Now that you’ve signed up, or if you’re already a member at HubPages, here’s how I make money with HubPages. Let me say up front that if you’re thinking you’re going to make money quick with this technique, then you’re going to be disappointed.  It won’t make you a lot of money quick, but it will bring in some residual income month after month if you do your part.

The thing about HubPages is that they generally get better as they get older, just like most webpages. I love Hubs because they allow me to cover a subject that has too few profitable keywords to justify building a website. I may find some good keywords, but if there is only one main keyword and few, or a bunch of low paying secondary keywords, it’s not really worth my time. But if I can whip out a HubPage in 30 minutes and cover that one main keyword and the 2 or 3 secondary keywords, then I’m money ahead!

Plus, as an added bonus, HubPages has authority, so Google is more apt to rank a page from HubPages quicker than from a brand spanking new site!

The other nice thing about HubPages is that once they’re built, you have to do very little to keep them up. I build links to them just as I would any other site and sometimes update the content, but I pretty much build ‘em and forget them with the exception of building links to them.

I monetize my HubPages with Adsense, Amazon and Ebay. Even though I have a Kontera account, I don’t bother with it. I have also used affiliate programs from third party networks like ShareASale and Commission Junction to make money with HubPages.

Here How I Make Money With A HubPage

First off, you need to find a subject that you want to write over or a product. I’ve only been using HubPages for a little over 2 years and in that time, product reviews and comparisons have been my biggest money makers. For example, a comparison Hub might be a Hub comparing the Apple iPhone to the Samsung Galaxy S. With proper link building, I would bring in all types of people looking for a comparison between the iphone and the Galaxy S, people looking for iPhone reviews, people looking for Galaxy S reviews and probably people looking for an iPhone alternative!

Then, once they land on my Hub, they see that there is a Galaxy S add from Amazon right next to the review. If the review has done it’s job, they’re going to want to buy the Galaxy S and will probably do so through Amazon or Ebay!

Step By Step Guide on How I Monetize HubPages

For those of you who need a step by step guide, here goes.

You’ll need to find some profitable keywords. For you people that have no money, this is going to take some time. For those of you who are a Keyword Academy member, you already know how to find those profitable keywords with Niche Refinery (which is a free keyword tool only available to The Keyword Academy members). You members get to finding those green keywords! (If you don’t know what the TKA is, here’s my The Keyword Academy review)

If you don’t have access to The Keyword Academy, then you’re going to have to go and find profitable keywords. I suggest you start making a list, a long list, of products and things you think may be profitable. Then go to the Google Keyword tool and start typing in those keywords into the tool. Make sure you search for “Exact” matches by checking the box on the left side. There will be 3 boxes labeled ‘Broad’, ‘Exact’ and ‘Phrase’. You want to check ‘Exact’.

You’re looking for keywords that have at least 1000 searches per month (‘Exact’ matches) and have a CPC of at least $1. Once you’re done there, you’ll need to go to Google and search each of the top 3 to 5 websites for that keyword and see the authority of each website. You’re gong to need a tool like the SEO for FireFox Plugin to check the rankings of those sites. I look for sites with a PR 3 or below in those top 3 to 5 websites. This means those sites have a relatively low PR and that a HubPage with some links built to it should be able to outrank those sites. There’s a little more to this, but that’s what I’m looking for in a nutshell.

One way I find things to sell is to go to Amazon and click on a Category. Then use the “Bestsellers” tag or the “Highest Ranking” tab to find products that other people are buying. You can also do this on eBay by going to pulse.ebay.com. This will give you the items that are selling the most on ebay. Once you have a list of products, follow the technique above to narrow down your search for profitable keywords.

Once you’ve found some low competition but profitable keywords, make sure one of three things. One is that Amazon has a good variety of the product you found. If it’s not a product, make sure that it can be found on Ebay. If it can’t be found on either Amazon or Ebay, then go to the Google Keyword Tool and make sure there are at least 1000 ‘Exact’ searches or more for the main keyword and secondary keywords. Also, I want that keyword to have a CPC of at least $1, more would be better. These are the criteria I use for Adsense.

If it’s a product but you can’t find it in Amazon or eBay, then see if you can find an Affiliate Program for it.

Once I have my list of profitable (green) keywords or Product keywords, I go to HubPages and create a new Hub.

I make sure my Keyword comes first in the Title, for example ‘iPhone 4 vs Samsung Galaxy S’ or ‘Samsung Galaxy S – iPhone Killer?’.

Next, I choose the appropriate category from HubPages, then I select the layout. I use the third layout from the left most of the time.

Next is an important part. The Tags. I use as many tags as I can. You only want to have relevant tags for your keywords. Don’t just stuff your Hub with any tags or you run the risk of getting banned.

One trick I use is to go back to the Google Keyword tool and type in my Keyword. The list that Google returns should all be closely related to your main keyword. I use many of these (10 to 20 if I can find them) closely related words at the Tags in HubPages. This has been one of the biggest success secrets to my HubPages paying off. Because I will rank for many of those keywords that I typed into my Hubs as Tags!

I then click on the ‘Submit’ button and continue building my HupPage. I break my content up into little section with lots of text boxes. In each text box you can put a Heading. Make sure you Main keyword is in the Top text box heading and your secondary keywords are in the additional text module headings. I also want to make sure that my Main keyword appears on the page about 3 to 5 times.

How much content should you  use on your HubPages?

This depends upon the subject you’re writing about, but my hubs are always over 500 words and most are 700 up. The more you tell, the more you sell. Work those primary or “cousin” keywords into your content!

The other things I do that help my HubPages is that I write my own summary. I never check the automatic box. You’ll find several tabs above the box where your tags and modules appear. The one all the way to the right is called the Groups tab. I include all my related Hubs into related Groups. This give me great inner linking for my HubPages.

The next tab to the left from the end is the Summary. This is where I write my summary, including my main keyword and a few secondary keywords if I can.

Where To Position Amazon and Ebay modules for the Best Results

It seems everyone has their own way of building a HubPage and where they like their Amazon and eBay modules (Hubpages will automatically insert Adsense blocks into your Hub) I like my Amazon and eBay ads running up the right side of my content. If I’m reviewing or comparing several related products, then I make sure there’s an Amazon or Ebay ad right next to the sub-review. You’d be surprised at how well this words.

My next step after getting everything set up is to publish my Hub.

Next, I start building links to that Hub like crazy. For most of my Hubs, I use EzineArticles and GoArticles. Once again, if you’re a member of The Keyword Academy, you have access to PostRunner which is a directory where members can submit written articles in exchange for a link back to their sites. And once again, it’s only available to members of The Keyword Academy!

On average, I write 5 articles and submit them to EzineArticles for each Hub. I also write 5 more that I send to GoArticles and 5 that go to PostRunner sites.

I watch my Hubs over a Period of months and if that doesn’t get me good rankings, then I repeat the process over again. 5 articles to EzineArticles, 5 to GoArticles and 5 to PostRunner sites. This is usually enough to get me my HubPage on the front page of Google SERPS for my chosen keyword.

And that Boys and Girls is how I make money with HubPages. It may seem like lot of work, but once you get the hang of it, you can turn a Hub out pretty quick.

I currently have over 200 Hubs and they bring in a good amount of my income. My goal is to have over 500 by the end of the year. I try and build 10 per week (some weeks I do, some I don’t). If you work 7 days, that’s less than 2 per day. If you work 5 days, it’s 2 per day. It takes me about 45 minutes to an hour from start to finish to create one Hub.

And as I said earlier, this is probably the easiest way to make residual income because these hubs will continue to pay month after month (if they’re profitable keywords and on the front page of Google).

And remember, IT WON’T WORK IF YOU DON’T!!! No one is going to make these Hubs for you (unless you pay them well!). They won’t start making money until a few months down the road in most cases, but if you do your part, most Hubs will make money! On average, I don’t usually start making any noticeable money from my HubPages until they’re about 6 to 8 months old with lots of anchor text backlinks and on the front page of Google for my main keyword!

If you’re not a member yet, click here to sign up for HubPages and get started today.

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What I really wanted to see was just how well that system would work if you followed it to a “T”. Much like a beginner would do.

First off though, I want to rant a bit. I don’t visit the forums much over at the Keyword Academy. As stated above, I’m very busy and don’t have a lot of time. When I do get time, I’m working on my sites. The other reason is because of all the nonsense that goes on there.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a boat load of good info on there. The people are nice and very helpful.

No, what I mean is the ridiculous questions that keep being asked by beginners who obviously are not following Court and Mark’s program.

