The $0 Investment: Start Affiliate Marketing with Zero Dollars

Most people believe starting an online business requires a credit card, a course purchase, or at least a few hundred dollars for tools. That belief keeps a lot of people stuck. Affiliate marketing is the one model that genuinely lets you start from zero — no product to create, no inventory to buy, no upfront fees. You find something that already sells, you create content about it, and you earn a cut when your content sends buyers to that product.

In this walkthrough, Alston Godbolt breaks down a six-step process that works for any niche, any product, and any service. The entire operation costs $0 to start. Here is exactly what he covers and how to run each step yourself.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A clear method for finding products to promote, even if you have not purchased them yet
Step-by-step instructions for applying to affiliate programs like Amazon Associates and Kajabi
A free keyword research system using alphabet soup, Ahrefs free, and AnswerThePublic
The bottom-of-funnel content strategy that converts better than broad how-to topics
A simple who-what-when-where-why-how framework for planning every piece of content
A realistic picture of what happens if you get rejected from a program and why it does not matter much in the early weeks
A way to figure out which online income model fits your current skills — take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com to find your starting point

Step 1: Find a Product or Service to Promote

The first step is to identify something worth promoting. Alston gives two practical starting points. One is to look at your own recent purchases and ask whether other people might want the same thing. He pulls up his Amazon order history and shows two products he actually bought: a cordless electric scissors set for cutting cardboard and a portable SD card. Neither one is glamorous, but a search for each reveals real search interest. The cordless scissors result he found had 72,000 views on a channel with only 364 subscribers. The portable SSD result showed 11,000 views. Those numbers signal that people are actively searching for information about these products, which is exactly what you need for affiliate content to work.

The second path is to pick a product or service you are genuinely curious about, even if you have not purchased it yet. For the rest of the video, Alston uses Kajabi as his example. Kajabi is a platform that lets you create and sell online courses and communities. He is inside the Kajabi back office during the demo, so he has firsthand experience to draw on. He is also clear that firsthand experience is helpful but not required to get started. What matters most in the beginning is that you can find questions people are asking about that product and then create honest, useful answers.

The one thing to avoid at this stage is overthinking. You do not need the perfect niche. You need a specific product or service with enough search interest to attract an audience. Amazon alone has millions of products with affiliate links available through Amazon Associates. Software companies from email platforms to course builders to website tools run their own affiliate programs. Pick one that you can write or talk about with some level of genuine interest and then move to step two.

Step 2: Apply to the Affiliate Program

Once you have your product, you apply to that company’s affiliate program. The process is straightforward. Type the product name followed by “affiliate program” into Google and you will find the signup page. For Amazon, that is Amazon Associates. For Kajabi, that is the Kajabi Partner Program. Most software companies run their own program directly. Physical product brands often route applications through networks like ShareASale, Impact, or Commission Junction.

Some programs ask about your promotional plan before they approve you. Alston’s advice is to be direct: tell them you are going to do keyword research to identify the problems your target audience is already searching for, and then create content to answer those questions. That is a real answer, not a made-up one, and most programs respond well to it. They want to work with affiliates who will help build the brand, and a clear content plan tells them you are serious.

If you get rejected, do not stop. Alston makes this point clearly: if you are brand new and have no subscribers or followers yet, you are not getting rejected from thousands of dollars in commissions. You are most likely going to miss out on $10 or $15 during the early weeks when your content is still building traction. There are roughly 5,000 affiliate programs available across every category. If one closes its door, apply to another. More importantly, you still need to create the content either way. Kajabi, ClickFunnels, Thinkific, Teachable, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, and dozens of other software tools all run affiliate programs with meaningful commission rates. Keep your options open from the start.

Step 3: Figure Out Where Your Customers Are Hanging Out

Before you create a single piece of content, you need to know where your target audience already spends time and what they are already searching for. Alston identifies three main platforms for this research: Google, YouTube, and TikTok. The platform you choose for content creation should match where your potential buyers are already looking for information.

