Do you need a following for affiliate marketing? Affiliates refer people online to products and services and they do this in several ways:
- Through their websites
- From an email list of subscribers
- Through paid advertising
- From social media platforms
- Other advertising strategies on or offline
- See also 22 ways to promote affiliate products
The short answer is that no, you don’t need a following in order to sell affiliate products. Some affiliates will use websites to refer organic traffic directly to products without putting their face “up there” or building a following.
Others use social media or build an email list which they promote products to. However, building a following online is a good way to attract the right audience for your affiliate products, and in large numbers. But anyone can become an affiliate just by placing a banner on their website and referring website traffic.
Do You Need A Following For Affiliate Marketing? Staying Anonymous
Many employees don’t want to attract attention to their affiliate efforts which would alert their employers to their escape plan! Or their employees wouldn’t approve for some other reason. Funny how employers don’t want you to have another income?! So there’s a slight conflict in this regard if you want to build a large affiliate business. Those will large followings such as Tony Robbins for example, attract the most amount of attention online and make more money because of it. So if you’re trying to stay “incognito” as an affiliate, it can present a problem.
However, you can still build an email list and promote products to a large audience, without even showing your face. But doing so again can be a barrier to larger success. Potential customers want to see someone – people buy from people! A visible presence online can help your affiliate business because it shows you’re a genuine person (assuming you are!). If you’re hiding behind the internet and don’t want to show yourself, it can put some potential customers off – depending on what you are promoting.
Many affiliates simply build websites which attract an audience through organic search. Products can be sold directly from websites or through an email list.
But if you’re trying to be anonymous and build an online business, you’re best off at least using your own name! Otherwise you risk presenting yourself as someone you’re not, which could jeopardise your business. But you don’t need to present on video if you’re not into it. There’s other ways to build an affiliate business and you can keep a low profile as an affiliate. In fact many affiliates like a low profile which is partly why they become affiliates!
Do You Need A Following For Affiliate Marketing?
Most affiliates start in the same place, without an online presence of any kind. They learn the “ropes” as they go, and as a result of building an online business, also develop new skills to draw people towards them, or their products. Taking yourself out of the equation is simple – just send people to your products instead.
However, the most successful affiliates have built up a following of people online. This can take months or even years to accomplish. But you don’t need to become a major personality or video presenter in order to do this. It can be done through an email list.
With an email list, you can automate a series of email messages to communicate with an ever growing audience. You attract that audience through running adverts, or offering some giveaway through your social media platforms or creating useful content. See also the power of email marketing.
As a beginner affiliate, you’ll learn how to get someone to opt in to your email list. This can take some time, but once you’ve done it once, you can repeat this small success many times. Over time, your email list will grow and you’ll attract more and more people who want to join your email list. An email list is powerful for affiliates because it allows them to build a relationship up with their subscribers over a long period of time. On a website, you only have a few minutes to communicate with potential customers. After that they are gone forever!
Summary
So, do you need a following for affiliate marketing? The short answer is no, you don’t. However getting a following will definitely help your affiliate business. Affiliate marketers refer online traffic to products and services. When they make sales through their affiliate links, they earn a commission. So the more people you can draw to a website, or video, the more you can send out to a particular product or service.
Affiliates generate sales in many ways online and you don’t need to be an “influencer” or presenter. You can run adverts and send people to an email list. Then, promote products and services via email to your list. Many affiliates are relatively unknown.
Top affiliates tend to build a following in some way either through their blogs, videos or email marketing campaigns. But you certainty don’t need to be in the public eye as an affiliate. You can go relatively under the radar – if you’re a beginner especially.
Access a comprehensive training course and become an affiliate here.