Selling digital information products such as eBooks, courses and video series is one of the very best way to make money online. This is a very simple business model that will allow you to make money by selling a product that costs you nothing to produce and that doesn’t require storing or even delivering. Everything you sell will net you almost 100% profit!

But the question is whether you should develop your own digital product, or whether you would be better off selling a product someone else made as an affiliate. Let’s take a look at both arguments…

Creating a Product

If you create your own digital product, then you’ll have the considerable advantage of owning that product 100%. In other words, you won’t need to split the earnings with anyone and you’ll be able to make as many changes as you like to your product, branding and marketing.

There’s also a certain amount of pride that comes from owning your own digital products and you can make sure that the product matches the branding of your website or blog. Eventually, you can even recruit affiliate marketers to help you sell your product. This can mean you have an entire legion of marketers promoting your product and helping you sell its good qualities. The result could be that you have a legion of marketers helping you to earn more revenue for your product!

Selling an Affiliate Product

On the other hand though, some people will prefer to sell digital products as an affiliate because it means they won’t have to develop it themselves. This means that they can start selling right away and it means that there will be zero overheads and no upfront investment.

What’s more, is that an affiliate product gives you the distinct advantage of being able to choose something that is already selling. In other words, you can look for a product that is proven and that means you know that it can be profitable. With your own product you have no such assurance and there’s always a small chance you’ll end up creating something no one wants.

Seeing as an affiliate product can net you 75% of the commission in some cases and you can sell as many as you want, there’s no upper limit here in terms of your potential profits.

The conclusion? There isn’t one! Ultimately, the answer comes down to you. But now you have all the information to make the best possible decision…

If you make the decision to become a full time digital marketer, then you’ll not only be changing your career but your entire way of life. As a digital marketer you’ll be someone who is able to work from anywhere in the world, who doesn’t answer to a boss and who can potentially earn much more money by running their own business with very low overheads.

But there are challenges here too. One such challenge is how you stay motivated when working from home. Another is how you go about stocking up on hardware that will offer enough power for what you need to do without breaking the bank.

This article will help you with those things and more.

Staying Motivated

One thing to keep in mind is that the phrase ‘work from home’ doesn’t necessarily have to be literal. Think of it instead as working ‘not from an office’.

And actually, it’s highly recommended that you leave the home if you want to get the most out of yourself in terms of productivity. Working in your house makes it very difficult to stay motivated and not to get distracted by your games console, the internet or the TV.

So where can you go instead? One option is to work in a coffee shop (the caffeine will help with your work). Another is to work in a public library. Either way, this is a great way to stay focussed and to put yourself in a productive zone.

Hardware

To do this though, you’re of course going to need the right hardware. This will need to be something light and portable while remaining powerful enough to handle all the work you’re going to throw at it.

So what hardware will work for you? If you’re working primarily as a writer or marketer then you won’t need anything particularly powerful. In this case, something like an iPad or an Android tablet will work even, along with a portable keyboard. The Universal Folding Keyboard from Microsoft is a great choice that’s able to fit into a pocket.

If you need to do video editing though then you’ll want something with a bit more oomph that’s still light. A great choice in this case is the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. This is a device that is sleek and can even be used as a tablet but is simultaneously powerful enough to power video editing software.

Whether you plan on building a mobile app or a piece of SaaS software, creating a program for customers to pay for and download is a great business model. Not only does this make it possible for you to sell a product that has zero overheads, no storage and no delivery, but it also lets you sell something with very real and very clear value.

The danger with an eBook is that people could get all the same information online if they were willing to look for it. On the other hand, a piece of software is something complex and premium that they will only be able to benefit from if they are willing to pay.

But creating software is a challenge and a lot of people will go about it in the wrong way. Here are some things not to do.

Jealously Guard Your Idea

It’s a well known fact in Silicone Valley that execution is more important than ideas. Ideas for apps are a dime a dozen – it’s actually being able to bring that idea to market that is hard.

Therefore, if you approach a developer or publisher with a ‘NDA’ (Non Disclosure Agreement) and refuse to tell them anything about your idea until it’s signed, then you’ll likely just be laughed out of the room!

