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Even with no product and no Web site, you can get paid for what and who you know

By Scott Allen

Making money online used to pretty much require you to have your own Web site, products to sell and some marketing savvy. But a new generation of dot-coms have arisen that will pay you for what you know and who you know without you having to be a web designer or a marketing genius.

But it’s hard to tell hype from the real deal. I did a search on “make money online” and “making money online”, and much of the information out there is just promoting various infoproducts, mostly about Internet marketing. I see why people sometimes ask, “Is anyone making money online besides Internet marketing experts?”

So I put together a list of business opportunities with legitimate companies that:

• Pay cash, not just points towards rewards or a chance to win money
• Don’t require you to have your own Web domain or your own products
• Don’t involve any hard-selling
• Aren’t just promoting more Internet marketing
• Give a good return on your time investment

In the interest of objectivity, none of the links below are affiliate links, and none of them have paid or provided any other consideration for their presence here. These are legitimate companies with business models that allow you to get paid for a wide range of activities.

Help friends find better jobs.

Sites like ReferEarns, Zyoin, Who Do You Know For Dough?, Bohire and WiseStepp connect employers with prospective employees, many of whom are already employed and not actively job-hunting, via networking – the people who know these qualified candidates. Rewards for referring a candidate who gets hired range from $50 on up to several thousand dollars – not chump change. If you know a lot of job-seekers (and who doesn’t these days?), this is a great way to break into the recruiting business with no overhead.

Connect suppliers with buyers.

Referral fees are a common practice in business, but they haven’t been used much in online networking sites because there was no way to track them. Sites like Salesconx, InnerSell and uRefer now provide that. Vendors set the referral fees they’re willing to pay (and for what), and when the transaction happens, you get paid. uRefer also allows merchants to set up referral programs for introductions and meetings, as well as transactions.

Write.

A growing number of sites will pay for your articles or blog posts. Associated Content and Helium will “pay for performance” based on page views for just about anything you want to write about. Articles on specific topics they’re looking for can earn direct payments up to about $200. The rates are probably low for established writers, but if you’re trying to break into the field and have time on your hands, they’re a great way to start. Also, a lot of companies are looking for part-time bloggers. They may pay per post or on a steady contract. Our Weblogs Guide posts blogging jobs weekly in the forum.

Start your own blog.

You don’t have to have your own Web site, or install blogging software, or even figure out how to set up the advertising. At Blogger you can set up a blog for free in less than five minutes without knowing a thing about web design, and Blogger even automates setting up Google AdSense so you can make money off your blog by displaying ads and getting paid when people click on the ads. To make even more money from it, set up an affiliate program (see below) for books, music, etc., and insert your affiliate links whenever you refer to those items. You’ll have to get a lot of traffic to become a six-figure blogger, but pick an interesting topic, write well, tell all your friends, and you’re off to a good start.

Create topical resource hubs.

Are you an expert on a particular niche topic? Can you put together an overview of the topic and assemble some of the best resources on the topic from around the web? Then you can create topical hubs and get paid through sites like Squidoo, HugPages and Google Knol. Payments are based on a combination of ad revenue and affiliate fees. You’ll get higher rates doing it on your own, but these sites have a built-in supply of traffic and tools to make content creation easier.

Advertise other people’s products.

If you already have a Web site or a blog, look for vendors that offer related but non-competing products and see if they have an affiliate program. Stick to familiar products and brands – they’re easier to sell. To promote those products:

• Place simple text or graphical ads in appropriate places on your site
• Include links to purchase products you review or recommend in a blog, discussion forum or mailing list you control
• Create a dedicated sales page or Web site to promote a particular product

They all work – it just depends on how much time you have to spend on it and your level of expertise with Web design and marketing.

Microstock photography.

You don’t have to be a professional photographer to sell your photos for money. People are constantly in need of stock photography for websites, presentations, brochures and so on, and are willing to pay for the right image. People generally search for images on stock photography sites by keywords, not by photographer, so you have the same chance as anyone else of having your image picked. Just be careful that you don’t have images of trademarked brands, copyrighted art or people’s faces that are readily identifiable (unless you have a model release), but just about anything else is fair game, and I promise – you’d be amazed what people need pictures of, so don’t make any assumptions. If it’s a decent photo, upload it. Some sites to get you started include Fotolia, ShutterStock, Dreamstime and iStockphoto. The great thing about this is that it’s truly “set it and forget it”.

