In this article, we discussed how to start affiliate marketing with no money, meaning of affiliate marketing, types and how it works.
Definition
Affiliate marketing is a way for you (the affiliate) to earn a commission for recommending products or services to your friends or readers.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work
Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing where a company (a.k.a. advertiser or merchant) pays a third party (affiliate or publisher) a commission for marketing its products or services.
The parties involved are the business, the affiliate, and the customer. The company creates the affiliate program. The affiliate signs up for the program to promote that business. The customer makes a purchase.
Types of Affiliate Marketing
Based on the level of association with the promoted product, here are three main types of affiliate marketing:
- Unattached affiliate marketing. In this setting, the affiliate marketer has no relevant background or authority in the product or service they advertise. For example, a fashion blog showing gym product banner ads.
- Related affiliate marketing. It focuses on promoting products that align closely with an affiliate’s area of expertise or niche. For instance, if you have worked at a cafe before, you can use the knowledge to recommend coffee brewing machines.
- Involved affiliate marketing. Unlike the other two types, it requires direct involvement from the marketer. Using the above example, instead of relying on your experience as a barista, you actually try every brewing machine to provide reliable reviews, which can be much more convincing
Steps to start affiliate marketing with no money
Anyone can become a successful affiliate marketer. While you don’t need money to start, you will need other resources, like time, creativity, and patience, to make affiliate marketing work.
Choose your marketing channels
Since you’ll be starting with zero, your traffic channels are limited to popular social media platforms. But, don’t be discouraged. There are 4.48 billion social media users, making it a great place to attract potential customers and earn an affiliate income.
You can use every platform to share your affiliate marketing content. Still, we don’t advise this. In theory, you can maximize your reach, but it’s not very practical.
YouTube
YouTube is one of the best platforms to run affiliate marketing campaigns. That’s because video content drives 82% of internet traffic. Furthermore, you can optimize YouTube videos to show up on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Another advantage of using YouTube is the platform pays content creators through ads. You can invest some of this money in your affiliate business to speed up your growth.
Instagram has advanced from a photo-sharing app to include three video formats. However, the platform has one obvious drawback. You can’t share an affiliate link on your posts. There is only one clickable link in the bio section, making Instagram affiliate marketing tricky.
Facebook is the largest social media platform, with almost 3 billion monthly active users. The social site allows marketers to post an affiliate link in posts and comments. Don’t use your personal profile and bombard your friends and family with marketing messages. Instead, create a separate Facebook page or group and build your audience there. Alternatively, you can convert your personal account into a business page.
LinkedIn’s audience is professionals, making it ideal for B2B marketing. The platform offers several ways to incorporate affiliate links – its blog (hurray for SEO), personal posts, company posts, and direct messages.
Choose a niche
A common mistake beginner affiliate marketers make is selling products from different niches at once. Would you buy dog food from a craft shop? Not likely. Likewise, customers don’t trust online security tips from someone who blogs about skincare.
Therefore, choose a niche and stick to it. It will help you build credibility, authority, and trust among niche audiences.
Below are some factors to consider when choosing a niche.
Your interests
Profitability
Demand
Competition
The simplest way to find a niche is to identify your interests. It’s easier to promote affiliate products you’re well-informed or passionate about. Good, you’re already familiar with the target audience.
As an involved affiliate, you can give recommendations based on personal experience. That gives you an edge in an age where social proof is the biggest motivator for buying decisions.
Join an Affiliate Program
Once you’ve settled on a niche, identify the best affiliate programs in that industry. You can do this in a few ways:
Search for affiliate programs on your preferred search engine
Join an affiliate network and search there
Look at the programs other affiliates promote
See if brands similar to the ones you already offer have affiliate programs
All of these options are free. Share Sale is one of many top affiliate networks that don’t charge to join,
Use the right keywords
The best way to get your content in front of your target audience is to incorporate their search terms. For instance, prospects searching for keto recipes may use words like ‘keto,’ ‘keto meal plan,’ or ‘what to eat on keto’ to find that content.
Keywords are a vital SEO tool for bloggers. After all, the right keywords make your content visible on search engines. Keywords also increase content visibility on social media websites. On these platforms, they can take the form of hashtags.
Create relevant and engaging content
Now that you have the right keywords, you must ensure that the content prospects find is of the highest quality. Content marketing is about providing value to potential customers. Moreover, search engines and social platforms reward high-quality content with higher rankings and more visibility.
Keep up with audience engagement
Customer engagement is a crucial element of every affiliate marketing strategy. Customers expect meaningful online interactions. According to Gallup insights, engaged customers are loyal and generate more revenue than the average customer.
So, to build a thriving affiliate business, you need to build relationships with audiences. It starts with responding to comments and questions in a timely fashion. Fast responses show followers you care about what they have to say.
What are the pros of affiliate marketing?
Usually, for something to be a good business idea it needs to have more pros than cons. Those pros also need to outweigh the cons in terms of how good they actually are. Fortunately, that’s the case with affiliate marketing.
- Low or zero-cost business idea
One of the biggest draws for affiliate marketing is that you can do it without spending a penny.
All you need is a platform that produces content. This can be a social media outlet or a website. A website will have some small costs involved, but nothing that breaks the bank. It’ll be things like buying your domain and your hosting fees.
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Whatever you choose, as long as you create a steady stream of traffic, your affiliate link will be working for you.
You don’t need to be a marketing expert
You don’t need a degree or diploma to get started with affiliate marketing. Sure, it’ll help, but it’s definitely not required.
The most successful affiliate marketers find their sweet spot by just being honest about the product and themselves. Simply sharing your experiences about a product or service honestly is marketing.
You can hedge the bets in your favors by learning some key marketing tips. Mostly though, people will be guided by your honest experience.
Mobile and convenient second source of income
You can manage your affiliate marketing gig from anywhere. That also means you can earn money from anywhere. You won’t be tied down to specific locations (unless you’re promoting suntan lotion, in which case you’ll likely need a sunny area).
It also means you don’t have to leave your current job. Just a little extra effort and time on social media or your website will ensure it’s up and running. Once it has traction, regular maintenance will turn it into a sort of passive income.
What are the cons of affiliate marketing?
There are some downsides to affiliate marketing as well.
- Competition can be everywhere
Some of the same reasons that got you started could work for someone else as well. Because of the low barrier of entry, the market for a specific niche you choose could have many other people.
Some of these people could also be doing it full time or have some expertise in the specific field. That may make things a bit more competitive. Remember that persistence and hard work will put you further ahead of many of your competitors.
- You don’t control the reward
Since you’re just an affiliate, you have no control over the rules or rewards the merchant sets out. Your only option is to follow them and possibly suggest changes if you have a large enough following.
You also can’t impact the product’s quality if it takes a sudden downturn. That means you could be promoting something you don’t believe in.
Conclusion
Affiliate marketing can be an excellent way to make some extra cash.
Yes, you can start doing it without a single penny. Although, it’s better if you have at least two pennies to rub together.