If I Had To Make My First $100 With Affiliate Marketing I’d Do This

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While I share money-making strategies, nothing is “typical”, and outcomes are based on each individual. There are no guarantees.

Picture this. You lose it all today. Your business, your audience, your email list, your social media accounts—poof, gone. And you have to make your first one hundred dollars online, from scratch, in the next 72 hours. You’ve got no money for ads, no audience to sell to, and no product of your own. What do you even do?

That might sound like a total nightmare, but for so many people trying to start an online business, that’s not a hypothetical… that is their reality. They’re starting from absolute zero. They see all these promises of making thousands of dollars a day, but that first dollar, that first one hundred dollars, feels impossibly far away. It feels like a goal for other people, for the “gurus” who already have it all figured out.

This isn’t just a thought experiment. This is not another “get rich quick” fantasy. This is the exact, step-by-step, no-fluff action plan I would follow if I had to start over from nothing today. This is the blueprint I would use to generate my first one-hundred-dollar commission with affiliate marketing, in just 72 hours, using nothing but free tools and pure focus.

So, if you’re stuck at zero, if you’re tired of the confusion and the noise, then this is for you. We’re going to build a real, tangible plan that you can start running with the second this video ends. Because making your first hundred dollars isn’t about luck. It’s about having the right strategy. And today, I’m giving you that strategy.

The Foundation: Why Affiliate Marketing & The Right Mindset Are Key

Before we get into the hour-by-hour action plan, we need to get two things straight: why affiliate marketing is the perfect tool for this job, and the mindset you absolutely have to adopt to pull this off. So many beginners skip this, and frankly, it’s why they fail before they even start.

First, what even is affiliate marketing? In simple terms, it’s getting paid a commission to promote someone else’s product. You find a product you like, share it with others, and earn a cut of the profit for every sale you generate. You’re basically a digital matchmaker. You connect a person who has a problem with a product that has the solution. When they buy, the company pays you a “thank you” fee—your commission.

So why is this the best business model for our 72-hour, zero-dollar challenge? Three simple reasons.

One: You don’t have to create a product. You don’t have to spend months designing, building, or sourcing anything. No inventory, no shipping, no customer service headaches. The product is already made, proven, and ready to go. This cuts months, if not years, off the typical business startup timeline.

Two: The barrier to entry is almost non-existent. You don’t need a fancy degree, a business loan, or a team. For the strategy I’m about to show you, you don’t even need a website. You can start with nothing more than an internet connection and the drive to do the work. The cost to get started is zero.

And three: It’s a win-win-win. The customer wins because you helped them solve their problem. The company wins because they got a new customer. And you win, because you get paid for making that connection.

This is why we’re choosing affiliate marketing. It is the fastest path from zero to actual cash in your hand.

Now, let’s talk about mindset, which is just as important—if not more important—than the strategy. For the next 72 hours, you have to operate with a relentless sense of urgency. This isn’t a “maybe I’ll try it later” thing. It’s an “I’m doing this right now” mission. The internet is full of people saying affiliate marketing doesn’t work or that it takes 6-12 months to see a dime. And you know what? For them, that’s true, because they treat it like a hobby. They throw a few links out into the void and just hope for the best. That is not what we’re doing here.

We are operating with a clear objective: make $100. We have a clear timeline: 72 hours. And we have a clear plan, which I’m about to give you. You need to block out all distractions. Forget about the ten other “make money online” ideas you heard about this week. For the next three days, this is your world. It will take a few hours of focused work, but this is a realistic sprint to get your first win. Success here isn’t about being the smartest person in the room; it’s about being the most focused and the fastest to take action. Ready? Let’s get to work.

Day 1: Find Your Profitable Niche and High-Commission Product

Alright, welcome to Day 1. Your mission today is to lay the entire foundation for that first commission. By the time you’re done today, you’ll have a profitable micro-niche and a specific, high-converting affiliate product ready to promote. This is the most critical day of the challenge. Get this right, and everything else gets ten times easier. Get it wrong, and you’ll just be spinning your wheels.

Step 1: Choose a “Problem-Solving” Micro-Niche.

This is where 90% of beginners get it twisted. They hear “follow your passion,” so they decide to start a blog about their love for 18th-century poetry. The problem? Nobody is desperately trying to buy something to solve their 18th-century poetry problem.

For this 72-hour plan, we are not following passion. We are following problems. We’re looking for a group of people who have a painful, urgent problem that they are actively and desperately trying to solve. These people are already in “buying mode.” They’re hunting for a solution, and they’re ready to pay for it.

So, how do we find these niches? We become digital detectives. We go to the places where people air their frustrations. The best free spots for this are platforms like Reddit, Quora, and specific Facebook groups.

