Adsense is great. Everyone can make money with Adsense. Part of its appeal is that no phone calls are necessary, no sales pushes are necessary, no marketing “guru” status is necessary to earn with Adsense. This is the beauty of the program. This is why earning money from Adsense is so addictive.

Here’s the rub. Let’s say that Google accuses you of clicking your ads and shuts you down, no questions asked. Or, let’s say that because of economic circumstances, the majority of advertisers start reducing their Adwords budgets so that what used to bring in a dollar or so a click drops down to three or four cents? If the bulk of your Internet revenue comes from Adsense, these events that are beyond your control can create problems.

The same goes for affiliate programs. You might discover a program that pays a nice chunk of money on a regular schedule. This is great! But…and again, here’s the rub…what if the program manager decides to cancel the affiliate program? Again, your Internet income stream is blown into oblivion. At least with affiliate programs, there are a lot of opportunities available and it is not too hard to start again with another program. Or you can promote dozens of affiliate programs all at the same time so if one goes kaput, you have plenty of others that are making money. There are a lot of great affiliate programs available that can help wean a person from “Adsense addiction.” It is a good idea to have a diverse portfolio of affiliations.

There’s a common element here. No one truly has control over Adsense or affiliate programs. The potential problems are worse with Adsense because so many people rely strictly on Adsense, with some Amazon or Clickbank affiliate feeds, to create 100% of their online revenue.

The key to controlling the nuances of online income is to sell your own products. Many people are not sure where to begin. The first thing, in my opinion, is to figure out what you like to do and what you are good at doing. It’s pointless to create a life of drudgery by creating and marketing products that are boring. But if there’s a spark of passion, your interest will seep into your sales pages and the product itself.

Many people get trapped into doing what they think they should be doing, such as selling “how to get rich on the Internet schemes” or “how to market” schemes. The big names in Internet marketing make it look so easy, and judging by their sales volume, it’s easy to think that Internet marketing is the only way to make money online. However, there are hundreds of thousands of other niches that you might be more qualified to fit into. There are people who are looking for ways to spruce up their yards. Others want to learn survival skills. Others are interested in training their cats to flush the toilet. The opportunities to tap into undiscovered markets are endless.

All of us are blessed with individual talents, strengths and experiences. Each person is as unique as his fingerprints. Within that uniqueness, I think that each one of us has the potential to create a product that can make money online.

Most of us walk around thinking that we have nothing unique or special to offer. We’re our own worst critics. A great way to find out what some of our talents and skill are is to ask other people what they think you’re good at. The responses are usually enlightening. If you feel weird about asking other people what they think you are good at, there are some no-cost personality tests online that are a hoot to take … and that reveal a lot of information. Go take some of the PhD-certified personality tests and discover your gifts and talents:

After you discover what turns you on and what you’re good at, the next step is to create a product based on your passions and skills. Ebooks and Internet membership sites are possible products that you can develop. The downside is that they involve a lot of work. Books take research and time to write, and there’s always the possibility that someone will steal your content. Memberships are good because they are a source of recurring income, but you need to constantly maintain fresh material and deal with member service issues. Online video or audio products, on the other hand, are relatively painless to produce and can have promising income potential.

Rather than reinventing the wheel, I’d like to mention James Brausch’s Information Product Creation course. James is a successful entrepreneur. In his online course, James removes the mystery from:

• Market research,
• Choosing the right domain and hosting a website,
• Creating a video,
• Creating a sales letter,
• Getting testimonials, affiliates …
• and more.

His info product creation course is one of the best tutorials online to get anyone started out with product creation and sales. It’s only $25 and comes with a 60-day guarantee. I’ve personally used his course and feel that it is outstanding.

The key to releasing “Adsense addiction” is to find some balance with your Adsense efforts. If your online income is 20-25% Adsense, you should be okay. Spruce up your Internet income efforts with affiliate ads, perhaps your own ebooks and membership sites and, of course, your own products.

Urbain Beck

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 10th, 2006 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Adsense Income, Reviews and Observations, Your Own Products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.