How to Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money

Are you thinking about how to start affiliate marketing with no money? If your answer is yes, this article is for you. Affiliate marketing is undoubtedly one of the easiest ways to earn money online these days. All you have to do is find a niche and sign up for a reliable affiliate program to get started. The only cost you will incur at the end is your time and effort. In this guide, you will learn how to start a successful affiliate marketing business without spending money. Let’s get started, shall we?

What Does Affiliate Marketing Entail?

First things first, you need to understand how affiliate marketing works. Well, this is a performance-based business model where a company pays you for bringing in customers. You begin by joining an affiliate program while focusing on a niche you are passionate about. Many affiliate networks allow you to sign up for numerous programs.

Once you join, you’ll receive a unique affiliate link that you can share with potential customers. You’ll then earn a commission if your visitors follow the link and eventually pay for the company’s affiliate products or services. The more customers you bring, the more money you’ll make.

One of the most important questions many people ask is whether affiliate marketing is profitable. Well, many affiliate marketers have utilised this business model to generate passive income. In fact, some bloggers earn tens of thousands of dollars every month while making affiliate sales. The best part is that you can start affiliate marketing with no money using the different methods described in this article.

Moreover, you can become a successful affiliate marketer from wherever you are, even without owning a website. Now that you know this marketing strategy is profitable let’s find out how to start an online affiliate business without investing money. The following is a comprehensive step-by-step guide to help you get started right now.

Step 1: Identify and Choose the Right Niche

The first step every affiliate marketer must take is to find an appropriate niche. There’s no way you can run a successful online marketing business if you don’t enjoy what you are doing. Some people love cars while others are interested in food and beverages. Others are into online gaming, so it’s a matter of what you like as an individual. Another section of this guide will teach you how to choose a niche when starting affiliate marketing.

Step 2: Find an Affiliate Program and Sign Up

Once you identify the affiliate products or services you want to market, the next step is finding affiliate programs. The top affiliate networks will allow you to sign up for free, so you must keep that in mind to avoid spending money. Some free platforms with reputable affiliate programs include ShareASale, Clickbank and Commission Junction.

By joining the abovementioned affiliate networks, you’ll be able to search for different affiliate programs. But you can also find a free affiliate program through search engines like the widely popular Google Search feature. If you choose this option, you need to type in your niche followed by the phrase “affiliate program” or “affiliate marketing program” for the best results. Keep the following factors in mind to choose a reliable affiliate program.

Read and Understand the Terms of Use

As you sign up for an affiliate program, don’t forget to check the terms and conditions. The best affiliate schemes have clear terms of use. And you are usually required to accept them during registration. Don’t just agree to anything before reading and understanding the rules of engagement.

Check the Commission Rate

Affiliate marketers normally start making money through commissions from successful sales. So, it’s essential to know the commission percentage and how the company you are marketing for will reward you. This also means choosing an affiliate program that offers your preferred commission model. Here are the most common options:

• Cost Per Click (CPC) or Pay Per Click (PPC)
• Cost Per Action/Acquisition (CPA)
• Cost Per Mille (CPM) or cost per thousand impressions
• Cost Per Lead (CPL)
• Cost Per Sale (CPS)
• Revenue Sharing (RevShare)

The most important thing is to choose commission models that will give you the greatest return on your affiliate marketing efforts.

Inspect the Affiliate Products or Services on Offer

You want to ensure that the company you partner with sells legal products and services. Besides that, the company’s offerings must be of the highest quality. And they must fall under the niche you want to focus on. In other words, you should always look for the perfect fit for your website or blog based on your interests.

Check for Excellent Customer Support

You must look into the available customer service before you start affiliate marketing. If you have any issues with an affiliate program, you should be able to contact a reliable customer support team. The best companies will let you contact their customer support representatives via live chat, email, phone or social media platforms.

Once you carry out the above background checks and are content with them, you can sign up. Simply register to obtain an affiliate link that you’ll need to promote products to potential customers. Find out how to do this in the following sections of this article.

