[00:01] affiliate sales and you're not seeing results, this is probably why. The truth is, your free traffic channel could be getting you views but no clicks, or clicks but no sales. So, in this video, I'm going to break down the best free
[00:14] traffic sources for affiliate marketing, ranked in order based on what actually Daniel Thrasher, senior content manager here at ClickBank, and I spend a lot of time both on the job and in my spare time testing all of this stuff. So, I'm
[00:27] not just talking theory, this is what works. Now, here's how we'll break it all down. First, I'm going to show you the six core formats for free traffic. traffic that determine whether you make money. And finally, I'll give you my top
[00:42] five picks for free traffic sources so you can walk away with the best got a lot of good stuff to cover, so let's kick things off with the six core free traffic formats. So, there are really only a handful of ways to
[00:55] actually communicate ideas through content. These are called content formats, and once you understand them, everything else will click into place. everything else will click into place. The formats are audio, images, text,
[01:07] short-form video, long-form video, and optional community. An audience can hear you, they can look at images you create, they can read your words, they can watch your short videos, watch your long videos, or they can connect with you in
[01:21] discussion forum. Now, at this point, it's easy to get overwhelmed and just that's exactly how you don't get results. There's another important step different formats and find the one that's best for affiliate marketing. And
[01:36] that's by matching each of these to the popular platforms you can work with, like so. For the audio side, podcast. For images, we have Pinterest and Instagram. With Google and Bing, or LinkedIn, Threads, X, Blue Sky,
[01:50] Substack, and email. For short-form, you have Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok. For long-form video, you have YouTube. And then for communities, you have Reddit, Quora, Facebook groups, Discord. Now, realistically, you can use
[02:03] any or all of these free traffic sources to do affiliate marketing. One way to format that you're naturally inclined to. For me, I've always been a writer. into SEO blogging earlier in my affiliate journey. And now, I've
[02:17] branched out into creating images that are pretty text and content-heavy for Pinterest and similarly short-form video on Instagram. There's not necessarily thing. These formats and platforms are not created equal. You can't just go
[02:30] understanding the underlying way that the platforms work. And that's why we need to talk about what makes a platform most effective for affiliate marketing. The three free traffic layers. So, this is the secret sauce that most free
[02:43] you're going to want to pay attention to this part. Let me introduce you to the affiliate funnel. First, we have the attention layer, which is feed-based. We search-based. And then we have the trust layer, which is relationship-based. So,
[02:59] remember the content formats we just looked at? All of those also map to one or more of these layers. Now, here's the problem you don't even realize you have. Most affiliates are stuck in an attention trap, spinning their wheels on
[03:11] social media feeds, posting on TikTok, Instagram, Threads, and probably getting some views, but not making sales. And that's because attention without intent and trust won't convert. The real money is made when you can channel all that
[03:25] raw attention into intent and then build trust to drive conversions. In other words, affiliate sales. That's probably a little abstract, so let's dig into it with a more concrete example. Choosing your free traffic source.
[03:37] So, if I were a brand new affiliate trying to decide where to get started about it in terms of the following three questions. How will I get attention? How will I capture intent? And where will I build trust? If you can answer all three
[03:51] of these questions with one or more of the traffic platforms we were we're everything you need for a successful free traffic affiliate business. So, let's map our top platforms to the three layers and see where they show up. Now,
[04:05] feeds are perfect for getting you attention from new people, but not so good at building trust, or how search-based platforms help you get seen, but only by a highly motivated sliver of your total audience, the ones
[04:18] what about the fact that you can build a trust layer platform like an email list, a podcast, or an online community that deepens your connection with your audience, but can't actually find an audience for you. This is the huge
[04:31] know you needed. Now that you've got each platform aligned with a layer in different your approach should be in picking which place to grow. With this in mind, I would immediately gravitate towards either the attention or intent
[04:45] layers first unless I already had a strong brand or reputation. Because you discoverable online. But I would also know to prioritize at least one trust layer traffic source where I can deepen the relationship with my audience once
[04:59] they found me through a social feed or a search. Now, I should also point out these are not 100% rigid categories. For example, searches do happen on feed-based platforms like Instagram, and there are also feeds on intent-based
[05:11] platforms like Pinterest. But that's not what each of these is most known for, and you do want to align your content strategy to work with the platforms the thing I'll say on this, did you notice how YouTube didn't actually live in just
[05:24] one layer, but spanned all three? That's something to think about. I hope this understanding of how to think about these different free traffic sources. content format and traffic layer to construct a free traffic funnel that's
[05:37] perfect for your business. And with that, you could just walk away and the start of this video, I promised you I'd share my five top free traffic straight in without a bunch of extra analysis. And that's what we're going to
[05:51] do. Here are my top five free traffic sources for affiliate marketing. So, number five, we have the email list. An email list is incredibly important if you're a free traffic affiliate because it allows you to capture the audiences
[06:03] Email doesn't get you traffic, but it makes your traffic worth something. 99% article you wrote or a video you made are never going to come back. And that's because they didn't spend enough time with you to get to know you. So, email
[06:19] functions as a trust layer in your affiliate funnel. Just starting an email have a way to grow it, but you'll be very glad to have an email list to building elsewhere. In this one, I'll also give a shout out to podcasts and
[06:32] online communities as a way to deepen that relationship and grow grow trust definitely the ultimate. Speaking of, let's talk about my next free traffic choice. Number four, text-based like LinkedIn or Threads/X.
