When I decided to quit my job and start an internet business, I was clueless. I researched and found several viable opportunities however
more I read, more I realized how difficult this was going to be. I did not have a product and was in no position to create one. I had it in my head I wanted to sell something so I started out in drop shipping business. I researched wholesalers that were willing to drop ship and found a few. I built a simple yahoo! site, created a merchant account, got my resellers license and voila, I was in business. Did I get a sale? Nope, because I did not know how internet worked with regards to website marketing. No one could find my site and I was a marketing failure.
Because my site didn’t sell anything, I gave up and continued on research path. I slowly learned about how to market my site but wasn’t sure I wanted to stick with drop shipping. My site costs combined with credit card merchant costs and plain old competition didn’t really leave me with much profit. I realized I still had much to learn.
I went back to research drawing board and joined a few forums to learn what else I might be able to do. At that time I learned about affiliate programs. I met people I trusted and admired who promoted affiliate programs. I asked a lot of questions and began my research. Affiliate marketing appealed to me. I didn’t need a merchant account, I didn’t need inventory, I didn’t need my own product and I could even get away without a website. Wow, how good is that? So off I went.
As I began to research I found best selling products were informational products and best commissions were internet marketing products. Because I was familiar with setting up a website previously I decided to set up another site to list of all my affiliate sales products. I fell into trap that most new web business owners fall into. Setting up a ‘How to Market on internet site’. I liked it because I was familiar with it and I had purchased some of products through my research. So why not? Well, simply put there is too much competition in that category. I still have my site today but my sales are minimal. I offer only products that I trust and many of them I use but it’s not a business path I’d recommend to someone starting out, particularly because many beginners tend to gravitate there. There are lots of other things that have good marketing potential. Affiliate marketing can be successfully applied to almost any product on net.
If researched carefully and applied correctly, affiliate sales can be a very profitable internet business. The object is to find something you can sell and promote for merchants that will offer you a commission to sell it. You don’t have to carry inventory, collect money, worry about delivery or even have a website (although a website is a good idea), but you’re going to have to think about what products best suit you with regard to sales. I feel it’s best to sell things that you like. Things you’re interested in or have a fetish about. For instance, let’s say you love crystal. If you love it then you probably know something about it, but more importantly you will enjoy researching it and offering it to someone else.
