Making Passive Income Through Social Media

Influencers and social media marketers are working with innovative ways to create content and monetize their effort.

One way that many marketers think is overused and cliched is affiliate marketing. Marketers usually use affiliate marketing through niche websites, but social media affiliate marketing is often limited to customized discount coupons, commercials and shout outs.

Affiliate marketing programs are often not used up to their potential to create a regular stream of income for affiliate marketers using social media.

Here, I will disclose steps about how Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter can be used to make money through affiliate marketing.

1. Choose a social media channel

Do not opt for marketing on all the available channels, unless you have the operational capacity to do so successfully. Study your audience and learn which social media channels they are using and how they are interacting with the content on those channels.

On some channels, users prefer videos over images, while on others, users like images that tell stories. Choose a few channels and understand your audience’s behaviour on those channels.

2. Create quality content to engage

Create content that entertains, educates and engages your audience. Your posts should not all be about affiliate products.

Post relevant and entertaining content about your niche to engage the audience. Only 20% of the times post affiliate product-related posts.

3. Use channel features to promote your posts

Once you start posting good content, build your follower base and brand image by ensuring that your posts reach a wide audience.

Every social media channel has unique features that let you reach a wide audience. They have both organic and paid ways to make your content visible to more and more people.

For example, adding relevant hashtags on Twitter and Instagram ensures that more people are able to discover you. Sharing your posts on relevant Groups on Facebook can also get you relevant attention. On Pinterest, one can use the right keywords in your posts’ titles and descriptions to be visible to people with relevant interests and searches.

4. Add affiliate links to your posts

Add affiliate product links to images, videos and text posted on various channels. Do not do this extensively. Your audience should not feel that your posts are often too salesy. Post good content and add links to posts organically, that too only 20% of the times.

Every channel has different features like stories, posts, Paid Ads, and product catalogs. Explore your options and use them all for relevant promotions.

Here’s a detailed step-by-step guide on social media affiliate marketing. Just ensure that you are making the most of the effort you’re putting in social media marketing.

To learn about affiliate marketing principles in general, take an affiliate marketing course. Learn the trade before you set out to experiment what works for you.

Stay tuned for more information on online marketing.