How to Make Money Without Products: Getting Started with Affiliate Marketing

After running my blog for several years, I’ve seen significant changes in my AdSense earnings. If you’re solely focused on AdSense revenue, you absolutely cannot stop writing. However, if you approach blogging with a broader perspective, I recommend starting affiliate marketing. Let’s begin exploring how to make money without products.

How to Make Money Without a Product

The advantage of running a blog is that you can promote your own business. Alternatively, you can promote products you’ve created, or if you have a talent worth teaching others, you can showcase that talent to attract applicants and charge tuition fees for it.

But what if I say, ‘I have nothing to sell’?

So perhaps trying AdSense ad revenue through a blog is the first step most people take. Posting articles likely to attract a large audience to drive traffic and expose ads has now become the easiest method.

Is there really no other way besides AdSense revenue? Is there no way to make money without a product?

Yes. The fundamental concept of affiliate marketing is selling someone else’s product—not your own—and receiving a commission for it.

The affiliate marketing I’m doing

During the period when AdSense approval was extremely difficult to obtain, with ad revenue at zero, affiliate marketing was what caught my attention. The affiliate marketing I am currently engaged in is as follows:

The biggest question you have when starting affiliate marketing—a way to earn money without your own product—is often not knowing which affiliate marketing platforms exist.

But surprisingly, almost all companies worldwide and domestically run affiliate marketing programs. We just aren’t aware of them.

When your AdSense earnings are hitting rock bottom like mine, affiliate marketing income seems to be a huge help in running a blog.

If you’re interested in trying affiliate marketing globally, I recommend Impact.com.

In fact, the partnerships with Coursera, Preply, and NordVPN were applied for and approved through impact.com. Of course, persuading people to purchase and use those services isn’t easy, but the commission when successful is quite high.

You know that Coupang Partners offers 3% of the sale price, right?

impact.com is an affiliate marketing platform that brings together diverse products and services from around the world in one place. Here, you can search for what you want or browse products by category. For those who want to know more, please refer to the post below.

Monthly AdSense Ad Revenue vs. Affiliate Marketing Revenue

Back when Tistory was really taking off, I made around $50, and even then, I was averaging about $10 to $15 a day. After moving to a WordPress blog and operating it with a single brand identity rather than as a random blog, my income really dropped significantly.

Currently, Tistory has imposed restrictions on mobile full-page ads and anchor ads, causing the already meager revenue to hit rock bottom.

Actually, Wise was the one that brought me affiliate marketing revenue. It’s an international money transfer app I frequently use while living abroad, and while I don’t publish related articles often, I do receive some income from it.

A few days ago, I earned approximately NZD $130 (100,000 won) through individuals who signed up via my blog post and made payments.

Conclusion

These days, with so many savvy individuals out there, there are truly countless solo entrepreneurs in the online world. The key factor is having a solid product of their own.

For example, those with a strong command of English can attract interested individuals by offering free samples or e-books alongside valuable content for those wishing to study English on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

And they often generate revenue by selling their own digital products through community webpages or product sales pages.

The advantage of digital products is that once you upload the finished product to the internet, it can generate automatic revenue without any additional effort.

Of course, it may require effort such as updates, but what I’m referring to transcends physical exertion or time constraints.

Of course, just because you create and upload a digital product doesn’t mean it will automatically sell. I’m currently selling a blog-related e-book on Kmon, but sales are extremely rare.

If you don’t have a solid product of your own yet, or if you’re unsure whether you have the knowledge to write an ebook or what you’re actually good at, then starting affiliate marketing—a way to earn money without your own product—might be the best first step.