Make Money Online with Affiliate Programs
Overview
Affiliate Marketing allows you to make money online without a web site or products.
Affiliate programs are a great way to get started in an online business. You can sell them via a web site, blog or email (although to make top money you will need a web site). The top Affiliates make a great living from this and there are thousands who make a decent amount of extra cash each month.
Basically, being an affiliate earns you commission by reselling other companies products or services. The transaction and payment is handled by the Affiliate Network. You don't have to develop a product, stock inventory, deal with orders, shipping and/or customer complaints. All you need to do is get people to click on your affiliate link.
An affiliate link will usually be a unique code you add to a URL link to the the merchants web site. This code tells the merchant that the visitor has come from you. If someone clicks on this link and purchases the product you will get a percentage of the overall price paid to you as a commission. The percentage can vary from single figure percentages to over 70%.
When someone follows your link to a product page they don't necessarily have to purchase the product first time. In many cases a 'Cookie' is saved on the prospective customers machine. A cookie is a file which in this instance tells the merchant that it was you that first attracted the customer to the site. These cookies are valid for a period of time after the customer first uses your link. This depends on the merchant / affiliate network and can be as long as one year. If the product is purchased in this time period you get the commission even if the customer subsequently goes directly to the merchants site.
Some affiliates have 'tiers'. In this instance not only do you get a commission on any sales you refer but if someone you refer sells the product themselves you get a commission of these sales.
Some programs have recurring commissions. These reward you for the lifetime of the customer. Not only do you earn commissions from the initial sale, but you'll continue to earn a recurring commission as long as that customer remains active.
An example of a recurring commission would be where there is a membership fee involved. Not only would you earn commission when the customer signs up but you would earn further commission every time that customer renewed their subscription. You would get paid for as long as that customer was active.
I hope you're getting the idea now that selling other peoples products can be extremely profitable !!
As stated above affiliate marketing is where you can sell another company's service or product and make a commission on every sale or lead. Your job is to drive traffic (customers) to your affiliate link.
There are affiliate programs for every area and you will be able to find several that fit your interests (see Affiliate Networks for ideas).
Affiliate programs offer a low cost and risk free way to make serious money. The reason affiliate programs are so great is that you only need to focus on marketing. All the rest is looked after by the network or merchant.
If you're serious about making money from affiliate marketing we recommend Rosalind Gardner's ebook 'The Super Affiliate Handbook'. It takes you through getting started all the way to raking in the big cheques. There's no bull or hype that is found in many ebooks on this subject just good honest information that will save you time and make you money at half the price of most ebooks on this subject.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Affiliate Networks
Affiliate Networks
Using affiliate networks is the easiest way of earning money from affiliates. Once you've signed up with them ( for free ) you can choose from any ( and as many ) of the programs their network contains.
The thing about networks is that they will perform the tracking, and administration all you have to do is promote the merchants and wait for the checks to arrive.
Recommended Affiliate Networks
Commission Junction
With a network containing the biggest names on the internet such as Amazon, ebay, Expedia and Yahoo Camion junction is the number one affiliate network. If you haven't already checked this network out you should do so now by going to :-
http://www.cj.com/
Clickbank
Mainly selling digital products such as ebooks Clickbank offers great sales commissions - up to 70%.
http://www.clickbank.com/
Affiliate Fuel
The one downside of this scheme is that you need at least 2000 unique visitors per day. However if your site receives this sort of traffic they are definitely worth working with. They offer a personally managed and tailored service to each of their publishers.
http://www.affiliatefuel.com/
Using affiliate networks is the easiest way of earning money from affiliates. Once you've signed up with them ( for free ) you can choose from any ( and as many ) of the programs their network contains.
The thing about networks is that they will perform the tracking, and administration all you have to do is promote the merchants and wait for the checks to arrive.
Recommended Affiliate Networks
Commission Junction
With a network containing the biggest names on the internet such as Amazon, ebay, Expedia and Yahoo Camion junction is the number one affiliate network. If you haven't already checked this network out you should do so now by going to :-
http://www.cj.com/
Clickbank
Mainly selling digital products such as ebooks Clickbank offers great sales commissions - up to 70%.
http://www.clickbank.com/
Affiliate Fuel
The one downside of this scheme is that you need at least 2000 unique visitors per day. However if your site receives this sort of traffic they are definitely worth working with. They offer a personally managed and tailored service to each of their publishers.
http://www.affiliatefuel.com/
Affiliate Marketing Glossary
Affiliate Marketing Glossary
Affiliate marketing has a unique language all to itself. Below is an A - Z of some of the most common affiliate marketing terms.
Adsense: Program from Google where relevant ads are displayed on websites. The website owner is paid every time one of these ads is clicked.
Affiliate: Anyone who earns commission for referring clicks or leads to a merchant. In most cases this commission is paid only when a sale is made in some however money is paid just for the referred click. This is most often done from a website but can be done via a mailing list or blog.
Affiliate Link: A piece of code in a graphic or text link that identifies to the merchant which affiliate sent the customer to their site.
Affiliate Directory: A directory of affiliate programs, featuring information such as the commission rate, number of affiliates, and affiliate solution provider. These are great places to find relevant and profitable programs.
Affiliate Network: A third party providing services to affiliate merchants and affiliates, including tracking technology, reporting tools, and payment processing. Click here for the top networks.
Affiliate Program: Where a merchant pays commission to an affiliate who generates traffic to the merchant website. May require a purchase to be paid before commission is paid. For the best Affiliate Programs click here.
Charge Back: an incomplete sales transaction (i.e. merchandise is purchased and then returned within the guarantee period) that results in an affiliate commission deduction.
Click-through: when a user clicks on a affiliate link.
Click-Through Ratio (CTR): percentage of visitors to a webpage who click-through on a affiliate link to visit the merchant's web site.
Commission: income an affiliate receives for generating a sale, lead or click-through to a merchant's web site. Usually received when a sale is made and as a percentage of that sale.
Co-branding: Where affiliates are able to include their own logo on the merchant's site or in a free promotional product provided by the merchant.
Cookie: A small file that is sent to the users PC when they visit the merchants website. This tells the merchant which affiliate sent the user if they subsequently return to the merchants site directly ( not using the affiliate link ). A cookie is usually valid for a period of time i.e. if a cookie is valid for 90 days the affiliate will earn commission if the product is purchased within 90 days of the user arriving at the merchants site by the affiliate's link.
E-mail Link: an affiliate link to a merchant site in an e-mail which is usually set to a large number of people on a distribution list by the affiliate.
Impression: how many times an advertising link is displayed. In some cases merchants will pay per number of impressions i.e. 1$ per 1000 impressions.
Merchant: an online business that markets and sells goods or services.
Pay-Per-Sale: program where an affiliate receives a commission for each sale of a product or service that they refer to a merchant's web site. Pay-per-sale programs usually offer the highest commissions and the lowest conversion ratio.
Pay-Per-Lead: program where an affiliate receives a commission for each sales lead that they generate for a merchant web site. Examples would include completed surveys, contest or sweepstakes entries, downloaded software demos, or free trials. Pay-per-lead generally offers midrange commissions and midrange to high conversion ratios.
Pay-Per-Click: program where an affiliate receives receive a commission for each click (visitor) they refer to a merchant's web site. Pay-per-click programs generally offer some of the lowest commissions (from $0.01 to $0.25 per click), and a very high conversion ratio since visitors need only click on a link to earn the affiliate a commission. Google Adsense is the current leader in this area.
Residual Earnings: programs that pay affiliates not just for the first sale a shopper form their sites makes, but all additional sales made at the merchant's site by that customer. Reliant on cookies.
Sales Page: Merchant webpage that tries to persuade the visitor to buy their product.
Targeted Marketing: offering the right offer to the right customer at the right time.
Tracking Method: the way that a program tracks referred sales, leads or clicks. The most common are by using a unique web address (URL) for each affiliate, or by embedding an affiliate ID number into the link that is processed by the merchant's software. Some programs also use cookies for tracking.
Text Link: link that is not accompanied by a graphical image.
Two-tier: affiliate marketing model that pays a commission for sales made by affiliates signed additional affiliates below themselves, so that when the second tier affiliates earn a commission, the affiliate above them also receives a commission.
Affiliate marketing has a unique language all to itself. Below is an A - Z of some of the most common affiliate marketing terms.
Adsense: Program from Google where relevant ads are displayed on websites. The website owner is paid every time one of these ads is clicked.
Affiliate: Anyone who earns commission for referring clicks or leads to a merchant. In most cases this commission is paid only when a sale is made in some however money is paid just for the referred click. This is most often done from a website but can be done via a mailing list or blog.
Affiliate Link: A piece of code in a graphic or text link that identifies to the merchant which affiliate sent the customer to their site.
Affiliate Directory: A directory of affiliate programs, featuring information such as the commission rate, number of affiliates, and affiliate solution provider. These are great places to find relevant and profitable programs.
Affiliate Network: A third party providing services to affiliate merchants and affiliates, including tracking technology, reporting tools, and payment processing. Click here for the top networks.
Affiliate Program: Where a merchant pays commission to an affiliate who generates traffic to the merchant website. May require a purchase to be paid before commission is paid. For the best Affiliate Programs click here.
Charge Back: an incomplete sales transaction (i.e. merchandise is purchased and then returned within the guarantee period) that results in an affiliate commission deduction.
Click-through: when a user clicks on a affiliate link.
Click-Through Ratio (CTR): percentage of visitors to a webpage who click-through on a affiliate link to visit the merchant's web site.
Commission: income an affiliate receives for generating a sale, lead or click-through to a merchant's web site. Usually received when a sale is made and as a percentage of that sale.
Co-branding: Where affiliates are able to include their own logo on the merchant's site or in a free promotional product provided by the merchant.
Cookie: A small file that is sent to the users PC when they visit the merchants website. This tells the merchant which affiliate sent the user if they subsequently return to the merchants site directly ( not using the affiliate link ). A cookie is usually valid for a period of time i.e. if a cookie is valid for 90 days the affiliate will earn commission if the product is purchased within 90 days of the user arriving at the merchants site by the affiliate's link.
E-mail Link: an affiliate link to a merchant site in an e-mail which is usually set to a large number of people on a distribution list by the affiliate.
Impression: how many times an advertising link is displayed. In some cases merchants will pay per number of impressions i.e. 1$ per 1000 impressions.