Look, if you’re a beginner and you’ve started the Keyword Crash Course, do yourself and others a favor and watch ALL of the video’s, especially the Core Video’s. They’ll answer just about anything you need to know. Don’t join and immediately go the forums and ask silly questions that are answered in the video’s!! It tells everyone that you haven’t sit down and watched the Core Video’s or the Webinar Video’s. It’s like saying you don’t want to take the time to watch and learn!

Okay, I’ve ranted long enough.

What’s New With The Keyword Crash Course

Court and Mark have done an amazing job with the Keyword Crash Course. I can’t imagine how much work they must have done in order to make everything run seamlessly. I have a great deal of respect for those two. They have, without question, put together the most informative and legitimate course on making money on the Internet that you’ll find anywhere. Bar none in my opinion, and I’ve seen a lot of programs come and go in my time.

Here are just a few of the things that are new.

1. The Niche Refinery. Helps you sort through keywords and helps you discover which ones have the potential to be the profitable ones. No more guessing whether or not the keywords you use will earn money. It’s the best Keyword Tool I’ve ever used, hands down.
2. The Forum has changed layouts and is much more user friendly in my opinion. There are a ton of features, including icons and badges that Members can obtain. They’ll show up next to your Screen name and Avatar.
3. The Webinars are now nicely organized so they can be downloaded and watched.
4. The Earners Club. This is a cool feature, especially if you visit the Forums. The Earners Club is a progress tracking system that is totally voluntary. You send your earnings verifications privately to Court or Mark and they’ll reward you with a badge showing how much per month you make via Internet Marketing. This let’s you know who knows what they’re doing and who is just regurgitating the same old crap found on the Internet! It’s like ‘I dunit, here’s proof’.
5. By far the best feature that I’ve found most useful is the Post Runner system. I can’t really go into detail what this system is or how it works, but once inside you’ll see that it’s worth it’s weight in Gold for getting your ranked!

Like I said earlier, Court and Mark have done an impressive and amazing job in just one year! At the time of this post, they’re running a FREE trial offer for the first 30 days. This is plenty of time for you to see what all the Course has to offer and learn some of the tools and methods successful Internet Marketers use.

The Keyword Crash Course – One Year Later

So what I did after doing the initial review was to go out and grab 7 domains for niches that I felt would be profitable using the formula for finding high paying keywords that Court outlines in the Course.

I then followed the directions outlined in the course. I did not use any of my other resources that I had available unless they were mentioned or proved by The Keyword Crash Course.

I built the sites using WordPress. I used Hostgator for my blog hosting provider.

From here, I simply followed the course’s instructions.

I have to admit, I had my doubts even though I knew this system worked. Of course, even when I do it my way, I have doubts. I don’t know why because they always work out.

In the first month or two, I saw little to movement in the rankings for these 7 sites. Of course, that’s normal unless you’re in a very Uncompetitive niche! Plus, I’m not a person who can sit for hours on end at the computer. I usually work about 3 or 4 hours total in one day and I break that amount of time over the period of the day. I guess you can say I have Affiliate Marketing ADD…LOL

But then months 3 and 4 saw these sites breaking into the top 100 and slowly creeping up the SERPS. This was exciting even though I’ve done it many times. I guess I was anxious because I was watching these 7 sites much closer than my others new sites I built doing it my way.

By month 5 and 6, a few real winners were beginning to show up among the 7. I had one that just wasn’t (and still isn’t) performing the way the numbers say it should, but that’s the real world. The site is in the top 5 for several of it’s keywords, but the traffic just isn’t there. I’m hoping it will come along once I expand the keywords it ranks for.

By months 7 and 8, I was making money with the sites. Well, actually some of them had been making money by month 4, but by the seventh and eighth months, nearly all were (all except 2).

I monetized several of the sites with Adsense and several with affiliate programs. Since I’m an affiliate marketer, I prefer affiliate programs over Adsense. You’ll also find out that some niches are just naturally easier to monetize with Adsense or affiliate programs.

Months 9 through 12 were spent tweaking the sites, adding content and promoting them further. I spent a great deal of time on the 2 slow performers and I found additional keywords to help one of the slackers. The one mentioned above is still giving me fits. Sometimes you just have to let ‘em go. Kinda like tough love for websites!

Am I making a killing off of these sites? No. But I am making some good money. How much you ask? Well, if you read my blog any amount, you know I stopped outing a lot of my methods and other info. But I’ll say they’re making just a little above 1k per month now and we’ll leave it at that.

If you need further proof this system works, as of the time of this blog post, the Keyword Academy blog has an unsolicited post from a Member who is making $800 per month from his website! Geez, it’s taking me 5 niche sites to do a little more than that!

It’s not surprising really. This system works if you’ll just put the time and effort in. I just wanted to prove it to myself even though it’s along the same lines I’ve been using for years. And the cool thing is, now that all the work has been done, they’re nearly on auto pilot. Very little work will be required to keep their rankings. This means you’ll have more time to create more sites following the Keyword Crash Course method.

They’re still running the FREE 30 Day Trial at the time of this blog post. What will you get for your free trial? You’ll have access to everything in the Keyword Crash Course. Unlike some other programs that only tease you with a few pieces of info, The Keyword Academy will allow you access to all the info. (if you choose the Premium account) The FREE trial is the best way to see what all the Keyword Crash Course consist of. If you’re a beginner or someone who has been banging their head against the wall trying to make a buck on the Internet, try the Course for Free for the first 30 days. If you’re like me, you’ve blown a lot of money on the Internet! Click here to look over this system Free for the first 30 days.

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Having said that, a while back I bought The Keyword Crash Course. This is a course that Mark Butler and Courtney Tuttle have developed. The whole course was about starting Niche sites, monetizing them and getting free traffic from search egnines like Google. Although I was sure I knew 99% of the stuff they were going to teach (afterall, I make a good income from this stuff already!), I was hoping to learn a few tricks that would make me more money or save me time. I wasn’t disappointed in the course. In fact, I felt like the Course paid for itself within the first 30 minutes of watching the first video. By the way, the course cost $597. I’ve spent a lot more on courses that didn’t have near the amount of information in them.

If you know Court and Mark, then you know that they are honest and helpful. In fact, they’re some of the most honest and helpful people I’ve ever met on the Internet. Everything is laid out for you and they don’t hold anything back. (unlike a lot of courses I’ve bought!) In fact, I’ll go as far as saying the Keyword Crash Course is the most legitimate and easy to follow course I’ve bought. It’s a nuts and bolts Course that nearly anyone can follow and make money with. You can take a look at it by clicking here.

Within the first 30 minutes of the first video, Court describes how to find profitable keywords using “The Formula“. This was the bombshell that I had been looking for. Every once in a while, something will come along that makes you set back and take a deep breath, all the while thinking “Damn, this is what I’ve been searching for!” That is how I felt when Court showed me The Formula for evaluating profitable keywords.

I’ll tell you this also, when you start finding those little Gold nuggets of Keywords, it won’t take you long to figure out that you can use them to build Affiliate Sites rather than Adsense sites if that is what you want to do. If more people would use The Formula, there would be a lot less people failing at this game.

Before this, I had my own system for finding good Keywords, but it was hit and miss. Some keywords paid very well, while others fizzled. I still get some keywords that don’t pay when I use The Formula, but a lot less. By using Court’s Formula, I’ve been able to amass about 90 keywords that will turn into some very nice Niche sites.

Now Court and Mark have opened up the site to the Public and you can see everthing in the original Course for only $1 (yeah, the same Course I paid $597 for!)

Learn How To Make Money Online With The Keyword Crash Course

Whether you’re a beginner just starting out, or an advanced marketer, The Keyword Crash Course has something for you.

What You’ll Get For $1

You’ll be able to see the original course including the 10 training video’s. These video’s will take you step by step and show you how to pick profitable keywords for your niche site (using The Formula), setting WordPress, how and where to find backlinks, how to obtain content for your niche sites and how to set up Adsense and other advertising to make money from your sites.

Plus there is a little video at the end that will show you how to flip your new sites for Money. I found this one to be very interesting and something I may try down the road.

Why Are They Only Charging $1?

Court and Mark feel that once you’ve seen the quality of the training material, you’ll want to subscribe to their monthly service where they’ll be bringing you more information about building and ranking websites, live Webinars and live Q&A sessions. This subscription is $29 per month and totally optional. You can sign up for $1, get all the information that was in the original course for $597 and forget about the rest if you want to. They’re fine with that. They only want people who are serious about making money online.

People, if I could stear you to another course that I thought was better, one that taught you how to make money online with Niche sites, I would. But there is simply nothing out there as thorough and easy to follow that Court and Mark’s Keyword Crash Course. If you’re serious about learning how to make money online, this is one course you need to take. If after the course, you can’t make money online, then this business is probably not for you. That’s how good I believe this course is. And for only $1, you sure as hell won’t find a better bargain. Click here if you want to learn more and take advantage of this opportunity.

