Internet Marketing Blog

I've grown to be a huge fan of Rosalind Gardner's affiliate
marketing prowess the past year, so much so, I made a special
effort to line up an interview with her for DEMC E Magazine.

The following article by Miss Gardner, "15 Reasons to Become
an Affiliate Marketer", is a real motivator ... check
it out.

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 Rosalind Gardner and Jim Edwards "The Affiliate Business Blueprint".

Mike