Lets start at the beginning First of all, how do you define an affiliate program, or affiliate system? Its a system in which an owner, developer or creator of a product allows other people outside of his or her own company to promote the product for them, in return for a percentage of the commissions.

Most successful marketers online use this resource to their advantage, because lets face it, it's far easier for 100 people to sell 1000 units of a product than it is to have one person sell a thousand units of a product.

Of course its possible for one person to sell 1000 units, but we don't have all the time in the world, so affiliates are generally the answer, and should make up a large amount of your business' revenue if you're promoting your own products.

In case you're kind of underestimating the situation, don't have any affiliate system in place, or haven't decided to fully utilize this type of system within your business, let me put a scene to you to make this all crystal clear. Heres the situation;

You're a business owner, you've just launched your shiny new site, which just happens to sell the same product as Mr. X here. Both yours and Mr. Xs product are priced at $500. The difference is you've built yourself up a relatively modest 150 affiliates, and Mr. X is doing all the promotion alone.

Now imagine you each make ten sales in the first month through personal promotion. You both make $5000. Great, but when your affiliates come in, it's easy to see how this figure can double.

Now of course not all of your affiliates are going to be heavy hitters, great promoters or even make any sales at all, ever. But lets say just 10% of your affiliates, just 15 of them, make a measly three sales each in that same month at 60% commissions? Pulling out my handy calculator, I can tell you that through those three sales from a small percentage of your affiliates, you've just made an extra $9000, bringing your total to $14000 for that month.

You're laughing, and poor Mr. X. He was one of the many marketers out there that didn't take this type of affiliate marketing seriously, or didn't see any real profit in it. Meanwhile, you've just pocketed in 4 weeks what it takes a lot of people in regular jobs four or five months, often longer, to earn.

Are you starting to see the power of affiliates? If you have an online business, or some products you wish to sell online then do take a look at using affiliates as your silent sales force!