When you think about starting online business, more than 3/4 of people start by marketing other people’s products through an affiliate program according to my own experience and surveys.
That means you are very likely to start your own business by building a website where you drive traffic to a link that tracks your referrals and pays you between 25%-50% for each sale you make of the referred product or service.
Ok, that’s not a bad way to start an internet business…you get the feel of what it’s like setting up a website, generating some initial traffic and learn how payment systems and affiliate programs work, this is all very valuable stuff.
THE "GAMBLING" MENTALITY
The challenge begins almost immediately though as you set out to start a business.
You must decide which product to promote and to whom – after all, starting up a business means that you need to sell a product or service to customers right?
Do you market a weight loss product? A Forex trading product? A make money online product? How about a personal development or health-related product?
So, you do a little research, perhaps talk to a few people, latch onto a guru or two and decide to jump in feet-first to one of these niches hoping to make some quick money online.
You may get lucky and begin earning some commissions days after starting online business, while others may suffer through months of trial and error before making their first commissions in their small business startup.
What WILL be TRUE in ALL cases though…your chances of making BIG money using this approach are slim to none.
BUILDING A BUSINESS
To avoid the "lottery" mentality – a better question to ask is to start a web business "What business do I want to be in?"
To ask that question, you are really asking…
"Who do I want to serve? What type of people do I want to help by adding value to the marketplace?"
"What market do I see myself dominating in 1-2 years timeframe?"
If you want a few hundred bucks a month, you can do that with pretty near any market you choose – but if you want to build a big business, then you want to start a web business that will grow in value over time.
Our entire 45-Day Information Product Profits Course is based on a highly effective system for matching your strengths and interests with viable opportunties in the marketplace, then quickly launhching "pilot" sites that will very quickly tell you where the demand is located within these markets allowing you to put your entire effort into rapidly building a high-profit, fast-growth online business that will continue to make more money and profit over time.
Think of it this way…as part of your affiliate marketing effort you will be generating content, building a list, driving lots of traffic to a site (with the purpose of having them come back more than once).
You will be building a reputation and piece of online real estate – you may as well commit to building a real estate equity with strong resale value rather than just aiming to make a couple hundred bucks a month when you start your new business.
It’s best to start an online business with a strong sense of purpose, begin with an end-goal in mind. That way, as you progress, learning along the way, you have set sail for an end destination that you can always measure your progress against.
If you use this approach, you WILL achieve that end result with some persistance and dedication – but without the end-goal in mind, you most certainly will not.