The affordable and proven way to skyrocket your internet business. Search engine positioning, direct email, banners, ezines, secret formulas, emotional response headlines, and on and on. If you want to be successful - Just look at who is successful and copy them. The associate points traffic to that URL through banners, ezines, classifieds etc. and gets a commission from every sale that is generated from that unique website address. The parent handles the order fulfillment and cuts the associate commission checks.
Associate programs are great for both the parent and the affiliate.
The parent gets an army of salespeople and the affiliate is free from having to develop and sell their own products. Your focus changes from promoting your product to promoting your program. It's simple math. Every associate site is one more site where folks can find your product. Their participation means that more keywords can lead to your product or service from the search engines.