Affiliate marketers act like companies in many respects but what they generally don’t have behind them are effective, reliable payment solutions that a standalone company needs to do business. PayPal helped solve this problem back in the late 90’s. But – and I’m speaking from personal experience here – PayPal has grown more and more into a monster over the years. They’re getting more and more expensive, and don’t be surprised if they freeze all of your funds for no reason at all.

Not long ago, Google started offering an alternative to PayPal, called Google Checkout. It’s easy to use, easy to implement, and it costs significantly less than what PayPal charges. And if you list your products in Google’s product search (formerly Froogle), then you’ll see even more benefits because Google displays their checkout button next to websites that offer their payment solution.

If you haven’t already, you should take a look at Google Checkout. Let me warn you though, as easy as it is to get started with GC, they will likely give you a hard time if you sell expensive products costing upwards of $1,000. They did to me!