There are hundreds, probably thousands of ways to make money online.
But for most beginners just starting out it really comes down to two choices: affiliate marketing or product development. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, however, capable marketers have made veritable fortunes using each of these methods. Let’s look at affiliate marketing first.
Affiliate marketing involves promoting products others have created and earning a commission on sales. The advantage here is that one can begin immediately, without having to take the time to create a product of their own. An over-simplistic example might be to find an affiliate product to promote, set up a short review page for that product, run an AdWords ad to drive traffic to your review page and include an affiliate link on that page so if people click on that link and buy the product you will earn a commission.
Now, that’s a gross oversimplification of the process. Just creating a profitable AdWords ad is a chore in itself. But running ads on various platforms such as YouTube or FaceBook can be profitable from the get go if done properly–but there is a science to that as well.
The most successful affiliate marketers drive traffic not to sales pages but to opt-in pages and grow an email list. They then market to that list by emails on a daily basis using affiliate links in all of their outgoing emails. The bigger your list, the more money you make. A large subscriber list is the lifeblood of successful affiliate marketers.
Product development is a different animal. Here you create a digital product of your own–an informational product most likely an ebook for those starting out. To generate sales for beginners it is essential they recruit affiliates, who have big lists to market to, to promote their product for them. A couple good places to list a new product for sale is through Clickbank or JVZoo. Both will handle all affiliate tracking and payouts for you. There are eager affiliates wanting to promote new products on each of these platforms.
It is common to give a minimum of 50% commissions to affiliates on these platforms. (Did you know that on some platforms, such as JVZoo product developers have made fortunes giving away 100% commissions to affiliates?) That probably seems counter-intuitive to you doesn’t it? We’ll show yo how that works in another post, OK?
To make money with digital products you create there are several things that must be in place. First, it must be an outstanding product whatever niche it is in. Affiliates hate refunds and won’t promote products they feel might have high refund rates. Quality, quality, quality! And, you must create a good online reputation with both buyers and affiliates. You do this by over-delivering value in your products!
Another “must do” is to create a high-converting sales page for your product. No matter how good your product is, without a well thought out sales page that converts visitors into buyers you have nothing. You also need to have a way to opt visitors into your email list. You do this with the use of your auto-responder service. Remember, over 95% of visitors to your sales page will not buy your product. You can’t just let them go forever. Your mailing list will eventually become your greatest asset.
And finally, the most successful info product developers have a strong sales funnel. It really is essential to maximize earnings. The initial product you create and sell should be thought of as a gateway through wish you present buyers with more expensive products or add-ons to your initial product.