Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Using Social Networking Websites to Promote Your Blog
Social networking websites are online communities that make it easier for internet users to meet and communicate with each other. If you are an internet user who enjoys using the internet to meet new people, there is a good chance that you already belong to a social networking website. What about an online blog? Do you have one of them? If you do, do you know that you could use your social networking website to promote your blog?
Promote your blog? Why would you want to do that? Honestly, if you have to ask yourself that question you probably shouldn’t even have one. The whole purpose of a blog is to document your thoughts, views, and opinions on a particular topic, issue, or subject. What good will your blog do if no one reads it. In addition to sharing your thoughts with the rest of the world, did you know that you could also make money from your blog? You can signup for affiliate programs or other programs like Google Adsense. If you are using your blog to make money then you will defiantly want to promote it.
When it comes to promoting blogs, there are many blog owners who decide to let the search engine do the work for them. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN use special techniques that reads the content on your website. That content is then used to rank your website with particular keywords. This means that you run a blog on graduating from high school in New York, there is a good chance that your blog will appear in searches done on New York high schools. Although many blogs are successfully ranked in search engines, not all are. That is why you are advised against relying solely on search engines, when it comes to promoting your blog.
As previously mentioned, if you love meeting with or talking to people online, there is a good chance that you belong to a social networking website or community. The individuals that you talk to and that are in your community are likely the individuals that you wish to target. Since most social networking websites work to connect internet users who have the same goals and common interests, there is a good chance that your online friends will enjoy reading your blog. But, before they can read your blog, you have to let them know that it exists.
When it comes to promoting your blog on social networking websites, you have a number of different options. Your first option is to include a link to your blog in your community profile or profile page. This will allow other community members to checkout your blog, only if they wish to do so. The other way is to inform your online friends of your blog through private messages. Once you join a social networking website and create or join a network of friends, you should easily be able to communicate with those friends. Sending each of your friends a private message with information and a link to your blog tends to be more effective than just placing a link in your profile or on your profile page.
Although there is a good chance that you are already a member of a popular social networking website, you may not be. If you are not already a member, but would like to become one, you will need to find a social networking website to join. This can easily be done with a standard internet search. In your search, you will likely find a number of popular network sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, and Orkut. Before becoming a community member at one of these networking sites, you may want to first examine the website to ensure that it is everything that you want it to be.
As you can easily see, there are a number of different ways that you can go about promoting your blog on online social networking websites. You never known, but, in addition to promoting your blog, you may also make new friends along the way..
Promote your blog? Why would you want to do that? Honestly, if you have to ask yourself that question you probably shouldn’t even have one. The whole purpose of a blog is to document your thoughts, views, and opinions on a particular topic, issue, or subject. What good will your blog do if no one reads it. In addition to sharing your thoughts with the rest of the world, did you know that you could also make money from your blog? You can signup for affiliate programs or other programs like Google Adsense. If you are using your blog to make money then you will defiantly want to promote it.
When it comes to promoting blogs, there are many blog owners who decide to let the search engine do the work for them. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN use special techniques that reads the content on your website. That content is then used to rank your website with particular keywords. This means that you run a blog on graduating from high school in New York, there is a good chance that your blog will appear in searches done on New York high schools. Although many blogs are successfully ranked in search engines, not all are. That is why you are advised against relying solely on search engines, when it comes to promoting your blog.
As previously mentioned, if you love meeting with or talking to people online, there is a good chance that you belong to a social networking website or community. The individuals that you talk to and that are in your community are likely the individuals that you wish to target. Since most social networking websites work to connect internet users who have the same goals and common interests, there is a good chance that your online friends will enjoy reading your blog. But, before they can read your blog, you have to let them know that it exists.
When it comes to promoting your blog on social networking websites, you have a number of different options. Your first option is to include a link to your blog in your community profile or profile page. This will allow other community members to checkout your blog, only if they wish to do so. The other way is to inform your online friends of your blog through private messages. Once you join a social networking website and create or join a network of friends, you should easily be able to communicate with those friends. Sending each of your friends a private message with information and a link to your blog tends to be more effective than just placing a link in your profile or on your profile page.
Although there is a good chance that you are already a member of a popular social networking website, you may not be. If you are not already a member, but would like to become one, you will need to find a social networking website to join. This can easily be done with a standard internet search. In your search, you will likely find a number of popular network sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, and Orkut. Before becoming a community member at one of these networking sites, you may want to first examine the website to ensure that it is everything that you want it to be.
As you can easily see, there are a number of different ways that you can go about promoting your blog on online social networking websites. You never known, but, in addition to promoting your blog, you may also make new friends along the way..
25 Ways to Promote Your Website or Blog
1. Article Directories
Article directories are a wonderful way to get traffic and backlinks to your website. There are many well established article directories that have been proven to get websites traffic. People search for articles in different categories and after reading the article they usually follow a link at the bottom of the article to your website.
www.GoArticles.com
www.eHow.com
www.EasyArticles.com
www.ArticleDashBoard.com
www.Article99.com
www.ValuableContent.com
www.EzineArticles.com
2. Business Directories
Posting in business directories is still an effective way to get backlinks and small amounts of traffic. Most directory sites have many listings that are organized into. Being that there are so many business directories, the best way to find one related to your site would be to do a Google search or to use the websites below to find them.
www.dmoz.org
dir.yahoo.com
www.lii.org
www.stpt.com/directory
www.business.com
www.cannylink.com
3. Classifieds
Classifieds are a common way to easily make posts for free, and reach large amounts of people. They tend to work better for business or service-based websites, but you can also drive traffic to other types of sites as well
www.Kijiji.com
www.craigslist.org
classifieds.myspace.com
classifieds.yahoo.com
4. Forums
Forums are another good way to get backlinks and traffic, but you need to contribute to the forums and not just spam them with your links. I recommend becoming an active member of forums that are related to your site, as well as including your website link in your forum signature. By making intelligent and informative posts people will be inclined to check out the link in your signature because you’ve built interest about yourself.
The best way to do this is to manually search for forums related to your site and then sign up to start posting.
5. Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites are often overlooked as a way to market a website or blog. Having lots of friends and access to groups can be a good way to contact a lot of people in an easy and efficient manner. Most social networking sites also have forums and classifieds that you can post in.
www.myspace.com
www.facebook.com
www.linkedin.com
6. Social Bookmarking Sites
Social bookmarking sites can be an amazing way to promote your website. What a lot of people will do is write a killer article and then submit it to the social bookmarking sites to drive traffic to that article, hoping it will get bookmarked a lot.
www.netscape.com
www.digg.com
del.icio.us
www.furl.net
www.stumbleupon.com
www.reddit.com
ma.gnolia.com
de.lirio.us
myweb2.search.yahoo.com
www.simpy.com
www.newsvine.com
7. Search Engines
This is probably one of the most difficult ways to market a site, but also one of the most popular ways due to the fact that the traffic you get can be extremely targeted to exactly what your site offers. This is especially important for sites that sell a product and are looking for a high conversion rate. It is usually better to start off targeting niche markets and low competition long tail keywords. Ranking well on Google for a phrase like ‘graphic design’ in the search engines would be extremely difficult to do, so look for longer keywords or more detailed ones.
www.google.com
www.yahoo.com
www.msn.com
8. Word of Mouth
This is a very basic and old school way of marketing but it has remained because it really is effective. All you have to do is tell all your family, friends and co-workers about your new site or blog and let them do the work!
9. Pay per Click Advertising (PPC)
PPC advertising takes a lot of studying to do right, and can cost a decent amount of money, but if your site is well designed and converts well, or you are just looking for traffic, it can be a very powerful marketing tool when done right.
adwords.google.com
searchmarketing.yahoo.com
adCenter.Microsoft.com
10. Banner Advertising
The difficulty in banner advertising is simply creating a very alluring banner design in the amount of space specified. Some sites don’t let you create animated banners, but if you have a very intriguing static banner on a good site it can get you traffic for sure.
The best way to do this is to manually search for websites and blogs related to your site and contact them for a banner exchange.