Step 3: Generate Traffic Via Your Affiliate Link

At this point, you have already selected your niche, joined an affiliate network, signed up for an affiliate program and acquired your affiliate link. The last and most important step is to attract potential customers. This entails creating high-quality content that will help you connect with your target audience.

There are two ways to promote affiliate offers to customers. You can choose organic traffic or paid traffic. But we are talking about how to start affiliate marketing with no money, so you want to generate traffic organically. The process may be a bit slow if you don’t pay, but the good news is that you are taking advantage of free traffic.

An affiliate marketer can choose from various platforms to market products and services on behalf of companies. You can share your affiliate link on social media platforms or create a niche website or blog. It will depend on what you think works best for you.

There are different ways of creating valuable content that will attract customers’ attention once you choose a platform. You can use search engine optimisation (SEO), email marketing or work with successful influencers to grow your business. Read on to find out how to start your online business and promote affiliate products without using your own money.

How to Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money on Social Media

Social media platforms have gained popularity in recent years, attracting many followers. As we speak, about 4.6 billion people from all over the world are on social media. Popular sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are among the top high-traffic sites you can take full advantage of as an affiliate marketer.

If you are a new marketer, you can start affiliate marketing by building connections with the people you know. You probably know friends who would benefit from the affiliate offers you are trying to market. And you can become friends with your friends to increase the number of people you can share your referral link with.

The great thing about online marketing on social media is that you’ll get accessible traffic sources. What’s more, you can reach out to millions of people you don’t even know. Your work is to find a suitable platform, create an account and provide informative content that will keep your audience engaged. The following social websites are a great choice if you wish to start your affiliate marketing business and you don’t want to spend money.

Facebook – Start Affiliate Marketing on the Largest Social Media Platform

Perhaps there’s no better way to drive traffic to an online business nowadays than Facebook. Currently, this social networking platform attracts more than 2.9 billion active users every month. Another fascinating fact about Facebook is that about 1.9 billion people visit the website on a daily basis.

All this information confirms that Facebook is the biggest social media platform in the world. So, it’s one of the best places for affiliate marketers to promote products to billions of potential customers. Follow the steps described below to start your affiliate marketing business on Facebook if you are ready.

1. Create a Facebook account: Visit the official Facebook website and enter the necessary details to register.
2. Build connections with people: You can have as many as 5,000 friends on Facebook, but you should focus on potential customers.
3. Create an engaging Facebook page: Create a Facebook page for marketing affiliate products or services with content that includes your referral link.
4. Join Facebook groups: Enter Facebook groups to take advantage of more significant numbers of people with the same interests as you.
5. Create content and promote affiliate offers regularly: Write valuable social media posts, or comment on people’s posts while including your affiliate link in them.

Note that it’s essential to use catchy phrases to make your audience want to click on your affiliate marketing links. Simple terms like “it’s easy to use” or “you don’t need special skills” will motivate people to click. Also, Call to Action words like “get”, “grab”, “check”, “collect”, and “try” are always useful. Above all, remember to create content regularly.

YouTube – Start Affiliate Marketing with Video Content

Many people who started affiliate marketing by creating YouTube videos are now among the biggest earners. You could also make the most of this platform to create organic traffic and send prospective customers directly to an affiliate offer. As with Facebook, you don’t need to spend money to create a YouTube account, and there’s no web hosting fee.

Another reason why YouTube is a fantastic choice for an affiliate marketer is its large number of users. In fact, it’s the second largest social media site with over 2.6 million active users today. This makes it a suitable option because you can base your content ideas on virtually anything. For example, you may decide to review products, entertain, inform, educate or help people solve everyday problems with DIY videos. Anything that will help you generate affiliate sales is worth trying if you can create engaging content.

