I didn’t succeed as an affiliate for a long time with that company due to my flawed mentality. Experience has taught me that it’s easier to make money online with a big ticket product. There are three reasons that promoting a big ticket item is the easiest way to make money online.

First, big ticket items attract more serious buyers. Just about anyone will download a $27 Ebook. But way too many of them will ask for refunds. Way too many of them will never read it. Some of them will even blame you when it “doesn’t work,” whatever that means.

Why do you care about these things? Because such customers are a time-consuming nuisance. In contrast, serious buyers will become serious affiliates for you. If you are in a two-tier affiliate program (and you should be), your buyers become your affiliates. You make money from their efforts in promoting the product. Having a group of low dollar buyers that aren’t serious will result in a group of affiliates that do nothing.

Second, the easiest way to make money online is to develop repeat customers. Because your big ticket buyers are more serious, they are also more likely to be repeat customers. They will use your product, recognize its value, and be responsive to your future offers.

Third, it’s easier to make money online with big ticket products because it’s easier to turn a profit with such products. This is true no matter how you are generating leads. Let’s say you spend $100 on pay-per-click. From this campaign, 5 people buy your $27 Ebook. Because each lead cost you $20, you’re left with a less than impressive $7 profit. At this rate, it will take you a LONG time to make real money online.

In contrast, you wouldn’t bat an eye at paying $20 for a lead that purchased your $1000 product. And remember, as a bonus, this will likely be a smart buyer who will make you money as your affiliate and/or become a repeat customer.

For these reasons, if you want to make real money online, choose a big ticket item to promote. It’s still work. It doesn’t mean you’ll wake up rich overnight. But if you’re looking for the easiest way to make money online, go big, and sooner than you think your bank account will feel the difference.

JENNIFER HERNDON works at home with her kids. She has been a home business consultant for over 11 years. After many years and even more money, Jennifer has finally uncovered the proven new system that puts online business success within the reach of any serious marketer. Learn more by claiming your free Inifinite Income Plan report today.

So ALL I have to do is drive traffic.  Easier said than done, as anyone who’s been in affiliate marketing for more than a day knows.  The bonus to the Instant Income Plan is that it even provides a training area with tons of information on how to drive traffic.  But, until you master it, driving traffic is hard work.  And therefore, making money online is hard work.

And that’s why I never liked the name Instant Income Plan.  When you join IIP, unless you’re a seasoned marketer that knows how to drive traffic, there’s nothing “Instant” about the income you’ll earn.  It takes work.  But you reap what you sow.

So I’m happy to announce that my wonderful partners who created the Instant Income Plan have changed the name of the system to the Infinite Income Plan.  Now that’s a name that I can promote with pride.  The Infinite Income Plan gives you every tool you need to create INFINITE income.  No, it won’t come instantly, but when it comes, it comes fast and, well, infinitely!

Why did they change the name?  This goes back to my last post.  By calling the system the Instant Income Plan, they may have created an unreasonable expectation in people.  The name appeals to what people want — instant income.  But on the other hand, they never promised that if you sign up income will flow instantly, without effort, into your bank account.  And anyone with one foot in reality knows that there is no easy button that allows you to sign up, sit back, and watch money chase you down.

So, I was disappointed in the marketing ploy behind the name “Instant” income.  But I was even more disappointed in those who joined the system and complained a week later that they weren’t making money online despite the fact that they’d taken no real action.

Now it’s all solved.  The name reflects what the program does.  Making the change must not have been an easy decision.  It cost a lot of time and money.  I applaud the decision to make the change.  It reflects the honesty and integrity the creators of the Infinite Income Plan have always displayed to me.  It’s the number one reason I love and promote the system.  Now I’m even more excited about my growing Infinite Income Plan team.

JENNIFER HERNDON works at home with her kids.  She has been a home business consultant for over 11 years.  After years of searching, Jennifer has discovered the best hands-free method for creating an online income.  Learn more by claiming your free Infinite Income Plan report here.