11. Text Link Advertising
Text link advertising is usually cheap and can bring in lots of traffic, but the traffic tends to be rather unspecific - which is ok sometimes. I find it best to look for sites related to your website to buy text links spots on. Or, if you are just looking for tons of traffic, you can go to major text link sites that offer spots on very large websites.
www.text-link-ads.com
www.adbrite.com
www.adengage.com
12. Print Advertising
Print advertising can be very expensive, but is especially useful when advertising in a specific location. For example, if you are opening a new restaurant in a city, sending out flyers is a surefire way to get people to your website and restaurant. You could also drop off business cards or flyers at local stores and start offering your services to local people.
www.4over4.com
www.modernpostcard.com
www.vistaprint.com
www.clubflyers.com
www.alocalprinter.com
13. Portfolio Sites
There are many websites that host portfolios of designers and artists. By submitting your work to their sites you will often get a lot of exposure to your own site by way of a link.
www.behance.net
www.altpick.com
www.portfolios.com
www.deviantart.com
14. Tutorial Sites
Submitting tutorials is a great way to get traffic to your website via a link. A lot of designers submit tutorials to sites like the ones below, and get a lot of exposure. Most of these tutorials sites are very well ranked so getting a link on them can be very good for your website or blog.
www.pixel2life.com
www.good-tutorials.com
www.tutorialoutpost.com
15. Link Baiting
Linking baiting is when you write or post something that has the potential to be blogged about, linked or bookmarked a lot. Good content in general will help your website or blog out a lot, but you can step it up a notch by producing videos or articles specifically for link baiting.
16. Contests
People love entering contest, especially if there is a desirable prize. Contest prizes range in types. Some sites will offer you exposure and links and other sites will offer money or actual physical prizes. The key to a successful contest is obviously getting lots of people to enter, so make sure you promote your contest as much as you can on forums, classifieds and more. Also, don’t be afraid to enter contests for a chance to win some money or prizes, yourself!
17. Link Exchanges
This is arguably one of the most important ways to rank well for keywords and bring traffic to your website. It is important to exchange links or get one-way links from relevant sites. Make sure you are using an important keyword because your links anchor text and not a word like ‘click here’ or something you don’t want to rank well for in search engines.
The best way to do this is to manually search for websites and blogs related to your site and contact them for a link exchange. Also, check out the two sites below.
www.seopen.com/seopen-tools/
blogsearch.google.com
18. Email Marketing
Email marketing can be very beneficial if done well. You do not want to be a spammer or buy lists of emails, though. The way to work email marketing is to have an opt-in email form on your website where users can sign up to receive emails and special offers. Offering a free e-book or tips is a good way to get people to sign up. Once they are signed up you can send emails once in a while to bring them back to your site or to promote something.
www.aweber.com
www.icontact.com
19. Viral Marketing
This is the hottest new way to market a website, but it is not easy! You have probably heard about all these YouTube videos getting millions of views, and articles on Digg getting thousands of hits. If you can think up a really clever, funny or useful idea and tie it into your website via a link or some other way, you can drive incredible amounts of traffic to your site with very little money or possibly none at all.
20. Videos
Creating videos has become very popular since the creation of YouTube and other video-based sites. This ties into viral marketing and is a good way to get people interested in your blog or website. It is most common to show or say the URL of your website at the beginning and/or end of a video, or tie it into your video site profile some how.
www.youtube.com
video.google.com
vids.myspace.com
video.search.yahoo.com
video.msn.com
video.aol.com
www.metacafe.com
21. Podcasting
This is basically creating audio files and then letting your users download or stream them via a link on your website or blog or via RSS feeds. This is a good alternative to creating videos if you don’t have a video camera or don’t like being on film. I have seen many sites successfully offer audio downloads as a way of bringing users a large amount of information quickly. You can even post on craigslist.com and hire voice over talent for your podcasts at affordable prices.
22. Blogs
Blogs are a great way to reach a lot of people in a fast manner. They take a lot of work, and to make a blog really effective they need to be updated with fresh content at least several times a week. A lot of websites will have a blog in addition to a main website as a sort of news system for their main site, or just as a way to drive traffic to a website.
www.wordpress.com
www.blogger.com
www.twitter.com
www.squidoo.com
www.tumblr.com
23. eBooks
eBooks have become very popular and they tend to spread well in downloading communities. You can even sell your eBook on eBay, via a website or just offer it as a gift to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
24. Press Releases
Press releases can be an efficient way to get media attention if your website or product is newsworthy enough. There are several websites you can do this on. However, more commonly press releases are mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and/or television networks.
25. Networking
Networking can have many benefits to promoting your site. I am always adding people on instant messaging services and talking to people related to my field. By networking and making friends in the business you can learn from each other and help each other which will benefit your site.
The best way to do this is to meet people in forums or on sites related to yours and chat via instant messengers. I usually run 5 different instant messengers that are all filled with business contacts and friends.
www.aim.com
www.skype.com
messenger.yahoo.com
get.live.com/messenger/overview
www.icq.com
Article directories are a wonderful way to get traffic and backlinks to your website. There are many well established article directories that have been proven to get websites traffic. People search for articles in different categories and after reading the article they usually follow a link at the bottom of the article to your website.
www.GoArticles.com
www.eHow.com
www.EasyArticles.com
www.ArticleDashBoard.com
www.Article99.com
www.ValuableContent.com
www.EzineArticles.com
2. Business Directories
Posting in business directories is still an effective way to get backlinks and small amounts of traffic. Most directory sites have many listings that are organized into. Being that there are so many business directories, the best way to find one related to your site would be to do a Google search or to use the websites below to find them.
www.dmoz.org
dir.yahoo.com
www.lii.org
www.stpt.com/directory
www.business.com
www.cannylink.com
3. Classifieds
Classifieds are a common way to easily make posts for free, and reach large amounts of people. They tend to work better for business or service-based websites, but you can also drive traffic to other types of sites as well
www.Kijiji.com
www.craigslist.org
classifieds.myspace.com
classifieds.yahoo.com
4. Forums
Forums are another good way to get backlinks and traffic, but you need to contribute to the forums and not just spam them with your links. I recommend becoming an active member of forums that are related to your site, as well as including your website link in your forum signature. By making intelligent and informative posts people will be inclined to check out the link in your signature because you’ve built interest about yourself.
The best way to do this is to manually search for forums related to your site and then sign up to start posting.
5. Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites are often overlooked as a way to market a website or blog. Having lots of friends and access to groups can be a good way to contact a lot of people in an easy and efficient manner. Most social networking sites also have forums and classifieds that you can post in.
www.myspace.com
www.facebook.com
www.linkedin.com
6. Social Bookmarking Sites
Social bookmarking sites can be an amazing way to promote your website. What a lot of people will do is write a killer article and then submit it to the social bookmarking sites to drive traffic to that article, hoping it will get bookmarked a lot.
www.netscape.com
www.digg.com
del.icio.us
www.furl.net
www.stumbleupon.com
www.reddit.com
ma.gnolia.com
de.lirio.us
myweb2.search.yahoo.com
www.simpy.com
www.newsvine.com
7. Search Engines
This is probably one of the most difficult ways to market a site, but also one of the most popular ways due to the fact that the traffic you get can be extremely targeted to exactly what your site offers. This is especially important for sites that sell a product and are looking for a high conversion rate. It is usually better to start off targeting niche markets and low competition long tail keywords. Ranking well on Google for a phrase like ‘graphic design’ in the search engines would be extremely difficult to do, so look for longer keywords or more detailed ones.
www.google.com
www.yahoo.com
www.msn.com
8. Word of Mouth
This is a very basic and old school way of marketing but it has remained because it really is effective. All you have to do is tell all your family, friends and co-workers about your new site or blog and let them do the work!
9. Pay per Click Advertising (PPC)
PPC advertising takes a lot of studying to do right, and can cost a decent amount of money, but if your site is well designed and converts well, or you are just looking for traffic, it can be a very powerful marketing tool when done right.
adwords.google.com
searchmarketing.yahoo.com
adCenter.Microsoft.com
10. Banner Advertising
The difficulty in banner advertising is simply creating a very alluring banner design in the amount of space specified. Some sites don’t let you create animated banners, but if you have a very intriguing static banner on a good site it can get you traffic for sure.
The best way to do this is to manually search for websites and blogs related to your site and contact them for a banner exchange.
11. Text Link Advertising
Text link advertising is usually cheap and can bring in lots of traffic, but the traffic tends to be rather unspecific - which is ok sometimes. I find it best to look for sites related to your website to buy text links spots on. Or, if you are just looking for tons of traffic, you can go to major text link sites that offer spots on very large websites.
www.text-link-ads.com
www.adbrite.com
www.adengage.com
12. Print Advertising
Print advertising can be very expensive, but is especially useful when advertising in a specific location. For example, if you are opening a new restaurant in a city, sending out flyers is a surefire way to get people to your website and restaurant. You could also drop off business cards or flyers at local stores and start offering your services to local people.
www.4over4.com
www.modernpostcard.com
www.vistaprint.com
www.clubflyers.com
www.alocalprinter.com
13. Portfolio Sites
There are many websites that host portfolios of designers and artists. By submitting your work to their sites you will often get a lot of exposure to your own site by way of a link.
www.behance.net
www.altpick.com
www.portfolios.com
www.deviantart.com
14. Tutorial Sites
Submitting tutorials is a great way to get traffic to your website via a link. A lot of designers submit tutorials to sites like the ones below, and get a lot of exposure. Most of these tutorials sites are very well ranked so getting a link on them can be very good for your website or blog.
www.pixel2life.com
www.good-tutorials.com
www.tutorialoutpost.com
15. Link Baiting
Linking baiting is when you write or post something that has the potential to be blogged about, linked or bookmarked a lot. Good content in general will help your website or blog out a lot, but you can step it up a notch by producing videos or articles specifically for link baiting.
