Free traffic is where many affiliate marketers start out – and it’s also one of the most important ways to grow ANY online business!
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:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- AI optimization
- Organic social media
- Community forums
- Email marketing and newsletters
- Community building
- 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:
- 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.
- 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).
- 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:
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:
- 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.
- 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:
- 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!
- 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.
- 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!