It is a common misconception that you must have a website in order to truly make money on the internet. Don't worry, it's not your fault - the "gurus" have tricked you into thinking that a website is required to make money, all while they laugh to the bank when you purchase web hosting and a domain through their affiliate links. It's time to seperate yourself from the crowd and realize that you're being deceived.
If you want to establish yourself online, blogging is the way to do it. And, it's absolutely free. You can make $20, $50 or $100 every single day using a simple, free blog that takes less than half an hour to set up. But how do you make your money? It's a simple formula:
1.) Create your free blog and start posting about a topic you love. Baseball? Weight lifting? Hypnosis? Gardening? Virtually anything will do.
2.) Go to Clickbank.com and click "marketplace". Find a product related to your topic (they have a very large variety of products for any audience) and create a free affiliate account with them.
3.) Add your affilate links to your blog and promote the product you chose. Talk about it's qualities, review it, how much it's helped you, and so on. People eat up stories.
4.) Get traffic to your blog by posting articles to article directories with a link back to your blog.
That's it - that's all you do to make money online. I can personally guarantee you that if you post to your blog everyday for the next 60 days and write one article to submit to a few article directories per week, you'll be making a bare minimum $20 per day with hardly effort. $20 per day for 10 to 15 minutes of work is a great trade-off, wouldn't you say?
The best part about this process is that you can repeat it, over and over. Imagine if you had 10 blogs and made the bare minimum of $20 per day with each blog. That means you'd be getting more than $200 per day, for about 2 1/2 hours of work. Compare that to a job - 8+ hours a day, for a measly couple thousand bucks every couple of weeks. It's bull.
It's time for you to make a decision. Are you going to sit around and continue to ponder how to make money online, or are you finally going to bite the bullet and going to get started? The choice is yours...
четверг, 3 мая 2007 г.
Make Your Blog an Authority Site
If you've been involved in Internet marketing the last year, then you have heard how authority sites are taking the place of spam sites for an online business model. The search engines are happy about that. They didn't like sending visitors to sites that were merely a few pages of scraped content and no real information.
So what is an authority site, and why should you care? One definition says authority sites are "sites that have been linked to and referenced on other web sites covering the same subject matter." This definition also states that authority sites have hundreds or thousands of pages covering that subject.
When you are looking for information on a certain subject, where do you go? You probably have a favorites folder filled with bookmarks for authority sites where you have found great information in the past. This is what you are aiming for when creating your own authority site.
You have seen sites that are just put up to get you to click on an AdSense ad. These sites do not offer any deep thoughts about the topic. You probably clicked away from them seconds after you arrived.
What an Authority Site Looks Like
Visitors know when they have found an authority site because the site looks like an authority. It shows in how the content, what is written, and in what is included on the site.
The site has pages and pages of quality, relevant content, and the author keeps the visitors current on what is happening in that field. Visitors will spend a great deal of time looking at the content, gathering information and finding answers to their questions.
The site offers links to other sites that complement and add to the visitor's experience. For example, an authority site focused on cats could have a page filled with links that go to Web sites that each focus on a different cat breed. That benefits the visitor by providing links to sites that would give in-depth information about a certain breed of cat.
Those outgoing links are not going to hurt the authority site. Rather, it will make the site look like more of an authority and which results in more traffic.
Forming a Relationship with Your Visitors
Becoming an authority site requires forming an ongoing relationship with your readers. Put your personality into what you write. Think of the reader, and not your keywords or how you are going to optimize the post for the search engines.
Write focused posts on a certain topic, but write so that the post flows well. Write as if you were having a conversation with your visitors. Include your own personality into what you write so your visitors feel like they know you.
At first you might not be an authority on the site's niche. You might only be familiar with it. But after a few months of writing content, researching the niche, and keeping current in new trends, you will become an authority.
