Affiliate links are what all of our business comes down to. If you are trying to make money with affiliate marketing, then affiliate links are something I am sure you have heard of by now.
Today, I will give you a list of where affiliate links are and arent’s allowed.
It’s very tricky with these affiliate links as many big companies such as social networks tend to have a bit of a dark taste with affiliate links as they are seen often as spammy to the general populations, thus, as you will see below, some places do allow them.
However, the majority do still accept affiliate links as of yet, although I am not so certain about the future (hence why you need to diversify and why you need to make sure you place your links responsibly and also have multiple avenues of where to place your links).
For those who are new to the whole affiliate marketing business, let me just explain briefly what affiliate links are and what they do.
What Are Affiliate Links?
Affiliate links are used by affiliate marketers so they can send people (traffic) to companies and be recognized that they were in fact that were sent the links.
All affiliate links are unique and the ones you will be getting would only exist for you. No other affiliate can have access to your links beside yourself and you get them by first joining an affiliate program, and then finding the links in their appropriate sections, generally, they are placed on a page called “links and banners”
There’s one problem with affiliate links though, they are incredibly ugly, they look like a virus of some sort and they are often long filled with extra numbers (your tracking codes).
This poses a problem here because you do not want to place ugly links that immediately turn people off when they see it, that is exactly what you do not want to happen, however,m there is a solution for this.
How To Make Your Affiliate Links “Pretty”.
Ok, this article will show you where affiliate links are allowed and where they aren’t but before we get to that, I have to stress the importance of making sure your affiliate link does not look like affiliate links.
And yes, you can do that and it’s actually very simple.
Enter, Pretty Links…
Pretty Links is a free plugin that you can install on your WordPress site that will create redirects from your own domain URL to the affiliate page that you want to promote.
Before I explain how to do that, let me just say that in order to use affiliate links and make money with them, you need to have a WordPress website installed.
The places I am about to tell you can work (if done right) but you need to have a website. You can even get a free one from SiteRubix if you wish but you MUST have a site where you can set up the pretty links plugin and use it though there.
So, How Does Pretty Links Work?
Basically, all you need to do is to get the affiliate link and create a simple 301 redirect.
Here’s a screenshot to explain what I mean:
I am a Grammarly affiliate, a free grammar and spellchecker that will help you cut down on spelling and grammar mistakes when you are writing.
As you can see from the screenshot, I placed my “ugly” Grammarly affiliate link in the ‘Target URL” section and the “Pretty Link” would be MYURL.com/Grammarly.
Anybody that clicks on ablogonblogging.com/grammarly is instantly redirected to my “ugly” affiliate link thus making sure I will get my commission if I happen to make a sale.
Now, this does not mean that my affiliate link will be allowed everywhere I post it either. Some ad campaigns would not allow this either but for social media purposes, these pretty links look much prettier and thus more friendly to click.
Now that we’ve got that covered, let’s take a look at where affiliate links are (and aren’t) allowed
Are Affiliate Links Allowed On Blogs?
Yes, they are and blogs are the best place for you to publish affiliate links to make money.
With a blog, you are 100% in control of the site, there are no rules apart from the ones you set yourself and if you want to make money with affiliate marketing, you should have no rule that doesn’t allow you to place links.
Where is best to place affiliate links on your blogs?
My favourite is in product reviews of products that I am trying to sell.
I try not to include an affiliate link on every page as this too can be seen as spammy by people and also by search engines so avoid littering your content with a lot of affiliate links.
My formula is this: I place 2 links for every 1000 words and as I said, only in the main products review that I publish.
Whenever I want to mention the product in another post that is not a review, I simply link to my review and people can decide to click on it whilst reading the review.
Are Affiliate Links Allowed On Facebook?
Yes, but be sure not to overdo it either as Facebook does not like affiliates too much.
Also, make sure you are using the Pretty Links trip I showed you earlier.
