How Do Bloggers Make Money? The Profit Ladder Explained

A great explanation of the different ways money can be made from a blog.

All about idle chatter

This is a very interesting article on how adding live chat to your website really increases your online sales!

For less than the cost of his monthly mobile phone bill, Benjamin Simon has made a little addition to his website that has doubled revenue over the past four months.The operator of Melbourne corporate audiovisual business Event Equipment added a live chat service to his website, which has resulted in a boon.

"We haven't tweaked anything else in the business, except that we now have a real person that is trained to convert visitors into potential customers on our website. "It's working. We've had customers tell us that they would have left the site without asking for a price if they had not had our web receptionist pop up."

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Simon's is one of a growing number of Australian businesses using live chat on its website, which acts like a virtual sales person to respond to customer inquiries.

The director of Melbourne's ITtelligent Consulting Services, Robert Adelman, has also been using live chat on his website, which feeds a list of website visitors who have submitted an inquiry following the live chat prompt directly to his sales team to follow up.

"We get a brief rundown of the potential client, what they require and their budget. It's like having an extra staff member without the costs. The only thing I can say is I wish I had found the service six years ago when I started the business."

Both businesses are using WebReception, launched a few months ago by Melbourne entrepreneur Gary Tramer, whose service includes an army of trained sales staff to man the live chat service. Tramer says businesses spend a lot of time driving traffic to their website, but without human support, they're missing a massive piece of the sales puzzle.

"If someone walks into your store, you help them find what they're looking for. When they visit your website, why should it be any different?," he says. "Having real human support on your site can be of huge appeal to potential buyers because people much prefer to buy from a person than from a website, and we can facilitate that process."

The service starts at $16 a day to have it manned during business hours, or you can pay more for a 24-hour service. Within 30 seconds of arriving at your website, visitors are greeted by a live chat window asking if they would like help.

Current sites using the service include a dental firm, ecommerce site, online marketing company and video conferencing firm. WebReception also gathers information on the site visitor, with about 20 per cent of visitors becoming potential sales leads. Tramer says people don't want to have to navigate a website to find what they're looking for, adding that live chat is here to stay.

"We see many businesses increasing online marketing spend to drive more visitors to their website, but the fact remains that 90 to 95 per cent of website visitors never engage with the business. "If you don't build a conversation with visitors to your site then you're missing a piece of the puzzle."

Tramer is also the founder of multimillion-dollar direct sales organisation Face2Face Global, which is responsible for the national acquisition campaigns for Citibank, Amex and Virgin Mobile, among others.

"If you've ever been pitched to sign up for a Citibank or Amex at an Australian airport, then you've come across my sales teams," he says. Tramer is also the founder of online marketing company Searchwords and co-founded Australia's newest entrepreneurial hub, revolvercreative.com.au.

While live chat on websites is nothing new, WebReception differs from others in the market. Most services offer the software only, meaning business owners need to source their own staff to man the service. Tramer claims to be the only operator in the market offering a live chat resource that also comes with outsourced, trained sales staff.

"This is the type of service that businesses haven't had access to before. We're creating a new standard in the market."

Author: Nina Hendy
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/all-about-idle-chatter-20130523-2k2vb.html

The Principal of a Successful Internet Business

Did you know the principal of a successful Internet business is exactly the same now as it was 10 years ago? So many people try to over-complicate the whole idea of creating and running a business online. They seem to think they need to do things differently in order to succeed, or find different ways to get their business running.

The truth is that the same principal of a successful Internet business applies today as it did 10 or even 15 years ago. There's no need to re-invent the wheel. There's no need to try and be completely different. You just need to build your online business around three key components.

Three Key Components to Successful Internet Business

No matter what product or service you're selling and no matter where in the world you live, it's possible to earn good money from an Internet business. As long as you incorporate these three key components into your business, you will succeed.

Those three components are:

1. Product

In order to generate profits, your business needs to have a product to sell. It really doesn't matter what your product is, as long as it represents value to your customers.

Remember, value comes in all shapes and forms. Some people are happy to buy information products, as they're getting value by learning about something that interests them. Other people love buying physical products that fill a need they have, whether that's clothing or electronics or pet accessories or cooking utensils or books or anything else you can think of.

As long as your business has a product to sell, you're ready to make profit.

2. Website

Perhaps the primary principal of successful Internet business is a website. Don't make the mistake of viewing your website as just being the online face of your business. Your website is actually your salesperson promoting your products day and night without ever taking a day off.

Your website also acts as your payment processor, accepting payments from your customers for your business. You can also use your website as a brilliant tool to communicate and interact with customers to increase their trust in your business.

3. Traffic

The third principal of a successful Internet business is traffic. You might design the best website in the world but it will do you no good at all if no one visits it. You need to develop effective ways to draw visitors to your site regularly.

There are several ways to increase the amount of traffic you get to your site. These include optimizing your web page content so it appeals to search engines. You might also want to consider various forms of Internet advertising to reach out to those people in your target market.

As long as you focus on these three principals of successful Internet business, your enterprise will be profitable.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7732900

Social Media Marketing Explained

A basic explanation but there's nothing wrong with spelling out the basics if you do it as clearly as Douglas Lim....

