Make Money Online With Very Little Financial Investment

No Money? No Problem
Make money online from home. Read for 4 free different ways you can earn money online.

Affiliate Marketing
The first thing I should say is that if you want a free short introductory course to Affiliate Marketing, get it here.

Amazon is credited with creating the affiliate market and since most people are familiar with Amazon, I will use them as an example to explain the concept.

Amazon has a wide range of goods and services for sale. Even an organisation as big as them would have difficulty marketing everything they sell .

Instead they allow you to market their goods for them.

Lets say your greatest interest in life was bird watching. You could set up a blog about bird watching that other interested people would like to read. You mention various bird watching books throughout the site and each mention contains a link to Amazon.

You are not selling the books. You are getting people so interested in the books that they go and look at Amazon's site. If they click through to the Amazon site from your, like the product and buy, you make commission. This is really a win-win situation.

The seller gets a whole lot of free marketing and pays nothing unless they get a sale.

You get the opportunity to earn money from your hobby/interest.

The person searching on the internet gets to know a lot about the product and why they should be interested in it before they even get to the bookshop.

What are the Pros and Cons?

What are the pros and cons of building an online business rather than an affiliate business or a drop ship business?

Pros
You:

• Can find out if you have the drive to make money online without investing a lot of your capital.
• Can work out where your best market is.
• Sell what you are passionate about. 
•  Manage a business without having to manage staff, premises etc. 
• Earn an extra income by working from home.

Cons

You personally:

• Must do all the research involved
• Decide what products/ services to invest in
• Give up some of your leisure time.   

Who Might Want to Build An Income From Affiliate Marketing?
Anyone who:

• Don't know much about any sort of business but want to learn.
• Just want a bit of extra income.
• Haven't got too much money to splash around. 
• Wants to take a bit more control over their life.
• Has lost their job, savings or investment.

How Does it Work?
Once you have decided what particular area you would like to make money online from (and we will cover look at niches in detail later) there are basically three steps to take:

• Sign Up: Sign up for the programmes or products that most interest you.
• Market: Create a way to market that product – for example a website, a blog, e-mail marketing, forum posting, a Facebook page etc.
• Monetize your Site.  Just as there is more than one way to skin a cat (sorry cats and cat lovers), there is more than one way to earn money from your site. Make sure you have checked them all out and have a strategy that will get the site earning the most money, without putting visitors off.

Affiliate Agencies
There are many 'affiliate agencies' where you can sign up and decide on one product or a range of products you want to become an affiliate for.

The agency provides the link between the vendor of the product and the affiliate (you) and takes care of all the admin. They give you a personalised link for each product you are interested in. You create a way of marketing that product (for example a blog) and put the link on the blog.

Agencies can make life easier because through them you can set up your program, sell as many of their products as possible and have it all laid out for you on one site.

Independent Programmes

Independent Affiliate Programmes are run by many large companies including Amazon who are sometimes credited with creating the affiliate market.

Are There Limits to the Affiliate Business?

If you come across a product or service that you would love to be an affiliate for, but they have no programme, don't worry.

A lot of people who are out there selling things on the net have not even heard of affiliate programmes, but that does not mean you can't become an affiliate for them.

Contact the owner of the business and ask them if they will sign up with an affiliate agency so that you can become an affiliate for them. It takes a few minutes for them and it is a win-win situation.

Research, Research, Research
 Like everything else connected with the internet, please make sure that you do your own research and do it carefully. You will have to hand over a certain amount of sensitive information so a method of payment can be set up, therefore research is vital.

We do not recommend one affiliate programme over another, but I will never mention a programme if I know anything bad about it,

However, if you have decided to go with a programme that has not been mentioned in our materials, we would love you to go to our forum and let others know what you think. Or just go there and join in any conversation that interests you!

 Do I Have to Pay to Join an Affiliate Programme?

Another question that often comes up is in two parts. The first is whether you have to pay to join an affiliate programme. The answer is that you do not with most affiliate programmes. Most of them are free to join. They make their money from a share of the commission when items are sold.

