Affiliate marketing on the good ol’ Twitter is possible but by no means a walk in the park.
How do I know?
Because I’ve tried all the methods under the sun to find what works and what doesn’t.
Lots of money can be made but it requires the right strategy.
The average person is internet savvy in this day and age. It’s NOT just a matter of posting some affiliate links here and there and making sales.
Nowadays it’s harder than ever.
With this step-by-step plan you will increase your chances of building a thriving Twitter following and influencing their buying decision (aka buying from your affiliate links).
Anyway lets dive in.
It Requires the Right Strategy
Affiliate marketing is difficult.
There are far more people posting affiliate links than ever before, and it’s only increasing as more people try to make additional income online.
Back in the day (around 2014) there was a training program on posting affiliate links on Twitter and watching the money roll in.
I created a personal brand, uploaded a good photo, updated my bio to make it look like I was a professional internet marketer, and started messaging people and sending them my link.
This was the start of my internet marketing venture. From the get-go I was let down.
Private messaging people makes you look like a spammer, even if you know they’ll be interested in your offer.
And even if you have thousands of followers.
People don’t go on Twitter to buy stuff, they go on there for entertainment, for an escape from their reality, to see what other people are doing.
They want to feel like they’re apart of something more.
This will always will be social media in a nutshell.
People Can Sniff Out Fluff and Spam
Think of your average internet user as tech savvy because in 2021 this couldn’t be anymore true.
In 2021 there were 59.5% of the world on the interwebs, that’s over half of the population. That number keeps growing every year.
I get it, everyone’s trying to make money online, trying to start a business, trying to promote their affiliate links, just doing anything they can to make money.
The internet has become saturated with spammy links and over promotion without any substance.
A better strategy is required than trying to entice someone into something they don’t even need.
The appropriate thing to do is to create a reputation that pays for itself.
How do you do this? By providing value, being knowledgeable in your field, being TRUSTWORTHY, and not making any mistakes.
How to Promote Affiliate Links on Twitter
1. Create an account and choose a niche (personal or brand)
Your brand is your identity. It’s what you will be known as.
You can either create a personal account and establish yourself as an expert in your field, or a brand account.
Both of these methods work.
I prefer a personal brand so people can put a face to the name, but its personal preference.
Both have their pros and cons, it’s totally up to you on what approach to take.
Personal account
Pros
- Easier to build trust
- Less likely to look like a spammer
- People can put a face to the name
Cons
- No one knows what you’re about upon first glance
Brand account
Pros
- People know your niche straight away
- Easier to land sponsorships
- Easier to get followers
Cons
- Can easily look like a spammer
- Harder to build trust
2. Complete Your Profile
Complete your profile by adding an interesting bio, a good profile picture, a good cover photo, and a memorable username (handle).
Username
Your username should be easy to remember, something memorable so that others can look you up.
Veganrecipes is far better than veganrecipes1589.
See the massive difference? It’s easier for others to remember your name and looks more professional, which is mandatory if you want to stand out.
Profile picture
Your profile needs to be congruent across the board.
This means from the shoulders up with good lighting.
A picture of you at a party makes a good Facebook photo for your friends, but not a good look for your Twitter business.
Bio
Your bio is hugely important. It’s the first thing people look at when they land on your account, so you need to set a good first impression.
Be straightforward so people know what you’re here for and what you’re all about.
It’s a place for others to learn about you, an invitation into your Twitter profile, not a place to sell stuff.
Website
Yes you can and should add your personal website if you have one. This will guide the viewer to learn more about you.
If you don’t have a website you can create a linktr.ee and post your other socials channels. This’ll add more credibility.
3. Get Followers
One thing you should know is that followers matter, especially on Twitter.
There are so many people trying to promote their affiliate links and businesses, but most of them fail to meet this important factor.
You appear more trustworthy with the more followers you have.
There are many ways to get followers on Twitter but my #1 recommendation is to follow people in your industry.
If your niche is about tennis for women, simply follow people that follow those groups.
If you have good content and a good bio, they’ll follow back.
Not all of them will but if you do this everyday your Twitter account will continue to grow.
Pro tip: Unfollow people that don’t follow you back. You look like a massive spam account if you follow more than you have followers.
Of course the other best way to get organic followers is with quality content.
Here’s how:
- Tweet consistently
- Tweet at peak times
- Post pictures with your Tweets
- Use hashtags
- Engage with others in your industry
More ways to get followers here
4. Engage With Everyone
Reply to your comments, follow experts in your industry, like their tweets, even share them if they provide value to your audience.
