Displaying items by tag: make money online
If you’re unemployed you will more than likely feel frustrated by the lack of job opportunities available.  The recession has hit people hard and those that have lost their jobs are dealing with the real possibility of losing their homes.  If you want to make money whilst you are unemployed and looking for work, there are a number of ideas open to you.

First of all you need to be pretty flexible in what you do.  You can’t expect to earn money just by using the qualifications you have.  You need to think about other skills you have, even if it’s just gardening, home improvement or such like.  You don’t have to do exactly the same work that you did in your previous job.  This means you can think about hobbies that you enjoy but never thought you could ever make a career out of it.

Another thing you need to understand is that there are no “get rich quick” schemes that actually work as well as they say, if at all.  If it sounds too good to be true it usually is.  So be careful.  There are so many dodgy people out there who want to get their hands on your cash by promising all the riches in the world.  Don’t part with any cash unless you really know what you are doing.  Of course, if there might be some equipment you need to set up business, what I’m saying is that you shouldn’t pay for any expensive courses, eBooks, DVDs and such like.  Certainly when you are just starting out.

On the internet you are able to connect with people and businesses all over the world.  There are a lot of real ways to make money on the internet just by tapping into skills you have.  Some of the popular ways of making money on the internet include:-

Freelance Writing - If you are an expert in a particular area then you will be able to write about it very easily and people will pay you for the articles you write.  Normally they will send you keywords they want articles written about and you will write them for a fee and within a particular time frame.  How much you can earn via this route will really depend on how quickly you can write articles, the quality of your writing and being able to find clients willing to pay for your work.  You will be in competition with people from all around the globe and usually people in India will be able to charge a very small amount of money.  So if you want to charge more, make sure you offer a quality service.

Graphic Design - There are many website owners who want eBook covers, virtual CD covers and header graphics to make their website look really professional.  Again, how much you can earn is dependant on the quality of your work however there are people out there who are really fantastic at what they do and as a result they struggle to keep up with demand.

Affiliate Marketing - Basically you can create a simple website, blog or write articles for WordWolf and then insert affiliate ads into the content.  There are many affiliate ads you can use however Google Adsense, eBay, Amazon and Chitika are some of the most popular.  What you do is write helpful articles explaining to people what products or services they need to pay money for in order to resolve their problems.  So think about topics like cleaning stains, roof repair, car dents and dog training.

Of course, you don’t need to use the internet to make money whilst you are unemployed.  You should also look to be available for part-time work, temporary work and also think about the skills you have in order to become self employed.  Perhaps you could give private tuition to students, rent out a spare bedroom or garage, or do some gardening.  The more flexible you are the more likely you will be able to discover ways of making money.
Published in Business Ideas
There are a big number of people who want to get rid of their boring jobs that don't really make them any money. I can't blame them and I used to be one of those people. At first I was just looking for additional income to support my girlfriends spending habits, but in the end I ended up quitting my job while I was making money from home. I did quite too soon but I have enjoyed my time as a self employed internet marketer. How did I make this happen?

Make Money With E-mail List Marketing

When you surf the internet and search for terms like "make money online" you will find a few groups of people. First there are people who build an empire by collecting e-mail addresses from people who find their way on the websites that they own. For example someone could build a website in a specific niche that had a e-mail submit form. You would subscribe to their mailing list where they would give you more advice and information on the subject at hand. These mailing lists can be quite efficient in many niches and if they are properly done, the people who are subscribed to them can get real information and useful offers.

Once someone would have a good mailing list that is targeted - means that these are people who are interested in a specific thing - the owner of the list would then start sending them periodic offers via e-mail about products that they could be interested in. Think about having 10 000 people who are all interested in mountain bikes, and then send them great offers about mountain bike apparel and accessories. A good amoun ot these people would convert in to sales - buy the product that you offer them - and in the making you would get a good comission. Here the hardest part of the work is to get a good targeted mailing list, and once you have that you can make money from home.

Make Money With Niche Websites

Another real way to make money from home is to build websites. Basically you will have to build the sites no matter which approach you use, because websites are the most prominent way of making money online. With niche websites you will have to focus in a specific at them. The more targeted the crowd the better the conversion rate usually. What this means that if you have a website that is focusin on mountain bikes, chances are that 5% or 1% or the visitors there are going to click on an ad and even less of them are going to purchase a products. But if your website is very targeted and you are only focusing on reviewing the best mountain bike pedals with locks, a larger percent of the visitors are going to be interested in just that. The problem is that the crowd of visitors is going to be a lot smaller, but a lot easier to sell to. Someone looking for mountain bikes, might be just to browse some pictures, look for information, and maybe even try to find a discussion forum or something similar. People looking for the best pedals are definitely searching for something to buy.