Merchant: an online business that markets and sells goods or services.
Pay-Per-Sale: program where an affiliate receives a commission for each sale of a product or service that they refer to a merchant's web site. Pay-per-sale programs usually offer the highest commissions and the lowest conversion ratio.
Pay-Per-Lead: program where an affiliate receives a commission for each sales lead that they generate for a merchant web site. Examples would include completed surveys, contest or sweepstakes entries, downloaded software demos, or free trials. Pay-per-lead generally offers midrange commissions and midrange to high conversion ratios.
Pay-Per-Click: program where an affiliate receives receive a commission for each click (visitor) they refer to a merchant's web site. Pay-per-click programs generally offer some of the lowest commissions (from $0.01 to $0.25 per click), and a very high conversion ratio since visitors need only click on a link to earn the affiliate a commission. Google Adsense is the current leader in this area.
Residual Earnings: programs that pay affiliates not just for the first sale a shopper form their sites makes, but all additional sales made at the merchant's site by that customer. Reliant on cookies.
Sales Page: Merchant webpage that tries to persuade the visitor to buy their product.
Targeted Marketing: offering the right offer to the right customer at the right time.
Tracking Method: the way that a program tracks referred sales, leads or clicks. The most common are by using a unique web address (URL) for each affiliate, or by embedding an affiliate ID number into the link that is processed by the merchant's software. Some programs also use cookies for tracking.
Text Link: link that is not accompanied by a graphical image.
Two-tier: affiliate marketing model that pays a commission for sales made by affiliates signed additional affiliates below themselves, so that when the second tier affiliates earn a commission, the affiliate above them also receives a commission.
Make Affiliate Money Online with no Website
Make Affiliate Money Online with no Website
There is an affiliate money making method that thousands of Internet Entrepreneurs use which requires no product, no stock, no Website and no huge investment of time or money.
Quite simply you advertise affiliate programs using Pay Per click (PPC) advertising such as Google Adwords.
On Affiliate merchants such as Clickbank there are thousands of informational products that will pay $25+ per sale to the affiliate who referred the customer.
Quite often Affiliates promote these links by creating a website and/or email distribution list. But these methods take a long time, effort and money to get set up and lack flexibility.
What the smart Affiliate marketers do is create an ad using a PPC ad that costs very little money per click. This ad links directly to the vendor’s sales page with the affiliates unique link (this tells the vendor it was you that sent them). If the visitor purchases the product at this time or shortly afterwards you the affiliate make a referral fee.
Let me give you an example: -
You’re a keen golfer and one day you come across an Ebook, which is the best golfing instructional manual you’ve ever read. It cost $55 but you consider it well worth the money as your golf has improved to a level you never thought possible.
It makes you think there are millions of golfers across the world that all want to improve their game. Many will be looking on the Internet for tips and instruction.
You visit the sales page again and see that at the bottom there is a link for affiliates. You follow the link and see that the author sells his product through the Clickbank network. Each affiliate gets $30 of any sale they refer.
You do a bit of research and see that thousands of people search on the Internet via the search engines for instruction on how to improve their golf swing. You set up a ‘Google Adwords’ account for free and play with some of the golf improvement keywords your search engine research brought up. You find that the keyword phrase ‘golf perfect swing’ although entered by thousands of budding golfers each month doesn’t have that much competition in Adwords and you can purchase a Adword PPC ad that will show up towards the top of the Google result page when someone enters ‘golf perfect swing’. If someone clicks on your ad they will be directly to the Ebook sales page but via your affiliate ID. Therefore if anyone purchases the book after arriving from your ad you stand to make $30.
As you’ve done your research well you’re only charged 10 Cents for each click on your ad. Therefore as long as you get one purchase per 299 people who click on your ad you will make a profit.
The reality is that as Search Engines provide extremely targeted traffic and Sales pages today are very good you will more likely make at least 3-5 sales per 100 people that click your ad. Therefore if 300 people click your ads you could make $450 at a cost to you of just $30. A profit of $420!!
The great thing about doing your affiliate marketing in this way is that it is extremely flexible. Quite often fads will come and go in the space of months. Marketing them in this way allows you to jump on when the fad starts and jump off immediately it stops making you money.
With thousands of affiliate programs out there some with lifetime earnings and tiers the possibilities are endless.
There is an affiliate money making method that thousands of Internet Entrepreneurs use which requires no product, no stock, no Website and no huge investment of time or money.
Quite simply you advertise affiliate programs using Pay Per click (PPC) advertising such as Google Adwords.
On Affiliate merchants such as Clickbank there are thousands of informational products that will pay $25+ per sale to the affiliate who referred the customer.
Quite often Affiliates promote these links by creating a website and/or email distribution list. But these methods take a long time, effort and money to get set up and lack flexibility.
What the smart Affiliate marketers do is create an ad using a PPC ad that costs very little money per click. This ad links directly to the vendor’s sales page with the affiliates unique link (this tells the vendor it was you that sent them). If the visitor purchases the product at this time or shortly afterwards you the affiliate make a referral fee.
Let me give you an example: -
You’re a keen golfer and one day you come across an Ebook, which is the best golfing instructional manual you’ve ever read. It cost $55 but you consider it well worth the money as your golf has improved to a level you never thought possible.
It makes you think there are millions of golfers across the world that all want to improve their game. Many will be looking on the Internet for tips and instruction.
You visit the sales page again and see that at the bottom there is a link for affiliates. You follow the link and see that the author sells his product through the Clickbank network. Each affiliate gets $30 of any sale they refer.
You do a bit of research and see that thousands of people search on the Internet via the search engines for instruction on how to improve their golf swing. You set up a ‘Google Adwords’ account for free and play with some of the golf improvement keywords your search engine research brought up. You find that the keyword phrase ‘golf perfect swing’ although entered by thousands of budding golfers each month doesn’t have that much competition in Adwords and you can purchase a Adword PPC ad that will show up towards the top of the Google result page when someone enters ‘golf perfect swing’. If someone clicks on your ad they will be directly to the Ebook sales page but via your affiliate ID. Therefore if anyone purchases the book after arriving from your ad you stand to make $30.
As you’ve done your research well you’re only charged 10 Cents for each click on your ad. Therefore as long as you get one purchase per 299 people who click on your ad you will make a profit.
The reality is that as Search Engines provide extremely targeted traffic and Sales pages today are very good you will more likely make at least 3-5 sales per 100 people that click your ad. Therefore if 300 people click your ads you could make $450 at a cost to you of just $30. A profit of $420!!
The great thing about doing your affiliate marketing in this way is that it is extremely flexible. Quite often fads will come and go in the space of months. Marketing them in this way allows you to jump on when the fad starts and jump off immediately it stops making you money.
With thousands of affiliate programs out there some with lifetime earnings and tiers the possibilities are endless.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
How to Become a Virtual Assistant
The 5 Key Steps to Earning a Full-Time Income From Home
I opened the newspaper and there it was. The article that would change my life.
It was called 'How to stay at home and earn a full-time income as a Virtual Assistant.'
Quit the day job and freelance from home? Yes, please!
At that time, I was feeling stifled, unfulfilled and unmotivated in my corporate office job. I had been an Executive Assistant for years, and life had become one predictable 9-to-5 day after another. I had always wanted to run my own show and be my own boss. Working from home would be the icing on the cake!
Soon, my evenings and weekends were devoted to finding out more about this exciting new opportunity. I transitioned gradually into working full-time from home as a Virtual Assistant and achieved this within a year. I have never looked back and finally feel rewarded, challenged and satisfied in my virtual career.
Thanks to the internet, it has never been easier to work from home. People all over the world are setting up home based businesses out of a desire for independence, flexibility and control over their destiny.
All of these new business owners could potentially use the services of a Virtual Assistant, without having to take on an employee.
The future of Virtual Assistance is certainly looking bright. It's one of the fastest growing industries on the internet and is expected to be a $130 billion industry by 2008 (Source: George Washington University).
So, how do you become a Virtual Assistant? Here are five steps to help you on your way:
Step One: What is a Virtual Assistant?
The first step to becoming a Virtual Assistant is to truly understand what one is and does. The industry is still quite new and many people don't quite understand what the concept is. The best way to describe the Virtual Assistant role is to briefly explain what I did this week.
Working from my home office with several different clients, I:
* typed up some reports for a consultant and emailed them back
* prepared a Powerpoint presentation for a speaker who was presenting at a conference overseas the following day, emailed it to him and uploaded it to his website
* designed and organized the printing of a flyer for a singer who has a performance coming up
* set up and sent out a newsletter for a finance broker
I did all this without seeing or meeting any of the clients: we spoke on the phone and/or emailed each other. Some of my clients are local, some are long distance.
Think of the Virtual Assistant as a freelance administrator, designer, organizer, desktop publisher, researcher, editor, typist, secretary, co-ordinator, all rolled into one!
Rather than being an employee, a Virtual Assistant is an independent contractor. Clients enjoy the flexibility of using Virtual Assistant services as and when they require, without having to pay a regular wage and employee benefits.
Step Two: Carry out a Self-Assessment
The beauty of becoming a Virtual Assistant is that you get to decide what work you want to do. You can create your own unique business, based on your skills and experience.
Analyze your current and previous work experience. Write everything down, no matter how 'minor' you think it is.
Are you a good typist? Are you a natural at organizing events? Can you design flyers and brochures? Do you write letters on behalf of your boss? How about research - are you good at digging around for information?
These are all skills that you can translate into services for your clients.
You may feel that you need to take further training in certain skills, and that's fine too.
Step Three: Plan your way to success
This is the step that many people shrink back from. However, it doesn't have to be a lengthy or formal business plan. At the very least, you need to outline a plan on paper covering aspects such as your goals, business name ideas, hourly rates, licences/permits, services you're going to offer, what equipment you need to buy, and so on.
The main thing is not to get too caught up on getting it perfect. Your business plan will change and evolve as your business grows. Think of it as a roadmap that will keep you on the right track for your freelance business.
Step Four: Get Those Clients Flocking!
One of the first questions you'll be asking yourself is 'How am I going to get clients?'
There are several ways you can market your Virtual Assistant business and get your name out there:
* Networking: go along to your local Chamber of Commerce meetings and get talking to fellow business owners. I have found that this is one of the best ways to meet clients. Don't forget your business cards!