This strategy shows that you’re active within the community and if you keep this up those people will start retweeting your tweets.
You can’t do this if you’re dormant with your Twitter account. You need to be highly engaged to show others that you’re here for a purpose.
5. Content Strategy (When to Add Affiliate Links)
The content strategy I like to use is actually really simple.
80% of your tweets should be helpful/informative content, the other 20% can be affiliate links.
Lets say you tweet 10x a day
8 of those can be normal tweets with pictures, etc, the other 2 posts can be affiliate links.
Don’t have enough time in a day to be tweeting that much?
No problem, set out 1 hour a day to schedule tweets when your followers are most active.
This will give the most eyeballs on your Tweets and a better chance of making sales.
7. Use Analytics to Your Advantage
Analytics gives you all the insight you need to take your Twitter account to the next level.
Analytics shows you how many impressions you have, engagement, what posts gave you the most engagement, peak times your audience is online, and more.
There is so much value in your analytics dashboard, use it to your advantage.
Additional Tips
Don’t Buy Twitter Followers
This can damage your Twitter account more than anything.
Engagement is a huge factor.
The followers you buy are bot accounts. Yes they get your follower count up but they won’t engagement with your tweets.
Bad engagement makes you lose trust with your real followers and pushes you down the algorithm.
Don’t Spam
The biggest mistake you can do is spam affiliate links to your page and private messaging other people trying to sell them something.
This is the absolute wrong approach as I tried this out years ago.
You only look like a spammer, you don’t look like an expert, and it’s a complete waste of time.
Seriously, the faster you can establish yourself as an expert in your field, the faster you can make money. But you can’t do that by trying to sell to people all the time.
Don’t Tweet Just to Tweet
Tweet when you have something valuable to say, something that your audience will find interesting and can learn something new.
A huge mistake is tweeting just to get a tweet out, but now your Twitter profile is full of garbage content.
Don’t Overuse Hashtags
Think of hashtags as a tool to drive you traffic and followers.
It’s not the be-all-end-all. Hashtags need to be relevant so when people search up something, your post shows up.
If it’s a good post and they find it valuable, the hope is that they click on your Twitter account and follow you (which they should if you’ve done everything correct).
Don’t Follow Everyone Back
It might seem ideal to follow people that follow you just so they don’t unfollow, but this is a bad idea.
Pro tip: The better your follow-to-follower ratio, the more professional you’ll appear to newcomers and they’ll be more likely to follow you.
<< Example of a good ratio.
If you follow 50 people and have 5,000 followers, you’ll look more professional than someone with 5000 follows and 5,000 followers.
You just look like a spammer that’s not really there to offer much value.
Don’t Sell – Show Instead
When promoting your affiliate links don’t tell them why they need the product or that it’s 50% off, show them what it does.
They need to know what it’ll do for them.
Here’s an example of selling:
“This cream is only 50% off and it’s one of the best to hit the market since 2015. I want everyone to try this cream out because others are using it and they love it!”
Here’s an example of showing:
“This cream provides some of the smoothest skin I have ever seen. I only apply it twice a day and my skin glows. People are always complimenting on my skin so I just have to share it with you: [affiliate link]”.
Notice the massive difference?
The first one is flat-out selling and looking like a spammer.
The second one is providing value, showing what it will do for them.
Treat It Like a Business
Twitter is just like any business, it requires time and dedication.
You’re not going to create a successful business by going on it once a week.
You need to constantly work on it…getting followers, engaging with others, scheduling tweets, following people and then unfollowing those that don’t follow back.
There’s much to work to do. It’s a business at the end of the day, requiring at least 1 – 2 hours a day, minimum.
To Sum Up
Making money with Twitter via affiliate marketing is definitely possible.
Yes it’s hard but if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.
It requires work and consistency if you want to become an expert in your field and make money.
Well that finishes up this article about Twitter and affiliate marketing.
I actually use affiliate marketing to make the majority of my online income. I do this full-time and have done since 2016.
However, I prefer my own website over social media channels because I completely own it. When you’re on other platforms you have to abide by their rules.
I’m not at the mercy of others. Social media channels can delete you like you never existed if they don’t like what you’re saying, without warning.
This is my #1 recommended affiliate marketing training if you’re interested.
Their 10 free videos will show you how to build a profitable blog from scratch.
See what I did there?
Brandon
My name is Brandon and this is my website. I'm just a normal guy that had dreams, dreams that would keep me up at night because I wanted them so badly. Now I'm living my dreams of being an influencer and making a good living doing so. Broke Influencers is another of my creations where I teach people how to get rich being an online influencer, or die trying. There is no in between.