Making Money With Seo

There is a lot of debate on which is the best way to get traffic to your website, and there is a group of people that will tell you that the best way to do it is to be social. That would mean that you would go in to every possible mountain biking related website, social group (Facebook groups, Twitter, forums) and try to establish your position as an expert. When that is done you would simply throw in a link to your website every now and then trying to get people to read your posts and then maybe make a purchase every now and then. It is a great plan and in a perfect world we could all do that. The problem is that not all of us are that social, and even if we are, we can't please everyone, or we just don't want the publicity. Ther is an option that can help you make money from home, and that is called search engine optimization.

The more targeted your website is to a small niche, the easier it is going to be to get search engine traffic for search terms that are related to that niche. So ithis means that if you are interested in mountain bikes in general, you would start ten to fifteen websites that are all focused on a single part of the bikes. This way you could serve ads and offers for those specific parts - the people on your website would be looking for that particular part, and they would find your site about  it.

Once you have finished the website, you are going to have to obtain backlinks pointing to that website, with anchor texts that are appropriate in your niche. So if you decide to start a website on bike pedals and you publish a lot of articles on places like infobarrel.com and ezinearticles.com with links pointing to your website, you want the anchor text to be "bike pedals" or something similar. You don't want to link out with an anchor that is "website" or "click here". The anchor text is what matters to search engines, since they can define what your website is about based on that text.

Building an additional income from home is not an easy project, although it might be simple. It is jsut a matter of locating a low competition niche, building a website, and then building backlinks to it.Once you have done it successfully with one website, you can repeat the process with another website, and you are on your way to making money while sitting in your home. This can be quite low maintenance once it is done, and you can spend months without really working, and not see a dent in your income.

Published in Business Ideas
Over the last ten years or so, people have been going crazy over the thought of making money on the internet.  It seems so easy and there are people who are making money without even spending a dime.  Of course, there now a lot of competition and making money online isn’t that easy but it’s still something that you might want to consider.  Let’s have a look at some of the options out there:-

Write Articles
Many website owners want new and fresh content on a regular basis to keep visitors coming back.  The problem is that these website owners often don’t have a lot of time to write the content themselves.  This is why they outsource writing to freelance writers.

If you enjoy writing about all sorts of different topics then you could make money doing this.  Of course, as with any other business it can take time to build up a reputation for quality and customer service.  Many make the mistake of pricing themselves too low to begin with and they “burn out.”  This is certainly not a good long-term strategy.

Naturally, if you live somewhere like India then you might feel that the cost of living is so low that you can afford to price yourself lower than those living in Western countries.

Whatever approach you decide to take it’s essential that you build up a portfolio so that potential clients can see what sorts of topics you can write about and so that they can see the quality of your writing.  You could create a free blog at Blogger and then add articles you fell reflect your writing skills.

Then sign up with companies such as rentcoder.com and odesk.com as they will help you find clients and deal with the billing side of things.  Make sure you present yourself professionally and respond to enquiries promptly and politely.

Blog Commenting
One of the popular techniques for doing SEO on a website is to leave comments on what’s known as “do follow blogs.”  The problem is that website owners don’t want to do the work themselves so choose to pay someone else to do the work for them.  As a result there are a number of companies out there who offer blog commenting services.

The problem is finding do follow blogs to comment on and if you have never done this sort of thing before it’s really confusing to know where to start.  There are a few software applications on the market that help you find do follow blogs but the problem is that they usually use Akismet as an anti-spam measure and if you leave too many comments too quickly all of your hard work can be for nothing.

However there are many blogs that don’t have any anti-spam measures in place and it’s very easy to leave a link with your comment.  There are lists of such blogs being sold on Digital Point Forums which you can buy to make it easier for you.  Finding these kinds of blogs requires a lot of work and sometimes blog owners shut down comments because they are fed up with spam and this is very frustrating.

If you want to make money using this method it’s a good idea to do blog commenting for your own websites first to get a hang of it and it isn’t recommended for the beginner.

Make Your Own Website
The problem with offering services such as writing articles or blog commenting is that you have to keep doing it in order to make money.  Basically you have a job.  Whereas if you create your own website you will find that once the money starts coming in from advertisers you will continue to enjoy that money for potentially years to come.