How to Quit Your Job Like a BOSS! (Steve Harvey)

I love it...this is how to quit a job after you start making money online!!

Our Blogging Tips & Advice

These two are not only really funny but give lots of great tips on blogging too!

6 Tips to Start Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is one way to market you business' website and get links back to your website.

Guest blogging involves you writing an article or post for someone else's website or blog. Usually, there is no payment exchanged. Instead, in exchange for your article you get links in the article back to your website. The links can either be in the body of the article or in an author's bio or resource box. It's up to the owner of the website or blog to specify.

Guest blogging is beneficial to both the blog/website owner and the guest blogger. The blog or website owner gets new content for free. The guest blogger gets links back to his website or blog.

Here's a few tips to get you started guest blogging.

1. Locate blogger/guest blogger websites in which bloggers are looking for guest bloggers and guest bloggers are trying to identify website owners who need content.

2. Register with the site and start looking at what types of blogs are looking for articles. Your area of expertise or niche will dictate which sites you want to submit guest blogs to. For example, if you are marketing healthcare products on your site and want to get links back to that, look for sites that are related to what you are marketing. You want to look for sites that are complementary to your business and not in direct competition with you.

3. Once you have found some blogs, be sure to visit those sites and take note of what article topics they have covered recently. You don't want to offer them an article that's similar to what they currently have posted.

4. Contact the blog owner and offer a new article. It's also acceptable to introduce yourself to the blog owner and ask if they have any specific article topic they would like on their website.

5. Get details. Make sure before you submit the article that you know the word limit, how many links you can include and where they need to be. That is, ask whether the links need to be in the body of the article or in the author's resource box Also, make sure you know what format the article should be in.

6. Write and submit a quality article. Be sure to edit and proofread the article before submitting it to the blog owner.

Guest blogging is a great way to get links back to your website while also promoting yourself as an expert in your field. Make it part of your content marketing plan.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7690885

How Social Media Are Re-inventing our World

Working with bloggers to promote your business

When it comes to promoting your business, an increasing number of entrepreneurs are reaching out to bloggers to write about their products and services. In the past, there were few options available to business owners. You could pay for advertising, or hope that you would be given coverage in mainstream media. These opportunities were limited, often confined by the number of pages in a publication. However, the world of blogging has opened up new channels for business owners to reach their target audience.

Tram Tran started her online shopping site Koogal in February 2013. She focuses on selling fashion to 16 to 26 year old women. "When I was at university I started selling my old clothes on eBay," says Tran. "It was a hobby but then I noticed that there was demand for certain types of tops and dresses, so I began sourcing them and selling on eBay."

Tran says she realised that she could make a bigger margin if she opened an online store. This is so she could avoid the fees charged by eBay and PayPal, which she used to take payment. "I used Shopify to create my online store. It was really easy. I spent the weekend uploading pictures of the clothes and then my site was ready to go," she says.

Getting eyeballs

However, having an online store means nothing if people don't visit it and buy from you. So Tran implemented two key strategies: Google Adwords and blogger outreach.

"I researched all the keywords and figured out which ones had the best success rate when it comes to conversions. We set a budget of how much we would spend a day. We started out with $20 a day. Now we've increased it to $40 a day."

In addition to Google Adwords, Tran says she thought about what her target market were reading to find out more about fashion. "I know that I like reading fashion blogs," says Tran. "So I thought: 'Why not ask these bloggers to spread the word about my business?'"

To this end, Tran identifies fashion bloggers and sends them free products – mainly dresses – in the hopes they will write about her online store. Since February this year, she's sent about 40 dresses to bloggers. "So far, all of them have ended up featuring the dresses on their blog," says Tran, who adds that after being featured on a blog, the traffic to her online site sees an increase of up to five times its usual amount. And her sales revenue has increased 50 per cent every month.

It's an economical exercise for Tran who does not pay most of the bloggers she contacts."However, I do pay some of the more popular bloggers," she says, adding that this payment is clearly disclosed when the bloggers writes about the item.

Tran's strategy is working. Although still a relatively new business, she says she's making enough money from the site to "live on" and she has plans to expand.

Promoting services

While sending products to bloggers is easy if you actually sell a product, it's easy to wonder how the same result can be achieved when you sell a service.

Cassidy Poon has reached out to bloggers to promote a very different kind of business. Poon is national marketing manager of LogicalTech Group, which is keen to promote "managed IT services, Microsoft products and solutions, Oracle solutions, business intelligence and mobility solutions to enterprise clients."

Poon is a firm believer in the influence wielded by certain bloggers. "I believe strongly, in this day and age, that powerful blogs from dedicated bloggers are often a go-to source for our key decision makers," he says, referring to CIOs, IT Managers and small business owners. He says these people are often looking for technology solutions and seek product reviews written by trusted tech bloggers.

"These bloggers can be more persuasive than a comparable traditional media ad campaign. Our target market get invested in the tech blogger’s story and feel like they know our brand; when the tech blogger recommends our product or brand, they trust our dedicated blogger."

Poon says you need to be strategic in choosing the right bloggers to work with. "Partnering with our dedicated bloggers is a great way for us to raise brand awareness — and if done right, a blogging partnership can potentially generate a significant increment of sales to us," he says. "I usually go into LinkedIn and search for the profiles of key technology bloggers, editors and journalists that will be interested to cover our press releases or feature articles. Sometimes we can engage a paid blogging partnership. Most blogging jobs pay per post (often around 300-500 words), and have some kind of regular posting schedule." Poon reveals that he pays $5 to $50 per post.

