Table of Contents
Author
Kyle Dana
Director of Marketing
Education
How to Start Affiliate Marketing with No Money
March 16, 2023
8 Min. Read
All right, this is it...You’re ready to become an affiliate marketer. You heard about affiliate marketing and you’ve decided it’s the best thing you can do to kickstart your stream of passive income.
So, what’s getting in your way?
Money?
No worries... You can start doing affiliate marketing for free!
Getting started in any industry with no money sounds like a difficult task. However, you’ll be happy to know there’s not one, but three ways you can make money from affiliate marketing without spending a dime!
We’re going to explain exactly how. Even if you are a complete beginner just starting out.
How to Choose a Product to Promote
There are a few different ways you can go about finding the best affiliate marketing product or offer to start promoting. First, you need to pick a niche.
The niche you choose should be something that fits in with your interests. Promoting something you love will always be easier, so think about what gets you excited. What are your hobbies? You might decide that you love going to the gym or practicing yoga so your niche could be health and fitness.
Whatever your interests are, you will be able to find products in need of affiliate promotion. The best affiliate marketing niche for you is the one that you are truly passionate about - or at least like to some degree. Once you have decided on your niche, you need to find products.
How can you find products to promote?
The most efficient way to get started with affiliate marketing is to sign up to an affiliate platform, like Digistore24. They are free to join and give you access to a huge range of products that need promoting from affiliates. You can start making money without even needing to pay to use the platform, which is perfect for anyone wanting to start affiliate marketing for free.
If you're ready to become an affiliate marketer, you can create a free account with Digistore24 right now!
How to Start Affiliate Marketing for Free
Every affiliate marketer has to start somewhere. We were all beginners at some point. Just because you don’t currently have wads of cash to throw at affiliate marketing, it doesn’t mean you can’t have success. Below are three free ways you can start your affiliate marketing career right now.
Here’s how to start affiliate marketing with no money:
1. Use your personal social media
2. Review things you love
3. Start blogging
Sounds easy? That’s because it is! You may find this hard to believe but not everything in life has to be difficult. Anyone can become an affiliate marketer with just a few simple steps. Let’s take a look at these steps in a little more detail.
1. Use Your Personal Social Media
Assuming you haven’t been living in a cave for the last 10 years, you probably already have some social media accounts. Social media is a huge source of clicks for affiliate marketers.
Why?
74% of users trust social networks to guide them to make a purchase. Most of us prefer to buy something someone we trust has recommended, and this applies to social media. If a friend or an influencer we like recommends a product, it makes us trust the product more.
So how can you use your social media for affiliate marketing without using paid ads?
Here’s a breakdown of some of the ways you can use social media for free:
- Add affiliate links to posts you make on Facebook; you can have up to 5,000 friends, which is a nice size network to start marketing to.
- Join groups related to the product you are promoting. Find the pages and groups of people that are talking about your niche or topics related to it.
- Comment on everything. Ok maybe not everything, but if you find a conversation that’s related to your niche, why not add a comment to point people to the product you are advertising.
- Start conversations. Find out what problems the people in your network have and try to match products to their needs.
Affiliate marketing on Facebook is a huge industry because it works. Paid ads are great if you have some money to put into your marketing, but if not, you can start making sales just with the profile you already have and some well-placed links.
2. Review Things You Love
Affiliate marketing on YouTube is one of the best ways to get started. You don’t need amazing technical skills; a phone, and some half-decent lighting and you’re ready to go. Review videos are such a common thing online that we don’t even consider them as an income stream. You have probably watched a review video yourself in the past before making a decision to buy something.
Simply explain exactly why you love the product, how it helps you, and what problems it solves. The video can be as basic or as crazy as you like; your personality can help create an online presence so don’t be afraid to let your weirdo flag fly.
Remember that YouTube channels usually have a theme. Reviewing cereal, fish food, and Star Wars Lego packs don’t really go together. You need to pick an area you’re going to cover and try to stick to it or at least to related products your audience might like.
Find social media groups that are focused on your niche and see what those people are talking about. Find out what products they like and what issues they have to give you some ideas of what you could review.
3. Start Blogging
If you already have a blog, this is going to be super easy to get started with. You can check out our article on how to start a blog for affiliate marketing if you haven’t already got one. Once you have a simple blog ready, you can start writing posts.
Creating content is all about giving value to the user. People don’t read articles unless they are providing some kind of information or entertainment. Find out what problems people have in your niche, then position your article to offer the solution. You can use social media to research the keywords your audience is using. Then once you know what the problems are, create articles with solutions.
There are many different types of articles you can use to promote your chosen products. However, in our experience, product review articles work really well for affiliate marketing. These articles are usually numbered lists in which you review the best 5 (or any number really) products related to your niche. This could be an article on the top 5 health supplements to start your fitness journey or the best online courses in cryptocurrency. They are simple to create and super useful for any reader trying to make a purchase decision.
Writing blog posts is simple... getting them seen is the harder part. Make sure you include any keywords around your topic in the titles and subheadings where appropriate and get sharing! Share the article with everyone you know and on social media. If you are creating useful content, people will keep coming back to your blog because they trust you.
Affiliate Marketing Tips
Now that you know three ways of making money with affiliate marketing without spending a dime, you can get started on! Before you rush off to make your first YouTube review video or write a blog post, we’re going to give you some of our affiliate marketers’ expert tips.
Free Affiliate Marketing Tips:
- Don’t spam links - if you post way too many links all over the place, people won’t trust you, plus you’re likely to get kicked off a bunch of platforms.
- Find a niche, but be flexible - having a topic to focus on is great but don’t be afraid to take on new opportunities. The beauty of affiliate marketing is if something doesn’t work for you, you can try something else.
- Find your audience - marketing to someone who wants to buy the product you are promoting can be a challenge sometimes, never mind if they have no interest in the product at all. Think about who your audience is, who needs this product and where do they hang out. Are they on YouTube? Are they on Instagram?
- Be patient - it can be difficult waiting but sometimes that’s exactly what you have to do to see a profit. Once a YouTube review or blog starts making money, you can leave it live indefinitely so it can be a long-term source of income. Just don’t expect miracles on day one.
- Not everything will work - that first video you made might not make money. Or the first 16 might and the 17th might be a flop. You need to be consistent and keep putting out content and just be aware that not every single piece of content you create is going to work.
How to Make Your First Sale in Affiliate Marketing
If you want to learn more affiliate marketing tips for begginers, including how to make your first sale as a newbie, check out this episode of Affiliate Marketing Academy.
Conclusion
Starting an affiliate marketing business with no money can be a daunting task, but it is possible.
By utilizing free resources like YouTube, social media, and blogging platforms, you can get your affiliate marketing off the ground with very little financial risk. With some time and dedication, you can build an effective online business that generates passive income. So, if you ever wondered if its possible to start affiliate marketing with no money, now you've got your answer.
Go out there and give it a try!
And we hope you’ve found this article useful.
Want to become a Digistore24 affiliate? Simply go here to register for free.
Author
Kyle Dana
Director of Marketing
Kyle has over a decade of digital marketing experience, including successfully launching & growing several e-commerce brands - using SEO, content marketing, social media, and more. Prior to becoming Director of Marketing at Digistore24, Kyle was an 8-figure affiliate marketer and email list manager.
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