Make Money Online

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Whenever I’ve read eBooks or blogs about how to make money online, the same old tip has been given… Great a site site or blog about something that your interested in, so you can retain interest in it and it won’t be a chore for you to write new content.

Well I can honestly say that I have never really followed that rule even though I may have given the advice myself. When I look at the sites I have, I can only see this site as a site I am interested in. The others are just sites I have created to make money and yes they do make money but when I update them its like a chore and not a pleasure.

So when I’ve been looking at a new project to start I’ve kept this in my mind. One of my old hobbies I used to do was weight training and nutrition, which is something that I’ve wanted to get back into for a while now. So as a motivator for me to do that I had decided to create a site in that niche. I say this openly on my blog and reveal my niche because I know for a fact that this niche is swamped anyway so even if someone does decide to follow me, its not really going to hurt!

At the moment my plans for the new site is just that, plans, because unfortunetley for me I don’t have much time right now. However my plan to take action is the start of September if not the very latest October.

My Challenge for you is make your next project one your really honestly interested in!

When it comes to buying UK domains I’ve always been a fan of 1and1 because of their cheap prices. However I did find their nameserver chaning very slow compared to godaddy, but I was prepared to accept it as it was cheaper. Today I emailed 1and1 about the procedure when I want to sell a domain to another 1and1 user and they kindly pointed out their FAQ, which states:
Does it cost anything to move a domain from one 1&1 Customer to another?
Domain Type Transfer Fee
.co.uk £2.99
.me.uk £2.99
.org.uk £2.99
.com £8.89
.org £8.89
.net £8.89
.info £8.89
.biz £8.89
.us £8.89
.name £8.89
.net £8.89
.eu £8.89

What a joke! The only business they must get is from people who don’t sell their domains as I shall definetly be not using them again. I think I may have to keep to goDaddy even for UK domains. Atleast then when I want to sell my domain to someone else its FREE to do so!

We all like to comment on blogs when theres an interesting article but often I’ve wondered if certain blogs ive been commenting on are no follow or not. Firstly let me explain what “no follow” means, for those of you that don’t know. “no follow” is html code that indicates to the google bot crawling a site not to follow that link and therefore in terms of SEO purposes renders is useless, but never the less could still give you traffic.

Now there is the DoFollow Blog List but I cant be bothered to look through that! My time is too precious! I want a quick and easy way to find out if its worth it to comment on the blog I am reading. ( dont get me wrong I will comment on blogs that are no follow if the article is really good or I can relate to it.)

So one thing you can do is install an easy firefox plugin called Search Status which will highlight any no follow links on command.

Once you have it installed you will find that there is a little “q” in the bottom right hand corner, right click that and select “HighLight NoFollow Links“.

Hey Presto you now know if a site is using nofollow or not! You can thank me by buying me a beer bellow

A while back I posted about the recent craze which was creating eBay affiliate mini sites.

I am now pleased to be able to show you my results from the last 3 months:

Now please remember these results are in pounds and not dollars. The earnings in dollars are about $88.

So lets look at the whole picture I bought the original script for $49 and bought 4 different domains totalling $32 being a grand total expenditure of $81. So that’s only $7 profit from about 8 hours worth of work for setting up the sites. I have not promoted the sites in any way at all. All the traffic they receive is free organic traffic. Another thing to point out is that not all of the sites were made at the start of the 3 months some are only1 month and a half old.

Am I please with the results?

Well yes and no. I don’t like the fact that they don’t make that much money but I do like the fact that once I have made the sites I can just sit back and relax and never have to look at the site again and I know it is making me a little bit of money to add to other incomes. Anything I make from now on is pure profit and I don’t have to do anything to make that money its great!

One tip I would give to anyone going into this type of market would be to only make sites targeted to the country your hosting is as I think this effects traffic a lot. Also think very hard about what niche you are going to go in.

Do you have eBay mini sites? How are you results compared to mine?

Graphic design is not my strong point what so ever and I think a lot of people have problem with it. I often outsource my graphics work, but found a great tutorial on how to create web 2.0 style logos very easily in Photoshop CS2.

1. Download and Install style file

First of all, you will need to download a style I’ve created and load it into Photoshop.

1. Download Photoshop style here. (Right-click -> Save as)
2. For Photoshop CS2 users, put this style file into
   “C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe CS2\Presets\Styles”
   Photoshop of other versions, put the file inside Presets\Styles

2. Load style Call up your Style Dialog box in Photoshop Windows -> Styles Notice a small arrow button on the top right corner. Click on it and select Load Styles from the drop down Find web20 from the list and click Load. If you don’t find web20, try close Photoshop, re-open it repeat Step 1. Click on the arrow button again and select Large List from drop down Your result should look something similar to the image on the right.

Then all you do is use the write some text then click on a style for example ‘mixd-label’ and the text will be styled with that style!

