Let me ask you a couple of questions -

* Would you like to be able to offer your customers hundreds of quality products that are related to what you currently sell without physically stocking or shipping them yourself?

* How about if the merchants who stocked those products paid you up to 70% of the purchase price in Commission for every one of their products that you sold?

* What if there was a way to track these sales so that you always got paid when someone made a purchase from you and there was no dispute when it came time to getting your money?

* What if your store was open 24 hours every day of the year and made sales to customers all over the World without you having to lift a finger?

You would be making money while you slept...

Wealthy people get wealthy while they sleep.

They do certain things during the day in order to set up systems that allow them to make money 24 hours a day, every day of their lives.

This is true Financial Freedom!

Well maybe we had better look a little deeper into how to set up some affiliate programs on your website, and even in your offline marketing.

Affiliate Programs are one of the most powerful methods ever devised for the average entrepreneur or Business person to make a fortune with ease. The trouble is, most people fail to make any serious money because the don't follow some simple principles that work consistently when they are applied correctly.

So what is an Affiliate Program and why would you want to use them in your local business?

It is a system of marketing products and services that enables a merchant to sell to a much bigger market than they could ever hope to reach on their own from their local shop-front.

By paying a commission ranging from 1% for hard goods (Books, pots and pans, mobile phones, etc.) to 70% or more for digital products (eBooks, downloadable software, etc.), the affiliate merchant can have potentially thousands of sales people all over the World selling their products or services for them, and who are only paid when they actually make a sale.

This differs from a regular sales force, where many sales people are paid a retainer and/or commission - they are paid (but not for long, usually) even if they produce no results.

Plus, the market for the merchants product or service covers millions more people than if they were restrict themselves to a local geographical area thanks to the global reach of the Internet.

To make sure you always get paid, most affiliate programs are administered by a third party such as Clickbank.com or Commission Junction.com. This way, you know you will get paid for any sales you make as long as you put your affiliate links into your marketing correctly.

The big affiliate networks have too much to lose to try to scam a few dollars out of you, so you know your checks will always arrive when they are due - wouldn't it be nice if everyone paid up when they were supposed to?

In part 2 of this article, well look at how to integrate affiliate marketing into your local business to increase your sales and profits