Affiliate marketing is not a new concept, and has been a proven business model for many successful entrepreneurs. It is a model that involves recruiting affiliates to help sell products and services purely on commission basis. The more sales being made by the marketer, the higher the commissions earned. But to be successful in this business, the right tools and resources must be put in place. For example, if you are a product owner, you can't really start recruiting affiliates if you don't have the right software to track and manage the sales. Here are 3 elements that such businesses must have:

1) Affiliate tracking feature.

The website must have reliable tracking features so that marketers have the confidence to use the links and promote the products and services. When affiliates help to market a product, they are using their own resources to do so. Sometimes, that means spending money from their own pocket first. That is why it is important to have the software working right. These marketers want to know that they are being paid for the work they are doing.

2) Membership feature.

A membership feature is not mandatory in affiliate marketing, but it is surely a very powerful feature to have. Have a membership site means that your website visitors can login to the website any time to download promotional materials, grab affiliate links, etc. In other words, this is a very effective way to offer support to the affiliates. If you hire someone to develop this feature for you, you will probably end up spending thousands of dollars.

3) Viral marketing feature.

Viral marketing is something that many Internet marketers neglect. Perhaps they don't know enough about viral marketing. Or perhaps they just don't have the skill set to setup viral websites. The way such marketing works is simple. Viral means spreading a marketing message through various means on autopilot. As the product owner, you should not have to do anymore extra work, and the traffic continues to stream to your website. How does that happen?

Imagine having a squeeze page where first time visitors can enter their name and email address. Upon entering the information, they are signed up as a member, and they can now login with their user name and password. The moment they login, you immediately offer them additional free bonuses. But there is a condition. They must send an email to at least 5 contacts, and invite them to visit the website, before they can download the free bonuses. This simple feature sets the viral effect in motion. Those who got invited are likely to check out what their friends have to offer. And when they sign up as members, they can also invite their friends. When properly implemented, the site owner will get tons of free traffic, which costs them nothing.

Recently, a lot of buzz has been generated around an affiliate solution known as Butterfly Marketing. This solution consists of all the features mentioned and has been proven to work well for many marketers. Budding entrepreneurs can use similar software to help them with their online businesses.