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The first thing according to Forbes that we Consumers are still spending money on is Smart Phones. If I was in this niche, I would concentrate on building sites over a specific phone. Say, the Blackberry Storm or a Samsung. The iPhone niche is very competitive and unless you already have a authority website about iPhone’s, I’d stay away and go after one of the other lesser known Smart Phones.

Video Games and Consoles are the second item on the list in the Forbes article. Their theory on why we’re still buying this is that Consumers want a quick escape from reality. I say it’s because Video Games are addictive and addicts buy stuff! Whatever the reason, people are still buying them in droves. Pick a game and build a site around it. Websites about the Wii, PlayStation and XBox are really popular. Unless you can come up with an unique angle, I’d concentrate on picking a game since the Console market is flooded right now.

Gym memberships are also on the list. I’m not sure why people would cut back on their spending then blow bucks on a Gym memberships, shoes, clothes and gym bags when you can get a decent workout at home or by walking/jogging around your neighborhood, but Forbes says it’s so. I’ll just stick with my Health niches and maybe write some articles on Gym reviews if I need that traffic.

Personal care also made the list of things we keep spending money on. This would be an easy one to implement with Health. You could also start a affiliate site with a lot of persona care items. Just research the niche and try to find one not full of big players like Johnson and Johnson.

Toy building sets also made the top 10. This one surprised me a bit and I’m still not sure if they mean the Toy Building Sets their self or Toys in general. Their theory is that it’s hard to say NO to you kids. There’s a lot of truth behind that statement as I can relate to that! The article says that Lego sales were up 12 percent in 2008! In November, the word “Lego” was searched for over 673,000 times according to the Google Keyword tool. Anyone have a Lego blog?

Car Maintenance is also on the list. Consumers aren’t rushing out and buying a new car now days but they are spending money on the ones the do have. This would be a good niche if you could find some specific products and build an affiliate site around them. Everything from products that clean and beautify your car to performance enhancing products would be good sellers.

Another surprise for me on this list was Dress Casual Shoes. Google shows 33,000 searches for Casual Shoes and 49,000 searches for Dress Shoes. Grab a domain with the words Dress Casual Shoes in it and you have several options to profit from this niche. A blog reviewing Casual and Dress shoes to an affiliate site selling both Casual and Dress shoes would be a hit if you can rank the site on page one of the Google SERPS.

Restaurants was on the list also. Most specifically fast food chains as people are looking for inexpensive meals. I’ve always thought about starting a blog and reviewing the popular menu items at fast food places since I eat out a lot. But I just haven’t had the time.

Movie tickets took my be surprise also. I guess the American Family is looking for alternatives when it comes to entertainment. The article says that attendance is down but profits rose in 2008. I’m not sure how good a niche this would be because I the prices of everything at Theaters are outrageous these days. I also believe services like NetFlix, Blockbuster and Red Box have taken a big chunk of money away from the Theaters. But hey, maybe you can get an unique angle on this niche and make some money from it.

Netbooks is a niche I think some money could be made at. These are relatively new to the market and due to the low price, becoming more and more popular. Review sites and affiliate sites would be a good way to monetize these niches.

If you were looking for something to make money from in 2009, the above niches to make money with should do you well. Several have been good niches for years and will likely be so in the future. Do some research on them and pick one or two and give them a try!

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Anyway, the first weekend of the New Year found me running a few errands into town. I browsed Craigslist that morning before leaving the house. I always check out the ‘Free’ section to see what people are giving away. Saturday morning I found a lady giving away 2 wheels and tires to a Chevy pickup. They were out by her Garage and she wanted them gone. Also near the same place was a Family cleaning out their Garage and they had some Sports equipment set out on the curb. Since I would be going by there, I decided to stop and check it out.

As luck would have it, the 2 tires and wheels came off of a late model compact Chevy pickup so I took those. I think they were factory originals. The tires had some wear, but still had life left in them.

I didn’t make it to the Family with the stuff from the Garage until later, by then most of the stuff was gone but I did score on 4 rods and reels that were left. They were pretty junky except one, which I kept for myself.

One the way home, I stopped by a Tire store and sold both tires and wheels for $45. I figured they were worth more, but I didn’t want to waste time with the guy. Besides, $45 for a few minutes work isn’t bad.

I stopped at a Pawn Shop to offload the rods and reels (except the one I kept for myself). Since they were pretty crappy, I could only manage to get $20 combined for the 3 that were left.

Oh well, I made $65 that morning simply by taking a few minutes out of my day. I had to go in that direction anyway, so stopping by those homes wasn’t a big deal.

Craigslist is an excellent place to find stuff to sell offline or online!

Sunday I logged on to my Project Payday account and filled in some offers. It’s been a while since I’ve used Project Payday, but filling out offers is still as boring as it ever was. I spent about 3 1/4 hours Sunday and made $45. Not bad for sitting at the Dining room table pecking out offers in my shorts and T-shirt!

Sunday evening I start getting calls from Clients and for the next week and a half I was on the road a bit. I did manage to type out 10 articles, in two 5 article sets, on a competitive subjects and sold them on Digital Point. These articles ranged from 600 to 1100 words each. One set I got $30 and the next set I received $35 for.

These were just rewritten PLR articles. They were well researched and written in SEO copy for websites. One gentleman has already emailed me back asking if I had more. I’m not sure if I’ll do that again. I hate having to set down, research and write lengthy articles on subjects I know little about! As you can probably tell, my attention span isn’t very long

I also started creating some Squidoo Lenses and HubPages. I’ll probably use some of these to help push offers and I might try and flip a couple of the Squidoo Lenses. I’m not sure yet, but I know there’s a chance that I’ll need them later on.

Now I’ve known how to make Squidoo Lenses for a while. But it wasn’t until I read “Flip That Lens” by Tiffany Dow that I found out how to trick a Lens out that I could flip. While there are some people selling Lenses on DigitalPoint Forums for $30, she gets anywhere from $125 to $250 for her Lenses. One look at them and you’ll know why. She takes building Squidoo Lenses to the next level!

Start Small and Work Your Way Up

As you can tell, these small sales will not get me to $2500 this month alone. But there is an important reason you want to start with these small sales.

1. They give you a little bit of confidence. There was a time long ago that I was ‘between jobs’ and made yard sales, estate sales and grabbed up free stuff off of Cragslist to make some extra money until the next job came along. I either sold this stuff locally or I would put it on eBay. So I knew I could make some quick cash that way. But if you’ve never done this before, these are easy ways to make money while you learn.
2. I know I’m going to need more than $50 in the future to buy stuff for bigger projects. These small sales gives me some operating room to buy what I’ll need later on.

Back To Making Money From Home

Once I was back at home, I started doing some keyword research to see if I could find a niche to make some serious amount of money before the end of the Month. Now that I only had about half the month left, it was going to be a big challenge.

I found a few niches I thought I could make some money off of. So the first thing I did was start visiting some of the Affiliate Networks to see what kind of offers were out there for these niches.

Tips For Choosing An Affiliate Offer

I visited ClickBank, Azoogle, CJ, Copeac and ROI Rocket looking for the best offers. Now, when I say ‘Best Offers’, I don’t necessarily mean the highest paying offer. What I look for first and foremost is what the Customer has to do in order for me to get paid.

For example, for this niche there were several offers that I found. One offer paid $37 per sale. In order for me to get paid, the Customer would have to buy that product. Another offer for the niche paid $22.50 per lead. In order for me to get paid, the Customer has to fill out a contact for and pay $2.95 shipping & handling.

Another offer paid $9 per lead and all the Customer has to do is fill out a contact form with a valid email and address before I get paid.

Now, which one do you think I chose?

For this niche, I chose the $9 offer because I know it’s easier to get someone to give their email address than it is for them to whip out $37 or even $2.95. If this Challenge were longer, then I would come up with an action plan to make money with the $37 per sale offer.

Even though I’m making less money per lead with the $9 offer, I can get people to sign up quicker than making them pay for something. In essence, I can make money quicker in the short term.

As I said before, I have several other niches that I’ll be looking at and finding offers for those too. I’m not sure if I’ll have time to start working them, I’ll just have to wait and see.

Getting Started Promoting Affiliate Offers

Here’s how I started getting ready to push this offer. Again, this is not how I would do it if I had more time. This short term promotion isn’t the best way to make money with these offers in my opinion, but I have to work in the constraints that I set for myself.

I started off by buying two domains for 8 bucks and change from NameCheap for niches. They’re normally $9.69, but I used the NameCheap Promo Code of ‘Happy2009′ to get a discount of $8.81 per domain. If that NameCheap Promo Code doesn’t work for you, then just Google “NameCheap Promo Code” and you can find one that does.

