Black Friday Sales 2012

Why Affiliate Marketing is an attractive option for merchants and Affiliates alike.

Minor Cost for the Merchant and Affiliate

People who start home businesses do not want to invest a lot of money into an unproven avenue.  Affiliate programs are generally free to join as you act as their virtual salesman.   Merchants manage salesmen with out having to pay salaries, but rather they get paid performance incentives. The initial investments for a company developing an Affiliate Program is creating your product, sales page, and affiliate tools.

The Affiliate Program makes more Money as the Program Grows

The more affiliates you get working for you the more money you can make.  This can be true, but it is not always the case.  In many cases in Affiliate Marketing is smarter to have less quantity and higher quality.  Although it does not hurt an Affiliate Program to continue recruiting Affiliates. An affiliate marketing program provides their affiliates the tools they need to send targeted traffic to your site.  From there it is up to the merchant’s site to close the deal.

Affiliate Marketing is Global

Affiliates don’t need to live in the same country as the merchant to make sales. In fact it is quite common for an Affiliate Manager to look at his list of Affiliates and see that many of them come from all over the world (especially Europe and Asia). 

Low Risk for Merchants and Affiliates

After the initial set-up cost for an Affiliate Program the only recurring costs are paying Affiliates their commission.  Otherwise there are very few fees associated with running an Affiliate Program.  Affiliates have everything to gain and nothing to lose.  If they make sales they make money, if they sell nothing then they gain nothing.

Your Open 24/7

Affiliates advertise their Affiliate Programs all day, every day.  Part of the reason  foreign Affiliates can be valuable for an Affiliate Program is because they can target unique customers in different countries at traditionally off-peak hours of the day.