Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other companies’ products. You find a product that you like, promote it to others, and get paid when sales are made, leads are confirmed, or any qualified action takes place.
Both affiliate and network marketing involve getting paid for recommending other companies’ products, but unlike network marketers, affiliates don’t have teams and only make money from their own efforts. Affiliates don’t have to purchase products to qualify and most affiliate programmes are free to join.
This blog post explores whether affiliate marketing is a viable option for people who want to supplement their income or start their own business. I am not an affiliate but have written this post to be able to help people who ask me about it.
Read MoreI was surprised by a recent Facebook group post that asked: “Who is in network marketing and building a team?” Very quickly, 43 members responded, and many were enthusiastic. On a different site, I read a post by a woman who was selling a diet drink on behalf of a network marketing company and the responses to her advertisement were so negative that she removed her post.
When a contact requested coaching support, he insisted that network marketing, which is also known as multi-level marketing (MLM), offers excellent opportunities to make money. Having no experience, I decided to research the subject before deciding whether it is a viable option for people who are retired, unemployed or are seeking additional income.
Read MoreI believe that starting a business in later life is good for you, but what do the experts say? In this blog post I review recent research in order to answer these questions:
Why start a business in later life?
Can starting a business be good for your health?
Are older entrepreneurs successful?
What stops people from starting up?
What are the risks?
What do older entrepreneurs need?
Read MoreIf you intend to start a business, it would be wise to learn about digital marketing, whether you decide to do your own, employ an expert or use an agency. It’s fine and possibly preferable to use agencies for this type of work but they can be costly and if you don’t understand it, you will not be able to evaluate their work.
This blog post is about social media marketing (SMM) and more specifically, business to consumer SMM, one of the available channels of digital marketing,
Read MoreI set up Twitter about 10 years ago but couldn’t make any sense of it, so I just forgot about it. I suppose I’m pretty much a Twitter virgin.
This post is about my encounters with Twitter, one of the social networking sites I am exploring that could help me promote my new blog. Although I have used B2B marketing methods for decades, I have no hands-on experience of social media apart from LinkedIn and Facebook and I need to learn.
Read MoreIt is likely that your start-up will need a website and if so, you have a few options. You could do it yourself or use a web designer.
If you do it yourself using a template from a website builder such as Wix, Squarespace or Weebly, and spend time learning the skills you need, you will have saved yourself the cost of a web designer and gained valuable skills. If you decide to use a web designer, you will have more time to focus on your startup, but please read the advice in Section 10: Defining Your Brand, before proceeding. I have met too many businesses that were disappointed with their costly and ineffective website because they chose the wrong designer or didn’t communicate their needs adequately.
I opted for a DIY site because unless you pay a hefty sum, your web designer will probably use a template anyway. I also had the time and the curiosity to learn so it seemed right for me. But the next question was, which template to use? I wish I had read a post like this before choosing, because I didn’t know what I didn’t know! I just believed what I read on one or two popular sites. So, here are a few pointers which may help you choose.
Read MoreThis blog post has been inspired by the companies I regularly come across online that provide misleading or false information about themselves. For example, I often find company websites that give the impression they are trading as limited companies, when in fact they are dormant companies and operating as sole traders (you can find this out at Companies House). This practice is misleading and I don’t trust companies that misrepresent themselves.
Another situation is when I am checking out the financial health of a potential supplier whose website has impressed me. I often find it has a negative balance sheet, sustained over a number of years. I ask myself – will they go bankrupt in the middle of my project? Will they overcharge me or give me poor service because their debts are greater than their assets? Unless they have some unique products or services that I really need (in which case I will conduct further research on them), I just keep away. Perhaps I am too harsh?
In this blog I investigate how to reduce the risk of doing business with customers or suppliers that might let you down and potentially threaten your business.
Read MoreThere are so many gaps in the market for consumers over 60. If you have spotted one and you want to set up a business based on it, it’s a good idea to explore it further before you spend your valuable time and money. This blog post shows you how to research a market gap through the example of exploring a gap in fitness services for people over sixty.
Read MoreWelcome to the Silver Startups blog! This blog is one of the main reasons Silver Startups was launched. It allows us to explore and expand on topics we either feel strongly about or are curious about and to find out what you think too.
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