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Category: Make Money Online

Are You Scamming Someone? No? You Sure??

I have trust issues – I don’t trust anyone 100% (except my dad). I don’t care who you are or what you’re selling I’m not going to trust you. Why? Because I was one of those naive, idiotic, morons who spent money on all sorts of different work at home scams, miracle diets, look 50 years younger, etc. For about the first year I was online I approached my husband with at least 5 different ways I could make money – all of them included an initial fee to join. I don’t need to waste time telling anyone how badly these scams went. They were pretty much all a big pile of poo.

A couple weeks ago I happened to catch 20/20 when they were running a segment on false advertising. Although it’s something most people are aware of, I think we all get caught in the trap every once in a while. I mean, really, it’s hard going around not trusting people all the time. Here is a bit of what they had to say:

Travel Web sites have taken the place of a trusted travel agent when it comes to shopping for a vacation. But a “20/20″ investigation found that when it comes to the Web, what you see is oftentimes not what you get.

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From hotel to weight-loss ads, photos altered for perfect results.

Visiting Washington, D.C.? The Hyatt Capitol Hill Web site claims it’s “just steps away from the U.S. Capitol.” Online photos appear to confirm this. But when you look at a map — and a more realistic image — you see it’s a lot farther away. Actually, it’s about a third of a mile away.

Elie Seidman, the founder of the hotel review Web site Oyster.com, sees it time and time again: hotels using tricks to make their properties look as desirable as possible. The discrepancy between a hotel’s Internet image and reality is all too widespread, according to Seidman and his staff. “We found that it’s, unfortunately, all too typical,” he said.

Oyster.com is trying to expose marketing tricks that spin reality.

and

Before-and-After Weight Loss Photos Too Good to Be True

Photoshop adjustments and other misleading tactics can go too far — particularly in the diet business. Brook Barth learned that lesson after she lost 65 pounds — but it wasn’t thanks to some miracle diet.

“They are lying. It’s false advertisement, and it’s sad that people are getting sucked into it,” she told “20/20.” Barth did it the hard way — eight grueling months of intense exercise and calorie counting. “It was a lot of hard work,” she said. “I had to completely change my lifestyle.”

Read the rest of these stories here.

I have signed up as an affiliate for a couple of horrible, on the verge of scammy sites. I even ended up returning money I made selling a product that I found out didn’t work at all. I’m sure everyone has a story to tell about online scams; people who make money by selling things to others which they don’t need, which don’t do what they are said to do, and which can even waste people’s time or distract them from what they should be focused on – besides being a waste of money in the long run. And the fact is, that is far from the worst of it.

Do you want to earn money by promoting unethical products? Probably not. But are you always fully aware of what you are promoting?

There are a few categories of products which you should probably be aware of when you are deciding what to promote. You might want to think twice before you throw together a website to promote these types of products, or put one of their ads on an existing site.

After all, it’s not all about money. We are also human beings.

There are three types of products which I would never want to promote:

1. Products which are unnecessary, wasting people’s time and/or money

The “Make Money Online” niche is home to some of the worst culprits – including individuals, sales pages, emails, and advertisements which promise you unlimited riches as long as you invest ($47/$97/$5,000 etc.) in whatever it is they are trying to sell.

Whether it is a coaching program on how to earn money online, an amazing new software program which allows you to rake in thousands of dollars with a few minutes of work, a monthly membership, or perhaps just access to an enormous quantity of downloadable information which you don’t need right this second.

Some of these types of products have real value, and only require a reasonable investment. When they are useful, they do pay off in the long run. There are certainly legitimate products and services which help people save money, earn more money, or learn how to do so. I have invested in quite a few myself, and have been happy with a majority of the items I have purchased.

Some products have little-to-no real use or value for the consumer, but use a convincing sales pitch, and cost too much.

In between the two extremes there are various shades of gray.

But this is not what inspired me to write this post. There are other products one can promote, outside of the “Make Money Online” niche, which are just as bad, and even worse.

2. Products which are used to steal money

There are bogus “free trial” offers which latch onto a customers credit card, steal unauthorized recurring payments, and never let go, no matter how hard the customer tries to cancel.

I have seen affiliate programs for such products. In some cases, these offers would have been relevant to one of my websites. Did I choose to promote them? No!

Examples of products which are likely to be promoted in this manner include Acai berry, colon cleanse, teeth-whitening, and stop-smoking products, which often offer a “free trial” requiring a credit card number “for shipping,” and give you “automatic renewals if you don’t cancel.” A bit of research and Googling will often reveal whether there are scams or dishonest tactics involved.

Not every free trial with paid shipping is a scam, but I am definitely careful before signing up for them when I do.

3. Products which harm people

Then there are is another type of products you can promote. You would only promote these products if a) you don’t really know what you are promoting or b) you don’t care about people and money is your only motivation.

These are products which don’t simply waste people’s time and money, but actually harm people.

It takes a bit of confront to look beyond the surface appearance of modern day life and realize that not everything is what it appears to be on the surface.

The sad fact is, that just because an item has been endorsed by an official agency, an “expert,” or a learned authority, (government or otherwise) does not necessarily make that product useful or even safe.

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the worst in this respect. That does not mean that every pharmaceutical medicine is harmful.

But if you were to do some real, unbiased research in the field, you would be amazed at how many well-known and widely used pharmaceutical drugs:

Have never undergone actual scientific testing as to their results
Were approved for use by the same groups, individuals, and networks, who are profiting by their sales. (Yes, approval agencies do have ties to the pharmaceutical companies, and yes, the people who approve these drugs and medications for use do make money by approving them.)
Have known side-effects (known even by the producers and salesmen of the drugs, but not promoted by them) which range from health problems, to death, to suicide, to murder.
As an added benefit there are ties to the media, which is sometimes (but not always) used to attack any group which begins to expose what is occurring. Which leads people to disbelieve organizations that do so.

