Find out the truth about home income kits!

Wednesday

Need Money! The Internet Marketing Myth - iMyth

You probably heard about the iMyth today from your email box. I know I received 4 emails about it this morning.

But..

This one is pretty good. Who cares about the "make a buck when you tell a friend about this product", that is simple marketing.

And..

That is what is good about the PDF report. Download the free PDF it and check it out.

Why..

This report explains and shows how the author leveraged dozens of on and offline promotion techniques to realize million of dollars in sales. Nope, this is not a snippet of another, 97.00 product. It is just some experiences from a direct marketer on how he makes his living.

Thursday

Need Money! Affiliate Marketing "How To Products" Do Not Work

So you have signed up for all the big name affiliate marketing email lists, right?

What you thought would be daily tidbits of affiliate marketing wisdom are really this..

Every day, you get these chummy little emails from Eric, Chris and Ben telling you about a great new product. (Funny how these emails become more and more frequent and rarely are nothing more than a pitch for yet ANOTHER GREAT PRODUCT?).

And every product pitched is basically the same?

- Fast way to big sales/traffic!
- Fool proof, step-by-step system!
- Proven way to make xxxx$ in sales/increase traffic in 30 Days or Less!
- Super secret methods! Destroy the competition! Dominate the market!
- Make lots of dough, imagine the good life!


If it were all true, why are more people not making more money (or any money)?

Because most of these affiliate marketing course, e-books and videos are a scam.

Period.

Here are the pitfalls they never seem to mention in the sales pitch letters.

- The product you are purchasing is going to be bought by thousands of others who will also be trying the same techniques/plan you are which means the market will become diluted and the BIG SECRET STRATEGY will no longer be a secret.

- All require an upfront costs besides the e-book, video or course.
All products or plans require customers to have domain names, a web hosting account, an email auto responder product, Internet access, PPC marketing (like AdWords)budget and more software tools.

- All require time devoted to correctly using the product. Not the maintaining, but building. This can be 8, 10 or 12 hours a day. Even the easy stuff, like key word research, PPC ad creation, and building web forms takes time. A lot of time.

- The ability to build a web site. Not a "Site Sell" or "Website Tonight" page, but a real Web 2.0 pitch page, landing page and other sales related pages. No HTML, CSS or PHP skills? Plan on hiring someone if you want to take full advantage of your nifty new, money making e-advice

All of this is left out of the pitch page.

Take building a web site for instance.

What a total pain in the butt. But it is required to have a pitch page and landing page for your affiliate marketing efforts (each one by the way - so one page for Day Job Killer, another for Affiliate Project X, and so on and so on..).

Firing up the JAVA-based web site creation tool won't work and will only serve to frustrate you even further.

So you check with e-lance, rent-a-coder or some other site online and find that the pitch page can be built by an "expert" but it will cost $150.00! And you still have not made a dime online yet.

And even if the site is built, how will you get traffic? If trying to resell a popular product, better be ready to compete against the big boys who already have the higher page rank for natural traffic searches.

How about a PPC campaign (like AdWords) to build traffic?

Don't worry. The big boys have 100,200 and 1000.00 daily AdWords budgets and will force your measly little .05 per click/10.00 a day budget to the ground floor fifteen minutes after you start your big release.

And if your PPC ad does make it through to first page on Google, your competition will click thru your budget limited ads a few hundred times, run out your daily budget and run you off the net faster than you can say John Reese.

Here is my advice for making money online.

- Skip buying the e-products. Most are recycled junk. Focus on the end products you really want to market.

- Don't look for niche products, look for niche markets and potential buyers. Follow the money.

- Use PPC sparingly. Instead go to where your customer is and organically grow your web site and products. Some ideas..

* Join lots of web forums which have your interest and promote products with lots of good content posts featuring your product link in your signature and posts. Consider offering free products to generate click thrus.
* Use Squidoo. Build a lens for the products you are promoting. Include links back to your site. Visit lots of other lenses and leave comments.
* Use StumbleUpon and del.icio.us to generate a few more clicks.
* Use MyBlogLog, visit other sites and promote yours.

All of these tools "could" possibly generate a hundred of so site visits a day or more over time. No, it's not "thousands of clicks a day" but if one or two visitors buy the promoted product, you are making money - maybe for the first time.

- Pay someone to build your site. Use a SEO snob search engine friendly platform like Wordpress. Focus on one product at a time to keep your budget and time constraints at a minimum. Make your site somewhat unique and less "sale focused" and more information intense.

- Speaking of time, set aside a fixed amount of time a day for your efforts. One hour for page building. One hour for keyword and product research. One hour for marketing and traffic building research. One hour for maintaining/updating sites. Don't do all work on one day at one time - just one or two tasks a day with a fixed goal in mind.

- Write. Write good quality content. This is more important than design, platform or product. If you cannot or will not write, get out of the business and take a second job at Walmart.

