The breakthrough of the Internet as a marketplace has significantly changed the nature of retail business. Years ago, individuals who wanted to market information mostly published books, which were primarily sold in retail stores. The process was troublesome and pricey, and only individuals with a lot of cash or those who attracted the attention of major publishers were able to market their work. With the growth of the Web, the nature of how information is sold has been transformed, making it easier than ever for individuals with information to share to market their knowledge.
The growth of online business has created a new form of selling information, called affiliate marketing. With traditional selling of goods, a retailer had to buy a product from a wholesaler, pay to store it until it was sold and hope that he or she could sell it. If a sale was made, the retailer kept a modest portion as profit. Affiliate marketing changes the structure of how products are sold by removing the need for the retailer to purchase the product in advance and store it. All the retailer, now called an affiliate, has to do is advertise the product. It isn’t even necessary for the retailer to store the product at all.
The principal products in modern affiliate marketing are either software or electronic books, known as e-books. These products can easily be delivered by download when the sale is made. All the retailer or affiliate has to do is promote the products to prospective buyers. If a sale is made, the buyer downloads the product from the publisher and the affiliate receives a portion of the sale price. Some people earn a million dollars per year in affiliate marketing.
The changes in how products are sold through affiliate marketing are good for both the affiliate and the creator of the product. The affiliate can devote his or her time solely to promotion; there is no should take care of the product at all. The creator of the product benefits from motivated sellers, as the whole process is strictly performance-based. By boldly advertising their products, both the affiliate and the creator benefit without the need for the expensive overhead formerly required in retail sales.
For adequately determined sellers, affiliate marketing can be quite lucrative. Discovering products to sell is quite simple, and individuals who are interested can easily find lists of products to market at sites such as Clickbank.com. Affiliate marketing is generally advertised as a sure fire way to make money while doing little work. That sort of hype is deceptive; what you get out of anything is directly related to how much work you put into it. Still, for people who are serious about retail sales without a lot of headaches, affiliate marketing is one attainable road to success.
