Let's Make Some Money

I admit to being addicted to what I do. looking back, this has been going on for over 10 years. My blogs and websites are my babies. I tweak, blog, write and learn how to squeeze some money out of them. AdSense, affiliate marketing – whatever. The big thrill is seeing the money coming in. Some sites I own surprise me with good earnings, others that I thought would do well sit there gathering cyberdust.

I have tried dozens of schemes. Most have failed me, others worked for a while and then became either overused or just plain didn’t work any more. I have bought into the gurus, purchased manuals, books and systems. Looking back I have probably spent a couple of thousand in guru stuff. But that’s a minor investment compared to what I have learned to do, and more importantly – what NOT to do. I spent many hours writing my own domain/sites management software. Just the way I want it. Works like a charm, saves me tons of time now. All in all my little business is profitable. In all businesses you have to spend some money and take some losses to get to what works for you.

The sites are my drug. The income is my euphoria. Once in a blue moon I take some time off, but I get withdrawal pains. Even if the sites run themselves I can’t help it. Technically I could stay away for months without hurting any income. But I can’t.

What does that mean? Simply – I have found my niche. My work. I have been doing this for over 10 years and the need to “work” the internet hasn’t worn off a bit. I would have thought it would be boring by now, but it is stronger than ever. What motivates me? The income for sure, but to be honest – I was hoping for a lot more after years of working it.

No, what motivates me is the fight. The challenge. The need to win. To figure out what works. I’ll take the losers, as long as I get some winners. And I have that. It’s like gambling I guess just that I have full control over the outcome. I just have to outsmart the system….

My internet marketing income pays rent and more. Hour for hour I probably work more than most people. So it is disappointing to see the income not being what it should be. What am I missing? One thing I do notice that things work today, not tomorrow. For example, a few years ago simple content sites worked like a charm with AdSense. Not so any more. Sites need to be fairly unique for Google to even index them. I still have some content only, static sites and because of their age they still produce.

Setting up new sites with just old content – no good any more. Now a days you need sites with fresh, up-to-date and unique content. Like blogs you write to yourself. Sure, you read about auto-blogging. I set up 6 sites a year ago, I feed them with plr articles and rss feeds – and the results are dismal. The top one makes about $10 a month. Ok, so if I had 100 of them I’d make $1,000 a month. I get that.

I think there’s a middle road to take. Sure, buy into the auto-blogging thing. But I realize now that pretty well the only thing that really works is good old writing your own stuff. And I find it refreshing to create content that is 100% mine. I realize of course that now my content gets distributed to plenty of people, but that’s ok. I was the first to use it.

Bottom line, to make money you still need to spend time and some money. Nothing is free. But – if you are addicted to it – it’s not work.

Author Bio: Ingvar is getting close to “the golden age”. He writes about entrepreneurship after retirement. www.retiremententrepreneurs.com

After creating a great website comes Internet marketing, and this is what entrepreneurs are most worried about. Coming up with a great, full-fledged website is easy – just hire someone to create and design it. But internet marketing is on a completely different level. Simply put, your website means nothing if you don’t have the resources to market it online.

One of the most popular, and effective ways, to market your business online is through the smart use of Internet blogging. Many big-name companies and corporations hire top bloggers to continuously put up new content about their product online, which apparently goes a long way in helping generate publicity towards their brand.

If you’re someone new to this blogging experience, you might want to check out the following tips to help you get started:

1. Be passionate about your topic
As a writer it’s important to write about things you know and are passionate about. Same goes for bloggers. Blogging about the newest, modern technologies might sound cool, but the blogging process will begin to feel stale and old quickly especially when you didn’t have your heart set on it in the first place.

Blog about things you find interesting on a personal level. You’ll find the experience never gets old and this sort of feeling tends to improve the quality of your writing in the long term.

2. Use Free Blogging Platforms
Blogging may or may not be for you. Thing is, the only way to find out is to experience blogging first hand.

So I suggest you sign up for blogging platforms that offer free services just to test the waters out first. Maintain an active blog for a couple of months, experiment with different writing styles, try writing about a variety of topics, etc. If you feel that blogging is really your cup of tea, then it’s time to move on to paid blog platforms, which usually have more perks and features.