As good as this sounds there’s still a lot of hard work involved.  However, in order to get the ball rolling you need to first of all come up with a theme for your website.  A good place to start is to think of problems people have in their lives that can be resolved by purchasing products or services.  Here are some ideas:-
  • Acne
  • Cellulite
  • Termites
  • Moss
  • Rust
  • Weeds

You then need to see about buying a domain name with some of the keywords in it.  Go Daddy is a very popular place to buy web domains and there are many different discount codes listed on many websites you can use to get a cheaper price.  Personally I have found that the discount code emma30 works very well.  You will then need to buy hosting for your website and this can be bought from HostGator at a very cheap monthly price.

If you don’t want to spend any money you can set up an account with Word Wolf.  Not only is it free to set up an account here at WordWolf, the domain already has a lot of authority in the search engines so you will find that visitors to your articles will start arriving very quickly.  Which in turn will help you earn more money.

You will also want to sign up for Google Adsense as they will display ads on the website.  When a visitor sees an ad that is related to your articles and click on the ad, you will get paid.  Please note, that some “misguided” website owners click on their own ads in order to try and make more money.  This is a very bad idea as you will simply get your account banned and any money that is owed to you will be returned to the advertiser.

Other Ideas For Making Money On The Internet
If you have skills in website design or graphic design then you can offer your services to people who lack the skills that you do.  How much you charge will depend on how good you are however if you have a look at other websites offering the same services you will be able to have a look at their prices.

Forums such as Digital Point Forums can be very good if you are starting out and want to build up a customer base.  You can also register with freelance websites like rentcoder.com, elance.com and odesk.com.  They will take a percentage of what you earn but they have loads of clients who are looking to outsource loads of tasks.  Spend a bit of time looking around these websites to see what’s on offer.

Conclusion
Don’t think for a moment that any of this is easy.  There are people walk blindly into making money online only to find that they give up when the don’t start making the money they hoped for.  Of course, if you have lost your job or have been forced to have some bed rest then it’s something you can try your hand out.  You don’t really have anything to lose.  Make sure you don’t get sucked into any scams.  There’s no need to spend a lot of money to learn how to make money on the internet.  Of course, there are some very good tools on the market which can help speed up certain tasks, but to begin with you don’t need to spend any money at all if you don’t want to.
Published in Business Ideas

It’s not easy being a student is it?  There are so many different things that you need for your schooling and an ever increasing mountain of debt that you will eventually have to start paying off.  Many students therefore find themselves working in bars and restaurants at weekends in a bid to make ends meet.

However with the internet, is there a better way?  All students know how to use a computer and surf the ‘net as they were brought up with it.  Now you don’t want to go letting your studies suffer but when you’re on your summer break or some other holiday, you’ll find yourself with some spare time on your hands.

The wonderful thing about making money online is the lack of start-up capital needed.  In most other businesses you need to rent premises, hire staff and a whole host of other things.  You’d end up taking out even more loans on top of the student loans you already have.

No, the internet is certainly the way to go for a college student to make some extra bucks without the crippling costs of a conventional business.  As long as you have access to a computer with internet connection you are pretty much good to go.

Of course, don’t think for one moment that this is going to be easy sailing.  You’ll have a lot of hard work and learning to do.  Making money online is like a craft that needs to be practiced and honed.

There are many companies online that allow you to start making cash quickly because they will allow you to host content on their sites.  Sometimes you can receive all the money whilst others will give you a share of the profits.  These companies include Blogger, Squidoo, Hubpages, InfoBarrel, Weebly, Xomba and BlinkWeb.

Often people place Google Adsense on these websites because Google is a huge company and many businesses with online stores set up an account with Google to promote their products.  So if you set up a website on a particular subject, whether it’s games consoles or cooking, you’ll find that there’s lots of potential advertisers out there willing to pay you money for each time a visitor clicks on one of the ads.  It’s very easy to implement as all you do is set up an account and then place some code onto your website. 

Other alternative ways of monetizing your website is to use Chitika, Yahoo!, eBay and Amazon plus there’s loads of others but these are the main companies.

Another way is to do surveys with Cash Crate, Project Payday and other companies like that.  Bear in mind that there are mixed feelings about these companies and how easy it is to make money with them.  Some people rave about how great they are whilst other people complain bitterly.  Make sure you do your research because it may or may not be right for you.