Beauty blogging

Bellabox's Sarah Hamilton is also a fan of working with bloggers to promote her business, an online service that sends beauty products to people every month. It was founded in late 2011. "As an e-commerce business, we understand the value that bloggers represent in terms of word of mouth communication," says Hamilton. "Bloggers have an amazing reach and the ability to speak to consumers almost anywhere, regardless of geography. Bloggers also have a unique connection with their readers – they can speak to their audiences from a position of authority, whilst still often being very approachable.

"We are quite a blog obsessed bunch at bellabox. We like to keep up with ‘whose who’ in the blogging world and reach out to bloggers who foster similar communities to ours. This makes it easy to collaborate with like-minded bloggers, open to mutually beneficial partnerships.

"The most regularly occurring outcome for us is that bloggers will review our bellaboxes and promote the concept of beauty subscription to their readers. Working with bloggers is a very important part of our marketing and PR strategy, and it’s something we continue to do on a daily basis."

If you're looking at reaching out to bloggers, here are key factors to consider:

1. Start reading blogs that speak to your target audience. If you're not clear where to find them, use Google. Search for "Top beauty blogs in Australia", "Best Business Blogs" or whatever search terms best suit your industry and audience.

2. If you have a product, you might consider sending the product to the blogger for review. However, the blogger is under no obligation to write about that product if no payment is involved.

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3. If you want to ensure coverage on a blog, consider paying for a sponsored post.

4. Every blogger is different. As the blogosphere is still evolving, you can expect wildly varying fees for sponsored posts. While Cassidy Poon (above) may only pay $5 to $50 per post, some popular bloggers can charge up to $3000 per post. The amount you pay is often a reflection of the popularity and experience of a blogger.

Author: Valerie Khoo

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/blogs/enterprise/working-with-bloggers-to-promote-your-business-20130523-2k29a.html#ixzz2UIzrnGUT

What to sell in order to make maximum dollars online

Is your office making you sick?

If this article isn't enough to make anyone get out of the office altogether and start making money online, I don't know what it!

It's what many of us desk-jockeys have long suspected: working in an office isn't good for your health. It's almost as though the modern office has been finely calibrated specifically to make us unwell – or even finish us off – in dozens of ways.

The problems start long before you arrive at work. Commuting is a killer, and the longer your trip, the worse it gets.

A study at Washington University in the US examined the car journeys of more than 4000 commuters. The researchers found that those who were commuting 10 miles (16 kilometres) each day had a greater chance of having high blood pressure. If the commute was 15 miles (24 kilometres) or more, the chances of the worker being obese or overweight also increased.

"The study was the first to show that long commutes can take away from exercise and are associated with higher weight, lower fitness levels and higher blood pressure, and all of these are strong predictors of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers," lead researcher Christine Hoehner says.

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This all comes on the back of a large body of research showing how bad commuting is in many other ways, from increasing the chances of recurrent neck and back pain to being associated with a higher level of divorce. A 2010 survey in the US also demonstrated the toll that long-distance commuting can have on emotional well-being, with respondents reporting higher general levels of anxiety the further they travelled to work.

Even if you survive the commute to arrive at your office in reasonable health, more horrors await. The humble office chair, for instance, is increasingly implicated in a catalogue of health problems.

Obviously, sitting means you are largely inactive and therefore not burning many calories, but the problems go much deeper than that.

Standing – even standing still – requires tiny muscle contractions that do vital work processing fats and sugars in the bloodstream. Park yourself in a padded swivel chair and all that unseen activity stops almost immediately.

There is plenty of evidence now that sitting for prolonged periods is closely associated with many nasties, including heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and even blood clots.

But if the chair doesn't get you, you've still got to survive the effects of your boss.

Irritating or incompetent managers are, from time to time at least, a fact of life in any workplace. However, having a tyrant in the corner office can also have a serious effect on your health.

A study by the Stockholm-based Stress Research Institute found that working for a dud boss meant employees were 60 per cent more likely to have a heart attack. Conversely, there have also been plenty of other studies associating good leadership with reduced stress among workers and, consequently, fewer health problems.

Even if you have the world's best boss, just putting in long hours at the office can be fatal. The Whitehall II study, set up in 1985 by a team from University College London, followed more than 6000 middle-aged public servants in Britain. It makes sobering reading for any workaholic who prides themselves on being chained to their desk. Long periods in the office – up to 11 hours a day – are closely associated with heart disease.

Meanwhile, the layout of your office may also be causing you harm. Open-plan design is now the rule for most office buildings, with the idea that putting workers in one big room will magically build corporate culture and encourage efficient teamwork. But there's mounting evidence to show the open-plan dream is not all it's cracked up to be.

A 2008 study by Queensland University of Technology researcher Vinesh Oommen rounded up much of the published research and found working in an open-plan office was associated with high levels of stress, conflict, high blood pressure and high staff turnover.

"Research evidence shows employees face a multitude of problems, such as the loss of privacy, loss of identity, low work productivity, various health issues, overstimulation and low job satisfaction, when working in an open-plan environment," Oommen says in his report.

