to view you as a reliable expert. In fact, a lot of users who get referred to brands through tools like ChatGPT are highly engaged and warm prospects, because it felt like they found you through their own efforts, rather than you trying to sell them.

That all-important trust can lead to:

• Higher engagement rates with your content.
• More qualified conversions and leads.
• Invitations to partnerships and collaborations.
• Better customer loyalty and repeat business.
• Increased brand equity and perception.
• A stronger reputation in your industry.

Visibility is undoubtedly important. But being seen as helpful, credible, and trustworthy is what truly drives real-world results and sustainable growth.

This holistic approach to LLM optimization transcends mere rankings.

Tip 21: Address Conflicting Information and Nuance

LLMs often struggle with conflicting information or highly nuanced topics. Your content can stand out by addressing these complexities directly and transparently.

Here’s how to approach it:

• Acknowledge differing viewpoints: “While some sources suggest X, our research indicates Y due to [reason].”
• Present pros and cons: For a given solution or approach, clearly outline its advantages and disadvantages.
• Quantify statements: Instead of “many people,” use “over 70% of respondents” or “a significant portion.”
• Specify conditions: “This solution is effective for small businesses, but larger enterprises may require a different approach.”
• Provide citations for data: Back up claims with links to studies, reports, or expert opinions.
• Explain “why”: Don’t just state facts; explain the underlying reasons or mechanisms.

By providing balanced, well-reasoned, and transparent information, you become a more reliable source for LLMs.

They are less likely to “hallucinate” or present incorrect facts if your content offers a clear, authoritative overview of complex topics. Ultimately, your content is most valuable for AI responses if it’s objective, specific, and helpful.

Tip 22: Create Content for Different Stages of the User Journey

Users interact with LLMs at various points in their information-gathering process. Optimizing for these stages can increase your chances of being cited.

• Awareness Stage (Broad questions): Create high-level content answering general “what is” or “why is” questions. For example: “What are the best ways to fix crooked teeth?”
• Consideration Stage (Comparative questions): Develop content that compares options or explores “how to” scenarios. Example: “How do clear aligners compare to traditional braces?”
• Decision Stage (Specific, actionable questions): Focus on content that helps users make a choice or take action. Example: “Which dental practice offers the best clear aligner treatment in Chicago?”

By mapping your content to these stages, you provide relevant information at the precise moment an LLM user needs it.

This multi-faceted content strategy can lead to your brand being cited across a broader range of AI responses.

Tip 23: Leverage Data and Statistics

Original data, surveys, or unique statistics can make your content highly valuable to LLMs. They are always seeking authoritative and fresh data.

Tips for using data:

• Conduct your own surveys: Publish your findings with clear methodologies.
• Analyze existing public data: Provide unique insights.
• Cite sources for all data: Link directly to the original study or report.
• Present data clearly: Use tables, charts, and bullet points to make data digestible.
• Interpret the data: Don’t just present numbers; explain what they mean for your audience.

When LLMs encounter original, well-cited data, it significantly increases the likelihood of your content being chosen as an authoritative source!

Tip 24: Stay Current with AI Developments

The field of AI and LLMs is evolving rapidly. What works today might be refined or replaced tomorrow. Staying informed is key for success with long-term LLM optimization.

Here are some tips on how to stay up-to-date with AI:

• Follow leading AI researchers and companies: Keep up with announcements from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, Meta, etc. You can sign up for their email newsletters or follow their accounts on social media.
• Read industry publications: Pay attention to SEO and AI news sites for updates on search and AI integration.
• Experiment with new AI tools: Continuously test and get to know how new models are being built and how they interact with data.
• Participate in relevant communities: Engage with other marketers and webmasters discussing AI trends.

Being proactive and adaptable will ensure your content strategy remains effective. This ongoing optimization effort is crucial for maintaining your brand’s visibility in the AI-powered future.

Tip 25: Understand the Role of Feedback Mechanisms

While not directly controllable by webmasters, LLMs learn from user feedback.

When users positively interact with AI-generated responses derived from your content, this indirectly reinforces your content’s value.

• Focus on accuracy: Ensure your content is factually correct.
• Be comprehensive: Answer questions thoroughly.
• Prioritize user satisfaction: Create content that truly helps and satisfies user intent.

By consistently providing high-quality, helpful information, you contribute to a positive feedback loop. This encourages LLMs to continue selecting your content for future responses.

AI Search and LLM Optimization Wrap-up

Large Language Models have fundamentally changed the digital landscape. Content strategy must evolve in response.

To recap, optimizing for LLMs and AI search requires a comprehensive mix of:

• Strategic Branding: Consistently using your brand name in context to build entity recognition.
• Technical Clarity: Implementing structured data/schema and ensuring excellent site speed and accessibility.
• Semantic Richness: Leveraging related keywords for a deeper contextual understanding.
• User Focus: Directly answering real user questions and crafting content for various stages of the user journey.
• Authority Building: Earning high-quality backlinks, adhering to E-E-A-T principles, and building an external reputation through digital PR efforts.
• AI Testing: Regularly checking how your content performs in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI tools.
• Content Versatility: Publishing information in multiple accessible formats to broaden reach.
• Continuous Optimization: Staying current with AI developments and adapting your strategy.
• Trust and Nuance: Addressing complexities and building an unquestionable level of trustworthiness.