First, your domain name.  Using your affiliate ID link is unappealing for several reasons.  It’s ugly.  Usually something like “yournickname.productname.hop.clickbank.net.”  It’s not something anyone could remember.  And, perhaps most importantly, a lot of people don’t like to click on affiliate links.  I can’t explain why, but they don’t like the thought of a stranger making money from them.

Get your own domain name.  You can get one at GoDaddy, or lots of other places, for $9.99 a year.  Make it something people can remember and associate with you.  If you’re selling a dog training ebook, look for something relevant like bestdogtrainingtips.com.  It’s easier to promote your own domain name.  It sends the message that you have established your own internet marketing business in your niche.

Now that you have a domain name, you need to put up a website using that name.  You want what’s called a landing page, squeeze page, magnetizer page, or capture page.  All different names for the same thing.  This is the page your customers are taken to when they click on your domain name.

Having a landing page rather than sending your customers directly to the product’s sales page is the only way you can build a list.  To develop a list of customers, you must collect your customer’s name and email, obviously.  After your customer has left her information and hit enter, she’s then taken to your product’s sales page.

The landing page can be short and simple.  The purpose of the page is to convince your visitor to leave her name and email.  By doing this, she “opts in” to your list.  Most people give away something in exchange for the visitor leaving her information.  The “give away” could be a free report, audio, or email course.  An effective landing page has a few more considerations than this.  Look at several different landing pages and model yours after one that appeals to you.

While anyone can write the copy for a landing page, actually turning that copy into a website is slightly more difficult.  Some people can do this.  Most can’t.  For this reason, I’ve included this as an expense in starting your online business.  You can have your page put on the web by someone from Rent-a-Coder for $100, and usually less.

The other thing you’ll need to get your landing page on the web is a hosting account.  That is, a company that “hosts” your page on the internet.  This will cost you about $20 a month.  You can certainly find it for less (or more).  Just make sure you go with a good company, such as WebHotMonkey, so that your site is not frequently “down” and unavailable to your customers.

Finally, your internet marketing success is dependent upon an autoresponder.  Aweber is the most popular.  It’s about $20 a month.  An autoresponder is the service that collects your customers’ names and email addresses.  You can then go into your autoresponder and set up a series of emails to automatically go out to your customers at intervals of your choosing.  You can also send one-time emails to your entire list whenever you choose.  This is a great way to notify your whole list of a new product you’re promoting that would interest them.

An autoresponder is how you build a relationship with your customer.  Your emails shouldn’t always just be selling something.  Tell your customers a little about yourself and your online business.  Give them good, free advice.  If they like and trust you, they’ll buy from you next time you have a new product recommendation.

There you have it.  All the tools you’ll need to be an internet marketing success.  But the tools don’t work themselves.  To begin your online money making, you must now take action.  WORK your online business.  I know, work, no fun.  Actually, this is fun.  We’ll talk about taking action next time.

JENNIFER HERNDON is a home business consultant and work at home mom with over 11 years experience.  Jennifer’s passion is helping you create personal and financial freedom.  Uncover the fastest hands-off system for creating online marketing success by claiming your free Instant Income Plan report here.

Based on my experience — that is, what I’ve done — you need 4 things to start a successful internet business.  Your total start up cost will be about $150.  This list assumes that you’re using the easiest beginner’s method of becoming a Clickbank affiliate to start your internet marketing business.

The four things you’ll need to start you on the path to internet marketing success are a domain name, a landing page, a hosting account, and an autoresponder.  Today, let’s talk about why you need these things.  Then next time we’ll look at what each thing does for you.

Yes, you can be an affiliate without any of these things.  You can simply drive traffic to your product’s sales page using your affiliate link.  But this does nothing to build your online business.  Using this method, you are constantly in search of new customers.  And, you have no relationship with any of your customers.  They are all one-time buyers.

Your goal for your online business should be to build a list of lifetime customers.  The best way to do this is to develop a relationship of trust with your customers.  You can only do this if you know who your customers are and they know who you are.

You may be wondering why none of the four things I list have anything to do with traffic generation.  I did say last time that one of the biggest reasons it is near impossible to make money online with no investment is that it takes lots of time and lots of effort to generate traffic using the free methods.