* Word of mouth: tell everyone what you're doing. Sooner or later, your friends, relatives, and first clients will recommend you to others.
* Get a website: one of my largest ongoing clients found me through my website. As you're working virtually, you'll be expected to have an online presence.
* Participate in online discussion forums: there are forums on the internet where small business owners 'meet' to discuss challenges, offer advice and so on.
* Register with online business directories and Virtual Assistant networks.
* Write articles that your target market would be interested in. Submit them to online article directories to establish credibility and get valuable exposure.
Step Five: Keep the momentum going
Once you've got your first clients and business is starting to take off, the key is not to become complacent. Keep your existing clients happy by providing outstanding customer service, establish good systems to keep a healthy cash flow coming in, and look after your health and wellbeing!
These are the steps that I followed to become a successful Virtual Assistant and work from home full-time. If you would love to gain control of your life and skip that daily commute, why not take your first step today?
Lisa Taliga is a Virtual Assistant and author of 'Freelance from Home! The 5 Key Steps to Your Successful Virtual Assistant Business' and ‘The 7 Things You Must Know Before Starting Your Successful Virtual Assistant Business’
Find out more at http://www.virtualpabusiness.com
The 5 Key Steps to Earning a Full-Time Income From Home
I opened the newspaper and there it was. The article that would change my life.
It was called 'How to stay at home and earn a full-time income as a Virtual Assistant.'
Quit the day job and freelance from home? Yes, please!
At that time, I was feeling stifled, unfulfilled and unmotivated in my corporate office job. I had been an Executive Assistant for years, and life had become one predictable 9-to-5 day after another. I had always wanted to run my own show and be my own boss. Working from home would be the icing on the cake!
Soon, my evenings and weekends were devoted to finding out more about this exciting new opportunity. I transitioned gradually into working full-time from home as a Virtual Assistant and achieved this within a year. I have never looked back and finally feel rewarded, challenged and satisfied in my virtual career.
Thanks to the internet, it has never been easier to work from home. People all over the world are setting up home based businesses out of a desire for independence, flexibility and control over their destiny.
All of these new business owners could potentially use the services of a Virtual Assistant, without having to take on an employee.
The future of Virtual Assistance is certainly looking bright. It's one of the fastest growing industries on the internet and is expected to be a $130 billion industry by 2008 (Source: George Washington University).
So, how do you become a Virtual Assistant? Here are five steps to help you on your way:
Step One: What is a Virtual Assistant?
The first step to becoming a Virtual Assistant is to truly understand what one is and does. The industry is still quite new and many people don't quite understand what the concept is. The best way to describe the Virtual Assistant role is to briefly explain what I did this week.
Working from my home office with several different clients, I:
* typed up some reports for a consultant and emailed them back
* prepared a Powerpoint presentation for a speaker who was presenting at a conference overseas the following day, emailed it to him and uploaded it to his website
* designed and organized the printing of a flyer for a singer who has a performance coming up
* set up and sent out a newsletter for a finance broker
I did all this without seeing or meeting any of the clients: we spoke on the phone and/or emailed each other. Some of my clients are local, some are long distance.
Think of the Virtual Assistant as a freelance administrator, designer, organizer, desktop publisher, researcher, editor, typist, secretary, co-ordinator, all rolled into one!
Rather than being an employee, a Virtual Assistant is an independent contractor. Clients enjoy the flexibility of using Virtual Assistant services as and when they require, without having to pay a regular wage and employee benefits.
Step Two: Carry out a Self-Assessment
The beauty of becoming a Virtual Assistant is that you get to decide what work you want to do. You can create your own unique business, based on your skills and experience.
Analyze your current and previous work experience. Write everything down, no matter how 'minor' you think it is.
Are you a good typist? Are you a natural at organizing events? Can you design flyers and brochures? Do you write letters on behalf of your boss? How about research - are you good at digging around for information?
These are all skills that you can translate into services for your clients.
You may feel that you need to take further training in certain skills, and that's fine too.
Step Three: Plan your way to success
This is the step that many people shrink back from. However, it doesn't have to be a lengthy or formal business plan. At the very least, you need to outline a plan on paper covering aspects such as your goals, business name ideas, hourly rates, licences/permits, services you're going to offer, what equipment you need to buy, and so on.
The main thing is not to get too caught up on getting it perfect. Your business plan will change and evolve as your business grows. Think of it as a roadmap that will keep you on the right track for your freelance business.
Step Four: Get Those Clients Flocking!
One of the first questions you'll be asking yourself is 'How am I going to get clients?'
There are several ways you can market your Virtual Assistant business and get your name out there:
* Networking: go along to your local Chamber of Commerce meetings and get talking to fellow business owners. I have found that this is one of the best ways to meet clients. Don't forget your business cards!
* Word of mouth: tell everyone what you're doing. Sooner or later, your friends, relatives, and first clients will recommend you to others.
* Get a website: one of my largest ongoing clients found me through my website. As you're working virtually, you'll be expected to have an online presence.
* Participate in online discussion forums: there are forums on the internet where small business owners 'meet' to discuss challenges, offer advice and so on.
* Register with online business directories and Virtual Assistant networks.
* Write articles that your target market would be interested in. Submit them to online article directories to establish credibility and get valuable exposure.
Step Five: Keep the momentum going
Once you've got your first clients and business is starting to take off, the key is not to become complacent. Keep your existing clients happy by providing outstanding customer service, establish good systems to keep a healthy cash flow coming in, and look after your health and wellbeing!
These are the steps that I followed to become a successful Virtual Assistant and work from home full-time. If you would love to gain control of your life and skip that daily commute, why not take your first step today?
Lisa Taliga is a Virtual Assistant and author of 'Freelance from Home! The 5 Key Steps to Your Successful Virtual Assistant Business' and ‘The 7 Things You Must Know Before Starting Your Successful Virtual Assistant Business’
Find out more at http://www.virtualpabusiness.com
Hits4Pay - Getting Paid to Read Emails
HITS4PAY
Don't think reading emails adds up to a paycheck??
Hits4Pay - Part One
I'm out on the prowl again for new ways to earn some mad money!
Of course...by now you know that I do several things to earn cash each month.
All of them online....and all of them really do pay.
Today I want to talk about the latest one I found. It's called Hits4Pay. The first thing I noticed after reading the big ole honkin disclaimer was that you only get paid when you reach $25 in your earnings account. So remember that when you sign up.
But even though you have to hit a minimum of $25 - you get $10 FREE for just signing up! So....you're almost halfway toward your first payment of $25!
You earn .02 for each email you read....now - I know that doesn't sound like I a lot....but in one week I am already up to $10.75! I've earn .02 for each email I've read and I earn .01 cent for each email my referrals read.
And honestly.....I spend like 20 seconds looking over these emails and then it credits my account.
So for....probably not even an one hours worth of my time each month....I could be on my way to my first $25 payment.
Many might scoff at $25 bit gas for my car is $3.89 a gallon right now....so I'm looking at almost 7 gallons of gas for my car. So.....go ahead and stick your nose up in the air....these little programs add up to be a lot for those that stick with it.
Hits4Pay is totally free too! Sign up is really easy - just takes seconds. You do have to wait for approval....but that doesn't take long at all.
Hits4Pay - Part Two
Last week I told you about Hits4Pay.
How is it going for those of you that signed up?
I know it can seem tedious and slow....especially since you only earn .02 cents per email that you read....but seriously - it's like 30 seconds to read the emails...and .02 cents starts to add up...especially on top of the $10 sign up bonus they have right now and considering you earn .01 cent per email that your referrals read. If you had 100 referrals reading just two emails each day...that's $2 a day! Which adds up to about $60 a month!! Now I don't know about you.....but $60 a month would help put some gas in my minivan tank each month. (Lets not even get into the cost of gas right now!! I paid $4.03 a gallon the other day!)
My theory on earning money from home....and I mean decent money....like $400 a month...is to have several programs that you're earning from. I also like programs that you can share with friends...because not only can they start earning - but it helps boost your earnings in the process.
Here is a screenshot on my earnings so far with Hits4Pay. I just signed up 10 days ago!
So - I've made $11.82 for hardly doing anything. I'm reading the emails sent to me and I'm telling my friends and family about Hits4Pay - so they can sign up and earn too!
Even if I only hit the $25 mark once...that's $25 more than I had!
People have become so blasé about $1 or $5 or even $20!! NOT ME!! There have been many times in my life where $5 would have made all the difference in the world. If you're independently wealthy and have no money worries or debt...then fine....go ahead and laugh at $25 - but as for me....I'll take it. And being able to earn it from home at my computer...so that I can be here for my kids each and every day - it makes that $25 even sweeter for me.
As I said before...Hits4Pay is totally free. They pay via PayPal - so that's super convenient (especially if you have a PayPal debit card!) I have not gotten a single negative remark about Hits4Pay and they have a great track record.
So - if it sounds like a cool $25 ( or much more!) to you....then be sure to sign up while they are offering the $10 bonus!
I will keep you posted on my earnings.
Once you sign up - be sure to share Hits4Pay with your friends and family. That way you can earn from them reading emails and they can begin referring others too! It's win-win for everyone!
Sign up today for free and get your $10 sign up Bonus: Hits4Pay
Don't think reading emails adds up to a paycheck??
Hits4Pay - Part One
I'm out on the prowl again for new ways to earn some mad money!
Of course...by now you know that I do several things to earn cash each month.
All of them online....and all of them really do pay.
Today I want to talk about the latest one I found. It's called Hits4Pay. The first thing I noticed after reading the big ole honkin disclaimer was that you only get paid when you reach $25 in your earnings account. So remember that when you sign up.
But even though you have to hit a minimum of $25 - you get $10 FREE for just signing up! So....you're almost halfway toward your first payment of $25!
You earn .02 for each email you read....now - I know that doesn't sound like I a lot....but in one week I am already up to $10.75! I've earn .02 for each email I've read and I earn .01 cent for each email my referrals read.
And honestly.....I spend like 20 seconds looking over these emails and then it credits my account.
So for....probably not even an one hours worth of my time each month....I could be on my way to my first $25 payment.
Many might scoff at $25 bit gas for my car is $3.89 a gallon right now....so I'm looking at almost 7 gallons of gas for my car. So.....go ahead and stick your nose up in the air....these little programs add up to be a lot for those that stick with it.
