Affiliate Marketing via the internet is really still in its infancy. It’s only about 20 years old. Thus, there’s lots of opportunity and room for growth. You may even know people who are looking for a little extra income that you can help via your affiliate marketing program.

Who do you know who is passionate about the types of products or services that you offer? Who do you know that might like to make a little extra income on the side by sharing their passion and/or expertise with others? Who is already a successful affiliate marketer in your field? Think about these things as you plan your affiliate marketing program. There is significant opportunity available in the affiliate marketing field.

One of the biggest affiliate marketing sites is Amazon.com. You can sell books, CDs, DVDs, etc and Amazon makes a commission for helping get the sale. Of course, Amazon is a giant in the affiliate marketing industry. But, they’re also a great example of how effective affiliate marketing can be and how much potential there is in the marketplace. You don’t have to become Amazon to create an additional revenue stream from affiliate marketing. However, you will need to know a bit about affiliate marketing and the basics of what it takes for an affiliate marketer to succeed.

Because the industry is still in its infancy, you may need to offer fundamental information to your potential affiliate marketers in order to get them up and running. For instance, if you’re recruiting family and friends as your first tier affiliates, you may need to let them know that there are some basics they will need in order to be successful in the affiliate marketing arena.

For example, much of the advice for beginning affiliate marketers suggests that they should find a great product or service that they are passionate about and promote that product or service initially. Why?

• Because they won’t have to deal with customers and customer complaints.
• They don’t need to worry about creating a product.
• The billing and delivery of an existing product is taken care of by the affiliate program.
• If there are refunds or other problems, that is handled by the company and not the affiliate.

This eases the burden on the affiliate initially and allows them to get their feet wet. You may also want to provide information regarding promoting a product or service.

Generally, there are three ways affiliates sell items online. You can use your own website, write articles, and establish expertise and/or create a blog. All of these require a little learning, but they are becoming easier to use as more of the providers of these services offer WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) software – meaning that your affiliates can basically type and follow directions to create any one or all of the three points of selling. It’s important to remind your affiliates that whatever they do to set up as a selling point should be well done. People don’t have time for less-than-appealing sites these days.

Take advantage of the initial stages of the affiliate marketing phenomenon by educating yourself so that you can educate your affiliates.