How to Create an Authority Site
Find a niche that you know something about. It will be helpful to choose a niche that you know something about. Set up the blog and start posting to it. Sign up for RSS feeds and Google Alerts that are focused on your niche. There are many free resources available to educate you and keep you current in just about any niche.
When your site is up put visitors first. Keep in mind that you are creating a site that answers questions, gives plenty of valuable information, is filled with good content, and is credible. Create a site that you can be proud of and that you would want to visit over and over again, and you will create an authority site.
So what is an authority site, and why should you care? One definition says authority sites are "sites that have been linked to and referenced on other web sites covering the same subject matter." This definition also states that authority sites have hundreds or thousands of pages covering that subject.
When you are looking for information on a certain subject, where do you go? You probably have a favorites folder filled with bookmarks for authority sites where you have found great information in the past. This is what you are aiming for when creating your own authority site.
You have seen sites that are just put up to get you to click on an AdSense ad. These sites do not offer any deep thoughts about the topic. You probably clicked away from them seconds after you arrived.
What an Authority Site Looks Like
Visitors know when they have found an authority site because the site looks like an authority. It shows in how the content, what is written, and in what is included on the site.
The site has pages and pages of quality, relevant content, and the author keeps the visitors current on what is happening in that field. Visitors will spend a great deal of time looking at the content, gathering information and finding answers to their questions.
The site offers links to other sites that complement and add to the visitor's experience. For example, an authority site focused on cats could have a page filled with links that go to Web sites that each focus on a different cat breed. That benefits the visitor by providing links to sites that would give in-depth information about a certain breed of cat.
Those outgoing links are not going to hurt the authority site. Rather, it will make the site look like more of an authority and which results in more traffic.
Forming a Relationship with Your Visitors
Becoming an authority site requires forming an ongoing relationship with your readers. Put your personality into what you write. Think of the reader, and not your keywords or how you are going to optimize the post for the search engines.
Write focused posts on a certain topic, but write so that the post flows well. Write as if you were having a conversation with your visitors. Include your own personality into what you write so your visitors feel like they know you.
At first you might not be an authority on the site's niche. You might only be familiar with it. But after a few months of writing content, researching the niche, and keeping current in new trends, you will become an authority.
How to Create an Authority Site
Find a niche that you know something about. It will be helpful to choose a niche that you know something about. Set up the blog and start posting to it. Sign up for RSS feeds and Google Alerts that are focused on your niche. There are many free resources available to educate you and keep you current in just about any niche.
When your site is up put visitors first. Keep in mind that you are creating a site that answers questions, gives plenty of valuable information, is filled with good content, and is credible. Create a site that you can be proud of and that you would want to visit over and over again, and you will create an authority site.
What Is Freelance Blogging?
Blogging (short for "web logging"), born from the Internet age, is one of the newer venues for freelance writing. The Internet has generated a lot of news about the financial possibilities open to bloggers: an audience of potentially millions -- along with possible corporate sponsorship, a byline, and infinite creative control -- captures the imagination of many prospective bloggers, and makes blogging seem like an infinitely desirable, lucrative field.
The truth is it is much more difficult to become a successful freelance blogger. A good knowledge of marketing, web design, and being consistent are skills you need to make a living (or a comfortable extra income) from this new form of media.
The reason for this is the low barrier of entry. Anyone with access to web space can start a blog. Sites like Blogger, Livejournal and even MySpace offer free web space to anyone willing to sign up. This has resulted in millions of blogs in existence today, many of them literate, many of them wildly popular, and nearly all of them free to read and browse.
That variety of free content makes it difficult to charge for access to your writing, no matter how good it is. You could be the greatest expert on foreign policy or nutrition known to man, and few people would be willing to pay $5 -- or $1, or one cent -- to read a blog post by you, the expert, when there are thousands of semi-qualified (but bright and engaging) writers giving away similar material.
