How To Kickstart Your Affiliate Marketing Business With No Money
This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase something through one of my links, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Have you ever always wanted to start your own online business, but the only thing holding you back was the lack of money?
Well, there’s some good news…it is actually possible to kickstart your own online business for FREE, and you could get started today.
It would be a shame for you not to be able to live out your dreams because of this reason, so I want to share with you how you can get started with an online business totally free.
There are a few online business models available to choose from, but in this post, I will specifically focus on the Affiliate Marketing business model.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
If you’re on this page you may already know what Affiliate Marketing is, but if not, Affiliate Marketing involves selling other people’s products and earning a commission for the sale.
Why is Affiliate Marketing an ideal business model for beginners?
Affiliate Marketing is ideal for beginners mostly because it doesn’t necessarily require you to have any start up fees. Your main aim is to find affiliate products and sell them online. Some of the main benefits include:
- You can get started for free
- You don’t need to have any inventory
- There’s no limit to how much you could earn
- There are multiple affiliate products to choose from, for any niche
Now, you may be thinking “it all sounds simple enough”. However, there’s more to affiliate marketing that just placing your affiliate link in different places. So through this post, and others to come, I aim to show you the right ways to do affiliate marketing, and turn it into an online business.
Affiliate Marketing Essentials
There are some essential things you need in order to actually do well with your affiliate marketing business, and the good news is you can get started with all these for free:
- Choose a topic of interest
- Build a website
- Find an Affiliate Program
- Attract visitors
- Get some quality training
1. Choose a Topic of Interest
Think about hobbies, passions and interests
You’ll initially want to pick a topic that interests you, and that you have some knowledge about. If you’re not sure what to base your business on, you can brainstorm ideas by thinking about:
What interests you?
What do you know a lot about?
What are you passionate about that you can’t stop talking about, and others would be interested in too?
What are your hobbies?
What do you do in your spare time?
What do you enjoy learning about?
Extra Tip: You can also have a think about things you have problems with, and/or fears. These can also be niche topics for you to consider.
Hopefully, these questions will inspire you to come up with a few topic ideas. Then once you’ve selected your topic, you’ll want to narrow your search down to make it more targetted and more niche. For example, you may be interested in “dog beds”, however, you could narrow this down to make your niche about “luxury dog beds”, and so in essence, you’re business would be centered around “luxury dog beds”. This is going to be really helpful in your business because you’ll have a targetted group of people who will be interested in what you have to say, and are more likely to purchase from you.
Cost: FREE
2. Build A Website
Build a website
After you’ve chosen your niche, you’ll want to build a website so that you can create content on your niche.
I think this gets overlooked a lot by beginners, but I believe the best way to build your business with affiliate marketing is by creating a website.
Nowadays it’s possible to build a website for your business without being tech-savvy, and with no money.
My recommended way to build a free website is by using the SiteRubix website builder. It’s really easy to build a website on this platform, and it uses the WordPress framework, which is the most widely used website framework online.
Try it out for FREE below and you could have your own fully functioning WordPress site in the next 5 minutes:
So, you’ve created a website…what next?
Now that you’ve built your free website, you need to add relevant content to your site in order to attract visitors. Think about what your readers want to know. If we go back to the example of “luxury dog beds”. What would your visitors want to know? What tips can you give them about choosing the right bed? Furthermore, you’ll want to think about what kinds of products they may be interested in buying, and what products you think are not worth buying. This will allow you to create product reviews, which are one of the most successful content methods for affiliate marketing. You can also use Keyword research to help improve your rankings in Google.
Cost: FREE
3. Find an Affiliate Program
You’ve got your website, and you’ve created some content, now you need to find some affiliate products to promote on your website. If there are products you’ve used already within your niche, you can find out if they have an affiliate program, then you can create a review for your website on that product and link people to it via your affiliate link. You can find programs for both good and bad products, and write reviews for both.
