Affiliate marketing works as well as it does because it is mutually beneficial to the merchant and the affiliate marketer. It is a great way for both to make money selling products on the Internet. Let’s take a closer look at five of the benefits of affiliate marketing from the point of view of the merchant and the affiliate marketer.

1. As an affiliate marketer you do not need to create your own product. The merchant takes care of that for you. For this reason you are able to get started very quickly as an affiliate marketer making money online once you have joined the merchant’s affiliate program. From the merchant’s point of view, there is no need to engage in time consuming interviews or vetting procedures. On the Internet, anybody who can complete the affiliate sign up form with valid data and accept the terms and conditions by ticking a box will most likely qualify automatically.

2. Most affiliate marketing programs are free to join. That is good from the merchant’s point of view because it means many more people are likely to join. It is obviously good for the affiliate marketer because there is no financial risk involved in signing up to the program.

3. Affiliate merchants make it very easy for their affiliates to make money online. They provide everything the marketing materials, they collect the money, deal with product shipping and customer service. Your one job as an affiliate marketer is to promote your affiliate website.

4. One of the biggest benefits of affiliate marketing is the opportunity it gives you to earn money 24 hours a day. Unlike a traditional business you do not have to open a retail store to sell products. On the Internet sales are not dictated by your personal working hours. This is a benefit to the merchants because they can provide you with an affiliate website at little or no cost to themselves and you can promote around the clock. Any time and every time someone makes a purchase on your website both the merchant and yourself benefit from it.

5. One benefit the Internet provides affiliate marketers is the option of responding swiftly to new developments. Many affiliate marketers choose to capitalize on what’s going on in the world today and make product sales around that.

The Internet literally allows you to be promoting online in minutes with such marketing tools as Google Adwords, social networking, blogging and so on. So if you can find an angle to a big news event that fits in with your product niche, the quicker you post a blog or publish an article about it the better!

The real benefit to affiliate merchants is that when they recruit active and determined affiliates they get their products promoted instantly without doing anything themselves. They leave it up to their growing team of committed affiliate marketers to handle all of the advertising and promotion for them.

These five benefits of affiliate marketing from both the affiliate merchant and affiliate marketer’s point of view demonstrate that affiliate marketing has the potential to be a powerful form of online income generation. Whether you are a merchant looking to get your products sold, or whether you are a marketer looking for more ways to make money, the benefits of affiliate marketing are many and evident.

Darrell Howell is the webmaster and owner of Blue Ridge Money
http://www.blueridgemoney.info His blog can be found at:
http://www.blueridgemoney.info/blog

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Ever seen an affiliate program that claims to do '99% of the work' while all YOU do is advertise?

Yes, the company handles the inventory, billing, product delivery, customer service, website maintenance ...

... While your only job is advertising. And for every sale you make as a result of your advertising, you're paid a commission. Sounds pretty easy, doesn't it?

Don't be fooled into thinking that affiliate programs are an easy way to make money. If that were true, we'd all be rich instead of scouring the 'net to find new ways of earning an income. Even if it IS true that you're only doing '1% of the work', you're doing the hardest 1%!

When I first started online I dreamed of how much I would make: $1000 a month with this affiliate program, $2000 with that one ... and hey, since they told me all I had to do was put up a few links and banners, I was expecting sales pretty much right away.

Sadly, it didn't work that way. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you consider becoming an affiliate:

More Isn't Better.

One common mistake is to join every affiliate program that looks good, hoping that you'll be able to make more money that way. It's just not true. Focusing your efforts on a few good programs is the best way to steadily build your affiliate income. The article, 'Are You Guilty of Affiliate Greed?' addresses this issue, http://www.buildyourhomebiz.com/articles/affiliategreed.html.

Don't Depend on a Monthly Pay Cheque.

Many affiliate programs require you to earn a certain amount in commissions each month before they pay you. If you don't reach that minimum commission level, your earnings are rolled over to the next month. You get paid whenever you reach the minimum threshold.

This can be very frustrating; after hours and hours of hard work, you may not see the money you rightly earned at the end of the month.

One suggestion I often make to 'newbies' is to join Commission Junction, an affiliate management website that consolidates all your earnings into one pay cheque. < http://www.buildyourhomebiz.com/commissions.html > That means you'll get paid more often! With over 1000 affiliate programs to choose from, you're sure to find something that fits your target audience.

Advertising is Hard Work.

Sure, your only job is to advertise - but that requires a great deal of learning and effort. It's nowhere near as simple as throwing up a banner on your website or placing free classified ads. You have to put forth a consistent effort in order to make money; if you're not motivated, you won't do well. Take the free Affiliate Masters Course for surefire ways to improve your profits, mailto:tamsbenefits@sitesell.net.

