Disclaimer: This post contains several affiliate links. We practice what we preach.

Q. How can I make money through the health and fitness industry without carrying inventory or dealing with drop shippers and fulfillment houses?
A. Simple. Fitness Affiliate programs.

The health and fitness industry is worth staggering amounts of money in just the US alone. To get a snapshot of the amounts of money involved here are some figures:

- In 2005, total US fitness club membership reached an estimated 43.2 million while overall industry revenue totaled $15.6 billion.

- The Nutrition Industry is a $75 billion industry in the United States. Product sales through the internet sales channel grew by 25% in 2005 (Nutrition Business Journal), and will continue to grow in the future.

- Total U.S. health care expenditures are projected to increase from $2.17 trillion in 2006 to $2.88 trillion in 2010, with annual increases averaging about 7%.

If you want to make money through the health and fitness industry here is some great news. You can sell other people’s products through the internet and you don’t even have to carry any of the products you sell!

Over the past couple of years more and more people have been making money by selling health-related products as an affiliate for major online brands. Pretty much all major US corporations these days have an affiliate program. Here are a few examples of some of the names you’ll recognize that have an affiliate program: Wal-Mart, Target, Puritan’s Pride, Drugstore.com, Citibank, Gaiam, Billy Blanks Tae Bo, GT Xpress Grill, The Firm Exercise Videos, Water 4 Life Ionizers… These days it’s surprising if a big US company doesn’t have an affiliate program. You can search for health and fitness affiliate programs through the ‘big 4′ affiliate networks; Commission Junction, Linkshare, Performics and Shareasale.

So what is an affiliate? As an affiliate you are basically promoting a web based business and you are paid a commission for every; visitor, subscriber, customer, and/or sale that gets made through the affiliate links you have on your website. N.B. You get the special links for a particular company/individual product [which includes your unique ID code so the company can track your sales] through the affiliate networks listed above.

The affiliate marketing model is pretty simple. Take this example; A website called TopHealthSpot.com provides readers with health coupons and health news. For instance, here’s an example of one of the pages on the website that lists Gaiam coupons. Every time a visitor purchases a product through any of the links on this page the owner of TopHealthSpot.com is paid an 8% commission. Let’s assume for example that the average order value for Gaiam is $125; this equates to around $10 in commission on each sale. All the owner of the website [Dori Schwaiger] has to do is make one sale per day for Gaiam and she will earn $300 per month. If she does this for just a handful of merchants the website will provide a very nice monthly revenue stream and Dori can sit on the beach sipping Mai Tai’s while someone else worries about details like inventory and customer service.

Some of the top affiliates earn well over $10,000 per month and do affiliate marketing as a full time home based business by reviewing products, or providing links to coupons. To learn how Rosalind Gardner quit her day job and did affiliate marketing full time, check out this ebook: “The Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People’s Stuff“. Another great resource is James Martell’s “Affiliate Marketers Handbook“.

You don’t even need to learn how to build a website anymore! There are plenty of software programs and website templates available to do all this for you. WordPress (which is what this page is built on) is one example of software that will build a fitness blog or website for you, and there are thousands of free WordPress templates to choose from.

There also a lot of FREE information out there that you can use to learn about the affiliate marketing business. Forums such as ABestWeb and 5 Star Affiliate Programs are great places to learn from other affiliates and find out what’s going on in the affiliate marketing industry. ABestWeb even has a section just for fitness affiliates.

Affiliate Marketing is not to be confused with multilevel marketing!!! Multilevel marketing (MLM) is any marketing program in which participants purchase the right to recruit additional participants, sell products or services, and be compensated for the sales by people they recruit as well as for their own sales. To learn more about the MLM business [and why you should stay well away from it] check out MLM Watch.

Are you a fitness merchant who wants to sell more products through an affiliate marketing programl? Get more information on fitness affiliate marketing [and what it can do for your business] here.

- Click for more great fitness affiliate programs
- Click for affiliate marketing resources and tips