Although you don’t have to spend money to make money with affiliate marketing, you do have to spend some money if you want to make a lot of money quickly right out of the gate. It’s just cold hard math. Unless you’re willing to take a long-term approach, starting an affiliate business or site for free can be an exhausting, frustrating experience. It can take weeks or months of consistent effort to see real traffic and stable earnings. Top affiliates, in contrast, tend to spend a little bit on tools and software that give them an edge like good affordable web hosting, a custom web design, advertising and a great keyword tool. You don’t need to break the bank to really hit the ground running, though. You can launch and market a really kick ass blog or site that generates tons of cash quickly for just a few hundred dollars. Here are some creative ways that you can raise funds for your first little startup.