If your product is something people research through long-form content — software comparisons, feature breakdowns, pricing guides — then Google and YouTube both work well. If your product is visual and trendy, TikTok might be a better fit. The point is to go where the audience already is rather than trying to get the audience to find you on a platform they do not use. Pick one platform to start, build some traction there, and then consider expanding to a second one later once you have a repeatable content process in place.

Step 4: Collect 30 to 50 Keywords Using Free Tools

This is where most beginners hesitate because they assume keyword research requires expensive tools. It does not. Alston uses three free methods to build a keyword list and each one takes less than 30 minutes to run.

The first method is what he calls the alphabet soup approach. Go to Google or YouTube, type your product name into the search bar, hit the spacebar, and then type the letter A. Look at every autocomplete suggestion that appears and write them all down. Then clear the A and type B. Work through the entire alphabet. The suggestions Google and YouTube show you are based on what real people are actively typing into those platforms. For Kajabi, typing “kajabi a” surfaces auto-suggestions that show exactly what buyers and researchers want to know. Then “kajabi e” brings up “kajabi email marketing” and similar results. Each autocomplete phrase is a potential content topic with real demand behind it.

The second free method is the Ahrefs free keyword generator at ahrefs.com/keyword-generator. Alston pastes “kajabi” into the tool and finds that “kajabi pricing” gets 2,000 searches per month with a keyword difficulty score of 2. A keyword difficulty of 2 means very little competition. A new site or channel with no existing authority can realistically rank for that term and start getting traffic without needing an established audience first. That is the kind of keyword opportunity that makes affiliate marketing viable for complete beginners.

The third free tool is AnswerThePublic at answerthepublic.com. You paste in your keyword and the tool generates a visual map of questions and phrases people use to search. For Kajabi, this surfaces comparison phrases like “kajabi vs teachable,” “kajabi vs thinkific,” “kajabi vs clickfunnels,” and “kajabi vs squarespace.” Each one is a content idea with a specific, motivated audience behind it. The goal after using all three tools is to collect 30 to 50 of these keywords before you start creating. You do not need to build content on every single one, but having a full list means you never stare at a blank page wondering what to write next.

Bottom of Funnel First: Why Comparison Content Beats Generic How-To Topics

One of the most useful points in this video is about which keywords to target first when you are starting with zero audience. Alston draws a clear line between top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel content. Top of funnel means broad topics like “how to do email marketing” or “how to launch an online course.” Bottom of funnel means specific comparison searches like “kajabi vs squarespace” or “kajabi pricing.”

The people searching “kajabi vs squarespace” already know what they want to accomplish. They know online courses are the goal. They know Kajabi is one option. They are in the final stage of choosing between two specific tools. If your content helps them make that decision and Kajabi turns out to be the right answer, they click your affiliate link and you earn a commission. These searches convert at a higher rate because the buyer is already 90 percent of the way to a purchase decision. You are not educating them from scratch. You are helping them finish a decision they have already nearly made.

Compare that to someone searching “how to do email marketing.” That person could be years away from buying Kajabi. They may not know what a course platform is yet. Creating content for that search makes sense eventually, once you have built some authority, but it is the wrong starting point for a new creator. Alston’s advice is to begin at the bottom of the funnel where buyers are actively comparing, and then work upward toward broader, more competitive topics as your site or channel builds a track record.

Step 5: Create Content Using the Who-What-When-Where-Why-How Framework

Once you have a keyword, sit down for 10 to 15 minutes and brainstorm using six core questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Alston says this is elementary but it is exactly what most people searching for information need answered. If your topic is “kajabi vs squarespace,” you would work through questions like: who should use Kajabi, who should use Squarespace, what is Kajabi best at, what is Squarespace best at, when does Kajabi make more sense, when does Squarespace win, where do people get stuck with each platform, why would someone switch from Squarespace to Kajabi, why would someone stay on Squarespace, and how does the pricing of each compare at different usage levels. That 15-minute session gives you the full structure for a video script or blog post outline without needing to figure out the format from scratch every time.