Consider these steps to start digital marketing on YourTube videos:

1. Create a YouTube account: If you don’t have a YouTube account, you can create one in a matter of minutes with your Gmail address.
2. Create your YouTube channel: Build your own channel with the right name, image and description.
3. Upload engaging video content: Create YouTube videos that will attract the people you want to market affiliate products and upload via the Creator Studio.
4. Use a catchy video title: Write a title that will trigger the desired action to make your audience click and watch.
5. Put your affiliate link in the video description: Start promoting affiliate products on videos by encouraging your viewers to click on your referral link in the description.

Affiliate marketing on YouTube can be fun and rewarding at the same time. But you’ll notice that it’s more demanding than posting affiliate posts on Facebook or Twitter. It will take you more time to create youtube videos, edit them or even start making money. However, you can use other social media accounts to share your videos with more people.

Instagram Affiliate Marketing

Instagram is one of the most visited social media platforms where users can post images of the things they like. It’s primarily a photo-sharing app where people can connect with friends, politicians, musicians, leaders and so on. If you are business-minded, you can easily start affiliate marketing with no money on Instagram. There are so many brands on the platforms, so you can connect with them and help others find the products or services they wish to buy.

It’s estimated that there are more than 1 billion active users on Instagram every month. That’s a vast market to promote affiliate products to, but you don’t need to target everyone. Simply establish your niche and follow people or even retailers who are likely to be looking for the affiliate offer you are trying to sell. Just like other sharing apps, Instagram allows you to post images with short descriptions. And you can share affiliate marketing links to drive your blog or website traffic.

Follow these steps to start affiliate marketing with no money on Instagram:

1. Create an Instagram account: If you don’t have an Instagram account, simply download the Android or iOS app and enter your details to sign up for free.
2. Follow people and brands: Start following other people and the businesses you think would be interested in the products or services you want to market.
3. Research content ideas: Find out what type of content your target group is interested in to develop valuable ideas.
4. Posts and share your affiliate marketing link: Share posts that relate to the product or service you are selling and post your referral link in your bio.
5. Use trending hashtags: As you share your posts, remember to take advantage of trending hashtags to gain access to more prospective customers.

One of the advantages of having Instagram, YouTube and Facebook accounts is that you can use them interchangeably. The point is that you can use your posts to create videos and vice versa. Thus, you don’t need to waste time creating content for each platform.

Twitter Affiliate Marketing With No Money

We cannot talk about affiliate marketing with no money on social platforms without mentioning Twitter. Established in 2006, Twitter is one of the top social sites, with over 300 million active users every month. It’s the go-to platform if you want to find stories about the latest events and news. Aside from sharing posts and communicating with friends, you can follow companies and famous people who enjoy the content you post.

Before you choose Twitter for affiliate posts, note that it’s a bit different regarding character capacity. On a platform like Facebook, for instance, you are free to post very long posts. But you can only share posts with a maximum of 280 characters on Twitter. Therefore, you need to be precise when marketing products on the site or app. The good thing is that Twitter is similar to other social networking sites. That is, anyone on the platform can share photos and posts with descriptions.

Use these steps to start affiliate marketing with no money on Twitter:

1. Create a Twitter: Creating a Twitter account is free and easy – just visit the official site and enter the required details on the registration page.
2. Connect with people and brands: The next step after registering is to connect with other users and brands to have an audience to which you can promote affiliate products.
3. Tweet about trending topics: Stay alert to know what’s trending and find a way to include your affiliate marketing link in your posts.

Twitter is one of the best platforms for sharing posts you’ve posted on other platforms. For example, you can share a link to your affiliate posts on Facebook or YouTube video. This makes it possible to reach more people with a single post featuring your referral links.

Pinterest Affiliate Marketing

Pinterest is another free tool you can use for affiliate marketing without using your own money. With more than 450 million users, this platform is all about visuals. It allows you to share images known as Pins. People who use the Pinterest search engine may come across your Pins as they look for products to buy.

If you would like to use Pinterest for affiliate marketing, remember that most of this platform’s users are women. So, you should consider products that are suitable for this group. As usual, you only need to share your referral link and use the right keywords for the search engine to rank your posts well. Just go to Pinterest and create an account to start posting.