If you look into it, you will find that almost every school shooter, loving-family-member-turned family-murderer, or sudden unexplained suicide, involved someone who was taking one of these drugs. Common examples are Zoloft, Paxil (Seroxat), and Prozac, to name a few.

Furthermore the same doctors who were involved in the creation of these drugs can be found openly admitting that the diseases and disorders which the drugs were designed to cure do not exist. These diseases were not found by blood tests or any other form of testing. They are invented by “majority vote”.

But they make a lot of money. Billions per year. So hey, why kill a booming business?

In a previous profession I had first-hand experience with individuals who were the victims of these drugs, sometimes as young as the age of three, and had the heart-wrenching experience of seeing the damage that was done. In some cases I was able to help undo the damage, by getting these individuals onto detoxification programs or other remedies. But, sadly, the effects of legal, approved, and even common-place pharmaceutical drugs were often more harmful, and harder to correct, than the effects of any street drug. I still remember the three year-old-girl who had been put on a drug by a doctor. With a bit of research we found out that the drug was actually Speed. We were actually relived that it was Speed instead of something worse, (and yes I helped the little girl).

Sound difficult to believe? It is. So is war, needless killing of civilians, Chinese killer-cat food, genocide, kid-napping, human-trafficking, and a host of other insanities which occur on a daily basis, inside and outside of the US.

The fact is that it is a crazy world.

In American middle-class society it is very easy to forget that there is something beyond the glossed-over existence we see in front of us, where all appears so happy and regulated.

The purpose of this article is not to depress you about the state of the Earth. The purpose of this article is to communicate to affiliate marketers and online entrepreneurs about what they can do to stem the tides of damage. Or, at least what they can not do.

Because, sadly, I often see affiliate marketers blithely promoting the same products and drugs, which harm people, children, and lives on a regular basis!

When something is too incredible to be believed, we have a tendency to disbelieve it. When we don’t believe it, we don’t do much about it. History is full of incidents which we would never have believed could have happened, but happened.

Okay. My point – just because you do some keyword research and find a niche does not mean its all hunky-dory to promote that item. I have spoken of bogus Make-Money-Online products, free trials, and pharmaceutical drugs. But that’s definitely not the only thing.

Craigslist has been prosecuted for promoting prostitution and contributing to devastating effects on women and children.

A few days ago I saw a banner ad on an Internet Marketing side. It said “Pimping has never been this easy.” I hoped it was a joke and was curious, so I clicked on it. It then went on to say how you could earn $500 per day just placing these ads … in the sidebar I saw a string of prostitution ads. They weren’t joking at all.

The upshot – think before you promote. Most people care about others and want to help people. Only a few are truly money-motivated, and even those are basically good – way, down deep.

There is nothing wrong with making money online as long as you always remember to put ethics, honesty, honor, and integrity first.

Dec 29, 2009 | 11 comments | View Post

Advertising “Click Fraud” Rampant Online

Since I’ve started advertising my blogs on different Social Networking sites, I’ve noticed a disturbing phenomenon – blatant click fraud. I have received numerous requests through personal messages that read something like this: “I’ve clicked on your ad, hope you do the same for me” - I really hate these messages. Why would anyone want to take a chance at losing the ability to make money in order to get an extra penny or two? It’s fine if you want to screw up your money making potential, but don’t pull me into your sneaky, deceptive money earning fraud. I don’t want you clicking on my ads unless you are really interested in them and I definitely WILL NOT click back on yours. It seems I’m not the only one having issues with click fraud lately.
“Pay-per-click,” by far the most popular form of online advertising, recently came under fire as charges of rampant “click fraud” gather steam on the Web.
Google and Yahoo! earn the majority of their money through sales of advertising to tens-of-thousands of online merchants, companies, and professional.
In fact, some estimate that 99% of all Google’s revenue comes from advertising sales. Unfortunately, allegations of click fraud may well rain on Google’s otherwise sunny parade and cause a whole scale revamping of current online advertising practices.
Pay-per-click advertising does exactly what it sounds: advertisers pay for each click on their ad, usually mixed in among search engine results or displayed on relevant websites.
“Click fraud” occurs when, for whatever reason, an ad gets clicked by someone or something (usually an automated “bot” that simulates clicks) with no intention of ever buying anything from the advertiser.
The sole intention of click fraud is to simply drain an advertiser’s budget and leave them with nothing to show but an empty wallet.
Who commits click fraud?
Usually an unscrupulous competitor who wants to break a rival’s bank, online “vandals” who get their kicks causing other people grief, or search engine advertising affiliates who want to earn fat commissions by racking up piles of bogus clicks.
Regardless of who does it or why, click fraud appears to be a growing problem search engines hope stays under their advertising clients’ radar.
This problem isn’t exactly news to the search engine giants.
In fact, on page 60 of their 3rd quarter Report for 2004, Google admits that they have “regularly refunded revenue” to advertisers that was “attributed to click-through fraud.”
Google further states that if they don’t find a way to deal with this problem “these types of fraudulent activities could hurt our brand.”
Bottom line for Google and Yahoo! (which owns Overture, the Web’s largest pay-per-click search engine): as word of click fraud spreads across the Web, they must act quickly to calm the nerves of advertisers who could well abandon them over doubts about the veracity of their advertising charges.
The search engines all claim to carry measures that identify and detect click fraud, but details about how they do it and to what extent remain sketchy.
They claim revealing details about security would compromise their efforts and give the perpetrators a leg up on circumventing their defenses.
This sounds good, but affords little comfort to advertisers who feel caught between losing out on their best traffic sources and paying for advertising that won’t result in revenue.
One way to protect your business against click fraud is to closely monitor your website statistics.
Look for an unusually high number or regular pattern of clicks from the same IP address.
If you need help, enlist the aid of your hosting provider to aid you in spotting suspicious trends in your website traffic.
Also, a number of services have sprung up online to help advertisers spot and quickly analyze and compile the data necessary to effectively dispute fraudulent click charges with the search engines.

