MAKE MONEY BLOGGING: January 2009

Thursday 29 January 2009

List Of Article Directories

Tuesday 27 January 2009

Essential Blog Directories To Submit Your Blog

Mentioned below are a few of the "popular blog directories to submit your blog". Ofcourse, there are others as well, but these are the essential ones

Best of the Web Blog Search
Best of the Web’s Blog Directory is very selective and only lists aged and valuable blogs. One of the best "blog directories" and to get a link from here is well deserved.

Blog Explosion
Claims to be the largest blog promoter on the internet. They have a vast directory but do not seem to have direct links.

Blog Search Engine
Owned by Performancing’s parent company, it is very selective and its search results are powered by IceRocket.

EatonWeb Blog Directory
Has plenty of inbound links and a blog rating system. You "may" have to pay a fee for your blog to be reviewed, but like Yahoo, the review fee is well worth the few dollars.

Blogarama
An impressive listing of something close to 70,000 blogs. The site is well designed and follows the same content categories as many other sites.

Bloggernity
A clean and easy to navigate site. Scrolling down, you find the new blogs and there is very little advertising on the home page

Blogflux
A directory that has the listings in alphabetic order, besides the blog listings are organized and clear. Certainly one of the effective "blog directories" where your blog can be listed.

Bloggeries
One of the best categories and subcategories home page on the internet. The layout is clear and concise, and readers are able to easily find what they are looking for.

Bloggapedia
Has an interesting and catchy homepage with innovative categories and a colorful design. Readers are easily connected to the top blogs and newest posts.

Blog Catalog
Has a wide variety of categories and offers the ability to search by country, language, or user. Easy member access through simple blog registration.

Globe of Blogs
To be listed on the site, the blog must not be commercial. The site may appear to be busy, but you are able to search by title, author, or subject.

Ultimate directory of British blogs
Simply British. In other words, it is not managed by location, but by culture. It is often asked that bloggers be genuinely "british"

Blog Universe
Good place to promote a podcast themed blog. Easy to navigate. Although the content is limited, it is an all around good directory

Bigger Blogs
A relatively new "blog directory" with only a few blogs registered. The blog is intertwined with a business directory and hence if you are accepted on a blog directory, the more exposure your blog will obtain. In addition, a back link can also help with your search engine placement.

Spillbean
One of the better designed "blog directories" site with categories. The site is aesthetically pleasing, and they have don't have much volume and are still in the process of building it.

Blogio
A small blog directory with few listings, but still worthy of a submission. Despite its small size, there are quality blogs and a solid ability to search on this site.

Blogging Fusion
A blog with a wide variety of categories. These categories also include photo blogs and family focused blogs. Blogging Fusion has an good amount of blog listings within the directory, and it also has visitor stats available.

Blog Hub
With its "new blogger" list and hot topics, Blog Hub is certainly one of the better "blog directories" to submit your site.

Bloglisting
Fun, colourful and catches the attention of the reader. Bloglisting displays the page ranking blogs, which is a helpful tool when determining with whom you want to exchange links.

Super Blog Directory
Great site that offers tools to posters that others do not. You can see the latest submitted links and blogs on the site, which is a perk that draws traffic into the directory.

My Blog Log
MyBlogLog is a popular site for building communities around blogs. In fact, the other folks on MyBlogLog are there for the purpose of networking. People are generally able to build a following quickly as the other bloggers, they quickly understand your pain. MBL is worth investing time in developing a following and building relationships.

There are still many more "blog directories" and some of them are listed below. Should you still need some more, you can easily obtain them from search engines.

5starblogs
A1Weblinks reciprocal or $$$
Addyourblog
Allafrica
All-Blogs.net fee or reciprocal
Answers
Autosmoto
Aviva fee
Biggerblogger
Birminghambloggers
Blawg
Blawgrepublic
Blloggs
Blogaz
Blogburst
Blogbib fee or reciprocal
BlogCatalog
Blogcode
Blog-collector

Blogs-collection
Blogdir
Blogdir.com
Blog-directory
Blogfolders
Bloggapedia
Bloggerhq
Bloggerschoiceawards
Blogexplosion
Blogfinds
Blogflux
Blogged
Bloghints
Bloghop
Bloghub
Blogion
Blogintro
Bloglines
Bloglisting
Blogmob
Bloggernow
Blogotion
Blogrankings
Blogs.com
Blogsbywomen
Blogscanada
Blogscholar
Blogsearch
Blog-search
Blogsearchengine
Blogsrating
Blogtree
Blogs-collection
Blogscholar
Blogville
Blogz
Blogz
Blurt It
Britblog
Browseblogs
Chefsblogs
Christiansunite
BoingBoing
BOTW Blog Directory fee
Bulletize fee
ContentsMatter
Crayon
Dfwblogs
Directorybest
Diarist
Dmoz
EatonWeb
Ezilon
Eponym
Feedboy
Feeddirectory
Feedmap
Feednuts
Flookie
FindingBlog
FyberSearch
Geekyspeaky $$$$ or reciprocal
Genwi
Getblogs
Globeofblogs
Gnoos
Gobignetwork
Google
Gozoof
Grokodile
IBlog Business Directory fee
Jewishblogging
Kmax
Leftyblogs
LSBlogs
Mkeonline
Mozdex
Myblog2u
Myblogdirectory
Nitle blog census
Nycbloggers
Orblogs
Outpost-earth
Poddop
Quickblogdirectory
Rateitall
SmallBusiness.com New
Spicypage
Sports
Sportsblogs
Somethingjewish
Strategicboard
Submitblognow
Superblogdirectory
The lefty directory
Theblogresource
Theseoking
Portal.eatonweb fee
Regator
Scienceport
Small Business Blog Dir fee
SmallBusiness.com
TheVital
TruthLaidBear
Wilsdomain reciprocal
Weblogs.com
Weblog directory
Webloogle
Websandiego
Yahoo local
Yahoo.com