No one is trying to steal your idea and even if they were, your best protection is to do it first and do it best!

Try to Build the Next Facebook

Another way to quickly get laughed out of any meeting is to tell people how you plan to make a new social network that will change the way we interact with people. What most people will tell you at this point is: no you will not.

The thing to remember here is that there are very few Mark Zuckerbergs in the world. And while you may some day be able to change the world, you shouldn’t set out to do that for your first project. Try and get a proven track record and demonstrate to people that you have the necessary skills. From a money making perspective it also makes sense to start earning before you invest years and thousands of dollars.

The kind of app you should be setting out to make will be something simple and easy that you can describe in under a minute. It’s just good business sense!

Writing persuasive copy for a landing page is one of the most important skills you can develop as a digital marketer whether you’re planning on selling a digital information product, or you’re working as an affiliate.

Essentially, the copy on this page is intended to demonstrate why the product you’re selling is high value and what it is about it that should make your potential buyers excited. You want to take them from never having heard of your product before to becoming paying customers (called ‘converting’). It’s probably the single biggest factor that will influence your number of sales and therefore your revenue and turnover.

So how do you write copy that converts?

The Journey

The idea that you take someone from never have heard of your product to wanting to buy it is actually a key part of most sales copy. There is a structure that a lot of such text follows called AIDA.

This stands for ‘Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action’. The sequence acknowledges that people don’t know anything about the product at first and eventually end up happy to spend good money on it.

But the question is how you take them through these steps. The first challenge is going to be getting them to actually sit up and take notice of your copy – getting them to read it at all. After all, most people on the web are there because they’re doing something important. Most of us are in a rush, have work to do and categorically do not want to spend lots of time reading sales pitches that just want out cash. As a writer, your job here is to change their mind and get them to want to keep reading.

One way to do this is to use a narrative structure. In other words, tell a story about your product and about you that will encourage them to keep reading. This works well because we are naturally inclined to want to read stories and we find it very hard to end a story early. Stories are highly relatable and always interesting.

The Value Proposition

Also key, is to focus on your value proposition. A value proposition is basically the key selling point of your product and beyond that, it is what your product does for someone and how it changes their lives. Does your product help people by making them richer? Does it improve their physical shape so that they’re stronger, healthier and happier? Focus on the ‘dream’ that will sell your product in your pitch.

There are plenty of different ways to make a living marketing yourself online. Unfortunately, the majority of them involve complicated elements that might be off putting to someone who isn’t already familiar with the world of internet marketing.

In this post then, we’ll look at something that should be a lot simpler to understand for many people: selling a service.

The idea is very straightforward here: you simply find something you’re good at and that you can supply over the web and then advertise your services. It’s just like being a freelancer offline except you get to choose who you work, when you work and how much you work much more easily.

Types of Services to Provide Online

So what types of services are there that you can supply online?

One very easy example is writing. If you are good at writing copy, then you can write for companies that need advertising copy, content writing for their website or a range of other types of writing. To supply the work, all you need to do is to send word documents via e-mail and most clients will be able to pay you via PayPal.

Another type of service you can provide online is web design. This is one of the most common types of services you will find businesses providing and it’s an excellent choice if you know how to use WordPress and you have a good eye for graphic design.

SEO services are also very popular and in this case you will be earning money for marketing. You can also branch out and offer a more comprehensive marketing package that might also include branding, social media marketing and content creation.

There are countless more options too though. Whether you want to be a proof-reader, a coder, a consultant, a personal trainer, a music composer, a narrator or a video editor there are tons of options available for you.

Finding Work

In order to start finding work, all you need to do is to look for a marketplace to sell your skills. Often you’ll be selling to businesses, so a good place to look is on freelancer sites that are frequented by business owners such as UpWork or Elance.

Another option is to post your services in webmaster/marketing forums such as Warrior Forum. If you price yourself well, then you can actually get work for years from a single advert!

We have discussed affiliate products in detail and we have discussed digital products; both have considerable advantages for marketers looking to make money online.

