Every day, thousands of people from all over the world make the decision that they would like to start making money online. While the specific reason that people decide to try their hand at making money online is not especially relevant, there are some common features that people who decide to become involved in online business exhibit.
Not surprisingly, for the vast majority of people who decide that this seems like a good idea, it is also a very new idea. In other words, the people that we are talking about tend to have no established 'bricks and mortar’ real-world business of their own. In effect, they want to earn money but have no way of doing so as yet. Moreover, to most of these people, the idea that that you can earn money from the internet is a new concept that they had probably never considered before.
The majority of new online entrepreneurs have no product or service of their own to sell. They are also likely to have very little money available to fund their new online business venture. It is for these reasons that most people who approach online marketing for the first time will start their online money making adventure using affiliate marketing as their method of choice. So what is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is nothing more than selling the products or services of somebody else in return for a percentage of the sales proceeds as a commission. It is a little like working as a commission only salesman for a real- world business. Just as would happen in this real-world scenario, if you make no sales, then you do not get paid. Having said that, there are many advantages to selling products as an affiliate for the original creator:
• You do not need to create your own product (!).
• You do not need to carry inventory or worry about delivery.
• You do not need your own merchant account to accept payments.
All you need to do is find a product and promote it successfully, and then cash your ‘paychecks’ when they arrive.
This is not to say, however, that it is only beginners who are trying to make money from affiliate marketing. There are some extremely experienced marketers who focus all of their efforts on affiliate marketing, and are very successful at doing so. These people are regular six-figure income earners and every single cent of their income is derived from affiliate marketing. However, well over 95% of people that start out as affiliate marketers never make a brass nickel, and in the majority of cases, they actually manage to lose money. There is clearly something going wrong for these people.
Some make the mistake of treating the exercise as a hobby, and by doing so almost inevitably consign themselves to being a failure. A hobby is something that you do when the mood takes you, and business is far more demanding than that. If you have your own small business and sell a product to a customer who is not satisfied, you cannot address their complaints when it suits you. It does not matter whether your business operation is run mainly online or offline. In all business the customer is king. In other words, when the customer says 'jump', that is what you have to do.
Of course, marketing online is a business where you can work on a part-time basis and can do so from home. Nevertheless, whether you work one hour or ten hours every day in your online venture, you should still treat your business as a business. In my experience, the biggest reason that most people fail is a lack of focus, iformation and knowledge. The truth is that online business is no different from business as it has been practiced for hundreds of years. The only significant difference is that your 'shop window' is on the internet rather than being a high street store. You still have to find the right customers and supply them with the products that they want or need, and if you can do that, your affiliate marketing business will be a success.
No business is going to make you a millionaire overnight, this I can gaurantee. With the right guidance, information and attitude your online success will reach new heights and take you where you have never been before.
No comments:
Post a Comment