Nonetheless, the above listings are a peep into the essential "blog directories to submit your blog" and the valuable inbound links that your can build for your blog and your business.

Friday 23 January 2009

How To Make Money From Blogging

To "make money from blogging" is an easy way to "earn a steady income online".

Now a lot of people have enquired whether they could "make-money-from-blogging", and the answer to that question is YES !!

In fact I would go on to say that it is possible for anyone, to "make money from a blog". But the reality is that, most people who write blogs exclusively to make money really don't "make a lot of money from blogging".

Blogging is simple and anyone can "work from home" and blog.

Besides, in blogging, there are no hard and fast secrets or rules and it can work for anyone. It doesn’t need any specific strategies or plans – it is simple and straightforward. Ofcourse, there are techniques and strategies involved, but you don’t need to get involved in it at the early stages. As you progress into your blogging career, you will get to learn these methods.

The wonderful thing about blogs is, that there are virtually no restraints on what it could be used for, although, one has to be a bit reticent as to what they write in it, as it is fast being accepted as public opinion. Another reason why blogging has become increasingly popular is, because of its flexibility and easy content management. If you are familiar with running a traditional website, you would be aware of why fresh content is a necessity for your site's success. Blogging solves this issue, because it can be updated on a regular basis

Moreover, search engines such as Google, love blogs as they are usually updated with fresh contents. Hence, Google and other search engines tend to send their spiders to your blogs, rather than static webpages. In this way, your blogs will be indexed in the search engines faster than other websites. That is great as you will get more organic search traffic from the search engines and that is the first step to "making money from blogging".

Blogs are simple to create and maintain, and best of all you do not need to know html language to create blogs.

They are also prefect for beginners who want to start their online business.

You can create a blog for free and you do not need any experience in website design as most blog hosts will provide you with pre-made templates.

They also provide easy to understand instructions for creating your posts along with options such as allowing comments from readers

Don’t get your feelings hurt by comments. More often than not, if people complain about your blog site, chances are that they came to your blog searching for a certain something and if they haven’t found it, they will complain. Infact, anybody would. So, swallow some pride and listen to their suggestions and over time you will learn how to deal with it. You may even laugh about it later on.

In short, take what you know and show other people through blogging, and you might be surprised how people change their perception of you in time.

But what you need to know now is how to get started and which blogging framework to follow.

Blogging is not at all a difficult process and listed below are few methods that you can adopt and use to generate substantial "income from blogging". These "money making ideas using the internet" can be used or applied straight from the day you commence blogging. You can use these ideas as guidelines which you can apply if are serious about using blogging and using it as a method to "make money online".

Using Google Adsense
After you have created your own blogs and a steady stream of visitors coming to your blogs regularly, then it is time for you to monetize your blog.

One way to do that is by using Google Adsense.

Adsense allows you to put advertisements on your blogs. Whenever your visitors come to your blogs and clicks on the ads, then you will be paid. Simple and straight forward. Hence, when your blogs are able to generate many clicks every day, then you can easily earn a steady stream of income.

You can also turn your blog into a cash cow by using Google dsense. In fact, this might be the easiest way to "make some money blogging". Adsense allows bloggers to display up to three content-specific "ad units" per page. You simply sign-up to use the [pay per click] PPC service and then, upon approval, you are able to choose the style of online ads to place on your blog. Each time a visitor clicks these ads, you get paid. Earn at least $100 and Google sends you a check.

For more info on this subject, you need to get some "google guides" or handbooks or manuals. But all of these so called "google-guides" are good in their own way, what boils down is to how you implement the know-how you.

For more details on these guides, CLICK HERE

Also mentioned is a brief idea on how you can Make Money With Google Adsense

Please also go through this article on What Not To Do With Google Adsense

Sell Advertising Space

Another way to bring money into your blog is by selling advertising space. Adbrite is a system that allow people to run ads on your blog

You set a price and advertisers bid for a space. Of course, the first thing you need to do before selling advertising space is to prove that your blog is popular enough to attract readers that can see the ads. One of the best ways to do this and show exactly how popular your site is would be by keeping up with the amount of people that visit your blog. You should also make sure that you promote your blog in a way that it will rank high in the search engines. This is a vital step in making your blog popular.

Promoting your own product

Another method to "make money from blogging" is by promoting your own product. Some of you may have access to some service or product that is in highly demand by others. Ofcourse, you would want to utilize this and sell it to the open market by creating your own product info.

