Making Money Online - Where is the Catch

Introduction

There are hundreds if not thousands of sites that are screaming "make money online" and they offer a simple way to do this. And you end up wondering "where is the catch?". To answer this question, one needs to back up a little and reach a higher altitude where you get a look at the bigger picture.

Demographic Shift

What is happening in the world today is a change in demographic behavior. A very significant number of people are spending more time on the internet than ever before. And this number is very significant to businesses that want to sell products to consumers. Which means soft drink companies, fast food companies, stationery companies, pet food companies, you name it.

Marketing Democratization

With the shift of demographic behavior has come another change: the democratization of marketing. Traditionally, marketing has been one of the most expensive activities of many businesses, especially the ones that deal directly with consumers. Global annual marketing spending is in the range of $150 - $200 billion. Businesses spent over $2 billion on advertising during the FIFA world cup in the span of a few weeks. The point being that only the very, very rich companies can really reach out to people very effectively.

Correction: that was before the demographic shift. Now, with people all over the internet, there is a shift in the balance. It is now possible to reach a small number of people very cheaply via the internet. This is the democratization of marketing.

Affiliates

One innovation makes use of the demographic shift very effectively. Let us say that I have something that I want to sell: maybe I'm making mousetraps and I have built one that works really well. I'm a not rich and cant advertise the mousetrap on TV.

Is there no hope for me? This is where the internet comes to the rescue. Here is what I do: I make a proposition to others on the web - "advertise my mousetrap on your site and I will pay you a commission if the mousetrap is sold from your site".

Suppose you have a presence on the internet in the form or a blog, or twitter, or you have a web site. And you take me up on my proposition, then you become an affiliate for me. You need to embed a link to my product page on your blog or site. So, if a user visits your blog and visits my link and buys my product, I give you a commission on the sale.

There is NO Catch

So, what has happened as a result of the demographic shift is that a market has opened up for small businesses to promote their products and services. And the advertising revenue that used to go to TV channels is now going to individuals as small payments.

A blog writer (of a popular blog) is a micro- TV channel. And he gets advertising revenue if he chooses to advertise products on his blog. All he needs is viewership - which means that he writes what people want to read.

And that's it. Just wait for the advertising revenue to start pouring in.