So you are convinced on the market potential of internet marketing business - one that has no inventory and high startup investments, and one that markets to 1.2 billion people out there who goes online and still growing.

I will presume here you are new to internet marketing. And you are wondering how to go about starting your own internet marketing venture.

First understand there are 4 common business models on the internet :

1. Affiliate Marketing

Touted as the easiest way to start an internet business. In affiliate marketing, you do not need to develop a product. You simply refer your customers to buy from the plethora of affiliate products out there. These are other internet marketing businesses (or what we call merchants) with ready and proven products.

You get paid a commission from the merchant for each successful sale converted. It may seem small money but successful affiliate marketers sell many different affiliate products at the same time which help them to achieve a decent income stream after a while.

To be successful in affiliate marketing, you need to identify winners to market. Do not sell inferior products for quick cash. You are doing yourself a disservice in the long run. The key is to build trust with your own customer base even though you may be selling other people's products.

2. Google Adsense

This is another popular way to jumpstart an internet marketing business and get some income rolling in. You simply put up very good information on your site or even a blog. Sign up for Google to have one of their advertising panel on the side of your page. You get paid whenever anyone of your readers clickthrough any of the ads.

A simple idea. Drawbacks are the income is usually not spectacular unless you have high traffic sites. It is usually used as a supplement rather than the only source of income for internet marketing venture. Another big problem with this model is that you are at the mercy of Google and should be banned by them for whatever reasons your business will be disrupted overnight.

3. Multi-level Marketing

The very pervasive nature of internet is a natural breeding ground for MLM programs we are all so familiar with. Health products, consumables, even educational products are all the rage now.

I do not claim to expert in MLM. All that I can say is that I have seen many MLM marketers fail over the years and the reasons are very apparent to me - product peddling with no focus on building long-term trust as everyone is getting into it for greed rather than product benefit. It is not a sustainable business model in my opinion and very often the early birds are the ones making all the money … and you guess it from all down below.

Having said that, there are many successful MLM marketers on the internet and they are still making big bucks with the immensely huge global internet market.

4. Information Product

This is probably the best business model to pursue for the long run as you are actually building a proper business not unlike in the offline world. Only difference is that you sell knowledge or information products which means there is no inventory costs.

Here you create your own information product in a particular niche say golf which you are passionate and have expert knowledge on. You could also outsource this to ghostwriters out there who would happily write an ebook for you for a small fee.

Conclusion

Whichever models you pick, to make money you will need to be able to generate traffic to your site. Learn all the techniques involved in traffic generation, pick the right model you are most comfortable with, and you will be on your way to internet marketing success.