People often want to know where to start when it comes to starting a business online. I mean the options are truly unlimited. If you have read about the Prosperly Way then you know that I like to create internet businesses that run themselves. I try to automate as much as I can so that it takes as little time to run as possible. If I help you start an internet business that takes you 60 hours a week to run then I really haven’t helped you.
So the best internet business model that I recommend first and foremost is to start an affiliate website.
Start An Affiliate Website
This is the internet business model that I have had the most success with. This is where I pick a very specific niche and then I create a website around the products in this niche. (I hire a writer, I don’t write the content myself) I then have links to buy the products we have talked about in the site which are affiliate links so we get paid a percentage for every sale we send them.
For example, if I owned a DVD website I would create a ton of content for individual DVD’s. I then would have affiliate links from Amazon or another DVD store telling people to go buy the movie. Anytime someone buys one of the DVD’s from Amazon, I would get paid a percentage.
If you find the right industry you can quickly make an impact in search engine rankings and start making money very quickly. A good example of this is from one of the websites I started back in 2007. I knew the industry wasn’t very SEO savvy but there was a lot of money being thrown around in the industry.
I hired a copywriter to add at least one page a day to the site and after 6 months the site was making $15,000 a month in affiliate sales. Now keep in mind that I was also doing a lot of link building for the site getting good quality one way links and the site was optimized properly for the search engines.
By that point we were ranking on page one of Google for almost every product included on the site and we also were dominating the search engines for the more general terms in the industry. I had companies in that industry contacting me and offering me a ton of money to help them achieve the same kind of results.
I was pleasantly surprised with these results in such a short amount of time. Even after having optimized hundreds of websites over the years I didn’t expect to see such dramatic results so quickly.
This internet model is good because as you write, or hire someone to write for the website, you are constantly adding fresh new content to your website. This content needs to be high quality good content. Visitors see right through junk. This will also help you achieve higher search engine rankings and thus more traffic to your website because of the quality original content being added.
So choose an industry you like and start an affiliate website. Try to find an industry that isn’t over saturated with affiliate sites out there already.
Word of advice: When you sign up for affiliate programs there are going to be some products you can make more money on than others. This will motivate you to recommend these higher paying products over other products you write about. This is a normal and effective practice.
What you need to avoid is being overly critical of other products on your site just to make the one you want to push look better. There is no need to do this. It just makes you look bad. If you offer good quality in depth content people will trust your recommendations. Be fair and don’t bash other peoples products unless they really are bash worthy. Most people are trying to put out a good quality product and some just do a better job than others.
This business model is great because you never have any customer service or products to ship. You just play the middle man and take a cut. When you’re talking about the best internet business ideas, for me this one tops the list.
20 comments On My Best Internet Business Idea
Check this out for review sites:
WP Review Site Plugin
Hey Adam,
You just confirmed what I was starting to suspect. In fact, I had built product reviews (child-rearing and parenting related products directed towards fathers) as a feature page on my site. However, I’ve only written one review so far as I have been focused on getting the other sections going. I am VERY tempted now to renew my efforts on the product reviews section.
I also recommend looking into Commission Junction as it is a portal to many retailers affiliate programs and it might help find better commissions for the products you are reviewing than Amazon. If nothing else it would allow you to present an additional option.
Thanks for the tips and advice again!
Christian,
I wouldn’t recommend Commission Junction as it is a grind to make any real money. I would definitely stick to a product/niche that offers a decent percentage payout(i.e. 15-50%). I ran CJ for a bit and made about $2.00. Not exactly enough for a “paid vacation”.
Thanks Davy for the advice/warnings about Commission Junction.
The truth is that I have found a few gems in there for my parenting website. For example Sittercity.com which pays $40 per sign-up and offers a great service that I think I can “sell”. I wrote a review, now I will see if it returns something once I get some real traffic.
I am interested in any tips you might have on how to locate a product/niche with such a high payout. I mean do you just brainstorm and then research or is there some better location method?
