Affiliate marketing has long been regarded as one of the best ways to make money online. However, many people believe that it requires a large upfront investment, and some even question whether affiliate marketing is legal. These concerns often arise from a lack of understanding about how affiliate marketing works.
In reality, you don’t need to invest a single penny to get started. All you need is a computer and a stable internet connection to begin making money through affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing allows you to earn money 24/7, whether you’re traveling the world or simply sleeping.
Ten years ago, I started my first affiliate marketing blog. At that time, I had only $100 to my name. I spent $50 to create the blog, and I was skeptical about whether affiliate marketing could really make money. I had no idea what I was doing, but I followed the countless tutorials I found online.
Today, I own over a dozen affiliate marketing blogs across various niche markets. These blogs collectively bring in over $100,000 in revenue each month, and I only need to work a few hours a week to maintain them.
If you want to earn money through affiliate marketing like I do, becoming a freelancer who only works one day a week while earning a substantial income, I’m going to show you how to get started make money with affiliate marketing without spending any money.
How to Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money (Step-by-Step)
Step 1: Find a Niche Market
Almost every industry has affiliate programs, so the first and most crucial step is to find a niche market that interests you. Many beginners often make a significant mistake at this stage—they keep switching niche markets. If they struggle to sell products in one niche, they immediately move on to another.
This approach is highly flawed. It wastes time and prevents you from making any profit through affiliate marketing.
The correct way to proceed is to choose one niche market from the start and consistently create content around it, generate traffic, and build trust with your audience.
I usually recommend beginners choose a niche market using one of the following two approaches:
Approach 1: Start with a Niche Market You’re Interested In
Affiliate marketing requires you to continuously create content in a particular field, so choosing a field you’re interested in ensures that you’ll stay motivated to learn and create.
I’ve noticed many beginners can’t sustain their content creation after one or two weeks because they’re not passionate about the niche they chose. They struggle to come up with content ideas, feel miserable, and eventually give up.
Currently, I run more than a dozen blogs across different niche markets. While I could have started more websites to cover more niches, I found that if I’m not interested in a particular industry, it’s tough for me to create content. The blogs I focus on now are all in areas that interest me.
So, starting with a niche market that you’re passionate about is the best choice for a beginner in affiliate marketing.
Approach 2: Start with a High-Commission Niche Market
Over the past few years, I’ve often been asked what to do if someone has no industry skills or isn’t interested in any niche market.
My answer is to choose a high-commission niche market. Higher commissions mean that for the same amount of time spent creating content and generating traffic, you can earn several times, or even dozens of times, more income.
Since the niche you choose might not be something you’re passionate about, you should consider how to maximize your earnings for the time you invest.
In affiliate programs, niches like personal loans affiliate programs, dating affiliate programs, and insurance tend to offer higher commissions.
However, as a beginner in affiliate marketing, you should be aware that choosing high-commission affiliate programs means you’ll likely face strong competition, as everyone wants to make more money online.
Step 2: Determine Your Traffic Sources
I strongly recommend creating a blog to promote affiliate programs, although it may require a small upfront investment—around $50 per year.
Of course, if you don’t have any money but want to start affiliate marketing, social media promotion is the best option, and it’s completely free.
If you already have followers on a platform related to the products you want to sell, that’s a significant advantage. If you have no social media presence, I recommend starting with the following platforms to generate traffic:
TikTok
An incredible platform with over 2.051 billion monthly users. Both young and middle-aged people love TikTok. You can start creating video content with your phone, post it on TikTok, and promote your affiliate products to start making money.
The only downside is that links in videos are not clickable, but you can create a free business account and add links to your profile bio.
The largest social media platform today, with over 2.96 billion active users. You can search for relevant Facebook groups and pages and post to promote your affiliate products. Many group and page owners are willing to share your affiliate links for a small sales commission.
YouTube
I believe YouTube is the best platform for promoting affiliate products among all social media platforms. Many affiliate marketers profit by posting YouTube videos and adding affiliate links to the video descriptions. If you want YouTube to bring you substantial affiliate income, I recommend studying YouTube SEO to achieve this goal. As your channel grows, you’ll also earn from YouTube itself, providing you with another income source.
LinkedIn has evolved from a simple job-seeking platform into a place where more and more people build their personal brands and promote products. Users on LinkedIn have strong purchasing power and are willing to pay for products that meet their needs. LinkedIn articles also rank well on Google search engines, allowing you to gain traffic through Google searches and multiply your affiliate income.
Pinterest is a picture-centric website popular for lifestyle products. Not all affiliate products are suitable for promotion on Pinterest, but if your niche aligns with Pinterest’s user base, it’s straightforward to generate traffic and make money on Pinterest.
Besides these social media platforms, many others are available. When doing affiliate marketing, you don’t need to focus on just one platform. If you have enough time and energy, you can run multiple social media accounts simultaneously, generating more traffic and earning more money through affiliate product promotion.
Step 3: Create High-Quality Content
Affiliate marketing is not a get-rich-quick scheme. You need to create high-quality content to attract an audience, provide value, and gain their trust. Only then will they be willing to purchase products through your affiliate links, earning you commissions. If you’re just pushing products without building trust, your conversion rate will be low.
Regardless of your chosen niche market or social media platform, you’ll face many potential competitors who are also creating content and promoting products.