To recap, selling an information product gives you complete control over a product with excellent ROI and very low overheads. This is a flexible item that you can sell in a number of ways and it’s something that will be relatively simple to promote and sell.

On the other hand, selling an affiliate product means selling a product someone else made and getting most of the profit. There’s no up-front investment and therefore no risk. At the same time, it’s also going to be much easier to choose something that you know will sell. But you lose out in terms of control, branding and flexibility.

But what if there was an option that had all the advantages of both these options and none of the advantages of either?

Introducing: PLR Products

PLR stands for ‘Private Label Rights’. A PLR product then is a product that gives you the full rights to that item in a private label fashion.

This means that you can sell the product on to other buyers, you can make as many changes as you like and you can even add your own branding to the product. At the same time though, you’ll also be able to sell something ready made and with a proven track record of selling!

You pay a simple one off fee in order to buy not only the product but also the rights. From there, the product becomes yours and you can do whatever you want with it. Better yet, is that often comes with all the marketing material included so you’ll be able to promote it without spending any time or money on creating sales funnels or landing pages.

The Downsides

So are there any downsides?

Only couple. One is that the product won’t be unique. This means there’s a chance that a customer might find your content replicated elsewhere which can undermine your brand.

Another downside is that you’ll often pay more for a PLR product than it would have cost to create your own item from scratch. This makes sense as you’re essentially paying for the privilege of not having to make anything yourself.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the quality fo these products is highly variable. So make sure that you do your research!

A very simple and easy business model for making money online is to build an Android app.

Mobile apps are relatively simple to make when compared with PC software and distribution is also very easy thanks to the existence of mobile app stores that let people search for an easily download and buy your software.

Android in particular makes the process even simpler, thanks to the much simpler approval process for new apps compared with Apple and the lower cost for becoming a developer.

Getting Started – The Conventional Route

When you first get started, you will most likely take the conventional route of using Android Studio. This is the main ‘IDE’ (Integrated Development Environment’) that can provide you with all the necessary tools in one place and streamline the process with helpful tips, straightforward testing and the like.

This can be downloaded from the Android developers website and should come with the Android SDK included. That SDK is one of the key tools that you’ll need – it’s a set of instructions you can access that specifically relate to the capabilities of Android. You will also need the Java Development Kit (JDK).

From here you’ll be programming in Java and writing code that refers to the Android SDK. Unfortunately, you’ll likely find that this is all a little complex not only to use but also to set up.

For that reason, many people will decide to take other routes…

Other Options

There are several other options when it comes to building Android apps. One is to use ‘app builder’ software which will allow you to build apps without knowing any code. These are very limited in terms of what you can build though and they take away a lot of freedom.

A ‘compromise’ position then would be to use something like Basic4Android. Basic4Android is a tool that makes coding for Android much simpler and easier and even streamlines the testing process. If it’s a game you’re looking to make, then a similar options is to use Unity which will make it much easier.

Then of course you can always outsource the creation of your app, though it’s often harder than you might expect to find a capable of coder.

The best option for a marketer interested in making money then? That would be to simply buy an app and then promote it! Find a good app that isn’t selling much, email the creator and make it your own!

When it comes to earning money online as a marketer, most people go wrong in exactly the same place. That crucial error? Their ambition.

Unfortunately, too much ambition is very commonly the downfall of many online businesses and marketers which essentially causes them to bite off more than they can chew and then give up too easily.

Instead of aiming to become rich or change the world, it makes much more sense to start off small. Aim to accomplish something small first and then build on each success to eventually reach the top.

So what might this look like?

The Small Niche Business Model

SmartPassiveIncome.com is a blog owned by internet marketer Pat Flynn which shares his methods for earning money. One of his most successful recent ventures was a website aimed at food trucks. This is a very small niche that made it easy for him to find routes to market (ways to communicate with the target demographic).

Compare this with creating a website in the ‘fitness’ niche and you can imagine how much easier it is to get noticed and to reach the right audience.

From here, Pat began making money from selling an eBook aimed at those food trucks that would help them make more money and apply smart business skills.

