• by Lynn Russo , August 24, 2006

A woman we'll call Suzy runs a book club. Twice monthly, six women gather to discuss books they're reading. They take suggestions from Oprah. They have a blog. And they're affiliate marketers. Rather than going to Barnes & Noble when they want to buy a new book, they simply post a Barnes & Noble link on their site and receive credit from the retailer for each sale.

Though they're not a million-dollar account, they're just as important. Why? Because there are lots of Suzys, and they cost nothing to manage. They sell books for Barnes & Noble on their own behalf. The retailer simply sits back and collects the money.

That's the beauty of affiliate marketing. It's not sexy, but its reach is vast and its management is turnkey.

"You'll find that for companies like Barnes & Noble, affiliate marketing provides a major contribution," says David Yovanno, general manager of ValueClick Media, which manages Commission Junction, the service

that powers bn.com's affiliate program. "A third of the revenues that a lot of these online-based companies earn come from affiliate programs."