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Dec 22, 2009 | 21 comments | View Post

Why 2010 Will Be A White Knuckle Ride For Web Marketers

Next year may just prove to be one of the most challenging times for pursuing online or Internet marketing on the web. It may just be a watershed moment for many marketers struggling to keep abreast of all the different factors which have come into play in recent months. Most of these changes will stem from two main sources for potential upheaval: the first being the New FTC (Federal Trade Commission) Guidelines regarding Testimonials and Endorsements and the second being “ALL” the recent changes within Google.

Actually, we already have the new FTC Guidelines which came into effect on Dec. 1st of 2009, but how these new rules are enforced will play out in the coming year as test-cases are brought to court. Basically, these new rules call for absolute disclosure and full transparency regarding Testimonials and Endorsements when a product or service is being offered for sale. Any business (monetary) relationship between the endorser and the company must be made known to the potential buyer. Obviously for those in online or affiliate marketing this could have a great impact if these new rules are strictly enforced. Just imagine all the website owners and bloggers who slap a few banners or affiliate links on their sites to cover hosting or operating costs… will they now have to disclose all these business arrangements?

For professional affiliate marketers and the companies/products they’re promoting, these new guidelines could cause potential headaches and/or legal ramifications since a general blanket disclaimer on their sites will no longer be suffice. To help solve this problem, many of the major companies are now placing an “affiliate” tag on all their banners and making it obvious a business relationship exists with its affiliates. In addition, many online marketers are placing additional disclaimers, affiliate seals and in other ways making it known certain links are indeed affiliate links and a relationship does exist with the product and/or services being promoted.

With these new guidelines, another big issue is email marketing, one of the major marketing techniques of most online marketers. Will a full disclosure be necessary for every email sales pitch? Savvy web marketers know the key to increased sales is in the “follow-up” and the “cookie-ing” of potential buyers; how will the new Guidelines affect this very effective marketing practice? How all these new rules or guidelines play out will make next year a very interesting one for marketing on the web.

Despite this, perhaps the greatest cause for upheaval in the coming year will be Google. There are countless reasons why Google will be a major game changer in 2010 for online marketing. Ever since Bing and more recently the potential Bing/Yahoo competition, Google has gone into complete overdrive, implementing new changes and debuting new programs like there was no tomorrow.

First, we have Google Caffeine which Google is introducing (full force) early in the new year. Google Caffeine, which is a major overhaul of its search engine, will no doubt cause many a marketer some sleepless nights as the total fall-out becomes evident. Other Google updates in the past (Florida Update comes readily to mind) have wreaked havoc on many top ranking sites, but this time Google is doing things a little differently and have even given webmasters a beta version of the new search engine. Still, rightly or wrongly, many online marketers are bracing themselves for the full impact of Caffeine. Will it mean smooth sailing or a stomach sickening roller-coaster ride for marketers and webmasters?

Second, we have the introduction of “Real Time” search which will be featured in Google’s SERPs. This will make the social media sites like Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace… much more important. Again, the implications for online marketers could be enormous since many can now reach the first page through a different route. Will it also mean more “Real Time” spam? But more importantly, will it mean a greater marketing opportunity for the online marketer who exploits it?

Third, we are seeing Google moving more and more towards “Visual Search” with the introduction of Google Goggles for mobile phones. Just take a picture and you get the Google results instantly – no typing, just point and click. Just envision countless clueless teenagers or more importantly helpless shoppers suddenly being empowered with knowledge and wisdom. Could do more for education since the invention of the printed word and the info-commercial combined. Talk about scary! But will the implications for web marketing be just as revolutionary and enlightening?

Fourth, Google has made it known through its spokesperson Matt Cutts, that site-loading times will be a ranking factor in the new improved Google. Also, proper and correct page coding will also be more important if you want your site to be at full advantage. Broken links will be a big “No-No”, while linking out to important related sites a big plus. All this is only logical, Google’s main product is and has always been its search results, anything which improves those results and provides a more pleasing experience for the Google user should be front and center. Obviously, one way for Google to stay on top, is to provide the best search results to its users.

Fifth, in order to please the end-user, Google is also moving more towards “Personalized Search” which will make SEO and ranking in the top spot for your chosen keywords a total nightmare for many professional SEOs and online marketers. If everyone can choose their own top results, isn’t SEO more or less, a lame duck? Again, the ramifications of personalized search will further play out in 2010, but will professional marketers like what they see?

Finally, while no one would argue Google is King of the Hill when it comes to online search, will all these new changes strengthen or weaken Google’s grip? Will the combined Bing/Yahoo be able to give this giant some much needed competition? Or will Google’s main competition come from an unlikely source, such as big name multi-national corporations who are moving their operations online. Can these big-name keyworded domains start directly pulling in the majority of the web’s traffic, making all search engines secondary? As people become more web savvy, will they go directly to what they’re looking for on the web, bypassing the search engines altogether – including the mighty Google? Such a scenario could have greater consequences for the affiliate marketer since a direct line to a company’s site or product will obviously mean less sales for the online marketer, who really works in coordination with the search engines, either through organic search or PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising in these same search engines.