Hits4Pay is totally free too! Sign up is really easy - just takes seconds. You do have to wait for approval....but that doesn't take long at all.
Hits4Pay - Part Two
Last week I told you about Hits4Pay.
How is it going for those of you that signed up?
I know it can seem tedious and slow....especially since you only earn .02 cents per email that you read....but seriously - it's like 30 seconds to read the emails...and .02 cents starts to add up...especially on top of the $10 sign up bonus they have right now and considering you earn .01 cent per email that your referrals read. If you had 100 referrals reading just two emails each day...that's $2 a day! Which adds up to about $60 a month!! Now I don't know about you.....but $60 a month would help put some gas in my minivan tank each month. (Lets not even get into the cost of gas right now!! I paid $4.03 a gallon the other day!)
My theory on earning money from home....and I mean decent money....like $400 a month...is to have several programs that you're earning from. I also like programs that you can share with friends...because not only can they start earning - but it helps boost your earnings in the process.
Here is a screenshot on my earnings so far with Hits4Pay. I just signed up 10 days ago!
So - I've made $11.82 for hardly doing anything. I'm reading the emails sent to me and I'm telling my friends and family about Hits4Pay - so they can sign up and earn too!
Even if I only hit the $25 mark once...that's $25 more than I had!
People have become so blasé about $1 or $5 or even $20!! NOT ME!! There have been many times in my life where $5 would have made all the difference in the world. If you're independently wealthy and have no money worries or debt...then fine....go ahead and laugh at $25 - but as for me....I'll take it. And being able to earn it from home at my computer...so that I can be here for my kids each and every day - it makes that $25 even sweeter for me.
As I said before...Hits4Pay is totally free. They pay via PayPal - so that's super convenient (especially if you have a PayPal debit card!) I have not gotten a single negative remark about Hits4Pay and they have a great track record.
So - if it sounds like a cool $25 ( or much more!) to you....then be sure to sign up while they are offering the $10 bonus!
I will keep you posted on my earnings.
Once you sign up - be sure to share Hits4Pay with your friends and family. That way you can earn from them reading emails and they can begin referring others too! It's win-win for everyone!
Sign up today for free and get your $10 sign up Bonus: Hits4Pay
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Make Money Surfing the Internet
**UNFORTUNATELY IT SEEMS AGLOCO HAS CLOSED DOWN DUE TO FINANCIAL DIFICULTIES. WE ARE CURRENTLY SEARCHING FOR ALTERNATIVE "PAY WHY YOU SURF SCHEMES" **
AGLOCO’s story is simple: Do you realize how valuable you are? Advertisers, search providers and online retailers are paying billions to reach you while you surf. How much of that money are you making? NONE!
AGLOCO thinks you deserve a piece of the action.
AGLOCO collects money from those companies on behalf of its members. (For example, Google currently pays AOL 10 cents for every Google search by an AOL user. And Google still has enough profit to pay $1.6 billion dollars for YouTube, an 18-month old site full of content that YouTube’s users did not get paid for!
AGLOCO will work to get its Members their share of this and more.
AGLOCO is building a new form of online community that they call an Economic Network. They are not only paying Members their fair share, but they’re building a community that will generate the kind of fortune that YouTube made. But instead of that wealth making only a few people rich, the entire community will get its share.
What's the catch? No catch - no spyware, no pop-ups and no spam - membership and software are free and AGLOCO is 100% member owned. Privacy is a core value and AGLOCO never sells or rents member information.
All you need to do is join up HERE - install the "viewbar" and start browsing the Internet normally. This will earn you MONEY!!
AGLOCO Members make money in four ways.
Members earn a monthly share of the AGLOCO revenue based on the use of the AGLOCO Viewbar™ that month.
Members earn part of the company based on the use of the AGLOCO Viewbar™ that month.
Members who use our referral system to help build the AGLOCO network will earn more. (AGLOCO only has significant value as a large network and people who help build it should be rewarded. – We also feel that the early users who told friends about YouTube or MySpace or even Google probably deserved something too, but no referral system was available to record their work).THE MORE PEOPLE YOU REFER THE MORE MONEY YOU WILL MAKE. Email friends, use your myspace or facebook pages to recruit new members. Use your blogs or website if you have one - every extra person you refer makes you more money!
Members will also get a share of any commissions AGLOCO gets when a Member purchases a product or service from an AGLOCO Sponsor company.
What are you waiting for? CLICK HERE, install the viewbar, invite your friends and START MAKING FREE MONEY!!!!!!!
Sell Your Pictures to Stock Photography Websites to make Money Online
Sell Your Pictures to Stock Photography Websites to make Money Online
The Internet has created a way for anyone with a digital camera to make money by uploading pictures to Stock Photography websites.
The definition of Stock Photography is: Images that are not photographed for a specific client or use, but are catalogued for review and selection by someone who may have a use for the image.
Stock photography is a cost-effective method for businesses to obtain professional photos without the costs of hiring a photographer directly. Basically you upload your photographs to the stock photography website for free and then if businesses that require pictures for their publications (both online and offline) purchase them you get a commission. Each photograph can be purchased an infinite number of times so one picture can make you multiple commission.
Photographs that sell well on Stock Photography Websites
The things that sell well on these sites are famous landmarks so if you live in a city take pictures of its famous buildings, bridges and monuments. Even better would be if there is a stunning sunrise / sunset in the background or some strange weather condition to the area i.e. the Golden Gate Bridge in the snow!
Special events will also be a big winner. Every New Years Eve there are fantastic firework displays around the world places like London’s Millennium Wheel, Paris’s Eiffel Tower and Sydney’s Harbour Bridge. Good pictures of these are bound to be in high demand.
Don’t dismay if you don’t live near a large famous city. There’s a massive demand for things like natural panoramas, wildlife etc. If you’re a keen photographer all you need is your camera and imagination to look for that picture with the “angle” that will make it stand out.
There is an ever growing number of these websites providing this service. The best way to find one relevant to you is Google “Stock Photography Sites”.
The Internet has created a way for anyone with a digital camera to make money by uploading pictures to Stock Photography websites.
The definition of Stock Photography is: Images that are not photographed for a specific client or use, but are catalogued for review and selection by someone who may have a use for the image.
Stock photography is a cost-effective method for businesses to obtain professional photos without the costs of hiring a photographer directly. Basically you upload your photographs to the stock photography website for free and then if businesses that require pictures for their publications (both online and offline) purchase them you get a commission. Each photograph can be purchased an infinite number of times so one picture can make you multiple commission.
Photographs that sell well on Stock Photography Websites
The things that sell well on these sites are famous landmarks so if you live in a city take pictures of its famous buildings, bridges and monuments. Even better would be if there is a stunning sunrise / sunset in the background or some strange weather condition to the area i.e. the Golden Gate Bridge in the snow!
Special events will also be a big winner. Every New Years Eve there are fantastic firework displays around the world places like London’s Millennium Wheel, Paris’s Eiffel Tower and Sydney’s Harbour Bridge. Good pictures of these are bound to be in high demand.
Don’t dismay if you don’t live near a large famous city. There’s a massive demand for things like natural panoramas, wildlife etc. If you’re a keen photographer all you need is your camera and imagination to look for that picture with the “angle” that will make it stand out.
There is an ever growing number of these websites providing this service. The best way to find one relevant to you is Google “Stock Photography Sites”.
Make Money Blogging
Make Money Blogging
What is a blog?
The word Blog is an acronym for WeB LOG. blogs allow their writers the opportunity to write an online journal sharing their thoughts on everything and anything with an audience of millions. When blogs first hit the Internet they were basically online journals/diaries of individuals. The blogging sphere evolved and now it seems every one has a blog and many companies both big and small will have a blog sometimes written by a team.
What is the difference between a Website and a BLOG?
A blog is to all intent and purposes a website. The main difference is that a blog is geared up for easily publishing content on a particular subject and is therefore more regularly updated when compared to a website which is more static. Also the content is usually more bite size and opinionated when compared to the content of a website. A blog also allows for a two-way conversation as visitors to blogs are often allowed to respond to the blogs posts.
So Can You Make Money with a blog?
Most definitely! Pretty much the same way you can make money with a website and some more besides! There’s also some different ways you can market a blog and these are included in this section. How do I Start a Blog. The easiest and cheapest way is to use Google’s www.blogger.com, which hosts the site for free and is relatively easy for the newbie to get up and going. Also offering a similar service is www.wordpress.com that has a slightly steeper learning curve but is the Internet standard for blogging. Although the method of blogging is popular for newbie bloggers as it is free the people serious about blogging host their own site in their own registered domain. They download open source blogging software (for example from www.wordpress.com) and then upload their blog and subsequent posts.
What is a blog?
The word Blog is an acronym for WeB LOG. blogs allow their writers the opportunity to write an online journal sharing their thoughts on everything and anything with an audience of millions. When blogs first hit the Internet they were basically online journals/diaries of individuals. The blogging sphere evolved and now it seems every one has a blog and many companies both big and small will have a blog sometimes written by a team.
What is the difference between a Website and a BLOG?
A blog is to all intent and purposes a website. The main difference is that a blog is geared up for easily publishing content on a particular subject and is therefore more regularly updated when compared to a website which is more static. Also the content is usually more bite size and opinionated when compared to the content of a website. A blog also allows for a two-way conversation as visitors to blogs are often allowed to respond to the blogs posts.
So Can You Make Money with a blog?
Most definitely! Pretty much the same way you can make money with a website and some more besides! There’s also some different ways you can market a blog and these are included in this section. How do I Start a Blog. The easiest and cheapest way is to use Google’s www.blogger.com, which hosts the site for free and is relatively easy for the newbie to get up and going. Also offering a similar service is www.wordpress.com that has a slightly steeper learning curve but is the Internet standard for blogging. Although the method of blogging is popular for newbie bloggers as it is free the people serious about blogging host their own site in their own registered domain. They download open source blogging software (for example from www.wordpress.com) and then upload their blog and subsequent posts.
What is best - Affiliate Schemes or PPC?
What is best - Affiliate Schemes or PPC?
Firstly a quick explanation making money via affiliates is where a visitor to your website or blog follows one of your links and makes a purchase. You then get a percentage of this purchase. Examples of affiliates are the merchants found in affiliate networks such as Click Bank and Commission junction.