THIS is the exact same business model that first time internet marketers should be using. You might decide to choose a different niche (sticking with a career is often a good choice though) and you may decide you’d rather sell an affiliate item. The general model though is almost flawless for the inexperienced marketer.

Why This Works

So what’s so good about this business model?

For starters, choosing a small niche to operate in means that you’ll be able to much more easily get noticed. If you choose to go the PPC route for instance, you’ll pay far less for advertising in this niche as compared with the amount you’d pay for a bodybuilding or dating related keyword.

At the same time, this helps you to come up with a very clear value proposition and offering. Ideally, your product should set out to solve a very specific problem for a very specific group of people. This will make it much easier to market that product, to promote it and to encourage people to consider buying.

 

If you look at a brick and mortar high street store, something interesting you may notice is the way they lay out their items. Everything in that store has been carefully placed and thought out in order to have the maximum impact on the visitor and to encourage them to buy.

This is also why your local grocery store keeps changing the layout of the place – they’re doing it to ensure that you have to search around to find things – thereby coming across more items that you might want to buy.

They also think about the ‘journey’ you take through the store. What is it that draws the customers in? And where should they place the items to make them the most appealing and most likely to get purchased?

But what if you have a digital store? An eCommerce store? How can you accomplish the same thing and encourage people to want to buy?

Contrast

One trick you should use is ‘contrast’. Contrast means placing two items next to each other that are very similar but different in terms of price.

This works because it helps the shopper to talk themselves into buying. For example, they might decide that they’re going to buy the cheaper item even though they feel guilty about spending the money. They can justify this action by saying ‘well at least I bought the cheap option!’. At the same time, it will feel like a better deal.

Conversely though, if someone is thinking of buying the cheap version, they may be tempted to upgrade to the most premium model for a little more money. Just by placing these items next to each other then, you can increase the likelihood of two types of customers spending more in your store.

POS

POS stands for ‘Point of Sale’. This is essentially the point at which your customer is about to buy something from you. In other words, this is the checkout page where all that is left to do is for them to enter their details and click ‘buy’.

At this point, your customer has already committed to buy and already over come their own objections. Thus, they are much more likely now to slightly upgrade their order with something small. Place extra offers here and you can potentially upsell to the customer and thus earn more money.

Selling an eBook can potentially be a highly lucrative way to make money. In fact, there are many examples of people making thousands of dollars by selling digital products and even millions. In some cases an eBook can sell for over a hundred dollars and the cost for online seminars can soar into the thousands.

But when you really think about it, this makes very little sense.

Why would someone be willing to spend $30 or $100 on an eBook when that same information is most likely available online?

And why do people willingly pay for apps when they can relatively easily download them illegally?

Convenience and Delivery

 

One of the key benefits of buying a digital product through the legitimate channels is that it’s convenient. There’s no hunting around for anything and it’s far easier to learn to do something by reading one book as compared with reading up on lots of different websites.

Another key thing to consider is the delivery and the packaging. People are very rarely motivated by logic when it comes to buying and more often this will come down to an impulse decision based on emotion.

That’s why packaging your eBook nicely can make all the difference. That means paying a designer to create a striking cover and it means using beautiful images inside and excellent formatting. All this will make people really want your product and increases the desire greatly.

Trust and Authority

 

Another reason that people buy eBooks and apps is because of the relationship that they have with the creator.

We pay for apps because we want to support the developer. And that’s why we’re much more likely to download something illegally if we feel that the software is overpriced or if it comes from a large development studio rather than an individual or a small team.

As for eBooks, people are willing to pay for those rather than seek out the information themselves because they trust the author. In other words, they believe that the author knows what they’re talking about and can genuinely help to make their lives better. Compared with following the advice of a complete stranger on the web who they’ve never contacted before, this makes a lot more sense.

With all that in mind then, the best way to ensure your product sells is to:

• Create something that looks beautiful
• Price it right
• Demonstrate your expertise and knowledge in a free-to-access blog
• Make the whole process as convenient and easy for the buyer as possible