The above list is by no means comprehensive, but it highlights some of the new and interesting ways to make money online without investing any money, without having a product of your own, and without having expert sales and marketing skills. Most of all, unlike taking surveys or getting paid to read e-mail, the potential return on your time investment is substantial.

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Posted under Make Money Tips

Andy Greenberg, 03.03.09, 06:00 PM EST

For celebs like Shaq and Britney Spears, microblogging may be a form of privacy control.

While training in Hawaii last January, Lance Armstrong received a massage every afternoon at 3 p.m. Shaquille O’Neal often can’t sleep after embarrassing losses–he suffers from what he calls “Shaqsomnia.” On Nov. 10, Britney Spear’s son Jayden was hospitalized for food poisoning.

These celebrity tidbits shared in 140-character blurbs on Twitter were once the paydirt of paparazzi who make their careers selling evidence of the bizarre and banal lives of the rich and famous. Now, the explosive growth of the microblogging platform means those starmongers have a new source of competition: the stars themselves.

A quick glance at the most “followed” microbloggers on Twitter shows that 20 or so of the top 100 feeds on the site are written by real-world celebrities. And those high-profile users often twitter, or “tweet,” the same sort of idiosyncratic life details as anyone else.

Hammer (the artist formerly known as MC Hammer) revealed in January that he carries three cell phones–a 3G iPhone, a T-Mobile G1 and a Motorola (nyse: MOT – news – people ) Q9. Ashton Kutcher declared earlier this month that, after seven attempts, he’s starting to like yoga. And the singer Dave Matthews recently noted that his farts sound “like a heard of elephants.”

In Pictures: Celebrities Who Twitter From Forbes.com

Some “tweets” are even more personal. Last month singer Erykah Badu and her boyfriend Twittered the birth of her daughter, complete with blow-by-blow details. “Water broke,” the baby’s father, producer Jay Electronica, twittered on his own feed via BlackBerry. “I can see the head, it’s covered in hair.”

That kind of sharing may seem like self-inflicted privacy invasion, but it isn’t a mistake, says Laura Fitton, a social media consultant and one of Twitter’s most-followed users. In some cases, it’s savvy media control.

Posted under Blogging, Marketing, SEO

Visitors are the life of our blogs and without them, we are nothing. All of us are trying our best to have visitors especially the unique ones. Some are even spending money to invite them. But what good is a visitor if he is just passing by? If you are an Entrecard member, you do not want to have plain droppers, do you? I must admit, there are blogs I drop on then leave immediately. So if you think you are not convincing them, here are some of my ideas that may help.

Inspire them

It is not enough that you give them what they need. Unlike portals, blogs should contain more than just useful information. Note that most blogs are made by simple individuals and visitors are expecting to learn from other’s point of view. This is not an easy task because each visitor has different taste. You must find their weak points. Sharing your success stories on your blog with humility is a good example. It is easy to remember someone who can inspire us.

Guide them

Educating is different from guiding in a way that the latter requires personal touch. Most of the posts written in blogs are practical and most likely; visitors already have an idea on what you are talking about. However, guiding them step by step through concrete details and proven facts is more convincing than being sounding like a university professor. If you are giving tips, teach them like they know nothing about it. Visitors love to be treated like children.

Sell your posts, not yourself

Although it is convincing that you start your sentences with the word I as the person talking, it does not mean you should sell yourself. Visitors do not care who we are, they are after what we write and how we write it. If they find our post interesting to read, they will read it even I they really do not need it. Never tell them that you are the best because they prefer the better ones. Write for the majority which we call the masses.

Be simple as possible

This is most applicable when you are writing about technical stuff. You may be a genius in your field of expertise, but some visitors will not understand your words. Therefore, you must use some layman’s terms instead of trying to look intelligent. If you are smart enough, you can also convince non-technical visitors to read your blog posts. Giving some simple examples or analogies is a good technique to explain your ideas further.

Be a servant to your visitors and they will treat you like a king.
Kathy

Internet Marketing
Make $1000 per Sale

Posted under Blogging

Here are some great tips from my personal experience:

Unique Content & Useful Information: The first & most important factor for any blog or site is the Content. Content is the king. People always appreciate unique & useful information. Quality content can help you in your link baiting activity also, to create the buzz in the industry. Content is the only way of viral marketing, people will automatically come to your blog.