Here’s your action plan: Spend the next hour on these platforms. But don’t just scroll. Look for patterns in how people talk. You’re hunting for phrases like:

• “How do I fix…?”
• “What’s the best… for…?”
• “I’m really struggling with…”
• “Can anyone recommend a tool that…?”
• “I need to get rid of… fast.”

Let’s walk through an example. Imagine you’re on Reddit in a community like r/workfromhome. You see a dozen posts from people who just started working remotely. A common theme pops up: they’re all complaining about back pain and not having enough space. They have a painful, urgent problem. They write things like, “My dining room chair is destroying my back! I need a good ergonomic chair, but I don’t have a lot of space or money.”

Boom. That’s a micro-niche. Not just “work from home,” but specifically “budget-friendly ergonomic solutions for small home offices.” It’s specific, it’s problem-focused, and you can bet people are searching for answers.

Other examples could be:

• “Pet care for busy professionals,” focusing on things like automatic feeders or anxiety toys.
• “Beginner-friendly podcasting gear,” for people totally overwhelmed by the tech.
• “Natural sleep aids,” for people tired of being tired and looking for alternatives.

Your task is to find one of these micro-niches. A niche where you can state the problem in a single sentence. Write it down. For our example, we’ll stick with: “Budget-friendly ergonomic solutions for small home offices.”

Step 2: Find a High-Converting Affiliate Product.

Now that we have our problem, we need to find the solution we can sell.

Our first stop is affiliate networks. Think of them as giant marketplaces connecting us (affiliates) with companies who want their products promoted. For beginners, I suggest starting with networks that are easy to join and have tons of products. Some of the best are:

• Amazon Associates: This is the easiest one to get into. Since they sell everything, you can almost always find a product for your niche. The downside? The commissions are kinda low, usually 1-10%. But for getting started and building confidence, it’s a great choice.
• ShareASale: Another huge network with thousands of merchants, often smaller, more unique brands you won’t find on Amazon. They frequently offer higher commission rates.
• ClickBank: This network is famous for digital products like ebooks, online courses, and software. The massive advantage here is that commissions are often ridiculously high—sometimes 50-70% or more. A single sale of a $200 course could net you $140, hitting our goal in one shot.

Here’s your action plan for finding a product. Sign up for one of these networks. Once you’re in, search for products related to your micro-niche.

Continuing our example, we’d search for “ergonomic chair,” “standing desk converter,” “lumbar support pillow,” or “vertical mouse.”

But don’t just grab the first thing you see. You have to vet it. Here’s your checklist:

1. Relevance: Does it perfectly solve the problem? Don’t promote a generic office chair. Find one marketed as being great for small spaces or specifically designed for back pain relief.
2. Social Proof: Does it have good reviews? People buy what other people are already buying and loving. A product with 4.5 stars and hundreds of reviews is way easier to sell than something with no track record.
3. A Good Commission: Remember the goal: $100. Let’s do the math. A $50 pillow on Amazon with a 4% commission gets you $2. You’d need 50 sales. In 72 hours? That’s tough. But what if you find a $300 standing desk converter on ShareASale with a 15% commission? That’s $45 per sale. You only need 3 sales. Or, a $150 course on ClickBank about setting up the perfect ergonomic home office with a 70% commission? That’s $105 from a single sale. Mission accomplished.

For this plan, I seriously recommend focusing on products that pay at least $40-$50 per sale. It makes hitting that $100 goal realistic with just two or three sales.

Spend the rest of Day 1 on this. By the time you’re done, you should have your niche defined and one specific affiliate product chosen. Copy your unique affiliate link and save it somewhere safe. That link is your money-maker.

Tomorrow, we build the machine that turns clicks into cash.

Day 2: Build Your “Conversion Machine” With a Simple Bridge Page

Welcome to Day 2. Yesterday, you did the heavy lifting of finding a problem and a product that solves it. You’ve got your affiliate link ready. Today, we build the “conversion machine.” This is the simple, one-page asset that will do the heavy lifting of turning a curious visitor into a happy customer.

A huge mistake beginners make is getting their link and just spamming it everywhere—in comments, forums, DMs. That’s the fastest way to get banned, annoy a lot of people, and make exactly zero dollars. People don’t buy from random, out-of-context links. They buy from sources they trust.

Our job today is to create a simple piece of content that builds that trust and pre-sells the product. We need to warm up the visitor, show them we get their problem, and position our product as the perfect answer. We’re building a “bridge” to take them from “Ugh, I have this problem” to “Wow, this product is exactly what I need.”

Step 3: Create a Simple “Bridge” Page.

We are not building a whole website. For our 72-hour challenge, we need something fast, free, and effective. We’re going to create a single landing page. Think of it like a mini-review page.