That's it. That is the real secret to making money online. There are plenty of other things you can do to increase traffic and sales, but start with the basics and make it a goal to get that first order on ClickBank or Commission Junction. Than work on order number two and so on.

Tuesday

Need Money! Great post on shoemoney - uberaffiliate

This is probably one of the best posts I have read on making money online. You have to be really quick and smart to pull one of these deals off, but read the real story.

The person in question used conventional tools, (Firefox) and social networking (both free) to generate some substantial revenue in a short amount of time.

As much as I like e-books, you will not find examples like this in a book. Only by reading and researching online, along with not missing numerous opportunities, will you truly be successful online.

Need Money! Top Affiliate e-products

A number of new e-products have come out in August and September and it is getting to be confusing to me and probably many other people trying to make money online.

I received two emails yesterday and today about new products from big names Mike Filsaime and Chris (DayJobKiller).

I could not tell which product was which and both were forgettable.

Last week, everyone was ranting about ClickBank Affiliate Formula. Today, that product has dropped in Clickbanks's ranking and it is a good time to pick it up.

I think this product was the gem of the month and has been overlooked as the glut of make money online products grows.

Amazingly, Brad Cullen's Keyword Elite is still one of the top products available and one of my favorites.

Which leads us to another make money online post for Need Money coming up shortly.

Thursday

Need Money! DealDotCom!



EVERYONE is talking about the new place online - DealDotCom.

Every day, DDC features another neat, make money online product for less than the asking price. Sort of like a "fire sale of the day" site.

Worth checking out daily and joining. Joining? Sure, DDC provides links to advertise the latest deal on your blog or web site.

Jump on this one today!

Need Money! Overture disabled

This probably happened some time ago, but Yahoo Overture Keyword Search tool has been disabled.

For years, you could use this tool to search and locate keywords for ad campaigns and niche sites.

Too bad. Overture was a neat tool.

You can still use Google's AdWords keyword tool for your searches and I am sure there are other "for pay" search sites as well.

Wednesday

Need Money! Affiliate Marketing stinks - CB Affiliate Formula

Does it?

Sure. If you consider this scenario.

On September 18th, I received an email from Chris of Day Job Killer fame telling me about the new ClickBank Affiliate Formula product from Andrew Fox.

"Oh boy" I thought. "A new product I need to check out".

The ClickBank Affiliate Formula sales letter looked good so I thought, "This might be fun to resell. I'll bet it will be a big seller!". I imagined moving a hundred copies in the next 30 days. That would be over seven grand at the discounted price!

Next came the hype and hoopla! Everyone was buzzing about this new product. All the big names were flooding their opt in lists with more offers and add-ons.

So I went to get an affiliate link to start promoting this product. Sorry, affiliate sales are not available unless you are a super joint venture partner like Chris or Eric Rockefeller or the Internet Whiz Kid or one of the other super stars whose list I subscribe too.

O.K... then the only was I can get to resell the product is if I buy it and get an affiliate link.

But I can't tell from the sales letter if that is possible or not. Do I gamble the $77.00 and find out? (My dream is to one day pay for the purchase of a product with two sales - just two sales).

Before I do, let's play devil's advocate. Say I do buy ClickBank Affiliate Formula and a run out to promote it. The big dogs have already spammed the internet with CBAF and I might be lucky if I get ten clicks and one sale.

Most of the big affiliate marketing players have huge lists - 1000, 5000, sometimes over 50000 opt in email addresses.

Note: These heavy hitter list holders count themselves lucky if they can pull in 1-2% close rate from their list.

And what's more, these same big time internet marketing affiliates put up their own sales letter page under their own domain name, (cbafilliate-info.com, etc).

Because they often have a "heads up" on you and all of the rest of the competition, they know the product name and build a professional website to sell the product days before you even hear about it.

So you and I, late to the game and with stars in our eyes of making the big splash and receiving the $1000.00 Clickbank check might as well head over to Walmart and see if they have any part-time jobs opening!

Which brings me to my conclusion, Affiliate Marketing stinks.

How can you, me or anyone else become successful at affiliate marketing?

Easy. Do it different.

That is what products like Clickbank Affiliate Formula miss. Even Chris of DayJobKiller fame teach readers to "stick with what works, rinse and repeat", blah blah blah.

These folks should check out Yaro Starak. He writes a blog, builds an audience and then and only then does he hit them up about a product "some" of his readers "may" be interested in.

I'll bet his close rate for some offers is small, but the return rate is 0%.

Affiliate Marketing does suck. To be successful at making money online, you and I have to find a different way and path to make it work.

Until next time, keep on making money online!

(And if you haven't yet, purchase Clickbank Affiliate Formula here ! only two more copies and I pay for mine!

Tuesday

$70,0000 Clickbank Sales

Check out the Clickbank Affiiate Formula. This is the big one from Andrew Fox who booked more than "100K in one day!" with CB.

This launches *today*.

Check it out!

Wednesday

Need Money! Project Pay Day

You have probably been bombarded with the Project Pay Day offer today or yesterday.

