How to Make Money Online Without Direct Selling

Caroline, you are not a true businesswomen.

Businesspersons are ruthless in their quest to make money. They must shove as much effort as possible to entice people to buy anything they sell.

The same problem with me. After 15+ years in business, I still earn below national average.

My critics said, altho I have advance technology to sell, the truth is, I am an inventor who does not have business skill. Yes… I am just an inventor. Not a skillful businessman I would like to think.

I used to be very angry with my critics. However, now I am beginning to accept their words.

My next step is to partner with someone with true business skill. He doesn’t need to have inventor skill, that will be my job.

He just need to be a ruthless businessperson who care nothing but making money. And sugar-coat every words to entice customers into believing they will get huge benefit buying my products.

I have ran into some dumb luck that has made me a pretty good pile of money.
I had an internet marketing company out of NY contact me about writing some articles for one of their clients. They asked how much I’d charge per article and I shot them a pie-in-the-sky amount and they accepted! I wrote 10 articles for them in 3 days.
Now I am working with several of their other clients doing article writing because they appreciated the speed and quality.

It is dumb luck, but I guess my writing style is what attracted them.
I really don’t know, I just hope the gravy train keeps rolling! LOL
AL

Allyns last blog post..How To Rejuvenate Your Lawn This Fall, It’s Easy!

I really admire your stance. I too hate having sales pitches rammed down my throat and I immediately click the Back button when I see one. And I’ve probably hurt my bottom line a bit by being too reluctant to sell, sell, sell! I just don’t want to be those guys that people see and say “Oh great, here comes Mike…hide your wallet!”

Mike Collinss last blog post..PLR Articles – Leveraging the Work of Others to Build Your Business

This is a great post and your mention to how you made thousands through your ebook is brilliant and I am definately going to use that technique in the future. Thankyou so much for this post

Ryan McLeans last blog post..How NOT to Make Money Online

Selling isn’t evil. Do people really buy products that are shoved down their throats? I don’t. I do buy things that I want for whatever reason. Perhaps the want comes from a frivolous whim and some times the desire for something comes from seeing how that item/service, etc. will benefit me or mine.

There’s a vast difference between persuading someone that your product will serve his needs and trying to influence someone to buy a product that has zero value, nada, zip. I agree that selling something you believe has no value could be soul killing. So don’t do that. Only offer value to your potential customers. If they want the product, you have given them the opportunity to learn about the product and a place to buy it. In the process, your site adds value to itself and you will make a profit. Win/win.

If you feel uncomfortable with people who try to hard sell you, it’s because you are not part of their targeted market. Just make that clear and they will go – nothing wrong with that.

And by the way, you have ads on your page. One tries to sell your opt-in form. One sells Traffic Rush. And one sells your free eBook which again soft-sells affiliate products. Nothing wrong with that either.. if you are not selling anything, you wouldn’t get your desired results and all the work you put into your stuff would go to waste.

I think Frank Kern said it quite nicely in one of his recent pre-launch videos.. most people drop the ball when it’s time for the actual deal. You deliver great value and if you are not good at selling, why not get someone else to do it for you? What I’m trying to say is, that you deserve to reap your rewards.

I really like your attitude, it’s pretty much an alternative rockstar thinking. On the one side you hit the establishment and on the other hand you are trying to make a living.
The point is, in case you create a product you should not have a bad feeling if you want to earn money with it. After all you put time into it. Affiliate marketing on the other hand is a little more shady or not? In case you can talk about shady in the selling market. When you create a product that you like and care about it’s probably worthwile to sell, while giving away something for free and then making money out of people seems a bit biased. Either you can make both things, sell you own stuff and affiliate market or you include more than 1 link to different sources without an affiliate link at all. Which after all would make it pretty hard to make any money it all.
Whenever you push an affiliate link you are indirectly selling / marketing something, so I don’t understand the problems you have selling your own products. You could even set up your own affiliate programm to promote them.

@Shah, “Caroline, you are not a true businesswomen. Businesspersons are ruthless in their quest to make money. They must shove as much effort as possible to entice people to buy anything they sell.”

Well thank heavens I am not like that! Money is kinda nice but there are WAY more important things in life so yeah, I am certainly NOTHING like that and damn glad about it too!

What I would say to you is, ignore your critics, ignore your so called friends. Only YOU know what is right for you. Who says you “should” be a business person? Who says we “should” be ruthless? How many people have really found true peace and happiness in money? Follow your heart and ignore everything else. Money is not and never will be the answer to life. It is just a tool, nothing more than a currency.

@Allyn, ahh that falls into the category of what I call “trading time for cash”. Its just like a day job – you are providing a service for money and it doesn’t matter whether you do it online or offline so that’s a bit different. But if that works for you, then keep doing it!

@Mike, yes exactly and more and more people are becoming sensitive to it. That is why marketers now are saying, don’t work in the IM niche – go into other niches where the people there no nothing about product launches, sales letters are so on because they are more likely to fall for it!