3. Use Simple Templates
Design is good, but a simpler design is even better. As a blogger, you should always keep in mind that “content is king” and that cutesy graphics and design layouts are secondary to the helpful information you have and can pass on to the reader through quality writing.

I suggest you use simple, minimalist templates for your blog page. More complex designs mean pages take longer to load, which is never a good thing.

4. Link Back To Your Sources
It’s always tempting to say that everything in your blog came from that wonderful head of yours alone, but we all know that isn’t the case.

On the Internet, everything is bound together by links. So if you got a piece of information from a website which you used on your blog, don’t hesitate to post a link to that website indicating so. It’s the ethical thing to do. Plus you might get a link back from that website by linking to them in the first place.

Blogging is as much about marketing as it is about good writing. A healthy balance of these two aspects is really what makes an amateur blogger turn great in the long run.

Author Bio: Calgary Internet Marketing is a great resource of up-to-date online marketing strategies and techniques for service professionals and small business owners in the Calgary area. Feel free to visit the website at Calgary Internet Marketing for more info on consultation services. Or you can simply visit the website simply for more related articles on online marketing.

You’ve had your blog up for a couple of months but it seems like your traffic is stuck at 10 or 15 visits a day. You might be making a sale a month or you might be making no sales at all. What can you do to get traffic to your blog? Are you applying the SEO basics when it comes to building your links?

You probably have already optimized your site and blog entries for SEO and you’re still not ranking well. You’ve posted articles in the directories until your brain went blank and you just couldn’t figure a way to say the same thing again and again. An alternative to driving traffic using SEO and article marketing is buying it using Pay Per Click advertising but that can get really expensive really fast especially if you are new at it.

There is another way though.

You probably already know that Google puts a lot of weight in the number of backlinks that point at your site. The number of links is important but the quality of the links is even more important. So why don’t you go out there and get a few PR 3 and above links, maybe even from your competitor, and see what that does to your page ranking?

The basic idea is this. If you can’t get the audience to come to you, then you have to go to the audience. One slick technique to accomplish this is to research your competitor’s blogs and find one that you really like. Use the Firefox SEO function and make sure they have a PR that is greater than yours.

Once you’ve selected a competitor’s blog, create an entry and do a favorable review of your competitor’s site. Use a title along the lines “My Favorite (insert niche) Blog of the Week. Make it a good solid review and include a link to your competitor.

Once it’s published, contact your competitor either by email from their “contact us” tab or as a comment on their site. Explain that you thought the content was so good that you wanted your audience to have a shot at it and posted a review (include a link to the review).

If the content on your site is solid, you can expect that one out of three of your competitors will reciprocate and include a link to your site even if it’s just to your review article. True this is a reciprocal link and not a one way link but if the competitor site is relevant to your own and a PR 3 or above you have just gained some significant Google juice.

A second way to “go to the audience” is to hang out where they do, on forums. To find the forums that talk about your niche simply Google your niche name and add forum. What you’re looking for are forums that are relevant to your site and that have current activity, the more the better. Lastly you want to look at the entries and see if the members have anchor text in their signatures. If they do join up.

Now that you are a member edit your signature to include anchor text back to your blog and then start to participate. When you do participate by either starting a thread or responding to one, make the participation meaningful. You want to deliver value to the forum and you definitely want to avoid spammy responses like “great thread” or “I agree” as those will be spotted for what they are and you could get booted.

Participation in these forums can not only get you a backlink but some targeted traffic as well. Just as important, you’re getting your name out among the people in your niche and in the long run that’s going to help your credibility particularly when you recommend a product.

So if you’re stuck in a rut, apply seo basics and try reaching out to the people you want as visitors. The more active you are in your niche the more successful you’ll become.

Author Bio: If you want to learn the seo basics step by step, simply click on the link and get my free video tutorial series. Do it now while it is still free! Start making money on the net today.

The internet has become the world’s most competitive and sometimes congested market with millions of websites created and set up as businesses. These websites aim to earn profits by selling their products and services to customers worldwide, but with so much competition it’s hard to grab people’s attention. In order to be able to do so, companies would use what is popularly known as SEO or search engine optimization in order to drive web traffic into their websites using the most popular search tool in the World Wide Web: the search engine. Getting a basic seo course will teach you the details of how to get there.