Your Downline Will Not Make You Rich.

Two-tiered affiliate programs tempt you with notions that you can make more money 'with no more effort on your part' just by signing up more affiliates.

Don't depend on it. Unfortunately, most affiliates don't make money and assuming that your referrals WILL is just setting yourself up for disappointment. Some of your referrals will make money, of course, and may even make quite a bit if you're lucky. Just don't count on it: concentrate on your maximizing your own efforts, rather than on dreaming about the efforts of others.

No Product Will 'Sell Itself'.

We've all come across websites claming to have products or services that 'everyone needs'. Regardless of whether or not this is true, people on the 'net are impulsive creatures and buy what they WANT, not what they 'need'!

No product will sell itself. It might be the most wonderful product in the world that can wash your hair, balance your checkbook, walk the dog, and feed the kids ... but you have to SHOW your visitor how it will enrich their lives and make them WANT to buy.

This is even true when you're giving away free stuff. Why should your visitor bother to request your free gift unless it can do something for them? It's much easier to surf away with a simple click-of-the-mouse!

You Probably Won't 'Make Money Instantly'.

Put up a link on your website or place a free ad, and presto! You'll instantly make sales.

This isn't very likely to happen unless you have a high traffic, targeted website that is a good fit with your affiliate program ... and even then, it's not guaranteed. To sell ANYTHING online, you need to have lots of targeted traffic, quality products, and strong copy that persuades your visitor to buy.

Depending on the individual, making money with an affiliate program may take a week to several months. Put forth a consistent effort and you'll see your earnings gradually increase over time.

This article isn't meant to discourage you from joining affiliate programs. To the contrary, affiliate programs are a great way for the average person to make a solid income on the web. But, like everything else, you need to venture into the opportunity with your eyes wide open; don't get caught in the hype. With hard work, motivation, and persistence you can soon be well on your way to earning a good living online!

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What is Affiliate Marketing?

An affiliate-marketing program is an agreement between a company that has products or services for sale and anyone who believes they can help to sell those products and services for the company. In short, if you have products and services, consider using an affiliate system to get the word out about your products. Alternatively, if you have a popular website, consider putting someone else's products or services on your site and earning commissions on your sales.

Who Should Sell Through Affiliates?

If you offer any products or services on your website in such a way that customers actually make the payment on the website, then you are a good candidate for selling through an affiliate program. If you tend to "close the deal" over the phone, then the affiliate management company will be unable to know when sales occurred and will not be able to administer the program for you.

Your product should have appeal to people throughout the nation or even the world. Local products are harder to sell through affiliates although it is possible.

Why Sell Through Affiliates?

Imagine having ads for your products placed on hundreds of websites throughout the nation or even the world. Companies such as NetFlix.com are very successful with their affiliate programs.

Who Should Sell Products Using Affiliate Marketing?

If you have a website that is rich in traffic but poor in generating cash in your pocket, then you are the perfect candidate for adding affiliate marketing to your website. Affiliate programs are ideal for anyone that already has content and visitors. If your site is not very popular then an affiliate system may not be worth the trouble. For this article, we will assume you are the ideal candidate for affiliate marketing.

The KEY to success is to ad products to your site that are highly appealing to the people that visit your website. If your website does movie reviews, you want to partner with NetFlix.com and other video or entertainment programs. If your website focuses on gardening, then add gardening and home improvement products to your website.

How to Get Started

Whether you buy or whether you sell, it all starts by joining an affiliate marketing management company. These companies do all the hard work of tracking sales, paying commissions, and matching product companies with webmasters who want to add affiliate products to their site.

cj.com - Commission Junction

ClickBank.com - Click Bank

LinkShare.com - Link Share

Secrets to Success

It is important to consider the many factors affecting the success of an affiliate marketing system. There are so many factors that we cannot go into them here. We will consult with you about your particular needs. What is important is to do lots of testing. Try different ads, different products, different placements on the page, and keep switching things around while you carefully track what is working and what is not. With a little practice you will likely end up with a lucrative system.

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If starting an internet home business with your computer sounds appealing but you don't have a product to sell yourself, you might want to consider affiliate marketing on the internet. Affiliate marketing is a very doable internet business model that doesn't require having your own product, there's no shipping or inventory involved and there is no customer services details to sort through. Becoming an affiliate marketer essentially means partnering with an online merchant whereby you promote their goods or services. If you make a sale -- you receive a commission.

But is affiliate marketing a real "honest

to goodness business" that you can actually make money at? ABSOLUTELY, I do it every day! And after having been involved with several internet marketing business models prior to affiliate marketing, this is the one I enjoy and love doing the most. But let's delve into this extremely profitable business model a bit more.