[06:46] I'm not sure if you've noticed, but text-based platforms don't traditionally And I do understand why. In affiliate marketing, your goal is to get someone to the purchase quickly. And the text format on its own just doesn't drive
[06:59] conversions the way images and video will. But, sites like LinkedIn, Threads, and X are powerful for positioning and for discoverability. These are supreme attention layer platforms. And especially on one like LinkedIn, it can
[07:11] authority, which lifts up and supports everything you're doing on every other short-form text platforms, I would pair them with at least one longer format, such as the YouTube channel, the blog, email newsletter, or podcast. That will
[07:26] trust layer where conversions can happen. Or, you can try this next traffic source pairing. Number three, Pinterest and SEO blog. So, search-based. This may sound a little unconventional, but I love the Pinterest
[07:39] plus blog combination of traffic sources. Here's how it works. You create an SEO blog that can get traffic from search engines like Google, Bing, and possibly AI chatbots like ChatGPT, and you're creating content around your
[07:51] leveraging the search and feed-based capabilities of Pinterest, which allows you to link out to your blogs with every single pin that you post. So, in this scenario, Pinterest and your blog are both serving the attention layer and the
[08:05] serve as a place to host your affiliate into the mix to nurture a growing audience over time, then you've got an airtight affiliate funnel right there. Best of all, this is a passive traffic
[08:17] engine, where the content you published months or years ago can still bring you prepared for this one to take some time to grow because these platforms are much stronger in intent than they are in attention. But, if attention is what you
[08:30] crave, I've got you covered. Number two, Instagram and TikTok, the short-form video format. Short-form video is far and away the best attention layer out there for free traffic. Instagram and TikTok are the MVPs at matching your
[08:42] want to see them. Of course, like I said earlier, this can be an attention trap, you feel like you're winning, only to realize you're losing at the affiliate hard work. The good news is, if you're starting from scratch without any brand
[08:58] or audience, then these are the best places to actually get moving. You don't algorithm is just going to push your content anyway. And the way these algorithms work is they do a sampling of how an initial audience engages with
[09:11] well, they'll distribute it to a wider group and a wider group, and so on. So, break through just by creating high-quality content in your niche. Instagram and TikTok are the ultimate solve for the attention layer, and if
[09:25] you can use a link in bio or modern solutions like automated DM funnels, you can capture that audience and deepen the relationship on the trust layer with something like an email list, a community, or maybe my final free
[09:37] community, or maybe my final free traffic source, which is single video can get you discovered, build trust, and make sales all at once. I'll admit this was almost a toss-up with Instagram and short-form video, but
[09:51] it actually manages to straddle all three layers of the affiliate funnel in one place. At the attention layer, you've got YouTube Shorts and YouTube long-form videos in the feed pushed by the algorithm. And then, you've got
[10:04] long-form videos that can be discovered via YouTube search or even Google intent layer. And lastly, you've got the trust layer. Long-form videos do an amazing job of cultivating the relationship you have with your audience
[10:17] to know you in long videos. And of course, with video, they see and hear you, which is a powerful way to build that connection. Plus, through links in the description or other CTAs in your videos, you can actually get people to
[10:30] take that next step right from YouTube. So, if you could literally only have one would have to be YouTube. But, that doesn't mean YouTube isn't without its own shortcomings. While there is some emphasis on the attention layer there,
[10:43] you'll have a tougher time growing if all you put out are long YouTube videos. YouTube's at its best on the intent and trust layers. But, if you pair YouTube long videos with YouTube Shorts or off-platform with attention layer
[10:55] platforms like Instagram and TikTok or X and Threads, then you do have a winning recipe for covering all three layers of the free traffic funnel. So, to recap, my top five free traffic sources for affiliate marketing are email marketing,
[11:09] LinkedIn or X/Threads, Pinterest plus an SEO blog, and YouTube. But of course, these work cover all of the layers in the free traffic affiliate funnel and align with
[11:23] that content format that you feel you're the best at. All right, guys, that's all hope it was super helpful. If you thought so, please give this video a you don't miss more content just like this. Now, I have a question for you.
[11:37] Did this way of thinking about free traffic sources resonate with you? Does sources based on content format and those three layers of the affiliate funnel, attention, intent, and trust? I want to hear from you, so let me know in
[11:50] the comments. And lastly, I did create another solid free traffic video with even more strategy on how to approach this type of affiliate marketing. So, if you're looking for more on free traffic, be sure to give that one a watch next.
[12:02] Oh, and if you're not on ClickBank yet, there's literally no reason not to be. It's totally free, and now that you know the best free traffic sources, you can following, and start making sales without spending a lot of money. So,
[12:15] get started with ClickBank, or you can just visit clickbank.com/start. We hope to see you there, and that's it for me. So, until next time, happy for me. So, until next time, happy scaling.