* There's virtually no overhead or cost of goods sold.
* You have no products to ship or inventory to track.
* You don't have to handle credit card transactions.
* You don't have to handle refunds or customer support.
You don't have to create a huge website with a shopping cart.
All you have to do is refer people to a merchant's website through your personal affiliate link. When someone clicks on your link, you get a percentage of the profits on anything your customer buys.
What exactly is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the promotion of products sold by a merchant in exchange for commission-based compensation. For more details www.greatpromotionsite.com In the offline world, an Affiliate is what would typically be known as a sales representative. But working as an online affiliate, you don't have to wear a suit or drag a briefcase of samples around with you! In fact, once you build your strategy for making money through affiliate programs, you won't even have to think about it anymore -- except when it comes to deciding how to spend the money you've made.
It's a win-win situation for both parties:
The merchant makes money without any up-front advertising cost (they only pay you if you generate a sale).
You make money without the hassles of running a business.
And everything is 100% automated. Sales and commissions are tracked automatically through web links and cookies and you receive a check or PayPal payment at the end of the month.
What do you need to become an affiliate?
All you really need to make money with affiliate programs is a computer with an Internet connection and a strong desire to succeed. For more details www.myspace-marketing-secret.com All you have to do is refer people to a merchant's website through your personal affiliate link. When someone clicks on your link, you get a percentage of the profits on anything your customer buys.
Here are three absolute necessities for any successful affiliate marketer.
The first thing you need is a simple, one page website as a landing page to collect leads and direct traffic to the merchant's site. There's really no excuse for neglecting this step. You can buy a domain name for $8.88 and hosting for just $3.95 a month.
Second, you'll need an HTML editor and a site template. Obviously, you need some content to put on your site. And unless you want to spend time learning HTML, you'll need a template to use.
Third, you need a quality autoresponder system to follow up with the leads you capture. This will be the lifeline of your business so don't settle for a cheap system.
Beyond that, there are numerous techniques that you can work into your marketing strategy but they are beyond the scope of this article.