November 24, 2025

Welcome back Income Insider - today you’ll get a simple cheat sheet explaining exactly how affiliate marketing works, a breakdown from ClickBank on using Pinterest to promote offers, and in the Q&A I share the best place to find high-quality affiliate programs to start promoting right away.

In this tutorial, ClickBank’s Daniel Thrasher shows why Pinterest is quietly becoming a powerhouse for affiliates – often converting better than “noisier” platforms. Pinterest is a mix of search engine and social app, and (crucially) it wants you to send people off-platform to your own pages – perfect for affiliate funnels.

He explains that pins can keep getting views and clicks years after you post them, unlike Instagram or TikTok. The key isn’t just “pretty images” – it’s two things: keywords (so people find you via search) and “saves” (people saving your pin to boards). Saves are the number-one ranking factor, so useful, engaging pins win.

The system is broken into five steps: set up a free Pinterest business account, pick a niche and a specific affiliate product, create multiple themed boards, design pins, then send clicks to a landing page or blog post that pre-sells the offer or captures email leads first. He recommends niches that work visually (beauty, hobbies, food, DIY, etc.) but notes you’re usually better off owning a smaller niche than fighting in the most competitive ones.

For pin creation, he walks through headlines, descriptions, boards, alt text, and outbound links. He shows how to use AI (their Ember tool + Canva) to generate images, titles, and descriptions, then spin one blog post into many fresh pins. Pinterest rewards volume and consistency – think 3–5+ pins per day, batch-created and scheduled.

Finally, Daniel suggests treating Pinterest like “the new Google” for bloggers and affiliates. You don’t need followers or design skills – you need helpful ideas, simple funnels, and a steady stream of useful pins that lead people to your own pages and email list.

The easiest place to find great affiliate programs is ClickBank. It’s free to join, there are no approvals, and the marketplace is full of high-paying offers in loads of different niches. They pay weekly, they’ve never missed a payment, and I’ve personally been using them since 2005 - they’re solid.

Start by browsing the ClickBank Marketplace and look at the top offers in the categories you’re interested in. You’ll be amazed at what’s already selling. Pick a few that fit your audience, grab your links, and start promoting. It’s the simplest way to get earning without creating a product of your own.

If you want a clear roadmap about how to do what I recommend, download Income Kickstart. It shows you the same step-by-step system my readers use to build an audience, earn their first commissions, and finally create an online business that actually moves forward: