Online Affiliate Marketing Home Business

By Randy Duermyer, About.com

Overview of this Business:

Affiliate programs and networks can be used to market goods and services online. Most affiliate programs offer two ways to make money online - by selling products or services of the affiliate and by signing up other people to become affiliate resellers.

Pros of this Home Business:

• Very low start up costs - no inventory to carry and minimal supplies.

• No shipping is involved, there are no returns to worry about and you can make money 24/7 while you sleep or play.

• No licensing or specialized training is required, but you should learn about Websites and maximizing traffic.

Cons of this Home Business:

• You'll need to find ways to get LOTS of traffic to your website(s) because the profit on a single sale is typically very low.

• Many affiliate programs require that you make a certain amount of money (threshold) before they will release any funds to you.

• You'll need to watch out for false promises and companies that want to sell you "guaranteed turnkey business packages". These really aren't necessary if you'll take the time to learn what works and what doesn't. Most people just end up losing their investment.

What You Need to Get Started with this Home Business:

• You'll want to decide which affiliate marketing programs you'll choose based on potential earnings, reliability,etc. because you'll want the content of your website to be themed toward the products and services being offered by those programs.

• You'll want to learn as much as possible about building and maintaining a website or blog, hosting issues, and traffic building techniques.

• You'll need a reasonably priced web or blog host.

• The less you know about HTML, the more you'll need to rely on WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get)tools, like Dreamweaver, FrontPage, etc. or online blog tools, like WordPress or Blogger.

Online Affiliate Marketing Home Business in Real Life:

Rather than concentrate on only one affiliate program or network, it's best to select several for diversification purposes, and to choose programs that deal with subject matter in which you have a keen interest. Using variety also allows you to see which affiliate programs are worthwhile and which are not.

Franklin Banker is a successful affiliate marketer on the Web. Franklin markets in several areas including Sports, online shopping, affiliate marketing, health & nutrition and entrepreneurship. His article, Create Multiple Streams of Income with Affiliate Marketing provides several tips for being a success as an affiliate marketer.

As you research this business on the Web it would be wise to keep your guard up. Remember that many of the sites you'll be visiting are sites of other affiliate marketers who make a profit when you click through on a product or service for more information. Keep in mind as well, that there are plenty of offers out there promising thousands or even hundreds of thousands in income each month. The reality of the business is that most people who fall for those promises end up getting burned.