16. Contests
People love entering contest, especially if there is a desirable prize. Contest prizes range in types. Some sites will offer you exposure and links and other sites will offer money or actual physical prizes. The key to a successful contest is obviously getting lots of people to enter, so make sure you promote your contest as much as you can on forums, classifieds and more. Also, don’t be afraid to enter contests for a chance to win some money or prizes, yourself!
17. Link Exchanges
This is arguably one of the most important ways to rank well for keywords and bring traffic to your website. It is important to exchange links or get one-way links from relevant sites. Make sure you are using an important keyword because your links anchor text and not a word like ‘click here’ or something you don’t want to rank well for in search engines.
The best way to do this is to manually search for websites and blogs related to your site and contact them for a link exchange. Also, check out the two sites below.
www.seopen.com/seopen-tools/
blogsearch.google.com
18. Email Marketing
Email marketing can be very beneficial if done well. You do not want to be a spammer or buy lists of emails, though. The way to work email marketing is to have an opt-in email form on your website where users can sign up to receive emails and special offers. Offering a free e-book or tips is a good way to get people to sign up. Once they are signed up you can send emails once in a while to bring them back to your site or to promote something.
www.aweber.com
www.icontact.com
19. Viral Marketing
This is the hottest new way to market a website, but it is not easy! You have probably heard about all these YouTube videos getting millions of views, and articles on Digg getting thousands of hits. If you can think up a really clever, funny or useful idea and tie it into your website via a link or some other way, you can drive incredible amounts of traffic to your site with very little money or possibly none at all.
20. Videos
Creating videos has become very popular since the creation of YouTube and other video-based sites. This ties into viral marketing and is a good way to get people interested in your blog or website. It is most common to show or say the URL of your website at the beginning and/or end of a video, or tie it into your video site profile some how.
www.youtube.com
video.google.com
vids.myspace.com
video.search.yahoo.com
video.msn.com
video.aol.com
www.metacafe.com
21. Podcasting
This is basically creating audio files and then letting your users download or stream them via a link on your website or blog or via RSS feeds. This is a good alternative to creating videos if you don’t have a video camera or don’t like being on film. I have seen many sites successfully offer audio downloads as a way of bringing users a large amount of information quickly. You can even post on craigslist.com and hire voice over talent for your podcasts at affordable prices.
22. Blogs
Blogs are a great way to reach a lot of people in a fast manner. They take a lot of work, and to make a blog really effective they need to be updated with fresh content at least several times a week. A lot of websites will have a blog in addition to a main website as a sort of news system for their main site, or just as a way to drive traffic to a website.
www.wordpress.com
www.blogger.com
www.twitter.com
www.squidoo.com
www.tumblr.com
23. eBooks
eBooks have become very popular and they tend to spread well in downloading communities. You can even sell your eBook on eBay, via a website or just offer it as a gift to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
24. Press Releases
Press releases can be an efficient way to get media attention if your website or product is newsworthy enough. There are several websites you can do this on. However, more commonly press releases are mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and/or television networks.
25. Networking
Networking can have many benefits to promoting your site. I am always adding people on instant messaging services and talking to people related to my field. By networking and making friends in the business you can learn from each other and help each other which will benefit your site.
The best way to do this is to meet people in forums or on sites related to yours and chat via instant messengers. I usually run 5 different instant messengers that are all filled with business contacts and friends.
www.aim.com
www.skype.com
messenger.yahoo.com
get.live.com/messenger/overview
www.icq.com
Monday, April 6, 2009
3 Quick Ways To Start Your Own Online Business In Less Than 24 Hours
3 Quick Ways To Start Your Own Online Business In Less Than 24 Hours
The Internet and online business especially are becoming more and more popular by the day in todays world simply because people are starting to see the true benefits of the web, consumers are starting to trust the web more, and more importantly, the start up costs for a online business are next to nothing compared to the offline world of business start ups.
The only set back most people run into when wanting to start one of their own online business is How and Where to get started.
I did a search under the keyword term "home based business" and the search results returned 575,000,000 results for that keyword alone.
That's a pretty intimidating number for someone wanting to start their own home based business on the web wouldn't you say?
These were the same obstacles I was up against when I first ventured into the online world of business.
But I didn't let that stop me and I hope that won't stop you either from wanting to start your own online business.
So, I saved you the hassle and put together 3 of the quickest ways for ANYONE(that's You) to start their own online business with next to no investment required and can get started in less than 24 hours.
Are you ready? I hope so.
Business Model #1. Affiliate Programs.
Affiliate Programs are simply programs set up by the business owner for others to sign up for and promote for the business owner for a agreed upon commission(usually between 10 - 75%).
The great thing about Affiliate marketing is it doesn't cost you a single penny to get started, you don't have to worry about refunds or customer service that come with owning your own product.
All you have to worry about is generating the traffic to your affiliate link and collecting your commission cheques.
This is the quickest way to get started online... Period!
Here's a few Affiliate Directories to give you a start:
Associate Programs - http://www.picmoney.com
Refer It - http://www.adsenselover.com
Business Model #2. Resell Rights.
Resell Rights are simply products that have already been created and are available to anybody who is willing to pay for the Resell Rights to market them.
The upside to this is you get Ready-To-Go websites with PROVEN sales letters that convert. The best part of all is... you get to keep 100% of the $Profits$.
The draw back is you can't claim those products as your own. The original creator of the product maintains full rights. You just get to keep all the profits.
Not such a bad trade off wouldn't you say?
Business Model #3. Private Label Resell Rights.
Private Label Resell Rights are simply products that are ready to be branded with your name to it.
What I mean by that is you get full rights to the product or products and are able to claim them as your own even though you didn't create them yourself.
This is the fastest way for anyone to start a online business who really doesn't have any experience or knowledge on how to create their own products.
The other really cool thing about Private Label Resell Rights products is they come with Ready-To-Go websites which then again saves you time and money in having to create them yourself.
Well there you have it, 3 Quick Ways To Start Your Own Online Business In Less Than 24 Hours.
The easiest way to locate any of the above via the search engines is by entering something like this into there search engine web form:
The Internet and online business especially are becoming more and more popular by the day in todays world simply because people are starting to see the true benefits of the web, consumers are starting to trust the web more, and more importantly, the start up costs for a online business are next to nothing compared to the offline world of business start ups.
The only set back most people run into when wanting to start one of their own online business is How and Where to get started.
I did a search under the keyword term "home based business" and the search results returned 575,000,000 results for that keyword alone.
That's a pretty intimidating number for someone wanting to start their own home based business on the web wouldn't you say?
These were the same obstacles I was up against when I first ventured into the online world of business.
But I didn't let that stop me and I hope that won't stop you either from wanting to start your own online business.
So, I saved you the hassle and put together 3 of the quickest ways for ANYONE(that's You) to start their own online business with next to no investment required and can get started in less than 24 hours.
Are you ready? I hope so.
Business Model #1. Affiliate Programs.
Affiliate Programs are simply programs set up by the business owner for others to sign up for and promote for the business owner for a agreed upon commission(usually between 10 - 75%).
The great thing about Affiliate marketing is it doesn't cost you a single penny to get started, you don't have to worry about refunds or customer service that come with owning your own product.
All you have to worry about is generating the traffic to your affiliate link and collecting your commission cheques.
This is the quickest way to get started online... Period!
Here's a few Affiliate Directories to give you a start:
Associate Programs - http://www.picmoney.com
Refer It - http://www.adsenselover.com
Business Model #2. Resell Rights.
Resell Rights are simply products that have already been created and are available to anybody who is willing to pay for the Resell Rights to market them.
The upside to this is you get Ready-To-Go websites with PROVEN sales letters that convert. The best part of all is... you get to keep 100% of the $Profits$.
The draw back is you can't claim those products as your own. The original creator of the product maintains full rights. You just get to keep all the profits.