Making $40, 50 or 80 dollars a day sounds pretty good for a few hours a day of work. You know, sitting around the house watching TV when you could be making some decent gas and grocery money online?

However, looking at Project Pay Day, I can't see how this would work.

I signed up tonight hoping to figure out how PPD works.

Basically, you sign up and promote a few products online. If you get any sales, you make a one time commission. Okie dokie. But the specifics of "how" you make those sales look pretty vague to me.

Alsoooo, take a look at the sale page. Nearly every testimonial is from a MySpace generation type. That leads me to believe that PPD requires a lot of time online doing busy work (young people living at home have more time than us working folks!) OR requires a large degree of active, Web 2.0 direct marketing.....

"Hi, do you want to add me to your MySpace friend list? Cool! Hey dude, here is a great deal on hoodia! Do you think your mom wants some?"

After spending about 15 minutes on PPD, I dropped the idea for now.

When getting started with making money online, it is *tough* to make decent money up front at first. Not without hard work and an original idea to carry you.

Until the real pay day, keep on making money online!

Need Money! Article writing marketing 101

I have mentioned article marketing as a way to build traffic and make more sales for affiliate products. Does it work? Yes or no, I will find out.

I have been reading a number of tutorials and personal experiences online about article marketing and whether or not it can actually help you make money online. Advocates say it is a proven and low risk method which actually works.

Article marketing experts suggest the following hints to really be successful at article marketing:

- Write several articles daily.
- Post to at least two article directories.
- Make the articles different with each article directory. (Google favors this approach for direct traffic to your article - makes sense).
- Write articles with particular focus on keywords.
- Write articles with subject material based upon keyword searches of same product. Often called the long tail approach.

I think someone could spend an entire day writing articles to build traffic. But one of my questions was, "What quality should you focus on?".

Free article directories provide web sites with free content. Those web sites are generally not the Harvard Business Review or the New York Times. Quality of writing, while useful, is not a requirement.

The author who creates the most articles is a requirement for success however.

So get busy writing and posting those articles, toot sweet!

And then, start making money online!

Tuesday

Need Money! 30 Day Make Money Online Challenge!

The update!

I know, you thought I forgot and wanted to move on to other things. Forget about it! I will have the nightmaremortgage.com web site up by this evening and will start building revenue channels right away.

This reminds me of so many other "make money online" blogs. The authors post a few times, put some gratuitous Clickbank links on their site and hope ("please, please, please..") some clicks (AdSense) or sale will magically come their way.

No sir, it does not work that way!

Blogs work with lots of regular posts, creative entries and hard work.

There once was this idea of building hundreds of blogs, stuffing them with free content, and waiting for AdSense clicks to add up to $1.00 a day (or less!) and getting an aggregate check at the end of the month.

This sort of thing is the stuff of Internet legend these days. It is far better to concentrate on three or four (maximum) sites and optimize and market them to their full potential.

Blogger and web masters who focus on a small number of sites are the ones you read about with revenues in the thousands of dollars. Don't believe me, check out Problogger or Yaro Starak. Both focus on niche markets which net them thousand of dollars in monthly revenue.

Right now, my make money online properties consist of a handful of sites and I look for more every day. But I try and focus on things I actually know something about rather than high-paying keywords and CTR.

So, nightmaremortgage.com should be up shortly. In the meantime, check out this link for the Affiliate Commandments written by Chris of Day Job Killer and AdWords Miracle - two of my favorite e-books I have purchased in the past year.

Then, get back to making money online!

Sunday

Need Money! Recurring revenue rocks!

Albert Einstein allegedly said that "compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe".

Whether his saying that is true or not, I contend that compound interest is the "co-most powerful force in the universe".

Recurring revenue is just as powerful.

So you have a web site or blog which you need money from. The fast method is stick those AdSense ads on and wait for clicks.

The next step up is an affiliate program which may result in %25-75 of the sale. Good money if you can get it.

But the real make money online Nirvana is the recurring revenue slam.

For years, big money makers have seen the value of recurring revenue to their make money online plans. What they do is find products that result in monthly returns after purchase.

Popular products include web hosting (GoDaddy, Dreamhost) or mailing list software ( AWeber. ).

When a visitor clicks on and signs up for one of these products, the web site publisher generally makes an upfront commission and then receives a MONTHLY COMMISSION for each month the customer continues to subscribe!

So no matter what you do, as long as that buyer remains a customer of the web hosting company or mailing software service, you will still receive a check, every month.

Now that is powerful.

And with each sale, even if it is only one per month, your recurring revenue continues to grow!

So, as well follow the model of build, include revenue, traffic and profit, discover recurring revenue producing products which will make many happy returns for you and your bank balance.

Until then, keep making money online!

Friday

Need Money! Stumbling around the 'Net

Okay, so you are still looking for traffic?

(Remember the system?...
Build site
Get traffic
Have revenue opportunities on site
Profit!

Remember, this applies to blogs, affiliate sales sites, adsense sites, etc..)

