How To Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money in the UK 2024

Affiliate marketing is a popular side hustle that enables people to earn money by promoting products that they love. One of the most appealing aspects of this side gig is the ability to generate passive income which means that you can earn money in the background of your day-to-day life.

Another benefit of starting an affiliate marketing side hustle is that it has a very low start-up cost. In fact, it is possible to start a successful affiliate marketing business with no money at all.

In this guide, we will take a look at how to start affiliate marketing with no money in the UK 2024.

It is very common for online gurus to claim that side hustles can be started for free however, these claims don’t always turn out to be true.

Fortunately, affiliate marketing is an exception to this. In fact, we managed to start an affiliate marketing side hustle ourselves without paying a penny.

It is possible to start affiliate marketing for free by promoting products that you have previously used or currently own. You will also need to choose a free traffic source such as Pinterest, Instagram, or a free blog.

Starting affiliate marketing with no monetary investment means that you will have to invest a lot of your time into promotion.

For us, it took around 1 month of posting multiple times each day to get our first sale. During our research, we found that other affiliates have had similar experiences with most successful affiliate marketers claiming that it can take several months to see results without any initial investment.

The evidence that it works

To provide our readers with the best resource, we spent time researching the realities of affiliate marketing with no money. Here is an overview of some evidence we found that suggests that this is a viable side hustle idea to consider.

The Alain Diza from Medium ran a case study through which he was able to earn $5000 per month with free Pinterest affiliate marketing. According to his report, the key to success was utilizing SEO, focussing on high-quality content and using online groups to increase traffic.

Similarly, we found a collection of affiliate marketing income reports from sites run by Spencer Haws showing earnings of $5000+ per month.

Looking at income reports is a great way to determine whether or not a side hustle has potential. In the case of affiliate marketing, there are hundreds of income reports available online.

3 Tips to Succeed at Affiliate Marketing with No Money

Although it is possible to start affiliate marketing with no money in 2024, seeing results may take a little more time and effort than it would if you had a startup budget.

Here are 3 ways to increase your chances of success.

1. Choose trending products

To avoid spending money on side hustle promotion, it is a good idea to promote products that are already tending. These products will likely have a high search volume and will sell themselves.

You can find trending products on social media by searching for trending hashtags. Another way to find trending products is to use Google Trends - a tool that shows what people are searching for on the web.

2. Use free traffic sources

The largest expense for most affiliate marketers is their chosen traffic source. For example, many affiliates pay for website hosting or buy email addresses to build an email list.

If you want to avoid spending money on traffic, you will need to find a platform that is free to use.

Good options to consider include Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and forums such as Quora. It is also possible to find free blog hosting platforms however, choosing a blog as your source of traffic may require some additional spend on SEO and link building.

3. Focus on building a relationship with your audience

One of the most effective ways to get clicks on your affiliate links without spending any money is to build a relationship with your audience.

People are a lot more likely to buy products when they are recommended by people that they trust. Therefore, you should spend time establishing yourself as an expert in your niche.

Social media is a great platform for this because you can speak directly to your audience in a relatable and transparent way.

In the following section, we will go into detail about how to start an affiliate marketing side hustle with no money in 2024.

We tested and reviewed several methods to find one that worked. However, it is important to understand that results are not guaranteed.

Step 1: Choose a platform to share affiliate links

The first step of the process is to choose a platform that you would like to use to share affiliate links.

There are many types of affiliate marketing side hustles that you could choose from however, not all of them are free.

During our research, we found that the best free platforms for affiliate marketing include:

• Pinterest

• Instagram

• Facebook

• Quora

• Like To Know It

• YouTube

• TikTok

It is also possible to start email affiliate marketing and affiliate blogging with no money. However, your chances of success with no start-up budget are likely to be lower if you choose these platforms.

We saw the best results with Pinterest. However, the best platform for you will depend on your skills.

Consider what type of content you are best at creating. For example, if you’re great at taking aesthetically pleasing photos, Pinterest and Instagram could be good options to consider.