So if our offices are making us sick – killing us, even – what's to be done? There have been myriad attempts to make offices better for us. Initiatives such as the introduction of more plants (greenery has positive effects on mental health, as well as "cleaning" the air) and "standing desks", plus subsidised gyms and facilities such as bike parking and showers, can all help.

But, increasingly, it seems much of the answer may lie in using technology to unshackle us from the desk, for at least some of the working week. Teleworking or telecommuting allows workers to do their jobs remotely, either from home or from local "hubs".

Research conducted last year by Colmar Brunton and Deloitte Access Economics showed 68 per cent of employees would consider switching jobs to be allowed to do at least some telework.

One of the main health advantages comes from cutting out the commute, which in turn can reduce stress for parents forced to juggle work, transport and family.

Catherine Raffaele, a researcher at the University of Sydney's Workplace Research Centre, says telework can give employees control.

"One of the great potential benefits is greater control over your life," she says. "There is quite a lot of evidence on the importance of control in moderating stress."

Working remotely can also give work to those who are not capable of travelling to an office. "Telework has the potential to increase participation in groups for whom travelling to the office is not possible on a daily basis," Raffaele says. "That's not just people with a disability, it can also include parents and people looking after elderly parents."

And, as for the stigma attached to working from home – or "shirking" from home, as some would have it – most studies show home or remote workers are more productive than their desk-bound colleagues.

Open-plan or boxed in: it's back to the future

Like so much in business, styles of office layout and design have come and gone over the years, with old concepts often becoming new again as thinking changes.

In the beginning was Frederick Taylor, an American engineer whose big idea at the dawn of the 20th century was "scientific management".

"Taylorism" was all about rational efficiency, which translated into big open-plan offices, with desks arranged with military precision amnd workers concentrating on one repetitive task. The bosses looked on from glass-walled private offices. None of this sounds like fun, but one gets the impression fun wasn't too high on Taylor's agenda.

In the 1950s, the Germans got in on the office-design act with a layout called burolandshaft, which was an egalitarian open-plan style. This "office landscape" was supposedly more human and promoted the free exchange of ideas.

By the '80s, the barriers had gone up again – literally – and the sea of cubicles so beloved of Dilbert was born. Cubicles were the kind-of office you had when you didn't have an office. Strictly hierarchical, the higher your walls and the bigger your cubicle the greater your importance in the corporate pecking order.

Now in the age of the internet, the virtual office and the "hot-desk" are in vogue. Video conferencing allows "virtual teams" to get together across town – or across countries. Hot-desking workers don't come to the office every day, and when they do, they grab any available desk in their "neighbourhood" to plug in their laptop.

By Nick Gavin

http://www.dailylife.com.au/health-and-fitness/dl-wellbeing/is-your-office-making-you-sick-20130521-2jy0h.html

Making Money Online Through Social Media

There are a lot of ways to earn money online. One of the most famous ways is through social media. Social media has billions of users today. Because of that, social media is considered to be the most powerful platform in promoting your business. But how do we make use of social media? With a lot of competitors out there, how do we stand out? Here are some tips that you need to keep in mind to ensure your social media success.

The first thing that you have to do is identify your audience or your reach. Your audience will rely on your type of business. The idea of determining your audience is so that you can narrow your target and promote your business strategically by gathering specific, targeted fans and followers or connections to have a greater chance of converting them into paying customers. This is why it is very important that you pick your audience with the right demographics and interests, etc.

Now that you have identified your audience, the next step is to create your profile. Whether it's on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, your profile is important. It's the first thing that the viewers will see. It should be professional and it should give viewers an idea of what you can offer. Also, select a decent profile picture. You can use your own picture or the logo of your business. A good profile will convert audience to fans, followers or connections.

Once your profile is good to go and you have gathered sufficient followers and fans, you must to interact with them through posts or tweets. Your objective is to create a good relationship with them. Try to win their trust. Avoid making posts that are purely business promotions. Keep in mind that your objective is to build trust and not to hard sell. You also have to be consistent in replying to posts, tweets and messages. Make it a routine to check your notifications, or set up automatic email notifications, so you can respond on time. This will make your audience feel that you're serious about engaging with them and that you're not only after them for their business.

Another effective way of engaging with customers is to host raffles, contests or weekly Q&A's. This will make your audience stay on your page and hungry for more. You can provide them a useful content as a prize. Also, try to make a sincere effort of answering all their questions, and address their problems. Once you have gained their trust, you can gradually introduce your products and services to them. Today, almost everything is done online and the internet, through social media, has clearly changed the way we do business. Social media has evolved to enable us to reach out and attract a humongous number of prospects-even people who we don't know and friends of our friends, who we would have never had access to before!

The capacity to construct a widespread network of aligned prospects is vital for the triumph of small businesses. Indeed, these social networks have served to level the field and have opened up all sorts of marketing possibilities for small business owners worldwide that were only accessible to large corporations prior to the advent of social media.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7581215

Can You Really Make Money Taking Online Surveys?

One of the easiest ways to make money online is to take surveys. There’s little more to it than signing up, filling out a profile, and giving your opinion on ads, products, services and more.

