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Online shopping has become commonplace and accepted by most internet users nowadays. The benefits it provides are so positive, it is no wonder people flock to shopping online. You can shop any hour of the day or night, compare prices, have an amazing inventory to choose from at shops all around the globe, and once you order all you have to do is wait for it to arrive at your doorstep.

The acceptance and demand for online shopping has therefore compelled more and more people to open online stores to get a piece of this action. Someone operating a store out of their own home can compete with the retail giants that offer online shopping.

Obviously one needs a quality product sold at a reasonable price to be successful but aside from that, the key to success online is getting people to visit your online store. If no one comes, you can't sell anything. There are many tactics you can take to attract people to your store and a popular method is to use affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing enlists the aid of others to drive people to your online store. Generally speaking, people have no desire to help you out of the simple kindness of their hearts. Instead, you have to bribe them in some way. You do this by making them your affiliates and giving them a cut of the sale if a person they send makes a purchase at your site.

It is a win win situation. You get a visitor and a sale you would not have otherwise gotten, and the affiliate gets money for his efforts in sending someone to your online store. Just imagine the power of this if you have 10 affiliates, or 100. Many stores derive the majority of their sales from affiliate referrals. Affiliate marketing is a lucrative proposition and big business on the internet.

So how do you find these affiliates to help you make sales? You first have to develop an affiliate program and have a way of tracking your visitors and sales. This can be a complicated procedure, or you can make it simple. If you sell a digital product for example, you can use http://clickbank.com and the affiliate end of your business is all done for you. Formula">All you need to do is recruit affiliates. If you have a physical product for sale, you can use a company like http://paydotcom.com to automatically put your affiliate program into place. In order to use these companies you need to pay them a small percentage of each sale you make but it is worth it because you don't have to program your own affiliate tracking site.

Once you have your affiliate program ready to go, list your online store with affiliate directories found on the internet or recruit affiliates directly by placing ads in appropriate places such as adwords, or webmaster forums.