Making Money Online - Businesses And Internet Income Advice

How Blogs Make You Money Where Money Systems Fail

2009-11-13T19:49:00.000-08:00

Many opportunity seekers are in a financial bind when they seek out Internet opportunities to make money. The fact that most are feeling pressure to find a way to make some cash, makes them prime targets for money making system scams. They often grab at the first big money promise that comes up on their search for opportunitites. Less than one percent of those who pay out money on one of these systems will actually make any money.

So how can an average Internet user make a little cash? A blog. Lower the fantasy of getting rich quick and add some time investment to make your blog a long term cash earner.

First, anyone can start a blog for free. Use Blogger or another blog site to set up your blog. You don't have to pay out money to create it. You don't have to be an website genius to create it either. The blog site you use will offer a choice of templates and the additions that you want to put in to make money. Putting Adsense on your site is as easy as clicking your mouse and is a great and free way to start making money. Add some ads on your site from numerous and generally free ad affiliate sites like Commision Junction and you are adding more chances of making some money.

A blog will require traffic to make money. After all, if no one sees your site, no one will click your ads. So get your blog out into cyber space. Put your site link in as many quality directories as you can. Add more every day, most are free and a few may cost a small fee to add your listing. Add your site to search engines so they can crawl your blog. Use original and fresh content on your blog.
Bloggers are great for sharing tips and you can find many relevant tips from other blogs to help you get your blog noticed. You can also find technical help on setting up your specific needs to maximize profit.

If you are willing to work at it and are realistic about your expectations, a blog will eventually start making you some cash. The more you put in to it, the more you will get out of it. Unlike the empty promises of the get rich quick scams and systems, you will gain as you become more established and you don't have to spend much to do it.
　
　
　
　

Advertising - What Makes Them Click?

2009-09-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

Affiliate advertising is a great way to make money online and so is adsense but the question is what makes people click on ads? How do you make money from adsense or affiliate ads? First and most obvious is your site or blog has to be seen and get traffic or no one has a chance to view your ads. To find out more about traffic, view my archived blog articles and let's investigate the motivations for people to click the ads once they are at your site or blog.

First your audience must be interested in the subject of your ads. You must know your audience. If your site is about computers, it is unlikely your ad for health supplements will get many clicks. If you gear your ads to things that might interest your audience you will likely get clicks. Luckily, if you use Adsense ads, they will automatically be geared to the content of your site. If you are an affiliate, you have to be more choosey.

The layout of your ads are also key. Ads that are placed above content and in the middle of content are more likely to attract attention than side ads. While reading articles, a nicely placed mid content ad may catch the attention of your reader. They are already reading and it is natural to continue reading the ad.
People vary on color and flashy ads creating interest.

If an ad is too flashy, has movement and "shouts" at your audience, you may end up just annoying them. One site I happened by had filled the whole page with bright, flashy ads. My eyes hurt just trying to find a place to look on the page. Of course, it got my attention but it didn't get my clicks. I never visited that page again. So put yourself in your audience's seat when you choose your ads. If it would get your interest and not annoy you, chances are your audience would approve.

Placing word ads within text has also had great success. These ads flow with the rest of your article and content and require little effort for your reader to click on. This is also a good way to encourage your reader to find on topic services or material that they are looking for.

Keep in mind that the value of your click is to find what your audience needs or might want and deliver options. Then, not only will they be clicking the ad, but may actually want the product offered in the ad. It is that winning combo that will make you money.

Money Making Systems

2009-07-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

Is Maverick Money Maker's a scam? Does Maverick Money Maker's really work? Well of course if you type in those exact phrases looking for reviews of the system, you are going to find pages of promotional articles from the members of this system. They are going to tell you how great it really truly is and how to join. This is what bugs me about new money systems online. One of the best ways to promote a money system is to give it a great review and act like you are not doing it for the money. It is typical of money making systems and it is your first clue on how they really make their money.

Most online money making systems make their money in this manner:
First, you pay to access the "training material" or website.
Once you have paid for this material, thinking that you will have everything you need to make money, you will typically find that you need to be a "member" to enjoy the vital extras needed to make money. You then are paying either the high one time fee or more moderate monthly fee to continue membership privelges.

You will be given a "mirror" or duplicate website of the same one that drew you into the idea and a password and username to track stats on the site. Basically, you will be promoting the site and as an affiliate, make money from other takers.

Some sites will offer other products for you to be an affiliate of to make money promoting.

If you go back to your initial search, where pages of fake reviews popped up, you will see that you have a lot of competition for duplicate website affiliates. How likely is your page to be in the top ten? Not likey at all. Only the top 1% of money making system members actually make the money that their testimonials atest to.

Always read between the lines on a money making system website. They almost always follow the exact same pattern to interest you:
They first will explain how down and out they were in a dead end job or how they were broke and desperate. Then they tell you how a brilliant money making idea changed their life.
(Geared to appeal to your situation and create sympathy, then hope.)
　
They give you a list of all the things they hated about working in a regular job, usually in bold red.
(Appealing to common greivances of the unhappily employed or desperate person.)

They give you a list of all the wonderful things about working for yourself, usually in bold green.
(Creating excitement of the possibility of making money without effort- same hope can be applied when you buy a two buck lottery ticket, only this will cost you way more.)

Then the tell you how any, unexperienced person can do this because it is so very simple with their step by step instructions to guide you and how the site is fully automated.
(Thereby reduces any reality nudges you may have related to actually knowing what you are doing before paying.)

Then the testimonials, usually three are available to view in print or video. These people will basically repeat the above process and even show you a cheque or bank statement with "proof" of their earnings.
(This should prove that real people have indeed made money and you will too.
Of course, chances are these are the top 1 percent that started the system.)

After that, you are given your opportunity to join in and start making money now! What are you waiting for? Unfortunately, the most desperate and needy people are the ones who click on that entry and pay out the money to try and make their lives better. Once they have paid to make it successful, they are not going to give you a review that tells you they haven't made a dime are they?
So as always, look very carefully at what you invest your money in and decide if what you are paying for will actually make you money.
　
　

Getting Traffic/ What Should You Spend Time or Money On?

2009-06-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

The methods to increase your traffic are everywhere. Many of them cost you money and the others cost only your time. The question is, which methods are worth your time or money? Should you spend a great deal of money on directory listings? Should you bother to pay for backlinks? Should you pay to optimize your website?

