How To Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money In India 2024

How wonderful would it be to earn money without investing much in your business? Many people with excellent skills and ideas have already lost out on moneymaking opportunities due to a lack of funds. But not anymore. One of the quickest emerging moneymakers in 2023, Affiliate Marketing is the process of earning a commission for promoting products and services from different online retailers. Many people have created a passive income stream, and some have even become full-time affiliate marketers due to affiliate marketing’s huge return on investment. Today, let us talk about how you can start affiliate marketing without investing even a penny into your venture. So, let us begin!

Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

1. Minimal Investment:

As suggested by our topic for the day, Affiliate Marketing is the type of business that can be done without investing a single rupee into your business. All you need is a laptop and a good internet connection, and you are good to go.

2. Service-Based Business:

Affiliate Marketing is a service-based business which means you provide a certain kind of help to your users and get paid in return for it. Say goodbye to huge inventory costs, logistics, and sleepless nights.

3. No Minimum Qualification:

Affiliate Marketing can be started as young as school days. There is practically no bar on who can do this business and who cannot. In fact, the younger generation is better poised to create a successful affiliate marketing business due to their tech-savvy and creative outlook on business.

4. High ROI:

With the practically null running cost, Affiliate Marketing can provide huge returns for your time and efforts. Every single rupee that you make from affiliate marketing can be technically termed as profit.

5. Creative Field:

Affiliate Marketing is one of the best fields for creative people. It is a competitive market, and people need to be consistent with their creative efforts. People who can think out of the box to promote affiliate products can easily create massive income through Affiliate Marketing.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate marketing works on a simple, mutually beneficial model. The marketing technique primarily involves three beneficiaries – the retailer, the marketer, and the consumer. The affiliate marketing funnel involves a marketer advertising a company/online retailer’s products in return for a commission. Marketers use different forms of content, including blogs, social media, video streaming, podcasts, forums, and much more, to connect with the audience and, ultimately, advertise their affiliate partner’s products.

Marketers make money based on different payment models. Different online retailers pay affiliate marketers at different stages of a sales funnel. The most famous ones include:

1. Pay per Sale (PPS): One of the harder affiliate payment models but one that pays the highest, PPS pays affiliate marketers for every successful sale made through their affiliate link.

2. Pay per Click (PPC): Marketers get paid for every user they bring to the retailer’s website through their affiliate link.

3. Pay per Lead (PPL): Marketers get paid for an action that denotes a potential conversion into a successful sale. The PPL payment model is somewhat similar to the Cost per Action (CPA) model. However, CPA typically pays the marketers for a very specific action on the retailer’s website, while PPL pays for a generalized set of actions. Generally, a lead includes free trials, email signups, customer service calls, etc.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money if have little or no money to put into your business. The business does not require you to put any money into capital investment, inventory cost, or workforce management. The return on your minimal investment can be remarkably high!

Is it Possible to Start Affiliate Marketing with No Money?

Yes, it is possible to earn from Affiliate Marketing without putting even a single rupee into the business. Marketers must first focus on building the skills that are required to become successful in this industry. Different marketers might need different skills based on their platform of choice. Some basic skills include SEO, WordPress, Content Creation, Basic Data Analysis, and Research. Users can become well-versed in all these skills by following any of the thousand courses & tutorials available on YouTube.

Once you feel confident with your skillset, you can take advantage of free affiliate marketing tools & techniques like content creation and interacting on forums and social media groups while also taking advantage of your social media following to promote your affiliate products. There are several free affiliate marketing programs out there that you can join and start sharing lucrative deals easily. Affiliate marketers can also think about investing the income that they generate back into their affiliate business.

How to Start Affiliate Marketing with No Money in India

1. Choose a Niche

To do well in affiliate marketing, choose a specific topic or area you’re passionate about to attract the right audience. Focus on promoting related products on a blog or social media. This way, you can build trust with your followers by being an expert in that niche. Some of the popular niches in affiliate marketing are

1. Fashion – Women’s Fashion, Men’s Fashion, Accessories, Sustainable Fashion, Luxury Fashion

2. Travel – Adventure travel, Luxury travel, Budget travel, Family travel, Solo travel

3. Technology – Software and app development, Gadgets and consumer electronics, AI and machine learning, Cybersecurity and privacy, Tech industry news and trends