So your main sources of revenue are going to come from advertising and from whatever paid content you can fit into the site. Luckily, web advertising is becoming less dicey than it was a year ago. Google's "AdSense" program is a good baseline for a page, providing targeted advertising based on your content and paying you, directly, per click-through (although the pay rate per click is low.) You can supplement that amount with other forms of web advertising, from the comparatively unobtrusive banner to pop-up animations that "float over" the text.
This brings us to the "double-edged sword" problem in web advertising. The most effective advertising is obtrusive advertising; that is, advertising that blocks valuable content until the user clicks on it either to make it disappear or to take you to a different website. However, obtrusive advertising also irritates your readers, which can lead to a lower reputation for your blog overall. On the Internet, reputation is the single best determinant of your web traffic. Using obtrusive advertising can significantly lower your traffic and make your blog that much less attractive to potential advertisers.
So you'll need to find a happy medium between heavy advertising (and light traffic) and little to no advertising (and high traffic, but little revenue.) Luckily, the instant responsiveness of the Internet, along with the commenting features available on nearly all blogging software, make it easy to ask your readers about exactly what level of advertising they'd be willing to accept. Reader connectivity is one of the most important features of any good blog: not only does it allow you to fine-tune your blog over time, eliminating features that readers find irritating or off-putting, but it also allows you to develop personal connections with your readers, the kind of connections that build loyal audiences.
There are other ways to make money by blogging, such as the following:
1) It's possible to sidestep advertising altogether by making some of your content unavailable, except to subscribers. For example, you might only keep your most recent five or six blog entries unlocked, and require a monthly subscription fee to read the rest of the archives;
2) Or you might keep your current posts and your entire regular archives active, but produce some longer or specialized entries or other content and charge a set fee for these;
3) You could even compile some of your best entries into a physical book, along with some new content, and offer it for sale. Even if all the entries are available online, you'd be surprised how many people are willing to pay to have something they can hold in their hands;
4) Additionally, you could go the Salon.com route -- make all of your archives available to anyone willing to watch a short full-screen advertisement -- or you could rely on readers' willingness to support content that they find worthwhile by asking for donations outright.
Many prominent blogs and online content providers have done this and found themselves able to make rent and pay all of their bills every month on donations alone.
No matter how much advertising or subscription services your blog has, it's all worthless if people don't want to read you in the first place. And there are three simple rules to make your blog popular:
1) Write on something you care about 2) Write consistently and thoughtfully on a regular schedule (daily is best) 3) Read and comment on other blogs
People read blogs because they provide a source of information and analysis on topics that traditional media sources only cover sketchily and hastily, or don't cover at all. Don't try to figure out an ideal money-making blog topic and proceed from there. People care about blogs because blogs are about personal, in-depth viewpoints and thoughts.
If you can provide those to your audience regularly, and you can set up a minimally-intrusive but still worthwhile revenue system through advertising or subscriptions, there's no reason why you can't become a successful blogger.
The truth is it is much more difficult to become a successful freelance blogger. A good knowledge of marketing, web design, and being consistent are skills you need to make a living (or a comfortable extra income) from this new form of media.
The reason for this is the low barrier of entry. Anyone with access to web space can start a blog. Sites like Blogger, Livejournal and even MySpace offer free web space to anyone willing to sign up. This has resulted in millions of blogs in existence today, many of them literate, many of them wildly popular, and nearly all of them free to read and browse.
That variety of free content makes it difficult to charge for access to your writing, no matter how good it is. You could be the greatest expert on foreign policy or nutrition known to man, and few people would be willing to pay $5 -- or $1, or one cent -- to read a blog post by you, the expert, when there are thousands of semi-qualified (but bright and engaging) writers giving away similar material.
So your main sources of revenue are going to come from advertising and from whatever paid content you can fit into the site. Luckily, web advertising is becoming less dicey than it was a year ago. Google's "AdSense" program is a good baseline for a page, providing targeted advertising based on your content and paying you, directly, per click-through (although the pay rate per click is low.) You can supplement that amount with other forms of web advertising, from the comparatively unobtrusive banner to pop-up animations that "float over" the text.
