A little bit of business sense is all you need to get in the e-property development game. What you don’t need is:

* HTML or programming knowledge
* Your own product or service to sell
* Web-design ability

This tutorial will teach you how to create and develop your first Website, and how to use that Website as a foundation for creating more Websites to sell. It’s broken down into five easy-to-understand steps.

How to Create Your First Website

1) Start with a great idea. You need to select a topic, one that has these major characteristics:

* It must be something you know about. You don’t necessarily have to be a certified expert on a given subject to build a Website around it. You should, however, have enough understanding about your chosen topic that you can begin to do some intelligent research to create quality site content.

* Your subject must be one in which there is likely to be sufficient interest in. Otherwise you won’t be able to attract enough traffic to make your Website appealing to a potential buyer. (Not sure how to gauge potential interest in a topic? Check out the section entitled ” Niche Marketing: Creating a Website that People Actually Want to Visit.”)

* There must be products related to the topic that you can market from the site. Whether you sell something directly or you choose an affiliate product, you need to be able to demonstrate to a potential buyer that the site generates an income. So when you’re deciding on a topic, be sure to check out related products first.

2) Create your Website layout. Not a programmer? Don’t worry. You don’t have to be, and you won’t have to hire a programmer, either. You can either use WordPress or an online Website builder and do it yourself.

I suggest using WordPress to build your websites. It is easy to use and when you go to resell the site, many buyers want to see that it is built on the WordPress platform. WordPress can be easily installed on your hosting account with just a few simple steps. Don’t use WordPress.com. I am referring to building your website on your own hosting account and having the WordPress software installed on your hosting account. The video below will show you how to do this:

You can also use website builders. They may be a bit harder to sell because the potential buyer may have to use that same website builder in order to take ownership and run the site.

Website builders provide you with dozens of different pre-programmed templates to choose from. Choose the design that you like. Make sure that you select one that’s capable of providing you with the kinds of features you’ll need (such as the ability to make and accept financial transactions, if necessary).

Once you’ve chosen a design, you simply add the elements you need by clicking on them and dropping them into the right places on your layout. (These kinds of site-builders are sometimes called “drag-and-drop.”) You can even add your own pictures and custom graphics, including a logo. Some easy-to-use site-builders include Wix.com, Moonfruit.com and Webs.com.

Before you choose an online site builder program: Think through your Website and decide what kinds of features that you’ll need. Not all online site builders support all possible features, so your needs will influence your decision. Some features that you’ll want to think about include:

* Analytics.
* The ability to accept and make financial transactions.
* A way to create a product catalogue.
* The ability to add HTML coding.
* A way to blog.
* The ability to upgrade and add more memory/storage later on.
* The ability to run ad programs (such as AdSense): some online site builders let you build this right into your site.
* Social networking support.
* Interactive features, such as chat and commenting.

These are just a few examples of elements you might need. If you do need any of these, be sure to choose a site builder that supports those options.

To use an online site-builder, you need to create an account. Account-creation itself is free. You won’t have to pay anything until you’ve created your site and you’re ready to launch it.

In fact, many online Website builders allow you to play around with their site templates for free for a trial period (usually around 30 days). We suggest that you do this, and perhaps try two or three different online site-builders before handing over your credit card information. This way you’ll be able to figure out which one works the best for your needs.

You’ll only have to begin paying once you’re ready to make your site live. What you pay will depend upon a few factors, including:

* How much data storage you require (the more you need, the more it will cost you.)
* How much bandwidth you need.
* Whether or not you need a domain name.
* The length of your hosting contract (you’ll pay more if you make monthly payments; less if you make an annual, lump-sum payment.)

Hosting, if you need lots of bandwidth and storage, is usually relatively economical. Many site owners recoup these costs simply by running ads.

Note: Some Website builders offer free hosting programs. This isn’t a suitable option if you plan on monetizing your site and selling it later on. You need to pay for at least a basic hosting plan and your own domain name.

3) Create (or purchase) content. Content is key to the success of your Website. Search engines rank sites based on content. A significant majority of your future visitors will be finding your site by using a search engine. So you must give the search engines what they want so that you can attract visitors.

How to create effective content: Your site should be packed with articles- that is, short blocks of text (500 to 600 words) on subjects related to the overall topic of the site. For instance, if your site is about bird-watching, some potential articles might include:

* “Choosing the Right Pair of Binoculars”
* “How to Photograph Nesting Birds”
* “How to Attract Birds to Your Backyard Feeder”
* “How to Distinguish Bird Calls”
* “Identifying the Markings of Birds”
* “The Best Bird Identification Guides”

While each article is on a different subject, each one is related to bird-watching, and would be the kind of information that someone who likes to bird-watch might be interested in reading.

Don’t launch your Website until you have at least five quality articles posted on its pages. Even after you have that initial content, you should keep adding and/or turning over content on a regular basis. Search engines love fresh content. Plus, one a search engine has scanned your Website, it won’t come back again unless there’s something new there to scan. So the ongoing success of your site depends upon a continual influx of new content. Always give those search engines reasons to keep visiting your site and indexing you for more keywords.

How to create effective content: You can’t just write a series of words and expect that your Website will get a decent ranking. The content has to be effective. Effective content is:

* Accurate
* Informative
* Grammatically correct and spelling error-free
* Sprinkled with keywords

“Keywords” refers to the kinds of words that a search engine user would use to find a particular Website through a search engine. Referring to our bird-watching Website as an example, someone searching for information about products related to bird-watching may use “keywords” (search terms like):

* “Bird watching”
* “Bird watchers”
* “How to bird watch”
* “Where to bird watch”
* “Bird watching clubs”
* “Best places for bird watching”
* “Meet other bird watchers”

In order for the bird-watching Website to draw in targeted visitors (those who like bird-watching and might purchase items related to it), the site owner would need to fill it with articles that target those keywords.

Those keywords are what search engines are going to look for in order to correctly index your site’s pages. You MUST use keywords strategically. Specifically, you should:

* Never over-use keywords: Search engines got wise to this tactic a long time ago. If you overuse a word or phrase too much, your content might get ignored and/or classified as “spam.” Most experts today agree that keywords should be used sparingly: only about 1.5 to 2.5 percent of your total content (in a single article) should be keywords. In other words, a 500 word article with the keywords “how to identify birds” should use this phrase only between seven and twelve times.

* Make sure your keywords make sense in relation to the rest of the text. You can’t simply create a page of non-sense and use the words “how to identify birds” over and over again. Not only will you not get indexed, you might even be penalized by the search engines.

* Try to use your keywords once within the first paragraph of your text and once within the last paragraph. Sprinkle the rest throughout the remainder of the text.

* Don’t focus on more than two keywords/keyword phrases per article. This may confuse a search engine and may result in getting incorrectly indexed. If you want to focus on more keywords, create more articles.

What if I’m not a writer? That’s okay, not everyone is. In fact, SEO (search engine optimization) writing is a specialized kind of writing. If you’re the slightest bit uncomfortable with it or unsure of your own ability, then hire this partout to a professional writer. It will cost you a bit, but it will be money well-spent. (It’s a little like the difference between paying your 11-year old neighbor fifty bucks to paint your house versus hiring a professional contractor…. It’s a lot of money, but your house will look better and sell faster in the end.)

4) Add pictures and graphics…but don’t go overboard. Just like with keywords, too many pictures may actually hurt rather than help.

Pictures, graphics and illustrations have a few purposes. Their main one is to show potential buyers what a product looks like before they buy it. Another purpose is to lend visual interest to a site. Still another might be to convey a message in a different way than using words (such as a pie chart demonstrating how many robins are typically found in a given area versus other types of birds).

Pictures and graphics should enhance a page without overpowering it. Keep them to a minimum, and if you must use a lot of pictures (as with a product catalogue), use thumbnails. Picture files will slow the down the downloading of your site, and statistics show that Web surfers don’t like to wait. If it takes more than five seconds or so for your pages to download, visitors will simply leave.

You should also remember that pictures do nothing to contribute to the indexing and ranking of your site. So make sure that text is always predominant over pictures on any given page.

A word about the legal use of photos and graphics: It’s against the law to use pictures that you don’t “own” on your Website. You must either have taken the photo yourself or have paid for the rights to use any photo or graphic that you post on your Website.

You can join a stock photo Website, such as 123rf.com or iStockphoto.com which keeps thousands of photos and graphics on file on just about every topic you can imagine. Here you’ll be able to purchase the rights to use any of the photos that they stock and legally use them on your Website.

5) Launch your Website! Now your site is ready to go. Most potential buyers are going to want to see a proven track record in terms of how much money your site generates. Therefore, you shouldn’t expect to be able to sell it right away. Instead, expect to wait at least three months before listing it for sale; a year is even better, since many potential buyers will want to gauge its performance over an entire year.

One year gives you sufficient time to discover what works in terms of advertising, as well as what kinds of affiliate products sell best. You’ll have a chance to tweak things over the months until you hit on a “formula” that generates the most possible revenue.
Listing Your Website

Selling a Website isn’t a lot different from selling any other piece of property, like a home or a vehicle. First you’ll want to list the site with a Website broker, such as WebsiteProperties.com, WebsitesForSales.com and WebsiteBroker.com. You’ll need to provide basic information about your site, including its average monthly income.

You can also sell your website on sites like Flippa.com which is one of the leading website auction sites on the web.

If your website is making over $10,000 per year, I would suggest selling it using WebsiteProperties.com. Flippa’s fees are much less than a website broker but usually on Flippa you will get about 10 times your monthly net earnings. Selling using a website broker such as WebsiteProperties.com will cost you a 10% broker fee but will normally allow you to get 3 times yearly net earnings so it ends up being more in the long run.

Pricing Your Website

Determining the fair market value of a Website is tricky. Unlike a home, you can’t really refer to your next door neighbor’s property value as a starting point for pricing your own.

The value (and potential value) of a Website is based on a number of factors, including:

* Its PageRank: This is a Google link analysis algorithm that is something like a popularity vote for a particular Web page. A page can receive a ranking between zero and ten, with ten being the best possible score. Google arrives at this figure by looking at the number of links that lead to your page(s) from other Web pages. Sites with high PageRanks may be able to be sold for more money than those with low or no PageRank.

* Its Alexa ranking: Alexa ranks Websites according to the traffic that it receives. A site’s Alexa ranking is based on data that’s exclusive to Alexa toolbar-enabled browsers, which doesn’t necessarily reflect the habits of Internet users at large. Therefore, this ranking may or may not play a significant role in determining a site’s value, unless Alexa ranking happens to be important to a specific buyer.

* Its monthly revenue: This is probably the most significant factor in setting a Website’s price tag. Potential buyers want to know approximately how much they can expect to profit off of a site. Obviously the more revenue a site generates, the more you can sell it for.

* Its number of daily visitors (average).

* Its number of daily (average) page views.

* Its expenses: This includes hosting costs, marketing, average monthly cost of acquiring content, etc.

You can find Website value calculators, like the one found at YourWebsiteValue.com that can help you determine a site’s value. Simply enter the Web address and the calculator will come up with a value based on its traffic, page views, etc.

However, it’s important to note that these calculators do not take into account factors like a site’s monthly revenue generation or the quality of its content so are not very accurate. Its findings are based strictly on measurable data that can be quickly accessed via the Internet. Therefore, we recommend that you use this figure only as a point of reference as you begin to decide at what price to list your Website.

Re-selling a Website

Once you’ve developed a successful Website, you can take that same basic layout and theme, use similar strategies, and create new Websites. It’s a little bit like cloning. Your existing site becomes a template for the new site. As long as the “new” content is unique, you can use the same template again and again if you like to create more Websites.

Some virtual real estate dealers focus on a particular genre of products. Take nutritional supplements, for example. The supplements market is a large and potentially lucrative one. A virtual real estate developer might create a site touting a particular kind or brand of supplement. He can then take that same concept using the same site layout, swap out a few pictures and logos, add new content, and market a different nutritional supplement. In fact, he can market numerous nutritional supplements using the same basic design.

Niche Marketing: Creating a Website that People Actually Want to Visit

You can’t assume that because a particular topic or idea is popular that you’ll automatically get visitors to your Website devoted to that topic. The fact is: the more popular a topic is, the more competition that you’re likely to have for visitors. Just go to a search engine like Google and type in something broad and generic, like “milk.” You’ll most likely get five hundred million or more returns on such a broad query, because there’s lots of information on the Web about “milk.”

Instead, you’ll probably find more success looking for “niches.” This is referred to as “niche marketing,” and it’s the opposite of the traditional definition of marketing. Normally someone with a product to sell goes out and tries to convince people to buy that product. Niche marketing, on the other hand, is looking for “gaps” in the market and then creating a product to fill one of the those gaps.

When it comes to Internet marketing, the key is finding “niche keywords” and targeting those words within the content of your Website in order to make money off of related products and advertising. You can find niche keywords by trial and error on your own.

This simply involves coming up with keywords and variations of those keywords and then running an analysis using Google’s keyword selector tool. This will tell you how much competition there is for each keyword and will also generate related keywords and their related search data. You can use this data to figure out which variations are being underused as keywords.

You can also subscribe to a service that will do an in-depth analysis for you. ConcentrateAnalytics.com is one such service. Data from such service providers is more comprehensive and detailed than what you can find using Google’s keyword selector. These services usually cost money, but may be well-worth the investment for the edge that they can give you on the e-commerce market.

Hope this helps,

Hundreds of new Websites enter the World Wide Web every week, even in spite of tough economic times in many parts of the world. This means that the demand for Web designers is strong even as other jobs and professions are disappearing. Later on you’ll discover how to get started reaching potential customers. First, though, we’ll look at the build-it-yourself Website, what it is and how it works.

The Build-It-Yourself Website

You can find online Website templates all over the Internet. They’re often referred to as “build-it-yourself” or “drag-and-drop” Websites.

The basic programming for these sites has already been done. A designer like you starts by selecting a template that consists of a basic page. (Most of these online programs offer dozens to choose from.)

Once you’ve selected your “template,” you can start adding or removing elements from it in order to customize it for your (or your client’s) needs. You do this by choosing elements from a menu of options and dragging them with your mouse and dropping them onto your Web page in the place you want them to appear. You can add as many pages as you need to your site.

These templates are designed to be simple enough so that an inexperienced user can create his own site in just a few hours. However, many e-business and Website owners still prefer to have this service done by someone else. Often the site owner himself doesn’t have the time to do it. In many cases they simply don’t feel comfortable enough with their own computer skills or creativity to undertake this task.

Others want to have their sites customized to a greater degree than most novices are capable of doing. That’s why creative people like you are in such high demand in the Web design business, and why there’s such a vast opportunity for you to make money in this field.

Someone with a flair for creativity is usually better at choosing colors that go together, using fonts effectively, adding (or even designing from scratch) custom graphics (like company logos) and pictures to a build-it-yourself Website. Many e-businesses are willing to pay top wages for this kind of work because it’s so important to the image of their business.

Some of the better build-it-yourself Website programs online include:

*Moonfruit.com: This site builder offers several dozen templates to choose from, including various business-themed sites. Moonfruit.com includes options for hooking up your site to PayPal (for those who need the ability to make and accept financial transactions) and creating a catalogue of products. Moonfruit.com offers a free trial period so that you can take your time and play around with your design (making sure that you’re really satisfied with it) before you begin paying for hosting.

*Wix.com: Like Moonfruit, Wix.com also offers numerous templates with different themes. It also lets you choose from add-ons like PayPal and product catalogues. Wix also offers a free trial period, and monthly hosting is reasonably priced.

*WordPress.com: Once known mainly as a free blogging platform, WordPress now offers one of the biggest selections of site templates and hosting options on the Web.

*Webs.com: Webs.com specializes in business Websites. It has over 300 templates to choose from and offers e-commerce options like PayPal connection. It also offers analytics and SEO marketing features.

Getting Started with an Online Website Builder

To start creating, you simply need to choose a provider and create an account. Many online site-builders, including Wix.com and Moonfruit.com, allow you to open an account and even start creating designs for free by way of a free trial period (this is typically about 30 days). Account creation simply requires you to provide your name and some basic personal information, as well as choosing a user name and password.

This can be a great way to try out several different online site builders and discover which one you like best. Create accounts on two or three of them and start playing around with their designs and options. It won’t take you long to figure out how they work and which ones will give you the most bang for you buck.

The sites you create do not automatically go live to the Internet unless you want them to. Some site builders actually let you create sites for free and even upload them to the Web for free. They do this by placing their own ads on the site(s) you create. (You can’t use a custom domain when you use this free version to launch a site.)

However, if you are creating a site for a business, we recommend that you pay for hosting. This will remove the site-builder’s ads and will garner you better search engine rankings. You’ll also be able to use a custom domain name this way. Site builder programs generally let you choose the level of service and amount of memory that you need at a reasonable cost.

Starting Your Web-Design Business: Connecting with Potential Customers

The actual designing is probably going to be the easiest part of running your own Web design business. Starting to build up a contact list of potential customers will be the difficult part. We recommend that you get started by joining up with a freelancer’s network.

Freelancer’s networks are membership-based Websites which allow freelancers like Web designers to create a profile and advertise for customers. The most effective ones to join are those that give users the chance to bid on design jobs which are posted by customers who are looking for Web design services. A few of the best online freelancer’s networks include:

*iFreelance.com: iFreelance is a membership forum for all kinds of different freelancers, including writers, artists and graphic designers as well as Website designers.iFreelance.com offers several different membership levels. Each one builds on the one before it, offering more and more extra features. We recommend skipping the basic level and paying for one of the higher levels. They’re still reasonably-priced and will give you a greater ability to find and secure the kinds of contracts that will sustain your business.

*Elance.com: Elance works very similar to iFreelance.com with regard to paid membership, with one major exception. Elance.com requires its members to share a percentage of any fees that they generate with them (iFreelance.com does not).

The upside of this is that members are assured of receiving payment for their services, since Elance.com requires buyers to pay in advance. Elance then holds the payment in escrow until the service provider (you) completes the job. Elance takes its cut and releases the rest to the service provider.

iFreelance.com, on the other hand, leaves the exchange of money up to the discretion of the service provider and the buyer. As a result, there is the potential that the service provider completes a job and doesn’t get paid by the buyer.

*Freelancer.com: This site is similar to iFreelance.com, including varying levels of membership. Again, we recommend that you choose a higher-level paid membership. However, you can opt for a basic free trial account if you want to check out the services first.

*Rent-acoder.com: This site works like Elance. Potential service providers bid on posted jobs. Like Elance, payment is held in escrow until the winning bidder completes the job.

Creating an Account on a Freelancer’s Website

It’s very worthwhile to post a profile on one or more of these sites. The cost of the membership usually pays for itself with a winning bid or two. Sign-up is easy: simply go to the one of your choice and create a profile.

Most freelancers’ networks give you expanded profiles based upon the level of membership that you select. As noted earlier, we recommend that you by-pass the free version and opt for a basic to mid-level membership. This will increase your chances of finding jobs as well as getting unsolicited offers. (Most networks allow you to upgrade your membership at any time, should you decide to do so.)

How Much Money Do Website Designers Make?

Experienced and reputable Web designers can make hundreds of dollars creating a five to ten page Website which can be done in 2 to 4 hours in many cases. When you’re first starting out, though, it helps to keep your prices on the low end of the scale as you develop your reputation and become more well-known. Once you have a good portfolio you can begin charging more money and you’ll probably find that most serious site owners are more than willing to pay for a professional-looking Website.

Hope this helps,

What is a Metaverse?

The term, “Metaverse” comes from the Neal Stephenson’s science-fiction novel, Snow Crash. In the book, a hyper-realistic digital world exists. People in that world can spend time doing activities they enjoy and spending their disposable income on items created in that world.

What is Virtual Gaming?

Virtual gaming can be as simple as a virtual world where avatars can chat with other members. However, it can also be as sophisticated as an environment where land, goods, and services can be bought and sold. Avatars can meet and socialize in common areas. Members can learn how to dance, hunt, fish, or shop in social malls. This type of social media is usually 3D. Avatars are created to represent the member. They can be unique and personal just like their creator.

A metaverse is designed as a communication devise. Inside the gaming reality, avatars communicate through text and voice patterns. Communication is important especially when building. Users can create and customize their in-world reality. They can purchase islands, lands, and build exotic properties or rent stores to sell wares.

The best games in virtual gaming will have the ability to access the Internet. Users want to have the ability to upload music, videos, images, sounds, and other content. Gaming should also have certain communications tools where users can communicate outside the virtual reality.

What is an In-Game Store?

When renting an in-game store, users are actually purchasing Internet storage space. The store is designed and stored inside this storage space. These storefronts are permanently attached to the user’s account. Products are created and uploaded to the store for sale. Purchases are made with in-world currency.

Products and pricing

Products are the creation of users and their creative efforts to enhance the experience of the virtual reality. These items should be things the creator would be proud to own. A side note on products: Most items which sell well are on the wild side. “Adult” items such as clothing, weapons, or counter-culture items sale best. However, a user doesn’t have to sale such products. Users need to focus on the quality of the craftsmanship of the product to ensure repeat customers. The best way to become successful is to develop strong marketing strategies.

Marketing Strategies

Users should begin by creating a unique description to hook other users into investigating the product. A quality written title and description of the product listing may make the product more memorable. Users should include a specific name of the item. Describe colors or versions of the item. Include keywords so users can easily find the product in the in-world search engine. Users should carefully add item listing fields. Items should have a SKU number, version, item status, maturity level, permissions, item title, product features, keywords, category, price, and in-world images of the product.

In-World Photography

Any product which is for sale should have an image. Many open-ended gaming stores allow images to be saved at no extra charge. The images should be bright so the picture can be seen clearly. The product should be shot at multiple angles. Image dimensions should be given in pixels. Sometimes pixels cans create jagged edges on the images. This can be avoided by enabling anti-aliasing which will smooth jagged edges.

Copyright Protection

Content creators have legitimate concerns of their intellectual property being stolen and then sold by thieves within minutes of becoming available in stores. To ensure the content creators have protection, there exist copyright infringement policies. Most virtual games have general policies which include panning the avatar and all their alternative avatars if the main avatar has been shown to infringe on copyrights. Virtual games also have script security. Source codes cannot be downloaded by unauthorized users. These source codes cannot be stolen.

What is the average amount of money users can make?

Virtual gaming isn’t just a game with fake money anymore. With the ability to exchange in-world currency for actual real-world dollars, investors have turned gaming into a profit center. In-world, there are games, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and universities. According to Linden Labs, creator of Second Life, nearly $5 million real-world dollars was exchanged between players in January 2006. That is about $38 per person. Second Life’s most famous landowner, Anshe Chung, reportedly makes more than $150,000 a year in the virtual world.

3D OpenSimulator Based Grids (Many of these virtual worlds are similar to Second Life where In-Game Stores can be rented and products created:)

• AVN (https://www.avination.com/)
• InWorldz (http://inworldz.com/)
• Kitely (http://www.kitely.com/)
• The New World Grid (http://newworldgrid.com/)
• Avatar Hangout (http://avatarhangout.com/)
• ReactionGrid (http://www.reactiongrid.com/)
• 3rd Rock Grid (http://www.3rdrockgrid.com/)
• Nexxtlife (http://www.nexxtlife.com/index.php?page=&lang=en)
• FrancoGrid (http://www.francogrid.com/)
• Your Alternative Life (http://youralternativelife.com/)
• SpotOn 3D (https://spoton3d.com/)
• German Grid (http://www.germangrid.eu/)
• Virtyou (http://virtyou.com/)
• Alpha Towne (http://web.alphatowne.com/index.cfm)
• Metropolis (http://metropolis.hypergrid.org/)
• ScienceSim (http://sciencesim.com/)
• Wilder Westen (http://www.talentraspel.com/index.php)
• Jokaydia (http://jokaydia.metaverseworlds.com/welcome)
• Craft-World (http://www.craft-world.org/)
• Virtual RP (http://www.virtual-rp.com/)
• UFS Grid (http://www.dsgrid.eu/)
• Twisted Sky (http://twistedsky.net/)
• SIM World (http://thesims.com/en_us/home)
• MyOpenGrid (http://myopengrid.com/)
• Role Play Worlds (http://roleplayworlds.net/)
• 3DMee (http://openlifegrid.com/)
• Tertiary Grid (http://tertiarygrid.com/)
• Heritage Key (http://heritage-key.com/)

Hope this helps,

Quality Assurance Game Tester

A Quality Assurance Game Tester is responsible for the game working correctly and managing a bug list. The lead tester works closely with designers and programmers reporting analytics. This may include writing different types of reports.

Companies Need Game Testers

There are various departments which link together to produce gaming software. Programming, Art, Audio, Design, and Production departments all have to work individually and eventually together to make the software saleable. Because so many people have a hand in the completion of the software, it is inevitable that mistakes will be made. Game Testers work to make certain the product has a quality assurance guarantee. Companies hire individuals to test their product before the software ever reaches retail stores.

Outsourced Quality Assurance

Individuals can make money testing games in the privacy of their own home. Game publishing companies are outsourcing testing. QA testers accept jobs from the companies and work from home or in an outsourced lab. People who agree to work from home do it because they have a passion for the work and not for aspirations of moving up in the industry. The pro of working from home is that testers become familiar with the process of quality testing. The con of working from home is that testers do not get to interact with developers and producers and without exposure to the daily tasks of a gaming publisher, the tester’s possibilities of career advancement are minimal.

Game Tester Duties

General duties of game testers usually include more than just playing games. Game testers must perform tasks on a checklist. A worksheet task list may include questions, such as: What did you think of the main game menu? How did you like Single-Player Campaign Mode? What are your least favorite parts? How did you like the Multi-Player Mode? What outstanding bugs/glitches did you notice? How did the game perform? Name ways to improve the game?

Game Tester Qualifications

Most companies want their game testers to have at least three-years of previous experience. Game testers should have excellent written and verbal communications skills, experience with PC and console gaming hardware and software, and knowledge of quality assurance cycles. Strong knowledge of networking and multi-player functionality with skills in troubleshooting is all also desired.

For supervisory or management positions, individuals need higher education. Companies want a degree in computer science or course work in computer programming.

Game Tester Earnings

Game testers can expect companies to offer highly competitive salaries and benefit packages for the professional game testers who possess a degree. This area of the software industry is one place for individuals who do not necessarily possess much education can work and make money without the worry of obtaining a degree.

On the Flipside

People who love to play games may think this type of job is somewhere near Heaven. However, there are aspects of this position that may not be so appealing. Some duties require a game tester to play the same game all day long for weeks on end. Playing different games may break the monotony, but the company only wants their tester playing one game and to keep playing it until all the kinks are worked out. Testers must have the ability to write well. This means the game tester must know how to construct a sentence, write with grammatical correctness, and be able to perform analytics.

Companies Hiring Game Testers

Researching online for jobs is the modern practice. Unfortunately, searching the term, “game tester” will give results of all kinds of sale ads wanting the searcher to buy a guide. To browse legitimate jobs who are offering employment, it is best to search the term, “Quality Assurance game tester.” This will return search results of companies, such as Gameshastra.com and Gamecloud Technologies who actually posts in their career sections job opportunities.

Here are a few other Game Industry websites:

• Gamestester.com
• IGDA.org
• GameDev.net
• Gdse.com (Game Developer Search Engine)
• GarageGames.com
• DigitalGameDeveloper.com

Resources:

School Listings – Many of these schools offer Programming, Graphic Design, and Art & Animation degrees.

• Champlain College – Burlington, VT
• Cogswell Polytechnic – Sunnyvale, CA
• Cornell University – Ithaca, NY
• Daniel Webster College – Nashua, NH
• DePaul University – Chicago, Illinois
• DeVry University
• East Tennessee State University
• Georgia Institute of Technology – Atlanta, GA
• ITT Technical Institute
• Michigan Tech
• Rochester Institute of Technology
• University of Baltimore
• University of Delaware
• University of Denver
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette
• University of Michigan
• University of North Texas
• University of Southern California
• University of Texas at Dallas
• University of Washington Educational Outreach

Books

• Game Testing All In One, by Charles P. Schultz
• Game Development Essentials: Game QA & Testing, by Luis Levy, Jeannie Novak
• Managing the Testing Process, 2nd Ed, by Rex Black
• Testing Computer Software, 2nd Ed, by Cem Kaner
• Masters of Doom, by David Kushner
• The Book of Games Volume 1: The Ultimate Guide to PC and Video Games, by Bendik Stang
• Monster Gaming, by Ben Sawyer

Hope this helps,

The short definition of a blog is a weblog, a diary, a journal. The longer definition is a personal online journal which was created for the purpose of online viewing. Each blog is different because people are different. Blogs represent the personality of the owner. The topics of blogs are free random thoughts to organized thoughts on a particular subject. However, blogs are the same in their format. The format is generally a series of journal post to a single web page in reverse chronological order.

Why Blog?

Blogs are the perfect vehicle as a marketing tool. They are much easier than newsletters for getting the author’s main message or information out without the burden of maintaining a database of email addresses. Blogs, unlike newsletters have a long shelf life because they stay archived on the site until it is taken down. They can also be updated at any time, correcting misinformation and the like from anywhere.

What is Guest Blogging?

Guest blogging or guest posting is the act of writing an article for another owner’s blog. This simple act comes with the opportunity at the end of the article to list the guest blogger’s name, website, and blog address which will increase web traffic to the guest blogger’s website and blog. Some larger or well-known blogs offer guest bloggers payment for their articles.

Make Money as a Guest Blogger

To get started as a guest blogger and make money blogging, it is a good idea to submit a few articles for free or as a contribution. Research blogs and see what type of readership the blog has and what type of articles interest the readership. Craft an article which topic is engaging so the owner is less likely to turn it down. Include a bio at the end of the article so the freebie article will have a benefit…increased web traffic which will help make the guest blogger’s name more familiar.

If the guest blogger is allowed to post an article, it is the responsibility of the guest blogger to promote the article to increase web traffic. Another responsibility is to monitor comments to the article and respond individually. It is important to make responses quick and interesting.

After a time of submitting free guest articles to blogs, it is time now to research the bigger blogs. Contact the owner, asking for submission guidelines, payment amount, and how payment is rendered. Ask if the owner needs a certain topic covered. Now craft your best work. Have it proofread by a friend to catch any errors. Then begin submitting to owners of different blogs. Eventually, perseverance will pay off and guest blogging will become a successful writing adventure. It will provide a great way for you to make money writing.

