Create Your Own Affiliate Program… this is what Amazon did, and look where it has taken them. You could be the next Amazon, if you have the right products and set it up properly.

First, find a good product.

This should preferably be a physical product (like Amazons books – Amazons products are mainly physical, not digital, apart from the kindle versions of books.) the reason for this is that this minimizes returns. Returns from an electronic product can be 70% or more. After all, it just takes a few clicks, and the item is returned. People feel that a physical product has intrinsic value and it is more difficult to return, needing to be repacked and returned.

Here is where uniqueness can really pay off… if you have or can develop unique products then you can build your own affiliate program with unique stuff rather than just rehashing old stuff. This step may be the most difficult but if some time and effort are put into this step it can pay huge dividends. Also remember, you can outsource to some place like oDesk to help you build those products. You just need to take the time to develop the ideas.

You must be able to sell it at a price which is cheap compared to local stores and which allows you to pay an excellent commission to your associates. Often 50 percent, but it can be a smaller percentage if the monetary value is high. Remember, affiliates are your commission-only sales force. Where else could you get so many eager salespeople working hard for you?

Decide where to market… in the USA or any other country, or worldwide. Remember, shipping costs can be high, Shipping costs are passed on to the customer, but they add to its cost to the customer and reduce its competitiveness.

When you create your own affiliate business, you should preferably provide your affiliates with a web site template and banner advertising and an affiliate link. This helps deliver a uniform message and avoids legal claims based on misleading advertising.

You should get affiliate management software.. and try Clickbank (www.clickbank.com) to handle the sales. They have a 60day return policy, which makes them widely accepted by consumers).  Somebody like Hostgator (www.hostgator.com) offers reliable web hosting for under $10 a month. Namescheap (www.namescheap.com) can supply a domain name for $2 a year.

You will need affiliate tracking software… Post Affiliate Pro from www.qualityunit.com is a good choice, but you can find others with a Google search.

You will also need to find good affiliates…

Here Google Adwords or Yahoo can be useful, or you can post a link on your own website. Perhaps you could contact some of those junk emailer’s you who send you so many emails? Many have large email lists, and may be willing to promote your products for the right commission.

It is easier to create your own affiliate business than you’d think, and the costs are a fraction of setting up a brick-and mortar business. Also you can create demand in a much larger potential market and create a much larger sales force.

The key here is to: plan, get help from others, and expect to put some work into it. You are creating a real business not some sort of overnight miracle money maker.