Search engines are the gateways that separate the user from the company in the cyber-world. Billions of people use search engines such as Google and Yahoo to search and retrieve information online, so you can imagine the kind of web traffic that many companies with websites located in the first page of the search engine results get every single day. It’s a fact that the first link that pops out is usually the link people click first as it is the most relevant website to their searches, so in order to be able to drive web traffic and earn significant revenue online, companies aim to place their websites on the top 3 of the list of websites regarded as significant and most relevant to searches by Google and Yahoo.

Any seo course will teach you that search engine optimization is a process that basically involves optimizing one’s website in order to increase its relevancy in search engines. This means boosting its ranking on the web and getting it to reach the top places in the search result pages of Google and Yahoo. If you’re wondering how companies and webmasters alike apply SEO to their websites, you’ll be surprised that there are legal and illegal ways of doing so.

Legal ways or “white hat SEO” are usually time-consuming and takes more effort on the part of the webmaster, but it’s safe, fair, and it keeps your website on the lists of websites of search engines. Illegal SEO techniques are also known as “black hat SEO” and is usually what some companies would do just to get their websites on the top immediately and without having to spend a lot of money on SEO specialists and companies. The disadvantage (if you get caught) is, of course, your website being banned from the listings of these search engines.

If you’re setting up a website and would like to apply SEO to increase your website’s ranking, this article is going to give you a mini seo course with some of the best SEO tips that will surely get search engines to notice your site. Once you are able to apply these tips and techniques properly, you’ll be amazed at how fast your website gets to the top and how many visitors you get every single day.

- First, focus on what you are good at and what your area of expertise is. The website you decide to set up online should cater to a niche that you are an expert on.

- Make sure to plan out what you are going to do with the website before anything else.

- Research and get to know your products more before selling them to your customers.

- Lastly, create content that is relevant and of the highest quality by inputting keywords that are relevant or similar to what people would input in the search engines.

Author Bio: If you want to learn the seo basics, step by step, simply click on the link and get my free seo course. Do it now while it is still free! Get some great making money ideas today.

It is a fact that out of 10 people, 9 would turn to search engines like Google and Yahoo when in need of information from the internet. They use these tools because it is the fastest way to retrieve the information they need, and because there are usually a million or more links that pop out in the result pages, users would just click on the first three links thinking that these are the most relevant to their searches. So, to be able to get people to visit their websites, companies would use what is now popularly known as SEO seo optimisation or search engine optimization.

SEO optimisation or search engine optimization is an online process in which companies would boost the web rankings of their sites by improving the relevance of their site’s content through keyword relevance, density, volume, and prominence. It also involves placing keywords entered by billions of users into the titles, headers, tags, and metatags of their web pages, so you can just imagine the kind of work needed to get the website up on the top listings. Some would try to apply SEO techniques on their own to avoid having to spend for SEO services online, but most of the time they end up with nothing but an unnoticed website and time and effort wasted away.

If you’re serious about getting your website up in the top places of Google and Yahoo, your best bet would be to hire an SEO company. With the help of an SEO company through high quality services, you not only get to save time and effort but also invest good money on a website that will surely bring in the revenue in a matter of months. To give you a head start, let’s take a look at some helpful tips on how to choose an SEO company for your SEO needs:

- The first thing you need to do is analyze and assess the company as a whole. Take a look at how long the company has been in business, what kind of services they offer to customers, and the like. You can also check out their customer support by contacting them through their hotline or sending them an e-mail.

- Before expecting anything, keep in mind that there is no SEO company that can give you 110% of their best overnight. Search engine optimization is a time-consuming process in itself so if you encounter a company that claims they can produce good results overnight, most likely they’re just bluffing.

- Ask for reports and previous SEO services rendered to websites to get an idea of how effective the company is. A good company would usually keep track of the developments of their clients’ websites and would keep a record of the improvements that took place during the optimization process.

- Lastly, take a look at their prices and compare it to the amount of work and quality of service being offered by the company. Others would offer SEO optimisation services of the lowest degree at very cheap prices while there are those that would offer top quality services at a high price.

Author Bio: If you want to learn the seo basics, step by step, simply click on the link and get my free seo optimisation course. Do it now while it is still free! Get internet marketing help today.

