There are three key ways internet marketers run their businesses. The most popular is to create a virtual store through which you sell your own products or services. There are also internet businesses that capitalize on their high traffic by selling advertising space. And the last one involves joining an affiliate program to make money.
Each method has its positives and negatives. The purpose of this article is not to pick one method to make money over another. All three are proven methods for making money via the internet.
Certainly there are methods other than these three key ways to make money online, but these are the most popular. I want to talk with you about some other ways to capitalize on your online business.
While you can make a living being an internet marketer through any of these ways you CAN make more. You already have a website(s) and a shopping cart through which to collect money so why not make your business work for YOU! You don’t need to start a new business, you simply can use what you already have to make you even MORE money. Every financial planner will tell you that diversifying the ways you generate income is a smart money move.
The most obvious way to make more money from your existing business is to recognize which one of the three methods you currently employ to run your business. Then add one or both of the other methods to your business. If you sell products/services via on online store then sell advertising space as well. If you sell advertising space also sell your own products/services or join an affiliate program. And vice versa.
You should also consider webinars. Webinars are live video streams that customers can watch and interact with you through. I know what you are going to say…”Mark, I don’t know how to put together a webinar!” If you have a digital camcorder you can create a webinar. There are loads of companies out there that will help you put this type of product together. I like webinars because they don’t cost a lot to put together and do. Webinars can consist of just you talking. You can even throw in some graphics like power point or writing on a dry erase board to make the lecture more interesting. All of this costs little to nothing to do.
Webinars are also great because you get to interact with your core audience. This interaction greatly improves the perceived value by your customers. The opportunity for customers to get their questions answered by an expert greatly improves their overall satisfaction with you and your business. Thus resulting in a great low cost product to sell that yields great return on investment.
If you have a flair for the written word or believe you can explain things in ways most people understand then consider starting a blog. Blogs are online diaries that can be used as promotional tools. You can write about anything you want. You can write how-to’s on subjects your familiar with, introduce people to tools that you have personally used, endorse products and or services, and you can use it to advertise your own skills and knowledge.
Blogs are great because you can set one up for free. And even the paid ones don’t cost more than a few bucks each month. Since they cost so little to start up and maintain the return on investment is very high! To make money from your blog sell advertising space, join affiliate programs and sell products/services directly!
You can sign up for Google Adsense or sell advertising space on your blog directly. For example if you write a blog post about the joys of boating Google Adsense will puts ads relating to boating. If a reader clicks on the ad or buys something via that ad you get a cut of the money. What can be more hands off than that!
To make money from an affiliate program via your blog is just as easy. For example if you write an article about landscaping your front yard and include a link to a company that sells landscaping equipment or services. If you are a member of the landscaping company’s affiliate program you will get paid for referring any customer that makes a purchase from them. It’s that simple!
Blogs are also a great way to indirectly increase sales. If you write blogs detailing your knowledge on particular subjects and explain the services you offer in connection with that subject you may notice an uptick in business coming your way! Blogs can be used to self-promote which will ultimately result in more business and more income.
Another great way to maximize profits from your online business is to sell yourself! I mentioned that if you explain in your blog what services you can provide you can make more money. It’s true! Sell your time. Write an email to only your best customers (the ones that spend the most money with you) and offer them a chance for you to mentor or coach them. Since you are selling your time there is no maintenance or large startup costs associated with this. Plus it’s so easy to do! You simply devote a set amount of time each week or month to a client and give them advice based on your knowledge. If you sell beautiful figurines via an online store offer your best clients an opportunity to chat with you about how to find antiques in general or how to clean and store their figurines. Remember you are an expert in your field and people want to pay you to learn what you know!
The most important thing I want you to take away from this letter is that there are always more things you can be doing to build income from your existing online business. Everything I have detailed uses the tools you already own; your online business and website. The only extra ingredient is a bit of your time!
Until Nextime,
Ethan Warrick
