How I Started Making Serious Money Online With $0
You don’t ALWAYS have to spend money to make money
Every other day I get an email from someone who has read one of my stories here on Medium asking for advice on how they can start making money online.
The catch is — they have $0.
I completely understand the pain and frustration.
When I started my business over a decade ago, I rarely had any money left after paying for basic necessities.
However, I refused to allow my lack of financial resources to stand in the way of improving my situation.
Instead, I got creative and ended up making a modest full-time income in my first year of self-employment using the exact strategy that I’m about to share with you here.
Now, I have to warn you —
This business model isn’t new.
You’ve probably heard of it before.
However, I didn’t follow the conventional advice that the “make money online” gurus regurgitate, and I think that’s why I was successful with it.
Today, I’m going to give you a SPECIFIC step-by-step strategy that has made me several hundred thousand dollars over the last few years.
Sadly, there will be NO course or coaching offer at the end of this story.
I know, what a bummer.
I enjoy writing about my experiences openly on this platform. But I’m not interested in being anyone’s personal “coach” or “mentor.”
So, as always, feel free to use what resonates with you and leave what doesn’t.
The Strategy
My strategy is a version of affiliate marketing that you probably haven’t heard many people talking about before.
Just in case you are not familiar with affiliate marketing, it’s simply —
Promoting someone else’s product in exchange for a percentage of each sale you refer.
If you’ve ever searched “how to make money online,” you’ve probably read articles or watched videos promoting affiliate marketing as one of the best business models for beginners.
And I couldn’t agree more.
You can make money with affiliate marketing without spending a dime.
You don’t have to create your own product or worry about customer service. There’s literally no overhead.
If you have a computer (or even a phone) with an internet connection, you can make money with this EVEN IF you have $0 in the bank.
Now, the common advice when it comes to affiliate marketing is to go onto a site like “Click Bank” (which is home to a lot of scammy, low-value digital products — in my opinion) and start spamming links all over the internet.
DON’T do that!
It’s a total waste of time, and you (probably) won’t make any money.
Luckily, there is a much better, non-spammy way to make money with affiliate marketing that you can start doing today.
Here’s How I Did It
First, I researched affiliate programs that offered recurring revenue.
With recurring revenue, you continue getting paid each month that your referral remains a customer.
Here’s an example —
Back in 2013, online courses were becoming “the BIG” online business model, and like many people at the time, I was obsessed.
Well, in order to sell online courses, you need to put your content behind a paywall.
That’s how I found out about online course platforms like Teachable and Thinkific — which both have affiliate programs that pay recurring commissions.
So I started playing around with these software tools.
They both have free versions, so I didn’t have to pay anything to start poking around and testing them out.
I essentially studied these software tools and became an expert on how to use them pretty quickly.
Next, I would create helpful content comparing these tools and showing people how to use them through tutorial-style videos and written articles.
There were no pushy sales tactics.
I was simply showing people how to use the tools to solve their problems.
As I mentioned above, many of these software tools have free versions, so I’d just leave a link to the free trial in my content and invite people to try it out if they wanted to.
If someone purchased after trying the free version, I’d get a commission.
For example, with Teachable, affiliates get a 30% recurring commission.
Their lowest-paid monthly plan is $59, but most people end up signing up for the $159/month plan.
30% of $159 is $47.70 → that’s your cut.
Remember, this is a recurring commission, so you not only get $47.70 one time, you get it each month that your referral remains a Teachable customer.
If someone is building a business on top of a tool like this, they aren’t going to be quick to cancel.
So, let’s say you refer 50 people.
You’d have an income stream that makes $2,385 a month. That’s easy enough to do in a relatively short amount of time.
Refer 100 people?
That’s $4770 a month.
Build to 250 referrals?
That’s $11,925 a month, baby!
You could literally build a six-figure+ business with $0.
Of course, there is a thing called “churn” that you need to be aware of. Not every one of your referrals will remain a customer forever, so you will need to keep adding referrals to grow consistently.
But still, I think you can see the power of recurring commissions through this example.
If you create high-quality content that is truly helpful to others, it won’t be long before people start signing up with your link.
However, you have to treat your “free” content like it’s your product — because it is.
You can’t “half-ass” it and expect it to work.
Approach it like a professional, and you’ll get results.
