In fact if you don't have a list or a website to begin with, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to kick off your home based internet business.

Affiliate marketing is basically a cooperative effort between the affiliate and the merchant to advertise and sell the merchant's product. As the affiliate you make commission on every sale of the merchant's product that is affected as a result of your marketing efforts. But it isn't only the affiliate that stands to gain from this understanding.

Affiliate marketing is a phenomenon that creates a situation where everybody wins. For the merchant, their product is spread over the web, allowing them to reach out to a far greater number of prospects without having to spend a single penny on advertising campaigns. While, the affiliate, that's you, can earn a real income without actually having any product of your own.

Some affiliate programs help you to multiply your income as is the case with two tier affiliate programs, where you make commission not just on your sales, but on your affiliate team's sales as well.

Here, you are the master affiliate and you can recruit and train other people to sell the same merchant's products while earning commission on all of their sales as well. Such a system can generate a healthy monthly income for you.

Another great feature of affiliate marketing is that there are no restrictions on the number of products you can promote. So you can promote as many products as you like, thus choosing your own income.

To start your career as an affiliate, also known as an associate or reseller, you need to take three basic steps. These are:

1. Set up a Landing Page.

2. Capture the names and email addresses of your prospects and build a List.

3. You should then follow up with auto responder email series to promote products to your prospects over and over again.

This way, not only can you a build a fresh list to sell to at present but even when you finally do have your own product, you will already have a list of prospects to cater to.

Studies have shown that as more and more people get onto the internet and the World Wide Web grows, the affiliate marketing industry will continue to flourish. So there's always more room for people join the affiliate marketing bandwagon and reap the benefits. In other words, it doesn't matter if you want to make some extra cash or a build lifetime income, you can start generating some very real profits with affiliate marketing today!