Affiliate Marketing Introduction

Affiliate marketing is especially appealing to people because it requires little to no startup costs and because very little work is involved in the operation; one does not need to produce a significant amount of content, nor do they need to actually develop or create the product themselves.

The main task involved in starting an affiliate marketing business is to create a blog or website that serves as the forum from which to link to other companies.

While the blog or website need not produce enormous sums of content, there should be some guiding theme or objective to the site—otherwise, there is no motivation for the public to even visit the site.

The home page for the web page should clearly explain its objectives as this will ensure repeat visits from the public. In many cases, affiliate marketing sites review product, linking to the products and receiving a percentage of the profits. While it ostensibly reviews products, it is very important that evaluations are not negative or people would not purchase the product; essentially affiliate marketing sites operate as publicity mechanisms for the products they promote.


If it is predicated on offering reviews, the affiliate marketing site should be organized around a central theme or market niche. If a site reviews everything from cooking products to sporting goods, this is liable to confuse the product and create the impression that there is an ulterior motive behind the reviews and that there is little specialization.

Therefore, the company should create a niche that is broad enough to generate large amounts of profit while at the same time retaining a scope that is narrow enough to create the public impression that they are specialists in the particular field they have chosen.

In some cases, affiliate marketing sites do not review products but instead provide advice and link to resources that provide more information on the topics addressed. This approach typically centers on broad issues rather than specific products; while this can ensure a broader audience that is also more loyal and (in some cases) communal, it also means that the site may require more consistent updating.