You can see the full tutorial here: How Web 2.0 Logos are drawn (Photoshop)

Where there is a will, there’s a way, and with the advent and reach of the Internet, the number of ways to achieve monetary success have grown exponentially. Full time jobs are being supplemented with income earned online and online jobs are becoming full-time in time when they become lucrative. Who wouldn’t love the comfort and ease of earning your living without having to leave home?

One way to earn money online is to write articles, either for your own blog, as a freelance agent or as a staff member of a company that owns websites or writes copy for a price. For any of these options to have even a modest chance of success, you have to possess certain skills and abilities:

• Your command of English (being predominantly the language used across the web) must be excellent. Fluency in both grammar and prose are equally important.
• Your writing should have a style of its own.
• Your text should be error-free and easy to read.
• English is just one language, but it has different dialects, accents and terms for each country it’s spoken in. Keep your target audience in mind when you write and use the appropriate form of the language to get your message across. You may not be in Rome, but when your article is being read mostly by Romans, it’s best to talk (write) as the Romans do.
• Use simple language that can be understood by a wider range of people rather than verbose, complicated essays.
• Stick to word limits give or take 50 or so words.
• If you are asked to use key words for search engine optimization, blend them into your article in a systematic manner rather than strew them randomly and at odds with the rest of your text.
• Never ever plagiarize from other websites or sources. It reflects badly on your ability as a writer and your sense of ethics as a human being.
• Be well versed in the subject you’re supposed to write about if you want your audience to take you seriously.
• Dedication to deadlines is an asset, especiallywhen you’re working from home.
• Come up with catchy headlines.
• Be cohesive and plan your article before you begin to write it. Random thoughts simply put on paper (or screen) do not make for interesting reading. Weave a story that both encapsulates what you have to say in a nutshell and captivates the attention of your reader from start to finish.
• Check out the job offer thoroughly before you begin any work. You don’t want to end up being cheated by a fraudulent outfit.
• Brush up your Internet search skills if you expect to make a successful career out of your web sojourn.
• If it’s a blog you’re writing for, encourage and respond to reader comments. It’s the best way to increase traffic to your site.
• Continuous writing can take its toll on a writer’s creativity, so come up with new ways to keep your work interesting and challenging.

Sarah Scrafford is an industry critic, as well as a regular contributor on the subject of credit cards. She invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address: sarah.scrafford25@gmail.com.

Just thought I would let everyone know about a tool I have been using to find specific companies affiliate programs and what network they are on. Its called Affiliate Bounty there is a search function and also a A-Z search. They cover companies in the UK, USA and all over europe.

I’ve found this tool a great resource and wanted to share it with you guys!

Been checking out the competition for discount code websites today and I am shocked to see some discount code websites promising discount codes for particular merchants and when you click the “reveal discount code + site” button there is no discount code present but still the affiliate link pops up in a separate window. Now these are some of the big players in the discount code industry that are doing this. I have always tried to be fair when issuing discount codes on my site. Only promise a code if a code is there and also provide an expiry date. I know Keiron has the same opinion when he is running his site.

But am I being silly in letting morals takeover when business is business?

One side of me thinks fuck it if others are doing it why shouldn’t I after all I want to make money too! Whilst the other side thinks I’m not a con man I don’t want to promise things I don’t have on my site.

So what does everyone think about this? Should I just go for the money by being a trickster or earn an honest buck?

I started a gaming related website about 2months ago and whilst reading the affiliates4u forum I come across a free tool called affCAFF. Let me give you some info from the post itself:

“tool that feeds sign-up bonuses, promotions and the like direct from operators (casinos, poker rooms, bingo & sportsbooks) into affiliate websites and it’s just gone into Beta.
It’s primary purpose is to help affiliate programs ensure that their latest promos and offers are disseminated quickly and for affiliates it means that they don’t have to keep updating their sites each time a sign-up bonus changes or a new promo comes out.
It’s 100% free for affiliates and there is no backlink requirement.

The system allows affiliates to attach their own affiliate links to each item, choose which properties & promotions (or type) are displayed, define your own layouts and colour schemes etc and then it will ensure your promotions are constantly updated on your site. It also tracks click-throughs so you can view stats and stuff.

Development is ongoing and there are modules coming that feed down images, add geo-targetting capabilities to your websites, allow for centralisation of your affiliate links - actually quite a lot more on the workbench at the moment.

If anyone wants to join in the Beta, there are quite a few webmasters using it, then feel free to take a look at the affCAFF - Affiliate Content System. Lots of info there including examples of sites using it etc.”

So right now I’ve just downloaded and installed it on my server and I think I will be having a play round with it during the next week. It looks like it could save a lot of time when it comes to updating new offers.

Came accross a great new tool today to make tweeting easier. Its called twhirl which is an application you download and install, so you can keep up to date on twitter without having to bother going to the twitter website. Pretty Cool eh ?

You can add me on twitter here