Building backlinks and article marketing go hand in hand, so most every person that owns a website understands the value of article marketing. They spend hours at a time submitting their carefully crafted web content to article directories in the hope that one or more them will go viral somehow. Certainly a few of them do, and make people a ton of backlinks and money. Most will just send a trickle of traffic and backlinks that will build over time.

What if you could have that burst of traffic sooner though? What if you did not have to wait months to see the fruits of your labor? What if you did not have to spend a single moment to do it, either? That is what article marketing services are all about.

Article marketing services will take either your own articles, or they will create fantastic online content for you. They then take these articles that have your links in them and send them out to hundreds or thousands of various websites, article directories and other online sources. By sending these links out in bulk, you are getting huge backlinks quickly and this means more results quickly. Making money is much easier when you are reaching more people, and that is never a bad thing.

Everybody knows the effects that backlinks has on traffic. They give you higher search engine rankings, they provide direct traffic from the various websites they appear on and they give your website higher authority within your chosen niche. All of these things means one important thing… More traffic. This leads to conversions and money.

Many say why pay for this service when they can do it for themselves? Well, if you have access to thousands of websites and directories and can submit them all at one time for that huge burst of traffic, then by all means you should not pay for it. If you are capable of writing top quality articles that will engage the reader and draw people in, then do not pay for it. If you have the time and energy it takes to submit to these places over and over again day after day, then do not pay for it.

If, however, you value your time and want to have someone take this role for your website, then you should pay for article marketing services. This frees you up for other tasks to make your money online. Also, if you do not have access to all the things mentioned above, then you are completely logical in thinking that it makes sense to pay for them. They are valuable and should be bought with a feeling of good business sense. When someone provides a valuable service, you do not mind paying for it. Article directory submissions and article marketing services does that. And they bring you results to prove it. What more could someone ask for?

By all means, don’t ever be hesitant on any technique you so choose to build backlinks. They all work really really good, just that some tactics and techniques work better than others. I personally find that Article Marketing, Press Release submissions and Blog Commenting are all that you really need to do when it comes to building backlinks and climbing the Search Engines.

It’s going to come down to some trial and error, because actually, what works for me just might not work for you.

Author Bio: Jason Bacot – Are you ready to increase your website traffic and Google Ranking with Article Marketing to really Make Money Online, then check out GuruCreation’s Article Marketing Backlinks SEO Service to get started.

Forums are still among the most effective ways to generate backlinks around, and they are also one of the oldest. Forums are great because they are often very specific in their focus on a niche. If you use that resource as a place to recruit new subscribers to your website, or a way to build backlinks, then you will be getting more and more conversions along the way.

Forums are basically a place to discuss various subjects in an online setting. Like chat rooms but not in real time, a forum is the perfect setting to meet others that like the same things you do. It is also a perfect setting for backlink building because your signature and responses can be directly related to what they like to look at. That means targeted traffic to your website that will likely result in increased conversions.

Backlinks that convert are those that are located on sites and places where your niche is highly similar, and that are likely to be clicked on. When in a forum, you must find a way to make your signature as dynamic as possible to get clicks. This is usually done with a call to action that will solve a problem that most people in that forum likely suffer from. For example, in an online writing forum, getting over writer’s block is a common problem. Offering a solution to this problem in your signature might draw plenty of clicks. You get the general idea. Offer up a problem, and then solve it by clicking to your website.

Forums are also known for rules, so you have to make sure you follow them. Most of today’s forums do not allow direct links in the forum posts. That said, your signature is the most likely way to generate backlinks that convert. Make yours special as it is your best shot.

Another way use forums to generate backlinks that convert is to explore other people’s signatures that are related to your niche. Not only will you build someone else’s trust by participating in their site, you can usually leave your link in the comments section along with an intelligent comment. This can get you a backlink and occasionally visits from the people that frequent that website. That is a win/win for everyone, and it surely will give you backlinks that convert because the visitors will be looking for what you offer.

By all means, don’t ever be hesitant on any technique you so choose to build backlinks. They all work really really good, just that some tactics and techniques work better than others. I personally find that Article Marketing, Press Release submissions and Blog Commenting are all that you really need to do when it comes to building backlinks and climbing the Search Engines.

It going to come down to some trial and error, because actually, what works for me just might not work for you.

Author Bio: Jason Bacot – Are you ready to increase your website traffic and Google Ranking with Forums to really Make Money Online, then check out GuruCreation’s Article Marketing Backlinks SEO Service to get started.

