Why the Franchise Model is No Longer Most Appealing

Author: Michael Peregrine

In the past, starting your own business was a risky decision for both your career and your financial security. That is why so many people have turned to franchising; because a franchise comes with support, an established brand, a tested product and a marketing team. Owning a franchise for a successful company was more secure than developing everything for yourself and starting out cold. That was, before the internet.

With the online business world growing and gaining speed every minute of every day, starting an internet business has become a much more affordable choice that offers unlimited creative freedom for the true entrepreneur. There are many reasons why an e-commerce business is a much better model than franchising now.

The first and most significant reason is also the most obvious: money. To own a major franchise you need to pay for it. This usually means you need to get a loan because not too many people have hundreds of thousands of dollars just lying around. You also need to hire a staff, train them and purchase all the materials needed to get your place running. When you run an online business there is little to no overhead and it’s something you can operate entirely on your own.

With so many new internet technologies you can even start your own website without any web design knowledge for nothing at all.

One of the other major downfalls to owning a franchise is that you have very little creative freedom to steer your business in a new and different direction. You are usually required to conform to company standards and regulations for everything from dress code to how you speak with a customer. As an internet business owner you can choose to do something you’re passionate about and use your creativity to make it what you want. Having access to worldwide marketplace also makes this possible because you don’t need to do something that’s in demand locally.

As a franchise owner you are not in total control of your business and there are limitations on how much you can earn as set by your head corporation. You can’t raise prices on your own or offer new services without approval, but with an online business there are no limits to what you can do with your venture or how much money you can make.

About the Author:

Michael Peregrine is a business coach and mentor that assists serious entrepreneurs in building a profitable online business with multiple incomes streams. Michael and his team have assisted hundreds of people in generating an executive level income or more in their first year. For more information and to contact Michael, visit: http://www.mikeperegrine.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Why the Franchise Model is No Longer Most Appealing

How to Start Making Money Online in 3 to 4 Hours Per Week

Author: Susan Warburton

In this day and age, there are more and more people who are looking for ways to make extra money or who are looking to start their own business. Thanks to the Internet there are more ways than ever for people to start their own business. If you've got a day job, you may wonder how you can possibly start a second business while maintaining your day job. You'll be happy to know that it can take as little as three to four hours per week to start and maintain your own online business.

An online business can take many different forms. There are people who make their own products and sell them online. There are other businesses that run entirely on auction sites like eBay.com where the sellers ship items across the country and across the world. Online business people can also create information products, like ebooks and reports, and sell them through websites.

However, the easiest way to make money online is by becoming an affiliate for someone else's product and directing traffic to their site. With affiliate marketing you don't have to worry about product delivery or creation. You don't have to deal with a lot of the hassles that other online business people do. You are simply in charge of driving traffic through your affiliate link.

You'd be surprised by how many different products and services offer affiliate programs. No matter what type of product or service you want to promote, you can find an affiliate program that fits your category.

To get started as an affiliate marketer, you first need to find a niche or group of people who have similar interests. For example, work at home mothers, middle aged golfers and seniors interested in natural health remedies are all examples of niches. Once you find a niche, you need to do some keyword research to find some terms that people are using to find information related to the niche.

Finding a niche and performing your keyword research can be completed within an hour or two. Once you have your niche and keywords, you can start a simple blog on the topic. You can use WordPress or Blogger for your blogging platform, and add a few posts related to the niche based on your keywords.

Once you figure out your niche, you can visit one of the many affiliate networks (like Clickbank.com) and get an affiliate code. Place this affiliate code throughout your blog. Be sure to link to the affiliate product or service at least once per post.

After you've developed your affiliate website, you can start driving traffic to this website. You can write articles and distribute them to article directories in order to bring traffic back to your site. You can also use pay per click advertising and social bookmarking sites to drive traffic to your site.

Once you have the blog in place and choose your affiliate links, you can update your site and drive traffic within just three to four hours a week. You can see with this simple plan how easy it can be to develop a successful side business in your spare time.

About the Author:

Susan Warburton is an expert reviewer of easy methods to make money online. Currently, viewing the privately EXPOSED videos of how a newbie made $35,867 in his first 14 days: Profit Miracle is a system that has worked for me 100% of the time.
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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - How to Start Making Money Online in 3 to 4 Hours Per Week