The biggest mistake that people who run an online business
make is to rely on only one product or service as their sole
source of income.
Don't get me wrong, if that one product or service is
providing you with all the income you need or desire, then
by all means continue on that path. However, most people who
make their living on the web do so by maintaining several
profitable revenue streams that bring in a steady and
dependable flow of income.
This does not mean that you have to develop several of your
own products and/or services. There are many other ways to
find additional sources of income, some are right under your
nose.
1. Sell advertising space: If you publish an opt-in
newsletter you already have an extremely powerful vehicle
for reaching a target market. If you have 1,000+
subscribers you could begin selling advertising space in
your publication. As soon as those wishing to target the
same market are made aware of your newsletter offers to
purchase ad space will begin to flow in. Some newsletters
with high circulations (over 15,000 subscribers) bring in
anywhere from $1,000-$10,000 a month just from selling ad
space in their ezines.
TIP - In order to make potential advertisers aware of your
newsletter and the advertising packages you offer, you
should make sure your newsletter is listed in the 40 or 50
ezine directories available on the web.
You can also generate a revenue stream by offering banner
advertising space on your website. This is one of the
easiest types of online advertising to sell. You simply
need to install banner ad serving software and provide
advertisers with a way to track their ad campaigns and
measure their effectiveness. If you do not wish to go
through the trouble of setting this up and managing it on
your own, you can use the services of a third party company
such as Doubleclick. They specialize in bringing together
advertisers and websites offering ad space for sale.
2. Joint Venture: Form strategic joint ventures with other
websites or newsletter publishers who offer a non
competitive product or service that your audience would be
interested in. One of the simplest joint ventures, albeit
not the only one, is to participate in other peoples
affiliate programs and make a personal recommendation of
their product/service to your audience and both parties
reap the benefits.
Here are some tips to help you develop the most effective
joint ventures possible:
a. Be very selective in what you recommend to your audience
(i.e. customers, subscribers and website visitors). If your
website is cluttered with banner ads for several different
products or you send out solo mailings endorsing a new
affiliate program to your subscribers every other day, you
decrease your credibility which in turn decreases the
effectiveness of your endorsements. This naturally lessens
your profit potential. Remember, you always want to
maintain the trust you've built up with your audience
especially since it has been proven to be easier to sell to
your existing customers than it is to someone who has never
before had dealings with you.
Therefore, you must always try to be as selective as
possible when forming your joint ventures. Carefully
examine the affiliate programs and other products and
services you endorse to insure that your audience can
definitely benefit from them. Do not think solely of your
bank account. This way your personal recommendations will
carry a lot more weight with the people who trust your
opinion. This is how people really make money with joint
ventures.
b. If you wish to create a joint venture with someone who
does not offer an affiliate program but offers a high
quality product or service, you should not hesitate to
approach them and offer to market their products/services
to your audience in exchange for a share of the profits.
Keep in mind that not everyone will respond to your offer
and the ones who do may not fully understand the concept or
the potential power of joint ventures.
Patience and some time spent educating your prospective
partners will go a long way here. Make them aware that joint
ventures are win/win situations. Many of your joint venture
partners may also be looking for additional revenue streams.
If you own your own products/services you can offer
potential joint venture partners the ability to recommend
them to their audience for a split of the profits. We have
used this joint venture technique to promote our
http://www.goldbar.net/yoap/d.cgi?index-1003 Ultimate
Marketers Resource to a much wider audience than we would
have reached on our own.
3. Consider purchasing reseller or reprint rights for
software or information that your target audience would be
interested in. For example, if you have a website or
newsletter that focuses on stock market information you can
look for software that helps your audience track their
portfolio and analyze stock trends. Try to make a deal with
the software developer to resell his software to your
audience. Many of the developers on the web offer various
reseller programs and opportunities where you can purchase
several copies of their program at wholesale and then resell
them at whatever price you choose.
Reprint rights involves purchasing the rights or ability to
sell someone elses information (ebooks, books, manuals,
website content, etc.) for full profit. However, at no time
do you take credit for creating the material. As long as
you pay the one time fee you can then sell that information
for whatever price you choose to your audience.
This is one vehicle that many folks in the Direct Marketing
business use on a regular basis to generate a very
profitable revenue stream.
4. Consider other non-traditional methods for earning
revenue from your online business. For example, if you
spend quite a bit of time online running your business you
could join a program that pays you to be online.
For example, Alladvantage
http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp'refidLCK128 offers
a free to join service that pays you to place a small
toolbar on your website and receive banner ads while you
are connected to the internet. This will not make you a
millionaire but it will provide you with a real and
consistent flow of money that can be considered an
additional revenue stream.
When you open your eyes to the potential income
opportunities that exist online and you set up several
streams of revenue then you can begin to expect a
constant and predictable flow of income from your online
business.
About the Author
Marc Goldman, Goldbar Enterprises
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