Directory listings:

I have found that having your site link on a directory is worth the usually small amount you pay. If you are going to do this, make sure that you are paying for PR 4 or up directories. These ones usually do charge for putting your site in their directory but these sites will show up in searches as well. That is the point so why not do it? You can also manually put your site in free directories and it doesn't hurt to do that either. The more the merrier. Here are some of the ones that show up in searches most often that are reasonable to purchase:

gpanimation.com
seekabove.com
5lbs.com
1any.com
creativeagency.com
etup.org
premiumsites.org
bsaadmail.com
apexoo.com
freewd.org

Backlinks:

I personally do not think this has helped me much. I did pay for a listing of backlinks to high PR sites and found that nothing came of it. The cost was cheap but it was a lot of work for very little result.

Article Submissions:

Absolutely the best way to get your site in searches. There are very good posting sites for you to submit articles to and you will get traffic back when people click your url in the resource box. Some of my favorites are:

Ezine Articles
Hub Pages
Zimbio
Digg
Idea Marketers
Articles Galore
Article Alley
Article Base

As for getting your site to the best quality it can be and getting rid of broken links and other problems that will hurt your ratings in searches, I highly recommend you invest in or at least try the trial version of :

Deeptrawl

I also recommend you get a membership with Engineseeker.com. They make it easy to track your sources of traffic and find out what is working and what is not. They also have packages to help you get traffic on major search engines. Well worth the time it takes to sign up.

Best Sites For Bloggers

2009-05-25T13:38:00.001-07:00

I am always on the lookout for great tools and sites for bloggers. I have tried many sites that claim to boost your traffic but rarely have they consistantly brought in traffic. The exception to this is blog catalog and several high traffic article sites.

Blog catalog is a great way to announce your blog to other supportive bloggers. For a small donation your blog is featured and you have some extra bonuses. Your new posts are updated. You get a nice thumbnail of your site. The best part is finding other bloggers blogs that you can visit and be visited by. In order to track where my traffic is coming to I have signed up with Engineseeker. This service can tell you exactly where your traffic came from, even the search engine or site that took your visitor to your site. It also has wonderful tools to optimize your keywords, description and blog title. Here are the links for these sites:

http://www.blogcatalog.com/
http://www.engineseeker.com/

As for the article traffic, by far the best traffic comes from ezine articles. It is well worth your time to send in an article when you can because it will pay you back in visits to your blog. We all know that traffic means money. Ezine articles rate high in Google searches. Even when you have not sent in new articles your old ones should give you traffic. That is a bonus, as most article sites do not create active traffic unless you are constantly adding articles. If you are can put the time in and write fresh articles you will benefit from sites such as Hub Pages. Hub Pages need work but if you want more views, it is a must. See my link below to access directly.

I also found lots of hits from Articles Galore, although this traffic was based not in Google but Yahoo. It was the only article site that I use that rated high in Yahoo searches.

I also did some playing around with backlinking to high PR sites but to be honest, this was not as helpful as I would have thought. I still think the best way to get traffic is through writing articles and being aware of where your audience is finding you.

So, here is to creating consistant traffic and having your site rank high in searches!

Beware of Fake Paypal Emails

2009-05-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

Here is an example of a new phishing email I received recently. This is a fraudulent email that is pretending to be Paypal and when you click the link (which I deleted), you are taken to a fake site to login with the information they need to rob your account. I have copied it exactly so you can see how convincing they can appear.

Never click links in this type of email or respond to them. If you get an email like the one below, forward it to spoof@paypal.com immediately.

Hopefully the people who created this email get caught before they get any money. Here is the phishing email that was sent:

Attention PayPal User,

This is to notify you that our services are being upgraded to our new antifraud and antispam PayPal Secure system. You are therefore required to CLICK HERE and register your PayPal Account IMMEDIATELY so as to secure your account and register it on our new secure servers. Only registered PayPal Accounts will work with our new and improved secure server.Please Note that in PayPal will not be responsible for any money lost in your account due to your refusal to upgrade your account to our secure server. Please follow the link and register your PayPal Account now to prevent loss of funds. To register your account please CLICK HERE.

Thank you for using PayPal®. We look forward for serving your online auction payment needs in the future.

Sincerely,
PayPal

It really bugs me that this kind of email still gets people concerned enough to click the link given. I wish they could catch those who con others with fake emails and bogus site replicas. Until then, be extra careful to avoid clicking links within questionable emails sent to you and keep yourself protected!

On another topic, I found an interesting blog that has some useful information for those of you interested in blogging:

http://www.soweb.me

Affiliate Marketing For Bloggers

2009-04-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

There are many different ways to make money online, but today I want to talk about affiliate marketing. Some methods of making money are very consistant but pay out in smaller amounts over time. I would place Adsense and Survey taking in this category. Unless you have a very high traffic site, it will take you time to make with Adsense as only a certain percentage of your visitors will view your Google ads and actually look further into them. Surveys build up over time and although they may pay smaller amounts it is consistant from good survey sites such as Clearview Surveys (even if you don't qualify for the whole survey, they pay a small amount- I wish other survey sites would take note and do the same). Anyway, affiliate marketing is what is catching more of my interest these days, particularly for bloggers.

First let's look at the money you can make. WIth one sale of a product you are advertising you can make anywhere from about $15.00 - $30.00 on average. Of course, there are higher paying and lower paying products. So even for bloggers who don't have a huge amount of traffic yet, with the right products, you may make quite a lot of money from posting ads or links on your site. One thing is important to remember, only pick products that you, yourself have tried and liked or that have a good reputation backing them. After all, your readers are ultimately what will make you successful, you don't want to sell them something you don't believe in. Stay away from get rich quick affiliate marketing schemes. These may be enticing but be realistic, these schemes end up bilking money from people. Only one percent of people (the top founders) make any real money the rest spend money trying to get other people to buy it so they can get their "investment" back. Avoid get rich quick schemes at all costs.

Where can you find legitimate and good products or services to recommend on your site? There are several places:

http://www.paydotcom.com/

http://www.commissionjunction.com/

http://www.fluxads.com/

Or if you are particularly impressed with a product that you have used, look at the home page for the product. Usually at the bottom there will be a link that says "Affiliates". The link will tell you how you can become an affiliate. These are the best products and services to suggest to your audience because you have had success with them and can, in good faith recommend them.

An example of two of the products that I have had personal success with and highly recommend are:

www.shadowshopper.com/index.cfm?adid=16958

www.paydotcom.com/r/40669/greatb/2997784

You will find the ones you can recommend in the process of developing your blog.