Other Social Platforms: Linkedin, Tiktok, Quora and Snapchat

Can affiliate marketing work on Tiktok or Snapchat? Well, you’ll be delighted to know that a serious affiliate marketer can use virtually any social networking platform to promote products and services. Does the app, website or blog allow you to share posts with images, videos or text? If yes, you can use it to help companies sell their products and services.

Whether you are using Linkedin, TikTok, Snapchat or Quora, the steps you need to follow are almost the same. You’ll need to sign up and build connections by adding friends or following other users on the chosen platform. After that, you must create high-quality content and share posts with your affiliate links. That’s it!

Create a Niche Website or Blog

Creating a niche site or blog is another viable option if you want to start affiliate marketing with no money. If you are considering building your own site, try a free website builder and web hosting services that do not require money. Since you are making a niche website, you must be specific. Your landing page should be well-designed with a lead magnet that will instantly entice your visitors.

When it comes to blogs, you may start blogging on free platforms such as Quora, Blogger and Medium. Also, you can create your own niche blog if that’s what you need to connect with your target group. Whether you are designing a niche website or blog, simply follow the steps described below to make the most of this affiliate marketing approach.

Choose an Industry Based on Your Interests

The list of industries you can focus on is literally endless, as new ones can appear from nowhere. Are you interested in technology, vehicles, furniture or construction? Let’s say you are strongly attracted to technology, so you always want to know what’s new in this sector. But you cannot advertise anything that comes your way, can you?

Select a Niche Within the Industry

Using our previous example of the technology industry, you now need to select a niche. We have things like computers, smartphones, smartwatches, digital clocks and more. Let’s assume you love computers, so you have decided to market laptops, desktops and their accessories. You can even narrow it down to specific brands designed by famous companies.

Find Out if There’s a Market for Your Niche

The next step is to research the market for the selected product. Since we have chosen computers as our example, you need to investigate to see if there’s a market for them. Who are the potential buyers? What’s the best way to lure them into generating sales? These are some of the questions you need to answer at this point.

You can use your niche website or blog to market computers if there’s a market. You may create just one blog post and share it on your niche blog, website, social media or email newsletters. Remember to include your affiliate links for your readers and viewers to click.

Affiliate Marketing Using Free Email Marketing Services

Apart from using social platforms and niche sites, affiliate marketers can promote products using free email marketing services. The best approach is to include email marketing newsletters on your niche site or blog. This guide explains that this option allows you to create a mailing list using lead magnets.

Mailchimp, Sendinblue and MailerLite are among the most used email marketing services you can use. But you’ll need to select the free option with limited subscribers. That’s fair enough for someone who wants to start affiliate marketing with no money.

Follow these simple steps to start free email marketing:

1. Join a free email marketing service: Search for sites offering free email services for marketers, sign up and choose the free plan for beginners.
2. Create a lead magnet: Think about a free offer that you can award your visitors if they register with their emails.
3. Attract customers with your freebie: Share your free offer in your posts on various platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
4. Send newsletters: Now that you have gained subscribers, you can send newsletters with links to your recommended affiliate products.

We must emphasise that you’ll only have limited subscribers if you choose a free emailing plan. For instance, the service provider may only offer you a maximum of 1,000 or 2,000 subscribers. This means it costs money to qualify for a more significant number of subscribers. But you can use the paid option once you try the free plan and succeed.

Tips to Help You Succeed in Affiliate Marketing

Running a successful affiliate marketing business is more than just sharing a referral link with potential customers. You need to be vigilant, taking all possible steps to improve your content marketing skills. We are talking about improving your chances of generating affiliate sales better than your competitors. How do you convert your visitors into buyers? That’s the big question we are trying to answer in the following sections.

