5 Ways to Find Unlimited Affiliate Marketing Content Ideas (No Guesswork)

One of the hardest parts of affiliate marketing is not setting up a landing page or picking a product to promote. The part that stops most people is sitting down to create content and having absolutely nothing to say. You open a blank document, stare at the cursor, and close the laptop. If that sounds familiar, this post is built for you.

The five methods below are the same ones Alston used to find content ideas for YouTube, TikTok, and blog posts when building his affiliate marketing business from scratch. Every method is free. None of them require you to guess what your audience wants to know, because your audience is already out there telling you exactly what they need. You just have to know where to look.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A system for pulling unlimited content ideas from Quora at any time
How to mine Reddit subreddits for questions your audience is already asking
A clean method for using competitor blogs without copying anyone
Why YouTube comment sections are one of the most underused content research tools online
How to use Pinterest video pins to reach buyers who never see your YouTube channel
A bonus tool that collects search queries from every major search engine in one place
How to know which niche you should be creating content in before you write a single word, starting at finder.platformproof.com

Method 1: Quora

Quora is a question-and-answer website where real people post real questions about every topic imaginable. For an affiliate marketer, it is a goldmine because people are telling you in plain language what they want to know. You do not have to guess, test, or run a survey. Just search and read.

Create a free account at quora.com. It takes about five minutes. Once you are in, go to the search bar and type your niche or a keyword inside your niche. If your niche is affiliate marketing, type “affiliate marketing” and hit search. You will see a wall of questions people have asked: “How can I start affiliate marketing?” “What is affiliate marketing?” “Can you really make significant money with affiliate marketing?” Every single one of those is a potential YouTube video, TikTok, or blog post.

The smarter move is to click the “Questions” filter and then sort by the past week. This shows you what people are actively searching for right now, not six years ago. When you find a question that was asked recently and already has several followers waiting for an answer, that is a signal. Create a video that answers the question, then come back to Quora, post a comment on that question, and link to your video. You just got in front of a targeted group of people who already raised their hand and said “I want to know this.”

One example from the video: a question titled “Which is the best affiliate marketing guide?” was asked within the same week and already had nine people following it waiting for an answer. Nine people sounds small, but remember that for every person who asks a question on Quora, thousands more are searching Google for the same thing and landing on that page. Answer it well, include your YouTube link, and you pick up viewers who would never have found you through search alone.

Method 2: Reddit

Reddit calls itself the front page of the internet, and for content research it earns that title. What makes Reddit different from Quora is that people self-select into communities called subreddits. Every subreddit is a focused forum built around one topic. Dog training. Affiliate marketing. Personal finance. Photography. If a topic exists, there is probably a subreddit for it with thousands or hundreds of thousands of members posting and asking questions daily.

Go to reddit.com and use the search bar. Type a question or keyword your audience would use. Search “what is affiliate marketing” and you immediately see threads from people asking that exact question. The r/AskReddit subreddit alone has over 30 million members. If you post a thoughtful answer in a thread inside a subreddit relevant to your niche, you can get in front of an enormous audience without paying a single dollar for ads.

Here is a real example from the video. Alston searched “how to train my dog” and found the r/dogtraining subreddit, which had over 254,000 members at the time. Posts inside that subreddit included things like “dog getting too excited when taken outside on a leash.” That is a ready-made video title. Create a short TikTok or YouTube video called “How to Stop Your Dog From Going Crazy Every Time He Sees the Leash,” post it, then come back and drop a comment in that Reddit thread linking to your video as a helpful resource. You just created content your exact audience asked for, distributed it where they already hang out, and drove traffic back to your channel.

Reddit works in any niche. Health, cooking, fitness, tech, parenting, personal finance. The communities are already there. Your job is to show up with value, not to spam links. Answer genuinely first, then mention your video or post as a resource. Members can tell when someone is there to help versus there to dump links, and the platform will reward genuine contribution with upvotes and visibility.

Method 3: Competitor Blogs

Other people’s blogs are a fast way to generate a backlog of content ideas without starting from zero. The key word here is “ideas.” You are not copying content. You are using published blog posts to understand what topics your audience cares about, and then creating your own original take on those topics.

Here is the process. Go to a search engine and type your niche plus the word “blog.” Example: “dog training blog” or “affiliate marketing blog.” You will see a list of active blogs in your niche. Click through and browse their post archives. A single blog post titled “Best Side Hustle Ideas That Can Make You $1,000 Per Month” with 40 different side hustle ideas is not one video. It is 40 videos. Each side hustle on that list is its own piece of content where you go deeper than the blog post did.

