How To Start Affiliate Marketing This Weekend

You wanted to start affiliate marketing. You watched videos, read articles, maybe even bookmarked a few programs. Then you sat down to actually do it and got stuck. You didn’t know which product to pick, which platform to use, or what to do on Day 1 versus Day 7. So you closed the laptop and told yourself you’d figure it out later. That cycle can go on for months.

Alston Godbolt has made multiple six figures online through affiliate marketing, content creation, selling digital products, and his YouTube channel. In this video, he breaks the whole startup process into three days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The plan works for anyone, anywhere in the world, promoting any product or service. No prior experience required, no expensive tools needed at the start. Here is the full breakdown.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A single product or niche chosen based on what you already know
Applications submitted to up to 10 affiliate programs in your niche
A content platform selected and a profile set up with your real face
30 content outlines built around your audience’s real pain points, problems, goals, dreams, and stories
30 batch-created pieces of content ready to upload over the next 15+ days
A clear understanding of why your audience buys and how to speak to them specifically
A starting point for finding the right online income model for your skills with finder.platformproof.com

Day 1 (Friday): Pick Your Product and Apply to Programs

Friday is the easiest day on purpose. Alston assumes you just got off work, so he keeps the lift low. You only have two tasks: pick a product and start applying to affiliate programs.

Pick One Product or Niche

The simplest way to pick a product is to start with something you have already bought. Open Amazon and scroll through your recent orders. Look for something you use regularly, something you have an opinion on, something you could talk about for 30 minutes without running out of things to say. If you want to go a different route, pick a product in a category you are genuinely interested in, even if you don’t own it yet.

Alston uses his microphone, the Warm Audio WA47 Junior, as his running example throughout the video. He explains that if you don’t own the product, you’ll need to do more research, become the subject matter expert, and source b-roll footage for any video content. That’s doable, but owning it makes it easier. Start with what you know.

Once you’ve picked the product, grab a pencil and paper or a notebook and write down everything you know about it. Not a Google search. Not a ChatGPT prompt. You, writing from memory. The reason Alston is firm on this is that you need to understand what you actually know versus what you think you know. If you can’t fill a page with real knowledge about this product, that’s useful information too. It tells you whether you’re the right person to promote it right now.

This writing exercise will take roughly 30 to 60 minutes. The product selection itself should take 10 to 15 minutes. That’s the full Friday task for step one.

Apply to Up to 10 Affiliate Programs

Once you have your product, go find affiliate programs. The simplest method is Google. Type the product name followed by “affiliate program.” For Alston’s microphone example, that search would be “Warm Audio WA47 affiliate program.” You can also check whether the product is sold on Amazon since Amazon Associates covers millions of items. Beyond Amazon, look for the brand’s own affiliate program, plus competing products in the same category that might offer higher commissions.

Your goal is to apply to up to 10 programs. Some categories won’t have 10 options. If you can find five, apply to five. The important thing is to apply to whatever you can find. And here is the pro tip Alston gives directly: some of these programs are going to reject you. That is completely expected, especially early on. Do not let the rejection stop you. You still need to make content about this product regardless of which programs approve you. You can always reapply after you have published some content and built an audience. Rejection at this stage is not failure. It is just timing.

Day 2 (Saturday): Platform, Profile, and 30 Outlines

Saturday is the busier day. You have three things to do: choose where you’ll create content, set up your profile, and build 30 outlines. Expect to spend a few hours on this, most of it on the outlines.

Choose One Platform

Pick one place to publish content. Alston’s list: YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, or a blog. The key word is one. Spreading yourself across three platforms before you’ve made a single piece of content is how people burn out before they ever get started.

He’s honest about blogging: it takes longer to see traffic compared to video-first platforms. If you want to start a blog, consider pairing it with Pinterest, YouTube, or TikTok to drive traffic faster. If you want to see results faster, choose a platform that shows content to new people quickly, short-form video being the clearest example.

Two common questions come up here. First: can I do this without showing my face? Yes, but results will take longer. When people can’t see who they’re buying from, the trust-building process slows down. Second: can I use AI to create content? You can, but same answer: results take longer because people prefer to buy from other people. Faceless and AI-assisted content can work. Just go in with realistic expectations about the timeline.

Set Up Your Profile the Right Way

Profile setup takes about 10 to 15 minutes if you do it correctly. The rule Alston repeats more than once: use a real photo of your face. Not a logo. Not an avatar. Not a cartoon character. Your actual face, clear and large in the frame.

He addresses the most common fear head-on. Nobody cares how you look. Nobody cares about your accent. He says everyone has an accent, including him. Whether you’re in the United Kingdom, Toronto, India, Pakistan, Russia, or China, the only thing people care about is whether you can solve their problem. If you’re from Ireland and you can help someone, they will listen to you. The internal voice telling you that your appearance or accent is a dealbreaker is the only thing standing in your way, not the audience.