So, consider how your content differs from your potential competitors. How can you stand out and attract more users? You need to spend time and effort researching how to create compelling content.
I suggest starting with the following:
- Understand your audience’s characteristics and create content that appeals to them.
- Address your audience’s pain points and needs.
- Create content tailored to the platform’s features to increase the likelihood of being recommended.
- Use catchy headlines to grab users’ attention and entice them to click on your content.
Step 4: Apply to Become an Affiliate Marketing Member
I don’t recommend applying to affiliate programs before your social media accounts have content, as affiliate managers and brands are likely to reject your application. They can’t verify if you can bring in potential customers.
Once your social media accounts have some content and followers, you can apply to become an affiliate marketing member. As you continue creating content, you can add product descriptions and promotion links to start earning commissions.
Choosing a good affiliate program will determine your product conversion rate and how quickly you get paid.
People are more willing to pay for big brands and good products rather than brands with poor reputations, even if they offer higher commissions.
Step 5: Promote Your Content and Expand Your Audience
Once you’ve found effective traffic sources and started profiting from promoting affiliate products, the next step is to increase your efforts, create more content, expand your audience, and scale your income.
You might even consider hiring a writer, video editor, or social media manager to help you make the most of your time. Websites like UpWork and Fiverr can help you find assistants at a relatively low cost. It may take several hires to find the right person, but once you do, they’ll save you time and make the hiring process worthwhile.
Starting affiliate marketing without money is entirely possible, but it requires time and persistence for beginners to profit from it.
With enough determination, you can build a business that generates passive income while you spend time on hobbies, relaxing, being with your family, or doing whatever you love.
How to Become an Affiliate Marketer
Becoming an affiliate marketer is straightforward and doesn’t cost a thing.
Countless brands use affiliate marketing as part of their digital marketing strategy. Some brands work with affiliate platforms like CJ Affiliate, Awin, and ShareASale, while others allow you to apply directly on their websites to become an affiliate marketer.
All you need is a blog or a social media account. You can then apply to be an affiliate marketer through an affiliate platform or directly on the brand’s website. Once you submit your application, someone will review it, and if approved, you’ll become an affiliate marketer for that brand.
If you don’t have a blog or social media account, it will be challenging to get your application approved, as you have no source of traffic and therefore can’t drive sales or leads to the brand.
It’s also essential to choose an affiliate program that matches your traffic source. If not, the affiliate platform or brand may reject your application.
For example, if your niche is insurance, but you apply for a dating affiliate program, your traffic won’t match what the brand needs, and they may reject your application because they believe your traffic won’t generate sales.
In summary, as long as you can generate traffic online—whether through a website or social media—you can easily get approved by an affiliate platform or brand to become an affiliate marketer. It’s simple and free.
Frequently Asked Questions About Affiliate Marketing
Is it free to join an affiliate program?
Yes, it’s entirely free.
Joining any affiliate platform or brand’s affiliate program is free. If someone tells you that you need to pay to join a particular affiliate platform, they’re likely scamming you. Be cautious to avoid financial losses.
When choosing an affiliate program, be sure to select reputable, well-known brands that pay on time. These programs are not only free to join but also offer higher commissions and timely payments.
Can you really start affiliate marketing with no money?
Yes, absolutely.
First, applying to affiliate marketing programs is completely free.
Second, promoting affiliate programs on social media is also free. All you need to do is invest some time in creating content and posting it on your social media accounts.
If you have a small amount of money, like $50, I recommend creating a personal blog to promote your affiliate marketing efforts. A blog can generate Google search traffic, leading to higher earnings.
Why should you choose affiliate marketing to make money?
Compared to many other online money-making methods, affiliate marketing has significant advantages. The most important one is the potential for very high income. Whether you aim to make $400 a day or $1 million a year, affiliate marketing can help you reach your goals.
Of course, the more money you want to make, the more traffic your website needs to generate, or you’ll need to become an influencer.
For beginners, earning $1 million a year is a challenging goal, so it’s better to start with a more achievable target, like making $100 a day. This is relatively simple and can be done with a bit of effort.
How can you make $100 a day with affiliate marketing?
It’s very simple. Just choose a high-commission affiliate program, such as a personal loan affiliate program, where advertisers will pay you over $100 in commission for each lead or sale.
All you need to do is generate one sale or lead each day through your website or YouTube channel, and you’ll be making $100 a day through affiliate marketing.
Therefore, choosing a good affiliate program is the first and most crucial step in affiliate marketing.
Can you make good money from affiliate marketing?
Yes, you can make a lot of money through affiliate marketing. According to data, bloggers who have been in the affiliate marketing industry for over three years earn an average of over $10,000 per month, which is higher than the income of many full-time employees.
For example, one of my affiliate marketing blogs receives over 100,000 visits from Google each month, generating $20,000 in monthly revenue.
How can you learn affiliate marketing for free?
My blog has many articles about affiliate marketing that are free to access. You can learn about affiliate marketing knowledge and experiences for free by visiting my blog.
If you want to start making money quickly with affiliate marketing, I also offer a paid course on my blog. I’ve poured my ten years of affiliate marketing experience into this course. For a small fee, you can purchase the course and follow the methods and steps outlined. In as little as a week, you can start making money through affiliate marketing.
