Twitter Affiliate Marketing Guide for 2023: Market Yourself Effectively!
Disclosure (full version- https://nikolaroza.com/affiliate-disclosure/): Some of the links you’ll encounter are affiliate links. If you click and buy something, I may get a commission. Thank you!ย
Twitter Affiliate marketing… it is really possible?
In this post on my incredibly awesome website ๐ you will learn:
- how to promote affiliate links on Twitter;
- what to do;
- what not to do;
- and much more.
Comeย a newbie- leave a pro;
let’s go!
Before Anything Else, Does Twitter Allow Affiliate Links on Their Platform?
Yes, yes they do. There’s no specific rule that forbids adding affiliate links to your tweets.So you can use affiliate links on your Twitter posts and you won’t encounter any problem from the platform itself.
As for the people…
That’s a whole different story
Read on to find out more.
6 Quick Reasons Why Promoting Affiliate Links on Twitter is a Very Bad Idea
#1- You Will Become Just Another Spammer
Twitter is a place to encounter new people and new ideas. It is not a place to pitch products and services. This has been a go-to place for people who also want to express their emotions and ideas, and where out of the 353.1 million people who use Twitter globally, 68 million are based from the U.S
Pitching your affiliate offer makes you look like a spammer even though it’s technically not against Twitter guidelines.
#2- You Will Lose Friends and Followers
If you’ve already built up a following on Twitter, I’m willing to bet you didn’t do it by pitching products non-stop; no, you did it by sending out valuable tweets into the stratosphere, and by retweeting other people’s content generously.
You also participated in a quite a few Twitter chats and were more that keen to respond to other people’s comments on your tweets.
Yes, you’ve dug deep and dug out a strong Twitter foothold, a following.
Well, you can lose all of that brand trust 100X faster by being a self-absorbed, self-serving douchebag
#3- You Will Look Self-Absorbed and Like You’re Taking Advantage of People
Your affiliate links benefit you and only you.
When you post them on Twitter you stand to benefit yourself, and not anyone else.
And while it’s ok to do it on your blog or website, (because they’re yours); it’s not ok on Twitter as Twitter is a platform and community we all share.
#4- You Appear to Be Desperate
Even total novices to internet marketing can notices something really important about tweets- they disappear FAST!
Average shelf life for a tweet is 18m and then it’s gone, never to be seen again.
So when you add affiliate links to your Twitter posts you reek of desperation,ย and it’s really easy to imagine you counting seconds that someone has not clicked and giving of a disappointed groan when you realize no one ever will.
This makes you give out a desperation vibe and successful people will want to stay away from you.
#5- People on Twitter Don’t Buy; They read, Learn and Engage
It’s a mentality thing really.
Folks who come on Twitter aren’t there to purchase anything. They have their Amazon and Google to buy stuff.
Instead, they’re there to engage with their friends, discover new content, or just chill and have some fun.
So your affiliate link has virtually no chance of getting hits.
#6- But I Can Disguise My Affiliate Links!
Yeah, you can.
Here’s what my affiliate link to Missinglettr looks like.
- https://lttr.ai/OB6Y
And here’s the cloaked version:
- http://nikolaroza.com/recommends/missinglettr/
See the difference?
Yes,you could cloak your affiliate links and place thme as regular ones but if someone does click and then they recognize they’re been duped (because they’re suddenly on a sales or landing page) they will know your game and will start to hate your guts and with passion too.
Do it often and you will build a whole tribe of haters ready to throw rocks on you.
Do you really want that to happen to your brand?
What to Do Instead? Do Twitter Affiliate Marketing the Right Way!
All is not lost. You can promote affiliate offers on Twitter, but you need to do it in a roundabout way.
#1- Promote Your Content on Twitter
It’s an amateur blogging mistake to push ugly affiliate links directly on Twitter.
Instead of promoting raw or cloaked affiliate links, promote links that lead to your articles on your affiliate website.
This can be really effective strategy, but for it to work, your posts need to:
- be relevant to the audience you’re promoting them to;
- be helpful;
- solve a specific problem;
And each post will have your affiliate links for the products you love and use to run your online business.
That is the best way to make affiliate commissions from Twitter.
Pro tip- Use Twitter Advanced Search
Twitter advanced search is this wonderful feature that let’ you measure the pulse of the public near-instantly You can discover hot topics (before they become hot on Google) so you can rank for them easily with no competitors to be found in your way.
Here’ how (example “toothbrush”)
Step #1– go to Twitter and search for “toothbrush”
Step #2– click on “advanced search”
Step #3– Add in data
Two important fields are:
- This exact phrase
- These hashtags
Step #4– search for anything that is a question or that can be turned into one.
Step #5– record these keyword ideas in a Google spreadsheet.
Step #6– go through them one by one, create corresponding articles and then promote them.
Note:
Here’ an example spreadsheet I made just for this post
- Twitter Keyword Research Example Spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I23QpiSsFBYVN8gCZr0RWJ_ZDyFFF87JG5QWaLN7pus/edit?usp=sharing)ย Nikola Roza
I set ti toย “view only” so you won’t be able to make changes, but If you want a copy simply go:
- File
- Make a copy
- Save to Drive
#2- Add Relevant Hashtags
You must have seen in that spreadsheet above that there’s a hashtag field. That’s because these are important.