@Gloria, I didn’t say selling was evil but I did say I wasn’t going to get into a debate about the merits of selling. That is for the other marketers. Some people are uncomfortable with selling in any form and this post is for those people.

@Oliver, when I talked about ads I actually meant the ads for other people’s products – the ones I have in the sidebar.

@Sven, there is a subtle difference between actually selling a product – whether it is your own or somebody elses, and simply having an ad in place. With my ebook, I didn’t need to actively sell the hosting. All I did was do a tutorial around my own host and so it would simply make it easier for the reader if they used the same host as me and so that encouraged some people to sign up. No selling involved. Now look at my own Traffic Rush course – I am actively saying to people “BUY THIS”, which is different. So I am pushing my course but not pushing the affiliate link. See the difference?

Well I see the difference, but don’t you think when you make yourself an authority, like you did in your ebook, and you promote a product, you may use yourself, you are selling it due to other people thinking you know what you do.
You might as well set up a product, put a buy this now button, but you don’t have to actively promote it. As I said, you can set up an affiliate system, just list all your features and wait for others to do what you did with your ebook, add an affiliate link and lead them to your site for you to sell it. You don’t have to add all those buy this buttons, or some bullshit propaganda. You can be true to your product without having to be a slick salesperson in case you do it right and think you made some worthy, none bullshit type of tool that will actually help people.

After all, most of the marketing has been done by you and your ebook. Otherwise your affiliate income from bluehost wouldn’t bet that high. You got them on the site and they wanted to build a niche site, so they needed a host and you sold bluehost.

This is a semi biads opinion as well, after all companies pay google, google pays you and the people who click on your ads and buy from the companies pay google. It’s a circle and in case you are into affiliate marketing you are someone earning extra money, that could be cut of in case you sell your product yourself, or you give away to people who sell it for you.

PS I hope that blockquote worked :)

I hate comment spamming, but that quote messed up, I wanted to put this line into it, have a nice day :)

AdSense is a great example of this. Advertisers pay Google to advertise their products on relevant sites and you as a publisher host those ads. The advertiser will only pay for advertising if it makes him money so somewhere along the line somebody is buying their product but as a publisher, you are not the one selling it. Your job is simply to display the ad on your site.

Google pays you and the great thing about this is that you don’t have to write a sales letter for Google or provide Google with a teleseminar. You don’t have to entice Google to sign up to your list, and send them follow up emails. You don’t need to offer Google money back guarantees, or draw them into your sales funnel. You don’t have to present Google with one-time back-end offers and try to get them to buy your big ticket items.

Is it possible to make money online without actually turning into a snake-oil salesmen?

I’m not getting into a debate with you on the merits of selling either. But when you reference selling only in terms of “snake oil,” it seems to promote an anti-selling bias. Selling can be good or bad, but it’s the salesman that makes it so.

Caroline
You sound like I used to. You experience poor salespeople who think they can trick people into buying. That sucks. However you now have a label on promotional activities with emotional baggage so if it feels like sales you must be doing wrong.

If you truely believe in a product and think it can help a group of people. What is wrong with telling the truth and helping the right people find that product?

Take look at the one minute salesperson by spencer Johnson – nice quick easy to read book that helped straighten out my thinking.

In the end don’t stop being you just try looking at it a different way.

Sorry to sound like a cultist!

rob Wilsons last blog post..Search Engine Optimisation For Business

I sell because it is my nature to be promotional and enthusiastic about some things. Giving away ebook with affiliate links is always a good plan too. I have some I have written and some that are re-branded affiliate ebooks.

Warner Carters last blog post..What do You Need To Build Your Business?

Hi Caroline,

I hate being sold to but like to buy (what meets my needs).

A different approach is that of Edward de Bono and John Lyons (an Australian) in their book Marketing Without Money. Their idea is that if you promote a cause that people believe in they will likely buy your product as a solution to their problem or to enlist in the cause. You don’t need to push the product particularly.

Another approach is by Jim Penman who has a minor franchise empire in Australia. His approach is to just explain the offer – engage people with the ins and outs of the situation that your product is a solution to.

I think both of these are promising approaches.

I’d love to co-operate with a good marketer. Unfortunately they are not usually interested in promoting the sort of stuff I’m doing. So, it’s one foot after the other and keeping on working at it for me.

Evans last blog post..Where to Next for the West?

@Sven, as I said to Gloria, this post is for those people who simply don’t like to sell at all – I am not intending into getting into a debate about it here. Different degrees of selling are appropriate for different people and there will always be some who don’t like to touch it with a barge pole as we say in the UK.

@Rob, ditto my earlier comments. This post is not entitled “why you should not sell”.