Internet Scams

2009-03-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

Not all Internet scams are business opportunity related. There are endless schemes and methods that con you out of money. Some of the more recent ones involve apartment rentals and international friendships and dating. The apartment scheme is where you have listed an apartment or house for rent on the Internet. Someone from an international local responds saying they are looking for a place as they are, or their daughter/son is a student. After finding out the price of rent, they generously send you a full years payment in advance, by cheque of course. Shortly after, they call and say that unfortunately they will not be able to rent the place after all. They insist you keep the security deposit amount, but ask you to please send back the remaining year's worth of money they sent you. They helpfully give you instructions on how to wire it to them immediately. What you find out a few days after is that the cheque they sent you for the full year is bogus. You have just sent them your own hard earned money and have been a party to fraud.

The international friendship and dating scam is just as offensive, if not more personal. With all the social networking sites on the Internet, this scam is gaining in momentum and bilking many a lonely soul out of their money. You start chatting with a wonderful man/woman on your social site. They seem very sincere and likeable. Chances are they have an amazing picture of themselves. They are good looking. After some time of getting to know them on a personal basis, you recieve an email wherein they express a need for money. It may be a desperate situation or health related issue. You feel obligated to help out this "friend". You would feel like a jerk if you didn't. The other scenario is that they want to come and meet you but are lacking the funds or ticket. This one is used mainly on dating sites or marriage sites. You send them a ticket or money. They don't show up. Later, you find out the beautiful woman you were falling in love with is really a man named Earl who is forty two and has a long history of fraud.
To avoid these scams, you must do the same as you would to avoid business scams:

Never take a cheque from someone promising you work or an advance and deposit it to your account.

Never send money to someone you only know from emailing or social sites.

Don't believe pictures. Anyone can post any picture whether it is of big fancy cars, money or an incredibly good looking person. Seeing is NOT believing on the Internet.

Do not accept job offers from companies you haven't applied to on the Internet. If you get an email job offer be very suspicious.

Avoid clicking on links within emails. Fake sites and replicated sites can steal your credit card numbers, passwords and personal information.

Research companies, businesses and scams before signing up.

The Internet does and can lead to opportunities but it also is the fastest growing opportunity for fraud. Know what you are getting into before you give any information or money.

Ezine Articles/ Tips For Traffic

2009-03-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

One of my all time favorite traffic generators has been article writing for Ezine Articles. If you are a blogger and want to get more traffic, this site will get you Google search results and many, many views to your blog. So this post is to help you write articles that will get views.

First, write articles that are significant to your blog. Write what may be new or of interest to your audience. If you are writing about something that has been written about extensively, find a new slant on the topic to keep it fresh.
After you have written your article, you need to think of tags that will help your audience find your article. Tags are short phrases or words that are might be typed in by someone searching for an article such as yours. An example of tags for an article on making money from adsense might be:

adsense,making money online,adsense income,blogging,website ads,pay per click

Notice how each phrase is only seperated with a comma, you can also place a - in between words in a phrase such as:

making-money-online,website-ads,and-so-on...

Tags are important because they target the people interested in your subject. Once they have found your article, they likely will visit your site. You are able to put your website url in the resource box. I believe they allow up to two links in the resource box. Be careful about the type of links and amount of links you put in the body of your article. It is best to read the guidelines carefully before you submit an article.

There has been frustration with Ezine Articles in the submission process. Some articles may be rejected due to too many links in the body of the article or various guideline violations. I experienced this recently and felt frustrated because the problem was that they said my resource link was not working. It took a few emails to the editor to finally discover that the problem was that I had an adsense box on my page before the content of my blog. This had to be changed before they accepted the article.

In any case, even with the occassional frustration with the process, Ezine Articles will definitely get you on search engine searches and get you traffic. From my perspective it is the top for traffic generating article sites. If you want to visit, here is the url:
www.ezinearticles.com

Hub Pages/ Views And Income Potential For Writers!

2009-03-06T15:53:00.000-08:00

Today, I want to let all the writers out there to know about a wonderful site called Hub Pages. If you are tired of writing articles at sites where your articles are rarely even seen, it's time for a change. Hub Pages is a place that offers writers more than views. This site has a lot to offer anyone who has something to write about. Here is a place you can write about advice, interests, opinions and let your voice be heard. You can add pictures, video and text. You benefit in several ways. There is a great community of "hubbers", and the articles you write will be read by many of them. This is a supportive community and they support quality efforts by scoring your hub higher if the quality is high.

Hub pages also offer a way to make some money. You can set up affiliate accounts with Google, eBay and Amazon. Their ads will be displayed on your hub pages. With Google, your ads are automatically designed to fit the content of your hub. If you already have an Adsense account with Google, you will be able to link hub ads with the account you have and don't need to make a new one. With ebay and Amazon, you can choose which products you want to have featured on your pages. There are also Kontera contextua link ads that you can have on your page.

How does this make you money? Well any click through on a Google ad, or purchase made from an ad from Amazon or eBay gets you 100% of the rate offered. Hub Pages also offer a traffic Refferal Program. The traffic you send to a hub will get you a percentage of impressions.

This type of writing is a win win situation for everyone. You have the freedom to express yourself and a very fair deal for potential earnings. This isn't going to make you rich but it is a nice reward for your efforts.

Check out my hub, Debit Fraud, How To Spot it, How To Prevent it, And then, hit sign up and try it out for yourself, your going to love it!

Work Online / Options For Making Money On The Internet

2009-02-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

The hope of creating your own income from working online is not an unrealistic dream. There are definite and many ways to tap into the realm of income sources online. Before you jump into making money, get rid of any "instant riches" notions you may have. These will cost you money. Most money schemes on the Internet use your need to make money as a way to get your money.
Run from any business that promises you instant deposits, huge income and any type of income system or generator. Do a search for people who have tried the business and see what they say, chances are you'll get an eye-opener on it.
Warnings aside, the ways to make money on the Internet generally take time and effort, and grow according to your input. It is the same concept for all small businesses, on the Internet or land.

First, take a look at your skills. Which of these are your strong points?

Do you enjoy writing?
Do you have technical skills with computers?
Are you a natural people person?
Are you a salesperson?
Do you like to work independently?
Can you motivate yourself to work while at home?
Do you have some money to put into a business or are you looking for a no investment income?

Once you have asked yourself these questions consider the options for online income:

Writers:

Writers are in demand on the internet. There are several types of work that can make you some extra money. Search for freelance writers and you will find article places that pay for your articles. All Internet websites require original content to keep their site fresh. Many of them will pay to have you write on related topics. There is also a great site called Associated Content that pays for original articles on almost any topic. This one is great for the writer who wants to let their own interests be their muse.

Other types of work for writers are blogging and creating income through advertisements on your blog. This type of writing requires a fairly large time commitment and continued input to be successful. You need to find a specific niche that you know about and can update frequently.

