Internet marketing today makes use of strategies and tools that business and industry has known for decades. They just tweak it for use on the World Wide Web. Neighborhood store keepers have always made it their business to know what the friends on their street were selling so they could send customers to the right place when inquires were made.

Affiliate marketing essentially does the same thing. Viewers do a search (make an inquiry) about a product or service that you advertise on your web site, and your site carries an affiliate link that they click on to find what they're looking for. You don't actually sell the product yourself, but you tell your viewers where they can go to buy what they want. And then you get paid a commission for the sale.

Like many new internet tools, affiliate marketing is relatively new. You don't have to sell anything yourself; but you do need to know how to set up affiliates on your site. Most companies that offer affiliate services provide step-by-step instructions for creating the relationship; they make it easy for you because they want your help selling their product or service. The best news is that it doesn't cost you a dime. Your only investment is your time setting up the links on your website.

Business plans always require that you take a look at upfront costs in creating a new business. With affiliate marketing, those costs are avoided because the business that you are linked to have to do their own research and development; they have start-up costs to be prepared to begin selling their products/services. Another small cost for you is your time in either identifying affiliates with whom you want to work, or in finding affiliate programs that provide a list of links from which you choose ones you want on your site.

Some sites do affiliate marketing exclusively. The sole purpose of a web page may be to provide links to other sites. You will need to add some copy to such a page to suggest why viewers may want to click on affiliate links. That is, you will need to identify the value of the product or service to the viewer in order for him/her to decide to become a customer or not.

A couple of other factors are also important. Developing an extensive email address list and maintaining it becomes a crucial component of your affiliate marketing success. You will also need to drive traffic to your site, and we all know the value of writing articles for that purpose. It stands to reason that customers who are interested in what you write about will likely be more interested in purchasing products and services that you describe.

Nobody enjoys hassles. So some more good news is that affiliate marketing is relatively hassle-free. You don't have to sell products or services; you don't have to keep track of sales or clicks; you are paid on a percentage basis, anywhere from 10% to 30% of actual sales completed and your affiliate-friend has to keep track of that information. Once your affiliate page is set up, the rest of your work is easy. Depending upon the affiliates you choose for your site, marketing on their behalf can be a fairly lucrative business.