Overall, the new FTC Guidelines and recent changes to Google, will make next year one of the most interesting times to be pitching anything online. Throw into this the full effect that a combined Bing/Yahoo might bring to the table, and you have the recipe for a tumultuous white knuckle ride, until the dust finally settles and marketers make adjustments like they always do. Until then, hold on because things will probably get a little hectic for many web marketers before we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The author is a full time online affiliate marketer. His livelihood is derived from & depended upon search engine marketing & daily monitoring of targeted keywords, mainly within Google. He runs numerous sites, including: bizwaremagic.com & marketingtoolguide.com Titus Hoskins 2009. This article may be freely distributed with box.

Dec 21, 2009 | 5 comments | View Post

Make Some Extra Cash – Great List Of Freelance Sites

I know a lot of people are looking for ways to earn some extra cash these days. Freelancing is a great way for anyone to do this. Here is a good list of freelance sites.

Many people wanted to make money online but have limited knowledge on what to do and where to start. Making money online by doing some freelance services from the comfort of your home is pretty easy and is available for everyone. Freelance jobs are not only for people who have special skills. You can start making money by offering services like writing, data entry, transcription, or any other jobs that doesn’t require high technical skills like programming and design. Listed below are the most active and highly populated freelance sites. This lists of freelance sites would help you start your online moneymaking experience.

Elance.com – so far the largest online marketplace for free lancers and service buyers
Aquent.com – offers marketing organizations a wide range of services including consulting, studio solutions, project management, and translation/localization.
Adveres.com – another cool marketplace for freelancers.
Bidradar - recently merged with governmentbids.com and published mostly government-owned jobs for freelancers.
CGI Lance – largest marketplace for CGI scripts.
CTITjobs.net – most projects are programming and web design and even technical support for IT-related problems.
Codelance.com – custom software development and webhosting for companies outsourcing offshore.
Coswap.com - offshore marketplace for web design jobs.
Design Quote – a reputable marketplace for graphic and design jobs.
Developreneurs.com – an online marketplace where buyers looking for web development services can receive bids from dozens of qualified service providers.
Ework.com -delivers three outsourced value-added services— integration and implementation for eWork Enterprise 5, business process consulting to streamline contingent workforce business processes, and a comprehensive workforce staffing management service.
Freelance Auction – almost all services are offered here.
Freelance Auction Network – is designed to bring affordable high quality services to small business owners and provide freelance contractors from around the world a better way to market their services.
Freelance.com – a good place for independent professionals, freelancers, and service buyers.
Freelance Writers - the best site for non-fiction writers.
Freelancefree.com – the first and best free freelance website.
Freelancewriting.com - another great freelance site exclusively for writers.
Freelancewebprojects.com – all services offered and requires all freelancing talents.
Freelanceseek.com – available in 7 major European languages.
Freelancewebprogramming.com – another freelance site for webmasters and programmers.
Getafreelancer – this is my favorite freelance site so far. I am a member of this site and having some decent customers in SEO and writing.
Guru.com – Use Guru.com’s free service to search for and find freelancers. Post your project. Get free quotes within hours. Outsource your contract work today.
Hirecoders.com – not only a marketplace but also a general classified for job seekers and employers.
Ifreelance.com – huge freelance site for talented people.
Listbid.com – a very simple freelance site but has a bigger population.
No Agencies Please – is a free freelance site concentrating on programming and design.
NUJ Freelance Directory – the biggest freelance job board in UK.
OutsourceToday.net- is the online market place where buyers can post their projects. Businesses and consultants such as freelance programmers, copywriters etc will bid for the work you outsource and you can select the best one that matches your requirement.
Projectlance.com – one of the busiest freelance sites.
PHPfreelancers.com – freelance for php programming.
Programmingbid.com – dozens of programming jobs posted everyday.
Project4hire.com – marketplace for designers, programmers, offshore companies, and more.
Rentacoder.com – one of the biggest and reputable freelance sites.
Scriptlance.com – big freelance sites with thousands of service providers from India.

There are other freelance sites and the list is growing daily but it is always better to join established freelance sites for a reliable service

Sep 03, 2009 | 4 comments | View Post

Google Adsense May Be King But There Are Other Options

other options for google adsense When it comes to making money with a website, one of the most popular methods is running text and/or image ads on various pages. It’s referred to as contextual advertising and “inline ads”. Text or image ads are shown which match the content of the pages. Inline ads appear as highlighted words on the page when the visitor hovers over highlighted text on the page. Ads appear in small boxes. Contextual ads are often displayed to the right or left of website copy, or as blocks within sections of the text. The ads shown are related to the content of each individual page. As visitors click on these links, you earn cash.

Probably the largest and most used of the contextual ad programs is Google’s Adsense. Google really is a giant when it comes to the Internet, and their talents go far beyond just being a search engine. Adsense is used by many site owners to bring in a monthly income.

If you’re interested in running Adsense ads, first you’ll need to apply and get approved. Once approved for one site, you can place Adsense on any other site that you own. You can decide to run only text ads or choose from image and text. Various sizes are offered, and you can custom select colors to match the look of your site. Once the code is generated, you paste it on your HTML pages where you want the ads to appear. Simple & easy.

But what happens if you’re not approved by Google, or for some reason your Adsense account were to be terminated? What would you do then? There are other ad network options out there and I’ve gathered some of the best alternatives together here.