Sales:

Promotions are huge on the Internet. If you have great sales ability you can use it to sell online products offline and build a client base. Nutronix is one example of this type of sales (selling wholesale vitamins and more) bought through them and sold offline or online. There are other products that you can tap into and sell online as well. For those of you who have some SEO savvy or technical ability as well as great marketing skills, there are an endless aray of affiliate options available on the Internet. Going to Clickbank, Paydotcom.com or Commission Junction, Flux Advertising or other sites will allow you to pick advertisments that you think you can get people interested in on your site. These pay either by people signing up or sometimes, just having someone enter their information is enough to get you money. Please, please be wary of the instant riche schemes and money systems. You can use your skills in a much more effective way and do it legally.

Other people interested in sales may want to try selling one particular item through adwords or set up a store on Ebay or Amazon. There are also other drop shipping methods for people interested in setting up a complete independent store site. Depending on the amount of time you want to invest, you can choose the best option for you.

Independent Workers:

For those of you who want to work outside the home but still want very flexible hours and the ability to pick and choose what jobs you want to work on, try mystery shopping. If you join a legitimate site such as Shadow Shoppers, you can find resources for becoming certified and many offers for doing all types of mystery shops and reviews. You may also find offers for permanent part time jobs merchandising. To find out more details, read my archived article on Mystery Shopping. It provides all the links you need and more to get started.

Freelancers:

If you have great technical abilities, know SEO, know Java, html and can contribute your knowledge to an online business, you probably can find rewarding work. The pay and conditions will vary but going to whydowork or other freelance work sites may get you into a paying work offer. Make sure, as with any offer online, that you are working with a legitmate, paying business. Some of the top business online are looking for people.

A Site Worth Seeing

2009-02-01T20:28:00.001-08:00

Today I want to share with you a website that I think is very unique, legitimate and a find for people looking to earn from home based freelance type work. I happened upon it and glanced around and found, to my surprise some very good online income resources. The website is called Whydowork. It was founded in 2004 and is a Canadian company that has been featured in Reader's Digest, Google News, Yahoo News and Networkworld.

Apart from the membership aspect where you can spread the word about your work, Whydowork has partnered with Craiglist, Odesk, and Elance to bring some unique offers to the population of Internet income seekers. There are forums, reviews and valuable posts. The part of the site that I like best is the tab for "work at home jobs". These are not the usual affiliate or get rich quick work ads I was expecting to see. Some of the listings include: Database,Web design, Writing and Blogging, Translation and Technical help. All are work online positions and best of all the are above and beyond what you would usually find for online positions.

Note that with any type of work, you still have to have some reservation and check out the offer fully. Never take any position where you are given money orders, large cheques, or deposits to make. If this does happen, do not deposit the money. This is a common fraudulent scam on the Internet. That said, there are definitely some interesting possiblilities to look into on this site. I have put a work search from Whydowork.com below if you are interested, check it out. You may also want to check out their article on do follow blogs. It is always exciting when a legitimate site for online workers comes along. Cheers!

Whydowork

Work from Home Job Search

2009-02-01T19:13:00.001-08:00

work at home jobs by whydowork.com

Should You Pay To Join An Internet Business?

2009-01-22T12:18:00.000-08:00

There are many ways to make money online and there are just as many ways to spend it. The question is; what should you be spending money on in order to make money? Let's look at the types of income you'll probably run into on the Internet,

Business "Systems" and Instant "Wealth" Programs:

Most of the types of businesses you'll be finding online require you to purchase either membership or the software download to start the business. These kinds of business are basically marketing businesses. Chances are that no matter how they phrase their pitch to you, they are all offering you the same basic business. The business you are purchasing is a copy or mirror site of the same pitch page you are looking at. Once you have paid the fee for membership or for the download and guides, you will still have to try to find other people to buy what you just did.
So the cost of the "package" is just the start. In order to get other people to buy, you will very likely have to budget an advertising package to make any money at all.

Total Cost Estimate: $40.00 to 400.00 and then ongoing advertising costs: $60.00 per month
Profit Probability: Slim- Usually only one percent of people involved in Internet business "systems" make any money at all. If you are an expert at marketing, you may stand a chance.

Paid Per View:

Paid to view and paid to click sites offer a very small amount of money ( usually less than one cent) each time you view an emai, click on a website, or tour a site. The amount of time it takes to actually make any money is horrible. Clicking ads for one hour would probably make you about sixy cents. The only real way to make money on this type of business is to have many referrals under you. Then you get a percentage of what they make clicking. However, unless you have either a million friends who love to click or pay for referrals by either advertising or spamming forums, you are not going to make enough money to buy yourself a coffee at the end of the day.

Total Cost Estimate: $0.00
Profit Probability: Slim - You will make a little money (and I do mean little).

Survey Lists:

There are many businesses on the Internet that will provide you with a list of survey sites that pay. The lists are legitimate companies and all of them will pay but many of them do not pay in cash. More often the majority pay in points, or sweepstake entries or in gift certificates. Keep in mind as well that many of the survey company lists are for U.S. residents only. There are less that take Canadian or International panelists. However, having tried this myself I can say that you will probably make money if you sign up with many of them. The amount you will make will not be enough to count on as regular income but more likely, extra cash. Focus group participation is sometimes offered at survey sites. This pays much more, anywhere from twenty to one hundred dollars per hour. Because you don't get regular invites for focus group participation, you can only look at this as bonus income.

Total Cost Estimate: $ 19.00 to $49.00 one time fee.
Profit Probability: Good - If you sign up at a lot of the paying survey sites you should have paid off your "investment" in a short time. The extra cash is a nice treat but not an income.

Blogging

Blogging doesn't cost anything to begin with, you can get a free blog account at blogger.com, put Adsense on for free, and put on other ads if you want to for nothing as well. That said, you will still need to have people visiting your blog to make money. Blogging is a on going investment of time and work. The upside is that once you have traffic, there is no doubt you'll begin to earn through Adsense. Now, because Adsense doesn't like blogs "buying" traffic from Paid to View sites, you have to use other forms of getting traffic. Many of these are no cost or low cost. Spreading your site url through writing articles is one no cost method. Submitting your url to directories is another no cost method (you can do this manually) or low cost (paying for high ranking directory listings). You also can submit your site to the search engines for nothing. I would say that most people want to get traffic faster and so in fact will spend a certain amount of money towards linking and some will want to spend some money on SEO tools or services.
The great thing about this type of work is that it grows as you put more time into it. When it grows, so does your profit.

Total Cost Estimate: $ 0 Start Up, $45.00 to get it rolling.
Profit Probability: Good - If you invest the time and keep working you will make money. Be realistic. Don't expect money coming in until your traffic goes up.