Not such a bad trade off wouldn't you say?
Business Model #3. Private Label Resell Rights.
Private Label Resell Rights are simply products that are ready to be branded with your name to it.
What I mean by that is you get full rights to the product or products and are able to claim them as your own even though you didn't create them yourself.
This is the fastest way for anyone to start a online business who really doesn't have any experience or knowledge on how to create their own products.
The other really cool thing about Private Label Resell Rights products is they come with Ready-To-Go websites which then again saves you time and money in having to create them yourself.
Well there you have it, 3 Quick Ways To Start Your Own Online Business In Less Than 24 Hours.
The easiest way to locate any of the above via the search engines is by entering something like this into there search engine web form:
Traffic is everything! How to increase traffic to your Blog? Here is some tips for you
1. Optimize Your Website
It is a matter of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Maybe you have never heard of it. Even though you heard about it already, not everyone is familiar with it. In fact, Search engines will look at both the internal and external profile of your website while assigning a rank to a web page.
Internal profile of a website (which is so-called On-Page Optimization) includes usage of meta tags, heading tags, keywords, targeted content, and internal linking of website. External profile of your website defines the websites that are linking to your website. It also defines the pages where your link is placed. Besides, it identifies the Page Ranking of those pages along with the placement of your link. And it also includes the number of inward links you are getting. Using the relevant keywords in anchor text gives a boost to rankings on the search engine result pages (SERPs). For more information on On-page optimization, please refer to our relevant posts in Da Adsense Code.
2. Linking Your website
After talking about the on-page optimization, here comes to off-page optimization. More often, webmasters only focus on on-page optimization, and neglect the presence of off-page optimization. In the world of internet, there are two kinds of links - External Links and Internal Links. External Links define the websites that are linking to your websiteInternal whereas Links refer to the internal linking of web pages. Getting links from other websites is the most powerful tool to drive traffic to your website. The results are instantaneous and highly effective. Getting links from quality websites with higher PR and proper anchor text definitely helps your site a lot and results in more fruitful traffic from search engines. Half the battle is won if you are able to provide the links in abundance. There are many tools available for automatically building links to your website. There are some link exchange directories on the net which are a good support in link building campaigns. However, the use of these support systems depend entirely on your beliefs and strategies. Proper inter-linking (that is intra-linking) of your web pages is also relevant and significant in driving traffic.
3. Post Articles
It is important that you publish and post more and more articles on the net or article websites. This gives you an advantage as it gets incoming links to your website. Posting unique articles catering to the interest of a large number of readers is also an effective way of driving organic traffic to your website. Well written articles bring more traffic to your website. More traffic means more profit for you. It is observed that as the PR of your website increases, the AdSense payouts also increase. You can hope to get many more internal links to your website through this medium. Search engines take into account the number of quality back links while assigning rank to your website. If visitors reading your articles are interested, they will check out your website and you will have increased number of links. In comparison to the links that point to other websites from your website, the links that point to your website give more points to your rankings.
4. Anchor Text
Anchor Text refers to the clickable text of a hyperlink. Anchor Text plays an important role with regard to the target traffic as well as the search engine rankings. An appropriate Anchor Text apprises the visitors of the content of the page it links to.
Besides, Anchor Text gives a real clue to the search engines regarding the content of the web page it links to. The right Anchor Text improves your website’s search engine ranking. That’s why it’s imperative to pick the Anchor Text astutely.
Google reckons Anchor Text to be an indicator of the page relevance. Google, using its special operator “allinanchor:keyword”, separately indexes the Anchor Text. Given below are some tips for choosing the right Anchor Text that suits the search engine algorithms, and attracts the right traffic.
5. Tools
To a lesser extent, website tools makes your blog user friendly. It is recommended that you make use of the tools that are visitor friendly. New scripts and innovative schemes for the visitor help you get more inward links. This in turn builds traffic to your website. You should add the tools that are attractive. For example, you can offer free e-books, or introduce new exciting sections relevant to your website. This will make your website exciting for the visitors. Google loves unique content. It richly rewards the websites that provide more content and better facilities to the visitors. Google likes genuine of traffic coming to your website from Ad Sense network. Genuine traffic yields higher payouts. Website tools makes your website a genuine one. The credibility of your website increases the probability of your website getting high paying ads via Google.
6. Target Niche Keywords
It is important for you to identify the niche markets. This will enable you to fetch the traffic that has not been targeted much, and at the same time gels well with your industry. If your competitor is leading with X traffic on one keyword, you can compete with him by targeting ten niche keywords. This will give you the same amount of traffic. Keyword country provides you with hordes of niche keywords. These niche keywords bring more target traffic to your web pages. This results in a better ROI (if you are selling products or affiliates) or an increased Adsense CTR (Click Thru Ratio) of your ads.
(to be continued soon…)
It is a matter of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Maybe you have never heard of it. Even though you heard about it already, not everyone is familiar with it. In fact, Search engines will look at both the internal and external profile of your website while assigning a rank to a web page.
Internal profile of a website (which is so-called On-Page Optimization) includes usage of meta tags, heading tags, keywords, targeted content, and internal linking of website. External profile of your website defines the websites that are linking to your website. It also defines the pages where your link is placed. Besides, it identifies the Page Ranking of those pages along with the placement of your link. And it also includes the number of inward links you are getting. Using the relevant keywords in anchor text gives a boost to rankings on the search engine result pages (SERPs). For more information on On-page optimization, please refer to our relevant posts in Da Adsense Code.
2. Linking Your website
After talking about the on-page optimization, here comes to off-page optimization. More often, webmasters only focus on on-page optimization, and neglect the presence of off-page optimization. In the world of internet, there are two kinds of links - External Links and Internal Links. External Links define the websites that are linking to your websiteInternal whereas Links refer to the internal linking of web pages. Getting links from other websites is the most powerful tool to drive traffic to your website. The results are instantaneous and highly effective. Getting links from quality websites with higher PR and proper anchor text definitely helps your site a lot and results in more fruitful traffic from search engines. Half the battle is won if you are able to provide the links in abundance. There are many tools available for automatically building links to your website. There are some link exchange directories on the net which are a good support in link building campaigns. However, the use of these support systems depend entirely on your beliefs and strategies. Proper inter-linking (that is intra-linking) of your web pages is also relevant and significant in driving traffic.
3. Post Articles
It is important that you publish and post more and more articles on the net or article websites. This gives you an advantage as it gets incoming links to your website. Posting unique articles catering to the interest of a large number of readers is also an effective way of driving organic traffic to your website. Well written articles bring more traffic to your website. More traffic means more profit for you. It is observed that as the PR of your website increases, the AdSense payouts also increase. You can hope to get many more internal links to your website through this medium. Search engines take into account the number of quality back links while assigning rank to your website. If visitors reading your articles are interested, they will check out your website and you will have increased number of links. In comparison to the links that point to other websites from your website, the links that point to your website give more points to your rankings.
4. Anchor Text
Anchor Text refers to the clickable text of a hyperlink. Anchor Text plays an important role with regard to the target traffic as well as the search engine rankings. An appropriate Anchor Text apprises the visitors of the content of the page it links to.
Besides, Anchor Text gives a real clue to the search engines regarding the content of the web page it links to. The right Anchor Text improves your website’s search engine ranking. That’s why it’s imperative to pick the Anchor Text astutely.
Google reckons Anchor Text to be an indicator of the page relevance. Google, using its special operator “allinanchor:keyword”, separately indexes the Anchor Text. Given below are some tips for choosing the right Anchor Text that suits the search engine algorithms, and attracts the right traffic.
5. Tools
To a lesser extent, website tools makes your blog user friendly. It is recommended that you make use of the tools that are visitor friendly. New scripts and innovative schemes for the visitor help you get more inward links. This in turn builds traffic to your website. You should add the tools that are attractive. For example, you can offer free e-books, or introduce new exciting sections relevant to your website. This will make your website exciting for the visitors. Google loves unique content. It richly rewards the websites that provide more content and better facilities to the visitors. Google likes genuine of traffic coming to your website from Ad Sense network. Genuine traffic yields higher payouts. Website tools makes your website a genuine one. The credibility of your website increases the probability of your website getting high paying ads via Google.
6. Target Niche Keywords
It is important for you to identify the niche markets. This will enable you to fetch the traffic that has not been targeted much, and at the same time gels well with your industry. If your competitor is leading with X traffic on one keyword, you can compete with him by targeting ten niche keywords. This will give you the same amount of traffic. Keyword country provides you with hordes of niche keywords. These niche keywords bring more target traffic to your web pages. This results in a better ROI (if you are selling products or affiliates) or an increased Adsense CTR (Click Thru Ratio) of your ads.
