Proven and Best Ways to Increase Traffic to Your New Website

While organic traffic is invaluable, it’s not the only means of attracting visitors to your site. Relying solely on new people to discover your site can be a lengthy process. You may also be limiting your potential audience, as many won’t ever be aware your site exists.

We’ve explored some of the most effective ways publishers can generate traffic for their affiliate offers and are sharing our top nine methods below.

1. Paid online advertising

Advertising is the mainstay of lead generation. Whether you choose to do paid search, social media campaigns, remarketing or display advertising, it’s a tried and tested method to drive traffic to your affiliate links.

One of the advantages of using paid lead generating techniques is that people who click on your links are usually high up in the buying cycle, and are therefore ready to purchase. However, you need to balance the cost of your advertisements with the commission you receive per sale. If each ad conversion costs $50 and the commission per sale is $40, it is not worth pursuing this form of lead generation.

2. YouTube

YouTube is the second biggest search engine on the internet, with approximately three billion views per day. As such, it is beneficial for you to start your own channel to promote your offers. Add an interesting video that relates to your offer, then include a compelling call-to-action that links to your affiliate product. Make sure to also put your call-to-action link or discount code within the description box, with a short description of your video. To further utilize your video add an Overlay, which is a little box that stays on the video throughout with your CTA on it. You can get started at ads.YouTube.com.

Don’t restrict yourself to Youtube as there are other video channels like Vimeo that can be used to good effect. However, one of the disadvantages of video promotion is it does take time and effort to produce good content that is going to attract a loyal audience. On the plus side, great videos have the potential to go viral and can escalate very quickly to hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Additionally, when promoting affiliate offers on social media remember to follow the compliance and disclosure guidelines outlined by the FTC for using affiliate links.

3. Social media

If your audience is hanging out on social media, then you and your affiliate offers need to be there too. You can use social media in many ways, including:

• Participating in communities with a need for your product. It’s important not to promote but to build relationships by answering questions and engaging with the community. If you are helpful, your readers will click on your name to find out more about you. Make sure your profile links back to your website and your affiliate offers. Looking for a place to start? Join our exclusive Buy Targeted Traffic That Converts Facebook Group
• Sharing your blog content with links to your offer, either on your own page or as promoted posts.
• Running an advertising campaign, using social media marketing.

You can also use social media to publish long articles, which link to your offers. Good places to publish includes platforms such as LinkedIn, Medium, Reddit, SlideShare, and Udemy. Readership of these sites is high, and if your content is relevant and searchable, it could get you in front of thousands of new people.

As long as you follow the correct guidelines, most social media sites allow users to promote affiliate products on their accounts. Instagram is one of the most popular options out there.

Learning the ins and outs of Instagram marketing deserves a post unto itself, but if you are willing to learn the ropes, it’s a great platform for affiliate marketers.

TikTok is the new kid on the block but it is making huge waves. While the Instagram algorithm is notoriously hard to crack, TikTok is a bit more forgiving.

Again, when using affiliate links on social media, make sure you’re following the compliance and disclosure.

4. Blog posts

Blog posts are a great way to share affiliate links. If you have an active readership your audience will already be warm to your reviews and advice. Just make sure not to use your blog posts as sales letters; the content should provide value to the reader and your affiliate links should sit naturally within the topic. Recipe blogs use this to good effect. As they discuss the method to follow to create the dish, recipe blogs describe the tools needed for the job, using affiliate links to the sales page of the item in question.

Another method of using your blog posts to promote affiliate links is to answer your readers’ comments and use your affiliate links in the replies. If the product you are promoting is related to the answer, it doesn’t look like a sales pitch but a solution to the reader’s problem. Be careful of doing this on other people’s blogs as it may come across as spam.

If possible, try to make the content evergreen. Evergreen refers to content that stays relevant for many years to come, and could include how-to guides, best practices or tips and tricks. These types of articles are read and referred to over and over again.  Although you may have to refresh them occasionally, the information still remains relevant. This means you can roll out this content to a new audience every so often and expose your affiliate links each time you do so.

5. Guest blogging

In addition to building your brand’s own blog, the technique of guest blogging is a tried and true method for generating traffic that has stood the test of time. There are two different aspects to guest blogging:

• Guest blog on well-known sites that fit your niche. Offer great and relevant content, and if accepted onto other blogs it will expose you to a whole new audience. Make sure your profile and your byline link to youraffiliate offers and your website. Your affiliate marketing content should be related to the guest blog and useful to the new potential readership.
• Accept guest bloggers on your own website. Publish content from other writers and they will share and link their article, which will, in turn, expose your website (and affiliate offers) to new audiences.

Guest posting is not only free, it’s a win-win for both you and the person you’re collaborating with. It expands your reach to a wider audience while providing another blogger with quality content.

For example, this post you are reading now is a guest post, and I have included a link to my website in order to improve the value of this article.

How to get started with guest posting

If you’re interested in guest blogging, here’s how you can get started for free:

1. Research blogs within your niche or similar niches that post quality content
2. Email them or use their contact form to find out if they accept guest posts
3. Once you hear back from the site you can send them your pitch
4. If your pitch is approved, you can submit your guest post

You may find that once you start making more connections in your field, exchanging guest posts becomes more natural.

6. Email

Email marketing is still alive and well, with 64% of companies believing it is the best marketing method they have, with an estimated ROI of 3800%. Because of this, make sure you don’t overlook it in response to some newer, more exciting methods.

You first need to build a list, which you can do through providing a free offer – like sharing a report, e-book or webinar – and using a form to capture email address (making sure, if you are marketing in the EU, to comply with GDPR). When emailing your list you must be careful to provide them with useful, relevant content. Otherwise, they will quickly unsubscribe.

