First let's find out what exactly is affiliate marketing? It's an agreement between a web site owner and a merchant in which the web site owner advertises a product or service. The site owner can do this using various methods including utilising the space on his site, pay per click advertising, etc. This is done through the affiliates personalized link and generates a comission for each sale.

This saves the product creator money on advertising, which is one of the most costly aspects of doing business, by passing the cost on to affiliates thus creating a pay-per-performance deal.

Usually this means that since the merchant doesn't accrue any costs until the sale's made that the affiliate gets a bigger piece of the selling price.

The affiliate marketer, on the other hand, is able to sell an already researched and developed product. This saves time and money on the front end. The product is already developed and proven, and all you have to do as an affiliate is find as many prospects as you can that are interested in the product.

Affiliates also benefit because most programs are free to join and have pre-made sales material so your marketing experience doesn't have to be that of an expert.

Possibly the biggest benefit for todays affiliate marketer is the internet itself, because of the global reach the internet affords anyone with a connection. It's easy to reach tens of thousands of prospects for practically any type of product line.

As an affiliate marketer it's also very easy to intensify your efforts to exploit new and productive strategies such as special reports, viral marketing, ebooks and autoresponders.

Finally, as an affiliate marketer you have a tremendous choice between many different products to promote. You're not locked in to a specific product or even a specific product type. Your risks are minimised because there are no long term binding contracts so products can be quickly and easily replaced if they don't show a profit.

With that being said, affiliate marketing's still an excellent way to earn income from the internet. Perform your due diligence, find a hungry market, find a good product and go for it!