According to Wikipedia, affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. Examples include rewards sites, where users are rewarded with cash or gifts, for the completion of an offer, and the referral of others to the site.
Many people making the decision to start a home based business online are opting to try the affiliate marketing field and for obvious reasons. Affiliate marketing offers many advantages to the home business owner who is just starting out online.
The biggest benefit may be the fact that there’s no need to develop your own product to market online. There are such a wide array of products and opportunities available from numerous merchants online through affiliate marketing that just researching which one is the best fit for your needs may take awhile. But the key in this situation is making sure you do your home work and make sure you know what you’re getting into and with whom you’re getting involved. There are some dubious situations out there so be careful.
Another plus stemming from the fact your product is provided for you is the merchant usually handles all the shipping and storage, so there’s no overhead involved. You simply market the product or opportunity and pass the orders on to the merchant who will take it from there.
Another pro, especially if you’re just starting out online, or as they say a newbie, is the merchant usually supplies you with a web site to help market your product. This is more often than not ready made and ready to go. And if that weren’t enough this web site usually contains all the marketing tools and tips you’ll need to get started promoting your product immediately.
Something else also provided by the merchant is support for both you and your customers. As I mentioned if you’re a newbie and trying to establish your home business online this certainly comes in handy if you run into any problems with your web site or marketing your product. And also related to this training is usually provided to show you the best ways to advertise and market your opportunity online.
Affiliate marketing programs are also free to join and not only do you receive a commission on sales but most merchants offer another stipend for referring someone who’s interested in joining the program.
There are many affiliate programs available online and you don’t have to limit yourself to just one home business opportunity. You can market several different affiliate marketing opportunities at the same time thereby creating several streams of income.
Affiliate marketing can offer the best of both worlds to the home business owner. Not only can you set your own hours and work from the comfort of your own home, but you can make a comfortable living doing so. Therefore, after considering all the associated benefits affiliate marketing seems to be a wise decision.