Food For Thought About Making Money

In my decades of having the desire to be my own boss, I'm always wondering if what I'm doing is the best way for me to be successful - still do, as I haven't ever seen the success I desire - YET. This includes a recent try at having my own text ad exchange, which bombed in the worst way.

With that said, I would think there are a lot of you here that may have wondered the same thing. If so, you're comments and experience are welcome below.

I just received an email from an entrepreneur that I follow, and in the interest of giving credit, his name is Derek Halpern. This is some of what he wrote, and it got me to wondering a little bit more. haha

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"There are only 5 types of online business models, and I tried all of them.

And now I can say, without a shadow of doubt, that I love the online course business model the most.

Let me show you why...

You could start selling physical products, but that's going to take inventory. Or manufacturing talent. And that's going to cost a lot to get started.

You could start offering services, and while that's a great business model, the big problem is this: you'll get stuck in the "trading time for project fees" trap and you may never get out of it.

You could launch an online software company, but do you know anything about software? That could get real expensive real quick.

You could rely on paid advertising, but did you know that you'll need MILLIONS of visitors just to make real revenue?

Or...

You could create and sell online courses.

First, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The online course industry is BOOMING right now. If you look around, you'll see people selling online courses in all different types of industries...

Dating. Business. Relationships. Personal Finance. Social skills. Software training. Social media. Marketing. Cooking. Health. Writing. Web Design. Productivity. Networking. Careers. College Admissions. Test prep. Tutoring. Coding. Music. Yoga. Fitness. Food.

...and in many cases, people are doing real well."

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My purpose for sharing this is two-fold. First, it rather easily defines business ownership options in respect to the business model, of course. But, second, after a quick analysis of my experiences (which might be more extensive than yours, or, then again, not nearly as extensive as yours), I've come to believe that affiliate marketing provides the most options and the most benefit for the least amount of time, money and headache.

And, I firmly believe that being here in Wealthy Affiliate is the absolute best option for learning how to build my 'business' for the long term.

I still aspire to owning my own business, but not now, maybe later. No more wondering for now... ;)

~ Mike

Comments, anyone?