There are many advantages to having an affiliate business over a business where you sell your own products or services. These include not having to have a merchant account or deal with the hassles of customer service. You can also often set up your promotions, and once you get effective promotions created, you can basically put your business on autopilot, leaving you plenty of time for other things.

Although all of these things make building and running an affiliate business more advantageous than other business models, it's still to your advantage if you're an affiliate marketer to build a list.

First, by building a list, you can recycle the traffic that you receive to your site. Even though some will buy through your link when you refer your visitors directly to the merchant's site, most won't buy, and you've lost that traffic. Also, when you refer the visitor to the merchant directly, the merchant will have a chance to get the visitor on his/her list, giving the merchant additional opportunities to market repeatedly to your potential customers.

Second, by building a list, it gives you an opportunity to build a relationship with your visitors. You can convert your visitors to readers and then to customers.

Let's face it. Many people online are skeptical. Because there are so many scams occurring online, many people are worried about being taken. The truth is, the more credibility you have, and the harder you work to build a relationship with your readers, the more you will increase your bottom line.

Third, by having a mailing list, you can endorse other products that complement your current offerings, whether you sell only affiliate products or you have your own products and services.

By selling multiple products, even if they're not your own, you can increase your sales. It makes it easy for you to go out and find the very best products to offer in your business. People love information, especially online, and you can offer unbiased reviews, or reviews on the best of the best with products online.

Fourth, the biggest advantage of getting others to subscribe to your list is that these potential customers are targeted. They're looking for what you're offering. The difference between targeted and untargeted traffic is conversion. A targeted visitor is more likely to convert to a sale than a non targeted visitor.

Although there are many reasons you should build a list, the bottom line is your bottom line. By marketing your offers to those who are interested in what you offer, you're more likely to make a sale.