There’s no doubt about it, affiliate marketing is a fantastic career choice & it’s something that anybody, young or old, can easily get started with.
But can you be successful at affiliate marketing without social media? Or is having social media a requirement for affiliate marketing?
And if you don’t use social media, will it make affiliate marketing harder?
If those are some of the things that you’ve found yourself wondering then you can rest assured that you’ve landed in the right place as in this article, we’re going to provide the answers.
So without further ado, let’s dive straight in.
Do You Need Social Media For Affiliate Marketing?
The short answer is no, you don’t need social media for affiliate marketing & for the most part, we actually advise against using social media.
Why?
Well, whilst social media can prove to be a good source of traffic for affiliate marketing, for most people, it simply acts as more of a distraction.
So for that reason, we believe it’s better to simply focus on building a website for affiliate marketing.
After all, if you’re doing affiliate marketing alongside a job or other commitments then your time will likely already be quite limited.
This means that if you end up spending half of it procrastinating on social media (which is very easy to do) then it’s going to take you much longer to see success.
And here at Commission Academy, we want to help you reach success as quickly as possible.
Is Affiliate Marketing Harder Without Social Media?
Not at all, at least, we don’t believe so. I personally haven’t used social media since 2014 & prior to that, I did affiliate marketing completely anonymously anyway.
Has it made my life as an affiliate harder?
I wouldn’t say so. I certainly haven’t missed it & I haven’t really had any moments when I’ve felt that social media would have helped me in any way.
Personally, I dislike social media. I believe it’s a big problem for society (but that’s a story for another day).
Without social media I feel much more focused and, to be honest, I feel that my affiliate marketing business has actually benefited from my lack of social media.
Can You Use Social Media For Affiliate Marketing?
If you do want to use social media for affiliate marketing you can indeed do so but you should just know that you need to tread very carefully.
Social media companies have lots of rules regarding promoting things on their platforms & mistakes can easily see you getting banned.
For example, they require you to use affiliate disclosures (by marketing your promotions with a hashtag such as #Ad or clearly stating that it is a promotion).
And they require you to avoid doing anything that could be deemed as being “spammy”, such as blasting affiliate links to all of your friends via direct messages or dropping them in the comment sections of random groups.
But providing you follow the rules, you can indeed use social media for affiliate marketing & if done correctly it can also prove to be very lucrative.
As mentioned earlier though, social media is not required for affiliate marketing & that’s the key point.
Can You Earn As Much Money Without Social Media?
Absolutely. There’s no denying that social media is a great place to build a following but there are other ways to do it, without having social media.
For example, you could build an email list or you could get people to subscribe to push notifications.
You see, when it comes to affiliate marketing with social media – social media isn’t generally used so much to obtain “new visitors”. It’s more for building a following, nurturing them & encouraging them to convert into repeat sales.
You will, of course, get new first-time visitors from social media but typically that’s not the main goal.
So by not having social media & focusing on the true traffic generation methods (such as online content creation), you can certainly earn just as much as an affiliate.
Can You Do Affiliate Marketing Anonymously?
Yes, you can. Many people are under the impression that you need to show your face for affiliate marketing but it’s simply not true.
Whilst showing your face can add a niche touch to your business & a layer of trust (depending on the niche), you do not need to show your face to do affiliate marketing.
In fact, some of the largest affiliate websites in the world (such as Booking.com) do not have a “face” & if you search for the owners, it’s difficult to find out who they are.
But are they still successful? Yes, of course – they’re some of the largest sites in the world.
You only need to show your face if you want to & doing so (or not doing so) won’t affect your income. It’s just a case of choosing your branding style – personal, or commercial.
Both can earn equal amounts of money.
The Bottom Line
Social media can be good for affiliate marketing in terms of building your brand, building a following & attracting new visitors.
But in the same breath, it can also be bad for affiliate marketing as it’s a major distraction, can easily lead to procrastination & can suck up hours of your time.
The good news though is that if you don’t want to use social media, you don’t have to as social media is not a requirement for affiliate marketing.
You can have just as much success with affiliate marketing without having social media & our free affiliate marketing training course explains how.
So if you haven’t yet done so, we highly recommend you check it out before you leave.
And if you have any further questions or comments about this topic then don’t hesitate to leave the below. We always love hearing from our readers.