Keep your profile photo simple. Alston’s own Facebook page shows just his face. No background scenery, no action shot, no product in the frame. Big, clear, visible. That’s the standard to match.

Create 30 Outlines Across 5 Categories

This is where most of Saturday goes. You’re building 30 content outlines, six per category, across five categories: pain points, problems, goals, dreams, and stories.

Pain points are what’s hurting the person right now. In the make money online niche, a pain point might be not spending enough time with their kids or living paycheck to paycheck. In the cooking niche, a pain point might be the mother-in-law who keeps saying to just bring bread to Thanksgiving because your food isn’t good enough.

Problems are the structural causes behind the pain. In the money niche, the problem might be that someone has to work two or three jobs to pay rent. In the cooking niche, the problem is that they genuinely don’t know how to cook a good meal or dessert.

Goals are what the person is actively trying to achieve. In the money niche, the goal might be to quit their job or stop working multiple jobs. In the cooking niche, the goal might be to finally shut the mother-in-law up by cooking something genuinely good.

Dreams are the bigger picture behind the goal. In the money niche, the dream might be to go on a real vacation with the family. In the cooking niche, the dream might be to host Thanksgiving dinner one day as the person everyone brags about.

Stories are personal experiences tied to your niche. For the microphone example, Alston shares that when he first started creating YouTube content about five years ago, the most common complaint he got was that his audio sounded bad. He was using a basic USB microphone at the time. After switching to a condenser or XLR mic, the feedback completely changed to praise. That story connects the product to a real experience in a way that no amount of spec-listing ever could.

Six pain points, six problems, six goals, six dreams, six stories equals 30 outlines. You don’t need to write the full script for each one on Saturday. Alston recommends just writing the hook for each outline: the opening line or sentence that grabs the viewer’s or reader’s attention. That’s enough to know what you’ll say when Sunday comes.

If you’re starting a blog instead of a video channel, cut the outline count in half. Fifteen outlines rather than 30, so the task stays manageable.

This will take roughly three hours. Do not use AI to generate the outlines. The purpose of this exercise is to force you to think like your audience. If you don’t know enough to fill 30 outlines, that tells you something critical about whether this niche is the right fit and whether you need to study it more before creating content.

Not sure which online income model fits your actual situation?

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Day 3 (Sunday): Batch Create 30 Pieces of Content

Sunday is execution day. You sit down, you turn on the camera, and you make all 30 pieces of content in one session. No breaking it up. No “I’ll do 10 today and 10 tomorrow.” All 30, in order, back to back.

Why Batch Creation Works

The core logic is that you are in the right headspace once, so you use it fully. Alston describes sitting in front of the camera and running it for the entire session. If you stutter, say “um,” lose your train of thought, or make a mistake, you do not stop the recording. You keep talking. You remember where you left off and you pick back up. All of it gets cleaned up in post-production. Stopping and restarting constantly breaks your rhythm and makes the whole process take twice as long.

He says the editing benefit is the same reason: do it all in one sitting immediately after creating. If you push editing to Monday, you might be in a bad mood, feel tired, and end up hating everything you recorded. People often feel differently on different days of the week. Get it done while you’re still in the creation mindset.

What You End Up With

At the end of Sunday, you have 30 finished pieces of content ready to upload. If you’re publishing two TikTok videos per day, 30 pieces covers you for 15 days. That’s more than two weeks of daily posting from a single Sunday session. After that, you come back and batch another round. Alston says this is how he handles most of his own content. He’s not sitting down every day to create something new. He batches out a significant portion at once and uploads from that queue throughout the week.

For first-timers, expect to spend five or more hours between recording and editing. That’s a real time commitment for one day. It’s worth it because you won’t have to create content again for at least two weeks.

Why Alston Says Skip AI in the First Round

This comes up multiple times in the video. Alston is firm about not using ChatGPT or any AI tool during the Friday and Saturday stages. His reasoning is direct: if you put general information into AI, you get general output. You end up sounding like every other affiliate marketer in your niche because they all used the same prompts and got the same answers.

The manual work of writing what you know and building outlines from scratch forces you to understand your audience at a real level. Once you’ve made your first 30 pieces of content and you actually know how your audience responds, then bring in AI for the second iteration. Use ChatGPT or Gemini when you need new content ideas and you’ve already proven you understand the audience’s language. Not before.

Honest Drawbacks of This 3-Day Plan

This plan gets you off the starting line. It does not guarantee income on Monday. A few things to know going in:

Affiliate programs will reject early applicants, sometimes all of them in the first round. Apply anyway. Build content anyway. Reapply once you have published work to show.
Blogging alone is a slow path to traffic. Alston acknowledges this directly. Pair it with a video or social platform if you want to see movement faster.
Faceless content and AI-generated content can work, but the no-like-and-trust timeline is longer when the audience can’t see who they’re dealing with. Go in with honest expectations.
The three days cover setup and initial content only. You’ll need to keep publishing consistently after Sunday for the effort to compound into real traffic and commissions.
If you picked a product you genuinely don’t know well, the outline exercise on Saturday will reveal that clearly. Better to find out now than after 30 pieces of weak content are live.

