What is your favorite online business model and why? With more than a dozen years running online businesses, here’s our take…make sure you leave a comment and let us know yours.
When it comes to business models that work online, many people will suggest one or more of the following:
- affiliate marketing?
- CPA or advertising?
- selling services?
- licensing or drop shipping?
While I have tried (and in most cases continue to use the business models listed above), the last 15-years of online marketing (and 20+ years of offline business building) have taught me, without a doubt, that information marketing is the #1 business model.
By information marketing I mean creating and selling information (mostly “how to”) information that helps people reach a desired outcome in their lives (lost weight, successfully raise kids, find that special ‘someone’, start their own business, become more confident, get a better job, improve at their hobby…)
We have created dozens of highly successful information products over the years, have marketed hundreds of others and through our marquee Information Entrepreneur’s Fast-Start program, have helped thousands of others reach their information product business goals.
In that time, there are at least 5 MAJOR reasons why information marketing is our top choice for online business model:
- Evergreen…you develop once and sell for years after. The desires and challenges you target with info products do not go away, your product remains relevant and selling for years after
- Low barrier to entry…when you know how to find hot topics, getting your info product created and launched can be done in a matter of weeks on a very low budget (especially when compared with other business models that take $100,000’s of ramp up)
- Leverage – create your product once and leverage demand for months and years to come AND you can leverage affiliates, partners or others that have strong bonds to your niche market. They do the work, you bring in the cash
- Built-in publicity and credibility. Watch any market leader and see how they use books, courses or info products to help build their credibility, brand and public buzz in the marketplace. It works!
- High profit margin. When you spend a few hundred bucks to put together a product and launch and then sell digital (or even physical) information products your profit margins can range from 60% right up to 90% – which means more money in your pocket faster
Even if you prefer another business model such as advertising, selling services or affiliate marketing, consider that having your own info product in a given niche paves the way to credibility, trust and differentiation which will serve your other business models very well.
Have a question or comment about online business models? Leave a comment.