I also signed up for the Pro Hosting Plan at NameCheap because they will let you pay by the month. It’s not the cheapest plan, but it’s the cheapest plan you can get and still pay by the month. You can also host multiple domains on one account for the $6.95 where you can’t with the cheaper plan.

I then went to Blogger and built two Blogger Blogs for that Niche.

Next, I’ve started writing some articles that I will be promoting my Niche with. I’ll use both EzineArticles and GoArticles since they are both free. I’ve written 10 articles and have submitted them to promote my niche.

I’m nearing the point now that I’ll be setting up the WordPress blogs and designing them the way I want to push the offers. I hope to generate some quick targeted traffic and start making sales!

Finally, I used www.big-boards.com to find forums relating to my niche. So far I’ve found 8 forums where I’ve set up accounts at and have started posting some general information post and answered a few questions to get my post count up.

I’ve also set up accounts at MySpace, Twitter, Yahoo Answers and Facebook to do the same. I’ve started using these accounts and building up friends and post.

The reason behind doing it this way is because I’m going to need a lot of traffic and need it fast. These places have a lot of traffic. Not great converters, but some will take the offers I push. It’s very important that you get started on the Forums and Social Media sites early and build up a reputation. Do not Spam them. You should be actively involved and asking real questions or giving real help. This will pay back huge dividends down the road as you’ll see with the next update.

As you can see, just getting ready to push an offer can take quite a bit of time!

The next update should be at the end of the month and I’ll let you know how well it’s gone. Don’t be surprised if I don’t make it with the unforseen time I spent on the road, I ended up with about half the month to work on this. But I think I’ll still have a pretty good show!

A Word About Making Money Fast On the Internet

These tactics that I’m using to make money quick aren’t the same ones I would normally do. I don’t want anyone to get the idea that making money online is quick or easy. It’s hard work, at least it is for me. I spend a lot of time working on my online businesses.

Whenever I start up a new website, I plan on working on it a year or more before I start seeing any tangible results. Especially if it’s in a competitive niche. For smaller niches with less competition, maybe 6 to 8 months before I start seeing any real rankings and sales.

I like to use organic traffic to drive sales to my websites. I’ll admit, I’m kinda lazy and don’t like spending all my time on one website. I like to build them and forget ‘em as they say. Still, it takes a lot of time building content and backlinks to these sites to get them making money.

The only reason I decided to do this little Challenge is to show you that money could be made rather quickly online. It’s been my experience that these little quick cash cows don’t last long. With more work, you can generally turn them into long term money makers. Sometimes they do well, other times they don’t. That’s just the fact about making money using websites and organic traffic on the Internet.

I’m kicking around the idea of starting a new website after this Challenge is done and doing a 1 year challenge where everyone can follow along with me. I’ll have to wait and see how this idea pans out and whether or not I think I’ll have time to take on another project! I do think it would be ver beneficial to many of you just getting started in Internet Marketing though.

The Janurary Make Money Online Challenge Financials

Okay, I wanted to share a little bit with you about how much I’ve made and spent so far. Here’s the breakdown.

Startup: $50

Craigslist Sales: $65

Article Sales on DP: $65 (two article packs, one sold for $30 the other for $35)

Project Payday: $45

Total not including initial $50: $175

Total money including $50 seed money: $225

Expeditures

Two domain names at NameCheap: $17.62

Web Hosting: $6.95

I’m not counting the Gas I used to get the Craigslist items because both places were in the same area as I was going to run errands. (less than 3 miles away) The cost of gas is minimal for these items.

Total Spent so far: $24.57 (this will start changing here soon)

Subtracting the money made from the money spent leaves me with a Grand Total of $200.43

Only about $2300 to go in about a week and half! WooHoo!

Once I get into really pushing these offers, you’ll probably see the expenditures go up a little.

Be sure to sign up for my RSS feed so you can find out how this all ends at the end of the month. I’ll be  sharing with you more details about how I set up the offers, reactions and lessons learned.

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Anyway, it was probably a troll email, but it did get me to thinking.

Could I start out with nothing and make some decent money online without all my tools and resources? Yes, I think I could.

So I decided to challenge myself for the month of January. I’m going to start a Challenge to make $2500 online during the month. Why $2500? I don’t know, it seems like a decent number. Plus, that’s $30,000 per year before taxes. I’d say that’s pretty close to what the average household brings home in the U.S. At any rate, that added income would sure come in handy to many families across the World right now, not just here in the U.S.

I’m setting some guidelines for myself to try and make it as fair as possible.

Here are some of the guidelines I’m setting.

• I’ll only be using free or low cost resources that are available on the Internet and accessible to the general public.
• I’m only going to start the Challenge with $50. Nearly anyone can beg, borrow or steal (just j/k’ing about the stealing part) fifty bucks. Sure, you can get started with nothing, but in reality, an online business is just like any other business. You’re going to have to put up a little money. Any money I make, I’ll reinvest it into the challenge if I need to.
• I won’t use any of my existing websites for help. It would be much easier, but I realize many people do not have a network of websites in place, so mine will be off limits to help me with this challenge.
• I’ll use a variety of techniques to make money online. I haven’t sit down and figured all the ways that I’ll try, but I will do a weekly post and let people know what I did the previous week and how much money was made or lost for that week.
• At the end of the Challenge – win, lose or draw – I’ll be giving away a lot of my resources to a few lucky readers. (I’m thinking a website here, tools, ebooks, etc…) Since I don’t know where this will take me, I don’t know yet what I will have to giveaway!
• To be elgible for the giveaway, all you need to do is leave a comment on any of the post relating to the January $2500 Challenge and ask to be entered. You must let me know through the comments you want entered as some people will not be wanting to enter but yet want to comment. Extra entries will be given to people who blog about the January $2500 Challenge.

Although I sincerely believe anyone can make money online if they just put forth a good effort and stay focused, I know that many people don’t have a clue where to start. I’m of the mindset that making money online is a long term proposition, but I believe some money can be made rather quickly in certain areas. These short term money making projects can help you get by while waiting on your long term business to become profitable.

I’d love to hear from you folks. Suggestions, comments or just to enter the giveaway that will happen at the end of the Challenge, leave me a comment. I’ll keep you updated as I sit down and plan how I’m going to make money online with the January $2500 Challenge.

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Here are quick and easy ways to make money on the Internet. Will you get rich? No. But you just might bring in extra money each month and maybe keep your lights on this Winter!

Project Payday<<–(Click the link to Visit their Official Website)

If you can use a computer to surf the Internet, chances are good that you can use Project Payday to earn extra money on the Internet. It doesn’t require a lot of technical knowledge and it’s pretty darn quick and easy to use.

Project Payday is free to join and they have loads of free training Video’s to help you get started. Plus they also have a mentoring program where you’ll get hands on tutoring if you need it. I’d highly suggest you watch the video’s and even consider the mentoring program to maximize your potential income opportunities. You can expect to get offers in the $15 to $30 range. I’ve seen some as high as $50 though, but those are rare. Most people can do several offers a day once they get the hang of it and get their routine down and become familiar with how the system works. They even have a $100 guarantee that if you follow their Fast First Fifty program and do not make at least $50,  they’ll pay you a $100! I’m not aware of any other program that will make that offer!

I tried it and after watching the training video’s and asking some questions in the forums, I made $50 the first day by doing about 4 hours worth of work. The next day I spent longer at it and made $95. My third day I was busy doing other things and only managed to make $65. It took a while sitting at the computer, but if I hadn’t been doing that I’d been wasting time surfing the internet!  Click here to learn more about Project Payday.

Ebay

No article about making money online would be complete without mention of eBay. While it’s not as good as it once was for the person looking to make money fast on the Internet, it still allows many people to stay home and make a darn good income from selling goods online.

You can find goods to sell on eBay on Craigslist, Garage Sales, Big Box stores like Sam’s and Costco and in your own home. I bet most of us have stuff we haven’t used in months that could be auctioned off on eBay to make a quick dollar or two.

Time was once where you could go out and hit Garage sales and Estate auctions and bring the stuff back to your home, list it on eBay and make some good money. You can still do that, but the money isn’t as good as it once was because of the higher listing fees and many of the commercial companies drowning out the smaller individual auctions.

Read Emails – Take Online Surveys – Product Evaluation

In my opinion, this isn’t as easy as Project Payday, but it’s real close. There are companies that receive thousands of emails every day that need to be read. Obviously the CEO or other employees can’t spend every day reading emails, so they outsource this.

There are several companies where they outsource this type of work as well as other tedious, time consuming chores such as product testing and evaluation, online surveys, online mystery shopping and others. Send Earnings is one such company that other companies outsource to. Consumers such as you sign up and are normally paid on a per assignment completed basis. The pay varies by what type of assignment you choose. You choose where you want to make money. Click Here to learn more or to sign up for this opportunity. It’s FREE to join and you can get started making money online very quickly.

