According to Brian Clark of Copyblogger:

"If you want to make money with an online content business, you most certainly can. And despite all the advice that’s flowing from every direction related to blogging, AdSense, and affiliate marketing, the prevailing wisdom ends up as a waste of time for too many people."

He reveals:

"I will say that my blog is one of the most popular in the world, and yet the revenue it brings in from advertising is laughable compared to what I make with my other online projects."

Brian claims:

"What you need to realize is this: So far, the Internet has been a dismal failure compared to its true nature and real potential."

And finally:

"There’s never been a better time in history to be a person who can clearly communicate ideas.

"Bloggers and freelance writers can and should be thriving with their own paid online training programs. Instead, many bloggers who are trying to make money online are spinning their wheels, and freelance writers are selling themselves cheaply to make other people rich.

"The Internet will be the primary delivery medium for all distance knowledge and training efforts, and will play a part in most local teaching—in fact, it’s already working that way today at the corporate level. The big opportunity for you though, is in repurposing the vast amount of specialized text-based information into interactive, multimedia learning environments that result in recurring income and long-term customer relationships."

These revelations are excerpts from Brian's eye-opening new report, Teaching Sells.

It's 24 pages of fascinating and insightful information–information that can change your entire perspective on how to earn money online. It will make the proverbial lightbulb go off in your head.

I've read it twice already, and will read it several more times. It's one of the most compelling reports I've ever read (and believe me, since joining the online community in 2003, I've read a LOT of reports)!

And by the way, Brian's report is free.

Stop whatever you're doing and go get it now by clicking on this link: Teaching Sells

You can thank me later.

brian clark teaching sells

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Opinions: everybody's got 'em, right? Some are good, some are bad… and some will make you money!

One of my favorite bloggers, Maki at DoshDosh, has requested, assembled and posted 63 Constructive Opinions on the Best Way to Make Money Online.

This is not some silly list of tips like "put Adsense on your blog, dude!"

It's an awesome, detailed collection that's informative, useful and inspiring. If you take just a handful of those 63 opinions to heart, you'll dramatically improve your online business. Guaranteed.

Go check it out: 63 Opinions.

doshdosh make money online

The 20/20 Challenge is kicking my butt.

I knew it wouldn't be easy (there is that clue, the word "challenge," right there in the title). But it's driving me crazy!

Friday afternoon I was ready to quit. I thought about all the steps involved in the 20-day plan, and was very blunt with myself:

"You're too damn lazy to do all that and you know it!"

Then I was equally blunt with my response:
Read more

20/20 challenge 20K Challenge 20kchallenge earn money online internet marketing

A few days ago I received an email with this subject: "Earn $20,000 in 20 Days, Guaranteed!"

I was within a nanosecond of deleting it as spam (and growling about the ineffectiveness of my spam filter to block it), when I noticed the name in the FROM field. Well, no wonder it hadn't been blocked… it was from my friend Lynn Terry, a long-time Internet Marketer whom I admire and respect.

Seeing her name made me look at the email subject in a whole new light–I was now intrigued instead of annoyed.

"Earn $20,000 in 20 Days, Guaranteed!" That last word is what really got my attention. I know virtually all Internet Marketing products come with a money-back guarantee, but I don't think I've ever seen one that guaranteed a specific income within such a short period of time.

So I checked it out, even though I was still skeptical (I've seen way too many product promotions). I delved deeper out of curiosity.

It's called the 20/20 Challenge.

Besides the fact that Lynn was recommending it, five things made me a bit less skeptical:
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20/20 challenge 20K Challenge 20kchallenge earn money online internet marketing

DealDotCom, the addictive new website that features a special discounted price on a different popular Internet Marketing product each day, is changing the face of some blogs.

Have you noticed?

People who used to fill their blogs with their own opinions, suggestions, tips, advice or rants about their particular niche topics are now filling their blogs with posts about the daily specials from DealDotCom–complete with their affiliate links, of course.

Why? Because they want to make money, that's why!

I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Heck, I'm doing it to a much smaller extent in THIS blog. The links to DealDotCom in this post are my affiliate links. I'm hoping you'll click on one of them, and get addicted to DealDotCom–just like I and so many other bloggers have done!

What we all find so appealing about DealDotCom is that, in addition to selling desirable products at drastically reduced prices, it offers us "average" Internet Marketers a massive platform from which to sell our own products!

If you want to see what all the hoopla is about, go to DealDotCom.com and click on the top menu link that says Make Money (catchy phrase, eh?).

