12 Best Ways to Promote Affiliate Links That Get Clicks (2024)

There are many ways to promote affiliate links. We’ll show you the best monetization methods to generate more revenue.

So, you’ve signed up for all your affiliate programs and started promoting your affiliate links on social media and your blog, but nothing works? Don’t worry. Here’s our complete guide to all the best ways to promote your links to maximize your clicks and sales.

These are affiliate link promotional strategies the team at Niches Work has used to earn millions of dollars. I’ll include examples I have used to make money and excellent examples from other creators who are crushing it!

Product Reviews & Comparisons

Writing product review articles and product comparisons are some of the most profitable types of affiliate content.

The goal is to write in-depth, helpful reviews of products you use. By helping the reader understand if this would also help them, they may buy the product using your affiliate link, and you get a percentage of the sale price.

I recommend that you review products with reasonable commission rates and conversion rates, and therefore, good earning per click (EPC) and that you can authentically recommend helping people.

Here’s a template for how to write a product review article:

Target keywords with “review” or “vs.” for product comparisons. For writing VS articles, I also recommend you read our article on how to write a product comparison article.

But simple text links don’t convert, and people often skip past them. This was the biggest problem on our affiliate sites, so we built our custom affiliate displays to get more attention, garner more clicks, and increase sales.

For example, you wrote a product review about WP Rocket. Instead of promoting your affiliate link in the text, you should showcase it like this

It’s straightforward to create these displays in Lasso:

In Your How-To Tutorials & Beginner Guides

Another way to serve your audience is to write tutorials on solving a problem or using a particular product.

For example, Andrew, Lasso’s founder, wrote about how to start a blog on his other site, which includes:

• How you will fail
• Takeaways & FAQs
• Its growth trajectory
• Your creation strategy
• Getting started (with tools)
• Website monetization best practices

Naturally, this article includes affiliate links to Andrew’s tools to run his blog, such as WP Engine hosting. Then, he earns money from any sales made from those recommendations.

For more information on these, we’ve also written about how to write how-to guides that convert.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is the most reliable way to reach your audience and promote your affiliate links. SEO traffic can tank from an algorithm update, but your email list is always yours to contact.

If you run a website with traffic, you should have a lead magnet that collects emails. I even recommend having multiple so you can test which converts best and use different lead magnets on other pages where they’re best suited.

For example, here’s Niche Site Lady’s lead magnet on her site:

You can then include affiliate links in your welcome email series. If you decide to email your list every week, for example, with the latest updates in your niche, you can weave affiliate recommendations into those emails.

The trick is to be strategic and not make every email a spammy ad. This will make people unsubscribe or stop opening your emails.

Podcast Show Notes

There are two main ways to promote affiliate links in podcasts:

1. In the show notes of the podcast, for people to click.
2. Read your affiliate link with a special offer or deal for your listeners to type.

For example, here’s how Pat Flynn adds affiliate links in the show notes of his podcast episodes with a full disclosure:

If you mention a product in your podcast, you can say you have an exclusive deal in the notes or even read the link for them to type in their browser.

However, most affiliate links are long strings of random letters and numbers, and obviously, nobody will be able to remember that.

This is why cloaking affiliate links is essential. Affiliate link cloaking is when you use an easier-to-remember and more branded URL instead of the default one, and then when you click it, it redirects to the original location. 

If you use Lasso, it’ll automatically cloak all your URLs for any programs that allow this (Amazon does not, for example, so we don’t cloak these links).

For example, if you were promoting Betterment, you’d say: “This episode is brought to you by Betterment. Visit listenmoneymatters.com slash Betterment for a link in the show notes.”

Digital Products & Online Courses

Creating digital products like online courses or eBooks is a great way to promote affiliate links and generate passive income.

For example, if you run a photography blog, you could create a beginner’s photography course with an affiliate link recommending a Canon DSLR camera as the best for beginners.

The best part is it’s not sales if it’s truly the best option for them. You are helping them with their goal of taking great pictures.

Andrew Fiebert, Lasso’s founder, has multiple courses containing affiliate links for recommended tools.