4. Health – Weight loss, Fitness, Mental health, Nutrition

5. Gaming – Esports, Game Reviews and Walkthroughs, Gaming Hardware and Accessories, Gaming News and Updates, Game Development, Retro Gaming, Gaming Lifestyle and Culture, Mobile Gaming

6. Education – Online Learning and E-courses, Test Preparation, Language Learning, STEM Education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), DIY and Home Learning

7. Pets – Dog Training and Behavior, Pet Care and Grooming, Pet Food and Nutrition, Pet Product Reviews, Traveling with Pets, Pet Health and Medical Conditions

8. Beauty & Cosmetics – Skincare, Makeup Tutorials and Reviews, Haircare and Hairstyles, Natural and Organic Beauty, Nail Care and Nail Art, Fragrances and Perfumes

9. Food – Healthy and Clean Eating, Vegan and Vegetarian Diets, Desserts and Baking, International and Ethnic Cuisine, Quick and Easy Meals, Weight Loss and Dieting, Food Photography and Styling, Beverages and Cocktails

10. Finance – Personal Finance, Investing and Stocks, Real Estate Investing, Cryptocurrency and Blockchain, Credit Cards and Rewards Programs

Check out @financewithsharan’s Instagram page. The creator has built a huge following of more than 2 Million Instagram users in less than 2 years by constantly creating entertaining content in his chosen niche – Finance.

We’ve put together an incredible blog post that outlines some of the most profitable affiliate marketing niches. This resource is designed to help you find the perfect niche for your affiliate marketing efforts and achieve growth. Check out our blog for a straightforward and easy-to-understand breakdown of these niches.

2. Join Affiliate Platforms/ Networks

Once you’ve chosen a niche you’re interested in, find an affiliate program that matches it. Explore different affiliate networks and brands to pick the best program for your chosen market. Keep reading to find our top choices for affiliate marketing platforms.

While established retailers like Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra might not pay a very high commission, newer online stores like XYXX (45%), NordVPN (up to 100%), etc., can provide very high returns for your time and effort. Affiliate marketers can always find high-paying affiliate programs in their chosen niche.

Some of the highest-paid affiliate programs in India are:

• Amazon India affiliate program
• Flipkart affiliate program
• Myntra affiliate program

3. Setup your Social Presence

Affiliate Marketing is a completely online business, and people connect on the internet through social media. Social media is a major source of commission for successful affiliate marketers. Here are some major social media platforms to build your presence

1. Facebook

Facebook, with over 3 billion users, remains the largest global social platform. However, consider your target audience and note that it’s losing favour among younger demographics, resulting in reduced organic reach.

2. Instagram

Affiliate marketing on Instagram thrives through captivating video content in stories and reels. Instagram’s visual appeal appeals to a broad age range, yet gaining organic reach on feed posts can be a challenge, requiring a competitive approach to grab attention.

3. YouTube

YouTube offers an ideal stage to professionally and creatively present tutorials, product reviews, and how-to guides. It’s exceptional for SEO and has a vast audience of 2.6 billion people. Nevertheless, the intense competition demands top-notch, high-quality videos to stand out.

4. Twitter

Twitter, a widely used platform, allows for concise and creative displays of your affiliate offers. Attract attention with compelling headlines and product introductions that lead customers straight to the product page. Be mindful of character limitations, leaving no room for lengthy descriptions and introductions.

This will help you build a loyal audience to whom you can promote your affiliate deals. Affiliate marketers can also promote products through WhatsApp Communities, Telegram Groups, Discord Communities, and other community-building apps.

Check out the banner from the @dopemotions YouTube channel. Even though his main content creation platform is YouTube, his page also links to Instagram, Facebook, Videohive (for affiliate purposes), and Patreon. For starters, review our step-by-step guide on affiliate marketing through social media. Do have a look.

4. Create High-Quality Content

This goes without saying that high-quality content is the most important step in your Affiliate Marketing journey. Many content creators on the internet create the same old videos and posts. This method may work for you in the beginning, but as you build a niche audience, it is important for you to have a unique voice, a unique tone, and a unique POV on the things you talk about. Tips for creating engaging content

• Focus on solving audience problems.
• Understand your target audience and tailor content to their likes.
• Check out what your competitors are doing and aim to do it better.
• Use multiple platforms to support your main promotion channel.
• Be patient; getting noticed takes time.
• Grab attention with catchy headlines and titles.

