Affiliate Marketing is one of the best home business opportunities available and one of the few legitimate ways to make money online. One of the most important features of affiliate marketing is the ability to get started on a shoe string budget. I am going to show you how to get started for less than $20. (All links open in a new window)

The first step is to identify your niche. Choose a niche that you are familiar with so that you have no problem creating content. It is easy to get excited about something that you are passionate about and this excitement will show through in your web copy.

Get A Domain – Once you have identified your niche, get a domain. There are varying thoughts on choosing a domain name, but I tend to pick keyword rich domains to help with organic search results. I recommend NameCheap for domain purchases. They offer domains with free privacy for only $10 per year. I have over 100 domains registered with NameCheap and have never had any issues.

Get Hosting – Next you need to get a hosting account. I recommend a hosting plan that allows for you to host unlimited domains (for growth). There are tons of hosting companies online and very few are worthwhile and reliable. I recommend using HostGator. They are affordable ($9.95 per month), do not require years of prepayment to get a good deal, and allow monthly billing. The Baby hosting plan provides you with unlimited disk space and bandwith, Fantastico and an easy to use cpanel for only $9.95 per month. Get more information here.

Create your site – NVU provides one of the top free WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) html editors. Download here, get templates here, and take a look at the tutorial here. The next option is to use the Fantastico option in your HostGator account and create a WordPress blog. Once the blog is created, find and upload a theme and the appropriate plugins for your blog.

Affiliate Programs – the last step is to sign up for your affiliate programs. You want to make sure you have plenty of content and a professional looking site before applying for any affiliate programs. I recommend opening affiliate accounts with Neverblue,  Commission Junction and Link Share. Another option is to monetize your site with Adsense. Once again, before applying make sure your site has plenty of content and looks professional.

There you go! An easy out line to help you get started for less than $20 and your monthly cost will be only $9.95 to continue with the hosting.