Time is of the essence, and a valuable commodity

So, its been a few months since anything has been posted on the blog, and it is to be expected that there has been no new revenue to report. Like a garden that is neglected, it is obvious that without fresh content, and constant attention a blog can die a quick death.

To be honest, I have spent the last several weeks just trying to recover from the holidays, and a job that schedule changes constantly from week to week. Sleep scheduling, family time and just general time to let my mind wander the web, has become difficult. I have been frustrated in trying to make the time to devote to this blog, and re-examine various ways to make money online. Can it be done, of course it can. I have make some very small steps and have made some small amounts of income, the next step is to increase the amount of income derived, or to duplicate the whole process over and over again, or maybe there is a whole new method of generating income.

I have spent many hours scouring the internet for secondary market information for several clients, now it is a matter of taking those skills and applying them to what I need. As a side note, clients pay much better...they 50% up front. If I could figure out how to do this work and pay myself upfront, that would be ideal. Any ideas??

It's a work in progress. So is this blog.

Part-time Work, Full-time Pay

In the past advertising revenue was reserved for those sites with large amounts of traffic, now even teenagers like my son are making a quick buck with their online hobby blogs, talking about movies, music, and video games. People also place adsense advertising on their online family photo albums, their blogs and their business sites all the time, even with a small amount of traffic, you could end up having your web hosting costs paid for. With blogs, you don’t even have those costs to consider. Sites like blogger don’t charge for hosting. What could be better than that? Nothing better than an opportunity to make money free, only investing your time doing something you love.

Adsense has revolutionized the world of paid advertising. In the past cheesy, ugly, insert your negative adjective here banner advertising littered every website, as site owners attempted to monetize their site. Google Adsense is very different; it can blend in and compliment your site with ads that are built around the topic on the page, making the ads targeted to your reader. Income is derived from the number of clicks generated from the visitors, giving the site/blog owner an unlimited income potential. Keyword prices or payouts to the site owner can be particularly lucrative, even if there are only a few ads on the site.

Google adsense has dominated the web; with the opportunity to generate passive income, with little work on the website/blog, more and more people are jumping on the adsense bandwagon, and using Google adsense to generate money. Some of the highest earners manage to attract enough visitors with quality content to easily make thousands of dollars each and every month, just from using adsense alone! I am slowly starting to generate regular monthly income from this blog. This is definitely not a get rich quick scheme. It takes a lot of dedication, many postings, and quality posts.

One of the other benefits of adsense, is fact that anyone can apply to use Google adsense for free. Signing up for blogger has made it even easier, since it is owned by Google itself. These two facts have caused millions and millions of people to sign up. This allowed Google to extend their web presence to millions if not billions of websites and it now generates millions of dollars in advertising revenue for Google.

One of the driving forces behind Google Adsense is its signifigance to each and every page on the blog/website; the program scans the page and looks up keywords appearing in the website copy and automatically displays relevant ads. This increases the chances of people clicking through the results are very targeted ads in front of very qualified traffic. What does that mean to the blogger/website owner? It means they have the opportunity to put more money in their pocket not to mention putting more money in Google’s pocket.

Many of the so called web gurus are multiplying their income by operating several blogs / websites and attempting to attract as many targeted visitors as possible using high quality niche articles. Once the sites are fine tuned with good content and quality keywords, they can be left alone, but still keep on generating income each and every day. Occasional updates can keep the sites fresh, and help search engine placement.

It is no surprise Google adsense is the most widely used form of advertising; they have created a “pay-per-click” program where advertisers do not pay for ads that are not clicked on by visitors, and website owners are paid more for each click than they would if the system were based on the number of people viewing those ugly banner ads.

All in all Google adsense has developed itself into a powerful tool, used by the masses. There are imitators that are popping up everywhere. Azoogle is another company that is offering pay per click advertising. I have set up an account and I will be comparing the two programs over the next few months. I have heard many great things about them, and I am very anxious to see the results.

