How to do affiliate marketing without followers (2024)

Affiliate marketing is often associated with having a large following, but guess what? You don’t need an audience to make money through affiliate links. I’ve personally made money from affiliate marketing through different methods, even when no one was reading my blog, aside from people who found me through Google. Here's how you can get started with affiliate marketing with no followers.

*This post contains affiliate links

This picture was generated using my favourite A.I – Ideogram. A very affordable alternative to Midjourney.

Joining affiliate programs

Before we talk about how you can market your affiliate links with no audience, you need to have some to share in the first place! Sadly a lot of affiliate programs requires you to have a big audience and some of them even require you to deliver results within a certain time, if not you'll be kicked out. This is naturally hard for someone with no audience to achieve.

One of the most known affiliate programs is Amazon affiliates, but even though it's widely known, it's not necessarily the best program for you. This also applies to platforms like Adtraction and lots of other affiliate networks. The issue with being an affiliate for online shops is that the commissions are usually very low, usually from 2-10 %.

My tip for you is take some online courses in things you are interested in/ things that are relevant in your business and focus on these instead, as many people who run online courses let every student be an affiliate, and the commissions are usually between 30-50 percent!

Prioritize being an affiliate for courses and services, rather than online shops!

Since my focus on this blog is design, passive income and online business, the courses I've taken over the years are in line with this, as this reflects what I'm interested in! But there are plenty of other courses out there, so no matter what your interests are, you can find something great that will suit your niche.

This picture was generated using my favourite A.I – Ideogram.

Focus on SEO for Your Blog

There's many ways to do affiliate marketing, but since I'm not active on Tiktok or Instagram, I won't mention those platforms. The first thing I did was starting a blog. When you’re starting an affiliate blog with no followers, search engine optimization (SEO) is your best friend.

By researching and using the right keywords, you can drive organic traffic from Google and other search engines to your site. This means targeting low-competition keywords that people are actively searching for. My tool of choice is Keywordrevealer, because it's cheap and very simple to use. Read more about it in this blog post if you'd like to learn more.

If your content is valuable and informative, Google will rank it higher, even if your audience is small or nonexistent. But keep in mind that getting good placements in search rankings is a result of not only using good keywords and optimizing every blog post, but also about updating regularly.

I try to post once a month and get around 1000 hits from search engines organically, but the more often (yet consistently) you post the better, as long as you write quality content of course. But the key is to find out what is realistic for you to stay on a regular blogging schedule.

In theory posting twice a month or even weekly would mean a lot for my traffic, but once a month is a goal I belive I might manage to stick to, which is the most important thing.

This picture was generated using my favourite A.I – Ideogram.

Create Freebies and Promote on Pinterest

Another great way to get started in affiliate marketing with no followers is by creating freebies that people can download, like a checklist, eBook, or guide. Inside these freebies, you can strategically place multiple affiliate links.

Pinterest is a fantastic platform to promote these downloads because you don’t need a huge following there either! Pinterest operates more like a search engine than a social media site, so by optimizing your pins with the right keywords and descriptions, you can get your content in front of people actively searching for your topic.

Now, for a long time, the advice was to avoid posting product pictures that directly lead to your affiliate link. This was a well-used strategy for affiliate marketers in the past to prevent accounts from being banned. However, Pinterest's policy has changed (June 2025), and you can now post affiliate links directly on your Pins!

This is a big shift, opening up a more direct path to earning commissions. You can create a Pin for a product and use your affiliate link as the destination URL, leading users straight to the product page. Pinterest's official partners for this include major networks like Rakuten and Amazon Associates US. But remember that Pinterest is still a visual platform. Plain product pictures on a white background is unlikely to generate lots of clicks.

Click here to follow me on Pinterest!

Offer Digital Products with Embedded Affiliate Links

Selling digital products is another powerful strategy to boost affiliate marketing without a following. I’ve sold digital items on platforms like Etsy and Creative Fabrica (which also has an affiliate program which anyone can join), where I also included a downloadable PDF with a few relevant affiliate links inside. People who purchase your product get value from it, and if they click your links for more resources or tools, you could earn commissions from their purchases!

Build an Affiliate Hub

One of my favorite strategies is creating an affiliate hub, a single webpage dedicated to sharing my favorite tools, courses, and products (with affiliate links, of course!). Even without a lot of traffic, you can promote this hub on Pinterest, in freebies, and on your blog. You can even include the link in emails or products you sell to direct people to it. This hub is made using Teachery, which is a super affordable online course platform.

But you could also make a similar page on your website!

👉 Psst: Check out my best books for business women article! (opens in a new window)

Is it easy to do affiliate marketing without followers?

While the idea of affiliate marketing sounds simple, you promote products and get paid when people buy, it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes time, strategy, and patience. On average, only about 1-2% of people who click an affiliate link actually make a purchase. That means for every 100 clicks, you should statistically make 1-2 sales. But real life isn't statistics. I've had 300 clicks to a product without making any sales, and I've had 10 clicks and still managed to make a sale. It's all about reaching the right audience.

So, while the process itself is easy to start, consistent effort and testing different approaches are key to seeing meaningful results. The low average sales percentage also makes it pretty clear why it's smart to focus on programs where you can make high commissions.

Learn from the best and keep experimenting

I’m always learning (for example through podcasts) and taking online courses once in a while (as long as they are short), which has helped me fine-tune my affiliate marketing strategies. Whether you're promoting your affiliate blog, freebies, or products, remember that persistence is key. Try different tactics, measure what works, and build from there.

Check out my blog post on business books tips. Even though I've named the post "business books for women", the books on that list is great for anyone. The most relevant book on that list for affiliate marketing is $100M leads: How to Get Strangers To Want To Buy Your Stuff (ad link. As an Amazon associate I may earn from qualifying purchases) Learning to sell and building an email list with leads is super important skills for affiliate marketers

If you want to learn more, one of my favorite online business coaches has a program on affiliate marketing. I don't know Lizzie personally, but I've taken many of micro 9$ courses and love how she teaches ideas that I've never heard of anywhere else. She also has a private podcast feed for all her courses, so if you're like me, and hate looking at someone talking into the camera, this is perfect for you! I learn from Lizzie while folding laundry or going out for a walk.

I wish you the best of luck. If you have any questions, leave a comment below!