When you create a video or post based on an idea you found in someone else’s blog, give credit. Mention in your video that you got the idea from that blog, include a link to the original post in your description. This is good form and it separates creators who add value from those who just repurpose without attribution. It also sometimes leads to the original blogger noticing your work and sharing it.

To make this process automatic, set up a Google Alert for your niche. Go to google.com/alerts, type your keyword (example: “dog training”), and set it to notify you by email whenever a new blog post is published on that topic. You will receive a steady stream of fresh ideas in your inbox without having to search manually every week. This works especially well if you are running a blog, a YouTube channel, or a TikTok account that needs consistent new content.

Method 4: YouTube Comment Sections

Large YouTube channels in your niche are producing content every week and building communities of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Those communities are active. They watch videos, they leave comments, and very often they ask questions that nobody answers, including the channel owner who is too busy or simply does not see them all.

That gap is your opportunity. Go to YouTube and search for a keyword in your niche. Find channels with large followings. Click on a popular video, scroll past the video itself, and go straight to the comments. Read through them and look for questions. Real questions, not generic ones.

In the video, Alston found a channel called Charlie Chang with 200,000 subscribers. He clicked on a video about affiliate marketing for beginners with 64,000 views and scrolled through the comments. Here is what he found: someone asked “Can I sign up for Amazon Associates if I’m from Canada?” Three days old, no reply. Someone else asked “Do you recommend having a laptop?” Another asked “With Amazon, do you need physical products to create your content?” All of those questions had been sitting unanswered for days or weeks.

The play is simple. Answer the question directly in a short comment. Then add something like “I made an entire YouTube video walking through exactly this, check out my channel if you want the step-by-step.” You just picked up at least one new subscriber because you solved their exact problem. And because other viewers who had the same question will see your reply and click through too.

This also works in reverse. Every question you find in a comment section is a potential video title. “Can I do Amazon affiliate marketing from Canada?” becomes a video. “Do you need physical products to be an Amazon affiliate?” becomes another video. “Best laptops for affiliate marketers” is a video Alston created over a year before making this tutorial, and it was still getting views and comments at the time of filming. One well-timed answer to a real question can keep producing traffic long after you publish it.

Not sure which niche is the right fit for you?

Take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com and find out which online income path fits the skills and schedule you already have.

Method 5: Pinterest

Pinterest is consistently underestimated by affiliate marketers who are focused on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. That underestimation is exactly why it works so well right now. According to Alston’s experience at the time of filming, Pinterest video pins were performing far above expectations, driving traffic, leads, and sales at a rate most creators were not prepared for, because they had written Pinterest off as a platform for recipes and DIY crafts.

Go to pinterest.com and use the search bar just like you would on any other platform. Search your niche keyword and look at what comes up. You will see what your competitors are creating content about, what formats they are using, and where they are sending traffic. Most pins link to a blog post or a YouTube channel. Some link directly to a landing page. Browse enough pins and you will have a list of content ideas within minutes.

One example Alston clicked on during the video was a pin titled “How to Make $3,000 a Month Website Flipping.” That one idea alone could become a YouTube video, a TikTok series, a blog post, or a Pinterest video pin of its own. Another pin said “11 Websites That Will Pay You to Listen to Music, $12 Per Song.” Click through and it leads to a blog post. That blog post is a content goldmine you can use to build out your own video or article with your own affiliate links and your own take on the subject.

The key with Pinterest is to send your audience somewhere useful after they engage with your pin. Alston specifically pointed out that sending viewers directly to a TikTok account is not the best move, because TikTok does not help you build an email list or capture leads. Instead, send them to a blog post or a landing page where you can collect their email address, follow up, and turn that interest into a sale over time.

Bonus Method: AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic.com is a search aggregation tool that pulls real search queries from Google, Bing, and other search engines and organizes them into categories. It shows you what people are asking, what they are comparing, what they are searching “for,” and what they want to know. All in one place, in a visual format that makes it easy to spot patterns and opportunities.

Go to answerthepublic.com and type in a keyword. The free plan gives you two searches per day, which is enough to generate dozens of content ideas in a single sitting. Type “make money online” and you immediately see 55 questions, including “Can you make money online with surveys?” and “Where can you make money online for free?” Those are both solid video titles with audiences that are actively searching right now.

Scroll further and you see queries like “make money online for Christmas” and “make money online for students.” Paste any of those into Google and you get results like “36 ways to make money online for students” from major websites. Open that article and you have five or six more videos mapped out before you finish your coffee. Each specific angle inside that article is its own content piece with its own search audience.

AnswerThePublic is particularly useful early in your content planning process when you want to understand the full landscape of questions in a niche before you start filming. Two free searches per day is plenty to keep your content calendar full for the week if you are systematic about it.

