Selling someone else’s product is one of the easiest ways to start a business online for several reasons:
1. You don’t have to buy a product to sell
2. You don’t have to create a product to sell
3. You don’t have to deal with customer support
You will need your own website of course, using a blog service like Blogger.com really isn’t an option I’m afraid. You need your own website so you can brand yourself.
You also have to learn how to drive visitors to your site using various traffic tactics. When starting out, I certainly would NOT recommend trying Google Adwords, as many inexperienced people LOSE money doing this. FREE ORGANIC TRAFFIC is the best traffic you can have, very much like word-of-mouth advertising.
You’ll also need to learn how to use an autoresponder server like GetResponse. Without a service like this, there’s no way that you can possibly keep up with all of your potential customers. Also, with an autoresponder, you can effortlessly email hundreds (or thousands) of people once a week with your message or perhaps your weekly newsletter (with your hoplinks and affiliate links in it!).
Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the role of affiliate marketers. They are basically well-paid commission-only sales people for some of the best products available. You can develop your own loyal following and present products to them now and again. Don’t do it too often or they’ll think that the relationship is one-sided. You need to offer a LOT in return for their continued support.
Clickbank and PayDot.com are two companies that simply wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the enormous and ever-growing army of affiliate salespeople. Companies like these make it easy for affiliate-marketers to locate products that they would otherwise have great difficulty in finding.
Clickbank, Commission Junction and others have made it even easier to make money online but this is a double-edged sword (excuse the cliche), because it means that there are MORE people learning how to make money on the internet than ever before.
And learning IS THE KEY to your success. You need to better one step ahead of your competition (other marketers in your chosen niche-area) all the time. One of the best tutorials I’ve ever seen is Affiliate Millions. Michael does an excellent job of teaching the techniques that make the difference between success and failure. Don’t learn the hard way like I did.
You also need to learn about the niche that you’ve chosen, and the best place to do this is to visit three or four of the highest ranked forums for that topic. They’re easy to find, just use a search-engine and type the words that best describe your niche-area and then look for the word ‘forum’.
If you want to learn how to become an affiliate marketer in less time than most, then I highly recommend the Affiliate Millions program.
Luke
