DerrickVanDyke.com

If you’ve been around Internet marketing for any length of time, you should already understand how Internet marketing works: you either earn a commission by promoting other people’s products or you sell your own products and pay affiliates a percentage of your sales to promote you.

In this article, I want to show you the most common methods of making money online and discuss their pros and cons. Then I’m going to give you a step-by-step blueprint designed specifically for people who are just getting started online and want to build a business that generates consistent, reliable income.

The three main methods that everyone talks about are:

1. Affiliate Marketing: Drive traffic to other people’s sites and earn a commission if you make a sale. Commissions are usually paid once or twice a month through PayPal or ClickBank.
2. Product Creation: Develop your own product and sell it online. In most cases, people start out creating digital products such as an ebook, software, or a membership site.
3. Resell Rights: Purchase rights to products that have already been created. These packages usually come with a salesletter, graphics, and a download page.

While these are all great ways to make money online, the question is, which one is best for people who are just starting out?

Affiliate Marketing – The Easiest Way to Make Money?

On the surface, affiliate marketing seems to be the ultimate business for people who are just getting started and want to make a few bucks online.

You’ve probably seen claims like these before:

• You don’t need to create your own product
• You don’t need to build a website
• You don’t need to build a list
• You don’t need to take orders
• You don’t need to handle customer support

“All you have to do is DRIVE TRAFFIC to your affiliate link and the sales will start rolling in…”

Unfortunately, traffic generation is where most people fall short. They get discouraged and eventually give up.

Generating traffic is not as easy as most of the ‘Gurus’ claim…

1. Advertising costs have gone up and Google has made it harder for affiliates to get traffic without paying a premium price.
2. SEO tactics that worked yesterday may not work tomorrow because the search engines can and will de-index your pages without warning.
3. Web 2.0 is the latest rage, but who knows how long that will last?
4. Traffic exchanges? Safe Lists? Surfing for hits? Guaranteed traffic? Don’t make me laugh… They’re all about as worthless as FFA links.

It seems that every time a new traffic strategy comes along, everybody jumps on the bandwagon and it eventually stops working.

And even if you do eventually figure out how to generate consistent traffic, there’s another problem with affiliate marketing…

It’s not a stable source of income because you’re dependent on forces beyond your control.

The fact is, if you leave the sales process up to someone else, your success will always be dependent upon what that merchant does or does not do.

Product owners can change their affiliate links without warning, sell out to a competitor, or even drop their affiliate programs and refuse to pay their affiliates.

I once promoted a membership site (I won’t mention the name) that paid monthly recurring income. I built up over $1000 in recurring commissions and never got paid a single dime for my efforts!

She said the database was corrupted and there was no way to figure out who she owed. So she just shut down the site and kept all the money.

There was nothing I could do about it. Even if I hired a lawyer, there was no way to prove how much I earned.

And then there are the ClickBank merchants who leave commission leaks all over their site. They make it too easy for people to steal your commissions.

There are ways to prevent commission theft. But the merchants don’t care because after all, they just want the buyer leads.

And if you’re sending traffic to a merchant’s website and not building a list, you’re not creating any leverage in your business.

Product Creation – How hard could it be?

Since affiliate marketing has so many flaws, creating your own products would seem to be the solution…

You have more control over the sales process,  high profit margins (especially on digital products), and you can get affiliates to promote you.

The problem is, the process can be frustrating – especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. Choosing a market, writing the content, designing the website, and then hoping that it will sell…that’s a lot of work with no guarantee of a return on your investment.

And let’s face it, most people either can’t or don’t want to write a 60-page ebook. I’ve done it and it’s a lot of work!

Of course, you can hire a ghostwriter. But good writers are expensive and you would still have to get someone to compile the book for you, write your sales letter, and design your website. The whole process could take months and if you’re a newbie, it may never get done…

Creating your own product is a great idea if you’re already making money online. But when you’re just getting started you can’t take the risk of going through all the work, effort and expense when you don’t even know if your product will sell.

Resell Rights – The Ultimate Shortcut?

So, if developing your own product isn’t the answer and affiliate marketing alone is unpredictable…then resell rights must be the best solution. Right?

You’re still in control over the sales process. You have high profit margins on digital products. You can still get affiliates to promote you. And you can skip the whole product creation process!

Well even though this business model seems like the perfect fit for newbies, it also has it’s flaws…

I’m not going to get into all the different flavors of resell rights in this report. But I will say that there are basically three ways to buy a resell rights license.

1. You can buy a package of products that everyone else is selling.
2. You can buy rights to a product that is limited to a certain number.
3. You can buy exclusive rights to a product that no one else will be selling.

