Part of the guide: Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing this, SEO that…
Who really gives a shit?
The whole Internet Marketing community is OBSESSED with creating these passive streams of online income, but OH… it has to be virtual.
God forbid the need to ever speak to another human being. Internet Marketers would rather sit in a corner all day with a jug full of coffee in their boxer shorts, working through the early hours of the morning…
Let’s face it; most Internet Marketers are total introverts. They’d rather sit at home all day getting home deliveries in their 3-day-old sweatpants, reeking of body odor, than physically leave their house; talk to ‘normal people’ and participate in what we call ‘society’.
Ok… Perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit, but I’m getting at an important point here. There are some badass Internet Marketers. In fact, most of them are awesome, especially the successful ones.
But; a lot of online marketers are afraid of and almost despise the outside world. Or at least that’s the way it seems due to their sheer lack of acknowledgment of the 500-pound GORILLA in the room.
What am I talking about?
OFFLINE Internet Marketing
Internet Marketers know how to market online, just like a locksmith knows how to fix locks. It’s the same thing. We have the tools and knowledge required to build websites, drive traffic, and convert visitors into buyers.
So why aren’t we selling that skill? Why are we only fixing our own locks, instead of other people’s?
From my perspective, it’s because of the obsession with creating passive income. The kind of income that enables the Internet lifestyle of making money while you sleep.
While I completely agree with that, continually making money for doing something once rarely works out. Here’s my point.
The ‘gurus’ keep perpetuating this dream of “making money for doing nothing.” So this dream has become the goal of millions across the globe and has led to hundreds of barely stable online business models…
- Adsense
- Blogging
- Affiliate Marketing
- Push Button Software
You know what I’m talking about. The models that are hyped as ways to get rich for life by working once and getting paid forever. Sure, you can build an empire of Adsense sites that earn you $300/day, or a blog that pays you 5 figures a year, or earn 6 figures with affiliate marketing. (And yes: push button software is BULLSHIT)
However, the chances of one of those models sustaining themselves while you’re just collecting the checks each month for doing nothing are minimal. I’ve had Adsense networks taken down, I’ve had affiliate checks stripped away from me.
These models can make you a lot of money, but they’re not the most sustainable or secure, and they’re definitely not the smartest foundation for a business.
The best way to diversify your Internet Marketing business or build one from scratch is to work on OFFLINE IM. Offline IM involves providing Internet Marketing services to the offline world—local businesses to multi-national corporations.
They all need websites, traffic, a Facebook page, and more business. But they don’t have the tools or knowledge to fix their own locks. They have no idea how to build websites, run social media campaigns, or do SEO.
Any profitable business is willing to hand you a check month after month to handle their online marketing needs. So what do you do? What do you provide these offline businesses that’s so “EASY” to sell:
- Web Design
- Social Media
- PPC
- PPV
- Media Buying
- Graphic Design
- SEO
- SEM
- Facebook Fan Page Design
- Google Places
- Facebook Advertising
- Link Building
- Leads, Leads, LEADS.
Get the picture? If you’re a savvy Internet Marketer, you should know how to provide at least 3 of these services. The good news is you only need to know more than the offline businesses.
There aren’t nearly as many offline business models as there are online, but there are A LOT. I no longer provide Internet Marketing to offline businesses, but I tried a lot of them.
I provided SEO, web design, Facebook services—you name it. What I realized was that offline businesses don’t want to deal with online marketing. Even when you explain it to them, they’re scratching their heads in confusion.
All they want is MORE LEADS. They don’t care about Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn; they want more customers calling them. PERIOD.
After a lot of searching, testing, and talking to a friend of mine, I came across one model that does everything I ever wanted in an offline IM business.
You have been paid late before
You have watched the number on the dashboard not match the number in your account. What is different now is simple: it settles on a public contract you can check yourself, not a dashboard I control.
Read the contract →Most participants earn little to nothing. No income is guaranteed. You can verify every payout on the public smart contract.
The Pay Per Lead Model
The pay per lead model, or pay per call model, involves charging offline businesses for each call you send them. They don’t understand the marketing tactics, but with this model, you charge them for the end result—leads.