Ultimately there are a number of ways that you can make some extra bucks online but not all of them are as easy as some people make out.  Be very careful about buying an eBooks and software that promises to make you loads of money.  Unfortunately there are many scammers out there who only care about making money from you without giving you anything concrete in return.  There are many free and excellent resources on the internet that will allow you make an extra income without you being ripped off.

Published in Small Business

If you are a kid wanting to earn a few extra bucks then you will want to find out about the different things you can do.  By working as a kid you will learn some really important skills which will set you up for your adult life.  It’s also very rewarding to know that you have earnt your money rather than simply been given it by your parents as a birthday or Christmas present.  If you have some of your own money coming in then you can spend it on pretty much whatever you like, whether it’s clothing, gadgets or posters for your bedroom wall.

Washing Cars - Most people these days have at least one car but hardly any of them have the time or inclination to wash them.  This is where you can step in.  With a few friends you could put up a simple notice saying that you offer a hand car wash for a certain amount of money.  All you need are the basic items for cleaning cars such as a sponge, hot water and car wash liquid.

Baby Sitting - For many people, the first job they ever got was to be a baby sitter.  Of course, there are plenty of horror films about baby sitters being in a big old house on their own but don’t let that scare you!  Baby sitting can be pretty easy if you are good with younger kids.  Of course, you will still need to be good at discipline because many youngsters will try to take advantage of you in terms of them misbehaving.  You should also know what the house rules are, such as when they go to bed and how much TV they are allowed to watch.

Gardening - Obviously, you won’t be able to do all types of garden work; however a kid is more than capable of removing a few weeds from the driveway, watering the plants or mowing the lawn.  When Fall arrives, many people hate having to clear up all the fallen leaves, so getting a good rake and a brush will make it easy to pick them all up.  In the winter when there is a lot of snow on the ground you can also offer to clear people’s driveway.

House Sitters - Many people go away for more than just a week or two and feel very uncomfortable about leaving their house unattended.  If you are a responsible kid, you can work as a house sitter by taking in the mail, watering the plants and also looking after any pets.

Old Fashioned Lemonade Stand - Naturally, this is quite a seasonal business and it also depends on where you live if you are going to make money selling lemonade.

Online Surveys - If you are 13 or over you can sign up with some online survey companies such as Cash Crate which pays you to fill in surveys.  There are some offers that need you to have a credit card.  For instance you might get paid $20 to complete an offer but you need to pay a small amount on your credit card to pay for the item to be sent to you.  However there are other offers that don’t require you to spend anything on your credit card at all.  Also, if you refer your friends you can also make money if they sign up and take surveys too.

Hopefully this list will give you some ideas on how you can make some extra money if you are a kid.  Of course, it’s a good idea if you have an adult around who is there to support you if needed.

Published in Small Business

Many of us simply cannot bear to work for someone else.  This is why so many people decide to set up their own business and therefore become their own boss.  But what ideas are there?  There are simply so many it's difficult to know which one to choose so it's a good idea to do as much research as you can and think carefully about it.

First of all, getting business finance can be pretty tricky in a recession, especially if you don't have much of a track record.  However there are many ideas that you can ponder that require little or no money to start up.  So let's have a look at some of them now.

Become a Private Tutor

If you have lots of experience on a particular topic you can set yourself up as a tutor.  You don't necessarily even have to have any qualifications; it all depends on what you want to teach.  It might be that you have been an artist or musician for many years and have the ability to teach other people what you have learnt. 

Of course, not everyone is a natural born teacher.  It might be that you are really talented at something but lack the communication skills.  Most of us can drive a car but how many of us would be any good at being a driving instructor?  Not many.

Some private tutors choose to travel to their students' homes whilst others work from home and have students travel to them.  It really depends on what you want to do.  Obviously travelling time and expense needs to be factored in and you won't be able to teach as many people if you have to travel about a lot.

Dog Walking

It used to be that the husband would be the bread winner and the wife would stay at home to look after the family, but this has changed so much over the last couple of decades.  Some people leave their dogs in the house for hours on end whilst others choose to hire the services of a dog walker.

It's no wonder that you see so many dog walking services these days.  You can't go out to the park anymore without seeing people walking a dozen dogs.  It's big business that's for sure.  How much money you invest in your business will really depend on how much work you want to take on.  You frequently see dog walkers with a small van which will cost you a bit of money.

Buy and Sell on eBay

We've all heard of eBay and there's a good chance you know at least one person who has sold items on eBay whether for fun or for profit.  eBay is such a popular website and often you will find buyers go straight to eBay rather than look elsewhere.