Before signing up for any ad program, make sure you read their terms of service and any requirements to make sure it’s a good fit for your website. Also, review the payment options so you’ll know how and when you can expect to be paid. Let’s review:

Text-Link Ads

Once your site is approved, you insert the code on your page and they sell simple text ads that appear on your site. You have final say over any ads being published. Payments are made via Paypal or Clickbank. You receive 50% of the sale price for each link they serve up. This ad network is acceptable to be run on the same page as Google Adsense as this is not considered contextual advertising.

Adbrite.com

A variety of ad formats to choose from. You can run text ads, banners, inline ads or even full page ads. You can choose to approve or reject ads before they appear on your site. Pays monthly with the default minimum check amount of $100.00. Once your site is approved, ads will appear within 24 hours of your pasting the code. Adbrite has no policy against using other ad networks on your site at the same time.

Kontera

Contextually relevant ads and ad units which are linked to keywords on your web page. Ads displayed will match the content of your site. For your website to be approved it must be in English, be content rich with more than 50 words per page. You can run text, image, billboard, and video ads.

Quigo

Quigo offers content-targeted advertising to those with strong traffic. Publishers with 500,000 or more monthly page views are encouraged to apply. Once approved, simply copy and paste the code.

Yahoo

Works very similar to Google’s Adsense program. You design your own ads, choosing colors and formats, then paste some code on your page. You’ll be paid per click. Advanced ad targeting and display capabilities can sometimes improve your results. You can choose to be paid via Paypal once your earnings are $50.00, or a check when you hit $100.00.

Chitika

A full service online ad network which serves over two billion monthly impressions across more than 30,000 websites. Chitika ads are not contextual and can be run on the same page as Adsense. Twenty-four different ad sizes are available. Payment is via Paypal once your account is at $10.00, or a check when you reach $50.00.

Miva

Miva offers a wide variety of ad formats to choose from: content ads, inline ads, search ads. You’ll be paid on a per click basis. Payments are made monthly by check or Paypal once your balance reaches $25.00. You can also block competitor ads from appearing on your site.

Affiliatesgarage

A different type of ad network which allows you to display affiliate ads in an “Adsense Style”. You can run Clickbank and Paydotcom text ads on your site or blog and earn up to 75% commission.

Bidvertiser

Display text ads on your website and let advertisers bid against each other. Ad formats are skyscrapers, banners, rectangles, buttons. They even have ads for your RSS feeds. Payout is monthly via Paypal once your balance is $10.00. This one pays on a cost per click basis.

Amasenseads

This service allows you to create Google Adsense styled ads for Amazon products. Different ad formats are available which makes it easy to integrate into your site. Amasense can also be used side by side with Google Adsense without any problems.

As ads are clicked on, you earn a percentage of the product which is paid by Amazon depending on the type of product that is bought. You must have an Amazon associate account first before signing up. To get one go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

As you can see Adsense is not the only game in town when it comes to running ads on your site. If you have multiple sites, you may want to use one of the services mentioned above, then test, to see which one is a better earning opportunity. You might be surprised at what you learn.

It’s against Google’s terms of service to run another contextual ad service on the same page as Adsense, but there are exceptions to the rule. Most of the services above will tell you if you can run their ads alongside Adsense.

If your websites are mainly information based, network advertising is an excellent way for you to earn an income with little effort on your part. No matter if you use Adsense or another service, it just makes for good dollars and cents.

Please Visit this awesome site – Merle’s Mission Blog- “Rants, Raves and Random Acts of Kindness” a self proclaimed “Internet Junkie” with a passion for net marketing, affiliate marketing, social networking. An avid Blogger and writer with several niche sites to her credit. Find out more at http://merlesworld.blogspot.com/

Jul 05, 2009 | 19 comments | View Post

Special Reports – Build Your List And Make Money

make money online

Does your business enterprise need a boost? Consider using special reports to add revenue and build a business contact list for future use.

What are special reports?

Special reports are short reports that contain helpful information on a subject. The reports are anywhere from a few to 30 or so pages in length. If you have the know-how, you can write them yourself or hire a writing service to do it for you. There is very little work involved in creating them but they are versatile tools for building an online business.

One popular subject for special reports is how-tos. They direct a reader, step by step, how to do something. If you are knowledgeable with computer software and hardware, that is a perfect niche for special reports on your website. People are always having trouble figuring out their computers and you could help.

Marketing special reports

There are options for marketing your special reports. If you are trying to build a business list of customers, use these special reports as a freebie when any visitor signs up to be a part of your email mailing list. For this type of promotion, use a shorter report like a five page report on how to navigate problems with Windows Vista (if your website has a computer niche).

You can create a five-part course and use the first part as the free promotion. It is your hook. Once they sign up for the mailing list, you can grant them access to the other installments through emails that also advertise your website products. Signing up for a business newsletter subscription can also be the reason to gift a free special report.

Making money

All of your special reports don’t have to go towards list building. Besides your other products or services, you can sell special reports on your website. Many reports sell for between $5 and $20 a piece, but if you offer very valuable information, you can command a higher price. Sell single reports or create various courses to interest your customers.

People love to learn about money-making opportunities. They will pay the money for any information that is a how-to guide to making money on and offline in various ways. How have you made money? Begin there with the subject of your special reports.

As your business grows, create an affiliate program. This gives customers a way to help you make more money and also make some for them. Offer certain special reports as additional compensation for reaching a certain selling level in the affiliate program.

There are a number of ways to use special reports. As you build your library and your lists, alternate the free promotional reports and continue to sell your entire library, creating combination offers such as Buy Two, Get One Free.

While your special reports are building your contact list, they are also making you money. With such a low cost to create them, your profit margin will rise.
Top 30 Ways To Make Money Using Special Reports -

1. Sell it – and keep all of the profits. The most obvious way of making money with special reports is to sell them.

2. Sell it through affiliates – and keep some of the profits. This is the similar #1, but your affiliates lead buyers to your sales page and pocket a commission from the sale.

