The Seven Sources of Web Wealth
by: Michael Kay
Trying to find wealth on the web seems little different from taking part in the Klondike Gold Rush. If the weather wasn't bad enough (technology) and the starvation (endless dribbles of cash and time going out) and the gun slingers (false gurus and scam artists) didn't get you, then the taverns (taxman) would take what you grubbed out of the ground. But, there was a more fundamental problem…no-one really, truly knew where the gold was!
Without a map you were lost, wandering from place to place as folks yelled "Dig over here!" "Pan over there!" Fire up your computer and it yells "Buy this guaranteed system!" "Buy that e-book!" What you need is a MAP. Something that tells you what you are looking for and where you are likely to find it. What the sources of wealth are and what it means to dig in them.
Well, here is the list! There are Seven Sources of Wealth on the Web, each very different from the others and each with different pro's and con's?
1. Creating your own product offering and marketing it (e.g. e-books, software, casinos, even pornography.)
---Pro Absolutely the most powerful way to become wealthy. If you can do it, this is the way to go!
---Con Success requires absolute dedication (no sitting on the beach clipping coupons – at least not initially). Also, creating the offering (the interesting bit) rapidly takes second place to marketing it.
2. Selling personal service and advice (e.g. consulting, web site design).
---Pro A quick way to make money and intensely satisfying if you like solving puzzles
---Con Consulting is a really tough profession. You have no leverage: you are selling time with no way to increase it. You are always ‘falling off the cliff' financially as the projects run out and your success is totally dependent, not on your skills, but on your ability to sell!
3. Marketing products or services for others – so-called Affiliate Marketing
---Pro The most popular way to make money on the web. No capital down, no product ideas, no commitment to any specific source of income
---Con Overloaded with people trying to make it work – most don't. Requires deep marketing skills in positioning your business and generating traffic. Very dependent on the quality of the supplier.
4. Marketing products and business opportunities through networks or multiple level marketing schemes
---Pro When it works it yields moderate to huge incomes. If you like people, this is your world. The primary way of creating long term residual incomes
---Con Most folk fail. Network marketing requires a particular gregarious personality. Beware of MLM schemes that are a refined type of scam and only benefit the first in. Take care
5. Trading in goods either through auctions (eBay) or as a retailer using the auction facility
---Pro Over 68,000 people in the UK alone make over a quarter of their income from eBay. A retail opportunity of the first magnitude, particularly if combined with a product operation
---Con Needs careful management or you ‘eat' the inventory. Take care in ‘drop-ship' deals that you pick a quality supplier.
6. Investing in high yield investment programs (HYIPs)
---Pro Here you really can click coupons on the beach. Potentially very lucrative.
---Con Personal opinion: 99% of the deals are scams. If you go in knowing that, you can make money. Lose sight of it and you are finished
7. Filling in surveys for money.
---Pro Simple and guaranteed way of making small amounts of money
---Con Outside the USA very few survey houses pay anything. Any income is often a lottery – literally – as they do prize draws
Pick the wealth source you want to attack based on your interest. If you like creating things go with product businesses, if you like playing poker go with the trading business. Basically, if you cannot sustain an interest in the business then it is just a passing hobby. If you are working alone you have to be interested to stick with it. So before you start look into your own mind and ask "Am I really interested, or am I doing this for money?" If the answer is ‘for money', chances are none of the sources will work for you.
About The Author
Michael Kay is Research Director of HBB Research a business school based research program looking at web home-based business. He is the lead author of HBB Research's recent Report: The Gold Rush. To For more on The Gold Rush and to get your free subscription to HBB Insights, the ideas newsletter of HBB Research, go to
http://www.hbbresearch.com/