The most difficult thing is to buy products that are in demand and can easily be shipped.  If you sell large bulky items such as furniture it's going to be quite tricky to send.  Items that should be considered include iPods, printer ink, jewelry, car parts, vacuum cleaner bags and photographic accessories.

Arts and Crafts

Often people stumble into starting a business because of their arts and crafts hobbies.  It might be that you enjoy making soaps, candles or greetings cards.  Frequently what will happen is that friends and family want to buy your crafts so that they can give them to their own friends and family.  Before you know it you're struggling to keep up with demand whilst also working at your day job.

The biggest mistake that arty people make, however, is to price themselves too low.  They simply don't appreciate their own skills and price their products so that it's the same as a mass-produced item from China.  Do yourself a favour and look to see what handcrafted products are selling for and calculate your pricing from that.

Freelance Writing

If you are the sort of person who loves to write then you should consider becoming a freelance writer.  There are a number of different options available to you however one of the best ways to start is by signing up with elance.com, rentacoder.com or odesk.com and create a profile with information about your skills.  What you write will depend largely on your skills and what clients are looking for.

This article really only scratches the surface for business ideas.  I'm sure you'll be able to find loads more if you spend time looking.  Other ideas include photography, children's parties, lawn care, house sitting, website design and interior decorating.  In addition to looking for business ideas you need to also think about practicalities such as liability insurance and accountancy.

Published in Business Ideas

OK, by now you should know what a buying keyword is, if not please read about Buying v Browsing Keywords first.  If you have already read it then it’s time to get cracking.

I will be showing you a variety of different methods of keyword research here and in this example I’m using the buying keyword “buy” along with a pretty generic word “stick.”

1.  Free Keyword Suggestion Tool From Wordtracker

Simply visit the site here and enter “buy stick” (without the quotes) and you should see something that looks like this:-




Google AdWords: Keyword Tool

Again simply pop in your keywords and choose “show all” from the columns to be displayed drop-down menu.  You’ll find a great selection of keywords here to pick from.






Amazon

If you are wanting to promote products on Amazon then simply go to their website and make use of their search box which works a bit like predictive text.





Ebay

If the keywords you found above isn’t enough for you, you can enter your keyword at ebay and have a look at the related searches.  If you click on one of the results you will be led to even more keywords that you’d never have thought of in a million years!





Google Wonderwheel

This is a pretty fun way of researching keywords because it’s very visual.  A spider graph is created and you can keep clicking on different words in order to throw up even more!
 







Are all of the keywords above automatically “buying” keywords?  Unfortunately not.  Before you write an article about one of the keywords above you need to ask yourself a couple of questions?

What is the product?
Are there enough products or advertisers available that you can promote easily? 
What is the cost?

Let’s take “walking stick bugs” for instance.  Walking stick bugs are also known as stick insects and people who are interested in keeping unusual pets tend to buy them.

Doing a search on ebay and Amazon doesn’t bring up all that much.  All the products that I can see are items featuring images of the bugs, books about them or such like.  The person who wants to buy the live insects are not going to be interested in these products.  In terms of Adsense, the CPC (cost per click) is only 5 cents which is abysmal.  Personally I wouldn’t go with this keyword.

“Stick vacuum cleaners” on the other hand is much more attractive to me because there are plenty of them being sold on both Amazon and eBay.  The cost is pretty low which means shoppers won’t have to worry about the cost too much.  Also, vacuum cleaners are the sort of items that everyone has and needs to replace every now and again because they break down and they’re too costly to have repaired.

In terms of choosing an article title for this I would chose something along the lines of…

Where to Buy Stick Vacuum Cleaners?
How to Buy Stick Vacuum Cleaners
Black & Decker Cordless Stick Vacuum:  Buyers Guide

Also, don’t forget to throw in words like cheap, low cost and affordable into the article as most of the time other websites won’t target them yet you can get quite nice traffic from it.  However please make sure you don't go overboad with these words.  If you have an article titled "Cheap Stick Vacuum Cleaners" and then it turns out your only writing about them, people can get pretty mad.

Most people find that doing keyword research is the hardest part of making money online but it starts to get easier the more you do it.  Will you be able to make money with every keyword you choose?  No, not even the “experts” will get it right every time.  A lot of people simply use the internet to find out about products and compare prices.  They will then print off some details and take them along to their local shop and ask “can you match this price?”

Published in Affiliate Programs