Every piece of content you create should include a clear call to action. Alston keeps his simple: “Get started with a free trial of Kajabi today — click the link in the description.” The call to action does not need to be elaborate. It just needs to exist and point toward your affiliate link. If you are on YouTube, the link goes in the video description. If you are writing a blog post, it goes as a text link or button inside the article. The goal is to remove any friction between the reader or viewer and the next step.

Alston also makes a grounding point about what quality actually means at this stage. You are not trying to produce a documentary. You are trying to answer a specific question your audience is already searching for in a clear, honest, and complete way. If someone types “kajabi vs squarespace” and your post or video answers every question they could realistically have about that comparison, that is quality content. It does not have to be produced with expensive equipment. It does not have to be perfectly edited. It has to be genuinely helpful and complete.

Not sure which online income model fits what you already know how to do?

Affiliate marketing is one path. There are others that may fit your skills and situation better. Take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com to find out which model matches your current skill set.

Step 6: Rinse, Repeat, and Reinvest

The final step is consistency. Alston says it plainly: come up with a schedule where you feel comfortable creating content consistently and persistently. That is what separates the people who see results from the people who publish three posts or two videos and then stop. Affiliate marketing compounds over time. The content you create today can earn commissions for months or years after the day you published it. A blog post ranking for “kajabi pricing” keeps sending buyers to your affiliate link long after you have moved on to writing about something else entirely.

Once you start earning commissions, Alston’s recommendation is to reinvest a portion back into the operation. The priorities he names are new lighting, a better camera, and eventually a writer so you are not producing all the content yourself. None of those investments are needed on day one. The point of the zero-dollar start is that the business can fund its own growth rather than requiring money you may not have yet. Once commissions are coming in, reinvesting them back into better production or time savings accelerates the whole cycle without requiring outside capital.

Honest Drawbacks

This is a real opportunity but it has real limitations worth knowing before you start.

Income takes time to appear. New content needs months to build search traffic. Early on you are doing real work for little to no visible return. That is normal and expected, not a sign that the model is broken.
Rejection from affiliate programs is common when you have no audience. Alston is clear that this is fine. Apply, hear no, keep creating content as if you were accepted. The content needs to exist before the commissions can exist.
Free keyword tools have daily or monthly limits. Ahrefs’ free version and AnswerThePublic both cap how many searches you can run. The alphabet soup method has no cap at all and gets you very far on its own.
You depend on someone else’s product and program terms. If Kajabi changes its affiliate commission rate or ends its program, your income from that specific product changes too. Starting with two or three programs across different products reduces that exposure.
The zero-dollar entry cost trades dollars for hours. Writing thorough comparison posts or recording clear walkthrough videos is real work. The model is accessible but it is not effortless. Set that expectation before you start and the early slog will feel like progress instead of a warning sign.

A Realistic Look at the Numbers

The video does not include income screenshots or projected earnings, and this post will not invent any. What Alston does say is this: in the very early stages, if you miss out on commissions because you were rejected or your content has not yet ranked, you are most likely missing $10 to $15. Not thousands. Early traffic is low, early conversions are low, and both are normal. The point of the first several months is not to get rich — it is to build the content library and the search footprint that compounds into meaningful income over time.

The example Alston surfaces on the free Ahrefs tool gives a concrete picture of what low-competition opportunity looks like. The keyword “kajabi pricing” gets 2,000 searches per month with a keyword difficulty of 2. If a post ranking on the first page for that term converts even 1 percent of visitors through an affiliate link, that is 20 new Kajabi subscribers per month from a single article. Kajabi’s affiliate program pays recurring commissions. The math from there is straightforward. You can run it yourself once you know the commission rate and a realistic conversion estimate for your specific product.

