So, you've finally decided to take that giant leap of faith and start your very own home based internet business and claim your share of all those internet riches you keep hearing about. Only problem is, now that you've finally made your decision, it seems like a pretty daunting task to get your web business setup.. "Information overload" to describe the problem seems like a huge understatement.
Well, if you're really serious about starting your own home based internet business, the next step really doesn't have to be that difficult at all. There are 3 relatively simple ways to start making an online income and one of them is sure to fit your particular idea of what it is you would like to do. So, relax, take a deep breath, and peruse the following list until you find something that strikes the right cord.
This is probably one of the easiest and quickest ways to get started making money online. The internet is full of products that have affiliate programs you can join and many of them pay generous commissions. When you join an affiliate program, you are simply making an agreement with the owner of a product that you will receive a commision in exchange for referring a prospect to that person's product (usually a sales page that you have sent the prospect to via your affiliate link) if that prospect ends up making a purchase.
Start by choosing a product or service that you're interested in and is relevant to your website content and then visit some of the websites which have achieved top rankings for the keywords which describe that topic. Click on the affiliate links and then look over the product website. The "Affiliate Program" links seem to often be listed on the bottom of the page or on the top right of the page.
This will either take you to the management company for the affiliate program or directly to that companies affiliate program.
This approach allows you to target product quickly which tie in to your website content. Another options is to visit one of the many affiliate program directories (you can find them quickly enough in Google) and scan their listings and recommendations until you find something that appeals to you.
If it feels like I have the cart before the horse it is because web content is easy enough to come by. Using any search engine you can find sites like Ezinearticles.com who have web ready content which is free to use. Another option is to purchase complete websites and then use that content with your affiliate progams.
Residual income programs are somewhat similiar to affiliate programs in that you typically get paid for referring a prospect to the program's website if that prospect decides to make a purchase. However, the difference lies in the fact that with these programs you also have the opportunity to earn a monthly recurring income if the prospect you refer becomes a paying member of the residual income opportunity program. For example, I belong to one of these programs myself. If a prospect comes to my website and clicks on a link which takes them to the sales page for the product and they buy, then I get a commission. However, if that prospect also decides to become a member of the residual income opportunity program, then I get a check every month as long as that prospect remains a member of that program.
People tend to be skeptical of these programs and get them confused with pyramid schemes. The way to tell if one of these programs is a pyramid scheme is to simply determine if the company in question offers a real honest to goodness product or service. If so, it cannot be classified as a pyramid scheme and you should be okay. Don't be scared off by the fact that you will most likely have to pay a monthly fee to participate in the residual income opportunity. If you can build a downline for yourself in one of these programs, the monthly fee will be negligible compared to the potential residual income you could earn. Alot of these programs will provide you with your own cookie cutter website, which is okay if you are just getting started. Again, use the pay per clicks to start generating some traffic and then work on getting your own site up so you can start to build your own opt in list.
I bet this one sounds complicated and expensive. No, not really, but it does take some homework. Selling a hard good entails offering a real physical product (like fishing poles, for instance) for sale in your own online retail store. If this idea really appeals to you, go for it. Brainstorm some products you would enjoy selling, then do some keyword research in Wordtracker to develop a targeted niche within that market (deep sea fishing poles?).
After that, you can use a drop ship source directory or the search engines to find manufacturers or distributors who will drop ship the merchandise for you (meaning they ship it directly to the customer and you don't have to carry any inventory). Then go to Ebay or Yahoo and sign up for one of their stores. I know from personal experience that Yahoo has some merchant hosting packages that are great and super easy to use. They'll even provide you with a shopping cart feature and help get you set up with a merchant account (so you can accept credit cards). Plus, you'll get some traffic already built in since millions of people are using their shopping directory to browse for products every day.
As for the website itself, don't worry. Many companies offer hosting services which have site building programs. For an example check out Art Sprague Consultings web hosting options. You will find various site building tools as well as specials on hosting. You won't even need to know html.
Now, as to the infoproduct. By the way, I mean YOUR OWN infoproduct. Everyone on the web and their mother will tell you that this is the best way to make the really big bucks online. Write about something you know and/or love. The topic of internet marketing seems to have been way overdone. Unless, of course, you are a true expert on some niche internet marketing subject, then definitely do it. Just don't do it because everyone else is.
As for the actual writing, you don't even have to do that if you really don't want to. You can check out a site like elance.com and post your project and have writers bid on completing the project for you! Another option is to simply do searches for content writers and find someone to hire. Once you have your e-material you can use a product like PDF995 which creates PDF file. PDF files are the Internet standard for informational downloads. Set up a simple little one sales page website with a link for payment processing, optimize the site for the engines, use the pay per clicks, find some JV partners, and you're in the money!
Don't forget eBay! Many people are cashing regular paychecks using this online auction site. Here are two common questions which you need to ask as you plan your eBay sales.
Question: What can researching eBay before listing a product or launching a store reveal?
Answer: Researching eBay before listing a product or launching a store will answer these three questions that are vital to your eBay success.
You need to know the answer to at least the second two of these questions before you bother to list something on eBay.
Question: How important is it to the success of your eBay business that your products are easy and not too expensive to ship? What else should you know about shipping before starting an eBay business?
Answer: Critically important. Failing this test could mean that your profits are eaten up by delivery and labor costs.
There are really people who have about 10 or 15 of these little mini sites set up selling little reports on niche topics and raking in an average of $2,000 a month from each site. And they're incredibly easy to set up and practically run on autopilot once you do!
Well, there you have it. Just a few relatively simple ways to get you started on the way to raking in YOUR share of the internet gold mine!
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