Do not spam your Facebook with long, ugly affiliate links because while I do not think you can get banned for that (yet) it’s not a practice that will produce a lot of results for you.
You can also post it as a post-link, thus the affiliate link won’t be visible but I would stay away from that as well. Best to link to your review on your blog and drive traffic to that clean URL.
Are Affiliate Links Allowed On Pinterest?
Hmm.. this is a tricky one because at one point in time, Pinterest had no issues with affiliate links and people were making a killing in its early days with the Amazon Associates program, however, a few years ago, Pinterest banned all affiliate links.
There were even sneakily removing your affiliate link and placing theirs, a genius tactic but a bit shady if you ask me.
However, they recently repealed that ban and say that they now do allow affiliate links.
The catch here is that when I did try to post some affiliate links on Pinterest, the pin was removed so to be quite honest; I am not sure if they do allow affiliate links.
Are Affiliate Links Allowed On Instagram?
Yes, but again; use Pretty Links and place the link in your bio.
If you have over 10,000 people, you can also publish Stories that link out to pages and you can use affiliate links there as well.
You can see my guide on how to best monetise with Instagram here.
Are Affiliate Links Allowed On Tumblr?
Yes, not a problem. With all the weird shit you’ll find on Tumblr, affiliate links are their least worry.
Go ahead and use Tumblr for affiliate marketing but again; make sure not to over-spam the platform.
Are Affiliate Links Allowed On Paid Ads?
As far as I know, affiliate links are not allowed when you are running paid ads on Facebook and Google. Having said that, I currently do have an Adwords campaign that is running with affiliate links and it’s working (with great results).
Should you risk it?
That is up to you but I would be careful if I was you. Especially when using affiliate links from known affiliate marketing programs that are already on the radar for Google as being affiliate link websites.
Are Affiliate Links Allowed On Email Marketing?
Yes, your email marketing is your best ally and you can use affiliate links there as you see fit.
In fact, most of my earnings come from affiliate links placed on email campaigns so I would strongly recommend you get set up with either Aweber or MailChimp and start your marketing there.
You can see this guide on how to kick-start your email campaign for the best results.
Can Affiliate Links Be Stolen?
Some few years ago, there was a lot of talk from affiliates about whether affiliate links can be stolen or not.
This is not true so no, affiliate links cannot be stolen.
If they are stolen, and an affiliate is using your link to promote a product (it’s impossible to happen but let’s just say it does), you will be earning commissions from the sales the guy brings so do not worry about affiliate links being stolen at all.
I think there was one case of this in all the history of affiliate marketing and people are still freaking out over this.
Just make sure you keep your affiliate account password safe (thus protecting your funds) and do not worry about this as it quite-literally never happens.
How To Promote Affiliate Links (Without A Website)?
As I said already, having your own domain and website where you are in 100% control is the best way to do affiliate marketing, but I understand that some people may not want to go this route.
The best option for you then is to do it through email marketing as it’s my second favourite place that I place affiliate links.
You can then drive traffic to your email sign up form using social media and maybe other paid methods as well and you’re good to go.
Again though, I’d advise you to start your own website.
Best Way To Make Money With Affiliate Links?
Right, now to the money part; where is the best place to place links for maximum affiliate commissions?
- Blogs,
- Reviews and
- Email marketing.
While you may have some success randomly placing affiliate links on every social media platform that allows them, it’s no way to build a real affiliate marketing business online.
See how I make money with affiliate marketing >>
Start Learning Affiliate Marketing
Want to learn the best methods of affiliate marketing and learn the secrets that allowed me to sit here and earn money through affiliate links “simply” by writing blog posts such as this?
Get on Wealthy Affiliate and start learning how the pros do it. You’ve read way too much information already, now it’s time to start putting things into practice.
With Wealthy Affiliate, you will get a free 10-day video course that will show you all you need to know to make money online + you also get a free website and free hosting as well so you have nothing else you’d need once you join.
See you on the inside and thanks for reading.
Chris Lee