(to be continued soon…)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
57 Money Making ideas on the Internet.
This Article is all about 50 Innovative ways to make money on the Internet
. After the birth of the Internet, More and more millionaires born & will be born.
Internet gives you a huge Money Making Opportunity. This Article is all about the Complete List of all the reputed Money Making Sources on the web. There are many others but the following are most commonly used money making ideas
on the Internet.
So Let us discuss 57 Money Making ideas on the Internet.
Well, Honestly speaking, I have not tried all of the following ideas. I have tried many of them and they have worked for me well. I have compiled several articles and make this List. Hope this List may be useful to you.
01) Google AdSense -
02) Google Adwords -
03) eBay -
04) eBay stores -
05) AdBrite -
06) Amazon Affiliate Program -
07) Amazon Seller
10) Associated Content
11) Bidvertiser
12) Azoogleads
13) Build a Niche Store
14) Start a Blog
15) Cafepress
16) Business Opportunities Blog
17) Chitika
18) Clickbank
20) ClicknWork
21) Clicksor
22) Commission Junction
23) CreamAid
24) ELance
25) Feedvertising
26) Feedburner/Google
27) eefoof
28) Ether
29) H3.com
30) Indeed.com
31) InnerSell
32) Jellyfish
33) Jigsaw
34) KarmaOne
35) Microsoft Adcenter
36) Yahoo Merchant Solutions
37) West Work At Home Agent
38) Text Link Ads
39) Kontera
40) Pay Per Cost
41) Pheedo
42) Shareasale.com
43) Shoemoney
44) Software Judge
45) YPN – Yahoo Publishers Network
46) LinkShare.com
47) Pageflakes
48) Review Me
49) Rewer
50) Vizu
51) Break.com
52) Celltrade USA
53) Bitwine
54) Clickbooth
55) LoudLaunch
56) Rent – A – Coder
57) Shopping.com
. After the birth of the Internet, More and more millionaires born & will be born.
Internet gives you a huge Money Making Opportunity. This Article is all about the Complete List of all the reputed Money Making Sources on the web. There are many others but the following are most commonly used money making ideas
on the Internet.
So Let us discuss 57 Money Making ideas on the Internet.
Well, Honestly speaking, I have not tried all of the following ideas. I have tried many of them and they have worked for me well. I have compiled several articles and make this List. Hope this List may be useful to you.
01) Google AdSense -
02) Google Adwords -
03) eBay -
04) eBay stores -
05) AdBrite -
06) Amazon Affiliate Program -
07) Amazon Seller
10) Associated Content
11) Bidvertiser
12) Azoogleads
13) Build a Niche Store
14) Start a Blog
15) Cafepress
16) Business Opportunities Blog
17) Chitika
18) Clickbank
20) ClicknWork
21) Clicksor
22) Commission Junction
23) CreamAid
24) ELance
25) Feedvertising
26) Feedburner/Google
27) eefoof
28) Ether
29) H3.com
30) Indeed.com
31) InnerSell
32) Jellyfish
33) Jigsaw
34) KarmaOne
35) Microsoft Adcenter
36) Yahoo Merchant Solutions
37) West Work At Home Agent
38) Text Link Ads
39) Kontera
40) Pay Per Cost
41) Pheedo
42) Shareasale.com
43) Shoemoney
44) Software Judge
45) YPN – Yahoo Publishers Network
46) LinkShare.com
47) Pageflakes
48) Review Me
49) Rewer
50) Vizu
51) Break.com
52) Celltrade USA
53) Bitwine
54) Clickbooth
55) LoudLaunch
56) Rent – A – Coder
57) Shopping.com
Thursday, March 26, 2009
28 Ways to Make Money with Your Website
28 Ways to Make Money with Your Website
There are several lists with “ways to make money with a website” on the Internet, but none of them seem to be complete. That is why I decided to create this one. If you know a method that is not listed below, just let us know and we’ll update it.
Notice that ways to make money with a website are different from ways to make more money from it. Methods to increase your traffic or click-through rate will help you make more money, but they do not represent a method of making money per se.
For example, one could suggest that blending AdSense ads with the content is a way to make money from a website. In reality it’s not; it’s just a way to make more money by improving your ad click-through rate. The real monetization method behind it is a PPC ad network.
The list is divided into direct and indirect methods, and examples and links are provided for each point. Enjoy!
Direct Methods
1. PPC Advertising Networks
Google AdSense is the most popular option under this category, but there are also others. Basically you need to sign up with the network and paste some code snippets on your website. The network will then serve contextual ads (either text or images) relevant to your website, and you will earn a certain amount of money for every click.
The profitability of PPC advertising depends on the general traffic levels of the website and, most importantly, on the click-through rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC). The CTR depends on the design of the website. Ads placed abode the fold or blended with content, for instance, tend to get higher CTRs. The CPC, on the other hand, depends on the nice of the website. Mortgages, financial products and college education are examples of profitable niches (clicks worth a couple of dollars are not rare), while tech-related topics tend to receive a smaller CPC (sometimes as low as a couple of cents per click).
The source of the traffic can also affect the overall CTR rate. Organic traffic (the one that comes from search engines) tends to perform well because these visitors were already looking for something, and they tend to click on ads more often. Social media traffic, on the other hand, presents terribly low CTRs because these visitors are tech-savvy and they just ignore ads.
List of popular CPC advertising networks:
• Google Adsense
• Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN)
• BidVertiser
• Chitika
• Clicksor
2. CPM Advertising Networks
CPM advertising networks behave pretty much as PPC networks, except that you get paid according to the number of impressions (i.e., page views) that the ads displayed on your site will generate. CPM stands for Cost per Mille, and it refers to the cost for 1,000 impressions.
A blog that generates 100,000 page views monthly displaying an advertising banner with a $1 CPM, therefore, will earn $100 monthly.
CPM rates vary with the network, the position of the ad and the format. The better the network, the higher the CPM rate (because they have access to more advertisers). The closer you put the ad to the top of the page, the higher the CPM. The bigger the format (in terms of pixels), the higher the CPM.
You can get as low as $0,10 and as high as $10 per 1,000 impressions (more in some special cases). CPM advertising tends to work well on websites with a high page views per visitor ratio (e.g., online forums, magazines and so on).
List of popular CPM advertising networks:
• Casale Media
• Burst Media
• Value Click
• Advertising.com
• Tribal Fusion
• Right Media
3. Direct Banner Advertising
Selling your own advertising space is one of the most lucrative monetization methods. First and foremost because it enables you to cut out the middleman commissions and to determine your own rates. The most popular banner formats on the web are the 728×90 leaderboard, the 120×600 skyscraper, the 300×250 rectangle and the 125×125 button.
The downside of direct banner advertising is that you need to have a big audience to get qualified advertisers, and you will need to spend time managing the sales process, the banners and the payments.
Related links:
• How to Find Advertisers for Your Website
• Finding Advertisers for Your Blog
• Direct Advertising Sales for Beginners
• Openads Ad Server
• OIO Publisher Ad Platform
4. Text Link Ads
After Google declared that sites selling text links without the nofollow tag would be penalized, this monetization method became less popular.
Many website owners are still using text links to monetize their sites, though, some using the nofollow tag and some not.
The advantage of this method is that it is not intrusive. One can sell text links directly through his website or use specialized networks like Text-Link-Ads and Text-Link-Brokers to automate the process.
Text link marketplaces and networks:
• DigitalPoint Link Sales Forum
• Text-Link-Ads
• Text-Link-Brokers
• TNX
• LinkWorth
5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a very popular practice on the Internet. Under this system you have a merchant that is willing to let other people (the affiliates) sell directly or indirectly its products and services, in exchange for a commission. Sometimes this type of advertising is also called CPA (cost per action) or CPL (cost per lead) based.
Affiliates can send potential customers to the merchant using several tools, from banners to text links and product reviews.
In order to find suitable affiliate programs you can turn to individual companies and publishers like Dreamhost and SEOBook, or join affiliate marketplaces and networks.
List of popular affiliate marketplaces and networks:
• Commission Junction
• ClickBank
• Azoogle Ads
• Link Share
6. Monetization Widgets
The latest trend on the web are widgets that let you monetize your website. Examples include Widgetbucks and SmartLinks. Some of these services operate under a PPC scheme, others behave like text link ads, others yet leverage affiliate links.
Their main differentiator, however, is the fact that they work as web widgets, making it easier for the user to plug and play the service on its website.
