What is Affiliate
Marketing?
There
are many ways to earn money on the Internet. You can
build your own product. This involves research, working
with vendors, marketing and selling your product.
The biggest advantage is you own the product and control
it. You decide how much you make. You can market
your product for yourself and keep all the profits. You
can share the product profits by allowing others to sell it
through joint ventures (JVs) or as your affiliates.
The process of allowing others to sell for
you can get a bit complicated. You need to set up your
affiliate program. You need to keep track of sales and
commissions. You need to make sure your JV partners or
affiliates are paid on time. You need to approach others
and appeal to them to JV with you. Depending on what
your goals are, this can be a daunting challenge.
There is an option available.
Affiliate marketing may be a good idea for someone just
starting out in the Internet Marketing business. Many of
the "Gurus" insist that the best way to success is to own your
product. Although there is truth to this, it may be a
bit much for someone just starting out. One of the
biggest disadvantages of your own product is cost. You
can expect to spend between $500 - $1,000 to develop and
launch a product.
Affiliate marketing offers an alternative:
you sell a product that has already been developed and share
the profits with the product owner. The obvious
advantage is the product is already done. You can start
making money immediately as an affiliate. The only cost
involved will be hosting and building a web site. The
web site can be built for you (outsourced) for a small amount
of money. Hosting can be had for around $10 - $50 a
month depending on what plans you choose.
Another big advantage of affiliate
marketing is that the major portion of the work has been done
for you. The sales letter is already in place. The
"paying" site is already build. Many marketers also have
e mails, banners, graphics and advertising already set up for
their affiliates to use. All you need do is take
advantage of them and promote the product.
Affiliate marketing can be a first step
for the beginning entrepreneur. Start out promoting
other's products, bank your profits, then build your own
products.
OK now you know what Affiliate Marketing
is. Let's see how to find a product to promote. Click
here to see how to find a product. | 