 The second part of the question is, if an affiliate does charge, should you pay to belong to it. My feeling is that you should not. There are so many free programmes available from good organisations that it seems strange that any programmes should be set up where you have to pay to belong to them. Reading some of the descriptions, you might think it worth paying because the returns appear to be so good, but there are two things to keep in mind.

• You still have to do the work to market the product / service – if it sells itself, why do they need affiliates?
• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

At My Business Coach Online we offer information about three other ways of doing business online, and you can read about them on later blogs:

Drop Shipping,          Starting Your Online Business                    Put Your Offline Business Online  

Remember you can get a free introductory short course to affiliate marketing here.

Is This All I Can Do?
If you are not sure which type of online business is for you, it does not matter – you can use them all. Consider some of these examples:

• How about putting your own existing offline business online, and adding a range from a drop shipping warehouse
• You could have a drop shipping site with some links to affiliate goods.
• You could have your own online business with a range of drop shipping goods and a few affiliate items as well
• You could put all four approaches on one site.

 The point about this is that you are here to enjoy yourself and to make money online. You should try different approaches to make sure that you are not missing the thing that would push your site into the stratosphere.

Can Pensions Be Replaced Through Making Money Online?

People Have Lost Their Pensions, Savings and the Value from their Property

The dream of retiring at 60 or 65 has disappeared along with the savings of many because of the financial carcrash they call the recession.  For these people, the vision of the 'golden years' has been wrenched out of foucus and replaced by the nightmare of permanent trolley clearing or shelf stacking.

A survey by the CBI revealed that between 25 and 35% of Directors think the number of people working past the retirment age will increase.  A further survey by CIBT revealed that 71%  of employees 55 or over believe they will have to work long past the retirement age.

This is depressing enough, but to make things worse, many employers are reluctant to keep people on after retirement age.   Older people have the highest salaries and wages, there is a perception that older people can't learn new approaches.  Finally, according to Charles Cotton, CIPD:

"An older workforce poses many challenges for employers in terms of motivation and inclusion."

As a result many face continuing to work into their 70s at jobs they may not have been willing to do before 60 or 65.

Can Making Money on the Internet Come to the Rescue?

In the UK, online sales have increased by nearly 350% between 2004 and 2008. But the number of businesses selling online is only about 17%.

Clearly this is a gap; an opportunity for people to start tiny enterprises selling popular goods and services on their own websites, blogs and from sites such as eBay.

Mining Your Blog

Starting a business online can be easier than starting one on the high street.  The affiliate business for example allows people to promote products other people produce. They do not have to manage stock, premises, staff, cash flow or any of the other nightmares besetting small entrepreneurs.

An affiliate signs up with a seller and gets a special link. The affiliate then promotes the relevant product or services online.

A visitor clicks onto the affiliate's site.  If the visitor likes the sound of the product, they will click the link and go to the seller's site. If they then buy the product, the affiliate is paid commission.  Simple.

Lifestyle of choice

Services as well as products sell well online and their providers are doing very well and often enjoying their new lifestyle.

"I have been working from home for a while as a science editor and writer" Carol Featherstone told Julian Warricker on the You and Yours Show. "I work for clients all over the world".

Not an easy option

I should emphasise that many people who have done it agree that working online is not an easy option.

"But it meant I could live where I wanted" said Featherstone who moved to South West France 10 years ago. "If you have to earn your living, being able to work with something that really interests you and in a place you love takes the sting out".

Learn to earn and earn while you learn

I would not try to say that everyone can earn a living doing this. There is a lot to learn, a lot to do. But I think anyone vaguely determined can create another income stream. I also think that anyone who is really determined can definately earn their living online.

It does not all have to be done in one go. If you are willing to give up some time you could join many people who are working a day job and building a business at night and weekend.

For those willing to have a go there are many ways to earn and many ways to learn the necessary skills.

Use your search engine and you will find plenty of free stuff to help you.  If you want to stay local, take a look at our website for information about affiliate businesses as well as a lot of other information about starting your own business, and if you like download the free 5 part course on starting an affiliate business.

Invisible online

One of the key advantages of working online is that no-one knows who you are. Grannies can set up sites selling leathers for bikers, call themselves Clyde – and no-one will know the difference.

Cash in the Attic look out, here comes cash in the computer.