Reputable sites for submitting articles

Here are five reputable sites which offer payment for articles:

1. PHOTOSHOPTUTORIALS – this blog features guest bloggers who write tutorials for the software PhotoShop. Tutorials can be very valuable to blogs. This particular blog is willing to pay $150-$300 for one tutorial article.
2. THEKRAZYCOUPONLADY.COM – this blog features guest bloggers. They accept articles from guest bloggers based upon these categories: style; fashion; couponing; family/parenting; personal finance. Guest bloggers can expect payment of $50 using PayPal.
3. METROPARENT – this blog features guest bloggers who write parenting tips. This blog pays guest bloggers by check. A short article pays $35-$50 and a longer, more detailed article pays up to $250.
4. PAY PER POST – PayPerPost lets you pick your advertisers, name your own price and negotiate your own deals.
5. MAKEALIVINGWRITING – this blog features guest bloggers who write on the subject of freelance writing or making money by writing. Articles which are accepted are paid $50 through PayPal.

Step by step directions for becoming a guest blogger:

• Discover your talent – what are you knowledgeable about? What is your niche? Chances are that whatever topic you are passionate about you can find other readers who are passionate about it too.
• Research blogs which deals with your topic of choice. Learn everything you can about those blogs. Who are their readers? What do their readers want to learn? What has not been written about?
• Craft your article with an informative bio – the article you craft should be your best work. And why shouldn’t it be? After all, you’re getting paid for it. Make sure it opens with an engaging sentence. Follow with well written content and end with a bio which includes your name, website, and blog information complete with backlinks.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very important. It attracts traffic to the blog from the search engine. Target key words in the article. Use two or three keywords or phrases and use them in the article. Don’t use them too many times as this is considered keyword stuffing.
• After your article has been accepted and posted, monitor the comments. Responding quickly to any comments will increase your reputation in the commenter’s eyes, which will effectively increase web traffic to your website or blog.

Hope this helps,

Equipment Required

Before you get started, you need to make sure you have what you need. You’ll need a computer, or regular access to one. You’ll also need a camera.

Almost any camera will do, even a cell phone camera. However, it’s important to note a few things when it comes to your choice of camera.

First, the better quality your pictures are, the more likely you’ll be to sell them. Therefore, your photos are most certainly going to have more appeal if they’re taken with a higher-resolution camera.

This is not to say that you must own a very expensive, professional-type camera with multiple lenses and other costly features. Actually, you can purchase 12-15 mega pixel cameras that take satisfactory to excellent quality pictures for $250 and under. Even a cell phone camera with 10 mega pixels or higher is capable of capturing images that people will pay for.

The second important thing to note is that when it comes time to market your photos in the manners which we will describe shortly, there may be a minimum requirement with regard to mega-pixel count. Many photo Websites will only accept photos taken with cameras that are a minimum of 5-7 mega pixels. So make sure you pay attention to this small detail before you start shooting and selling.

What Kind of Pictures Can I Sell?

You can sell almost any images imaginable. Publishers of both online and hard copy material often look for stock photos to go with stories or articles, and they find many of these through stock photo Websites. (We’ll describe this in more detail later on.)

The most marketable pictures tend to be nature photos, animal pictures and everyday photos of people. As you become more proficient at marketing your pictures, you’ll probably come to discover what types of pictures sell well and you may decide to spend more time focusing on a particular genre of photography.

But even those silly holiday pictures of Aunt Maude wearing reindeer antlers or the burnt Thanksgiving turkey may fetch you some cash. (Just remember that if you sell pictures of people you must have their permission first. More on that later.) The more pictures you take and submit, the better your chances of making money.

The main thing to remember when it comes to the types of images that you sell is that you must adhere to the rules that are set out by the Website/stock photo company that you market your photos with. They will not accept pornographic images. Others may specialize in a particular type of image (i.e. nature) and won’t accept other types of images. So be aware of these things when you choose a place to market your photos.

How to Sell Photos Online

As we already alluded to, stock photos Websites accept pictures from the general public of images of all different types. A few of the Internet’s most popular stock photo Websites include iStockphoto.com, 123rf.com and Shutterstock.com.

Here’s how they work: photographers create a provider’s account with one (or more) of these stock photo Websites. (Note: Many stock photo Websites stipulate that you cannot submit the same picture to more than one stock photo Website so that only one site retains exclusive rights to a single photo. Be sure you check into this.) Once you create this account, you will be able to upload your pictures to the site, where they will be posted to users for sale.

Most stock photo sites allow you to submit as many pictures as you want (though there may be exceptions to this.) So the more pictures you submit, the more you’ll increase your potential for making money.

When a user selects one of your photos to purchase, your provider account will be credited with the agreed-upon price. Typically you’ll be paid out whenever your account reaches a minimum balance (again, this depends on the site so be sure to check this out before you sign up with a stock photo Website.)

How Much Money Will I Make?

Fee structures vary from site to site. Most stock photo Websites pay contributors a fee per image sold. This is generally a percentage of what the buyer pays for the image. Remember, you are selling rights to use the image, so the same photo can be sold again and again.

Some stock photo sites have other incentives for contributors to make money. Some pay referral fees when you get other photo contributors to join. Others may pay you to promote links to their site in Websites that you own.

How to Get Started

In this section we will walk you through the sign-up process for an iStock Photo provider’s account. Most stock photo Websites will have a very similar process.

1) Go to http://www.iStockphoto.com.

2) Click on the link that reads “Sign Up.” It’s located on the top right hand corner of the page.

3) On the next page, fill out the sign-up form with your email address, choose a user name and choose a password. Choose your country of residence from the drop-down menu, and click on the Terms of Use box. Choose whether you wish to receive iStock’s various promotional emails by checking or un-checking the appropriate box(es). Then click on the box marked “Next Step.”

4) On the next page, check the box marked “I’m signing up to become an iStock contributor.” Then click on the box marked “Sign me up.”

5) On the next page, confirm that the information you submitted is correct, then click on the box marked “Confirm.” Your membership is complete, and you now have an account on iStockphoto.com.

Now you can apply to become a contributor of photos to iStockphoto.com. To do this, you must study iStockphoto’s contributor’s manual and then take a short quiz. You’ll also need to submit three sample photos. Your acceptance as a contributor will be based on these results.

iStockphoto.com is one of the stricter stock photo Websites when it comes to their contributors, although you don’t have to be a professional to meet their standards. Other stock photo sites, such as 123rf.com do not require contributors to take a quiz or submit work samples in order to sell photos. Here, a contributor simply needs to create an account (the process is similar to creating an account on iStockphoto) and then start uploading photos (be sure to read their standards of submission first).

How Do Users View and Purchase My Photos?

Purchase programs may vary slightly from one stock photo site to another. Generally speaking, potential buyers have two ways to obtain stock photos. Users must first sign up for an account, the same way you did.

The first type of purchase plan, which is available with a majority of stock photo Websites, is a subscription plan. Users pay a specified monthly or annual membership fee/subscription which entitles the member to download up to a certain number of photos each month or year.

There are generally multiple subscription “tiers” or “levels” to choose from. Some come with monthly fees, other with annual rates. Some allow the purchaser to download a limited number of photos from the stock site while other plans may provide the user with unlimited photo downloads. These kinds of subscriptions are ideal for publishers who use dozens or hundreds of stock photos monthly or hundreds to thousands annually.

The second type of subscription available is the pay-per-use (or pay-per-download) type. Generally, a user must deposit a minimum amount of money into his or her account via credit card or PayPal (10 to 20 dollars is typical) to purchase credits. After this, the user can simply download a picture as needed and use the credits in his/her account. The user can top up the account whenever necessary. This kind of subscription is ideal for users who only use stock photos sporadically.

Either way, anytime a user downloads one of the photos you contributed, it will be recorded on your account. When your account reaches a minimum, you can withdraw the money by requesting a check or a deposit into an online bank account (i.e. PayPal).

Choosing Tags for Your Photos

Of course, stock photo Websites offer users thousands of photos to choose from. So how can you help to ensure that users will actually see the photos you’ve contributed? First, as mentioned already, the key is submitting lots of pictures: dozens, or hundreds.

Secondly, you must be strategic about how you tag your photos. “Tags” are keywords that you think subscribers will use to try to find pictures like the ones you’ve uploaded. Let’s use the example of a photo of a chickadee eating at a bird feeder. Some of the possible “tags” or keywords you should use might include:

* Bird(s)

* Chickadee(s)

* Bird feeder

* Bird eating at a bird feeder

* Chickadee eating at a bird feeder

* Bird at a birdfeeder

* Chickadee at a birdfeeder

* Bird eating seeds

* Chickadee eating seeds

* Bird picture(s)

* Nature

* Nature picture(s)

Choose keywords that range from general (i.e. “birds”) to specific (i.e. “chickadee eating at a bird feeder”). You should also try to include as many keyword variations as you can think of (i.e. “bird feeder” and “birdfeeder”) to catch searchers who will use those different variations/spellings.

A Note About Copyright and Liability

If you’re a professional photographer, you’re probably already familiar with the concept of copyright with regard to your photos. For those who are amateurs, copyright (with regard to photography) is the idea that any photo that you take is yours. You have exclusive rights to its ownership.

When you become a contributor to a stock photo Website, you are essentially extending your copyright to the site’s owner. Generally this does not mean that you no longer have any rights to the image(s). It simply means that you have also granted the stock photo site the right to display and sell that image for a profit for itself and for you. You are also granting anyone who purchases the image the right to use that image without paying any further fees for it.

However, generally speaking, you still maintain ownership of the image. This means that you can continue to use the image(s) yourself in whatever manner you want (as long as it doesn’t violate the stock photo site’s Terms of Use).

Nonetheless, you should always read carefully the Terms of Use for contributors of any stock photo Website you contribute to. Make sure you understand their copyright license agreement because not all stock Website’s are necessarily the same in this regard. A thorough understanding of these Terms of Use will help you avoid copyright problems down the road.

The other issue to be aware of is liability when it comes to the subject(s) of your images. Trees and wildlife are generally free domain, but you can’t contribute photos that depict images of human beings without those subjects’ knowledge and consent. Be sure that you inform people that you will be using their images this way, and if they decline then you must respect their privacy.

If your human subjects don’t mind having their images published and marketed to Internet users, it’s helpful to have them sign a simple release form. Signing a release form lets any interested parties know that your subjects have been informed that their pictures of them will be published and/or sold. It also lets buyers/users know that they’ve consented to this use of their image(s).

You can find release form templates online. (Microsoft has a good image usage release form template.) Always keep your release forms on file. You won’t necessarily ever have to produce them or refer to them, but it will be invaluable to you to have them if the need ever arises.

Hope this helps,

What Qualifications do I Need to Become an Online Translator?

The qualifications needed to perform online translation work usually vary, depending on who the employer is. There are hundreds to thousands of short-term, contract-based online translation jobs available at any given time. Some of the employers require translators to have a degree, either in a language or in the subject area of the translation assignment.

Other employers and jobs have less stringent requirements and employers simply want to know that you are fluent and proficient in whatever two languages you’ll be working in. (You may be asked to provide some type of proof of proficiency, such as a writing sample, or filling out a short quiz.) Even if you don’t have a degree, you’ll probably find there are plenty of short-term translation assignments available which don’t require translators to have one.

How to Find Online Translation Jobs

Prospective employers who need documents translated typically advertise on freelancer’s Websites/forums. Some of these sites, such as iFreelance.com, are general freelance sites which accept postings for all kinds of different freelance jobs (writing, editing, translating, etc.), while others, such as Translatorsbase.com are freelance sites strictly for translation jobs.

Different sites are set up differently. However, most operate in similar ways. Here’s how they work: prospective employers who are looking for document translators post a job description on the site. The posting lays out the parameters and scope of the work and what they expect. Some employers will also post a firm price while others will invite translators to put in a quote (bid) for the advertised work. The employer also decides how long the posting will remain active and note the deadline for bids.

Translators can peruse listings of translation jobs available. They can bid on the ones that interest them. Once the bidding deadline arrives, the employer can look over the bids and choose a suitable translator. The winning bidder is notified by email. Then the winner can make a final decision on whether or not he/she wants to accept the assignment.

The key to finding steady translation work this way is to register with as many of these sites as you can. Then, check back often (daily is ideal) and bid frequently. It’s always best to bid on as many as you’re qualified for. You aren’t usually bound by any rules that require you to actually accept an assignment if you decide later on you’re too busy, or the job turned out to be different than what you expected.

Here we’ll go through the process of registering with two different freelancer’s sites. We’ll start with iFreelance.com, a general freelancer’s forum:

1) Go to iFreelance.com. Click on the “Sign Up” link, which is located near the top right hand corner of the home page. You may get a pop up box that asks you if you’re looking for work, or wanting to post a job. Click on the box indicating that you are looking for work.

2) You’ll be redirected to a new page where you’ll be asked to choose a Log-in name (this can be your real name or a nickname/handle), a display name (this should be your real name or the name of your translation business, if you have one) and your email address. You’ll also be asked to choose and then confirm a password. Once you’ve filled out all of these fields, click on the button marked “Create Account.”

3) Choose your payment plan. It costs money to join iFreelance.com (it will be money well-spent if you’re good at what you do and you bid fairly). iFreelance has three membership levels, ranging in price from $6.25 to $12 monthly. Each level/plan has successively more benefits and advantages. However, we would suggest that you start out with the least expensive plan. You can always upgrade later on. Click on your chosen plan.

4) On the next page, choose how you want to pay for your membership. You can be billed monthly, annually, or every two years. You can save even more money if you choose an annual or bi-annual plan. After clicking in the corresponding field, you’ll be asked to choose under what category you want your profile to be listed. From the drop-down menu, choose the “Writing/Editing/Translation” option.

5) Depending on which membership level you’ve selected, you’ll get to choose options to be listed within your profile. You’ll be asked to choose a certain number of “sub-categories” which you’ll work under. Choose as many as are applicable and as you are allowed, but make sure that one of your choices is the field marked “Language Translation.”

6) Once you’ve chosen all your options, fill out your bio information. Then choose your payment method. (iFreelance accepts PayPal and most major credit cards.) Don’t forget to agree to iFreelance’s “Terms of Service.” Finally, click on “Create Account.”

After you create your account, spend some time familiarizing yourself with the bidding process and perusing the jobs that are posted in the translation category.

If you prefer not to have to pay for a subscription, there are other freelancer’s sites, such as Guru.com which are free to join. Guru.com does offer subscription membership as well, which gives you extra benefits (such as priority bidding) not available with free memberships. You can always join for free and then upgrade to a paid subscription later on if you wish.

If you wish, you can join up with a freelancer’s Website that is specifically for translators and translation jobs. They are similar to other freelancer’s sites, but deal only with translation work.

One such Website is TranslatorsCafe.com. Basic membership on TranslatorsCafe.com is free, with the option to purchase a subscription membership which entitles the translator to added benefits (such as priority bidding). Here’s how to sign up:

1) Go to http://www.translatorscafe.com.

2) Hover your mouse over the tab that says “Home,” located near the top of the page in the left hand corner to see a drop-down menu. On that menu, click on the “New Members” link.

3) On the next page, read the terms of use and click on the button at the bottom of the page that says “I accept.”

4) On the next page enter your name and address, select your country of residence, and choose a user name, password and password hint. Click on the “Submit” button.

5) You’ll be sent an email registration confirmation. Open the email and click on the confirmation link. Once you do this, you’ll be able to complete your profile and add your language and any other specialties or training that you have. You’ll also be able to upgrade your membership at this time if you desire.

Become a Certified Translator

As we mentioned earlier, you don’t necessarily need to have any special training in translation in order to find freelance translation jobs online. However, it may help you win the confidence of potential employers if you have some kind of credible certification. You may want to consider becoming a certified translator.

There are lots of certified translator programs that you can take online. They may take a few weeks to several months to complete. Any certification that you can get will make you more credible to a prospective employer, so even a very short certification program will be helpful.

Hope this helps,

Google Plus was launched in a limited form in June, 2011 and opened to a handful of users. These users were later allowed to extend a limited number of “invites” to the social network as a beta-testing project before the site was officially launched. The site finally went public in September, 2011 and anyone over the age of 18 was allowed to join.

Google Plus integrated some of Google’s previously existing features. Google Buzz and Google Profiles are two examples.

Google Plus was the first to integrate the idea of social or friend/contact “circles.” Users are able to add their contacts to a specific “circle” of friends as designated by the user. For example, a user could create a “family” circle, in which they would place only Google Plus contacts from their own families.

Once circles are created, a user can post information and mark it as visible only to a certain circle or circles. This level of privacy is something that had previously been lacking in most competing social networking sites.

Since Google Plus is so new, there aren’t as many extrinsic methods for making money using Google as there are for, say Twitter (such as “Sponsored Tweets”). Undoubtedly there are several in the works, though, which will probably become available within months. In the mean time you should work at building up as big a following as you can on your Google Plus profile (more on that later).

First, we’ll tell you how to sign up for your Google Plus account:

1. If you don’t already have one, you must create a basic Google account. Unfortunately there is no way of getting around this; you can’t get a Google Plus profile without a basic Google account. It’s simply one of Google’s ways of ensuring Internet dominance. To do this, go to the Google accounts page.

2. Enter your primary email address and choose a password. (Google will have to verify that this is an acceptable and unique password.)

3. Enter the country you live in (this may show up by default), and your birth date.

4. Enter the funny text so Google knows you’re a real person and not a spam bot, and read Google’s “Terms of Service.”

5. Click on the button at the bottom of the page market “I accept, create my account.”

Your account has been created, and you should receive a confirmation email from Google shortly.

Creating Your Google Plus Profile

Now that you have a basic Google account, you can create a Google Plus profile. Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to https://plus.google.com/ and sign in using your Google ID.

2. In the pop-up box, make sure that your name is correctly listed and select your gender. There is an option to add your photo. You should definitely have a photo on your profile, but if you skip this step now you can still add your photo later.

3. Click the “Join” button.

4. On the next page you can find other people that you know to add to your list of contacts. Google can search Yahoo and Hotmail if you wish. If you have contacts through these venues then you should definitely do this. Otherwise, skip this step.

5. Next you’ll be taken to your profile page. Google will automatically check your other Google affiliations (like Gmail) and find your Google contacts. You can then organize these contacts into “circles.”

Building up a Following

As already mentioned, Google Plus is still too new and there are not yet any money-making apps or pay-per-post Google Plus programs yet available. It won’t be long, though, before you’ll be able to find some.

Right now the best way to use Google Plus to make money is to use it as a platform for cross-promotion. In other words, you can use your Google Plus profile to promote your other Internet ventures.

Before you’re going to be able to make any money off of your Google Plus page, you have to amass a following. Your followers are your audience, and your audience is made up of contacts or friends that are part of your network.

The strategy that you use to amass followers on Google Plus is going to have to be different than the one you would use for Facebook or Twitter or social/business networking Websites.

The average Google Plus user tends to be older than the typical Facebook or Twitter user. A significant number are 20, 30 and 40-something business professionals. Keep this in mind as you think about appealing to your audience.

Here’s something else to remember: just because you’ve placed a contact within a “circle” it doesn’t mean that you are “following” them. The converse is also true: you can be in someone else’s “circle” but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are “following” you.

“Following” someone is an entirely separate action from making them a contact. To “follow” someone else (or for someone else to “follow” you) you (or they) must:

1) Go to your profile’s home page. Look to the sidebar on the left hand side of the page. At the top is your profile picture and underneath is the heading “Stream.”

2) Under the “Stream” heading, find the link that says “Following” and click on it.

3) You’ll be taken to a page that shows who you are following and any postings they’ve shared. On this page, look at the right hand sidebar marked “Following.” Here you’ll see people you are already following. Underneath is a field marked “Add to following.”

Type the name of a person that you want to follow and Google will pull up profiles matching that name. You simply click on the right one and you will then be following them. You can follow both people in your circles as well as people who are not in any of your circles. Others can do the same with you.

How to get People to Follow You

This is a bit trickier than following someone else, but you’ll need to pursue this if you hope to make money using your Google Plus profile. Here are a few suggestions:

* Follow everyone you know and personally ask them to return the favor and follow you back.

* Use your other social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, etc.) and to ask people to follow you on Google Plus. Be sure to include a link to your profile or to the Google Plus home page.

* Follow people who are of like-mind and ask them to follow you back. People who are in a similar profession or have similar interests as you are usually glad to return the follow.

* Make intelligent comments on the things people post. When others see you commenting on their material, or on material they are also interacting with, they are more likely to start following you.

* “Tag” people in your comments. When you do comment on the postings of others, you can “tag” a specific person. When you do, they’ll be sent an email notification which may eventually lead them to check you out and become a follower.

Basically, you need to “put yourself out there” in ways that get you noticed. By actively participating in conversations (respectfully, of course), you keep your profile at the forefront of people’s attention and hopefully gain followers.

Promoting Your Other Ventures on Google Plus

When you’re ready to try making some money, you can use your profile and your comments to promote any money making ventures you’re involved with. For example, a business owner might use Google Plus as a platform for promoting his Website. This might include him joining in on conversations that relate to the genre of his business, or simply posting updates on what’s new in his business with a link to his Website.

You can do the same, even if you don’t own your own business or have your own Website. One of the easiest ways to do this is through affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketing

You can use your Google Plus profile as a platform for advertising one or more affiliate products. Affiliate marketing is the idea of selling a product on behalf of a company and earning a commission fee on each one sold.

The first step is to find an affiliate to work with. Amazon Affiliates is one of the Internet’s most well-known affiliate marketing companies. However, there are lots of different ones to choose from.

Additionally, many product makers have their own private affiliate programs. If there is a particular product that you love, see if its maker accepts affiliates.

The key to success in affiliate marketing is finding a product or products that you actually believe in and have used yourself. It’s much easier to make sales pitches that sound genuine and attract buyers when you believe in the product. So choose carefully.

It’s best to stick with one particular “niche” if you decide to market multiple products. For instance, you could focus on cake-making and market different items related to cake making and decorating.

Here are the steps, in a nutshell, for affiliate marketing using Google Plus as a platform. These steps are generalized, because every affiliate program is slightly different.

1. Choose your niche. Start by thinking about what you enjoy or know a lot about.

2. Choose your affiliate/product. If you don’t already have a specific product in mind, visit some affiliate marketing program Websites and peruse their products. Select one or more that appeal to you. (We suggest starting out with no more than one or two products.)

3. Sign up with your chosen affiliate company. This process is usually fairly straightforward. You’ll have to provide your basic biographical info, like name, address, birth date, etc. You’ll also be asked to select either a specific product, a type of product (i.e. books), and/or keywords that relate to the types of things you want to market. For example, if you want to market cosmetics, you should choose keywords like “cosmetics” and “make-up.”

4. Once you’ve completed the sign-up process, you’ll be given a unique URL that you can add to your profile and/or any comments that you make. Any time a follower clicks on the URL and buys the product, you receive a commission.

Hope this helps,

Twitter first hit the Internet publically in 2006. Thanks to savvy, outside-the-box advertising and a little bit of celebrity endorsement, Twitter.com became the newest way to say what’s on your mind (“Tweet”) without exceeding 140 characters (spaces included). Brevity is the key to making the most of Twitter.

“Tweeting” (definition: the act of posting a Twitter update) is often referred to as “microblogging.” Like its older, more familiar cousin, the blog, tweeting is simply another mode of sharing your thoughts, editorial style.

The difference, of course, is that with Twitter, you must choose your words carefully. It’s not always easy to send out a message when you’re limited to 140 characters. However, it has given rise to some powerfully creative advertising and money-making opportunities.

How to Create a Twitter Account

If you don’t already have a Twitter account, this is Priority One. Sign-up is simple and free of charge. Here’s how to do it:

1) Go to http://www.Twitter.com.

2) Locate the box with the header “New to Twitter? Join today!” Fill in your name and email address in the appropriate fields, and then choose a password and click on the “Sign Up” box. You’ll be redirected to a confirmation page.

3) On this page you’ll be asked to confirm your information. You’ll also be assigned a user name based on the name you provided on the previous page. If you don’t like Twitter’s name choice you can change it, just as long as the one you choose isn’t already in use.

Once you’ve completed this page, click on the “Create my account” button. Be sure you read Twitter’s “Terms of Service” first, especially if you plan to use your account to make money. You’ll be redirected to an informational page.

4) On the informational page, read the micro-tutorial and then click on “Next” to get to the next page.

5) On this page you have the option to choose some other “Tweeters” to follow from categories such as music, entertainment and others. It’s a good idea to start out by following people, companies or products, particularly any that relate to the theme you want your Twitter account to have. Otherwise, you can skip this step by clicking on the link at the bottom right of the page that says “Skip this step.”

6) On the next page you’ll be given the opportunity to look for people you know from within your various contact lists who are also on Twitter. You can search your Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and Messenger, AOL and Linked In contacts. You can also skip this step if you wish in the same manner as described in Step #5.

7) Finally, you’ll be redirected to your Twitter home page. Now you can start tweeting!

A Few Words About Creating Twitter Accounts

A common question is “Can I have more than one Twitter account?” The answer is yes, but you have to have a unique email address for each account. Many business people like to have a personal account (for personal tweets) and a business account. Some people have multiple accounts for different business ventures they’re involved in. If you don’t have a unique email address for every venture you want to undertake on Twitter, it’s easy to create email accounts for free using Gmail or Hotmail.

It’s advisable that you always create a Twitter account using your own name. This is because anyone can create a Twitter account using any name they want to, including someone else’s.

Creating an account in your own name is a good way to protect your interests, both personal and financial/business. If you’d rather not do business deals from your personal account, then create a second one (or third, or fourth) to do business within.

What to Do Now that You’ve Created Your Twitter Account

Congratulations! You can send out your first Tweet! After this, you should take time to update your profile. This is vital information if you plan on monetizing your Twitter account eventually. It will help potential followers to see what you’re all about. People are more likely to follow you if they have similar interests and tastes.

Doing Business on Twitter: Amassing a Following

In order to sell any product or service, you first need an audience. On Twitter, your audience is made up of all of the people who “follow” you on Twitter. Therefore, your first order of business once you create a Twitter account is to amass a following. Here are a few suggestions for doing this:

* Search people you know. If you didn’t do it during the sign-up process, now is the time to search for contacts through the forums already mentioned. On your home page, locate the link for importing your contacts. Choose one of the forums listed (i.e. Gmail) and click on it. You’ll have to input your user ID (i.e. your Gmail address and password).

Then Twitter will automatically search your contacts and see if any of them also have Twitter accounts. Once they find matches, they’ll bring them up, and you can click on that contact’s “Follow” button. Now ask that person to follow you.

* Use your other social networking sites to get Twitter followers. Are you on Facebook? Post a status update asking people to follow you on Twitter, with a link directly to your Twitter page.

* Search the profiles of people who follow you. Once you’ve started getting a few followers, go to their lists of followers and start following their contacts. Many will probably reciprocate the gesture.

* Click on the link located on your Twitter page that says “Who to Follow.” It’s located at the top of page, just right of center. Twitter will automatically generate a list of people you can follow based on clues it picks up from within your profile (i.e. your interests). Choose some or all of these to follow, and many will follow you back.

* Create catchy Tweets. People will follow you if they are drawn to your tweets. If creative writing isn’t your thing, it may be well worth paying a writer to create catchy tweets for you. Or, tweet famous quotes or irresistible tips.

* Add the Twitter widget to your Website or blog. Your site visitors will be able to click on this link and become your followers.

* Get yourself listed in Twitter directories. JustTweetIt and WeFollow are two good ones.

* Offer incentives. Links to exclusive product coupons or a prize for the follower who refers the most people to your Twitter page are two examples.

Don’t wait until you have a certain number of followers before you start tweeting. Begin sending out tweets as soon as you create your page. Your tweets will attract new followers.

How to Start to Actually Make Money Off of Your Twitter Page

So you’ve got an admirable following. Now what? There are a number of ways you can make money using your Twitter account. This tutorial will list three of the most popular and simplest to implement, with the steps you’ll need to take to employ these strategies.

Sponsored Tweets. SponsoredTweets is one of the best and easiest ways to get paid for tweeting. With this program, Twitter users can sign up as sponsored tweeters. SponsoredTweets will send out tweets (basically short written commercials) as you. You get paid when an advertiser sends out a tweet as you.

Here’s how to get started:

1) Go to http://www.sponsoredtweets.com/. Locate the button that says “sign up as a tweeter” and click it. You’ll be re-directed to another page.

2) On this page you’ll be asked to grant authorization to Sponsored Tweets. Click on the “Sign in with Twitter” button. You’ll be redirected to another page.

3) On this page, input your Twitter ID and password and click on “Add app.” This part may take half a minute or so. Then you’ll be redirected to the next page.

4) This is the page where you’ll provide some of the necessary information. Enter your email address, and choose how much you want to charge for every tweet (SponsoredTweets automatically chooses a default amount based on the number of followers your account has.) You’ll maximize the number of sponsored tweets you get if you choose this figure.

It’s suggested that you enable the “ClickWatch” feature (it’s checked off by default already). This increases your chances of getting sponsored tweets.

You’ll also be able to select your content rating. Choose from “Everyone,” “Mature” and “Adults Only.” This is one way of having some control over the kinds of tweets that will be posted on your behalf.

You’ll also be asked to choose “tags.” Tags are words that advertisers will use to find people who are willing to tweet about their products/services. Use words related to the kinds of things that you don’t mind having tweeted on your behalf. Some examples include “baby toys,” “organic cooking,” “hot rods,” “classical music,” “SEO,” “solar energy,” etc. You’re allowed to choose up to 10 tags (it’s recommended that you maximize this feature by choosing 10). If you’re unsure, you can click on the link that says “popular tags” for ideas. When finished, click on the button that says “create my tweeter account.”

* Note: You won’t qualify for Sponsored Tweets if your account is less than 60 days old, and/or you have no followers. If this is the case, you can still sign up, you’ll just have to wait until your Twitter account passes that 60-day mark and/or gets a few followers. You’ll be notified when this occurs.

5) Once your account is approved and active, you’ll be taken to a page with automatically-generated listings of some specific companies, services and/or products you might be interested in tweeting. You can choose any from this list if you desire.