For example, you could be a great cook or even a better beautician or a mechanic. Obviously, you can write a book on cooking and let out a bit of those tasty recipes and even promote them on your blogs. Naturally, when people start buying your products or services, you will automatically "start earning money" too.

For some of us who are really clueless, then promoting other’s products may be another method for you to "make money online". It is here where "affiliate programs" come in. On the internet, there are a variety of products and services which you can promote for a commission. When people buy some of the affiliate products or services that you have recommended, you will be paid a commission.

CLICK HERE for a list of affiliate produts, that you can promote.

All you got to do is to simply write a simple and straightforward blog post saying what you think about the product or service and why you recommend it

Obviously your blog has a set of loyal readers and they believe in your recommendation. It is a form of advertising but at the lowest level – you don’t need a model or a celebrity to promote the product. All it needs is a good recommendation that needs to reach a maximum number of readers or households.

When you are consistently able to make your visitors trust you and buy what you have recommended, then earning money from your blogging is a cake-walk.

Ofcourse, there are even more ways on "how to make money from blogging". I have just listed here only a few of the basic methods.

If you are interested in getting more info on "how to make money from blogging" then I suggest you get hold of The Blogging Handbook

There are even more strategies that you can choose from, if you’re interesting in making money from blogs.

But at the moment, start from those simple strategies that you can understand and is not cumbersome or difficult to understand

Once you have your blog set up and all the basic first content created, you are ready to "make money from blogging"

Wednesday 21 January 2009

Write Ads Make Money

Write Ads And Make Money Online with Affiliate Adventure - I still don't get the idea.

An exclusive number of people are "earning extra money from the internet" and profiting quite a sum by just "writing ads from their homes and making money"

You must have notice ads that run like this.... seeking part time or full time workers who can "work from home" a few hours a week on the Internet... no experience or special skills are required.... all you need is a computer and access to the Internet..... your job is to "type online ads" and submit into online forms.

This is a common advert you come across rather often. It always sounds too good to be true ?

Ever thought of giving it a try or better still, have you ever tried it ?

I thought it was the usual wouldn't you like to be your own boss and "work from home", kinda stuff, but this process turned out to be interesting..

In short, it is a system that practically does "make easy money from home", that is ofcourse, if you work conscentiously for around an hour a day. That is ofcourse, once you set shop and get the hang of things !

The sad aspect is that the thought of making thousands of dollars every month, sounded too good to pass off... so you evidently get suckered into it..

Although you may harbor a bit of skepticism, its definitely, worth a try. Besides, the concept is rather simple and on top of it all it doesn't cost much... the best part it is fun..

Now how does this whole thing-ma-jig work ?

You identify any clickbank product with an affiliate program. Then set up an advertising campaign at a PPC search engine like Google and choose how much you want to pay per click. Write a three-line advertisement and add your affiliate link. Whenever anyone clicks through your ad and buys the product, you earn a commission.

Those who are new to the Adwords concept, would find this extremely exciting.. and this would also give them a boost to their entry into the world of Adwords

Start by conducting a few test campaigns and soon you would be having one or two showing results. Then draft a time frame and over that period of time, test a couple of campaigns for a whole range of affiliate products. It is likely that within a month, you could be having several profitable campaigns and very soon a profitable "home based internet business".

While the concept is simple, getting your campaigns to run profitably takes some expertise.

This is where Affiliate Adventure can help you... They say it is so easy, that just about anyone, even your granny can do this.. although that is something I would have personally like to see... let's go into details.. and let the poor granny rest in peace !

Basically with Affiliate Adventure you seem to get the following...

It shows you exactly "how to start this home business" and which mistakes to avoid from the very beginning
It shows you "how to make money promoting affiliate programs" on pay per click search engines
It shows you "how to find profitable affiliate programs" and affiliate products
It helps you on "how to set up a profitable pay per click advertising campaign" that will result in high conversion rates
It shows you how to discover secret niches that other affiliate marketers don't know about
It shows you how to test a product thoroughly
It shows you fine-tuning techniques to make your campaigns profitable
It also helps you find FREE tools that will show you the exact keywords you should use

Continue to experiment with your campaigns to ensure you stay at the forefront of your field for Google Adwords campaigns. Also listed at this link are some good articles and Google Guides, that could help in your adword campaigns.

If you intend using pay per click search engines, then you know already that you'll be spending quite a lot of money on advertising. So it's smart to invest in Affiliate-Adventure that will put you on a fast track to profitable ad campaigns. Let's put it this way, if you figure it out, the book will pay for itself in no time

CLICK HERE

for more details on "how to write ads and make money online" with Affiliate Adventure.

Saturday 17 January 2009

Make Money By Blogging By Promoting Affiliate Programs

The funniest thing in "making money with clickbank" is that you get a check when you least expect it.

The amount could be small, around $400 or it could be even $4,000 – but the point is that clickbank certainly generates you some income.

Now a lot of people have enquired whether they could "make money from blogging" by promoting affiliate programs from clickbank and the answer to the question is YES !!

