Real Cost Of Affiliate Marketing: How Much Do You Need To Get Started?
One of the old age questions that's asked by most beginners is;
‘How much do l need to get started with affiliate marketing?’
Answer: It Depends!
I know that this might not be the answer that you were expecting to get – but that's the truth.
You can get started with zero dollars, you can get started with around 100 bucks, or you can even get started with a few thousand bucks.
So I’m going to share with you how you can get started with all these different budgets i.e. no money, moderate budget, high budget.
(i) How To Get Started With Zero Dollars!
The beauty part about affiliate marketing is that, you can get started without investing any money upfront.
The reason being that, you don't own the products i.e. you're just promoting other people's products that already exists.
You don't have to worry about costs related to manufacturing, shipping, inventory, hiring employees, etc.
For this reason, you can get started without investing a dime.
With that being said, how can you actually get started when you're on a shoestring budget.
There are various platforms which allows you to get started for 100% free.
For example, YouTube is free i.e. anyone can start a YouTube channel for free – and you can freely post your own videos without any barrier.
Thus, you can leverage YouTube i.e. if you have the personality for it.
However, if you're someone like me who likes writing, then you can start a free blog on platforms like Medium, Blogger, Google Sites, etc.
These platforms are 100% free to use – thus, you can leverage them to put your content out there.
However, l have to mention that, free blogging platforms comes with their own limitations i.e. you’ll have limited control over your blog – thus, the owner(s) of the platform might shut down your blog without any notice i.e. if you violate their rules.
Also, you can't use your own custom domain if you're relying on a free platform – thus, you'll be forced to use a subdomain like myname.medium.com or something along those lines.
For these reasons, you might need to consider the next option if you have around 100 bucks – which is, starting your own custom website.
(ii) How To Get Started With Around 100 Bucks
If you have 100 bucks to invest, then you can start your own custom website.
Rather than relying on a free blogging platform, you can have your own custom website which you have more control over.
Not only that, but you’ll be able to have your own custom domain – which allows you to easily get recognised by your audience.
Also, you can signup for an email marketing software like GetResponse on that same budget.
This is so important as it helps to collect leads from your website – which allows you to connect with those people in the future i.e. even if they don't visit your website ever again.
Not only that, but you can also promote other products to those same people in the future – thus, allowing you to earn more money from those same customers.
Thus, it's very important to install an email marketing software on your website i.e. if you have the budget for it.
(There's also free ones too!)
(iii) How To Get Started With A Few Thousand
If you have some few thousands to invest, then you have a huge advantage over those with limited budgets.
However, if you don't know how to use it, you might flush all that money down the drain i.e. if you try to run some paid ads that you're not knowledgeable about.
So how best can you use that kind of investment?
In my opinion, l think you must use some of the money to invest in your education i.e. invest in a proven mentor.
This allows you to gain the knowledge that's necessary to build a successful affiliate business.
A mentor is someone who has already accomplished what you're trying to accomplish – thus, he/she knows which pitfalls to avoid – which helps to reduce your learning curve.
I’m not saying that you should invest all your money in a mentor, but you can find some great affordable courses like Savage Affiliates (by Franklin Hatchett) – which costs about 300 bucks.
That way, you can be able to gather some knowledge which is useful to your business.
You can also invest in paid ads i.e. if you have acquired the necessary skills needed to them.
If you know how to run them, ads can help to scale your business much faster – since they allow you to reach more people in less time.
Thus, you'll get traffic much faster than someone who's solely relying on organic strategies.
NB: Even if you decide to use paid ads, it's still important to have a website for your business.
Last but not least, a few thousand bucks can also allow you to outsource some content – which helps to produce more content for your website in less time.
If you're writing content by yourself, you'll only produce a certain number of articles per any given time – due to limited human capacity.
But if you leverage other people's time & efforts, you can produce 3× or more of what you can produce on your own.
NB: Before you start outsourcing content, it's important to write the first few pieces of content by yourself. (at least 30)
This allows you to learn the art of content creation – thus, allowing you to differentiate between good & bad content when you finally start hiring some writers.
Wrapping Up
I hope that I've answered one of the most asked questions regarding affiliate marketing i.e. how much do you need to get started?
Based on your budget, I’m pretty sure that you now have an idea of how you're going to use your money i.e. based on the info shared in this post.
Though l mentioned that a ‘big budget' gives you a huge boost, don't wait till you have some few thousands to invest.
Instead, start with whatever you have – and you’ll scale up with time.
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