The three most common ways of making money online is through blogging, making a niche affiliate website, and launching an online store. There are pros and cons to each of these methods. Deciding which approach you want to go with is very important, especially if you’re just starting out.
Studying each of these methods is necessary because you don’t want to find yourself knee-deep in a business model you’re not happy with. Each of these approaches fits a particular type of entrepreneur. Writers fit well with blogging and affiliate marketing, while people who are good with numbers will probably get better results with ecommerce.
Choose the model that best suits your needs, level of expertise, and goals.
Pros & Cons Of Blogging
If you think you can produce good, original content on a consistent basis, then blogging is right up your alley. Blogging especially works if you’re an expert in a topic that doesn’t have too much competition.
There are a few ways to monetize your blog. You can rely on advertising, sell ad space exclusively, start affiliate marketing, accept donations, or create “members only” areas in your site. Before you can make use of any of these methods, however, you’ll first need a good audience. And building an audience for your blog takes time.
This is perhaps the biggest downside to blogging. Making money from a blog takes time and a lot of effort. It takes a while before people start paying attention to you. Don’t expect to make a lot of money in your first few months of blogging. Even if your blog gets big enough, you’ll probably still make more money through niche affiliate marketing and running an online store.
However, blogging is by far the least stressful of these three business models. You can also run a big, successful blog all on your own. You probably won’t need to hire too many people to help keep things running smoothly. Lastly, because blogs run on articles, you can work on your blog from practically anywhere. You can even compose content on your smart phone, if you want.
Pros & Cons To Niche affiliate marketing
Niche affiliate marketing is a lot like blogging, except instead of writing about what you know, you instead write about content people are interested in. With affiliate marketing, your goal is to create a site that ranks well on search engines. You can then use the attention that your site gets to redirect people to related products or services.
Blogging and niche affiliate marketing share similar goals. Both also require a big audience to really get going. Niche affiliate sites make most of their money through affiliate sales and selling ad space. However, unlike blogging, niche affiliate sites mostly receive traffic through search engines. Establishing a loyal audience is also harder to do through niche affiliate marketing because blogs feel a lot more personal. Bloggers tend to interact more directly with their followers than affiliate marketers.
The world of niche affiliate marketing is also highly competitive. Once you find a gold mine of keywords, you’re better off keeping it a secret to keep competition away. After all, you want to rank high on search engines.
Running a niche affiliate site however can be just as fun as running a blog. Like blogs, you can work on your affiliate site from anywhere (even from 40,000ft in the air!). You might need to do a bit more coding, but nothing is stopping you from working from your home, office, or at a café. You don’t need to manage inventory or respond to customer complaints because you’re only redirecting people to other services.
Furthermore, niche affiliate sites are low maintenance. Once a site gets enough traffic, you can leave it on autopilot without needing to produce new content for a while. Most people who make money from affiliate marketing don’t just run one site. Instead, they own a variety of sites in a variety of niches.
Pros And Cons To Ecommerce Websites
Running your own online store is probably the most reliable way to make money online. Instead of relying on large audience numbers, you’re instead relying on providing a good product that people can get behind. Because of this, you need smaller conversions to turn a profit. Because people pay you directly, you earn the most per sale and per visitor compared to blogs and niche affiliate sites.
This also means that running an online store is the fastest way to make money online. You don’t have to spend much time building a reputable audience, and instead can make money almost instantly.
Despite these perks however, running an online store can be hard and very stressful. Unless you’re dropshipping your goods, you’ll need to manage inventory, do a bit of marketing, and provide customer services. There’s also no guarantee that your store is going to make a lot of money. The products you produce need to meet certain standards, and if you fail to provide good services, your business can easily fail.
Each of these online business models works. You just have to find which one works for you. If you’re an experienced writer and you’re not that concerned about making money quickly, then starting a blog is just for you. If you’re interested in making passive income, and if you know how to find good keywords, then making a niche affiliate website can work for you. Lastly, if you want to make the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time, then starting an online store is just for you.
