You want to make money online, maybe even a full time income. The guru’s tell you that you can do it too. However, they don’t always tell you how they do it. This article will give you a glimpse into the five business models that these guru’s use to make money online. Many guru’s actually use several of these business models at the same time. They generally start in one area and after some success they expand into other areas.These are the basic business models that generally achieve a good deal of success online. They include:
* Information marketing
* Membership marketing
* Service provider
* Service provider
* Affiliate marketing
Let’s look at little closer at these business models:
* Information marketing is simply selling information products online, generally about a specialty topic. A lot of information marketing covers Internet marketing itself, but you can sell information products in just about any niche you choose. The key to this model is to create numerous information products to sell to your customers.
Most websites will offer you a free report. This report is valuable and contains good information but it doesn’t pain the whole picture. It’s just a taste of what’s to come. Later, the marketer offers a bigger product for a price. If the customer enjoys the free product they will generally buy other products from the same marketer. This is why you add value to all of your content and make people want to follow you and buy from you.
* Membership marketing consists of creating a membership site that people pay to become a part of. Inside the members area they can get lots of valuable information. Many marketers choose this model after they’ve had success with information marketing, but some start the membership site as a stand alone product. If a person is very knowledgeable in a specific area, the membership model is a great idea.
Some membership sites offer a one time fee while others charge on a monthly basis. If you add new content to a membership site on a regular basis then the monthly fee based model is your best choice.
* Service provider – This business model generates income by providing a service. It can be web design, wordpress setup, life coaching, a writing service, a virtual assistant business. This business model is great if you enjoy doing basically the same thing all the time. People will always need others to assist them. Marketers use these types of services all the time, especially after they’ve become successful. They may have built their initial business all on their own, due to financial constraints, but once they start making money they generally outsource most of the work involved so they can concentrate on promotions.
* Retailer or ecommerce is a business model where products are sold online. Ebay and Amazon Resellers are good examples of this. But there’s also places like Cafe Press that’s great for artists. If you have creative talent you can upload your artwork to Cafe Press and have the designs put on tee shirts, coffee mugs, clocks–all kinds of products–for people to purchase. Cafe Press gets a percentage of your sales, but it’s great because you don’t have to keep inventory, do the shipping or buy a bunch of bulk products to put designs on.
* Affiliate marketing is promoting the products or services of others and earning a commission from the sales. This is one of the most used business models on the Internet. In fact, the majority of marketers actually use this themselves. If they find a great product that their target market might find useful they will promote it and make some money by doing so.
Let’s say Marketer A covers traffic generation for his niche. That’s what he’s good at so he creates products that cover getting traffic to a website.
Marketer B has a great product on list building.
Since both of their customers can benefit from the other’s product and both have affiliate programs set up, they can promote each other’s product and make extra money.
If you with either the information product model or the service provider model you should set up your own affiliate program so other people can promote your products and services. You will earn less money per sale, but by having many people promoting your product/service you will actually make more sales.
These are the five best models for making money online. They require a lot of work, especially in the beginning. But if you want to build something that works over the long haul to make money online, these are things you could consider.
Remember, there is no “push button success” model and there is no “get rich quick” model out there. If you want to build an online business, you have to do it just like a brick and mortar business–from the ground up.