The Five Key Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an attractive option for some Internet marketers. The main idea behind an affiliate program is that you've got a product or service to sell, and other people have access to people looking for that product or service. So why not bring them together?

For example, when I attended an Internet marketing seminar, the organisers gave me an affiliate link for me to promote to my newsletter database, with a generous commission for anybody who signed up using that link. A few people did sign up, and as a result my own registration ended up being free!

Here are my five key benefits to setting up and running an affiliate program.

1. Reach other people's markets

The first advantage or benefit from an affiliate program is using other people to reach the markets you can't reach easily, cost effectively or maybe not at all. By paying them a commission, giving them an incentive to refer people to you, you get access to those previously unreachable markets.

2. Get trusted referrals

The second key benefit is that the referrals you get in this way are usually higher quality referrals. We term this as a "trusted referral". This person is not just someone who visited your Web site from Google. It's somebody who was referred to your site or to your business by somebody they know and trust.

For example, this happened in the example I gave you above regarding the Internet marketing seminar. My mailing list subscribers knew from experience that I would only recommend high quality products and services. I got referrals for the seminar even before I had been to the seminar myself. They trusted my judgment, so they were more inclined to book for the seminar than if they had been introduced to it through some other form of advertising.

With your affiliates getting you business, you will likely get higher quality referrals that will buy from you. It's a great thing. Take advantage of it!

3. Reach new markets

Here's the third key benefit: You will be accessing new markets - markets that you wouldn't have had before. Perhaps you have only been marketing to one geographic area, but the affiliates you acquire may allow you to market worldwide. These new markets may only be small areas, but they may be areas that your affiliates have access to which you don't.

4. Get "warm" leads

If you work your affiliate program correctly, your affiliates are not just going to refer people to the home page of your Web site. Rather, they will refer people to a particular page selling one product or service. So you won't get "browsers". You will get someone going there because they know what they want.

Even if you don't have a Web site, this works for a storefront business as well. The people visiting your store are ready to buy. And they trust you because someone they know and trust referred them.

5. Low risk

The fifth and final benefit of affiliate programs is that they have a low risk. You won't be paying your affiliates unless they make a sale; and your affiliates don't pay any fees to join your program.

Again with that seminar I used as an example above, as an affiliate I just wrote in my newsletter, "Hey I'm going to this seminar. If anyone else is interested, please have a look!" My newsletter recipients clicked through and they bought. There was absolutely no risk for me. There's no risk at all. If nobody buys, it's no big deal. Nothing is lost. And similarly for the company - they were quite happy to promote this program as far and wide as they wanted. There were only possible upsides of sales, and no downsides at all. Really a win-win proposition!

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Gihan Perera is an Internet coach for speakers, trainers, consultants and other business professionals. He's the author of "Fast, Flat and Free: How the Internet Has Changed Your Business". Visit http://GihanPerera.com and get free e-books, webinars and more.

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