In fact I would also go on to say that it is possible for anyone, to "make money from blogs". But the reality is that, most people who write blogs exclusively to make money really DON'T make a lot of money

Some of the many reasons for this, is because blogging is an organized, disciplined and ongoing process and fresh content is always necessary and no sooner people forego this due to other commitments, they lose out !

Now writing a blog and trying to "make money by promoting affiliate programs" is a different ball game.

Promoting your own product

A simple method to "make money from blogging" is by promoting your own product. Some of you may have access to some service or product that is in highly demand by others. Ofcourse, you would want to utilize this and sell it to the open market by creating your own product info.

For example, you could be a great cook or even a better beautician or a mechanic. Obviously, you can write a book on cooking and let out a bit of those tasty recipes and even promote them on your blogs. Naturally, when people start buying your products or services, you will automatically start to "earn money from your product" too.

Promoting Others Products Through Affiliate Programs

For some of us who are really clueless on what to create, then promoting other’s products may be another method for you to "make money online". It is here where "affiliate programs" come in. On the internet, there are a variety of products with which you can "make money by promoting affiliate programs" and earn a good commission.

In other words, when people read your blog and buy some of the affiliate products or services that you have recommended, you will be paid a commission.

You can CLICK HERE for a list of Affiliate Networks.

Here, you can sign up with any of these "affiliate networks", identify products that go well with your blogs subject and promote them. Don’t go for products that have a very low commission. Just one sale of a high commission product would be enough to cover all those low commission sales. People who run niche sites or blogs generally, go for a product with high commission.

All you got to do is to simply write a simple and straightforward blog post saying what you think about the product or service and why you recommend it

Obviously your blog has a set of loyal readers and they believe in your recommendation. It is a form of advertising but at the lowest level – you don’t need a model or a celebrity to promote the product. All it needs is a good recommendation that needs to reach a maximum number of readers or households.

When you are consistently able to make your visitors trust you and buy what you have recommended, then "earning money from blogging" becomes a cake-walk.

Ofcourse, there are even more ways on "how to make money from blogging".

I have just listed here only a few of the basic methods. Please note that there are even more strategies that you can choose from, if you’re interesting in "making money from blogs".

But at the moment, start from those simple strategies that you can understand and is not cumbersome or difficult to understand

Once you have your blog set up and all the basic first content created, you are ready to "make money from blogging"

Try not to put Adsense ads on blogs that are promoting affiliate products or products with affiliate programs. Mainly because, if you put up Adsense ads on a site promoting affiliate programs, the focus of the product is lost. In other words, the site should be dedicated to selling the affiliate product and not competitor's products. You would be getting peanuts for an Adsense option. That is to say, don’t give your visitor a reason to leave your site for a few cents. I would rather lose a potential sale rather than have them leave for an Adsense click!

In short, if you want Adsense money, build a content site!

If you are searching for some additional income, try having a small niche. A small niche may not have enough traffic to support you by itself, but having a network of niches can provide you some good passive income!

Once you have your first network tweaked and running, wash, rinse and repeat!

CLICK HERE for a list of clickbank affiliate products, whose affiliate programs you can promote and "make money with clickbank"

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Internet Home Business and Blogging

"Internet Home Business" and blogging go hand in hand.

Most people who "make money from blogging" are also into another successful "work from home business" vice versa. So its better, you know something about it.

"Internet home business" is not something new nowadays - most work-at-home moms practice it, students in college utilize it for extra income, it keeps retirees busy and some working people use it as a "part time work from job".

Few people have also made it a full time occupation and have succeeded as well.

I am also quite successful in this jig, and reckon one of the things you ought to know before "starting a home business" is how to avoid the setbacks

One of the important things after you have identified your "home based business", is that you have to sit down and analyze certain factors, i.e., your skills, the areas you are good at etc.

Few of the important factors required prior to starting on a "home based business" venture are mentioned below.

This is something most of us overlook - I used to, and still am a mess when it comes to organizing and time management. This is mainly because of the lack of discipline that slowly filters into home businesses. No wonder they call it working in your pajamas!

If you are interested in getting more info on "how to make money from blogging" and organising yourself, then I suggest you get hold of The Freelancing And Blogging Handbook

So it would help if you initially do a bit of time management and eliminate some of the things that aren't important to you. In short, readjust your priorities. What's eating up your time that you could eliminate or if possible, delegate to someone else?

Work on your resilience, an important factor... which is widely recognized as EQ or Emotional Quotient competency. This pertains to being able to bounce back from failures, loss, rejections and adversity. It will keep you from slowing down and wasting precious energy when you hit an obstacle or challenge.

The EQ competency will help you maintain a sense of balance. Try not to be a perfectionist; as if you constantly dwell on the things that don't go exactly as planned, you'll get into a negative mindset. Working to stay positive and congratulating yourself occasionally is extremely necessary.

Focus on what goes right and not what goes wrong. We normally overlook the many things that went well during a given day, and give importance to that one thing that went wrong. So just switch this around and pass it on and you will feel more relaxed.

Every time somebody tells you something that didn't go well, counter with something that went well. This will help you build your self-esteem and resilience, and will positively affect those around you.

Find a way to combine self-nurturing and support with a "great home business" that would enable you to achieve that financial flexibility.

