Home Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Online Income’

When operating a home based business online there are basically there are two types:

• Affiliate Marketing
• Network Marketing

The first, affiliate marketing, provides an income for thousands of people all over the world. Affiliate marketing can best be described as a retailer. Like all retailers you will get paid a commission for selling other people’s products.

One of the easiest and most popular ways to make money online is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing can be done without owning your own website. You don’t physically hold the goods or exchange payments or inquiries about any of the products. All any affiliate marketer does is promote the products, the rest is handled automatically at the wholesaler and you get paid commission at a set rate (70% is not uncommon) according to the product.

One of the top Internet marketing affiliates is Rosalind Gardner.  Her book, The Super Affiliate Handbook has everything you will need to know about making money online as an affiliate marketer.  A former air traffic controller, Rosalind Gardner now earns well over $400,000 a year as a “super-affiliate” by doing nothing more than selling other peoples products online.

Network marketing on the other hand is a business in which a group of distributors is used to build and expand the business. An excellent example of this would be Amway.  You not only make money on your sales but also on the sales of your team of distributors, or downline. Another name for Network Marketing is multi level marketing or MLM a system in which you can get paid on sales made by your team several levels deep in your downline. Multi level marketing is a completely legitimate business representation and should not be confused with pyramid marketing (which is illegal) where only the person at the top (usually the program owner) makes money.

Network marketing is a great way to build a significant income in a very short period of time. Choosing the right program and with a little effort anyone can make money easily and quickly with network marketing. In addition to making money fast, network marketing is a system that enables you to use time as a leverage to build a business that will pay you residual income for years to come.

The fastest and easiest way to make money today is through network marketing. With the advent of the Internet it is now possible to build a worldwide business very quickly, no matter where in the world you reside. The top network marketing company is SFI where network marketing is combined with affiliate marketing.

The easiest way of setting up a home based business that will earn multiple streams of income is to start your home based business by following an established model.

If you have worked at home for a while and have had success in the past but now seem to be floundering on the brink of frustration, then it is most likely something you are doing differently.  I know this seems like a simplistic concept, but true nonetheless.

I have been working online for over six years, largely with SFI and as an affiliate marketer for various companies.  About 4 years ago I developed my own website to market these products.   For the first two years I was very successful in earnings.  I knew I had found the key to unlock the online marketing phenomenon.  What happened then was something honest experienced Internet marketers will tell you is common.  The bottom fell out for no apparent reason.  Thankfully this is not my only source of income, but if it was I would be in dire straits.

Like any inexperienced marketer the first thing I did was blame the programs that I was promoting.  So I started reaching for programs that were “working” for others in the hopes they would bring some income in for me.  I crashed and burned in this approach.

Last fall a light bulb went off over my head and I asked myself some questions:

• 1. Why did I still want to work online when I wasn’t making any money?
• 2. Are the programs I am promoting attractive to the online marketplace?
• 3. I made money before, why not now?
• 4. What am I doing different now as opposed to three years ago?

These questions are important to think about if you are having the same problems, because the cause of your loss of income is in those questions.

1. Why did I still want to work online when I wasn’t making any money?

The answer is an obvious one for me…I like it.  I am retired, I have the time, I like the challenge of online marketing, I like meeting new people.

2. Are the programs I am promoting attractive to the online marketplace?

This one might take a little soul searching and self-analysis.  Why are you promoting them?  Would you purchase them?  Are they attractive to you as a consumer, forget the income side of the equation for now, think like a consumer.   Are these programs making any money for you?   How long have you been promoting them?  I figure if it is a program that I have promoted for 60 days and I have made no money from it, then I change it out, and put it on the backburner to be promoted at a later date, or eliminate altogether.

3. I made money before, why not now?

Something changed obviously.  But what was it?  We have already determined that the programs might be the cause, but what about how you market?  What has changed there, something must have to account for a loss of income.   Are you spending more than you are making on advertising?  That was a big one for me.   Are you marketing to those who would have an interest in your product?  Do you know enough about your product to promote it efficiently?  No one can tell you what the answer is but yourself.

4. What am I doing different now as opposed to three years ago?

It is time for self-reflection.  Go back (hopefully you kept records) and see where you advertised before, what the outcome was of this advertising.  What did you market and to whom?  All the little things you did before, are you still doing them?  Or have you become so “experienced” that you feel you have evolved into a “guru”?

I did all of the above and found in the past year and a half, I had started to fall into the familiar trap of hype programs that really had no substance.   I had changed my advertising from all free advertising to all paid advertising.   I stopped advertising my residual income programs and started promoting only the fly by night programs that have no proven track record.   I ignored the advice of my mentors and friends who offered advice.   I had become another statistic of online marketing.  I was no longer happy with what I was promoting.

