Finding Social Media Channels for Affiliates

Author

Alex Horsman
October 10th, 2023

First and foremost, there are two strategies here and the right choice depends on your situation.

The first applies to those solo creators out there in the world.

If you have the budget and time, then by all means, grow your blog and social at once.

Have the main focus be on your blog but allow the social channels to be a means of distribution.

Someone who is doing this well is: https://upthegains.co.uk/

The site is less than two years old and the owner has:

  • 50,000+ monthly traffic

  • 5,000+ Instagram

  • 1,500+ Twitter (sorry, X)

  • 645+ Youtube

  • 30+ Podcast episodes

Those numbers might not seem impressive but this is in one of the hardest niches on the internet - personal finance.

Now, if I were him, I would have just focused on one social channel in the beginning.

Blog & YouTube.

I think he’s spread a little thin right now trying to tackle them all at once but, this is a clear example of a solo creator who’s really trying to build a brand and I LOVE to see it.

It’s inspiring.

Not only is he putting all his time, energy, and effort into this one single project but he’s creating a flywheel with his marketing.

The podcast let's him talk to industry experts who can help level up his blog content.

If he wants a backlink from a brand, he can exchange it by giving them a shout-out on his Instagram.

Etc. Etc.

I highly suggest checking out a recent interview he did to learn how he thinks about affiliate marketing:

The second strategy applies to all those who are creating multiple affiliate sites.

You know, those people that have sites in random niches.

One site talks about BDSM.

The other, bird watching.

For you, the strategy is a bit different.

Note - I don’t recommend you get started on social until your site is making $10,000+ per month.

Focus all your time and energy on content & links until you reach this number.

Another note - as with everything in SEO, it depends… some niches should shoot for $50,000 per month before going to social.

Some should only get to $5,000 per month.

It’s a very “you” situation.

Now, where do you start?

As I mentioned above, unless you have a big team or a big budget to hire a team, just stick to one social channel.

Master one platform before moving on to the next.

Do not spread yourself thin.

Which channel you choose to master will depend entirely on your niche and industry.

As I mentioned last week, the fitness industry is huge on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok (very visual people).

But what about my niche, Alex?

How do I find out where my target audience is hanging out?

Well, you should know this if you’ve been in your niche for a couple of years now.

But if not, it’s time to do some research.

Let’s take bird watching for example.

I don’t know anything about this niche and this is what I came up with in 10 mins.

First, I went and downloaded https://www.tubebuddy.com/ which gives me keyword volume on Youtube.

Looks like around 428,000 people look up “bird watching” each month.

Then I went to Instagram and did some #hashtag research.

Looks like there are about 16,000,000 posts with the hashtag #birdphotography and even more with some deviation of #birdwatching

Based on this initial research, I would probably explore Instagram as my first social channel.

I can pretty much rule out Twitter & Facebook because common sense tells me people into bird-watching want to SEE birds… woah.

Again, this was done in about 10 mins.

Imagine what you could do in an hour.

Once you narrow it down to one or two social platforms, reach out to a friend who works with these social channels and see if they will do some deeper digging for you

I don’t know anything about Instagram, but I have friends who do and I would 100% borrow their knowledge.

Or find someone on Upwork for $100.

Now, if you don’t want to create the content yourself for social and budget permits, work with an influencer who is already creating on that platform.

Matt Diggity did a nice article and video on this and I gotta say, it works.

Now this is where my help and knowledge stops.

The rest is up to you and that creative brain of yours.