Quick Start to Building an Affiliate Marketing Business

Are you among the thousands of people who get on the Internet every single day trying to figure out how to make money online? The biggest problem you face is you have no clue where to start or how to do it. One of the easiest ways to quickly start earning money online is to become an affiliate marketer and build an affiliate marketing business.

If you’re like most people, you’re probably on a tight budget. After all, the reason for becoming an affiliate for any product(s) is to boost your income. You’ll discover that you need to purchase your own domain, pay for hosting, build a website, fork out big bucks for an autoresponder service, and so on.

You’re discovering that you need money to make money. How many times have you heard that over the years?

Is it true? Well, yes and no.

While motivational gurus spout statements such as, “It’s not about your resources, but your resourcefulness…”, the truth is you can’t multiply by zero.

You’ll need money to pay for different fixed and recurring costs in your business. That’s a given.

If that means you need to prioritize your budget to get your affiliate business off the ground or get a second job to pay for the services you need, you may have to do it. That’s being resourceful.

Ways You Can Start Your Affiliate Marketing Business

However, suppose you’re financially strapped and can’t possibly get a second job because your first one is too demanding. In that case, there are a couple of ways you can start your affiliate marketing business for free.

Step 1: You Can Start with a Free Blog or Website

Several platforms will allow you to have a free blog or website. The catch here is that you’ll have no control over the advertising that appears on your site. Another risk is that you’ll need to conform to the rules of the platform.

If they believe you’re violating their rules, they could boot you out without giving you any notice. Countless beginner marketers have lost their businesses overnight by “building their houses on rented land.”

So, your goal is to build a free website. Once you’re generating sales, you should immediately buy a domain and hosting for your affiliate marketing business so that you’re in control of your business.

Here are a few free platforms you can use:

WordPress.com – https://wordpress.com/
Blogger.com – https://www.blogger.com

Either of these platforms is all you need for now. Again, be sure to read the Terms of Service and abide by the rules.

Medium is another platform that will help you build an audience. On Medium, you won’t be allowed to build a website, but you will be allowed to post articles on their platform.

You could potentially earn some money for the articles you write if you join their Partner Program. Membership to the program is also free.

Medium gets a lot of traffic and has the potential for ranking for low-hanging keywords you may wish to target. From there, it’s just a matter of publishing more targeted articles and getting affiliate sales.

Step 2: Join Affiliate Programs and Get Your Affiliate Links

It should be free to join most affiliate programs. Places like ClickBank, Amazon Associates, CJ Affiliate, ShareASale, Rakuten Marketing, and so on are free to join. Go ahead and sign up and get your links.

While ClickBank does not require you to have a website to become an affiliate, Amazon Associates does. Learn as much as you can about the affiliate programs that interest you. Be sure to read the requirements before you sign up.

Don’t bother with programs that require you to “pay to play.” What this means is you need to purchase a monthly subscription to the software, service, etc.

Only then will you be able to promote their products. That’s just hogwash, so don’t fall into that dark money-sucking hole.

There are tons of excellent affiliate products that you can promote for free without having to jump through complicated and expensive hoops.

Step 3: Generate Free Traffic to Your Affiliate Marketing Business

Since money is tight, paid ads are probably not an option in the beginning. The next best way to generate traffic to your pages is to siphon it from high traffic social media websites and platforms.

You can sign up with YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google. And don’t ignore Pinterest, as it will also work for you to generate free traffic.

It’s important to know that free traffic takes time, especially with social media. For social media to work, you need to show up routinely. That takes time away from your other tasks. You need to learn to balance your “traffic-generating” efforts with your “money-making” efforts.

You won’t generate massive traffic overnight. You’ll need to create content consistently and almost daily to get reach and traction.

If your content is valuable and top-notch, you’ll build a following and have people clicking on your affiliate links or article links. So, go ahead and create accounts in the different social media platforms and;

Start making videos and post them on YouTube.
Set up a Facebook group and a fan page and start posting content.
Write articles on your niche and post them on Medium.
Start tweeting your articles/videos/etc.
Use Canva.com to create promotional materials you can use. It’s free to sign up.

Once again, it’s important to remember that social media sites are not your web properties, so you’re never totally safe with them. The goal is to generate sales until you have enough money to build your website and list. These are the assets your affiliate marketing business needs to grow and prosper.

Step 4: Putting it all Together

One way to start is writing and posting useful articles on Medium; you’ll embed your affiliate links in the posts. Just remember to disclose affiliate links, as per the guidelines, and don’t overdo it. Moderation is the key here.

As long as your content is interesting, you’ll have readers clicking on your links and reaching the sales page of the product you’re promoting. That is your main objective.

Point your YouTube videos, Facebook posts, tweets, etc., to your Medium article. Your audience will read your article; this is how you pre-sell the reader by providing more information and value.

Once you build trust with your audience, your chances of getting the sale will be much higher.

With all your content, your Medium account will act as a hub-site for your affiliate marketing business. The free traffic methods you employ will siphon traffic from different platforms and point them to your Medium hub-site.

Then it’s just a matter of time for the traffic to convert into sales if your content is credible and persuasive.

Conclusion

Don’t give up if you don’t become a millionaire overnight. That’s just unrealistic. Give yourself 6 to 12 months to see your efforts pay off. Yes, the process is slow, but it is rewarding. The more effort you put into your affiliate business, the more rewards you’ll reap.

Once you see the commissions coming in, invest in your business. Purchase a domain to brand your business, a web hosting service, and an autoresponder. Building your mailing list will help elevate your marketing to the next level and skyrocket your commissions.

This guide is the best way to bootstrap your fledgling business from scratch to affiliate marketing success.