List of companies that provide monetization widgets:
• WidgetBucks
• ScratchBack
• SmartLinks
7. Sponsored Reviews
PayPerPost pioneered this model, with much controversy on the beginning (related to the fact that they did not require disclosure on paid posts). Soon other companies followed, most notably Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe, refining the process and expanding the paid blogging model.
Joining one of these sponsored reviews marketplaces will give you the opportunity to write sponsored posts on a wide range of topics. Not all bloggers are willing to get paid to write about a specific product or website (because it might compromise the editorial credibility), but the ones who do are making good money out of it.
If your blog has a big audience you could also offer sponsored reviews directly, cutting off the commissions of the middleman.
List of sponsored reviews and paid blogging networks:
• PayPerPost
• Sponsored Reviews
• ReviewMe
• BlogVertise
• Smorty
8. RSS Feed Ads
With the quick adoption of the RSS technology by millions of Internet users, website owners are starting to find ways to monetize this new content distribution channel.
Feedburber already has its own publisher network, and you can sign-up to start displaying CPM based advertising on your feed footer. Bidvertiser recently introduced a RSS feed ad option as well, with a PPC scheme.
Finally, some blogs are also opting to sell banners or sponsored messages on their feed directly. John Chow and Marketing Pilgrim are two examples.
Related links:
• Feedburner
• BidVertiser
• Pheedo
9. Sponsors for Single Columns or Events
If you website has specific columns or events (e.g., a weekly podcast, an interview series, a monthly survey, a special project) you could find companies to sponsor them individually.
This method increases the monetization options for website owner, while giving advertisers the possibility to target a more specific audience and with a reduced commitment.
Mashable illustrates the case well. They have several advertising options on the site, including the possibility to sponsor specific columns and articles, including the “Daily Poll” and the “Web 2.0 Invites.”
Problogger also runs group writing projects occasionally, and before proceeding he publicly announce the project asking for sponsors.
10.Premium Content
Some websites and blogs give away part of their content for free, and charge for access to the premium content and exclusive tools.
SEOMoz is a good example. They have a very popular blog that gives advice and information on wide range of SEO related topics. On top of that visitors can decide to become premium members. It costs $48 monthly and it grants them access to guides, tools and other exclusive material.
11. Private Forums
While the Internet is populated with free forums, there is also the possibility to create a private one where members need to pay a single or recurring fee to join.
SEO Blackhat charges $100 monthly from its members, and they have thousands of them. Obviously in order to charge such a price for a forum membership you need to provide real value for the members (e.g., secret techniques, tools, and so on).
Performancing also launched a private forum recently, focused on the networking aspect. It is called The Hive, and the monthly cost is $10.
These are just two examples. There are many possibilities to create a private and profitable forum, you just need to find an appealing angle that will make it worth for the members.
List of popular forum software:
• vBulletin
• Simple Machines Forum
• phpBB
• Vanilla
12. Job Boards
All the popular blogs are trying to leverage job boards to make some extra income. Guy Kawasaki, ReadWriteWeb, Problogger… you name it.
Needless to say that in order to create an active and profitable job board you need first to have a blog focused on a specific niche, and a decent amount traffic.
The advantage of this method is that it is passive. Once you have the structure in place, the job listings will come naturally, and you can charge anywhere from $10 up to $100 for each.
List of popular job board software:
• JobThread
• Web Scribe Job Board
• SimplyHired Job-o-matic
• Jobbex
13. Marketplaces
Sitepoint is the online marketplace by excellence. Some websites and blogs, however, are trying to replicate that model on a smaller scale.
Depending on your niche, a market place that allows your visitors to buy, sell and trade products could work well. Over the time you could start charging a small fee for new product listings.
The problem with this method is that there are no standard software on the web, so you would need to hire a coder to get a marketplace integrated into your website.
You can see an example of a marketplaces being used on EasyWordpress and on Mashable.
14. Paid Surveys and Polls
There are services that will pay you money to run a small survey or poll on your website. The most popular one is called Vizu Answers.
Basically you need to sign up with them, and select the kind of polls that you want to run your site. Most of these services operate under a CPM model.
15. Selling or Renting Internal Pages
Million Dollar Wiki made this concept popular, but it was being used on the web for a long time around (check Pagerank10.co.uk for instance).
These websites sell for a single fee or rent for a recurring fee internal pages on their domain. Usually they have either high Pagerak or high traffic, so that people purchasing a page will be able to benefit in some way.
Implementing this method on a small blog would be difficult, but the concept is interesting and could be explored further.
16. Highlighted Posts from Sponsors
Techmeme probably pioneered this idea, but somehow it has not spread to other websites. The tech news aggregator displays editorial posts on the left column, and on the sidebar they have a section titled “Techmeme Sponsor Posts.”
On that section posts from the blog of the advertisers get highlighted, sending qualified traffic their way. Considering that the monthly cost for one spot is $5000 and that they have around 6 sponsors at any given time, it must be working well.
17. Donations
Placing a “Donate” link or button on a website can be an efficient way to earn money, especially if your blog is on a niche where readers learn and gain value from your content.
Personal development and productivity blogs, for instance, tend to perform well with donation based systems (one good example being Steve Pavlina).
A small variation of this method appeared sometime ago with the Buy Me a Beer plugin. This WordPress plugin enables you to insert a customized message at the bottom of each article, asking the readers to chip in for a beer or coffee.
18. In-text Adverting
In-text adverting networks like Kontera and Vibrant Media will place sponsored links inside your text. These links come with a double underline to differentiate them from normal links, and once the user rolls the mouse over the link the advertising will pop. Should the user click on it the site owner will make some money.
Some people make good money with this method, but others refrain from using it due to its intrusiveness. It is also interesting to note that very few mainstream websites have experimented with in-text advertising.
19. Pop-ups and Pop-unders
Pop-ups are a common yet annoying form of advertising on the Internet. If you are just trying to make a much money as possible from your website, you could experiment with them.
If you are trying to grow the traffic and generate loyal visitors, however, you probably should stay away from them. Just consider the hundreds of pop-up blockers out there: there is a reason why they are so popular.
Ad networks that use pop-ups:
• Tribal Fusion
• PayPopup
• PopupAd
• Adversal
20. Audio Ads
Also called PPP (Pay Per Play), this advertising method was introduce by Net Audio Ads. the concept is pretty simple: play a small audio advertising (usually 5 seconds) every time a visitor enters into your website. The user should not be able to stop it, creating a 100% conversion rate based on unique visitors.
The company is still rolling tests, but some users are reporting to get from a $4 to a $6 CPM. Regardless of the pay rate, though, this is a very intrusive form of advertising, so think twice before using it.
21. Selling the Website
Selling your website could be your last resource, but it has the potential to generate a big sum of money in a short period of time.
Market places on online forums like DigitalPoint and Sitepoint are always active with website buyers and sellers. Keep in mind that they most used parameter to determine the value of a website is the monthly revenue that it generates, multiplied by a certain number (the multiplier can be anything from 5 to 30, depending on the expectations of the seller, on the quality of the site, on the niche and other factors).
Some people also make money trading and flipping websites. They either create them from scratch or buy existing ones, and after some revamping they sell them for a profit.
Related links:
• How To Buy A Website And Flip It For Profit
• How To Sell A Website - How Much Is Your Website Worth?
• Where to sell a website? How to go about selling it?
Indirect Methods
22. Selling an Ebook
Perhaps one of the oldest money making strategies on the web, using a website to promote a related ebook is a very efficient way to generate revenue.
You could either structure the website around the book itself, like SEOBook.com, or launch the ebook based on the success of the website, like FreelanceSwitch did we the book How to be a Rockstar Freelancer.
Related links:
• Writing an ebook for your blog
• How to sell ebooks
• Processing payments for your ebook
• How to sell digital products online
• List of ebook selling software
23. Selling a Hardcover Book
Many authors and journalists leverage their blogs or websites to sell copies of hardcover books. Examples include Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell.
While most of these people were already renowned authors before they created their website, one could also follow the other way around. Lorelle VanFossen did exactly that with her Blogging Tips book. First she built her authority on the subject via her blog, and afterwards she published the book.
List of self publishing and publishing services:
• Lulu
• Self Publishing
• iUniverse
• WordClay
24. Selling Templates or WordPress Themes
As more and more people decide to get an online presence, website templates and WordPress themes become hotter and hotter.
On this segment you have mainstream websites like TemplateMonster, as well as individual designers who decide to promote and sell their work independently.
Brian Gardner and Unique Blog Designs are two examples of websites that make money with the sales of premium and custom WordPress themes.
