First off, let me explain what an affiliate is.  Anyone can become an affiliate by joining with a company to sell that company's products.  In other words, an unpaid sales person who refers people to the company by whatever means necessary.  Every time someone purchases a product from the company, the affiliate gets paid a commission.

Sometimes it isn't a company, it may merely be an individual who has produced a product such as an ebook.  Sales are good but not as much as desired so the author turns the ebook into an affiliate product by contracting with other people to sell the ebook for a cut of the sales price.  For instance, I have an ebook that I've been selling for $49.95 and have decided to give anyone who sells it for me (my affiliates) 75% commission.  When they sell my ebook, I will pay them $37.46 every time.  I realize that I am giving up 75% of my sales price on each sale but by allowing other people to do my advertising for me, my ebook is seen by a lot more people who may be interested in it.

Most advertising I can do is not nearly as targeted as what some of my affiliates can do for me.  I can only get customers one at a time whereas my affiliates will be promoting my ebook to their present and past customers.  In most cases these affiliates already have a mailing list they can send my offer to.

So how can you benefit from a referral affiliate program?  As you see above, you don't have to create a product or provide service or distribution - all you have to do is sell the ebook and collect a commission.  And by now you are asking yourself HOW can you benefit from such a referral affiliate program?  No, this isn't just another network marketing ponzi scheme.  The thing to realize is that you can add these programs as another step in your marketing sales funnel no matter what your service or product is.

This could be something you offer to attract people to your own product or business opportunity.  Sell something small and valuable like a set of videos, short training course or ebook and the prospect now becomes a customer who is interested in how it can help them a lot.

Of course, it is often difficult to find products or services that complement what you are already promoting.  Once you find just the right affiliate referral program you can raise a bunch of cash before even selling your primary product to the customer

So as can be seen, affiliate referral programs can be very lucrative both from the standpoint of the producer and the affiliate.