1. Low Cost/Low Risk

Many people are afraid to start up a home based business because of the capital they think they will require. In affiliate marketing, you don't have to spend much to get started. You do need to budget for advertising but you can accomplish a great deal through free article marketing.

2. No Inventories Required

If it is a physical product you are promoting, the merchant is responsible for the inventory, storage, management, shipping, etc. If it is a digital product, again the merchant/owner is responsible for the online delivery and follow-up. You simply attract the potential buyer with your pre-sell (landing) page and send them on to the merchant's salespage. It is advisable to have the visitors give you their name and email address so you build your own list of potential customers.

3. No Customer Support Required

As an affiliate, once the sale is made, any customer support is provided by the merchant. Choose a merchant carefully, noting the number of refunds that occur. Refunds, of course, directly impact your income.

4. Unlimited income

When you have a paid job, your income mainly relies on your hourly – or monthly wage. It relies on the number of hours you work. With affiliate marketing it relies on how many of the millions of surfing people happen to open your website, click to the product and make a purchase. If you decide to produce your own product and have an affiliate management program, you can have an army of affiliates promoting your product, leading visitors to your sales page with ads and banners you provide. The sky's the limit!

5. Global Market

The world is your oyster. You can live in Florida and sell your products to someone in Sri Lanka. If it is a digital product, say an e-book, you have no shipping or mailing costs. It's magic!

6. Your Business is Open 24/7

With affiliate marketing, your business works every single second of the day and you don't have to have round-the-clock staffing. In fact, you don't have to have any staff at all.

7. You Can Work the Hours You Want

You are your own boss and, with an internet connection, you can work wherever you wish, e.g. a beach in the Caribbean.

But all of these benefits will be wasted unless you:

• pick an in-demand product in a niche market where people are willing to spend money

• find a merchant who has a good converting sales page and pays an attractive commission

• have a squeeze page that does a good job of pre-selling your visitors

• have your squeeze page optimized for the search engines using the keywords people are using to search the internet.

• have links coming into your web page (squeeze page). You can get these from the articles you submit which have your web page address in the resource box. The more articles you submit, the more links back to your web page.

• have ads in an Adwords program and in ezines that attract people to click to go to your squeeze page.

Here's to your success.