25. Offering Consulting and Related Services
Depending on your niche, you could make money by offering consulting and related services. If you are also the author of your blog, the articles and information that you will share will build your profile and possibly certify your expertise on that niche, making it easier to gain customers.
Chris Garrett used a similar strategy. First he created a highly influential blog on the blogging and new media niche, and afterwards he started offering consulting services to clients with related problems and needs.
26. Creating an Email List or Newsletter
Email lists and newsletters represent one of the most powerful marketing and money making tools on the Internet. They offer incredible conversion rates, and the possibility to call people to action in a very efficient way.
Creating a big list is a difficult task though, so if you have a popular website you could leverage it to increase the number of subscribers on your list.
Yaro Starak is a famous Internet marketer, and if you visit his blog you will notice that right on top he has a section encouraging visitors to subscribe to his email newsletter. Yaro generates five figures in revenues each month from his email newsletters, proving that this method works.
List of software to manage email newsletters:
• AWeber
• SendStudio NX
• PHP Autoresponder
• Constant Contact
27. Mentoring programs
People are willing to pay for someone or something that will teach them and give them knowledge (as opposed to mere information). Education is one of the biggest industries in the world, and the online landscape behaves in a similar way.
Creating a mentoring program related to the niche of your website could be very profitable if you manage to structure and promote it adequately. There is a wide range of media and tools that you can use to deliver the information, from text articles to audio and video lessons.
Brian Clark leveraged the success of Copyblogger to launch a mentoring program teaching people how to build membership and how to sell content online. The program is titled Teaching Sells, and it costs $97 monthly. Sounds expensive, but they have over 1,000 members.
28. Creating a conference around the website
If your website takes off and becomes an authority on its niche, you could create a conference around it. Depending on the size of your audience, the event could attract thousands of people, and you could make money directly from conference passes and sponsors.
Search Engine Land, for instance, created a series of conferences that visit several cities on the United States and on other countries as well. The conferences are called Search Marketing Expo, and the tickets and passes cost thousands of dollars.
There are several lists with “ways to make money with a website” on the Internet, but none of them seem to be complete. That is why I decided to create this one. If you know a method that is not listed below, just let us know and we’ll update it.
Notice that ways to make money with a website are different from ways to make more money from it. Methods to increase your traffic or click-through rate will help you make more money, but they do not represent a method of making money per se.
For example, one could suggest that blending AdSense ads with the content is a way to make money from a website. In reality it’s not; it’s just a way to make more money by improving your ad click-through rate. The real monetization method behind it is a PPC ad network.
The list is divided into direct and indirect methods, and examples and links are provided for each point. Enjoy!
Direct Methods
1. PPC Advertising Networks
Google AdSense is the most popular option under this category, but there are also others. Basically you need to sign up with the network and paste some code snippets on your website. The network will then serve contextual ads (either text or images) relevant to your website, and you will earn a certain amount of money for every click.
The profitability of PPC advertising depends on the general traffic levels of the website and, most importantly, on the click-through rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC). The CTR depends on the design of the website. Ads placed abode the fold or blended with content, for instance, tend to get higher CTRs. The CPC, on the other hand, depends on the nice of the website. Mortgages, financial products and college education are examples of profitable niches (clicks worth a couple of dollars are not rare), while tech-related topics tend to receive a smaller CPC (sometimes as low as a couple of cents per click).
The source of the traffic can also affect the overall CTR rate. Organic traffic (the one that comes from search engines) tends to perform well because these visitors were already looking for something, and they tend to click on ads more often. Social media traffic, on the other hand, presents terribly low CTRs because these visitors are tech-savvy and they just ignore ads.
List of popular CPC advertising networks:
• Google Adsense
• Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN)
• BidVertiser
• Chitika
• Clicksor
2. CPM Advertising Networks
CPM advertising networks behave pretty much as PPC networks, except that you get paid according to the number of impressions (i.e., page views) that the ads displayed on your site will generate. CPM stands for Cost per Mille, and it refers to the cost for 1,000 impressions.
A blog that generates 100,000 page views monthly displaying an advertising banner with a $1 CPM, therefore, will earn $100 monthly.
CPM rates vary with the network, the position of the ad and the format. The better the network, the higher the CPM rate (because they have access to more advertisers). The closer you put the ad to the top of the page, the higher the CPM. The bigger the format (in terms of pixels), the higher the CPM.
You can get as low as $0,10 and as high as $10 per 1,000 impressions (more in some special cases). CPM advertising tends to work well on websites with a high page views per visitor ratio (e.g., online forums, magazines and so on).
List of popular CPM advertising networks:
• Casale Media
• Burst Media
• Value Click
• Advertising.com
• Tribal Fusion
• Right Media
3. Direct Banner Advertising
Selling your own advertising space is one of the most lucrative monetization methods. First and foremost because it enables you to cut out the middleman commissions and to determine your own rates. The most popular banner formats on the web are the 728×90 leaderboard, the 120×600 skyscraper, the 300×250 rectangle and the 125×125 button.
The downside of direct banner advertising is that you need to have a big audience to get qualified advertisers, and you will need to spend time managing the sales process, the banners and the payments.
Related links:
• How to Find Advertisers for Your Website
• Finding Advertisers for Your Blog
• Direct Advertising Sales for Beginners
• Openads Ad Server
• OIO Publisher Ad Platform
4. Text Link Ads
After Google declared that sites selling text links without the nofollow tag would be penalized, this monetization method became less popular.
Many website owners are still using text links to monetize their sites, though, some using the nofollow tag and some not.
The advantage of this method is that it is not intrusive. One can sell text links directly through his website or use specialized networks like Text-Link-Ads and Text-Link-Brokers to automate the process.
Text link marketplaces and networks:
• DigitalPoint Link Sales Forum
• Text-Link-Ads
• Text-Link-Brokers
• TNX
• LinkWorth
5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a very popular practice on the Internet. Under this system you have a merchant that is willing to let other people (the affiliates) sell directly or indirectly its products and services, in exchange for a commission. Sometimes this type of advertising is also called CPA (cost per action) or CPL (cost per lead) based.
Affiliates can send potential customers to the merchant using several tools, from banners to text links and product reviews.
In order to find suitable affiliate programs you can turn to individual companies and publishers like Dreamhost and SEOBook, or join affiliate marketplaces and networks.
List of popular affiliate marketplaces and networks:
• Commission Junction
• ClickBank
• Azoogle Ads
• Link Share
6. Monetization Widgets
The latest trend on the web are widgets that let you monetize your website. Examples include Widgetbucks and SmartLinks. Some of these services operate under a PPC scheme, others behave like text link ads, others yet leverage affiliate links.
Their main differentiator, however, is the fact that they work as web widgets, making it easier for the user to plug and play the service on its website.
List of companies that provide monetization widgets:
• WidgetBucks
• ScratchBack
• SmartLinks
7. Sponsored Reviews
PayPerPost pioneered this model, with much controversy on the beginning (related to the fact that they did not require disclosure on paid posts). Soon other companies followed, most notably Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe, refining the process and expanding the paid blogging model.
Joining one of these sponsored reviews marketplaces will give you the opportunity to write sponsored posts on a wide range of topics. Not all bloggers are willing to get paid to write about a specific product or website (because it might compromise the editorial credibility), but the ones who do are making good money out of it.
If your blog has a big audience you could also offer sponsored reviews directly, cutting off the commissions of the middleman.
List of sponsored reviews and paid blogging networks:
• PayPerPost
• Sponsored Reviews
• ReviewMe
• BlogVertise
• Smorty
8. RSS Feed Ads
With the quick adoption of the RSS technology by millions of Internet users, website owners are starting to find ways to monetize this new content distribution channel.
Feedburber already has its own publisher network, and you can sign-up to start displaying CPM based advertising on your feed footer. Bidvertiser recently introduced a RSS feed ad option as well, with a PPC scheme.
Finally, some blogs are also opting to sell banners or sponsored messages on their feed directly. John Chow and Marketing Pilgrim are two examples.
Related links:
• Feedburner
• BidVertiser
• Pheedo
9. Sponsors for Single Columns or Events
If you website has specific columns or events (e.g., a weekly podcast, an interview series, a monthly survey, a special project) you could find companies to sponsor them individually.
This method increases the monetization options for website owner, while giving advertisers the possibility to target a more specific audience and with a reduced commitment.
Mashable illustrates the case well. They have several advertising options on the site, including the possibility to sponsor specific columns and articles, including the “Daily Poll” and the “Web 2.0 Invites.”
Problogger also runs group writing projects occasionally, and before proceeding he publicly announce the project asking for sponsors.
10.Premium Content
Some websites and blogs give away part of their content for free, and charge for access to the premium content and exclusive tools.