Once your account is approved, you can sign in to SponsoredTweets anytime and check on the status of your account, how much you’ve earned and more.

MyLikes: This site is an advertising platform that not only uses Twitter to send out sponsored tweets, but users can also get sponsored YouTube videos and blog entries. This tutorial will focus on monetizing your Twitter account with MyLikes.

1) Go to http://www.mylikes.com. Locate the “Monetize your Audience” button, located near the top right hand of the page, and click. You’ll be re-directed to another page.

2) On this page, click on the box marked “Connect with Twitter.” On the next page you’ll be asked to supply your Twitter user ID and password. After this, click on “Authorize app.” You’ll be re-directed to another new page.

3) Fill out your email address and choose a nickname and a password. Next, click on the “Sign up” button. You’ll be taken to a page with a list of topics.

4) Choose up to 10 topics from this list (make sure to choose a full ten). Choose things you enjoy; these are the topics you’ll be making money from. Then click on the “Save Categories” button.

5) Next you’ll be taken to a page where you can choose from some specific tweets to run on your profile and how much you’ll make each time someone clicks on one. You can choose as many as you like. (Note: Some tweets are only paid out to tweeters in specific countries. This will be noted on the ad.) You can tweet the supplied text, or create your own tweet on the subject.

That’s it, you’re done! Now just keep coming back to run more advertising tweets and increase your earning potential!

Sell Affiliate Products: Instead of signing up for random tweets to be posted on your Twitter page, you can choose a specific product or products to sell, using tweets to promote them. All you have to do is sign up with your favorite affiliate product or partner.

You may already know of a product that you like whose seller offers a commission through affiliate marketing. Another option is to sign up with an affiliate company like Amazon Associates. There are hundreds of them on the Web. For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll walk you through the process of signing up to be an Amazon Affiliate and then show you how to promote your product(s) on Twitter.

1) Go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ and locate the box that says “Join Now for Free” and click it.

2) On the next page, enter your email address and click the field marked “I am a new customer.” Then click on the button marked “Sign in using our secure server.” You’ll be re-directed to another page.

3) On this page, fill out your name and re-type your email address. Then create a password. Finish by clicking on “Create account.”

4) On the next page you’ll need to provide your legal name, address and phone number. When finished, click on the box marked “Next: Your Website Profile.”

5) Confirm your correct address and then click on the box marked “Save this address.”

6) On the next page you’ll need to fill out the “Website Profile.” In the case of a Twitter account, use the name of your Twitter account and your Twitter feed. Answer all of the questions on this page based on your Twitter account. Make sure you agree to Amazon’s Terms of Service by clicking in the appropriate spot. Then click on the box marked “Finish.”

7) On the next page you’ll be assigned an associate’s ID and you’ll be asked to choose how you want to get paid.

It may take a few days to get your application approved. Once you do, you’ll be given codes/links to tweet. This is how your sales will be tracked and credited. You’ll make a percentage of every sale that originates from your Twitter account.

Hope this helps,

Whether the urban legend is true or not, it’s unlikely Facebook will take over the world. However, it has already built a strong Internet presence, and will probably be so for awhile. So why not take advantage of Facebook’s success and get a little piece of the action yourself?

If you do a little research, you’ll discover there are dozens of different ways to make money on Facebook. Some are easy and can be done with little or no technical knowledge. Others require more in-depth skill and/or business savvy.

In this tutorial we will talk about two of the most popular ways to make money using Facebook. We’ll rate each one on a scale of one to five for how simple or advanced each method is. A rating of one means easy, with no technical skills required. A rating of five means that advanced skills or special knowledge is needed. These ratings may help you to decide which method you should attempt to use.

I. Selling Stuff

There are a variety of ways to sell things on Facebook. In this section we’ll examine three of these ways, giving you steps for each method as well as a difficulty rating for each.

Facebook marketplace: Facebook marketplace is like advertising in your local classified section of your newspaper, except on a large scale. The following section describes in detail:

1. Decide on a delivery method. You’ll have to think about how you will get whatever it is you’re selling to the buyer. You may choose to sell only to local contacts and require that they pick up any items they purchase. Then the onus for delivery isn’t on you. The only problem with this method is that you limit yourself in terms of the number of potential buyers you can sell to.

If you decide that you’ll ship whatever you’re selling, you’ll have to find out how much various delivery services charge and then pass that cost on to your buyers. Most shippers, whether it’s the post office or a courier like FedEx, base their delivery charges on size and weight of the item being shipped, how far it’s going and how fast you want it to get there.

You can choose to deal only with one or two shippers and that will make shipping pricing much easier to deal with. The post office should be your main method of shipping. If you want to offer another option to buyers, pick just one carrier to use to keep it simple.

2. Come up with a way for your buyers to pay you. Local buyers who are picking up their purchases can simply pay you in person. (Ask for cash only, no checks to avoid getting ripped off.)

When it comes to buyers who live out of your immediate area, the best way to accept payment is via PayPal. Anyone can send or receive money via PayPal; all you need is an email address. PayPal allows customers to pay with a major credit card, or with cash they’ve deposited into their PayPal account.

If you don’t already have one, create a PayPal account. Go to www.paypal.com and click on the “Sign Up” button and follow the instructions. It’s free to create a basic PayPal account. Now when someone buys something from you, you need only to refer them to PayPal and give them your email address. (Don’t ship the item until the customer’s payment has been cleared.)

3. Enable Facebook Marketplace on your profile if you haven’t already. Just go to your home page and enter “marketplace” in the search field.

4. Go to the Facebook Marketplace page and click on the button that says “Post Listing to Marketplace.”

5. Enter the item that you’re selling. Use persuasive and descriptive words, but be brief in this field.

6. Choose your location (it may show the nearest major city by default, and you might not be able to change this location).

7. Select the type of item you’re selling from the drop down menu provided. Choose the best possible category that your item fits into (i.e. “Stuff”). You may also be given the opportunity to choose subcategories. Take advantage of this (i.e. “Stuff? Clothes? Shoes”). Be sure to do this, you’ll get more targeted interest this way.

8. Enter the reason why you are selling the item in the proper field.

9. Describe the item. Again, use persuasive and descriptive words, but don’t get overly wordy. Try to keep your description to less than 100 words, but make sure that you include all pertinent information (size, weight, shape, condition of the item, age of the item, etc.) depending on what you’re selling. You may also choose to upload a picture of the item. You should always do this if possible. It will increase your chances of selling the item.

10. Choose whether you want it to appear in the whole marketplace or just to your Facebook friends only by clicking in the appropriate field. (Note: always choose “marketplace.” You’ll have a much wider audience.)

11. Click “Post” when finished.

12. Choose “Allow” when the Marketplace box pops up.

13. Enter your email address if prompted.

14. Supply information requested, if prompted. This may include your name and email. You may also be asked to supply a password. Make sure that you agree to the Terms of Service (the box should be checked by default).

15. You’ll be sent an automatic email. You’ll have to follow the instructions in the email to activate the listing.

Difficulty Rating: 2 – This is about the easiest method of using Facebook to make money. The only reason we didn’t give it a “1″ for simplicity is because it will take you some extra time to set up a PayPal account, Marketplace account, etc. if you are brand new to this. Those who already have all of these things will probably find this to be more of a “1″ in terms of simplicity.

Create and sell your own products: Don’t have a product of your own to market? Then create one! Companies like Zazzle and Café Press allow you to create your own customized products from their line of items.

With either of these sites, you get to choose your product from hundreds of items. Café Press is best known for customizable t-shirts, but also lets you create custom mugs, stationery, wall art, device cases and other types of custom clothing. Zazzle lets you choose from items similar to Café Press, but also has some items you can’t find on Café Press, like hanging ornaments.

Once you have selected and designed your items, you can advertise them on Facebook. Include links on your Facebook page to your Café Press or Zazzle store. Feature products in your status box or use the “Links” app on Facebook to link to your store directly. You can even create your own business page for your products/store within Facebook.

First, we’ll start with the steps for designing Café Press items:

1. Go to the Café Press home page.

2. Click on the link near the top right hand of the page that says “Open your own online store.” You’ll be redirected to a page that lists some of the benefits of having your own Café Press “store.”

3. At the bottom of this page, click on the button marked “Start selling now.” You’ll be redirected to the sign up page.

4. Create an account supplying the requested information. Make sure you check of the box that indicates you agree to Café Press’ Terms of Service.

5. Click the “Join Now” button at the bottom of the page. You’ll be redirected to an expanded information page.

6. On this page fill out the information requested. This includes choosing a name for your “store.” Choose carefully, since this is the name that is going to reflect your business and will appear as part of your store’s URL.

7. Answer all questions and then click the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page. You’ll be redirected to an informational page.

8. Create your store and products!

Now here are the steps to creating Zazzle products:

1. Go to the Zazzle home page. Click on the “Sell” link at the top left hand of the page. You’ll be redirected to an informational page.

2. Click on the “Get Started” box, located about halfway down at the right hand of the page. You’ll be redirected to another page.

3. On this page, click on the box marked “Register,” located in the center of the page. You’ll be redirected to the sign up page.

4. Fill out the required information and choose a password. Click on “continue” when finished. You’ll be redirected to a confirmation page.

5. Click “continue” on the confirmation page. This will redirect you to another informational page. Read this information carefully. When finished, click on the “continue” button.

6. Zazzle will send you a confirmation email within a few minutes. Open the email and click on the “validate” button, or copy and paste the URL provided into your browser’s search field. This will validate your account (you won’t be able to do anything further until your account is validated). This email is time-sensitive and must be responded to within 24 hours.

7. On the validation page, click on the “OK” button. You’ll be redirected to a new page where you’ll choose the name of your store. Fill in the required information and then click on the “Create Store” button.

8. Your store is ready to be created!

Note: When creating your own products, make sure that your designs are either original (created by you) or that you have the rights to make money off of them. In other words, you can’t use copyrighted material to create and sell your own products.

Difficulty Rating: 3 – We give this a rating of 3 for a few reasons. The signing up process for both Zazzle and Café Press are very simple and straightforward (1-worthy). The extra work comes when you have to actually create your “store” and then market it using the various tools available on Facebook. Also, we know that not everyone is creative or an artist, and it will definitely take a bit of creativity to sell your designs.

Sell affiliate products: Not interested in creating your own product? Then just sell someone else’s. Affiliate marketing is the concept of selling a product made and/or distributed by another company. You are given a unique link to the affiliate product.

All you have to do is talk up the product on Facebook. Like selling items created through Zazzle or Café Press, you can create a Facebook page for your affiliate product, post it in the marketplace, and promote it from within your own profile.

Wherever you advertise it, be sure to include that unique link. This is what allows the parent company to register the fact that you made the sale and pay you out accordingly. You receive a percentage (commission) of each sale that originates from your unique link.

There are a number of ways you can find affiliate products to promote. Start by perusing one or more of these recommended affiliate partners:

* Amazon

* Share A Sale

* Commission Junction

* E-junkie

You may also choose to promote a product that you love and which offers an affiliate program.

The processes for becoming an affiliate partner are similar no matter what company you choose to go with. The following steps are generalized, but should get you started on selecting an affiliate product to market:

1. Go to the home page of your chosen affiliate partner. Locate and click on the link for new affiliate registration.

2. Fill out the required information and submit your application.

3. Depending on which affiliate you choose, you may have to wait for an email approval. Open the email when it arrives and click on the validation link or button.

4. Select your product. Make sure that you choose a product that you believe in and that you would use yourself. It’s much easier to promote something you yourself think is amazing.

5. Get your unique product URL.

6. Supply the information required to receive payment for your sales. Some affiliate companies pay by check. Others pay electronically using an online bank such as PayPal.

Note: Government rules in some countries require you to legally disclose that the product you’re promoting is an affiliate product. Check into this if you aren’t sure what the regulations are in your area.

Difficulty Rating: 3 – We rated this a “3″ because the sign up process for most affiliate partnerships is fairly straightforward. There might be some extra work involved if you need a PayPal account and don’t already have one. It will also take a little bit of work to start marketing it in the various methods available on Facebook. However, once you have all this in place, there’s not much left to do except keep talking up your product.

II. Creating and Building a Facebook Application

Facebook has hundreds of apps, many developed by regular people. The most successful of these apps go on to generate tens of thousands of dollars or more every month.

Facebook apps make money in four major ways:

* CPM: CPM means “cost per one thousand impressions.” With this model, the app developer makes a set fee for every 1,000 views of an ad that appears on the app’s page(s). In other words, after one thousand app users have opened up the app containing the CPM ad, the developer gets paid.

* CPC: This stands for “cost per click.” In this monetization model, the app developer gets paid a fee every time an app user actually clicks on an ad or link that appears on the apps page(s). If the user doesn’t click, the advertiser doesn’t pay.

* CPA: This means “cost per action.” In this model, the app developer receives a fee each time a user clicks an ad and then takes the action that is desired by the advertiser. For example, an advertiser who is trying to build up a contact list may pay an app developer for app users who click on his ad and then submit their email address to the advertiser. If the user clicks but doesn’t take the action, the advertiser does not have to pay.

* Affiliate programs: With this model, the app developer makes a percentage of the sale of any affiliate’s product that originates from the app’s page.

The more popular an app becomes, the bigger the potential for the developer to make money from it. Apps with the biggest audiences (number of users) can charge much higher rates for advertising. Plus, some of Facebook’s most popular apps, like Farmville, went on to generate millions of dollars in revenue through product licensing.

The key to making money off of a Facebook app is by coming up with an irresistible idea. Facebook is home to hundreds of boring, pointless apps that haven’t generated much revenue for their creators.

Add to that a growing mistrust of Facebook apps by some Facebook users. This is mainly due to a history of apps that generated unwanted spam for and on behalf of users, including making ridiculous postings while posing as that user. This has made it more difficult for app developers, but not impossible as long as the user’s privacy is respected and the app itself is worthy of widespread acclamation.

Instructions for downloading the Facebook platform and creating your app can be found at the Apps on Facebook.com page. From here, you’ll be able to find complete, step-by-step instructions, including:

* Creating your app

* Configuring your app

* Authorization

* Social channels

* Performance

* Special considerations

* Samples and next steps

Difficulty Rating: 5 – You should have at least a basic knowledge of programming to attempt creating your own Facebook app. Some business savvy will also be helpful. It’s definitely not something for an amateur to try, or at least, not without a partner who understands programming.

If programming isn’t your thing but you think you have a killer idea, it might be worth hiring a programmer to build your app for you. Professionals can be on the expensive side, but you may be able to find cheaper help if you look for a brilliant student (high school or college). Another option is to find a programmer who is willing to work for a cut of the profits.

Hope this helps,

Believe it or not, companies actually pay people to virtually “socialize” on their behalf. Today’s social media is like yesterday’s television commercials. It’s how business advertising is done in the new millennium. Big corporations like Pepsico, McDonalds, Sony and many others not only use social media to advertise, but rely on it as a significant source of viewership for their media messages. Just consider some of these statistics regarding some of the Web’s most popular social networks:

FACEBOOK

* 69% of Facebook users are official “fans” of one or more company pages. (http://harpsocial.com/2011/04/social-medias-shocking-statistics/)

* Search engines refer 7% of total queries to Facebook. (http://harpsocial.com/2011/04/social-medias-shocking-statistics/)

* 50% of Facebook’s active users log in at least once per day. (http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/7334-social-media-statistics-one-year-later)

* Approximately 65 million users access their Facebook accounts using a mobile device. (http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/7334-social-media-statistics-one-year-later)

* Internet users spent 53.5 billion minutes on Facebook in May, 2011. (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/americans-spent-535-billion-minutes-on-facebook-in-may-2011/3566)

* The average visit to Facebook lasts 55 minutes. (http://harpsocial.com/2011/04/social-medias-shocking-statistics/)

TWITTER

* Twitter has over 15 million active users (and over 75 million registered accounts). (http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/7334-social-media-statistics-one-year-later) The Twitter people claim that it’s actually more like 100 million ACTIVE users.

* An estimated average of 4 million “Tweets” go out across the Web every hour. (http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/7334-social-media-statistics-one-year-later)

* 50% of active Twitter users sign in to their accounts at least once per day.

* 55% of Twitter users access their Twitter profiles via a mobile device. (http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/social-media-statistics-stats-2012-infographic/)

* 34% of marketers have generated or developed leads using Twitter. (http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/social-media-statistics-stats-2012-infographic/)

LINKEDIN

* LinkedIn has 100 million active users. (http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/23865/13-Mind-Bending-Social-Media-Marketing-Statistics.aspx)

* Linked In is used by approximately 69 of the Fortune 100 companies. (http://www.slideshare.net/amover/linked-in-demographics-and-statistics-2011)

* Linked In is the world’s most popular professional social network. (http://www.socialnomics.net/2011/03/28/linkedin-hits-100-million-breakdown-by-country-graphic/)

YOU TUBE

* Every minute 35 hours of video footage is uploaded to YouTube. (http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/23865/13-Mind-Bending-Social-Media-Marketing-Statistics.aspx)

* YouTube videos are viewed 2 billion times every 24 hours. (http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/7334-social-media-statistics-one-year-later)

* More video is uploaded every 60 days than the three major US television networks produced in 60 years. (http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-statistics/)

* YouTube Mobile gets over 100 million views per day. (http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-statistics/)

GENERAL INTERNET STATISTICS

* Americans spend at much time on the Internet today as they do watching television. Many experts predict that more screen time will be logged on the Internet than on the television in the very near future. (http://mashable.com/2010/12/13/internet-tv-forrester/)

* Social networking is so popular that many schools have blocked sites like Facebook and Twitter from their servers because of the distraction it poses to students and staff.

* Software developers like AnchorFree are responding to this trend by creating programs that allow students and staff at school to get around these blocks and access their social networks while at school. (http://hsshelp.com/blocked_at_school_v3/?gclid=COSE1dXto7ACFaEJRQodKl_fXA)

* 43% of all online consumers are social media fans or followers. (http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/23865/13-Mind-Bending-Social-Media-Marketing-Statistics.aspx)

In fact, social media and networking (and thus related sectors) are growing at such a rapid rate that these statistics may quickly become outdated! In other words, there’s never been a better time to start a social media marketing business, and the prospects just keep getting better.

What is a Social Media Marketing Consultant?

Companies of all sizes have a hard time keeping up with the latest developments in social networking. New social sites are emerging every month. Busy business owners and corporate executives often know that social media marketing is important, but don’t have the time to invest in it themselves.

So, instead, they hire consultants to tackle this aspect of advertising for them. A consultant offers advice on how social media marketing may benefit a business, as well as which of the social networks may be the best and most effective ones to use.

A social media consultant may also contract with a business on an ongoing basis to be the person who spends the time creating “Tweets,” updating the company’s Facebook statuses, or uploading advertising videos to YouTube.

In some cases, a social media marketing consultant may even be retained to create original material to contribute to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, SlideShare, Flickr, Wikipedia or others. (The consultant him/herself may not necessarily create the content, but rather sub-contracts this out.)

Starting Your Own Social Media Marketing Business

As you can see, there are lots of different things you can do as a social media marketing consultant. The first thing you’ll need to do is think through your business model. In other words, what kinds of services will you offer? Here are just a few things to think about including in your services:

* Consulting: Offering advice and teaching businesses how to use social networking for business.

* Social network updating: Posting on behalf of, as a representative of, the company you are working with. This regular Facebook status updating, Tweeting and posting content (supplied by the client) on YouTube, SlideShare or other content sites.

* Creating/developing business profile pages on Facebook, Linked In and other social networks.

* Pursuing and amassing fans/followers.

* Interacting with fans/followers by starting conversations (“threads”), joining in on other conversations or commenting on the posts of fans/followers.

* Creating original content for uploading to social network sites on behalf of your client (videos, slide presentations, photos, graphics, articles, comments). You can either do this yourself or contract this part out to a third party (if you do this you’ll need to make sure that you price your services accordingly so you can still make a profit).

* Offer courses, seminars, Webinars or other kinds of formal social media marketing training.

* Conduct on-site employee training on using social networks to promote a business.

There may be others things that you’ll want to add to this list. The more you can customize and offer original services, the better your chances at getting clients.

You certainly don’t have to offer all of the services described above. Perhaps you want to offer consultation only, or maybe you only want to offer ongoing service packages revolving around updating a company’s social network profiles. No matter what you end up deciding to offer, it’s best to have this figured out before you start to officially launch your business.

Pricing Your Services

Social media consulting prices are all over the map, so it can be hard to know where to start when setting your prices. Looking at what others are charging for similar services can help you find a starting point.

Sometimes “newbies” to the consulting business start out trying to undercut their competition by offering the lowest prices. The problem that often evolves is that they end up making so little profit for effort expended that it’s not worth it. Some may even price themselves so low that credible companies question their ability to actually perform the services they are advertising.

Conversely, new consultants may decide to price themselves higher than their competitors in the hopes of attracting the big fish in the Internet ocean. This may lead to a consultant finding himself in over his head, and with so little experience, unable to deliver the kinds of results that warrant a big price tag.

So price wisely, and package yourself and your business accordingly. And, instead of trying to set yourself apart from your competitors by price, do it instead by creating unique and exclusive services that clients can’t get from your competitors.

We suggest starting out by offering just one or two services, and maybe a few variations of that service. Here’s a very basic example:

Offer a Facebook and Twitter updating service. Create packages that revolve around those services and offer potential clients the opportunity to select the package that works best for them, such as:

* One Tweet per day or one Facebook status posts for $12 per month.

* Five Tweets or Facebook status posts per day for $15 per month.

* Ten Tweets or Facebook status posts per day for $19 per month.

* One Tweet and one Facebook status post per day for $15 per month.

* Five Tweets and five Facebook status posts for $19 per month.

* Ten Tweets and ten Facebook status posts for $22 per month.

As you begin to amass a clientele (or your own “fans” or “followers), you can start adding new services and marketing them to existing clients, fans and followers for a lower rate than what you’ll be offering to the public.

Alternately, as you get better and more experienced at social media marketing, you can launch other businesses under your brand. You can offer these services on a different Website and gear the whole site toward those particular services. (More on creating Websites later.)

Social Media Marketing Training

It can be very beneficial to take one or more social media marketing courses, even if you think you already know a lot about using social media. Fortunately, there are all kinds of training options available from formal college-based certificate programs (in person and online), Web-based courses, one-time Webinars and seminars and even community classes. Some places to look for social media marketing training include:

* Your local community college.

* Your state college(s): some of them may offer online certificate programs so that you can work from home at your own pace.

* On your favorite social networks: Join groups that are SEO and social media-focussed. Other group members may post links to social media marketing courses or even teach some themselves.

* Other online locations: Use your favorite search engine and search the words “social media marketing courses.” You’ll likely find all kinds of options, especially Webinars or upcoming seminars/conferences.

Creating Your Own Website

Your own Website is a must, since this is how you’ll be getting most of your leads and clients. If you’ve never created a Website before, don’t worry: it’s not as daunting a task as it may sound.

You don’t have to know HTML or any other kind of programming to do this. You only need to find yourself a good build-it-yourself Website maker. You’ll find lots of these online. Some user-friendly ones with lots of options include Wix.com, Moonfruit.com and Webs.com.

Here you simply choose from dozens of different Website templates. They are often referred to as “drag and drop” because you simply choose the elements that you want on your pages, click on them, drag them to the spot on the page where you want them to show up and then drop them into the template.

You can also upload your own images/graphics, including photos and your business logo, if you have one. Then you add your own text, and within a few hours you have a Website that’s ready to be uploaded to the Web!

You’ll need to purchase your own domain before you can upload your site. You can purchase your domain directly from your build-it-yourself Website provider. If you already have a domain, you need only to transfer it from your domain seller to your site builder.

Hosting fees are relatively inexpensive, usually less than $15 per month, and sometimes less than $10. If you need more storage you’ll have to pay a bit more, but usually basic storage is all you need.

Your own Website will give you credibility with potential customers. What will give you even more credibility is a strong social network presence and fan/follower base of your own. So be sure that you work at this for your own site. It will give your potential customers far more confidence in your ability to market their business effectively.

Hope this helps,

The first is a new and widespread commitment to the home-based designer and crafter. Consumers have come to understand and appreciate that they can make a direct difference in the world simply in the kinds of purchases that they make.

Many consumers prefer that the money that they spend ends up in the pocket of an entrepreneur rather than in the numbered bank account of a big box store or impersonal corporation. They’d rather feel that they are making an investment in the life of a small business owner; it’s a rewarding feeling to know that the money you handed over to purchase a hand-crafted item is helping to feed a young family or send a teenager to college as opposed to buying a second or third home for a corporate executive.

The second reason is consumers’ general commitment to a healthier, sustainable planet. Hand-crafted items tend to incorporate the use of more recycled and earth-friendly materials. Plus, hand-crafted items almost always took less energy and natural resources to produce than mass-manufactured goods. A purchase of a hand-crafted item is like a vote for the good of the planet and humankind.

There’s also a third reason that many buyers of handmade items prefer to avoid chain and big-box stores for their craft purchases: they want originals. Buying from an artisan often means getting items that are unique, exclusive and one-of-a-kind.

Fortunately, it’s also easier than ever to market home-made, hand-crafted, unique and original items. The Internet makes it possible for entrepreneurs and designers of all kinds, from anywhere in the world, to reach a world-wide audience. And today crafters don’t even have to have their own Websites to reach the mass market.

Getting Started

Ready to start marketing your own hand-made craft items? Here are four of the Web’s best places to sell your original items:

1) Esty.com: was the first of its genre when it first launched in 2005. It’s been compared to a cross between eBay and Amazon.com. It’s like a big flea market dedicated to hand-crafted goods as well as craft supplies, but in a virtual format.

How Etsy Works

Crafters /sellers must first create a basic account with the site. Go to the Etsy sign up page and fill in the required information. (Facebook customers can create an Etsy account instantly using their Facebook sign-in. Simply click on the button marked “Sign in using Facebook.”) You’ll be required to select a user name and password. You must confirm your account by clicking on the confirmation link that’s sent to your email address.

To be eligible to sell items on Etsy, you must provide a valid credit card number. This number is for verification purposes only because it’s free to set up a seller’s account/storefront. You may also use this credit card to pay any seller’s fees that you accumulate (more on that later.)

To become a seller, you can go to the seller’s sign up page and fill out the required information. This includes your name and address, plus your credit card number.

Once you’ve created your seller’s account, you’re free to set up your “storefront.” This page is like your flea market table or booth. You can customize it with the templates that Etsy provides or even upload your own graphics or images.

Now it’s time to fill your store with products! Each item that you list will cost you 20 cents. You must pay this listing fee whether your item sells or not. Etsy also makes money by taking a 3.5 percent share of your item’s selling price. So be sure to keep these fees in mind as you’re deciding how to price your products.

Unlike eBay, Etsy.com is not a timed-auction site. You can list items for as long as you like, and buyers pay a set price rather than bidding on your products.

What Kinds of Products You Can Sell on Etsy.com?

Etsy has specific guidelines on the types of products that you can sell. They must fall into at least one of three categories: handmade, vintage or supplies.

Items in the hand-made category must be just that: made by hand. That’s not to say you can’t use a sewing machine, but rather that the item must not be mass-produced by robotic machinery. Just about anything that’s made by hand can be sold on Etsy, including ceramics, jewelry, clothing, accessories, soap, candles, knit items, toys, original artwork and graphic designs, housewares and more.

Items in the “vintage” category must be at least 20 years old. “Vintage” items don’t necessarily have to be hand-made. (However, if you happen to have an item that’s vintage AND hand-made, it is probably a sure-fire seller!)

The “supplies” category is somewhat broad, but basically refers to products that are designed to be used as components in making some bigger item. Etsy is a fantastic place to find not only general, everyday kinds of supplies like beads and fabric, but also eclectic arts and crafts supplies like bottle caps, charms, die cuts, wood shapes, coins and much more.

The great thing about Etsy is that its visitors are highly motivated to buy. They’ve come to Etsy specifically for the purpose of looking at hand-crafted items, unlike visitors to eBay who may be looking for just about anything. Etsy has developed a strong following and fan base, and has carved out a very individual niche for itself in the marketplace.

Our Evaluation of Etsy

We like the fact that the selling fees on Etsy are relatively low in comparison to similar sites. The only downside is that you must pay the 20 cent listing fee for each item regardless of whether the item actually sells or not.

We like the fact that Etsy.com is a very well-known site. Almost everyone’s heard of it and knows what it is, even if they’ve never visited it. Because it is so well known and well-established, it tends to rank very highly in the major search engines, which is a definite plus for Etsy sellers.

2) Artfire.com: Artfire is similar to Etsy, sometimes referred to as an Etsy “knock-off.” Be that as it may, we still think Artfire is a fabulous place to find original artisan hand-crafted items, and therefore a great place to sell them.

How Artfire Works

Artfire has a number of similarities to Etsy. Like Etsy, you get your own, customizable “storefront” on Artfire. Like Etsy, visitors can browse your (and other sellers’) wares by category. And, like Etsy, Artfire sells hand-made crafts and vintage items, plus arts and crafts supplies. However, Artfire differs from Etsy in that it also permits the sale of items that are made from original designs (but not hand-made) as well as arts and crafts products that are neither hand-made nor original.

What really sets Artfire apart from Etsy is how it charges its sellers/artisans. While Etsy charges a 20 cents per item listing fee and makes 3.5 percent on the back end, Artfire simply charges a flat monthly fee (around 13 dollars per month).

In fact, this is Artfire’s major selling feature over Etsy. Not only do pay only a flat fee, but you get unlimited listings plus all the other features Etsy offers, like the ability to post pictures of your items.

To get started, go to Artfire’s sign up page. Click on the button marked “Seller,” provide your email and create a password. (Facebook users can sign up using their Facebook account. Just click on the “Login with Facebook” button.”)

Next, follow the instructions and answer some basic questions about your products and yourself. You’ll also be asked for your address and credit card number, which is how you will be charged your monthly shop fee. Finally, you’ll be able to customize and set up your shop and start selling.

Our Evaluation of Artfire

It may be to your advantage to sell your items on Artfire because your fees will always be predictable. They will never change, and your credit card will automatically be billed for the same amount each month. Artfire can be especially advantageous for crafters who have a lot of items to list, since there’s no listing fee and no commission on items sold.