Build an Affiliate Marketing Sales Funnel

Every successful affiliate marketer knows how to create a functional affiliate sales funnel. Don’t worry if you have no idea what this means. In simple terms, an affiliate sales funnel is a path designed for customers to follow before buying a company’s product or service. For this reason, it’s sometimes known as the buyer’s journey. You must create one through niche identification, search engine optimisation, high-quality content and attention-grabbing landing pages.

Use Seach Engine Optimization

You want whatever digital marketing content you post online to rank well in online searches. Remember that many people search for products using search engines like Google and Bing. These rely on search engine optimisation or SEO to rank search results. The best-case scenario is to write quality content that appears on top of the list.

You can achieve this by using primary keywords, secondary keywords and related phrases. Think about the words the people you are targeting are likely to type and include them in titles and descriptions for your blog post. YouTube is a search engine, so you must do the same when posting videos.

Create Lead Magnets to Collect Email Addresses

Email marketing campaigns with freebies are among the most effective ways to start affiliate marketing with no money. If you already have a blog or website, you can easily attract customers and generate affiliate sales through what we call lead magnets. We are simply referring to some kind of free offer that your visitors will get once they sign up with their email addresses. For instance, you may reward them with a free eBook. Once they register, you can collect their email addresses and use them to create a mailing list.

Reach Out to Other Influencers

One of the most common sayings you’ve probably heard is that you should walk with other people if you want to go far. The same is true if you want to start affiliate marketing online with no money and succeed. You need to build meaningful relationships with other affiliate marketers who will add value to the way to do digital marketing.

Try to talk to influential people you know, or even contact celebrities if you can. You can then ask them if it’s possible to share your affiliate marketing links on their pages or social media accounts for free. Well, and good if they accept. Another viable option is to ask your friends and acquaintances to help you share your content with your referral link.

Promote Products or Services for Different Companies

Why stick with one affiliate program or company when there are so many free options to choose from? Think about how many products and services are there to market today. Of course, you cannot start promoting everything, but you can select various options.

Try to partner with as many companies as possible and select different affiliate programs. This way, you can market a broad range of products and services to a wider audience. But make sure that you can handle the workload; otherwise, it would be better to focus on a specific product or service. Just do what you can where possible.

Monitor Your Performance all the Time

It certainly helps to know how many users see and click your affiliate marketing links. If possible, find a way to check the click-through rate (CTR) to understand how well you are doing. You can easily track your results by using affiliate links for each product or service. After doing this, you can use email marketing to share newsletters with a link back to your affiliate website. This will not only help you promote affiliate products but also see which ones are generating sales more than others.

Watch Out for the Latest Affiliate Marketing Trends

The online marketing industry keeps growing every day, and you don’t want to be left in the dark when something new emerges. To run a successful affiliate marketing business, you must know what’s happening in your sector. Watch the relevant news, read articles and collaborate with the company you work for to find out what’s new. Look for new influencers you don’t know and see if you can work with them to earn more money.

Never Give Up No Matter What

As they say, winners never quit. You cannot quit if your first YouTube video or social media post fails to produce your desired results. Affiliate marketing is a process that requires hard work and dedication. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme as some uninformed people might think. You must continuously create exciting and informative content to appeal to potential customers. That will obviously not happen in one day, so you must keep trying.

Final Words

Now you know how to start affiliate marketing with no money at all. As explained in this guide, you only need to identify a niche, find an affiliate program and utilise the most effective way to generate traffic. You can market affiliate products and services to potential users for free using social networks, a niche site, blog posts and email marketing.

The affiliate marketing approaches discussed here entail sharing posts, videos or email messages with affiliate links that consumers can click. Hopefully, they will visit the company’s website and check the products or services you are advertising. The ultimate goal is to convince them to buy and consequently earn a commission on successful sales.

Building an affiliate business with no money is certainly possible, but you must be patient because it can take time. But the long wait is worth it if you consider the potential benefits. You could make enough money to live on if you run a successful marketing business. With that said, you can grow your affiliate business faster by investing in paid ads if you want.