Many people are discouraged when wanting to start affiliate marketing with no money. Either because of lack of money to start, or thinking it is too complicated.
But, in today’s article I will show you that you can start Affiliate Marketing with no money, start earning money online and start your profitable online business without any money and in few quick and easy to follow steps.
Keep reading to learn more.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
According to Investopedia:
Affiliate marketing is an advertising model in which a company compensates third-party publishers to generate traffic or leads to the company’s products and services. The third-party publishers are affiliates, and the commission fee incentivizes them to find ways to promote the company.
Why is Affiliate Marketing a business model you want to be pursuing?
Affiliate Marketing as a business model is very interesting for beginners, as there is a way to start with no previous experience and with no money to start. Basically you do not need your own product, there is no need for support team, you do not handle anything like shipping, returns, refunds…
You just drive traffic to those affiliate products and when someone purchases, you get a commission.
Basically, Affiliate Marketing works in few easy steps:
- Find and join an affiliate program
- Get an unique affiliate link for each product you want to promote
- Share those links on your blog, social media platforms, or website
- Get a commission when someone uses your links and make a purchase.
Some Affiliate Marketing Statistics
According to FindStack, below are some numbers related to Affiliate Marketing in 2021:
- It’s estimated that 80% of brands have affiliate programs
- Affiliate marketing spending is projected to grow by over 10% in the next couple of years
- Globally, the USA has the largest market share in the affiliate industry, with over 39% share
- Affiliate marketing accounts for over 16% of all eCommerce orders in the USA and Canada
- Nearly 65% of affiliate marketers worldwide generate traffic by blogging alone
- Affiliate marketing accounts for over 15% of all digital media revenue
- Statistics reveal that 94% of publishers use multiple affiliate marketing networks
How to start Affiliate Marketing with no money?
There are several way to make money using affiliate marketing and build your online presence.
Start a Blog
The ultimate goal of your Affiliate Marketing efforts should be to start a blog in your niche (similar to this one). That blog or website will server as main hub to everything you do and represent as a brand.
Of course, starting a blog is a slow process, and beyond the scope of this particular article. But, even if you follow the tips in this guide, I suggest you start it. You can start a blog with no money on Medium, WordPress, Blogger, Google Sites or similar sites.
Create a Social Presence
Establish your Social Presence is free and easy. Open Facebook Page, Instagram Profile or TikTok account and just start adding content related to your niche and products you want to promote.
Social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and so on are packed with millions of users. You can easily integrate links into your posts or bios on those platforms and see the results.
Just make sure to follow their rules and guidance to avoid being banned, so no spamming or selling prohibited stuff.
Start a YouTube channel
One of the best long term strategy is starting your YouTube Channel . Then use your YouTube channel as a source of traffic for your website or Landing pages.
How to actually do this properly?
Use Landing Pages
In order to set up your Affiliate Marketing business properly and not as a spammer, the first thing you need is a Landing Page.
Landing Page is a, well, page to which you send people interested in your offer.
In the old days of Affiliate Marketing (so called Affiliate Marketing 1.0), people used to spam direct affiliate links all over the internet. When people clicked on the links, some of them bought the prooduct.
You got a commission out of those people. But, what about people who clicked and did not buy? They were lost forever to an aspiring young affiliate marketer and did not hold any value.
Then came Affiliate Marketing 2.0 which realized there is a problem and solved the problem by using Email Lists as a form of marketing.
So, the flow changed in a way that you sent your traffic to a Landing Page, which was a form of entry or bridge page for your offer, where you explained everything and if a person is interested, he entered email and/or name in an opt-in form and was then taken to the affiliate link.
This way, both new customers and people who did not actually buy, were on your Email List and in your Email Sequence (basically a set of emails sent to them every couple of days).
That way, you provided more value to people that did not buy and will potentially buy in the future. And also, you can now send any future related offers to those people on your email list.
This is very important thing in Affiliate Marketing. It is said that 1 person on your email list is worth $1 a month!
Use Funnels
Funnels are basically a set of pages somehow connected to each other. Basically, you can have a simple 2 page Funnel which consists of a Landing Page and a Thank You page.
In most cases, in Affiliate Marketing 2.5 you are giving away something for free in exchange for people giving you their email address. For example, Free ebook, Free Infographic, Checklist or a Course.
After they give you your email, they are taken to a Thank You Page where you deliver that, so called, Lead Magnet and thank them, but in the same time you hook them to, usually a low ticket offer (something cheap) which then takes them to the actual affiliate offer.
Free Tools I use to start Affiliate Marketing with no money
GetResponse email provider – Free Forever Plan
Introducing GetResponse Free-Forever. Yes, it’s real and it’s spectacular. Free. Forever-ever.
GetResponse is actually an email marketing software. It is used for setting up email lists and send Newsletters and similar.
But recently, they added an excellent small Page builder which you can use to build your Landing Pages. For free.
Their free plan is forever free for up to 500 Contacts, which is more than enough for you to start affiliate marketing with no money.
After you come to the 500 Contacts, you can pay for a plan to get more stuff which is around $15/month. But at this point, you already have income that will cover it.
Systeme.io funnel builder and email provider – Free Forever Plan
Now we are going to see how you can get a full blown Funnel Builder with all the features of Clickfunnels (which is starting at $97/month) for absolutely $0 forever and ever!
The software is called Systeme.io and is much more than just a Funnel Builder.
With the systeme.io Free plan, you’ll be equipped with everything you need to get your business up and running, without spending a dime. You’ll be able to:
- Create sales funnels
- Send unlimited emails
- Have unlimited membership site members
- Integrate Stripe and Paypal with your payment pages
- Run your affiliate program
- Have unlimited storage space
- Create a blog
- Have up to 2000 contacts!
Just to name a few. You’ll have access to all of these features for free, forever.
Simply create a 2-page sales funnel that we talked above, with a squeeze page and a thank you page after someone gets into your email list.
On your squeeze page, you’ll need a unique value proposition (UVP) — this is a free offer that you provide in exchange for someone’s email list.
Keep in mind that this isn’t a bait offer, it’s simply a valuable free offer that will encourage people to subscribe to your list.
The content that you provide can be in the form of a video presentation or PDF, as long as it is of some value to the lead.
You can even start selling right after someone has opted into your email list, like we talked before.
Conclusion
I have shown that it is possible to start affiliate marketing with no money. There are several useful totally free tools to get you started in no time.
In one of the next articles we will cover how to start with Affiliate Marketing 3.0 and scale/extend what we learned today into an even more profitable and sustainable business.
This article would be too big to cover all the things related on how to start affiliate marketing with no money, so feel free to go to my YouTube channel, where there are videos covering all the other topics or just browse around this blog to get valuable tips and tricks on how to start affiliate marketing with no money.
Remember, if you need a solid start on more things than covered here for free, you can always get my Free Ebook with 7 Steps To Become A Super Affiliate (you see what I did here)?
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