Multiple Streams of Income

Once you have set up a single website, done some advertising to drive some traffic to it, and are beginning to see the fruits of your labors, it is time to look at diversifying. Diversifying basically means not putting all of your eggs in one basket. So, if you are selling other people's products on your existing website (affiliate marketing) by linking to another website so that you aren't handling the customer service, billing, etc., it's time to think about what else you would like to do on the internet to make some cash.

Some of your options include:

• an eBay business using dropshippers (so that you don't have to carry inventory)
• building another website on hostGator, for example, carrying Clickbank products
• listbuilding, and affiliate marketing, or pushing traffic to your own websites
• buying resale rights to eBooks, and selling them on your own website
• an eBay business selling hobby items, things around your house, or lot purchases from a liquidator
• building your own website on hostGator selling affiliate items which you've learned are excellent, and just collecting commissions from those sales
• research and become an affiliate of companies in industries which are rapidly growing, and post those links on a website that you put together
• and many, many more options to make money on the internet, just look around!

A few things mentioned in the points above that may need a little explanation include:

1. Droppshippers - these are companies which allow you to enter your customers' sales directly into their order systems, and will ship the items directly to your customers. It allows you to plan your sourcing up front, and not carry any inventory
2. hostGator - this is my favorite web hosting service, as it is cheap, allows you to buy a domain name (your website name), and easily set up your website all in one place
3. Clickbank - sells 10,000 or more products, all in electronic form, ranging from how to train a dog to the latest software that will teach you how to advertise more efficiently on Google. It's a fantastic source for products that are in demand, and they take care of the "shipping", billing, etc., and pay you a commission twice per month
4. listbuilding - compiling a list of "opt-in" consumers who want your emails on a specific topic, so that you can market to them, either affiliate marketing or clicking to your website
5. affiliate marketing - marketing someone else's products so that you collect commissions
6. pushing traffic - sending interested consumers

Now that you have a few more ideas for multiple streams of income, you may be wondering why you need so many streams of income. What may have seemed a super money-making idea to you may not pan out at all, or may take a much longer time to gin up than you expected. If you have multiple streams of income, they will come online at different rates, and will average out to a healthy income, rather than a single income which may be only a tiny trickle. It will also give you a better chance to hit one out of the park, so to speak.

One last comment: there are many companies who will offer to put together a website for you, an expensive advertising campaign, and many other "perks". I have not yet found one who can beat good research finding a great company to represent as an affiliate (which is what many of these companies do when you peel back the onion), basic web design on hostgator, and simple advertising using either Yahoo, Google, or MIVA. Most of these companies will offer a very bare-bones website to be set up for $199.95 (which you could do for $19.96 on hostgator), then will want to sell you an advertising package for the first three months for $1,900 - $4,900 (this varies a great deal depending on industry but you can always do it cheaper yourself), so my word to the wise is: research what you're buying before you buy it!

Follow Your Heart, but Do a Little Research, Too

The most important thing to remember when starting your own business is that you should always plan your business around your interests. Since you're going to be spending a lot of time with that new business, it has to be something that you're interested in to be successful. Take pen and paper and brainstorm, listing all of your interests that might potentially become businesses. Some examples of interests that may become businesses would be beaded jewelry, fancy barrettes, gardening, cooking, car repair, wave runners, and kayaking.

When talking with most successful business owners, you'll also find that it's even better if you already know a significant amount about the industry in which you plan to earn your income. When starting a new business, there's so very much to learn about running that particular business that it simplifies things significantly and becomes less overwhelming if you have solid industry knowledge to begin with. Of the interests you listed, reprioritize depending upon the amount of knowledge you have about each industry. Let's say you know a great deal about cooking and kayaking, less so about the other interests.

Another important factor, once you have identified some industries in which you have some knowledge and interest, is the amount of demand in those industries. If you plan to have an online business, do your research online. Obviously, if there is very little demand for the industry that you would like to start a business in, it's unlikely to succeed. To find out the level of demand for each of your choices, go to: http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal, and enter Kayaking, for example. Looking at the numbers of well over a million daily searches, it would appear that there is sufficient interest/demand in Kayaking, so that could lead to a viable business.

Once you have identified the industry or business focus that is right for your business, you will have to decide HOW to mold that into a successful business. Taking our kayaking example, would you want to sell kayaking equipment, actually shipping it from your home; sell kayaking equipment on eBay, using a dropshipper, so that you never have to touch it; sell ebooks on learning how to kayak; sell regional ebooks which have maps showing suitable places to kayak; or do you have some unique take on kayaking that you want to focus on? While you can decide to do a number of related businesses, it is best to start with a single one, work the kinks out of it, then finance new lines of business from the profits.

Now that you have decided on a single type of business to start, you will need a business plan. A business plan is a forecast of earnings and expenses, along with text explaining exactly how you will achieve the forecast. For example, let's say you decided to dropship kayaking equipment and sell it on eBay. (Dropshipping means that the manufacturer or wholesaler will take orders from you directly and ship the items straight to your customers' homes with your company's identifying information. It eliminates the need for inventory and is the cheapest way to get into hard goods sales.) Your business plan would describe whether you would set up your own website or not, what type of advertising, if any, that you would do, what types of payment you would accept and the steps you would take to be able to accept them, the steps needed to establish yourself on eBay, whether your town or city will require you to get a business permit, selecting a main supplier and some auxiliary suppliers (most of them are in China, and can be found through Alibaba.com ), whether you will do business as an individual, corporation, or other entity, etc.. Spend some time on your business plan so that you don't find out later that you overlooked something major that will cause you to be unable to provide good customer service for a period of time. As to suppliers, it's always prudent to get a sample shipment so that you know firsthand what shipping timeframe and product quality you can expect.

After your business plan is completed, and has been thoroughly vetted, you should be ready to start your new business. You know the industry, you've planned it all through, you know the demand, all that remains is to get out there and be successful! Congratulations on your new business!