There are plenty of free tools for this. Here are a few great ones:

• Google Sites: It’s 100% free with your Google account, super easy to use, and reliable.
• Medium: This is a free blogging platform where you can just write an article that acts as your bridge page. The cool thing is that Medium has a built-in audience, so you might get some bonus views.
• Canva: Yep, Canva. It’s not just for graphics anymore. You can build and publish simple one-page websites for free, which is perfect if you want it to look sharp.

Pick one of these tools and create a blank page. Don’t worry about getting fancy. We want function over form. Your page needs these key elements, in this specific order:

1. The Headline: This is everything. It has to grab the visitor and speak directly to their pain.
   • Bad Headline: “My FlexiDesk Review”
   • Good Headline: “How I Killed My Back Pain and Got My Energy Back With This Standing Desk Converter”
   • Another Good One: “The Best Ergonomic Chair for Tiny Apartments (That Won’t Cost a Fortune)”
2. The Problem: Start by describing the problem they’re feeling. Show empathy.
   • Example: “Let me guess. You started working from home, and now your back is a mess, you can’t focus, and your ‘office’ is just a cluttered corner. I get it. I spent eight hours a day hunched over my laptop, and by 3 PM, the pain in my lower back was so bad I couldn’t think straight.”
     This makes them think, “Okay, this person gets me.”
3. The Solution: Now, introduce the product as the hero that saved the day.
   • Example: “I thought I’d have to drop thousands on a fancy setup, but then I found the [Product Name]. It totally changed my workday for a fraction of the cost.”
4. The Mini-Review (Features & Benefits): List 3-5 key features, but for each one, explain the benefit. Don’t just say what it does; say what it does for them.
   • Feature: “It has an adjustable height.”
   • Benefit: “…which means you can go from sitting to standing in seconds, giving you a jolt of energy and killing that afternoon slump.”
   • Feature: “It has a small footprint.”
   • Benefit: “…so it fits on a tiny desk or even a kitchen counter, turning any space into a comfy workstation without adding more clutter.”
5. Social Proof: Add a screenshot of a positive review or mention its high rating.
   • Example: “And I’m not the only one. It has over 1,500 five-star reviews from people calling it a ‘total game-changer’ for their home office.”
6. A Strong Call-to-Action (CTA): This is where your affiliate link goes. Put it on a clear, compelling button.
   • Bad CTA: “Click Here”
   • Good CTA: “Click Here to See the Current Price & All The Reviews”
   • Another Good One: “Yes, I Want to Fix My Back Pain! Show Me The Product”
7. The Disclosure: It’s vital for trust and legal reasons to tell people it’s an affiliate link. Just add a simple, honest sentence at the bottom.
   • Example: “Just so you know, this is an affiliate link. If you buy through it, I might earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend stuff I truly believe in!”

Your mission is to build this one page. Write the copy, find a good product image, and create your CTA button with your affiliate link. By the end of today, this page should be live. This is your automated salesperson, ready to work 24/7.

Tomorrow, we add the fuel.

Your Free Action Plan Checklist

By the way, if you’re finding this step-by-step plan helpful, I’ve put together a free 72-hour checklist that breaks down every single action item from this video. It’s got headline formulas, a list of beginner-friendly affiliate networks—the works. Think of it as your cheat sheet for this challenge. You can grab it for free at the link in the description. Now, let’s get back to it.

Day 3: Launch Your Traffic Blitz With Pinterest

This is it. Day 3. The final push. You’ve got your niche, your product, and your conversion machine. The only missing piece is traffic. We need to get the right eyeballs on your bridge page.

Since we have no budget, we’re using free traffic only. The mistake most beginners make is trying to be everywhere at once—SEO, blogging, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest. They spread themselves so thin that they make zero impact.

For our 72-hour blitz, we are going to pick ONE platform and go all-in for 24 hours. The platform we choose has to be:

1. Massive and active.
2. Able to give new content instant reach.
3. A place where product recommendations feel natural, not spammy.

The perfect platform for this mission is Pinterest.

Why Pinterest? Because it’s not a social network; it’s a visual search engine. People go there to plan, discover, and buy. They are actively searching for ideas and solutions. It’s a goldmine of commercial intent for an affiliate marketer. A single Pin can start driving traffic within hours and keep working for you for months.

Step 5: The Pinterest Traffic Blitz.

Here’s your exact plan to generate a flood of targeted traffic from Pinterest today.