Though Artfire isn’t as well known as Etsy, it is gaining a foothold in the virtual artisan’s market. The site is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use, so it appeals to potential buyers, making it a good place for sellers, too.

3) Tophatter.com: Tophatter is one of the most unique concepts in online buying and selling. Tophatter is an auction site, but it’s no eBay. Tophatter only features live, in-real-time auctions.

How Tophatter Works

The items on Tophatter are not limited to hand-made-only. However, Tophatter only auctions items that are artisan in nature. Buyers can find jewelry (hand-made, vintage and one-of-a-kind), gourmet food, decorative items, purses/handbags and craft supplies, including fabrics. The items that you’ll find for sale on Tophatter are not cookie-cutter, mass-produced, big-box chain store products but eclectic, artistic and limited edition.

Tophatter works just like a regular live auction. Tophatter bidders gather in real-time in a virtual room, the “auction house.” They compete against each other for the item that’s currently being auctioned. Whoever bids the highest wins the item. Auctions last only minutes, and auctions are scheduled at specific times throughout the day, every day of the week.

To participate in an auction, a bidder must actually be online while an item is being auctioned off. Bids are posted in real time. The winner is announced at the end of the auction.

How to Sell on Tophatter

The process for selling your hand-crafted items on Tophatter is much simpler than selling on Etsy or Artfire. There’s no profile to fill out, no virtual store to set up. You simply list your item, known as a “lot,” set a minimum price (the opening bid price) and choose the date and time you want your item auctioned.

To get started, go to Tophatter.com and sign up for a basic account by providing your email address and creating a password. (Facebook users can sign up using their Facebook account.) You must have a PayPal account to sell items on Tophatter.

Next, go to the list a new item page. Provide the required information, including your PayPal account, plus a description of your item and a picture. You will be able to choose when (time and date) your auction will take place.

You are allowed to upload up to three photos of the item you’re selling. We suggest that you always upload three. (Take pictures from three different angles, or submit at least one photo of the item by itself and another photo of someone wearing the item, if applicable.) Items with more pictures tend to sell for more money.

Once your item has been auctioned and a winner announced, you will be notified, as will the bidder. It is the bidder’s responsibility to pay you directly for the item via your PayPal account.

Tophatter does not participate in the exchange of money between buyers and sellers, nor does it facilitate transactions. It’s possible, for this reason, that a successful bidder may not end up paying you for your item. Keep this in mind when making your decision whether or not to list an item on Tophatter.com. You won’t lose any money (since there are no fees for listing items), but it is a hassle to go through the auction process only to get stiffed at the end.

So how does Tophatter actually make money? You might have already guessed that Tophatter gets its cut at the back end of every deal. It takes a 10 percent commission off of every item sold. It only takes its cut after you’ve been paid, so you don’t have to worry about losing money in the event that a successful bidder does not end up paying you for your item.

Our Evaluation of Tophatter

The biggest advantage of using Tophatter to sell your original craft items is that it doesn’t cost you a dime unless you actually make a successful sale. We like Tophatter because of this. We also like the fact that you don’t have to spend time setting up a storefront. Some artisans don’t want to bother with this, and so Tophatter lets you sell your items even without a storefront.

One of the downsides of Tophatter is that it’s possible that no one will actually bid on your item, and therefore, you won’t sell it. Another fact that some sellers might consider to be a disadvantage of using Tophatter is that their commission is much higher than sites like Etsy. However, the fact that there are no listing fees may balance out the high price of commission.

4) Handmade Catalog: You might have inferred from the name that this is an online catalog of hand-crafted items. The site (catalog) contains hundreds of hand-made items, including things like jewelry, housewares, clothing and accessories, toys, artwork, decorative items and many more categories of products. The Handmade Catalog carries only items that are home-made/handcrafted, plus craft supplies.

How the Handmade Catalog Works

The Handmade Catalog has some similarities to Etsy and Artfire. Its overall structure, though, is unique.

There’s no bidding. Prices are fixed and set by the individual crafter. Visitors simply browse the online catalog by product category to find the kinds of goods they’re looking for. To purchase, a buyer clicks on the item and pays for it via PayPal.

The seller receives notification from the Handmade Catalog whenever one of their products is purchased. It is the crafter’s responsibility to ship the item to the buyer.

The Handmade Catalog makes its money not off of listing fees but on membership fees and commissions. Crafters must pay a membership fee. For this, the member gets product uploading and handling of financial transactions. The number of uploads depends on the type of membership purchased.

Membership fees and types vary. The Handmade Catalog offers three types of memberships: Basic, Standard and Professional.

Basic membership: The cost for a Basic membership is $4.95 per month or $40 for a year if you pay for a whole year at once. Basic membership gets you up to 50 product uploads. The Handmade Catalog takes a 15 percent commission on each item sold by a Basic member.

Standard membership: The cost for a Standard membership is $7.95 per month or $60 for a whole year paid in full. Standard members get 250 uploads, and the commission fee is reduced to 10 percent.

Professional membership: This membership package costs $12.95 per month or $100 for a year paid up front. Pro members can have up to 1200 product uploads, plus their business name on the site’s list of crafters. Commission also drops to 5 percent on each item sold.

How to Sell on the Handmade Catalog

You must create a seller’s account by going to the Handmade Catalog’s sign-up page. Fill out the required information, choose your membership package and agree to the site’s terms of use. You must submit a credit card number or use your PayPal account to pay your membership fee. Once you’ve paid, you can begin to upload your products to the online catalog.

Our Evaluation of the Handmade Catalog

One of the things we like best about selling handcrafts through the Handmade Catalog is the ability to choose different membership packages. This may be a better venue than Artfire if you only have a few dozen products to sell because it will probably cost you much less overall.

However, if you have several hundred products that you want to list, Artfire or Etsy may end up costing you less. Be sure to keep The Handmade Catalog’s fee structure in mind when you’re considering joining and/or deciding what membership package to opt into.

The Handmade Catalog isn’t as flashy a Website as Artfire or Etsy, but “flashiness” may not be a big deal. What may be a bigger deal is the fact that The Handmade Catalog.com is far less well known than Etsy and Artfire as a place to purchase handcrafted items. It doesn’t rank as highly as Etsy and Artfire in the major search engines. Therefore, you might find it more challenging to sell on The Handmade Catalog than on some of the more publicized online artisan marketplaces.

We think, overall, that The Handmade Catalog may be a worthwhile investment. We recommend opting for a Basic Membership to begin, paying for a full year (to save a bit of money), and then with trying it out for twelve months. After a year you’ll have a pretty good idea of whether your investment is going to pay off in the long term and if you wish to renew and/or upgrade your membership package.

Some Tips for Online Selling of Handcrafted Items

These are general selling tips, and some points may not apply to all of the venues we’ve looked at. Those that do apply should be taken seriously because they will greatly increase your chances of selling success, no matter which one(s) you decide to invest in.

* Photos of your items are a must! You don’t have to have professional photos taken. Just get a good digital camera that takes quality pictures.

All of the sites we’ve looked at allow users to upload at least one photo of each item they list. If you’re allowed to upload more than one photo, do it! Take full advantage of uploading privileges to get the most out of your fees.

* Equally important to your success as pictures of your items are good descriptions. Make sure that you write persuasive, colorful product descriptions. A few things to remember about writing product descriptions:

Describe the item as if there were no picture available. Pretend that potential buyers can’t see the item and instead must visualize it mentally. Here’s an example:

“This black patent-leather, one-of-a-kind black belt has been hand-stitched in a pink and white daisy-chain motif and finished with a brushed-chrome, antique-look buckle.”

Be sure to include any details about features that are unique and that make your item stand out from similar items by competitors. “Earrings are made from hand-harvested Oregon coast beach glass” is an example.

Use colorful, descriptive language, and try to avoid words that are general or cliché. Use words like “dazzling,” “stunning,” “bewitching” or “refined” instead of “pretty” or “beautiful.”

Include a reason or two why someone should buy the item. In other words, what benefit(s) will it offer? “Brighten up a dark room with this hand-crafted, exclusive seashell-studded table lamp” is an example of this idea.

Include important details like size/measurements of the item, materials and contents, colors, etc.

Make sure that your description is an accurate and fair representation of the item that you’re selling.

Make your description just long enough to be thorough, but brief enough to keep readers interested. A description that’s too short may not persuade potential buyers, and one that’s too long will cause readers to lose interest quickly and leave the page.

Hope this helps,

In fact, word-of-mouth advertising is so powerful that manufacturers and retailers are willing to pay for it. The birth and development of computer, mobile and other digital technologies has made it easier to not only share your opinions on products, but even to get paid for doing it. We’ll teach you how to do this, and what you’ll need to do to get started.

How do Companies Pay for Product Reviews?

The compensation methods for written product reviews vary greatly from company to company. The three most common pay structures are:

1) Revenue sharing: This is probably the most common compensation structure. Members of the Web-viewing public are invited to write reviews on products. Sometimes consumers can review any product they want, but most advertisers require you to choose from a list of specific products or services.

Usually the advertiser stipulates how the review should be written. This may include a minimum or maximum number of words, plus any specific information regarding the product they want you to comment on.

Once the written review is completed, it’s uploaded to the site. You get paid based on the advertising that appears on the same page. Usually the site pays you a percentage of the total ad revenue (based on how many site visitors click on the ads). Percentages vary by site, but 10 percent is a common, average figure.

2) Pay-per-review: Some advertisers simply pay a set fee for a product review. Guidelines for writing are usually fairly stringent, requiring good grammar and mentioning specific traits or using certain words. Like revenue sharing, pay-per-review compensation also varies. Some sites pay as little as 25 cents for a review while others may pay up to ten dollars.

3) Prize rewards: Sometimes advertisers entice consumer reviews by holding contests. They typically ask consumers to review a specific product and provide guidelines as to how the review should be written and what information to include. The consumer who writes the best review wins the prize.

The advantage of this compensation model is that the pay is usually much higher than with revenue sharing or pay-per-review. Of course, the disadvantage is that there can only be one winner. You may spend a lot of time writing a review and end up with no money at all.

Make Money Writing Product Reviews: Getting Started

There are a number of different avenues you can use to get paid to write product reviews. Here we’ll share some of the best programs, plus strategies you can use to create your own product review Website from scratch and make money.

There are basically two ways to get paid for writing reviews: write reviews for existing review Websites, or start your own Website. First, we’ll discuss the idea of review-writing for existing Websites and explore a few of the better sites that exist.

Writing a product review is a basic concept. You try a product and you write about how (or if) it performs. Every product review Website has different guidelines about how reviews should be written and structured. However, the content is largely up to you, including your own personal opinion of the product. (If you don’t like a product, you can say so!) Here we’ll review three of the Web’s product review sites:

1) Shvoong.com: Shvoong.com is a review Website for evaluating products like electronic gadgets, games, toys and gifts, travel destinations, television shows, movies, books, health care products, alternative health products and treatments and more. Shvoong.com accepts written reviews on just about anything you can imagine.

How to Get Started as a Shvoong Contributor

Start by creating an account. Go to Shvoong’s home page and click on the “Sign Up” tab. Fill out the required biographical information and click on the country in which you live. (Facebook users can alternatively sign-up using their Facebook sign-in IDs.) Sign-up only takes a few minutes, and then you’re ready to begin contributing!

Reviews can be written by going to the “Write and Earn” page on Shvoong.com. Use the handy text editor provided. Make sure you follow Shvoong’s guidelines, including:

*Avoiding using all capital letters. Write as if you’re writing a professional piece or an essay for school.

*Choose the correct category and sub-category that your review should be placed in from the list provided by Shvoong. This will help to ensure that your review actually gets read, since site visitors search for product reviews by category, topic or keyword(s).

*Use intelligent tags. “Tags” are words that potential readers/Internet surfers are likely to use to find something like what you’ve written. So, for example, if you’re writing a product review for the Heinz relish squeeze bottle, use tags like “Heinz relish,” “relish,” “relish squeeze bottle,” “hamburger relish,” etc. This is another way of ensuring that Web surfers actually find and read your review.

*Give your review a catchy title, and be sure to include the name of the product/item that you’re reviewing within that title. You are limited to 70 characters for your title.

If possible, have your title summarize the findings of your review. For example: “Heinz Relish Squeeze Bottle Difficult to Use.”

How You Get Paid on Shvoong

Shvoong is a revenue-sharing review site. This means that they pay you a portion of the advertising fees that are directly generated by the pages that your reviews are on.

Here’s how it works: advertisers selling products related to the topic of your review will run their ads on your review’s Web page. Every time a viewer clicks on one of those ads, Shvoong generates a certain fee. Shvoong then shares part of that fee with you.

Your cut of Shvoong’s advertising revenue is 10 percent. Shvoong pays out only after your reach a minimum of ten dollars in your Shvoong account.

Our Review of Shvoong.com

The major drawback of writing reviews for Shvoong is the fact that it’s possible to submit dozens of written reviews and never make a dime. That’s a lot of time spent for little or no return.

On the other hand, we like the fact that Shvoong’s payout is 10 percent. This means that if your reviews do get read and visitors are clicking on the ads, your potential for making money is pretty good.

Overall, we think that it’s worth giving Shvoong a try. Try writing and submitting five to ten reviews or so and then sit back and see what happens. If you’re finding that you’re successful, crank out a few more. As long as you work at writing well and keep your content informative but brief, you might be able to get a significant return on your investment with Shvoong.

It will be helpful if you take a few minutes to read Shvoong’s advice on how to promote your reviews. Good promotion of your content will result in more views and, therefore, greater potential for profit.

2) Ciao.co: Ciao is similar to Shvoong.com in that it contains a few dozen different categories of products in which you can submit reviews, including electronics, toys, home appliances, books, travel destinations, books, fashion and much more. The major difference between Ciao and Shvoong is that Ciao pays a flat rate of 25 cents per review, plus the opportunity to earn even more money (more on that later).

How to Get Started as a Ciao Contributor

Create a basic Ciao account. You just need to choose a username and password and provide your email address. Alternatively, Facebook and Windows Live users can sign up using their Facebook/Windows Live IDs. You must click on the activation link that Ciao will send you after you complete registration. The whole process takes less than five minutes, and as soon as you click the confirmation link you can begin contributing.

Writing Your Ciao Review

To create an entry, simply locate the “Write a Review” button or link. There are several of them scattered about the site, including one on the home page. (When you click the confirmation link you’ll see a button that you can click to get to the review editor page.) Or, go directly to the write-a-review page.

First you must select a product to write about. Use the search field to see if the product/item you want to review is listed on Ciao. When you enter a product into the search field, Ciao generates a list of the products it thinks you’re trying to find. Click on the right one when it shows up.

Once you do, you’ll be taken to the editor page. You’ll be asked to rate the product on a few different qualities, which you simply do by clicking on stars or graphs. You must also list both some advantages and disadvantages of the product in 30 to 100 words.

Next you write the actual review. It must be at least 120 words to qualify for payment. If you write 200 words or more you can qualify for some benefits that may result in additional payments. It doesn’t take much longer to write 80 extra words, so it’s worth doing this when you write a review.

Finally, choose a catchy title for your review and submit it. That’s it! The whole process can take just 5-10 minutes to complete, and certainly no more than 15 minutes. (The more you do the better and therefore faster you’ll get at doing it.)

How to Earn Bonuses and How Ciao Pays Out

Each review you write earns you about 25 cents US. However, you can also earn some bonus cash on each individual review. You can earn a small fee (around a penny or two) for each time your review is viewed by a user. You can earn a few cents more if a viewer rates your review as “helpful.” (Viewers have the option of rating reviews that they read on how helpful they found them to be.)

You can also qualify to earn more if you are the first person to contribute a review on a particular product. Ciao also splits a “Premium Fund” between a number of writers each month whom it considers to be “quality” writers. Finally, you earn a fee (around a dollar) for every referral you send to the site. (The person you refer must set up a user account in order for you to qualify.)

It’s important to note that some reviews may get rewarded with more money than others (Ciao’s way of rewarding frequent reviewers and quality writers and encouraging them to keep contributing). However, you can always count on your basic payout of about 25 cents per review.

Ciao is a UK-based Website, and so you must convert your earnings from pounds to your own currency. Ciao only pays out after you reach a minimum of five pounds in your user account. There are a few other stipulations regarding payment that you can check out, including the number of times you can request payment in a month.

Our Review of Ciao

The main thing that we like about Ciao.co is the fact that there’s nothing to lose. You’re always guaranteed at least your basic fee-per-review. If you’re an experienced writer then you can probably crank out quite a few of these in an hour. We also like the fact that there are opportunities to earn even more money off of a single review, though there are no guarantees of this, of course.

The biggest “drawback” of Ciao is that since it’s based in the UK, North American users might run into some minor problems. Some products that you want to review may not be available in the UK, and you’ll probably find there are some products listed on Ciao that are not available in North America. However, the site has listings for thousands and thousands of products, so it’s a safe bet that you’ll find at least a few hundred that you’ve used and can review.

We also like the fact that Ciao has a good reputation among Internet users and a strong Web presence. This means that it’s much more likely that your reviews will be found on search engines, read and rated by users, which, of course, increases your odds of earning money.

3) ReviewStream.com: Review Stream is very similar to both Shvoong and Ciao. Review Stream accepts reviews on almost anything that you feel like writing about, from products to travel destinations, books, songs, schools and more.

How to Get Started as a Review Stream Contributor

You aren’t required to register for an account in order to contribute a review. Instead, you simply have to submit your email address each time you submit a review. This is how Review Stream keeps track of your earnings (more on that later).

To submit a review, go to their submission page. Here you’ll find their editor, which you must fill out with your name, email address and submission title. You can even choose a pen name if you prefer not to have your real name published on the Web. Then, write your review in the space provided.

There is no minimum or maximum word count, but Review Stream reserves the right not to pay for or publish your review if it’s so short that it doesn’t really contain any useful information. We suggest you strive for at least 120 words, and don’t go any higher than 300 words. Then, simply hit the “Submit” button.

How Review Stream Pays Out

Pay per review actually varies depending on a few factors. Review Stream guarantees (as long as its standards are adhered to) a minimum of 40 cents per review.

However, it may actually pay even more (often up to $1.70). To know what you might earn from a given submission, check Review Stream’s home page. Here you can find whatever the going daily rate is. It doesn’t change very often, but it is subject to change without notice so it’s up to you to pay attention.

The main way that Review Stream decides on what rate to offer you is the number of reviews that already exist for the same product on Review Stream. Review Stream wants to collect reviews on as many products as possible. Therefore, it offers the best rates for reviews on products that haven’t had many reviews yet. (If you happen to be the first person to review a particular product, you should expect to make the top rate.) Review Stream also wants reviews that are original (that is, ones that are dissimilar to existing ones on the same product).

Finally, it pays better if you write intelligent reviews: in other words, reviews that contain specific, useful information (“These tires perform very well in icy driving conditions,” for example) rather than general comments (such as “I really like these tires”).

Review Stream has what it calls its “bulk rate.” This is the lowest possible payout that you can get, and that you’re guaranteed to earn as long as your review doesn’t violate the site’s terms. So you’re always guaranteed at least some kind of fee. Plus, you are entitled to a bonus fee (around 10 cents) for each person who reads your review and rates it as “helpful.”

There is a bit of a catch to the bulk fee versus premium fee payout, though. When you complete your review, you will be asked to decide whether you are happy to accept the bulk rate for your submission, or if you want to hold out for a bigger payout.

The catch is here: if you accept an automatic bulk rate payout, and you happen to write a fabulous or first-time review, you won’t be offered any more than the minimum (bulk) fee. On the other hand, if you would rather hold out for a better offer, and Review Stream happens to decide that your submission isn’t worth a bigger payout, then you won’t be able to get the bulk rate payout, either.

So in a sense, Review Stream can be a bit of a gamble. Our suggestion is that when you first start out writing for Review Stream that you always opt to accept the bulk rate.

After you’ve done several reviews and received a payout (we suggest at least 15-20) then you can re-evaluate how well your reviews are being accepted, how fast the review process has been, and whether your existing reviews are getting a lot of views and positive reviews from visitors. If you’ve been fairly successful, you may want to consider opting out of the automatic bulk rate payout, at least for a few submissions, and see how it’s working out for you.

Review Stream also has its own referral program. You get a percentage (about 1 percent) of each review that’s written by someone you’ve referred to Review Stream. If you’re good at promoting the program, you can make a significant amount of money this way.

Review Stream pays out its reviewers by PayPal, and will only make a payment when the users account has accrued a minimum amount. This minimum is different for everyone, and is a bit fussy to figure out. You determine your own minimum payout threshold by multiplying 20 by the regular payout rate on the day that you sold your first review. In other words, if you sold your first review when the regular rate was $1.50, then you cannot request payment until you accrue 30 dollars in your account.

Our Review of Review Stream

We like Review Stream for the fact that its minimum payout rate is higher than Ciao’s and more reliable than Shvoong’s (as long as you opt for the bulk rate). We also like the fact that you have the possibility of earning even more than the bulk rate.

What we dislike is the fact that there’s a huge gamble that comes with writing for Review Stream. However, if you are confident in your writing skills and you carefully follow Review Stream’s guidelines, this pay system may actually work in your favor.

We also think Review Stream’s formula for determining minimum payout amounts is a little fussy and confusing. However, it’s a minor issue and not problematic enough for us to discourage good writers from trying out this site.

We also think that Review Stream is at a bit of disadvantage because it’s not as well-known as other consumer review sites like Ciao. It also doesn’t rank as highly in the search engines as Ciao and Shvoong. Therefore, its reviews may not be able to generate the same kind of organic viewer traffic as Ciao and Shvoong. If you use Review Stream you may want to work at promoting the site and your published reviews.

Other Paid Review Websites

There are a number of other paid review Websites on the Internet. Some of the better and more well-known ones include:

*Expo.tv: This site is like Ciao meets YouTube. Instead of writing reviews, you film them.

*DooYoo.com: This is a European-based review site similar to Ciao.

*SharedReviews.com: This site is social networking meets review publishing.

*CarrotReviews.com: Similar to Ciao and Shvoong.

* RateItAll.com: Similar Ciao and Shvoong.

*ePinions.com: Like Ciao and Shvoong. Visitors can also buy many of the products that they view reviews on.

All of these sites have pay structures that are similar to the Websites that we looked at earlier. They either pay flat rates per review, share ad revenue with you, or some combination of both. Many of them also have ways that you can earn bonus fees.

A Word about Cross-Submitting Reviews

Since many of the review Websites we’ve talked about accept reviews on the same products, potential users often ask the question: “Can I submit the same review on multiple sites and make even more money with less work?”

The answer to that is: it depends. Most of the sites we’ve discussed only want original material. They also don’t want to pay you for content that they think you may have plagiarized.

Consequently, a majority of review websites actually do “duplicate content” checks on all reviews submitted to them. If they discover that you’ve already submitted the same review to another site they may reject it. So keep this in mind.

Is there a way around this? Sort of. You can submit content first to the sites that you know run plagiarism checks. Once your content has been approved and posted on those sites, you can submit it to other sites that don’t run duplicate content checks.

Of course, this also raises some ethical questions. Just because a particular review Website doesn’t run duplicate content checks doesn’t mean they’re okay with posting material that already exists on the Internet. So you should really read the submission policies of every review site you submit to thoroughly before you think about cross-submitting material.

Alternately, you can simply change the wording of a single submission just enough that qualifies as original content when you submit it to multiple sites. This is perfectly legal, and is a good way to “kill two birds with one stone,” so to speak.

Starting Your Own Reviews Website to Earn Money

Don’t want to share ad revenue on content YOU’VE written? Create your own Website for reviewing products! It’s easier than you might think, and you can go about this in a couple of different ways, depending on how much money you want to invest up-front.

The simplest and most inexpensive (often free) way to do this is to create a blog using one of the many free blogging platforms on the Web. We recommend choosing one that either has an advertising plug-in or widget option already built in to the platform (like Blogger.com) or one with an HTML plug-in or widget (like WordPress.com). We’ll talk more about these later.

Creating a blog on WordPress or Blogger (as well as many other blogging sites) is free. Go to the home page of your chosen platform and find the “Sign Up” button or link and click on it. You’ll have to provide some basic personal information, choose a user name and password and choose a title for your blog.

Next you’ll be able to choose a “look” for your blog. Blogging sites have numerous templates to choose from. (We like the WordPress.com selection best.)

Make sure you think through the features that you want your blog to have because this will influence your template choice. Not all templates offer the same kinds of features (or plug-ins/widgets). Remember, you’ll need to pick one that has either an HTML or ad program (such as Google AdSense) plug-in/widget.

You can start creating entries right away. You can review any kinds of products that you want to. If you don’t know where to start, try reviewing some products that you are familiar with because you use them regularly yourself.

Another idea is to make your blog a site that reviews only a certain genre of products. Some ideas include:

* Natural health care: You can review natural vitamin supplements, exercise regimens (yoga, pilates, aerobics) and/or natural health care/wellness treatments (chiropractic, therapeutic massage, reiki, acupuncture).

* Hair care: You can write reviews on hair products (shampoos, conditioners, scalp treatments), hair dyes or hair appliances (straightening irons, blow dryers).

* Gourmet cooking: You can review gourmet and specialty food products, gourmet recipes or cookware.

* Gardening: You can review brands of seeds, gardening tools, fertilizers, soil additives and boosters and even methods of gardening (container gardening, raised-bed gardening).

These are only a few examples. The sky’s the limit. Pick something that you already know a lot about or have an interest in. This will make blogging easier and help you maintain your enthusiasm even when you get discouraged.

Try to start out with at least 3-5 different entries (reviews) when you first launch. Keep adding new ones regularly. We suggest adding at least one review per week.

Once you’ve created a few initial entries, you can start attracting advertisers. Sign up for an ad program that can run ads on your blog’s pages. There are numerous ones you can try, but we suggest that you start out with Google AdSense because it’s popular, well-known, easy to use, blog-friendly and works on most major blogging platforms (including Blogger and WordPress).

The advertiser will scan the content of your blog and then start running ads that it believes are relevant to that content. So, for example, if you create a site that reviews gourmet cooking, you’ll probably end up attracting ads for gourmet food products, cookware and even other food Websites.

You make money whenever a visitor to your site clicks on one of the ads. So obviously, the better and more relevant the ads that you attract, the more clicks you’ll get, and the more money you’ll make.

The second way you can make money reviewing products on your own is to build your own Website with an exclusive domain. This really isn’t much different from blogging, except that you’ll have more flexibility when it comes to custom designing your site and including the kinds of features that you want.

Of course, this will cost you. However, you can find economical hosting plans all over the Web. In many cases, you can create your own Website and host it for less than $20 per month, and sometimes even less than 10 dollars per month, plus the cost of purchasing your domain name (usually under 15 dollars per year).

You don’t even need a professional Web designer. There are lots of do-it-yourself Website builders out there that you can set up yourself and launch in a matter of hours using the templates provided by the site builder. WordPress actually has a Website builder of its own. A few other good ones include Wix.com, Moonfruit.com and DoodleKit.com. Each of these offers reasonably priced packages and aesthetic yet easy-to-use Website builder templates.

Once you’ve launched your site, you can start running ads on it the same way you would with a blog. The great thing about using your own Website as opposed to using a blog to generate ad revenue is that you have a much greater chance of getting good search engine rankings with your own site and domain. This, in turn, increases the chances that Internet surfers will find and visit your site.

How to Write a Strong Review

Whether you choose to write for an existing review Website like one of the ones profiled here, or you start your own Website or blog, good writing and useful, detailed information is key to your success. Here are some tips to remember when writing product reviews:

*Don’t just say you liked or didn’t like a particular product… tell your readers exactly why. Here’s an example:

“I was disappointed with the ending of this book because it seemed that it was very contrived. The events did not seem to line up with the behaviors of the characters throughout the rest of the novel. It was almost as if the writer took the ending from another book entirely.”

This language lets people know that this person how the person felt, and also states exactly why he was disappointed. This kind of information helps viewers to make an intelligent choice about whether or not they want to read this particular book.

*Include information that might be especially important to know, but may not be readily available or might be easy to overlook by a potential user. An example of this is reviewing a software product. Besides saying why you liked or disliked the software, make sure to include details like what systems it is or is not compatible with. Here’s an example:

“This game teaches excellent math skills for children. However, it is only compatible with the later versions of Windows. It is not compatible with Windows Vista.”

Here’s another example:

“This program is labeled as appropriate for pre-school aged children. However, your child will have a difficult time mastering this game if he does not yet know colors.”

*Proper grammar is a MUST! Nothing makes you look less professional as a writer than bad grammar. If grammar’s not your thing, make sure that you run all of your entries by a trusted friend or colleague who IS better at it before you upload it.

*Never use all capital letters, including in your title. This is just one of the rules of good grammar. Not only is it bad grammar to use all caps, some search engines and many review websites do not like this and will reject entries that are in all caps, no matter how great the content is. Not only will your entries get rejected, you might even be banned from submitting any more entries.

Hope this helps,

Are you one of the over 1 billion Smartphone users in the world? Or, are you a cell phone user who is considering switching to a Smartphone? Smartphones offer all of the benefits of a telephone and a computer in a convenient hand/pocket size. This is why so many people are switching, and why new cell phone users are opting for Smartphones.

However, a majority of users are not aware that it is actually possible to make money using a Smartphone. Not only are some users making money enough to cover their monthly bills, they’re making spending money on top of it. If you have a Smartphone, you can do it too. Even younger users, like teenagers, can use the simple strategies and apps that you will discover in this tutorial.

What Kind of Smartphone do I Need? It depends on what strategies and apps you want to use to make money off your Smartphone. The iPhone has the most money-making possibilities. Those that run on the Android platform are a close second to the iPhone when it comes to money-making apps and programs. There are also a limited number of money-making Smartphone apps available for the Blackberry.

If you don’t own an iPhone or an Android, you may want to consider switching over. The costs that you’ll incur by switching may end up paying for themselves when you start making money off of your iPhone or Android.

Six Money-Making Smartphone Apps: Once you’ve got a Smartphone, making money starts with uploading apps. Here are six to consider using so that you can get your phone working for you, instead of the other way around:

1) CheckPoints: CheckPoints is a program that helps product manufacturers see how many consumers are aware of their products. It’s another way of advertising, just like a tv commercial or newspaper ad, except this way the producer has a tangible measurement of how many people are viewing their products.

