The roadmap — zero to first payout
Most affiliates fail by doing step five first. This is the sequence that works: foundation before site, site before offers, offers before content, measurement before scale. Every step links to the guide and tools that get it done.
Foundation
Choose a structure (sole prop now, LLC when revenue is real), file the LLC in your home state, grab a free EIN from the IRS, and open a $0 business checking account. Future-you, doing taxes in April, sends thanks.
Home base
A domain at fair renewal prices, hosting that matches your budget (shared to start, VPS when you outgrow it), and Cloudflare's free CDN in front. WordPress if you want the plugin ecosystem, static if you want speed and control.
Offers
Resist the urge to join fifteen programs. Awin covers 30,000+ merchants with a $1 refundable deposit; Amazon Associates covers almost everything else. Two dashboards is a business; fifteen is a hobby you check nervously.
Infrastructure
Every affiliate link goes through your link manager from the first post — migrating later is misery. And every page carrying links gets a plain-language disclosure above the fold. Compliance is a feature, not a chore.
Content engine
Validate the niche (demand × commissions × winnability), then publish the five formats that pay: roundups, reviews, versus posts, alternatives, and how-tos. Ten excellent articles beat fifty thin ones — every time, still, in 2026.
Distribution
Google rents you traffic; an email list is yours. Start the list with the first article (Kit's free tier covers 10,000 subscribers), then recycle every post into social clips and pins with free design and scheduling tools.
Measurement
Search Console and outbound-click events on day one, Clarity heatmaps in week one. Commissions tell you what paid; click data tells you why — and which articles deserve updates instead of replacements.
Money ops
Every payout splits on arrival: tax reserve, tool fund, take-home. Free bookkeeping from day one turns April into an export. When profit is steady and meaningful, bring in a CPA and revisit the S-corp question.
Everything else — AI content, paid traffic, funnels — is a multiplier on these eight steps. Multipliers applied to zero still equal zero.
