If you know what you are doing, then affiliate marketing can be a lucrative job. Have you ever wanted to get paid while relaxing on the beach or hiking in the woods? Well, you can through affiliate marketing. But, what is affiliate marketing? How can I get started with it? Does it cost? These are all questions that can be answered. Soon, you can be making some serious money while you go do anything else with your time. With that being said, let’s look at how to get into affiliate marketing with no money.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Before we begin, let’s talk about what affiliate marketing even is. This type of marketing is the promotion of someone else’s product or service and making a commission when somebody buys after clicking on the link.
For example, if you make a Twitter post sharing about specialized blenders that can cut up most foods, then someone buys the product after clicking on the link, and you get a percentage.
It’s a quick and easy business model that allows you to use minimal resources to get the marketing out there. Plus, you get paid for promotion.
Can You Star with No Money?
Starting with no money is not going to get you anywhere in affiliate marketing unless you are constantly networking. The only way to do affiliate marketing with no money is to get an affiliate link and send it to people you know.
However, that will cost you a lot of time. Instead, you need to do what the professionals do. Create a website and social media pages to get traffic in. A website does cost a few dollars to make and you need a domain as well. Usually, a domain will cost under $10 for your first year, and hosting would start at about $3 a month. In total, you need at least $36 dollars to start in affiliate marketing.
How to Start Affiliate Marketing
If you have some money and you want to give this business model the old college try, then below is a few steps to get started in affiliate marketing.
Step 1
The first thing you need to do is find what you want to talk and promote about. This would be your niche. A niche can be anything from hobbies to passions, to lifestyles. It can be difficult to know what you want to get started in. Remember, it takes time to build a brand and to turn what you are doing into a full business.
A good start to your selection is to pick something that you already have an interest in. Or, look into what are good affiliate marketing programs and then base it on those. It is difficult to find high-paying affiliate marketing. Most would be around 2%-4% or poor quality items with high commissions of at least 20%.
Step 2
While you may want to send links everywhere at once, that will overburden you. Instead, pick one or two main traffic sources. Two of the easier ones would probably be YouTube or Google because of their high traffic.
It is possible to do affiliate marketing with multiple channels, but try to keep the bulk of it on a main channel. Part of this is knowing how search engine optimization (SEO) works and utilizing it for your affiliate marketing. Using SEO assists in bringing you traffic every single time someone makes a search and they find your content.
Step 3
After having your niche and your channel, now you need some great content. It needs to be fascinating that people want to share it. This can be done through pictures, videos, blogs, and more.
The two things you need to ensure the success of your content are to make it entertaining and make it informing. This means that when you create this content, it needs to be well-researched and well-produced.
Step 4
Now that you have some content made, it is time to promote. Promoting can mean a lot of things including:
- Engaging with others on public forums
- Build relations with others in your field of niche
- Commenting on other’s content
- Cold Email Outreach (Or Cold Call)
Step 5
Once this is all up and going, the only thing you need to do now is double down. Keep making the content and promoting the products and services.
Conclusion
That’s all there really is to affiliate marketing. It can be a daunting task to start with, but if you put in the work then you won’t be facing as many problems as you think.
As you get better with affiliate marketing, you can start hiring freelancers to help you write, edit, and more to assist you.
While it is possible to start affiliate marketing with no money, you will not get very far. But, with under $50 bucks to your name and a large learning curve, you can be making serious money in no time!