How it works: Download the CheckPoints app. It’s available for download from the iTunes store. You can also find the download by going to the Checkpoints page on CheckPoints.com. The app is free for downloading.

Once you’ve successfully downloaded your app, you’ll create a profile. Then, you can use it the next time you go shopping. Pull it out whenever you shop at a major chain store. That includes grocery stores (even smaller ones), toy stores, pharmacies and more. Tap on your location, and you’ll be given a list of nearby products to scan with your Smartphone.

Next, locate the featured products in the store. Tap on the product, and aim at the product’s bar code. Each time you scan a featured product, it’s recorded on your CheckPoints profile. Each product scan is worth a few points. Your points are stored, and when you accumulate enough of them you can trade them in for prizes. Rewards range from gift cards to electronics like iPads to airline tickets.

Available for: iPhone & Android platforms. You must have Internet access or a data plan to use CheckPoints.

Our review: If it’s cash rewards you’re looking for, you may not want to bother with the CheckPoints app. However, you can earn some pretty great prizes so if you don’t mind earning stuff instead of cash, this is an easy program to participate in. We think this program is an especially good one for teens to participate it, since they tend to have lots of time to devote to something like this.

One thing we really like about the CheckPoints program is that you can even use your reward points to make cash donations to some popular charities. Some of the charities that are supported by the CheckPoints program include the American Red Cross, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Humane Society of the United States and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

The only downside is that it can get cumbersome to keep scanning products if you’re trying to grocery shop at the same time. It makes for a long shopping trip! But some people won’t mind spending a little more time at the grocery store if they’re earning free stuff.

2) Shopkick: Here’s another app that pays you to shop. Like the CheckPoints app, Shopkick does not pay cash. Instead, users earn points which can be exchanged for gift cards to be used in sponsoring stores. Some of Shopkick’s sponsoring retailers include Toys R Us, Old Navy, Crate & Barrel, Best Buy, Target, American Eagle Outfitters and several more.

How it Works: Shopkick has a set number of retail sponsors. Whenever you visit one of the authorized sponsor retail stores (known as “walk-in” reward stores), open up the Shopkick app. These stores have digital devices that recognize your phone and app and record your visit. Getting points is literally as easy as walking in the doors!

Sometimes sponsors will offer the chance to earn bonus points. They do this by asking you to scan the bar codes of certain products in the store. These additional points help you earn rewards even faster. Rewards are offered electronically through the app, and usually come in the form of gift cards or specific free products.

Available for: iPhone and Android platforms. Special bonus offers are available for iPhone users only. You must have Internet access or a data plan to use Shopkicks.

Our review: We like the fact that you can rack up a lot of points simply by walking into stores. It’s a simple program to participate in, and we think teens will be especially fond of it.
A downside is the fact that you don’t earn cash with the Shopkicks program. While prizes are great, they won’t pay your Smartphone bill. Still, you might be able to earn the equivalent of one monthly phone payment which you can spend on something and use the money you would have paid for it to pay your bill.

Another potential downside is that users are limited to the number of times they can Shopkick in each store per day and/or scan products (usually once per day). Another potential drawback is that you don’t necessarily receive the same number of points (known as “kicks”) for entering a store today that you got when you entered the same store yesterday. Make sure that you check those “kick” numbers daily.

Likewise, a store in one location may give you 100 kicks, while the same store in other location may only reward you with 75 kicks. All of these details can be found within your Shopkicks app.

Finally, Shopkicks uses a GPS system to determine when a Shopkick app user has entered a participating store. A significant number of complaints have been registered by users and sponsors of malfunctioning GPS units or readings resulting in incorrect or no “kicks” being rewarded. The company is working at fixing these system glitches, and they are becoming fewer and farther between.

3) We Reward: This app pays you a fee for buying and photographing yourself with specific products. You need only to download the We Reward app and register for an account. The app can be found at We Reward.com. To download it, go to the site and click the “Sign up now” button. On the next page, make sure to select the “sign up as a user” option.

On the next page, fill in your email address and create a password. You’ll be redirected to another page where you’ll need to fill in some basic information to create a profile. After this, you’ll be given the opportunity to invite friends to participate in the We Reward program and earn prizes for successful referrals. Finally, you can download the app.

Once you download, you’ll have access to a list of qualifying products. Some may be general products (such as grocery items) that you can purchase anywhere you want. Others may be specific menu items that you must order at a particular restaurant. Then, just snap a photo of yourself with your purchase and upload it to the app.

You must actually buy the product in order to qualify for payment, so no pulling items off of grocery store shelves, taking a picture and then putting the item back. To prove that you actually purchased the item you’ll need to photograph yourself eating or using it.

Available for: iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices. You must have Internet access or a data plan to use this app.

Our review: We like the fact that this program actually gives you a cash reward rather than offering prizes or gift cards. This way you can spend your reward money on whatever you want…. even your Smartphone bill! Payouts are different for each item, so make sure you check this before you actually buy a product.

One downside is the fact that you have to purchase a product (pay money) in order to make money. This program only pays for itself if you happen to already buy and use a lot of the items on the We Reward list.

Even so, we think this program is still worth investing in because it doesn’t take long to snap a photo, and chances are good that you probably use at least some of the sponsoring products sometimes. You might as well earn some money for buying them!

4) Gigwalk: This app gives users the opportunity to search and apply for odd and short-term, contract-style jobs in their area of residence. It was created as a tool for business owners who periodically require staff/short-term contractors in locations outside of their city of business. Gigwalk connects those employers with people in other locales who can complete the work they need done.

How it Works: Users can go to Gigwalk.com and download the Gigwalk app. Once downloaded, you’ll receive instructions on how to register and create a profile online. Make sure that you take the time to fill out your profile completely with as much detail about your skills and interests as possible. These are the things that potential employers will be looking at when determining who to hire to complete their “gigs.”

Once you’ve registered and completed your profile, you’ll be able to use your app to find “gigs” or jobs in your area. The kinds of “gigs” that Gigwalk promotes are:

* Mystery shopping

* Store audits

* Focus groups

* Canvassing

* Field audits

* Office administration

* Event staffing

* Technical Installation

* Photography

* Real estate inspection and appraisal

* Deliveries

* Mobile app testing

You can peruse the jobs available in your area and apply for any and all that appeal to you. The employer’s post will include what the “gig” entails, how long it will take to complete, and how much compensation is offered.

Chances are good that many people will apply for the same gigs, so having a persuasive and impressive profile is imperative at helping you get selected for jobs. Once you have completed a gig, the employer is able to leave feedback about you. If you do a good job, the positive feedback you receive will make it more likely that you will get more job offers in the future.

A vast majority of the “gigs” posted on Gigwalk are short-term. Many can be completed in a couple of hours, or in a few hours over a day or two. Compensation varies depending on the employer. It’s not uncommon for Gigwalk users to complete jobs that amount to ten to twenty dollars per hour or even more. However, there are many gigs that pay much less than that and may not be worth your while.

Available for: iPhone and Android platforms. You must have Internet access or a data plan to use this app.

Our review: Gigwalk can be lucrative if you live in major cities/urban centers. Small town residents probably won’t find many gigs (if any) nearby.

Those who do happen to live in big city areas will find lots of opportunities to benefit from the Gigwalk app. Of course, there’s a potential for a lot of competition for gigs, which may be a bit of a downside to this money-making method.

Overall, we think it is well worth giving Gigwalk a try. There’s nothing to lose. If a gig doesn’t appeal to you or doesn’t offer enough pay, you don’t have to pursue it. Plus, the app is free, and it doesn’t take long to view and bid on gigs. If you are good at one or more of the types of jobs Gigwalk promotes you may easily be able to make enough to pay your cell phone bill and then some.

5) Field Agent: This app is similar to the Gigwalk app. The basic idea is to help employers and businesses find short-term contractors to complete tasks on their behalf, just like Gigwalk.

How it Works: The types of jobs that offered by Field Agent clients are similar to those promoted in Gigwalk, including secret shopping, completing surveys, taking photos, product reviews and researching local events and venues. Those who use the app are known as “agents.”

One major difference between Field Agent and Gigwalk is the method in which jobs are posted and offered. Field Agent sends relevant offers directly to its app users (via text or email alert), and jobs may be rewarded based on who responds to the offer first, rather than an employer choosing from a list of qualified users.

Pay varies, depending on the job and the employer. Some pay little, but take only minutes to complete and so are worth doing. Others may take more time to complete, but they usually pay more too.

To get the Field Agent app, potential users must first sign up for an account via the Web at Field Agent’s sign up page. Approved applicants will then be sent instructions on how to download the app and participate in the program.

Available for: iPhone platform. You must have Internet access or a data plan to participate.

Our review: Like Gigwalk, you can’t really lose anything by trying this app out. If you have the time to complete tasks and stay on top of your notifications, you can get lots of offers, maybe more than you would get with Gigwalk.

On the downside, those who live in urban centers have a definite advantage over country dwellers. A significant number of jobs offered in Field Agent can only be done in urban areas.

We also like the fact that you get compensated in cold, hard cash rather than in gift cards or products. This program may very well pay for your Smartphone.

6) App Rewards: This program provides incentives to Smartphone users just to try out other Smartphone apps.

How it Works: Just go to App Rewards and click the “download now” button. This will take you to the iTunes store where the app is available. (You can also go straight to iTunes to find the app.)

Download the app and register your account. Next you will be given a list of other apps that you can get paid to download and use. Many of these apps are free. Some cost, but you can sometimes get reimbursed for the cost of the app in addition to your testing fee. However, sometimes your compensation is not monetary at all, but rather that you get to have the app for free.

Generally speaking, you only have to download an app and open it once to qualify for payment. Some apps on the list will have more detailed instructions that you must follow to receive payment. (Game apps, for example, may require that you actually play the game in order to receive payment.) Overall, the task you must perform typically takes only a few minutes. Compensation depends on the app’s creator and may range from a dollar or two to five dollars or more.

Available for: iPhone platform (including the iPad and iPod). App Rewards claims that an Android version is on the way, but no actual release date has been announced. You must have Internet access or a data plan to use this app.

Our review: You probably won’t get rich using this program. You may not even make enough pay your Smartphone bill.

On the other hand, if you like trying out apps, why not get paid for it? This program isn’t terribly time-consuming, so it’s at least worth a try. You might even get some great free apps out of it. Plus, there’s no cost for downloading the App Rewards app so you can’t lose anything by trying it out.

A word to potential Smartphone money-making app users: Many money-making Smartphone apps and offers are only available to US users. Smartphone users should read all details thoroughly before deciding to download a money-making app and participate in a particular program.

One of the best aspects of money-making Smartphone apps is that they are only apps. Most of them can be downloaded with no commitment or obligation. Users can try out any or all of them, and if they don’t like them they can just delete them.

Hope this helps,

A majority of the Internet’s podcast success stories are not broadcasters or even public speakers. They’re ordinary people, business men and women, working professionals, hobbyists and people (even teenagers and kids) with a passion and some expertise in a given area. They simply create podcasts (broadcasts in MP3 format) about what they love, enjoy and know well.

What is a Podcast?

A podcast is an audio show on a given subject, like a radio broadcast. It’s converted into MP3 format and then uploaded to the Internet where users can then download it and listen to it.

The term “podcast” derived from “iPod” because it can be downloaded and listened to on an iPod. However, a podcast can be downloaded to any home computer or MP3 player, not just an iPod.

Podcasting is simply one more way to spread information using the Web as a medium. It’s simply one more form of self-promotion, just like writing Internet articles or creating videos and posting them to a video-sharing site like YouTube. You might consider it the audio equivalent of an Internet article or video.

Why Podcast?

All three of these things (article writing, video making and podcast recording) serve several important purposes, the main ones of which are:

1) Self-promotion: As already noted, those who have something to share with the world, whether it’s talent or information, can self-promote using the Web. Some media professionals refer to this as “jumping the queue.” No longer must someone wait and hope to be discovered. You can create your own media and draw attention to yourself and possibly find that fame you’re looking for.

2) Business promotion: Many business owners use Internet media like podcasts, article publishing and video-making to promote whatever it is that they sell. Like self-promotion, using Web media is often one of the best ways to appeal directly to potential customers on a wide scale.

3) Generate a following: Maybe you want to carve a niche for yourself in a profession or hobby. Media publishing is an excellent, high-profile way to do this. Take the case of Michelle Phan, spokesperson for cosmetics giant Lancôme.

Phan was an art-school drop out when she applied to work at the makeup counter of a major upscale department store. Phan had a flair for makeup artistry, but was denied the job.

So instead, Phan set out to create her own following. She began by simply making instructional videos about how to apply makeup. Her following grew after posting her videos on YouTube.

Within a few years she had such a huge fan base that Lancôme took notice. In 2010 she became an official spokesperson. She continues to create and star in videos sponsored by Lancôme, using their products to create looks that followers can imitate.

Phan is just one of many Internet media users who have experienced success simply doing what they love to do. In reality, anyone can do the same and generate a fan base just like Phan did.

4) Establish oneself as an expert in a field: Phan was determined to show the department store that rejected her appeal for a job that she was indeed an expert at what she did. Many people, business owners and trained professionals do this using Internet mediums like podcasts. While not everyone will reach the kind of public acclaim that Phan did, many people are looked to and sought out as experts in their fields because of their podcasts or other media postings.

How to Create a Podcast

You need not have fancy equipment or access to expensive studio equipment. You can create your podcast with virtually any recording device that can be connected to a computer. People have used everything from professional sound equipment to cell phones to create podcasts.

Here are some steps that will help you get started:

1) Choose a topic: Obviously this should be something that you know and/or love. You’ll have less competition if you try to carve out a niche for yourself.

For example, let’s say you’re an avid gardener and you want to help other gardeners grow better flowers. You may want to create podcasts which are devoted to a particular species of flower rather than making podcasts about gardening in general.

It’s also wise to choose a topic that you can do a number of different spin-off podcasts on. The more podcasts you can put out there, the greater your potential for making money, and the more opportunities you’ll have to garner a following. So when you choose a topic, try to think of several more topics that are related. Our gardening expert, for instance, might choose to do a series on clematis. She could do a number of podcasts on orchids, on topics like “growing clematis from seed,” “how to fertilize clematis,” “the best light in which to grow clematis,” “how to prune clematis,” and more.

2) Write a script: Even if writing isn’t your cup of tea, it’s best to create a verbatim script for your podcast. If you have to, enlist help to write your script, or pay someone to write a script for you using an outline that you provide.

Writing a script (rather than trying to record a monologue “off the cuff”) accomplishes four things. First, it forces you ahead of time to decide exactly what you want to convey. When you put some forethought into your dialogue, you’ll be sure to cover all of the material that is important to your topic. When it’s time to record you won’t forget anything.

Secondly, you’ll be able to time your monologue. You should always try to keep your podcasts similar in length. Generally speaking, a podcast should be short: five minutes or so at minimum, and 15-22 minutes maximum. This will help you develop a consistent following, because your fans will know what to expect from you and your recordings and can allot an appropriate amount of time to listen to your podcasts.

Thirdly, it keeps you on track when you’re actually creating your recording. When you speak “off the cuff,” you tend to forget points, take too many pauses, and stumble over words. A podcast, like a radio broadcast, should be succinct and should definitely not have pauses or “dead air” (unless they are a crucial part of your script, and even then you should never pause for more than a few seconds). There will also be much less of a chance that you’ll have to do more than one take of your recording.

Fourthly, it will sound more natural to your listeners. Sometimes people think that speaking off-the-cuff comes off as more natural-sounding. Actually this is rarely the case except for a very small percentage of naturally gifted people.

Your recording will be more believable, professional and natural if you know what you’re going to say before you say it. Creating a script beforehand allows you to practice, including rehearsing sounding natural (just like an actor). Even professionals do it this way.

3) Record your script: Again, you don’t need a studio or professional equipment. If you’re using basic recording equipment (a cell phone or your computer, for instance) just make sure that you’re in a quiet room and that you seal out external noises as much as possible. Close doors and windows, turn off appliances, etc.

Speak slowly, succinctly and deliberately: Talk confidently and loudly (but don’t shout). Put expression in your voice, just as you would if you were talking with a friend. Unless you’re proficient with editing software, you should plan to do your entire monologue in a single take, rather than recording sound bytes and editing them together after the fact.*

4) Proof your recording: Play back your recording, making sure it sounds natural and that every word is clear and can be understood. Doing more than one take is a hassle, but it’s worth the time to get it right.

* A note about editing: If you’re handy with a digital editing program you can play around with your recording and add appropriate sound effects, music, etc. However, this is not necessary, and shouldn’t be attempted unless you’re very proficient with digital audio editing software.

Making Money Off of Your Podcast

There are several ways to potentially make money of off your podcast. We’ll outline five of them here:

1) Online revenue sharing: You can upload your podcast to one of the many podcast submission Websites on the Internet. Not all are revenue-sharing sites. The ones that are offer you the opportunity to share in their advertising revenue.

How it works: The site will place ads on your pages with links that are relevant to the topic(s) of your podcast(s). Whenever a site visitor clicks on one of the links, you make money.

2) Get a sponsor: Lots of podcasters get paid by sponsors who add their recorded advertising to the creator’s podcast. Enticing a sponsor may mean that you’ll have to build up a following first. You’ll have to plan to do a number of podcasts for free in order to get this following.

Once you do, it’s not hard to find sponsoring companies to put paid advertising into your podcasts. Media advertising companies such as Mevio and Podtrac welcome those who have a following to apply for sponsorship. Or you may even be able to approach prospective advertisers on your own and form an advertising partnership.

3) Ask for donations: Why not? Public television does it. Actually, people are sometimes surprised to learn of the number of listeners and followers who are willing to donate to a podcaster that they enjoy listening to. (Asking for public donations works for all kinds of Internet media purveyors. Just look at Wikipedia.) Create your own Website, offer your podcasts, and add a PayPal “Donate” button so listeners who feel so compelled can contribute.

4) Create series and charge for some: Give people a reason to want to pay for your podcasts. Do a two-part series, offer the first part for free and charge for the second part.

5) Promote a product: Choose one or more affiliate products and then create podcasts that promote those products. You’ll make money every time you sell an affiliate product.

These are just a few basic ways to make money off of your podcasts. Innovative entrepreneurs will probably find all kinds of unique ways to make money by podcasting. The more you do it, the better you’ll get at it. The better you get at it, the more money you’ll be able to make.

Hope this helps,

What is a life coach? A life coach is a bit like a motivational speaker mixed with an athletic coach, except a life coach helps people work through everyday issues. A life coach helps people work out their weaknesses, develop their strengths and generally live a fuller, more enjoyable life. A life coach could be called a personal trainer in the game of life.

A life coach can help people to expand their quality of life in a general sense. However, some life coaches specialize in a specific growth area. If you happen to be educated or gifted in a particular area, you might choose to be a specialty life coach. Some examples of this include:

• Helping the unemployed find work. This type of life coach might help with resume preparation, teach a client good interpersonal skills for cold calls and job interviews, help clients with personal presentation (professional wardrobe, manners, etc.), teach people how to job hunt (via Internet, newspaper, employment agencies, recruiting firms, etc.) and anything else related to getting a job.

• Helping people who are trying to overcome addictions. This might include teaching life skills, helping clients break out of relationships and friend groups that enable their addictions, offering encouragement and motivation (“pep talks”), helping the client find support services in his/her community for dealing with addictions and much more.

• Helping people who are performers or who are faced with delivering a public speech to develop an aptitude for performing even if they aren’t natural performers. This type of life coach often works with professional and amateur entertainers (actors, musicians, speakers). They may also work with other professionals who, because of their occupations, may find themselves having to give public speeches, addresses or lectures from time to time.

• Helping people become assertive and set personal and professional boundaries. Some people realize that they tend to be “pushovers” but don’t know how to break this habit. A life coach in this kind of case would help the client develop assertiveness and discover that it’s okay and even healthy to say “no” often. A life coach may work with the client on developing self-awareness, self-confidence and a healthy self-esteem without having to look to other people for approval.

These are just a few examples. There are literally dozens of ways to specialize and market yourself as a life coach. Chances are good that if you have a particular skill that there are people out there who are longing to develop that skill and will pay good money for someone to coach them at it. (The movie “Hitch” starring Will Smith is a fun but inspiring story of a life coach who helped men who were unlucky in love to find the match of their dreams and is worth watching if you’re thinking of life coaching as a profession.)

How Can I Become a Life Coach? You may already have all the skills that you need to sell yourself as a life coach. If you’re well-accomplished or have years of experience in a particular area, you may be able to use that to generate business.

Whether you have years of experience or are a young person just starting out in the working world, it can be helpful to get certification as a life coach. Certification will give you extra credibility as a life coach and will be an excellent marketing tool to add to your business advertising.

Life coach certification can be obtained online as well as in person through community and private colleges and institutions. There are a number of different types of programs out there. Some offer certification in as little as 16 hours of online course work or two days of in-person training. Others may take several weeks or months to complete.

Cost for such programs varies depending on type and length of course, but typically you’ll pay between 300 and 1000 dollars. (One program to check out is offered by the Certified Coaches Federation. This particular program is offered in live seminar-style over two days of training in various cities throughout the US.) There are also FREE courses like the one offered here.

Choose your program carefully. Some things to look for when you’re comparing programs include:

• Number of courses, type of courses offered and course summaries.

• Whether or not you can complete training online, or if in-person attendance is required.

• Time frame in which you are expected to complete your program.

• Whether books/materials are included in the program fee.

• Whether the program is backed by an institution or industry governing body.

Generally speaking, if you’re quite experienced in the career world, a shorter program may be all you need to get started. If you have less life experience yourself, you should opt for a longer, more intensive program.

How to Launch Your Online Life Coaching Business

Since your business is going to be based online, you should start by creating a Website for your services. It’s easy to create your own site, even if you don’t know programming. Just use an online easy site builder like Wix.com or Weebly.com. There are dozens of templates (pre-designed) to choose from. Simply select the one you want and substitute the template text for your own.

Here’s a basic overview of steps you’ll need to take to get your Website launched:

1) Decide how you want to make your services available. Face-to-face coaching sessions via Webcam are how online coaches generally connect with their Internet clients. You can use any service that you want. (Skype is one example.)

You and your clients will have to have the same chat program installed on your computers so you may want to place a link or “install” button to the program(s) of your choice on your Website. This way, potential clients who don’t have the same chat program as you do can easily install the software without leaving your site. (Skype.com is free if both caller and receiver have the program installed.)

You can also offer other services and resources from your Website. Some examples include Podcast or video series’ on different topics. You can also offer self-help ebooks. (We’ll discuss these services in more depth later on this tutorial.)

2) Choose and purchase a domain name. Ideally this domain name should be the same as or a derivative of your business/Website name.

You can usually purchase a domain name from do-it-yourself Website builder sites. If you’re using one of these to create your Website, see if they offer this option. Otherwise, purchase a domain name from an online store like GoDaddy.com. (If you purchase from a source outside of the do-it-yourself site builder Website you’ll have to transfer it from the site you bought it from to the site that will host your Website. This can take several days or more.)

3) Create your Website using your chosen template. To do this, you’ll need to create a user account with the site builder of your choice. You’ll also need to choose your hosting package.

Hosting is usually priced according how much storage (memory) you’ll need, how many features you want to add to your Website (i.e. PayPal customer payment option) and how long a subscription you want (monthly, quarterly, one year and two year subscriptions are most common). You’ll also need to be prepared to pay for subscription with a major credit card.

Next, choose your design template and create your text. You should include a home page, about page (where you’ll describe yourself and your qualifications and your business), services page (where you’ll explain the services you offer) and a contact page (with your contact information and an email contact form). These are the very basic pages you should have. You can add more if needed. Next you simply substitute your text for the default text in the template (including your site/business name heading).

3) Once your Website is complete, it’s time to launch it. This is a simple thing to do with most site builders. Usually it’s simply a matter of clicking on a “Launch Site” link or button.

The great thing about online Website builders is that you can design and launch a site in a matter of a few hours. Plus you can usually access email and/or phone help if you run into any issues or have questions about creating your site.

Marketing Your Online Life Coaching Business

It probably won’t be enough to simply launch a Website and declare yourself open for business. You’ll need to spread the word across the Internet and reach those potential customers. Here are a few suggested ways to market your online services as well as how to generate credibility with Internet users and potential clients.

Create Pay-Per-Click ads: You should, at the very least, create an advertising account with one or more of the major search engines. Google advertising is a definite must, since Google is currently the top search engine in the world.

Google’s pay-per-click advertising program is known as “Google Adwords.” With this program, you choose keywords (words you think that people interested in life coaching services would use as search terms to find a site like yours) and create short ads based on those keywords.

You then choose how much you are willing to pay to have your ads shown when someone uses those words in a keyword search. This is called your “bid.” Your bid determines how frequently your ad will be shown in comparison to other advertisers who are using those same keywords. However, you only get charged if someone actually clicks on your ad.

Other search engines have their own advertising programs. They all have some similarities to Google Keywords plus some features that are unique to their own program.

You may also want to advertise with other platforms, such as Facebook. Or, you can create ads that are specifically for mobile browser users.

Whatever you decide to do, plan carefully because you will have to pay for every click on every advertising program you use. If you’re unsure, start with only one advertising forum (again, we recommend Google Adwords) and wait a few weeks to see how many people are clicking and how much it’s costing you. You can always expand your efforts from there, or change your strategy altogether. (There are no contracts with Google Adwords. You can suspend your ads at any time.)

Create and distribute e-books: An ebook is a longer written work (longer than your typical Internet article, approximately 2000-5000 words or more). Create ebooks on various topics relating to what you do. They should be self-help oriented, with a plug here and there for your business. Be sure to include links to your Website.

Then submit them to a free ebooks Website where Web surfers can come and download them for free. Some excellent sites to contribute ebooks to include Scribd.com and the EbookDirectory.com. Creating and distributing quality ebooks has two benefits. First, it spreads links to your Website around the Internet. Secondly, it establishes your credibility in the eyes of your readers.

Create and distribute short articles: This is similar to producing ebooks, except articles are shorter, generally 500-1000 words long. The idea is the same as writing ebooks.

Simply create articles on topics related to what you do, or what you want potential clients to be able to achieve for themselves. “Learning to Say No” would be one example of a potential article topic. And just like ebooks, you can distribute these for free downloading by Web visitors, building your credibility and spreading around links to your Website. Some quality article sites to consider include EzineArticles.com, StreetArticles.com and Helium.com.

Create Podcasts: This is a bit like creating your own talk radio show, or the audio version of an ebook. Create short “broadcasts” (“Podcasts”) on topics related to self-help, coaching, etc. They can be any length, but you may want to start out with shorter ones (between 5 and 15 minutes long).

Then, like articles and ebooks, you can submit them to sites that accept and distribute free Podcasts for visitors to download. A few of these include PodcastAlley.com, Apple iTunes and DailySplice.com.

Create Videos: Finally, you can create videos that plug your business/Website or are self-help oriented in nature and cover topics relevant to what you do. You might consider this the audio-visual version of a Podcast.

Upload your videos to a video-sharing Website like YouTube.com. You can even create your own YouTube “channel” where people can subscribe. They’ll be notified whenever you upload a new video, and you’ll be able to build up a following this way. This is a marvelous way to generate a customer base for your online life coaching business.

You can also promote yourself by offering free coaching sessions to people that you know. Ask them to spread the word about your business in return or even put links to your Website on their own sites.

Hope this helps,

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is the collection of techniques and practices which causes sites to gain more online traffic. This increase in visitors is the result of users using search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. When the search engine pulls up a listing of search results, website owners covet first page results.

Possible Link Building Services

Individuals skilled in search engine optimization can offer many services for their clients. These services can raise client’s rankings in some cases by 80%. What is great for link builders is that the process of optimization is a continual process. For clients to see the results they want, the link builder must provide search engines with continual and gradual links to the client’s website from relevant and varied sources.

Manual Directory Submissions Service

A link builder knows quality directories. Offer website owners a listing of their website in various directories. Make certain that any directories offered are ones that have been personally tested and determined to add value to any links.

Types of Directories:

• Affiliate links – directory earns commission for referrals
• Bid for position – listing ordered by bids
• Featured listing – sponsored listings
• Free submission – no fees for listing and review
• No follow – search engines doesn’t credit the link
• No reciprocal link – free listing without having to add back links
• Paid submission – fee is charged for submission
• Reciprocal link – listing is granted if website links back to directory

Squidoo Lense Creation

Squidoo is a publishing platform where people can post articles on all different types of topics. Clients will appreciate having their website link posted on Squidoo because it can add value to their link. Contextual links are added at the bottom of an article. When done properly, posting on Squidoo can send qualified leads to the client’s website. Submitting on Squidoo can be helpful in gaining multiple first page niche rankings.

Article Marketing

Article marketing has been around for a long time. In the early years, it began with the paper-print form. It was commonly used by business owners to obtain free publicity. Today, the more popular means of article marketing is Internet article marketing. This technique uses submitted articles to article directories to direct website traffic to their websites. The most popular article directory that has been around for many years is EzineArticles.com although its effectiveness has been called into question in the past year.

Writing Articles for Marketing

• The first step to writing the article is brainstorming an attention-getting title. The title will be one of the first things readers will see when they scan the article directory.
• Brainstorm ideas for the article. Make it pertain to the content of the client’s website.
• When writing the actual article, remember to use a conversational voice to retain audience interest.
• After you are finished writing your article, it is important to provide important information in your resource box. This information will direct your reader to your website of choice. Information should include: Name, title, website address, elevator pitch.

Social Profile Creation

Offer client’s the service of creating social media profiles on popular Web 2.0 websites. These sites are the strongest sites for improving keyword rankings. Web 2.0 websites are any sites which allow users to interact and collaborate with one another online.

Top 15 Web 2.0 Sites

1. YouTube.com
2. Wikipedia.com
3. Twitter.com
4. Craigslist.com
5. WordPress.com
6. Flickr.com
7. IMDB.com
8. Photobucket.com
9. Blogger.com
10. Tumblr.com
11. Ehow.com
12. Yelp.com
13. TypePad.com
14. HubPages.com
15. Digg.com

Social Bookmarking

Major social bookmarking sites give clients the benefits of a referral tool. People on social bookmarking sites share links among each other. Another benefit is its ability to get the client’s website indexed quickly. Social bookmarking sites send subtle clues to search engines about client’s website’s topic which then can drive mass traffic to the site.