How affiliate Marketing on the Internet Works
Affiliate marketing is similar to a revenue sharing business whereby you promote a product of your choice and receive a commission for every product you sell.
You begin by finding a product or service you would like to promote, then find an affiliate merchant that sells the product.

You can find affiliate merchants through popular affiliate networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare or Clickbank. You can also find products through private sites that offer affiliate programs as well but I find that it's easier to start out with affiliate networks, payments are more on schedule and products are easier to find. Once you find an affiliate merchant you can sign up for their affiliate program which is typically free to join -- beware of merchants that charge money to join their affiliate programs, these are generally not affiliate programs. Once signed up, the affiliate merchant will assign you an affiliate link for you to promote.

How you promote that link is up to you, however I strongly suggest that you create a web site for promoting your affiliate product(s). There will be some costs to creating and hosting a website and the purchase of a domain name, but these costs are typically minimal.

How to Earn Money with Affiliate Marketing

There are three ways to earn money through affiliate marketing:
Pay Per Click — Any time a potential customer leaves your affiliate website by "clicking" on your affiliate link that leads them to the merchant's website. Money is then deposited in your affiliate account. The amount of money deposited depends on the what's in the affiliate agreement.

Pay Per Lead — Any time a potential customer leaves your affiliate website by "clicking" on a link that leads them to complete a registration form or register at the merchants website. Money is then deposited into your affiliate account. The amount of money deposited depends on the what's in the affiliate agreement.

Pay Per Sale — Any time a potential customer leaves your affiliate website by "clicking" on a link that leads them to the merchant's site where they make a purchase. A percentage, or commission, is deposited into the affiliate's account depending on what's in the affiliate agreement.

Look for Residual Income Programs
One of the things I encourage all affiliate marketers to be on the lookout for is affiliate programs that will provide you with residual income or income that is paid to you month after month.

Residual income comes from promoting products that sell things like monthly subscriptions or monthly services. For example I promote a hosting company called Thirdsphere hosting. Thirdsphere is a monthly hosting service and I get commission every month as long as the customer continues his/her subscription. Thirdsphere is just one of the residual income programs that I promote. There are many residual income affiliate programs that you can promote as well. Promoting residual income products or services is an excellent way of ensuring you keep a steady income arriving each month.

Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

When starting up any business there's a lot of time, work and risk involved. Developing a product requires research, marketing materials, getting established, branding and the list goes on.

With affiliate marketing the risk to you as an affiliate marketer is minimal. That's because you have the benefit of having all the business building work already done for you. All you need to do is find reputable, quality products to promote.

What's more, a good affiliate program will provide you with all the marketing tools and materials you need to promote it, things like banners, ads, email salescopy, branded materials, ecourses and many others, making your job that much easier.
But what makes affiliate marketing one of the best online businesses to start?
* No costs to make or purchase products.
* There's no inventory to stock or maintain.
* No payment processing for you to set up
* No shipping hassles. Your affiliate merchant takes the orders,
processes them and deals with customer service.

The products you can promote as an affiliate are endless. But don't make the mistake of trying to promote everything to everyone. Find a profitable niche which means finding a topic or theme that is tightly focused around the products or services you wish to promote.

For example, instead of developing a business around losing weight, focus on a more narrowed topic such as body building, dieting for women only or tighter abs. Once you find a focused topic then you can build a niche web site around that theme or product. Your next step will be to know and understand precisely who your audience is and what they are looking for. Once you know that, your marketing efforts will become tightly focused and your sales will be much greater.

Promoting Your Affiliate Marketing Products/Service
There's a little more than meets the eye when it comes to marketing or promoting affiliate products or services. Newbie affiliate marketers will often start out by getting their affiliate links, building their website and displaying their links hoping to make quick immediate sales. Be warned -- it rarely happens that easily. Why? Because I've done it and can tell you from experience that the search engines don't find favor with that type of promotion. Building a site that merely promotes affiliate links by sending viewers to the official site is not adding value to the viewer's experience, it actually makes your affiliate website nothing more than a third party advertiser.

Instead create a website that offers value and content, then support your content with affiliate products or services that will give your reader what they are looking for.
I love affiliate marketing and there's lots of money to be made in the business but first train yourself on how to effectively pre-sell by providing quality content, ideas and information, then learn how to find and promote affiliate products and services that are worthwhile, not only for your customers but for you as a promoter as well.

It makes a world of difference for those affiliate marketers that make an outstanding living at it and those that say it doesn't work.
Helpful Skills To Acquire : Copywriting, internet Marketing,
PPC (pay-per-click advertising)
Best Online Training : Affiliate Classroom
Best Ebook or Guide : Super Affiliate Handbook
Best Free Training : Affiliate Masters Course
Affiliate Networks : Listing of Affiliate Networks

Source: www.homenotion.com

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