5 New Ways To Promote Your Affiliate Links on Social Media

Can I share something with you? I never in a million years thought I would give a damn about passive income, let alone be creating it for myself.

I never imagined that I would be sitting up in bed till the wee hours reading books on personal finance.

And I never ever expected that I’d become relentless about maintaining a positive money mindset – considering I was never taught any of this growing up.

And yet, here we are.

What extraordinary things we humans can accomplish when we set our minds on something we’ve become passionate about.

I learned all about affiliate marketing way back in 2011, and truth be told I felt like it was a cheap and spammy way to make money. And so I treated it as such. But it wasn’t that affiliate marketing itself was spammy, it’s that I’d learned to use it in a way that was spammy. Ew.

And now that it’s 5 years later – and I’ve learned a thing or two – I now know that affiliate marketing can strengthen your business and your relationship with your audience, create stronger connections with companies and people in the industry as well as benefit several people instead of one in the process – if you use it the right way.

And so I’ve been exploring new and genuine ways you can promote your affiliate links with social media. Because when you’re growing your blog, there’s only so much reach you have. You can’t jump from 100 pageviews a day to 100,000! So that’s why we leverage social media, because it’s how we overcome this obstacle and grab the wins early on in our blogging careers.

We literally get our name, brand, products and affiliate links in front of millions for free or a fraction of the cost that billion dollar companies would pay millions for! Let me share with you 5 new ways you can do this..

1. Facebook Live Trainings

Have you started using Facebook Live yet? It’s like Periscope but better! And if you have no idea what either is, you use both platforms to film videos in real-time to your friends and followers. On Facebook, they’ll appear in your friends and followers newsfeed, on Periscope you’ll get a notification pop up on your phone.

Consider this the new style of webinar, but in bite-sized form. I’ve been carefully paying attention to the list of bloggers and entrepreneurs who are starting to incorporate Facebook Live into their business and I’m seeing massive benefits.

Allison Marshall’s #FullTimeBlogger series on Facebook Live is not only creating a deeper bond with her audience, but sharing a TON of value that her audience can use towards building their businesses. Melissa Pharr runs 7-day challenges for her audience which is predominantly coaches and then sells them as a set product later on.

And it got me thinking, you can totally do this with affiliate products too.

Here’s how:

Choose the affiliate product you want to recommend during the broadcast
Decide on a training you want to run around the products topic
Create your outline for you training i.e 3 – 5 key points
Use PrettyLink to shorten and cloak your affiliate link
Go live and give your training! Let your personality shine!
Mention the link throughout your training at relevant points
Once the broadcast is finished, edit the status for the video and add your link
You now have an evergreen training you can use and refer to whenever you like!

I ran my first live broadcast during an All Blacks game and within seconds over 100 people were watching. It’s been a few months since I did that and the views continue to grow. I’m planning to start doing live broadcasts in the The Rich Babe Society facebook group soon so make sure you’re in it! 😉

2. Incentivize Your Watchers

Another way to encourage people to purchase the affiliate product you’ve recommended sooner rather than later is to sweeten the deal by adding an incentive. This could be in the form of a free digital or physical product, adding free shipping to your code, access to a private group, a discount code, a free session etc..

You can create an incentive with a deadline an evergreen incentive, it’s totally up to you. Personally the incentives with deadlines create a lot more urgency therefore encourage your customers to purchase right away rather than waiting.

Here’s how you can do it:

When you mention your product link, mention the deadline on it too i.e 12 hours, 48 hours, 7 days etc..
Let your audience know that they have a set amount of time to purchase the product to be able to get the incentive offer too.
Be clear that once the set time has completed, the incentive offer is no longer valid.
Depending on the affiliate program software, you’ll need to provide further options on what the customers should do after they’ve purchased in order to receive their bonus offer.
Either advise them to email you their receipt or use the affiliate program software to track the emails of the customers so you can contact them after.

3. Start Using TikTok

Years ago I saw several entrepreneurs do this on SnapChat and now I see it being done on TikTok. Some of the ways I see entrepreneurs promoting affiliate links on TikTok is like it’s a live blog post i.e touring through house, sharing behind the scenes of photoshoots, trips out and about, thoughts and answering questions from followers, getting ready for an event, parading around in front of the mirror, on the way to the event, at the event, after the event… you get the idea.

And certain things they’re wearing or using or doing or going they will have an affiliate link for and share the link to it in their bio. Give it a try, you might like it!

Here’s how:

Sharing short and sharp product demos, reviews or unboxings
Previewing a product you’re a beta tester for with your affiliate link
Letting your audience know there’s special offers for the product
Doing a behind-the-scenes cover of how you use the product in your business

4. Create a Shop on Instagram

While this method isn’t as new as the others, there’s a lot of money to be made on Instagram if you know how to do it right.

As you may know, you can’t use links in your posts. However, you can have one link in your bio profile. Most bloggers will link to their blogs or a lead page, but more and more bloggers are starting to use this singular url box for an entirely different purpose.

A shop.

Say whaaaaaat?

There are several of companies that allow you to use affiliate links on Instagram by creating a shop-like page that you direct your followers to in your bio.

Here’s how:

Find a company that lets you add links to your Instagram images. i.e Link in Profile
Add your link to your bio. Use PrettyLink to make it.. well.. prettier!
Continue posting on Instagram & be sure to refer to your bio link
When you recommend or post about a product, make sure you add your affiliate link in your shop
In your shop, they’ll see all your posts and can click the image like normal
If you’ve linked to an affiliate product, they’ll be redirected to the product!

5. Promote Your Affiliate Product with IG Reels

Just like with TikTok, you can promote your affiliate links with Instagram Reels. Create a Link in Bio account or link to the affiliate product directly for 24-48 hours (make sure you disclose it’s an affiliate link) and direct your people to the product.

Here’s how:

Add affiliate link to bio
Share reel on using the product in some creative way
Post to Instagram
Leave link up for 24 – 48 hours (or however long the reel circulates)
Rinse and repeat with next affiliate product

The great thing about this whole post is that you can take this advice and use it for your own digital products and services as well. You’re not limited to just affiliate products with these strategies.

So give them a go and start bringing in that affiliate income!