What are these schemes?

\”Affiliate Marketing\” is a simple and straightforward way to generate an income from home. Many people confuse it with \”Network Marketing\”, and both terms have acquired bad press by their association with MLM (Multi-Level Marketing).

No intelligent person would confuse green beans with baked beans. Or cart horse with clothes horse. So why would anyone think two types of marketing are the same just because they share the one word \”marketing\”? But plenty do, and they go even further by spouting on about them as if they \”know all about them\” – most commonly that \”they\’re all scams\”.

Tell that to Amazon, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Virgin, British Airways, Thomas Cook, Adidas, Nike, Asda, BBC Magazines, BHS, Cadburys, BT, Burton, Butlins, Bose, Carphone Warehouse, Currys, Easyjet, Expedia, Hamleys, Hallmark, Halfords, John Lewis, Ink Factory, Legoland, Last Minute, La Senza, Monarch, Miss Selfridges, Ministry Of Sound, Marriot Hotels, Marks & Spencers, National Trust, National Lottery, o2 Mobiles, NCP, PC World, P&O Cruises, Paddy Power, Ordance Survey, Premier Inn, Pet Supermarket, Reebok, RAC, Sony, Superdrug, The AA and so on……

Who knows more? These guys? Or your mate, down the pub?

It\’s one thing to be ignorant of commercial facts. A lot of people are. But it\’s quite another to show it off to the rest of the world. And worse yet, to be taken in by someone else\’s ignorance. Let the spouters spout. Most people around you are spouters of nonsense. Be clear in your own mind which things are green beans, and which are baked beans.

What is \”marketing\”?

The key word is \”marketing\”. All businesses need marketing. Walk in to any shop and you\’ll see goods laid out for you to see. That\’s marketing.

It\’s not \”sellling\”. Selling is something quite different. When the shop assistant comes up to you and picks up an item, and tells you what\’s great about it and why you should buy it – that\’s selling.

Selling is not marketing. Marketing is not selling.

The reason for marketing is simple. If nobody knows that something exists then they won\’t be able to buy it. Marketing has to be done. And marketing has a cost. To put something out on display in a shop will cost rent, rates, heat, light, wages, insurance, accountancy costs, legal costs, delivery costs, storage costs, … The list goes on.

All that money has to come from your pocket. If you pay £100 for the item is quite often £25 for the item and £75 for the marketing. The £25 finds its way back to the original manufacturer, and the £75 goes out to many, many layers in the supply chain – wholesalers, distributors, retailers, delivery drivers, managers, secretaries, … and so on.

This is where you need to engage brain instead of mouth. Open your eyes. Once you do you will never see the world in the same way again.

The real deal

Forget the £25 for the item. It\’s too small to worry about. It\’s a distraction. It takes your eye off the ball. It\’s so you don\’t notice that you\’ve just paid £100 for a £25 item. Think about that for a moment. You paid £100 for a £25 item. We\’ll come back to that in a later chapter.

For now, look carefully at the £75? You\’ve just paid £75 for … what? Think about that for a moment. You walked into the shop and gave them £75, and walked out with nothing to show for it. Think about that. Long and hard. It\’s the most important lesson you can learn in the commercial world. It\’s what will make you successful in your home business enterprise. And why most people who try it, fail.

You\’ve paid £75 for \”marketing\”. As you\’ve seen, that £75 goes out to many, many layers in the supply chain – wholesalers, distributors, retailers, delivery drivers, managers, secretaries, … and so on. Let\’s change the word \”layer\” for \”level\”. And the word \”many\” for \”multi. We have \”Multi-Level-Marketing\”.

You are already involved in it. We all are. Can\’t avoid it. You are paying for it.

Now you can see clearly what is happening. Now you can go on to see where you can benefit from it instead of paying for it. This is what so very few people understand.

People go into \”Affiliate Marketing\” / \”Network Marketing\”, / \”Multi-Level-Marketing\” advertised as \”make money from home\” / \”create a home income\” / etc, etc. But they do so without understanding what they are doing. And 97% of them will fail. Word gets around that \”it doesn\’t work\” / \”it\’s a scam\”.

It failed because they failed. They failed to understand what they were doing. Mostly this is the fault of the people who sold them the idea. Remember, marketing is not selling. Having a business opportunity placed in front of you – that\’s marketing. Letting someone persuade you to buy it – that\’s selling. If you buy it – just like in our shop example – you\’ll pay £100 for a £25 item, and the £75 will go to the marketers. Many layers of them.

Don\’t get sold. Don\’t fall for it. Join the 3% who understand what they are doing, and know how to make it work.

