Businesses like affiliate marketing because no payment is due to an affiliate until results are realized. The pay for performance model reduces cost of sales by leveraging the Affiliates' time and money to the desired goal of making sales.

Affiliates are encouraged to build their own business within the existing business model they are affiliated with. While at first this may appear rational, most affiliates start marketing and sales with little or no experience. They rely on the materials and training provided by the business to develop a customer base.

While affiliates dutifully build a network of customers and associates who want to do the same thing to earn money, some key business building strategies are foregone to “live the dream”. If the dream and reality are similar then all is well. If not, then a course correction is in order.

Upon waking, some affiliates may discover limits to their effort combined with their personal cost of doing business adds up to less than expected return on investment of both money and time.

When affiliates can look at their business as independent of the products, services, and businesses they promote, the costs of doing business become more apparent and can be used to plan and build for growth.

Key building blocks of internet business include products, services, technology, traffic, and conversion. Products and services are acquired by affiliation, purchase for rebranding, or development of a unique brand. They can be physical hard goods or digital soft-wares.

The cost of doing business with physical products is significantly greater than digital ones that can be easily stored and delivered quickly over the internet. It makes sense then to affiliate with businesses that are reliable in their warehousing, delivery and service after sale.

Leveraging affiliate business then can be viewed as operating your business independent of any one particular product or line and choose complementary products to diversify and hedge investment by picking up and discontinuing lines as products and trends change.

One of the most important aspects of business are the prospect and customer lists. Affiliates supply customers to the businesses they are associated with but must also keep each and every contact for their own personal business as well. The acquisition and management of lists are functions of capture web pages, autoresponders, and marketing strategies.

If you are thinking of building a business that can grow outside of the packaged affiliate deal, then it's important to look at your options for growth and management of your assets. If leverage is not a two-way opportunity then you're paying someone else to manage your assets for their benefit and not yours.

When it comes to leverage there is no profit in free and paying for easy can add up if you're not careful about how to measure your return on investment.