Become a Freelance Writer

With the explosion of the Internet, many companies, both small and large, need content written for their websites. Some need great articles with proper English, others do not. But there are a ton of places where you can sell your articles online even if you don’t think you’re that great. As long as you can type and put together sentences that make sense, you’re pretty much good to go!

Etsy

Do you create crafts? Etsy is a huge online marketplace where people sell their crafts. Since it draws people looking for handmade products or craft supplies, Sellers find it more profitable for many crafts than eBay.

My Wife and Mother-In-Law have sold many items on Etsy including quilts and hand sewn dolls. They received pretty respectable prices for their items, much more than what they received on eBay for items of similar nature.

As I guy, I have to admit there are some pretty interesting handmade crafts on that site. Some will make you scratch you head and wonder how anyone could make such a thing! If you have some crafts laying around you could get rid of, or if you could make some up quickly, then this might be the outlet for you to make money fast.

Craigslist

I love Craigslist! Mostly for the cool stuff I buy off of it in my local area. But Craigslist can also be a Goldmine if you’ll put the time into it. I call the method I use to make money from Craigslist “Craigslist Arbitrage” because this is how it works.

I scan the Free section of Craigslist looking for valuable things people are giving away. If you live near a large Metro area, you’ll simply be amazed at what others will give away just to get rid of it. You need to be quick, because others are doing the same thing you are! Once you pick up your Freebies, turn around and put them back on Craigslist for sale at a below market price. Chances are they’ll go quick and you’ll have made some quick cash.

I first learned of this when we were moving and I was trying to score free moving boxes. I was constantly amazed at how quick they would go until someone told me people do nothing more than drive around grabbing up free boxes and turning around and selling them for $1 or more per box. The same goes for Furniture, electronics and other items. You need to be sitting at your computer refreshing the FREE page often. You can also find great deals in other areas of Craigslist so don’t just spend all your time in the FREE section.

Sell Ebooks

Do you have a particular skill or knowledge? Maybe Award winning recipes? Special technique for training dogs? Then write an ebook. Don’t care or don’t think you have the skills to write an ebook? Then find a freelancer at one of the places mentioned above. Don’t think your idea will sell? You’d be surprised! I’ve heard of one gentleman who does quite well ($500+ per month) selling an ebook on raising Tomatoes. Nuff said!

But if none of these thrill you, then there are places like ClickBank where you can become an affiliate and sell ebooks, software and other products. Some of these can be rebranded for yourself. If you find some that have Master Resell Rights, you can sell them on eBay, Craigslist or set up a PayPal order page and advertise your products. (if you sell them on ebay, they have to be in a digital form. Ebay does not allow electronic downloads any longer) There are hundreds of ways to drive traffic to your sales page so don’t get stuck in a rut! Get yourself a network of sites specific to each product and promote the crap out of it to bring in some quick money.

Become a Go To Guru

Getting back to those special skills or knowledge you have, have you ever thought about becoming a Consultant? Everywhere you look these days, there are consultants for this and that. Consultants for organizing a home, creating a baby’s room, throwing wedding showers and the list goes on.

You’d be surprised at how much people will pay for information that they need and need quick! Show your community that you’re an expert in your field and they’ll beat a path to your door.

One great thing about this business is that it’s easy and inexpensive to start. You can do it part time, in the Evenings or on weekends right from your home. Over time you may find your “part time” job is making more money than your “real” job!

Have Camera, Will Take Photo’s

Do you like taking pictures with your digital camera? Have you thought about selling them but thought you weren’t good enough because you’re not a “professional”? Have to fear. Many people make extra money fast by selling their pictures online.

Websites like BigStockPhoto, ShutterStock, Fotolia and others pay you each time one of your photo’s are downloaded. Many of these sites pay anywhere from 25 cents per photo downloaded to a percentage of the commission on specialty photo’s.

Photographers who do this type of work are called Stock Photographers and the Photo’s they take are known as micro stock. It’s the same kind of pictures you’ll see on this site. Although 25 cents per photo doesn’t sound like much (some sites pay more), consider that you may have thousands of photo’s uploaded. One of the best know Stock Photographers is pulling down $300 or more a day from just one of the Stock Photography websites!

Another huge advantage of taking stock photography is that your photo’s keep making you money over and over and over. One of the best residual income generators on the Web. Not only is this making money fast, it’s making money fast again and again!

Small Business Web Design

With all the WYSIWYG web generation software out there today, just about anyone can make a website. Plus with programs like WordPress and Premium Themes, building an attractive and functional website is easier than ever.

There are Small Businesses everywhere looking for simple and functional sites. Many believe they have to spend thousands on a website. If you can go in and show them that they can have a eye appealing website that is functional and brings in customers for a few hundred bucks, they’ll be telling everyone they know.

I know one lady who makes these type of websites for small businesses and she does very well. They’re simple 5 to 10 page websites built on CSS or WordPress and the best I remember (which isn’t saying much!) her fee for the most expensive website she creates is around $700. She says her bread and butter websites are the $300 to $500 websites and she has a waiting list! Small businesses need great deals on quality products. Give them a well constructed, functional website and you’ll have Customers for life. Plus, she also gets to do all their updating as they grow! Talk about a business model that makes money fast!

There you have it. 10 ways to make money fast. They’re quick and easy ways to earn extra money online plus you don’t have to be highly skilled or put up a lot of money. What more could a person want in work at home business?

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Could you make extra cash online in a week to buy your Family’s groceries? Could you make enough money to pay your electric bill?

Believe it or not, many people find their self in this situation or one very close to it every day.

Here are 7 Techniques you could use to put some cash in your pocket within a week working online.

1. Project Payday – As an experiment one day, I tried Project Payday just to see how long it would take me to make extra cash. It was free to join so I signed up at their website, downloaded and watched the training video’s they provided. I followed the directions for getting set up to a ‘T’.  All total, between the sign up, watching training video’s and implementing the instructions, took me a little over 3 hours. I then spent about half a day just browsing and reading to get a feel of how this program worked.  I then put my name out as being available for some “offers” and I made $30 by the end of the first day. Next day I put about 6 hours into the program and made over $90 total. They have a $100 guarantee that states that if you follow the simple 4 step process and do not make money in the first 24 hours, they’ll give you $100. Pretty cut and dried and the best guarantee I’ve seen. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a get rich quick scheme. You’ll have to work at it but you can earn money quickly. I personally found it very tedious though! I’m not cut out to spend long stretches at the computer. You can sign up for free with Project Payday and get started today by clicking here. It’s one of the few places where you can start making a little bit of money relatively quick.
2. Read Emails – Taking Online Survey’s, etc: In my opinion, this takes about as much time as Project Payday. There are companies that receive thousands of emails every day that need to be read. Obviously the CEO or other employees can’t spend every day reading emails, so they outsource this. There are several companies where they outsource this type of work as well as other tedious, time consuming chores such as product testing, online surveys, online mystery shopping and other. Send Earnings is one such company that have these offers. Consumers such as you sign up and are normally paid on a per assignment completed basis. The pay varies by what type of assignment you choose. You also won’t get rich doing this, but you can make a little money with some effort. Click Here to learn more or to sign up for this opportunity.
3. Become an Online Researcher - This will entail you signing up with a company that provides research and survey’s to Corporations about their products and services. Once you sign up, you’ll then have an opportunity to take survey’s. These are appointed points. For each survey you complete, you’ll get the allotted amount of points. You rack points up until you decide to cash them out. Most companies use PayPal to pay its researchers. What ever you do, do not, I repeat DO NOT pay a research or survey company to work for them! Any legit company allows it researchers to sign up free. One such company is MySurvey. The provide survey’s and market research data to large Corporations and it seems they’re always looking for Researchers. Click here for more info on MySurveys.
4. One word. Ebay. There are so many ways to make money with eBay that it isn’t funny. Ebay has allowed many people who would not have been able to support their self or their Families to make more than enough money to live well. One technique that I used when I was between jobs many years ago was to visit Garage sales and Estate auctions and buy products to sell on ebay. You have have a good idea what something is worth in order for this to work. Looking at something and saying “Oh, this looks like it’s valuable” isn’t good enough. You’ll wind up with a house full of junk! 
5. Are you a Photographer? There are several freelance photography websites on the Internet where you can sell your photo’s. You don’t have to be a Professional either. Just as long as your photo’s are clear and eye catching, you can sell them on sites like iStockPhoto.com. There’s a huge demand for stock photography and illustrations. You might as well get your share of the cash! There’s also a huge market for other types of photo’s, but I’ll let you figure those out for yourself
6. Sell your Service. Do you know how to use a specific program inside and out? Can you take QuickBooks or any of the MS Office programs and make them beg for mercy? Then you have skills that are in need. Places such as eLance, RentACoder and others have forums set up to help you sell your services. Some of these pay really well also, they’re worth checking out if you need some quick cash!
7. Set up a local directory site. I’m telling you people something right now. I think the future of the Internet is in the local markets. Remember when the Internet got off the ground and the buzz word was “Think Globally?” I’m going to tell you now to “Think Locally!” You treat your local market like a Niche, which it is. Build a Niche site about your local area and charge advertising or use Adsense. The best training I’ve seen is over at The Keyword Academy. Court’s course takes you through everything you’ll need to know to set up a profitable Niche site. From finding the right keywords, to setting up WordPress to learning how and WHERE to get backlinks, it’s all there. I paid $597 for this course and I can honestly say this is one of the few legitimate courses about learning how to make money online that you’ll find. I earned my money back in a very short time

Update: Court has since opened up the Keyword Crash Course as a subscription based model. Now anyone can sign up for just $1 FREE!, take a look at the Training video’s (everything I paid $597!) and ask questions. If you decide to become a subscriber, then you’ll get new training each month, free webinars, forums and a lot more. Click here to learn more and take advantage of this offer for $1 FREE.

