Basics Of Internet Marketing

Internet marketing can seem mystifying not only for beginners, but for moderately skilled internet marketers. With all the courses, forums, blogs, reports, seminars and teleconferences available to help people learn how to get traffic to their sites, it is one of the most overwhelmingly dense subjects on the internet.

Unfortunately, and this is perfectly true, most of the advice or "expert" tips are outdated or completely false. Since anyone can publish on the internet, you have a mixed bag of good information followed with much more bad information.

The mysticism of internet marketing is created largely by this glut of some good and mostly bad information. It makes the whole topic SEEM like rocket science when, in fact, much of what was true about internet marketing years ago is true today.

Most people think that since search engine marketing changes every five minutes, that ALL internet marketing tactics must have changed as much in the same amount of time. Not true.

The basics, like trading links, article syndication, testimonials, forum signatures, joint ventures, affiliate programs - most work as well today as they did years ago. That is, if you know how to value the work above for what it will truly do for your website traffic.

Funny thing is, no one places much value on the above tactics anymore because there is always some "new" tactic around the corner that claims the death of everything that came before it. And most people blindly follow that advice as if it were true.

Most of the time, this is to the detriment of their internet marketing efforts. The basics are what work all the time and what have always worked on the internet.

You can always experiment with new things, as long as you have not forgotten to do the basics. The basics proven to drive traffic, page rank, link popularity, and branding to your business.

• Conservative, relevant reciprocal linking
• Article syndication
• Participation in your field and among your market (forums)
• Blogging
• Offline advertising
• Non-reciprocal linking tacticsPress releases
• ...and many other proven methods.
  

Everything else is just a big experiment until proven to work over time. "Over time" being the operative words. Lots of flash in the pan crack pot schemes work for awhile. But most never stand the test of time.

Links from a widely syndicated article will never fade away, yet I see people chasing down fly-by-night linking pyramid schemes as if they truly believe something like that is a smart thing to base their internet business on!

Tens of thousands have walked away from their dreams, gone back to their depressing, predictable, slave-labor jobs never knowing how close they were to actually succeeding.

Good people have left this business proclaiming it an utter lie that any average person can make it with an internet business and an internet marketing plan.

I guess there is truth in that statement. Average people do in fact quit this business before they ever get started because average people fall for tricks and schemes that above average people avoid on their way to success.

If you have read this far, you are probably in the above average category. Why? Because average people would have taken one look at the list of things I mentioned that are the bread and butter of internet marketing and saw nothing but hard work. And they'd be right!

Above average people don't shy away from work though. I don't know a single soul (and my rolodex has some of the biggest names in internet marketing in it) who got where they are today without a lot of hard work.

You can succeed in internet marketing if you are not afraid to work, and not constantly tempted by those who say you can succeed without it!

Focus on the basics of internet marketing and stay with them as you try new strategies. We all experiment. But successful internet marketers never leave their bread and butter tactics behind unless they cease to be effective.

http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/basics-of-internet-marketing-793948.html

77 Creative Ways To Make Money Online

Everybody loves having money…but not everybody realizes how many options they have for earning extra cash. In this post I’m going to give you the ultimate list of ways to make money online.

I’m not going to go in depth for each money making idea. Instead I’ll just post a short blurb here and then follow each of them up with a full post in the future…

Creative Ways To Make Money Online

1. Start your own affiliate marketing blog or website. You can make money promoting other people’s products.
2. Build a readership and sell ad space on your blog.
3. Join a paid blogging network and get paid for blogging about certain topics.
4. Sell text links in your blog’s content.
5. Put Google AdSense or other contextual advertising on your website or blog.
6. Write and sell an ebook.
7. Give away free reports with affiliate links in them.
8. Buy Resellers rights for digital products and sell them.
9. Turn PLR content into products to sell.
10. Start a paid membership site.
11. Start an online directory and charge for inclusion.
12. PPC arbitrage.
13. Become a virtual assistant and work from home.
14. Be a ghost writer.
15. Good at writing sales copy? There’s a huge market for copywriters who can write effective ads and sales pages.
16. Write articles for bloggers looking for content. Check out Elance and Rentacoder for freelancing opportunities.
17. If you speak a second language you can make extra money translating documents.
18. Transcribe documents from paper to digital format.
19. Data entry jobs can pay well…but beware of the many scammers trying to fleece you!
20. Got a nice camera? Sell your photos online at sites like iStockPhoto.
21. Be a day trader buying and selling stocks.
22. Forex.
23. Start an ezine and sell solo ads. You’ll need a large readership to make any money.
24. Be a link broker. Lots of people are looking to sell links and others are looking to buy. Be the middleman.
25. Start an eBay store.
26. Sell stuff around your house on ebay.
27. Buy stuff wholesale to sell on ebay.
28. Dropshipping.
29. Sell stuff on Craigslist.
30. Design logos for websites and blogs.
31. Design and sell blog themes/templates.
32. Build custom websites or blogs from scratch.
33. Create MySpace layouts.
34. Create Wordpress plugins.
35. Create and sell useful scripts.
36. Design clipart/icons.
37. Create simple software programs.
38. Design an impressive “seal of approval” and sell it to websites looking to make themselves look more authentic.
39. Get paid for taking online surveys.
40. Get paid for web surfing.
41. Get paid for reading emails.
42. Get paid for digging, stumbling, etc. Be prepared to be crucified by users of those sites.
43. Good at gaming? You may be able to win some cash prizes.
44. Invest in virtual real estate on sites like Second Life.
45. Make money on World of Warcraft.
46. Take advantage of reward sites such as myPoints.
47. Start your own niche search engine. A highly targeted SE could find a loyal following.
48. Flip websites.
49. Buy and park domains that get type-in traffic. Make money by placing advertising on them.
50. Do the same with expired domains that still get traffic.
51. Buy domains, develop them, and sell them at a profit.
52. Online gambling sites….be prepared to lose your shirt.
53. Create simple online games to sell.
54. Record music to sell online.
55. Use the internet to promote your offline business.
56. Write resumes and help people find jobs.
57. Become an SEO consultant.
58. Become a link-building consultant.
59. If you’re into arts and crafts, sell them online.
60. New forums need help getting comments. The owners will often pay you to post in them.
61. Get paid to post comments on blogs.
62. Get paid to manually submit websites to directories.
63. Create a helpful eCourse and distribute it with an autoresponder like Aweber. Mix in some affiliate links to make some money.
64. Can you draw? Draw little cartoons or artwork for websites.
65. Create and sell instructional videos and tutorials.
66. Get paid to search at sites like Winzy.
67. Get paid for reviewing software at SoftwareJudge.
68. Install scripts/troubleshoot for the technically challenged.
69. Sell pixel ads on your site. It worked for MillionDollarHomepage!
70. Become a hosting reseller.
71. Get paid for coming up with unique domain names at PickyDomains.com
72. Sell your unused CPU cycles at CPUShare.
73. Start a paid article directory.
74. Build some Squidoo lenses and share in the revenue they generate.
75. Write and sell articles to AssociatedContent.
76. Design t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc and sell them at CafePress.
77. Ask for it. Years ago a woman named Karyn started a simple website that asked people the send her small donations so she could get out of debt. They did! She’s not in debt anymore.

