There is a mistaken belief that good affiliate programs ought not to be free and that they are not that important to many of the well known big name companies that use affiliate programs to generate sales and leads these days.

Those who hold these beliefs often forget or are unaware of some key facts. Firstly the reality is that companies, including Fortune 500 businesses that opt to use a free affiliate program to market their products do so with success and increased sales as the key objectives at the top of their minds. Thus affiliates are valuable to them and it would not be in their best interests to charge too high a price for those intending to join.

Secondly by launching a free affiliate program, a business is virtually guaranteed of success because what happens is that thousands of one way links are pointed towards their sites each with the highest possible traffic potential that the affiliate can manage. What this means is that affiliate programs that charge a fee for people to join limit the speed at which links pointed at their sites can grow.

These are just some of the reasons why free affiliate programs have met with such success in recent times. The truth is that businesses are increasingly relying on the free affiliate program for valuable leads, sales and long term business success.