The Numerous and Exquisitely Profitable Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

     AUTHOR: Jorge M. Vega COPYRIGHT: ©2006 by Jorge M. Vega - All rights reserved

To the average netpreneur with no product of their own without an opt-in list and with little or no sales experience Affiliate Marketing can easily represent the chance of a lifetime a gift from Heaven if you will. It s a viable way to circumvent all the usual requirements that go hand in hand with starting a home based business. For one thing you stand to save thousands by not needing to develop and test a product of your own you just use someone else s already proven winner as your own. Also you can skip worrying about designing your own website here again use what is supplied for you by the merchant and run with it. This saves a lot of headaches time and you guessed it -- money. You ll also have the enviable last word on whether or not to continue promoting anyone s product based on its performance. If it doesn t sell give it up. You re your own boss. For all the reasons touched upon above as well as for a few others not yet discussed for the sake of brevity affiliate marketing has evolved into one of the most effective ways to start an online business. And for anyone with a decent website it s also one of the easiest ways to start seeing a profit online. WHAT S AFFILIATE MARKETING? Affiliate Marketing is an agreement between a merchant (owner of the product) and a website owner (the promoter). The website owner or the affiliate allows the use of their site for the promotion of the merchant s products by linking to the merchant s website. In exchange the merchant pays a commission to the affiliate on all sales generated by the affiliate. Every time someone clicks on the link in the affiliate website and proceeds to make a purchase the affiliate gets a commission. Obviously a commission is earned by the affiliate only when a customer makes a purchase. Affiliate marketing programs are described as a win-win situation for both the merchant and the affiliate because of the pay-for-performance scheme. And as you ll see both the merchant and the affiliate do enjoy specific benefits in this arrangement. HOW THE MERCHANT BENEFITS There are many benefits on the merchant s side. It gives the merchant a wider customer base to advertise their product or service to. Affiliate marketing gives the product or service the maximum exposure that it could possibly get as compared to any other traditional advertising technique. It goes without saying the more affiliate sites a merchant has the higher the traffic and the higher the chances of converting visitors into sales. Affiliate marketing is the equivalent of having an army of sales people who do all the promoting and only get paid a commission if a customer purchases. If their efforts fail to make a sale the merchant isn t out of pocket one thin dime. The burden of performance is thus squarely on the shoulders of the affiliate. It s a " what-have-you-done-for-me-lately?" kind of scenario. HOW THE AFFILIATE BENEFITS As described an affiliate marketing relationship is a win-win situation so the affiliate also enjoys many benefits. Foremost among these is the easy chance to make a profit. The affiliate can earn by having an ad or link leading to the merchant s website which prospective customers will hopefully click. As soon as the customer clicks on the ad on the affiliate s site they re redirected to the merchant s website and if they make a purchase the affiliate earns a commission. The more prospects being referred the more profit potential for the affiliate. Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to earn money from home. There are no product production costs. The product is already developed and proven by the merchant. All you have to do to is find as many prospects as you can who will visit the merchant s web site. There are countless capable affiliates who have mastered the art of convincing prospects to visit the websites they promote. This elite group of marketers earns big chunks of money from their grateful merchants. In affiliate marketing start up costs are minimal if any at all. In addition there is absolutely no sales experience required. Most affiliate programs offer excellent support when it comes to providing marketing material. The simplicity of affiliate marketing allows you to be an affiliate marketer with the least cost and the most support. You can even build a successful affiliate marketing business right in the comfort of your own home which is what most affiliates do. In affiliate marketing your responsibility is simply to find prospects for the merchant you do not have to worry about inventory order processing or product shipping. These along with customer service are the duties of the merchant. Another benefit of an affiliate marketer is the freedom you enjoy. If the product you re advertising isn t making money you can dump it and choose another. There are no long-term binding contracts tying you to products that are not profitable. As an affiliate marketer you have the last word about what you promote. This kind of freedom is something you ll never see in the offline world if you re in sales. For instance if you re shoe salesman and your company s buyer blew it this season and bought nothing but alligators it s very unlikely that you ll turn your back on your career as a result and start selling home owner s insurance or kids bicycles. Chances are you ll have to stick it out and hope for something better next year - or for a different doggone buyer! By far the best benefit of being an affiliate marketer is an unparalleled opportunity to increase your income and you can make good money even if affiliate marketing is only a sideline business. Indeed as you ve seen affiliate marketing is one of the simplest and most effective business opportunities available online today or anywhere else for that matter.

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