Why I Stepped Away from TikTok and X (And What Affiliate Marketers Are Doing Instead)

byJDenesovych

821 followers

7 months ago

Hey folks,

Just wanted to share a bit of chatter that’s been sitting with me for a while—and I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed the same thing...

I used to post regularly on TikTok, and I dabbled on X (formerly Twitter) too. But recently, I’ve seen a serious uptick in explicit, borderline pornographic content showing up in my feeds—unsolicited, random posts that have nothing to do with my interests or the accounts I follow. At first, I thought maybe I’d clicked on something by accident, but nope—turns out it’s becoming a more common issue.

I don’t know if it’s bots, weak moderation, or something else entirely, but either way, it killed my motivation to use those platforms. If I’m building a brand that’s based on trust, integrity, and the RV/off-grid lifestyle... I can’t afford to have my audience stumble onto garbage like that while engaging with my content.

So, what are affiliate marketers doing now when it comes to short-form content?

Turns out, many are still on TikTok—but they’re playing it smart:

• Dialing into ultra-specific niches to train the algorithm.
• Using content buckets with consistent themes to keep their audience clean and engaged.
• And a lot of folks (myself included) are pivoting toward YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, or even good old-fashioned blogging and email marketing. Platforms where you have a bit more control over the viewer experience.

It’s kind of funny—this all reminds me that not every shiny new tool is worth our time. Sometimes, stepping away lets us re-focus on platforms that actually respect the effort we put into our work.

So, I’m curious—have any of you run into the same thing on TikTok or X? Are you still using them? And if not, where are you posting instead?

Let’s chat. I think this is one of those conversations we need to have more often in affiliate marketing circles—because where we show up matters just as much as what we say.