15 Reasons to Become An Affiliate Marketer
By Rosalind
Gardner
Wednesday, November 10, 2004; 6:00pm EST
There are HUGE benefits to promoting affiliate programs with your
own home-based Internet business, and I've come up with a list of 15
great reasons to become an affiliate marketer.
Let's look at each reason separately:
1. No Production Costs - The cost to develop and produce a new
product is prohibitive for almost anyone who wants to start a
home-based business. With affiliate programs, production costs
aren't an issue. The product has been developed and proven - all on
the merchant's nickel.
2. Low Cost Set-up - Compared with building a brick and mortar
store, starting a home-based Internet business is relatively cheap.
You probably already have a desk, Internet-connected computer and
word-processing software, which is all the equipment you may need.
3. No Fees for Joining or Licenses to Buy - I often compare doing
business as an affiliate, with distributing a line of products in
the real world. The biggest difference is that the distributor must
often pay for a license to distribute products within a limited
geographic region. Affiliate programs, on the other hand, are
usually free to join, and geographic market reach is limited only by
the affiliate's ability to promote his web site.
4. Choose From Thousands of Products and Services - What isn't sold
online? That list must be shorter than the one describing all that
IS sold online. There are thousands and thousands of affiliate
programs selling every product under the sun. That makes it easy to
find products related to your current or planned web site.
5. No Sales Experience Needed - When I started my affiliate
business, I had absolutely no sales experience. That wasn't a
problem, however. The companies I affiliated with provided excellent
marketing material. Using their sales copy, I was able to get my
first affiliate site up in less
than a day.
6. No Employees - The largest expense of most businesses is employee
salaries. Although there might be times when you need or want
someone to work for you as an affiliate, it's doubtful you'll ever
have to worry about hiring full or part-time employees. When you
have a project you want to hire out, it is easy to find specialists
in every computer-related field who can work for you from the
comfort of THEIR own homes. You pay only for the project, and never
have to worry about ongoing employee-related benefits and
deductions.
7. No Expensive Merchant Accounts Needed - Setting up a merchant
account for any business is a time-consuming and costly business.
It's even more tedious for Internet businesses. However, merchant
accounts aren't a concern when you're an affiliate. The merchant
bears that cost and handles all processing of payments. You never
have to lose sleep over potential charge backs, fraud or losing your
merchant account when you're an affiliate.
8. No Inventory to Carry - Even if you live in a small one-bedroom
apartment, as an affiliate you can sell large items without storage
concerns.
9. No Order-Processing - Forget the problems associated with
collecting and storing names, addresses, credit card numbers, etc.
The merchant does all that!
10. No Product Shipping - The cost and hassle to prepare and ship
products to customers worldwide could be staggering. Affiliates
never have to worry about packaging supplies or postal rates.
11. No Customer Service Concerns - Do you hate the prospect of
dealing with nasty people or customer complaints? Don't worry about
it! The merchant handles the snivelers.
12. Make Money While You Sleep - What other business allows you as a
sole proprietor to keep your doors open and keep making money even
when you take breaks or after you go home for the night?
13. The World at Your Doorstep - The Internet is the world's largest
marketplace. You can drive more visitors to your online store in a
day, than many small-town merchants sees in his or her brick and
mortar business in a year.
14. Minimal Risk - The product you chose isn't making money? Dump
it. Take down your links and promote another! It's that easy. There
are no long-term contracts binding you to products that don't sell.
15. High Income Potential - If you have a job, your salary or hourly
wage is probably pre-determined. Maybe there's not much, other than
working overtime, that you can do to increase your income. With your
own affiliate business on the Internet your income potential is
limited only by your desire, effort and imagination.
There you have them - all the good reasons to start your own online
affiliate marketing business. Start today and benefit from this
incredibly simple, cost-effective business opportunity known as
affiliate marketing. The time is right, and the time is now.
Article excerpted from Rosalind Gardner's "Super Affiliate Handbook:
How I Made $436,797 Last Year Selling Other People's Products
Online". Rosalind is the 'Net's most recognized expert on successful
online selling as an affiliate marketer. Visit her site at:
www.myinfobiz.net/affbprint
About the Author
Rosalind Gardner is the 'Net's most recognized expert on
successful online selling as an affiliate marketer.
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