Your Own Online Business
The most common question I am asked, is how can I make money from the internet?
Introduction
Well if you are lucky enough to come up with the next killer web application you probably don't need any help. Unfortunately for most of us, that is not going to be a realistic goal.
Most successful online business's are based around affiliate marketing. Put simply, an affiliate program is one in which another company allows you to sell products or services on their behalf. You are essentially a salesperson.
I can hear the gasp already. A SALESPERSON!!! Don't worry, you won't have to knock on doors or make phone calls, or bother your family and friends....of course you can (and to be honest, you should), but there are other ways.
The Website
You are going to need a website, while it is possible to promote affiliate programs online without one, success will very difficult to achieve.
Creating a website is actually not difficult. While making one like BBBcubed will take quite a bit of knowledge or money, simple, functional websites can be easy to get up and running. IPage is a webhost which provides many free tools (though having your site hosted is not free) including a simple site builder program, so in one swoop you can register your domain, take care of your site hosting and build your website. You could also just start a simple blogging site. Check out blogger.com it is completely free.
Of course knowing how to build your website is one thing, but what to put in it, is entirely something else. For people to see your site it is going to have to be interesting and relevant, and even more importantly it will need to show up in search engines. I am not even going to attempt to explain how to go about that here, instead I am going to take the easy road and refer you to someone much more knowledgable when it comes to search engine optimisation and keyword ranking! (Don't worry if you have not got a clue as to what I am talking about, read SEO 101 and it will make sense, hopefully!)
Now What?
Ok, so you have your site built, you have optimised it for search engines and launched it...well done. But now you need to monetise your site and start promoting those affiliate programs. So which ones to choose, I hear you ask.
PTC - Not really an affiliate program, but an effective way to make money from your site. PTC means pay to click. In other words, for every click of the advert on your site you will earn money.
The most common is Google's adsense program. However it is not for everyone, especially if you are promoting other highly competitive programs (you may be advertising other affiliate marketers on your site) or if you are using traffic exchanges (more about them later).
BidVertiser is an alternative advertising method; of course there are dozens more, but for now I would suggest concentrating on the most popular.
AFFILIATES - A simple google search of the word affiliate will turn up hundreds, if not thousands of different affiliate programs, and it can become overwhelming when it comes to deciding what to pick.
My advice is to sign up to LinkShare or LinkShare UK. Rather than an affiliate program, LinkShare or LinkShare UK is a marketplace for affiliates to sell their products. It is easy to navigate, lets you compare different programs and has great reporting features. By using Linkshare, you can try different programs until you find the right one that works for you. Alternatives to Linkshare are Click2Sell or Clickbank both of which have an excellent selection of programs
to choose from.
CPA - As an alternative, or even to complement your affiliate programs, you could use Max Bounty. Max Bounty is a CPA (cost per action) marketer who offer publishers (you) the chance to place specific banners or links on your site which will earn you revenue if the person clicking signs up to the offer. They do not accept everyone, so your site needs to be proffessional and well made, they are also extremely strict when it comes to following their TOS (terms of service) so make sure you read them thoroughly.
No Site?
Okay, so you don't have, want or are too lazy to create your own website. Never fear, there are ways around it.
Zlio will let you create your own online store, selling anything from musical instruments to shoes. They take care of your site, you just choose the products to put in it.
SFI, the home of tripleclicks is a one stop affiliate program which will help you create not only your own store, but help you build up your own list of affiliates. They have a great training program, great resources and best of all it is completely free to join and get started.
Promotion
Once you have built your website the hard part starts. Getting people to your site is an art all in itself. Following the SEO tips from SEO 101 is a start, and eventually your site will start showing up in search engines, but don't expect that to happen overnight, it can take many months to achieve that goal.
You could of course spend a small fortune on advertising, but in this case I will assume that you are wanting to make money and not spend it.
Make sure you submit your website to as many web directories. Start with ours and then visit onewaytextlink for a list of thousands of others. Some require payment, some require you to place a link back to the directory you are submitting to (called a reciprocal link), but there are just as many more that are completely free. The downside with the free directories is that it can take time to get listed. Alternatively, there are hundreds of online classifed advertising sites, you can advertise in forums etc.
Another free method is the use of traffic exchanges. Traffic exchanges are just that, you view other peoples websites and in return they view yours. The more sites you view the more you are seen. These are great if you time on your hands, though the reality is the conversion rates are low. Try Easyhits4u to start with, it's one of the more popular exchanges and very rarely has less than 1000 members online at a time. Personally we aren't a fan of traffic exchanges, since most of the traffic you will receive is not targetted and will not stay on your site long. Using traffic exchanges also risks breaching many affiliates TOS; check first!
Finally
Do not expect to get rich quick from your online business. There are 100's of people out there who will tell you can, but the reality is most people give up after a few weeks when they realise it isn't the easy money type of business. You will need to be dedicated and put at least two to four hours per day (more preferably) into promoting your business. If you do, I can confidently assure you, that within 12 months you will be making $500+ per month.