So, you are looking for ways to generate some passive income and want to know how to start affiliate marketing with no money. Well, you landed on the right page because this article covers everything you need to know to get started in this business without ever spending a dime. All it’ll take you is some time, patience, and effort.
Affiliate Marketing for Beginners
Before we dive into the topic, let’s first define affiliate marketing. In simple terms, this is the process of earning a commission by promoting products and services for other businesses. You just sign up for an affiliate marketing program you think you will have success with and earn every time a purchase is made using your links.
It sounds pretty straightforward because it genuinely is. However, to have a profitable affiliate marketing program, you need to know the fundamentals of creating a good strategy. While money is not a necessary resource, and you can start affiliate marketing for free, you will need to generate traffic to make your campaign truly lucrative.
Not to worry, though; our guide will include some pro tips on how to increase engagement and get as many people as possible to click your links.
Why Is Affiliate Marketing a Good Business Venture?
For starters, it is low risk. You can get into affiliate marketing with no money investment whatsoever and work your way up to a hefty income. According to Glassdoor, the average affiliate marketing base pay is about $60,000 per year, though the best marketers make millions.
Then, you decide your work hours and your workplace. You can literally do it from anywhere in the world, as long as you have internet access.
Finally, affiliate links can bring you profit years after you published them. So, the effort you put in today can keep paying off for a long time into the future.
How to Start Affiliate Marketing for Free
Now that we’re done with the basics, we can move on to the actual steps you need to take to start affiliate marketing with no money.
Choose Your Niche
There is a lot of content creation involved in affiliate marketing. You will need to attach your affiliate links to something, be it a blog post or social media content. For this reason, choosing a topic you are familiar with, or at least you are interested in learning about, is a good idea.
There are a few things to keep in mind when deciding on a niche. You are limiting your content to a single topic because you want your audience to see you as an experienced specialist in the field. You want to earn their trust so that they take your recommendations seriously.
Moreover, not every niche is suitable for affiliate marketing with no money. Some topics like traveling and technology require considerable investment to get started, so those are off-limits.
Last but certainly not least, your niche has to be profitable. The goal of your affiliate marketing is to make money, so there needs to be money to be made. Research the market and find out if people are interested in your niche. Be careful not to choose a too popular topic though, as you will face more competition than you can handle.
Find an Affiliate Program
The next step is finding the right affiliate program that you can join. An affiliate program is a contract between you and the company whose products or services you will be promoting. Once you sign up, they will provide you with affiliate links you can publish on your platform.
This shouldn’t be too hard, as nowadays, there are countless affiliate programs from pretty much every niche imaginable. Naturally, you want to look for products and services that align with your niche and the content you create.
Other things you need to consider are commission rates and earnings per click. Hefty commissions are nice, but if their EPC is low, you will have a hard time selling that product. On the other hand, lower commissions with higher EPC can be more profitable, so it is a fair trade-off. You will need to find a balance between those two.
Finally, consider the reputation of the company you are about to promote. Unfortunately, scams are common in affiliate marketing. In 2020 alone, marketers lost $1.4 billion to fraudulent affiliate programs. You don’t want to waste your time promoting products for a company that will not pay you, so tread carefully.
Build Your Platform and Establish a Social Media Presence
Even though today’s guide is on how to start affiliate marketing with no money, we have to mention the prospect of running a blog. It is very cost-effective, and you should definitely think about investing in one as soon as you make some money advertising. For only about $100 per year, it can increase your sales and help you expand your brand.
The other route is affiliate marketing by using existing platforms to post content. If you already have some degree of visibility on social media, it can be very useful to leverage it for engagement. If not, you will have to start from scratch and gradually build your audience.
YouTube
Affiliate marketing goes hand in hand with YouTube, as it makes sense to create video reviews of the products or services you are promoting. You can shoot videos on your smartphone camera and edit them on free-to-download software. Then, after creating enough content, you can start developing your YouTube affiliate marketing strategy and reach out to a global audience of over two billion users.