Find Your X

Affiliate marketing is one way to make your first money online. Whether it is the right path for you depends on what you already know, how you prefer to create content, and which products you can speak about honestly and helpfully. Take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com to find out which online income model fits your skills and situation. It takes two minutes and gives you a specific direction to start instead of a long list of options to scroll through and second-guess.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I really need zero dollars to start affiliate marketing?

Yes, in the literal sense. Joining affiliate programs costs nothing. Keyword research using the alphabet soup method, the free Ahrefs tool, and AnswerThePublic is completely free. Starting a YouTube channel or a blog on a free platform costs nothing. The only input you spend in the beginning is time. Eventually investing in a custom domain and paid hosting makes sense for long-term growth, but those are optional at the start and can be funded from your first commissions.

What is the alphabet soup method for keyword research?

It is a free technique for generating content ideas using Google or YouTube’s autocomplete feature. You type your product name into the search bar, add a space, then type the letter A and write down every autocomplete suggestion. Clear the A, type B, and repeat through the entire alphabet. Each autocomplete result is a phrase real people are actively searching, which makes this one of the most reliable free research methods available. No tool required, no account needed, no daily limit.

What happens if an affiliate program rejects my application?

You move on and keep creating content. Being rejected from a program early on does not cost you much because your content is not yet driving significant traffic anyway. There are thousands of affiliate programs across every product category. If Amazon or Kajabi says no, look for an alternative in the same space. Keep building content because you will need that content library to get approved when you reapply with real traffic data to share.

Should I start with a blog or a YouTube channel?

Pick the format that comes most naturally to you. If writing feels easier, start with a blog. If you are comfortable on camera, start with YouTube. The underlying content strategy is the same on both platforms: target specific low-competition keywords, answer questions thoroughly, and include a call to action in every post or video. Many affiliate marketers eventually run both, but starting with one and getting consistent before expanding is a smarter use of early energy.

How many keywords should I collect before starting to create content?

Alston recommends 30 to 50 as a starting bank. That is enough to keep you producing consistently for several months without running dry on ideas. You do not need to create content on every keyword you collect. Use the list as a reserve and prioritize the ones with the lowest competition first — comparison keywords and pricing keywords tend to rank faster and convert better than broad informational topics.

Why is bottom-of-funnel content better for beginners?

Because the people searching those terms are already close to a purchase decision. Someone typing “kajabi vs thinkific” has already decided they want a course platform. They are comparing two specific options. If your content helps them choose and Kajabi wins, they are very likely to click your affiliate link. Broad informational topics attract people at the research stage who may be months away from any buying decision. Bottom-of-funnel comparison content converts better and is often less competitive because fewer creators bother targeting it.

What should I say in a business plan for an affiliate program application?

Be specific and honest. Explain that you plan to research the keywords your target audience is searching for, create content that answers those specific questions thoroughly, and include your affiliate link so interested readers or viewers can easily take the next step. You do not need a formal document. Most programs ask this through a short text field in the application form. A clear two or three sentence explanation of your content strategy is more convincing than a vague promise to promote on social media.

When should I start reinvesting affiliate commissions back into the business?

As soon as the commissions can cover a specific recurring cost without putting your personal finances at risk. Alston names three priorities in order: better lighting, a camera upgrade, and eventually a writer to help with content production. Those three investments improve output quality and rate without requiring you to trade more of your own time. Do not reinvest so aggressively that you create financial pressure — but once commissions can fund a tool or service that saves you meaningful time, that reinvestment tends to compound the income rather than just sustain it.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “The $0 Investment: Start Affiliate Marketing with ZERO Dollars | How To Make Money Online 2023” — YouTube, https://youtu.be/O2n3B4yyyqo
Amazon Associates affiliate program — affiliate-program.amazon.com
Kajabi Partner Program — kajabi.com/partners
Ahrefs free keyword generator — ahrefs.com/keyword-generator
AnswerThePublic — answerthepublic.com

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