Above all, your content must be genuinely useful. When your content solves real problems and speaks directly to your audience’s needs – in a way LLMs can easily interpret – then you dramatically increase your chances of being featured, cited, and remembered.

It’s no longer enough to rank on page 1 of Google search results. Today, the brands that win are the ones who speak clearly to both people and machines.

Embracing LLM optimization isn’t just about adapting to a new technology – it’s about securing your brand’s future visibility and influence in the evolving digital age. The journey into AI search is ongoing, and your proactive approach will define your success!

To learn more about AI for affiliate marketing, check out:

• Our guide to affiliate marketing with ChatGPT
• This article on the pros and cons of AI for marketing
• And our resource on strategies for automating your affiliate business

We also have in-depth courses on how best to use AI inside of Spark by ClickBank, the official affiliate marketing education platform from ClickBank. Check it out, and happy AI-ing!

Read on for more information about the best paid traffic opportunities – and how to use them.

The Value of Paid Traffic Sources

A whopping 93% of marketers say pay-per-click (PPC) as a marketing channel is “effective” or “highly effective”, making it the second most effective channel after content marketing (96%).

It’s easy to understand why: paid traffic sources can help you generate a LOT of web traffic to your chosen affiliate offer or website!

However, picking one at random probably won’t help you. Also, going with the most popular might not be your best bet either. (Sure, everyone’s using Facebook Ads, but is it right for your brand or affiliate strategy?)

Is Paid Traffic Right for Your Business?

There are a few things you need to consider before you begin investing in paid traffic. For one, who’s your target audience? For another, on what platform are you most likely to find them? What devices do they use? Investigate your audience before you find yourself a source.

After familiarizing yourself with all that marketing terminology, you’ll come to realize just how vast the concept of digital advertising is and how hard it is to get traffic, generate leads, and make money!

That being said, there are tons of great sources out there with the potential to grow your traffic and revenue. The odds are in your favor, and whatever your niche, there’s a platform for you. You just need to figure out what you’re willing to spend your money on.

Here are picks for 20 great sources of paid traffic and advertising that are actually worth the investment!

1. Google Ads

Google is the most popular search engine in the world. So yes, Google Ads was an incredibly obvious choice, but it has to be said anyway. When you consider the devices and sites your audience uses, you know that Google has its finger in almost every metaphorical pie out there.

You’ve also got a ton of advertising options to choose from with Google Ads, as well as a relatively low cost per click (CPC) rate.

2. YouTube Ads

When you talk about YouTube, you’re talking about a whole new audience! These are people who genuinely care about the quality of your content: specifically, video-based content.

With banners, videos, and text, you get a decent range of ad formats to choose from. Additionally, since YouTube is available in more than 70 countries, you can bet that you’ll get in front of an international audience, targeting your advertisements to various demographics around the world.

3. Facebook Ads

Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned marketer, Facebook (Meta) are a fantastic place to source your traffic. The thing with Facebook is that it’s incredibly easy to use, so even if you know absolutely nothing about advertising, you’ll still be able to find your way around.

Some people do have negative opinions about Facebook’s current situation and believe that the site’s popularity has died down in recent times, which is why we have a However, as things stand now, it still remains a good place to invest – though you will want to explore other avenues as well.

4. Instagram Ads

Instagram is where you’ll find the largest concentration of “millennials.” All your targeted campaigns will be run through Facebook, and as a bonus, you’re not required to have an Instagram account to run a campaign on Instagram.

One of the cons of this kind of advertising is limited formats. Given that Instagram is a visual-based platform, you can only use videos or images to get your message across.

5. LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is a fantastic source of traffic for any B2B campaign. The targeting is also noteworthy, with options that include industry, position, role, and more.

You can get your content sponsored and also send sponsored messages that reach directly into the user’s inbox!

6. Pinterest Ads

Here’s a fun fact: Women make up 81% of Pinterest users. With its own unique interface, Pinterest definitely has built quite the niche for arts and crafts enthusiasts, home decor, and the DIY fanbase.

However, while you can reap long term benefits on Pinterest, it also requires some consistent work to get there. Just keep Pinterest affiliate marketing in mind if you’re looking to promote any ClickBank offers that are predominantly for women, such as the popular exercise program Yogaburn.

7. Baidu

Does your target demographic include a lot of Asian countries? If yes, Baidu should be your go-to! It allows you to serve your ads in markets that Western ad platforms generally can’t reach.

Just keep in mind, in order to start with Baidu ads, you’ll have to contact them and get approved.

8. Spotify Ad Studio

Spotify is yet another site that can be used to target a wide range of niches. A huge percentage of Spotify users have free accounts, which means that your reach is well worth the investment.

Being a relatively newer platform means a limited range of formats – however, given the popularity of the platform, it is safe to say that Spotify ads will likely increase in the very near future.