Getting traffic is still that tricky thing, isn't it?

Yesterday, we talked about article marketing and the effect it can have on traffic to your site.

However.. I cautioned that article marketing may have a loooonnng lag time before traffic shows up on your door.

So what traffic tips are available for the impatient, gotta-have-it-right-now make money online(r) that you are?

Have you seen StumbleUpon, yet? Of course you have, who hasn't?

But go open another window and check out the Stumble Upon website. Scroll way down to the bottom.

Click the link which says 'Advertisers'.

Yep, that's right. You can pay StumbleUpon to put your site up front for traffic.

I have always used the remote control/channel surfing analogy when describing StumbleUpon. It's like you are sitting on the couch clicking through one channel after another trying to find your television genre of choice.

With StumbleUpon advertising, you can capture those Stumbling 'Net site surfers by topic and grab their eyes at once.

How much does it cost? 5 bux to start!

How can I pay? Paypal!

But does it work? I used it on my celebrity blog and scored 100 hits in about an hour. It was great for "raising awareness" (but I did NOT profit or break even on AdSense or other revenue for my site when I ran my one and only campaign for this particular site - my bad not StumbleUpon. NeedMoney is honest if anything!).

But, some of those visitors did return. And if you need a bump to get the traffic flowing, you cannot beat StumbleUpon for generating some quick traffic.

Your call. Gamble a fiver and see if StumbleUpon draws some traffic your way.

Caveats - traffic depends upon your site, naturally. That earwax removal tool you are affiliating may not get some high traffic marks from StumbleUpon readers, but you never know!

Until next time, "Keep making money online!"

PS - update on the 30 Day Challenge later today! Ya'll come back now, y'hear!

Thursday

Mike Filsaime: Post on money online

Great post by Mike. Please read this one today and this "make money online" thing will start to make sense.

Need Money! Article Marketing


Here is the road map:
- build web site
- get traffic
- earn revenue (ads, sales, subscriptions)
- be happy.

The first part is easy. There are billions of web sites with more added every day.

The second part is hard. Really hard.

Take a look at the sites you have built. How much traffic do you have on a daily basis?

10 visitors? 25? 100?

Most web sites have little (less than 10 visitors a day) if any (whoops! No traffic) traffic.

Getting traffic is the hardest part of building a web site or blog audience.

Forget that stuff about products driving "hundreds of hungry visitors with credit card in hand!" to your site. If all it took were buying an e-book with simple How-To instructions, everyone would be doing it!

There are a number of ways to build traffic to your site, all of which require time and effort.

One of the ways I have been working on building traffic to my sites has been with article marketing. Basically, I write articles (usually past blog posts) and submit them to article web sites.

If you have been under a rock lately, article sites are web site directories with hundreds and thousands of free articles. Web site owners in need of content take these articles and place them on their websites. The author of the article should then receive a link back to the web site listed in their article bio.

Ideally, if one is able to write and submit a large number of articles, then one's web site should see an increase in traffic from article readers.

Further, back links to an article author's site should increase the site's Google Page Rank as a side benefit. (More on what that means in another post!).

About article directories. There are literally hundreds of article directories. Google the term and you will see what I mean.

When I first started, I visited the top ranked directories and started posting one article at a time on each site. Time consuming? You bet!

I received an email from Brad Callen about his Article Submit tool and I downloaded the free version. It works pretty well.

It lists only about 60-80 article directories and allows "nearly" one button article submission to each site. Actually, it takes about two minutes to upload and submit an article to a site using Callen's Article Submit tool.

Some sites take longer than others because they require a user name and password to submit an article. The user name and password have to be set up before using Article Submit which is pain, but once done, it works each time.

The neat thing is the Article Submit tool stores multiple bios for different articles. Last night I submitted four different articles using four different bios (with web site links) using Article Submit. That was cool.

Naturally, Callen has a "Deluxe" version of his Article Submit tool which costs $67.00. I have not sprung for it yet, because I want to see if I really increase my traffic using article marketing.

Have I?

So far I have seen a few hits specifically from articles to two of my sites. But to be fair, most sites will not start publishing your articles for 15-30 days after submission. Which means the articles I submitted last night will probably not see the light of "Internet" day for another two weeks at least.

Giving time for broadcast, I expect I will not see significant traffic for a few months at least.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel! If you publish enough articles (plan on hundreds) and maintain your web sites, there is a very good chance your sites could generate revenue with you doing less work than now. And that is a good thing!

Hang in there! We will "make money online!".

Wednesday

Need Money! 30 Day Challenge - Headaches

As I noted earlier, I had a few technical problems with my website install.

First, I decided to go with a Wordpress blog for my 30 Day Challenge domain, nightmaremortgage.com.

The nightmare turns out to be installing Wordpress.

As you can see here, I have been using Blogger for many years. I have had two Wordpress blogs before, but one was the free option (blog.wordpress.com) and the other was installed with my other hosting provider - Yahoo. (Fast install by the way).

