“If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together”.

Affiliate marketing is the process of your choosing and working with other people and businesses that market your products and send traffic to your site. You pay those people or businesses, called affiliates, a commission on each conversion. It’s a great marketing tactic for small businesses because you only pay commissions for sales after they occur.

In the case of a company or a business house, affiliate marketing is the most cost-effective way to increase their sales. Payment too is based on performance and so there is no loss of money to the company or the business. From the point of view of a person who wants to be an affiliate marketer, it is the most effective way of setting up an online business as the initial investment is minimal.

Affiliate marketing isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. You won’t suddenly earn millions from commissions overnight. Instead, it’s a disciplined craft for people who have unwavering commitment. When some newbie affiliate marketers don’t receive a commission check in their first month, they are ready to give up. They start seeking the next money-making idea. Successful affiliate marketers possess the discipline to keep selling, even when no commissions arrive. They try to figure out how to sell differently and create a strategy to gain more sales. Here are some reasons why affiliate marketing is good for small business:

1. Zero Payments Needed

The definitive advantage of affiliate marketing is the fact that it is a pretty easy industry to join, namely because there are no barriers to entry. It’s just a matter of your decision. All you have to do is to create an affiliate marketing website, choose a compelling niche and finally a particular product that is relevant for you to market. Then you simply sign up for a selected affiliate marketing program, and you’re ready to start.

“Money flows towards the writer, not away.”

This is essentially a warning against vanity presses, which accept anyone’s money to print a few thousand books and will often inflate their clients’ egos to get more money out of them. However, once you have these books taking up space in your garage, your chances of getting them into bookstores or libraries are slim to none. Instead, a writer should get a literary agent who works on commission and a publisher who takes on the costs and gives the writer royalties in exchange. Most affiliate companies operate on a similar principle. Wealthy Affiliate, for one, offers a free starter package that lets you access the affiliate programs, set up two websites, and get some assistance in figuring out the basics.

2. Independence

The flexibility of making your working environment on your own and according to your will is also a strong incentive. No matter where you are located, you can work anywhere as long as you have, obviously, an Internet connection. While the commission model means you might not get as many payments as a standard internet ad, it also means that you can run your affiliate marketing campaign in any way you choose. As a self-employed contractor, the companies you affiliate with don’t have to pay you anything if you don’t sell anything and so you’re free to try whatever strategies you want.

As a freelancer, you don’t need to follow any company regulations according to monthly or weekly reports or manage other people from a team that also can get problematic to handle at times. Here you don’t have to worry about company relations because it’s only you and yourself who sets all the rules, decides about proper dress code (so that it can even be in your Pajamas) and other small things and habits that otherwise might be distracting at a loud and crowded office.

3. Earn Money While You Sleep

“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”

Making money while you sleep is the dream, right? The other strong pro feature of becoming an affiliate marketer is the general idea of getting a passive income. Who wouldn’t want to make money from their bed! Nobody wants to work forever. Wouldn’t it be great to wake up in the morning, open your laptop and just discover additional revenue in your account?

Making money is always going to require some work. You do have to put in some work at the start, as we said, but once you’ve done that, you’ll make money while you sleep. Once that initial work is done, you get to sit back, relax and watch your money come in! The fruits of your hard work. It’s accessible for you to wake up in the morning like this once you get a deeper understanding of what affiliate marketing is all about.

4. Flexible Working Schedule

Working in the digital space gives you so much flexibility in terms of getting that work-life balance. An at home business means you are making your framework and daily working schedule.

The benefits of flexible work schedules:

• Flexibility to meet family needs, personal obligations, and life responsibilities conveniently.

• Reduced consumption of employee commuting time and fuel costs.
• Avoids the traffic and the stresses of commuting during rush hours.
• Increased feeling of personal control over schedule and work environment.
• Reduces employee burnout due to overload.
• Allows people to work when they accomplish most, feel freshest, and enjoy working.
• Depending on the flexible work schedule chosen, may decrease external childcare hours and costs

5. Learn New Skills

Starting an online business is usually the easiest step in the process. After all, once you’ve started a business, you need to advertise it, to make people want to come back for more, and to turn your products into profits. It can be a long, grueling process at times, but for some people, the end result makes it all worthwhile

Being an accomplished affiliate marketer requires you to be a great all-around digital marketer. It takes a special kind of person to become skilled at affiliate marketing. We’re not specialists. In order to succeed, we have to become experts in multiple areas. Almost all of us start off solo and were forced to wear different hats. You will learn so many new digital skills such as:

• Website building
• SEO
• Content marketing
• Conversion optimization
• Social media management
• Email marketing and more

Digital skills are in such high demand, so there’s nothing stopping you turning a hobby into a career. There are enough affiliate programs out there that no matter where your interests lie, you can probably find one that matches your favorite hobby. People who are creative are the luckiest people on earth. ‘Learning by doing’ has proven to be one of the best ways to become a master at something.

Affiliate marketing is not all plain-sailing. It takes a lot of commitment in terms of time and energy in order to be successful. A common misconception is that affiliate marketing runs itself and is an automated way of earning money online. This could not be further from the truth, running an affiliate business requires continuous work on a weekly or even daily basis, depending on how much time you are willing to commit. Like most things, the more time and work you put in, the more you will get out of it.