So yes, there are many great things about affiliate marketing, but let’s not be too snooty and disregard to dark side of it as well.  If you are totally new to affiliate marketing you can check out my write-up on what is affiliate marketing.

Here are some of the advantages to marketing as an affiliate and why people love making money with this proven system.

Pros

• No investment is required.  Now you CAN spend a fortune trying to get started with this, but I started off with nothing and turned it into … something.  There are hundreds of free methods you can use to generate great income without costing you a single penny.
• No products to handle.  All the handling is done by the merchant and you don’t have to lift a finger to ship or stock the products.  All your work is done in the advertising of the service or product.
• Short time; long results.  What I mean is that you can spend 2 hours writing an article or making a post to your blog and that same write-up can bring in money for the next year or more.  That’s what I call residual income.
• Your time is YOUR time.  Yes, I can be redundant at times, but it’s true.  It’s not really YOUR time when you spend the majority of it making someone ELSE money.  Your time is yours to do with as you will.
• No more paperwork.  Say goodbye to book keeping.  Any of the normal business related headaches are far from site.  The merchant really handles all of the transaction and customer support so all you have to really do is keep tract of the money that keeps rolling in.  Do I make it sounds too easy? lol
• Free transaction reports.  You are provided with crucial data in refining your campaign, like what keywords and websites are driving the traffic to the affiliate links.
• Allows you to do what you love.   You really only have to promote products that you really enjoy and find beneficial, and  then you can just feel like you are helping people rather than trying to swindle them.  When it’s a product or activity you really enjoy, it’s easy to write about it too.  I mean look at me.. I’m writing this. lol
• Can be done on the side.  Even if you are not ready to quit your job to start affiliate marketing, it’s something you can do on your own pace and thus can work on it in your own spare time, or even on vacation if you want. (although the your spouse may not be too happy with that)
• Can Work from anywhere.  If you can get an internet connection you can work, and with wi-fi everywhere now, you can even get some work done in the bathroom for crying out loud.  I love to work on the go, so this is a great PRO to affiliate marketing.
• Huge commissions.  Depending what company you are going through, you can make from $50 to $100 PER sale.  With commissions of 50% and higher it won’t take many sales per day to keep bread on your table, or maybe even Fila Mignon.
• Won’t cost you a cent in gas.  Well we can all stand up and shout on this one.  Working from home is great for a lot of obvious reasons but not having to spend all that money for your commute is a huge bonus.  The best way to go green is to go affiliate marketing! =)

Ahh but wait, I may paint a rosey picture, but I will always show you what’s on the other side of it.  Let’s see what some of the disadvantages of affiliate marketing are.  Don’t listen to all the hype when someone goes on and on about a program but NEVER says ANTHING negative about it.  Honesty must look at all points of the matter.  So let’s check out the dark side of affiliate marketing.

Cons

• It actually takes work.   I’m not kidding either.  If you think you can just sit back and write a few posts a week and make your millions you are well mistaken.  It takes time and patience.  Especially in the beginning.  But don’t quite yet!
• Adwords can make you broke.  If you do advertising with Google’s adwords please be careful.  I don’t recommend starting like this because you pay for every time someone just clicks on that ad you made which points to your affiliate link.  It’s easy to click, but painful to pay for it.
• Affiliate merchants charge a fee.  It’s a puny little fee, and you only pay it when you make something but I thought it fair to mention it.
• Competition can be fierce.   If you pick a competitive niche like credit cards…. whew.. hold on.  Adwords can cost you $20 per click in some cases and there are so many affiliates advertising credit cards (mainly because of easy and high commissions) that there is hardly room for any more.  You can try it if you want.  I actually just got a $5 check today from a credit card commission.  Haha.. it was from an article I wrote a while back and forgot about.
• There are Scam artists out there.  Some products you might WANT to promote may actually be junk.  Always make sure the website looks nice and that it is a reputable company, because YOUR name is on the line when you are endorsing something, even if it IS just to make a few bucks.
• Some companies may not pay you.  Now I have NEVER had this happen but I have heard some reports.  With all the thousands I have made I have always gotten my money but again, I wanted to make sure you knew about it.  Starting out, only go with companies you KNOW you can trust.
• Your commissions can get stolen.  I say stolen, but it’s not really a proper desrciption.  You see, some affiliates will use their own affiliate ID when buying something that they found out about from YOUR website so that they can get a better deal on it.  Yeah it happens sometimes, but not much.
• Slow results to start with.  Even though I made a sale within my first week of affiliate marketing, it still takes time to grow the business.  You will learn a lot of what TO do and what NOT to do along the way.  It’s ok to make mistakes, just don’t make the same ones.  If you keep at it, you will see growth like you’ve never seen before.

So there are the Pros and Cons of affiliate marketing.  I maybe biased but I still believe the Pros out weight the Cons by FAR!  Otherwise I would not be doing this for a living.  But read over this list yourself to see if you can handle the cons.  This is not for everyone, but for those that it IS for…. they can do very well financially.