You want to know the hashtags people use so that when you promote your articles you use them as well.
Instant higher exposure for your hyper relevant content.
#3- Build a Loyal Twitter Following
I know, I know; this sound like a cheap and clichรฉ advice, but hear me out!
I will give you 4 things to work on so that Twitter starts works for you passively while you sleep.
Sounds good?
Step #1- have an awesome Twitter bio
Your Twitter bio is precious real estate for you. Treat it as such and make it the best as it can be.
Here are three examples of excellent Twitter bios.
FIRST is from Michael Hyatt:
SECOND is from Lisa Sicard:
Note: Lisa is a Twitter expert. She even wrote an e-book on the topic.
THIRD is Agora Pulse, a social media automation tool I recently fell in love with.
Learn from these awesome examples!
Here are the essential elements of a superb Twitter bio:
- 160 characters or less
- It tells who you are and what you do
- It has at least one link to your website
Step #2- Use 20:1 method to expand your Twitter fandom
This is something I picked up from Michael Hyatt
He says that Twitter is the platform for connecting and a place where you give abundantly and take moderately.
He likens it to a bank where you have to deposit some cash twenty times in a row before you can withdraw one time.
In Twitter lingo- tweet 20 times the work of others before you tweet one of your posts.
Step #3- Schedule Your Posts in Advance
Twitter is probably never going to be the main part of growing your business which means that you will have to resort to automation to get the workflow and results you need.
However, there is dumb automation done with some free WordPress plugins (most of them outdated at this point);
and there is smart automation done with some awesome tools.
Let’s be smart about it, shall we?
You will need three social media tools to help you get the job done:
- First is Hootsuite (helps you automate your promotion of others)
- Second is Missinglettr (helps you promote yourself in a subtle and intelligent way)
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a full-blown social media scheduling platform.
With it you can schedule posts for:
- etc
We’ll use it to schedule tweets and we’ll use the free version of the tool, which is more than enough when you’re first starting out.
So go and sign up (pro tip sign up with your Twitter account and you will immediately connect Hootsuite and Twitter.)
Click on “new post”
Add your tweet and schedule it for later.
For demonstration purposes, I added my HostGator Black Friday article to be tweeted at a later date.
And that is that. Really simple and easy.
I suggest you spend 15 m every day in the morning doing this and pretty soon you will see the growth you want in your Twitter following.
Pro tip: I recently discovered a new and awesome social medial scheduler called Social Champ (read my Social Shcam review here).
It’s similar to Hootsuite, but even better and easier to use. For the full scope, click my link above.
Here’s how I scheduled a tweet of my Grammarly student discount page:
Missinglettr
Missinglettr is a social media scheduler that intelligent affiliate marketers use to funnel people back to their properties.
Missinglettr is quite an innovative tool on the market. They implement NLP and smart A.I. to scan your articles and extract valuable snippets of text from them to be used as your tweets.
Basically, the tool does the work and you reap the rewards and that is what makes it so unique and valuable.
True social media automation at it’s finest!
I will not talk about Missinglettr here, because it’s a tool too good to Miss (see what I did there ๐ ) and I have a whole review dedicated to it.
Check it out!
- Missinglettr Review and Tutorial- Smart Social Media Automation at It’s Best!
Social Champ
The final tool I want to cover is Social Champ. Social Champ is included here because of two awesome features.
First, they have a free plan which allows you to schedule unlimitedย scial posts.
Second, Social Champ allows you to repeat a certain post as much as you wat, thus making this tool an xreme money saver as you can just repeat one tweet over and over.
Here’s how.
First,ย log into the SC dashboard and create your tweet. The process is very similar to Hootsuite and as an example, I will use my SEMrush free trial guide.
SEMrush is a tool I love and promote and my SEMrush free trial offer is my number #1 money maker when it comes to promoting SEMrush.
Second, set the option to repeat the post to “yes” and determine how often should a post be repeated.
Third, just hit schedule and Social Champ will post your affiliate post on Twitter for you.
Pro tip:
when using the “repeat post” function in Social Champ, you need to e careful not to overtag your post so as not to appear like a spammer. This is especially true when tagging brands for whom you’re an affiliate.
For example, when promoting my SEMrush annual cost guide with Social Champ, I did not add the #semrush hashtag, because I set that post to be repeated 10 times and I don’t want to bother SEMrush affiliate team and get on their bad side.
#4- (Bonus) Natural Followers Growth
This is a bonus because it happens over time.
As you profile grows and you keep an active profile, Twitter will start to show your profile more and more on other people’s profile sidebars
Like this:
And many of them will follow you.
Note: that’s why it’s crucial to have an awesome bio. It’s literally the first thing they see of you.
Keeping a natural cadence of posts and a consistent tone will really help grow your Twitter following.โ
Frequently Asked Questions about Promoting Affiliate Offers on Twitter
a) What is the Best and Easiest Way to Promote Affiliate Links on Twitter?