SEOMoz is a good example. They have a very popular blog that gives advice and information on wide range of SEO related topics. On top of that visitors can decide to become premium members. It costs $48 monthly and it grants them access to guides, tools and other exclusive material.
11. Private Forums
While the Internet is populated with free forums, there is also the possibility to create a private one where members need to pay a single or recurring fee to join.
SEO Blackhat charges $100 monthly from its members, and they have thousands of them. Obviously in order to charge such a price for a forum membership you need to provide real value for the members (e.g., secret techniques, tools, and so on).
Performancing also launched a private forum recently, focused on the networking aspect. It is called The Hive, and the monthly cost is $10.
These are just two examples. There are many possibilities to create a private and profitable forum, you just need to find an appealing angle that will make it worth for the members.
List of popular forum software:
• vBulletin
• Simple Machines Forum
• phpBB
• Vanilla
12. Job Boards
All the popular blogs are trying to leverage job boards to make some extra income. Guy Kawasaki, ReadWriteWeb, Problogger… you name it.
Needless to say that in order to create an active and profitable job board you need first to have a blog focused on a specific niche, and a decent amount traffic.
The advantage of this method is that it is passive. Once you have the structure in place, the job listings will come naturally, and you can charge anywhere from $10 up to $100 for each.
List of popular job board software:
• JobThread
• Web Scribe Job Board
• SimplyHired Job-o-matic
• Jobbex
13. Marketplaces
Sitepoint is the online marketplace by excellence. Some websites and blogs, however, are trying to replicate that model on a smaller scale.
Depending on your niche, a market place that allows your visitors to buy, sell and trade products could work well. Over the time you could start charging a small fee for new product listings.
The problem with this method is that there are no standard software on the web, so you would need to hire a coder to get a marketplace integrated into your website.
You can see an example of a marketplaces being used on EasyWordpress and on Mashable.
14. Paid Surveys and Polls
There are services that will pay you money to run a small survey or poll on your website. The most popular one is called Vizu Answers.
Basically you need to sign up with them, and select the kind of polls that you want to run your site. Most of these services operate under a CPM model.
15. Selling or Renting Internal Pages
Million Dollar Wiki made this concept popular, but it was being used on the web for a long time around (check Pagerank10.co.uk for instance).
These websites sell for a single fee or rent for a recurring fee internal pages on their domain. Usually they have either high Pagerak or high traffic, so that people purchasing a page will be able to benefit in some way.
Implementing this method on a small blog would be difficult, but the concept is interesting and could be explored further.
16. Highlighted Posts from Sponsors
Techmeme probably pioneered this idea, but somehow it has not spread to other websites. The tech news aggregator displays editorial posts on the left column, and on the sidebar they have a section titled “Techmeme Sponsor Posts.”
On that section posts from the blog of the advertisers get highlighted, sending qualified traffic their way. Considering that the monthly cost for one spot is $5000 and that they have around 6 sponsors at any given time, it must be working well.
17. Donations
Placing a “Donate” link or button on a website can be an efficient way to earn money, especially if your blog is on a niche where readers learn and gain value from your content.
Personal development and productivity blogs, for instance, tend to perform well with donation based systems (one good example being Steve Pavlina).
A small variation of this method appeared sometime ago with the Buy Me a Beer plugin. This WordPress plugin enables you to insert a customized message at the bottom of each article, asking the readers to chip in for a beer or coffee.
18. In-text Adverting
In-text adverting networks like Kontera and Vibrant Media will place sponsored links inside your text. These links come with a double underline to differentiate them from normal links, and once the user rolls the mouse over the link the advertising will pop. Should the user click on it the site owner will make some money.
Some people make good money with this method, but others refrain from using it due to its intrusiveness. It is also interesting to note that very few mainstream websites have experimented with in-text advertising.
19. Pop-ups and Pop-unders
Pop-ups are a common yet annoying form of advertising on the Internet. If you are just trying to make a much money as possible from your website, you could experiment with them.
If you are trying to grow the traffic and generate loyal visitors, however, you probably should stay away from them. Just consider the hundreds of pop-up blockers out there: there is a reason why they are so popular.
Ad networks that use pop-ups:
• Tribal Fusion
• PayPopup
• PopupAd
• Adversal
20. Audio Ads
Also called PPP (Pay Per Play), this advertising method was introduce by Net Audio Ads. the concept is pretty simple: play a small audio advertising (usually 5 seconds) every time a visitor enters into your website. The user should not be able to stop it, creating a 100% conversion rate based on unique visitors.
The company is still rolling tests, but some users are reporting to get from a $4 to a $6 CPM. Regardless of the pay rate, though, this is a very intrusive form of advertising, so think twice before using it.
21. Selling the Website
Selling your website could be your last resource, but it has the potential to generate a big sum of money in a short period of time.
Market places on online forums like DigitalPoint and Sitepoint are always active with website buyers and sellers. Keep in mind that they most used parameter to determine the value of a website is the monthly revenue that it generates, multiplied by a certain number (the multiplier can be anything from 5 to 30, depending on the expectations of the seller, on the quality of the site, on the niche and other factors).
Some people also make money trading and flipping websites. They either create them from scratch or buy existing ones, and after some revamping they sell them for a profit.
Related links:
• How To Buy A Website And Flip It For Profit
• How To Sell A Website - How Much Is Your Website Worth?
• Where to sell a website? How to go about selling it?
Indirect Methods
22. Selling an Ebook
Perhaps one of the oldest money making strategies on the web, using a website to promote a related ebook is a very efficient way to generate revenue.
You could either structure the website around the book itself, like SEOBook.com, or launch the ebook based on the success of the website, like FreelanceSwitch did we the book How to be a Rockstar Freelancer.
Related links:
• Writing an ebook for your blog
• How to sell ebooks
• Processing payments for your ebook
• How to sell digital products online
• List of ebook selling software
23. Selling a Hardcover Book
Many authors and journalists leverage their blogs or websites to sell copies of hardcover books. Examples include Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell.
While most of these people were already renowned authors before they created their website, one could also follow the other way around. Lorelle VanFossen did exactly that with her Blogging Tips book. First she built her authority on the subject via her blog, and afterwards she published the book.
List of self publishing and publishing services:
• Lulu
• Self Publishing
• iUniverse
• WordClay
24. Selling Templates or WordPress Themes
As more and more people decide to get an online presence, website templates and WordPress themes become hotter and hotter.
On this segment you have mainstream websites like TemplateMonster, as well as individual designers who decide to promote and sell their work independently.
Brian Gardner and Unique Blog Designs are two examples of websites that make money with the sales of premium and custom WordPress themes.
25. Offering Consulting and Related Services
Depending on your niche, you could make money by offering consulting and related services. If you are also the author of your blog, the articles and information that you will share will build your profile and possibly certify your expertise on that niche, making it easier to gain customers.
Chris Garrett used a similar strategy. First he created a highly influential blog on the blogging and new media niche, and afterwards he started offering consulting services to clients with related problems and needs.
26. Creating an Email List or Newsletter
Email lists and newsletters represent one of the most powerful marketing and money making tools on the Internet. They offer incredible conversion rates, and the possibility to call people to action in a very efficient way.
Creating a big list is a difficult task though, so if you have a popular website you could leverage it to increase the number of subscribers on your list.
Yaro Starak is a famous Internet marketer, and if you visit his blog you will notice that right on top he has a section encouraging visitors to subscribe to his email newsletter. Yaro generates five figures in revenues each month from his email newsletters, proving that this method works.
List of software to manage email newsletters:
• AWeber
• SendStudio NX
• PHP Autoresponder
• Constant Contact
27. Mentoring programs
People are willing to pay for someone or something that will teach them and give them knowledge (as opposed to mere information). Education is one of the biggest industries in the world, and the online landscape behaves in a similar way.
Creating a mentoring program related to the niche of your website could be very profitable if you manage to structure and promote it adequately. There is a wide range of media and tools that you can use to deliver the information, from text articles to audio and video lessons.
Brian Clark leveraged the success of Copyblogger to launch a mentoring program teaching people how to build membership and how to sell content online. The program is titled Teaching Sells, and it costs $97 monthly. Sounds expensive, but they have over 1,000 members.
28. Creating a conference around the website
If your website takes off and becomes an authority on its niche, you could create a conference around it. Depending on the size of your audience, the event could attract thousands of people, and you could make money directly from conference passes and sponsors.
Search Engine Land, for instance, created a series of conferences that visit several cities on the United States and on other countries as well. The conferences are called Search Marketing Expo, and the tickets and passes cost thousands of dollars.