Unless you have been living under a log for the last couple of years, Twitter has become huge in the world of social networking. This mega giant in the world of viral production can also be a wonderful source of backlinks for your website. The key is to have a good understanding of how Twitter works, and how to maximize your chances of getting backlinks.

Twitter works very simply – you follow people and hopefully they follow you as well. Some people do and some do not, but if you follow someone they will often follow you back. When you post a link on Twitter, it has the chance to be put onto literally millions of Twitter pages if it goes viral. While that is extremely rare, getting it onto hundreds or thousands of pages is very realistic over time. The key is to cultivate a good Twitter account.

One mistake made by a great many people is randomly following every single person they come across. While this will get you big numbers over time more than likely, it will not be the way to build backlinks really. The Twitter backlinks are good and all, but what you really want is someone to read your Tweet and then post a link on their website or blog. This can only happen if you are reaching those people with similar interests to your website as a rule.

For this reason, it is usually a great idea to focus your Twitter account towards your business. That means to seek out those that have similar niche interests to your website, and reach out to them. Once you have a group of people that have similar interests, the chances for backlinks jumps through the roof. Twitter makes this easy by having groups and the like. Simply find the one that fits you and your website and join.

Another great way to build backlinks is to follow your genre and explore the tweets you get. You will find topics and articles that are related, and can then comment on them and put your own link in the signature line. Sometimes you can embed the link right there as well depending on the situation and the website. Either way, you will likely come away with a good backlink that will be valuable to search engines because it is on a page that is related to your link. Twitter is great for this, and has an unlimited supply of places to look into. You also don’t have to look around and research. Simply click on the tweets and check out what is there.

Another key to Twitter and backlinks is that you keep your account active with tweets. You can set up some websites and blogs to automatically tweet your posts and this is a great idea. You would be nuts to not hook this up and let it work for you. You do not have to do anything to have these posted, so it is an easy way to build backlinks every single time you make a post on your website or blog.

Backlinks make you money, and Twitter helps you build backlinks. This is a marriage made in Heaven. Take advantage of it now and start making more money online.

Author Bio: Jason Bacot – Are you ready to increase your website traffic and Google Ranking with Twitter to really Make Money Online, then check out GuruCreation’s Article Marketing Backlinks SEO Service to get started.

Backlinks are literally the most important thing to building long term traffic. Think about it. When you get a backlink out in the web world, you are literally putting a little soldier out there to do your bidding forever. A solid backlink might eventually turn into thousands of them, and all from that one little link.

Say you have a link that gets clicked 50 times over the course of a month. Out of those 50 people, maybe 15 people repost the link somewhere else because they found it useful. Then you have all those links working for you as well and doing the same thing. That is how something goes viral, and it is your best bet at getting a name and making money in the online world quickly.

Not all backlinks are created the same, however. Here are some various ways to build backlinks:

Add your link to your signature lines on forums, email and so on – This is a quick and easy way to spread your backlinks quickly and easily. Once added to your signature, it shows up automatically when you post or send email. That is super easy and a no brainer for anyone with a website.

Social Networking – Twitter, Facebook and Myspace are only a handful of the social networking sites out there that you can use. There are literally thousands of these types of sites out there at least and all of them can give you a backlink. It takes a bit of time and results are mixed depending upon who you ask. Personally, I think any backlink that is real and solid is worth my time.

Article Marketing – Without a doubt, article marketing is among the best ways to get great backlinks and make money online. You simply write an article that contains backlinks and then submit them to article directories to be distributed throughout the web. When someone uses your article, your website is automatically given a backlink. This brings in targeted traffic which is the goal of any backlinking campaign.

Answers Sites – Yahoo answers, Maholo and various other online “answers” sites are another great way to build quality backlinks that make you money. You answer a question related to content on your site, and then link the article that relates the best along with your answer. You can also add your signature to get added pop to your backlinks as mentioned above.

Blog Comments – When you network with your fellow website and blog owners by commenting on their blogs, you are often given the chance to add your website address and get backlinks. This works quite well, and also helps to build your community within a niche. Take some time to see what your competition is up to, and you just might learn a new trick or two in the process of gaining backlinks for more money.