3. Sell it through affiliates – and give them all of the profits. How does this make you money? Well, you build a list of buyers plus you can earn money on the back-end, either by promoting other products in the report itself, or as part of the sales process, or both.

4. Give it away – and build your list. Use the special report as an incentive for people to join your list.

5. Give it away – and make affiliate sales. Embed affiliate links in the report, and you can earn commissions by giving it away. Just add a “Resources” page or sprinkle affiliate links where appropriate.

6. Break it up into blog posts. A blog needs regular content. Write blog posts easily from a special report.

7. Give it away as a bonus to a paid product. Increase the perceived value of a paid product by including a special report – or several – as a bonus.

8. Combine them into an E-book to sell. Turn each special report into a chapter, add an introduction, conclusion, new title and cover, and you’ve got a brand new E-book to sell.

9. Combine related special reports into an E-book, to give away. Same idea as #8, but you give it away for list building and/or affiliate sales.

10. Combine related special reports into a physical book, to sell. Turn the E-book from #8 into a book that buyers can publish-on-demand, such as on Lulu.com.

11. Use it as a basis for an article. Get the most actionable points from the special report, turn them into an article, and submit it to Ezine Articles or another online article directory.

12. Create an audio version to give away, or sell. Some people prefer audio products they can listen to while they’re on the go or doing other things. Give in to their demand by converting the special report into an audio report.

13. Use a special report as the basis for tutorial videos – to give away or sell. Videos are hot nowadays, so turn a special report into video format for increased value.

14. Combine the audio and video versions into CDs and/or DVDs – and sell physical products. Physical products don’t cost a lot to produce, but have higher perceived value than digital products.

15. Use the special report as the basis for a series of marketing videos to build your list and/or drive traffic to your site. Get 3-5 top tips from the special report and turn them into a video you post on YouTube and other video sharing sites, for instant traffic for your blog or site.

16. Use it as the basis for videos to promote affiliate products. Similar to #15, but use the videos to drive traffic to products you’re affiliated with, using your affiliate links.

17. Make it a prize on your Twitter giveaway. Want to get more Twitter followers? Offer a special report to all your new followers.

18. Give it away in exchange for answering an online survey to do market research. Set up an online survey and give respondents a free special report for their time.

19. Make it a surprise bonus for your customers or subscribers. Delight your existing customers with a free special report they didn’t expect to get and make them loyal to you, for life.

20. Create a teleseminar out of the special report. Create a list of frequently-asked questions the special report addresses, and set up a teleseminar.

21. Make it a monthly resource in a paid membership program. Add useful special reports in the members’ resource area, or make it the featured content of the month.

22. Break it up into an E-course, to sell or give away. Chop up a special report to create an E-mail course or pre-recorded audio course.

23. Use the special report to create free Web 2.0 sites, such as Squidoo and Hub Pages. Create content for Squidoo lenses, Hub Pages and other Web 2.0 sites that promote your products and/or services, or affiliate products.

24. Break it up into autoresponder messages for your subscribers. Use the special report to give your subscribers useful information regularly.

25. Rewrite it to cater to a different or more specific niche. With a few tweaks, you can make a special report appeal to a completely different niche or market. For example, turn a general business report into one just for work-at-home Moms.

26. Use the content to create a mini-site for affiliate marketing. Set up a mini-site (5 pages or less) to promote an affiliate product. Get content from a special report.

27. Create a podcast. Use a special report as the basis for a podcast, which can be in audio or video format.

28. Use it as an upsell or downsell to another paid product. Offer a special report to buyers of a related product.

29. Turn it into a brandable report for your affiliates to use to promote your product or service. Let affiliates give away a special report to draw leads to your site or list.

30. Cull out the most actionable tips from the special report and turn each one into a Twitter Tweet. Shazam, you’re an instant expert.

Surprise! I actually came up with 31 ways. Here’s the bonus: 31. Turn special reports into hand-outs, checklists or even main resource materials for a coaching program.

Jun 14, 2009 | 8 comments | View Post

The Difference Between Monetizing Traffic and Monetizing Websites

I have been working online for a little over two years now. I have learned more than I ever thought I would about making money from the internet. But, it doesn’t come easy (and if it does it will probably be gone just as easy). You really have to work hard at learning the very best ways for you to earn online. I started solely as an affiliate marketer. I didn’t have a website. I found products I thought would sell, products that I liked and dove into the crazy, intricate world of online marketing. WOW, was that a HUGE – there is sooooo many opportunities to create an income from working online. The problem I had was stumbling onto something immediately and making over $3000 on a $10 product in my first 3 months online. Once this dried up, I spent the next 8 months trying to duplicate this – with only limited success. I decided I needed a website, but couldn’t decide what I wanted to sell. So, I decided to start a blog – I could do anything from a blog, sell affiliate products, sell advertising, sell myself (get your mind out of the gutter, I’m talking about my writing abilities, graphic artist abilities, etc.) . . The MOST important thing I’ve learned is to never become complacent the internet is constantly changing at lightning speed. What is hot and lucrative today will become over used and abused and out by tomorrow. Continue researching and trying to find that new product or market to enhance your online presence and moneymaking ability.