9. Snapchat

If your brand caters to a younger demographic, then your brand will do well on Snapchat. With over 200 million users a DAY, this is a one-stop shop for anyone looking to market to a global network of users!

Keep in mind that since Snapchat is a mobile app, you wouldn’t be able to target users on devices other than smartphones and tablets.

10. Twitter Advertising

Twitter often sees users that generate a comparatively larger income than most social media sites. As an added plus, it also has a decent CTR rate compared to other traffic sources, as well as less competition.

11. Reddit

Here’s an interesting statistic: 54% of Reddit users happen to be American. This popular platform allows you to target your advertising by device and it is quite flexible with its settings as well. You know that “there’s a subreddit for everything,” so no matter how obscure your niche is, you’ll be very likely to find enthusiasts for it on Reddit.

However, in compariosn to other traffic sources, Reddit does seem to attract more gamers and those that conventionally might be deemed to be of the “geek” variety – so make sure that’s a match for your audience.

12. Outbrain

Outbrain is one of the most popular native advertising platforms out there right now.

Some of the many perks to using Outbrain include high-quality traffic, header/image testing, and a trial period. One con worth mentioning is, during the last year, they redefined their policies to make them stricter.

13. Epom

An interesting feature with Epom is the collaborations with Millennial Media, AdMob, and InMobi that allow it to reach a wider network of users.

Additionally, it also allows you a 30-day trial period to advertise with them, giving you the opportunity to experiment before you invest.

14. Yandex

As an affiliate or seller, if your target demographic is Russia, why not go straight to them?

Yandex has surprisingly low competition and provides a much cheaper alternative to other paid advertising. And of course, there’s no better way to reach Russians if that’s who you’re targeting!

15. Vibrant Media

Vibrant Media is a great network that allows your content access to more than 6,000 publishing sites online. It offers real-time targeting, native ad placement, and a variety of advertising formats, including mosaic, storyboard, and lightbox.

One of its main focuses is placing your content within the right context to increase the likelihood of viewer engagement.

16. Airnow Media

As far as mobile traffic goes, Airnow Media is one of the top advertising networks and a great paid traffic source! It’s got a wide range of advertising formats, fantastic support, great tracking, and a good interface to work with.

17. Revcontent

Revcontent is by no means the biggest player in the native ads field, but it does seem to have incredible potential.

With its simple, user-friendly interface, Revcontent has been growing immensely in the past year and allows your content to access top-notch sites, including the likes of Forbes.

18. AdRoll

AdRoll specializes in a very specific type of paid advertising: retargeting. Their services are particularly useful for Facebook Ads, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

If you’re looking to improve your leads, this is definitely worth a shot.

19. Bing Ads

Okay, so the first thing you need to know is that Bing and Yahoo got together. If you advertise on Bing, you’re going to leverage the audiences of both these search engines. However, keep in mind that this is still just 1/10th of Google’s traffic.

That being said, if you’re looking to experiment with paid search, Bing Ads is definitely the best alternative to Google right now!

20. Tapjoy

Reaching well over 500 million users, Tapjoy’s coverage, flexibility, and range of functions make it a great option for mobile advertising.

This paid traffic source is an especially good site for affiliate marketers!

21. NewsBreak

NewsBreak has established itself as a premier destination for local news and personalized content discovery, serving millions of engaged users daily through its innovative AI-driven platform.

Recently, NewsBreak joined forces with ClickBank’s vast marketplace of digital and physical products. Together, we’ve created a seamless ecosystem where quality content meets conversion-optimized offers.

This partnership represents more than just a business alliance – it’s a commitment to enriching the digital experience for everyone involved. Content creators, advertisers, and consumers will all benefit from this integrated approach to content monetization and product discovery!

How to Manage Your Paid Strategy

So, we just threw 21 big names in paid advertising at you! The question is, what now?

My recommendation for managing a paid traffic source is twofold:

1. Define your current overall strategy.
2. Meet your audience where they are.

What do I mean?

First, you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish. Are you focused on maximizing sales today by routing traffic to an offer? Are you building a list via affiliate bridge page that you can put offers in front of later?

Are you retargeting traffic that’s visited your sales page without clicking through to the order form?

You can always change your strategy later, but it’s key that you START with one solid approach and see it through before jumping into a new one.

This may sound obvious, but media buyers sometimes need to be reminded: Different platforms will work better for different stages in the customer journey. Google Ads makes it easy for you to target buyer intent keywords for BOFU users, while many B2B lead gen campaigns on LinkedIn are best for TOFU users who may just be learning about your solution. (And then there’s native ads vs Facebook Ads.)

Similarly, your audience may not actually be on every paid ad platform out there! Remember how Pinterest is primarily female, and Reddit skews toward younger males? Or how Snapchat is a B2C platform while LinkedIn is B2B?

It’s important to think through the customer journey from the standpoint of your ideal audience. Only then can you really pinpoint the right paid ad platform(s) for your business.

Getting the Most Out of Your Paid Traffic Sources

In addition to choosing the right paid traffic sources to run your ad campaigns, you also need to focus on the mechanics of marketing.

