Affiliate Marketing or Joint Venture?

If you are thinking about Internet marketing, the three most common are Pay Per Click, Affiliate and Joint Venture.

PPC is simple, but can get expensive without any real results. You simply go to one or more of the search engines and place an ad in their ad services. This may or may not be effective, and even if you know what you are doing, this can get expensive.

Affiliate programs are everywhere and there is nothing to buy or setup. You just sign up for the program you want to do and start promoting it any way you wish except the use of spam. Again this may or may not work and even the experienced marketers often do not make any money. There is much test marketing to do.

There is a difference between actual affiliate programs and people selling affiliate programs or software. When you buy into the latter, you are put into an auto responder queue and continue to get hit with more ‘buy stuff’ email.

Most of the “get rich quick”, “income without working”, “autopilot” etc. programs are worthless or just downright scams. They take your money and give you useless or out of date information. A program or product that was hot 6 months or a year ago is usually just history now.

Trying to find a business that needs little or no work is just a pipedream. It does not matter if you have a job or trying to do business on the Internet, you have to show up for work. This is just reality. Many of the so-called ‘gurus’ farm out their work so they don’t have to do it themselves.

Signing up for an affiliate program usually is free and there is nothing to buy, unless you opt for some type of paid advertising to promote your program. There are many factors involved in marketing, and choosing a good one is only the start.

Joint Venture programs involve partnering with someone who has a program they either want to launch or is already up and running. These usually need some out-of-pocket cost to join and continue. But they do most of the work and all you have to do is follow instructions and promote it, so it is easier to do.

New launches can be profitable when done by and experienced marketer. However, it is a gamble because they may not succeed. Established sites can be researched to see how they are doing, but may not be as profitable because there is less risk involved.

Some good examples are EBay and Amazon. You can join them and sell stuff. But you still have to research to find hot products and there is much competition. There are countless others, with varying degrees of success. The smaller the niche, the less competition and sometimes better profit.

If the program is good and has a profitable product, the secret is in promoting or advertising it. If there is much competition, this can be a losing battle. If not, it can be profitable for you. If you have money, you can do PPC. If not there are many other ways.

As you know there are many free ad sources, blogs, ezines and social networking groups. Just be sure to read the rules first. You can get yourself banned if you don’t play by the rules. However, remember the social networks ARE SOCIAL and do not want to get hit with a barrage of ads.

If you do not already have training or experience in this area, you would be well advised to do that first. A good training program will save you much time, money and frustration. Be sure to shop around and compare prices. Look for a refund guarantee if you do not succeed.

When you find a program that interests you, search on Google to see if there are complaints about the company. This also can save you some frustration and headaches. See if the person selling it is using it and making money. Avoid the “my friend is doing this” trap.

If you do your homework first and apply yourself to succeed, there is a good chance you will!