BUT… while I may post about DealDotCom from time to time, I will not transform from a blogger into a seller. In my opinion, that's what sales letters are for. Bloggers who promote products from time to time, with posts, banners, affiliate links, whatever… are just trying to earn a living while sharing their passion and (hopefully) valuable information with their readers. They are bloggers who happen to be selling.

But if all you want to do is push affiliate products in every post, turn in your blogger's badge and admit that you've become a seller, not a blogger.

Now go sign up under my affiliate link at DealDotCom!

DealDotCom

I've been experimenting with PayPerPost.

I know some bloggers don't like the idea of accepting money in exchange for posting about a sponsored site. If you're one of them, you probably won't be interested in this post, and that's fine. To each his/her own.

If you're here to pick up tips on earning money with your blog, though, this is what I've found so far with PayPerPost.

The top earner has raked in more than $10,000 so it's worth checking out, right?

Here's the basic concept for getting paid to post — you register your blog (it must be at least three months old). Once it's approved, you're able to select from a list of posting opportunities offered by advertisers. These opportunities tell you what they'd like you to post about, the links you'll need to include, the minimum number of words for your post, the tone of your post (i.e., positive or neutral), etc., and how much you'll be paid if your post is accepted.

The highest paying opportunities are restricted to the highest quality blogs… high PR, high Alexa ranking, etc.

This makes sense. Obviously an advertiser would pay more to have John Chow write a post about their site than they'd pay me.

Unfortunately, posters with a relatively new blog (like me) do not qualify for as many opportunities. And the ones we do qualify for pay less than $10 per post.

Typically there are about 60 opportunities available… and my blog qualifies for maybe 10 of those, on average.

But I "disqualify" myself from most of them. I'll only apply for opportunities on topics that I would likely blog about anyway, whether I was getting paid or not.

So I will NOT do posts about subjects such as online dating, gambling, mortgage loans, etc., even though those advertisers tend to pay more than those whose topics I am interested in posting about.

Here are the posts I've been paid to write so far:

Handy SEO Glossary — I earned $10.

Blogger's Choice Awards: Awaiting Your Votes — I earned $10.

Do You Backup Your Files? — I earned $5.

But Wait! There's More! — I earned $8.50.

So that's a total of $33.50 for four posts spread out over about a month, on topics that are more-or-less on target with my niche.

Obviously I'm not going to be one of the top earners, but it's better than my Adsense revenue from this site… and I (hopefully) did provide some value in the content.

If you have several sites, high-ranking sites, and/or aren't picky and will post about anything, you can earn a LOT of money with PayPerPost.

If you're more like me, you'll add another revenue source that will likely grow as your site does.

If you decide to give it a try, be sure to read the Terms of Service. I had 2 of my 4 posts rejected (temporarily) because I didn't read and follow the rules. Their site is incredibly slow; I didn't feel like exploring.

The first mistake I made was quoting a bit of info from the site I was posting about and linking to. That's normal for bloggers, but a no-no for PayPerPost. The second mistake I made was publishing two posts on my blog without a non-paid post in between… another no-no. If you make a mistake, they'll tell you about it and give you the opportunity to fix it, which is what I did. Ultimately all of my posts (so far) have been accepted.

One more thing… you might want to consider becoming an Advertiser. I have not done this myself. But if you have a site about mortgages, for instance, you know how much competition there is… and how expensive Pay-Per-Click advertising can be! For the same (or far less money), you could list an opportunity at PayPerPost and pay bloggers to write about your site and services… 200 words per post gets you a lot more bang for your buck than 2 short lines in a typical online ad. And your site will benefit from the incoming links, as well.

Here's where to go if you'd like to sign up: PayPerPost.

get paid to blog payperpost

I just received the following email from Blog Flux:

"As we ramp up our efforts for Blog Flux Local, our parent company,
BloggyNetwork, is also preparing to launch blogs for major US cities.

"If you live in a major US city (at least 500,000 people) and want to
blog about what is going on locally (and get paid to do it), please send
us an email to: local 'at' bloggynetwork.com

"We are especially excited about local and how it fits into blogging -
looking forward to launching our local-oriented sites."

I am not interested in this myself (I barely have time to write for this blog), but thought I'd share this in case any of you want to check it out.

I did look at both websites (Blog Flux and Bloggy Network) to see if there were more details available (such as how much they'll pay), but wasn't able to find anything.

So if you're interested, I suggest you send them an email inquiry to find out more.

blogging paid to blog

Damn Brad Fallon! Grrrrrr!!

