Do I need to spend or invest some money to start an online business? The simple answer is you can start an online business, particularly in affiliate marketing, for totally free. Yes, I mean you can actually start doing affiliate marketing without having to spend a single dime.
But will you make money consistently and sustain this method of online business? I really doubt so.
However, if you are really interested to start a real online business, especially in affiliate marketing, where you can make passive income consistently on auto-pilot, then I will recommend you what are the things you really need and how much budget you need to invest at minimum just to get started.
To get started from scratch, I would recommend starting with a budget of least $1000. If you don’t have this amount of budget, then I would suggest that you start saving till you get close to this amount.
So this is my proposed breakdown and how will you allocate this $1000 to start your online business:
Budget #1. Allocate 50% For Your Own Education
If you are totally new to affiliate marketing, then I would strongly suggest you start learning and educating yourself the basics of affiliate marketing.
There are tons of affiliate training programs or course out there today. But there is one very good affiliate training course I would like to recommend which you can get all the training for less than $500, the Gold Masterclass.
This course will provide you all the system, tools and detailed step-by-step training. It is the same exact training program that I have learnt and acquired all my basic foundations.
I am a strong advocate to learning because knowledge is power when (of course you have to apply that knowledge that you have acquired). I cannot stress any further that getting the necessary knowledge and skills to become an affiliate marketer is a must if you want to do this for long-term.
Budget #2. Allocate 25% For Tools
There are 4 tools that you will have to get in order to start with and they are not very expensive. For some of these tools, it is cheaper if you purchase them annually, instead of the monthly billing.
There are certainly more tools out there such as tracking tools, video marketing tools, but these can come later once you start seeing some results from your business.
Tool #1: Domain
Simply, a domain is just a website name that people can find you online. A simple domain will typically cost about $10 per year.
Tool #2: Hosting
Next, you need a web hosting service which is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. A simple plan will typically cost about $30 to $50 per year.
Tool #3: Autoresponder
Every affiliate marketer knows the importance of getting an autoresponder. An autoresponder is a program that you can configure and script out a set of email messages that will be sent out automatically after a contact subscribes to your list. A simple plan will typically cost about $19 per month.
To find out more about which autoresponder tool I am using, click here to see my recommendations.
Tool #4: Page Builder
A page builder is an easy drag and drop tool that allows you to create beautiful content-rich pages on your website. There are many page builder providers out there today and their prices can vary very significantly, for example between $25 per month for Leadpages and $97 – $297 per month for ClickFunnels.
To find out more about which page builder tool I am using, click here to see my recommendations.
Budget #3. Allocate 25% For Advertising and Traffic
Once you have all the knowledge and the tools in place, the last thing is to focus on traffic which is the lifeblood of your business. You have to budget a certain amount for traffic every month to get leads and sales. Without sales, you will not be sustain your business.
So, don’t be afraid to allocate a fixed budget every month on traffic and advertising. And you should also use free traffic methods to drive visitors to your website on a regularly basis to collect leads.
You can also learn all these traffic generation methods about utilizing the various social media platforms to drive traffic such as Solo Ads, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Bogging, Bing PPC, etc. in the affiliate training course which I had recommended earlier – The Gold Masterclass Affiliate Training Program.
