How To Start Affiliate Marketing With No Subscribers

You opened a ClickBank account last week. You picked a niche. You have an affiliate link sitting in a Google Doc. And now you are staring at a YouTube analytics dashboard that reads zero subscribers, zero views, zero dollars. Most guides at this point tell you to “keep making content and the audience will come.” That is not useful advice when you need traction right now.

The good news is that zero subscribers does not mean zero reach. There are platforms where people are actively searching for answers in your niche today, and they will click a link if your answer is genuinely helpful. This post walks through eight specific places you can show up right now, what to say in each one, and how to connect every platform back to your affiliate offer without getting banned or ignored.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A clear action list for eight traffic sources that do not require an existing audience
The exact wrong move that gets you banned on Reddit and Facebook (and the right move that builds a following)
Why Quora upvotes act like a ranking algorithm and how to get yours to rise
The LinkedIn opportunity that almost nobody in the affiliate marketing space is taking
Why email marketing is the one thing you should start on day one, not month six
A ten-minute social posting routine that feeds Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram simultaneously
How to pick the right platform for your niche so you stop spreading yourself thin
A free tool to match your background and skills to the right online income path at finder.platformproof.com

Method 1: Join Subreddits in Your Niche

Reddit calls itself the front page of the internet, and on any given topic there is a subreddit where people are already having the exact conversation your affiliate offer is designed to solve. If you are in the make money online space, subreddits like r/affiliatemarketing, r/entrepreneur, and r/passive_income are active daily. The same principle applies whether your niche is fitness, home automation, travel hacking, or software tools.

The move that gets people banned is showing up and pasting an affiliate link in the comments. Moderators remove those posts within minutes and you get a permanent strike on your account. The move that actually builds a following is to show up as a genuine participant. Answer three or four questions thoroughly before you ever mention your channel or website. Write two to four sentences of actual helpful information before you add a link, and make that link go to your YouTube video or landing page rather than directly to an affiliate offer. Reddit users are allergic to obvious selling but they respond well to people who clearly know what they are talking about.

One practical trick: ask a question you already know the answer to, then answer it yourself with the best response in the thread. That format gets upvotes fast and the algorithmic boost means new people see your username every time someone searches that topic. Over a few weeks your Reddit profile becomes a quiet traffic engine pointing people toward your content.

Method 2: Create Your Own Subreddit

Most people join subreddits as a participant. You can also come in as a leader by creating your own. Reddit does require some account age and karma before it lets you create a new community. Alston noted in the video that he spent years on Reddit before he had the ability to create his own subreddit. The timeline varies but the general threshold is around one year of account history and moderate karma in the positive range.

Once you have that access, a niche-specific subreddit gives you something neither Facebook nor YouTube can replicate: Reddit is also a search engine. When someone types “how to start affiliate marketing with no money” into Google, Reddit threads appear on the first page regularly. A subreddit you own and actively update becomes a compounding asset. Every post you write there is indexed, discoverable, and pointing back to your YouTube channel or affiliate landing page. The key is to update it consistently enough that the community stays active, because a dead subreddit ranks poorly and creates a bad first impression for new visitors.

Method 3: Answer Questions on Quora

Quora operates like a niche forum where every question is its own ranking battlefield. When multiple people answer the same question, Quora surfaces the most upvoted answer at the top. If you write a thorough, helpful response and your followers upvote it, your answer climbs above everyone else’s. That means someone arriving at that question page six months from now sees your answer first and clicks your link.

Alston shared that within one month of consistently answering questions in the affiliate marketing topic on Quora he became one of the most-viewed contributors in that space. His external traffic at the time showed Facebook, Google search, and Quora as his top three referrers. The formula he used: write three to five paragraphs of genuine information, then close with a line pointing to his most recent YouTube upload. Not a hard sell, just a natural next step for someone who found the written answer useful.

The reason this compounds is that followers on Quora automatically upvote your new answers. So the first hundred followers you build on Quora give every future answer a head start in the ranking. Think of it like compound interest on helpfulness. The longer you stay active, the faster each new answer rises.

Method 4: Join Relevant Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are where large concentrations of your target audience hang out in a semi-private space. There are groups for every affiliate niche: Amazon FBA, Etsy sellers, travel rewards, digital courses, home business, fitness coaching. If you sell a supplement affiliate product, there are groups of a hundred thousand people talking about nutrition and fitness every day.

The important caveat Alston raised: Facebook does not like affiliate links posted directly in groups. The algorithm detects them and reduces reach, and group moderators often ban users who post them without context. The workaround is the same pattern as Reddit. Answer a question in full, write two to four paragraphs of real information, and then link to your YouTube video where the affiliate link lives in the description. Facebook does not penalize links to YouTube content the way it penalizes external affiliate URLs. You give the group member the answer they need, the group moderator sees a helpful contributor, and the person who watches your video sees your offer naturally in context.