Make Money Online: Website not included

Believe it or not you don't need to have a website to make money on the Internet. With a few simple steps, you can start making cold hard cash online. Here is a proven and inexpensive strategy to make money online without a website:

Step 1: Find an Affiliate Product: Best bet – Clickbank.com

Find a product to promote where you can make a good commission on each sale. After you sign up with Clickbank.com, you can search their marketplace to find a product that you want to promote. Generally, you will get the biggest commissions on digital products such as ebooks. A digital product can be described as something that is downloaded directly to a customer's computer after purchasing. A how to book, such as Google Wealth Wizard or software as adword analyzer.

There is no extra cost for the author per unit, no inventory for them to carry and certainly no shipping costs, the commissions are much greater than on regular products such as hardgoods. Commission on these kinds of products can be upwards of 50% to even 75%. The best place to find these products is Clickbank.com.

Sign up as an affiliate for a product that looks the most appealing to you, for me appealing means how much money am I going to make from each sale. You will have your own decision making process, but money is mine. It’s just as easy to sell a product where you make $10.00 a sale as it is to sell a product where you will make $30.00 a sale. After you sign up, you will get a what is called a unique affiliate link (your code that tells clickbank that you were responsible for sending the customer to the site who made the purchase) This also allows for clickbank to track your commissions and ensures it will be credited to your account.

Step 2: Get a Domain Name: Best bet – Godaddy.com

Why do you need a domain name, but no a website? Firstly, your name establishes a presence on the web; it gives you to some extent some credibility as well. Secondly, by getting a domain name it will let you redirect to your affiliate links. A domain name for those who don’t know is a .COM name (like www.67days.com). You can get it for $9.00 or less depending if you purchase any other services, but for this example let’s just assume its $8.95 at GoDaddy.com. GoDaddy.com will allow you to redirect your domain name to your affiliate link at no extra cost. Free is always good. I do have to mention that I have purchased several domain names from them never without any problems, their online support is outstanding, and make it so simple to get everything set up.

So when someone types in your .COM name in their browser, it will go to your affiliate link. The visitor will see the website with the product you want to promote, and the commissions will be tracked correctly. Cha-ching!

Remember, the reason why you need a domain name is that it's memorable, and your are trying to create your own brand so to speak, and it makes you look more trustworthy. Affiliate links tend to be too long and arouse suspicion, but also they can be altered. What does that mean to you? You don’t get the credit for your hard work sending the traffic to the site, or the sale. How much would that suck? For example, most people would rather click on the link www.domainpricesslashed.com as opposed to http://7dp39jp14.wizard1973.hop.clickbank.net.

A domain name will make your affiliate link look like it's your very own website. So basically, you will have a product to promote and a website to send people to and get commissions - without really having your own website. And what is the best part of all this? You have no paperwork to deal with, no customers to deal with, and it works 24 hours a day/ 365 days of the year. Completely automatic!

Step 3: Drive Traffic – This is a topic all to itself but here is a quick look at it.

In order to make sales, you need to get visitors to your domain name (which will forward them to the website of the product that you resell). You can pay for advertising and hope that your profit will be greater than advertising cost, or you can use free ways to generate traffic. Keyword advertising can work wonders if you choose the right keywords. If you choose incorrectly, it can be a very expensive lesson. Unfortunately I am speaking from experience, and made a whopping $17.00 but spent over $100.00 to do it. Ouch!

One of the most effective way to get free targeted visitors to your domain name is by writing and submitting articles to sites such as www.ezinearticles.com. You can write short articles on the topic related to the product that you promote. You can even right reviews of other similar products, or how the product works for you, or why this product is worth the $39.00 they are asking for. Just make sure at the end of the article, you include your author bio and your domain name link.

After submitting your articles to various article websites, and there are several, just google them. Give your readers the right to publish your articles as long as your link is included. Your articles will get published in many places on the Internet, because content rich articles are always in demand. These other sites will be advertising your affiliate link at no cost to you whatsoever. People will read your articles and click on your domain name link ready to buy.

Now just like the shampoo bottle says. Lather rinse and repeat. You can duplicate this method time and time again. After a while, you will build up a fantastic source of Internet income - without even having a website.