PPC (pay per click) is where you get paid for a visitor to your website or blog clicking on one of the ads – there is no sale required. Examples of this are Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher network.
Benefits of Affiliate Schemes
Higher Commission
Firstly the commission is usually greater than from PPC ads this can run up to big 3 figure sums per sale depending on the product.
Recurring Commission
Some affiliate schemes have recurring commission an example of this is a membership site that pays a percentage of the monthly membership fee to the affiliate every month the customer remains a member. This can bring in a steady stream of income.
Multiple tiers
Some affiliate schemes have multiple tiers. Not only do you get a commission on people you refer but you get a commission on people they refer too.
Downside of Affiliate schemes.
Loss of commission through time lag of purchase
Most affiliate schemes have a time limit from when the referred visitor arrives and when the product is purchased. If time limit this is exceeded then no commission is paid. People usually take their time to purchase something so if this time limit is low there is a high risk of losing some commissions.
Commission theft.
As more and more people are becoming internet and affiliate savvy they are realising that instead of paying for a product they can make a saving by joining the affiliate scheme and earning the commission back on their purchase. You lose all the commission even though it was your hard work that created the lead.
Relationship management.
If you are part of several affiliate schemes it can take time and effort to manage the relationship with these different schemes. Things such as managing usernames, passwords plus tracking what is and what isn’t working for each scheme take time. Time that is increased with each new affiliate scheme you join.
Benefits of PPC
No Sale required
With PPC schemes like Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network you only require a click to get commission. You don’t require a sale. Once the surfer has clicked on the ad the money is yours and there’s no way you can lose it.
The PPC network sells the advertising space on your site for you.
The network does all the hard work of getting 1000s of advertisers signed up. Using content targeting-technology they then display advertisers relevant to your web page. This means they do all the hard work – all you need to do is provide the content and the traffic. This saves you a hell of a lot of time and effort.
Downside of PPC schemes
Payment for click can be low.
Payment on ads can pay as little as 1 cent so it would obviously take many clicks to earn major money with this. You can however earn around $2 a click (in some cases more) it all depends the subject of your web page and how much competition there is from advertisers for it.
Being banned from the scheme
To protect its advertisers PPC providers such as Google are very strict on click fraud (where publishers click on their own ads to make themselves money). If they find any of their publishers clicking on their own ads they will quite rightly ban that publisher from the scheme for life.
However there have been some instances where innocent publishers have been banned either by malicious attacks or mistakes. In these instances the publisher can lose a major revenue stream.
Conclusion
On average I think that the PPC model is the best way to earn money from your visitors. It saves you time on managing multiple schemes and means you can concentrate more on content creation and marketing. You also don’t stand to lose commission via theft.
However if your website is in an area that only attracts small sums for the PPC ads it’s definitely worth looking at what affiliate schemes out there compliment your site.
What I do is have a split of around 90% of my pages serving PPC ads and the remaining 10% promoting carefully selected affiliate schemes.
Firstly a quick explanation making money via affiliates is where a visitor to your website or blog follows one of your links and makes a purchase. You then get a percentage of this purchase. Examples of affiliates are the merchants found in affiliate networks such as Click Bank and Commission junction.
PPC (pay per click) is where you get paid for a visitor to your website or blog clicking on one of the ads – there is no sale required. Examples of this are Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher network.
Benefits of Affiliate Schemes
Higher Commission
Firstly the commission is usually greater than from PPC ads this can run up to big 3 figure sums per sale depending on the product.
Recurring Commission
Some affiliate schemes have recurring commission an example of this is a membership site that pays a percentage of the monthly membership fee to the affiliate every month the customer remains a member. This can bring in a steady stream of income.
Multiple tiers
Some affiliate schemes have multiple tiers. Not only do you get a commission on people you refer but you get a commission on people they refer too.
Downside of Affiliate schemes.
Loss of commission through time lag of purchase
Most affiliate schemes have a time limit from when the referred visitor arrives and when the product is purchased. If time limit this is exceeded then no commission is paid. People usually take their time to purchase something so if this time limit is low there is a high risk of losing some commissions.
Commission theft.
As more and more people are becoming internet and affiliate savvy they are realising that instead of paying for a product they can make a saving by joining the affiliate scheme and earning the commission back on their purchase. You lose all the commission even though it was your hard work that created the lead.
Relationship management.
If you are part of several affiliate schemes it can take time and effort to manage the relationship with these different schemes. Things such as managing usernames, passwords plus tracking what is and what isn’t working for each scheme take time. Time that is increased with each new affiliate scheme you join.
Benefits of PPC
No Sale required
With PPC schemes like Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network you only require a click to get commission. You don’t require a sale. Once the surfer has clicked on the ad the money is yours and there’s no way you can lose it.
The PPC network sells the advertising space on your site for you.
The network does all the hard work of getting 1000s of advertisers signed up. Using content targeting-technology they then display advertisers relevant to your web page. This means they do all the hard work – all you need to do is provide the content and the traffic. This saves you a hell of a lot of time and effort.
Downside of PPC schemes
Payment for click can be low.
Payment on ads can pay as little as 1 cent so it would obviously take many clicks to earn major money with this. You can however earn around $2 a click (in some cases more) it all depends the subject of your web page and how much competition there is from advertisers for it.
Being banned from the scheme
To protect its advertisers PPC providers such as Google are very strict on click fraud (where publishers click on their own ads to make themselves money). If they find any of their publishers clicking on their own ads they will quite rightly ban that publisher from the scheme for life.
However there have been some instances where innocent publishers have been banned either by malicious attacks or mistakes. In these instances the publisher can lose a major revenue stream.
Conclusion
On average I think that the PPC model is the best way to earn money from your visitors. It saves you time on managing multiple schemes and means you can concentrate more on content creation and marketing. You also don’t stand to lose commission via theft.
However if your website is in an area that only attracts small sums for the PPC ads it’s definitely worth looking at what affiliate schemes out there compliment your site.
What I do is have a split of around 90% of my pages serving PPC ads and the remaining 10% promoting carefully selected affiliate schemes.
How to Avoid Being Banned From AdSense
How to Avoid Being Banned From AdSense
If you trawl through the AdSense message board you can’t help but come across tales of woe from AdSense publishers that have had their account banned by Google.
Below is a list of ways people have been banned from AdSense and information on how to avoid it happening to you.
Don’t click on your own ads
The obvious one but still people do it. Google has the IP address of the computer/s that you’ve used to create and check your AdSense account. If it sees that this IP address clicks one of your ads you’re in trouble.
Don’t do it. It’s theft not from Google but from the AdWords advertisers.
If you want to go to a site advertised by one of your ads don’t click on it look at the URL of the advertising site at the bottom of the ad and type it into your browser.
If you click on one accidentally (which does happen) you’re probably be ok but it’s worth dropping a quick email to Google with an explanation and apology
Don’t log in to AdSense from a shared computer.
As I said above Google keeps a record of every machine IP address used to look at your account. If you check your stats on a machine then someone else clicks on your ads from the same machine Google sees this as click fraud. Worth bearing in mind when thinking of checking your stats from somewhere like an Internet Café.
Don’t log in to AdSense from work.
Apart from getting in trouble with the company that employs you there’s also a further real risk. Most companies use a proxy server to access the Internet. A proxy server with ONE IP ADDRESS. Therefore you checking your ads from work means this proxy IP address being recorded by Google as one that you use. Problem is if there are 1000 people in your company it is the same IP address for them too. Google can’t differentiate between you and the other 999 employees in your company. If one of these 999 clicks on one of your ads it’s ban time.
Don’t get into a ‘I’ll click your ads if you click mine’ agreement with another Webmaster.
As above Google will have your IP address and that of every AdSense publisher. If they see these IP addresses consistently clicking on each other ads it’s goodbye for both of you.
Don’t tell friends and family.
Telling friends and family about your money making websites can lead to problems. Even if you tell them not to click on your ads there’s always the chance that Auntie Maud will think it’s a good idea to make some extra money for her favourite nephew. 100 clicks later from the same visitor and your account is screaming ‘Click Fraud’.
Receiving clicks from Illegal traffic
Check the AdSense TOS for sources of traffic that aren’t allowed by Google. These include methods like Traffic exchange, PTC advertising, Auto surf etc.
Do monitor your visitor and AdSense figures
Check your account at least once a day. If you see a massive spike coupled with a massive increase in Page CTR investigate using your visitor stats website. If you see it’s all come from the same IP address you could have been the victim of a malicious attack – inform Google via email and offer them access to your logs.
If you trawl through the AdSense message board you can’t help but come across tales of woe from AdSense publishers that have had their account banned by Google.
Below is a list of ways people have been banned from AdSense and information on how to avoid it happening to you.
Don’t click on your own ads
The obvious one but still people do it. Google has the IP address of the computer/s that you’ve used to create and check your AdSense account. If it sees that this IP address clicks one of your ads you’re in trouble.
Don’t do it. It’s theft not from Google but from the AdWords advertisers.
If you want to go to a site advertised by one of your ads don’t click on it look at the URL of the advertising site at the bottom of the ad and type it into your browser.
If you click on one accidentally (which does happen) you’re probably be ok but it’s worth dropping a quick email to Google with an explanation and apology
Don’t log in to AdSense from a shared computer.
As I said above Google keeps a record of every machine IP address used to look at your account. If you check your stats on a machine then someone else clicks on your ads from the same machine Google sees this as click fraud. Worth bearing in mind when thinking of checking your stats from somewhere like an Internet Café.
Don’t log in to AdSense from work.
Apart from getting in trouble with the company that employs you there’s also a further real risk. Most companies use a proxy server to access the Internet. A proxy server with ONE IP ADDRESS. Therefore you checking your ads from work means this proxy IP address being recorded by Google as one that you use. Problem is if there are 1000 people in your company it is the same IP address for them too. Google can’t differentiate between you and the other 999 employees in your company. If one of these 999 clicks on one of your ads it’s ban time.
Don’t get into a ‘I’ll click your ads if you click mine’ agreement with another Webmaster.
As above Google will have your IP address and that of every AdSense publisher. If they see these IP addresses consistently clicking on each other ads it’s goodbye for both of you.
Don’t tell friends and family.
