How To Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money

In this article, I will be showing you a simple way to start affiliate marketing with absolutely no monetary cost.

Now, if you’ve ever bought anything an influencer recommended online, you’ve come across an affiliate marketing business. Online creators are often found building partnerships with brands to help promote the brand’s products and services, and then earn a commission for each sale.

You’d want to know this; Affiliate marketing is a fast-growing industry. According to reliable sources, affiliate marketing spend might reach up to $8.2 billion by the end of this 2022 in the United States alone.

However, the issue for many beginner affiliate marketers is the starting costs which most times includes buying a domain name, e-commerce hosting, buying of courses, buying of books, etc. So now, there are many who are asking: Can I start for free?

The answer is yes actually, and this whole article is supposed to help you understand exactly how to make money with affiliate marketing (without starting costs - financial), giving you a detailed tutorial on how you can get started.

Before anything, shouldn’t you know more about how affiliate marketing works?

Well, I’ve dedicated a special section of this article to explain to you how affiliate marketing works exactly. You should carefully read if you don’t want to be confused about this topic ever again:-

How does affiliate marketing work?

Affiliate marketing is simply the process of earning commission (making money) from recommending a product or service offered by another business. This is a business model that has evolved to be highly profitable because it pays you for every referred sale (sales made through your recommendations).

It should be noted though that affiliate programs are not all the same; some will pay different percentages of commission, others will offer a fixed bonus, while some will even offer free products or services in return (it’s just a matter of getting rewarded for any sales they make through your recommendations). So with time and consistent hard work, successful affiliate marketing can turn your mere side hustle into a profitable business venture.

Why is affiliate marketing a good business model?

Right about now, you might be thinking, “A business built on recommendations? Sounds too good to be true.” Here’s what you should know; Although, it’s not bad to have a healthy dose of doubt, you might want to know this:- according to PayScale, the average affiliate marketer in the US makes around $52,000 a year. Now, that’s not bad for recommending products (something that you possibly do daily without being paid) is it?

Through careful analysis of the affiliate marketing business model, I believe it’s safe to say that it’s possible to make a living from affiliate marketing because of its profit as a business model. Here’s why:

§ It’s low risk:- Businesses only need to pay out when you make a successful referral (compared to having to pay a fee to influencers). For affiliates, your costs can stay low (if there are any at all), so you only lose time if you don’t hit the right mark.

With this business model, it’s a win-win for everyone. The business benefits from the sales you bring in, and then rewards you in return. Moreover, customers also benefit from having a trusted recommendation to satisfy their needs/wants.

§ You can work from anywhere in the world:- If you’ve ever dreamed of living as a digital nomad, affiliate marketing can help you call anywhere your workplace, Although you must ensure that you obey any work-related tax or labor laws wherever you may be located.

§ You can build a passive income:-. Creating a library of quality content might (really truly does) takes time, but after some time, you’ll find out that contents you’ve already created still generates affiliate commissions months, even years, later.

A writer and affiliate marketer has said “Affiliate marketing, especially when you’re a beginner with no start-up money, takes long-term thinking,”

There are many free platforms for creators to consider when starting out as affiliate marketers. Social network/media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are all available for free, and you can start creating contents on these platforms right away.”

Affiliate networks offer new marketers easy access to thousands of reputable affiliate programs that can be joined right away, even though few of these affiliate networks require paid membership for you to be an affiliate on their network.

How to start affiliate marketing with no money

The journey to becoming an affiliate marketer might seem daunting at first. But when you break it down into smaller steps, achieving your goals will become easier.

Here are steps to stating your affiliate marketing journey:-

§ Find a niche

§ Choose an affiliate program

§ Choose your traffic source

§ Create content to build trust

§ Grow an audience

§ Respond and chat with your audience

1. Find a niche

The best way to succeed in affiliate marketing is by establishing yourself within a niche. A niche is the topic you’ll specifically base on. Some of the best niches include:-

Hobbies: travel, photography, golfing, outdoors, etc.

Money: bitcoin, personal finance, credit cards, investing, etc.

Health: fitness, nutrition, vegan, weight loss, yoga, etc.

Lifestyle: luxury, airlines, fashion, jewellery, etc.

Home: baby products, dogs, plants, security, etc.

Tech: web hosting, VPN, gaming, software, etc.

Other Alternatives include: personal development, marijuana and herbal remedies.

Why do you need a niche?

The reason you need a niche is that if you recommend lots of different types of products, people will find it hard to see you as an expert that can be trusted. Whereas if you only recommend a specific type of product and create content about it, then it won’t be a problem convincing people that you have experience in that area.

It also helps you in and with search engine optimization (SEO) on social media and your affiliate website if you choose to build one later.

How do you choose your niche?

You should start with niches that have a high chance of profit. For example, research sources have found that business-related programs have some of the highest commissions, while clothing or books and media have some of the lowest:

However, these aren’t the only options, and some niches work better than others on particular platforms (it’s easier to work in some niches on some platforms). One important thing to always remember though is that affiliate marketing isn’t a “get rich quick stuff.” You’ll need to have at least some personal interest in your niche to keep you going.