Surround yourself with as many positive situations as you can. If someone's really negative, that it's best to stay away from him or her. Even while shopping, try finding a store where the clerks are smiling and helpful. There are many. Find the office supply store where they're really glad to have your business, and pay attention to you when you're shopping.

Most of the successful Internet businesses ventures have faced tremendous setbacks and they have comeback only stronger. So don't give up... the initial stages are a bit hard.

"Internet Home Business" has since then come a long way. Thanks to the home computer and Internet, you now have access to unlimited information and opportunities, and unlimited ways to make money.

It is even clearer from the fact that most of the successful companies today on the Internet had one thing in common. That most of them, started from nowhere, and all they had was access to a computer, a connection to the Internet, some free time and a determination to succeed so as to obtain their financial freedom!

Most of them didn't start well. They faced many problems, didn't understand the concept and had to learn from their mistakes. They had to take one step at a time and evaluate the results.

Most times, they had to retrace their steps. But they didn't give up. In fact they returned stronger and more determined to discover and understand. Then slowly, things started getting better and better every month.

New ideas were born, they started exploring and getting to know how Internet works and how they can capitalize from it. Slowly, income streams started appearing and their commissions grew monthly. This is a classic example of most success stories on the Internet.

I have mentioned this so as to emphasize that there are no instant riches on the Internet (no matter what some of the internet marketers say). Your primary objective would be to lay a solid foundation and the rest should follow automatically.

Now the one common factor was that they were not willing to call it quits whenever they faced a stumbling block.

So, no matter what....don't ever close up shop and call it quits.

Wishing you the best in your "internet home business"

Saturday 10 January 2009

How To Make Money from Paid Surveys

"How to make money online from paid surveys" and mystery shopping - are a common set of keywords that are constantly searched for by many people, in search engines.

I often receive emails from work-at-home moms and students wanting to know how they could "make extra money online". Generally, I don't advise them to start blogging as it takes up quite a bit of your time. Besides, you got to be focussed and also organised.

It is then I advise them to check out "paid online surveys" as one of the options

Then they ask whether it is worth taking it up and whether they are really genuine ?

First of all, "paid online surveys" are generally conducted by market research firms.

Just in the United States alone, companies spend over who-knows-how-much amount dollars a year on consumer research and surveys. Market research companies are hired to test their advertisements or do research so that they know the best way to advertise to certain markets. These market research firms have large panels of people they use to conduct their studies. They do their research through having people test the products, mystery shoppers, and "paid surveys".

Market research companies, doing the surveys are willing to pay you to visit their place of business, and act like a normal patron. These companies will pay you just to spend a couple of hours browsing, because they need an honest opinion from an everyday consumer on how well their facilities are doing. These market research companies are willing to pay people good money (up to $50 an hour) to everyday people for their honest opinion, and a lot of people are not aware of this.

Although most of these "paid surveys" only pay a small amount of money, usually between $1 and $15, some rare ones may pay up to $50, but just rare.It usually takes about fifteen minutes to complete. Some people have made a significant amount of money simply taking paid surveys. The rewards are usually in forms of points, later you can redeem points with cash(check), gift cards, common daily products. Many website also reward sweepstake entries to $10-$5000 drawings. However the latter is not a reliable way of steady earning. The hardest part is finding and sorting through all the research websites out there

Now let's take a look at Mystery Shopping and Get Paid To Shop Sites

Well, if you are in need of some part time work, becoming a mystery shopper may well be the answer! With flexible short hours and good pay, "mystery shopping jobs" offers a fun and an interesting working environment.

These companies will pay you just to spend a couple of hours browsing, because they need an honest opinion from an everyday consumer on how well their facilities are doing. ie., whether their stores and surrounding areas are clean, if their staff is helpful etc. Several companies will send assignments right to your email inbox. You can read and decide whether you would like to accept it or not. You may be asked to go to a restaurant, hotel or watch a movie to evaluate the food, cleanliness and overall attitude of the staff. All of which helps businesses improve their customer service and product quality to increase sales to stay ahead of their competitors.

Once the task is completed and a full report is submitted, the mystery shopper receives their well earned pay...... Easy Work! Jennifer Voitle, the notable mystery shopper was featured in a Wall Street Journal article which stated the she earns over $7000 a month in mystery shopping fees - along with shopping freebies! She went dress shopping, stopped into a bank to cash a check and visited a Saturn dealership to look at new cars. After golf, she was headed to Manhattan for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. All these activities were "paid shopping jobs".

Her total earnings for the day: about $300. Can you believe they call this work? She said. (Source: Get Paid To Shop site

Shopping Jobs
You can work full time or part time and decide on what assignments you want to take. Many shoppers earn between $10 and $40 per hour just for having fun. This is perfect for stay at home moms! Besides, you get paid to shop, eat in restaurants, play golf, take cruises and more

On an average most "mystery shopping jobs" pay up to $50 per hour, but don't last more than 2 hours and you have the option to accept or reject each offer. Therefore, typical earnings would be around $20 to $100 per job including some free goodies or a free family meal at a restaurant. This may not make you rich, but if you can line up more than 1 job per day, it is an interesting and fun source of income.

