During 25 years of Online Marketing to Consumers, we have gained experience in a wide range of Online B2C Business Models and the strategies and tactics inside each Business Model aimed at creating maximum Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) or an acceptable Return On Effort/Time invested.

Ultimately we have settled on Affiliate Marketing as our base Business Model, with strategies that include List Building and Direct Response Marketing combined with tactics that include List Building, Paid Advertising, and “Free” Social media traffic generation. (“Free” is open to debate; we either spend money, or else we invest our time and energy as an alternative to paid advertising. Is that really “free?”)

The rate of change of everything in the Online world demands that we stay up-to-date with a multitude of issues — not “just” technology issues, but changing market factors.

Just one example: 9 months ago we tested a long-proven Business Model that took advantage of Amazon’s mind-boggling market share, and was considered “evergreen” by many. Success for more than a decade had revolved around 4 factors; get them right and income becomes inevitable, close to passive, and significant. Then 6 months into the Business Model an evolution in how Users took advantage of a Social Network — not really new technology, just a shift in how Users used it — meant that success with that Business Model depended on entirely different factors than when we started; the previous “vital 4” were irrelevant.

So, staying up-to-date isn’t a luxury; and assessing risks isn’t clear-cut. But these are part of the price of entry into the business.