Method 5: Start Email Marketing From Day One

Alston described not starting email marketing sooner as one of his biggest regrets. The reason is straightforward. Every platform algorithm decides who sees your content. YouTube recommends your video to some percentage of subscribers. Facebook shows your post to a fraction of your followers. Reddit buries posts that do not get early upvotes. But your email list is yours. When you send a message, it lands in every subscriber’s inbox. No algorithm stands between you and the people who opted in.

The way this connects to affiliate marketing with no subscribers is that you do not need a large YouTube channel to build an email list. You need a landing page and a reason for someone to give you their email address. That reason is usually a free guide, a checklist, a mini-course, or access to a resource. Someone finds your Reddit answer or your Quora response or your Facebook comment, clicks your link, lands on your opt-in page, and joins your list. Now you can follow up with them for months, share more helpful content, and recommend your affiliate products repeatedly over time instead of hoping they find you again organically.

The practical step: get an email service running on day one alongside whatever platform you are using for content. Free tiers on tools like MailerLite or ConvertKit are enough to start. Your list of ten subscribers today becomes a list of five hundred in six months if you stay consistent, and five hundred email subscribers can generate reliable affiliate commissions every week.

Method 6: Upload Videos Directly to LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the most underused platform for affiliate marketers and content creators in the online income space. The common assumption is that LinkedIn is a job board. In reality LinkedIn is a content platform where native video consistently outperforms link posts in organic reach, and most creators are not posting there at all.

The one technical constraint: LinkedIn native video has a ten-minute limit. If your YouTube videos run longer than that, you can upload a clip, a highlight, or a condensed version of the same content. Alston points out that these do not have to be unique videos. Take a nine-minute segment from a longer YouTube video, upload it to LinkedIn natively, and add your opt-in page link or affiliate resource in the description. LinkedIn users tend to have higher average income than other social platforms, which means they are often closer to purchasing decisions when they do click through.

There is a secondary benefit Alston mentioned from his own experience: showing content creation skills on LinkedIn positions you professionally. If you are building an affiliate business on the side while working a day job, your LinkedIn page showing consistent video content tells employers and collaborators that you are skilled in public speaking, content production, and online marketing. These are skills with real market value regardless of whether the affiliate income takes off.

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Method 7: Join Discord Servers in Your Niche

Discord started as a gaming platform but now hosts active communities for nearly every interest: investing, dropshipping, content creation, fitness, software development, real estate. If you are building a YouTube channel in any of these areas, there are Discord servers where your potential subscribers are already talking every day.

Alston spends time in several YouTube creator Discord servers where members share thumbnail feedback, discuss what hooks are working, and talk through subscriber growth strategies. His approach in those servers is the same as Reddit and Quora: be helpful first. Comment on someone’s thumbnail. Answer a question about video structure. Share what worked or did not work in your last upload. People who find your answers useful will check your channel. Some of them become subscribers. Some of them are in your niche and click your affiliate links because they trust you already from the Discord conversation.

To find Discord servers in your niche, search “your niche + Discord” on Google or use Disboard.org, which is a Discord server directory with search and category filters. Look for servers with active recent posts and a rule structure that suggests moderation. Dead servers and spammy servers waste your time equally.

Method 8: Cross-Post on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

Every time Alston publishes a YouTube video he runs a ten-minute routine that distributes it across Twitter, his personal Facebook page, his business Facebook page, relevant Facebook groups, and Instagram. The same thumbnail image, the same link, copy-pasted with minor variations. He says this routine has built a meaningful secondary following across those platforms entirely through consistency rather than any paid promotion.

Instagram in particular surprised him. His Instagram account posts only YouTube thumbnails with a link to the latest video. No custom Instagram content, no Reels, no Stories. Just consistent posting of the thumbnail and a description of what the video covers. People follow because the thumbnails tell them what kind of content to expect, and some percentage of those followers click through to YouTube and eventually become channel subscribers.

The hashtag element matters on Instagram and Twitter. Spend two minutes researching which hashtags your niche audience actually follows. For affiliate marketing content: #affiliatemarketing, #makemoneyonline, #passiveincome, #onlinebusiness, and #digitalmarketing are all active. Using three to five relevant hashtags per post is enough. More than ten starts to look like spam and can suppress reach on Instagram specifically.

Honest Drawbacks to Know Before You Start

Every one of these methods works, but none of them is instant. The common thread across Reddit, Quora, Facebook groups, Discord, and LinkedIn is that they reward consistent, genuine participation over time. If you show up once, post a link, and disappear, you will not see results. If you show up consistently for sixty to ninety days, the compounding effect becomes noticeable.

