In the past, people who wanted to sell information typically published books, which were primarily sold in retail stores. The mechanism was cumbersome and expensive, and only individuals with a lot of money or people who caught the attention of major publishers had the ability to market their work. With the expansion of the Internet, the nature of how information is marketed has changed, making it easier than ever for individuals with information to share to sell their knowledge.

The growth of e-business has created a new form of selling information, known as affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing changes the very structure of how merchandise is sold by eliminating the need for the retailer to purchase the product beforehand and store it. With traditional retailing, a retailer had to buy a product from a wholesaler, pay to keep it until it was sold and hope that he or she could sell it. Once sale was made, the retailer kept a fraction as profit. It isn't even necessary for the retailer to store the product at all. All the retailer, now known as an affiliate, has to do is advertise the product.

The primary products in modern affiliate marketing are mostly software or e-books, which can simply be delivered by download once the sale is made. If a sale is made, the buyer can download the merchandise from the publisher and the affiliate gets a part of the sale price. All the retailer or affiliate has to do is promote the merchandise to potential buyers.

The changes in how products are sold via affiliate marketing are good for both the affiliate and the publisher or creator of the product. By aggressively promoting their products, both the affiliate and the creator benefit without the expensive overhead previously required in retail sales. The affiliate can devote his or her time exclusively to promotion; it is not necessary to handle the product at all. The publisher of the product benefits from motivated marketers, as the entire process is strictly performance-based.

For anyone who is interested in retailing without the traditional trouble, affiliate marketing is one way to achieve success. Finding products to sell is rather simple, and people who are interested can easily find lists of items to sell at sites such as Clickbank.com. For adequately motivated retailers, affiliate marketing can be fairly profitable. Affiliate marketing is often advertised as a "sure fire" means of earning money while doing very little work. That kind of hyperbole is misleading; what you derive from any project is directly related to how much effort you apply to it.