Residual Income - The Key to Online Success

by Rob Johnson

If only there was a way to put in a minimal amount of effort and reap great rewards … wait a minute! There is an opportunity like that right on the internet! It’s called affiliate marketing. For people wanting to earn a residual income, becoming an affiliate marketer makes sense. Whether you have a full-time job and want to earn some extra bucks online or you are a stay-at-home parent who is looking for a way to make ends meet, the internet is your best bet. Affiliate marketing is one of the best tools in creating a residual income online.

Defining Affiliate Marketing and Residual Income

If you are a relative newbie to the whole making money online scenario, you are probably wondering: “What the heck is a residual income and affiliate marketing?” Residual income basically is a method where you can earn ongoing commissions as the result from one sale of a product or service. Some real estate agents earn a residual income off of rental properties. Owners of the property will pay the real estate agent a commission each month that the tenant is renting the property. Of course, if the tenant leaves, that commission is lost until a new tenant takes residence.

Affiliate marketing is the hottest way to make money online these days. To put it in simplistic terms, it is a paid referral program. Say, for instance, that you have a website devoted to a particular hobby like fly-fishing. You could make money online from your website by having different internet links to your favorite stores that sell outdoor gear or even links to popular fishing resorts. Every time someone clicks that link and purchases something, you are paid a commission.

How to Get Started on the Road to Earning a Residual Income Online

Not all affiliate marketing programs pay a residual income. For the most part, these types of programs pay a commission per sale only. In order to earn money consistently from a single sale, you have to search for the right affiliate marketing opportunities that pay a residual income. Just think about it, not only would you earn a commission on the sale of a product or service, but you would continue to earn money for as long as that person remained a customer of the affiliate company.

The biggest hurdle in earning money online is having a website. Without a website, you do not have the medium necessary to get started with affiliate marketing and earning a residual income. There are a variety of ways to start up a website from utilizing the extra space your internet provider gives you as part of your email package to finding a low-cost or free web hosting company that has basic templates in which you can build your own website.

The next challenge to making a residual income online is finding those affiliate programs that offer this earning potential. Think about those instances where someone might purchase a product or service and have to pay on a periodic basis, whether weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly. These are the best opportunities for residual income. You hook in the sale and earn that initial commission, then start earning a fee for as long as they stay customers. Many of these opportunities are for services. Here are just a few ideas:

• Beach house or resort rentals

• Internet providers

• Utilities like electricity, telephones and digital cable

• Monthly subscriptions to newsletters, access to databases or job sites, or anything else that requires a payment plan

There are a few instances where the sale of actual physical products can earn you a residual income. Think of all the products in your home or office that require reordering on a periodic basis. Water bottles for your water cooler, printer or toner cartridges for office equipment, air conditioner filters, medications, vitamins and even software are all possibilities. By choosing one or more affiliate programs online that offer residual income, you can focus on marketing your website to get more visitors which translates into more potential customers. You are guaranteed that residual income on the sales you have already made. There is little maintenance involved in that aspect.

Beware of the Affiliate Scams

While earning money online is getting easier, even for newbies, spotting affiliate scams is getting tougher. You’ve got to protect yourself and do a little research before signing on as an affiliate for a company. There are too many people to count who have been swindled out of payments by online merchants. And if residual income is your goal, you could stand to lose a potential steady source of money. Here are a few things to look for so you don’t get scammed:

• No point of contact – If contact information where you can call, write or email with questions and/or concerns is not found on the website, don’t even bother looking further.

• High commissions/residual income – Take a look at what this online merchant is offering. If the commission and/or residual income appears to be more than what they are making on a sale, be leery. Chances are that they are running an affiliate scam to just boost online traffic and sales to their website. These scammers know that very few people will follow through with any type of legal action.

• Short cookie existence – When a potential customer visits a website online, a cookie is stored on their computer. This little cookie file lives on the computer for a certain length of time and the customer has that particular time period in which to purchase something from that website in order for an affiliate to get the credit. You want to make sure that the cookie has a long life so that you can get that potential sale and residual income. Otherwise you are out of luck.

There are a lot of nuances to affiliate marketing and earning residual income online. Take the time to research each opportunity. You want to pick out some affiliate opportunities that will mesh well with your website or interests. Outline a few marketing strategies and ideas to promote your website for higher traffic volume. Remember – the biggest investment you make is your time, so spend it on something worthwhile and reap the rewards!