What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketers are the ‘middle’ person between retailers/creators of products or services and potential customers. An affiliate marketer uses a unique link to promote products and/or services via a website or social media platforms (Facebook, TikTok, Instgram, Clapper, YouTube). When a potential customer clicks on the unique link and a purchase is made, the affiliate marketer gets a commission for the sale.
Affiliates have the freedom to choose what what products/services they promote and how they promote these products/services. Most affiliates choose a niche aligned with their interests or hobbies and a social media platform they are familiar with and aligns with their business model.
What Equipment Do You Need to Start an Affiliate Marketing Business?
Anyone can start an affiliate marketing business with a smartphone and internet connection. It is recommended that you also have a laptop or desktop (it makes editing videos/posting blogs easier). You will also need an email address for your business separate from your personal email address. Once you know what products/services you want to promote, signing up to affiliate programs is FREE. That’s right – no franchise fee, no inventory to buy, and no shipping costs.
What FREE Tools Are Available to Start and Grow Your Business?
To start and grow your affiliate marketing business you will need to use some tools, but most of the tools are FREE.
1. Canva
Canva is an online tool for creating social media images and presentations. There is both a FREE and subscription plan that allows for more elements/features. With the FREE plan you can create YouTube banners, YouTube Thumbnails, graphics for short form media posts and edit videos.
2. Snappa
Snappa is another tool for creating social media images. There is a FREE and subscription plan that allows for more elements/features. With the FREE plan you can create YouTube banners, YouTube Thumbnails, and graphics for social media posts. In some cases, Snappa is easier to use than Canva and has templates that make it easy to create designs for both mobile and computer viewers.
3. Clipchamp
Clipchamp is a FREE video editing software from Microsoft so is installed on most Windows computers/laptops. This software allows you to record your screen, from your webcam, combination of screen/webcam, edit videos, format videos for various social media platforms, add effects like music, animation, and text to videos. This is a great FREE tool for all your video editing needs.
4. ChatGPT
Open AI owns ChatGPT the Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool. This is a FREE content tool that can be used create content maps, draft articles, YouTube scripts and product descriptions. For more information on using AI for an online business watch my YouTube video: How to Use ChatGPT For An Online Business.
5. Systeme.io
Systeme.io is an online platform for Sales Funnels, email autoresponder, and the creation of blog posts. It can also be used to create and sell digital courses. If you don’t have a website, you can use the website created for systeme.io blog posts when applying for affiliate programs. There are both FREE and subscription plans available so the platform provides more services as your business grows.
6. Social Media Platforms
All Social Media platforms are FREE to join but they have different audiences, formats, and purposes. For example, Clapper and TikTok are short form video content in vertical format, YouTube is long form video content in horizontal format, and Instagram is short form video content in square format. It’s important that you create separate business accounts for your business content and choose the social media platform that targets your audience and suits your niche. For more information, watch my YouTube video: Affiliate Marketing – Using Social Media Platforms.
Closing
If you want FINANCIAL and TIME FREEDOM, it is essential that you own a business that can run on automation and create passive income. Online businesses, specifically Affiliate Marketing, meet these criteria. The best part about starting an Affiliate Marketing business are the low start-up costs and ability to keep running costs low by leveraging the FREE tools available as well as the ability to create passive income.
Note: This article contains affiliate links. If you click on these links, I may receive a commission, at no cost to you.
