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online-business-4-ways-make-money-online-products-1How can you make money with online products? Many people think you just create a product and sell it and don’t realize there are other opportunities as well.

The 4 main ways to make money with online products are:

  • Product Creation
  • Affiliate Marketing
  • Coaching Services
  • Membership Programs

 

Let’s go through each one…

1. Product creation

online-business-4-ways-make-money-online-productsThis is the most obvious one, of course. You write or record your content. Then you create a sales page and promote your product. If you’d like more information, I have a free worksheet to help you through the 22 steps needed to successfully plan and promote a new product.

Product Planning Worksheet

Examples are e-books, videos, audios, software, resources, worksheets, checklists, etc.

Why isn’t product creation all you need to do?

The answer is that it’s hard to create enough products to make a living. And you can’t keep on selling the same few products to the same subscribers over and over.

So most entrepreneurs then graduate to the next level…

2. Affiliate marketing

online-business-4-ways-make-money-online-products-3You can make more offers to your subscribers and followers by adding affiliate marketing to your business. This means that you promote products that others create and in return get an affiliate commission. In the Internet Marketing world, commissions of digital products are often 50%.

Of course, the flip side is that you can have your own affiliate program and get others to promote your products!

Affiliate products offer more resources for your followers and more opportunities for you to make money. Affiliate marketing is one type of partnering with other online entrepreneurs.

Here are the steps for finding affiliate products to promote:

  1. Start by promoting products you bought and used.
  2. Then promote products of people you know well. Perhaps you bought someone’s product, loved it, and now want to promote another product from the same person. I often promote products from my coach, because I know his products well. You can ask for a review copy.
  3. Finally, you can go further afield and find products to promote on JVZoo, WarriorPlus, ClickBank, and even joint venture groups on Facebook. Just be sure you’re promoting something valuable.

 

Here’s another blog post I wrote a while back, 3 steps to finding a good affiliate program to promote as an affiliate marketer,” which will give you more information.

I also have a  report, “30 Days to Profits as an Affiliate Marketer Even If You Don’t Have a List or Website,”  that will give you much more detail on this topic.

3. Coaching services

online-business-4-ways-make-money-online-products-4

As you gain experience in your field, you can help others gain the success you’ve had through coaching. Coaching can be 1-on-1 or group. Coaching can be a high-ticket item but once you’ve gained trust and respect from your audience, you’ll be able to attract clients at a higher price.

You can coach people in person, on the phone, or using Zoom or Skype.

You may have several coaching packages, such as 3, 6, and 12-month programs, group coaching packages, or combined packages.

You need to plan out what your coaching service will look like, set a price, and create a sales page.

Here’s a free resource of several coaching forms from Coach Glue. It’s important to onboard clients in a systematic way so everyone knows their responsibilities and guidelines.

4. Membership program

online-business-4-ways-make-money-online-productsA membership site is a resource that members pay for monthly. Each month, they get new content which builds up a library of resources. The membership site software drips the content to them each month.

Membership sites are great for creating recurring income and you can use them to build a wonderful sense of community. Besides the library of resources, you can add group coaching, projects, webinars, and more.

I even add 1-on-1 coaching to my membership program.

Check out my membership program, Reach the Stars Club.

 

Which ways are for you?

I believe that you need to use at least 2 of the 4 ways of making money with online products and most experienced online entrepreneurs I know use 3 or all 4. I use all 4.

But you may not feel ready to be a coach or want the complexity of a membership program, so you have to make your own choice and see what works for you.

Note: Thanks to Mick McKay for the list of the 4 ways to make money online. The descriptions are all mine. He has a product that explains these 4 ways in more detail, which you can purchase here.

Please leave a comment about your own experience or questions related to these 4 ways of making money with online products. And pass on the knowledge to others using the social media Share buttons, too!

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    8 replies to "The 4 main ways to make money with online products"

    • Gerry Basher

      Wow! Those are really useful information. I’ve only started blogging but eventually, I do plan to use those four ways to earn income online.

    • Susan Boyle

      I downloaded your product planning worksheet and as I was answering the questions, it gave more clarity as to who my target market is and what I’d like to offer. Thanks!

    • Vinche Chacon

      I’m a newbie blogger and I’ve just started signing up at those influencer platform sites. I blogged about them using my own referral code. People might have signed up using my referral code because I just got paid $28. Is this also how affiliate marketing works? I’m interested to apply that on my blog!

    • Ellen Finkelstein

      Vinche, almost always, you’ll get an email saying that you made a sale (although Amazon doesn’t do that). If you don’t, there’s a place to check your stats or a report you can check.

    • Ellen Finkelstein

      Susan, glad to help!

    • Hanzel Geolin

      I am interested about the coaching program. Do you have a more detailed post (or perhaps an ebook) of how to start and follow through doing a coaching program? Thanks!

    • Ellen Finkelstein

      I have a colleague who has a brief course on creating a coaching program. It’s only $17 and you can check it out at http://www.ellenhelps.me/coachingprogram
      Let me know if you need more.
      Ellen

    • Michael Collins

      I’m still on the product creation phase. I’m sure I’ll graduate to the next levels as I get the hang of this. Thank you.

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