The big question is just how much money can you make and how much work is involved. While you probably can’t make a full-time living taking online surveys, they can leverage your spare time to earn a bit of cash. Or, you might use surveys to get other perks, like free products.

Why Companies Pay for Surveys

You might think that getting paid to take a survey seems ridiculous. Why would anyone pay you for your opinion?

In truth, most companies rely on consumer feedback. Companies that don’t have a department to run consumer surveys and panels hire survey companies to do it for them.

Consumer feedback helps companies make more money by tweaking products and advertisements before they release them publicly. That’s why companies will pay you for your time when you take a survey. The information you give them is crucial to their success.

How It Works

Taking online surveys is simple, though getting started can take a bit of time. Here are the steps involved:

1. Find a company to sign up with. I’ve included a list below of companies to check out, but there are hundreds of legitimate companies out there.
2. Create and fill out a profile. You’ll need a separate profile for every company you do surveys for, and you’ll want to fill out each profile as completely as possible. Each survey is targeted to a particular demographic, so the company won’t send you a survey unless they can tell from your profile that you fit the demographic they want.
3. Get surveys. Most survey companies will notify you of available surveys by email. Some are immediately available for you to take. For others, you may have to spend a couple of minutes answering presurvey questions to ensure that you fit the demographic. If you do, you can go on to take the survey (and get the reward). Other times, you may get products in the mail that you’re meant to review.
4. Take surveys. Just answer questions. Sometimes it’s as simple as answering a few multiple choice questions. Other times, you may need to type out long-form answers to more specific questions.
5. Earn rewards. The rewards process varies dramatically from one company to the next. Some companies give you points, which you can redeem for cash or other rewards. Others transfer money immediately to your PayPal account, and still others enter your name into a sweepstakes drawing.

These steps vary from one survey company to the next, so be sure you understand how the process works when you sign up.

How Much You Can Make

Like I said, you’re not going to make a fortune taking surveys online, but you can make some extra money for fun, for paying off debt, or for investing. Monetary survey rewards vary from less than $1 to more than $20, though they’re usually on the lower end of that range, $1 to $5. If you can take several a day, you can earn quite a bit of money in a month.

Other companies don’t give you cash. But they may help you save money by offering you free products, often full-size products, that you need to test for the survey. Obviously, this can be a great way to get free household products, personal care products, diapers, and other things you use regularly.

Still other companies will enter you into a sweepstakes drawing when you take a survey. The more surveys you take, the more chances you have to win. These can be a little frustrating, since you don’t necessarily get a reward right away. But they can pay off with some great prizes, including gift cards, products and cash.

How much you can make depends on which companies you sign up with, how many surveys you take, and which demographic you fit. If you’re in an often-surveyed demographic, you may get more opportunities to make money, thus upping your survey earning potential.

Some companies, like Swagbucks, also offer prizes, points or cash for referring others to the service, so this is another aspect of survey-taking to check out.

The key is that you can use surveys to make money when you would otherwise not be doing anything. You’re certainly not required to take any surveys that land in your inbox, but you can do so if you find 10 or 15 minutes where you would otherwise be checking Facebook or Tweeting.

Spotting the Bad Apples

While there are lots of legitimate survey companies out there, this is also a good market for a scam. Some companies will sell your profile information, which can be quite personal, for profit.

So before you sign up, find the company’s privacy policy in their contract. If you can’t find the privacy policy, or if it says that the company is free to share your information, steer clear. You’ll just set yourself up for an inbox full of spam.

Also, never, ever pay a survey company up front. This is a scam designed to get to your money without giving you anything in return.

Remember, companies need the information they get from surveys, and they’re willing to pay to get it. So legitimate survey companies will share the wealth by paying you, not by asking to be paid.

Top Companies to Check Out

There are hundreds of survey companies that could be worth checking out. However, because different companies research different demographics, you may get different results out of different companies, so it’s worth your while to look around.

In fact, people who get the most from taking online surveys say it’s best to sign up for at least five to 10 companies, if you want to take surveys daily.

That said, here are some of the top companies:

SwagBucks: This is a good company because you can accumulate points, which you can cash in for prizes like gift cards and electronics. So even if you don’t qualify for a survey, you can get points that add up quickly.

LightSpeed Research: Because this company offers generous amounts of points for surveys, you can leverage your time here to get some great stuff. You can cash in your points for cash, gift certificates, music downloads, and lots of other stuff.

20/20 Research: This company does more specific surveys, so you may not pass many prescreens with them. However, if you do land a survey, you could get really great compensation, such as $100+ of gift cards and other rewards.

PineCone Research: This company pays $3 per survey taken, so they’re a good use of your time. They aren’t always accepting new panel members, but you should check back frequently to see when they are accepting sign-ups.

Valued Opinions: This company pays $1-$5 per completed survey, so these can quickly add up. You can also use surveys to earn rewards from various retailers.

Article source: http://www.doughroller.net/make-money/can-you-really-make-money-taking-online-surveys/

How Fiverr Got Me Started Making Money Online

Today, I'm going to show you a secret. One of the hardest things is finding an audience for your product or service. I have a fantastic place for you to check out and get selling. Having used this little "secret" for two years now, let me tell you that you CAN be successful and make your first money online relatively easy.

