Starting A Business With
Nothing To Sell
When you look at a successful businessman, you're looking at at a salesman. That's what businessmen do, they sell things. This isn't immediately apparent because some professionals, such as accountants, sell their services instead of goods but, in the end, they're all salesmen. When you go into business, you'll be selling goods or services. It doesn't matter whether you sell ice cream or Hollywood scripts, you have to sell to survive.
How then, you ask, do you sell something when you have nothing to sell? You aren't qualified to sell your services as a brain surgeon and you haven't got crates of potatoes in your basement. What do you sell? The answer is so simple that, at first sight, it appears too simple. You sell goods and services that belong to someone else. Put down the phone, you don't need to call the cops, this is perfectly legal.
In this wonderful age of the Internet, just about anybody can set themselves up as an Internet marketer. You become an agent for others and, for a comission, you market their goods. You don't need to lug a case of brushes door to door or cold call prospects on the telephone just as they sit down to dinner. (I hate that, don't you?) You need never see your customers, or even your suppliers for that matter. The Internet makes it all faceless. It also makes it all very safe. Internet marketing is a business that can be carried out by the elderly, the disabled, by women and by those living in reduced circumstances. You don't need to be strong and brave or rich and powerful to become an affiliate marketer.
You do need access to a computer. However, you don't need to own your computer, a public access one at a library will do just fine. You don't even need a website of your own, though your own website can increase sales. YOU DO NOT NEED A LOT OF MONEY TO GET STARTED. Burn that into your brain. Very little cash is required. As for skills, if you can read this, you've got the skills required to sell on the Internet.
How do you move into this world of wealth and beauty? I'm glad you asked. By the way, if you think that reading this article will make you rich by next Christmas, forget it. What you will get here is a pointer in the general direction of making money. With application and a following wind, you can make enough to live comfortably. You might make a million dollars through affiliate marketing but most don't. A house and a car and food in the fridge is success enough for most.
Here we go, we'll start with the basics. An affiliate marketer on the Internet is someone who promotes products for commission. The commission rate varies but not all the high commission items sell enough to make promoting them pay. Little fish are sweet too.
You get into the business by signing up on any of the affiliate marketing websites like Commission Junction or Clickbank. Search for them on Google. You can also become a direct affiliate for some of the larger companies like Amazon and eBay. If you have a website, you can sign up to Google's Adsense scheme or similar schemes. One thing you don't have to do is trudge the streets in the rain looking for a job. There are thousands of businesses that want to hire you to promote their wares.
The most common way affiliates work is to sell off their own website. For a website, you need a domain name and hosting. Don't spend a lot on a domain name until you're sure it fits your business plan. Get a cheap one to start out. At the time of writing, GoDaddy.com offers .info domains for 99 cents.
Websites are very cheap to acquire these days. GoDaddy.com will let you rent your hosting on a monthly basis. If you get one of the unlimited domain hosting plans, you can put many websites on their servers at a very low cost. This is extremely useful when you're experimenting. Free websites are also available but these often require you to put advertising on them. If you have to display the web hosts adverts, they will dilute the effect of your own advertising which are the ones that are going to make you money.
What about if you don't have a website? This isn't as difficult as it might seem. You can use free or even paid for advertising to point directly to your affiliate links. Some companies disapprove of this tactic, so don't use it where it will mean breaking your contract with them. You're in this for the long haul. Play nice.
While we're on the subject of using adverts, free or otherwise, you can use ads to drive traffic to your website. Free traffic is great but it can take time to build and by then the products you are marketing might have gone off the boil. A well-crafted Google advert can pull in the paying customers.
Depending on the time you have, you may consider building an email list. You can get visitors to your sites to sign up for a newsletter about a subject that interests them. Place carefully targeted ads in your newsletter and you'll be surprised just how many potential buyers will click on them.
One last thing before I go. You won't get into business just by reading articles that tell you how to get into business. You get into business by starting one. Sign up as an affiliate now and take control of your life. My very best wishes to you.
