Absolute Basic Starting Costs

As I’ve said earlier in this blog, an affiliate marketing business is one of the least expensive to launch, but a few small starting costs still exist. In this piece, I’m going to break down all of the items that are absolutely essential to buy, along with their costs. Of course, lots of other things are very useful for helping your business grow, but I won’t cover them here.

One Laptop with Wi-Fi capability

Most of you who are reading this already have the use of a laptop, and yes, it’s important. Doing business on a mobile phone is not a realistic option.

This is probably your single biggest expense, but if you don’t have access to a laptop, don’t despair. First, you don’t need to purchase one that’s state of the art. Nearly anything with Wi-Fi is fine for doing business on. For an older laptop, consider an online marketplace, or look on Google for dealers that sell ‘refurbished’ laptops.

If money is still an obstacle, think about selling some of your things, either on eBay or an online marketplace. Alternatively, if you like to craft things, consider selling them on sites like Etsy. As long as you have things that others can buy – and skills that you can trade for money – you don’t have to worry about making what you need for covering your starting costs.

Safe, reliable Internet service

In most parts of the world, the regular use of a quality Internet connection will be one of your starting costs. However, if you can get free access where you are, consider yourself lucky.

For most businesses, the ideal solution – and probably the least expensive, in the long run – is to have your local telecommunications provider install an Internet connection in your home, for which you’ll usually pay a monthly fee once it’s active.

If a home connection is impossible for some reason, there are several other ways to get connected to wi-fi during the times that you actively work. Nowadays, many businesses rent temporary workspace by the hour, day, or month – and wi-fi is included in the price. There are also the well-known standbys of hotel business centers, coffee shops, and Internet cafes. Even in small communities, you are likely to have a few options.

Email marketing: automated and broadcast service

If you’ve seen affiliateswim.com’s Coaching section, you already know that you can’t have a successful business without building a quality email list. For that, you need to subscribe to an emailing service that allows you to set up both sequences of messages to new list members, along with one-time broadcast emails to your entire list.

Although there are several options to choose from, it’s my opinion that GetResponse is the service that offers the best value and performance for the lowest price.

Funnel builder or other web page tool/host

If you’re not comfortable with HTML, subscribing to a funnel builder is usually the least expensive option. If you DO want to code your own pages, you can simply subscribe to a web hosting company instead, but the price is not likely to be much different from an inexpensive funnel builder.

For my beginning students, I recommend the Home Business Academy’s HBA Funnel builder for much the same reasons that I recommend GetResponse for emails. Both are powerful, both are flexible, and they offer very good value for just about the lowest price available.

Final words

Taking action is the key, my friends. And now you have the plan. You can’t succeed until you start.