How to Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money

When you buy something that an influencer recommends online, you are 

dealing with an affiliate marketing business. Brands often form partnerships with 

creators to help promote their products and services. The creators earn 

commissions on every sale.

 

Affiliate marketing is a rapidly growing industry. In the United States alone, 

affiliate marketing spends are expected to reach $8.2 billion by 2022, according 

to Statista.

Start affiliate marketing with no money

For many beginners though, the biggest hurdle is the upfront costs, which include 

buying a domain name, web hosting, courses, books, etc. The question is: 

Can you do it for free?

 

"Yes." is the answer. Using affiliate marketing can be a very effective way to 

make money (without upfront costs) and this guide provides a step-by-step 

tutorial on how to do it.

At first, becoming an affiliate marketer may seem challenging. But if you break it 

down into smaller steps, achieving your goals is much easier.

 

Find your niche

Choose an affiliate program

Make a decision about traffic sources

Create content that builds trust

Grow an audience

Engage your audience and interact with them

1. Find your niche

  

Establishing yourself as an authority within a particular niche will greatly increase 

your chances of success in affiliate marketing. Your niche is the topic on which 

you'll gain authority. The most popular niches include:

Hobbies: travel, photography, golf, outdoor activities

Money: Bitcoin, credit cards, investing, personal finance

Health: Fitness, vegan, weight loss, yoga, nutrition

Lifestyle: Luxury, fashion, airlines, jewelry, lifestyle

Home: babies, dogs, plants, security

Technology: gaming, Webhosting, VPN, and software

Alternatives include marijuana, CBD, and herbal remedies

You need a niche because if you recommend a lot of different products, people 

won't think of you as an expert. Alternatively, if you create content about a 

particular type of product and only recommend that product, people can see that 

you have experience in that area.

It will also help you further down the road with search engine optimization (SEO) 

on social media and your affiliate website if you decide to build one.

How do you choose a niche?

Start with niches that are likely to be profitable. Business-related programs, for 

example, have some of the highest commissions, while clothing, books, and 

media have some of the lowest:

These aren't your only options, and some niches work better on certain platforms 

than others. To stay motivated in affiliate marketing, you need to have at least a 

mild interest in your niche.

The following questions will help you choose your options:

Would you like to find out more about your niche? In order to stay relevant for 

your audience, it's extremely important to stay up to date with trends and 

industry news.

Do you have experience or training in a specialized field? By having prior 

knowledge of a subject, you will be able to accelerate your learning curve and get 

ahead more quickly.

Can you create content without investing money upfront? There are some niches, 

such as technology or travel, that can involve a lot of upfront costs if you don't 

already have the equipment or content.

Is it profitable? Your goal should be to make money. When you choose a niche 

that is either too broad so there are too many competitions or too narrow so 

there are not enough people interested in it, you risk not making a profit.

Finding a niche can take time and practice so don't be discouraged if you don't 

see success right away. Finding a niche is a fine balance.

 

 2. Choose an affiliate program

When you've chosen a niche, the next step is deciding which affiliate program(s) 

to join. It makes sense to choose affiliate programs or products that align with 

your niche.

A lot of YouTube channels promote Virtual Private Network (VPN) services so 

there the audience can watch them from anywhere in the world.

Market places and direct affiliate programs are the two main methods for finding 

affiliate programs in your niche. If you're familiar with brands in your niche that 

have affiliate marketing programs, contact them directly to sign up for them 

(affiliate programs are usually free to join), as Derek did with VIVO Life.

A second option is to join an affiliate program marketplace or network where you 

can browse thousands of programs and sign up for them.

Various affiliate networks offer thousands of merchants in various niches.

•        ShareASale

•        ClickBank

•        Awin

•        FlexOffers

•        Amazon Associates

•        CJ

•        Rakuten Advertising

Although all of these affiliate programs have a good reputation, it is also 

important to consider the commission rate and earnings per click (EPC) when 

selecting one. There are programs with low commission rates but high EPCs, 

meaning that they can still be worth joining.

3. Decide on a traffic source

At this point, you'll need to think about your traffic sources.

A common misconception is that you have to have a dedicated website (which 

costs money) in order to be a blogger. It is helpful to have one later when you 

feel able to reinvest in your business and scale upward, but it is not essential.

Affiliate income can be generated using other (free) traffic sources, such as social 

media platforms, YouTube, and forum-based sites like Reddit and Quora. There 

are a few advantages and disadvantages of each platform:

Facebook

•          Pros: Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world. it has a 

            large audience.

