5 Proven Online Money Makers

Alright, so I’ve already mentioned a slight shift in focus to this blog.  So here goes nothing…There are actually an infinite number of ways to make money online but did you know that just about every one of them originates from one of these five methods? Yep!

Here’s a brief run down on each of the five ways to earn income online.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is basically a fancy way of saying that you make a small commission or percentage of the sale each time a visitor that you refer to your assigned affiliate web page or url makes a purchase.

Pros: At an estimated annual 1.9 billion USD affiliate marketing is a monster of a business and a great way for you to earn online if you’re short on time.  Cons: Getting the ball rolling in affiliate marketing takes a good bit of work-from article marketing and creating a user friendly website to crafting engaging emails with strong calls to action.  But the good news is that once you get your system up and running you’re all set in the affiliate world.

Ecommerce

Ecommerce is short for electronic commerce and this term just means that you’re selling stuff online-typically through an online storefront but this term can also apply to people who sell products on Amazon and Ebay.  I like to think of ecommerce sites as 24 hour earn while you sleep properties.  Once you have your organic search engine optimization (SEO), paid search (advertising on search engines), your social media (online content & conversation placement), branding and so forth in place you can begin building your online empire.

Pros: If your order sizes are high enough it doesn’t take much traffic to build a substantial income-meaning you can build a rewarding income through ecommerce.  Cons: You have to deal with returns, customer service issues, and I won’t lie to you there’s a steep learning curve in this line of business.  But if you’re able to stick it out you’ll probably find that it was worth it.

Online Services

This one is somewhat self explanatory.  Essentially, you go with whatever the topic of your website is and offer your visitors a related service.  This one easily lends itself to bloggers.  For instance if you love blogging about business plans you could offer your readers a business plan preparation service.

Pros: Very simple to begin and as long as you are passionate about your chosen line of business you should not experience burnout.  Cons: You’re basically limited by the number of hours that you are able to provide the service.  In other words, if you’re not doing a job for someone you’re not getting paid and since there’s only so many hours in a day…well you get my drift.

Product Marketing

Product marketing is another huge industry.  This is generally something that you do after reaching the point in your professional life where you know your stuff-inside and out.  Once you get there you can create books, cds, dvds, mp3′s, online videos, ebooks, premium subscription websites, and etc.

Pros: Marketing your own products can be a very natural outgrowth of your career and when you’re marketing your own products you’re keeping the lion-share of the rewards.  Cons: Getting involved in product marketing means that you’ve got to be on top of your p’s and q’s-meaning you’d better have someone on hand to help you handle things like trademarks, copy writes, other legal stuff, and etc if you’re going to go this route.  This also means that you should be prepared to make a substantial initial investment followed by additional outlays on a regular basis to ensure that you aren’t caught off guard by anything when sales do start picking up.

Direct Sales

Direct sales is a name that people use sometimes when referring to network marketing.  If you are familiar with multilevel marketing you probably are thinking, “ok talking to my friends and relatives about buying my products”, right? Well forget that model for a second because the web 2.0 revolution has pretty much demolished that model of doing things.  Direct sales today has become mainly about building a web of content or rather a sales funnel that attracts and converts the leads into business for you-primarily online.

Pros: A small initial investment allows you to benefit from a proven system that other people have already usually invested heavily in.  You also get to earn while you sleep through your team’s duplication of your efforts.  Cons: Without a system in place that helps you to generate leads this business model can be highly challenging.

So I guess that about wraps it up. I’d be happy to hear your thoughts on this so drop me a line please.  Oh and before I forget… this Friday at 7:30 pm ET some very sharp business people and I will be hosting a webinar elaborating on a system that addresses most or all of the above if you’d like to drop in then here’s the link.

Tagged As: Affiliate Marketing, Direct Sales, Product Marketing