Affiliate programs Overview

Affiliate programs are kind of business where the initiator of the program instead of having employees have associates, where the earnings are shared by percentage. Exist different types of affiliate programs that act on different sectors: i.e. Internet, retailing, health etc. but in this case we are referring those whose field of action is the internet.

The business relationship between the associate and the initiator is started via web where the associate starts the relation by registering in the initiator associate catalog.

How it works? The affiliate is the active side of the business, is responsible of selling wherever the initiator is selling either a product or a service. The initiator is responsible to get to customers.

Some examples of online affiliate programs are: Amazon.com, ebay.com, Google Adsense, BidVertiser, WidgetBucks and more.

Advantages:

• Great earnings in a small amount of time
• Small time is required to make the business work.
• No direct contact with costumers
• Affordable payment methods ( for the most affiliate programs)

Disadvantages:

• Earnings may vary
• Some affiliate programs have very strict rules and any violation to their term of service may lead to end of contract.
• Some affiliate programs may ask for money in exchange to start working with them. Most of these affiliate programs are scam.

The main requirement for affiliate programs is your time; if time is an issue then it may be a waste of time. Does it worth it? It depends how interested the person is and how good the affiliate program is, for those known affiliate programs like Amazon, ebay and adsense, at least with my experience with adsense tells it really worth it.