For instructions on installing Wordpress with a hosting provider like GoDaddy, I have been following some great instructions recommended by ProBlogger, Darren Rouse. The link is here - (give credit where credit is due!).

The problem is most Wordpress tutorials are for the default, boring, blue Wordpress install. Naturally, I would like a customized install and therein lies the problem!

So far, I am working on the template install in my templates file. The problem I have run into with Wordpress is the .php file extension. Windows looks at that .php extension like a chicken would at a moon rocket - "What the heck is that?".

MS finds all sorts of ways to make things difficult, but also has some shortcuts (not deserving of the term hack). I changed the wp-config.php file to a .txt extension so it could be edited.

Next, I had to translate what Wordpress referred to as a "username, password and userhost" vs. what GoDaddy named them. As the instructions say, "Your web host provider can give you this information".

Yes they will, after about 24 hours in email to the technical support department.

But let me quit whining. I have figured it out and now have to load this thing up and start posting and customizing (read: add make money widgets).

Hopefully, the next post on the Need Money Blog will have a link to the new website.

See you then!

Tuesday

Need Money! 30 Day Challenge.... pt 2

The plan is simple. The Need Money Blog 30 Day Challenge is for me to:

- Pick a domain name (Done. www.nightmaremortgage.com).
- Set up a hosting account (Done. GoDaddy).
- Set up a website. (In progress. Will have more on that tomorrow!).
- Make money online!

Had a few technical glitches but we are underway! The SS Make Money Online is now boarding!

Need Money! 30 Day Challenge continues....

Yesterday, I announced the domain I plan using for my 30 Day Challenge, nightmaremortgage.com.

The site is still not up so feel free to verify that there is no site under that name. Further, I will do my best to verify that indeed, this site will have been made from scratch per the terms I set last week!

The latest update!

I will be setting up the website on GoDaddy, my hosting and domain company. Now a few have recommended that you keep your hosting and domain companies separate for a number of reasons.

In order to keep this simple, I will use GD for both, but have the option of moving the site if need be.

I have a plan for the website once I have a few questions answered from GD (it is my own doing - I need to setup a SQL database, but have some simple questions - expect a full explanation in tomorrow's post!

Until then, keep trying to make money online and follow the 30 Day Challenge!

Monday

Need Money! The Need Money Challenge - Day 1

Okay, so you read my recent post about the Need Money Blog 30 day challenge.

The domain I am going use for my 30 day challenge I registered some time ago - nightmaremortgage.com.

Pretty timely, eh?

Please check out that domain. There is no website up under that name at this time.

So, starting today, I will being work on the website for nightmaremortgage.com.

The challenge of course is to see how much money I can make online in the next 30 days with this domain and website.

Stay tuned until tomorrow!

Friday

Need Money! The Need Money Challenge


Okay, so the Need Money Challenge is more a make money online challenge for me, but it should be interesting to watch.

I picked up a few domains recently and decided to do a very public demonstration on NeedMoneyBlog on how to start from scratch and make money online.

Here are the rules:

1) The site has to be brand new and have no existing traffic.

2) I have to build a site myself, no outsourced work.

3) I have to market and brand the site.

4) No AdSense templates or canned websites. It must be as original as possible.

5) The site can be a blog or a traditional website.

6) The site must make money online within 30 days.

7) I can use any means to make money online including AdSense, affiliate sales, banners and text ads.

I will announce the specifics of my make money online challenge this next week.

It should be fun! Who knows? If it goes well, I might create a contest open for anyone to challenge my results!

Need Money! More Making Money Online


There has been a lot of press and email flying back and forth regarding "AdSense optimized web sites".

Basically, an AdSense optimized site is "generally" a template site with generic content and strategically placed AdSense ads designed to pick up quick, regular revenue for the web site owner.

After AdSense was first released, this seemed like a good idea. With automated web site building software, an individual could throw up literally hundreds of sites over a weekend. With a low expectation of say, $1-3.00 AdSense dollars a day, one could potentially make $100-300.00 a day. Good money.

The problems are multitude to this approach.

1) Most web sites, even good ones, make very little money from AdSense, (when compared to other revenue sources). John Chow - Make Money Online for instance, who regularly reports all of his web site revenues, recently reported he made about $700.00 in one month from AdSense; a little over 20.00 a day. Mind you, this is $700.00 out a monthly take of over $10,000.00. Please note, John works constantly on his site, posts regularly and has thousands of hard core readers. Yet his AdSense revenue is moderate at best.

Now think how this will apply to your boilerplate web site with nominal and infrequent content updates. You would be lucky to earn $1-3.00 a MONTH with this sort of site. (Believe me, I know from first hand experience).

2) Google regularly "hunts" down and delists AdSense template web sites in the name of "improving users Internet experience". Basically, Google, the world's number one search engine, sees template sites as garbage and by delisting them, removes the possibility of a casual surfer from finding your site (and your AdSense ads).