Whether you’re a college student needed a few extra bucks for the keg party, a stay at home Mom who needs some extra cash for the heating bill or just found out your company doesn’t need your services any longer, you can use the techniques above to help bring home the bacon.

There is no reason anyone has to lay back and go broke. I’ve known people who were dead ass broke and would not lift a finger to do anything except complain about being out of a job and having no money.

There are opportunities all around us to make money online. It’s up to you to get up and do it though, no one else will do all the work!

Some online entrepreneurs have used the above techniques plus others to start part time cash businesses and grew them into small fortunes. You don’t have to become the next Donald Trump, but there is no reason why you can’t make extra cash online to live off of if you had to.
What are some ways you’ve made quick cash from the Internet in your local market?

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What follows is a list of blog post I consider to be some of the best about making money on the Internet.  This includes articles about Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Programs, SEO, Traffic Generation and Making Money Online. Some of them are my own post on this blog, some are from other bloggers. I hope you enjoy them and learn from them!

Affiliate Programs  

By far, the most popular post I had in 2007 was my review of the Build A Niche Store program and the follow up post on the PHPBay program. I’m still getting a flood of emails about both of those reviews.

I also showed you how to pick a profitable affiliate program.

Carl Ocab, the 13 year old blogging wizard, took a long hard look at Adsense monetization strategies with his post “A Hardcore Advice On Making Money with Adsense.”

Affiliate Marketing

Also in 2007, I showed you how to create a successful affiliate marketing empire  with blog networks.

Here are some post and reviews I did on Affiliate Marketing tools.

• Golden Can Review
• Pop Shops
• Auction Ads
• Blog Profit Blueprint
• Webmerge

DoshDosh had a neat article about T-Shirt affiliate marketing. It’s worth checking into even if you don’t sell T-Shirts!

Ian Fernando uses video to demonstrate how to use Excel to help you with keywords. It’s a great tutorial!

Everyone needs a little inspiration, especially when you’re starting out. Linda over at 5 Star Affiliate Programs posted a story about an inner city kid who took $70 and turned it into a 3 Million dollar business. You know, it’s these type of stories I think about when I see or hear someone say “The Good Old Days of the Internet are over, there are no more profitable Niches” or some other lame excuse for not succeeding.

PPC Marketing

 High Performance Affiliate Marketing was a review of the ebook I bought from Jeremy Palmer. If you’ve ever wondered if you could make money with PPC, or wondered if people can make a million dollars a year from Affiliate Marketing, read this ebook and you’ll have your answers. Jeremy takes you step by step and shows you how to make money with Affiliate Marketing and PPC.

Kieron Donoghue wrote an excellent article back in June about how to build a landing page that won’t get banned by Google Adwords. If you’re thinking about jumping into PPC, or have lost your butt trying out PPC and can’t figure out why, give his article a view.

Staying with PPC for a second, Fraser Edwards had a pretty nifty tutorial on how to transfer your Adwords Adverts to Adcenter. This technique saved me some time with my PPC campaigns.

Back in October, Super Affiliate Zac Johnson published his guide “Super Affiliates Guide To PPC Marketing.” It was on par with Jeremy’s ebook on how to make money with PPC. This is a step-by-step guide to getting started with PPC. Zac holds your hand all the way through the process. Very informative and user friendly!

Another Super Affiliate in the PPC world is Amit Mehta. Amit has a two part series “What’s The Secret of Affiliate Success.” These articles really opened my mind up to new ideas and out of the box thinking.

Traffic Generation

Some Affiliate Marketers are still driving targeted traffic to their websites and converting the traffic into sales with article marketing, even though some “guru’s” claim that it’s dead. Just goes to show you can’t always believe what “gurus” say! I showed you how to start article marketing in this post.

I gave you some tips on building a opt in email list. Some of you told me that this helped you a great deal in building your own list. I’m glad I could help.

We’ve all heard the buzz about viral this and viral that…haven’t you? Well, DailyBlogTips wrote an excellent piece about why viral content is King. And you know what? He has a good point!

Nate Whitehill shared his How-To post about the 5 Types of Blog Post That Generate Traffic. Follow his advice if you want tons of traffic!

Quadszilla at SEOBlackHat showed everyone (by example) of what the perfect link baiting article was when he posted an article “250 Best Movies Made In The Last 30 Years.”   He then followed it up later with a post called “3 Link Bait Lessons From a Master Baiter” where he explained the article about the top movies and why it went viral. This is a must read for any of you wanting to perfect your Link Baiting game.

How To Make Money Online

For some silly reason in 2007, I kept seeing people ask how to get their Adsense Account banned.

I thought the post by Shoemoney about his little arrow trick to increase Adwords CTRwas a joke…until I tried it myself. My CTR did go up! Shoemoney also had a nice article on 5 ways to Make Passive income from your website.

Mark @ 45n5 has some damn good articles on making sites that bring in the Moo Lah! Here’s one article he posted about creating a basic business plan to profit $600 a month from blogs.

Caroline Middlebrook has done a helluva job documenting her journey about making money online. She wrote a very in depth post titled “10 Strategies For Making Money Online.” I think you’ll find this post to be very helpful. A lot of thinking outside the box on this one.

2007 saw eMomsAtHome go from a single blogger, Wendy Piersall, to a multi-blogger platform. Wendy wrote a very good article about the Top 10 Internet Home Based Business’s You Can Start and Run In Your Underwear.

Back in February, Strategic Profits had a series on what’s holding you back. If you’re thinking about getting into affiliate marketing or you’re having a hard time making money at it, go to their site and read up and actually do what they teach!

Andrew Wee caught my attention real quick with his post “Creating Content For Traffic Generation and Profit.” Andrew told us how he finds quality content writers. If any of you are running multiple content sites, then you know what a task this can be!

Blogs

This list of WordPress Adsense Themesis still one of the most popular post on AffiliateWatcher.Com

This post about which is more profitable in the long run, blogs or traditional websites, has been linked too and blogged about quite a bit.

I found Courtney Tuttle’s post on starting a profitable blog to be very helpful in getting this blog started. While there, take a look at his series of post on keyword sniping.

ProBlogger underwent a face lift, the blog, not Darren…lol In Feburary Darren wrote a timely piece on 11 ways to find new RSS Subscribers.

Ryan Caldwell wrote a post on Performancing about how to sqeeze more income out of your blog. This is an excellent article that will get you to thinking outside the box about ways to increase your income from your websites.

Lorelle @ LorelleOnWordpress threw up a post about resources to find content for your blog. This is one of the most comprehensive list of resources I’ve seen on the ‘Net.

SEO

GrayWolf had an excellent series of interviews about local search. He interviewed some of the biggest names in SEO and Search.

Andy Beard wrote a post about the Top SEO linkng mistakes even the Pro’s make. It made me step back a minute and look at my SEO abilities. Thanks Andy!

Over at Entrepreneur’s Journey, Yaro Starak blogged about 80/20 Of Search Engine Marketing. This is part 1 of a 2 part series on SEO. Very well done!

Ades @ adesblog.com showed us how to PROPERLY write a link exchange email. This is very important in your link building efforts for your websites.

Mark @ Digerati Marketing guest posted on Eli’s BluehatSEO site about making money with a video blog. I know this won’t be everyones cup of tea, oh well, for others it will help them with their business of making money online. Enjoy and learn from it even if you don’t use it.

2007 saw Google cracking down on sites that sold paid links. Jim Boykin of WeBuildPages had a great response to all the hoopla that was running rampant around the Internet.