Introducing - Fiverr

Fiverr.com is my little secret. Sorry, it's not a real big secret, but there are millions of people that don't know about it - just like there are hundreds of thousands who USE Fiverr.com to buy and sell services.

First off, I have no affiliate connection with Fiverr. I do not obtain any reimbursement or commission for telling you about Fiverr or sending you there to look at the site.

Fiverr.com is a micro job site where people sell services, products, information, and content, along with lots of fun and crazy things - all for the tiny sum of $5 - yes, that's five dollars. Doesn't sound like much, you say? Oh, but don't let that little $5 sign fool you.

People are making their first money online at Fiverr and then there are people who have built up their business and reputation and make a decent income off Fiverr. It all depends on what you have to offer, how many people see your offer, what service you are providing in which niche, and how you treat your customers.

How Fiverr Works

To get the best usage out of Fiverr.com, you need to sign up for an account. It's free to everyone to sign up. Get a username, sign in, and look over the site. It's very, very simple AND there are plenty of videos and training to show you how to set things up.

Once you have set up your account, browsed through the offerings of other Fiverr users, you should have a pretty good idea how to work your ads. Choose a couple services or products that you can easily do for $5.

Let's say you are quick and knowledgeable about logo design, you have software that helps you design logos and you can whip these out in under 15 minutes.

So now you log in to your Fiverr account, go to My Gigs, and click on Add New Gig. Write out a catchy title that is descriptive. For logo design you could have something like I will design a logo for your website for $5.

Then down to the description box, you will explain exactly what you will do for this logo design. You may limit the service in whatever way you see fit; for example, you could limit the design to a two-color logo. Look at what other people have on offer for logo design and you'll get a good idea what is typical. You may very well find that you can take a couple ideas, blend them together to make a unique and more valuable product for your clients.

Next, go to the instructions box where you will explain to your buyer what he/she needs to send you in order for you to design their logo. You may need to know colors, size, letters, graphics they might want. You will need to have this information clearly explained in this instruction box so that it saves both you and your client time.

Finally, once you've completed the two large boxes, you will then indicate how many days it will take you to fulfill the order (always give yourself a little extra time should something unforeseen occur to delay you - and believe me, it happens when you least expect it), go to the Tags box and write out a list of 4 or 5 keywords that describe your service. In this case for the logo design, your keywords could be logos, graphic design, branding, business cards. And finally, upload a unique picture to represent this gig. Hopefully if you're offering logo design, you should have plenty of jpg pictures around to upload. Fiverr likes us to use unique pictures for each gig.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7650689

Lots of great tips on how to make money online

How To Succeed In Making Money Online

In order to make money online, you need to do the following things:

• Learn as much as you possible can about all facets of this business. The more you know, the more you will earn.


• Start building a list right from the start. Don't put it off. List building should be at the top of your To Do list and it will pay you rich rewards later on.


• An online business is a business like any other business and must be run like a business. It won't run itself. Forget about "set it and forget it" or "done for you" business models; they don't work. It takes planning, hard work, dedication, and perseverance.


• Keep regular business hours and either work on projects, watch training videos, read training manuals, network with other marketers, or follow-up on customer service. Each day you must perform some tasks to drive traffic to your sales funnels or some other monetization activity.


• Maintain a positive mindset. Believe in what you are doing and you will soon see results. Think positively; don't dwell on negative issues. If you make mistakes, just recognize them as something not to repeat, and then get on with doing the things that are successful and make you money. Don't beat yourself up.


• If you need the security of a steady paycheck, this business may not be for you. Like most businesses there are periods of feast or famine, so get used to the roller-coaster ride that often goes with self-employment.


• Be smart and use good judgment. Try to arrange emergency funding well in advance to cover you while you are in startup. Set aside six to twelve months of operating funds.


• Stop buying all the new shiny objects that hit your inbox. You need to start selling in order to succeed. Spend your money on advertising and traffic promotion instead.


• Find the right niche for yourself. Select one that you like and one that is already a proven money-maker. It is so much easier to stay motivated when you like what you are doing.


• Find good mentors and coaches and invest time on a regular basis into training and learning. There is a substantial learning curve for this business and good coaching will cut the time in half before you see positive results.


• Manage your time wisely. Make a To Do list and check off each item as you get it done. Keep the lists so you can refer back to them to see if you have stayed on course or to identify the major distractions that kept you from reaching your goals.


• Join several Internet marketing forums in your niche and participate in discussions. You can make a lot of valuable contacts and learn from the experience of other marketers.


• Strive for excellence, but also know when you have done your best and be satisfied with it. Always try to improve in your design and writing, but keep moving forward. Pace yourself so you get the work out in a timely manner.


• Produce long blog posts of at least 1000 words, because they are higher quality than short posts, convey more information, and are more likely to be shared and passed around the Internet. A viral effect will occur with more back-links pointing to your blog, creating greater SEO benefits and more traffic visiting your site from outside sources. More traffic means more money.


• Manually link to high quality sites with high page rank to produce back-links and increase income and a favorable response from search engines.


• You need to balance your social life with your work. Obviously, it is necessary to work at your business each day in order to move it forward and grow your income, but it is equally important to give your family your time and attention as well, and yourself some stress-free leisure time. Your business will still be there when you return to your desk, so try to enjoy yourself. Life is too short to work all the time.