Effective copy, solid ad creative (ie images and videos), and a great CTA all go a long way in getting the most out of your investment. If you’re using content to source traffic, then you have to ensure it’s top-quality material that has the ability to stand out amidst the clutter that prevails. If you don’t find success after experimenting with multiple sources, then it’s time to re-evaluate your strategy.

As the old saying goes – and I’m paraphrasing here – a media buyer’s work is never done!

If you found this helpful, you’re sure to love some of our other posts on the ClickBank blog. And don’t forget to check out Spark By ClickBank, ClickBank’s official affiliate marketing education platform! Our team of experts covers all sorts of important topics, including Facebook Ads.

Give Spark a try for free here!

1. Introduce you to the overlapping – but distinct – worlds of organic traffic and paid traffic.
2. Help you decide which route you should take first in your affiliate marketing business.

NOTE: Both types of traffic are valuable and important, so I don’t want you to think that there’s only ONE choice here. But you have to start somewhere, right?

Now, as someone with a professional background in organic traffic and SEO, I will share my own thoughts on organic traffic – but for paid traffic, I asked for some insights from ClickBank’s resident paid traffic expert, Knute Fosso!

Also, this article comes on the heels of our article on the different types of affiliates, so you can check that out for a more detailed breakdown some of these choices in your affiliate marketing business.

Now, are you ready to see which comes out ahead in the eternal battle of organic traffic vs. paid traffic? Read on!

What is Organic Traffic?

Organic traffic refers to all of the unpaid (“free”) traffic channels where people can organically discover your company or brand.

Organic traffic is usually subdivided into organic search (pages found through search engines like Google) and organic social (posts or videos displayed on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Instagram, and TikTok).

Your main considerations with organic traffic are competitiveness, engagement, and search volume or reach.

NOTE: Some people may refer to organic traffic as “free traffic,” but this doesn’t mean it’s 100% no-cost. As we’ll touch on later, you make up for a much lower financial investment by investing more of your time, effort, and expertise – and in some cases, you may still choose to pay to create organic content.

What is Paid Traffic?

Paid traffic refers to all of the digital traffic channels where users can be served paid digital advertisements (including text, banner, video, native, and more).

You’ll most often hear people in the affiliate marketing industry talk about Facebook Ads, native ads, YouTube Ads, and Google Ads, but there’s a large and growing list of more than 20 paid traffic sources you can look at for your paid marketing campaigns.

Your main considerations with paid traffic are audience targeting, cost per click, and conversion rate.

NOTE: Paid traffic is also known as pay-per-click (PPC), because advertisers will generally pay for each of the clicks they get on their ads. It’s also possible to pay per 1000 impressions or per lead, but PPC is the standard for most paid advertising platforms and media buyer affiliates.

Organic vs Paid: A Quick Comparison

So, how do organic and paid compare when it comes to affiliate marketing – and how do you decide which one is right for you?

In the past, we’ve compared organic traffic to a reliable old Toyota Corolla, which is sure to get you where you want to go, but might take a while to get there. And for paid traffic, we likened it to a Ferrari that can get you where you want to go much faster, but costs a HECK of a lot more!

Of course, there’s more to the two than that. Here is a quick comparison chart that shows how the two types of traffic stack up:

Overall, organic is better for building brand authority and trust with your customers over the long term. Paid is better for testing your funnel and getting sales now.

But let’s take a deeper dive into each option.

The Case for Organic Traffic

If you’re new to affiliate marketing, I would absolutely start with organic as your traffic source – either by building your own affiliate website, social media account, YouTube channel, or podcast.

Whether you go the blogging route, the social influencer route, or a hybrid approach through sites like YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, there’s a LOT of value in building an organic presence somewhere online!

Here are a few of the reasons why organic traffic is the right place to start as an affiliate.

1) Organic is a long-term, compounding investment.

My favorite benefit of organic traffic is that it compounds over time. If you think of SEO or social media as an investment, you can capitalize on your old work for months or even years after you’ve created it!

While very few investments are truly passive, all of those old videos, podcast episodes, blog posts, or social posts you created are still working for you in the background, getting surfaced through search or social media algorithms, growing your email list, and earning you commissions when new visitors click through your affiliate tracking links and make a purchase.

All content has a shelf life, but would you rather create content that only benefits you for several weeks when it could benefit you for several months or even years?

2) Organic lends your brand credibility.

When you create organic content, you’re putting something out there that represents your brand. If you can infuse your content with value and authenticity, it communicates that your company is trustworthy – and possibly even a thought leader in the marketplace.

The way the internet is going post-iOS 14 update, affiliates are seeing a lot more success when they put themselves out there and focus on building a brand. And there’s no better way to prove your worth than with quality organic videos, podcast episodes, blog posts, or social posts that deliver real value.

Plus, there’s another HUGE benefit of organic content, which is the ability for new people to discover your brand organically on an evergreen basis. Anyone can pay for an ad, but at least in theory, organic content is a meritocracy where the best content rises to the top.