You’ve probably seen those packages or membership sites full of resell rights products that you can buy for pennies on the dollar. Most of them are pure junk. But you can find quite a few diamonds in the rough that are worth selling.

The problem is…everyone else and there dog is selling them too (especially in the IM market).

If you buy exclusive rights – even limited rights – you’ll have less competition. But it can be expensive (up to $1,000). And just like creating your own product, you have no guarantee it will sell. Again, not the best choice for newbies…

So what’s the best method for newbies?

Here’s the answer you’ve been waiting for…All THREE!

What you may not realize is this: you’re not limited to just creating products, selling resell rights, or promoting other people’s products.

Internet marketing is not linear…it’s a progression. When you’re first starting out, you need a plan that will generate quick cash. But over time your ultimate goal should be to develop a REAL business that brings in a nice monthly income.

Now we’ve already determined that promoting affiliate programs from scratch is not the answer. It takes too long to generate free traffic and buying traffic is risky when you don’t know what you’re doing.

You want to make quick cash that you can inject it back into your business and make it grow. So here’s the plan…

1. Start out selling low-cost resell rights products ($7 – $27). If you can get private label rights, that’s even better because you can modify the content and add your own affiliate links.
2. Pay affiliates 100% commission to promote for you. This will be the leverage you need to get other people to send you traffic and build your list.
3. Build a list of buyers and sell them high-quality affiliate products. Concentrate on just a few good products that you truly believe will help your subscribers succeed.
4. Re-invest your cash into exclusive rights or create your own product. You can command higher prices for exclusive rights to quality products. Creating your own product is optional. But it will brand you as an expert in your field and gain the respect of your customers.

Obviously, there are many variations of this business model. For instance, you can add an opt-in box (popover, inline, etc.). You could use a squeeze page. You could add an up-sell, a down-sell, or a one-time offer…

But the main objectives remain the same: Give away your front-end profits and other people to build your list while you make money on the back end.

And once you set it in motion, it keeps churning out cash like clockwork. And you can go on to build another one.

I hope you enjoyed this article and take action on what you’ve learned.

Best regards,
Derrick Van Dyke

The #1 most important tool that is critical to your success, is a squeeze page with a unique, compelling offer for your prospects. Your primary objective as an Internet marketer is to get people onto a list so you can build a relationship and sell more products.

If you just send your prospects to an affiliate page – then the person who’s selling the product ends up getting all those leads – and gets to sell other products to them – and they’re lost to you forever.  So what you want to do is create your own list so that you can continuously make money – day after day, month after month.

The entire purpose of your squeeze page is to promote your free report or audio or video – and to collect the visitor’s name and email address.  It’s called a squeeze page because the visitor can only take one course of action – to provide their information.

Competition can be a major problem whether you run an online or offline business – but doing business online has gotten increasingly more complicated – especially in the Internet marketing niche. Here are three tips to make your lead magnet stand out from the crowd and get more optins.

Tip #1: Be Unique

A few years ago, offering someone a free report for signing up at your squeeze page was brand new and worked like gangbusters.  Then everybody jumped on the bandwagon and as it became a regular “offer” it started losing its effectiveness.  Then audio files were hot.  These days it’s videos.  Who knows what it will be tomorrow?

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t offer free e-books, audio files or videos – they’re still effective methods for encouraging people to sign up for your newsletter or other offer.  What I am telling you is that whatever your offer is, you need to position it so that it’s different from the rest of your competitors.  Otherwise, you’re going to look like everyone else, and your prospects are going to pass you right by.

Tip #2: Offer REAL Value

Building an opt-in email list is one of the best ways to make money online. But you need to offer good incentives to your prospects to encourage them to subscribe to your list.  You need to give away high-quality content such as software, online videos, access to exclusive services and other freebies that are perceived as helpful and valuable to your prospects.

Tip #3: Use a Simple Design

My best-converting squeeze pages are super basic with no graphics. You just need a headline, a few bullet points and a call to action. Don’t over complicate things with fancy graphics or long copy. If you split-test your pages, you’ll find that short copy with a great offer will win every time.

I hope you take this advice to heart and start building a list that will make you money for years to come. Any time you need cash, just take a few minutes to craft an email and then click the “Send” button. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can have money in your bank almost on demand!

Five years ago, you’d have to pay $500, $1,000 or more to get Private Label Rights to a product. It just wasn’t that common for people to sell rights to their content. Today, the Internet is flooded with low-quality PLR and the good stuff is hard to find. But there are a few diamonds in the rough…

Below you will find three tips for buying and selling private label rights plus a few good resources for finding quality PLR products.

Tip 1: Buy Quality Content

If you’re going to stamp your name on it, you need to work with quality content that you would stake your reputation on. Hint: if a marketer is selling 10 PLR packages for $27, it’s not worth the investment. You’ll just end up with a bunch of crap that you’d be ashamed to sell.

