How to Start Affiliate Marketing With No Experience

I had zero experience when I started affiliate marketing. I didn't know what a "cookie window" was. I didn't have a blog. I had no email list, no social following, and honestly no clear idea of what I was doing.

What I did have: a laptop, time on evenings and weekends, and enough frustration with my day job to try something different.

Here's what I actually did, what worked, what didn't, and how I'd start today if I were beginning from scratch.

What Affiliate Marketing Actually Is

Before I explain how to start, let me explain what affiliate marketing really is — because the "earn money while you sleep" pitch leaves out some important context.

Affiliate marketing is when you promote someone else's product and earn a commission when someone buys through your unique link. The commission can be anywhere from 5% to 50%+ depending on the product.

The mechanics are simple. The hard part — the part nobody talks about — is getting people to actually click your link. That requires traffic. Traffic requires content. Content requires time. This is why most people who "try" affiliate marketing make nothing: they expect passive income without putting in the active work first.

I'm telling you this upfront because I want you to have real expectations. Affiliate marketing works. It's just not as fast or effortless as it's sold.

My Story: Starting From Nothing

When I started, I picked a niche I knew well: helping people start small online businesses. I'd been through the process myself — tried freelancing, tried dropshipping, eventually found my footing with digital products.

My first affiliate program was for a software tool I actually used. I wrote an honest review on a blog I'd just started. That review got exactly 12 visitors in the first month. I made $0.

Month two, I wrote 8 more blog posts. Still no sales. I almost quit.

Month three, one of my posts started ranking on Google. It got 200+ visitors. I made my first affiliate commission — $34. I screenshotted it and kept going.

The blog grew. More posts ranked. More commissions came in. By month eight I was making $400–$600/month in affiliate commissions on top of my digital product income.

How to Actually Start: The Step-by-Step

Step 1: Pick a niche you know and care about. Not because passion pays — it doesn't, by itself — but because you'll write better content about things you've actually experienced. Pick something you have genuine knowledge or curiosity in.

Step 2: Start a blog. Organic search traffic is the most sustainable source of affiliate clicks. A blog targets specific searches your ideal audience is already doing. Don't get fancy — pick a simple setup and start writing.

Step 3: Join affiliate programs for products you actually use. Recommending products you've used is infinitely easier than promoting stuff you've never touched. Your honesty comes through in the writing and readers can feel it.

Step 4: Write reviews, comparisons, and how-to content. These three formats drive the most affiliate clicks because they target people who are already in buying mode. Someone searching "MadeThis review" is much closer to buying than someone searching "what is a digital product."

Step 5: Be patient. The first 3 months are almost always slow. That's normal. Most people quit before the compounding kicks in.

The Platform I Recommend Recommending

Here's the honest truth about how I found MadeThis: I tried it for my own digital product business, saw how well it worked, and became an affiliate because I was going to recommend it anyway.

When I recommend MadeThis to people who want to start selling digital products, I'm recommending something I use and believe in. That makes it one of the easier affiliates I promote — I don't have to oversell it. The product does the talking.

If your niche intersects at all with online business, digital products, or making money online, MadeThis is worth looking into as an affiliate product. The platform is good, the commission structure is real, and it solves a genuine problem for beginners.

What I'd Do Differently If Starting Today

I'd skip the months of confusion and go straight to a content-focused affiliate strategy from day one.

That means:

• Start a simple blog immediately (don't wait until it's perfect)
• Write one piece of content per week minimum
• Pick 3–5 affiliate products you've used or believe in
• Focus on comparison and review content from the start — it converts better than informational content

I'd also set up my own digital product alongside the affiliate marketing from the beginning. The two income streams complement each other and having your own products means you're not entirely dependent on affiliate commissions.

For a deeper look at how the digital product and affiliate marketing combination works, see my MadeThis review — it walks through the full setup.

The First Step Is the Hardest

Affiliate marketing works. But it requires you to actually start. The research phase is seductive because it feels like progress without the vulnerability of putting something out into the world.

Pick your niche. Write your first blog post. Join one affiliate program for a product you'd recommend to a friend. Then keep going.

MadeThis is where I'd start if I were building in the online business / digital products space. It's the platform I recommend most naturally — because I use it myself.