The potential and opportunity for building a successful online business is only growing bigger and bigger with each passing day, and everyone wants to make money online, especially in these uncertain economic times. 
But is it possible to create a truly profitable online business in 2021 and beyond?
Continue reading to find out…
Creating a sustainable and profitable online income
So is it even possible to make money online without any work like the “experts” would have you believe?
Nope (sorry to burst your bubble), this kind of hype is really good at selling courses, but not much else.
It would be absolutely fabulous if it were true, but unfortunately, life doesn’t quite work out that way.
While it is possible to build an online business that drives itself, it still requires effort (at least in the beginning) on your part.
So if you can’t make money online instantly, can you still make money online fairly quickly?
Absolutely!
If you are doing the right things (and focusing on the right methods), you can make money online pretty quickly, and create a passive source of recurring income for your business with a little forethought and some elbow grease.
So what is the best strategy to use if your goal is to create a profitable stream of recurring passive income through an online business?
In my opinion, the absolute best, and fastest, way to create an online business and make money online in 2021 is through affiliate marketing.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Simply put, affiliate marketing is a business model where you promote someone else’s products or services and get paid a commission whenever you make a sale.
The beauty and simplicity of this business model mean you don’t have to worry about customer service, customer complaints, or anything to do with the product at all other than driving traffic and making the sale.
Even better is the fact that most online or digital products pay between 40-75% commission of the total sale price!
What kinds of products and services can you promote through affiliate marketing?
The list is almost endless, let’s dive into some specific examples…
What Affiliate Products Can You Promote To Make Money Online?
There are a TON of different affiliate networks and products out there that you can promote in your business.
Here are some of the top affiliate networks you can join and use to find products to promote for your business:
– Clickbank
– WarriorPlus
– JVZoo
All you need to do is set up an account with these affiliate networks, choose products you want to promote in whatever niche you want to promote in your business and start promoting them with either free or paid traffic to make sales and commissions through your unique affiliate links.
What kinds of products and services can you promote?
Great question, as there are 10’s or 1000’s of products on these affiliate networks to promote.
The best way to figure this out is to first figure out what niche you want to work in (make money online, fitness, self-help, etc), and then start researching and testing offers in that niche.
As an example, one of my niches is the “make money online” niche, and this is one of the main offers I promote to my email lists and through paid ads
BONUS: Here is one of the top converting products on Clickbank that also happens to be one of the most comprehensive affiliates marketing “universities” on the planet. This is the program I joined when I first started out in affiliate marketing that allowed me to “hit the ground running” and start making money online as fast as possible.
Affiliate networks aren’t the only source of products to promote online in your affiliate marketing business. There are also a ton of subscription-based software platforms that provide an opportunity to not only use them for your business (I use the following platforms every day in my business) but promote them as well to create recurring streams of passive income.
Here are some of the top SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms that you can use and promote in your business to make affiliate sales and commissions:
– Clickfunnels – The industry-leading landing page and sales funnel webpage builder. Super easy to use “drag and drop” page editor, email integration, payment gateway integration, full shopping cart sales funnel capability. They also have an awesome affiliate program that you can use to create passive monthly recurring revenue. A super cool feature of Clickfunnels is the capability to instantly share any funnel with another use at the click of a mouse.
Here is a link to check out one of the ones I’m using right now to grow my business online (just enter your email address and you’ll get to import it into your account for free, along with a comprehensive training program on how to set everything up to start making money online as quickly as possible).
– Aweber – There are a ton of good email autoresponders out there and I’ve test driven most of them at one point or another. I used Aweber back when I first started out in online marketing and HATED it. I gave it another shot recently on the recommendation of a business associate and was pleasantly surprised by how amazing the interface and UI is, they have made a massive upgrade to it. I am currently using it as my go to email service and couldn’t be happier. They also have a great affiliate program that you can promote in your business as well for a recurring source of passive income.
– Qlikr – The most comprehensive click tracker on the market today also has a great affiliate program as well. Click trackers are virtually essential to any online business. Without it, you have no idea on where your traffic is coming from or what is working to drive traffic so that you can scale up your business.
So How Do You Drive Traffic To Your Offers?
Ok, so now that you have your niche chosen, affiliate network accounts setup and products chosen, how do you promote them?
There are a number of different ways to drive traffic to your promotions in order to make sales and commissions for your business:
1. Paid traffic sources like Facebook Ads, Google and Bing Ads, Youtube Ads or Solo Ads, which are highly targeted email list ads, and can convert much better than other traffic methods.
2. Organic social media traffic by posting valuable content regarding your product on your Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube or other social media networks.
3. Create a blog and write keyword targeted articles and blog posts about the products you are promoting and use SEO tactics to drive targeted traffic to your offers.
Some traffic methods will be much quicker than others but require a financial investment on your part (such as pay per click and paid traffic sources), while others will be a bit slower and require a time investment, but are more automated long term sources of traffic (such as organic social media and creating a keyword targeted blog).
Which is the best option for your business?
That question depends on whether or not you have the financial means (not to mention the know how) to invest in paid traffic, or whether you want to play the long game and create the foundation for long term passive income.
At the end of the day, I believe that the best approach is a mix of paid and free traffic sources.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, there are a ton of different tools and strategies for building a successful and profitable online business, and while it is quite clearly not possible to make money online instantly, it is quite possible to make money online fairly quickly and relatively easily with the right strategy, a solid plan, and a little bit of consistent effort on your part.
This is a guest post from Chris Friesen, if you would like to be considered for a guest post please contact me.
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