Link Sharing – Exchanging links with quality websites that are within the same niche can have value, but they are not as organic as some of the others out there. Still, there is no harm in sharing links with a similar site. You can pick up traffic in this manner if you are careful to do it right.

Purchasing backlinks – There are some out there that have access to a large amount of sites that will backlink you for a price. This is a great way to get lots of links quickly, but you have to be careful that the people are reputable. Make sure they document all the links and provide this to you before you agree to a job being done, and check out their reputation before doing business. The best ones will gladly provide you with excellent references and be clear about what they offer.

These are only a handful of the many ways to use backlinks to make money online. Get creative and find new ways for yourself, but make sure you use all of these as well. Nobody should have to totally reinvent the wheel to get great backlinks with all of these options out there.

Author Bio: Jason Bacot – Are you ready to increase your website traffic and Google Ranking with Article Marketing to really Make Money Online, then check out GuruCreation’s Article Marketing Backlinks SEO Service to get started.

This article is a back-to-basics review of traffic sources and how to monetize this traffic. First, not all visitors are equal of course. Useless hits are just that – useless. I am like any other internet marketer – I have tried pretty well every trick in the book and spent quite a bit of money seeking the holy grail of qualified visitors.

I have spent money with AdWords, 7Search, Facebook, Plenty Of Fish, Trellian, Microsoft and Yahoo. Maybe I am not doing it right, but I have yet to make a profit on this money. I have bought the books, read the blogs. So after thousands of dollars spent I have learned this lesson:

The best traffic is organic search engine traffic. There is no other traffic source that can beat that. Period. PPC traffic has poor conversion, and these gurus that promise thousands of hits to your site will end up ruining your site credibility. I have tried this, and Google for one is quick to de-list and also bar AdSense.

The sales pitches are compelling though – how can you resist thousands of visitors for mere pennies? I am writing this because I want you to know where the real money is. During the past 10 years I have built a portfolio of about 400 content sites. Earning a living, yes. Making big bucks, no. But I am still learning. And tweaking. The days of setting up a few content pages with AdSense are gone. I know, I had over 700 sites once. Now I only have the good ones.

In analyzing my sites – keywords searched on etc. there is only once conclusion: create sites with real content and create inbound links to them. You can be clever using long tail keywords and other white hat tactics, RSS and so on. All that works. RSS feed work as well IF there is fairly unique content on the site aside from outside feeds. Having been through the past 10 years of this every day – the glory days are over. It’s a business. But it’s addictively fun.

Your sites need to be clean, clutter free and easy to navigate. They need to be credible and persuasive. Visitors MUST TRUST your site. Otherwise they won’t click on anything!

And most importantly – have some valuable content. “How to” stuff always works.

So, how to get traffic. The natural way.

Simple. Proper, one-way inbound links from related pages on credible sites. Lots of them over time. And that is simply done by writing articles. I used that process years ago with great success. For the life of me I can’t explain why I haven’t done this for years. I recently wrote some articles, and within days they were popping up in search engines.

The best articles are of course educational, informative and the reader walks away with something useful. BUT – that’s not why I write articles. I do it simply for the links to my sites. If someone reads it, and click on my links – that’s a bonus. It’s the links I am after to bolster my site’s rankings.

So now you have a site that is well placed on SEs and you are starting to get traffic. Where’s the money?

I am still an AdSense addict. Although I have had to really clean up my act. As a result of articles, and making my sites much more “user friendly” the revenues have increased accordingly.

The other way to monetize sites is affiliate marketing. Like promoting products sold by places like ClickBank and the private offer-networks like EWA. I have found the affiliate marketing is difficult. The conversion rate is poor, but when you make a sale – it is usually much higher pay-out than AdSense clicks. But you need very focused visitors. Willing and able to buy.

Finally, a note on what type of sites work best. In my experience, I make the best conversion rate on sites that contain information on something people are willing to spend money on. Hobby sites are poor money makers. So are news sites, plain blogs etc. For example, a site on student grants is performing much better that a site on planting for winter. But don’t go chasing the top paying markets such as lawyers, loans and real estate. There is so much competition out there you don’t stand a chance. Find a niche you like.

Author Bio: Ingvar is an internet marketer and consultant. He operates hundreds of web sites generating a steady stream of income. http://www.WebCredibility.ca http://www.Whatpeoplewant.info