How to find products with recurring commissions
Here’s a short list of software products that I’ve promoted in the past that offer recurring commissions to give you some ideas:
- Teachable
- Thinkific
- ConvertKit
- Helium 10
- Deadline Funnel
- Leadpages
- SamCart
- Podia
- Wavve
- Bookbeam
- VidIQ
However, this is just the tippy-top of the iceberg. There are THOUSANDS of online businesses that offer recurring commissions.
Tip: There are a ton of new AI companies popping up right now that are looking for promoters — just do a quick Google search for “AI tools” or “AI software.”
I want to point out that the tools listed above are all legitimate SAAS companies that offer real value to their customers.
It’s far easier to “sell” a good product that solves real problems for people by simply showing them how it works than to spam the internet with links to junk.
Signing Up As an Affiliate Partner
If a company has an affiliate program, they’ll usually include a link in the footer of their website that says “affiliates” or “partners.”
If you click on the link, you’ll be taken to the program’s signup page that includes the terms of the program.
Some companies have specific criteria for signing up. For example, some want to see that you have an established website or social media presence.
But some of them have no requirements to join.
Creating Promo Content
Once you’ve joined an affiliate program that offers recurring commissions, the next step is to LEARN about the product so that you can create content about it.
Most software tools have a free trial or plan.
Sign up and start poking around inside the tool. Read the FAQ’s. Test out its features.
You can quickly become an expert if you spend a little time learning the ins and outs.
Heck, you could even record your screen as you learn and create a “first impressions” video.
Plus, if you get good enough at using a particular tool, you could create a whole-ass paid course on how to use it, just like Joesph Michael did.
He was a pizza delivery driver who taught himself how to use a self-publishing tool called “Scrivener.”
Now he earns over $40k per month, selling an online tutorial that teaches people how to use it.
The possibilities are endless.
But in order to avoid overwhelm, I would start by creating short, to-the-point tutorial-style content that shows people how to get started with the tool and use certain features.
Required Disclosures
Remember to include your affiliate link throughout your content and write a disclaimer letting the reader/viewer know that you have an affiliate relationship with the company.
Here’s an example —
This article/video contains my referral link for (product name). If you sign up for a paid subscription through my link, I will receive a commission at no additional charge to you.
The FTC requires creators to disclose affiliate links in their content. This is pretty easy to do, so just make sure you have one in there before you publish your content.
Where to Post Your Helpful Content
If you are starting out with $0, you don’t need to set up your own website.
That costs money, and without running paid ads, it could be weeks or months before your content gets indexed in search — even then, it could be buried on the 47th page of Google, never to be seen by a single living soul.
Instead, create content on a platform that already has traffic going to it.
YouTube is a great place to post tutorial-style videos.
You don’t even have to show your face if you don’t want to. You can simply record your screen and do a voice-over.
Or, if you want to create written tutorials or articles, Medium is a great place to start.
Honestly, if I were starting over today, I’d probably focus on Medium first because it’s very easy to create content here.
A third option might be to leverage a newsletter platform like Substack.
That way, you have the option of putting some of your content behind a paywall and growing an email list all at the same time. That’s two income streams and a valuable business asset all rolled into one.
The downside of Substack is that it doesn’t get a lot of organic traffic.
Boost Your Content Views
Once you have your main content created, you can promote it on Pinterest. Pinterest is basically a search engine. Posting links to your content will help you get more traffic, and it doesn’t cost you a thing.
You can use the free version of Canva to create great-looking pins quickly and easily.
You can also search Twitter to see if anyone is talking about the product already. If so, join the conversation and drop a link to your helpful content if it’s relevant.
Remember, the more people that see your content means more opportunities to get a referral. So anything you can do to boost views will help to grow your income faster.
Recap
- Sign up for affiliate programs that offer “recurring commissions” — typically software (SAAS) products.
- Learn how to use the tool — become a “quick start expert.”
- Create helpful tutorial-style content or aspirational/interesting case studies that feature the tool.
- Include your affiliate links in your content with a disclaimer.
- Post content on platforms that are already getting traffic (YouTube or Medium — possibly Substack).
- Drive additional traffic to your content through Pinterest, Twitter, or the social platform of your choice.
- Build your income stream to $10k+ by consistently creating helpful content.
