Does Affiliate Marketing Cost Money? [Average Website Cost]

Affiliate Marketing Costs: Average Website Startup Expenses

Starting a blog and building up an authority website is a fantastic way to build up a following online and make affiliate sales passively long-term. 

Here are the main expenses you will need to pay for when starting your affiliate marketing business and building out your website.

1. Register A Domain Name

Registering a domain name to build your website is essential to building a reputable brand online.

You don’t want to be on a free blogging platform such as Blogger or Medium, since these platforms then control greatly what you can put on your website.

By using your own domain name and hosting, you get full control over how you want your website to look and can make it fully customizable.

In order to register a domain name simply go to Namecheap and grab a domain name for less than $10 per year. I recommend choosing a domain name that’s brandable but can still be recognized as being related to the niche that you’re going to be creating content around.

2. Web Hosting

Once you’ve got a domain name, the next big cost is web hosting.

My recommendation for anyone who’s starting a brand new website on a new domain would be to use Bluehost.  It’s the cheapest and fastest web hosting out there for less than $5 per month.

Once you’ve got a significant amount of traffic coming in, then I’d recommend switching to the fastest host which would be WPX Hosting.

They’ve got an AMAZING support team that responds on average less than 5 minutes.  Not to mention that the site speed when switching increases dramatically.

3. Website Backup

Another thing you will need to consider purchasing when starting your blog is a website backup plugin. 

I personally use ManageWP to have a daily backup of my entire site for just $2 per month. 

The last thing you want to happen is for your host to crash and you lose all your files without having a backup.  This becomes even more critical when your site is pulling in thousands of dollars each month.

4. Stock Images

I personally use and highly recommend Deposit Photos as the best stock photography site out there.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of images to choose from and a much bigger selection than nearly every other stock photos and videos site.

5. Web Page Builder

The last big cost for building your affiliate marketing site is a web page builder.

Using a web page builder will allow you to completely customize your WordPress theme without needing to use any code.  I recommend and use Elementor Pro, since it’s the best WordPress page builder and is super intuitive.

Affiliate Marketing Costs: Average Youtube Channel Startup Expenses

Here are the main expenses you will need to pay for when starting your affiliate marketing business and building out your YouTube Channel.

1. Camera

You can certainly use your cell phone to record all of your videos and is definitely encouraged when starting out if you simply can’t afford a better camera.

However, getting a high-quality webcam or inexpensive camera could be worth the additional cost to draw in more views and subscribers.

2. Video Editing Software

Video editing software if another cost of starting a YouTube channel that can be a little pricey.

The good news is that there is actually some free video editing software you can use such as OpenShot.  However, any free software you use won’t be as easy or feature-rich to create high-quality videos.

I recommend investing in software such as Adobe Premiere Pro to start learning right away from the very beginning of how to use the high-end software.

This will help you to work efficiently when editing as opposed to using a clunky free software.

3. Lights

Lighting is another cost that you may not initial consider.

Certainly, you can use natural lighting and the lights around your house.

Although, at some point, I’d recommend investing in a simple lighting setup for a couple of hundred dollars so that the video looks more appealing and professional to the audience.

4. Microphone

If there’s one place to splurge when starting out it would be when purchasing a microphone.

If your audio quality is bad, then people are immediately going to be turned off by your video.

So, I recommend going big and spending as much as you can afford in the beginning as an upfront cost on a microphone.

Additional Expenses

Here are some of the additional expenses you’ll need to pay for at least a few months down the road if not right away when launching your business.

1. Email Autoresponder

Building your email list is critical to start building as soon as possible.

My recommendation and what I use for my online affiliate marketing business is ActiveCampaign.

It gives you all the features necessary and then some to create incredible email automations that are drag and drop.

2. URL Shortener & Link Tracker Software

Tracking where link clicks are occurring and determining which content is working to produce affiliate link clicks is critical to scaling up on what’s working.

I recommend ClickMagick as the best URL shortener for tracking links. 

3. Courses & Training

Investing in a course helps you to shortcut the learning process and potentially fast-track your way to success.

The course I took and highly recommend to learn blogging, SEO, and building an audience on YouTube is called Project 24. 

4. Sales Funnel Builder Software

Using a sales funnel builder will help you to convert cold traffic into sales much quicker and more efficiently.

I recommend and use DropFunnels to build out sales funnels, courses, and membership areas for your business.  You can also read my full DropFunnels review here to learn more about the software.

Do Affiliate Programs Require Fees To Sign Up?

Nearly all affiliate programs are free to join.  You simply fill out a form, are eventually accepted or rejected, and then can grab your affiliate links to start promoting a new affiliate product.

Legendary Marketer is one affiliate program that actually gives out higher commissions to affiliates if you pay a monthly fee.  You may encounter similar programs as well but all affiliate programs nearly are free to join.