How I Started An Online Business For Free

Yes, the challenge is how to start an online business for free.

Let me ask you, how often can you do something for free?

The answer is very rarely.

So, in this blog I’m going to share with you how I started online businesses with no money.

Why I Started an Online Business

The finance industry is my background. Starting work straight from school, I went into taxation.

When I married my husband, we moved to New Zealand and I went into banking.

It seems I had a knack for numbers.

One day on my way home from work a car crash left me unable to walk, unable to work and having to find a way to make money.

I started working in my husband’s business and found I loved being an entrepreneur. But as I was unable to work, I decided the internet would be the best place to start.

I started writing books and self-publishing them. This led to being asked to coach someone and from that build the business I have today, Karen Newton International.

Everything I did, cost nothing to set up. It is a philosophy I maintain today.

• Self-Publishing – was published through Createspace which is now Amazon KDP Publishing

• Coaching – started with writing modules and sending copies to clients via email.

• Facebook – using Facebook page to generate leads and Facebook Groups to give people a central point to communicate.

Today, even though my business attracts international clients and has a big turnover, the cost of running it online remains low – under £500 per month.

Which Type of Business

The more I’ve learned about being an online entrepreneur, the more I’ve learned there are certain strategies used to generate income, especially the large amounts each month.

My first step was to study the online people, what they did and how they did it.

I discovered, they don’t run just one website or one business but have multiple income streams. They invest the profits from their online businesses into property, shares and gold.

The more I delved into Multiple Income Streams, the more I realized, that I didn’t need to become an expert at just one thing. I could turn hobbies and interests into mini businesses.

Get those online and use affiliate products to start earning an income.

Even today, when I develop most of my own products, I still have affiliate products as part of my overall online strategy.

 Start An Affiliate Marketing Business with No Cash

Many people will tell you to start an online business you need $5k – $10k.

But you can start an affiliate marketing business with no cash. I know because I did.

There are many free resources available for blogging, creating videos, marketing, building email list, advertising and simply getting yourself online.

The worst part about starting any online business is what you don’t know. I often found myself thinking, I wish I’d known about that before.

That is why I created The Online Entrepreneur free newsletter. Each week you get information about a topic and some action steps to help your online business grow.

You don’t need money to get started online, what you need is the information to do it.

The Right Coaching for Where You Are Now

Education and Coaching for me are key to my success. However, one of the biggest mistakes was paying for high-value coaching, thinking it would accelerate my success when I wasn’t ready for that level of learning.

It’s like the adage, learn to walk before you run.

Coaching is the same.

I have paid a lot of money for coaching only to find the coach expects me to spend $1000 a day on advertising when I didn’t have money to advertise.

I have been on training sessions where the resources were going to cost $1000 a month and I didn’t have $1000 to spend.

The best results were when I stepped back, started at the beginning and learned the skills of affiliate marketing from the ground upwards. Only adding the paid-for resources and spending the money on advertising once I started making money.

With over 20 years of experience in the affiliate marketing industry and as an online entrepreneur, the best advice I can give, is, to start at the bottom and be prepared to work your way to the top as you prove you can make money from this industry.

Be open to learning as much as you can and put it into action.

 

Getting Started Online

Let me ask you a question. What do you know something about?

This could be a hobby. When you started the hobby, what type of information were you looking for?

There will be people interested in your hobby who are new to it and want information to get started. You have the experience to teach them about it.

I often tell my clients, to become an affiliate for the course they are on.

Once they’ve done the training they understand the benefits of the course it is easier to sell it.

The benefits of a product or service sell not the bells and whistles on offer.

What courses have you been on lately?

Do they offer affiliate marketing opportunities?

What Tools Do You Need to Get Started

There are a few tools you will need to get started once you have a product –

• A blogging site – there are free ones available such as Blogger and WordPress
• A video site – again free ones are available such as YouTube and TikTok
• A place to advertise your product – Free through Social Media Platforms
• An email management system – Free are still available
• A bank account for receiving your commissions – Free

You can set up the whole infrastructure of your online business for free.

The skill to becoming a successful affiliate marketer is what you do with the tools and resources.

 Multiple Income Streams

When I started learning the skills of being an online business owner, I soon discovered, that the more income streams I could create the wealthier I became.

This led one day to a guy stopping me in the street. He had one of my books in his hand (one of my income streams) and asked me to coach him.

I started a coaching business which today is a successful online business.

It is one of several different business models I use to generate multiple income streams online.

• Affiliate Marketing
• Self-Publishing Books
• Coaching
• Memberships
• Advertising

The above are some samples of how I generate income online there are many more that could be added to the list.

I started this blog by asking if it was possible to start an online business for free.

The answer is a resounding, YES!