Titus Hoskins from Bizware Magic says it well:. One of the questions I see repeatedly online is: How do I make money online from my blog or website? You can’t just slap a few lines of Google Adsense code on your pages and hope to start raking in thousands. The solution to earning income fromyour online site or blog can be as complex or as simple as you want to make it. There are thousands of ways to earn money from your site or blog… among the most common are selling advertising, selling your own products, using affiliate programs, drop-shipping, donations, Google Adsense… the list goes on. First, let’s make some distinctions between what exactly you are monetizing – your website or your traffic? This may seem pragmatic to many, but any professional webmaster or marketer who has dissected this issue will have discovered how you approach this problem will greatly affect how much income you will derive from your sites. To the savvy professional marketer it is more an issue of refinement than anything else. They make the distinction between a general monetization of a website and a highly targeted monetization of their site’s traffic. There is a difference. Any webmaster can place ads on their sites to get an income. If you have a normal amount of traffic, you can monetize your site with ads such as Adsense and you will receive your monthly checks. But is this the best way?Any professional marketer knows you can easily get 100 times what you can get from Google Adsense by using other means of monetizing their sites. It comes down to a marketing strategy that involves monetizing the traffic coming to their sites, rather than just monetizing the sites themselves. Not all the traffic to your site or blog is looking for the same thing. You can have general traffic, searching for information on a broad subject area, or you can have someone looking for a specific product or service. Therefore, you must closely monitor your traffic to find out exactly what your visitors are looking for and then providing these visitors with a solution. Individually monetizing your pageviews, traffic and landing pages is the key to deriving larger amounts of income from your online sites. Just as “long tail keyword” marketing can greatly increase your income, so too can constructing income sources directly related to your long tail keyword traffic. Using affiliate products and services from third party affiliate networks like Commission Junction LinkShare, ClickBank… will earn you 10 times more income than you would earn from using Adsense; most times it is much more. The prudent professional marketer will closely examine their site’s traffic logs to find out exactly the source of the traffic and the keywords their visitors are using to find their site. These marketers will closely examine their traffic and then take steps to monetize it. It may involve producing their own products or services to offer to these visitors. It may be using an affiliate program to offer a product. They also know that “keywords,” the exact words someone types into a search engine to find what they’re looking for on the web, are the real main sources of targeted traffic on the web. Quality traffic that’s worth its weight in gold. Domination of the main keywords in your market or niche will spell monetary success even for webmasters whose main goal may not be making money from their sites… these strange creatures do exist I am told! Aggressive marketers will take a different route, especially if they have gained domination in a niche area; many approach other businesses in their niche with offers of partnerships and independent deals… they supply the leads or customers to these businesses in return for a percentage of the sale. I personally go for “residual income deals” where I get a percentage of the revenues generated for the life of the clients I refer. Large multinational companies in your targeted niches probably won’t give you the time of day, but smaller, lesser known companies will give you lucrative deals if it is a “win-win situation” for both parties. This is my number ONE way to monetize my traffic. Any professional marketer will also aggressively market their traffic by collecting opt-in lists of interested customers. These marketers will offer free product buying guides, valuable information, deals/coupons, customer ratings…all to capture leads because then instead of just having one chance to market to their site’s traffic, they get many more chances in follow-up emails. Studies have shown it might take 6 or 7 follow-ups before a sale is made. ROT – Return On Traffic These marketers “add value” or “pre-sell” to their site’s traffic in order to increase their odds of producing more income from this traffic. They never forget this traffic is the real source of their site’s income; instead they exploit it to their full advantage. No reason why you can’t do the same. Always keep in mind, you should develop different sources of traffic: search engine traffic, article traffic, social bookmark traffic, link traffic from related sites, viral traffic with free PDF files, PPC advertising… if one traffic source dries up, it won’t be a major problem for you. Likewise, like most things to do with business, it is never wise to just use one tactic or source of income. I have always used a “multiple income streams” strategy. On any given site I may use Google Adsense for general traffic, affiliate products for my more targeted ‘long tail keyword’ traffic and, of course, I give priority to special independent deals with long-term residual income. Even higher PPC (Pay Per Click) bids are possible with residual deals, as you will recoup your investment down the road. Similarly, it is a good business practice to find or promote companies that will give you a “cookie for life,” which means once you refer a customer – they are yours for life. Marlon Sanders does this, so too does Ken Evoy’s Site Build It, where your customers are yours for life. Also promoting products like web hosting, marketing tools, and utility services that have recurring income are very lucrative sales to make. Believe me, getting a monthly payment for a sale you made five years ago will put a slight smile on your face every time! So the next time you’re trying to monetize your site or blog – first take a real close look at the your site’s traffic, monitor your site’s raw traffic logs to find out what your visitors are looking for on each page of your site and supply a solution for them. Be it your own products, affiliate offerings or even Google Adsense ads… along the way make sure you offer them valuable content to help them on their quest and help you to collect their contact information for further follow-up. Of course, savvy marketers will create or make the above scenario happen from the get-go; they find a product, they target and dominate the keywords for that product in all the search engines and then harvest this traffic with killer landing pages, opt-in forms and special bonuses if you buy from their links. They use this traffic and this marketing strategy to sometimes obtain obscene amounts of income from the web. Your success or failure in obtaining the same results will largely depend upon your own skill level, but mostly it will depend on the amount of work you put in to earn this income. This process is so simple, yet so complex to perfect, but with a little work and some practice anyone can monetize their site’s traffic to get the best returns. Affiliate Marketing Tips for Monetizing Your Traffic Since I am a full-time affiliate marketer, most of the above post is biased or geared towards affiliate marketing. It is a simple way to derive income from your sites without having to worry about handling sales, supply problems, customer complaints… all you have to do is supply the lead or potential customer to your promoted affiliate programs and let them do the rest. All tracking, sales, product delivery… are handled by the affiliate company, which lets you concentrate on marketing, producing content, search engine optimization and promotion. However, it is not the most profitable way to monetize your traffic. Perhaps the most profitable way to monetize any traffic is to produce your own products and/or services. But this usually takes some time and skill level beyond the ordinary webmaster; and it does create additional headaches like product delivery, support issues, sales records, taxes… everything associated with running a business or company. If you’re like me and go the much easier affiliate route, here are some tips for you:

1. Use well established affiliate networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare, Shareasale, ClickBank… all these are professionally run, which makes finding affiliate links/products extremely easy for you. Besides, they will deliver your checks on time.