3) With the above in mind, Google has been known to remove AdSense accounts from holders of template web sites. There are legions of stories of AdSense account holders with hundreds of dollars in pending payments finding their accounts disabled and their revenue gone.

4) Template web sites are by trade, boring. Internet surfers expect more from a web site and your make money online web site is not what they are looking for.

Solution: You are better off registering a few domains with subjects you are actually interested in and knowledgeable about.

Another note: There are many programs and advocates of building "free" AdSense optimized sites using Blogger, Squidoo, Wordpress and other Web 2.0 web based products. A word to the wise, these generally fail and look worse than any AdSense template site.

Better to stick with a tried and true method rather than the short cut to failure.

Until next time, make money online!

Thursday

NeedMoney - Making Money Online (pt 2).


Yesterday, I noted several means to making money online which are quite popular today.

One strategy I mentioned, but did not fully explain, was the concept of "domain real estate".

If you are familiar with the Internet, you know what domains are - something.com.

Domain real estate takes the idea that a domain name is like a neighborhood. Some names, like neighborhoods are worth more than others. An thus, like real estate, there are plenty of speculators who gamble that a name might be worth more than the cost of registration.

How does it work?

First, research keywords. Take a topic, or niche market and check for websites and search terms using Google. In our case, let's use the ever popular weight loss.

Now add the long tail. quick+weight+loss, winter+weight+loss, fast+weight+loss.

If any of these terms have significant searches or related websites AND a version of the term is available as a "dot.com" extension, we run over to GoDaddy and register the name.

At that point, we can use a free hosting account with GoDaddy or we can set up a Wordpress blog.

Build some thoughtful and well done content and put up your initial site.

At this point, you can start building traffic to the site, say for 30 days, or you can put the site and domain up for sale on EBay. Obviously, sites with traffic and ad revenue have a higher value than a new site without a Google PR or traffic.

However, with the work you put in, you are looking for a $100-200.00 sale or more for the site. Some domain real estate flippers are happy making as little as $40 or 50.00 per sale because they move so many sites and their costs are offset even with this small amount of profit.

As they say in the make money online business, if it works, rinse and repeat with more domains and websites!

A successful domain real estate flipper can earn a four figure income monthly income if they are fast and good at research.

So, just when you thought you had your arms around the make money online thing, along comes another great idea!

Confused? Don't worry, most of us are and will continue to muddle through this quest until we have joined the ranks of the superstars who truly, "Make Money Online!".

Wednesday

NeedMoney - Making money online

For over a year, I have immersed myself in the online money making industry. Let me describe what "online money making" means.

1. Affiliate sales - primarily e-books, but open to other products. Popular choices are video game, MP3, and movie download sites. E-books are popular because just about everyone markets them and the sales landing pages are really good (well sometimes). Plus it is easy to get caught up in the hype of Day Job Killer, Step By Step Profit and others. Other popular sites market products found on Amazon or Commission Junction partners. Day Job Killer author "Chris" uses this as his primary means of income (besides writing e-books) which he claims earns him a six figure monthly income.

2. AdSense sites - really, these are blogs or website optimized for AdSense CTR revenue. Most of the boilerplate sites are being systematically hunted down and delisted by Google in the interest of "improving users online experience". Blogs are a better bet to me because they are updated frequently, contain user interaction and draw return visitors and traffic.

3. Blogging for dollars - This is the concept of building a blog and using it as a vehicle to make money on a regular basis. The best and most notorious example of late is John Chow . His blog is about making money online with his blog and he does just that - to the tune of US$ 10K per month. Most of his money comes from affiliate sales, referrals and text advertisements, but it proves that it can be done in a relatively short time. In his case, he built his readership of several thousand daily readers over the course of the past year.

4. Arbitrage - The same basis as AdSense sites but heavily uses AdWords PPC to drive targeted traffic to a website rather than stumbling across it organically. The problem is two fold; cost of traffic is less than revenue of site AND building a quality site which does not end up delisted by Google as a boilerplate described above. Personality Joel Comm is a big advocate of this online money making plan.

5. The Holy Grail - Build an empire like Shoemoney AKA Jeremy Shoemaker. Shoemoney has literally thousands of domains pointing to a few dozen websites which generate him, allegedly, six figures a month. However, the cost of reaching this plinth is high and includes several thousands of dollars in PPC marketing, hours of keyword research and the skills of website developers and writers. Can it be done? Yes, but plan on spending years, a small fortune and hundreds of lives. (that last part is a joke).

So what I have tried? Just about everything except for number 5, of course. And that is the problem that I think most "make money online" participants.

We read about someone making 7000 dollars a month with 47 AdSense sites and we jump on that bandwagon.

Then we get an email about the latest e-book and how much revenue we can make off "just two sales a day!" and we start building sites, blogs and lenses devoted to "AutoBlogProfitKillerSmack" hoping to pick up a few deals.

Next comes an arbitrage deal, then a "domain real estate" play and before you know it, you have nothing but a hard drive of half completed websites, a stack of unread e-books and a credit card payment overdue.