The best, easiest and free way to do affiliate marketing on Twitter is to not do it at all, at least directly
Instead create valuable articles on your blog and host affiliate links there. That way your reputation as a marketer stays intact and you stand a chance of people clicking and buying down the line
How is this method free?
You won’t piss off anyone ๐
b) How to Promote Amazon and Fiverr Affiliate Links on Twitter?
See the answer above. It’s the same thing.
c) How to Promote Affiliate Links With YouTube Videos on Twitter?
Embed a YouTube video with a nice-looking YouTube banner (it’s easy to create a YouTube banner online) in your tweet.
Since many people like watching videos and shopping directly from YouTube and not on Twitter, they will click the link to take them to video directly.
Once there, they will watch the video and maybe read video description.
And video description is the place for you to have affiliate links.
For example:
Geekdom 101 regularly posts his video on Twitter, and they all have affiliate links in their description.
Note: this method will never bring in any significant revenue for you, simply because video description CTR is abysmal (<1%)
d) Can I Buy Twitter Followers for My Account?
You can, but you shouldn’t
If you think that having 50k followers gives you legitimacy- you’re dead wrong.
Why?
Because when you post something and your tweet gets 2 likes and 0 shares, that reeks of fakeness.
It’s simple- when you buy “followers” you’re actually buying fake accounts and bots.
#5- Have You Had Success With Affiliate Marketing on Twitter?
I’ve had lots of success with affiliate marketing on Twitter. I’m specially good at promoting my SEMrush tutorials and guides.
This is because SEMrush is an SEO tool that sell by itself. It’s a huge, well known brand and marketers and bloggers simply flock to buy it. They don’t care they’re being reminded of SEMrush on Twitter of all places.
My best performing SEMrush posts in regard to Twitter sales are:
- SEMrush lifetime deal post;
- SEMrush cracked version post;
- SEMrush premium cookies guide
- SEMrush coupon code guide;
- SEMrush free account overview guide;
- Best SEMrush features tutorial.
And other SEMrush post are picking up steam too.
#6- How Can I Write Tweets Faster So I Promote on Twitter Better?
You can use AI paraphrasing tools to create an unlimited number of winner tweets.
Here’s how:
First, create a series of tweets promoting your best affiliate products. These will be your tweet templates.
Second, use a paraphrasing tool like Quillbot (read my Quillbot review here) to create many versions of each tweet. Quillbot has 6 modes of rewriting so make sure you use them all.
If you started with a base of 20 tweets, you will now have 140 (20 original + 120 variations) and then you can also modify these for an unlimited number of tweets to post on Twitter.
That’s the power of AI paraphrasers and you can learn more by reading my guide on the best online paraphrasing tools.
Twitter Affiliate Marketing (Conclusion)
The SECRET is that you don’t.
Instead, you create valuable content on your site. Then you go out and engage people on Twitter and get them curious about you and your brand.
Then they visit; subscribe and down the line… buy
And you’ve made yet another affiliate commission and this one came from Twitter no less.
Nothing more to say except- keep them coming!
And leave me a comment below;
Thanks ๐
Nikola Roza
Nikola Roza is an affiliate marketer and blogger behind Nikola Roza- SEO for the Poor and Determined. He writes for bloggers who don't have huge marketing budgets and who still want to carve out a niche online and a better life for themselves. Learn about Nikola here, or read his blog posts and guides here.
Thank you, Nikola. I usually tweet out blog posts that have the links in them but I was searching if Twitter allowed them in tweets and I found this article. Much to my surprise, you had me as a feature in it, thank you!
I composed the tweet after reading this and scheduled it for later today, thanks for the tips and advice.
Glad you found my guide useful, Lisa.
Yes, Google ranks highly in my post for all queries related to Twitter affiliate marketing.
Hi Nikola,
I just started using Twitter a couple months ago when I started my blog. So far I am actually really liking the platform even though I am still trying to figure it all out. So thank you for providing such valuable information. I actually am overjoyed to read this. A person gets so tired of the constant bombardment of advertisements you get on other platforms. Like you said, I just really just want to learn things and see what people are up to.
SharlaAnn
Hi Sharla,
glad my guide helped.
Keep up with Twitter, show up every day and you’ll master it.
It’s worth it:)
Hi Nikola, Thanks for the mention in this fabulous piece about affiliate links. I love how you showed the differences with the toothbrush example ๐
I didn’t know you were part of the Wealthy Affiliate. I had signed up but not gone further with it or their paid subscription. I’ll have to read your review of it next.
Thanks for all the valuable information here as always Nikola!
Hi Nikola,
You nailed it perfectly.
First, like you said, I won’t suggest affiliate links on Twitter. Yes, you are a spammer if you do such.
Secondly, Twitter is a sweet tool to present yourself the way you want to be addressed. I met interesting people like you on Twitter and it’s all fine uptill date.
An exceptional piece, I love reading interesting articles like this one.
-Folajomi
Thank you Folajomi.
Yeah Twitter is not a place to pitch products. It’s a place to promote yourself and your good, awesome work.
Glad you enjoyed reading it, that was my intention when I wrote it.