A few years ago I bought an ebook on eBay to help me earn some extra money online. The book taught a system of how to buy and sell from eBay using the misspell tool to find bargains and sell them for a profit. But what struck me about the purchase of the ebook was the simplicity of it. I paid online (through Paypal) and the ebook was delivered automatically over the internet to my laptop.
It was a completed automated transaction.
Of course now in 2024 we are all pretty familiar with these transactions. But how many of us are using them to make money as opposed to spending it? We have all pretty much bought something online by now, from Amazon, or eBay or some other online store. But how many of us are actually earning through these online transactions?
A Digital Vending Machine Business
After a while of buying and selling on eBay I turned my attention back to the ebook I had bought. I wondered if I could sell my own ebook from a website and earn from each download. If so, I thought, I could create my ebook once, and sell it multiple times. I wouldn’t need to recreate it because it would be held as a digital downloadable product which was self multiplying!
I created the website and ebook and attempted to sell it by posting it on social media. However, I had some problems and the main problem was getting people to find my ebook. So I joined a course which taught me how to get more traffic. My hope was to learn this skill and then sell my ebook with it!
However, I discovered a much easier method of making money online and that was to sell other people’s products instead.
During the course I realised that I could sell the course I had just bought and make more for the referral than through selling my own ebook (even at 100% profit for my own book)!
A Digital Vending Machine Business – Affiliate Marketing
My ebook was selling for around $10, and the course was $100, of which I could earn 40% ($40). So even though the product wasn’t my own, I could earn much more from referral selling online than with a product I had created myself!
The business model is affiliate marketing and it’s surprising how few people are aware (even now) of this incredibly simple business model. With affiliate marketing you get paid for referrals. So if you find a product you would like to promote, you can earn an extra income simply through online referrals. You don’t have to deal with customers and you don’t have to personally handle products either.
It’s effectively a digital vending machine business where you use online content to send people to other people’s products. When you make a sale through one of your links, you earn a commission based on the sale.
Why Use A Digital Vending Machine
I always liked the idea of vending machines. They deliver products automatically to customers. At the end of the week/month, you collect the cash in the machine and top up the products. What’s better than an automated cash making machine which makes you money on autopilot? I’ll tell you – it’s a digital vending machine which doesn’t need filling up or the cash collecting. You get paid directly for the work you do online.
So what’s the catch? Why isn’t everyone cashing in on this digital gold rush? Well not everyone knows about affiliate marketing so there’s that. But there’s also a high drop out rate in the business too. There’s a lot of competition too, so that means it’s not that easy! You can’t just throw up a website, get automated traffic and make sales. It’s a little more complicated that that!
However, once you understand how to make a single sale online, you can repeat your efforts and automate the process. Think about an automated online vending machine selling for you over and over!
Why People Become Affiliate Marketers – Freedom
One of the main driving motivators for people when they become affiliate marketers is the freedom it can offer. Once you have a profitable campaign running with your affiliate business, you can leave it running potentially forever. It generates sales for you and pays you for the referrals. No dealing with customers or products. You only job is to refer online sales and there’s several ways you can do this:
- Running ads – paid advertising is one of the best ways to generate sales online and it’s also globally scalable
- Creating content – creating content can take many forms such as blogging or video blogging, for example
- Social media marketing – some marketers use social media to post their content and others run ads on their social media sites.
- Email marketing – most affiliates build a list of subscribers who they can promote products and services to.
If you’re interested in learning more about earning an income online through the sale of other people’s products/services checkout this video to get started.