Without a doubt one of the easiest ways to start making money online is to join one or more affiliate programs. You need only to ‘brainstorm’ a couple different ways to start a business and include some of the more critical details in getting started, to realize which are easiest.
There are affiliate programs where you can promote tangible products such as in an ‘independent distributor’ situation where you will drop-ship to your customers; you can promote digital products such as would be delivered online by download – software, different technical services, etc.; and you can promote the affiliate program itself to earn commissions for referrals.
You might want to consider a combination of these as some are easier to sell (in addition to easier to implement). This may include a combination of one-time-sales and residual income which recurs monthly. It may be easier to make a one-time-sale as there isn’t as much commitment involved as in residual income.
However residual income could be considered ‘working smarter’ since you make the sale once and continue to earn money from that initial sale. (this doesn’t mean rest on your laurels because you always want to be pursuing new business as people do quit, etc.). No matter which business model(s) you choose, it will require your engagement and making a consistent effort over time to really build a substantial business.
You may want to start with just one and build that up and make sure it is running fine before you start to branch out to another business. It depends on you and whether or not you consider yourself a multi-tasker – not to mention how much time you may have to devote to your business over time. Some people can do more than one thing at a time and do them all well, while others really need to focus on one thing at time.
The bottom line is that affiliate programs will usually give you some very important resources to work with just for joining the program. These include a sales page which is a type of website that has your affiliate link imbedded. When anyone responds to the ad, the sale will be directed to your credit and the company will pay you a commission. So with this you are cutting out possibly years of learning how to create a web page, or possibly some serious money to have one created for you.
Another really critical element that you couldn’t easily do yourself as a beginner, is to provide customer service including to process the sales transaction itself – the payment gateway, the communications, the problem resolution if any, etc. So never begrudge an affiliate program the membership fees they may charge as they have really earned it by providing you with real value to help you to easily have a business.