So what can a "make money online" prospect to do?

First, focus on one thing. Pick one thing you know, do well and are willing to commit to.

First instance, take blogging. Are you willing to commit an hour or two to write good posts, publish and market them?

Are you willing to write and post related articles to article directories under subjects which will drive traffic to your blog?

Are you willing to research and try products which you would be willing to market and promote on your blog?

Are you willing to make a commitment to your readers to post regularly and respond to their comments and questions?

If so, then perhaps you can turn blogging into a several thousand dollar a month pursuit.

Apply the same rationale to any other "make money online" ventures you are considering. Be ready to make the commitment and start today. And stay focused.

Thursday

Project Black Mask review

Unless you have been under a rock, everyone in the affiliate marketing world is talking about the new e-book Project Black Mask.

Chris McNeeney (yes he of DayJobKiller, AdWords Miracle and others) is promoting this particular product yet he did not actually pen this tome. Allegedly, more than "4000" copies of Project Black Mask have been sold which compares to several of the other products Chris has been associated with in the past.

Here is the skinny on Project Black Mask:

1. It is not for inexperienced Internet marketers or webmasters. Period. Do not get fooled by the "millions from AdSense" hype surrounding Project Black Mask's sales page. You must know what you are doing or you might have your AdSense account disabled and have your sites "grayed out" by Google.

2. In order to take full advantage of the techniques recommended in Project Black Mask, you will need a number of other tools which will cost you money. Possibly a lot of money. Be warned now.

3. The material in Project Black Mask is not easy to understand much less use unless you have extensive Internet marketing, SEO and website building experience.

Most of these points are a surprise because Chris (the force behind Project Black Mask) has penned some great starter and intermediate Internet marketing e-books such as DayJob Killer, Project X and AdWords Miracle.

Be careful when you read the review sites for Project Black Mask - most are sales letters with poor grammar, spelling and are authored by writers who evidently have not read the material.

Thanks to Ethical Internet Marketer for the great review on Project Black Mask.

Wednesday

Floodle - Free money making e-books

I have purchased, read and used a number of "making money on the Internet" e-books over the past few months. Some have been great (DJK for instance). Others are dogs. I won't mention the piece of garbage I picked up today! At least not today.

But my favorite money making e-books are free. I love getting links for free e-books just for signing up for an email list (which often results in receiving more free money making hints and tips). For instance, I have been reading a great series of traffic building e-books penned by Brad Callen (of SEO Elite fame) which are fantastic!

Seth Godin mentioned a fun site for e-books a few months ago and now I am hooked. Floodle is a great resource for money making e-books and best of all, they are all free!

How it works

Floodle purchases or downloads money making e-books on affiliate marketing, advertising, traffic building, private rights labeling, etc. and posts them for free download.

Floodle always respects copyright laws and checks for any conflicts with the free distribution of e-books, but I have never read about any problems on the site.

Yes, some of the e-books are older and some are even no longer relevant. But if you really like making money e-books and always find something new you had not known before (like me!), then Floodle can be a great resource.

All of the free e-books on Floodle are listed chronologically from the date they are added. So the latest acquisitions are first and the oldest last. Products are easy to find and each product link contains a brief
review of the e-book.

Floodle also has some links for other products and services available of which serveral are quite interesting. The site is easy to use and fun to visit.

How Floodle makes money

Floodle populates the site with Google AdSense ads on the left side of the site. By having relevant ads for Floodle, visitors can support Floodle's great service.

Take a visit over to Floodle and let me know what you think. I bet you too can find some new money making e-book you had not seen before too!

How does Floodle pay for the

Tuesday

Affiliate Commandments

A great new ebook just released (for the low, low price of only 9.97!) with some definitive information on affiliate marketing.

Includes successful step-by-step information on setting up AdWords accounts, promoting any product and increasing sales online!

I purchased this great ebook five minutes after it hit the 'Net!

Check out Affiliate Commandments now!

Wednesday

Using AdSense

I just spent an hour or so looking for websites which featured good information about monetizing your blog or website with AdSense.

What I wanted was a website which gives honest advice on how to increase your AdSense income. For instance, suggestions on ad placement, colors, ad types which increase CTR, Google advice, that sort of thing.

First, most of the websites were.. discouraging. That is a nice way to put it.

Here is the layout of the typical AdSense advice site.

Free website or blog hosting platform like Blogger. No problem there, Need Money Blog is hosted on Blogger.

Numerous AdSense blocks.

Two blog entries or articles in history.

Recently created site or not updated in several months.

Articles are scraped from AdSense FAQ or from other website.

A few other banner ads or affiliate links (most to Joel Comm's AdSense Secrets - sorry Joel, but it's true!).


Nothing new or different.

That stinks if you are new to moneitizing your website or blog. You are searching for real information and can only find junk.

If this sounds like you, here is a gem of a site I read regularly.

Nope, no referrals or affiliate money on this link! Just good information you can use.

