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.
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 noncompetitive 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 people’s 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.
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 involve purchasing the rights or ability to sell someone else 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.
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