No online business nowadays can truly thrive without a successful Instagram page. It is the best platform to reach out to a younger audience. Heavily based on visual content, you will need aesthetically pleasing images and fun, short videos to build an audience on Instagram. Make sure you frequently post pictures, stories, and reels and use plenty of hashtags. You can use your bio section to post affiliate links and links to your main platform to drive traffic.
Just like Instagram, a Facebook page is a must for affiliate marketing with no money. Even though it feels like new social media platforms are slowly starting to take over, Facebook still has the largest number of users, so you must establish your presence on it. Try linking your page with a group and regularly post informative and engaging content related to your niche to get the best results. Place your affiliate links where they won’t be too intrusive but are still easily accessible.
While it doesn’t have a user base as large as some other platforms, Pinterest is a gold mine for marketers. Consumers purchase products that they come across on Pinterest organically at a much higher rate than the average social network. Establishing your Pinterest affiliate marketing can be tricky, though not impossible. You will need crisp graphics and beautiful images to make it on the platform, so consider getting familiar with some free platforms for graphics design.
Of course, you can use other social media platforms to build an audience, but these four should be the core of your marketing strategy. Remember to always disclose your affiliate links and read the terms of service regarding publishing affiliate links of your affiliate program.
Create the Right Content
Here’s one important tip related to affiliate marketing for beginners: the quality of content you provide to your audience is critical for your success. In addition to being relevant to your niche, it has to be informative and engaging. If you are having difficulties deciding what kind of content you should create, here are some ideas with a good track record:
- Product reviews
- Tutorials
- How-to guides
- Comparisons
- Lists
- Expert roundups
- Interviews
- Essays
- Personal stories.
All of these formats will give you the right context and plenty of opportunities to naturally promote your product.
However, content quality alone can only get you so far. You have to introduce SEO to your posts to make them more accessible to the general audience. You can’t start affiliate marketing with no money spent on promotion and expect audiences to find you without optimization. Many bloggers have tons of content of the highest quality but get zero traffic because their articles lack SEO.
Many free SEO guides and keyword tools are available online. Be sure to check them out and optimize your content to improve your chances of success.
Interact With Your Audience
This last step has less to do with how to start affiliate marketing with no money but rather with how to maintain it once you get it going. By liking and responding to comments, you accomplish two things at the same time.
You show your audience that there is a real person behind the product, and you build rapport. People will like you more if they feel like they know you. So instead of keeping a distance, try to engage in conversations with them and be playful and polite.
What’s more, social media algorithms perceive any activity, including likes and comments, as a signal that your post is interesting and needs to be shown to more people.
That’s all, folks. Now you know how to do affiliate marketing for free, create a platform for your brand, reach out to an audience, and nourish your relationship with it. All that is left is to get to work and start hustlin’.
The Bottom Lin
Affiliate marketing is a great way to create a new source of income and generate revenue without any financial investment. While it is low risk and you can’t lose any money from it, getting started can be a tedious process. You will need to work hard, remain patient, and stick to your strategy to grow an audience and establish your brand. After you start turning profits, you can think about spending money on creating a blog, promoting your content, or hiring an SEO expert to boost your SEO strategy.
FAQs on How to Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money
How can I start affiliate marketing with no money?
After deciding what niche of products you want to promote, you need to sign up with an affiliate program that will give you the affiliate links. Then you can develop a strategy that involves using social media platforms to create content and attaching the links to the posts you publish.
Is it worth it to do affiliate marketing?
When done right, affiliate marketing can be a highly profitable business. Ambitious marketers make enviable amounts of passive income through promoting products and services online. Given that it requires little to no upfront financial investment, it is definitely worth at least considering trying it out.
How long does it take to make money with affiliate marketing?
It depends on many factors. Do you know how to start affiliate marketing with no money? Is your strategy good? Is there a market for the product you are promoting? Is that market saturated? How popular are you on social media? How much work do you put into research and creating quality content? All of these variables weigh in on the success formula, and some marketers make $100 on their first day, while others don’t see a profit for months.