Make Easy Money with Google - Eric runs a very good site with real information on using AdSense on your blog or website.
I read it every day and it is fun to watch and learn from his tests and experiments with AdSense.

Yes, Eric occasionally sells an ebook, but he has written a few himself and they are quite good.

I suggest you take a look at his site and see what sort of good information you can glean.

Keep in clicking those links!

Monday

March revenue

Let's take a look at March revenue for all of our affiliate programs.

AdSense - 3.49
Kontera - 1.34
Auction Ads - 0.00
Amazon - 5.36
Azoogle - 0.00
Commission Junction - 0.00
Clickbank - 0.00
Total March 2007 - 10.19

Not great, but revenue is revenue, right?

AdSense
AdSense can always be better. AdSense revenue should be enough to pay, at the very least, your hosting bill. They keys to successful AdSense revenue are:
- relevant and original content
- high paying keywords
- proper ad placement and count
- traffic volume

I cringe when I read about websites which have a 6-8% CTR (click thru rate) for AdSense. I can't ever seem to get those sorts of numbers.

Also, always be careful about ad placement and number of AdSense ads per page. I have read horror stories about sites which have to many AdSense units and thus have clicks not counting.

Kontera
Kontera has been steady, but low paying. The key is to find that high paying keyword with content which generates high CTR. I have had a few keywords in the $.25 range, but not many - most are in the $.03 - .07 range.

Auction Ads
I would love to see the first month numbers for Auction Ads. Because it is a Shoemoney property, I know it is successful, but I have not had much luck with the program.
I think the problem with some of my sites is content which does not relate well to Auction Ads products.

Amazon
My highest paying program yet. The numbers are down from Febrary ($8.57 in earnings), but still respectable because I only have Amazon running on three sites right now. With Amazon's new Context Links, I wonder how my revenue may rise next month?

Azoogle
I have just started actively pushing Azoogle on one of my sites, so it is not fair to truly compare it with my other programs. If I can find the right CPA ads, I think I can significantly increase my earnings with Azoogle.

Commission Junction and Clickbank
I have two websites with which I have included CJ and I fully expect it to take off in the next month or so. Reason? There are some great products which are only available through CJ such as Crocs and Lucky Jeans. Both of which are high paying, yet hard to crack markets. Give me time...

Clickbank is only ebooks which I am promoting barely. I have a few referrals running right now, but in the past I am been very successful with CB and ebook sales.

Let me temper my earnings by noting that I am not running AdWords or other marketing program for my sites right now. I think the numbers would be substantially higher if I increased my online marketing.

Tuesday

Context Links - Amazon Contextual Advertising

On Tuesday, Amazon released its beta contextual advertising program for publishers.

Read the Context Links FAQ first and please note that you will have to join Amazon Affilates in order to take part in the beta test.

Similar to Kontera, Amazon's contextual ad. Context Links, places the ads and corresponding pop-up windows within the web page. Products are displayed based upon relevant keywords.

Publishers ad a few lines of code to their website html with the tag and wait for results.

I quickly added Context Links to Need Money and did not see results right away. I think this is because my copy is not as Amazon keyword friendly.

If your blog is about electronics (PDA, cellphones, laptops, processors and USB drives) or books by specific authors, for instance, Jim Collins or Jeffrey Gittomer, you might see some directed ads on your site.

Regardless, Amazon has been the oldest and one of the best affiliate sites on the Internet for nearly a decade. It is worth taking a look at Context Links.

Thursday

Monetizing your blog or website is easier than you think.

Until recently, most of us only used Google's AdSense. It is easy to setup and the reports are simple to understand. Even if your site received only a few clicks a day, at least you stood a chance at making a few dollars a month off of AdSense.

However, with the rule changes at Google which now allow other contextual ads to be used with AdSense, the gate is wide open for several other monetizing programs.

I currently use a variety of programs on my websites. The success is really determined by the type of website, visitor and keywords.

Let's take a look at Kontera.

Kontera is a contextual advertising program which means ads are based upon the keywords found on your website. What nobody has clearly explained (at least not to me) is that keyword and contextual advertising works best on dynamic content, like blogs.

Unlike http://adsense.google.comwhich places ads in a separate location on your site, Kontera takes keywords from your website, creates unique hyperlink advertisements with the keywords which then link back to other websites which pay for the clicks.

With Kontera, the ads are embedded into the words of your posts. And since the ads look like normal hyperlinks (except they have two lines underneath, rather than the standard one), click thrus can happen at a higher rate than they might with separate ad copy.

Like AdSense, Kontera's payouts are based upon keyword popularity and possible monetization. So a keyword like soccer will probably not pay as much as a traditional higher paying keyword like credit, insurance or debt.

I have Kontera running on several of my websites and the CTR (click thru rate) varies. In my experience, blogs which focus on consumer products (electronic or cell phone reviews, for instance), see a higher CTR than a blog on poetry, nature or feelings - simply because there are more keywords which describe products.

Kontera is worth a try for your blog and sign up is easy.

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