Affiliate links can be used to good effect in emails, either as part of the body text or in the signature. It is also perfectly acceptable to promote affiliate products directly in emails, as long as you balance it out with valuable and useful content. If possible, segment your emails so the appropriate affiliate links go to the right audience.

7. Product reviews

The online audience is influenced by other people’s views of a product, and will often research for testimonials and reviews before committing to buy. It’s estimated that 90% of potential buyers will read online reviews before visiting the website and making a buying decision, with 88% trusting them as much as they would if a friend recommended a product.

For publishers who have built up a loyal audience, these statistics are good news. If you write honest and unbiased reviews about products related to your niche, your audience will view these reviews as a trustworthy recommendation. When you have a product or service to promote that is tied to your affiliate marketing efforts, write a review. If you have chosen to promote the product, it is important that you believe in it and recommend it because you genuinely want to help your audience. In this way, you will be able to write a frank and honest review while still including your affiliate link. The review needs to be positive but honest and should not turn into a sales letter.

Make sure when using affiliate links in product reviews to follow the compliance and disclosure guidelines outlined by the FTC.

8. Quora

Quora is a questions site, providing a platform for users to ask whatever they want. Experts then give guidance and advice on the subject matter. Although direct affiliate links are not allowed, you can link to a website or a blog post if it provides more information on the answer you are giving. Make sure the website you send people to contains content with your affiliate link.

Again, when using Quora you must genuinely be looking to provide a valid answer and help the person submitting the question. Good advice will be read and shared, while answers that are just sales pitches will get a thumbs down.

– How to build traffic on Quora

Posting direct affiliate links is not allowed on Quora. You will only get your account suspended, or in worst case, banned. However, it doesn’t mean you cannot promote your affiliate offers. You just have to do it indirectly.

Always make sure your answers are informative most of all. You may add a link back to a relevant article on your website that goes into more detail on the topic and contains your affiliate promotions. But this is only allowed if the linked content actually adds value to your answer.

Start by optimizing your Quora profile. Your profile bio appears on all the answers you write, so it helps with credibility if you include details that demonstrate your expertise in the topics. And you can add a link to your affiliate website to the summary section on your profile.

Next, you need to choose a relevant topic in your chosen niche. In the “Read” section, you see the most popular questions and answers on the topic. You can then find recently posted questions in the “Answer” section, and also look at the most viewed writers in that topic.

Once you’ve selected a few topics and started to answer some of the questions, you will notice a “Questions” section on the left side. There, other users can request your answers to their questions on a topic you’re specialized in. And Quora will also suggest relevant questions to you, based on your previous answers and the topics and spaces you follow on the platform.

9. Reddit

When we talk about free traffic, Reddit might not be the most obvious choice, but it is a powerful engine that can drive visitors to your affiliate website.

The cool thing about Reddit is that people often use it as a place to get recommendations and advice from other redditors.

By adding links to your website in the comments you can drive consistent targeted traffic to your affiliate offers. For this to be effective, you must add comments that add value to the user so that it doesn’t look spammy.

10. Pinterest

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in this case, that couldn’t be more accurate. Pinterest is an image sharing website that categorizes compelling images into several distinct categories.

According to Hootsuite, Pinterest is the third-largest social network in the U.S. But Pinterest is as much a search engine as it is a social network. Think of it as the Google of images.

Some very popular categories are fashion, home decor, fitness, gardening, and travel, just to name a few.

Now, the cool thing about Pinterest is that you can upload an image attached to a URL. That means, whenever someone clicks on that image, they are redirected to the attached website.

If you’re using compelling images and your article falls into a Pinterest category, it’s a great (and free) way to reach a wide audience.

11. Medium

Medium is an online publication that offers abundant opportunities for bloggers. Just like with guest posting, writing for Medium offers you access to a wider audience.

Medium has a built-in audience already, so you can count on reaching a decent number of readers.

Here’s where traffic to your site comes in: you can add blog links to your post on Medium. You can also embed your YouTube videos into your Medium article.

Contributing to Medium is totally free and can be completed in a few simple steps:

1. Write a relevant blog post.
2. Wait for an editor to review and approve your work.
3. Once approved, your post will be recommended to relevant Medium readers.

Medium doesn’t ban content with affiliate links. So, it’s possible for you to link directly to your affiliate offers on Medium.

You can also republish your existing content from your website by importing articles to your Medium account. Republished posts on Medium automatically have a link to the original article.

12. A search engine optimized website

Your website is the presenting brand for your affiliate links and needs to be discovered by consumers interested in your niche. Making your content easy for search engines to discover your site is important, as it will help rank your site higher up on searches and drive more organic traffic to your affiliate offers.

Each page should have a well written meta description, meta title, image alt tags, and H1/H2 tags. Research the keywords for your niche and affiliate offers, and add a keyword per page that is relevant to your offers. Ensuring it is in the title and content as naturally as possible, without keyword stuffing, can also help with searches. Also work on achieving backlinks by getting your content shared on social media or other blogs, and include internal and external links within your own content.

If your chosen subject is too niche, you may not get the level of traffic you need to convert your readers into clicks on your affiliate links. Do some research on how many other people are selling similar products by using the Google search bar. Google will instantly tell you how many results they have found, and can help inform the keywords you use to search engine optimize your site.

Final thoughts

You don’t need a big budget to gain traffic as an affiliate marketer. While there are certainly places where your money is well spent, attracting your target audience doesn’t have to be one of them. If you follow these tips and put in the time and effort, your traffic will begin to increase.

What methods you choose to generate traffic will depend on your offers, your industry, and your preferences. Many marketers combine a mixture of paid and organic sources. Whichever methods you prefer to use to generate traffic to your affiliate offers, consistency is key. Even with paid traffic, the longer you maintain your campaigns the better they will perform. Keep with it and traffic will come your way