Making money is a priority for everyone.
After all, just about everyone could use a bit of extra money right? Well, today, more and more people are turning to the lucrative field of affiliate marketing to make cold hard cash.
In fact, many Gurus argue that there is a lot of money to be made with promoting other people's products.
However, as a newbie Affiliate Marketer myself, I can tell you that there are some advantages and disadvantages to this business model.
In this article, we'll discuss both.
First of all, if you don't know what affiliate marketing is, don't feel bad, I didn't either at first.
Affiliate marketing is basically a cooperative agreement between a merchant, and an online affiliate.
The affiliate gains commissions by providing customers to the merchant.
There are typically three payment structures for affiliates.
With pay per click payment structures, affiliates are paid when the customer visits the merchant from the affiliate's site.
On the other hand, per lead payments are made when an affiliate refers someone to the merchant's site and that person performs the required action.
For instance, let's say you're an affiliate for an insurance company who pays you when prospects fill out an application.
In this instance, you'll be paid when someone submits a valid application which is called paid per lead.
The third type is called pay per sale.
During this instance, an affiliate is paid only when a potential customer purchases the merchant's item.
Advantages of affiliate marketing: o Money, money and more money.
There is a lot of money to be made with affiliate marketing and many people make great incomes promoting other people's products and services.
o You can be your own boss.
You work when you feel like it, or when you are able to.
You basically write your own paycheck with the amount of work you can do.
When you need extra earnings for holidays, or paying a really huge bill, you just invest more time into marketing products and make more money.
o Promote what you love.
You can promote any product that you want to promote.
There are literally millions of products to choose from, you simply have to find one that you like and go for it.
In fact, some affiliate marketers test out niches and then produce their own competitive or complimentary products.
By thinking outside the box, they are able to rake in even more money.
o Earn money while you sleep.
You earn money continuously, even when you're not on the computer.
You don't have to monitor your work with an affiliate program, because the customers will go to the merchant's sites whether you are online or not.
In fact, you can even make money while you were sleeping...
what could be better than that? Disadvantages of affiliate marketing: Now that we've discussed the advantages of affiliate marketing, we'll now discuss the disadvantages.
oHard to find good products.
It can be tricky to find a product that is worth promoting.
There are literally millions of products that you could promote and it is sometimes hard to focus in on just one.
oDishonest merchants.
It can be difficult finding a merchant or vendor that is really honest and legitimate.
In fact, there are some merchants who are dishonest that they lie and refuse to give you credit for your referrals.
In some cases, these merchants would rather shut down their businesses than pay up.
And, the bad thing is that affiliates basically have little recourse whatsoever.
oLots of competition.
There is a lot of competition among affiliate marketers, especially for the good products.
In fact, some technically savvy affiliate marketers have even figured out clever ways to steal commissions using special equipment.
Although there are some precautionary measures affiliate can take, this can be quite problematic.
oIt's not your product you're promoting.
As an affiliate marketer, you are basically promoting someone else's product or service so your commissions are in their hands.
If they decide to quit the program or reduce the commissions, you'll have no say so whatsoever.
In conclusion, there are advantages and disadvantages of being an affiliate marketer.
Although there is great potential to make substantial income, marketing other people's products, puts you at a disadvantage.
Therefore, your best bet is to take your time, test it out and build your own product so that you can get others to market it for you.
That way, you'll be the one calling the shots.