13 Jun 2009

Become a Webrepreneur

Ok, I said it…the best way to develop an online presence and create an empire is to find a way to become a webrepreneur. No, that isn’t self-promotional hype to sell my catch phrase, instead I want to push you to become an online entrepreneur. In my opinion, there are 5 ways that you can do this and each has its own merits. So first, we’ll talk about different ways to make money online, and then we’ll finish up with 5 models that I think you can use to become successful as a webrepreneur.

How to Make Money Online

Affiliate Marketing is often the first step for many online marketers. You promote a product that someone else created, such as my Twitter Rockstar course, and then make a commission by selling it for them. Most publishers recognize that affiliates do the bulk of the promotional work for them, therefore they reward them with a commission of 50% or more. In some cases, you’ll find a product that offers a smaller commission, but that doesn’t mean you should shy away. One of my most successful affiliate promotions is in a niche outside of the Internet marketing niche and although they only offer 25% commission, it is a product that my readers love. If you want to make more, your only options are to approach the publisher, or create a similar product on your own, which leads me to the next way to make money.
Create information products, such as eBooks, videos, or audio/podcasts. This is a great way to make money online, but you need to learn a lot more to pull it off. A publisher needs to understand writing copy, marketing, how to create good products, and so much more. This is a tricky beast, but the payoff is great.
The AdSense model has been around for quite some time, but you’ll find that far fewer people use it these days than before. Part of the reason is that AdSense ads are not as attractive now that everyone knows how to differentiate them from regular content, but the other factor is that it is much more difficult now to make a good profit. This doesn’t mean it can’t be done, but you need to understand keyword density and how to place ads on your site. I have several sites that earn me a few dollars per day and I haven’t had to touch them in months, so this can be beneficial if you know what you are doing. All you need is a website and a Google Adsense account.
Creating content is a great way to cut your teeth in the online world, but isn’t necessarily making money online. If you read my free guide, The Webrepreneur’s Guide to Funding Your Business, you will find a variety of ways that you can make money by creating content for other people, such as writing articles, creating graphics, or building websites. Still, I think this merits being included because you aren’t working for a boss in an office, which in the end is the goal of most people. In my opinion, if you really get serious about this you can easily make anywhere between a grand and 5 grand per month without killing yourself.

These are not the only way to make money online, but they are the most popular and easiest to pull off. I didn’t include hybrid models, like arbitrage, or banner/CPM/paid link advertising because I just don’t have a lot of good experience with them. A lot of people also sell CPA offers, which are offers where you get paid to get someone to sign up for a product trial. However, because so many of these offers are shady, I prefer not to use them at all.

Now that we’ve covered some ways to make money online, lets talk about some different models that you can use to become a powerhouse. None of these are set in stone, but the path is paved for you should you choose to go down one of these routes.

5 Webrepreneur Models

Become a publisher – A publisher not only creates information products, but they can also use them to create membership sites, publish physical products, or even sell a book on a service like Amazon’s Kindle. A publisher will generally use a website or blog as their hub and then use that hub to push their other products. This is my favorite model because it allows me to move across niche lines and create products in many venues. I’ve got a few digital products on the market, a Kindle book, and a few other things in the pipeline. A publisher learns how to create products in a hurry and deliver them to a hungry market.
Blogger – They say that blogging has lost its edge, but I disagree. I think the blogging model has changed, but I think it has become easier than ever to become successful as a blogger. Sure, you have to identify your niche and work hard to deliver good content, interact with your audience, and be consistent, but the money is there to be made. Bloggers deliver good content to an audience and connect with them via comments and newsletters. Bloggers can also become publishers, but they also use AdSense, affiliate marketing, and a variety of other methods to make money online. If your site is popular, you can sell advertising space or even get paid to write for other blogs or newspapers. Blogging is fun, but you have to dedicate yourself to meeting the needs of your audience, otherwise you fail.
Coaching – Coaching is a different ballgame, in part because it requires you to trade hours for money. Essentially, you become an hourly worker, which is a turn-off for some. However, this doesn’t mean you cannot coach others to supplement your income or even create a monthly coaching membership. There are models you can use to make it profitable and still keep your time (and your sanity), but you have to be ahead of the game and plan for that. I do some coaching, which comes as a result of my blog and my information product business, but I don’t do it often. Instead, I prefer to offer packages that include a deliverable product, such as a marketing blueprint, and then answer questions via email or phone. The great part about coaching though, is that you get to help others achieve their goals, which is a fantastic reward.
Super Affiliate – I must admit, this isn’t my strong point, but I know some people that do nothing but affiliate marketing and make a killing at it. You have to learn how to create a great offer and landing page, how to drive traffic to it, and how to convert that traffic into sales, but I’ve seen people make ridiculous amounts of money doing this. It isn’t really my method, but I see nothing wrong with promoting good products to a hungry market. The one caveat to this is that you need to stay diversified, otherwise you risk losing all of your income when a publisher shuts down or changes an offer to something that doesn’t convert.
The Authority Presence – This is by far my favorite method and I’m cheating a little bit by including this because it is more of a hybrid, but the bottom line is that it works. If you learn how to implement a little bit out of all these models, you can learn how to create an authority presence. It requires a great website, or hub, and a lot of hard work, but over time you can craft your own brand image and use it to not only become wealthy, but to become someone that people look up to. If you play your cards right, you can even get a book deal like Gary Vaynerchuk did, or get syndicated like Chris Guillebeau did. This is the model you should use if you are looking for more than short-time Internet fame. If you want to venture into the offline world, then this is your best bet.

Really, there has never been a better time to make money online and become a webrepreneur. Hell, if I can do it while deployed to Afghanistan, then I guarantee that you can do it in your spare time after work or on the weekends. Develop a plan, learn how to implement each part of the plan, and then do it. Keep taking action until you find your own recipe for success. Trust me, you will be able to feel it.