If you have spent anytime online then you likely have heard of affiliate marketing. Just in case, affiliate marketing is basically selling other people's products or services online for a commission. There are a variety of programs and terms but the idea is a solid one. You get to let other people do the selling, you simply guide them to the product or service provider and collect a commission from the ones that purchase. That's probably nothing new to you so I won't bore you with the details. What may be new to you however is local affiliate marketing. In this article I am going to discuss 5 reasons why you might want to incorporate Local Affiliate marketing into your business.

Before getting into the 5 reasons, let's discuss what being a Local Affiliate is. On the surface it sounds pretty simple (and it is but there are definitely some nuances). Local Affiliate Marketing is bringing your affiliate marketing to the local level. Here are some reasons why you might want to do that:

1. Local Affiliate Marketing is easier than standard affiliate marketing. Instead of competing for a keyword like 'car insurance' you are going to compete for a keyword like 'atlanta car insurance'. Much easier. In fact, if you know what you are doing, you can rank for this term in 2 weeks. And that particular phrase (at the time of writing) gets approximate 500 exact match searches per month.

2. Local Affiliate Marketing is very targeted. When somebody searches for 'car insurance' they might just be doing research. When they search for 'atlanta car insurance' they are probably more likely to buy. I am not saying that you shouldn't want to rank for 'car insurance'; I am just saying if you value speed you will definitely want to choose the local term.

3. You can profit from Local Affiliate Marketing in a variety of ways. Let's say you put up a site and get it ranking for 'chiropractors in San Diego'. Now you own a real asset. So what do you do with it? You could probably find some kind of CPA affiliate offer to monetize the traffic. Or you could rent the site or sell leads (local laws permitting). You could even slap Google Adsense on it. Or how about creating a directory and selling ad space? Lots of ways to profit from these sites.

4. With Local Affiliate Marketing you set the terms. Do you want to get paid weekly? That's no problem. You control the site, you control the traffic, you control the terms. In fact, if you are renting the site or selling the leads to a local business owner, you can get paid upfront if you can negotiate the deal. In fact, get in the right local niches and you can use pay per click. Drive traffic today and get paid today.

5. Local Affiliate Marketing is all about speed, ease and most of all control. It's like an offline/online hybrid that makes up for the downsides to both. When working with offline business owners, you are traditionally building their business. When doing online affiliate marketing you are at the mercy of the terms of the merchant. Local Affiliate Marketing keeps you in control as you should be.

Local Affiliate Marketing is like owning and controlling incredibly powerful virtual real estate. There's still plenty of time to get started, the good local niches are still wide open but it won't stay that way forever. The virtual real estate rush is on; don't get left behind.