How to Start Affiliate Marketing with No Money

Affiliate marketing is easy to get into. It doesn’t require much money to get started and all you need is your laptop. But, most people find that it takes a lot more work than they expected and it can be tricky to compete against some of the bigger players in the industry.

In this article, we’ll break down everything we’ve learned about making this work into a simple 6 step process that you can follow.

The 6 Easy Steps To Launch An Affiliate Marketing Business

By using a special affiliate link to promote a business's goods or services, you can make money through affiliate marketing. You get paid when someone clicks on your link and completes an action, like as buying something.

It's a win-win scenario where you make money, the brand makes a sale, and the customer receives what they need. Joining a program will get you access to a unique affiliate link with a tracking ID as an affiliate marketer. This aids in the merchant's tracking of your recommendations and guarantees that you are credited for any leads or sales.

We'll go over each of the seven steps below to get you started and successful in affiliate marketing:

STEP 1 - Choose A Profitable Niche That You’re Passionate About

What are you good at?
Identify your skills and expertise.
What are your passions?
Your niche should be something you're interested in and enjoy working on.
As an expert, where do your professional skills lie?
Who would value that the most?
Match your skills, your genius, and your desires to the group of people (niche market).
Who is my dream client?
Consider what points or exercises would you say you are normally attracted to.
What emotional need or desire do we fulfill for our customers?
Understanding underlying emotional needs helps create effective marketing campaigns, identify new product opportunities and develop new business models. This question is key to creating a brand that truly connects with its target audience and drives growth and success. - Miles Jennings, Recruiter.com
What problem can I solve?
Consider a hole in the current market where your unique selling proposition
How can you narrow down your niche further?
Consider what you enjoy doing when you're not working or if you prefer to earn income from your hobbies. For example, if you already enjoy designing games, you may identify a niche within the gaming industry.
What sets my product or service apart from the competition?
Tailor your marketing message and strategy to the specific needs and wants of your target audience, which can ultimately lead to better results.
What is the bigger picture?
While it’s incredibly important to know what is unique about your business, it is dangerous to get too bogged down and pigeonholed into one particular area. Once your business reaches a certain point where expansion is necessary, you might find yourself with only limited options for growth. Sussing out trends before others, looking at market potential and then tying that in with the problems your business is trying to solve will lead to a better understanding of what your brand should stand for. - Robin Saluoks, eAgronom

A niche is a specific area of focus like fitness, finance, or fashion. It’s important to choose one because it helps you become a specialist, which means less competition and more trust from your audience.

Niching down can also improve your SEO as it can help you narrow focus and build topical authority in Google’s eyes. The more defined your niche, the better, as it provides greater clarity and makes it easier to plan content and find products.

The best niches are ones you have strong knowledge of. It’s also worth considering the competition, demand, and potential for monetization.

When picking your niche for affiliate marketing, make sure it meets the following criteria:

It remains relevant over time

Choose an evergreen niche where demand doesn’t fade.

It offers multiple high-paying affiliate programs

Ideally, you want more than one to protect against any affiliate program changes. So if fashion is your niche, don’t put all of your eggs into Amazon’s basket.

It has high demand

Aim for a niche with thousands of monthly searches for its keywords, indicating high demand and an existing market to tap into.

It has low competition

It’s easier to get started in a niche that has less competition. Some competition is good as it means that there is likely money to be made.

It aligns with your passion

Choose a niche that interests you. This makes work more enjoyable and improves your chances of success thanks to the energy and dedication you bring to it.

It’s a top earner

When it comes to earning potential, not all niches are created equal. Check out our affiliate marketing statistics page to see which niches can earn the most money. Note that a higher earnings ceiling can equal higher competition, though.

STEP 2 - Build A Website Where You Can Promote Your Products

Affiliate marketing is one of the few businesses that you can start with little to no money.

You can do affiliate marketing without a website, but we generally recommend starting one. However, there are a variety of alternative channels you can use to start promoting affiliate products such as YouTube, social media, newsletters, and podcasts.

Starting a website these days is easy and affordable. The upfront cost for a domain name and hosting is just $2.98, and you’ll pay $1.99 per month (to run hosting) for the first year. We’d recommend using Brandsnap to find a suitable domain name and using Siteground (from $1.99) for hosting for your first website.