Unfortunately if you want to participate, you are likely to find hundreds of websites claiming to help you get daily work for a mere $20 to $30 fee. However, many of these websites have one intent - raking in your hard-earned cash without providing very useful information or resources to help you get work as a mystery shopper

Given below are a few SAMPLE mystery shopping reports ;

survey report /
shopping report /
search report /
car report

Cathy Stucker has written a well-researched book called The Mystery Shopping Manual with insider information on the mystery shopping industry, a must read for those who want to be great mystery shoppers. You can also obtain more guidance from the fab job guide to mystery shopping.

In fact, Cathy's Mystery Shopping Manual is the first and only book for mystery shoppers to receive the endorsement of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA), the international professional association dedicated to mystery shopping. Cathy is the presenter for the MSPA's Gold Certification Workshops. The MSPA is the largest professional trade association dedicated to improving service quality using anonymous resources. With over 150 member companies worldwide, it has a diverse membership that include companies that specialize in providing mystery shopping services.

The Mystery Shopping Provider Association (MSPA) provides solid information and a step-by-step guide to becoming a successful shopper. The MSPA recognizes that Mystery Shopping is a profession, not just a hobby. Accordingly, they have developed an on-line Silver Certification program and a more in-depth Gold Certificate program to be offered in person. Companies are always looking to hire the best and brightest, and this certification is one method of setting you apart from the crowd. The Silver Certification consists of a $15 online test. If you pass this test, you will be given a confirmation number. You will be able to use your e-mail address and this confirmation number to sign up for Gold Certification conferences.

Although, membership in MSPA is ONLY for those companies involved in the mystery shopping industry and not for mystery shoppers, it provides the most comprehensive resource available to you to help you find the right mystery shopping engagements that are fit for you! Here, you can search for jobs by location and you can find information about MSPA member companies. Click here to go to the website for mystery shoppers

"Paid surveys" are usually taken online, and less commonly through postal methods. Several companies also send assignments right to your email inbox. You can read and decide whether you would like to accept it or not. In many product test surveys, they also provide free products for you through mailing, one should test for a while then complete a paper or online survey to receive credits. Many websites exist where one can input certain characteristics about themselves, which is kept confidential and be emailed relevant surveys according to ages, genders, geological residents, jobs, gross household incomes etc., and be paid for these surveys

Generally, people used paid surveys is mainly for those who need some part-time income, while they are searching for a job, or just as pocket money. Did you know that you can easily make an extra $300 to $1,000 a month, good money filling out online surveys sitting at home in your pajamas?

If you are in need of some part time work, answering "paid online surveys" may well be the answer! With flexible short hours and very good pay, it offers a fun and an interesting working environment. A lot of people actually make a nice living from home, working mostly online, and generally, most of them take the easy way out. They focus only on get paid to take online surveys and most of them make anywhere around $5 to $150 per survey. Besides, the "get paid to take phone surveys" also earns them as much as $120 an hour.

Please note that these rates depend from market research company to company, and the time factor in which they need results.. On an average the going rates are half the quoted figures. But there are cases, in fact more than a few who have recieved these high rates

The other common problem with paid surveys is that they are being marketed by unscrupulous individuals as a source of easy money. It is not uncommon to see advertisements promising $75 an hour or more in potential earnings. Although this is useless propaganda, it cannot be said that paid surveys cannot be counted as a source of an online income. They do provide a reasonable second income and a good work from home opportunity. But it is advisable to enter this line of work with realistic expectations.

If you are having intentions of being able to retire by taking online surveys - forget it...as it will never happen. Although there are a lot of sites out there advertising that you can make thousands of dollars per week or make $50 plus dollars and hour for taking online surveys, any desire of earning huge amounts of money for minimal amount of work is likely to end in disappointment. In most cases, it doesn't really matter where you live, or who you are and if you are interested you can do it too. But the chances of making $10,000+ every month is a little far fetched and it is highly doubtful, you can make that amount.

Mentioned below is a format of a sample test survey result.

CLICK HERE for a SAMPLE survey report

Mentioned below are a few of the reputed companies that are involved in paid online surveys. This does not mean these are the best or are guarnteed sources. It is only to help you to save time searching online for survey companies and not to fall into scams.

Survey Scout
This is more of a Get Paid to take Surveys site - But it includes the 'Get Paid to Shop' database as a free extra. It has a large database of "paid to shop", paid surveys and an instant survey paying $25 when you sign up details - You also get access to 25 FREE survey reports. They also have one of the most profitable "paid surveys" affiliate program on the web. So, in addition to the extra $400 plus a month for filling their online surveys, they also pay a 75% ($23.50) affiliate commission on every sale, and their conversion ratio is off the charts. Many of their affiliates average insane conversion ratios of 15-30% or higher! That's 1 sale for every 4-8 visitors ... or earnings of over $3 per click. You can't make money with these kind of numbers, even paying high CPCs at Overture, Google, etc.