This brings us to the "double-edged sword" problem in web advertising. The most effective advertising is obtrusive advertising; that is, advertising that blocks valuable content until the user clicks on it either to make it disappear or to take you to a different website. However, obtrusive advertising also irritates your readers, which can lead to a lower reputation for your blog overall. On the Internet, reputation is the single best determinant of your web traffic. Using obtrusive advertising can significantly lower your traffic and make your blog that much less attractive to potential advertisers.
So you'll need to find a happy medium between heavy advertising (and light traffic) and little to no advertising (and high traffic, but little revenue.) Luckily, the instant responsiveness of the Internet, along with the commenting features available on nearly all blogging software, make it easy to ask your readers about exactly what level of advertising they'd be willing to accept. Reader connectivity is one of the most important features of any good blog: not only does it allow you to fine-tune your blog over time, eliminating features that readers find irritating or off-putting, but it also allows you to develop personal connections with your readers, the kind of connections that build loyal audiences.
There are other ways to make money by blogging, such as the following:
1) It's possible to sidestep advertising altogether by making some of your content unavailable, except to subscribers. For example, you might only keep your most recent five or six blog entries unlocked, and require a monthly subscription fee to read the rest of the archives;
2) Or you might keep your current posts and your entire regular archives active, but produce some longer or specialized entries or other content and charge a set fee for these;
3) You could even compile some of your best entries into a physical book, along with some new content, and offer it for sale. Even if all the entries are available online, you'd be surprised how many people are willing to pay to have something they can hold in their hands;
4) Additionally, you could go the Salon.com route -- make all of your archives available to anyone willing to watch a short full-screen advertisement -- or you could rely on readers' willingness to support content that they find worthwhile by asking for donations outright.
Many prominent blogs and online content providers have done this and found themselves able to make rent and pay all of their bills every month on donations alone.
No matter how much advertising or subscription services your blog has, it's all worthless if people don't want to read you in the first place. And there are three simple rules to make your blog popular:
1) Write on something you care about 2) Write consistently and thoughtfully on a regular schedule (daily is best) 3) Read and comment on other blogs
People read blogs because they provide a source of information and analysis on topics that traditional media sources only cover sketchily and hastily, or don't cover at all. Don't try to figure out an ideal money-making blog topic and proceed from there. People care about blogs because blogs are about personal, in-depth viewpoints and thoughts.
If you can provide those to your audience regularly, and you can set up a minimally-intrusive but still worthwhile revenue system through advertising or subscriptions, there's no reason why you can't become a successful blogger.
Affiliate Marketing From Your Blog
Promoting affiliate products from is one of the easiest "auto-pilot" methods of monetizing the traffic you get to your blogs. By linking to a merchant site via your affiliate link, you can easily make commissions over and over again as your blog soars in traffic and popularity.
Although you can promote both physical and digital products, I prefer the latter as they typically pay more commissions and are easier to sell. Here are a few ways that I have personally used to make $500 - $2,000 in sales of affiliate products every month from my blog:
1) Interview The Product Owner
Who better to answer questions and clarify doubts on a certain product than the owner himself? By interviewing the owner or a representative, you get to be the middle-man and ask the most important question on behalf of your blog readers.
You can conduct interview easily using Skype and a recording software that integrates with it. Once recorded, you need to do some minor editing using Audacity, a free audio editing software. If you're using Wordpress as your blog platform, you can easily install some podcasting plugins and get the whole thing up easily.
The key to selling affiliate products using podcast interviews is to ask the right questions. It works much better if you've already bought and used the product, so you're familiar with how it works and any limitations it has.
During the interview itself, make sure you mention your affiliate link. Also write a short description of the podcast on your blog post and put your affiliate link there.
2) Write a Complete Product Review
This is not something new, but it's rarely done by most of the new affiliate marketers I've come across promoting my own products and other people's products that I happen to be promoting as well.