Okay, I do have more bookmarked. I didn’t realize how many post I bookmark! I have to stop here or this post will turn into a War and Peace post.

There is gold in the post above and a lot of it. Study the post and take action if you want to be successful in 2008!

What were some of your favorite ways to make money articles of 2007? Share them with the rest of us!

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Anyway, to continue with the subject of the last post about Making Money with Halloween Affiliate Programs, I’m going to give you a little bonus.

A free starter list of Halloween keywords!

I received a few emails asking how to take advantage of the Halloween affiliate programs I posted since it was so close to Halloween.

Here are a few ways to make money with Halloween affiliate programs.

• If you have a high traffic site, adding a page with popular Halloween costumes and a link back to one of the affiliate programs can bring in some extra cash.
• It’s a little late in the Season to start a new blog or website with a Halloween theme.
• Buying advertising in a Newsletter with relevant content will pull in some sales.
• Classified ads if you’re experienced in this form of advertising.
• An opt in email list could be a hidden goldmine if it’s highly targeted.
• PPC is probably your best bet if you know what you’re doing.

I’m attaching a keyword list of 420 Halloween keywords to this post. I haven’t gone through them, it’s a rough list and it needs some tweaking. If you know how to use Adwords, YPN or MSN AdCenter, this will give you a start.

Use this list at your own risk. I’m not making any claims other than this is a list of Halloween related keywords.

One of the emails I received was from a lady who worked in a large Office building. She told me that every year starting in Sept. she distributes a flyer telling her fellow Office workers about her Halloween site. She list a few popular Halloween Costumes and puts a call to action of “Order By Oct. 20th for Guaranteed Delivery!”

She also emails all her friends and ask them to post the flyer on bulletin boards or pass the flyer around the Offices. She repeats this again Oct 1st and Oct. 15th.

She said she can expect to make $1500 to $3500 in commissions in Sept. and Oct. every year. Not bad for two months of sales with minimum effort!

Click Here for your Halloween Keyword List in a .txt file.

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Why Your Blogs and Your Life Sucks

The firs post I ran across last week was by Michael Gray, aka Gray Wolf, at Wolf-Howl.Com. Michael has an excellent post on why your post’s to social networking sites never go anywhere.

He makes several excellent observations about those who wonder why they’re not a celebrity, why no one ever votes on their stories and why things do not fall into place for them.

The best point he made is one that I’ve often told people who I’ve trained in my Construction business when they asked why their business has never taken off.  I’ve had grown men who should have known better tell me “It’s not fair you have all this business” or “I could be successful too if I had your Clients.” Somehow they never realized I started with “0″ freakin’ Clients just like they did!

Here’s what Michael had to say:

It’s not Fair No one Votes for me! I know your kindergarten teacher told you everything was fair, but it was a lie … really. Noting in life is fair. Some people are better looking, some people are smarter, some people can eat all they want and not gain a pound. Life isn’t fair, it never was and it never will be. Stop sitting around complaining about it and get off your ass and do something you are better at. Really if you spent as much time working as you did whining about the injustice of it all, we’d both be better off.

Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Michael does go on to give the readers some tips to overcome all these excuses.

What’s Your Single Point of Failure?

The next post I came across was one from SEO Black Hat’s QuadsZilla. He shares an email from a reader who was pulling down 130k a year with Adsense. Google banned his sites suddenly and this person ended up with little to no income. This person sent Quads the email asking what he should do now that Google banned his Adsense accounts.

Judging from Quad’s post, I’m betting the person who sent the email was not expecting how he replied.

In a nutshell, QuadsZilla pointed out 3 critical errors that the emailer had made.

1. All the emailer’s income came from Adsense

2. He used Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO tactics on the same Adsense account

3. Failed to save/invest some of that 130k per year Jack he was bringing in

Go to SEO Black Hat’s site and read the full post. It’s a great lesson in Online and Offline business practices.

If you haven’t learned how to develop multiple streams of income from your Online business, it may be time you started!

Hard Work (and ’smart’ work) Never Go Un-Rewarded

Finally, I read on Shoemoney’s site where AuctionAds was sold to MediaWhiz. Big congratulations goes out to Jeremy and Dave for their success.

It was only a few months ago when Jeremy and Dave started AuctionAds. Currently they have over 25,000 affiliates pushing 300 MILLION ADS PER DAY! All this within 4 months of launching AuctionAds.

If you have followed Jeremy’s blog for any length of time, you know this guy is a tireless promoter of his business. Judging from the amount of appearances he makes around the country and from his blog post, this guy sleeps very little and works a lot.

Are You Your Own Worse Enemy?

Let’s face it, many of you out there will never succeed because you are not willing to put the time, money and personal sacrifices into what your doing to become a success.

I’m still amazed at how many people I see in forums or on blogs whining about how they need quick cash and would someone please tell them how to make money online quickly. Newsflash folks, the Internet is not your freakin’ ATM!

An online business is a lot like any other business. It takes time, effort and sacrifice to develop a business into a income generating venture. Are you going to suck it up and persevere or roll over and die?

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I dismissed blogging in general because it takes some time to learn how to make money fast (the exception is local websites and blogs, see below). I assumed the emailer needed to find ways to make money fast.

Here are my suggestions to the emailer.

1. Project Payday: A few months ago, I experimented with a way to make money quick online with a program called Project Payday. I took a day and researched this project online. Seemed real people were making real money with it. Not getting rich, but making enough extra money quickly to pay some bills or other stuff. The next day I signed up with Project Payday, watched the training video’s and browsed the Forums to get a feel as to how this program worked. In all, this process took me a few hours. The next day I followed the directions and made myself available for some “offers”. The first day, I made $55. The next day I hit it hard for about 6 hours and brought down $105 for my efforts. The following day, I worked 3 to 4 hours total and made $65. I soon found out one drawback to this program. It’s boring! No special skills are needed other than the know-how to operate your computer and use the Internet, but it is tedious work. I’m not cut out to spend hours behind a computer! Most people can make money quickly with this program, but you’ll have to put the time into it. The more time you put into it, the more money you’ll make generally. It’s not rocket science but you will have to keep track of the trials you sign up for. If you’re interested, check out Project Payday by clicking here. It’s free to sign up if you fill out an offer or you can buy directly into the program. Next you’ll need to read the promotional literature they have and watch the training video’s. They even have a guarantee that says if you follow the simple 4 step process in Method 1 and don’t make money in 24 hours, they’ll give you $100! This is the best guarantee I’ve seen online. I doubt anyone will need it though, because I found it easy to make money with Project Payday although it was boring computer work.
2. Read Emails – Taking Online Survey’s, etc: In my opinion, this isn’t as easy as Project Payday, but it’s real close. There are companies that receive thousands of emails every day that need to be read. Obviously the CEO or other employees can’t spend every day reading emails, so they outsource this. There are several companies where they outsource this type of work as well as other tedious, time consuming chores such as product testing, online surveys, online mystery shopping and other. Send Earnings is one such company that other companies outsource to. Consumers such as you sign up and are normally paid on a per assignment completed basis. The pay varies by what type of assignment you choose. You choose where you want to make money. Click Here to learn more or to sign up for this opportunity.
3. Become an Online Researcher- Large Corporations today rely on tons of data and feedback from consumers to develop and improve their product lines. Many use focus groups to test products and services before the general public ever gets chance to see it. MySurvey is one company that provides this kind of market research and feedback data to these Corporations. They do this through people like you. How? You sign up with MySurvey and take survey’s about consumer products and services. Each survey is designated with a certain number of points. When you complete the survey or market research questionaire, your awarded those points. When you reach the minimum amount for a cash out (every company is different as to what point you can cash out) they will pay you. Generally through PayPal. So you get the money pretty quick. TIP: Never, ever pay a company to take market research surveys. Legitimate companies will never require you to pay. MySurvey has FREE signup and you can get started earning money through them pretty darn quick! Click here to visit the Official MySurvey page.
4. Make Money On Ebay - There are many ways to make money with eBay. It seems that the 2 most popular ways are either by going to Garage Sales or Estate Sales and buying stuff to resell. You can make some decent money this way. Back in 2001 I did this same thing for several months and I made around 1-1600 per month. But it was long hard work making all those auctions or driving around looking for deals at Garage sales. Another way that is becoming more and more popular is people starting their own online stores with the help of eBay. ProStores is an ebay company that offers several packages for you to start your online store. They do a lot of the work of getting set up for you. If this sounds interesting, give them a test drive. One Month Free Trial! ProStores – an eBay Company
5. Become an Online Tutor – I’m not sure what this pays, but I’ve known people in the past who have worked with companies like e-Tutor, SmartThinking and Tutor.Com. Online tutoring is an in-demand service and growing all the time. If you like helping others learn, this could be just the ticket for you. You will have to set aside a certain number of hours per week, anywhere from 2 hours on up on average depending upon which service you go with.
6. SwagBucks – Although you can’t make money directly with Swagbucks, you can earn free gift cards and merchandise. My Wife uses Swagbucks as well and loves getting the Amazon.com gift cards to get stuff from Amazon, but Swagbucks has their own catalog of nice products. In fact, she has gotten some nice jewelry from them for her and our daughter. The way this works is that you earn points by browsing the Internet using the SwagBucks tool bar (downloading is easy, free and you’ll rack up points faster by using it to search the Internet with) and doing other things like taking polls and survey’s or watching video’s. I know several people who get their free merchandise like jewelry or electronics and then turn around and sell them for a nice profit on Ebay and Craigslist. If you surf the web a lot, then this may be just the thing for you. I sign in every time I surf the Internet or shop online and my points rack up fairly quick. I also watch their video’s and take their polls to add my points to my account. Click here to check out Swagbucks! What’s cool is you can sign up through your favorite Social Netowrk like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yahoo and Google. I’m betting you’ll see some of your friends who are using Swagbucks to get gifts and merchandise!
7. Become an Online Juror – Even Lawyers need to practice! There are places such a eJury and TrialJuries.Com that stage mock trials. The Jurors get paid anywhere from $5 to $60 depending on how complex the case is. There’s no guarantee you’ll get a case, but it has to better than cleaning up after the old folks at the Senior Citizen Center! Many colleges have access to these mock jury trials, but from what I’ve been told, they don’t pay as much as the online jury pools. Also, as with anything in life, if you slack off on the Jury, don’t expect to be called back. The more you pay attention and get involved, the more likely they’ll “keep your name around.”