PaidForFree.com
PaidForFree.com has been advertised and recognised as one of the low risk online survey companies. Mainly because there are cases where people have invested hundreds in survey companies and not got a single cent back. The companies listed with them are low-risk and most of their 11,000 odd members do make money with them. Ideal for a stay-at-home mom or a college student searching for some additional money.

goZing Cash Surveys
It is another free online survey site which offers cash rewards to participant members. Once an individual signs up with goZing they are then invited, via email, to periodically participate in new live surveys ranging in topic from critiquing new products to watching never-before-seen movie trailers. For every survey completed members are rewarded CASH or sweepstake opportunities.

Get Cash For Surveys
Most of today's "survey" sites online generally show you only 5 or 10 select companies that pay you for surveys. Its quite obvious that they are promoting these companies. However, Get Cash For Surveys provides a list with the freshest and most
complete list of online survey opportunities available.

"Paid Online Surveys" From PSO Research Group
Another factor, which affects most businesses are market conditions and connections. Most people feel, if they can't connect with something, it is better left alone - this holds good for business too. If you are into connections and controlling heavily - you would have to tune yourself and try and synchronise with these companies when the conditions are favourable. This company is currently enjoying a good status mainly because of market conditions. That does not mean it is bad, but there are better companies out there whose market connections, currently are on the lower side.

Big Survey Payouts
Again, good market connections, and this survey site is presently one of the widest demographically targeted products ever.

Now that you have some idea on surveys, have you ever wondered whom your end user would be. It is unlikely that you would ever consider this, as you view it as a paid for part time fun, project. Now market research is a very deep subject. Although you are the bottom most rung of it, it is obvious you would be least interested in how it functions.

Now, if you would like to provide professional answers (although this is an understatement, as survey companies only expect frank opinion from the end user!), it would be a bit wise to go through the below mentioned links. You can always apply your new-found know how to surveys that you never consider applying for!

The CASRO Membership Directory
The Council of American Survey Research Organizations

The Roper Center
An archive, preserving data from polls conducted by leading survey research organizations for the use of researchers, students, and journalists.

The Center for Survey Research & Analysis (CSRA)
CSRA at the University of Connecticut is is a non-partisan, non-profit survey research facility dedicated to the study of public opinion

Permission Research
A Market Research Internet Community

All said and done, give it a try - its fun.

Here's wishing you the best and hope that you "make money online from paid surveys".

Monday 5 January 2009

Blogging Mistakes To Avoid

A lot of people get down to try and "make money from blogging" only to give it up down the line. I have listed a few of the "blogging mistakes" that they should avoid and try not falling into the trap

Not Updating Your Blog

You set up a blog and is all excited about it. For a few days, you get down to do a furry of posts and the excitement may extend to even a few weeks. And then, kaput, it is all over. The numbers of posts reduce and gradually the blog is totally forgotten.

PLEASE remember, don't ever fall into this trap. You can even hire a person to write the blog posts for you. Just remember that nothing kills a blog faster than the lack of updates. So, once again, I request you to maintain a blog “posting frequency” and stick to it. You will thank me for it later. Try and maintain one post per day or try allocating half an hour for your blog per day. A blog that is not updated regularly is as good as a dead blog and do you want that to happen to you ?

Blogging Only For Money

A lot of people have asked me quite often whether they could "make money from blogging"; and the answer to that question is YES !!

But I have also told them that it is possible for anyone, to "make money from blogs". But the reality is that, most people who write blogs exclusively to make money really DON'T make a lot of money.

Now why is that ??

Some of the many reasons for this is because blogging is an organized, disciplined and ongoing process and fresh content is always necessary and no sooner people forego this due to other commitments, they lose out. This is one of the reason why more that 80% if not 90% of the bloggers don't "make money from blogging". Also don't think when people tell you that blogging only for money is bad. It is just that you expect results too soon and you invariably cave in and forget about it. You do this daily bit and suddenly you will be shocked to receive this check and will be thinking whether this was due to your efforts.

So, go ahead enjoy it - think of it as a part time hobby. There is also no harm if you lose your spontaneity - just have a back-up blogger or writer ready to write those posts for you.

Proofread, Proofread And Proofread

Always proofread your post prior to posting it. What I mean to say, all of us make mistakes while typing. The proof of this is the number of mistakes that you tend to make while chatting with a friend (and you take it for granted your friend on the other side understands your mistakes).

But in a blog post, you cannot overlook this mistake, you have to proofread it atleast twice, before posting it. If you write something at night, just save it and read it twice in the morning before posting. You will notice the difference.

Ofcourse, recently, there have been a number of blogs that have wantonly come out with posts that contain mistakes - but they can afford to do so. This is because, this is their USP or unique selling proposition, as they are writing for their friends. Their friends tend to understand their slangs and mistakes better than correct perfect sentences. In other words, it is slang what sells.

But this can be applied to only a small percentage of people (generally the younger generation). Besides, you also need to have a large reader base or friend base

Be Personal

This is another important aspect that you have got to remember.

Writing for a blog and writing an article are two distinct styles. Blogging is more personal. It is as if you are having a conversation with a virtual partner and not providing advise to a class or lecturing a room of students on a topic. While your knowledge of the topic would be appreciated, you lose out on the personal side – so write for your readers

But another mistake, don’t get too personal – control your language, no f’s and sh*t and other lose slang – whatever said, people respect you more without it.