If you prefer other platforms to promote affiliate deals, weigh up your strengths:

If you’re good at writing long-form: start a website and/or email list
If you’re good at short-form content: start with Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn
If you’re good at photography: start with Instagram or Pinterest
If you’re a good conversationalist: start a podcast (a caveat here: the podcasting medium offers little opportunity to promote clickable affiliate links)
If you’re good at video: start a Tiktok or YouTube channel

STEP 3 - Join Relevant And Reputable Affiliate Programs Or Networks

You need to join affiliate programs or affiliate networks to start promoting affiliate products and earning commissions. While a program is a direct partnership between you and a brand, a network serves as a hub for multiple programs under one roof.

Not all affiliate programs are created equally, though, and there are six key areas you should look at before you start promoting a product:

Commission rate:

Look for competitive rates that maximize your earnings.

Cookie duration:

This is the “window” that a visitor has to buy a product after they click on your affiliate link so that you still get a commission. Longer durations increase your chances of earning commissions.

Conversion rate:

High commission rates aren’t everything. Finding high-converting products can be even more profitable. This is why Amazon Associates is still a great affiliate program despite lower commission rates.

Earnings per click (EPC):

This metric shows the average earnings per click on your affiliate links. If you know how much you earn for each click, you can make informed decisions about which campaigns to focus on. Then you can optimize for maximum profitability.

Product quality:

Promote products that have a good brand reputation, are valuable and align with your audience’s interests. Look for reputable brands that customers recognize and trust.

Customer support:

Opt for programs or networks with reliable support.

When you’re just starting, accepting standard affiliate terms makes the most sense. Once you’ve proven your success to brands, you can negotiate better terms.

For beginners, the Amazon Associates program is a great place to start. It has endless products and is available in most countries. As you gain traction, you can get set up on a few affiliate networks such as:

Clickbank
Shareasale
Avantlink
Awin

Don’t just sign up to affiliate marketing programs and networks aimlessly. Rather find your ideal partners first.

If you are already part of an affiliate network, you can easily search for brands with programs available on the network. Do this by searching for specific brands (e.g. “Nike”) or keywords related to your industry (e.g. “sportswear”) to find suitable partners.

There may be brands you’d like to work with not affiliated with a network. Come up with a list of names and see if they already have an affiliate program you can join. A quick way to do this is to search for “[Brand] affiliate” on Google.

STEP 4 - Create Valuable Content That Attracts And Educates Your Audience

Creating content is the key to bringing eyeballs to your affiliate offerings.

The platform you choose doesn’t really matter, but the content does. It matters a lot. Without great, useful content, your affiliate marketing project will fall flat on its face.

Informational: Informative articles, guides, and how-to tutorials related to your niche can help educate your audience while warming them up to buy.

Let’s look at BabyGearLab’s tutorial on how to choose a jogging stroller. It has both practical and technical considerations along with links to product review pages. This is where they include affiliate links.

Reviews: Before people buy, they want to know whether the product is any good. Offer in-depth, honest assessments of specific products or services to arm your audience with insights and recommendations.

Comparisons: Side-by-side product comparisons highlight their pros and cons. This can help readers make informed decisions. They’re also great for people who just want to scan for the key points. BabyGearLab weighs the specs of the best jogging strollers alongside each other.

Round-ups: Curated lists of the best products or services in a particular category. To round out their coverage of jogging strollers, BabyGearLab brings all the pieces together in a top six blog post.

The key to creating valuable content for visitors includes:

Identifying Customer Pain Points: Understand your audience’s challenges and problems to provide tailored solutions that address their needs effectively.
👉 Example: your reader wants to find a safe stroller for jogging with their baby

Providing Solutions: Offer practical solutions and actionable advice that can help your audience overcome obstacles or achieve their desired outcomes.
👉 Example: provide some unique tips on how to choose the best stroller for jogging.

Differentiating Yourself: Stand out from other affiliates in your niche by offering unique content formats such as data-driven comparisons, video reviews, or real-life tests.
👉 Example: do real life tests of jogging with different strollers.

Building Trust: Be transparent, honest, and unbiased in your content. Your audience relies on your recommendations, so it’s important to establish trust and credibility.
👉 Example: provide balanced evaluations of tested products.

Showcasing Benefits: Highlight the benefits and unique selling points of the products or services you’re promoting. Explain how they can solve problems and improve the lives of your audience.
👉 Example: how a particular stroller is easily folded for transport.

Triggering Emotions: Connect with your audience on an emotional level by sharing personal experiences, success stories, or relatable anecdotes.
👉 Example: discuss your own issues with finding strollers that are both safe to use and easy to run with

Inspiring Action: Include clear calls-to-action in your content, guiding your audience towards taking the desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service.
👉 Example: Buy at Amazon.