But, if you are using the free traffic methods and building your list at the same time, as these four tools allow you to do, both your time and effort are drastically reduced.  No longer are you constantly searching for the new customer to make a one-time sale to.

Instead, once your traffic generation pays off, and you have a customer, she is no longer just a one-time buyer.  You have her name and email.  You have her permission to send her information.  You know she’s interested in what you’re offering — she opted-in to your list.

Just imagine how much easier it is to generate a sale from that customer, than it is to capture a new customer.  Once you have a list, the money comes in faster and with less effort.  Because of this, I recommend that you spend your money in the beginning building a list, not on paid traffic generation methods.  Your list building tools are cheaper.  They are easier to use.  Once you’re bringing in a little money, then you can turn your attention towards mastering paid traffic methods.  If you want to.  If you need to.

But first let’s just concentrate on getting one customer, showing that customer she can trust you, and marketing quality products to her.  It will be so much easier to sell ten products to this one customer than it will be to sell one product to ten customers.  You’ll be amazed.

Next time we’ll talk about why these four tools are your keys to internet marketing success.

JENNIFER HERNDON is a work at home mom and home business consultant with over 11 years experience.  Jennifer’s passion is helping you create personal and financial freedom.  Discover the quickest hands-off method for creating internet marketing success by claiming your free Instant Income Plan report here.

But let’s be real.  The chances of you starting an online business with NO money and having internet marketing success are about as good as the chances of you making $20,000 in your first month of your online business.

We’ve all bought at least one “make money online” product.  We’ve seen the testimonials throughout the sales letter with “real” pictures of “real” people who made “$10,324″ and “over $20,000 in my first month.” But have you EVER experienced such ridiculous immediate results with a make money online product?  Unlikely.  And similarly, it’s unlikely that you will be able to develop a successful internet business if you have no money to invest up front.

Be prepared to at least pull out your credit card a couple of times.  Here’s why.  In fact, here’s why you WANT to pull out your credit card a few times.

Let’s first look at the most common “free” way to make money online.  You choose a product from Clickbank, create your hoplink, and there you have it — you’re officially an affiliate selling a product that you earn commissions from.

But you’re not going to sell any of your product unless you PROMOTE your affiliate link.  You can use the free traffic exchanges and free classifieds.  The most effective way to do it these days is to set up a blog, promote your product on your blog, and drive traffic to your blog through article marketing and web 2.0 tactics.  All of this is free.

This process may make you a few dollars.  And if you had NO money, and NO way to borrow a little money, go for it.  But only do it this way until you’ve earned enough to change your strategy.

I just said that you may make a few dollars this way.  So why was my initial proposition that the “free” method to make money online doesn’t work?  Because if it works at all, it takes FOREVER.  And because, really, it only works in theory.

To make money online with no investment requires a tremendous amount of time.  You must update your blog daily with good content.  You must write lots of articles.  You must submit your articles to lots of different directories.  You must constantly update your web 2.0 sites.  Each of these activities takes time.  All of them take a serious amount of time.

And people who are looking to make money online with no investment generally don’t have all day to sit around and work on their online marketing business.  More importantly, they don’t have the months it takes to start seeing any money from these methods.

People searching for internet marketing success with no money upfront are often working two jobs, still not making ends meet, and can’t afford to put what they make back into their online marketing business.

This is a big reason internet marketing gets such a bad rap.  Those just beginning their online marketing business are sold a lie.  That’s why you hear so much skepticism.  That’s why there are so many people in the forums in their first few months with an internet based business asking “does this really work?”  That’s why everyone in your life laughs at you when you tell them you are trying to make money online.

And, what bothers me most, that’s why so many people quit, thinking “it doesn’t work.”  Because they aren’t told that yes, you can make money online with no investment, but it’s going to take months to do it.

The good news is, you can make money online — lots of money — without spending a lot of money.  Next time, I’ll share with you the things worth pulling your credit card out for if you’re just starting your internet based business.

Jennifer Herndon is a work at home mom and home business consultant with over 11 years experience. Jennifer’s passion is helping you achieve personal and financial freedom.  Take the first step in creating the life of your dreams by claiming your free Instant Income Plan Report here.

