Regardless what business you’re in, marketing any business can be tough if you don’t have a budget, but there are always free ways to get started and the business of affiliate marketing is no different. When people get started with affiliate marketing, the biggest reason that they fail is because they give up too soon because they realize that although it can lead to passive income that runs on it’s own with little maintenance, there is a lot of hard work to get there from ground zero.

If you’re willing to put in the work to get started without a budget, then you can not only get your affiliate marketing business off the ground, but you can actually make a pretty good income with a very low investment using free resources.

Here are a few great ways to generate traffic to your affiliate promotions that won’t cost you anything but a bit of your time.

Niche forums and communities
Forums and other online communities are one of the best, and often overlooked, ways to get free traffic in your niche that can drive sales to your affiliate marketing promotion. The idea is to join and participate on a real level (not spammy!) in order to build trust and credibility in your niche.  The signature of your posts will always include your website address, and we people see you know what you’re talking about, they will want to check you out further and click that link.

Newsletters
Building a list by offering a free newsletter is a great way to offer your target audience products, freebies, and other valuable information in your niche. Just remember to respect them and not be pushy with the sales. Offer the free value with no strings attached more than you try and pitch an affiliate product and you’ll do fine.

Article Marketing
Writing articles on various topics in your niche is also a great way to get exposure. You can submit your articles to free directories online like ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com and others that allow you to post a link or two and other information about your site in the resource box. It’s great for backlinks ad seo as well!