15 Top Social Bookmarking Sites

1. Twitter
2. Digg
3. StumbleUpon
4. Reddit
5. Pinterest
6. BuzzFeed
7. Delicious
8. Tweetmeme
9. Fark
10. Slashdot
11. Friendfeed
12. Clipmarks
13. Newsvine
14. Diigo
15. DZone

Blog Marketing

Offer clients blog marketing. This is where articles are created for clients and then the articles are submitted to blogs with contextual links within the article which leads readers to the client’s website. Follow up with continual submissions and commenting on popular blogs.

Group/Forum Marketing

Group marketing is valuable to client’s websites because once it is created (On Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, Vox, or Minglebox) it covers content relevant topics, industry news, or other information targeted to that group and links back to the client’s website. This is great for the client because the links from targeted content sends valuable signals to the search engines about the client’s website. By participating on relevant forums, client’s gain quality traffic, backlinks, and business leads.

5 Steps to Starting a Link Building Business

1. Research Google for updated information on search engine optimization
2. Research which types of websites that will allow link listing for free
3. Sharpen your writing skills for publishing articles for publishing backlinks
4. Study link building techniques
5. Create a website for marketing your small business

Hope this helps,

The largest market for cell phone apps is the iPhone and the Android users. These two platforms have the largest share of Internet-based cell phone users than any other. This tutorial will teach you how to make money off of apps for these two platforms.

An unlikely app success story is the Fart App which made tens of thousands of dollars in its first month of release. Game apps are also extremely popular. Some of the most loved moneymaking game apps include Angry Birds, Oregon Trail and Infinity Trail. It seems that the public’s fascination with phone apps is ongoing, so you might as well cash in on the craze.

Every Successful App Starts as a Great Idea

The same is true of any product that becomes profitable: it all started out as someone’s idea. Whether you’re an IT whiz or you can barely fire up a computer, if you have a great idea you have the potential to make money off of it.

So forget about learning computer programming for now. Start by spending some time getting ideas. Talk with friends and colleagues. Surf the Internet and see what’s already out there. At the same time, try to discover what ISN’T out there that you might be able to provide. Spend time in gaming forums. Ask questions, elicit comments. All of these things will help you come up with an idea, or develop one you already have.

Once you get past the idea stage, it’s time to start planning. Again, don’t worry about programming issues at this point. Instead, focus on developing your idea from start to finish. If it’s something simple (like the fart app) it can probably be developed relatively quickly. Game apps, on the other hand, are going to require a great deal of thought and may take weeks or months to plan out.

Taking comprehensive notes and drawing diagrams (especially for more complex apps, like games) is essential. Write out how your app is going to work. Don’t worry at this point if writing isn’t your thing. It’s more important that you get your thoughts onto paper and less important that you spell correctly or use proper grammar.

You should also make some basic diagrams. Some creators find it helpful to diagram as they write out their plans. Others draw a diagram before or after they write out their thoughts. Do whatever works best for you. And again, don’t worry if drawing isn’t your forte. Crude stick figure diagrams are fine and will give you enough of what you need to move on to the next step.

Getting Your App Off of Paper and Into Source Code

Next it’s time to work on turning your ideas into software. There are basically two ways to do this: write the program yourself, or get someone else to do it for you.

Writing an app program isn’t something you should tackle if you have no understanding of programming. While it’s true that some 12 year olds have created apps, the average 12 year old isn’t capable of doing this. Neither are many adults. You’ll only waste time and potential profits if you try to do this part yourself without the right skills.

Instead, you may need to think of other ways to get the actually programming part done. Chances are good that you’re going to have to hire someone else to do it for you. Naturally this will cost you some money. However, if you have a hot idea, you’ll recoup your investment quickly.

You can find professional programmers through online freelancing sites, or from within your community. Check out local IT companies and computer retailers for leads.

Another, possibly less expensive option is to find one of those brilliant 12 year olds (or teenagers) to build your app for you. They work more cheaply than adult professionals. Contact local schools and colleges to find tech-savvy students.

Yet another option is to enlist a programmer as a partner. Many successful ventures (Facebook, for instance) got started this way. Instead of up front cash, find a partner/programmer who is willing to design your app for a share of your future profits. (If you take this route, make sure you draw up a clear legal contract first.)

If you know a little bit about programming yourself, you may be able to learn how to create your own app program. In the next section of this tutorial we’ll show you a couple of ways to create your own app program, starting with the iPhone platform.

How to Program Your Own iPhone App

Every cell phone maker has its own operating system on which all of its software runs. For an app to be compatible with the iPhone, it must be created using iPhone software. Here is a step-by-step guide to making an app that will run on the iPhone platform:

1. Use a Mac or Mac Emulator: The iPhone is a Mac product, so in order to create an iPhone app, it will need to be written using Mac software. If you don’t own a Mac, beg for or borrow one (or do your work at a public library that has a Mac lab). You can also use a Mac emulator that comes with the IPhone App Development Course HERE.

2. Register with Apple Developer: You must be registered as an Apple developer. It only takes a few minutes to create your user account. It’s free, and you don’t have to register every time you upload a new app.

It may take weeks or possibly months to get approved as an official developer. That’s why you should take this step right away, so that by the time you finish making your app you’ll be able to upload it right away.

3. Get the right software: You’ll need to download the iPhone Software Developer Kit (SDK). It will take a bit of time to learn how to use this software, so be sure that you watch all of the tutorials it contains so you have a good understanding how it works.

After you download SDK for iPhone, you’ll need to download the latest version of XCode. XCode “has a streamlined new interface that integrates UI design, coding, testing, and debugging, all within a single window,” according to Apple. Both of these software programs are needed to create your app.

4. Start creating your program: SDK is packed with templates which you will be able to use to make your app. Simply pick your template and add your particular information.

5. Learn Objective-C: This is the actual programming language used to write all of Mac’s software programs. This is the trickiest part of creating your iPhone app. Again, don’t attempt this unless you’re somewhat of a techie. Otherwise, it might be time for you to invite in a pro (or a brilliant kid).

If you’re going to try this part yourself, get your hands on the book Learning Cocoa with Objective-C by James Duncan Davidson and Apple, Inc. This resource is crucial to getting this step right.

6. Test your app: Developing your app may take weeks or months. It all depends on its complexity (if it’s a game, count on spending several months on it). Once it’s finished, you’ll need to test it and make sure there are no glitches.

SDK comes with an iPhone simulator. You simply upload your program into the simulator and start testing. (Again, testing could take some time, like in the case of a game with multiple levels and lots of variables.) If you find glitches, it’s back to the drawing board. Getting it right can be tedious, but it’s critical if you hope to appeal to your market and actually make a profit.

7. Upload your app to iTunes: There’s a fee for this (around $100). Consider it a cost of doing business, and motivation to make sure your idea is spectacular.

8. Enlist others to test your app: This is like a writer getting someone else to edit his work. Other people are more likely to pick up on things that you didn’t. Testers will help you make sure your app is user-friendly and can also help you gauge its market appeal.

9. Officially submit your app for approval: This is where the rubber meets the road, so make sure you’re app is really ready before you do this. The approval process can take months. You don’t want to wait only to find out your app has problems and can’t get approval. Once it’s approved, it will go up for public sale in iTunes’ app store.

How to Program Your Own Android App

Like apps for the iPhone and the Mac system, Android apps must be compatible with the Android operating system (a subsidiary of Google). One of the advantages of the Android platform is that it’s open source. This means that getting approval for your app may be as onerous a process as it is for iPhone apps.

Creating an Android app is similar in many regards to creating an iPhone app, the major exception being different coding and different software required. Here are the steps for creating your Android app:

1. Register as an Android developer. If you don’t have one, you’ll need to create a basic Google account to do this. Peruse the publishing terms so that you have a good understanding of what regulations you’ll have to adhere to in order to publish before you begin creating your app.

2. Android apps are created using Java code. If you don’t already have it, you’ll need to download a Java development kit. You’ll also need to download integrated development environment (IDE) software. Eclipse is one, and it’s free. (Make sure you extract Eclipse in the same directory on your computer as Java.)

3. Download a version of the Android platform. Finally, download the Android Software Development Kit (ASDK) program.

4. Add the Android development tools. These are found in the Eclipse program. Put them in the same directory where you stored the ASDK.

5. Install your Android SDK to Eclipse. This will allow you to eventually test your app within the program.

6. Create an Android Virtual Device (AVD). Go to Android SDK and AVD Manager and follow the instructions. (You may want to test your app within the various versions of Android. If so, you’ll need to create a different virtual device for each version.)

7. Now you can start developing your app.

8. Test your new app. As already described, do this within your AVD(s). Debug it if needed (it will probably have at least a few bugs).

9. Send your app to market. The most effective and easiest way to do this (especially for a beginner) is to publish it to the Android Market using your Google account ID. You must agree to the terms as set out by the Android Market, as referred to in Step #1.

Marketing Your App

All that’s left to do now is market your app. The least you should do is create a Website to promote your app. Include links to your marketplace(s) or a button that lets users download it directly from your site. You might also choose to advertise it through a PPC program.

However, the most successful apps are those that were promoted mainly by word-of-mouth. Mobile device users talk with one another, and when they find a great app they let other users know. If you have a killer idea then it’s most likely that your best business will come from users who spread the word to other users.

Hope this helps,

To buy websites, perspective buyers need to consider buying a site which already has traffic for a product or service the owner sells. Another idea is to buy a site to better the advertisements on the site for increased optimization. Many sites sell a good product but have poor search engine optimization or online marketing. Poor traffic means owners may be willing to sell.

Definition

Flipping a website happens when an individual purchases a ready-made website or creates one from scratch, adds valuable content, and develops the website until it has been rehabilitated into a profitable website. The owner then sells the website for about three times or more the initial investment of the site.

Website flipping comes from the term in the real estate business where investor’s purchases property, renovates it, and then sells it three times higher than the initial investment. Designing a website is another option. Create the site, add great content, and a way for the site to generate income, and then flip it for more than the initial investment.

Benefits of Flipping Websites

Flipping websites can be beneficial for website owners. The first benefit is that a low capital investment is needed. Property flipping or domain flipping might require a more expensive investment. The second benefit is that the website owner can actually make money on the website while making the necessary improvements to the site. Housing properties on the other hand can only make money after improvements are made. However, with websites can still be fully operational and generate a monthly income while rehabilitation to the websites occurs.

Risks of Flipping Websites

No one can promise that buyers will purchase the website for the asking price. If the domain name is poorly chosen or the content is poor, then buyers will keep looking for a safer investment. If for some reason the website cannot turn a profit, it is not likely someone will want to buy it.

Sellers can also be deceitful about what their selling. A buyer can purchase a website at what seems to be a reasonable price only to discover later the value of the site is worth less. Buyers should research and ask questions before purchasing.

Flip Membership Only Websites

Don’t just limit purchases to income generating websites, membership only websites earns income as well. Create a website or purchase an existing website geared for a specific audience which can generate cash flow by monthly fees and by flipping. Once the website is purchased, value is added to it, and then it is sold for a profit. There are many different types of website clubs on the Internet dealing with particular topics such as, genealogy, high IQ’s, writers of a certain genre, readers of a certain genre, building contractors, fan clubs, and many more.

Purchasing Websites

If capital is available to spend on a professionally designed website, then shop around on the Internet and invest in one. However, it is less expensive to create a site. With a little imagination and designing experience a membership only website can be fashioned for a fraction of the initial investment and sold for a high profit.

On the homepage, advertise the benefits of becoming a member. Have a message board for like-minded members to chat with one another. Offer a newsletter to members and offer more information regarding the topic of the website. Write a book on the topic of interest and publish it as an e-book. Each person who signs-up to become a member will receive the link for a free e-book.

Tips and Tricks

• The least expensive way to flip a website is to build the website and write the content yourself. If you do not have the ability to do one or the other, partner with someone who does.
• Research the premade website you’re interested in purchasing. The site should have decent traffic statistics and generate a monthly income.
• Drive traffic to the site by adding pay-per-click advertising, article marketing, forum marketing, and other advertising methods.
• Potential buyers will want to purchase an established website. Make certain the site is earning income before trying to flip it.
• Sell the website to the highest bidder, and then repeat the process.

Steps to Make Buying and Selling Domains and Websites a Reality

• Research potential websites to buy. Research auction sites to browse for websites to buy. Research books, online advice, or ask a mentor on how to purchase viable websites without being cheated.
• Become educated on websites
• If you haven’t traded in websites before begin by trading small with cheap websites until you become familiar. Don’t risk a big investment.
• One way to gain experience is by purchasing turnkey websites for sale and re-sell them for a profit. Go to auction websites where ready to use sites can be found and bought.
• On many auction sites, you can subscribe to receive notifications of expired websites. This is good because owners who have valuable websites who might forget to renew before the expiration date. This means you can purchase a more expensive sight for a low price and re-sell it for a higher price.
• Browse auction sites for suitable a website to purchase. The auction site should allow key word searches and it must return similar domain names which are available.
• Park the site on classified ad sites which have a similar theme to the purchased website. On some sites, after purchase has been made you will need to pay a small percent to the website for the privilege of advertising on their site.
• Add value to the website. Make any changes that will increase online traffic or income.
• Sell the site. If you purchased the website from an auction site, return to it and post the website to the listing. The reason is that the place where you purchased the site determined the market value, so any enhancements will create a higher market price and deliver a profit. There are auction sites such as Flippa.com (https://flippa.com/) where you can see your website. If you want to get the most for your website you can consider selling through a website broker. You will pay a higher fee usually around 10% of the sale but many times you can get 3x net yearly profits rather than the 10x monthly profits on sites like Flippa. I have used Websiteproperties.com (http://websiteproperties.com/) and have done very well selling websites through them.

Hope this helps,

Domain Name Information

The Internet’s domain name system (DNS) is an address to refer to websites. This name, also called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the location online where users can find a website. The domain name chosen for the website describes the online presence and what the website is about.

The beginning of a website address is the World Wide Web or www dot. After this, is the second-level domain and then the top-level domain. Each level is unique to the website itself.

The second-level domain is the name which is associated with the theme of the website, such as “website name”. This name needs to describe the purpose of the website. The name should be short and easy to remember. It can be a meaningful word or phrase.

The top-level domain is a name that is chosen from a list. It is not a created name. This is often called a generic domain (gTLD). The most popular domain extensions online are: .COM, .NET, .ORG, .US, .EDU, .MIL, and many others. A website name may be something like, “websitename.com”. Let’s take a closer look at these extensions.

• .COM – this extension was created for commercial sites. Companies in the marketplace doing business transactions online choose this name. However, during the nineties people began grabbing up this extension because it was trendy. Numerous people have saved dot com addresses, to the point there are not many left. This domain name may be registered without restriction.
• .NET – was created for companies on a network. However, when people cannot find the dot com name they want, they usually choose a dot net for their website domain. This domain name may be registered without restriction.
• .ORG – is reserved for not-for-profit organizations. Churches, charities, and healthcare organizations usually use this domain extension. This domain name may be registered without restriction.
• .US or .GOV – Dot US names are part of country names. (Banks usually used this extension). Dot GOV indicates a governmental site. Another government extension is WHITEHOUSE.GOV, which indicates the presidential websites. This extension is restricted.
• .EDU – indicates an educational system. This domain name is restricted to only websites dedicated to higher education, such as universities.
• .MIL – this extension is dedicated to the United States military forces and is restricted for public use.

In 2001 and 2002, four new top-level domain names were created by the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). These new names are: .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME, AND PRO. Dot Biz is for businesses, Dot Info is for informational websites. Dot Name is for real or fictional name or personal pages. Dot Pro is for professional websites such as lawyers, accountants, and physicians.

Domain Names Should Have Value

Domain names which sell well will have certain aspects which give them value. Dot com sells better than other lower-level domains. This is especially true if choosing a domain for a business. Dot com lends a boost of credibility. Most users are familiar with dot com and will get frustrated trying to remember other levels of domains.

Domains which are shorter in length are easier to remember. It also is easier for patrons to spread the word about the URL. People who have domains with one possible spelling will also have an easier time of selling. It is a sad fact many people cannot spell, so having a long domain with words with more than one way of spelling will lower the value of the domain name.

Information on Websites

A website is a collection of web pages grouped together. These webpages can be found by entering a URL or the web address. Each web page on the website contains informative content.

Websites are hosted on a computer system, known as a web server. Most people are familiar with the other term for server which is HTTP. There are two main categories in regards to websites, they are static and interactive. A static websites makes visible information without user and owner interaction. However, an interactive website allows communication between user and owner and is trendier these days.

Appraising Domains

Domain names are not the same. They can be created or purchased. The best ones are more expensive. Before buying a name, research domain name appraisal sites. Most of these sites create values on names by basing their appraisals on a wide selection of website sales. Choose a domain appraisal which offers a certification. Prior to purchasing an appraisal, make sure that the business is valid.

Selling Domain Names for Clients

Enterprising individuals can make money by selling domains. Offer services to clients who own addresses. Owners of domains purchase the name for a reason and then they either can’t follow through on creating a website or the product they want to sell is no longer a viable option for creating a website. Sell the domain at auction on the behalf of the client.

Other ways of making money is by placing already purchased domains on hosting websites which auction them off as little as $5 or as much as $50,000 or more. Park websites and old domains at auction sites which then can be purchased and then sold.

Selling Websites for Clients

Individuals can make money by offering to sell websites for website owners who want to sell. Having experience in the market of websites is essential. Buying and selling virtual property can be frustrating and hard to know exactly what is being bought. Anyone interested in buying and selling sites should consider hiring an attorney who will draw documents to protect the interests of all parties involved. Also, it is imperative to receive a clear title on the domain.

When selling websites, it is important to write the title and any copyrighted content into the sales contract. By the time the deal closes on the purchase of virtual property, make certain the domain is out of the client’s name, the new owner possesses the passwords to the hosting, control panel, and ftp.

Steps in Trading Clients Domains or Websites

• Become educated about domains and websites
• Gain experience trading domains and websites
• Market your business online. Purchase a website. Advertise you specialize in buying and selling domain names and websites for clients.
• Consult with an attorney. Draw up any standard documents to protect yourself and your clients. Use these documents when trading.
• When business is slow try trading turnkey websites, visit auction sites, and begin flipping domains and websites.

Auction Resources:

Flippa.com https://flippa.com/
Godaddy.com https://auctions.godaddy.com/
EBay http://www.ebay.com
The Domain name After Market http://www.tdnam.com
Buy Domains http://www.buydomains.com

Hope this helps,

Virtual gaming is expected to replace the most popular social medias. Today, people read status bars and tweets about friend’s latest thoughts. However, in the near future people will not only know about the latest happenings of a friend’s life but your avatar and your friend’s avatar will be watching movies together. It will be the norm for virtual 3D friends to interact in a virtual property, listening to music. Friends can walk through a virtual mall or dance at a nightclub. According to Forbes magazine, 80% of active Internet users participate in virtual gaming worlds and many of them are making money in these imaginary environments.

It is true that individuals are earning money by marketing imaginary property. Investment portfolios now include fake property. With the increased interest in online social media and gaming, computer programmers have designed software that combines the two into a virtual world with a virtual economy. Individuals can add their avatar and play for free. However, all of the fun past times cost virtual money. In a virtual economy, virtual money has a real-world value.

A Virtual Economy

Virtual economies exist inside Internet gaming. The virtual world is realized through MMORPGs (Massively Multiple-Player Online Role Playing Games). Virtual money can be exchanged for goods or services. Many of these games allow for virtual money to be exchanged for real dollars. Because the fake money can be exchanged for real money, players can “own” intellectual property rights to “in-world” lands. Virtual property can refer to any resource, such as virtual objects, avatars, or user accounts. When purchasing lands users pay a set-up fee and an additional payment per month fee for as long as the user “owns” the property.

Virtual Real Estate

In the gaming world, avatars can interact in the marketplace, in a place of entertainment, and even a place of education. When a user wants to purchase property, they can do so by buying land from another resident, buying land at auction, or buy customizable land to divide and rent. Land can be adjusted and developed, similar to the real world. Heights of land can be adjusted. Trees installed. Environments changed. All this can be accomplished through Paypal. Businesses can be bought, created, and established “in-world”.

The virtual real estate is similar to real-world property in a couple of different ways. One, virtual real estate and real-world property cannot escape taxes. Any real-money made is taxable. Two, real estate in either world can make the owner/user a lot of money. There are many ways the two-worlds are different. In the virtual world, land is in endless supply, unlike the real-world. Mortgages are eternal. No land is ever owned out right in the virtual world. Also, there is no lending in the virtual world.

Characteristics of Virtual Property

• Rivalry: possession of property is limited to one person or a group of people
• Persistence: resources persist even if user is not logged into the virtual world
• Interconnectivity: resources may be affected by other users
• Secondary markets: resources may be created, traded, bought, or sold and valued by real-world dollars
• Value added by users: property may increase in value by customizing the resource

Virtual Land Developed

The easy way to explain how to develop land is to relate the virtual land to a website. The virtual land, like a website can be designed and have information stored in its storage area. Most gaming software has easy-to-learn 3D building environments which can be used to build items alone, in a group, in real time, or at different times. Scripts and behaviors can then be added to any creation to make them appear more life-like. Real physics, such as code to make graphics respond to gravity, inertia, propulsion, and wind can be added. Graphics can also be imported to add realism.

How to Make Money Inside In-World Gaming

1. Begin small. Build creations and sell them online. In the virtual world of Second Life, an online marketplace called, Xstreet SL was created for selling purposes.
2. Gradually build on your selling momentum. Begin your own virtual shoe store, shopping mall, nightclub, or portrait studio. Sell your virtual wares and services.
3. Become a land baron by buying and developing large tracts of virtual land. Sell or rent the land to other residents. (Begin small at first. Pay for one piece of property before buying any more properties. Don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.)
4. Don’t limit selling properties or items to just the gaming world. Sell your goods or services on e-Bay.

Virtual 3D Gaming Sites

• Active Worlds
• Blue Mars
• Club Cooee
• Empire of Sports
• Football Superstars
• Free Realms
• Frenzoo
• FriendsHangout
• Gojiyo
• HiPiHi
• IMVU
• Kaneva
• Meet-Me
• Moove
• NuVera Online
• Onverse
• Openism Gnutopia
• Red Light Center
• ResLive
• Second Life
• There Inc.
• 3D Chat
• Twinity
• Vie the Game
• vSide

Hope this helps,

What is a Focus Group?

A paid focus group is a small group of people (anywhere from five to 50 people, on average) with one or more common interests, characteristics or other fact that applies to everyone in the group (i.e. all are from the same town; all are middle-aged women). The group is used for the purposes of performing qualitative research (more on that term later on) about or for a product or service for a particular company.

To get a better understanding of what a focus group is, it’s helpful to first understand a bit about marketing and information-gathering. All kinds of companies use focus groups and other information-gathering tools and techniques (such as surveys) to gauge audience/market response to a particular product or service.

Here’s an example: the medical community (doctors, researchers, pharmaceuticals manufacturers) regularly need real-life data in order to determine what kinds of products (i.e. medicines, drugs) and treatments need to be created. In order to gather that data, they put together a focus group.

Let’s say that the topic of research is sleep disorders. In this case, the focus group would consist of people who regularly experience sleep disturbances. The researcher would bring this group of people together to discuss issues related to sleep disturbances, including potential causes, things that people find helpful in falling asleep, and things to avoid that might further disrupt sleep.

The group would discuss these things together, and the researcher would look for similarities within the group as a whole. He or she would then use this data to go back to the lab and work on a product or service that would help people to sleep better at night.

Many members of the public think of focus groups as being limited to medical research. In reality, focus groups are used by all kinds of different industries in order to gauge public opinion and input on particular products and to obtain ideas for new products to be created. Focus groups offer valuable data and input that simply cannot be obtained through other means of information-gathering.

This kind of information-gathering is known as qualitative research. It differs from other forms of data-collection, such as surveys, because it seeks to understand the reasons consumers make particular choices, as opposed to quantitative research, which only identifies the choices themselves and not the reasons behind them.

For this reason, and because the very nature of a focus group requires personal contact and interaction, many companies pay significant stipends to focus group participants. It’s not uncommon to get paid 50 dollars or more to participate in a one to two hour focus group.

How Can I Find Focus Groups to Participate in?

Focus groups are generally conducted by a second-party company that specializes in conducting scientific research and recruiting participants. A company that wishes to collect and analyze data regarding its products/services will contract with such a second-party company to conduct the research on its behalf. The company commissioning the study pays for all related costs.

Then it’s up to the research company to find people to participate in the studies. That’s where you come in. Such companies use all kinds of methods of advertising, from newspapers to magazines to the Internet.

Its most common method today is recruiting via the Internet. They may do so by placing ads on relevant Websites or through online classifieds, such as Craigslist.

You need not wait until you stumble upon an Internet or newspaper ad, though. You can actively seek out paid focus groups in or around your area. If you live in or near a major city in North America, you’ll probably be able to find focus groups to participate in.

Simply use your favorite search engine (we recommend Google) and type “paid focus groups [your city]” and you’ll likely find some good links to follow. Some may lead you directly to the Website of a research company; others may be directories containing links to multiple focus group companies. Still others may be registries which are used by a number of different research companies to find qualified study participants.

Two registries that you can try include www.focusgroups.com and www.fgglobal.com. They are general registries for people interested in participating in focus groups. All kinds of different researchers use data bases like these to find focus group participants. They do this based on the data that you provide when you register.

Here’s how to get started:

1) Go to the site’s home page. Locate the link on the home page that leads to the sign up page. There may be several of them, and will probably say “sign up” or something like this. Click on that link. You’ll be re-directed to the application page.

2) On the application page, fill out all of the required information, which is mainly biographical in nature. You’ll need to answer every question, since this is the data that companies will use to determine whether you qualify for a particular focus group. Once you’re finished, click the “Submit” button.

You’ll be notified by email if and when you qualify for a focus group in or near your area.

A Few Things to Note About Paid Focus Groups

* When applying or registering to be a participant, make sure you provide all information required, and be honest. Applications found to be fraudulent will be rejected.

* Don’t offer more information than is asked for. Keep your answers short and closed-ended. For instance, certain things, such as disclosing that you’ve worked in a particular industry in the past, may result in a decreased chance of getting a callback. Supply only the information that is directly asked for.

* Applying to be part of a focus group does not automatically guarantee that you’ll be called. It may take some time before someone gets back to you. Be patient. If you want to increase the odds that you’ll get asked to participate in a paid focus group, register with as many companies as you can which do business in your area.

* Thanks to modern technology, not all focus groups require in-person, on-location participation. Some focus groups are conducted via Webcam over the Internet and even by conference call. So don’t assume that you can’t be paid to participate in a focus group if mobility or transportation is an issue.

Hope this helps,

What started out as a humble little search engine created as a university research project has since become a multi-billion dollar, publically-traded company. Google now holds the biggest piece of the search engine market share pie, outranking most of the other search engines combined. In addition to its original mission to create a better search engine, Google branched out to acquire numerous other Internet properties and holdings.

Google generated over 29 billion dollars in revenue in 2010 alone, but it shares some of that revenue with its advertising partners through its Google AdSense program. AdSense has millions of partners, most of them regular, working people, who are making money 24 hours per day, seven days per week simply by running Google ads on their Websites.

You’re probably familiar with Google’s ads. They can be found on private Websites and within the sidebar or top of the page of every Google search engine return page. The ads that run on Google’s search engine pages fill Google’s pockets exclusively, while those that appear on regular Websites generate profit for both Google as well as for the owners of the Websites on which they run.

What is Google AdSense all about?

Placing an ad on Google can be compared to placing a television commercial within a TV. show. The more times a particular commercial is played, the more exposure the product/service receives.

The same is true for a Google ad: the more frequently it appears on the Internet, the more the exposure for the company. The major difference between a television commercial and a Google ad is that a television advertiser must pay a fixed price as determined by the television company. That price does not change, whether the commercial gets a million views or only 200,000.

Google ads, on the other hand, are pay-per-click. In other words, the advertiser only pays for the ad placement when a Web surfer clicks on it.

Of course, the more times the ad shows up on a Web page, the greater the likelihood that more people will see it and click on it. If the ad is placed strategically on a page that contains content related to that product, it will entice even more people to click.

The Google AdSense program allows a company to create ads and choose keywords that are related to that ad. Once the company does this, Google then places these ads on search engine return pages where those keywords were used in a search query.

It will also show the ads on private Websites whose owners have agreed to allow Google to run them on their site’s pages. Google automatically scans the content of the site’s pages, then selects and places ads which correspond to that Website’s subject matter.

When such ads are placed within the pages of a Website, the purchaser of the ad pays a fee each time the ad is clicked on. Google then shares that revenue with the owner of the Website. It’s a win-win-win situation for all three parties.

Here’s an example: let’s say that a cosmetics manufacturer wants to advertise a lipstick. They create a short ad about the lipstick and choose as many related keywords as they want.

Once the ad is submitted to Google, it will be placed on Websites whose subject matter correspond to the subject of the ad. An ad about a lipstick brand, for instance, may end up appearing on a blog about how to apply makeup or a Website that provides reviews on cosmetics or perhaps even a fashion Website. Anytime a site visitor clicks on the ad, the site owner receives a fee.

How to Start Making Money with Google AdSense

Anyone can sign up to become a Google AdSense partner. This tutorial will give you step-by-step instructions on how to get started:

1) Go to the Google AdSense page. It’s located at: http://www.google.com/adsense. Typing “Google AdSense” into a search engine query should also get you there.

2) Locate the sign-up link or button (try the top right-hand corner of the page) and click on it. You’ll be re-directed to the application form.

3) Fill out the application form on this page. You’ll need to provide the URL of your Website’s home page, your name and address and some other basic information. Be sure to fill out every field and check any boxes that must be read and agreed to.

4) Once you’ve filled out the form, click on “Submit” or “Send,” and you’ll be redirected to a new page to confirm your information. You’ll be asked whether or not you have an existing Google account. If you do, you’ll be asked to provide this information and log in. If not, you’ll be directed to create a Google account login name and password.

5) That’s it! Now your application gets sent off for review by the Google AdSense editors.

Google makes its decision largely based upon the content of the Website that you want to place advertisements on. Google won’t place ads on any sites or pages which contain pornographic or illegal content.

