No Product Necessary: Some Info on Affiliates

When one enters the E-Commerce arena, one expects that he should have a product or products already in mind. Actually, this is not necessary with all of the affiliate programs out there. Becoming an affiliate is also a great and inexpensive way to test which products do sell on the internet. There are many different categories of products such as weight loss products, baby products, money making products, personal finance products, and self help products, to name a few. Also, informational products are among some of the best for these ventures. Since there is already a proven market or niche for certain products, you will not have to develop any new product. Affiliate programs can pay as much as 50% commission on sales generated from the link on your website. Yes, some sort of website that collects e-mails and utilizes an auto responder to promote the various affiliate programs is a good idea. It doesn't have to be much, just a basic informational site to start with. Then you can add the marketing materials that usually are provided by the affiliate program such as banners, pre-written e-mails, text links, and free E-Books. A really good affiliate program will also have training on how to promote the program. The only thing that you will have to worry about is the marketing end while the rest is already taken care of by the site that manages the affiliate program. These are just some of the advantages to becoming an affiliate. There are, however, some disadvantages to being an affiliate. There are other affiliates also marketing the same products as well if the niche market is highly targeted. This could take extra work to promote them even with creative marketing. Some programs may not be honest and may fail to pay you and keep all of the money that you have generated. But, most of them are reputable and one can do some searches online to find out if there have been any such complaints about a program. One way to protect yourself is to promote several affiliate programs simultaneously, which is easy to do. One more disadvantage is that you can't have your own affiliates. You won't be able to have others promoting for you as well. But, despite such challenges, affiliate programs are a great way to break into and test a new market without having to create a whole new product of your own. They can help you build your marketing muscles, aid you in gathering a mailing list for further endeavors, and make you some money as well. copyright 2006 Lynda Leibowitz