Telling friends and family about your money making websites can lead to problems. Even if you tell them not to click on your ads there’s always the chance that Auntie Maud will think it’s a good idea to make some extra money for her favourite nephew. 100 clicks later from the same visitor and your account is screaming ‘Click Fraud’.
Receiving clicks from Illegal traffic
Check the AdSense TOS for sources of traffic that aren’t allowed by Google. These include methods like Traffic exchange, PTC advertising, Auto surf etc.
Do monitor your visitor and AdSense figures
Check your account at least once a day. If you see a massive spike coupled with a massive increase in Page CTR investigate using your visitor stats website. If you see it’s all come from the same IP address you could have been the victim of a malicious attack – inform Google via email and offer them access to your logs.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
How You can Have an AdSense Business
How You can Have an AdSense Business
When AdSense first appeared on the scene a few years ago. Many webmasters who already had websites saw it as a opportunity to make money from their website/s.
Of the many who made great money from their hobby websites few ever thought of making an AdSense business. As far as they were concerned they had a great way of making money from their hobby. They couldn’t believe their luck!
It wasn’t long though before entrepreneurs caught onto this great way of making money and started building 10s even 100s of AdSense websites. Many of these made thousands a month and some became Internet millionaires just through their AdSense business. With the advent of tools that make it easy for anyone to set up an AdSense website thousands continue join the AdSense gravy train every month.
Over the past year legendary online marketer John Reese has been publishing a ‘secret’ monthly publication (electronic newsletter and companion CD-Rom) that has both demonstrated and taught hundreds of little-known money-making strategies.
John has opened up the monthly resource and has now gone public.
I’m delighted to be able to offer one of John’s monthly publications for free as a special offer to the readers of Make Money Online
In it you’ll learn:-
How To Build A Virtual Real Estate Empire
The simple techniques and methods you can use to start building an online empire made up of lots of tiny content sites. This is the model that John has used to cash AdSense checks worth over $72,000 for a single month.
Special Methods That Grow ANY Online Business Automatically
Learn how to easily structure your websites so the site traffic grows by itself - without you doing any additional work or paying a single penny for advertising. This works for AdSense sites, affiliate program sites, infoproduct sites, and more.
Get An "Inside Look" At Valuable Testing Results
What if you could take a peek at the testing results from other web sites? Now you can.
This is some amazing stuff contained and I’m eternally grateful for John for letting my readers have this amazing opportunity for FREE.
Click here to get your free sample of the Reese Report
When AdSense first appeared on the scene a few years ago. Many webmasters who already had websites saw it as a opportunity to make money from their website/s.
Of the many who made great money from their hobby websites few ever thought of making an AdSense business. As far as they were concerned they had a great way of making money from their hobby. They couldn’t believe their luck!
It wasn’t long though before entrepreneurs caught onto this great way of making money and started building 10s even 100s of AdSense websites. Many of these made thousands a month and some became Internet millionaires just through their AdSense business. With the advent of tools that make it easy for anyone to set up an AdSense website thousands continue join the AdSense gravy train every month.
Over the past year legendary online marketer John Reese has been publishing a ‘secret’ monthly publication (electronic newsletter and companion CD-Rom) that has both demonstrated and taught hundreds of little-known money-making strategies.
John has opened up the monthly resource and has now gone public.
I’m delighted to be able to offer one of John’s monthly publications for free as a special offer to the readers of Make Money Online
In it you’ll learn:-
How To Build A Virtual Real Estate Empire
The simple techniques and methods you can use to start building an online empire made up of lots of tiny content sites. This is the model that John has used to cash AdSense checks worth over $72,000 for a single month.
Special Methods That Grow ANY Online Business Automatically
Learn how to easily structure your websites so the site traffic grows by itself - without you doing any additional work or paying a single penny for advertising. This works for AdSense sites, affiliate program sites, infoproduct sites, and more.
Get An "Inside Look" At Valuable Testing Results
What if you could take a peek at the testing results from other web sites? Now you can.
This is some amazing stuff contained and I’m eternally grateful for John for letting my readers have this amazing opportunity for FREE.
Click here to get your free sample of the Reese Report
Why in AdSense Less is More - (how many ads should you have?)
Why in AdSense Less is More - (how many ads should you have?)
If you’re familiar with AdSense you’ll be aware that you can have 3 ad units and 1 link unit per page. Many webmasters make the mistake of using the full allocation thinking the more ads there are the more likely a visitor is going to click them and therefore the more money they will make.
This doesn’t work in my experience (and the experience of other webmasters I have spoken too) and here is the reason why.
What ever you web page subject there will be AdSense ads of varying value. Google will always display the most valuable ads because they want like you to make the most money. Now if you have all three ad units in play on the page not only will you have the most valuable ads but also you will have the ads from companies who paid considerably less. Obviously if people click on one of these less paying ads you may only be getting a few cents.
Therefore my advice to you is to have a maximum of one ad unit and one link unit per page. That way when you get clicks from your visitors they are more likely to be of a higher value.
Having fewer ads on your pages also has the benefit of making your page look more professional. There’s nothing worse than coming to a page which is swamped with AdSense ads it’ll have the majority of your visitors hitting the back button long before they read the ads let alone click on them.
If you don’t believe me choose a page with reasonable traffic and test it for a couple of weeks. If you’re not earning as much as before you can always change it back. I’m willing to bet though after you see the improved 'Click Through Rate' (CTR), page 'Effective CPM' (eCPM), and ultimately earnings for the page you’ll be changing the rest of your site to the same format.
If you’re familiar with AdSense you’ll be aware that you can have 3 ad units and 1 link unit per page. Many webmasters make the mistake of using the full allocation thinking the more ads there are the more likely a visitor is going to click them and therefore the more money they will make.
This doesn’t work in my experience (and the experience of other webmasters I have spoken too) and here is the reason why.
What ever you web page subject there will be AdSense ads of varying value. Google will always display the most valuable ads because they want like you to make the most money. Now if you have all three ad units in play on the page not only will you have the most valuable ads but also you will have the ads from companies who paid considerably less. Obviously if people click on one of these less paying ads you may only be getting a few cents.
Therefore my advice to you is to have a maximum of one ad unit and one link unit per page. That way when you get clicks from your visitors they are more likely to be of a higher value.
Having fewer ads on your pages also has the benefit of making your page look more professional. There’s nothing worse than coming to a page which is swamped with AdSense ads it’ll have the majority of your visitors hitting the back button long before they read the ads let alone click on them.
If you don’t believe me choose a page with reasonable traffic and test it for a couple of weeks. If you’re not earning as much as before you can always change it back. I’m willing to bet though after you see the improved 'Click Through Rate' (CTR), page 'Effective CPM' (eCPM), and ultimately earnings for the page you’ll be changing the rest of your site to the same format.
Banned from AdSense?
Banned from AdSense?
AdSense is a great product that has provided many webmasters with a decent income some have even become millionaires on AdSense income alone.
It is understandable that Google are very strict when it comes to fraud. People who click on their own ads aren’t stealing from Google they’re stealing from the advertiser who has placed the AdWord ad with Google. If Google weren’t hot on finding and banning fraudsters their AdWord customer base would diminish as advertisers lost all faith in the scheme and choose another online advertising path.
Sometimes however Google get it wrong and ban someone from their scheme who are innocent. Once Google ban you from Adsesne it is notoriously difficult to prove your innocence and get accepted back onto the scheme.
It may be difficult but it’s not impossible. How do I know this? Well I was banned incorrectly by Google from AdSense and managed to prove my innocence, get reinstated and have been earning decent AdSense money ever since. If you find yourself in the same position hopefully by reading my story will help you get re-instated on the AdSense programme.
I’d built my first website and applied for the Adsense. I didn’t hear anything for three weeks so I asked them if I could have an update via the Google website. Within 48 hours they sent the following reply.
Hello Paul Middleton,
Your AdSense account was found to be related to an account previously disabled for invalid click activity and we have therefore disabled your account. Publishers disabled for invalid click activity are not allowed further participation in AdSense and do not receive any further payment. The earnings on your account will be properly returned to the affected advertisers. As outlined in our programme Terms and Conditions, Google reserves the right to terminate any publisher's participation at any time. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team
Well I can assure you I was surprised and a little bit upset. I’d never had an AdSense account in my life so how could my account be related to anything let alone an account previously disabled for invalid click activity! I was at a loss. What could I do? I knew I was innocent but Google obviously thought otherwise. I trawled the AdSense forums for answers and various theories were given some seemed a bit far-fetched but one stuck a chord. ‘Possibly the previous owner of your domain was guilty of click fraud and now your domain is blacklisted’. This made some sense as I’d only purchased the domain a few weeks earlier. This had to be it. I then thought of a reply and replied with the following.
Hi guys,
thanks for the reply. I have never had an active AdSense account so it can not have been me that had the 'invalid click activity'. My only thought is that a previous owner of the domain makingonlinemoney.com had their account disabled for this?? Please see the whois data below which shows that I have only owned the domain since May this year. The domain was available and I have no idea who owned it before me. I can get godaddy.com to confirm this if required. I am keen to try the AdSense programme and can assure you I will fully respect your Terms and Conditions and programme policies if accepted onto your scheme. I would ask therefore that you enable the account if my site meets your criteria. If you have any further questions regarding my ownership of the makingonlinemoney.com domain please let me know. As I said I will be happy to get further confirmation from godaddy.com if required.
Thanks & Rgds, Paul.
I didn’t get a reply for a week so I resent the above email. The next day I got the following from Google.
Re: Disapproved application.
Hello Paul,
Thank you for your email. We apologise if the prior disapproval of your application was made in error. We've now reviewed and approved your application. Please check for a separate application approval email for your records. The approval email also includes detailed instructions on how to access your new account and get started.
Great I was in and able to start making money with the AdSense scheme. So what is my advice to people who get banned from AdSense incorrectly? I have four points of advice for anyone unfortunate enough to be in the same position as me.
1. Be patient. – AdSense is constantly growing and the AdSense team gets thousands of requests a day regarding their scheme. Don’t be to upset if you don’t hear back from them in 48 hours. If a week has passed since your communication resend.
2. Be polite! – Quite often I hear of people banned from AdSense who go in with all guns blazing. I can understand that people are angry and frustrated by being accused of something they didn’t do but remember you’re dealing with human beings. Human beings don’t react positively to being ordered to do something or worse verbally abused. To increase your chances of a positive outcome be firm but polite at all times.
