How to start an online business with no money? Can you even do that? Yes, you can! I know it’s too good to be true, but this isn’t impossible.
Let me assure you, at the end of this article, you’ll learn about a business from which you can earn thousands of dollars with no investment. I won’t lie to you, you need a lot of effort to establish this, but once you reach a certain position, you’ll be all set!
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How to Start an Online Business with no Money?
As you’ve probably guessed, I’m talking about affiliate marketing. To those of you who don’t know what affiliate marketing is, it’s an online marketing strategy leveraged by most companies. In this process, you have to promote the products of different companies, and you earn a reward for each product sold or each click.
If you’re thinking about the feasibility of affiliate marketing, here are some indicators to assure you:
- The percentage of brands leveraging affiliate marketing stands at 81%
- Amazon changed its marketing strategy back in 2017 when it understood what affiliate marketing is turning into and started offering a commission of 1-10% on each sale.
- By the end of 2020, the cash spent on affiliate marketing is expected to reach $6.8 billion, growing by a whopping 10.1% from the previous year.
These indications show that affiliate marketing is the future.
In the following, we’ll discuss how a complete beginner can get started, but let’s talk about some technical things you must know first.
Also Read: How to Create A Gig on Fiverr
Components of Affiliate Marketing Process:
There are four components of affiliate marketing. They are:
1. Merchant:
The merchant is the company that’s providing the service or product.
2. Network:
The network is the affiliate marketing network that connects the merchant and the marketer and acts as a middleman.
3. Marketer:
The marketer is the person who would promote the products and services of the merchant and will earn commissions in return.
4. Consumer:
The consumer is the person who would buy the goods or services from the marketer.
Again, there are three methods through which you can get paid. These are:
Pay per Click (PPC):
In the pay per click method, you’ll be getting commission depending on the number of clicks your affiliate links get. Usually, payment is based on per thousand clicks.
Pay per Sale:
This is one of the most common and more profitable methods. Here, you’ll be paying a commission for each sale you generate.
Pay per Lead:
Some companies and websites offer this method where you’ll get cash if you get traffic to complete a certain task on their website.
Getting Started with Affiliate Marketing:
You, too, can start affiliate marketing with no investment at all. Here are the steps you need to follow if you want to grow a successful affiliate marketing business online:
Know Your Product:
There are thousands of different industries, offering millions of products online. Some people jump straight in without considering and assessing the performance indicators of the products. However, that won’t do you any good.
To build a good affiliate business, you need to analyze the indicators carefully. An expensive product with a high commission might be appealing, but it may not generate more than one sale in a month or two.
Compared to these, products with a lower commission, but high sales can generate more revenues in the long run. So, you need to choose your product wisely.
Here’s an example: Best Non-marking Shoes for Badminton
Join an Affiliate Marketing Program:
Once you’re done researching the niche and products, you need to sign up for an affiliate marketing program. There are a lot of amazing networks that offer a program. Click bank is an impressive network. Then again, Amazon Affiliate is very popular. After you join an affiliate program, select the products and companies you want to promote.
Promote your Affiliate Links:
Once you sign up for an affiliate program, you’ll receive an affiliate link. Once you receive one, you need to promote these. Here are some of the best ways of promoting affiliate links:
Social Media:
The term influencers are comparatively new, but it’s a growing industry undoubtedly. If you can gather a lot of followers on your Instagram account or likes on your Facebook page, you can drop your affiliate links in your stories or posts and write a blog on how the product may benefit the buyer. Doing so will increase sales for sure.
YouTube:
Most YouTubers promote products through affiliate links, and it’s one of their prime sources of earning. While YouTubers with a huge subscriber base will get sponsorship, channels that are only starting can leverage affiliate marketing and get the affiliate links by joining the programs.
The best way of generating more sales is by making videos about the product you’re promoting. For example, if you’re promoting a certain laptop, the video can be about the review of that laptop, how it performs, and who it’s for.
Webinars:
Webinars are great ways of attracting traffic. You can hold free webinars that are rich in information and provide something of value to the participants.
Email List:
Building an email list is one of the best ways of getting traffic. Through this process, you’re not only getting more traffic, but you get to keep them to yourself as well!
Repeat:
Once you have a decent traffic base, all you need to do is create more content that will help you keep the subscribers sticking to you. This is great for making money from the same consumers over and over.
Conclusion:
How to start an online business with no money? Affiliate marketing is the way! Affiliate marketing sounds easy, but it’s not. You need a lot of hard work and dedication to outshine your competitors. If you’re willing to put in that effort in the first place, you’ll be able to make money without any investment. Once you reach a stable position with your business, you’ll be able to make money in your sleep! Get started now!