Your courses could be about anything from creating a successful e-commerce site to digital marketing to dressing better, and people will pay.

YouTube Videos

YouTube’s rules on affiliate links: Allowed, but massively posting affiliate content on dedicated accounts may violate spam policies.

It’s much easier to get a lot of views on a YouTube video than a blog post. Add affiliate links in the YouTube video description for people to click on or as the pinned comment, and ideally, directly tell your audience in your video that the link is in the description.

You can get into more detail in a YouTube video than in a blog post and show things visually to give people the confidence to buy. This is ideal for product reviews to earn good affiliate commissions.

Here’s an example of a YouTube guide with affiliate links in it:

Placing your link in the comments can also help to start a conversation with your customers.

Here’s another example of Carl Broadbent, a popular affiliate marketing and niche site YouTuber, placing an affiliate link for Ezoic in the description.

I recommend reading our guide to YouTube affiliate marketing for a more detailed guide.

Product Round-ups & Gift Guides

I’ve already covered promoting affiliate links in product reviews. In how-to guides, another style of blog content can get significant traffic to your affiliate links: product round-ups.

These are sometimes called buyer’s guides, or “Best” or “Top 10” articles, and instead of just covering one or two products, they typically compare 5-10 products in mini product reviews. Another version of this is gift guides, which often have 20+ gifts for certain types of people, for example, golfers.

You can find these keywords by searching for keywords with “best” or “gifts for” within your niche. 

To promote the affiliate links on these pages, write great content, reach the brands you feature to get them to link to the content, and get organic traffic from Google and Bing.

The key to writing high-converting product round-ups is good segmentation and understanding your audience. You need to differentiate each product as much as possible and show each type of audience member which is best for them.

You can do this by marking each product as:

• “Best budget pick”
• “Best for MacOS”
• “Best for beginners”
• “Premium pick”
• “Best for summer”

Then, have the affiliate link for each product, monitor which gets the most clicks, and move those to the top.

One way to increase clicks to your affiliate links in product reviews is by having your top 3 picks in a table right at the top of the article. Most people don’t want to scroll all the way through, and giving them a quick summary is often all it takes for them to click your affiliate link. 

Here’s an example on SmokedBBQSource:

SmokedBBQ – Source used Lasso to make this display, and you can create great-looking displays that convert well using our tool, just like this one.

Paid Ads

Leveraging ads on social media platforms is another way to drive traffic to your affiliate links. You don’t need to wait to get organic traffic from Google. You can instantly send traffic to your affiliate offers to convert into sales.

Advantages of promoting affiliate links via paid ads include the ability to target specific keywords (Google Ads) and specific types of audience segments and fans of particular hobbies or interests (social media ads) that are more likely to buy.

If you have pixel data, you can run retargeting ads on past visitors of your site that are more likely to convert.

Paid ad options include:

• Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram)
• Google Ads
• Twitter
• Quora
• Linkedin
• Reddit

However, this is expensive and requires skill to do well. I do not recommend this for beginners without paid ad experience. 

It would help if you also ran careful tests to minimize your spending per click and maximize your earnings from your affiliate pages and links to ensure you’re profitable. 

Also, many affiliate programs either outright ban PPC ads or ban them for any terms they are bidding on, such as their brand name. Ensure you aren’t kicked off the program for breaking ToS.

Resources & Tools Pages

Tools and resource pages are a fantastic way to promote your affiliate links. For example, the Toolbox page on listenmoneymatters.com generates 10% of total affiliate income!

In these pages, recommend the products and services you use in your hobby or niche. Then, if they have affiliate programs, you can add the affiliate links.

This is a great quick win if you already have traffic, as some people will click on these pages, especially if it is in your top nav.

At Lasso, we’ve even made a guide on creating a high-converting Resources page in under 10 minutes!

Instagram

• Instagram’s rules on affiliate links: Allowed, but limited ways to post them.

While you can’t post links in your IG posts, there are other ways, including:

• Your bio link.
• In Reels.

I don’t recommend putting an affiliate link in your bio. It’s unattractive, and you’re limited to one product. 

