The World of Internet Marketing

Since the pandemic started in March 2020, more and more people are looking at “working from home” In some cases, this is simply a ‘change of location’, and the work they used to have to commute to an office to do they have found they can now do from home.

But for some, that isn’t an option, so they are looking at joining the “digital revolution” and joining the world of selling and marketing online. For some, this will be a venture into ‘e-commerce’ which is basically selling goods online to someone else, and making a profit. In simply terms, this could be selling via ebay, or advertising on Amazon, and using their “Fulfillment by Amazon – FBA – service. Some might go even further, and set up their own business selling multiple products via software such as “Shopify”

For crafters, they can sell their goods via “Etsy” and similar sites.

If they want to offer a service, they can do ‘freelance’ work, and promote on various sites including “Fiverr” and others. At one time, ‘gigs’ on Fiverr used to be quite silly – such as walking around with a sponser’s logo on your forehead for 8hrs, and charging $10 to do so. But now there are a few more ‘sensible’ things such as creating ‘explainer’ / whiteboard videos, doing voice-over work, creating graphics, ghost writing a book and lots more.

The latest to join the digital age is good ol’ “Bettaware” Where as once upon a time, you had to deliver catalogues door to door, then go back for the order, then deliver the goods, (which is still an option) they now allow you to send people to a website. They order what they want, and the goods are sent direct to customer. Your only job is to direct ‘traffic’ to the site.

The latter is the hardest thing for any would be marketer; traffic. There are hundreds of ways to get people to a site, some free, some quite expensive. In the beginning, it’s an uphill struggle, and you will find dozens of people selling products which are claimed to help send people to your site to buy. (There is also a degree of ‘skill’ in getting people to buy from you, especially initially when they don’t know you. Would you rather buy a hoover from Amazon … or from that dodgy geezer down the pub? Might be the same product, but who are you going to trust?)

As ever, there are scammers waiting to help you join the digital revolution, who promis the Earth, but provide nothing. Beware.

Another option is called “affiliate marketing” and is an ideal way to get into this arena. Basically, you promote a product to others, and earn a commission if there is a sale. Some payments can be a little low – I think Amazon offer 3% – whereas if you promote “Internet Marketing” products, you can earn 60% or more per sale. And some web hosting companies offer 100% of the first year’s hosting fee, (they make money from Year Two onwards)

Personally, I have written (one) book for Kindle, (one) physical book, created apps to run on web servers … but I’ve yet to make any money. The potential is definately there … but it takes a lot of work to earn money in this digital age.

NB: There are other potential profit areas such as betting, and their associated markets of “matched betting”, trading, backing and laying bets and similar fields such as forex and spread betting. But beware. You can lose far more than you’ll ever gain