Check out @petermckinnon’s Instagram Page. In an excessively cluttered niche of photography, the creator is staying relevant and increasing his following by constantly reinventing himself and providing his own style to his videos and photos. For starters, we would highly recommend you to check our guide on affiliate marketing content ideas, which are easy to start and succeed.

5. Optimise for SEO

Enhancing your content for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is essential for driving traffic to your affiliate marketing material. Employ the following strategies for effective optimization:

• Keyword Utilization: Conduct thorough research to identify and incorporate relevant and lucrative keywords into your content. Utilize tools such as Google AdWords or SEMrush to pinpoint the most fitting keywords.
• Optimize Headlines: Craft headlines that are attention-grabbing and accurately represent your content. Utilize action-oriented language to immediately engage readers and prompt further exploration.
• Enhance Image Optimization: Integrate high-resolution images that align with your content, and optimize them by assigning descriptive file names and alt tags. This optimization contributes to a better user experience and improved SEO performance.
• Incorporate Internal Linking: Employ internal linking to facilitate search engine comprehension of your site’s structure and content interconnections. This practice elevates search rankings and guides traffic towards other pages on your website.

6. Share Affiliate Deals

Once you have joined different affiliate platforms, it is time to embed affiliate links in your content. You can gradually start posting your affiliate links in your posts’ captions and your social media bio or even make separate posts for a special affiliate deal. However, make sure to keep your efforts subtle.

There are several ways through which you can share affiliate deals on any social network. One of the best ways to introduce the affiliate product in your content itself is illustrated in this YouTube video by @Corridorcrew.

7. Earn Commission

Since you have joined different affiliate platforms, your work ends when you embed your affiliate links in any post, message, or caption. After that, the affiliate platforms handle commission tracking, confirmation, and payouts for marketers. You will be able to withdraw commissions into your bank account or wallet, depending on which platform you join.

8. Promote Your Content and Expand Your Reach

After dedicating effort to create valuable content, the next step involves reaching the right audience. Maximize your content’s exposure by promoting it across various platforms, aiming for a snowball effect to steadily grow your audience. However, maintaining consistency is important.

Here are strategies to expedite growth from the start:

• Collaborate with Emerging Influencers in Your Niche: Partner with up-and-coming influencers in your field to expand your content’s reach through their established networks.
• Leverage Support from Friends and Family: Request friends and family to view and share your content, leveraging their networks to amplify its visibility.
• Utilize All Social Media Channels: Share your work across all your social media accounts to broaden its reach and engagement potential.
• Engage with Relevant Online Communities: Promote your content within relevant discussion forums like Reddit and Quora to tap into interested and engaged audiences.
• Develop a Series of Content on a Singular Topic: Create a series of interconnected content on a specific topic to entice viewers to consume multiple parts, boosting engagement and visibility.

9. Engage with Your Audience

Always respond to your audience’s feedback, especially when starting. Social media platforms like active accounts.

Engaging with your audience does two things: it makes them like you more and tells the platform people want your content. This boosts your visibility and attracts new interested audiences.

Also, responding to feedback helps you understand what your audience likes, so you can create content they’ll enjoy and avoid unnecessary experiments.

10. Scale it up

When you identify a successful traffic channel, focus on scaling up. Invest more in proven content and promotion approaches, while minimizing less effective ones.

Consider bringing in support like a writer, video editor, or social media manager to optimize your time and productivity.

5 Best Affiliate Marketing Platforms in India

1. EarnKaro

EarnKaro is an Indian affiliate marketing website that has partnerships with more than 150 online retailers. Affiliate Marketers can promote any product available on EarnKaro’s partner websites. The platform allows users to create tracking links through which the app manages everything from tracking to payment for affiliate marketers. The minimum withdrawable amount is ₹10, making EarnKaro one of the best platforms for beginner affiliate marketers.

2. INRDeals

INRDeals is another famous affiliate marketing platform in India that features hot market deals from the best retailers in the business. Affiliate marketers can register on the platform, look up their favourite deals, and promote them with their network. The commission automatically gets tracked into their INRDeals Wallet within 72 hours of a successful affiliate sale. The minimum payout amount is set at ₹500.

3. Cuelinks

CueLinks is a famous content monetization tool for affiliate marketers. Marketers can easily integrate brand deals and discounts into their content through the platform’s effective affiliate marketing tools. Cuelinks’ minimum payout amount is set at ₹500 and the platform charges a 25% commission for its services.

