One of the things you need to do when you set out to make money online and build your online business is to choose your business model.

Business model, simply put, means how you are going to make money. It is an approach you will be taking to make money and build your business. It is a plan for the successful operation of a business. What is the actual business you are going to run? It includes identifying what you want to sell, your identified target market, customer base and anticipated expenses.

There are many different online business models, each business model has its own level of complexity and rewards. If you have been looking around, you would have probably seen some examples, like affiliate marketing, eCommerce store, Amazon FBA, marketing agency…etc.

Without going to discuss in depth here the characteristics, the pros and cons of each business model, I would just mention that most of the business models have certain prerequisites required for them to work well. They either require a bigger amount of capital or a more complicated set up.

As a beginner who sets out to make money online and build your online business, you would want to start with a simple business model. Focus on working on it to achieve your first level of success.

With knowledge and experience you gained from your first business model and the money you have made; you can go on to explore other business models and add them to your business empire.

Here is one simple business model that fits well with beginners, that is Affiliate Marketing.

Affiliate marketing business model allows you to start instantly making money online as you

·      Don’t have to create products

·      Don’t have to create landing page, sales page

·      Don’t have to set up payment processing system

·      Don’t have to handle delivery

·      Don’t have to keep inventory

·      Don’t have to build support teams

All these have been taken care of by the vendors. You simply act as a connector, connecting potential customers who want to buy the products or services and the company that sells those products or services. You will earn a commission when a customer you refer to the company made a purchase.

Most of the big established companies and well-known brands offer an affiliate program. They have products that they are already selling, and other elements of business mentioned above in place.

You can literally partner with these established companies and well-known brands to start selling their products as an affiliate and earn a commission.

To win big with affiliate marketing, you would want to have an ecosystem for the multiple affiliate products you will be promoting. The ecosystem will help maximize your return of promotion.

To illustrate the benefits of an ecosystem, let’s use a mall with stores that have affiliate program as an analogy.

Without an ecosystem, you will earn a commission only from the store to which you send the potential customer through your affiliate link. If the customer goes on shopping in the mall and happens to make a purchase from another store in the same mall, you will not earn a commission as the customer did not reach that store through your affiliate link.

With an ecosystem, all the stores in the mall can be incorporated under the ecosystem. When you send a potential customer to a particular store through your affiliate link, it also serves as a gateway to the mall, the customer has entered the mall, i.e., your ecosystem. When they go shopping, it doesn’t matter which store they go to purchase, you will earn a commission as the ecosystem has been designed to apply your affiliate link of the store your customer goes to purchase. Now, you have multiple opportunities, not just one, to earn commissions.

Building an ecosystem may sound daunting to you as it requires technical expertise and resources. However, the good news is that you don’t have to build one yourself. There are platforms that have ecosystem you can leverage; simply choose one that you resonate with to benefit from it.

As you can see, an affiliate marketing business model with an ecosystem is more powerful than the general affiliate marketing model. It helps promote multiple products and services and enables you to have multiple opportunities to earn commissions thus enhancing your return of promotion.

Choosing the right way to make money online and build your online business helps maximize your results.