The review process typically takes around a week, but it may be longer or shorter than that, depending on how busy Google editors are at that time. You’ll be notified at the email address you provided as to whether your application has been approved or not.

If your application receives approval, you’ll receive an email that outlines detailed instructions on how to proceed. You’ll be able to choose how your ads appear on your Website (style, location, design elements, etc.) Once you’ve completed these steps, Google AdSense will generate HTML code which you’ll need to insert into your site’s HTML code.

Some blogs and Web hosting companies already have Google AdSense built in to your Website’s template. If this is the case you should contact your service provider to learn how to activate this part of your Website.

You make money when people visit your website and click on the Adsense ads. It’s that simple. I have sites with Google Adsense on them that make over $1,000 per month so there is money to be made using Google Adsense.

An important note: Google AdSense forbids its partners to click on Google ads which appear on their pages. Google will periodically scan your site’s activity to determine whether this is occurring. If the Google AdSense editors feel that there are fraudulent clicks happening, it has the right to suspend and/or terminate your agreement immediately.

Other Important Notes:

Make sure that you do not use Google Adsense on a blog or website with content that is scraped or posts generated by auto blogging techniques as this could get your Adsense account banned.

How to Maximize Your Google AdSense Earnings:

The biggest key to making as much money as you can is creating quality, compelling, keyword-rich content for your site. Targeting specific keywords with your content is important, because this will help to drive the right visitors to your site, the ones who are most interested in the content you provide and, therefore, more likely to purchase a related product.

You can also maximize your earnings by taking advantage of the other services and options available to Google AdSense partners. The AdSense Website is packed full of helpful information, hints, editorials and tutorials, and it will be wealth worth your time to go through all of these options carefully.

Two Frequently Asked Questions:

How much money will I make from each ad that receives a click? This depends on a number of things. The main determinant is how much the advertiser is paying Google to run his/her ads. Ads are placed according to a bidding system, so not all Google ads cost the same amount. You may end up making anywhere from a few cents on up per click.

You’ll also discover that there are a few other ways to make money from Google AdSense. These programs, which include a search feature and displaying ads in feeds, can be added on to your site as an option and will play into how much money you’ll end up making.

How much control do I have over what ads appear on my site? You can’t choose specific ads to run on your site. However, you can put filters on the types of ads Google places there. You’ll be able to prevent ads from your direct competitors from appearing, you can prevent certain placement-targeted ads, and you can block ads from specific advertisers or ad groups. Google will give you instructions on how to do this.

Hope this helps,

What is affiliate marketing?

If you’re familiar with the word “affiliate,” you’ll probably already have a bit of an idea of what “affiliate marketing” entails. The affiliate (i.e. you) associates him or herself with a product or products from a particular seller. He or she agrees to advertise the product(s) on the Internet. In exchange, the affiliate receives a percentage or fee for every one of those products that someone buys by clicking on links to the advertiser’s product from the affiliate’s (your) Website. It can be paralleled to the job of a real-life car salesman or real estate agent, in which the salesman/agent makes a commission on the final sale price of the car or property.

How does affiliate marketing work?

First, you should choose a product or products to market. You can find, literally, hundreds of different items and/or services to market. Books are popular, but you can choose from a vast number of products/services, including online dating, online gambling, household products, educational items, toys, vitamins and health products, computer software, electronics and much more.

Once you’ve selected your product or service, the next step is to set up a Website on which you will market your chosen product/service. It need not be complicated: you can choose an online Website builder service which is relatively inexpensive (sometimes even free) and have a simple site up and running in less than a day. Or, you may choose to use a free blogging service to promote your product/service. Again, these take very little time to set up and launch.

Next, place your affiliate ads on the Website. Your affiliate company will give you instructions on how to do this. Usually it’s a matter of inserting a simple bit of HTML code into your Website provided to you by the company. (The host of your Website usually provides detailed instructions on how to insert this code into your site.)

Once that’s completed, most of your work is done. If you don’t have one already, you’ll probably be asked to set up an account with an online bank like PayPal so that you can get paid by the affiliate company. That’s about all there is to it!

Once the site is set up, you need not revisit it again unless you decide you want to make any changes on it later on. Your site will run itself, and you’ll be able to make money 24 hours per day, 7 days per week with little ongoing involvement or interaction with the Website itself or the people buying the product.

The idea of generating revenue without any active, ongoing interaction with the product or the site itself is known as “passive income.” It simply means that you can do something else while you’re making this money (like go to work, hang out with your kids, or sleep). It’s a great way to make a side income, boost your monthly earnings, or launch a new career as an e-entrepreneur!

Now, what are the steps to get started in affiliate marketing? Become a member of my “Rapid Money Formula” membership and gain access to everything you need to know to become a successful affiliate marketer plus access other secrets to making money online not revealed elsewhere. Inside the “Rapid Money Formula” membership you will find a complete step by step 28 part VIDEO SERIES to not only getting started but succeeding in affiliate marketing. I reveal secrets that most affiliate marketing courses leave out. I also give you a step by step guide into building backlinks that work to get your site to the top of Google. I even show you every tool I use to get my websites to the number 1 ranking on Google. Each module will walk you through the basics of affiliate marketing from choosing a niche to getting traffic. Everything you need to know is included. You will even be able to watch OVER MY SHOULDER as I build an affiliate website from the GROUND UP! No other affiliate marketing course offers that!

You can also view my FREE VIDEO SERIES on Affiliate Marketing as well. These Videos are not as detailed as my Rapid Money Formula AFFILIATE MARKETING SERIES, but they will help you make a great start into becoming a successful affiliate marketer.

The Internet is a modern marketplace. People meet online to make purchases and to discuss topics of concern. Online forums are organized according to topic. This way like-minded individuals can discuss thoughts of a similar subject. Many forums have standards by which the community must abide by. There is forum etiquette so members will be considerate to others. In order for the forum to run smoothly, someone must be in charge to administrate policy and procedure. However, new forums have a hard time getting started because no one wants to post. In this case, forum administrators or owners hire people to post in their forum. Posters won’t get rich, but can find a steady income.

Reasons for Forum Posters

The biggest reason for hiring forum posters is forum inactivity. It is hard to acquire new members and to get a forum started. Once a forum does get members it is even harder to get them to take the first step to start a thread or post to a thread. Forums need fresh discussion topics to get the ball rolling. However that is not all. Many people are scared to post in the forum because they’re scared no one will reply.

Requirements

For a forum administrator or owner to choose a poster, it is essential to have certain minimal skills. These skills would include possessing the ability to communicate efficiently and clearly. It is also important to have a strong command of the English language. For the ability to make even more money, posters should have strong typing skills.

Process

Most forums have at least some type of hiring process. It is fairly easy. The forum administrator or owner will want to know what type of communication skills you possess. They will ask for sample forum posts to make certain that you have the skills you claim to hold.

Pay

As stated above, a poster will not get rich posting in forums. Typically, forums will pay about $0.10-$0.25 cents per word to help get a forum started. However, depending on your determination there are sites which will pay $2-$20 a day. Some posters average about $8-$10 an hour and that’s if a poster has strong typing skills. Payments from forums are usually easy. When posters request payment the money is sent out within 24-hours. Forums pay by check or PayPal.

Typical Guidelines

• Each post must contain a minimum of 20-words
• All content must be written grammatically correct
• All work must be completed by the deadline
• Forum posters should not post more than the daily limit
• Only acquire work if you have the time to begin immediately
• Deleted posts/threads must be replaced with new ones
• Introductions do not count
• Threads should be thoughtful and promote discussion
• Posts must be relevant to the thread

Step by Step Instructions to Become a Forum Poster:

1. Brush up on typing skills
2. Tighten grammatical skills
3. Lurk around forums and get the hang of the ends and outs of forums
4. Research paid-to-post forum websites
5. Review their guidelines and payment
6. Apply
7. Begin earning money as a forum poster

Three Paying Forums

1. WIREDFLAME – is currently hiring forum posters. They pay $0.15 cents for each thread and $0.12 cents for each post. They allow 1-2 threads and 4-6 posts a day. Payments are made every Friday through PayPal.

2. MYLOT – is a very old forum. Posters need to reach $10 worth of postings before payment is rendered through PayPal. This site does use a proprietary earnings algorithm which re-calculates all earnings. This means posters earnings will fluctuate.

3. ITALKMONEY – is a posting paying forum. Posters must post 100 posts before they can request a payout. Members must accumulate $10 worth of postings before a request can be made. Forum members are allowed to open a maximum of 5 new threads per day. Posters will be paid $0.03-$0.20 cents per post depending if the member is an upgraded member. Administrators do deduct points for errors.

Hope this helps,

The Internet is our modern marketplace. People meet online to make purchases and to discuss topics of concern. Online forums are organized according to topic. This way like-minded individuals can discuss thoughts of a similar subject. Many forums have standards by which the community must abide by. There is forum etiquette so members will be considerate to others. In order for the forum to run smoothly, someone must be in charge to administrate policy and procedure.

Forum Administrator Duties

Most forum administrators have a thankless job. Many online community members have no idea the amount of work which goes into the position.

Administrators remove spam from forums. The same spam which hits email inboxes also hit forum websites. They must empty the spam box. Dedicated administrators must monitor the forum for when members attempt to spam the community with personal marketing. Usually, when a member spams the forum it is a guideline violation and the administrator must send a warning to the member.

Guideline violations can be anything from spam to any type of inappropriate behavior. For example, personal advertising, cross posting, posting personal contact information, using obscenities, and political or religious discussions may be part of the guideline violations. One problem in particular happens often. That is flaming. Flaming happens during heated discussions when a person over-reacts and basically throws a temper-tantrum in the forum. Moderators then must remove the flamed post and contact the member with a reprimand.

Members have the opportunity to flag comments or threads for administrators to view. Sometimes members flag offensive posts. Other types of flagged items happen when a member posts a question that has already been asked and answered. The website itself may be created so that each flagged item is sent as a notification to the administrator.

Part of managing a forum may include writing policies for members to follow. Oftentimes, guidelines need adjusting or to be rewrote. These policies must be written grammatically correct as well as communicating the idea clearly and effectively.

Some forums are organized into several categories. Forum administrators have the responsibility to train moderators for individual categories. Then it is the administrator who oversees the work of the moderators under them. It is important not only to train but to encourage the staff.

Forum Administrator Problems

General inquiries and maintenance problems are handled by the forum administrator. Any time a member makes forum contact with the administrator it is important to always respond quickly and personally. Site problems which are dealt with usually include error messages, user name and password errors, and problems uploading images, or not receiving updates.

Etiquette is necessary for a community to run smoothly. It is the responsibility of the forum administrator to educate the forum about appropriate behavior. Many forums have a procedure for banning members who have disregarded the etiquette guidelines. The administrator must also set a good example of leadership and thank helpful individuals publically and privately.

Forum Administrator Pay

Unfortunately, the typical pay for a forum administrator has decreased since 2010. There are a few states where corporate forum administrators can earn up to $40,000 a year. In some instances, managing a forum is combined with another position like website developer and the pay is substantially higher.

Most common forums ask their communities for members who are passionate about the subject of the forum and willing to work as a volunteer. These members must really have a love for the position to accept it.

Forum Administrator Background and Skills

Corporations want to employ administrators who have earned an associate or bachelor’s degree in the computer field. They want individuals who have an understanding of HTML, CSS, Javascript, and other Web-related programming languages. Administrators must have an understanding of interface concepts, tools, and methodologies. They also look for individuals who have strong technical skills.

Forum Administrator Jobs

To submit a resume for a forum administrator position, research various corporations to see who is hiring. Visit online job sites such as:

Dice.com
Monster.com
Complete Job Site List Here

Study companies and submit resumes. If interested in volunteer positions, become a member of forums and be helpful, encouraging, and resourceful.

Hope this helps,

References:

CNET.com
Managingcommunities.com
Indeed.com

Of course, competition for those 13 hours of viewing time is plentiful and strong. Advertisers want to ensure that their efforts to spread the word about whatever they’re selling is actually being viewed and, more importantly, reaching the kinds of people who actually have the potential to become customers. That’s how “pay to surf” programs were born.

How Does “Pay to Surf” Work?

Websites make money when they display banner ads posted on their pages by other companies. However, the businesses which place these ads want assurance that their ads are actually being viewed. They also want to maximize the exposure that their ads will receive when they pay for them to be placed on the Internet.

“Pay to Surf” companies help to make both of these things possible. “Pay to Surf” companies act something like middle-men between the companies who purchase banner ads and Internet users. They help to ensure that as many viewers as possible actually view those ads. To do this, they take part of the revenue that they make from running the ads and share it with the Internet users who view the ads.

In order to do this, the Pay-to-Surf company must provide their viewers with a means for their viewing time to be tracked. Usually this involves downloading a software program which places a small “viewbar” (like a small, inset screen that will show up on your Web browser) on your computer. This viewbar runs the ads of their advertisers and the software tracks the amount of time that you spend on the Internet. You get paid a specified amount of money for the amount of time that you spend on the Internet.

Some Pay-to-Surf companies pay out bonuses for referrals; you get paid a small fee every time you get someone else to sign up for a pay-to-surf program. Some may even pay you a percentage based on the time that those you’ve referred to the program spend surfing the Web.

You’re free to spend as much or as little time on the Internet that you want. There are no minimum requirements as far as time. It’s just like getting paid for the time that you would normally spend surfing the Internet anyway.

Some of our recommendations include www.cashcrate.com, www.inboxdollars.com and www.getpaid4surf.com. Others, like www.swagbucks.com pay you in prizes and gift cards instead of cash, a good option if you want to save money on your shopping.

How to Get Started

Every Pay-to-Surf site is a bit different, but the sign-up procedure will generally be something like this:

1) Go to the site’s home page. You may be able to sign up directly on the home page. Otherwise, locate the “Sign Up” button/link and click it to be re-directed to the sign-up/application page.

2) On this page, fill out all of the required information. This will usually include your name, address, phone number, email address. You may also be asked, either on the sign-up page or on a subsequent page, to choose your payment method. Some sites pay you through an online bank like PayPal. Others may pay you via check when you’ve reached a certain threshold or payout level. When you’ve supplied all the information that was asked for, click “Submit.”

3) Make sure that you read the site’s “Terms of Use.” This will help you to understand what your responsibilities and obligations are, as well as what you can expect from the program. Click on the “Agree” box when prompted.

That’s usually all it takes. Your application will be reviewed, a process that may take a day, but not usually more than a few days. You’ll be notified by email if your application has been approved. You’ll also be given instructions on how to download necessary software.

Some Important Points to Note

Avoid any pay-to-surf program that asks you to pay a membership fee, or any other fee for that matter. There are numerous pay-to-surf companies that are free to join. You should never pay for the opportunity to earn money by surfing.

Be sure to carefully follow the instructions regarding downloading the provided software. Some software may not be compatible with certain browsers. Make sure you know this before you begin.

Many pay-to-surf companies allow you to choose the types of ads that you want to view. This helps to minimize the chance that you’ll be exposed to ads that you might find offensive, or which may not be relevant to your interests. Advertisers want their ads to be seen by the kinds of viewers who might actually have an interest in what they’re selling.

Hope this helps,

Believe it or not, there are thousands of companies around the world that are willing to pay regular people simply to shop in their stores or eat in their restaurants. In some cases you may come away with not just some pocket cash, but a free meal or merchandise too.

What is a Mystery Shopper?

Service-oriented companies, like retailers and restaurant chains, like to keep tabs on how well their employees are doing their jobs. Specifically, they want to know whether customers in their establishments are getting great service. So they hire “mystery shoppers” to help gauge this. A “mystery” or “secret” shopper is a regular customer, just like you, who is sent in to an establishment to test whether customers are getting the kind of service they’re supposed to get.

The mystery shopper is typically sent into the establishment with a list of instructions. Things that are frequently asked for by the sponsoring company (usually the parent company of the establishment) include:

* Checking for store cleanliness.

* Testing how observant, helpful, friendly and accommodating the staff members are.

* Determining whether there are enough staff members available to meet customer demands and offer help.

* Asking a staff member for help locating a product and evaluating the kind of help you are given.

* Tasting a particular food or foods.

* Making unusual requests and seeing how staff members handle the requests (i.e. asking a deli clerk if you can have a sample of a particular meat or if you can have a volume/bulk discount on an item).

* Evaluating the speed and efficiency of the service you receive.

* Judging whether there is adequate parking, enough shopping carts to go around, etc.

What Does the Mystery Shopper Do?

The mystery shopper simply goes into the establishment and goes about business like a regular customer. The idea is to take the list of instructions and complete each task given without drawing too much attention to oneself.

Once the instructions have been completed, the mystery shopper completes a transaction and leaves the store. At home, he or she must fill out an evaluation covering all of the things asked for by the sponsoring company.

The sponsoring company may provide you with some spending money, depending on the situation, especially if you’re asked to purchase something specific and/or expensive. Otherwise, you’ll receive your pay upon completion of the assignment and submission of the required evaluation.

Mystery shopping occurs every day in a variety of stores and establishments all across North America. In many cases, these jobs take one hour or less to complete. Some can even be completed in conjunction with your regular shopping tasks, so little extra time is actually required at all. Additionally, many sponsoring companies allow you to choose what stores or types of establishments you want to patronize.

How to Become a Mystery Shopper

Applying to become a mystery shopper is best completed via the Internet. There are a number of Websites devoted to recruiting mystery shoppers. Most are simply “middle men;” that is, agents who work on behalf of multiple companies to find and hire mystery shoppers to test those companies’ products/services. Some reputable mystery shopper recruiters in North America include www.bestmark.com, www.fgglobal.com and www.gapbuster.com.

All you have to do is fill out an application. For this tutorial, we will use www.bestmark.com as an example. However, most of the mystery shopping recruiters that are online have a similar sign-up process, so these steps will generally apply across the board:

1) Go to www.bestmark.com and click on the link that says “Become a shopper.” You’ll be re-directed to the company’s directory of regions page.

2) Locate the country and state/province where you reside and click on it. You’ll be re-directed to the corresponding page. On this page you’ll see a directory listing all of the cities and areas where Bestmark requires mystery shopping. Take a minute to look at this list and determine whether one or more of these regions is within close range to where you live. If so, locate the “Sign Up” button (near the top of the page) and click on it. This will take you to the application page.

3) Fill in the blanks on the application form. You’ll need to supply your name, address, email address and phone number(s). Once finished, click “Submit.” You’ll be taken to a second page of questions to answer. Fill out this page entirely. Click “Submit” when finished. You’ll be taken to another page of questions regarding your demographics.

4) Answer all of the questions pertaining to demographics. This information will be used to determine what would be the best stores/establishments to assign you to. Once finished, click on “Complete.”

Your completed application will be submitted for review. If you qualify, you’ll be notified by email. This usually takes a few days (but may take more or less than that.)

If you qualify, you’ll be sent a list of opportunities in your area. You are not obligated to accept every opportunity that is sent to you. However, it’s a good idea to commit to doing at least two or three assignments per month in order to remain in good standing with the company. The more assignments you complete, the more assignments you’ll be sent.

A Few Important Points to Note:

You’ll probably find several legitimate mystery shopper companies on the Web. However, you may run across scams too. It’s not always easy to distinguish between the two. One sure-fire way to pick out a scam very early on is when a company asks you to pay a fee to become a mystery shopper.

There are plenty of mystery shopper agencies that are free to apply to, so there is no need to pay any company anything at all to be a mystery shopper. Avoid any company that asks you to do this.

Whatever company you are thinking of signing up with, make sure you read and understand their terms of service and rules. Look particularly for information on how you’ll be paid, what types of assignment opportunities will be sent to you, and what their expectations are (if any) in terms of how many assignments you are expected to take on.

It’s also important to note that not every company pays its mystery shoppers in cash for every single assignment. Some pay with store gift cards. Some offer free product. This particularly common when mystery shopping in restaurants: you may receive a free meal instead of a fee. Be sure that you understand the terms of each individual assignment that is sent to you so you won’t be disappointed in the end.

Hope this helps,

How Does it Work?

Internet advertising is powerful, but is only useful if the advertiser can persuade Web users to actually look at their advertisements. The average Web surfer may be exposed to dozens of ad links in just one hour of surfing. However, the advertiser has little control over whether surfers will actually click on the links.

Indeed, most Web surfers do not click on more than one or two ad links per day, some don’t click any at all during their everyday Web surfing experience. So how can advertisers leverage the potential impact of their ads and ensure that their efforts to draw in viewers actually pay off? By paying for viewers.

Here’s how they do it: the advertiser contracts with a secondary company that specializes in viewer recruitment. The advertiser provides the company with the link to the ad or Website that it wants viewers to see.

The company then recruits viewers by paying them to click on the link, which is emailed to the viewer. It pays the viewer a portion of what it receives as its fee from the advertiser. This is how YOU get paid to read emails.

What Can I Get Paid for Reading Emails and Clicking on Links?

The pay depends largely upon the company that recruits the viewers. As we mentioned already, the viewer recruiter receives a fee from the advertiser. The recruiter then pays part of that fee to its viewers. The average company pays between 2 and 3 cents per link that a viewer clicks on. Therefore, the more links you are able to view, the more money you’ll make.

When you consider that it takes only a few seconds to open an email and click on a link, you can make several dollars per hour doing this. You can spend just a few minutes or hours each day doing very little and getting paid for it.

How to Get Started

First, sign up with a viewer recruiter. There are a number of these on the Internet. Here are just a few of them:

www.emailcashpro.com
www.matrixmails.com
www.getpaid5times.com
www.emailpaysu.com
www.availmail.com
www.inboxdollars.com
www.hits4pay.com
www.cashmoneymail.com
www.readclick.com
www.get-paid.com

You can sign up with just one. Or, if you want to spend a lot of time and make more money at it, you can sign up with more than one company.

Here’s how you do it:

1) Go to the home page of your chosen recruiter and locate the button or link leading to the sign-up page. Look for text reading “Sign Up” or “Get Started” or some variation of this. Click on the link/button.

2) You’ll be re-directed to the sign-up page where you’ll be asked to provide some basic personal/biographical information. You’ll likely need to give your name, address and phone number. You’ll also be asked to choose a user name and secret password which you will use to access the member’s area of the Website and your own account.

3) Once you’ve filled in all the required information, you’ll be asked to agree with the terms of the Website and the rules for getting paid for reading emails and clicking on links. It’s important that you take the time to read this information carefully. It may take a few minutes, but you need to have a thorough understanding of what is expected from you and what you can expect from the company. After reading, be sure to click on the appropriate box, usually marked “I agree.” If necessary, click on the “Submit” link to be re-directed to the next page.

4) Depending on the company that you choose to work with, your application may have to be reviewed before you’ll be allowed to start. The review process may take a few hours to a few days. You will be notified by email if your application has been accepted. You’ll also be given instructions at that time on how to receive your emailed links and how you’ll be able to collect payment for the links that you click on.

A Few More Thoughts to Consider

• Most viewer recruiting companies have a minimum threshold that must be reached by the viewer before the company will make payment. This may be anywhere from $25 to $100, depending on the company. Any money you earn from clicking on the emailed links will be held in escrow until you reach your minimum payout threshold. Once you do, your money will be paid to you via the method previously agreed upon when you signed up for your account. Some pay you via PayPal or another online bank, while others mail its viewers a check or money order.
• Depending on the company you are working with, you may be allowed to choose the types of links that you are sent for viewing. You may be allowed to choose categories or areas of interest from a list provided by the company.
• Choosing the kinds of topics you are interested in decreases the chance that you’ll be exposed to material that you might find personally offensive. It also increases the chance that you’ll remain engaged with what you are viewing and that you’ll continue viewing the links that you’re sent. It makes for a win-win situation.
• A number of the most popular viewer recruiting Websites offer cash sign-up bonuses to entice new viewers to participate. They typically run between one and ten dollars. Remember this when you choose the company you want to work with: it may influence your decision.

How Do Companies Recruit Their Viewers?

Email readers just like you are recruited by the thousands through Internet ads and by personal referrals. In fact, referrals are an important part of their recruitment process, and many recruiters offer their email readers the opportunity to make even more money by referring potential viewers to their company.

You may be offered the opportunity to do this, too. The company you sign up with may give you the option to provide them with a number of email addresses of potential viewers. Some offer a small fee for each email; others may only pay you if the email contacts you provide actually sign up for the program. Either way, it means the potential for you to make a little bit more money.

Hope this helps,

Writers are making money in a number of ways, using the World Wide Web as their publishing platform. In this tutorial we will examine three of the most popular ways and how you can go about getting started.

I) Make Money Writing for HubPages or Squidoo

HubPages.com and Squidoo.com are just two of the most popular of the blog-style publishing sites on the Internet. They are sometimes confused with article distribution Websites (such as MintArticles.com). Article distribution Websites differ in that they are places where writers can submit articles for syndication, and publishers can use those articles free of charge on their own Websites. The Website owners do not share any revenue with the writers.

HubPages and Squidoo, by contrast, more closely resemble the blogging model. Individual articles cannot be used or reprinted by a second party. Instead, the content is posted exclusively and pay-per-click ads are posted within the pages of the post. Ads are matched by content, and the Website shares any revenue from these ads with the creator of the content. In some cases, content creators may also be able to offer certain affiliate products for sale on their pages and earn additional income when the affiliate product is purchased by a viewer.

One of the most appealing features of venues like these is the ability to customize and enhance content with pictures, video, “how-to” components and ways for site visitors to interact with the material. When these features are maximized, it increases the chances that the creator will generate revenue.

How to Get Started

You can choose just one, or submit content to multiple sites like these. Most of these kinds of sites require that you post original, exclusive content, so make sure you are familiar with the rules of each site you work with and that you don’t submit duplicate content to multiple sites if this is prohibited.

The sign up process for HubPages.com and Squidoo.com and other like-Websites is very similar, and pretty simple:

1. Go to the site’s home page and look for the “Sign-Up” or “Get Started” link/button. Most of the time you’ll find one of these located in the top center or top right corner of the home page. Click on this. You’ll be re-directed to the application page.
2. On this page, fill out the requested information. You’ll be asked for basic biographical info like your name, address, email address and Website address (if you own a Website of your own). You may also be asked to choose how you would like to get paid for any shared revenue that’s generated from your pages. (FYI: Squidoo also offers you the option to donate your revenue to a selected charity.) When you’re finished with this step, click the “Submit” button/link.
3. Either on the application page or on a successive page, you’ll be asked to read and agree to the site’s terms of use. Be sure you read these terms carefully. (FYI: This is probably where you’ll find information regarding submitting original and/or exclusive content.)

It will probably take a few minutes, but you should take the time to read this information carefully and then indicate that you agree with the terms by checking the appropriate box. Failure to comply with the site’s terms may result in termination of your account and may also jeopardize any earnings you’ve amassed. The best way to avoid this is to have a thorough understanding of what’s expected of you and what you can expect from the site.

Depending on the particular Website, you may be able to begin posting immediately, or you may have to wait to have your application reviewed. If your application must first be reviewed and approved, you may have to wait anywhere from a few hours to a few days before you can begin posting content.

That’s really all there is to it. Signing up is quick and simple. Once you’re able to begin creating content, familiarize yourself with the features that are available to you. These features can help you draw in more viewers and even get a better search engine ranking.

One of the biggest benefits of writing articles for a share of ad revenue is that it costs you nothing to get started: no membership fees, and no other financial investment is required.

How Do I Get Paid?

Payment terms differ from site to site. Some pay you your share of advertising revenue via an online bank account like PayPal. Others send you a check or money order.

It’s also important to note that most of these sites have payout thresholds. This means that they will hold your earnings in escrow until you’ve amassed a minimum amount of money. Once you’ve reached this threshold you’ll get paid and your account will go back to zero dollars.

II) Make Money Through Pay-Per-Post

As its name implies, pay-per-post is the idea of creating and posting content for a fee. Generally speaking, it requires you to write article or editorial-style content on a specific topic. The number of required words will probably be between 350 and 500 words. Some popular pay-per-post sites include www.payperpost.com and www.postsgenius.com.

The pay that you’ll receive is largely dependent upon two things: the particular site that you are writing for, and the length of the piece. Some sites pay you a flat fee for an article of a particular word range, while others may pay you per-word (up to a maximum number of words). Generally speaking, you should expect to make between three and ten dollars for an article of 350 to 500 words.

Want to try your hand at it? Here’s how to start:

1. Go to your chosen site’s home page. Locate the link or button that says “Sign Up.” It shouldn’t be hard to find: usually it’s located near the top center or top right hand corner of the page. (Make sure you click on the link that’s meant for bloggers or writers, NOT for advertisers.) You’ll be re-directed to the sign-up page.
2. On the sign-up page, fill in the required information. You need only supply basic biographical information like your name, email address, home address, etc. You may also be asked to choose a user name and password, which you will use every time you want to access your account on the site. Be sure to click on the “Submit” link or button when you’re finished.
3. Depending on the site you choose to work with, you may be asked to do a number of other things which may include creating a writer bio, choosing topics of interest that you’d like to write on, or selecting a price range that you’re willing to work within. Make sure that you fill out all of the necessary information. You may also be asked to read and agree with the terms of the Website. Be sure that you read and understand these terms so that you know what is expected of you, and also what you can expect of the site you’re working with.

That’s all it takes to get started. Some sites let you get started right away by directing you to a list of topics/subjects or products to write about. Others may send you topics via email. Either way, you should be able to start making money within 24 hours or less.

Payment method for the work you complete will be similar to what was described in the first section of this tutorial under the sub-heading “How Do I Get Paid?” Please re-visit this section if you need a review.

Pay-per-posting has similar advantages to writing for shared ad revenue. You aren’t required to pay any kind of up-front fee, so you can get started right away and you won’t have to worry that you’re losing any money.

FYI: Make sure that you understand what is expected of you as a writer/blogger. Particularly, make sure you carefully read the site’s guidelines pertaining to writing style. Your work will automatically be rejected if it’s full of spelling or grammar errors and/or isn’t written in the format requested. You’ll be wasting your time if you don’t read and understand these rules before you start submitting articles or editorials.

III) How to Make Money by Freelancing

If you’re good at writing, you may be able to make more money as a freelancer. Freelancing involves finding private buyers for your work and/or bidding on posted writing jobs. The trick is finding those jobs and buyers. That’s where freelancing Websites such as iFreelance.com are helpful.

