Top 11 Free Traffic Sources (For Affiliates) (2023)

Let's be clear: there is no such thing as "free" traffic.

Whether you're spending time or money, all digital marketing will require some level of effort.

But we assume that you are looking for traffic sources for your affiliate links that requirepenniless.

So that's what we're going to cover in this post.

A quick list of our favorite free affiliate marketing traffic sources.

They are:

• Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Twitter (the best sources of social media traffic)
• Reddit, Quora, and niche forums (best source of forum traffic)
• Guest posts and comment sections (best source of referral traffic)
• SEO (Best source of organic traffic)

Now, we'll cover a bit about each traffic source and a guide on how to choose the right source for you.

The best free traffic sources

SEO (search engine optimization)

SEO is probably the most powerful source of free traffic on this list. Although almost any search engine you can do SEO on, we are talking about Google Search and its competitors.

By understanding search engine algorithms, bloggers can passively direct people to their own website and content. Like most of the methods on this list, spending money on SEO campaigns can help (especially backlinks), but it's not required. The only requirement is high-quality content.

The good thing about SEO is that it is much more predictable than many of the other sources of traffic that we will talk about later in this article. For each of your target keywords, you can estimate the expected search volume using keyword research tools.

For example, using Ahrefs, we can estimate that the keyword “Free Website Traffic” receives around 4,600 searches per month.According to this study, the first position in Google gets 33% of clicks, so we can assume that if we were to rank for that keyword, the post would get at least 1518 clicks per month for that keyword variation alone.

There is so much more to SEO than what we explained above, but we wanted to include it as the #1 traffic source on this list just because of the huge traffic potential it has compared to other methods on the list.

interest

Pinterest is my favorite social media platform for passive traffic and it ranks #2 on this list. Similar to ranking a blog post on Google, once a pin is ranked, you get the rewards for life. A blog of mine hasn't posted new pins in a year, and this is the amount of traffic Pinterest sent me from January 1 to October 1. Nothing bad!

Learning the Pinterest platform will take some time, and creating the content and images to post will also take some time. There are tools that help with posting to Pinterest, like Tailwind, or creating images, like Canva. If you want to know more aboutPinterest Affiliate MarketingTake a look at our guide.

Facebook

Facebook ads can be great too if done right, but that traffic isn't free. Facebook groups, on the other hand, are a great way tocommunitiesof like-minded people to come together and talk about a particular topic. Unless you've specifically provided your Facebook friends list to people in your industry, we'll talk aboutfacebook groupsin this post

If you're hoping to join a group and start posting links the next day, well... good luck with that. We want to emphasize the importance of being part of the community to get the most out of Facebook and your potential traffic. Whether it's a private or public group, the most important thing is to join, introduce yourself, befriend the moderators, and provide value.

If done correctly, you can start posting links within your own posts or adding value to comments. It can be difficult to predict traffic coming out of Facebook, but if done right, a lot of traffic can come through.

Tik Tok

TikTok is a relatively new platform, launched in 2017, but it houses700 million users.So it is safe to say that this social network cannot be ignored. While it's hard to drive people away from the platform, it's one of the best places for content to go viral.

Links on the platform are limited to bio links, which require people to be on their personal/bio page. That said, even if people don't click on the link directly, they might end up looking for more information after seeing something on Google or another social network.

TikTok might take a while to understand, but once you understand the algorithm, it's one of the most powerful platforms on this list.

Gore

Twitter is another top platform for free traffic. However, it's not as simple as signing up and posting links right away.

You need to create followers first.

Links on the platform are pretty much native to the social network, and users are much more likely to click outside of the platform, unlike places like Instagram or TikTok.

We definitely recommend using the Pinned Tweet on your profile. Pinned tweets are not for a random tweet that went viral or gained a lot of traction.

They are for promotional purposes.

Of any of your tweets, this space will receive the most impressions and therefore the most clicks along with your bio link, so use it wisely.

Reddit and other forums

Reddit

Reddit is one of my favorite platforms for passive traffic. It can be a bit difficult to find the right reddit sub for your niche, but once you do, the first thing you need to do is become a part of the community. You'd be surprised how much traffic some Reddits subscribers can generate. When I was a teenager, a video game clip would get over 100,000 views from just one Reddit post.

