Affiliate Marketing on Social Media is a BAD IDEA!
Why am I against affiliate marketing on social media? I’ve got 2 huge reasons you should stop sharing affiliate links on social media and start putting that time and effort into your own website. With all the latest craze about Pinterest now allowing affiliate marketing links on their platform, I feel like I need to speak my peace regarding this issue because I see a lot of people headed for what looks like an “easy way to make money.”
I don’t waste my time with affiliate marketing on social media for a few reasons…
Rule of Thumb: Easy Come, Easy Go!
The idea of just being able to throw your affiliate link up with an image on one of the world’s biggest social media platforms (Pinterest) sounds very tempting to a lot of people. I mean think about it, all you have to do is upload a photo, pop in your link, fill in a small description and you’re done. That seems SO MUCH easier than taking your time to build a post on your own website, right?
Here’s the issues that I have with that… hear me out….
It’s Not Your Playground!
Instead of taking the time to build up content on a website you own, you’re focused on putting up content on another’s playground that you have no control over. You don’t own these platforms. You have no control over them or their rules. If (and when) one day that social media platform decides to change the playground rules, you’re at their mercy.
I know what you’re thinking, so what? If I can make a few bucks, who cares?
The thing about coming at this from the angle of “just making a few bucks” is very nice, but what usually ends up happening is we start making more than a few bucks… those bucks start to add up fast and we start to putting all of our time towards where the buck adds up fast… It’s basic human nature. Follow the buck.
If you see money start rolling in, you’ll start doing it more and more and working on your website less and less..
Oh I know, I’ve been there. I mean after-all, you have to work hard on your website but on social media, you can just throw up a link.. the other platform is more powerful than your website and you’ll be tempted to put most (if not all) of your time towards what is making you money NOW.
The problem with is, you’re not building your future this way. You’re not building up your website and a residual income you can control.
One day, the social media platform changes its rules, lose its ranking value or worse, just closes up shop! Then what? Your easy money is gone overnight and you’re left with nothing but a website you didn’t work on very hard the past few months or worse, years!
You Don’t Own the Social Media Platform!
When I first started out with affiliate marketing, I started building on a platform that I didn’t own because I didn’t know better. I started making money.. then I started to make a lot of money! So I did what seemed natural, I kept building more content on that site to make even more money..
One day, the platform that I was building my affiliate marketing links up on decided to change the playground rules…slowly over the next few months, they would unleash tortuous rules and updates that would over time wipe out my entire income. I had zero control over this because I had zero control over the website I was working on this whole time.
When you’re building up content on a site that is not yours, you’re not building up content on a site that is…
When you’re not building on your own site and sending traffic to your own site, you’re essentially taking away from yourself in the long run. Concentrate on building an affiliate marketing website that you own so that you’re building towards a real residual income you can control! In the future, you won’t have to deal with the heartache of another platform you don’t control changing rules or going away completely.
This goes for social media platforms as well as third party websites, these sorts of websites should be used to drive traffic to a website you own and that’s it.
When you’re putting affiliate links out on social media, you’re building up the authority of their site not yours!
You’re Taking Away From Your Website!
When you’re building up affiliate links on social media you’re not building up your own site.
Whether it’s Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter or the next hottest social media coming out – you’re better off in the long run sending the traffic to your website links – not your affiliate links!
When you’re not linking to your website and you’re not sending traffic to your blog – you’re essentially taking away from it. >>>> Those are powerful social media links going to your affiliates – NOT you! Your building up their site in the rankings and not yours!
Pinning images from your blog to Pinterest is very POWERFUL because those images will get crawled, indexed and lead back to you! This is what you want! This builds up the authority of your website and sends the search engine juice through your website.
Sending people back to your website from any social media platform is of greater benefit to your financial future than just throwing up links affiliate links on social media. It may seem like fast money to put the direct affiliate link out there, but your time is better off spent creating quality content for your blog and sending readers there FIRST.
Guru eBooks about Affiliate Marketing on Social Media…
You’re going to find some affiliate marketing gurus encouraging you to jump on this bandwagon now that Pinterest has opened up their playground to affiliate links – but I encourage you to just keep building up your own website content instead.
Those gurus are most likely out to just sell you some eBook showing you the latest and greatest way to get rich overnight with social media and affiliate marketing but they’re not thinking about your financial future – they are thinking about their financial gain NOW.
Owning your own website and building up your own content is the best way to make money in affiliate marketing if you’re interested in the long haul.
If you want to build an income that you can count on for your future, you need to own the platform that your affiliate links are on.
The Pajama Affiliates will never encourage you to build up affiliate links on a social media platform because we believe in building affiliate links on websites that you control. We are interested in the long game because we want you to have an income that you can count on. You can’t count on anything you don’t control.
Use Social Media to Drive Traffic to Your Affiliate Marketing Website!
I believe in USING SOCIAL MEDIA to drive traffic to my website, but I don’t believe in building affiliate links on social media.
Social media platforms are very powerful tools for building the authority of your own website and I suggest that you take advantage of that instead of looking for an easy way to make a quick buck.
If you really want affiliate marketing to be a sustainable future for you and your family, you have to build your content on a platform you own and control. Your affiliate links should not be on social media, they should be on your website.
Learn the right way to make money with affiliate links >>> Check out our affiliate marketing classes.
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