Affiliate Programs and Viral Marketing

If you stop and think about it ... Affiliate Programs are one of the most potent viral marketing techniques in existence. It contains some rich key ingredients of Viral Marketing.

They're FREE

They're catchy

Easily passed along

Everybody's doing it

They spread quickly ~~~ all across the internet with little to No involvement at all from the creator of the affiliated program.

How cool is that?!

I'll bet money that you and just about everyone you know (including me) has joined an affiliate program at one time or another without even giving a second thought that what you were really doing is 'Free Advertising' for the creator of that affiliate program -- which is the low-key subtle beauty of Viral Marketing:) The excitement, benefits and feeling that is gained from being involved in the affiliate program motivates us to promote and tell others about it. Soon these affiliate messages spread like a virus all across the Net in forums, message boards, social networks, email inboxes, ebooks, articles, websites, blogs -- EVERYWHERE - You name it!

Those little Free Affiliate Programs really get people revved-up don't they?

As I sat and thought about all of this affiliate excitement, I realize that the main side to be on is the affiliate owner (and get the Lions share and let Thousands advertise for me) -- Not the affiliate marketer (who stays active around the clock promoting for just a small portion of the profits).

Now don't get me wrong affiliate programs are a cool way to get started making money on the Internet. But it's just that a start. After that it's about creating your own products and have other affiliate do viral marketing for you. You can still promote other people's stuff too, but at least you're have some of your very own products in the marketplace as well. I'm taking my own advice and I'm in the process of creating an affiliate program(s) of my own as we speak.

A few affiliate networks that are good places to check into about starting your own affiliate programs are:

ClickBank

CJ

Share-A-Sale

Kolimbo

These are some of the Top one that I've found. There's more out there as well. You can find them by going to your favorite search engine and putting in "Affiliate Networks"