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15
Reasons to Become an Affiliate Marketer
by Rosalind Gardner
? 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 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. Click
here.
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