In order to make money online, you need to avoid doing the following things:

• Don't try to hit a grand slam, just try to get on base. If you've fallen behind, don't think you can score a home run to pull yourself out of a jam. Don't try to get rich quick. The best strategy is don't get behind in the first place so you don't put undue stress on yourself. Do what it takes to keep up with your obligations. When you procrastinate, you fall behind. Don't be lazy and put off doing the important things that are essential to your business.Don't quit your day job until you know you have a steady cash flow coming in. Save up a reserve to cover your major bills for a year, before you quit your job, because this business is full of surprises and you can't rely on money always coming in on a consistent basis until you have been in operation for several months.


• Don't give up when the going gets tough. Cash flow is important to any business, but if you encounter some dry spells, just be persistent and your efforts will pay off.


• Don't spend too much time on your social network or reading email or surfing around. Facebook and Twitter can eat up hours of your valuable time and not deliver anything besides entertainment. Structure your time so that you get things done and keep moving forward.


• Don't spend too much time on your computer. Set a daily work schedule and stick to it until you get your work done. Do not stay up all night or neglect your obligations and family. Know when enough is enough. Balance your work with your life.


• Don't let your business become an addiction. Give your business its due and the time and attention that is necessary, and then go do something else. Life is too short to work your life away.


• Don't be an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist. When you achieve a high standard of quality in your work, be satisfied with it and know when it is done. If you keep tweaking and modifying, and changing it, you will never stay on your production schedule.


• Don't try to multitask because once you lose your focus, you cannot give the right amount of effort to the tasks or projects that is required. Do things sequentially and when you get one thing done, then move on to the next one. Concentrate on producing quality, not quantity.


• Never put your online business in the hands of a single outside party. Select a hosting provider that will not shut you down at the first accusation of spam like godaddy.com. Don't use free blogging platforms exclusively to run your business. Always control the services that you use and never allow any provider to shut you off or slow you down.


• Don't let your freelance outsourced contractors have access to your entire database if possible. Make sure you have each one sign non-disclosure and non-compete agreements prior to engaging their services and always have them work on copies and request the original code along with your deliverable.


• Change passwords to your site immediately after they have concluded their work. Try to split work assignments between two freelancers so neither has the complete project contents. Hire a third freelancer to merge the two drafts and complete the final copy unless it is software.


• Don't waste your time on pursuing useless traffic such as buying fake clicks in bulk or leads or most safe-lists. Don't waste time clicking other people's links on traffic exchanges either. These only produce low quality traffic that doesn't convert. Avoid these scams and spend your money on ad swaps and solo ads instead.


• Don't try to build your list based upon giveaways. Subscribers from giveaways are generally looking for "freebies" and don't turn out to be good buyers in the long run. You need to build a list of known buyers instead.


• Never purchase bulk back-links pointing at your site. This is usually very low quality and it will harm your ranking in most search engines. Most search engines recognize artificial link-building activities and impose penalties on those who try.


• Stop chasing every shiny object that enters your email inbox. Do not jump around from one business opportunity to another.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7566364

How To Quit Your 9 To 5 Job And Work From Home Online

The ability to quit your 9 to 5 job and become your own boss might well be a dream that you have had for a number of years.

In this article we will work at making that dream become a reality by sharing a number of suggestions for how to quit your job and work from home as a full-time online entrepreneur.

We will also look at how you can fast-track this process by "plugging-in" to proven turnkey systems on the internet.

But first of all, it might not be the best idea to quit your job without first having built your online money making ventures to a level that rivals what you are currently earning.

I actually quit my job with no alternative form of income! I pursed an actor career and that is what got me into internet marketing in the first place.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I spent 2 years with no form of income as I worked at building an online business. It might have been easier to already have some money coming in to then re-invest into the business and in paid advertising etc.

So needing to make money online in desperation to simply pay the bills might not be the best way to go about things. I think you will get better results when you can relax and take your time to properly learn how internet marketing works.

OK, so how do you get to the stage where you are making enough money on the internet as an entrepreneur to be able to quit your job?

My advice would be to venture into the world of affiliate marketing.

Don't worry too much about creating your own products, building a big authority site, or adding your own unique twist when you first start out.

Simply look to promote other people's products as an affiliate marketer by sending traffic on the internet to their sales pages. You then earn residual income without necessarily needing your own website (although it will help).

It is also important to combine affiliate marketing with list building. It is believed that every subscriber on your email list is worth around $1 a month to you. I think this is in the right ball park and is therefore a good predictable way to work at building up your online income to a stage where you can afford to quit your 9 to 5 job.

That would be my advice: to learn the internet marketing required to build a big email list of subscribers and then to promote high quality affiliate products to those subscribers. Do this on a consistent basis until you are earning more than you currently are... and then have a think about firing your boss!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7590796

Ideas For How To Quit Your Job And Do Internet Marketing Full-Time

In this article we will look at 4 ideas that can help you quit you job and become your own boss as a full-time internet marketer.