How the hell does he expect me to maintain, update and promote this blog and all my other websites–plus get involved with his new FreeIQ site–when I have a full-time job, a husband, a cat and several tropical fish that also need my attention?

There are only so many hours in the day, dammit!

I used to think of Brad as one of the good guys in Internet Marketing. He's definitely one of the most successful. I've seen him live at three Internet Marketing seminars, and he impressed the hell out of me every time… whether his topic was SEO, selling wholesale products online, or Internet Marketing in general.

He's not only one of the top experts (I'd use the word "guru" but all the gurus seem to dislike that word), he's a really nice guy who genuinely wants to help others become successful online.

At least that's what I used to think.

Now I'm not so sure.

I know what you're thinking. It's not Brad's fault. He's not twisting my arm or forcing me to get sucked into his new FreeIQ site. I have free will. I can ignore it! Right?

Hah! Fat chance!

How can I possibly ignore a site for Internet Marketers that allows speakers, authors, consultants and experts of all kinds to host and stream an unlimited amount of audio and video, including complete presentations, seminars and demonstrations–for free?

Vast content… incredible exposure… fantastic income opportunities… It's an irresistible dream come true for people like me doing business online!

Brad should know this, dammit!

I absolutely do NOT jump on the bandwagon of the "latest and greatest" product being pitched by the gurus (there's that word again). I get sick and tired of all the promotions they do for each other's stuff.

But FreeIQ is free (my favorite kind of product/service!). And it's got incredible potential.

If you have about 45 minutes to spare, watch Joel Comm's video.

If you just want to go see for yourself what it's all about, go to the FreeIQ homepage. It's pretty bland. But you'll see a list of preferred tags under the search box. Click on one that interests you, and you'll be taken to a page full of content about that topic. The content is a mix of free and for-sale resources.

Lots of great stuff on this site already, and it's brand-spanking new.

And yes, you can easily add your own content.

But here's what's got me really excited… the potential to earn a lot of money! In addition to posting your own products for people to buy, you can become an affiliate and promote the site (as I'm doing). If anyone you refer buys anything, you get a commission. If anyone you refer becomes an affiliate and gets others to buy anything, you get a Tier-2 commission on that stuff, too.

Just go to the FreeIQ site and click on the Learn More link at the top to see what it's all about.

But be warned! After you do that, you won't be able to resist climbing onboard now, before everyone else beats you to it.

That's what happened to me.

Now I'm spending my limited, valuable time promoting this thing when I should be cleaning out the cat box.

Damn Brad Fallon!

affiliate marketing Brad Fallon FreeIQ internet marketing online marketing

My friend Lynn Terry offers a great answer on her blog to one of the most common questions asked by new online marketers:

"What it the best way to monetize the traffic that you get to your sites?"

Lynn's response is detailed and informative.

But what makes her answer particularly helpful is that she includes a great example of something she did that was causing her to lose first-time visitors and their money, why it was happening, how she discovered it, and how she fixed it! Here's a brief excerpt:

"I get to the end of the page and… there is nothing. No call to action, no reason to click on anything. So I hit the back button on my browser and continue my search at Google. (Bad Lynn, no cookie!)

"Knowing what I know from this process, how would I monetize this page? I would add a call-to-action at the end of the short post. In fact, that’s what I did…"

How many of us look at our sites through our visitors' eyes, and really SEE what's missing from their perspective? If we can't do that, we can't implement fixes that will monetize traffic.

Lynn's post is excellent. Go read it and start making more money!

Here's the link: How to Monetize Website Traffic

Lynn Terry monetization monetizing web pages search engine traffic website traffic

Metacafe.com is a video sharing site, but unlike YouTube, it shares revenue with the people who provide the videos.

Here's how it works:

Metacafe's Producer Rewards™ program rewards you for creating and submitting great videos.

If your video has what it takes to entertain people, we want to license it and pay you for every view. Every time someone watches your video on Metacafe, you earn money.

How you make money

Metacafe will pay you $5 for every thousand views your video gets on our site. Payment starts after your video reaches 20,000 views and has a rating of 3.00 or higher - which tells us that the viewers like the video. On top of that, the license to Metacafe is a non-exclusive deal - you retain ownership of your video. Metacafe helps build your brand by marketing your content and making you money.

What's the potential?

With well over 1 million unique users per day watching over 400 million videos every month, Metacafe is perfectly placed to deliver the most receptive audience to the most entertaining content. Whether it's something spontaneous in your home or something you've scripted, if it entertains, it has a place on Metacafe.

What are the requirements?

