How To Start Your Own Successful Internet Business Without Needing A Merchant Account

Introducing The Affiliate Business...

The principle of affiliate marketing, boiled down to it's most elementary form is that you help other companies to market their products and then earn a commission on every sale you make.

Commissions can vary widely depending on the company and the products being sold and can range from 5% to over 50%.

The benefits of affiliate marketing are that high earnings are perfectly possible, with a minimal investment of time and money required, yet can really lead to a successful and enjoyable business venture. What's more, they're not just a part-time business - those who put their mind to it can earn considerable sums, including one lady who last year earned $436,797.

Remove the "downside" of online businesses - the dealing with unhappy customers, the delivery of products, problems with declined credit cards and so on, leaving just healthy profits and as I'm sure you can see, the affiliate business can be a thoroughly enjoyable one.

However even better than these factors, in my opinion, are the following two principles.

Firstly, there is a vast range of different affiliate programs on the Internet, selling just about every product imaginable from cars to insurance to CD's that you can base your business on something you love - something you're passionate about.

And let's be honest, if you're doing something you love, it feels far less like work and more like play, doesn't it?!

So what's your passion?

Football? Then you can set up a website selling football equipment, posters, cards and other memorabilia.

Gardening? You could set up a business providing information for other gardeners, selling bulbs, seeds, patio tubs and so on.

It really is entirely up to you - and limited only by your imagination.

As for me, I love yachts and yachting, so I'm in the process of setting up an affiliate site for boat owners and potential boat owners.

The second factor to consider is how ethical this business is. You can run it either as a hard-sell business with the aim of making as much cash as possible (which, incidentally, can still work but tends to be less satisfying) or you can ethically provide lots of free information and advice to your visitors and recommend only a small number of carefully selected, tried and tested, responsible companies to market.

If you choose a topic for your business that you love, then help others by recommending specific products and companies that you yourself have tried and had a good experience with - you are really running a satisfying, ethical, rewarding and enjoyable business.

You can read a recent article entitled 10 Reasons Why Affiliate Marketing Is The Holy Grail Of Internet Marketing here.

So How Easy Is It To Succeed As An Affiliate?

The effectiveness of an affiliate business, like any other business, is directly related to how well you put your message across. The uneducated may succeed (through luck or good judgement) or they may fail hideously - it's estimated that over 80% of all affiliates never make a commission.

On the other hand, the few that do (and know what they're doing) can clean up!

Get it right and you can cash in big-time. Wonderfully, there are also affiliate schemes out there that pay residual income - weekly, monthly etc. - so you can still be getting paid for work years after you've done the job.

Affiliate schemes started off as very basic avenues for businesses to make extra money and spread the word about their products - it was all done from the merchant's perspective.

But the world never sleeps, and the Internet, more than anywhere, keeps developing.

Now there are literally tens of thousands of affiliate schemes out there, and a move from the more ethical and reliable businesses to show more appreciation for their affiliates. These companies are starting to view the relationship as symbiotic - both parties benefitting from the success of the other, so it makes sense for affiliates to be supported and suitably rewarded.

Affiliate Marketing Comes of Age...

The fact is, whilst there are a few sharks out there, there really are some excellent companies out there that you can do business with and be sure you'll get paid your fair dues, on time.

Furthermore, as competition hots up, and businesses are looking for as many active affiliates as possible, businesses are providing better and better support to their affiliates.

Now is therefore an ideal time to begin - the affiliate industry has come of age.

Further proof of this fact comes from the so-called "Super Affiliates" - individuals, small businesses and large corporations that can literally double the sales of a new company almost overnight with their marketing know-how.

These super affiliates, who have been in affiliate marketing since it was first introduced, have put years of hard labour into developing systems that virtually guarantee success as an affiliate in true cookie-cutter style, because they've been there, done that, and earned the commissions.

You now longer have to be in the dark about how to run an effective affiliate business. You don't have to experiment (much), try things out, see what works best and further develop your ideas with endless months of trial and error.

We are at the stage now that a limited number of books are being published by the very super affiliates themselves, on exactly what works and what doesn't. So you can get your business into profit far, far quicker than when these guys first started out.

If you'd like to learn more about affiliate marketing, and exactly what earnings are possible, I recommend you check out the following books which are currently the best of the bunch for case-studies of super affiliates, and then download our free Affiliate Masters Course.

The course will guide you step-by-step through setting up your own affiliate business, from initial generation of your website idea, to selecting suitable and reputable merchant partners, to marketing. It'll tell you everything you need to know.

• Rosalind Gardner - Read the true story of how Rosalind Gardner, a self-confessed super-affiliate earned $436,797 last year promoting only affiliate schemes.

• The Complete Affiliate Masters Course - written by Ken Evoy, who runs one of the most successful affiliate schemes on the Internet. By studying and comparing the results of his thousands of affiliates, Ken has come up with what I believe is the very best introductory course to success in affiliate marketing. What's more, it's FREE. To download it now, click here.

• Make Your Content PreSell - the full 400 and some odd page manual, in PDF format, showing you step by step, in an easy to read, "start from the beginning" style. Again, it's FREE and is a perfect combination when used in conjunction with the Affiliate Masters Course.