Affiliate marketing doesn’t have to be an expensive enterprise. It can be if you get heavily into paid advertising (say Facebook Ads) for promotions, but really affiliate marketing can be done quite successfully without spending much. How many other businesses can claim that?
How To Do Affiliate Marketing On a Budget
For starters, do as much free stuff as you possibly can. If something can be achieved free of charge, then take that route. Eventually you will have to start spending some money or your business just won’t be able to grow to the point you want it to reach, but initially, to get you started, there are plenty of free ways to get up and running.
As an example, I did some training with Wealthy Affiliate so I could learn how to set up my affiliate marketing business the right way. One big advantage to Wealthy Affiliate is you can join as a free member, which gives you access to the first 10 lessons of their easy to follow training, and they even allow you to create and host 2 websites for free on their platform.
So technically, by joining Wealthy Affiliate, you can get a start in this business and even make 2 affiliate sites without it costing you a cent. So long as you already have a computer and the internet, you’re good to go.
They do have an upgrade to a Premium membership at Wealthy Affiliate, which costs $49 per month, but it’s worth it so you can complete all of their training and even host up to 50 websites on their servers.
Spend Money One Step At a Time
Naturally you will need to spend some money along the way to grow your business, but take it one step at a time. Don’t spend a bunch of money of tools, memberships and whatever else all at once. For example, upgrade your Wealthy Affiliate membership and buy a domain name for your website (much more credibility with your very own domain), then sit on this for a while, finish the training there and build out the content on your website.
After a while you may start a second website and buy another domain, or join an email marketing company such as Aweber or GetResponse, or even get into paid advertising.
Whatever your expenditure happens to be, just spread it out so it’s not a burden on you financially. There’s no need to be stressed out while starting an affiliate marketing business. Just take your time with everything, and that includes spending money.
Spend As You Earn
This is a wise way of doing things. As your affiliate marketing business starts to earn income, use that income to expand your enterprise. This way you won’t be spending your own money and it will really feel like the business is supporting itself.
There’s No Deadline For Online Business Success
Don’t be in a hurry. Take your time to learn and to do things the right way. Spend wisely and only when you need to. Success online is there for everyone if you go about it the right way, and it doesn’t need to break the bank.
Darren Burton
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I do have a really low budget to invest in an online business and your post really gives me all the points I need to consider before starting out online especially if I have a low budget.
If i join WA then the only thing I would need to pay is the membership fees, right? Oh, yes and a one time fee for the domain purchase.
That’s right. If you join Wealthy Affiliate and upgrade to a Premium Membership (recommended), then you really only need that and a domain name to really get rolling. Down the track you will likely spend on other tools and things, but generally your website will be making some money by then.
Hi Darren,
This is a great post about the truth behind affiliate marketing. So many people aren’t willing to put in their own effort financially and expect to reap the rewards. Wealthy Affiliate is a great place to start to get your business growing, and definitely worth the investment!
Thanks for a great read,
Sophie
Hi Sophie. Glad you liekd the post. Yes affiliate marketing can work out very well if people are willing to put some time and effort into it and treat it like a business. And Wealthy Affiliate is a great place to get started. Cheers.
Hello Darren
A real pleasure to read your post on starting affiliate marketing on a tight budget.I`m just getting started online and money is an issue so these are tips I can really use to benefit from till I start making money(if I can make money after all)
Now you mention Facebook ads, I do spend time on social media but did not realize you can put paid advertisements there.
Now you mention starting a second website, what`s the point in having two websites? I have read different blogs all saying to concentrate on one blog.
Not only from reading other blogs but since I got started, I find that it takes alot of work to keep a site running smoothly, affiliate products to find, backlinks, website comments, social media and writing content, all these are really time-consuming and I wonder how it`s possible to have a 2nd website.
Now you mention real ways to make money that is free to get started, what`s the catch? in my time online, I have come to learn that nothing is free online.
Very informative and things well explained, thanks for sharing.
,
Well, there are 2 reasons you could start a second site. If your first website just really looks like it’s dead in the water or underperforming, it can be a good idea to try a different niche that might prove more successful. The second reason is, once you have one site up and running and doing well, get a second one going so you can increase your income, as well as give you a safety net in case the first website dies off for some reason. Once you are making money you can always outsource some of the writing work and maintenance tasks so it doesn’t eat up all your time.
There’s no catch with my recommendation. You start with a free trial (that’s free for as long as you like), with one optional paid memebrship upgrade to have complete access to everything.
Thanks for stopping by.