All in all you have to consider the cost vs the amount of money it takes to make money. If the cost, including ongoing advertising is greater than the profits you can expect to make, don't do it. If you are confident you can make more money than your investment, you have created income for yourself.

Advertising Wraps, Should You Try Paid To Drive?

2009-01-15T11:48:00.000-08:00

Given that financial crisis is looming over many people these days, finding new ways to make extra money is worth looking into. One way to make a fairly large amount of income without having to make changes in your regular routine is to either drive a free advertising car or have your car wrapped in advertisements. This is type of "work" is in high demand, but if you have what the companies are looking for, it may be right for you.

That said, I will also say that there are hundreds of sites that will sell you a list of companies that wrap cars. They charge from about fourteen to thirty dollars for access to the list. Your chances at getting accepted may in fact, be lower on these listed company sites because the competition is going to be very high. If you bought the list, how many others did the same? Your best bet may be to take the road less taken and contact advertisers in your local telephone directory. Call diversified advertising companies and see if they are looking for people to wrap their cars. Also look for auto wrap service companies and find out who they are wrapping ads for. There are also a few advertising companies that are online and that are free to apply to. I will provide these links at the end of the article.

First things first, what are these companies looking for? It is important that you are able to meet the requirements of the advertiser. Most companies want someone who puts a lot of milege on their car. If you drive hundreds of miles every month, your chances are good at getting accepted. However, sometimes where you drive is more important than miles driven. Some advertisers want people who drive to big events, city centres, malls and other populated areas in a city. They want their ad seen and if you park on a busy street everyday, that's a good thing. The type of car you drive may also factor in whether you are accepted or not. A Volkswagen Bug or Hummer is going to attract more attention than a 1980 Honda. An SUV may be more acceptable than a compact car. That doesn't mean you don't stand a chance if you have an older car. You don't know until you try.

How much do they pay you to wrap your car? The amount you can get paid goes anywhere from fifty dollars a month to about four hundred a month. There is usually a contract for a specific time period that your car will need to be wrapped, anywhere from a month to twelve months. During the time you are under contract, you need to maintain your vehicle according to their regulations and keep the wrap in good repair. Find out the details when you apply.

What will be rejected instantly? Anyone who has a conviction for traffic violations, driving under the influence should not apply. Anyone under the age of eighteen will not qualify.

Wrapping your car in an ad is a great opportunity to gain regular extra income and there is no loss in applying to do it. Just think carefully before you decide to pay for a list as this may be a waste of time if you don't have the right driving record, car, or if where and how much you drive is not what they are looking for.

For online applications that will not cost you a cent check out:

www.ad-wraps.com
www.adsmartoutdoor.comdriversreg.htm

For Canada, check out some advertising companies like:

www.vehiclewraps.ca

Also search Google for "car wraps Canada" or look in your local directories.

(although this one does not have an online application, you can try contacting places such as this to see if they are looking for drivers).

Adding Title Tags & Keyword Tools, Fine Tuning Your Blog

2009-01-12T08:28:00.000-08:00

There are many little things you can do to help make your blog get indexed by search engines and improve your rankings. Many of these things are very important and make a big difference in the amount of traffic you get from Google, Yahoo and MSN. In this article I am going to get technical so you can get these things done, step by step.

Here are the technical issues I have experienced and resolved:

Adding a title tag to your blog. Title tags are what show up in searches and are therefore, very important. Your post titles shoud be relevant to optimal key words. In blogger, how do you get these to show up? You should have your titles enabled under your settings tab in blogger to begin with. This is what shows you the title of your post on each post on your page. This however, may not show up in searches. You need to add a tag into your html to get the title of each post showing up in searches. This is how you do just that if you are using Classic templates ( Layout templates should have a title tag inserted automatically):

First go to your Template Tab.

Click Edit Html.
Select and copy your Template html. (highlight to select, right mouse click to copy)
Paste this onto a blank word document.
This will make it easier for you to find what you are looking for in your Html.
Find the first tag.
Somewhere under the first tag, you will find this line:

<$BlogDateHeaderDate$>

Under this line, put in this Use < and > to enclose each phrase:

BlogItemTitle
$BlogItemTitle$
/BlogItemTitle

Now preview your page and you will see the title of your post show up under the date of the post. This will also show up in search engine searches. Success!
Now that you have a title tag, you need to research keywords for your titles. You want to try and find keywords that have low competition and high search queries. To do this there is a free and very good tool you can use:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

You can use this tool when deciding on title phrases as titles are very important to search engine results.

Another important step you can take is to submit a sitemap to Google. To do this:
Go to your Google account and sign in.
Click on Webmasters
Click Add a Sitemap
Put in your url, example http://yourblogname.blogspot.com
On the next page you will see this url followed by a blank box. in this box put in: atom.xml
Then click Submit Sitemap.

Google will verify your sitemap and index your site.

These little changes can make a big difference so don't be afraid to try them and see what results you have. If you find that you are experience limited results after doing everything you know to make your blog search engine friendly, you may want to try Deep Trawl. This wonderful tool you can download (there is a free trial with no obligation) immediately. It will go through your site and search for errors that cause problems for search engines. It will find dead links, missing meta tags and other html errors, spelling mistakes, and it will do customized checks. It is very easy to use and when the problems are found, it is easy to fix them because Deep Trawl shows you exactly where the error is in your html. You can edit it from there. The free trial is really worth your time:

http://www.deeptrawl.com/

How To Add A Tip Jar To Your Blog

2009-01-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

Let's face it, bloggers do spend a lot of time on articles, links and trying to provide good information for their readers. The work does pay off, but it takes some time before a blogger can have enough of an audience to impact the money they make. There are two ways a blogger can make money. One is through people clicking on their advertisements. Unfortunately, because of this there are a vast amount of sites plastered with ads with no real content. The other bloggers work very hard at content and establishing their blog to make money from either adsense clicks or from affiliate advertisements. Growing slowly is another way to make money, a tipjar. This is a real incentive for bloggers to provide quality information on their sites.

The question is, if a blogger does want to add a tipjar to their blog, what are the options?

Paypal offers a simple donation button that can be added to your blog. It is inserted easily by copying a pasting the html code into your template. In order to get the button, you must first have a premier or business account through Paypal. Upgrading doesn't cost you anything. There are, however, small transactions fees for payments you receive. The benefit of using Paypal is that it is a trusted and secure method or giving or receiving payments and most online users are familiar with Paypal. A user can use a credit card or debit. There is no muss or fuss with paypal and you cut out the middleman.