Click below to read more:
- An Introduction To The Pay Per Call Business Model
- The Pay Per Call Business Model – Niche Research
- The Pay Per Call Business Model – Keyword Research
- The Pay Per Call Business Model – Build Sites
- The Pay Per Call Business Model – Launch Sites
- The Ultimate Local SEO Strategy
- The Pay Per Call Business Model – Finding Clients
Comments
John Doe
Great post, David! I’ve been thinking about diving into offline marketing for a while, and this guide just gave me the push I needed. Thanks for the detailed breakdown!
Jane Smith
I’m not sure I agree with the claim that passive income doesn’t work. I’ve seen a lot of people build sustainable online businesses. But I do see the value in offline IM, especially for businesses that have no online presence.
Luke Matthews
This article really hit home for me! I’ve been struggling to build a sustainable online income, and the idea of offering services to offline businesses makes so much sense. Thank you for such an eye-opening guide, David. I can’t wait to get started!
Ana Roberts
I’m not entirely convinced that offline businesses would be willing to pay for leads on a consistent basis. Do you have any concrete examples of this model working for others? I’d love to see some success stories before diving in.
Michael Grant
David, I love the idea of shifting focus to offline marketing! Could you provide more details on how to price these services? What kind of contracts should be in place?
Sarah Wills
This is an interesting approach, but I feel like the emphasis on the shortcomings of passive income models is overstated. I’ve been able to maintain a steady income online, although I agree that it’s not always sustainable for everyone.
James Nolan
Hey David! It’s been a while since we last talked. Loved the post as always—especially the focus on practical offline marketing. How have you been? Let’s catch up sometime soon!
Patricia Diaz
Funny you mention the issues with passive income models. I had a similar experience where my Adsense revenue suddenly plummeted, and I had no backup plan. I’ll definitely be looking into offline marketing after reading this.
Ben Foster
I’ve recently started using a tool called LocalSEO that has helped me with some of the strategies you mention here. It’s perfect for optimizing local businesses, and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re focusing on offline clients.
Emily Watson
I never considered working with local businesses before, but your post has completely changed my perspective. I learned so much about the pay per lead model, and I can’t wait to apply these strategies. Thanks for the valuable insights!
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Most affiliates earn little, and that is disclosed up front. The difference here is not a promise about what you will make. It is that you can verify every payout yourself, on a public contract, in about twelve seconds.
See how the payout works →Most participants earn little to nothing. No income is guaranteed. You can verify every payout on the public smart contract.
The pivot from passive income being unreliable to pay-per-lead being the fix undersells how much selling is actually involved in pay-per-lead itself. The post frames it as trading a hyped, unstable model for a stable one, but stability here isn’t free, it’s earned the hard way, through months of the exact kind of door-knocking and rejection the piece skips past in a couple of paragraphs. Most people who try this offer their services to local businesses and hear no for months before the first client signs, and that’s the median outcome, not the rare or unlucky one. The people who do make pay-per-lead work usually already had some kind of sales or cold-outreach background before they started, some comfort with being told no repeatedly without taking it personally, and the post never mentions needing that at all. It reads like a business model swap, when really it’s swapping one skill requirement, marketing execution, for a different and in some ways harder one, sustained rejection tolerance.
The concept the post is circling without naming it is essentially a shift from selling inputs to selling outputs, which organisational psychology has written about under demand-based pricing for decades.
Small correction: the post uses ‘pay per lead’ and ‘pay per call’ as if interchangeable. A lead can be a form fill nobody answers.
Load-bearing points, stripped down: 1) online income models are fragile because platforms change the rules 2) local businesses need leads more than they need to understand marketing jargon 3) charge for the outcome, not the tactic. What’s missing is any mention of how you’d actually price a lead before you’ve delivered a single one and have no track record to point to. That’s the part someone starting cold actually needs.
Very interesting to read, thank you. I am wondering how the offline model translates for someone like myself who already runs a small distribution business, since I already have the relationships with local shop owners the post says a stranger would need to build first, does that mean the pay per lead model is easier or in some way harder for someone already known to the business owners?
Elif, from the company side I’d guess easier in one specific way and harder in another. Easier because trust is already built, so you skip the cold outreach entirely. Harder because pricing a service to someone who already knows you socially gets awkward fast, there’s no clean line between friend and vendor. I’ve watched that exact tension sink more informal arrangements than any lack of skill did.