More and more people are getting into online businesses for a variety of reasons. First, because the Internet provides a wide market for businessmen and selling through the Net is often synonymous to selling their products to the world. Second, because starting an online business requires only a portion of the start-up cost that you will need if you are to set up an actual business establishment. And third, because you would virtually gain more profit online, considering your wide market and your savings.

One aspect of online business today that many people, businessmen and non-businessman alike, are willing to get into is affiliate marketing. Simply said, affiliate marketing is a relationship between a merchant, who has the need to sell and advertise his products, and his affiliates, who are willing to post the merchant's ads in their own websites. The affiliates get paid whenever an action is taken by a visitor on the ad-either in a pay-per-click, pay-per-lead, or pay-per-sale basis.

The selling point of affiliate marketing is that it gets everybody benefited not only a little but a lot. The merchant saves a lot because he only has to pay whenever an action is made on his ad. On the side of the affiliates, they simply earn a living even without trying to. And they get all these benefits by simply getting involved in affiliate marketing. What more if they take affiliate marketing more seriously?

Some people claim that affiliate marketing simply won't work for serious online businesses. They're wrong. Affiliate marketing, if taken more seriously, would translate to larger profits. And yes, both for the merchant and the affiliates. How? Why not get into a tried and tested marketing method of getting more profits-back-end selling!

Back-end selling is simply the selling you do after your initial sale; and that means selling another product to the same customer. The product you sell after the first sale is called, for obvious reasons, the back-end product. Back-end selling has long been proven to be effective in boosting a business's sale, not only for online businesses but for traditional businesses as well. Why? Because if your product is good, you would generally get the trust of your customer after your first sale, and if you have another product that he likes or needs, there is a great chance that he will also buy that product from you. As a businessman or marketer, that means additional profits just from a single customer!

If back-end selling works for traditional and many online marketing strategies, there's no reason why it shouldn't work with affiliate marketing! And it works even better as back-end selling with affiliate marketing may work both for the merchant and the affiliates. It's really just a matter of knowing how to efficiently carry the back-end selling process.

For the merchants:

As a merchant in an affiliate network, you really won't have to concern yourself with the advertising of your initial product as your affiliates should already be doing this for you. This leaves you with enough time and energy to focus your attention on back-end selling. There are a number of ways for you to promote your back-end products to your customers. If you have no idea what these methods are, we provide you with some tried and tested methods in this site.

• Upon ordering the first product from your site, ask your customer if he wants to receive newsletters about your future products. Newsletters are good media for promoting your back-end products.

• Send your customers a thank you letter and try to mention your back-end product at the end of the letter (works both for snail mails and emails).

• Give your customers a call and ask them if they're happy about your product. Then, try to inform them about your back-end products.

• Most online magazines have "customers only" portions in their websites that only subscribers of their printed magazines can access. You can also have a site like this and place your ads for your back-end products there.

• If you're selling electronic products like e-books, find a way to add a link that would direct your customers to your site or have an ad about your back-end product inserted somewhere on the pages.

• Redirect your customers to a "thank you" page after their first purchase and insert in there some of your back-end product ads.

• Insert a flyer or brochure about your back-end products on the package that will be shipped to your customers.

For the affiliates:

Just when you think that back-end selling would only work for the merchants, here I am to negate your thoughts. Back-end selling works as well for the affiliates as it worked for the merchants. And what will your back-end product be• You're affiliate products. Here are a few methods on how you can take advantage of back-end selling with affiliate marketing:

• If your visitor has signed up for a free newsletter on your site, give him a complementary email and have your ad for one of your affiliate products at the end of the mail.

• If your visitor has signed up for free email courses, find a way to insert your back-end affiliate products ads in some portion of each new email course.

• If your site has a download page, place an ad for your back-end product or a link to a page promoting your back-end product somewhere on the download page.

• If you are an affiliate who in turn has products to sell, you can promote your back-end products in the complimentary letter or package that goes along with your product.

Back-end selling does really work with affiliate marketing; it's really just a matter of knowing how to make it work. And it works not only for the merchant but for the affiliates as well.