2. Aim for or promote affiliate products that have residual or recurring income because these will be your most lucrative over the long haul. Pick ones like web hosting, marketing products, utilities… or other services, which once people sign up for, rarely change.

3. Concentrate your marketing on small, little known niches. Dominate the main keywords in that niche with your sites and then create special “residual” income with the main companies in that niche.

4. Pick affiliate products that have lifetime cookies and/or have high payout rates. You can promote anything; why not promote high-ticket items that pay the big commissions.

5. However, picking the highest paying products may not be your only choice. For example, I have found promoting Amazon products usually pays less than my other affiliate products, BUT the conversion rate for Amazon products is much higher so you sell many more products and earn many more (albeit smaller) commissions, which quickly add up to a nice sum.

6. I have had success by concentrating on well-known products that you can only purchase online. Smart tactic that pays off, especially when those companies offer coupons/deals that are only available online.

7. Marketing in foreign markets has proven very lucrative for me. Usually getting top ranking in these countries is much easier than in the very competitive U.S. marketplace. For instance, marketing in the UK is less competitive, and you get higher commissions when you consider the pound is equal to two bucks in USD. I use Affiliate Window for marketing in the UK.

8. PPC advertising is the fastest way to deliver targeted traffic to your pages, but you have to know exactly what you’re doing or you will lose money. Here, I concentrate on promoting products with proven residual income so that I can make higher bids since my initial investment will be returned to me, many times over in the coming years.

9. If you’re a one-marketer, one-person company, you will have to choose your affiliate products very carefully. Pick only top quality products to promote, preferably ones you use yourself. Your conviction will come through in your content or writing

10. The more knowledge you obtain about affiliate marketing the more income you will make. But choose your learning sources very carefully, like that saying on old maps: “here there be monsters”. Be careful. Choose your educators wisely. Here are two sources I would recommend for further study on Affiliate Marketing: try Ken Evoy’s free Affiliate Masters Course or try one of top self-help guys Steve Pavlina – he has a very good page here on how to make money from your blog.

May 21, 2009 | 17 comments | View Post

Buy 100% Resell Products And Make Some Quick Cash

Whenvever I need to make some quick cash I head out to traffic exchanges, my safelist email, text ads and start searching for a new product with 100% resale rights. I only use this for some quick cash. This method usually does not bring you residual income – you have to get your ads out there every single day – the day you don’t advertise is the day you don’t make any cash. First of all, the prpoducts that sell really quick are usually between $10 and $15 – A lot of the products that sell well are new forms of advertising – something people haven’t tried before. Easy to use, web 2.0 graphics also sell very well. For example, Quick Web Creations, I always sell 5 or 10 of these each day when I advertise it, it’s new and cool, something everyone can use.

So, once I purchase the product and get my resale link up, I right a sales page. ALWAYS make the subject line stand out, i.e., ***BRAND NEW – BLAST Your Ad To 2.5 Million Classified Advertising Sites Worldwide*** this is a buject line for something I resold for $9.99 – I sold 300 copies of it in about 2 months. I always make sure people know it’s a new product, usually that’s enough to get them to look at your ad.

Where to advertise – ok, this is what I do – I have a list of traffic exchanges at traffictornado.com, these are the best traffic exchanges, they each have thousands of members, I get my ad on 5-10 of them to start. This might mean some surfing, because I don’t usually spend money on advertising these products until I start making money from my free advertising mehtods. If I can’t sell the product through free advertising I probably wouldn’t be able to sell it through paid advertising either. After the traffic exchanges I go to my list of safelists, you can find this here Safelists, If a product is good I always sell lots through safelists, usually 10-20 a day. Now I’ve started making money, I’m going to start paying for a little advertising. You have to be very careful here. What I do is take 50% of what I bring in and put it towards advertising. This is how I spend it. Solo Ads – Solo ads, ROCK! This is where I make most of my sales. The first one I use, and remeber this is only when they are already selling with free methods, I never take money out of my pocket, is planetxmail, this solo ad gets amazing responses, BUT, it is the most expensive one that I use at $59 – but more than worth it. Next I use solo ads from Traffic Exchanges, Safelists and Text Ad Links – This are great sites to advertise and can cost you anywhere from $2-$25. These sites get people to click on your solo ads by offering a credit link. The solo ads go to members contact email address. Here are some sites you can start with. Solo Ads

What you need to watch out for – as far as I am concerned the only thing you need to watch out for when you are doing this is to make sure you don’t keep spending money on your advertising trying to get that one more sale. This is how I learned my lesson. The first time I resold a product I bought for $10, it was selling like crazy, between 20 and 20 a day for about 6 weeks, then it started to taper off, down to 10 a day then 5 then 1 or 2 – I really, really wanted to get it back to the 20 or 30, so I kept spending the money I had made trying to get the sales back up there. They never went back up, and I ended up without much money when I realized the sales where just dried up. You have to realize that when you sell these products some of these people who bought them will start reselling them. So when you see the sales start to taper off, beware, this DOES NOT mean you need to spend more money on advertising it just means the product isn’t selling that well anymore, the sales are dried up.

Good Luck! Have Fun!! Make Some Money!!

May 17, 2008 | 2 comments | View Post