•         Cons: Teenagers may not find it appealing. Poor organic reach.

Instagram

•         Pros: Excellent for showing off products and services, highly visual. A lot 

           of video content such as reels and stories is available.

•         Cons: Organic reach for feed posts is lower.

YouTube

 •          Pros: Improves search engine optimization. Access to over 2 billion                     

            people worldwide.

             

 •          Cons: In most niches, there is a lot of competition. The videos must be 

            high quality and professional.

TikTok

 •          Pros: Short video clips without a professional look and feel. Authentic 

           and more personal. TikTok is a trendsetting platform.

         

 •          Cons: Descriptions do not have clickable links.

LinkedIn

 •         Pros:  Good organic reach. A well-established platform for professionals.

            

 •        Cons: Designed primarily for business-to-business audiences.

 

          Maybe you're thinking, "But I don't have a social media following!".

 

I don't have a social media following, so I can't do that! How will I make money?  

If you don't have a following, now is the time to start one. In other words, you do 

not need a huge following to earn money-you just need to reach the right 

audience.

 

Social media is the primary source of income for many affiliate marketers.

Other ways to use social media include joining Facebook groups in your niche and 

answering questions, or commenting on TikTok videos relevant to your niche. 

Engaging people is the key to building an audience, not just spamming them with 

affiliate offers.

4. Create content to build trust

The next step is to create content that builds trust with your target audience no 

matter which platform(s) you choose to use for affiliate marketing. Internet users 

worldwide spent an average of 145 minutes a day on social media in 2020.  Good 

content.

Content creation takes time, so it is a good idea to plan ahead and develop a 

content calendar. You can include on your calendar outlines of what type of 

the content you'll publish on any given day, such as:

•        Tutorials

•        Q&As

•        Product reviews

•        How-tos

•        Tips and tricks

If you choose YouTube as your platform, keep in mind a keyword strategy as you 

create your content strategy. A high-quality piece of content can get lost in the 

noise if you don't optimize it for search.

With a little research, you can determine what keywords to use. For example, 

look at your competitors' channels on YouTube. Pay attention to their most 

popular videos and their titles, descriptions, and tags.

Don't forget to include links to your affiliate products or services, as well as a 

disclaimer explaining that they are affiliated.

Publish high-quality content that teaches your audience something. Always 

provide value, don't talk about yourself all the time. Earning affiliate sales and 

landing brand deals will be exciting, but before you can do that, build a highly 

engaged audience. 

5. Grow your audience

It's also a good idea to start building an email list or SMS list while you're 

creating content on your platform. 

There are two reasons for this.:

To interact with your audience, you don't need to rely on social media platforms. 

You can always reach your audience through email if your platform goes down, as 

all the major platforms may have hiccups from time to time.

 

Even if some affiliate programs (Amazon's affiliate program, for example) do not 

allow you to include affiliate links in your emails, you can still send traffic to 

content that has affiliate links - you can send traffic to any of your content.

Your email list provides a great opportunity to further build authority in your 

niche by adding even more value to your audience. To get started here are a few 

ideas:

News and reports about the industry

Links to recent blog posts

Interview summaries or roundups

What's going on behind the scenes in your life or business?

Promotional deals (every so often)

You can build an email list for free with many email marketing software 

providers, including Shopify Email, Mailchimp, and MailerLite. You can check 

them out to see which works best for you.

When you gain an audience's trust, you can promote high ticket affiliate 

programs. Each of these programs can generate five figures per sale. But to get 

people to buy more expensive products, you often need an established niche and 

influence.

6. Respond and chat with your audience

Engaging with your audience is the last tip for growing your affiliate marketing 

business. By generating conversation, you not only help your followers or 

subscribers feel heard, but you benefit from social media algorithms as well.

Generally, when people interact with your content, algorithms interpret it as a 

signal that your content is worth boosting and showing to more interested people.

When you like and respond to comments on your videos on TikTok, for example, 

you will be able to see a special badge saying, "Liked by the creator," which 

stands out among other comments.

As these interactions demonstrate to your audience that you read their thoughts 

and appreciate them, they are extremely valuable. Thus, they're more likely to 

interact with your future content (and perhaps even encourage others to do the 

same).

You can also find out what future content your audience might want from you if 

you respond to them - that is a win-win scenario.