Simple and straightforward

So you are now in the 3% group. If you move forward, you do so \”eyes open\”. If you don\’t move forward, you don\’t join the 97% walking into failure with their \”eyes closed\”. You are free to decide. No-one can con you. You won\’t be down the pub chuntering mindlessly. You are clear on what is fact and what is fiction.

Your decision is simple – be part of it or don\’t. Either way, it exists and it works. You know that marketing has to be done. You know that marketing has a cost. You know that someone has to pay it. You know that the \”someone\” is the end buyer.

There are many types of marketing but they all share the one single common theme. The role of placing something where others can see it and someone can buy it. Someone who will pay £100 for a £25 item, so the £75 will go to the marketers. Many layers of them.

As said right at the very beginning, Affiliate Marketing, is a simple and straightforward way to generate an income from home. The way it works is that you take responsibility for placing something where others can see it and someone can buy it. For taking on this role you become one of the layers that gets a share of the £75.

As said – simple! straightforward!

How to begin

So, how to begin? Same as back in the shop – walk around, look at the offers, pick stuff up. But DO NOT get sold, or you\’re back on the sh**y end of the stick. Not a good plan. If someone tries to tell you what you should buy and why – it\’s time to leave the shop and go visit a different one.

And don\’t, whatever you do, believe ANYONE who tells you you can \”earn £30,000 in 7 days\” (and, yes, they will say that and more). It\’s not that they are lying, it\’s just that they\’ve left out a detail. The people I know who do earn those sums (and they do exist, in their droves) spent 3, 4, 5 years of gut-wrenching toil to get there.

Most earned NOTHING in their first 6 months. Many spent hundreds just to get started. There\’s not a business on the planet that did not cost a bucket of cash to get off the ground.

Just think back to the shop. Put yourself among the shelves and ask yourself how much they spent before the first customer came in the door. And how many customers did they go through before those bills were paid off and profits began to be made.

If you\’re not going to dig the foundations, don\’t even think you can build a house. Far less a nice house. Tons of expensive building materials and labour went into a hole in the ground before your home ever began to make an appearance above ground.

So, your eyes are well and truly open, yes? Don\’t fall for B. S. Don\’t buy into a daft plan (and there are zillions of daft plans out there). Watch and wait for the right plan. Be prepared to dig a hole and stuff it with expensive effort. The tree you grow will be bigger than the seed you plant. But no seed equals no tree.

Conclusion

You want to grow a tree? In my case my budget for seed, for foundation material, was ZERO for permission to join, and £20 to £30 a month for 6 to 9 months before seeing meaningful income. Thus I put aside a cash pot of £270. No way could I rent a shop and stock it for that kind of money.

By the end of a year I\’d expect to be past breakeven and into profit. From there, the tree has leaves above the level of the soil. It\’ll be another year before I\’ll have enough fruit to live off. And another year before I\’ll have enough spare fruit to sell.

3 years to create a viable marketing business from home? That\’s a sound plan. That\’s where the 3% are, and the 97% are not.

Chris Gooden is retired engineering designer, formerly a Company Director and is a Qualified Bookkeeper. Every business needs to be marketed, and I\’ve spent a lot of time, effort, money marketing myself and my company. More than I\’d like. But I\’ve had to get good at it. With time on my hands I\’m interested in marketing per se, especially if I can do it from home and in my own spare time. If I can help others to do the same, without getting caught up in the hype, then that would be great. http://StartEarningToday.ws chris@StartEarningToday.ws

Chris Gooden is retired engineering designer, formerly a Company Director and is a Qualified Bookkeeper. Every business needs to be marketed, and I\’ve spent a lot of time, effort, money marketing myself and my company. More than I\’d like. But I\’ve had to get good at it. With time on my hands I\’m interested in marketing per se, especially if I can do it from home and in my own spare time. If I can help others to do the same, without getting caught up in the hype, then that would be great. http://StartEarningToday.ws chris@StartEarningToday.ws

Author Bio: Chris Gooden is retired engineering designer, formerly a Company Director and is a Qualified Bookkeeper. Every business needs to be marketed, and I\’ve spent a lot of time, effort, money marketing myself and my company. More than I\’d like. But I\’ve had to get good at it. With time on my hands I\’m interested in marketing per se, especially if I can do it from home and in my own spare time. If I can help others to do the same, without getting caught up in the hype, then that would be great. http://StartEarningToday.ws chris@StartEarningToday.ws

Category: Business
Keywords: Internet marketing, Home Business, Part-time Income