Many Thanks,
Christian
One thing you can do is go to clickbank.com, they have thousands of affiliate programs and they will list them by category and payout.
Nice information that will help millions of people achieve their desire result from the internet.
Regards
Ben
http://www.princeben.org
I just spent alot of time and money creating a product for one of my sites, I thought it would never be finished. I do believe it will pay off in the end.
As for one of my other sites that needs its own product; I went ahead and looked at clickbank and found the exact product I was planning on creating with a 50% profit. Until I create my own item I will try to sell the clickbank product… and maybe it will show me that there is no point to making the procuct myself. Also, since reading this article, I just might change it into a review site and sell a diff item altogether.
We will see…
Thanks for all the info guys!
Nice article and good idea. I have created a website review site. But it didn’t worked for me I guess I was lacking the experience you have Specially SEO and I wasn’t reviewing i.e. replying much for the requested reviews.
You have pointed out some important things in this article which are worth looking into.
Thanks for sharing the info.
Adam,
I was wondering: About how long does it take you to plan, design and launch the actual website? Are you doing this all primarily yourself or outsourcing? How long does it take if you have it outsourced? Any feedback would be most welcome. thanks and great blog.
Honestly Scott, planning/designing is done a lot already because the site we’re purchasing has things in place. As far as doing it or outsourcing — outsource! You’ve got to find where you add value and I don’t add value doing what I can outsource!
By outsourcing though, I mainly means Craiglist — though we do use some Indian companies for some things. Also, mechanical turk is very nice (Amazon).
I have an Affiliate website Ive been working with for almost a year
Recently someone told me to start posting to blogs it is a good form
of getting links I did a little planning/designing and still having trouble.
Im going to follow this article and join “Striking Internet Oil” thanks
for the info.
Great Post. Affiliate marketing is a great passive income stream. The trick is, I think, that some people miss when they think passive is “hard work” Passive income is like building a bridge. Not using a barge. Building a bridge is tough it takes time, but once its there it rocks and it Passive. What affiliate site or website are you talking about in the article, just so a person could check it out, see what it looks like. Also I like your site. I have a site in the same niche that does well with search traffic and would love to do some linking. Check it out in your travels. Until then keep up the good work. Its a great life.
Joe @ Home Business Ideas
Thanks for sharing the great info guys, I love the work that you are doing:)
hi how do u do that? affilate i mean how do i even start it i have a website im trying to build thru tripod.com but i honestly dont know how to even begin can u help me.
adam,if i understand you right an affiliate website should be built around something that a person is interested in or is knowledgeable about. i would like to find a website for sale in the area that i know most about and buy it. is this a good idea and where could i find websites for sale by category. yours is the best website anywhere and many thanks.
I totally agree with too fast on links, no good. I’ve never made more than $77 on amazon, and I have a site that is on page one for over a year, along with a few others. Conversion is my problem I believe. I have 19 sites and will probably end up leaving most of them at renewal time. I know I’m doing something wrong, just cannot figure it out. I’ve taken your course, read it over and over and still cannot get myself to create this type of site, even though it looks pretty simple. I just don’t have any ideas, and if not inspired, nothing gets done with me, hate that! Would it be adviseable to take one of my sites and completely convert it into a review site? Enjoying your blog as always, continued success to you both!Lisa’s last post…Competing On the Internet
Review sites have been good for me. I would check the industry and make sure it isnt already flooded with review sites. Also Amazon is not a very good affiliate program. You need a program that will pay you at least 20%-40% for a sale.
Do a google search for a phrase in the industry you are interested in. Go to page 2 and 3 of Google and start there.
Great advice, tips and ideas. We can all learn more about affiliate marketing and how to succeed. One of the challenges for most of us — new, having been at it a while, or well down the road — is to automate as much of the back office and marketing stuff as we can. There are single tools or software you can buy to do one thing. But, I prefer to have everything I need in one package. May we all sell more.
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