There are a few a few methods you can use to find affiliate products:
Method 1: Find a product on an affiliate network
An affiliate network is a website that provides lots of affiliate products in one place. It’s like having a marketplace for affiliate products, which gives you a choice of products to choose from. Below is a list of some affiliate networks available:
Method 2: Do a good ol’ fashion Google Search
If we take a look at the image below, I typed in “luxury dog beds + affiliate program” into the Google search bar, and was given a list of affiliate programs available for my search. (You can also do this with Bing and Yahoo etc)
Google Search for Affiliate Programs
You could do this for any niche, all you have to do is type in Google search “your niche + affiliate program”
Method 3: Search on the website for an affiliate program
I’ve found a number of affiliate programs just by scrolling to the bottom of the products website. The screenshot below is an example of a website, DoggieSolutions.com, which sells “luxury dog beds”, and has an affiliate program. I scrolled to the bottom of the page and clicked “Affiliate”. With this website and most other websites with affiliate programs, you’ll be taken to a page that will show you how to sign up.
DoggieSolutions.com Affiliate Program
Method 4: Get in contact
If you’ve tried the methods above and you’re having no luck finding their affiliate program, you could get in contact with the company and find out if they have an affiliate program. I did this one time with Healthspan. I couldn’t find how to apply for the affiliate program on their website, so I decided to send an email, and they gave me the details to sign up. So as you can see, sometimes all you need to do is ask.
Cost: Free to Sign up
Note: While most affiliate programs are free to join, I have come across some programs that ask you to a pay a fee to be an affiliate, like the Empower Network affiliate program. I would highly recommend you stay away from such programs, as you shouldn’t have to pay to be an affiliate.
4. Attract Visitors
Attract visitors to your website
In order to make money with your website, you need to get visitors to it, cause without people, you have no business. It’s not just any kind of visitors, it needs to be relevant, targetted visitors. People who actually want to read your content and purchase the products you are promoting.
More Visitors = More Opportunity
So looking back at the example of “luxury dog beds”, you’ll want to focus on getting visitors who will be interested in this topic, to your website.
There are a few free ways you can use to attract visitors:
- Keyword research – writing content based on key terms/questions your visitors are likely to search on Google, Bing etc. This will help your site to rank higher on search engines.
- Social media – creating social accounts for your business, and following other users who would likely be interested in your website, and encouraging then to follow back so they can keep up to date with your latest content. Also interacting with people who would be interested in your niche
- Forums – you can be active on forums related to your niche. If you are active enough and provide relevant information, you may get people interested in seeing your profile and eventually visiting your website.
There are other methods available, both free and paid, but I wanted to focus on a few free ones to show that you don’t need money to get visitors to your website.
Cost: FREE
5. Quality Training
Quality Training
Now, it’s nice enough having all these things in order to start your affiliate marketing business, however, you won’t be able to go very far without having the proper training. I would suggest taking a look at my #1 recommended training program for anyone looking to start affiliate marketing, that you can join for free, and will help you kickstart your affiliate marketing business. When you sign up for a free account you get:
- Training to help you get started
- 2 FREE websites
- Help and Support from other members
Cost: FREE to Join
Final Words
I hope you found this post useful in showing you that you can actually get started online with no money. It may take longer for you turn it into a regular income, but at least the option is there if you’re unable to invest financially.
However, at some point, I would highly encourage putting money aside (whether it’s from your job, making extra money on the side and/or affiliate earnings), to invest into your business, sooner rather than later. This will help take your affiliate marketing business to the next level, as you’ll be able to look more professional and more of an authority, and you’ll start being able to take your business more seriously.
Like the saying goes:
If you’re really interested in starting out, and/or are low on money, then I think you’d benefit from joining my #1 recommended training program as a free member. Here you will be able to kickstart your affiliate marketing business, and hopefully, “turn your dream of success into reality”.
Did you find this information useful? Do you feel you can finally begin to build an online business? Feel free to share your thoughts/questions in the comments below and/or share this post with others.