Here is where you can find out more about setting up a donation button at Paypal:

www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donate-intro-outside

Another option is Tipjoy. With Tipjoy, both the sender and receiver of the tip need to have a Tipjoy account. The person tipping can wait for a bill at the end of the month or pay sooner if they choose. The receiver can wait until they have accumulated enough funds and then cash it out through paypal.

The sender intially only has to provide his email and the amount of his tip to tip a blog. He can tip several blogs and at the end of the month, pay his bill at Tipjoy. The payment will be through Paypal.

The receiver also must eventually have an account. Although a Tipjoy tipper can tip to any website url, even those with no Tipjoy account, in order for them to recieve the payment, they need to set up an account. Tipjoy notifies them when they have enough money tipped to be paid.

The downside is that the tipper must have two accounts, Tipjar and Paypal. The upside is that because fewer transactions are made, the blog recieving payments keeps more of the tip than with Paypal donation.

http://tipjoy.com/

Another tipjar available for bloggers is called Scratchback. Scratchback adds another element to tipping. The blogger can set the tip rate and for each tip recieved, the blogger provides the tipper with an image or a link as a thank you.

The way the fees work at Scratchback as of this writing is that the blogger keeps 90% of the tip after the Paypal fee is taken out.

http://www.scratchback.com/

So for those of you who love the information you can enjoy on blogs and for those of you blogging, tipjars are something you might want to consider. Even a small donation of less than a dollar can put a smile on the face of your favorite blogger. The point is that you are showing encouragement for the continued effort. For bloggers, this is an incentive to create and continue adding quality news for your readers.

"The Adsense Code" Book Review

2008-12-29T21:32:00.000-08:00

I recently read the book, The Adsense Code, A Strategy by Joel Comm and thought I would share my review of it with everyone interested in earning with adsense, blogging, and making money by optimizing your website. Blogging is one of the best long term ways of growing your income available today and the cost is very small compared to many other businesses.

"The Adsense Code" caught my eye because it is one of those books that appeals to my quest for the secret to making great money online. I am always interested in finding out new ways to make the most of adsense. Anyway, the word "code" always gets me, it sounds like there might be some really simple element that we are all missing that will make the difference between doing okay with adsense to having amazing results.

The first part about setting up the blog is just basic stuff that I skimmed through quickly. I was eager to turn to the next chapters. What I found were pages devoted to designing web pages that would optimize your clicks with adsense. I have to say, I was a little disappointed. I think most bloggers are aware just by reviewing their blogs and statistics what techniques are ideal. I guess to be fair, there are some that could benefit from the layout advice if they are just starting a blog or have the tendency to plaster their site with millions of ads. For most blogs and websites that are already set up, redoing the layout would mean a lot of work and problems with previously posted ads on archived pages.

Other points made are ones that have been made eleswhere on the Internet.
The book did cover things about content,linking and submitting to the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN, and advertising but I was disappointed that it didn't cover anything really new. I also expected there would be more technical detail. The most technical detail in the book seems to be about using statistics with adsense. I think it provides decent guidelines that enhance the webmasters information you can find on Google but again, you can find the information without the book.

Towards the end of the book there is some referrals to other information you can buy online.
All in all, I was not overly impressed with what the book had to offer. Although, if I was just starting out with blogging and using adsense it would summarize the most important points in setting up your blog for the best results. I guess I was hoping for some elusive secret that would shoot my numbers to the sky, but alas, I didn't find it in the book. Some of it is even outdated, which is a disappointment. There is a section about using adsense for referrals and that program is no longer is in existance.

All in all, I still think the many of the most important tips you can find to optimize your blog are found for free on the Internet by the generous sharing of information that bloggers are known for. There are very detailed directions on doing almost anything you want with your blog if you just search for it. Many of the same points are covered and you don't have to buy it to read about it. If technical issues abound in creating your blog search Google or Yahoo for the answer and I bet you'll find it. I have made my own list of tips for bloggers in my archives that you can read and use for free.

Signing Up For Offers Work - The Risks

2008-12-19T21:14:00.000-08:00

There seems to be more and more emails in my inbox for online work involving signing up for offers for money. Often these come in a "paid survey work" disguise or even under the name "paid surveys". What exactly does this type of work involve? This form of making money is where you sign up at various advertiser sites for free trials or offers and you get paid. The question is, is this type of work worth your time?

The pay offered is quite good for these sign up offers if you are to compare it to pay per click or even many surveys।Most offers pay over five dollars and up to about fifteen dollars, depending on the sign up deal. There are basically three types of sign up work:

The first is being paid to sign up at free trial offers online. This may be fax services, movie rental services, game or gambling sites. The pay for signing up to these is from about five to fifteen dollars. The pay seems quite good. The downside is that all of this kind require you to use your credit card (even if it is a free trial). The fine print of the trial offer is that if you do not cancel within a certain time period, your credit card will be automatically billed each month for amounts that usually exceed twenty dollars. They also require your personal information.

The second type of work is where you sign up for a "free hundred gift certificate" or "free ipod" or similiar pricey "gift"। The pay is similiarly good, from about ten to fifteen dollars, but there are even more complications for the pay you're getting। These offers require extra sign ups within the offer you are getting paid to sign up for. Let me be precise, let's say the company you work for pays you ten dollars for signing up to this offer. To fully sign up and complete the offer you also have to sign up with the offers within the gift certificate advertiser. Many of those sign ups involve giving your personal and credit card and personal information as well.

The third type of work is where you sign up for membership at a survey site। All this involves is giving your name and filling out a profile (some of which are quite lengthy). You do not need to give your credit card information or worry about extra charges. You will probably receive many emails from promo sites if you give your email and the survey site is actually a survey list site. The pay is low for these sign ups. Generally, it is under one dollar per sign up.

So in fact you can make money with the higher risk sign ups, but you are obligating yourself to keep track of and cancel all the offers you signed up for. You need to carefully note the numbers or contact information to cancel your free trial or risk automatic withdrawals from your credit card. You need to also note the date you have to cancel by or suffer similiar risk.

I personally feel kind of uncomfortable at the potential to be charged and giving out my credit card number and information to companies just to make some money। However, if you are meticulous and keep excellent records of the sign ups, cancelation dates, cancelation numbers and paperwork, you might be inclined to try this type of work. I think there are easier and less dubious ways to make money online that don't involve the risk that this does. Many of my archives have instructions and links to real work and real growth in pay. Check them out for how and where to go for mystery shopping work, blogging for pay, paid surveys and freelance writing. I have tried and tested the work myself. You can make money online.

Paid Survey Site Lists

2008-12-07T11:10:00.000-08:00

Taking surveys and participating in focus groups are a popular way to make some extra money online. The issue at hand is that there are an abundance of survey list companies online that promise you lists of survey sites that pay and charge you up to fifty dollars to have access. Are these paid lists worth your money?

