When most people think about taking a small business online, they go straight to the sales model. That's because it's fairly straight-forward and your source of income is obvious. You function as an online merchant, and every time you make a sale, you earn a profit. The more sales you make, the bigger your profits grow.



But the really great thing about the sales model is that once you have your main revenue stream running smoothly, you can add every single other profit stream I mentioned above in order to diversify your income and explode your profits! For example, let's say you run a small business that manufactures garden tools. When you set up your sales site, you can sell your own product (garden tools), earning the largest profit margin. This should be your main source of income, so make sure you focus on this first.

You could also sell a service that complements your products or that your customers might need before or after using your product. Your garden tools sales site, for example, could offer landscaping consultations with professional landscapers. Next, you could find products available to drop ship that complement your main product. Maybe your new garden tool owners will need other items for their garden. Find a drop shipper that offers bird feeders or garden gloves, and arrange to offer those products for sale on your site.

Why not recommend affiliate products that your customers will be interested in? You could set up a "Gardening Resources" page on your site and use it to promote affiliate products related to gardening, such as books or magazines about gardening, packets of seeds, flower bulbs, plant pots or just about anything else gardeners would be interested in. (Remember, though, keep your focus and avoid turning this page into a general flea market or you'll end up losing traffic.)

Try selling ad space to advertisers who are interested in your target market. A site that sells rain gear, for example, might be interested in advertising to gardeners since they spend a lot of time outside. Another option would be to create a joint venture with other businesses. Maybe you know a great local landscaper who has never considered offering his service online. You could set up an arrangement where you earn a portion of the profits on any sales you send his way. Then, write a quick e-mail promotion about his service and send it to all of your customers who live in his area.

Finally, start an affiliate program to promote your site. You could do all your selling yourself . . . but why would you? Think about it--you boost your visibility when your affiliates start publicizing your site, you gain credibility with your affiliates' customers, and you simply make more sales! And in a sales model site, that's your ultimate goal.