Mystified or confused by the different methods available to you to make money online with your own online business?
You aren’t alone, there are so many programs, courses and sources of advice that it can seem overwhelming just to get a handle on the types of businesses that you can use to reach your goals of starting and growing your own internet-based business online.
The good news is that it’s simpler than it seems – there are 5 basic types of online business models that make up 99% of the sales and profit – and each is open to you once you figure out which appeals to you the most.
Basic business models are:
1. Digital Products/Courses/Training
The first category is a Multi-Billion Dollar market for instructional products aimed at providing systems and information toward the desire to transform lives (health, dating/relationships, financial, self-help, family/parenting, etc…)
Not only is this category made up of the traditional book and ebook segments, but also include video training programs, membership sites, seminars/webinars, coaching programs – any method which allows the delivery of information and training is highly sought after and within reach of anyone who has knowledge or advice to give OR has the passion and interest to research a market and deliver the resulting findings toward their niche market.
Many top online entrepreneurs enter this market as an affiliate, meaning they begin by referring their audience to books on Amazon, Clickbank or courses from Udemy or Teachable where they earn a commission on each sale. While this is a great way to learn the ropes and test potential niche markets, you eventually want to have your own products so you can earn more and brand yourself a top expert in your field.
One of the leading FREE Training systems top digital product entrepreneurs use to start this type of business online is located here…a highly proven system for knowing how to identify high-demand markets, topics and launch your first digital product successfully.
2. Physical products/E-Commerce
I call this marketing “stuff” – everything from supplements to electronics, from entertainment packages to credit cards…obviously a VERY wide spectrum here. Typically you start with a niche category (kitchen supplies, health supplements, yoga products, etc…) and then specialize in sub-niche within those categories…again ideally you work toward either manufacturing your own goods or at least sourcing from overseas versus simply being an affiliate – but starting as an affiliate is a good way to test a given market
There are even resell or “arbitrage” models that would fall into this category as well – slightly different wrinkle in that (as with ANY type of arbitrage), you buy used/second-hand and resell at a profit. I have a good friend that does this with kids stuffed animals – buys them from liquidation and resells on Ebay
3. Software/Application Development
Entirely different game where you want to create a software application to serve a utility – test and build a small company around your app(s). The key to this market is knowing your target market and understanding how to test early prototypes and concepts with your market BEFORE spending considerable time and money to have your software products developed.
4. Services-Based Online Business
Type of business where you apply expertise in outsource capacity and can turn that eventually into an agency (Ex WordPress customization & maintence, copywriting, graphic design, etc…). While service businesses offer a quick entry into making money online, they can be challenging to scale and eventually can be augmented by automating some of your processes turning them into evergreen digital products or software opportunities which can augment your “time-for-money” service effort.
5. Licensing Deals & Advertising
This is a broad category covering deals struck by leading influencers (bloggers, instagram, youtube, facebook, etc…) where you can work with major brands to promote them or even customize a line of products for you (Ex Gary Vaynerchuck with shoes, many others do this with tshirts or other merch)
That pretty much covers the options for monetizing & business models – of course how you identify and build products, generate traffic and achieve conversion from traffic to sales are other sets of variables – but they pretty much lead back to one of these 5 methods for generating revenue/profit.
Do one of these appeal more to you than the others? Leave us a comment and let us know which way you are leaning.
