Is Affiliate Marketing The Way To Go? Just Who Is It For?

By Sharon S S  

Affiliate Marketing is just about the Biggest Home Business technique used today. It is Huge and Still Growing. Research shows that Affiliate Marketing is a $6.5 Billion Business worldwide and it is expanding fast. There are thousands of people who are making affiliate marketing their full time jobs and are earning thousands of dollars a month doing so.

So why is Affiliate marketing so popular? Simply because the Affiliate Business Model has some distinct differences and advantages from any other business model. The main advantage would be the lack of inventory needed to be carried in order to be an affiliate marketer. Which means the affiliate does not require to worry about inventory, storage, delivery, or unsold stock.

Which leads to the second advantage. If you don't need inventory, that means you don't need a huge startup capital in order to purchase the inventory before you can start your business. Affiliate marketing in fact is probably the cheapest, safest form of starting a business as you don't have to take ANY RISK with any Capital outlay.

Thirdly, an Affiliate does not need to worry about customer support. All support is given by the merchant directly. The affiliate only helps to promote and makes the sales and the rest is taken care of by the merchant.

Fourth, with affiliate marketing as opposed to any other business model, No physical shop address, no warehouse and cost of the rent, No inventory is ever needed. Plus, since there will be no need for employees, the need of payroll will also vanish. In some cases all is needed is a computer and internet connection and nothing more.

Fifth, with affiliate marketing, one does not have to commute to and from work. They could do it from the comfort of their own homes and this is very quickly becoming the lifestyle many people are dreaming of.

Sounds so simple doesn't it? Put bluntly, Affiliate marketing is a great way to start business with little or NO setup cost at all. And seeing how well people are doing in this sector of the business model and how fast and vast affiliate marketing is growing, I'd say YES...it definitely is the WAY to go.

However, coming to my next point which is, Is it for everyone? If not who is it for?

Well, I'd say its definitely NOT for every single one of us. As simple as Affiliate marketing is made to seem, and I think after reading the above analogy, even I have made it sound exceptionally easy to do, I have to say that affiliate marketing is Far from Easy and does not work for every single person that tries it. Why? Although most affiliate websites try to spread myths about "how to work 15-20 minutes a day and make $15-30,000 a month"...This could not be further from the truth! Affiliate marketing is like any other business which needs strategic planning, development and of course A&P(advertising & Promotion) as well as to keep up with the latest trends in the market for getting people to buy from you. You cannot possibly do all of this in 15 minutes a day and will require some time and effort on your part. Although affiliate marketing can be started without any initial capital, it is of course good if you have at least some money to invest in a great manual to guide you along with your affiliate marketing as well as a little for cheap paid advertising if you have the resources for that. Most people join affiliate marketing without these few important principles and end up failing to achieve their goals as an affiliate marketer.

There are 2 kinds or groups of affiliate marketers. The successful ones are those who will put in every effort, learn from the experts and overcome ALL obstacles that they come across on their journey as affiliates. This makes them become really successful and go on to become super affiliates.

Then there are the ones that will join affiliate marketing as a hobby and will not invest in any good materials to guide them along thinking it is a piece of cake and that they know it all already. And the moment they come across their first obstacle, they will quit saying affiliate marketing is all a load of "Bull" and that it isn't worth it. These people are the ones that will Never make it in the internet marketing world. Why? Because the internet consists of billions of websites and offers and if you want to make it, you have to be in the know. And to be in the know, you must first bother to gain SOME knowledge of the market you are dealing in. Knowledge is everything. It is the key to success for anything that you endeavor in.

So bottom line is, Affiliate marketing is indeed the way to go if you are just starting out and don't have your own website or knowledge of internet marketing and it is the business model with the least capital outlay ever!

However, if you DO want to succeed in affiliate marketing, then you need to gain some knowledge not just about "how to do it" but about "How to do it RIGHT".

Now that is the difference between an affiliate marketer and a super affiliate marketer.

If you really want to learn affiliate marketing and how to succeed with it, I suggest you click on the links below and start gaining the knowledge and then go out there and make a killing!

To Your Success!

Article Source: EzineArticles expert=Sharon_S_S