It’s long been a dream of mine to generate an autopilot income. I first remember thinking of it after buying an ebook from eBay which was about building an eBay based business. (Details of the book can be found here).
The transaction struck me as a very brilliant business model; I was able to buy the book and download it directly to my laptop.
This automatic transaction seemed clever in that anyone could buy this ebook from anywhere in the world and get it instantly so long as they had internet connection and a laptop. I became determined to get on the other side of this transaction and make an automated income from selling my own digital downloadable books.
Autopilot Income – My First Ebook
At the time, I was a struggling stuntman, attempting to find work in the TV and film industry. This was something I knew something about and I had trained for a number of years to become an Equity approved stunt performer in the UK. So my first book was about how to be a stuntman! Unfortunately it didn’t go down too well with the stunt industry and it felt like I had shot myself in the foot! Adding insult to injury I didn’t sell a single copy – despite potentially ruining my stunt career!
However, I persevered despite the set backs. I had managed to create the digital book and build a website to sell it from. I set up Paypal buttons and automated the process of downloading the ebook once a visitor had completed checkout and paid. I had basically learned how to sell digital downloads on my website.
What I hadn’t learned though was how to get visitors to my website. Without visitors I couldn’t sell my ebook! So I put myself on a marketing course with the intention of learning how to get traffic to my website. At this point I discovered a clever business model known as affiliate marketing.
Autopilot Income – Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a business model in which affiliates refer customers to other people’s products online. When a sale is made, the affiliate earns a commission based on that sale. My stuntman ebook was on the website for around $10; but the course I had joined was selling for around $100. As an affiliate, I learned how to make $40 per sale (40% commission).
Even with someone else’s product, I was able to earn more per sale than creating my very own product and attempting to sell it! All that time wasted – I thought!
Yes, you don’t need to create your own products and you’re often better off using someone else’s products too.
Not all affiliate products pay so much commission of course. Depending on the type of product you choose to promote, you can earn from 1% to 100% commission. Most physical products pay from 5-10% commission, and most digital products pay from 20-40% commission. See average commission for affiliate programs.
Autopilot Income – My First Online Sale
I took many courses which taught me how to generate traffic to my website (or landing page). But by this time I had abandoned my ebook and chosen to promote other people’s products instead. My intention was still to create an autopilot income from my laptop.
My first online sale was promoting a product I used to build my websites (called XSitePro). I don’t think it’s in operation any more, but this is going back a while. It was a great achievement but it was only one sale and I made about $40. The sale came from a review article I had written on a free blogging site called Hubpages.com.
From then on I was hooked and despite a number of difficulties and setbacks, I kept going, determined to build an autopilot income from the internet! During this time I took many different courses, built multiple websites, had my Adwords account banned, and had many other setbacks!
Autopilot Income – Getting Help
Getting help online back in the early 2000’s was pretty difficult. There was a few shady “guru’s” who over promised and under delivered! I found a number of people who offered courses in “how to earn online” including a few names I remember: Shaun Smith, Peter Lexis, The Keyword Academy, George Brown (Google Sniper) and several others which I don’t remember! You can read more about my journey in my digital profit course review article.
I eventually found a company which offered coaching and mentoring for online entrepreneurs (the company I now recommend on this site). You can access a free info video series here. Of course I was sceptical about handing over money to anyone else by this point; but I had had a few successes online but still hadn’t cracked it and made an autopilot income yet.
This was the first time I had met anyone in person from the affiliate marketing industry. Before I joined Mentors, I had only spoken online through emails to affiliate coaches. I was able to access coaches and mentors and learn affiliate marketing from scratch, using an entirely different business model.
Different Types Of Products
I had, up until this point, been struggling with making much at all from affiliate marketing. The odd sale here and there would drop in, but it was far from able to replace my income or have any sort of stability. What I learned was that through using a different business model, I was able to earn recurring commissions from selling subscription affiliate products. This made an immediate difference in my income because I could make monthly recurring commissions from each sale I made!
High ticket items also made a huge difference too. These are affiliate products which are valued much higher than most, therefore pay much larger commissions when you made a sale. Before, I was selling low value products from Amazon and making peanuts when I referred a sale. High ticket affiliate products make a huge difference because you can not only profit more but this also allows you to use paid marketing strategies which are faster and more scalable. Before discovering high ticket items I was struggling trying to get traffic to my websites for free, which is much more difficult.
The Six Figure Business Model
I realised the autopilot income “fantasy” I had was already being used much more effectively by those who knew what they were doing! Using a high ticket product “suite” you can earn a passive income from building an email list into the tens of thousands and promoting just the entry level product to your subscribers.
I wasn’t even using an email list for a large part of my affiliate career! I just didn’t understand how important it was to building a lucrative internet income. See also the power of email marketing.
You can also access an email autoresponder for free using the banner below. See also free autoresponder for affiliate marketing.
To get started and learn more you can access a free video series here. Or if you’re ready to dive in and build your own online business from scratch you can join Mentors here.