So, if you create engaging content that appears at the top of Google search, as a source in ChatGPT, or in people’s feeds on social sites like LinkedIn and Instagram, that’s a thumbs up from these platforms and their other users that you’re worth listening to!

3) Organic provides your business an economic moat.

Allow me to briefly channel Warren Buffett and say that your best way to find sustainable business success is through economic moats (i.e. competitive advantages that protect your business from would-be competitors).

Even as an affiliate, you know that your business is at risk if anyone can come along and just copy what you’re doing to find success. With paid ads, even successful affiliates face challenges from people who just copy their ad copy and creative.

But if you’ve built up a successful website, YouTube channel, or blog, you know this isn’t something that happens overnight. The amount of effort you’ve put into building your organic content will pay off in protecting you from competitors who want to piggyback off of your success!

The Case for Paid Traffic

Now that we’ve looked at the advantages of organic traffic, I’ll let Knute share his thoughts on paid traffic for affiliates, and when it makes sense to go that route.

Knute says if he were brand new to digital marketing/affiliate marketing, he would go straight to paid media. This is the traffic channel where you pay for digital ads to get placed in front of your audience on popular online platforms.

When it comes to recommended traffic sources, most of them work just fine, but here are the most common:

• Facebook Ads
• YouTube Ads
• Google Search Ads
• Native Ads
• TikTok Ads (up and coming)

Here are a few of Knute’s top reasons why paid traffic is the best place to start for new affiliates.

1) Paid gets you results faster.

Organic is great, but if you’re a beginner, Knute recommends that you save up some money to spend on ads and go the paid media route at first.

The reason? You’ll get more satisfaction and faster results out of paid ads compared to organic.

He’s not wrong – it personally took me over a year to get my first sale on ClickBank from the affiliate website I built. By comparison, in his 7-Day Challenge course inside of Spark, Ben Harris started from scratch and got a ClickBank sale in less than seven days!

It’s incredibly valuable to see those quick wins early on, both for your own morale and to validate that you’ve found a winning combination of offer, audience, and messaging. (But the big caveat here is that paid ads require you to warm up cold traffic quickly, which isn’t always easy to do.)

2) Paid shortens the feedback loop.

In any business, you need to make sure there’s a product-market fit. For affiliate marketing, you don’t have to worry about the heavy lifting of offer creation to make sales, but you do need to make sure you’re getting a solid offer in front of the right people.

Along the way, you’ll have to ask yourself: Are your efforts working? Is the content resonating with your audience? Did you choose the right offer to promote?

All of these are important questions to answer. With organic traffic, it may be months before you generate enough traffic to adequately answer all of those questions (think 10,000 visitors over 6 months instead of 6 weeks). In other words, you have a long feedback loop to slog through before you can see if your work is paying off.

But with paid traffic, you skip the line. With a much shorter feedback loop of just days and weeks instead of months and years, you can test your assumptions and answer these questions quickly.

3) Paid is a tester’s paradise.

There’s nothing quite like paid ads as a tester’s playground. What’s a hook that will resonate with your audience? What’s a message that people really respond to?

As an affiliate, you have a golden opportunity to understand your audience at every stage of the buyer’s journey, carefully curating a funnel from paid ad to landing page to sales page. Here’s one example of a funnel below:

By tweaking your copy and creative at the ad level and on the interstitial landing page, you can find out what matters to your audience.

Of course, even the platform you choose can have an impact, so don’t be afraid to test the same kinds of ads in different places, from YouTube to TikTok to native!

Types of Content to Create

When you think about organic traffic, you’ll primarily be creating educational and informational content featuring:

• How-to guides and tutorials
• Listicles
• Buying guides
• Product reviews and comparisons
• Interviews

The point is to answer the questions of information-seeking prospects and give them buying recommendations so they’re moved to make a purchase.

For paid traffic, your content is usually centered around curiosity or persuasion. You’re creating some kind of text, banner, or video ad that teases or hooks a potential buyer and makes them want to engage more with the rest of the content in your funnel.

From your initial ad, you might point them to an affiliate bridge page featuring:

• A video
• A quiz
• A downloadable lead magnet
• A calculator
• A blog post or advertorial

The point is to quickly move the user from curiosity to the sales page so they can make a purchase.

How to Start With Organic Traffic

The way to approach organic traffic is to think about who your audience is and why they’d come to you for content.

As an example, a pure affiliate website is all about helping readers who are ready to make a buying decision. It’s pretty clear that if you publish a buying guide blog post or YouTube video about the best training methods for dogs, you’re speaking to pet owners who are ready to buy.

And ultimately, that’s your job – affiliates make their money by promoting products!

But you still get to decide where and how you do that. Personally, I prefer getting organic traffic through SEO content on a blog or website, but it’s perfectly valid to attract an audience with a podcast, social profile, or YouTube channel.

Just be sure to pick one and give it some time before you start trying to do too much all at once.

Measuring Your Organic Content

In the world of organic content, there isn’t really a single metric that matters.

