Internet Marketing & Traffic Generation

Amongst all the hoo-haa and hype on the Internet these days, not many people can see that all the ideas and tactics you can find are pretty much useless if you don’t really understand your business model. In other words, even the most amazing Internet marketing strategy wont work if you don’t fully understand how to apply it to YOUR business.

The most popular types of business model are:

1) Affiliate Marketing

This is maybe the most popular one out there, as there are absolutely no restrictions to entry. Pretty much anyone can sign-up for an affiliate program for free and begin promoting the product or service on the Internet with the hope that someone will buy, and start giving them instant commissions. Affiliate marketers don’t carry very much risk, since they do not pay out for the creation of the product, they do not have to worry about customer service and they do not have to make any up-front investments.

When you think that those are the top three things people starting in business want to avoid, it’s no surprise that pretty much everyone and their dog promotes one affiliate program or another. In fact, if there is a main reason that the Internet today is so inundated with ads and banners, it’s because of affiliate marketing.

But whilst there are so many affiliate marketers out there, only around 5% ever make some money and only 1% make big bucks. The “Super Affiliates” do things very differently from all the other millions; and that’s what earns them the big checks.

2) Information & E-book Publishing

Sitting at the other end of the scale, e-book authors tend to be more disciplined in their approach to Internet marketing. Of course, they must also invest more than affiliates do. While affiliates can attempt to “get something for nothing” the same does not apply for the e-book type of business.

If you’re comtemplating publishing and marketing your own e-book online, and you reckon it’s going to be easy, think again. You will need to figure out a lot more than affiliates need to. You’ll need to splash out some money getting your business started. However, when you do it correctly, the payoff in this online business model is generally much more rewarding.

The reason why e-book marketers make more money is straight-forward; they have extremely low production and maintenance costs. Anything that is digital is amazingly cheap to be produced in millions if needed. Whatever initial start-up costs spent can be recouped by selling just a small number of copies of high-margin e-books, and you can still recruit an army of affiliates who are prepared to do all the selling for you.

Of course, it’s not as simple as it sounds, but the point is, when done in the right way with the right approach, the “E-book Publishing” model is a very profitable business.

3) Internet Based Network Marketing

I’ve heard a lot of people say that the Internet and network marketing are a match made in heaven. In reality, though, almost 90% of people don’t get it right when it comes to Internet based network marketing. People in this field usually think they’re talking about network marketing, but in actual fact they are talking about affiliate marketing.

They try to get the Internet to do all the work. They hide in their rooms, behind their computers and make believe everything’s going great. They concentrate on selling more and more each month. They have systems that are so complicated only they can understand it. Well, that doesn’t sound like network marketing to me!

Internet based network marketing is straight forward if you understand it, and are prepared to put in the effort. The role of the Internet here is just to get you the names and contact details of people you can talk to, after which YOU, not a computer, has to start a relationship with these people and help them to start their own business.

For this simple goal, it is not necessary for you to own a high-tech system and tell yourself that your auto responder is creating relationships for you. It’s not going to work. The key is to have simple systems that are duplicable, something you can teach to all those people you have built a relationship with.

E-book authors, I don’t care what they say, have no obligation to pass on to you their “Secret Strategies to Become a Millionaire” or any variations of that. The reason is simple; why tell you the total truth when you’ll end up as their competitor? No one wants more competition, correct?

Internet based network marketing is very much the opposite of that. You HAVE to tell people EVERYTHING you know or your business will never get off the ground. For this reason alone, I always recommend that if you’re a beginner in the online world, you need to first join an Internet based network marketing business at least to learn. Don’t worry, no one will be selling you half-baked truths when in the end their success depends on yours.

No matter which model you decide upon, make sure you understand the basics, and stop listening to and purchasing things that are not applicable to your business. Information overload can halt you in your tracks before you even get going.

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