Before we start talking about how to make money with affiliate marketing, I think it would be helpful to discuss what Affiliate Marketing is and how it works.
Affiliate marketing has a lot in common with commissioned sales. You promote/recommend someone else’s product and earn a percentage of the sales as a commission.
It is the fastest and easiest way to monetize your content if you’re an aspiring influencer or blogger because you don’t have to create the product yourself.
Think for a moment about all the times that you have recommended a product to a friend or someone you know.
Technically, that was affiliate marketing. You just didn’t get paid!
In this blog post, I want you to think about affiliate marketing as a form of monetization and not as a job in and of itself. Whatever way you choose to make content, you need to look at affiliate marketing just one way to monetize that content.
And remember, earning income through this form of monetization is a long game. Blogging, creating short-form videos for TikTok or Instagram, you can start monetizing your content from Day 1, but you might not make any money on day 1.
Ok, let’s get into it.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products and services I genuinely believe in.
Step 1: Pick a Niche
Now that we know what affiliate marketing is and what it is not, here is your first simple step to start affiliate marketing with no money.
You need to pick a topic that you will create content around. There’s a lot of noise out there around the best ways to pick a niche, and this is just my opinion.
You want to pick a niche that intersects something you find interesting and something that others are also interested in learning more about.
The top 3 best niches, very broadly speaking, for affiliate marketing are:
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Health
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Wealth, and
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Relationships
These are extremely broad topics. I heard a phrase once and I could not tell you who said it, but it has stuck with me.
“The Riches are in the Niches.” – Unknown
Targeting one of those 3 broad niches is a good place to start. But true success is going to come from niching down into a much more specific topic and finding an angle to target a specific audience.
For example, don’t just talk about health. Talk about recipes for managing gestational diabetes, a form of diabetes that only affects pregnant women. This is still in the health niche but has a much more specific audience.
That’s just one example. And it is true that whatever niche you pick has to be a topic that other people want to learn about.
If it’s not a topic that others want to learn about, then no one will view/read your content. And then they won’t see your affiliate links, and you won’t make any money.
But I also believe that if it’s not a topic that you are interested in, then you will not want to make content on that topic for the long haul. And when things get slow or hard, you will be more likely to give up.
Step 2: Pick a Product
While I personally think that the best way to make money with affiliate marketing is to choose a high-ticket product, those products are often not free and can require a pretty substantial investment.
If you’re looking to start affiliate marketing with no money, then your best bet is to sign up for the Amazon Associates program.
As an Amazon Associate, you can promote any products from Amazon that are relevant to your niche. Amazon has thousands, hundreds of thousands of products to choose from. And their website is built and designed to make sales.
It is genuinely difficult to go on Amazon and not see something you want to add to your cart.
There are lots of other affiliate programs out there, like CJ Affiliate, Digistore24, CopeCart, or Clickbank. Many of them require you to apply to their programs.
But here’s why I recommend that you start with Amazon Associates.
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I’m willing to bet you have already bought something from Amazon. This is important because a key part of affiliate marketing ethically is to only promote products that you have used and love.
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The barrier to entry is very very very low. It’s free to apply. Amazon has a very simple application process and you don’t have to have a large following or anything like to be accepted. And they give you 6 months to make 3 commissions in order to stay in the program. Plenty of time to grow your audience.
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(Almost) Everyone knows and buys from Amazon. Amazon has big brand recognition. And lots of people around the world have an Amazon account so when they click on your link they are being taken somewhere very familiar and comfortable to them. And Amazon’s website does the conversion work for you.
I will caveat that these things make Amazon a great place for beginners and people looking to start with no money, but the commissions are usually very low.
You’ll definitely want to move on to something like a high-ticket affiliate program when you have more cash to invest.
Step 3: Create Your Content
This is the part that everyone gets wrong about affiliate marketing. Marketing is not sales.
Marketing is all about lead generation.
The final step is to start creating content on the platform of your choice to start generating leads to the products that you are promoting.
You can monetize content from just about any platform. Here are my top 3 choices:
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Affiliate Marketing on Instagram – create short-form (5-7 sec) videos that lead people to your affiliate link.
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Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest – create pins that are shoppable and tag your affiliate products in the pin.
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Affiliate Marketing with Blogging – a blog is a great place to host a lot of different but related affiliate links that make sense within the context of the post.
The best part is that all three of these options are 100% free. So if you’re looking to start affiliate marketing with no money, then you can just create a free social media account or even a free blog.
It’s that simple!
As you create more and more content, your audience will grow. As your audience grows, you will drive traffic (leads) to your affiliate links. And when those leads convert, that is when you will earn a commission.
No start up investment required.
Final Thoughts
Although affiliate marketing is a very simple concept, it’s not easy.
There are lots of individuals out there who have tried and failed to earn money from affiliate marketing. Most of the time it’s because they didn’t quite understand it and probably gave up too soon.
The upside of affiliate marketing is that there really isn’t any cap on the amount that you can earn. You get out of it what you put into it.
It does take some time to build up an audience and start seeing that first trickle of income, but there is no other business that I can think of that you can start with no money like this.
Want instant access to the same free beginner training that I used to get started with affiliate marketing? Click HERE!
This masterclass is full of free strategies and explains the simple steps to get started with affiliate marketing quietly, simply, and realistically.
~ @iamtheaccidentalaffiliate