However, I can tell you which ones I care about in my role:

• Total pageviews or sessions. How many times did a piece of content get viewed on my site?
• Total pageviews from search. How many times was the content found via organic search (primarily through Google) or referral traffic from LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity?
• Average time on page. How long did people spend reading and engaging with the content I’ve published?
• Total blog subscribers. How many people are opted in to receive weekly emails about new blog content?
• Rankings in Google. How many target search terms do I have ranking in positions 1-3 in Google? And how are the most important and relevant pieces of content ranking?

These are a great overview of the numbers that show whether your organic campaign is effective. But naturally, those are more specific to SEO content.

For organic social, you’ll care about your total follower count, your reach/impressions, and engagement indicators like total likes, comments, and shares.

For YouTube, you’ll care about total subscribers, average watch time, views per video, and engagement indicators such as total likes and comments. I would also keep an eye on the number of users watching your videos each month – if that number’s going up, it means your videos are getting more and more traction over time.

In addition to these high-level numbers for your chosen organic traffic source, you’ll ALSO want to see growing affiliate revenue – isn’t that what all this was for in the first place?

One metric that might help with gauging your performance is earnings per click. You might also care about the conversion rate for individual landing pages or bridge pages, especially if a few of them are driving most of your sales.

In the end, you’ll have to decide which numbers will help you figure out how successful your organic content is.

How to Start With Paid Traffic

The way to approach paid traffic is to think about how users are most likely to engage with ads on your chosen platform.

Knute’s biggest suggestion is to pick one ad platform and stick with it! Do research on the front end to understand what advertising on these platforms looks like, as well as the state of mind of your potential buyers – and then run with your chosen platform for a full campaign.

With Facebook, for example, users are often mindlessly scrolling through their feed, so you need to put something in front of them that catches their attention, makes them stop scrolling and consume your content, and then leaves them feeling compelled to leave the platform and go to your landing page.

Below is an example of one of our own Facebook Ads promoting Spark by ClickBank, our affiliate training.

With Google Search Ads, on the other hand, it’s about meeting your buyers where they’re at. Often, they are already actively looking for “x” and your job is to create an ad that appears as relevant as possible to help them solve “x.”

With that said, if you are brand new to marketing, just pick one traffic source and stick to it. Don’t fall victim to the shiny object syndrome and hop around from traffic source to traffic source.

Learning how multiple ad platforms work from a technical perspective while you are ALSO learning how to market as a whole AND getting familiar with the direct response space is surely a recipe for failure.

Success involves testing and optimizing one variable at a time. When in doubt, start with Facebook.

Measuring Your Ads 

There isn’t a baseline across the board for what makes a “successful” ad campaign.

But if there were… it would be return on ad spend (ROAS). Most ad platforms have ROAS built in, but it’s calculated like this:

Note that you’re not counting total sales generated when you calculate ROAS – you only count what’s coming into your pocket at the end of the day. (In other words, if you get a 50% commission on a $100 product that you promote as an affiliate, your return on ad spend isn’t $100/ad costs – it’s measured from the $50 you get to keep.)

If you make the ROAS calculation and you get a number above 1, then congrats – you are profitable!

If you do the calculation and you get a number lower than 1, then you need to make some adjustments somewhere in your funnel or try again with a new combination of offer, audience, and messaging.

Most of the time, poor results come from lack of testing creative. This isn’t always the case, but as Knute can attest, testing is the most important aspect of digital advertising. If you are getting started with Facebook, this is definitely the case.

Facebook’s AI gets better and better every year, so from a targeting perspective, that means there’s more wiggle room for you to not be as specific in your audience upfront. In fact, most of the campaigns we run at ClickBank are completely broad with absolutely no targeting whatsoever or adsets with very large broad interests in them.

Overall, a truly successful campaign will have a ROAS of at least 2:1 or 3:1.

Combining Organic and Paid Traffic Strategies

So, you’ve got the idea that organic and paid are separate routes to affiliate success.

And when you’re new to this industry, it truly does make a ton of sense to focus on just one thing at a time!

But as you grow more experienced – and especially if you can hire additional help to help you out – then things get really interesting! You start to have the possibilities of combining strategies!

How?

Well, at ClickBank, we conceptualize our marketing as a series of orbits which correspond to the buyer’s journey. Within the outer orbit, you have things like LinkedIn posts, YouTube videos, and live events where people can discover us.

At the outer orbit level, people are more problem-aware. As potential customers get more familiar with ClickBank, they move inward and start engaging more with our organic content, including our podcast, YouTube channel, blog, and LinkedIn content.

This allows us to educate them on affiliate marketing AND ClickBank, nudging them to solution-aware and product-aware. And hopefully, all of this content helps them to know, like, and trust ClickBank so that they choose to start working with us!

Obviously, selling ClickBank’s services isn’t the same as promoting a dog training program, health supplement, or text-to-speech software offer – but the same principle applies!

Rather than think of organic and paid traffic each as distinct silos, look at where every piece of paid and organic content is reaching people in the buyer’s journey, and figure out the ONE thing that each piece of content must do to keep people moving forward towards a purchase.

Here are a few specific examples of how paid and organic content can work together to help your business grow.