For a video to qualify for Producer Rewards, you must own all the rights to the video and the video must meet certain content guidelines.

At the time of this post, the following video was Metacafe's top earner, bringing the originator over $26,500:

Matrix - For Real…Joe Eigo - Funny video clips are a click away

Ouch!

Creating a really popular video may not be easy… but once that part is done, Metacafe could turn it into an incredible (and automatic) earning machine for you. Kick in your own marketing campaign to get people to view your video, and the sky's the limit!

Go here for more information and a list of the Top 10 money-producing videos: Metacafe.com

earn money with videos Metacafe online video sharing videos online video sharing

I read and/or browse a lot of blogs (as a blogger, you should, too). I'm always on the lookout for new tips and strategies. Especially ones that involve earning money.

That's how I discovered Money4Blogs. It's a test link advertising service:

"We will give you money for a small link or post on your site for one of our financial companies. There would be no graphics involved, just a static text link. All of the links and related sites are to reputable finance webpages, with no illegal or obscene content. We can pay instantly via Paypal - no pay per click involved."

I signed up. What the heck, it's simple and free.

Within a few days I received this reply:

Many thanks for your submission; I would like to offer you $10 for a text link on your blog for a year, payable when the link is live.

Hmmm. $10 for a year. That's about 83 cents per month, less than 3 cents per day.

I can be bought, but I'm not THAT cheap!

I'm sure the offer would've been higher if my blog's PR and traffic were higher. But here's my point: my PR and traffic are steadily increasing. Why would I want to lock in a rate for an entire year based on today's stats, when I expect this site's value to advertisers to be much higher 3-6 months from now?

So I declined the offer. They didn't negotiate any further but invited me to check back again later "as your blog becomes more established." So I may do that.

Anyway, here's the link again in case you want to check them out: Money4Blogs.

earn money from a website earning money online internet marketing money4blogs online marketing text link advertising

During a recent discussion in an private membership forum of which I'm a member, a question came up about declaring income and expenses for an online business. I mentioned:

"…advised to show a profit in 2 out of your first 5 years in business. 2006 was my 4th year with an online business, and the first year I showed a net profit. I plan to do the same in 2007."

Another member then posted this:

"…I am most impressed by your patience in hanging in there. To have only turned a profit after 4 years and still be in it says a lot about your determination. For me, I would probably have packed it in and moved onto another business venture…"

To which I replied, in part:

"Thanks, but I'm probably in a slightly different position than many people struggling to earn money online. I'm employed full-time, earn a decent salary, and actually enjoy my job. So there's been no real sense of urgency for me to turn a profit. I'm doing this because I want to, not because I need to. Plus I got married the same year I started my online adventures, and wasn't willing to devote a lot of my 'off-duty' hours to this business, at the expense of spending time with my hubby."

That online conversation must've been running in the background of my mind for a few days. Eventually it regurgitated itself.

And I realized how thoughtless I have been!

Unlike me, my hubby does not enjoy his job. He's got the "golden handcuffs." This means he's been there too long to quit, but not quite long enough to retire with a pension he'd be happy with. So he grits his teeth and keeps putting in his time.

Meanwhile, he's been very supportive of my online business pursuits.

How could I have been so… clueless?

I've been focusing on learning more than earning. The online marketing world is a fascinating one to me, and I have never been motivated by money.

When I've thought about how my online business may affect my husband, I've only worried about the amount of time I spend doing this versus being with him.

What I should've been thinking about is this: How can I boost our income enough so that my husband will feel comfortable leaving (retiring early from) the job that's stressing him out every day?

There's that… and the title of this blog. The word EARNING is right there in front of me!

And yet, until now, earning wasn't as important to me as learning. I have been earning, but not near as much as I would be if that had been my focus.

Well, that's changed. I had an "Ah-ha!" moment. I'm going to focus on making money with this blog and my other sites.

Not at the expense of my visitors. Not at the expense of continuing to provide quality content.

I'm rolling up my sleeves and intend to get busy bringing in more money. I've added a category on Earning Money. It's about time, right?

Expect to see more posts on specific money-earning strategies… what I'm doing, what's working, what's not.

Here's an example. I've signed up as an affiliate for Best of the Web and put a banner on my left sidebar. BOTW is one of the internet’s oldest and most authoritative web directories. They pay a 25% commission on referrals. I'll let you know what sort of results I get just from the banner. That's a passive approach and probably not the most effective, but with limited time for my online activities, I'll try that first.

OK now… let's get busy–and get wealthier–together!

earning money online internet marketing making money online online marketing