By Alyssa Mercante • June 4, 2026 •
This article is part of an ongoing series examining successful creator business strategies. More from the series →
After years of relying on affiliate sales, retailers are rushing to roll out their own creator programs en masse to make creator commerce more measurable, scalable, and controllable. But creator Lola Torres, who won influencer shopping platform LTK’s beauty creator award in 2024, has built her career on affiliate marketing, and she’s sticking with it despite how labor-intensive it is.
Torres started her creator career six years ago, regularly posting her daily outfits that fell under an elevated but affordable price umbrella for women with her body type. At first, she did a lot of free work, but over time, she leaned more into affiliate marketing, focusing her content on a handful of brands and building a following on both LTK and Instagram.
“I started off with strong affiliate marketing from the very beginning, so I never relied on sponsored content or brand partnerships,” Torres told Digiday. “I focused on building my audience and making sure they trusted me and that I was giving them great recommendations.”
