Reader mail: Making money on the Internet - what works?

A reader writes:

I’m the Managing Director of a real estate brokerage firm in Manhattan, and even though I make a nice living, I want to make more. With that said, I want to supplement my income with a home based business on the internet or some other way. Can you recommend a sound business model that has worked for many people?

Thank you for your assistance.

Managing in Manhattan

Well, Managing, there are a lot of ways to make money on the Internet, but they won't be on a par with real estate in Manhattan without a substantial time investment. And I wish I could say it was low-risk, low-reward and high-risk, high-reward, but that's not necessarily the case. Expertise and consistency are really the keys.

I'm going to assume from your email that you don't already have some product or service ready to sell, so let's take a look at two basic models:

1. You can set up an affiliate site and get commissions for selling other people's products. The biggest money-maker in this area is, ironically, in selling Internet marketing products, however... most of the people making good money selling Internet marketing products have some sort of product of their own and the other products are an upsell. It's a saturated market which I wouldn't recommend getting into.

I'd recommend setting up an Amazon affiliate site as your first venture. They're reliable and easy to work with. Consider it a learning exercise, and if you make a little money with it too, that's great. Once you've got the hang of it, you can explore other affiliate possibilities.

2. You can create and sell info-products. The way some of the most successful Internet marketers make money is by identifying an unmet niche and creating a product for it. The basic approach is this:
- Brainstorm some niche interests
- Do keyword research to see what people are looking for
- See what products already exist in that area
- Make a product that doesn't exist yet
- Create a simple one-page sales letter
- Advertise, usually with pay-per-click

Skeptical? It works. Tom Antion is one of the best-known masters of this technique. InstantEulogy.com makes tens of thousands of dollars a year selling one little specialty e-book that he developed (including the web site) for less than $300! To get an idea of the kind of stuff that's successful, take a look at Antion's list of e-books.

So there you have it: the real truth about making money on the Internet.