Joining a freelancer’s site gives you access to, and the right to bid on, writing jobs that are posted by companies and individuals from all over the world. You’ll find a variety of jobs available on sites like these.

Most of them are for writing work that is destined for Internet publishing, but you’ll also find jobs writing for magazines, newsletters, newspapers, or for copywriting for product catalogues. You may also find a number of translating jobs, which tend to pay very well since you must be fluent in more than one language to do them. Joining a freelancer’s network gives you a better variety of jobs to select from, and often these jobs offer better pay than other forms of online writing opportunities.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Go to the Website’s home page and locate the “Sign-up” link or button and click on it. (Make sure that you click on the button meant for potential service providers, not the one meant for those who are posting a particular freelance job.) You’ll be re-directed to the sign-up page.
2. Fill out the required information. You’ll have to provide basic biographical info like your name, address, email address, phone number, etc. You may also be asked to choose a user name and password which you will use to access your account on the site. Click the “Submit” button when finished.
3. Depending on the site you choose, you may be asked to select a “membership level“. Many sites, including iFreelance.com, have different membership levels to choose from. Each successive level costs a bit more, but also offers more features and benefits, such as an expanded profile, space for a portfolio and/or pictures, first rights to bidding on certain jobs, etc. If you’re unsure, start with a basic level membership. You can always upgrade later on if you want to.
4. After selecting your membership level, you’ll need to submit payment. Usually you are able to do this via credit card or through an online bank like PayPal.com.

You’ll be given the opportunity to create a bio or profile which potential service buyers can look at to get a feel for what your skills are. Make sure you take full advantage of this feature. It will increase your chances of successfully obtaining jobs.

The biggest benefit to finding writing jobs this way is that the assignments typically offer better and more reliable pay than some of the other methods for earning money through writing. The downside is that you must pay for a membership. It’s usually an annual fee, and may be anywhere from 25 to 75 dollars, on average, and depending on the level of membership that you want. Another downside is that you must spend time perusing postings and bidding on jobs, with no guarantee that you’ll actually get any work this way.

How Do I Get Paid?

With these types of sites, you generally get paid by the job. With iFreelance.com, the person or company who posts the job pays the service provider directly, usually through an online bank like PayPal.

With others, such as Elance.com, the service buyer pays the Website, and it holds the money in escrow until the service provider (you) satisfactorily finishes and submits the work. It then pays you via check or PayPal.

What About Paid Writing “Membership” Sites?

You may have come across sites that recruit writers, but which require you to pay a fee in order to have writing jobs sent to you. These sites aren’t always scams, but they may not net you the kind of income you’re hoping for, either.

Be wary of sites that promise to send you writing jobs after you’ve paid for a membership. Membership fees are generally reasonable (between 25 and 75 dollars), but you don’t have any real way of knowing whether or not you’ll recoup your investment and actually make any money. If you decide to give it a try, pay for your membership with a major credit card. This way, if you discover that the site is a sham, you may be able to get your money back through your credit issuer.

Hope this helps,

How Do Online Surveys Work?

Companies of all types gauge public interest in their products/services by going directly to the purchasing public. They do this by creating customer surveys which are then made available via the Web.

They reach their audiences with their surveys by contracting with Internet survey companies, which act as “middle men” between the company and the buying public. The survey company recruits people to fill out the online surveys. They do this by offering a fee for each survey that is filled out.

Many of these survey companies have thousands of different surveys available. This means that it’s possible for someone to earn a good, regular side income or even a full-time income simply by filling out online surveys, depending on how much time they’re able to spend at the task.

The amount of money that you can receive for a single survey depends on a number of things. The length of the survey is usually the biggest determining factor: the longer the survey, the bigger the payout. It may also depend upon the company for whom the survey was created. Payouts typically range between five and 15 dollars per survey, though some may fetch much more than that.

How to Join and Get Paid for Taking Online Surveys

First, here is a list of just a few of a few popular ones:

Global Test Market: https://www.globaltestmarket.com/
Inbox Dollars:  http://www.inboxdollars.com
Surveys Paid: http://www.surveyspaid.com
Survey Scout: http://www.surveyscout.com
American Consumer Opinion: http://www.acop.com/
My Survey: http://www.mysurvey.com
Springboard America: http://www.springboardamerica.com

The sign-up process is fairly similar no matter which company you sign up with. Here’s how to do it:

1) Make sure that you meet initial qualifications to join a particular survey club. Some survey companies are location or country-specific. Sometimes you’ll be informed immediately that you are ineligible to apply because the server will recognize your IP address as being outside of the desired location. Other times you may have to read the fine print.

2) Go to the home page and find the link to the sign-up page. You’ll probably see a “Sign Up” or “Register” button somewhere along the top of the page. Click the link or button. You’ll be re-directed to the application form page.

3) Fill out the application form on this page. Usually you’ll be asked only for basic personal, biographical information such as name, address, age, etc. You’ll also need to supply a valid email address.

4) Follow all the instructions carefully for filling out the application form, including reading the rules and regulations and checking applicable boxes. When finished, click on the link that says “Submit” or “Done” or “Finished.” You’ll be re-directed to another page.

5) If the site is a paid membership company, you’ll be taken to the page where you’ll need to choose your payment method and pay your membership fee. (More about this topic in upcoming sections.)

That’s usually all there is to it! Next, your application will be sent off for review. This process may take anywhere from a day to a week or so. If it’s approved, you can begin filling out surveys immediately.

Free Membership vs. Paid Membership

If you research paid online survey companies, you’ll discover that some allow you to join for free while others charge you a membership fee. There are pros and cons with each type, so you’ll have to decide what’s best in your own case.

The ones that offer free membership are very popular, but the downside of many of the free ones is that the payout-per-survey is generally lower than those offered by the paid membership survey sites. They may also have stipulations attached to most of their surveys stating that the participant must meet certain criteria (i.e. be a particular gender or a specific age). You may discover that it’s difficult or impossible to find any paid surveys that you actually “qualify” to take. You’ll end up wasting hours searching for surveys you qualify for, and, of course, won’t be paid for that time.

The biggest “pro” with the free membership sites is that you don’t lose much by joining. Join several of these and try them out to find out which ones you end up making the most money for in the least amount of time. You can simply walk away from any that end up being a waste of your time.

How to Avoid Disappointment and Financial Loss

You don’t have much to lose if you join a survey panel that has no membership fee attached. There are lots of these on the Web: try out two or three of them by participating in a couple of surveys from each and discover which one pays the best and offers the most opportunities for you to make money.

There’s nothing wrong with joining a survey company that requires you to pay a membership fee to join. However, unless you know someone else who works with the same company, you don’t really have any way of knowing ahead of time whether you’ll actually be able to recoup your membership fee in a reasonable amount of time.

In a case like this, you should choose a company that offers these two things:

1) The ability to pay for your membership fee by credit card: Most major credit card companies will give you a credit for something that you pay for with their card but don’t receive. By paying for your membership with your credit card, you’ll be able to get your money back if the survey company you join turns out to be fraudulent or doesn’t provide you with what it promised.

2) A money-back guarantee: Many online survey companies offer this. They allow you to participate for a given amount of time (typically between four and eight weeks) so that you can decide whether or not your membership fee is paying for itself. If not, you can request a refund anytime within this specified time period.

If a particular online survey company does not offer these two things, you should probably avoid it.

It’s also important that you read the fine print:

Some surveys don’t payout in cash but in gift cards instead. Some online survey companies are notorious for advertising themselves as a company that “pays” for surveys, when in reality you may only be offered gift cards most of the time. If you prefer cash over gift cards, watch out for this.

Hope this helps,

These videos specifically talk about the YouTube Partnership Program and How to add Google Adsense to your YouTube videos so you can make money.

You must apply to the YouTube Partnership program to utilize some of the money making features on YouTube.

For my complete tutorial on How to Make Money on YouTube check out this post HERE.

Hope this helps,

The concept of allowing members of the general public to upload videos to the Web was a brand new one at the time. Numerous other video sharing sites have since popped up, but none have achieved quite the same level of success as YouTube.

In fact, YouTube became almost an overnight success. Launched officially in November of 2005, the company reported that by July of 2006 upwards of 65,000 videos were being uploaded every day.

At first, YouTube was largely a site where amateurs could simply share videos. Most were videos of ordinary, everyday events in people’s lives.

However, as the site’s success grew, it attracted the attention of advertisers and corporations. Soon the site was also being used to promote individual companies and products, as self-promotion for artists of all types, and by professionals to showcase their own films.

YouTube’s popularity bred prime grounds for creatively making money through the use of video. But you don’t have to be a professional marketer or an experienced film maker to make money using YouTube.

The beauty of YouTube is that anyone can create and upload a video. The trick is getting a good following; that is, getting lots of viewers to become regular followers and return again and again to your YouTube “channel.” Once you do, you can begin making money in a number of different ways which we’ll explore later on.

How to Create a YouTube Account

First you need to have your own YouTube account. YouTube changes its design and format from time to time, but generally you can follow these steps to create your account:

1) First, locate the “Create Account” link on YouTube’s home page. It’s usually located at the top right corner of the page.

2) Click on “Create Account.” You’ll be re-directed to a page where you’ll be asked to enter your email address, choose a password, and enter some other basic personal information. You’ll also be asked whether you agree with YouTube’s Terms of Service.

Be sure to read these carefully if you plan to use your YouTube account to generate revenue. Violating these rules makes your account subject to suspension or termination, so don’t jeopardize your business venture.

3) Click on the link that asks if you accept YouTube’s terms of service.

4) Next you’ll be re-directed to your channel’s home page. That’s it, you now have a valid YouTube account!

Uploading Videos

Later on we’ll talk about the kinds of videos you should make/use on your YouTube channel. But first we’ll talk about the steps to uploading a video. Here’s what you’ll do:

1) After signing in to your YouTube account with the information you created, you’ll be taken to your home page. Find the “Upload” link on this page, usually located in or near the top right corner and click it.

2) Before you upload your first video, you’ll be asked to choose a user name. If you are planning to try to make money with your YouTube channel, you should choose a name that reflects the content of your site.

For example, let’s say you plan to promote a certain brand of cleaning products. Choose a name that corresponds to this idea, such as “CleaningLady,” “CleanTeam,” etc. Your username has to be unique and exclusive, so you might have to get a little bit creative if someone else already has the user name you want to use. YouTube may automatically generate alternative suggestions if you choose a duplicate user name. Note: your username cannot contain spaces.

3) After you successfully create a user name, you’ll be asked to indicate your gender. Underneath this, you’ll see a statement that reads “Let others find my channel on YouTube if they have my email address.” Be sure that you check this box. (It will probably already have a check mark in it by default. Leave it there.) This will help others find your YouTube channel. Remember, you need followers to make this venture successful! This is just one of many ways to get them.

4) Once you’ve completed this form, click the box marked “Next” (or “Done” or whatever format YouTube is currently using). You’ll be re-directed to the page where you’ll upload your video.

There are two ways you can add video content to your channel. One is by uploading video stored on your computer’s hard drive. The other is to record straight from your webcam. Most likely you will be uploading from your hard drive most of the time. In this case, click on the box reading “Upload video.” You’ll be directed to choose the video file from your hard drive.

VIDEO ON CREATING A YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Some Uploading Advice and Information to Remember

• Video length is restricted to fifteen minutes or less unless you hold a “verified” account. To get your YouTube account verified, click the link on the upload page that says “Increase your limit.” It will be somewhere near the “upload” button. Then follow the instructions on getting a verified account.
• It can take some time to upload a video. Be prepared to wait. Uploading time depends on a number of different factors, including the length of your video, the amount of activity on the server at the time you upload among other things. Be patient.
• On the upload page you will be given the opportunity to share your video or a link to it on various other social sites, including Facebook and Twitter. Sharing in as many forums as possible is a MUST if you’re trying to make money! Use every and all available opportunities to share videos/links.

How to Actually Start Making Money

VIDEO EXPLAINING HOW TO MAKE MONEY ON YOUTUBE

People have made money off of YouTube in a number of different ways. Artists use YouTube to promote themselves and their art form. Justin Bieber and Greyson Chance both launched professional music careers through YouTube videos of themselves performing.

Others, like Salman Khan, a teacher, started the Khan Academy channel as a way to give back and to reach people with lessons in math, science and numerous other subjects who might otherwise be too nervous or embarrassed to ask for help. Today the Khan Academy makes no money from ad revenue. Instead, Khan and his small staff continue teaching the world through the donations of a number of different grants, including one from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The key to making money off of YouTube is getting views and gaining a regular following. Every YouTube channel comes with a “Subscribe” button. Viewers can click on this link which will keep them informed of new videos that you post on your channel.

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when considering the idea of making money off of YouTube is thinking that they don’t have the right resources. The reality is that although some popular YouTube video makers have expensive filming equipment and access to studios, the vast majority of video makers have regular cameras and film from their homes or neighborhoods. You don’t really need anything more than an ordinary digital camera with a video recorder on it.

Just consider Betty’s Kitchen. This retired professor/Mom/grandmother began giving simple cooking tutorials from her kitchen at home. Her husband films her tutorials with their digital camera. No fancy equipment, booms or lighting. Just an ordinary camera and a home computer. As of fall, 2011, Betty’s Kitchen had over 32,000 subscribers. Betty has even come out with her own cookbooks since launching her YouTube channel in 2009.

So, just how do you make money off of your YouTube channel? The best way to do this is to become a YouTube partner. Signing up for YouTube’s partnership program means that YouTube places ads on your channel and with your videos. YouTube then splits the ad revenue with you: 60 percent to YouTube and 40 percent to you, the partner.

So, grab your digital camera, conscript a camera operator, and start making videos!

Here’s how to sign up to become a YouTube partner:

1) Sign in and go to your home page/channel.

2) Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Creators and Partners” link. This will redirect you to the YouTube Creators page.

3) On this page, find the button that says “Become a Partner.” It’s usually located on the top right hand corner of the page. Click on it.

4) This page explains some of the benefits of being a YouTube partner as well as the qualifications. Be sure to read these carefully (they’re short, it won’t take long).

5) Next, click on the button that says “Apply Now.” You’ll see it near the top right of the page. This redirects you to a new page with several links about different topics relating to being a YouTube partner. Spend a bit of time reading these if you want more information.

6) When you’re ready, click on the “Apply Now” button. Fill out the partnership application, and be sure to include all relevant information.

Once you’ve completed and submitted your application, YouTube will take some time to review it. This process could take a few weeks or longer, so be patient.

Not everyone who submits an application gets approved. Your chances of being approved will increase significantly if you’ve already posted some content on your channel. It’s advisable to post at least a couple of videos before you apply, and more while you’re waiting for your application to be reviewed. Please note that if your application is rejected you’ll have to wait two months to re-apply, so it pays to be ready with great content before you start the application process.

Other Ways to Make Money Off of YouTube

• Affiliate Marketing:  Some users choose YouTube as a tool to market a product or service rather than becoming a YouTube partner. You can try this too by signing up for an affiliate marketing program. Choose a product that you like and believe in, and then create videos on topics related to that product.For example, you might choose to market a homeopathic allergy treatment. You can either make videos specifically about the product itself, or you can create videos on topics related to allergies in general (i.e. “How to Get Rid of Bedbugs”). Be sure to include a link to your affiliate’s product (your affiliate will give you instructions on how to do this.) You’ll make money when someone who views your video clicks on the link and purchases the product.
• Google Adsense: Another way to make money off of YouTube is to run pay-per-click ads (i.e. Google Ads) on your channel’s home page. You’ll make money every time a visitor clicks on one of these links.

Getting Video Content

There are numerous ways of getting video content that you can use on your YouTube channel. Simply creating your own is usually the easiest and fastest. Remember, it doesn’t have to be showy and have fancy editing. Just look at all of the YouTube success stories and see how many of them are doing it on limited, everyday resources.

If you happen to be good with photo and/or video creation and editing programs, you can also create videos this way. They can be computer animated, or slide shows of photos spliced together to create a memorable montage.

You can also purchase stock video too. You’ll have to register with an online stock video provider, such as iStock Photo, which also supplies stock video footage. Stock video providers will either charge you a fee per use/credit, or you’ll have to purchase a membership to get access to and be able to use their stock video footage. (Just be sure you read the rules that go along with using stock video, particularly commercial use rules.)

OTHER INFORMATION ON MAKING MONEY WITH YOUTUBE

Since this post is so long, I have added another post HERE on how to become a Youtube partner, where you can get even more information on how to make money with YouTube.

Hope this helps,

However, one of the factors that distinguish it from other successful Internet ventures is that it offers the opportunity to make regular members of the public wealthy too.  Whether you have lots of Internet business experience, or your Web experience is limited to surfing, you, too, can make money on eBay.

There are two major ways to sell items on eBay: by single listing(s) and through creating your own eBay “store.”  In this tutorial we’ll examine both of these ways, giving you step by step instructions on how to sell, and describing the benefits of each method.

Listing Single Items

This option is perfect for those who don’t necessarily intend to make eBay selling an ongoing business, or for those who only have a few items to sell on an occasional basis.  Listing a single item is free to minimal (depending on eBay’s current promotions), although you will be offered the opportunity to add “enhanced” selling features which cost a little extra.  These extra fees are usually nominal and may increase your chances of selling your item(s).

With a free, auction-style listing, eBay.com makes its cut at the back end when you successfully sell your item.  eBay has changed its cut over the years, but as of 2011, its fee stood at 9 percent.  In other words, eBay.com keeps 9 percent of the final selling price, the cost of the item to the highest bidder.

If your item fails to sell within the specified auction period, eBay charges nothing.  You may re-list your item if you choose to.

There is no limit to how many single items you can list this way.  There is also no limit to how many times you can list your item, should it fail to sell within the specified bidding period.

Here are your step-by-step instructions on how to list single items on eBay:

1) If you haven’t already, you must create an account.  Go to eBay.com and click on the “register” link.  You’ll be redirected to a page where you provide your basic information, like name, address, email address, phone number and date of birth.  You’ll also create a user name and password at this time.

If you are already registered as an eBay user, you need only sign-in with your user name and password.

2) Click on the “Sell” link.  You’ll find it in a number of different places throughout the Website.  On the eBay.com home page, it’s typically listed in the navigation bar at the top of the page.

3) Once you’ve been re-directed to the appropriate page, click on the appropriate link or icon.  eBay changes its format from time to time, but generally you should be able to see a very prominent link and/or icon somewhere near the top of this page that reads “List Your Item.”

4) On the next page, fill in the field which asks you to describe the item that you’re selling.  Once you do, eBay.com automatically generates a list of categories that you should list your item under.

The list may contain one or more categories.  Select the appropriate category and click.  You may list your item under more than one category, but each additional category you list in will cost extra, so choose carefully, or stick with just a single category.

5) Currently there are two options for listing your item, which will show up on the next page: the “More Listing Choices” and the “Keep it Simple” version.  First-timers should use the “Keep it Simple” version.  Once you’ve sold a few things successfully, you can try the other option.

6) After clicking on “Keep it Simple,” you’ll be directed to a form that you’ll need to fill out describing your item.  You’ll need a creative title.  For example, “Prada Designer Handbag” would be a better description than simply: “purse.”

7) Next, on that same form, add a photo of your item.  This is optional, but it’s almost impossible to sell an item on eBay if you don’t include a photo of it.  eBay keeps a limited number of stock photos of items which you may be given the option to use.  Otherwise, either take a digital photo of your item, or find a stock photo online of the same item.

You’ll have the option to add more than one photo (i.e. to display different angles of the same item or to increase the size of your photo).  These features do cost extra, so use them wisely.

8)  Next you’ll be asked to describe the condition of the item you’re selling, using a drop-down menu of choices.

9) Depending on the kind of item you’re selling, you may be asked for further details regarding the size, color or style of the item.  You’ll also find a large field with editing features to describe the item in detail.  This field is crucial to the success of your sale.  Be as descriptive as possible, playing up the best qualities of the item you’re offering.

Don’t get carried away, though.  It’s more effective to pack a punch with fewer words than to write a very long, wordy description that viewers may end up skipping over because it’s too long.  Strive for quality over quantity when it comes to the item description, and DEFINITELY use proper grammar and spelling.  There is a spell-check feature: USE IT!

And whatever you do, DON’T misrepresent yourself or the item.  eBay allows buyers to give public feedback about sellers, the item they purchased, and their overall experience with you.  If you exaggerate or outright lie, your feedback rating will drop and you’ll be less likely to be able to make a subsequent sale.

10) The next step, found on the same form, is to choose a minimum bidding price and the length of time (between 1 and 10 days) you’d like your item to remain open for public bidding.

Choose a sensible price, which will depend on the type of item you’re selling and its condition.  Newbies sometimes tend to over-value (and therefore over-price) their items.  Decide what you think you’d pay for a similar item and then start your bid lower than that.  The lower the opening bidding price, the more attention your item will attract.  If it’s really worth what you believe it is, the bidding will get driven up very quickly.

11) eBay used to allow buyers multiple payment options.  Today all transactions must go through PayPal.  You’ll have to submit your PayPal address at the bottom of the form so that you can receive payment from your buyer.  If you don’t already have a PayPal account, it’s easy to create one at PayPal.com.  Make sure you familiarize yourself with PayPal’s service options so you don’t get hit with PayPal fees you weren’t prepared for.

Once you’ve finished filling out the item form, you’ll get to see a proof of how your item will appear.  You’ll also see be shown any fees that apply to your listing if you’ve chosen any of the non-free options.  You’ll be able to edit your listing at this time if necessary and pay any fees that apply.  If it looks fine, then you need only click on “List Your Item” and your item immediately goes live.

Here’s a great video on adding items to EBay and Selling them:

Creating an eBay Store

This option is recommended for experienced eBay sellers and those who have an inventory of items and plan to sell on an ongoing basis.  An eBay store is appropriate for someone who wants to make this his or her business, or another facet of an existing sales business.

Users have three options when it comes to creating an eBay store: “Basic,” “Premium” and “Anchor.”  Below is an overview of each.

A “Basic” eBay store:

This option costs $15.95 per month.  A “Basic” store gives you:

• An insertion fee of 20 cents per item.
• 12 photos per listing, including super-size pictures, plus a zoom feature.
• Daytime phone support and all-day email and live chat support.
• A single, branded place on the web where all your listings live.
• 15 customizable pages.
• A customized URL.
• 300 customized categories for listing and a custom store header.
• Free sales management tools, markdown manager, vacation hold and several other helpful marketing features to promote your store.
• Limited information tracking reports.
• eBay.com recommends the “Basic” store to users who plan to list between 50 and 250 items per month.

The sign-up process for acquiring a “Basic” store is the same as the process described in the first section.  The method for listing your items is also similar.  The difference is the number of enhanced features you get which are included in your monthly package fee.

A “Premium” eBay Store:

This option costs $49.95 per month.  Most of the features it offers are the same as the ones for a “Basic” store, with the exception of these extra benefits:

• Insertion fees of 5 cents per item.
• 24 hours-per-day telephone, email and chat support.
• Free enhanced sales software.
• A text link at the center of your page.
• More detailed analytical reporting, including access to search terms that visitors are using to locate the items in your store, the pathways they follow to get to your store, how often visitors are returning to your store, and details about how visitors are able to view your store on their computers (browser type, window size and language setting).
• The ability to list items at a fixed price as well as auction items.

eBay recommends a “Premium” store for users who plan to list more than 250 items per month.

An “Anchor” eBay store:

The benefits of owning an “Anchor” store are the same as those of a “Premium” store, with the exception of these added features:

• Insertion fees of 3 cents per item.
• Your store’s logo at the top of your page.

eBay recommends an “Anchor” store for users who intend to list hundreds to thousands of items per month.  An “Anchor” store is very similar to owning your own Website with a catalog of items for sale.  It is intended for businesses that intend to do a high volume of business.

Hope this helps,

A blog is basically a website. I guess the difference is that on a static website the content tends to remain the same whereas a blog usually has constantly changing content. With a blog you can write what you want when you want and just post it on the page. You don’t have to spend time with html, coding, or design issues as the tools available today are very good.

STEP 1: Choose a Topic or Niche

I will cover this area briefly but you can learn more on choosing a niche for your blog or affiliate website in our Affiliate Marketing section.

This is the most important part of setting up a money-making blog. You do have to engage in some preparatory work to find the right niche and the right keywords. There are many free keyword tools online that you can use to determine the viability of various niches and keywords but I suggest the Google keyword tool. The keywords are the main words that will bring visitors to your site and the way by which the search engines will scour and rank the pages.

Use the keyword tool to search for the word or phrase that you would like to start with. The results will show you how many people searched for that term last month from your local area and from other parts of the world.

There are certain things that you have to check in the results to determine whether or not you should stick with this topic. The first is the number of searchers and the second thing is the competition you will be facing. If there are already an abundance of web pages on the word or topic, then you should either abandon it in favor of another topic or try to narrow it down to make a more specialized niche.

You can take some of the keywords that show up in the result and further look into searching each of these to obtain a list of other suitable keywords.

You will also need to name the blog. This should be as close to the topic as possible and include the main keywords.

I will not go into detail on naming your blog in this post but this topic will be covered in detail in the Affiliate Marketing section of this site.

STEP 2. Find a Blog Hosting Site

Free Blog Hosting:

If you are completely new to blogging and you are not sure how this is going to work out for you, then the best way to get started is to use a free blogging site. One of the easiest to use is www.blogger.com. WordPress.com also has a free blogging site, but you are not able to use affiliate links on the free blog so that’s not much use to you starting off. There are many others that you can use too, such as:

www.blog.com
www.livejournal.com
www.blogeasy.com

Read through the terms and conditions of each free blog site so that you understand your rights and responsibilities. Then decide which one you think would be the best one for you to choose.

Now that you know which free hosting site you are going to use it is time to register and set up your account. It is important to know the rules and regulations associated with the free blog service because if you do not adhere to the conditions, the site will have the right to deactivate your account and your blog will no longer exist. This is true of the free blogging sites, but not the ones for which you have to pay a fee.

Paid Blog Hosting

You can also go the way of having your own blog set up on a paid hosting account. This is by far a better way to go, but you will have to pay a monthly or annual fee for the hosting service. One of the main differences is that you will have your own domain name rather than have the name of your blog associated with a free site. This is really the best way to go if you are serious about making money with a blog.

If you decide to follow this route, then you will need these things to get your blog set up:

• Register a domain name:

I prefer to use either NameCheap.com or GoDaddy.com to register my domain names. Both are very inexpensive. I do like GoDaddy’s customer service better than NameCheap’s but both seem to be good.

• Set up and pay for hosting:

Hosting is very inexpensive nowadays. You should be able to get a hosting account for around $6.95 per month. I suggest either HostGator or BlueHost. What I like about both of these services is they allow you to set up unlimited amount of sites on the same hosting account all with no additional fees.

• Set up your domain on your hosting account:

Once your hosting account is set up, you will need to login to CPanel and set up your domain name on your account.

This short video below should help with adding a domain to cpanel:

• Set up blogging platform:

There are a number of blogging platforms but I prefer WordPress. It is the most popular and by far the easiest to use.

So once your domain is set up on your hosting account it is time to install the WordPress blogging platform on your domain.

From the main page of your CPanel account, scroll down and click QUICKINSTALL or FANTASTICO DELUXE on HostGator or SIMPLE SCRIPTS on BlueHost.

The short video below will help you learn how to install WordPress on your blog.

Step 3: Start Writing Content

Once you decide on the specific niche and keywords, set up your domain, hosting and blog, you have to start writing the blog content. It is essential that you have original content and not copy the material from another site. The more original the better. It also helps if you can add photos or graphics to highlight or illustrate some of the points that you make in the blog post.

Now, you don’t have to be a writer to run a blog and make money. You can hire very good writers for around $7 per 500 word article.

Once your have your first article written, post the first entry to your new blog. Make a commitment to make regular posts. You may not be able to do this every day, but you should make an effort to post at least once or twice a week.

Step 4: Monetize Your Blog

You won’t make any money by simply having a blog and adding content. You have to monetize the blog in order to start generating revenue. One of the most common ways of monetizing a blog is to post Google ads on the site. In order to do this you have to apply for a Google Adsense account. You must have your blog up and running before you can do this though. Simply follow all the instructions for Google Adsense to get started. Once you have the ads up and running on the site, be careful not to click on any of the ads because this could get your Adsense account deactivated.

Another popular method to monetizing a blog is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing involves marketing an existing product on behalf of its maker or distributor. It can essentially be compared to working in a retail store and earning a commission or percentage of every sale that you make.

You simply choose a product or products that you want to market. Next, do an online search to find companies that make or distribute those products and have an affiliate marketing program that you can join. You simply add the affiliate code to your blog and every time someone buys through you, a commission is generated!

I get into more detail in my affiliate marketing tutorials in the AFFILIATE MARKETING SECTION section of this website.

Step 5: Promote your blog

You have to promote your blog so that others will know that it exists. You can easily do this by sending the link to all your friends and family and ask them to send it to their friends. This will help you get started generating traffic, but it is not all that you can do.

Make use of Facebook to promote the blog. For example, post a link on your Facebook page every time up update the blog. If you don’t have a Twitter account, sign up for Twitter free of charge. Start following other Twitter users and there is a good chance that they will reciprocate by following you. Then you can Tweet your blog once or twice a day and in this way have people you don’t even know start to check out what you have written.

The most important thing you can do to market your blog is to do “SEO” or “Search Engine Optimization”. This will eventually get your blog to rank in the top results on the search engines. This takes time and patience though so be prepared.

For more detailed information on Search Engine Optimization, please visit the Affiliate Marketing section of this site.

Conclusion

Now that you have the basics to making money with a blog, it is important to remember that the most critical thing you can do to succeed is to persevere . Give yourself time to learn the steps necessary for success.

KEY: Don’t expect to make money immediately. It is going to take time.

If you really want to make money blogging, decide now that you won’t give up until you become one of the top bloggers online!

Hope this helps,

There is a certain type of affiliate website that does not do well since recent Google algorithm updates. Also learn the type of affiliate website that is best for the long term. I reveal this and more in this video.

Just building hundreds of back links will do you no good if you don’t time it all properly. Watch as I show you step by step EXACTLY when and how to place back links. Just copy this to reach the top spots on search engines.