1. Create a Pinterest Business Account: If you have a personal one, convert it. It’s free and gives you access to important analytics. Make sure your profile and bio are packed with keywords from your niche (e.g., “Home Office Hacks & Ergonomic Tips”).
2. Create Relevant Boards: These are like folders for your Pins. Create 5-10 boards that are super relevant to your micro-niche. For our example: “Small Home Office Ideas,” “Ergonomic Office Chairs,” “Standing Desk Setups,” “Home Office Productivity,” and “Back Pain Relief.”
3. Pinterest Keyword Research: Go to the Pinterest search bar and type in your main keyword (e.g., “home office”). See those little bubbles that pop up? “home office ideas,” “home office small space.” Pinterest is literally telling you what people are searching for. Click on them. Write these down. These keywords are your secret weapon.
4. Create Your Pins: This is the fun part. We’re going to make 10-20 different Pins today, all linking back to your bridge page. Don’t worry, it’s fast.
   • Use a free tool like Canva—it has tons of Pinterest templates.
   • Make a variety of Pins. Test different images and headlines.
   • The Visual: Use high-quality images. You can find product photos on the company’s website or Amazon. You can also use free stock photos from Pexels or Unsplash.
   • The Text Overlay: The text on the pin image is critical. It’s your headline. Use your compelling, problem-solving headlines: “The Desk Setup That Cured My Back Pain,” “5 Must-Haves for a Small Home Office,” “Finally! An Ergo Chair That Fits My Apartment.”
   • The Title & Description: When you upload your Pin, fill the title and description with the keywords you found. Write a helpful little paragraph for a human, but make sure your keywords are in there naturally.
   • The Link: This is the most important part. In the “Website” field for every single Pin, paste the URL to your bridge page. NOT your raw affiliate link. All traffic goes to the bridge page first.
5. Pin, Pin, Pin: Schedule these 10-20 pins throughout the day on your most relevant boards. Your goal is to create a “cloud” of helpful content around your topic, with all roads leading back to your page.

Step 6: Tracking Your First Click.

While your Pins are out there working, your last job is to watch your affiliate dashboard. Find the reporting or analytics section. This is where you see clicks and sales.

There is no feeling like seeing that “1” pop up in the clicks column for the first time. It’s proof. It’s validation that the system works. Someone, somewhere, was interested enough to click.

Keep refreshing. As the clicks come in, it builds incredible momentum. Your goal for Day 3 is to get those first few clicks. Because with every click comes the possibility of a sale. And with a higher-commission product, you only need one or two of those clicks to convert to hit our $100 goal.

Beyond $100: How to Scale to a Sustainable Business

And then… it happens. You refresh your affiliate dashboard, and you see it. Your first commission. Maybe it’s $45. Maybe it’s $80. Maybe it’s over $100. Take a second and just soak that in. You just did what millions of people only dream of doing: you made money on the internet, from scratch. You proved the concept works. You are now, officially, an affiliate marketer.

So, what’s next? That first $100 isn’t the finish line; it’s the starting pistol. It’s the proof you needed to go all-in.

The first thing you do is figure out what worked. Go into your Pinterest analytics. Which Pin got the most clicks? Which headline worked best? That’s data. That’s your audience telling you what they want. Now, your job is to double down on the winner. Make 10 more Pins that are variations of your best-performing one.

Once you’ve made that first sale, here’s how you turn this sprint into a sustainable business:

1. Reinvest Your Time: The system is working, so don’t stop. Dedicate more time to the traffic source that’s getting results. If Pinterest is working, aim for 5-10 new pins every single day. Consistency is the engine of growth.
2. Expand Your Content: That one-page site was a great start. Now, build it out. Write more reviews for related products. Create “Best of” lists like “The 5 Best Ergonomic Chairs Under $500.” Create “How-to” guides. Each new piece of content is another door for customers to walk through.
3. Build Your Email List: This is the most important step for long-term success. Social media algorithms change. Accounts get shut down. Your email list is the only asset you truly own and control. Add a simple form to your page offering a free checklist or guide in exchange for an email. Something like, “Get my free 10-point checklist for a pain-free home office.” Every person on that list is a lead you can market to again and again, for free.
4. Diversify Your Traffic: Once you’ve got Pinterest running smoothly, start expanding. Repurpose your content ideas for YouTube Shorts or TikTok. Create short, engaging videos showing the product or talking about the problem. This protects you from having all your eggs in one basket.

That first $100 is the spark. These next steps are how you pour gasoline on the fire.

Your Mission Starts Now

So, that is the exact 72-hour action plan I would use to make my first $100 with affiliate marketing if I lost everything.

Day 1: We found a painful problem and a high-commission product that solves it.
Day 2: We built our 24/7 salesperson—a simple bridge page to build trust and get the click.
Day 3: We launched a traffic blitz, focusing on Pinterest to drive targeted visitors to our page.

This isn’t a magic button. It requires focus and a willingness to just do the work. But the plan is simple, the tools are free, and the goal is right there. That first $100 is the hardest money you’ll ever make online, but it’s also the most important. It proves it’s real. It proves you can do it.

The most important step you can take is the first one. Don’t just watch this video and click on the next one. Don’t get stuck in “analysis paralysis.” Take action on step one, today. Go find that problem to solve. That’s your mission for right now.