Affiliate Marketing

What is affiliate marketing?

A great way to make money online.

Well that's what they say. I say to start with it's a hard way to make money online.
You need to read A LOT! then put it into practise. I have spent hours and hours doing exactly that and with no outlay of cash so if you have the time go for it.
Once all the ground work is done your set. With the odd tweak here and there you'll be producing money without a lot of effort. The effort is all in the BEGINNING.

There are many great free resources online with my fave being www.associateprograms.com
They have great free advise, tutorials and far more information than i can give you here so check them out for yourself.

You don't need to pay to learn affiliate marketing make use of all the free information from people who've been there and done it.

I believe with a lot of effort in advance affiliate marketing can reap good rewards but don't expect to make money quickly or without the work.

for more info or links on this topic follow the links to the right under resources.

DROPSHIPPING

What is Dropshipping?

I don't know about you but i get sick and tired of searching the net for ways to make money. Sick of trying things, spending hours and never making any money.

Sick of being told "it takes a while"

Well to start making money now to put to use on other projects why not try Dropshipping? I use it to generate enough money to allow me to put it towards other online pursuits and find it's great. Here's an explanation below of how it all works.

Own A Business Without Buying Stock?

It is possible to own a business without buying a lot of stock or renting a retail outlet. Many people are operating their own businesses from home without having to buy stock in advance.

You register with a dropshipper for wholesale reselling, copy and paste photo's and product information directly into ebay or similar auction sites, your own website, mail order catalogue. Wait for a sale. When the sale is completed and payment has been made to you you then return to the dropshippers site place an order, pay and enter your customers address details, the product will automatically be mailed to your customer. Sale finalised.

You need to be sure of the dropshipper which is why it is important to go through a verified dropshipper. One i use is Dropship Australia they check all suppliers out, have a wide range of suppliers and products, keep you updated on the latest products and news via thier newletter and more importantly are used by thousands of people with a great reputation. So Get A Bigger Slice Of the Internet Pie check them out now and start making money from day one!

I find dropshipping good because i don't need to outlay any of my own money up front and it can appear to the buyer you are a large company selling many top quality products.

A great easy way of earning an income online.

Small business misgivings

Hi,
I'm on for a ramble.

I have a query? Why do small busineses feel it is ok to start a business without some sort of written business plan?
Answer: It's too hard!

I don't believe this is so. It is just a gathering of information collected along the way as you research your idea.
I think people tend to stop after they get a bit of an idea it could work as they are in a hurry to get started. That's fine but do the plan bit by bit as you go and be sure to have a set goal in mind. Do you want the business to become a public company? do you just want to earn a decent living? do you want to be able to sell it off? do you want a manager to run it for you?
These things are best set out from the beginning, it helps keep you clear on where you want to be. Sure things change and life gets in the way but just adjust the plan to suit. Revise it, update it and keep it handy to reinforce what it is your trying to achieve.

Another thing Market research. This is another area small busineses don't explore enough. Multi million dollar busineses wouldn't dream of operating without it why should we? If we look to success in the hope to copy and achieve something similar why not copy the tactics used that work, that get the big busineses where they are?
We all need to know our customer so we can understand what it is they want or need, how else can we supply that need and in the process make money?

I'd love all small busineses to operate as big busineses do and i bet there'd be an explosion of growth. As Bill Gates said and did you need to act like the big company you wish to become from day one. Look like it, sound like it, act like it no matter who you are whether your at home selling undies on ebay there's no reason people need to know that. Let them think you are a large underwear retailer and one day you will be.

SYDNEY here i come.

On the 4th Feb i am off to Sydney (One of my fave places on earth) to climb the Harbour Bridge.
Fantastic business idea that one.

I'm staying at the Mercure with some friends and hubby for one night on Darling harbour which i adore and going to Manly the next day for a Tandem Parasailing adventure.

Being my friends birthday i have organised it all online which was a good exercise as i can discover little hints and tips for my own websites.

Ease of payment seems the biggest one to me along with a quick loading page and easy to follow details. Note to self to make these a top priority on my own sites.

I booked our Tandem parasail through www.adrenalin.com.au they are great, easy and fast. Check them out they have all kinds of adventurouse things to do at reasonable prices.

Another good adventure site is www.godo.com.au or for a gift try www.redballoondays.com.au
all great fun sites i'll be using lots.

Product Problems

Well as my business requires me to make some of my own products i have been trying to do exactly that with very little success!
I'm growing very frustrated.
I have ordered samples of my pre made product, sorted colours etc and ready to order (Expensive) but still need to create others to supplement the range. They are supposed to be quite easy but given every failure costs money i find this hard to believe.

As i'm still in the prototype stages i'm not too concerned just annoyed. I am determined though that i will have at least my top 4 self made products created and quality checked within the next month.

As for the pre made i shall be placing a large order soon an creating, printing labels ready to go as soon as it arrives. Therefore i can photograph and send to the Graphic Designer who is patiently waiting on me and my products.

Stationery sorted even to the design of name badges and t-shirts. I plan on selling my branded products on the website also to help grow the brand and make it a recognised wanted item.

Till then i shall get back to my flunked products and start again.

Step by Step

What have i been up to?

Well i have finally put in a few more oders one for my actual wholesale product (well for the samples) so we can choose the ones we like and order in bulk at least this way we will actually have some product.
We will be buying a full range wholesale and bulk and repackaging some, labelling ourselves.
The rest we have to make so we have also ordered some moulds along with enough product to create about three seperate products.

This will help us organise labels, do our costing per product and establish our prices, also it will keep my Graphic designer happy as he will finally have some photo's to go ahead with our website.

Brought a new digital camera also as i left mine in a taxi on New Years eve a nice expense but nessesary as i find these days it's hard to do business online without one when you sell your own product.

Next on the expense list will be a laptop computer. Business expense yes! I've always wanted one but now i'm trying to run a business between two homes (Myself and my business partner mum's) it's getting ridiculous carrying all the nessesary information to and fro and updating, viewing, discussing information not at hand.

So it's all still happening. Things are going smoothly. This week we shall have around eight products created and be ordering raw materials for the next range.

Step by Step we are getting there. I find it hard working pay by pay but i think we spend our money wiser this way also as i'm sure the laptop would be first priority if i had the money in the bank hehe.

Till next time work smarter not harder.

C@th