Looking to start an internet
marketing business? This is a great time to do so. Back in 2002, the website pamorama.net reported
that there were 569 million users of the internet, (9%) of the earth's
population, however, just 10 years later there was a whopping 2.27 billion or
33% of the world's population with access to the internet. At that time, the Wall Street Journal reported that online consumers were spending $200 billion
in retail purchases annually on the internet with projections of $327 billion
by 2016. Business Insider reports that in the first quarter of 2014, 198
million or (78%) of the US population 15 and above purchased something on the
internet. Moreover, in October 2013, the Wall Street Journal reported that the digital,
or online marketing industry raked in a cool $67 billion in revenues in
2012.
These figures are not meant to
dazzle your, but rather, they are meant to illustrate the potential revenues to
be made from operating a home business through internet marketing. Often when
people thing of internet marketing they think of the multilevel marketing or
mlms which carry the stigma of rip-off and scams. This is still the case as,
unfortunately, there are many people on the internet who have the mindset that
they want to do anything for a buck to include taking advantage of family,
friends, the uninformed or inexperienced or anyone that they can squeeze a
quick buck out of.
Let me quickly say that those
"get rich quick" marketing scams are not the only option for those
looking to go into business on the internet and in this series of articles,
we'll explore just a few businesses that you can operate and earn a profit with
from the comfort of your own home.
Affiliate Marketing is marketing products or services for a
company or business entity in exchange for a certain percentage of the sale or
an agreed upon service charge. This involves transactions with real companies
with real products or services to be sold. Retail companies like Amazon,
Belk act, will pay a certain percentage to affiliate marketers who place
their banners on their website or newsletter. This is a "passive"
income that the affiliate market builds a trusted clientele base through
providing some service or product which drives traffic to that website or
internet entity. If you have a hobby or a passion that you would like to
promote or share with the world, you can support that passion by connecting
with retailers who will agree to allow there banners placed on your site due to
relevant content. It's important to note that most retailers have connections
with affiliate hubs such as Commission Junction and you will have to establish
an account with such an affiliate entity in order to market through those
vender's affiliate program. Beware, however, because Forbes recently reported that unscrupulous individuals have ripped off the affiliate industry of millions each year, and I'd say that they do it by highjacking banner identification urls.
An alternative to this route is
establishing an affiliate account with a one stop affiliate hub like Wealthy Affiliate. I recommend this affiliate program, particularly for the new or
inexperienced internet marketer, because you can join for free and remain a
free member as long as you desire without incurring a large financial burden.
They offer quality training through their Affiliate Boot Camp. It is free and
included in their basic membership which also includes helping you set up two
free webpages and a complete ten part introduction to affiliate marketing
program.
Try them out for free and I recommend that you check out any number of the scam
reports that can be found on google. They’re not perfect in that there have
been some legitimate complaints in the past, however, they’re also highly critical
of their own efforts and implement their own quality control and scam
prevention efforts to improve the quality of service that they provide their
members who number in the tens of thousands.
Tomorrow we’ll look at Blogging.
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