3. Provide evidence to back up your innocence. – If possible include evidence to help prove your innocence. I included my ‘whois’ data for my domain to prove I had only owned the domain a few weeks. I also offered to provide any further information they required.
4. Never Give up! If you’re innocent don’t give up. If after emailing them several times using the above techniques you don’t get anywhere find the details of Google’s head office for your area (use Google!) give them a call and ask to speak to the AdSense team. Write letters offer to meet them in person.
If you’ve been banned from AdSense and it was your fault the above technique won’t work. There is however a common sense of getting back in to the scheme that has worked in the past for people caught cheating. That’s another article though.
AdSense is a great product that has provided many webmasters with a decent income some have even become millionaires on AdSense income alone.
It is understandable that Google are very strict when it comes to fraud. People who click on their own ads aren’t stealing from Google they’re stealing from the advertiser who has placed the AdWord ad with Google. If Google weren’t hot on finding and banning fraudsters their AdWord customer base would diminish as advertisers lost all faith in the scheme and choose another online advertising path.
Sometimes however Google get it wrong and ban someone from their scheme who are innocent. Once Google ban you from Adsesne it is notoriously difficult to prove your innocence and get accepted back onto the scheme.
It may be difficult but it’s not impossible. How do I know this? Well I was banned incorrectly by Google from AdSense and managed to prove my innocence, get reinstated and have been earning decent AdSense money ever since. If you find yourself in the same position hopefully by reading my story will help you get re-instated on the AdSense programme.
I’d built my first website and applied for the Adsense. I didn’t hear anything for three weeks so I asked them if I could have an update via the Google website. Within 48 hours they sent the following reply.
Hello Paul Middleton,
Your AdSense account was found to be related to an account previously disabled for invalid click activity and we have therefore disabled your account. Publishers disabled for invalid click activity are not allowed further participation in AdSense and do not receive any further payment. The earnings on your account will be properly returned to the affected advertisers. As outlined in our programme Terms and Conditions, Google reserves the right to terminate any publisher's participation at any time. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team
Well I can assure you I was surprised and a little bit upset. I’d never had an AdSense account in my life so how could my account be related to anything let alone an account previously disabled for invalid click activity! I was at a loss. What could I do? I knew I was innocent but Google obviously thought otherwise. I trawled the AdSense forums for answers and various theories were given some seemed a bit far-fetched but one stuck a chord. ‘Possibly the previous owner of your domain was guilty of click fraud and now your domain is blacklisted’. This made some sense as I’d only purchased the domain a few weeks earlier. This had to be it. I then thought of a reply and replied with the following.
Hi guys,
thanks for the reply. I have never had an active AdSense account so it can not have been me that had the 'invalid click activity'. My only thought is that a previous owner of the domain makingonlinemoney.com had their account disabled for this?? Please see the whois data below which shows that I have only owned the domain since May this year. The domain was available and I have no idea who owned it before me. I can get godaddy.com to confirm this if required. I am keen to try the AdSense programme and can assure you I will fully respect your Terms and Conditions and programme policies if accepted onto your scheme. I would ask therefore that you enable the account if my site meets your criteria. If you have any further questions regarding my ownership of the makingonlinemoney.com domain please let me know. As I said I will be happy to get further confirmation from godaddy.com if required.
Thanks & Rgds, Paul.
I didn’t get a reply for a week so I resent the above email. The next day I got the following from Google.
Re: Disapproved application.
Hello Paul,
Thank you for your email. We apologise if the prior disapproval of your application was made in error. We've now reviewed and approved your application. Please check for a separate application approval email for your records. The approval email also includes detailed instructions on how to access your new account and get started.
Great I was in and able to start making money with the AdSense scheme. So what is my advice to people who get banned from AdSense incorrectly? I have four points of advice for anyone unfortunate enough to be in the same position as me.
1. Be patient. – AdSense is constantly growing and the AdSense team gets thousands of requests a day regarding their scheme. Don’t be to upset if you don’t hear back from them in 48 hours. If a week has passed since your communication resend.
2. Be polite! – Quite often I hear of people banned from AdSense who go in with all guns blazing. I can understand that people are angry and frustrated by being accused of something they didn’t do but remember you’re dealing with human beings. Human beings don’t react positively to being ordered to do something or worse verbally abused. To increase your chances of a positive outcome be firm but polite at all times.
3. Provide evidence to back up your innocence. – If possible include evidence to help prove your innocence. I included my ‘whois’ data for my domain to prove I had only owned the domain a few weeks. I also offered to provide any further information they required.
4. Never Give up! If you’re innocent don’t give up. If after emailing them several times using the above techniques you don’t get anywhere find the details of Google’s head office for your area (use Google!) give them a call and ask to speak to the AdSense team. Write letters offer to meet them in person.
If you’ve been banned from AdSense and it was your fault the above technique won’t work. There is however a common sense of getting back in to the scheme that has worked in the past for people caught cheating. That’s another article though.
How to Make Money with AdSense
How to Make Money with AdSense
Many webmasters have found that it is relatively easy to make money with AdSense as you get paid for every time a visitor clicks on a AdSense ad - no sale required!
AdSense allows you to serve text-based Google AdWords on your web site or blog and receive a share of the pay-per-click payment.
What are Adwords ?
Adwords are text only advertisements that Google sells to people who want to advertise their website on the Google search results page. Adwords appear at the top and right of a Google search results page.
Adwords adds are set up so they only appear when someone enters certain keywords into the Google search. For example if you had a website selling Gold Watches you would set up your Adword add to appear when someone entered 'Gold Watch' into the search box.
When a user clicks on one of these adds he is taken to the advertisers website and the Google automatically receives a fee from the advertiser.
The cost to advertise depends on how competitive the keywords you have chosen to advertise on. If you want to appear at the top of the list to a very competitive keyword area the cost-per-click(CPC) price may be over 10$.
Back to AdSense.
Adsense is where these Adword ads are put on your Website. Which adds appear depends on what Google 'thinks' the webpage the adds are being displayed is about.
Therefore if your a webpage is about gold watches adds will be displayed for gold watches.
If it thinks the webpage is about cars it will display adds relating to cars.
To decide what your webpage is about Google will look at things on the webpage like headings, the density of keywords and also places importance of the file name of the page. So if you wanted the gold watches adds to appear on your page you would call the page gold-watches.html.
When a visitor to your site clicks on one of your adds you will get a percentage of the CPC (Cost per Click). Google keeps the percentage secret but it is generally thought to be around the 50% mark.
If that is 50% of a $10+ add you can see how having Adsense on your website can become very profitable.
Download Free Report
John started a little "side business" barely 12 months ago to prove (yet again) that he practices what he preaches. This little business was solely focused on creating what John calls "Virtual Real Estate." In other words, small content web sites that make money from advertising or affiliate programs. (i.e. The sites don't sell any products of their own.) This little side business of John's (which he will tell you he has spent less than a total of 150 hours developing) has already raked in.. are you ready for this? $521,829.73 in AdSense earnings. (And John expects this number to *exponentially* GROW.)
* And oh yeah, these sites have NOTHING to do with "Internet Marketing" or teaching people how to make money. They are tiny niche markets that ANYONE can make money from. And because ALL of his traffic was generated from no-cost search engine listings, it's almost ALL profit for him. (Aside from hosting and domain registration fees.)
Okay. So Here's What This Is All About... Early last year, John decided to do something as a TEST. He decided to start an OFFLINE monthly publication to share some of his best strategies. Every month he created a 20-page newsletter and companion CD-Rom that contained tons of screencam video tutorials where he DEMONSTRATED his moneymaking Internet techniques. Now, you've probably never even heard of this publication. That's for a reason... John decided to only offer it to a very small group of people -- because he didn't know what the response would be.
Well, the response was OVERWHELMING and people couldn't get enough of his special techniques. Many of the people that were lucky to get access to his 'secret' publication made tons of money by simply applying EXACTLY what he showed them how to do. And now (for a very limited time) John wants to let other Internet marketers get a small glimpse into what he has been publishing -- FOR FREE.
WARNING: John is only sharing his valuable information with entrepreneurs that are willing to WORK HARD on their businesses to make huge profits. So if you are only interested in "get rich quick" schemes, this isn't for you. John has just put a single issue of his 'secret publication' (he calls it "The Reese Report") online for you to go and download -- BUT... ONLY IF YOU HURRY! John plans to take the newsletter and CD-Rom files OFFLINE very soon to protect the valuable strategies that they contain. So here's what you need to do... (It will only take a moment.) Go right now and download the files while they are still available! That's it. There's nothing more to it. I'm 100% positive you will enjoy them as much as I have AND find tons of ways to apply his methods to make more money. Frankly, I can't believe some of the things he's sharing!
You'll see exactly what I mean when you download the files. Here's the link to download them:
HERE
If you visit the above link and the files have been removed, PLEASE don't email me and ask me for them -- I am not allowed to give them out directly. And once John takes the files down they will no longer be available.
How to Make Money from Your Website
How to Make Money from Your Website
For many webmasters the creation of their website is a labour of love. It's something they have a passion for and they want to share with the rest of the world. The internet allows them to do this like no other medium has in the past.
However with the popularity of the internet growing at a phenomenal rate and showing no sign of slowing down it has become a place where anyone with a web presence can make money from their website. Many webmasters have realized the possible earning power of their sites and have been making great money by advertising affiliates on their site ( see the make money with affiliate programs on this blog ).
Some websites make enough money through affiliates to make it their full time ( and very profitable ) profession. It can be time consuming however to find affiliates that are relevant to your website and even if visitors to your site do click on your affiliate link there's no guarantee that person will make a purchase.
In 2003 the internet powerhouse Google released an affiliate scheme that fitted automatically to the contents of your website's pages. What's more you were paid EVERY time someone clicked on the link whether they bought anything or not.
This made thousand of normal website owners thousands of dollars and attracted thousands of non technical people into online entrepreneurs.
This affiliate scheme is called Google Adsense. To find out more about it click here.
For many webmasters the creation of their website is a labour of love. It's something they have a passion for and they want to share with the rest of the world. The internet allows them to do this like no other medium has in the past.