4. Admitad

Admitad is one of the oldest platforms in the affiliate marketing industry and is available in more than 190 countries on the planet. The platform allows content creators to monetize their content by sharing affiliate deals. The platform also provides tools related to analytics, tracking, fraud protection, payments, and more. Admitad’s minimum withdrawable amount is set at ₹1,000.

5. ShareASale

The last recommendation on our list, ShareASale, is a performance marketing platform that allows marketers to create custom affiliate links from several different online retailers. The platform also offers various tracking and reporting tools to help merchants measure the success of their affiliate programs. ShareASale pays monthly commissions to its users, and the minimum payout is set at $50.

Moreover, if you are a student, then affiliate marketing can be the easiest source of side income for you as it allows flexibility and earning opportunity that is more suitable for a student lifestyle. Go through our affiliate marketing for students guide and kick start your affiliate marketing journey now.

Tips to Gain Success Faster in Affiliate Marketing

1. Unique Content

As we suggested earlier, social media is full of content creators who are constantly recycling content without offering anything new to the viewers. The audience is always looking for fresher perspectives and new trends that showcase old topics in a new light. You must stay original and in-trend when creating content. Using social media daily for a particular amount of time will keep you updated on the latest trends and topics on the internet.

2. Consistency

Social Media Platforms generally ‘shadow-ban’ the accounts that do not create consistent content. This means your content would not be visible to your existing followers unless they visit your page, let alone new viewers. No creator wants this. So, make sure to follow a strategic calendar as to what you can post and how you can increase your reach on different social platforms.

4. Engagement

Posting content is not the endgame. As loyal social media users, creators need to constantly engage with their followers as well as strangers on the platform. This can be done by liking, saving, commenting, and sharing other people’s efforts, replying to comments under your posts, organizing regular live sessions, replying to DMs, and more.

5. Trustworthy Products

No person likes to be ripped off. It is imperative for affiliate marketers to promote only the best products to their audience. Promoting diminished quality products may bring in commissions but will derogate your reputation and hurt you in the long run. So, only associate your name with the highest quality products in the market.

6. Organic Marketing

Affiliate Marketers can increase their social reach and engagement through many different organic tools. This includes using hashtags, uploading stories, posting at the right time, and using the right post dimensions, among many other things.

7. Research & Analysis

Research and Analysis are the best ways to complement your organic marketing and content creation efforts. Researching your niche will help you stay updated and create fresh content for your audience. On the flip side, a regular analysis will help you to understand your audience better, so you can optimize your marketing efforts for the better.

8. Include a CTA

CTA is an acronym for Call-To-Action. This underrated marketing tool helps in creating engagement on your online page. A Call-To-Action generally means asking a viewer or a visitor to like, share, save or follow your page. When more people interact with your post and your page, it automatically gets recommended to newer people on any social media platform.

In addition to this, we would also like you to check out our latest blog, where we have briefly described how you can start affiliate marketing without websites. Do give it a read.

Easiest Way to Start Affiliate Marketing with No Money

Begin your affiliate marketing journey today with EarnKaro. Here is how you can get started:

Step 1

To get the EarnKaro app, visit the Google Play Store and click on Install.

Step 2

Create an account on the EarnKaro app by providing your email, phone number, or social media credentials. No additional documents are needed.

Step 3

Once you have successfully logged in, you can begin sharing the exciting deals and offers of various brands available on EarnKaro. Alternatively, you can generate your own unique links for the products you wish to promote by simply clicking on the “Make Links” icon.

Step 4

Paste the link of the product you want to promote and click on the make profit link button.

Step 5

Your unique affiliate link has been successfully generated, and you can now begin sharing it with your network.

Step 6

To track your earnings from the affiliate links, navigate to the “My Profile” section and click on “My Earnings”. There, you can view all the money you have earned.

Step 7

To monitor the performance of your affiliate link, you can visit the “My Earnings” section and click on “My Activity”. There, you will find detailed information about the clicks and transactions that have occurred through your affiliate link.

Step 8

Once you have accumulated a minimum of ₹10 in confirmed earnings, you can request a payment and withdraw all your money into your bank account.

Step 9

You can withdraw money via 2 methods.

1. Bank Transfer

2. UPI

Conclusion

It is not too hard to earn money from Affiliate Marketing. However, it is not too easy either. You must have the right game plan, the tools, the equipment, and the necessary steps to earn your first affiliate commission. We have made sure that you have the answers to all these questions. All that remains is for you to start. So, what are you waiting for? Start your affiliate marketing journey today!

FAQs