When I first got started in affiliate marketing, I didn't have any spare money to put into the project...
I was a broke college student at the time putting myself through community college while working full time as a customer support rep.
The fact that anyone can just 'hustle up' cashflow online through affiliate marketing is remarkable.
It's an extremely low-cost business model if you do everything yourself.
But today, I take a much different approach when I'm building new affiliate sites for my portfolio.
Because I've got extra cashflow to deploy every month.
Saving dollars in our inflationary environment is risky so I like to pump it back into the business.
Plus it gets me a nice big tax deduction in addition to another asset, too.
My big challenge is that I don't have much time to put into the sites, personally.
This is how I came up with the hands-off affiliate method.
I've done this a few times now...
The first step is to get one of the pre-made niche site here.
Personally, I look for a niche that I have some sort of lifestyle connection to, curiosity in or interest in.
For example, right now they have a bushcraft knives site and a log splitter site.
Both would work for me because I spend a lot of time camping and have a bunch of camping knives already... I wouldn't mind buying more as a tax deduction for 'reviews'
I also live on a 20-acre forested timber parcel...
Splitting firewood is like a national pastime up where I hang my hat... Last season I split a couple of cords of wood by hand with an 8lb splitting maul.
I'd love a log splitter and will probably be getting one this season, anyways.
And I'd be happy for that to be a tax-deductible purchase... Plus I could review axes and hatchets on that site which tie back into camping.
Does this make sense?
It's not like I'm an expert in either of these niches... Nor do I plan on becoming one.
They just 'tie in' to my life enough that I can say...
"Ya, that niche would work"
And then I buy the site and I get hosting setup here because they install WordPress for me.
It takes about a week or two for them to build the site on my server.
Then comes step 2...
Growing the content library by publishing keyword targeted SEO optimized posts.
For this step, I have a separate team that researches, creates, and publishes the content for me.
Because buying a site and doing nothing with it is NOT a reasonable strategy.
Remember...
The goal is to publish hundreds of useful posts over the next couple of years to really maximize the value of the asset you're building. 
Which is why I set up a monthly content package from these folks.
They do everything from keyword research to writing the posts and they even publish the content to my site and add the images!
It's totally hands-off for me.
They even have a couple of backlink packages I've used to build more authority to the sites... But you generally want to have 40 or 50 posts published before you get into backlinks.
And that's it.
I focus on 1 site at a time and I buy as big of a content package as I can comfortably afford...
The goal is to focus my budget on 1 site like a high-powered laser.
It usually takes a year or two in order for them to generate enough cashflow to pay back all the capital I put in...
Which is when I start another...
It's a fun way for me to take the pre-tax earnings from my wife's site and my YouTube channel and funnel that into more assets.
Personally, I prefer to keep the sites and re-deploy the cashflow that they generate...
Some folks flip these sites once they are profitable because you can get upwards of 55x monthly profits for them.
There's a big 2nd hand website market for sites that generate cashflow.
And that's it.
The hands-off affiliate site model.
For me, it's a fun way to build more assets without doing all the work!
Miles "The Helpful Affiliate" Beckler
