An affiliate program is a form of internet advertising that rewards marketers for driving traffic to a company's website and producing sales. The company gives its affiliates a personalised tracking link that the marketer can use in their promotions. This link enables the company to track where traffic and sales are coming from and pay their affiliates accordingly. Simply put, affiliate programs are about paying commissions to people who help you to make sales. This is not quite as easy as it sounds.

Running an affiliate program has its ups and downs. It is very important to be armed with up to date information and technical know how if you are going to run such a program successfully and with the minimum stress. In this article we will look at the benefits of affiliate marketing as a tool for increasing your businesses profitability...

Here are some of the reasons why you should consider affiliate marketing as an effective way of advertising your business and products.

1. Low cost

Running an affiliate program is very cost effective as you only pay your affiliates for the results that they produce. The affiliate bears most of the cost of promoting your product, you provide them with the necessary tools, such as banners and other promotional material. Of course, this arrangement is mutually beneficial, you get low cost advertising; your affiliates get the opportunity to make money from a product that they haven't had to spend time and money developing.

2. Affiliate programs produce unlimited income through leverage

When you have a paid job, your monthly income mainly relies on whether you go to work or not. With affiliate marketing, your affiliates do all of the work in getting traffic to your site. Once you have provided them with your ad copy and links you don't to lift a finger, especially if your product is a digital one. Although not everyone earns limitless amounts of money, running an affiliate marketing program greatly increases your chances.

4. Go worldwide

With affiliate marketing, you are dealing with a global market place. All you have to do is choose a niche product and prepare all the necessary tools for your affiliates to lead traffic from just about anywhere to your website.

5. Low risk

The main reason that so many internet companies rely on affiliate marketing is that the risks are relatively low. This is especially true for those with little money available to set aside for advertising. Affiliate marketing is just the way to do it.

6. No closing time

With affiliate marketing, your business works every single second of the day while targeting a worldwide market! What could be better than that?