Tip 2: Buy Exclusive Content

You don’t want to sell the same product that hundreds of other marketers are selling. Look for exclusive content that is limited to 100 people or less.

Tip 3: Make Your Product Unique!

Stand out from the crowd by creating your own unique version of the product. Here are a few tips:

1. Edit the content: change the name, font size, font color, headings, header, footer, etc. and make sure the spelling and grammar are up to your standards.
2. Change the graphics: if you’re handy with PhotoShop or Gimp, you can modify the PSD files to create new graphics. Or you can simply get new graphics. You don’t even need a complete graphics package! You could just get an ecover and use a simple border for your web page.
3. Re-write the sales letter: if you’re not the greatest copywriter in the world, don’t sweat it. Just change the headline, stress the benefits in bullet points, and make sure you have a good guarantee and a strong call to action.

Where to Find Quality PLR

I belong to several membership sites where I purchase and resell information products in the IM (Internet Marketing) niche. I also buy exclusive content at the Warrior Forum and I keep an eye out for great deals in the emails that I receive every day. Below you’ll find my top resources for finding quality resell rights.

Resell Rights Express

This is where I add the top 10 products that I purchase each month. Not all come with PLR. But you will find quality products here.

The Warrior Special Offers Forum

You can find great deals in the Warrior Special Offers Forum that you won’t find anywhere else. Most of the content is in the IM niche. But I have seen PLR content in other niches too.

Special Report Club

I’ve been a member of this site for years and they always come out with great content. They’ve recently added complete PLR reseller packages with graphics, affiliate tools, and more.

InfoGoRound

They have a huge library of PLR articles you can use however you want, which includes assembling them into killer products. What really sets Infogoround apart, though, is their packages.

NicheOlogy

Paul Evans has made a reputation for himself by offering excellent material, and this monthly membership site is no exception. The material is great, and you’ll get fresh stuff every single month.

So there you have it…

I’ve given you three hot tips on buying and selling PLR and I’ve given you five excellent resources for finding exclusive, quality content. Isn’t it time you get your first product online?

All the best,

Derrick VanDyke

P.S. I will personally answer the first 20 questions about this article. Just leave a comment below…Make ‘em good!

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The first step to creating a successful, Internet marketing business is building a credible and professional looking website. Your website is the jump-off point of all your marketing efforts – it’s your virtual place of business.

Remember that old saying in the Real Estate business that the number one thing that creates a successful business is “Location, Location, Location?”  Well, the same thing applies to your online business.

So just like any brick and mortar business, it’s important that your virtual office is easy-to-find, attractive to your customers and welcoming.

Location is just as important for virtual real estate as it is with a brick and mortar business.

Since we’re talking about your “virtual real estate” – you want to make sure that your  website is user-friendly, attracts your prospects and motivates them to click on the links to the products and services you are promoting – and of course, make a purchase.  Your Website should be as classy and professional-looking as possible…without being too flashy or high-tech for visitors.

But before you can build a website, you need to have three things – a domain name (the URL or “address” that someone types into their browser when searching for your Website), a place to house or host your Website, and an HTML editor to create your web pages.  Let’s start with the domain name.

Choosing the Right Domain Name

When choosing a domain name, there are basically two options:

1. You could choose a name that relates to the specific industry that you’ll be selling to. For example if you’re going to be selling affiliate products to horse lovers, then you’ll want to try and find a name that relates to that.  However, it’s gotten more difficult these days to find these types of domain names.

2. Choose a domain name that is easy to remember and generic.  And still a third option is to choose your own name or the name of your business – this probably the easiest and probably the best of the three choices. You can register a dot-com domain name for around $10 per year (and it’s tax deductible).  There are several good companies that will register your domain name – NameCheap.com is the company that I use and recommend.

Finding the Best Hosting Company

Next you’ll need to choose a hosting company – this is where your virtual real estate will be located. Try a good basic company like HostGator – they guarantee your site will be up at least 99% of the time, and their fees are about $7 a month.

Whatever you do, DO NOT choose one of the “free” hosting sites.  Not only will it look nonprofessional (most of the time they put advertisements all over your Website) but they’re also not the most reliable – and entrepreneurs have often found out too late that their Website is often “down” or unavailable – and you’re losing money every time someone can’t get to your site.

Building Your Website

These days with simple WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) Website builders, ready-made templates and even the availability of freelance designers, there is no excuse for even the “technologically challenged” not to have a professional Website. In fact, you can pick up an excellent free HTML editor at Kompozer.net.

These three tools are all you need to build a successful, moneymaking website. Why not get started right now?