Thanks for the advice. This isnt my site. A friend of mine wanted me to ask a few questions.

He wants to buld a site of only buy one get one free merchandice. I tried to explain to him that it might be a little broad. I spoke with many affiliate programs today and they say they have merchants that offer such promotioins.

My idea, for him, is for him to build his site..then use the merchants from the affiliate programs to kick off his business so to speak. With a nice looking site filled with items from merchants, he could then appraoch the merchants himself and weed out the affiliate program ads. I like his idea but feel if he goes the "find merchants" way that it is going to be an uphill battle. There are a lot of headaches that come with retail sites such as, shipping, billing, returns etc.etc. He has an awesome name for the site and it would definately fit the retail catagory, but I feel there is an easier way to start off the business.

First, build your website and know what products you want to offer first. Second, (the route I would take) join the affiliate programs and contact merchants that way. In the beginning, you wont make much but your site would gain attention. Third, figure out what customer base you want to focus in the future.

What do you think?