Tactic 1: Pointing Paid Traffic to a Successful Blog Post

You’ve put the finishing touches on an amazing piece of content on your blog. In a few weeks, it’s ranking at the top of Google and gets a massive average time on page of more than 7:00.

People are clearly loving it!

You now have the opportunity to turn this blog post into a pivotal piece of your funnel, driving paid search and social ad traffic to a proven page that your target audience is excited about.

And if it isn’t already, you can monetize the post by creating an opt-in to grow your email list or some calls-to-action that point visitors to your chosen affiliate offer.

Tactic 2: Picking Organic Content Topics Based on Your Best Paid Ads

You’ve tested 10 different hooks for the health and fitness offer you’re promoting, and you see one that’s outperforming all the rest.

Now that you know this message is getting a lot of attention from your target audience, what if you expanded on that idea and turned it into a long-form blog post or YouTube video?

Your paid ads have already done the hard part: determining which topic or topics is the most engaging to your target audience.

With that knowledge in mind, you can move forward on a quality piece of organic content that you’re certain your ideal customers will appreciate!

Tactic 3: Retargeting Potential Buyers with Ads

Sometimes, prospects get exposure to a potential solution and don’t buy, so one sophisticated strategy that media buyers will use to maximize their sales is to retarget all of those warm leads with ads specific to them. You can do this by flagging anyone who visited one of your content pieces or landing pages.

Now, we actually DON’T recommend this strategy in most cases, because it’s challenging enough just to dial in your main campaign – and honestly, most ClickBank offers are designed to convert on a single touch point, so the juice may not be worth the squeeze in trying to sway people who didn’t buy the first time.

But every funnel or campaign is different, so I wanted to mention retargeting as one possibility. Also, this approach may be more effective if you’re running native ads, because Facebook and YouTube algorithms both tend to be a bit “smarter” when it comes to targeting.

If you DO decide to experiment with retargeting for a paid campaign as an affiliate, the rule of thumb here is to spend roughly 5-10% of the ad spend for your main campaign on your retargeting campaign. So if you’re spending $50 per day on a campaign, you’d allocate $5 per day to a retargeting campaign for leads who visited and didn’t convert!

Conclusion

Phew! I know this was a LOT of detailed information, but we have all kinds of content on this blog and on our YouTube channel that covers the ins and outs of specific affiliate marketing tactics.

It was my hope that this post on organic traffic vs paid traffic would provide a solid overview of the different routes you can take to build a successful affiliate marketing business.

Unfortunately, there’s no way I could cover ALL the steps of organic or paid traffic in a single blog post, but hopefully this has helped you decide which one to start with!

If you’re looking for additional training on generating traffic, I highly recommend checking out ClickBank’s official affiliate marketing education platform, Spark by ClickBank. You can take my course on SEO blogging or one of our courses on paid traffic (including YouTube Ads or Meta Ads). You can also read my overview of Spark By ClickBank here.

And if you’re looking for a tool to help you build landing pages specifically for affiliate marketing, I recommend learning more about ClickBank’s all-in-one funnel builder tool, ClickBank Accelerator.

Whether you choose organic or paid as your starting traffic source, I wish you the best of luck on your affiliate journey!

In order to hit your targets, you may need to manage several websites, social media profiles, and mailing lists, all while keeping on top of a laundry list of repetitive tasks that keep your affiliate campaigns delivering month on month.

With so much volume involved in affiliate marketing tasks and skills, setting up effective automation can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful affiliate marketing operations.

If you’ve been wondering how you can take your campaigns to a new level of efficiency, here are 5 affiliate marketing automation hacks to help you achieve better results with less work!

5 Affiliate Automation Hacks

From chatbots to email sequences, here are the five affiliate automation hacks you need to know:

1. Website Chatbot
2. LLMs for Content Creation
3. Site Maintenance
4. Behavioral Triggering
5. Email Sequences

1) Implement a Website Chatbot

Chatbots have been a popular automation tool for decades now, helping businesses of all stripes meet customers’ needs in real time without anyone having to be present. 

However, with the huge rise of AI in recent years, chatbots’ potential for affiliate marketing automation has grown considerably, allowing you to remove routine processes that often come with managing an affiliate marketing operation.

While the older generation of chatbots used predefined scripts and only responded to specific inputs, more modern iterations use NLP (natural language processing) and machine learning to understand and contextualize customer messages.

This has allowed AI chatbot providers like Chatling to train chatbots on data specific to your affiliate program or product and “deliver highly accurate and relevant responses, making each customer interaction smarter.”

By automating the task of answering common queries from your audience and filtering out any questions that need human assistance, you’ll be able to save time while ensuring a smoother, more customized experience for any site visitors 24/7.

2) Leverage LLMs to Accelerate (Not Replace!) Content Creation

Having a steady stream of quality content is crucial for driving traffic and leads to your website. 

The challenge with this, of course, is finding the time to ideate, create, and promote the content you come up with. 

One of the most revolutionary solutions to this challenge in affiliate marketing (and pretty much every other industry in the world!) has been LLM AI tools like ChatGPT.