Some college students show up on the first day in a bright shiny BMW convertible. Those are the ones who do not need help. For most College Students, a few extra dollars a month goes a long ways in making it easier to study for their classes. If you’re in a pinch, there’s no need to run down to the Blood Center to give blood, just turn your computer on and go to work with these quick and simple ways to make money fast.

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Blog or website, which one should you choose for long term affiliate profits? Unless you just crawled out from beneath a rock, you know blogs are all the rage now.

By listening so some guru’s, you’d think all you have to do is sign up for a Blogger account, slap an affiliate link or Adsene code on the blog, write an article or two per week, and hire an armored car to take your checks to the bank. Man, I wish it was half that easy!

Will Blogs Rule The Internet In The Future?

Methinks Not! 

I’ll admit that blogs are pretty darn good vehicles for affiliate profits, but let’s not discount the good ole static html website just yet!

This past weekend I did quite a bit of surfing. My main point in surfing was to see which sites were ranking well for specific keywords. I used Google only.

What I found made me stop and think about which platform, blog or website, I should choose for long term profits.

A few of the keywords/phrases I searched for randomly were; dog training, bbq recipes, homeschool basics, etc.

What I found is that on average, html websites dominated the SERPS. What was more surprising was the age of some of these pages that were dominating the top spots. There were pages with articles as far back as 2001. In comparison, the oldest blog post I could find dominating a SERP page was a 2005 post!

The areas where I saw blog post dominating was the “making money online” type of keywords. I figure it’s simply because of the sheer number of bloggers blogging about making money online.  Once you move away from internet related keywords, good ole HTML sites rule!

How Could This Benefit You?

Well, if you’re out there cranking out affiliate blogs after affiliate blogs in hopes that they will set your income on auto-pilot, you’re going to have some let downs come your way. From what I can discern, blogs are great for short term profits as long as the content is kept fresh. Stop posting fresh content, you and your blog dies along with your income.

On the other hand, it looks like as a website get’s older, it gets sweeter, just like Wine or Tennessee Bourbon! Imagine that! It’s been proven time and time again that Google loves old content rich sites. Something to keep in mind next time you’re shopping for a domain.

Websites don’t have to be updated continually to produce income for their owners. For me, that’s a great benefit!

I have one site that I made in 2001. That site only has about 80 or so pages on it, but several pages dominate the SERPS for a few local and regional real estate related keywords. I don’t update it often, maybe a new article every 2 or 3 months, but that baby keeps pulling in money like no one’s business!

A Long Term Income Strategy for Netpreneurs

If you haven’t figured out yet that your portfolio should have a mix of blogs and HTML websites, well, I just told you.

I’m not a big fan of adding a blog onto a HTML website. I’ve tried that and it’s not for me. I’ve also tried adding forums onto blogs and HTML websites, not for me either.

What I have found that works for me is a niche website that is focused on one subject. This strategy is no different than ones used by many bloggers, it just uses a standard website rather than a blog platform.

If your goal is to create long term residual income with the least amount of effort, then think about adding some websites to  your portfolio. Don’t expect them to take off and make a kazillion dollars in the next few months, but if built well they will succeed.

You Can’t Blog Forever

The biggest advantage I see with websites is that they don’t have to be updated on a regular basis like blogs.

The time will come when you’ll get burned out from blogging. Many of you who’ve just started think that you’ll be able to keep your blog running and profitable forever. Wait. Just wait.

Have you noticed how many bloggers who have left us? Eventually you’ll get tired of researching new content, building fresh links, commenting, networking, etc.

This is where reality hits home. When you stop blogging, you’ll stop earning.

No more pay per post, no more paid reviews, no more traffic for you Adsense (like you’re making money off of that anyway…:)). Nothing. Nada.

My recommendation? Don’t give up on your red hot blog just yet, but if I were looking for long term profits (which I am), I’d brush up on my HTML skills and crank out some good old fashioned HTML websites. Hey, if you want quicker SERP results with your HTML websites, buy an old domain!

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I read the story about Uncle Sam slapping the irons on Super Spammer Robert Alan Soloway and I have to stop and ask myself, who in the hell still buys anything from an email spammer? Of course, I ask myself nearly the same questions when I hear someone whining because they lost thousands of dollars to the Nigerian scam.

Why do these tactics still work? Is it that the average Internet user is ignorant or are there really that many new Internet users coming online every day?

I can only think of one thing besides ignorance – GREED.

Soloway sent out millions of emails from other peoples computers advertising his Internet Consultant site. He told people he could send out millions of emails over 15 days for $495. Apparently many people jumped at this offer because prosecutors say he made over $770,000. They also say he lives in a Ritzy apartment and drives a Mercedes convertible. All this by sending out a few million spam emails!

You know, it’s hard to feel sorry for the victims of these scams when they get greedy. I don’t feel sorry for those who fall for the Nigerian scams and I don’t feel sorry for those who fell for the Soloway scam. Sooner or later you have to take responsibility for your actions. Wake up, engage your brain and do 5 minutes of research before sending money out over the Internet to someone you don’t know.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. Am I missing something here? Why is it that email spamming still works? Are people really this ignorant, greedy or lazy?

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For those of you who don’t know, JohnChow.Com has been running a “review johnchow.com” post. All you do is review johnchow.com with a link to his rules page and his main page with the anchor text of “make money online“. He’ll then give you a link from his PR6 blog back to your site. This helps his blog and your site as well.

One astute reader happened to notice that johnchow.com has fallen from the #2 spot in Google SERPS for the keyword “make money quick” online. In fact, when I went and checked, I could not find his site in the first 20. Another reader also noticed that the amount of supplemental pages in the Google SERPS from johnchow.com has risen.

What Happened?

Apparently johnchow.com has been penalized by Google. They may have felt that all the new anchor text of “make money online” pointing to johnchow.com was a Google bomb and penalized his site. This appears to be the most likely situation.

What is a Google bomb? Do you remember back about a year ago when a group was pushing for everyone to link to a page on Wiki about President Bush with the anchor text of something like “stupid”. Hundreds if not thousands of websites were linking to this page with the anchor text of “stupid”. Then, if someone went to Google and looked for the keyword “stupid”, the first page to pop up was the Wiki page about President Bush. When many pages point to one particular page all with the same anchor text in a relatively short amount of time, this is what’s known as a Google bomb.

It didn’t take Google long to catch on to what was happening as many spammers would do the same thing with links to one particular landing page. Google started catching these people who were Google bombing and penalizing their pages in the SERPS.

From the looks of it, there were too many people reviewing johnchow.com’s site and using his suggested anchor text of “make money online” and so it looks like Big Brother Google spanked his site for it.  Maybe Matt Cutts can fill us in on what, if anything, has happened.

Will it hurt his site? Probably not as he still has hundreds, if not thousands of links pointing to his site. Plus this little “scandal” may actually make his site much more popular than it is now, if that can be done!

Let this be a lesson for everyone. Google has caught on to Google bombing and if it can happen to John Chow, it certainly can happen to you and I!

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