Why not? It may turn out that your preferences aren't as widely shared as you think they are. And there may be important practical considerations that you haven't factored in yet. Before making your final decision on this question, consider these points:

* Perceived value may be higher for a tangible item than for a downloaded one, particularly if product is durably and attractively bound.

* On other hand, a download may offer much higher perceived value because information is thereby immediately available.

* Printed and bound information may be less likely to get copied and redistributed than a download that is not copy protected.

* Your target market may not feel comfortable with process of downloading files, or may have so many technical problems opening and reading download that customer service headaches quickly mount up.

* If you want to provide another kind of item along with text, such as audio or video tapes, a print catalog or an object, such as a calculate-your-mortgage wheel or meatloaf pan, print format makes more sense.

* When it would be nice for people to be able to click on Web addresses right from your text, a download may seem like optimal choice.

* Fraud rates for downloadable products are very much higher than for products that get sent by mail.

* You can gather a valuable, valid postal mailing list when selling tangible items to be shipped or mailed, but addresses are less reliable for download sales.

Now let me say a little more about a few of factors above.

First, fraud is indeed a very serious problem for products bought and received immediately online. Not only does merchant almost always get stuck with a loss when a customer disputes an online charge, if rate of "chargebacks" - sales reversed because of customer protest - gets too high, merchant can lose his or her credit-card processing account and find it next to impossible to secure another one. On other hand, established third-party digital download services have address checking and fraud detection procedures in place that may not be as available to individual merchants.

We all do it.

We recommend this web site or that software and we have a link that looks like: http://affiliate-site.com/your-user-name.html and by making recommendation we might earn a 25% commission if our referral decides to make a purchase.

Some folks earn several thousands of dollars each month as a result of affiliate links while others, perhaps norm, earn just a few dollars.

Whatever dollar amounts are involved, estimates are that most of us that post affiliate links are losing at least 20% because folks cut us out of loop by cutting URL.

For example, instead of: http://affiliate-site.com/your-user-name.html people will cut off affiliate ID and then visit site at: http://affiliate-site.com/. Some sites will ask you for ID of affiliate that referred you but if it is not entered, then you have just lost your commission.

Other web sites are telling visitors that they MUST enter via referral URL or they can not enter at all. But this is certainly exception, not rule.

Afterall, hosting site does want to have visitors and sales.

So affiliate can easily lose sales commissions just because someone cuts off his or her affiliate ID from URL.

Why do people cut off affiliate ID?

Obviously, intent is to deny someone his or her commissions. I must plead guilty to this practice. In my own defense, I can say that I only do that when I receive URL from someone that that sent me SPAM.

Sorry, but I do NOT think that SPAMMERS should be rewarded.

I can not speak for all others out there that cut off URL even when it is found on a web site or is delivered via a non spam source such as an ezine or newsletter.

For whatever reason, some people just refuse to allow people that turn them on to a great product or service to be rewarded by receiving a commission if they make a purchase.

So how can you protect your affiliate commissions?

There are two simple solutions that come to mind. The first involves using a FREE Re-Direct URL service and other you can use if you have your own web site.

Here is how you can protect your Affiliate Commissions:

1. Make Use of a FREE URL Re-Direct Service.