With internet affiliate marketing, website owners promote the products of other businesses and receive a commission for their sales. Another way to put it would be to say that an affiliate marketer's job is to send targeted traffic to a merchant's website in the hope that they will make a purchase. Running a residual income affiliate program online has many advantages when compared to the traditional off-line business. Here are six advantages for you to consider...

1. You don't have to spend so much on overhead and running costs. A successful affiliate marketing business can be set up and run from your own home. All you need is a basic computer plus access to the Internet. It is clear that running an affiliate marketing business from your own home is extremely inexpensive to do when compared with the expenses involved in running a shop or an office-based business. With a residual income affiliate program you won't need to employ anybody or rent office space, purchase extra insurance or any of the other profit-draining expenses of running a regular business.

2. Many shop or warehouse-based retail businesses have to maintain large stocks of inventory. A lot of times, this requires them to rent or own a warehouse and hire qualified employees. Then their are logistical costs to consider... On the other hand, an affiliate marketing business that you run out of your own home on the Internet doesn't require you to run a warehouse full of goods because it is the merchant and not the affiliate who handles inventory and ships orders to your customers for you. It may also be the case that you are selling instantly downloadable products which therefore require no shipping and handling.

3. A residual income affiliate program can easily diversify into various different niches. Once you have one website up and running and making money for you, it will not require much maintenance and so you will be free to start another website directed at a different niche market. In other words, with affiliate marketing it is easy to replicate the process again and again with different websites. This is harder to achieve with a traditional business because the logistics and the expense required to diversify are much more complicated.

4. Most traditional businesses are limited to a certain territory. Obviously, some do succeed in expanding to a nationwide or even a worldwide scale, but in most cases that is the exception rather than the rule. In your case, however, there are no limits to how far your residual income affiliate program can reach. You can sell your affiliate products to customers all over the world. Wherever people can access the Internet they will be able to find your website and purchase from you.

5. Affiliate marketing offers everybody the chance to make a lot of money. You don't need any special qualifications. Some affiliate marketers are currently earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year after a relatively just a short time in business. The fact is that the learning curve and the rate of progress depends entirely on the effort and application that the online affiliate marketer puts into the business.

6. Another benefit of running a residual income affiliate program is that your business is open 24 hours a day to make money for you. You do not have to worry about the limitations imposed on your business by traditional nine-to-five opening hours and holidays. Your Internet-based affiliate marketing business never closes; it is open seven days a week, 365 days a year.

If you have not yet set up an affiliate marketing business but are considering starting a new business on a shoestring, perhaps you should consider it. The six key benefits of affiliate marketing on the Internet show you exactly why affiliate marketing could be a better option for you than a traditional off-line business.