Web Affiliate Programs
You don't need a storehouse full of products to become an
online retailer if you build a Web site full of other
retailers' products and take a piece of their profits. A hot
trend on the Internet, affiliate programs pay you a commission for
referring business to them.
Signing up with affiliate programs that sell products similar to
yours is a great way to supplement your current Web store's
offerings or add revenue to a content-only Web site. After
you're approved, the company usually generates code you can put
on your site to send customers their way.
Probably the best-known affiliate program is Amazon.com's,
which lets you build your own bookstore on your site. Users who
click on the store are taken to Amazon.com to make the
purchase.
A slight twist on the commission idea, Nexchange (http://www.nexchange.com) lets you
add a fully-stocked store to your site, sell all types of consumer
products and receive a commission on sales. Nexchange describes its
program as "commerce in content," meaning the store has
your site's look and feel, and after visitors buy, they're
automatically returned to your site at the same place they were
when they stopped to make the purchase. (With most affiliate
programs, it's up to the visitors to manually return to your
site.)
Membership in these affiliate programs is free, and most will
actually pay you for the business. In return, you'll get the
benefits of online retailing without the administrative and
technical hassles.
