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 There are HUGE benefits to promoting
affiliate programs with your own home-based Internet
business, and I've come up with a list of 15 great reasons
to become an affiliate marketer.
Let's look at each reason separately:
1. No Production Costs - The cost to develop and
produce a new product is prohibitive for almost anyone who
wants to start a home-based business. With affiliate
programs, production costs aren't an issue. The product
has been developed and proven - all on the merchant's
nickel.
2. Low Cost Set-up - Compared with building a brick
and mortar store, starting a home-based Internet business
is relatively cheap. You probably already have a desk,
Internet-connected computer and word-processing software,
which is all the equipment you may need.
3. No Fees for Joining or Licenses to Buy - I often
compare doing business as an affiliate, with distributing
a line of products in the real world. The biggest
difference is that the distributor must often pay for a
license to distribute products within a limited geographic
region. Affiliate programs, on the other hand, are usually
free to join, and geographic market reach is limited only
by the affiliate's ability to promote his web site.
4. Choose From Thousands of Products and Services -
What isn't sold online? That list must be shorter than the
one describing all that IS sold online. There are
thousands and thousands of affiliate programs selling
every product under the sun. That makes it easy to find
products related to your current or planned web site.
5. No Sales Experience Needed - When I started my
affiliate business, I had absolutely no sales experience.
That wasn't a problem, however. The companies I affiliated
with provided excellent marketing material. Using their
sales copy, I was able to get my first affiliate site up
in less than a day.
6. No Employees - The largest expense of most
businesses is employee salaries. Although there might be
times when you need or want someone to work for you as an
affiliate, it's doubtful you'll ever have to worry about
hiring full or part-time employees. When you have a
project you want to hire out, it is easy to find
specialists in every computer- related field who can work
for you from the comfort of THEIR own homes. You pay only
for the project, and never have to worry about ongoing
employee-related benefits and deductions.
7. No Expensive Merchant Accounts Needed - Setting
up a merchant account for any business is a time-consuming
and costly business. It's even more tedious for Internet
businesses. However, merchant accounts aren't a concern
when you're an affiliate. The merchant bears that cost and
handles all processing of payments. You never have to lose
sleep over potential chargebacks, fraud or losing your
merchant account when you're an affiliate.
8. No Inventory to Carry - Even if you live in a
small one-bedroom apartment, as an affiliate you can sell
large items without storage concerns.
9. No Order-Processing - Forget the problems
associated with collecting and storing names, addresses,
credit card numbers, etc. The merchant does all that!
 10. No Product Shipping - The cost and hassle to
prepare and ship products to customers worldwide could be
staggering. Affiliates never have to worry about packaging
supplies or postal rates.
11. No Customer Service Concerns - Do you hate the
prospect of dealing with nasty people or customer
complaints? Don't worry about it! The merchant handles the
snivelers.
12. Make Money While You Sleep - What other
business allows you as a sole proprietor to keep your
doors open and keep making money even when you take breaks
or after you go home for the night?
13. The World at Your Doorstep - The Internet is
the world's largest marketplace. You can drive more
visitors to your online store in a day, than many
small-town merchants sees in his or her brick and mortar
business in a year.
14. Minimal Risk - The product you chose isn't
making money? Dump it. Take down your links and promote
another! It's that easy. There are no long-term contracts
binding you to products that don't sell.
15. High Income Potential - If you have a job, your
salary or hourly wage is probably pre-determined. Maybe
there's not much, other than working overtime, that you
can do to increase your income. With your own affiliate
business on the Internet your income potential is limited
only by your desire, effort and imagination.
There you have them - all the good reasons to start your
own online affiliate marketing business. Start today and
benefit from this incredibly simple, cost-effective
business opportunity known as affiliate marketing. The
time is right, and the time is now.
-- Article excerpted from Rosalind Gardner's "Super
Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 Last Year Selling
Other People's Products Online". Rosalind is the
'Net's most recognized expert on successful online selling
as an affiliate marketer.
Visit her site at: www.myinfobiz.net/affbprint
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