However with the popularity of the internet growing at a phenomenal rate and showing no sign of slowing down it has become a place where anyone with a web presence can make money from their website. Many webmasters have realized the possible earning power of their sites and have been making great money by advertising affiliates on their site ( see the make money with affiliate programs on this blog ).
Some websites make enough money through affiliates to make it their full time ( and very profitable ) profession. It can be time consuming however to find affiliates that are relevant to your website and even if visitors to your site do click on your affiliate link there's no guarantee that person will make a purchase.
In 2003 the internet powerhouse Google released an affiliate scheme that fitted automatically to the contents of your website's pages. What's more you were paid EVERY time someone clicked on the link whether they bought anything or not.
This made thousand of normal website owners thousands of dollars and attracted thousands of non technical people into online entrepreneurs.
This affiliate scheme is called Google Adsense. To find out more about it click here.
Recommended Affiliate Programs
Affiliate Programs
Recommended Affiliate Programs
Site Sell 5 Pillor Affiliate program.
Click here to find out more.
Recommended Affiliate Programs
Site Sell 5 Pillor Affiliate program.
Click here to find out more.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Second Life Businesses
Second Life Businesses
There are almost unlimited ways to start a business in Second Life. Below are the four of the most popular.
Real Estate.
This is where the real money is made in Second Life. People in Second Life are looking for somewhere for the avaitar to sleep when they go to bed! Seriously though Second Life gives people the chance to own or rent property that they could never afford in real life. As in Real life there two options
Rent property.
This involves buying land and putting property on it (if you’re good at building you can do this yourself, pay someone to build it for you or what most do is buy off the shelf properties). Obviously you have to make sure that you charge your tenants more than Linden labs charges you for the land fee (this is the monthly fee Linden charges landowners based on size of land). This can be quite profitable and the cost of land in Second Life is going up as demand is outstripping supply so if you want to get out after a period of time you should be able to sell the land at a profit.
Sell Land.
You can buy land and sell it with or without property. Quite often people will buy the land and sell it at around cost. They will make money by charging extra on the month tier fee (as Linden still see this as your ownership so will charge you – you in turn will have a contact with the buyer who says that you they will pay monthly land fees say plus 10%. They can sell the land at anytime to who ever as long as the new buyer picks of the contract) If you have enough money one of the best ways to do this is to buy an island at a cost of US$1,675 (plus there will be US$295 land fees) and split the island into lots of smaller plots selling for a total of US$1,675 but charging a overall monthly land fees of US$500. People will buy these plots as they can only afford to buy small plots. If you make the island beautiful as well its bound to attract people who want to set up home in Second Life. Don’t worry if you can’t afford a whole island find a nice piece of land at a cheaper price and do the same thing.
Set up a Shop and sell things.
Two main ways you can sell. If you have a talent for creating things in Second Life like clothes (especially womens), skins (what gives the avatars they’re look), furniture, buildings etc. you can sell these to people in your own second life shop. Once you’ve set it up you don’t even have to be there to make the money.
The other way is to buy other peoples stuff at wholesale prices set up a shop market it and sell at a profit. There are lots of people out there who offer this service especially for clothes.
Own and run a Casino.
Pretty much the same as in real life people love to gamble. You can buy land build a casino and make money from people playing games such as poker, blackjack and roulette. There are also thousands of different types of slot machines that will happily take your visitors money.
It may be worth seeing which way the US gambling laws go first before proceeding (or at least doing some research on them)
Own and run a Club.
As in real life people in Second Life love going to clubs to dance to the favourite music and chase members of the opposite sex. If you have a successful club you can make money from advertising, affiliate schemes, donation jars, gambling and all sorts of spin offs.
The best way to find out more about these businesses in Second Life is to find people who already own them and ask them (nicely!) eventually you’ll find someone kind enough to share their experiences.
There are almost unlimited ways to start a business in Second Life. Below are the four of the most popular.
Real Estate.
This is where the real money is made in Second Life. People in Second Life are looking for somewhere for the avaitar to sleep when they go to bed! Seriously though Second Life gives people the chance to own or rent property that they could never afford in real life. As in Real life there two options
Rent property.
This involves buying land and putting property on it (if you’re good at building you can do this yourself, pay someone to build it for you or what most do is buy off the shelf properties). Obviously you have to make sure that you charge your tenants more than Linden labs charges you for the land fee (this is the monthly fee Linden charges landowners based on size of land). This can be quite profitable and the cost of land in Second Life is going up as demand is outstripping supply so if you want to get out after a period of time you should be able to sell the land at a profit.
Sell Land.
You can buy land and sell it with or without property. Quite often people will buy the land and sell it at around cost. They will make money by charging extra on the month tier fee (as Linden still see this as your ownership so will charge you – you in turn will have a contact with the buyer who says that you they will pay monthly land fees say plus 10%. They can sell the land at anytime to who ever as long as the new buyer picks of the contract) If you have enough money one of the best ways to do this is to buy an island at a cost of US$1,675 (plus there will be US$295 land fees) and split the island into lots of smaller plots selling for a total of US$1,675 but charging a overall monthly land fees of US$500. People will buy these plots as they can only afford to buy small plots. If you make the island beautiful as well its bound to attract people who want to set up home in Second Life. Don’t worry if you can’t afford a whole island find a nice piece of land at a cheaper price and do the same thing.
Set up a Shop and sell things.
Two main ways you can sell. If you have a talent for creating things in Second Life like clothes (especially womens), skins (what gives the avatars they’re look), furniture, buildings etc. you can sell these to people in your own second life shop. Once you’ve set it up you don’t even have to be there to make the money.
The other way is to buy other peoples stuff at wholesale prices set up a shop market it and sell at a profit. There are lots of people out there who offer this service especially for clothes.
Own and run a Casino.
Pretty much the same as in real life people love to gamble. You can buy land build a casino and make money from people playing games such as poker, blackjack and roulette. There are also thousands of different types of slot machines that will happily take your visitors money.
It may be worth seeing which way the US gambling laws go first before proceeding (or at least doing some research on them)
Own and run a Club.
As in real life people in Second Life love going to clubs to dance to the favourite music and chase members of the opposite sex. If you have a successful club you can make money from advertising, affiliate schemes, donation jars, gambling and all sorts of spin offs.
The best way to find out more about these businesses in Second Life is to find people who already own them and ask them (nicely!) eventually you’ll find someone kind enough to share their experiences.
Make Money in Second life
Make Money in Second life
Second Life is an online society within a 3D world, where users can explore, build, socialize, and participate in their own economy.
Second Life has its own currency – Linden Dollars that can be earned in pretty much anyway they can in the real world (and plenty of others that aren’t available in the real world).
And the beauty about Linden dollars is that they have a real word value and can be exchanged for real US dollars which can be paid into your bank account via Pay Pal. Some people make a nice real world extra income from Second Life, a few actually make a full time living from it.
An Article in September 2006 Popular Science magazine said that that Second Life has a GDP of $64 Million (and that’s real world dollars!).
Below is a list of ways you can make money in Second Life with no financial investment.
Money Trees – these are placed in places like Casinos shopping malls to attract people. Usually you can only get $10 (Linden) a day and they don’t last that long either. You can search for ‘Money tree’ in search but by the time you’ve found one that still exists yo could have made double by camping (see below).
Camping - This is great way to earn money for free. Usually in the form of camping chairs at clubs and casinos. For just sitting in one of these chairs you can earn on average 4 – 6 L$ every 20 minutes. Quite often you need to be a member of the relative group but usually you can add yourself to these groups (goto search – groups and then add yourself)
Now there is one problem in that the maximum amount of time you can stay idle is 20 minutes and then you will be automatically logged out. Now to make any semi decent money via camping you have to stay on for hours. People don’t want to spend hours online in camping chairs because it is boring! But you can get a script which tricks Second Life into thinking you are active when you are not. Therefore what you do is go to your favourite camping chair, turn on the script – then goto Real life bed / college / work and when you return you will have been earning money all that time. One such script is called antiAFK HUD. If you want a copy of this script send a Second Life IM to Phoenix Utorid – he’ll be happy to help you out with obatining this tool for free
When doing your camping in this way its best to check how what the maximum payout is. In general if you’re going to be camping for sevaral hours a higher maximum payout is more desireable than a higher hourly rate.
You won’t make a real life fortune with camping but you can make a reasonable Second Life income which you can use as an investment for Second Life activities which have the possibility to bring in even more money.
Second Life is an online society within a 3D world, where users can explore, build, socialize, and participate in their own economy.
Second Life has its own currency – Linden Dollars that can be earned in pretty much anyway they can in the real world (and plenty of others that aren’t available in the real world).
And the beauty about Linden dollars is that they have a real word value and can be exchanged for real US dollars which can be paid into your bank account via Pay Pal. Some people make a nice real world extra income from Second Life, a few actually make a full time living from it.
An Article in September 2006 Popular Science magazine said that that Second Life has a GDP of $64 Million (and that’s real world dollars!).
Below is a list of ways you can make money in Second Life with no financial investment.
Money Trees – these are placed in places like Casinos shopping malls to attract people. Usually you can only get $10 (Linden) a day and they don’t last that long either. You can search for ‘Money tree’ in search but by the time you’ve found one that still exists yo could have made double by camping (see below).
Camping - This is great way to earn money for free. Usually in the form of camping chairs at clubs and casinos. For just sitting in one of these chairs you can earn on average 4 – 6 L$ every 20 minutes. Quite often you need to be a member of the relative group but usually you can add yourself to these groups (goto search – groups and then add yourself)
Now there is one problem in that the maximum amount of time you can stay idle is 20 minutes and then you will be automatically logged out. Now to make any semi decent money via camping you have to stay on for hours. People don’t want to spend hours online in camping chairs because it is boring! But you can get a script which tricks Second Life into thinking you are active when you are not. Therefore what you do is go to your favourite camping chair, turn on the script – then goto Real life bed / college / work and when you return you will have been earning money all that time. One such script is called antiAFK HUD. If you want a copy of this script send a Second Life IM to Phoenix Utorid – he’ll be happy to help you out with obatining this tool for free
When doing your camping in this way its best to check how what the maximum payout is. In general if you’re going to be camping for sevaral hours a higher maximum payout is more desireable than a higher hourly rate.
You won’t make a real life fortune with camping but you can make a reasonable Second Life income which you can use as an investment for Second Life activities which have the possibility to bring in even more money.
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