When you begin attempting to build a legitimate Internet business from the ground up and you list the necessary elements, few people would have the skills or experience required. In lieu of those, few have the money to pay for the services they do not know how to do themselves. Whatever the business is, it is going to require you to do marketing and advertising to find customers. This requires learning about the most effective strategies, usually by trial and error. This can be time-consuming and expensive.
These are precisely why affiliate programs may be the perfect way for you to ‘get your feet wet’ just in so far as to determine if you even like Internet marketing before you try to build a business online. If you start out on your own, you will need to know several things that may include programming, web design, and connectivity, just to display a website on the Internet. You would need to create your own product or service that you could use to generate an income. Then you would need to promote it to get customers.
Actually you could spend years getting it all together and then more time would be required to promote your business before you would ever see a profit. Business universities teach that for an offline business, the average to make a profit is 5-years, during which time your expenses continue to mount. For example with a “brick and mortar” store or office outside the home, there is insurance, taxes, rent, inventory, staff, equipment, utilities and supplies. These expenses need to be paid whether or not you sell anything during that time. The great expense is one reason why it may take so long to realize a return on your investment or profit.
With an Internet home business you wouldn’t have all those ongoing expenses, however in reality it still does take time and lots of effort. Naturally if you have any money at all, it can help you make things simpler. While it still takes time, it is likely nowhere near 5-years to earn a profit if you are really focused on your business. That is of course dependent on what sort of a system/product you are creating.
However with an affiliate program, you may pay a small monthly membership fee and/or an initial larger payment. There are usually no contracts beyond month-to-month. Just with your small fee you are buying the right to use and profit from the program’s intellectual property. They have spent time and money to develop their product and to maintain their business and as such should not be begrudged for charging a reasonable fee.
The affiliate has the ability to use their resources, including the fact that they handle your sales transactions and serve your customers for you. So this frees your time and money up right there. When you make a sale, you earn commissions. It is a perfect exchange, as you are promoting their business and providing free advertising by your efforts to promote your business and earn money. That is why and how they are able and willing to allow you to use everything for what comparatively speaking is a very small amount of money. On top of everything else, the main thing is the time you are saving in development and experimentation.
