Unless you’ve been living under your house lately, you’ve probably heard Ebay has made some major changes as to what you can or can not sell on their auction site. As far as I can tell, the new change is that you can not sell digital or download only products. I’ve seen many folks saying Ebay is not thinking and they will be losing business, ect, ect, ect. Now come on, this is a major company, don’t you think they really thought it out before going through the steps? Of course they did. You can bet they’ve had many meetings and have hash this out before putting it in place.

My thoughts are, it’s their company, though it might sound rude, they can do what they want. I also believe it is a privilege to use their service, not a right. It’s obvious, they believe it is the best for their business and more important, what is best for their users, both buyers and sellers. Course you can never make every happy all the time.

Now, on with the show… this big news totally re-enforces what I posted on the 20th about not relying on one source of income. I don’t know first hand, but I am guessing, there are a large group of folks who will not have much of an income in a few days, if any. I don’t mean this as a, “I Told You so”, more of a wake up call. It’s like realizing you should have backed up your pc, only after it crashes and burns. I’ve lost plenty of digital 0’s and 1’s in the past.

The sky isn’t falling, these people that have relied on selling e-books on Ebay, could turn their digital products into physical products. Better yet, for many this could open a whole new incredible business opportunity for them. A little thing called direct mail thats worked for many years and still works today. Seems these days, all most of us see is the internet. While it’s a great medium to make money, it is not the only one.

In my opinion, I think direct mail is is more wide open today than it was just years ago, because of the fact that so much as moved to the net. I am no expert in direct mail, so it’s just my “Two Cents”. Think about it a minute though, how much direct mail do you get in your mail box compared to, say 10 years ago?

I am also no Ebay Expert, my only rant about the Ebay change is the short notice, they only gave 7 days for the changes to take effect.

So…

How many income streams do you have? How many more will you add? With multiple streams, if one takes a hit it won’t hurt as much. Not like losing your whole business in 7 days.

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Wow, it’s been far too long since I posted here, my bad.

If you know my background, I’ve basically been an affiliate marketer since 1998. Don’t get me wrong, there are many things about affiliate marketing that I absolutely love, but in the long run it can really stink.

I’ll tell you why it stinks in a minute…

What do I love about affiliate marketing?

First and foremost it can be somewhat auto pilot. What I mean is, you send your traffic off to some one else, they deal with the orders, customers, problems, ect. Your only job is to send traffic. the big picture, you could take as much time off when you want. If your the one selling “stuff” you still need to be on call for your customers. Plus as I mentioned, you don’t have all the headaches.

What’s so bad about Affiliate marketing?

You need to keep busting your butt and you need to keep bringing in the traffic. For the most part your sell something, you get your money and thats the end. So it’s a constant battle. I don’t care what any one tells you, search engine traffic is tough to get and it’s even tougher to keep, any one tells you different is not being honest.

I know from experience, you can not build a website, get links, build traffic, then expect it to make money for you for a long time. Believe me, I’ve tried it many times, I know from watching my stats go down hill, it doesn’t work. It only stands to reason, the search engines are looking for fresh, up-to-date content, why shouldn’t they?

Some would argue that if you pushed programs that pay recurring commissions, such as monthly membership sites

One other little thing, with affiliate marketing, it usually takes longer to get your money. You have to wait for the pay period to end, the program to write your check and the mail to get it to you. The exception is if your selling information products such as $7 Reports, as they pay out instantly through Paypal. A good thing of course..:)

Long story short, it’s hard to build up something that you can step back and take too much time off, unless you hire people to do the grunt work for you ( many guru’s do actually).

It’s not all doom and gloom. Maybe I am just a little jaded today..:)

Affiliate marketing can be a great place to start for those that are new to starting a business on the internet. It’s an easy start because all you are responsible for is sending traffic to an offer. Little mess, little fuss. It’s perfect for getting your feet wet with little to no cost.

The point to my rambling for today is not to leave all your eggs in one basket. I’ve seen many people work for years as an affiliate marketer only to be left with little in the end. While I’ve made good money myself over the years, I’ve also watched my income drop quickly when Google stopped loving my sites.

There is nothing wrong with starting out with affiliate marketing, just remember, keep working on other income streams as you go, build streams that will pay you in the future. Better yet, ones that are not dependent on search engines. Don’t just say your going to do, and never get around to it, that doesn’t work, I know..:)

So maybe now the question is, how and what do you build that will work for you, so your not a slave to your business? You could learn how to build Squeeze Pages that Click to build a list that makes you money are into the future. Take the list building one step further and learn Ezine Marketing Magic and really make your list pay off. Just a couple Ideas. Want more? Let me know.

Think you get the point

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