© 2004 Rosalind Gardner - All Rights reserved -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-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
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 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 real world. The biggest difference is that distributor must often pay for a license to distribute products within a limited geographic region. Affiliate programs, on other hand, are usually free to join, and geographic market reach is limited only by 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 one describing all that IS sold online. There are thousands and thousands of affiliate programs selling every product under 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 comfort of THEIR own homes. You pay only for project, and never have to worry about ongoing employee-related benefits and deductions.