On the other hand, talent copywriters might be better suited to using Quora or Facebook for affiliate marketing.

It is also important to think about the type of products that you would like to promote. Pinterest works best for products that photograph well whereas TikTok and YouTube might be better platforms for products that require a live demonstration.

Step 2: Find an affiliate program for products that you have already used/own

The most effective affiliate marketers take original photos and videos of the products that they promote to build trust with their audience. One way to do this without spending any money is to promote products that you already own.

Luckily, there are a lot of affiliate programs out there that cater to different niches and many of them accept beginners. One of the best programs to consider is the Amazon Associates affiliate program.

This program is a great option because of the huge range of products that are available on the Amazon platform. There is a huge chance that you have something that is available on Amazon in your home that you could promote to an audience.

Another reason why we personally like Amazon associates is that it has a very low entry barrier. This makes it perfect for new affiliate marketers who do not already have an established audience.

If the product that you want to promote isn’t available on Amazon, there are plenty of other options that you could try. Many brands have their own affiliate programs that you can find on their website. Similarly, you can find a huge range of brand affiliate programs through networks such as Clickbank and Skimlinks.

Step 3: Sign up to an affiliate program

Once you have found an affiliate program that meets your needs, the next step is to sign up.

This process is usually fairly easy. However, we found that some affiliate networks have strict entry requirements that you might not be able to meet until you become more experienced.

Most affiliate networks will ask you to fill in a registration form with your personal details as well as details of how you plan to promote products. Therefore, you might need to set up your affiliate marketing accounts before you can apply to any programs.

For example, Amazon Associates asks for a link to the account that you plan to promote links through. This could be a link to a blog, Pinterest profile or TikTok account.

Step 4: Create helpful content

Assuming you have already set up an account on the platform that you wish to promote products through, the next step is to start creating promotional content.

You should focus on creating content that is:

• Original

• Informative

• Valuable

• Engaging

• Authentic

If you don’t have any money to spend on advertising or other marketing efforts, the success of your content will rely on how it is received by your audience.

Although consistency and regular posting are VERY important, you should also spend time making each piece of content high-quality. It is also a good idea to focus on making your content shareable. This will help you to reach more traffic without spending any money on ads or backlinks.

Regarding your posting schedule, you should aim to post often The exact number of posts that you should create will depend on the traffic source that you choose to use. For example, affiliate marketers on Pinterest may post 15-20 pins each day whereas YouTube affiliate marketers may only post 1-3 videos each week.

We tried Pinterest affiliate marketing and found that posting 15x per day was the sweet spot. Following this schedule, we saw our first sale after 1 month.

Step 5: Post content and monitor results

The final step is to start posting your content and monitor your results.

Performance monitoring is a very underrated procedure that can be incredibly valuable. By monitoring your performance, you can make tweaks to your strategy, spot problems early and grow your affiliate marketing business.

Most affiliate programs will provide you with a dashboard that can be used to monitor revenue and clicks. However, it also might be helpful to use your chosen platform’s in-house creator tools.

For example, Pinterest provides creators with an intuitive dashboard that shows how each pin performs. This can be used to see what content works and what content doesn’t.

Pros:

• Affiliate marketing does not require a large start-up budget.

• It is possible to generate passive income.

• If you create evergreen content, you could generate revenue for years to come.

• Affiliate marketing allows you to make money by talking about products that you love. It is a good way to utilize your passions.

Also read: Can you really make money from affiliate marketing?

Our Final Verdict

Overall, it is possible to start a successful affiliate marketing business without any money. However, doing so will require a lot of effort, consistency, and high-quality content.

Affiliate marketers who do not spend money on promotion rely on building a relationship with their audience to make sales. This can take a lot of time to achieve which means that this side hustle isn’t suitable for people who want to make extra money quickly.

If you are looking to make money in the short term, consider a side hustle that allows you to make money in one hour. These side hustles pay less but generate results in a much shorter period.

If you do decide to start affiliate marketing with no money, our top tip is to be consistent. Post every single day for at least 3 months before adjusting your strategy.

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