Internet marketing is what I do full-time and I hope the following tips will get some creative ideas floating around your head as you look to quit the day job:

1. Selling Services To Local Business Owners - Many beginner internet marketers struggle to make money online by selling information products such as eBooks because there is so much competition. But it can be much easier to sell a service to a traditional offline business. Most brick and mortar businesses have no idea about how internet marketing works and even if you are just starting out you will be an expert in their eyes. You can also charge much higher prices to offline businesses to help get them more online exposure, where as customers in the internet marketing world expect very low prices when buying eBooks etc.

2. Email List Building - The money is in the email list and as a result one of the best ways to go about working from home full-time is to focus on your list building activities. If you are promoting products on the internet as an internet marketer then make sure you are first sending your visitors to a lead capture page to get their email address rather than straight to the sales page where you just have a one-time shot at securing a new customer. It is estimated that each subscriber on your email list is worth around $1 per month to you at it is a predictable way to go about replacing your income from a 9 to 5 job.

3. High Ticket Affiliate Marketing - I think a lot of people struggle to earn a full-time income as an affiliate marketer is because they fall into the trap of selling $7 eBooks. You need to have a huge email list for that and constantly be producing new sales. But with high ticket affiliate marketing you can be earning commissions of $500 or $1,000 per sale and as a result you don't need to make many of these sales each month to do very well.

4. Internet Network Marketing - The online network marketing business model is very popular today. It is an exciting way to leverage the power of a team to build your business in a residual manner. An initial bit of leg work is needed to build your network marketing downline, but after a while your business will start to build itself and you will be getting downline sign-ups and earning commissions each and every day whether you do any work or not.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7628027

How to Make Passive Online Income From URL Shortening Services

Earning passive online income isn't a very difficult job, especially for those who know how to get a system work and generate autopilot income from the system. At the same time, it's not a very simple job for the beginners. Today millions of internet savvy users are trying to make money from different sources on internet. But only a small percentage of those enthusiasts can make decent income online. Let's discover a new idea that has evolved in past few years that can help you make passive income online just by sharing links.

How to make passive online income using URL shorteners: a guide for the newbie marketers

Today, there are several URL shorteners online that allows it's users to shrink links, share them and make money for each clicks. These companies share a percentage of their revenues with the users. Let's explore more about the methods of making money from a reliable URL shortener online.

#1 Sign up with a leading URL shortening service

There are several companies that offer such URL shortening services today. You have to find out a reliable company that pays out. The commissions earned from a click isn't much, however if you know how to get a lot of traffic, you can make decent money from these shorteners. The URL shortening websites will make money from the advertisers and share a portion with the users. If you have found a good company that shares decent percentage with the users, you can make more. So select a company carefully, make sure they're paying high and they're paying in real.

#2 Preparing a complete plan to spread those links

Once you have signed up, it's time to create as much link as you can. These links might mask YouTube videos, Facebook URLs or anything that the audience would love to see, read or watch. You should list those links and save them on your hard disk. Once done, you have to prepare a complete plan to share the words; you have to explore the places where people will be waiting to click on the links to explore something resourceful or interesting.

#3 Use the plan and integrate your websites with the plan

If you own a website, making money from these URL shortening websites will be easier for you. You can easily convert your readers to money making leads and make money from your website. You can also use the links on social sharing websites, forums, blogs and other websites. The more you share, the more you earn - that's the secret of making money from URL shorteners. If one of your link is making 10 cent each month, you will need to spread 10000 links to make $1K. The plan is simple, you don't have to build so many links overnight, take time follow the plan and in two/three months, you will be able to make decent cash from your links.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7690513

Social Media Revolution 2013

One of the great motivational speeches...Al Pachino in 'Any Given Sunday'

Guest Posting, Easy Money and Recognition

The online blogging industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade. Due to the ever increasing sophistication of blogging software anyone can have their own little piece of Internet property to share opinions or hock their wares. The biggest issues with earning their fortune on the Internet is all of the competition that they have in that arena. Driving traffic to a website is a constant battle but one of the best weapons in the war on obscurity is guest posting, also known as guest blogging.

Acting as a guest blogger allows the author to create relevant backlinks to their own blogs. If these sites are popular and have a good page rank, or PR, then this can lead to a major traffic increase. What many people do not know about guest blogging is that it can be used for more than just sending traffic to a website. It can be used as a side business as well.

There are many sites on the Internet that actively pay guest bloggers to post their content on their sites. These websites are typically part of a niche that is competitive. The ability to keep new and unique content flowing on a daily basis is a key factor in remaining both relevant and profitable. Guest blogging allows for this content flow to remain fresh and unique due to the varying writing styles and view points of the authors.

Many site owners will pay a guest blogger to write content for their sites. In some instances this is only a small amount per post. In other instances it could be much larger sums of money. A few popular sites pay as much as $50 per article for guest bloggers who meet their requirements.

There is one final benefit of blogging on well trafficked sites that hold relevance and authority on the Internet. This counts as a form of publishing. While it is not held to the same prized level as being published in a newspaper or print magazine it can be considered an achievement. Publishers notice when an author writes for highly publicized and popular websites. These guest posts can be considered a body of work and will be much easier to utilize in that capacity than posts made to a personally owned blog or general news site.

Guest blogging is a useful tool for acquiring notoriety. It can be used to drive traffic to a website and to generate an easily accessed body of work. It can also allow the poster to earn an income either full-time or part-time. If a blog owner is not guest blogging they are certainly missing out on a great opportunity!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7675873