Nobody wants to see the self-promotion of a new account that just joined the subreddit a few days ago.

Instead, engage in comments on trending posts.

Provide value.

Befriend the subreddit moderators.

Once this is done, you have an engaged community of people who love a topic at your fingertips.

Quora

Quora is more like reddit, it's an online discussion forum for every topic under the sun. On the platform, people ask a question and the best answers come naturally through an upvote feature.

In order to generate traffic on Quora, you need to make sure that you are not overly promotional. Find a question you are qualified to answer and post a link or two in the answer,where it makes sense.

niche forums

In addition to Reddits, most niches will have their own type of forums where people who love their topic meet and talk. Depending on the niche you are in, the forum may vary. But in any given niche, there will be a number of forums that will appeal to the hobbyists.

While I was running some of my niche sites in the Bitcoin and diving niches, there were a number of great forums. Examples of this in my case were thesubmarinismo.comshapes and thebitcointalk.orgforums

Created high value content on those sites where my sites werenaturallymentioned in forum discussions.

Lots of traffic followed.

While it may take a while to get to the point where your content is naturally mentioned, you can still participate and promote yourself in those forums where it makes sense to do so.

blog comments

Another underrated method of sending you traffic is through blog comments.

Most blogs will have some sort of comment section at the bottom of their posts. If the blog has high enough traffic, the comments section of that post could be a decent way to send some of the blog's readers back to you. We do not recommend posting your own links in the comments section unless it is to provide value and you have participated in other discussions.

Youtube comments can also work, but you are not allowed to post links there. Instead, you want to comment on what people can find on your YouTube channel, which we'll cover next.

YouTube

Youtube can take some getting used to, but once you're comfortable producing on video, it can drive a lot of traffic. To get started, we recommend creating simple tutorials on common questions in your niche.

Production quality doesn't have to be amazing, and don't let that stop you from publishing. Youtube videos can gain traction much sooner than blog posts, so if you like instant results, maybe give this method a try.

Check out the first video Afflytics released, it wasn't great production quality, but it still works great!

guest posts

Guest posts are a great way to stand out and get featured on some major sites. Most guest posts shouldn't be overly promotional, but if done correctly, they can drive a lot of traffic.

The sooner you put your link in the guest post, the better. As the post progresses, fewer and fewer people will see it.

email marketing

Email marketing is tricky, but we wanted to put it on the list. Assuming you've managed to build a curated list of email subscribers, you have a powerful source of traffic from your target audience at the click of a button.

Want to promote a new offer or submit an ad?

Just blast your email list.

The ROI of email marketing traffic is directly proportional to the size of your email list. As you send multiple emails, you will eventually get different conversion rates for different tasks.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has the potential to send you a lot of traffic if done right. The type of content you'll find on LinkedIn is much more serious and work-related compared to social networks like TikTok and Snapchat, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. You just need to choose the right network for your niche.

How to choose a traffic source

To choose one or multiple traffic generation sources, you must first identify which platforms you like to create content for.

Do you like to create videos?

Then Youtube is probably your best bet.

Or if you're into content marketing and copywriting, SEO might be right for you.

The best content (and therefore the source of traffic) will be the one you enjoy creating the most.

But in terms of pure traffic potential, here's our tier list:

• Nivel 1: Google SEO, Pinterest, Reddit, Email Marketing
• Level 2: Youtube, niche forums, Quora
• Level 3: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok
• Level 4: Guest Posts and Blog Comments

Conclusion

And there it is!

A complete list of the best places to get free traffic for your affiliate offers.

As we said earlier, there really is nothing free in this world,especially free traffic. But if you're willing to invest some time, all of these traffic sources will drive traffic to you.

To maximize the results of your referral traffic, create specialized landing pages for certain intents, allowing users to get the most personalized experience.

While you're a beginner, we can understand that you want to use free traffic sources, but once you've made some money online, it might be time to shell out some cash and see a return down the line.