You should ask yourself these questions for self-evaluation and to narrow down your options:

§ Are you curious to learn more about your niche? Keeping up with trends and industry news in your area is vital in making sure you stay relevant for your audience.

§ Do you already have experience or training in a specialized area? If you’re already knowledgeable on a subject, you can flatten your learning curve and get ahead more easily.

§ Is it possible to create content without upfront investment? Some niches like technology or travel can involve a lot of upfront costs if you don’t already have the equipment or content to start with.

§ Is it profitable? Basically, you want to make money. So you might need to watch out for niches that are too broad or you end up with too much competition, or too narrow chance for success in that niche.

Choosing a niche is an important step, and it can take some time and practice to choose the right one, so don’t be discouraged or unmotivated if you don’t see success immediately.

2. Choose an affiliate program

After deciding on a niche, the next step is choosing what affiliate program(s) to join. It makes absolute sense to choose a program or affiliate products that aligns with your niche.

There are two ways of finding suitable affiliate programs within your niche: direct and through marketplaces. If you’re already aware of brands in your niche that have affiliate programs, you can approach them directly and sign up for them (affiliate programs are mostly free to sign up for).

The other option is to join an affiliate program marketplace or network where you can browse thousands of programs and sign up to them through the marketplace.

Affiliate networks, such as: ClickBank, ShareASale, FlexOffers, Rakuten Advertising, Awin, CJ, and Amazon Associates offer thousands of merchants in various niches.

Although these are all reputable options, some things to consider when choosing an affiliate program include not just its reputation, but also its commission rate and earnings per click (EPC) rate. A program might have a low commission rate but a high EPC, which means it can still be a worthwhile program to join.

3. Choose your traffic source

At this point, you’ll need to start thinking about your traffic source.

Many people often make the mistake of thinking you must become a blogger with a dedicated website (which costs money). While it is true that having a website of your own is helpful, it’s not essential. Having your own website can be done later when you feel able to reinvest in your business and scale upward.

You can start generating affiliate income using other (free) traffic sources, such as social media platforms, YouTube, and community based sites like Reddit and Quora. Another way is using social network such as Facebook, instagram, etc.

Let’s look at a few pros and cons of each channel:

§ Facebook:- Pros - The largest social media platform around. You can reach a big audience. Cons - Less attractive to younger audiences. Bad organic reach.

§ Instagram:- Pros - Highly visual, excellent for showcasing products and services. Strong emphasis on video content like Reels and Stories. Cons - Lower organic reach for feed posts.

§ YouTube:- Pros - Great for search engine optimization. Global audience of over two billion people. Cons - A lot of competition in most niches. Videos need to be professional and high quality.

§ TikTok:- Pros - Short video clips that don’t require a “professional” look and feel. More personal and authentic experiences. Trends start on TikTok. Cons - Links in descriptions are not clickable.

§ LinkedIn:- Pros - Excellent organic reach. Established platform for professionals. Cons - Predominantly for B2B audiences.

You might say, “But I don’t have a social media following! How will I go about it?” If you don’t have a following, now is your chance to start building one. That being said, you don’t need a huge following to make money—you just need to reach the right audience.

Lots of affiliate marketers make their income entirely through social media. One of the ways to do this is joining Facebook groups in your niche and answering questions, or stitching replies to relevant TikTok videos in your industry. The key to building an audience is participation, not just spamming people with affiliate offers: this is a simple thing that most new affiliates who take to social media is neglecting totally.

4. Create content to build trust

While you’re creating content on your choice platform, it’s very important to start building an email list or SMS list for two main reasons:

You own your contact list, so you don’t need to rely on social media platforms to interact with your audience. All of the major platforms have hiccups now and then, so when they go down you can always contact your audience via email.

Although some affiliate programs don’t allow you to include affiliate links in your emails (Amazon’s affiliate program being the main one), you can still insert links to content you create that contain affiliate links— you send traffic to any of your content.

Your email list is a very great opportunity to be able to add even more value to your audience; further building authority in your niche subject. Some ideas to help you get started with content for your email list includes: Industry reports or news, Links to new blog posts, Interview roundups or summaries, behind the scenes of your life or business, Promotional deals (every once in a while), and Free digital downloads.

When it comes to building an email list for free, there are plenty of tools to achieve that; there are many email marketing software providers that offer free plans, including Shopify Email, Mailchimp, and MailerLite. It’s worth loookoing around to see which one suits you best.

Once you can build trust with an audience, you will be able to start promoting high-ticket affiliate programs. These programs offer opportunities to make up to five figures per sale. However, you often need to have an established niche and influence for people to be encouraged to buy more expensive products.

6. Respond and chat with your audience

Lastly for growing an affiliate business, it's very important to engage with your audience. Generating or starting up conversation with your audience not only helps your followers or subscribers or audience feel heard but also works in your favor for social media ranking parameter or algorithms.

The truth is, when people begin to interact more with your content, it’s a kind of signal for the algorithms to tell them that your contents is worth boosting and showing to many more people who might be interested.