Submit your Blog to Blog directories: There are 100’s of free blog directories available on the net where you can submit your blog for free. It will help you to get back links also. But take care of the relevancy. Always submit your blog in to relevant directories.

Here are some directories:

PR: 8 Technorati
PR: 8 Blogarama.com
PR: 7 blogcatalog.com
PR: 7 eatonweb.com
PR: 7 ping-o-matic.com
PR: 7 blogtoplist.com
PR: 6 WeBlogALot.com
PR: 6 BlogHop.com
PR: 6 blogdir.com
PR: 6 blog-directory.org
PR: 5 blogroll.net
PR: 5 biggerblogger.com
PR: 4 blogrankings.com

RSS Feed: Always create RSS feed for your blog. You can submit your feed URL in to various RSS submission sites.

Social Book Marking Buttons: Give various options to your visitors to book mark your blog easily. These buttons are also helpful in viral marketing. Like if someone book mark your blog on del.icio.us and then share it with his/her network, then your content will automatically get publicized without any effort.

Participate in Relevant Forums: You should participate in forums relevant to your niche, but take care of the guidelines. Genuine participation can help you get the traffic so don’t try to spam, Otherwise, you will loose your credibility. Forum participation will also help you to get back links (from signature).

Social Communities & Networking Sites: Start creating profile on social community sites & build your network. Strong networking can bring lots of visitors to your site.

Join The Bloggers Groups: You can join relevant bloggers groups. By writing some quality post you can get traffic to the blog and some back links also.

Reciprocal Linking: This is a good technique to get back links to your blog. You can contact other blog masters to exchange link with your blog. But I will not advice you to participate aggressively in to these link exchange schemes.

Blog Commenting: Start commenting (Genuinely) on other relevant blogs. Comments on Dofollow blogs can help you to get back links.

I am sure you will be benefited from these blog promotion tips.
Kathy

Internet Marketing
Make $1000 per Sale

Posted under Blogging, Marketing

So what was all that about?

I don’t think we comment enough and I put that down to bloggers not realising the benefits. Here are the benefits as I see them, let me know if I miss any:

1. It’s the right thing to do – people complain about not enough comments on their own blog but don’t take enough time to comment on others. We all like some attention or an occasional pat on the head for a job well done. Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself!
2. Make friends and influence people – Blogging is partly a networking activity. People are more likely to link to you (or more) if they have heard of you. Get yourself out there, make friends.
3. Clicks – People click your link to see what other interesting stuff you write about. Obvious but true.
4. Develop a Bloggers Eye – Find the point of interest in a story. By commenting you are training your brain to think of something interesting.
5. Create Commentable Content – By observing which posts you commented on and which you did not (or couldn’t no matter how hard you tried!) you develop an awareness of what works to attract comments.
6. Comments = Ideas – You managed to comment. Could your comment be expanded into a post …?
7. You never know who is reading – It amazes me who reads my comments on obscure blogs that I thought only myself and a handful of others read. My comments on one blog lead to a consulting gig. You never know unless you try.
8. What you give you get more of – I strongly believe what you put out comes back to you. You will get more comments yourself. Try it.
9. Keep Match Fit – Exercise your writing muscles, the more your practice the more you improve. Comments should be short, fast, to the point and make an impact. They are excellent tests of your writing skill.
10. Comment on Fresh Blogs For Fresh Perspectives – If you are always among the same crowd you will find inevitably the same thoughts being reflected back over and over. Break out! I advise people to comment on new blogs every day. By not commenting on the same old blogs, or especially setting a goal to comment on more blogs than the day before, you will be forced to leave your blog-reading comfort zone and visit new blogs. This exposes you to new ideas, different ways of looking at things, and hopefully a way out of the echo chamber.

Blogging is not just about saying your piece, it is also about going out and joining the conversation where it is happening. It’s about reaching out to people and exposing yourself (steady!) to new ideas. Some giving as well as all this taking back we focus on.

Ask not what the blogosphere can do for you but what together we can do for the blogosphere.

I didn’t manage to comment on more blogs every day, but I did make a ton of comments. It sparked ideas, conversations, new contacts, opened up opportunities, attracted more subscribers and I had a lot of fun.

Those of you who tried it, what did you find?
Kathy

Internet Marketing
Make $1000 per Sale

Posted under Blogging