Affiliate Programs

In my years in the work at home industry, I have come across many work at home ideas, programs and opportunities both online and offline. However, it is affiliate programs that always get my vote for a number of reasons and I think that anyone looking to do some sort of work at home venture should seriously consider them.

As a simple explanation, affiliate marketing is a process whereby a person promotes the goods or services of a merchant by driving traffic of interested users to that merchant's website. The person that does these activities is called an ‘affiliate' and the company/website that receives these services is referred to as the ‘merchant'. Affiliates are either paid commission on a pay-per-click, pay-per-lead or pay-per-sale basis. The bulk of the affiliate's duties would be in marketing and advertising.

Affiliate programs have numerous advantages for anyone especially for moms wanting to do something from home in between taking care of the little darlings and keeping house. These are:

International Customers

As the internet is an international instrument, your potential customers will be from almost every country in the world. This is a huge market for you to tap into. Because more and more people are coming online everyday, your market is virtually unlimited.

All The Hard Work Has Been Done For You

The merchant has sourced, manufactured or made the product at his risk and expense. He has already tested the product and his sales pitch to sell his product. If he has been offering this product for quite some time now through the sales pitch on his website, you can be assured that the product is selling.

A Real Work At Home Opportunity

One of the greatest appeal of affiliate marketing is that it allows you to make money while based at home. It is such a flexible opportunity that even if you have a full-time job, you can still run this on the side. Most of the time, it takes an hour a day to administer, check, review, revise, etc - and all online.

No Stock To Carry, No Shipping, No Customer Headaches

Another cool thing about being an affiliate is that you don't have to worry about customer enquiries or customer complaints. You don't need to buy or keep stock, you don't have to ship anything to the customer - in fact you don't deal with the customer at all. The merchant does this. You just promote the website and it's products and get paid a commission on sale.

Easy To Start Up

You can literally become an affiliate in a few minutes. There are no lengthy applications to make or approval process to undergo. No other money-making opportunity can be started as quick as an affiliate program.

Unlimited Income Potential

The sky is the limit as far as your earnings go. You can make as much money as you want to. The only restrictions are your own effort.

Truly International Opportunity

Affiliate marketing is one of the very few opportunities that are not confined to a specific country. Anyone from anywhere in the world can participate in an affiliate program.

Affiliate Programs Are Free To Sign-Up

Almost all affiliate programs are free to sign up. You don't need to pay for starter-packs, advertising materials, sample products, membership fees, etc.

Huge Commissions

Commissions that are paid by merchants are huge and beat any other industry hands down. Commissions on offer can go up to as high as 75-80% of selling price.

Choose A Multitude Of Merchants To Work For

Affiliate marketing is flexible enough to allow you to represent many merchants at the same time. This increases your chances of success as you have an arsenal of products to promote. If you choose your products properly, you can be promoting a great deal of top selling items simultaneously.

Low Start Up Costs

Your only start up costs will be in advertising and promotion. This activity will represent the majority of your input in your business. There are a number of ways to minimize this cost but you'll have to do some research and test your methods.

However, as with any other opportunity, thoroughly research an affiliate program before actually participating in it. Here are some tips to help you:

1. Only choose top quality products that are in constant demand.

2. Only deal with reputable companies who have been in business for a reasonable period of time.

3. Monitor other affiliates to see what they are promoting. Check to see where they advertise and how long their adverts are up – if an affiliate is continuously doing paid advertising in a certain place, then you can be assured that he/she is making money.

4. Email the companies concerned and ask questions about the product. Monitor how long they take to respond and how effective their response is. This will give you an idea on how solid they are and what sort of confidence they have in their product.

Affiliate programs are a great opportunity but only if done correctly. It is imperative that you do a certain amount of research and testing before you commit yourself, especially if you are going to be investing money in advertising. Good luck!