I tried a few to see what they had to offer. All of them did have long lists of sites that you can sign up with. The process of signing up takes a lot of time as almost every site has many questions for you to answer for your profile. Expect to spend the first day just filling out information on your household and yourself. In the lists, you will find many of the sites are for US only. There are enough that take people from Canada and other places to keep you busy though. There are a few gems in these lists that do provide cash paying surveys but a majority of the lists are prize, point and sweepstake entry rewarded.

There are some sites that are ridiculously overpriced for the information you recieve, and in fact seem to be lining their pockets in multiple ways. The less scrupulous sites, often these say you will get access for free lists, sometimes sell your email to mailing lists and the sites they list are sometimes promo sites. When you hit the link for the survey, up comes a "free giveaway" promo for a tv, cash or other big prize. If you further click to enter for the prize, you will be directed to participate in signing up with a fixed number of offers in order to qualify. Some of these require credit card participation. Yikes. These are not list sites that are worth your time.

Are the paid survey sites worth your money? If you are from the US in particular, they probably will give you some good paid survey sites. If you are from Canada or other Countries, you will find a few good paid survey sites. The lists usually cost anywhere from twenty to forty dollars. I found that I did make that money back from doing surveys but it wasn't instant and it took about six months of survey taking from a number of sites to make regular cash incentive rewards on surveys. The good part is that if you do regularly participate, you start getting better incentive invitations and also focus group invitations. Focus groups online pay very well from twenty to about forty per panel. They are online as well and pre set times for participation. If you are also in the health field, the lists have very well paid research sites to sign up with.

The survey sites that I have had the most success with (and I am not an affiliate to these sites) are:

Dollar Surveys (Each invitation pays a dollar at minimum)
Test Spin (Cash incentive)
Angus Reid (Usually offers cash but doesn't send many invites)
Zoom Panel (gift certificate and focus group panels too)
Greenfield Online (Many offers, after time doing sweepstake entry surveys provides more cash surveys)
Web Perspectives (Same as Greenfield only also has many focus group offers)
My View (Quite a few invites)
TSN (Many gift certificate surveys and focus group invites)

I am in the process of reviewing Buzz and Focusline. I will find out and report back if they are good.

So in summary, if you anticipate spending time taking surveys, you may want to spend some money on a good survey list site. Check reviews online of sites before paying to make sure the list you buy is worth it. You can get a useless list if you don't. Surveys will not make you rich but you can make some extra cash if you regularly participate. You get better incentives with many sites after time.

Is Business in a Box Worth Your Time?

2008-11-28T08:05:00.000-08:00

When I got an email promising me training from an Internet Millionaire Shawn Casey, I was intrigued. In the email it basically said he was giving away this business in a box for free because it is the "right thing to do". Powerful words to a nation of people in dire financial crisis who are looking for miracle ways to stabilize. This guy does know who to target in today's economic climate, that's for sure.

Anyway, reading on he says he was "dared" to give this business in a box away to 250 people on Thanksgiving Day. It makes it seem that he is a true benefactor. Alas, let's look at this "offer" in a more cynical way. The guy didn't make money by giving out stuff without getting something back. Which is the angle with this type of advertising. He gives you the business in a box for free, but you pay about 27.00 for the business system. There is also the bonus, and I'm being sarcastic here, of membership in Easy Profit Strategies Club. That will cost you 39.99 a month. Hmm....and it's billed automatically... but you can cancel anytime easily. Automatically billing you for the privilege of getting expert advice and resources is an easy profit strategy for the maker of the system not for you.

What is this type of business system basically? The same thing you are looking at on the web page. It is digital training videos and audios that you in turn sell online. I don't know about you, but once you've been hooked into the idea, you generally end up trying at making a go of it for a few months before you realize there isn't really any money in it and you've blown a lot more than you initially paid trying to make it work. By that time, unless you have made a special point of noting down exactly what the process is for canceling or getting your money back, you may be hooped.

With most "business systems" online, there is generally one thing you are buying and that is the right to sell the web page ad you are seeing. It is a mirror site, and thousands of other people will have the exact same thing with the exception of the code that identifies individual affiliates.

Although this one is relatively inexpensive to begin with, you will find that costs occur trying to get your site traffic. You will either have to pay to advertise or write quasi info on forums and blogs to get attention to your affiliate site ( these posts are pretty obvious in that the rave "review" of the business and the handy link to your affiliate page can only mean you are selling the system). Add to this that you are competing with many other people with the same exact site and techniques to sell it and your chances of making money go way down. Only a very small percentage of people in business system programs make any money at all. The majority lose money.

Is the extra information and video training worth the money? Not from where I sit. You can find everything you need to know about building a web business by searching Google for web tools and information. There are blogs devoted to improving traffic and SEO knowledge. Check them out and you'll learn a lot.

My opinion: Don't bother with this. There has been some comments on trouble with getting your money back and the product quality. To view these comments go to:
www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=4868

Please check out my archives for real opportunities to work at online.

Get Rich Quick Ads

2008-11-16T19:18:00.000-08:00

A search for ways to make money online will result in an inevitable bevy of websites devoted to new business systems and "guaranteed" money making systems. The trouble with the pages you land on is that they seem to be designed to get your money before you know what you are paying for. These ads are typical in many ways. A few sites that I found with this kind of advertisement were: People Search, 9 Dollar Business Package, and Lazy Wealth System, but there are hundreds of other sites that use same techniques. Knowing how to read between the lines will save you money. If the advertisement follows the pattern below, be aware that the advertisement is probably not telling you all that you need to know. If a business opportunity is worth your money they should tell you exactly what you are buying. Here are the common techniques of business opportunity advertisements:

They lure you in with a headline that states that you can make an enormous amount of money. Sometimes they add that time it will take to make this money is only twenty minutes, a day or a similarly short period of time. A picture of a person by a fancy car, house, a pile of cash or all of these accompanies the headline. Basically, this sums up all you dream for in a visual and verbal manner.

The second part of the ad is a story of how the developer or some other person who is desperate for money, suddenly has a ingenious inspiration on how to make money on the Internet. This is designed to make you feel simpatico (you're desperate for money too) and like you're one of the lucky ones who is onto something brand new with incredible potential. After reading it, you are hopeful and excited. You've got a chance to hit the jackpot and all it's going to cost you is fifty bucks or so! (Yeah right).

Once they have shown that they know how you feel, the ad tells you what you want to hear. They ask how you would like to earn money with little or no effort. They tell you that you can do it with their system. They tell you how you won't need any skills to use their system. It will be easy and fail-proof. In no time at all you'll be making money and have a new career. This technique is designed to appeal to your sense of urgency and laziness. After reading this portion you are supposed to feel like you don't have to put much effort in to get a lot out of it. Again, what a lucky person you are to have found this site, right?

