When I first decided to joined the online marketing world, I had no idea that there were several different ways to make money online.  Back then, I was introduced to network marketing and I thought that was it. What about you? Are you a bit confused about the different channels you could use to make money online?  If the answer is yes, let me tell you what the 3 main channels to make money online are and clarify the confusion that exists among them. The three main online channels to make money online are network marketing, affiliate marketing and blogging.

Network Marketing

Network marketing is when you join a company as a distributor to sell their products or services for a commission.  In network marketing it is your responsibility to build what is called a down-line, which is the list of people who join the company through you. When someone joins the company under your name, you will be making a percentage of the commission of the products that they sell. Usually, in network marketing, even though there might be some company conference calls for the purpose of educating their members, it is your responsibilities as the head of your down-line to educate your people about advertising their business and recruiting people to join.  This said, each individual may or may not succeed depending on their drive and persistence. Recruiting for distributors is a very important part of network marketing besides the fact that you might want to sell your products or services to potential customers as well.  The reason why recruiting is so important is that you make a commission not only on the volume of your own sales, but also on the volume of the sales of your down-line.  This is the basis of what we call residual income. Joining a network marketing company is usually not free.  There may be 2 or 3 different levels at which you can come in and in many cases it includes an auto-ship membership to the product or service that you are going to be selling.  This might not be the case for every single company, but it is for the ones I know. Can you make money with network marketing?  Yes, of course you can.  I personally know some wealthy people who have made a lot of money with their network marketing business, but it will only work if you work it.  However, that’s the case for everything in life, isn’t it?

Things to Know About Network Marketing

• Avoid making your decision to join a company based ONLY on the product they are selling
• Make sure you get along with the person who is going to get you in (your up-line)
• If you find the company from the company’s own website do not join through someone they impose on you.  Do your own up-line shopping.  Having the right person to guide you can really make a difference in your business.
• Make sure that you understand the rules and regulations about commissions called “the compensation plan”.   Not all network marketing companies are equal in this regard.

Affiliate Marketing

Some people may be under the impression that affiliate marketing doesn’t require as much work as network marketing does.  This is most likely based on the fact that people who enter the affiliate marketing world have a huge misunderstanding about it. Affiliate marketing works differently than network marketing in many ways, but it doesn’t mean that you won’t have anything to do.  There are two types of products that you can sell through affiliate marketing.  1)  You can sell digital products, such as eBooks, audios, or software type products or 2) You can sell physical products as an affiliate through a company’s website.  They will pay you a percentage commission on each item that you sell. The difference between network marketing and affiliate marketing is that the commission you are making is solely based on each individual sale and they is no such thing as residual income as it is the case with network marketing.  On the other hand, you do not need to recruit people to join your business or know who your customers are as it is the case in network marketing. Because of these differences, people are led believe that there is less work involved in affiliate marketing than network marketing. However, this is not so.  It’s not because you don’t have to deal with your customer one on one that you don’t have to build some type of relationship with them.  You most certainly do. When it comes to affiliate marketing you need to choose a “niche” and stick to it.  As I heard a successful affiliate marketer say not long ago, “you can’t be everything to everyone”.  That’s so true. You’d be losing out if you’d tried.  Pick a niche and stick to it. Develop as much of a friendly relationship as you can with your potential customers.  The best way to reach such potential customers and get to know them is by blogging about your niche.  The rule of thumb is informing your market on a regular basis for free.

Things to Know About Affiliate Marketing

• Do not pick more than one niche at a time, especially if you are just starting out
• Concentrate on one blog and one blog only to promote your products
• Do not put your BEST articles on article directories and other Web 2.0 sites (save them for your own site/blog) and use article marketing and web 2.0 for branding yourself
• Do not pick over crowded niches you couldn’t possibly compete with
• There is no residual income in affiliate marketing

Blogging

While blogging should be a big part of the affiliate and network marketers’ businesses as well.  I have found out over the years that very few of them know much about blogging (expect for a precious few).  As a matter of fact, this was my case as well before I started blogging seriously, so to speak. In my experience I’ve realized that the person making money from blogging will pay much more attention to their blog than the affiliate marketer would.  Most affiliate marketers are concentrating 80 percent of their time doing article marketing and other types of advertising, while only about 20 percent of their time working on their own blog.  The main mistake they are making is creating blogs with no personal touch.  Many of them don’t even have an avatar with their real face.  The real blogger does.

How do you Make Money Blogging?

As a blogger you need to create excellent and valuable content on a weekly basis to attract more and more readers as time goes on.  You need to interact with other bloggers on a regular basis and build traffic to your blog.  You can create your own product or service and advertise it on your about me page and other parts of your blog.  You should also have a freebie that you can offer on you blog for people to receive in exchange for their name and email address.  Once you have built a decent list, you can promote products for sale to such list that will trust you over time. Once your blog has enough traffic you can also make money with advertisement on your blog.  You can do this using Google Adsense, have your own banners on which you will make sales’ commission, or by selling advertising spots. Your success in making money blogging will be based on the amount of readers and followers you are going to build.  In this regard, all 3 main channels to make money online are equal.

Things to Know About Blogging

• You need to create high quality content on a very regular basis
• You need to promote YOURSELF as an expert in your niche
• You need to show your real face to the world (don’t hide behind an avatar)
• You need to find your own voice to stand out from everyone else
• You need to build relationships with other bloggers
• You need to build relationships with your readers

I know this blog was kind of a long one, wasn’t it? Now, it’s your turn, let me know what your thoughts are and let me know if you have anything else to add!