The Full 3-Day Plan at a Glance

Friday: Pick one product or niche using things you already own or know. Write everything you know about it by hand, no AI. Apply to up to 10 affiliate programs using Google and Amazon searches. Expect 45 to 75 minutes total.
Saturday morning: Choose one platform to publish on. Set up your profile with a real, clear photo of your face. No logos, no avatars.
Saturday afternoon: Build 30 outlines across five categories: 6 pain points, 6 problems, 6 goals, 6 dreams, 6 stories. Write at minimum the hook for each one. No AI. Expect about 3 hours.
Sunday: Sit down and batch record all 30 pieces of content in one session. Don’t stop for mistakes. Keep the camera running. Edit everything immediately after in a single editing session. Expect 5 or more hours.
Week following: Upload from your 30-piece bank at whatever posting frequency your chosen platform rewards. If you’re doing 2 TikToks per day, you have 15 days of content from one weekend.
Second iteration: Once you’ve built real audience knowledge and run through your first batch of ideas, bring in AI tools to help generate new content directions. Use them as an accelerant on top of the foundation you already understand, not as a replacement for that understanding.

Find Your X

Affiliate marketing is one proven path to income online, but it’s not the only one and it’s not right for every person. The niche you pick, the platform you choose, and the products you promote should all connect to something you genuinely understand or are willing to learn deeply. If you’re still working out where affiliate marketing fits for you versus other options like coaching, digital products, or service work, a seven-question tool at finder.platformproof.com can point you toward the model that actually fits your skills and situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to own the product I’m promoting?

Not necessarily. Alston says it directly in the video: you don’t have to own the product, but if you don’t, you’ll need to do significantly more research, become a subject matter expert through study, and source b-roll footage if you’re creating video content. Starting with something you already own and have an opinion on is the easier path, especially if this is your first time through the process.

What do I do if every affiliate program rejects me?

Keep making content. Alston’s advice is to go ahead with content creation regardless of which programs approve you. Once you have published content and a growing profile, you have something to show when you reapply. Most programs that rejected you upfront will reconsider once you have an active, relevant channel or blog. Rejection at the start is normal and expected.

Can I start affiliate marketing without showing my face?

You can. Alston confirms this but is honest about the tradeoff: it takes longer to build the trust required for people to buy from you when they can’t see who they’re dealing with. Faceless content can work over time, but the timeline to your first commission will likely be longer than for someone who shows up on camera with a real profile photo.

Can I use AI to write my outlines and content?

Alston is clear: not in the first round. If you use AI before you know your audience, you’ll input generic information and get generic output. Your content will sound identical to everyone else promoting the same products. Do the manual outline and content work first. Once you understand your audience’s specific language and pain points, bring in AI for the second batch to help you go faster. Use it as a tool on top of real knowledge, not as a substitute for it.

Which platform should a complete beginner pick?

Pick one and only one. Alston lists YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and blogs as options. The platform you pick determines how quickly you’ll see traction. Short-form video platforms tend to surface new content to new audiences faster. Blogging takes longer unless you pair it with a platform that drives traffic, like Pinterest, TikTok, or YouTube. Pick the one you’re most likely to stick with consistently and that your target audience actually uses.

What are the five outline categories and how many do I need per category?

The five categories are pain points, problems, goals, dreams, and stories. You need six outlines per category, which totals 30. For video content (TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts), do all 30. For blogging, Alston recommends cutting it to 15 total so you don’t burn out before you’ve published anything. Each outline only needs to include the hook at minimum: the opening line that grabs attention and makes someone want to keep watching or reading.

Why should I batch create instead of making one video per day?

Because you’re in the right headspace once, so it makes sense to use it fully. When you’re in creation mode, everything flows faster and more consistently. If you stop and restart every day, you spend mental energy re-entering the right mindset every time. Batch creation also means you’re not scrambling to make content on a Tuesday when you’re tired and uninspired. You already have 30 pieces in the queue. Alston says this is how he runs his own content calendar, batching in large sessions rather than creating daily.

How long before I can realistically expect to earn commissions?

Alston doesn’t give a specific number in this video because it depends too much on the niche, the platform, and how consistently you publish after the first weekend. The three-day plan is a foundation, not a finish line. What it gives you is a clean start with real content in the market rather than weeks of planning with nothing published. Commission timelines vary widely. Some people see their first sale in weeks; others wait months. The key variable is consistent publishing after the initial batch.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “How To Start Affiliate Marketing This Weekend,” YouTube, youtu.be/Xt1VoWYYQ-Y
Amazon Associates affiliate program, affiliate-program.amazon.com
Warm Audio WA47 Junior microphone product page, warmaudio.com

Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.