October 20th, 2006
I am certain that it is not so simple to do your full time living from affiliate marketing. It is probably easier for those who started it back in the 90’s or at the start of 2000’s. I started it in 2005 and should admit it is not an easy way to earn money.
You need other ways to generate income. And after some consideration I made up my mind to turn back to e-commerce. I have got some good experience of running my own e-commerce business 4-5 years back in combination with eBay business. Then eBay has got too crowded and the earnings dried out. So, I have dropped that sort of activity.
A month ago I have got a nice offer to buy a 50% share of the top online bookstore in my country (it used to be the top online bookstore outlet, but now it is #2) – www.rodina.by
50% share will enable me to get 50% of the net income. The owner updated me of some difficulties the store is faced at the moment. The former management team was to blame, but the time will show if it is true.
The staff of the online company is 4 in-house employees plus quite a few freelancers and part-time staff. I have a nice Amazon history book that might help me with my new project.
I think this new venture will take most of my time in the coming 2-4 months to get the store running properly. But I think the idea is worthy – the internet is growing fast here, people get used to buying things online and it is a nice opportunity to take a niche in e-commerce.
I have a plan to make it a multi product online store (will add music and movies) selling items worldwide. And it is necessary to become online bookstore #1 in my country again.
Summary: Affiliate marketing is a great business model – you have no products to buy and store, no products to ship and service, no unhappy customers. It is a time consuming task, but this sort of business can be managed from any place in the world. It is a fact that the scene is so much crowded that it is a hard task to make a full time earning from this.
Added to that, I am quite a new player into this field with no established online property. When you sell books or other items you offer some products which are in a higher demand than your affiliate marketing services. And one can feel more secure hoping that your e-commerce business is lasting. I am not so sure of affiliate marketing with those changes in search engines algorithms and that level of competition. So, e-commerce business seems a nice way to diversify.
And what about affiliate marketing? It is in my plan. But I will considerably cut time I spend on this activity.
Need the latest books in Russian? Do not hesitate to contact me.
[tags]ecommerce, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, make money online, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]