Now, before we go any further, it’s important to approach AI with caution. Since tools like ChatGPT and Gemini were first released, there have been multiple studies showing that AI-generated content consistently underperforms original, human-created content. 

Recently, Google has even started directing its quality raters to give AI-generated content a “Lowest” rating, which is expected to see AI content becoming less and less visible in search results.

Although we can’t recommend delegating every part of your content creation to AI tools, they can be very useful in supporting roles as part of the content creation process to improve efficiencies, such as:

• Generating fresh and relevant ideas for content.
• Using a tool’s research or web search function to find reputable sources of information.
• Developing loose concepts into full content outlines.
• Refreshing or repurposing your existing content.
• Adapting social media posts to different platforms to promote your content after publication.

The output from AI tools can be hit or miss, and training them to adapt to your unique business will take a bit of legwork on your part.

However, if you’re willing to work through some trial and error and develop your prompting skills, AI tools can be an invaluable tool to effectively automate your affiliate marketing business.

3) Automate Your Site Maintenance

Site maintenance is a crucial, ever-present item on your to-do list as an affiliate marketer, but taking care of this yourself tends to take a lot of time away from more creative tasks focused on developing your business.

Fortunately, however, many tools and services can automate affiliate marketing tasks, which are more behind-the-scenes and technical.

One common example of site maintenance challenges faced by affiliate marketers is unexpected site traffic spikes. These jumps in traffic often result from successful email campaigns, influencer partnerships, or content that goes viral.

Purpose-built autoscaling hosting services can help ensure the site handles these kinds of surges automatically, and achieve this without the need for costly as-and-when server upgrades or manual intervention from your part.

This is just one way that you can remove some of the burden that comes with maintaining a functional and engaging affiliate marketing site. By continually monitoring time-consuming maintenance tasks and actively finding solutions, you can: 

• Prevent site downtime.
• Save revenue that would otherwise be lost to crashed pages.
• Generally enhance the user experience for stronger engagement and conversions.

4) Personalize User Journeys With Behavioral Triggering

Behavioral marketing was once limited to enterprise-level businesses. Now, however, the proliferation of tech in this space has meant even solo affiliate marketers can create advanced triggers and dynamically tailor the site experience to the user.

Platforms like GetResponse allow you to set up custom marketing automations that respond to specific behaviors, for example: 

• Clicking a certain link.
• Downloading a certain file.
• Visiting a particular page several times.

With these triggers in place, you’ll be able to respond to visitors’ behavior without ever lifting a finger, presenting them with relevant content, tailored product recommendations, or special offers that are tied to your affiliate links.

Behavioral automation can be a highly effective way to maintain the balance between active marketing and not annoying your audience, helping you shape the browsing experience to their preferences for stronger engagement.

Though maximizing the value of behavioral triggering means making more time for analysis, it’s still a powerful affiliate marketing automation strategy for generating more conversions with less active involvement.

5) Use Automation Sequences to Streamline Your Email Campaigns

Old but reliable, email marketing still remains a mainstay in any effective affiliate marketer’s toolkit. However, like with any other marketing discipline, managing segmentation, writing copy, and tracking performance can be a little overwhelming if you’re doing it all manually.

Many popular email marketing service providers allow you to build automated workflows that are triggered by user actions or specific timelines, allowing you to improve your campaign performance while helping you remove repetitive tasks and free up time.

Some popular automation sequences for email marketing include:

• Behavior-based sequences, which trigger automated email flows based on how subscribers interact with your site.
• Cart or click abandonment follow-ups to users who clicked an affiliate link but didn’t convert, sharing content like FAQs, product benefits, or limited-time offers to rejuvenate interest.
• Re-engagement campaigns, to automatically identify and follow up with inactive subscribers, letting you win back their attention with exclusive offers or engaging content.
• Product-specific funnels, which allow you to create funnels for different affiliate programs or niches, align the user experience with their unique preferences.
• Personalized recommendations, using subscriber tagging and segmentation to dynamically insert product suggestions based on past behavior. This is especially useful for giving your conversions a boost while avoiding a “hard sale” style of copy.

These sequences and more can help you ensure your email resources are being used as efficiently as possible without the need for manual intervention, allowing you to focus on more high-level strategy while still maintaining an effective marketing channel.

Automate Your Way to More Successful Campaigns

Going all-in on automation for the first time can be daunting for affiliate marketers who are used to doing all the hard work themselves.

However, once you’ve found and implemented solutions that are right for you, you’ll wonder how you ever worked without them!

We hope this guide has given you a good starting point as you identify new areas for affiliate marketing automation, implement your solutions, and start achieving stronger, more profitable campaigns.

Author:

Maxine Bremner is the Cofounder and Head of Content at Hive19, a digital PR agency that prioritises relevance in link building, helping brands strengthen domain authority and achieve SEO dominance in SERPs.

Maxine works with fast-growing eCommerce businesses, innovative fintech startups, and scaling SaaS brands, supporting their efforts to build trust and visibility within their niche through creative content and targeted content marketing strategies.