Day 16 30DC - Start Your Engines!

Now it's time to rev up the engines that will propel us toward that first $10.00 made online, and perhaps much more. In addition to making sure we have a good niche -- low competition, adequate number of searches per day, a market that pays for product -- we find an affiliate program with a ready-made product to promote on our website as a test.

You might think that we should sell our own products on our sites. Well, yes. But that will come. Right now, before a product is even developed, it's important to crank up the traffic engine and ensure that people with an interest in the topic are finding the web page all right. The gauge of this is in the number of visitors you get, and whether any of them are interested enough in the topic to open their wallets and pay for a product in that niche.

Remember, we still haven't laid out one single penny on any of this so far. And we're not investing development time yet, either. We're taking something that is already successfully selling elsewhere, and offering it on our page as well. In effect, using a proven product, that already converts visitors into buyers. Through affiliate programs, you can begin to make money with other peoples' products before you have any of your own.

It's akin to selling on consignment. You showcase someone's product, and if it's bought, you get a percentage of that sale. You don't have to do anything other than display it and promote it. Since we are using free display and promotion mechanisms, it's a no-risk, no-cost option. My favorite kind.