Add Your Affiliate Links Strategically To Your Content

Adding an affiliate link is easy but executing it well is a little more nuanced. Adding too many links can hurt your credibility, SEO, user experience, and conversion rate. What’s more, sending people to a page when they’re not ready to buy is unlikely to result in a sale.

Make sure users know what they’re clicking on and where the link will go. Don’t mislead them into clicking on “a cute cat video” which actually leads to an affiliate link for a sketchy product you’re promoting.

Instead, prime users’ expectations so that they actively want to click on your affiliate link. Make the links clear (e.g. “Buy the thing here”) — whether that’s a text link or a logically placed button.

And while you don’t want to overload your page with buttons or links, don’t be afraid to offer multiple buy button from different stores. This can increase your trustworthiness, as it shows that you’re not in bed with a single brand.

STEP 5 - Drive Traffic To Your Website Or Platform

You need to figure out how to drive visitors to your content so they can engage with your links.

Driving traffic is the biggest challenge of all. Not just for affiliates. For all businesses.

There are essentially two types of traffic: free and paid.

Paid traffic is basically adverts — places you’ll pay for your content to appear (e.g. Facebook Ads and Google Ads). But the most appealing opportunity for any affiliate marketing business is free traffic.

Free traffic sources are channels that allow you to attract visitors to your content without any direct monetary cost. While they require time and effort, they can yield excellent long-term results. These opportunities can come from your content appearing in search engines, YouTube, social media, and your email list.

Examples of Free Traffic Sources:

Organic search (via SEO)

Optimize your content to rank well in search engine results (primarily Google) and attract organic traffic to your affiliate offers.

YouTube

Create videos that are recommended to YouTube visitors by the platform’s algorithm, as well as appearing in search results on YouTube itself.

Social Media

Leverage platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to engage with your audience, share your content, and drive traffic back to your website.

Email Marketing

Build an email list and sending targeted newsletters or promotions to your subscribers, encouraging them to visit your website.

Guest Posting

Write and publish content on other websites or blogs within your niche, with a link back to your site, to tap into their audience and drive traffic.

Paid traffic sources come from investing money to drive targeted traffic to your website or platform. Paid traffic can provide faster results but requires careful planning and monitoring of your campaigns. Even if you make it work, it will eat into your profit margins

STEP 6 - Track And Optimize Your Affiliate Marketing Performance

If you want to be successful at pretty much anything you just need to find what works… then do more of that. And affiliate marketing is no different.

Unlike most traditional marketing campaigns, it’s very possible to track your performance as an affiliate marketer. That said, you’ll need to master a few tools (as we’ll discuss below) if you want to understand how you earn every cent in your affiliate business.

On a website, you can track every visitor, every click, and every sale. To grow and scale, you need to understand which of your affiliate marketing efforts are working best and focus on these.

Google Analytics: Provides insights into website traffic and user behavior to help affiliate marketers track key metrics and optimize their websites for better performance and conversions.

Google Search Console: Helps website owners who focus on SEO monitor and optimize their site’s presence in Google search results, providing valuable information on search performance and website health.

While Google’s suite of tools is great for monitoring website and page performance, they are unable to track affiliate sales and commissions.

However, with Lasso, you can track your affiliate performance to the exact cent. It’s a single dashboard that keeps track of clicks and revenue across advertisers, networks and products. This makes it easy to monitor and optimize your affiliate marketing efforts.

Best Affiliate Marketing Tools To Help Make Your First $1,000

If you’re ready to build an affiliate website, here is our list of recommended tools for beginners. Over time, you might want to upgrade these tools for more expensive fully-featured options — but for newbies, they’ll be more than enough to help you make your first $1,000 as an affiliate marketer

SiteGround hosting: The most affordable hosting to power your website. Plans are available from just $1.99.

GeneratePress: Prevents the need to hire an expensive web designer to create a beautiful website. Use this drag-and-drop website builder instead.

WP Rocket: Speeds up your website. Important for user experience and SEO.

Ubersuggest: The most affordable keyword research tool around currently. Free version available.

RankMath: Helps you get the SEO basics in place for every page on your website. Free version available.

Mailerlite: The most affordable email marketing tool available. Make sure to start collecting email addresses as soon as you start getting decent traffic. Free version available.

Google Analytics (and Search Console): Must-have for any website. Analytics tracks visitors on your website, while Search Console shows you what keywords visitors are using to find you (as well as checking on the health of your website). Both free.