This system is incredible.  It’s going to make it so much easier for me to reach my goal of helping thousands of people achieve their personal and financial dreams.

Here’s just a tiny sample of what you’ll learn inside the Instant Income Plan:

• The missing piece in every other system that keeps you from making real money
• Why this system works to effectively market any product or service
• The two critically important things you must do to generate a serious income
• The crucial feature in this system that gives you an advantage over even the highest paid doctors and lawyers
• Five little known success elements that you must have to make money fast
• The 5 magic words that are critical to your long term success
• The 8 characteristics your product must have to keep your bank account flooded with cash
• The 3 main marketing methods that result in highly targeted prospects
• How to chose traffic methods that work to bring prospects pouring into your website
• The 4 power points of writing a winning direct mail sales letter
• How you can partner with a winning team that has used this system to create MONTHLY six figure incomes

Take a look at the first step to creating whatever you want in life here.

More soon!

Over the next few weeks, i’m going to take a break from my favorite topic — personal development — and talk about the other 10% of your business — your method.  My focus will be on how to begin your business.  I will share with you what’s taken me too much time and too much money to learn.  My hope is that my experiences will save you many years and many dollars.

I’ve spent several years studying internet marketing. Yet still, I get a small pit in my stomach every time I hear one of the “gurus” in the industry say that to be a success, you’ve gotta have your own product.

Product creation is overwhelming to me. I’ve studied what goes into it. The time, the knowledge, the money, the experience. I’ve purchased ebooks, courses, and audios with enticing titles such as “How to Create Your Own Information Product in 30 Minutes.” Not.

Maybe these “courses” work for people who just want to make a little quick cash and don’t really care about quality or long term success. Or maybe they work for really experienced marketers to whom product creation is easy. But that’s not what you hear. The big name marketers always talk about the chaos the week before a product launch. About being up all night. And, inevitably, about how their server crashed during launch day or how Paypal cut them off after they brought in too much money.

I’ve been a part of more than one internet marketing affiliate program. I’ve also taken steps towards product creation. I’ve found three reasons beginners should chose an internet marketing affiliate program over product creation.

A good internet marketing affiliate program is FAST, EASY, and FREE.

Product creation is time consuming, hard and costly.

Which one sounds like an easier path to successful marketing?

Affiliate internet marketing is FAST. You can be set up in an hour. Go to Clickbank. Search in a niche that interests you. Pick a product with a high gravity and nice pitch page. Boom, you’re on your way to affiliate marketing success. It’s not possible to create a quality product and convincing sales page in the time it takes to join an internet marketing affiliate program through Clickbank.

Affiliate internet marketing is EASY. You don’t have to come up with the product idea. You don’t have to figure out how to create an ebook or how to produce and deliver a physical product. You don’t need copywriting skills. You don’t need the technical ability to put up a website. It’s all done for you. How much easier could it be?

Finally, affiliate internet marketing is FREE. There’s no cost to sign up with an affiliate program. There’s no cost to create, set up, and host a web page, or to hire someone to do it for you. It’s all done. Product creation involves all of these costs. Even if you’re good, you can’t realistically do it alone. You’ll need to pay people to help with some aspects of the creation, promotion, and launch of the product.

If you are new to the internet marketing business, start with the fast, easy and free method. Your chances of affiliate marketing success are way greater than your chances of product creation success. Save that for when you are making a little money, able to quit your j-o-b, and have some time on your hands and some experience to ease the pains of product creation.

Too many people quit trying to make money online because it “doesn’t work.” The fact is, they just didn’t know HOW to make it work. They didn’t follow the fast, easy, free method that can result in affiliate marketing success with just a little persistence. Now that you know the method to follow, you have no excuse for failure.

One caveat. Having said all this, I think the commonly asked question: “Can I make money on the internet if I don’t have any money?” is a different issue. I’ll answer that question next time.

Jennifer Herndon is a work at home mom and home business consultant with over 11 years experience. Jennifer’s passion is helping you achieve personal and financial freedom. Take the first step in creating the life of your dreams by claiming your free Instant Income Plan Report here.