This was a feedback; I received a few months back from a client when I took on writing about a product that I knew quite well, but didn’t quite fathom my reader-base.

Here goes….

1) “You've got to stop writing like your teaching a class. Write as if you’re actually talking to me. As if you’re talking to someone at a kitchen table. Relax and make it easy to understand. If you’re writing for an Industry magazine, it's perfect. You’re writing for a blog. It's got to feel like a blog. People don't' write blogs with hours of research, they just sit down and write. So write with casual language.

2) Start using contractions. We tend to use lots of contractions. It is = it's, I would = I'd, Should not = shouldn’t and I have= I've. This will make it sound more conversational. Again make it easy to read.

3) I can't critique the structure, because you didn't end the article at 400 words and put an ending to it. But as far as I can tell the keywords were placed very well.

4) Your missing the point of the reader. You wrote about big companies using the product, but if you read the product description, our target market isn't big companies. It's small little businesses, 1 person Realtors, 5 person accountants, and 10 person contractors. You tend to be boring when you talk about big business, because the reader doesn't care about big business. However, you can use big business as an example, but talk to the reader and tell them what's in it for them. The small business guy, the entrepreneur, the start up business. Those people are the targets NOT big businesses that you spoke about.

5) Again your writing is really amazing, just needs to be tweaked a little.

I think you get the point !

Respond To Comments

It is very, very important and I stress that again to respond to comments – This is what brings back readers to you. Successful bloggers always interact with their readers and they try and establish a link or a connection with their readers. Once you establish a connection with your readers, they will often drop by your blog to check what you have written recently. Very important

Be Original

Again, if you find some interesting topic in some other source, say a blog or a website link – give them credit. It gives your blog a lit more value.

You don’t need that small post to ruin your reputation. You may have not realized and could have got carried away by the source – but sometimes the feedbacks could be nasty. So try and be original

I sometimes find it funny, when people say that blog posts have been copied – hey, these are two guys chatting on a topic and they would only be happy to have their topic copied, if proper credit was given to them. Say, an additional link.

This reminds me of an anecdote...

I recently took a subcontract of writing a blog-post and some articles from a guy based from who-knows-where (remember, there is no distance in the Internet). The understanding was that I give the entire rights to this bloke, which means it would be his name that would be credited under the post.

I thought what the hell, it was a small job and besides I needed some work as well.

Sometime later, I got to read this same post elsewhere, but it was totally a different person’s name that was credited with the article. I couldn’t help laughing, because here I am writing for some-one (who had been contracted by the main guy for a decent sum) and the same thing was subcontracted to me for basically peanuts and I had to worry about plagiarism

In other words, “to steal ideas from one person is plagiarism but to steal from many is research”

The story goes on – but please try and be original. Don’t have to be one of the big media shots – but write for your readers

Writing For The Searching Engines Instead Of People

People get carried away by KEI (keyword density index), key phrases, tags, keyword density, making sure that it is Google friendly and the rest of the jazz. But what they tend to forget is that it is people who would be reading their post and not search engines.

Now I am not saying that you don’t have to be worried about SEO and keyword densities, but your first priority should always be your readers.

When you proofread your post for the post for the second time, check for the keywords and their positioning and basic optimization, i.e., opening, end and the middle should be optimized well with the main keyword. That’s more than sufficient.

Not Being Passionate About Your Topic

Successful bloggers are always passionate about their topic and they also maintain a high blog posting frequency. Now if you have ten blogs and you say that you are passionate about all of them – how are you able to maintain your blog posting frequency ? Practically impossible ! So one or two blogs max with a decent degree of passion will get you more distance than 10 blogs with no passion or a zero posting frequency !

Try Giving Your Readers The RSS Facility

Now, I am not certain that this would increase your reader-base, but do it – it has helped me. Generally, people in the same line prefer to interact with each other, share ideas and help each other and the RSS facility is a big help

That’s about it – I believe I have covered most areas. So let’s get down and begin to "make money from blogging".

Friday 2 January 2009

Freelancing And Blogging Handbook

For those who are new to the affiliate-marketing, blogging and freelancing fields, here is a handbook that can give you a kick-start to your "make money from blogging" or freelance writing career.

Go ahead and get.... it's only $35

Now a lot of people have enquired whether they could "make-money-from-blogging", and the answer to that question is YES !!

In fact I would go on to say that it is possible for anyone, to "make money from a blog". But the reality is that, most people who write blogs exclusively to make money really don't "make a lot of money from blogging".

So, don't waste time - go ahead ad get it today

JUST CLICK HERE To Get The Freelancing And Blogging Handbook.

The book gives you tips on how to commence freelancing and how to start a blog and "make money from blgging"

Thursday 1 January 2009

Data Entry Jobs Or Home Typist Jobs

A lot of people who "earn money from blogging" are also "making money by writing online ads" from their homes

Now this is for those who are only interested to "work part time", and want to "work from home" for a few hours a week on the Internet...

No experience or special skills are required.

All you need is a computer and access to the Internet. What you will be doing is typing online ads that you submit into online forms...

For more details, Click Here

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