You decide that you want to quit your job, leave the 9 to 5 world and start a business. And you decide it will take place on the internet. Now what?
The truth of the matter is that there’s only one way to make money online: you have to sell. There are different paths you can take to make sales, but selling is the name of the game.
Many people are terrified by the prospect of having to sell, but there’s no way around it: unless you sell something, you won’t make money. In fact, even as an employee you are selling! Only in this case you sell your working hours. That’s the worst way to sell because there are so many hours in the day so there’s a cap to how much you can make.
So what are you going to sell? Basically 3 things:
1 – Your skills
The first way is the most straight forward: you sell a service to others, as a freelancer. The most common services are writing, programming, graphics design and virtual assistant. Obviously that’s not the best way, since you will still be trading dollars for hours. Only that trading will take place in the comfort of your home.
If you are really passionate about your area of expertise, you might settle for a freelancer career, which is fine. It sure beats having a boss and punching the clock, no doubt about that!
It’s also the best choice if you are in need of some fast cash.
But if you want to build a real business with the potential to scale and grow, you will need to sell products.
2 – Other people’s products
The second way is to recommend products and services. This is the most common way of making money online: affiliate marketing. It’s quite simple, but not so easy as it looks. You need to drive traffic to product offers. It can be either paid or free traffic. Paid traffic will get fast results but you need a budget. Free traffic is, well, free, but you must do SEO work and it will take a lot more time.
If you have a list of subscribers, you can promote these products to your list. That’s the ideal way, but it’s not viable if you are a beginner without a sizable list. That’s why you must build the list from day one.
3 – Your own products
The third way is create your own product. This is the most costly and difficult one. It’s also where most of the money is. Many marketers will try product creation only after they achieve success as affiliates. By that time, their email list is of a decent size and they have already established their name and brand.
What should you sell?
I’d say number 2. Other people’s products are already created, you don’t have to worry about customer support, etc. Just worry about creating content and driving traffic. If done correctly, it becomes a source of passive income, which is the ultimate goal of an internet marketer. Then, it’s just a matter of scaling it.
Next, I will be publishing my strategies for making money online as an affiliate.