The second honest drawback is that you cannot do all eight platforms at once without sacrificing quality on all of them. Pick two or three that fit your niche and your personal communication style. If you write well, Reddit and Quora will outperform video clips on LinkedIn. If you are already a LinkedIn user professionally, that platform will feel more natural and you will stick with it. Consistency beats channel variety every time.

The third drawback is that affiliate links posted directly on most of these platforms will get removed or penalized. The correct structure is always: valuable content on the platform pointing to your YouTube video or landing page, with the affiliate link living in your YouTube description or on your website. That extra step feels inefficient at first but it protects your accounts and builds a content library that keeps driving traffic after you stop actively posting.

A Simple Starting Framework

If you are not sure where to begin, here is a sequence that covers the most ground with the least time investment in the first thirty days.

Week 1: Set up your email opt-in page and landing page before anything else. This is the asset every other platform feeds into.
Week 2: Join two or three subreddits in your niche and answer five questions this week. No links yet. Just build a comment history that shows you are a real contributor.
Week 3: Open a Quora account and answer one question per day. Write three to five paragraphs per answer and add your YouTube link at the bottom of each one.
Week 4: Add the ten-minute social posting routine. Every time a YouTube video goes live, post the thumbnail and link to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram with relevant hashtags.
Month 2: Join one or two Discord servers and one relevant Facebook group. Participate for two weeks before adding any links to your replies.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can you actually make money with affiliate marketing if you have zero subscribers?

Yes. Subscribers measure your YouTube audience, not your total traffic potential. Reddit, Quora, Facebook groups, LinkedIn, and Discord all have existing audiences you can reach without owning a single subscriber. The income timeline depends on how consistently you show up and how good your answers are, but zero subscribers is not a barrier to generating your first affiliate commission.

Which of these eight methods produces results the fastest?

Quora tends to produce visible traction the fastest for most niches because the upvote algorithm rewards good answers with increased visibility quickly. A well-written answer can start driving traffic within days if it earns upvotes from your early followers. Reddit and Facebook groups can also move fast if you find a thread with active engagement right when it is getting traction.

Is it against the rules to post affiliate links in Facebook groups?

Most Facebook groups prohibit direct affiliate links in posts and comments. Group rules vary but the safest approach is to link to your YouTube video or landing page rather than to the affiliate offer directly. That extra step also performs better because the viewer has more context about what you are recommending before they see the offer.

How long should Quora answers be to get ranked at the top?

Alston’s approach is three to five paragraphs per answer. Shorter answers get skipped over by Quora’s algorithm and by readers looking for real depth. Longer answers can work but they need to stay on topic rather than wandering into tangentially related content. The goal is to answer the specific question so thoroughly that the person reading has no reason to scroll down to the next answer.

What should I put on my LinkedIn profile if I am just starting out?

Lead with the skills you are actively building, not the income you have not made yet. “Content creator helping people understand affiliate marketing” is an accurate and credible headline even on day one. Upload your first two or three YouTube videos as native LinkedIn videos, write a short description of what each one covers, and add your landing page link in the contact info section. The profile does not need to be perfect to start generating views.

Do I need to create unique content for every platform or can I reuse the same videos?

You can reuse the same content across platforms. Alston posts the same YouTube thumbnail and link to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram with minimal customization. For LinkedIn native video you may need to trim clips to under ten minutes, but the content itself does not need to be original to that platform. The only place where unique content matters is Reddit and Quora, where you are writing text answers rather than sharing video clips.

How do I avoid getting banned on Reddit?

Build comment history before you ever post a link. Spend your first week in a subreddit answering questions with no links at all. Read the subreddit rules in the sidebar before posting, since many specify exactly what types of links are allowed. When you do add a link, make it go to your YouTube channel or website rather than an affiliate offer. And never post the same link in multiple subreddits within a short window, which Reddit’s spam filters flag automatically.

What email marketing tool should a beginner use?

Both MailerLite and ConvertKit offer free tiers that are sufficient for a beginner list up to around one thousand subscribers. MailerLite is simpler to set up and has a cleaner interface for new users. ConvertKit is better if you plan to build complex automation sequences quickly. Either one will let you create a landing page, set up a welcome email sequence, and send broadcasts to your list. The tool matters less than the habit of collecting emails from day one.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “How To Start Affiliate Marketing With No Subscribers,” YouTube, https://youtu.be/YrOtnKzSuyY
Reddit Help Center: Subreddit Creation Requirements, reddit.com/wiki/subreddits
Quora Partner Program documentation, quora.com
LinkedIn Help: Video Posting Specs, linkedin.com/help
Disboard Discord Server Directory, disboard.org