A Practical Week-One Content Plan Using All Five Methods

Knowing the methods is only useful if you put them to work. Here is a simple one-week content research sprint you can run before you create a single piece of content.

Day 1, Quora: Go to quora.com, search your niche, filter by Questions, sort by past week. Write down 10 questions that have at least 5 followers waiting for an answer. These become your first 10 video ideas.
Day 2, Reddit: Find the top 2 subreddits in your niche. Browse the past week of posts. Write down every question that went unanswered or got fewer than 3 replies. Add those to your list.
Day 3, Competitor blogs: Search your niche plus “blog” on Google. Open three different blogs. Browse their archives and note any post titles that could become deeper, more specific video content. Set up a Google Alert so new posts come to your inbox automatically.
Day 4, YouTube comments: Find two large YouTube channels in your niche. Open their 5 most recent videos. Scroll through comments and pull out every unanswered question. Respond to a few of them with short helpful answers and a link to your channel.
Day 5, Pinterest: Search your niche keyword. Browse 20 to 30 pins. Note what topics are showing up repeatedly. Those recurring topics are signals that a large audience is interested. Add the strongest ones to your content list.
Day 6, AnswerThePublic: Use your two free searches to look up your niche keyword and one close variation. Download or copy the questions into a spreadsheet. Highlight any you have not already covered in your list from Days 1 through 5.
Day 7, prioritize: Take everything you have collected and rank your top 10 ideas by how specific and answerable they are. The most specific question with the most followers waiting gets made first. That is Week One’s content.

Find Your X

All five of these methods work. But they work fastest when you are creating content in the right niche for your skills and your schedule. If you have not locked in your niche yet, or if you are not confident the one you picked is the best fit, take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com. It matches you to an online income path based on what you already know and how much time you actually have. No guessing, no wasted months building in the wrong direction.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to post on all five platforms to make this work?

No. Start with one or two. Quora and YouTube comment sections are the easiest entry points because you can research ideas and distribute content in the same place. Add more platforms once you have a consistent routine with the first ones.

Is it okay to answer questions on Reddit and Quora with a link to my content?

Yes, but only when your content actually answers the question. Post a real answer first. Do not just drop a link and leave. Both platforms penalize and remove posts that look like spam. Write a genuine reply and mention your video or post as additional context if someone wants to go deeper.

How do I avoid accidentally copying someone else’s blog post?

Use the blog post as a starting point, not a script. Read the post, close the tab, and write from memory what you know about the topic. Expand on any point the original author treated lightly. Add your own examples, your own results, or your own perspective. Give credit where credit is due by mentioning the original source if it inspired the content.

How many content ideas should I collect before I start creating?

Aim for 30 solid ideas before you film or write anything. That gives you enough runway to stay consistent for a month or more without stopping to research again mid-cycle. Having a backlog removes the blank-page problem entirely.

What if my niche is very small and I can’t find questions on any of these platforms?

If your niche is too narrow to find active conversations on Quora, Reddit, or YouTube, that is useful information. It either means the niche is too small to build an audience in, or you need to broaden your keyword searches. Try parent categories of your niche and see if the conversations exist there instead.

Does Pinterest still work for affiliate marketers in 2024 and beyond?

Pinterest continues to drive search traffic because it functions as a visual search engine, not just a social feed. Video pins in particular get consistent organic reach. The audience skews older and tends to have higher purchasing intent than on TikTok or Instagram, which makes it a strong fit for affiliate marketing if your offer matches that demographic.

AnswerThePublic only gives me two free searches per day. Is that enough?

For most creators, yes. One search on your main niche keyword and one search on a related keyword or a more specific phrase will surface more ideas than you can create content for in a single week. Use your two searches deliberately. If you need unlimited searches, their paid plan is available, but the free tier is enough to get started.

Do I have to be in the “make money online” niche for these methods to work?

Not at all. Every example in the video was shown in both the affiliate marketing niche and the dog training niche. These methods apply to any niche where people ask questions: health, cooking, fitness, travel, software, parenting, real estate, language learning. If people are searching for answers, you can find those answers and build content around them.

Sources

Quora.com – question-and-answer platform used in Method 1
Reddit.com – community forum platform used in Method 2; r/dogtraining example cited with 254,000+ members
Google Alerts (google.com/alerts) – used for automated blog monitoring in Method 3
Charlie Chang, YouTube affiliate marketing channel – cited as an example channel for Method 4 comment research
Pinterest.com – visual search platform used in Method 5
AnswerThePublic.com – search aggregation tool cited in the bonus method; free plan limited to 2 searches per day
Original video: “Affiliate Marketing Content Ideas 2021,” Alston Godbolt, YouTube, https://youtu.be/iA2r4-LmL2U