A product review is not a sales pitch, so avoid making it sound like you're totally in love with the product. If it's really that good, maintain your enthusiasm but do let your readers know on it's limitations as well.
To increase the clicks on your affiliate links, include screenshots of the product (if it's a software) to let people get an insider's view of how it works and the results that can expect from it.
If it's an e-book or information product, let others know the results you've observed and recorded from using the techniques or secrets mentioned. Everyone loves something that works, but most people will wait to see if it works for others before deciding to buy it.
3) Pre-sell With a "How To" Article
A "How To" article teaches people how to solve a specific problem or achieve a specific result. Start with the problem or desired outcome, and give specific step and action that need to be taken to solve it.
Towards the end of the article, talk about how a certain software can help your readers automate or skip some of the steps mentioned in your article. Once people have discovered the solution, they still may not want to do it all by themselves. They will definitely consider buying the software you're promoting if it helps them save time by making the process faster or easier.
Your goal is to pre-sell the benefit of using the software, and lead them to the affiliate product page. Don't make your article a sales pitch or this method will not work as well. People want to buy, but they don't want to be "sold".
Try to work on a Wordpress platform as your blogging tool, as it allows you much more control and flexibility in promoting affiliate products, especially when your "catalog" of affiliate products grows significantly.
Using these three strategies alone, you can make a significant income promoting affiliate products. Focus on these and affiliate marketing from your blog becomes so easy you won't believe the results.
Although you can promote both physical and digital products, I prefer the latter as they typically pay more commissions and are easier to sell. Here are a few ways that I have personally used to make $500 - $2,000 in sales of affiliate products every month from my blog:
1) Interview The Product Owner
Who better to answer questions and clarify doubts on a certain product than the owner himself? By interviewing the owner or a representative, you get to be the middle-man and ask the most important question on behalf of your blog readers.
You can conduct interview easily using Skype and a recording software that integrates with it. Once recorded, you need to do some minor editing using Audacity, a free audio editing software. If you're using Wordpress as your blog platform, you can easily install some podcasting plugins and get the whole thing up easily.
The key to selling affiliate products using podcast interviews is to ask the right questions. It works much better if you've already bought and used the product, so you're familiar with how it works and any limitations it has.
During the interview itself, make sure you mention your affiliate link. Also write a short description of the podcast on your blog post and put your affiliate link there.
2) Write a Complete Product Review
This is not something new, but it's rarely done by most of the new affiliate marketers I've come across promoting my own products and other people's products that I happen to be promoting as well.
A product review is not a sales pitch, so avoid making it sound like you're totally in love with the product. If it's really that good, maintain your enthusiasm but do let your readers know on it's limitations as well.
To increase the clicks on your affiliate links, include screenshots of the product (if it's a software) to let people get an insider's view of how it works and the results that can expect from it.
If it's an e-book or information product, let others know the results you've observed and recorded from using the techniques or secrets mentioned. Everyone loves something that works, but most people will wait to see if it works for others before deciding to buy it.
3) Pre-sell With a "How To" Article
A "How To" article teaches people how to solve a specific problem or achieve a specific result. Start with the problem or desired outcome, and give specific step and action that need to be taken to solve it.
Towards the end of the article, talk about how a certain software can help your readers automate or skip some of the steps mentioned in your article. Once people have discovered the solution, they still may not want to do it all by themselves. They will definitely consider buying the software you're promoting if it helps them save time by making the process faster or easier.
Your goal is to pre-sell the benefit of using the software, and lead them to the affiliate product page. Don't make your article a sales pitch or this method will not work as well. People want to buy, but they don't want to be "sold".
Try to work on a Wordpress platform as your blogging tool, as it allows you much more control and flexibility in promoting affiliate products, especially when your "catalog" of affiliate products grows significantly.
Using these three strategies alone, you can make a significant income promoting affiliate products. Focus on these and affiliate marketing from your blog becomes so easy you won't believe the results.
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