For me being honest and happy in a business is paramount to success.  I have worked at “JOBS” that are not as rewarding as working from home.  Being my own boss is wonderful!  So when the profits started to fall I had no one to blame but myself; and there was no one to fix the problem but myself!

Starting January 1, 2010 it was back to basics with my home business.  I am happy to report a profit for the first time in six months.   This is due to no advertising costs, a more streamlined website with more affordable work at home ideas, and most important an emphasis on residual income in the form of Strong Future International and the development of a down line who is active and as excited as I am to be working online.

It is the start of a new year and new beginnings. Money is very tight in todays economy, which is no secret; but are you going to let it get you down or do something about the fact that the dollar doesn’t stretch as far as it did 10 years ago. Remember nothing stays the same forever.

So what are you doing to improve your lifestyle through these hard times? There are a variety of reasons why some of us chose to work at home. Some of us have small children, and if you add the cost of childcare, another vehicle (believe it or not you can get by with one), gas, extra wardrobe etc…is it worth your time to work outside the home? Will you be any further ahead financially, or will you put yourself in a bigger hole than you now are?

These are questions I had to answer not long ago. Although I have no small children at home, I had the problem of deciding whether going to work to supplement my husbands retirement income was worth the cost. Shortly after he retired we found that years of savings, retirement plans would not cover living expenses for the remainder of our lives. I did try and work outside the home but soon found that I was spending more than I was bringing home. So what was the point?

When a friend mentioned working online and building my own Internet business. I figured why not? I was working anyway and not liking it, so why not work for myself. I wasn’t really sure I could make a decent income, but I was willing to try. About the time I made the decision I was laid off due to downsizing. So it was a perfect time for me to try something new and challenging.

So during one of my endless searches for a work at home business, I came across a work at home directory. Not knowing what to expect, or having my expectations very low, I was surprised at the number of legitimate work at home offers there were. Now my only problem was deciding which offer was a good fit for me.

What is a home business directory? If you were looking at the employment section of any newspaper you are looking at a job directory. A home business directory is much the same only online. A good directory will offer a wide variety of different work at home positions. The hardest part for the consumer is trying to decide which home business suits their needs. That is why so many people start with one of the offers, and come back and sign up for other offers. Many of your most successful online entrepreneurs work with more than one company. The owner of the directory you are looking at would be one such person.

A work at home directory is the middleman of the Internet. The owner of the site finds the offers, test them to make sure they are not scams, offers them on his website, advertises them, and then earns a commission for each “sale.” Once you decide which work at home opportunity you will start with, decide if you want to be the middleman or the consumer. If it is a middleman, spend no money! A middleman is an affiliate! If you are the consumer, then be sure what you are paying for. If it is training and supplies, then you are paying for someone else’s expertise. Above all make sure whatever money you spend comes with money back guarantee!

There are several ways to make good money online. It doesn’t have to be a work at home directory. Pick one good company where there is training, support, and above all something that you are interested in. I have found that most people fail at their home business endeavors because after a short period of time they lose interest. So pick something that you have an interest in such as health care, crafting, cooking, childcare, eBay, whatever it is, take your interest and start a business today!

Work At Home Directory

As impossible as it may sound and as against everything you may have heard, there are many people who are earning $3000-$5000 a month working at home doing online data entry.  The difficult part comes when you try to find a legitimate program that will be a continued source of income.

In the last decade work at home data entry programs have become immensely popular.  So much so that it has become increasingly difficult to find a legitimate program that will provide a continued source of online income

As an affiliate marketer I have a problem recommending data entry programs as a whole due to the fact that their popularity causes a ripple effect of new programs being launched with regularity, only to fade or disappear completely without any advanced notice, leaving customers in the middle of trying to get paid.

It is my belief that the disappearance of these programs is not always caused by the unscrupulous entrepreneurs, but rather the popularity of the programs themselves. Either the programs founders make a “quick buck” and retire, or they find they are overwhelmed by how fast their business grows and are unable to handle the volume, losing complete control.

The penchant of these programs to disappear without any advanced warning makes me unwilling to review or recommend any new data entry programs.  The programs featured on this page: Adwords Miracle, Web Colleagues, My-Data-Team, have been active online for some time creating a stable program  as compared to some others of the same type.

Adwords Miracle and My-Data-Team focus is data entry work online; while Web Colleagues are for those individuals who are more interested in earning money through typing online articles for websites and blogs.   Web Colleagues is a good place to start if you are looking to use your typing skills and creative writing talent for a home based business.