Pros / Cons of 3 IM business models

Hey Eddie,

I've no experience with ecommerce or local consulting, but I've found success as an affiliate marketer.

I think that the Pro's of the online affiliate sales funnel model are:

1. The model itself is relatively simple once you understand how all of the moving parts work together.

2. The model is relatively hands-off once you get everything up and running.

3. Excluding lead generation, this model is relatively low cost to operate.

I don't personally really see any cons inherent to this model itself.

What I find difficult are more the trappings of self employment: staying motivated and finding fulfillment (<-- both my fault).

Cheers.

Richard did a pretty good job of giving you the pros of affiliate marketing.

Here's a con, and it could be a big one.

You don't control the product. What happens if you set up systems to market a specific product as an affiliate, and the vendor decides to pull the product from the market? Or changes the product in such a way that your systems no longer reflect the reality of the product you represent? Or some outside force makes the product irrelevant?

Or what happens if your chosen vendor kills the affiliate program? Over the years it has happened to me more than once.

Consulting has its own pros and cons. Some of the pros include the ability to charge premium prices for premium services, recurring income from a set of clients, sometimes varied and often interesting projects. Cons include limits on how much work you can take on, especially if you do the actual work yourself. Taking time out from billable activity to market your services, and finding the balance that keeps the bills paid without burning you out. Every time you make a sale, you just lost your best prospect. Then there's the whole dealing with sometimes difficult people, especially if you try to compete on price. Charge bottom feeder prices, and you get bottom feeder clients.

Ed,

A lot of IMers do all three . . . or two . . . or even more. You aren't limited to one income stream in this business. Certainly it's wise to focus on one at a time until you're good at it and have well oiled systems running smoothly, but automation and leverage can help you to keep several balls in the air all at once.

In addition, I would suggest you look at the daily execution tasks that will be required for each type of business. Can you do those sometimes boring tasks over and over again and keep your motivation up? There will be some business models that you will enjoy doing over others.

Also look at your own strengths and abilities. What aptitudes/talents do you personally have that you can bring to the business? What are you good at doing? Use those personal traits to make your business unique.

The best to you,

Steve

I have been doing CPA / Affiliate marketing for over 16 years.

I have looked into ecomm and local consulting and never did either, as the profit potential VS time/costs appeared to be nearly as good, compared to just sticking with CPA / affiliate marketing.

I heavily promote PPL (pay poer lead...lead generation) offers because there is no credit card / purchase required to complete an offer. All a user has to do is fill out a form in order to get paid. So conversion rates are typically much higher than offer that requires a purchase. I also promote free sign-ups(dating for example) and free trials + S&H (weight loss, ecig, etc..) While the free trials aren't 100% free, as the user will usually pay something like $4.99 for s&h, they are typically getting something that would normally have an upfront cost of $50-$60+, so conversion rates are still pretty good. Lastly I promote a small amount of offers that are 100$ purchase offers.

With all the offers that I promote there is always a mass appeal factor to them. The no PPL offers I mentioned dating, weight loss and ecig are huge. Then when with the PPL,. I favor offers that have a make, get or save money angle/benefit to them, as they tend to have the greatest mass appeal. So with all, I have the potential to produce high volume of conversions.

Overwhelming though, I target freebie seekers (which most marketers hate) because they want to sell something. Where I'm taking the path of least resistance and promote free offers that have mass appeal, but still pay well to get conversions/$$$.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

EddieJunior1,

John and Steve are legend, and you should heed their advice.

In response:

Well, these are definitely cons, but I never think of them that way.

I'd rather build a system to market a solution (not a specific product) to people who want it. And I always make sure that that solution comes in the form of many proven products before entering a market. This is why competition is your friend.

John is right. Don't invest too much in delivering a specific product to market as an affiliate.

Absorb these ideas. And if you can focus on the underlined advice, your odds of success increase greatly.

Best.

You guys are AWESOME!!!!

Some really great points!

I agree with the CPA / Affiliate Marketing route...

Simply for the fact that you get started without investing a ton...

While at the same time making sure you cover all the important aspects.

And of course...

Investing as you continue on is always an option, too.

For three of them, the key to success is targeted TRAFFIC.
E-commerce can be very profitable if you have a deep knowledge in a specific niche. It is crucial to offer quality products/services at attractive prices. If you choose this business model, you can also fulfill orders via drop-shippers. I would highly suggest working with trusted drop-shippers because there are many middle-mans in this game.