Instead, use Linktree to create a link that leads to a landing page of all your socials and all the products or services you recommend. Instagram is rumored to launch multiple bio links soon, but a tool like Linktree is the best option for the moment.

You can also add affiliate links in Reels, and Instagram has an affiliate program for connecting you with brands to promote.

Facebook Pages

Facebook’s affiliate content rules: allowed on personal and business pages.

Create a Facebook account (either personal or business) to engage with your audience. Then, when it makes sense, include affiliate links to products and tools you recommend.

Try creating a Facebook group focused on a single topic to qualify your readers. You’ll find this audience segment more engaged with what you’re promoting.

However, don’t mistake Facebook for a “selling” platform. Focus on creating value for your group members with every post, build trust, and don’t spam them with irrelevant links.

If you’ve already built a large community but haven’t considered promoting on the platform, now’s the time.

Pinterest

Pinterest’s rules on affiliate links: You can post them on pins without issues.

Pinterest is one of the best ways to promote affiliate links on social media, with much less strict rules and much wider potential reach. For example, posting a link on Twitter or Facebook will generally see reduced reach, but Pinterest doesn’t have this issue.

Use large, visual pins that encourage people to click. You can choose whether to bring people to the affiliate link directly, but it’s best to send people to a landing page, for example, the “Top 10 gardening tools,” so they can read more and pick the best for them.

For example, this popular pin of 31 passive income ideas has the top option as investing and then recommends investing options that are affiliate links.

Some clever site owners even link from Pinterest to lead magnet pages to get emails and then promote affiliate links in the email welcome series.

Best Practices When Promoting Your Affiliate Links

If you’re trying to level up your affiliate marketing game, the below tactics will help you get there. These are the best tips to boost trust with your readers (and commissions for your bottom line).

1. Include Your Affiliate Disclaimer

You have to disclose affiliate links to be compliant with the FTC. Hide this, and you risk getting fined or kicked off that affiliate program for not disclosing this.

We’ve written an in-depth blog post about including affiliate disclosures, with easy examples you can copy.

2. Follow The Platform’s Rules About Affiliate Links

It’s crucial to check the platform’s rules regarding affiliate links before posting, as some ban or restrict their use (such as with conspicuous affiliate disclosures). 

Failing to follow these rules can result in penalties such as account suspension or termination, loss of earnings, and damage to your online reputation.

For example, the last thing you want to do is ban your website from Reddit because you spammed affiliate links and lose out on the traffic and community you can build there.

3. Track Your Affiliate Links

If you aren’t tracking how well each of your affiliate links and products is performing, you’re operating blind.

Once you know which products convert well and earn you high earnings per click (EPC), you can scale your earnings by focusing on these products.

We must connect Lasso and Google Analytics features to the Lasso plugin. It’ll automatically track your click data to see which affiliate links get the most clicks on your website.

And now, with Lasso Performance, you get a full breakdown of every affiliate link on every site page, with the revenue, earnings per click, and CTR of every link. With that info, you can make the changes that earn you far more revenue.

4. Promote Affiliate Links Ethically

Your success as an affiliate marketer boils down to trust. The more trustworthy you appear, the more likely readers will click your links and buy. 

Your brand is vital. Don’t promote harmful products for high commissions; make authentic recommendations that help improve their lives.

5. Organize Your Affiliate Links

Once you start promoting more products, dealing with 50+ affiliate links can get messy, especially if they go out of stock or the URLs change, leading to a broken link.

A quick win you can do is create a Google Sheet with all your links and periodically check them to ensure they’re working.

But if your time is valuable and you want better organization, we built affiliate link management tools into Lasso so you can keep track of all your links, and we’ll alert you when any links go out of stock, or the links break.

FAQs

Last Words

The best way to promote affiliate links isn’t to use every method on this list. You’ll spread yourself too thin. Instead, focus on one or a couple of channels, test and gauge the results, and then scale what works for your niche and affiliate products.

Suppose you’re targeting blog content like product reviews and buyer’s guides. In that case, Lasso can help you with high-converting affiliate displays and affiliate data analytics to help you optimize your pages.