The next portion is their "proof". They show you bank statement deposits of how much they really, truly make. When you see those huge or even modest regular deposits, you are supposed to feel trust. To cinch the trust, they offer testimonials from people who have had great success. What they often leave out is that generally only one percent of people who work at these "money systems" make any money at all. One site that does make that clear is Carbon Copy Pro. The ad clearly states that you might not make any money at all and his testimonials are from the most successful of people who tried the system. Kudos for saying that much, but it would have been even better if people didn't have to pay approximately fifty dollars just to find out more information on what they are buying.

Finally after all this, you are given a chance to get in on the action and find out what the "system" is. More often than not, you can find out what the "system" is by just searching Google for someone who's paid the money and is more than happy to tell you what they got or more accurately, what they lost. Never pay before you know exactly what you are buying. Buy before you know and you'll have the same luck as buying a surprise bag at your local convenience store: you might get something you like but you'll probably get stale gummies and old licorice.

e Currency Arbitrage Issues

2008-10-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

It always takes time investigating new opportunities on the Internet. A very popular opportunity called e currency arbitrage is now all over the Internet, particularly the Paul Jenkins system. I wrote about it a few weeks ago if you want more detail on the Paul Jenkins e currency arbitrage system. Since then, I have tried to see if there are any downside stories to e currency arbitrage. I have run across one comment from a person who bought the system that I think I should share.

This person apparently had nothing but good things to say about the actual program he paid for. It contained relevant and useful information. He did not follow all the steps however and decided to request his money back which is stated to be refunded if you don't make money with the system. He had no response from the site and no money was returned as the time of his writing. That bothers me. I think if you make a guarantee of money back, you should stick to it. If you aren't going to, people will lose trust in your system and your site. Word gets around and you won't be making any money. On the other hand, maybe this person did eventually get money back. In any case, it' better not to count on money back guarantees with any site unless you know exactly what the fine print says and who to contact. If it stipulates you must use all the steps to make money then you must do all that it says before wanting your money back.
So the bottom line is Paul Jenkin's system is a good one in terms of the information you get for your money but read the fine print on the guarantee. If you are seriously interested in arbitrage, the information and learning may well be worth your time.

Anyway, another reminder with e currency arbitrage. Although arbitrage itself is in definition a non negative cash flow, anytime you are dealing with any currency and buying or selling, there is some risk. Just as stocks and trading money have risks, so would e currency abritage. Still, if you want to know what to do and how to do it, you may do well with this type of business. Check out my archived article for links to Paul Jenkins material if you feel your interested in it.

Fake Online Business Reviews

2008-10-22T19:14:00.001-07:00

People looking for business opportunities on the Internet run into many offers that seem very lucrative. Many of them will stop short of signing up to one because they want to find out if the business is what it seems to be. So many of them are money schemes. So they do what any intelligent person would and search for more information on the business. Herein lies a problem that is rampant on the Internet. Fake review sites.

Fake review sites dominate searches that are trying to find out real information on particular online businesses. The main purpose of a fake review site is to give high to very high ratings on Internet business sites. Then they tell you how wonderful it is and conveniently provide a banner link to the business. You'll notice no negative or very little negative content in the review. This is how they make money folks. Reviewing can be just another way to advertise a business.

True and honest reviews are tougher to find. Chat forums sometimes provide real information. You can also find out the bad and good about a business do a search that includes terms like, " ____________(insert business name) is a waste of time" or "I didn't make any money with ____________(insert business name). You are bound to find the downside of the business from people who actually spent time or money on it. These can help you decide what the possible downside will be and the potential for making money.

Try to avoid reviews written by people who haven't actually tried the business or the opportunity. They can't know the facts. I also think it is extremely difficult to find people willing to share really great businesses and money making ideas. I personally have tried countless ideas for online income generation and have found only a few gems in the huge cavaran of the Internet. When I do find gems, I spread the word, mainly because I know it would have saved me time and money if someone had done the same for me.

The reviews on my posts and businesses I recommend I have tried and tested out. I refuse to promote businesses that I haven't had some personal experience with. I also encourage any feedback to my business recommendations. If you have had a bad experience with any Internet opportunity I would love to hear it and post your comment.

How To Get Traffic To Your Site

2008-10-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

Marketing is the core of many business ventures on the Internet. Any online business needs traffic to be seen. To get traffic, you need a marketing stragedy. The types of businesses that depend on a marketing stragedy are:

Affiliate Marketing: When you find an online product or service that you make money on promoting.

Blog Income: When you make money from ads or Adsense featured on your blog.

Websites and Online Stores: Again making money from ads or Adsense on your website as well as the service or product you are selling.

All of these depend on promoting your site, which is sometimes a secondary thought for new online money makers. Often the excitement of making money from a product or as an affiliate comes first and people sign up with a program, spend their money and then are left with "what do I do to get people to see my site?". Thankfully, you don't have to spend a lot of money to find out how to market your site. It doesn't matter what type of site you have, an affiliate site, a blog , website or online store all have the same goal. They can use most of the same techniques.

Here are some great ways to promote your site for little or no money:

For blogs and websites other than affiliate sites:

Add your site to important directories like Technorati and Feed Burner. Make sure you ping directories after you update the content of your site. The free link for pinging is:
www.pingomatic.com

Second, make sure you continue to add fresh content on your site. New articles are essential to keep your site ever revolving.

Third, use the new articles to your full advantage. Distribute them to high traffic article sites. You'll be amazed at the traffic it creates. Try ezines and Article Base for a start. Remember to add your website address in the bio or resource box. There are many, many places that will take good quality articles for distribution. Don't worry that people can publish them on their site. They have to include your resource box information and therefore, link back to you. It's a great way for you to get your website traffic.

For affiliate marketing in particular:

Use low cost methods of advertising. Try email advertising or pay per click advertising. www.1800mail.com is a very cost effective way to get hits and interested parties checking out your affiliate site.

For every type of online business:

If you do want to spend a little money and get results, try offline advertising. A small ad in free classified or low cost newspaper or community publications are a good way to get your site out to the public.

Always attach your website address as a signature on your out going emails. If you use email a lot, you will have a lot of people who see it regularly and chances are they will check it out.

Another way is to put on a bumper sticker or magnate on your car. Or if you do have some money to put into it, why not try a bus stop ad or bench ad?

The key to any business online and offline is letting people know you are there and how to reach you. Try some of the above and you will find that the longer you are at it, the more traffic you'll get.