Since I sold my last business in 2004 I have been trying hard to make a living online. Most of my neighbors knew what my last business was as it was very obvious from the garage full of soda, water, snacks and vending machines. When I say garage full I am talking about maybe 1000 to 1500 cases at least. Yes, I was a vendor and I did this for about 8 years. 8 years of people complaining about out of date soda, warm candy bars and dimes stuck in the machines. 8 years of 40 foot Pepsi and Coke trucks coming up to my driveway and unloading materials. 8 years of counting coins and dollar bills every day. Had it not been for the recession, 9-11 and the dotcom bust I would probably have grown to where I hired a few workers and I would still be doing it.
However things did slow down and besides, I was looking for something with less headaches and had more of an upside.
Now my neighbors wonder what the heck I do. They see me stay inside my house all day long and when I do come outside I am in a robe, shorts or tee shirt and jeans. They ask me what I am doing and I say I am doing some internet marketing. They just kind of look puzzled and dont say much else. Nothing like Oh. My son is doing that also Or I know a friend I who is an internet marketer and they are making tons of money Nothing like that.
So at times I try to explain and that is what I will do now.
Internet marketing is very simply making money from the internet. You may say Duh. What a genious but the thing is, it has to be described in that broad of a sense because there are so many types of internet marketing. Here are a few different ways to make money online that I have discovered:
1. Affiliate programs.
Affilaite means you sell other peoples and companies products and you get a commission. Many huge companies around the world use the affiliate system to sell their products such as Yahoo, Microsoft, Macys, AT&T, Walmart, Blockbuster, etc...The products that can be sold from affiliate sites are never ending. I honestly cant think of a product that cant be sold through an affiliate program. Here is a short list of some of the products I can sell through various affiliate programs: e-books, solar panels, books, magazines, homes, mortgages, wart remoaval medicine, hypnosis tapes, leads, movies, car insurance, anti theft devices for cars, self improvement courses and the list goes on and on.
As an affiliate you sometimes are able to have other affilaites join under you and you also get a percentage of their sales. The typical affiliate commission structure is for the affiliate to be paid a higher percentage on their direct sales, say 50%, and then a lower percentage on the sales of those affiliates they sign up, maybe 10 to 20% commissions. Usually what we consider affiliate programs are limited to two levels. Most affiliate programs are free to join.
Many of the top internet marketers used affiliate programs to get started in their carreer.
2. Network Marketing.
Network Marketing is simular to affiliate programs except they go more than two levels deep. They can go unlimited levels even. What this does is create great leverage so that you can possibly make huge amounts of money if you get an organization of thousands of members. There are different government rules for network marketing businesses, or MLMs, than for the typical two tier affiliate program. Network marketing has been around for about 50 years, way before the internet started. However the internet has proven to be a great way to promote network marketing companies.
3. Selling your own products and/or on your own website.
Having your own products and/or services with your own website is of course a great way to make money. There have been constant improvements to doing this and additional ways to make money this way. One addional way to now make extra income from your own website is by using Google adsense. these are ads from Googles customers who pay by the click to advertise on other peoples websites. This can make a good income for the website owners but you need traffic to the sites to make money this way. You can also have links to affiliate sites on your own website. Or sell advertising directly to other website owners.
Here is an example of a website with Google adsense ads and also some affiliate programs.
4. Blogs
A web log is called a blog. This is a way to instantly publish any information online. There are 9 million blogs out there, with 40,000 new ones popping up each day. Amazing. A blog can be set up quickly at no cost at blogger.com, a site owned by google. Anything that can be sold on a website can also be sold on a blog so many people are using blogs instead of websites.
Here is an example of one of my blogs.
About the author
Tim Phelan is a full time internet marketer and has owned his own business for over 10 years.
I know what youre thinking, Why is having your own product essential Quite simple really, without your own product you will never market to your full potential. We all want to make as much money as possible. That is the nature of business and because of this I have listed below my favourite and most powerful reasons why you need your own product to promote as opposed to be an affiliate for somebody elses product.
Please read and understand these reasons because they make a whole lot of sense.
1. Affiliate Program - Without your own product it is possible to have your own affiliate program. Big deal, whats so fancy about having your own affiliate program Im glad you asked because it is a BIG DEAL. When you sell online you are only one person and your results depend completely on you but when you have your own affiliate program other people do the work for you. They make you sales and your sales are muliplied expontially without any additional effort on your behalf. The best part is they only get paid when they have made a sale. Having an affiliate program is more than a good idea, I would go so far as to say, its essential. The best and only affilate software that I would recommend is JVManager (http://www.PrivateRights.com/JVManager.html ), so flexible and worth every penny.
2. Product Packaging - I would like to see you package together a whole lot of products via an affiliate link. The word, impossible, comes to mind because normal affiliate programs just dont work that way, you have very limited contol. But why would you want to do that anyway Primarily because people love a bargain, and in addition to that your product/offer will have a lot more impact when it is combined with related items/bonuses.
3. Special Offers - One of my personal favourites that is only possible with your own product (unless you have very good relationships with a product owner and you have some major clout as an affiliate), is the ability to offer people a lower/special price. If you own your own product, you control the price so you decide whether you want to reward your customers for their loyalty or just infuse your cash flow if it is a little low with a firesale.
4. Joint Venture Partnerships - Only with your own product is it possible to wheel and deal with other product owners and put together a joint venture deal that will knock peoples socks off. Joint ventures or JVs can allow you to reach a target market that will only be possible with other partners.
I could keep on going but these are my favourite benefits of having your own product and why I strongly suggest you do everything possible to get your own product.
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