@Evan, I actually believe that it is more about your mindset as the seller than any technique you use. I believe that no matter what technique you use, your underlying feelings will come through and if you are uncomfortable about selling a particular product for any reason, it will show in the results regardless of how you go about the sales process. Which is why I have refused to get into the debate about the merits of selling in the comments here :)

Well I didn’t want a debate :) For me it’s just that everything one can do is selling in some way, either selling your face / image, offering your space for ads, selling your labour, to cut this short, do whatever it takes to get the bread and butter on the table. Unless you donate what you earn you are always just trying to make a living which is nothing bad. Maybe you should look for a publisher who does the “dirty” work for you in case you don’t want to sell and just create.

@Sven, true I suppose everything is selling in a way. I guess what we need is a new word that allows us to make more of a distinction between the kind of marketing that makes many people uncomfortable and the stuff that most people are okay with.

Hi Caroline,

You could be my sister:) Somehow many of your posts are exactly what im thinking. This subject is something i have been thinking a lot about. Can I make a living online without selling my own product?

I don’t mind preselling and stuff but hard selling my own product and dealing with customers, giving refunds answering lots of questions and all that doesnt feel fun.

I am glad we are on the same track and I’m sure you can make a lot of good money with adsense and affiliate marketing instead. I dont aim to get super rich, if i can survive doing this the freedom that comes with this lifestyle is worth a lot more than a big paycheck.

Thanks again for a great and one of the few honest blogs out there.

Stefans last blog post..Tjäna Pengar på Google Adsense

@Stefan, hehe yeah there are lots of people who simply don’t want to sell their own product. Regardless of the merits either way, AdSense is so much easier and less complicated. We can always get to the selling stuff later once we already have a solid income and a bit more experience under our belts.

Hi Caroline!
wow, sure would like to learn from you. I am new to stumbled upon. I currently work in finance and not sure how that will turn out much longer, so hubby and I are looking for alternatives. I have read about some of these, but sometimes hard to know what and who to trust on the web. I also need a website, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

I share the way you feel about hard-sell techniques. I kind of agree with Rob Wilson though, that it’s got a lot to do with mindset – one becomes over-sensitive to certain things as you are exposed to them over and over. Kind of like many people have a strong reaction if you mention anything to do with religion or the church – again no doubt because of prior (negative) exposure.

The danger is that we allow these negative experiences to taint the entire activity, or “throw the baby out with the bath water”.

Rods last blog post..Book review: Problogger – Secrets for Blogging your way to a Six-figure Income

Very interesting opinions. I hate selling too but am trying it to see how it goes. I guess you just have to be experienced and know how to sell to people the right way.

online money buzzs last blog post..Earn Free Money and Prizes Online

Ditto on what Ryan said. Your ebook thousands was a great idea. When I read this I was like HOW? Then I read further. Brilliant. Is that how all do it? I never crossed my mind.

I am in the early stages of blogging and I have yet to really find a niche. I have one Excercise site that I need to promote and I need to get down and dirty on other things I can do.

I too can do websites and such but I try to not spill the beans and make it so easy as grandma can do it cause I tend to get paid to build sites every now and then, so for me to do and ebook on website building is a no go.

Ahhh what to do ?!!

@digerati, an ebook on website building is just one possible idea but the basic premise – write something for free that promotes an affiliate program is applicable in any number of ways.

Hi,
I am new to this site and blog, but would like to let
people know I have never been involved in direct selling until
I was recently introduced to a proven online business in europe which has just launced in the USA..it will change the way internet shopping is done. If you would like more information please email me at larryshaffer52@gmail.com
thanks

Direct selling is the traditional marketing now a days everyone uses internet buying and selling the goods and services. if you advertise your site in the internet through Google AdSense. It is the best process improving the sales for your company.

Some online businesses are still like that. Download sites for instance – you don’t need a sales letter. Just show people all the products you have for download, the cost of each product, and make it dead easy for them to buy – a one-click order process for example.

@Kathleen, yeah I love business models like that – taps into the impulse buy mentality.

I tried very hard to sell when I was in network marketing, but that never works.

After years of trying to make money online by trying to sell products or enticing people to join affiliates, I have come to the conclusion that since I have to spend countless hours on figuring ways and means on how to Make Money Online, I have decided that the products should benefit me, that I am happy at doing my product sourcing.

I end up with Internet Marketing with products that I myself find useful, and Forex Trading, as ways of making money online.

Now I am not worried about selling, it always surprise me when I get sales from my website. After a long time practicing at my Forex Trading, I am “starting to get the picture” and starting to earn from my trading.

This is very interesting…thanks for sharing.

Hi Caroline,
I took your free ecourse and its been wonderful. I also downloaded the wordpress book. Have not yet gone around to getting into a niche and blogging about that yet. I started my blog as literally an online diary. It helps me keep in touch with friends and I review whatever catches my fantasy. To actually sell something and make money has not yet become a reality for me.
Although I do take on freelance writer jobs which have made me feel that you can make money sitting at home if you really know how.
BTW I have not got Week 48’s lesson. Could I bother you for it?