This is the fourth post in a series of seven inspired by the third episode of the current series of The Apprentice on BBC. These business ideas are aimed at anyone wanting to start a business on a budget of £200 or less.
The Internet has enabled anyone to start their own business selling anything and everything, by simply setting up a website, you can create an online shop front and using affiliate schemes you can sell anything and everything that takes your fancy, without needing to buy stock, worry about logistics, cashflow, stock levels etc.
So what are affiliate schemes? Affiliate schemes are a way of merchants offering you commission if you introduce customers to them. They typically pay either a fixed fee for the customer taking an action (booking a hotel, applying for a credit card etc) or a percentage of the sales value, which could range from 1% through to as high as 85% depending on the product.
Most affiliate schemes are run through middlemen that provide the tracking software. These middlemen are know as Affiliate Networks, the main networks in the UK are Affiliate Future, Affiliate Window, Commission Junction, OMG, and TradeDoubler. You can find out more about affiliate marketing on the Affiliates 4U Forum.
To get started in affiliate marketing simply choose a market that interests you, and then buy a domain name and some hosting, build a simple site and join the affiliate networks. I suggest Heart Internet for domain names and hosting as their prices are very good and they offer a wide range of blog and CMS (Content Management System) software preinstalled which will make building and managing your site easier. Typical costs are around £35 per year for domain name and hosting.
If you are new to affiliate marketing I would also suggest you buy a cheap ebook that will explain the business to you, currently I would suggest the guide produced by The Rick Jerk. It’s cheap, clear and ought to give you some ideas about how to be different with your marketing.
This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
[...] Which is great news, there are still some many opportunities to make money online either running your own Internet business, affiliate marketing or trading on Ebay. In fact there are thousands of opportunities on Ebay alone as MSN Money reports: [...]