Why not try something similar?
Well that’s about all I can think of? Did I forget any? If you have more creative ways to make money online please leave a comment below and let me know.

By Michael Collins; http://imiseasy.com/77-creative-ways-to-make-money-online/

Affiliate Marketing Tips

What Is An Affiliate Program? Affiliate programs (also known as associate programs), are online arrangements whereby a merchant website pays you (the affiliate) a commission for sending traffic (customers) to them. In essence you are promoting whatever product(s) that merchant is selling. The beauty of this system is that it does not involve: stocking merchandise; shipping and handling; processing credit cards or any kind of customer support. And an added bonus is that you don't even need a website for this type of internet marketing.

Points To Consider Before You Join An Affiliate Program

1. Is The Company Trustworthy? Your concern here is whether you'll be paid on time and if at all. Obviously if the company in question is an eBay or Amazon, you don't have to worry. However if the merchant in question is unknown, that's when you may have some concerns about fly-by-night scenarios or dishonesty.

Solution: Join well established affiliate networks such as Commission Junction or ClickBank that host thousands of merchant affiliate programs and oversee the commission payout to affiliates.

2. Any Contact Information? If you can't find any contact information...MOVE ON!

3. How Long Before They Respond To Your Request To Join? If you don't get a response within 72 hours (3 business days) pass on that particular program. Their tardiness probably extends across board and who's to say they'll be more responsive about your payments or when you have a real problem.

4. Where's The Affiliate Agreement? If the program in question doesn't have an agreement...MOVE ON. No agreement leaves you exposed to being cheated out of your hard earned commissions.

5. What Does The Agreement Say? Okay, nobody likes reading those long-winded go-on-forever agreements; however, in this case make a point of doing so! If you don't, you could be in for a rather nasty surprise later on. Let's say for example you invest several hundred dollars promoting a particular product and your returns from that effort are a couple of thousand dollars. Most likely, you'd want to get paid as soon as possible. But if you didn't read the agreement which stated that the company pays quarterly, your money would be tied up and you'd have nobody but yourself to blame.

6. Agreement Termination Terms. Most agreements have a termination clause detailing the terms under which you or the company can end the affiliation. It is ill-advised to sign up for a program that binds you to a particular company for a specific period of time. Also be wary of programs that demand exclusivity; such programs generally prohibit you from promoting similar products (from a competitor merchant) on the same site, thereby effectively cutting into your bottom line.

7. Does The Affiliate Program Require A Fee To Join? Affiliate programs are free to join; after all, you're in effect advertising for the merchant. If a program requires you to pay a fee to join, it's not an affiliate program but rather a Multi-Level Marketing scheme ( MLM).

8. What Type Of Affiliate Program Is It? There're basically three types of affiliate programs: pay-per-sale, pay-per-lead and pay-per-click.

· Pay-Per-Sale: Such programs pay either a fixed cash amount or a fixed percentage for sales generated by your promotional efforts. · Pay-Per-Lead: Here you earn a set amount whenever a customer sent by you fills out a survey, requests a quote or obtains some information. · Pay-Per-Click: These are similar to pay-per-lead programs and you are paid each time one of your visitors clicks on a link through to the merchant's site.

Pay-Per-Lead and Pay-Per-Click affiliate programs require large volumes of traffic to generate any substantial revenue so it's probably better for you to opt for the Pay-Per-Sale type of program. This type is performance based and gives you a much better chance of making serious money!

9. What Is The Commission Rate? The commission rate and structure will determine how much money you make. Generally the best paying programs pay you a commission of 50% for every sale. But you have to dig a little deeper to make sure you really understand what you have to do before you get that 50% commission. For example some pay-per-lead programs promise a 50% commission payout per application (let's say credit card applications), but you only get that commission after said applicant has been approved.

10. Do You Get Recurring Sales? The best kind of affiliate programs entitle you to recurring sales. What this means is that as long as the customer you referred keeps ordering the product (such as a website hosting plan), you keep getting paid every month! This is what is known as residual sales. So be on the lookout for affiliate programs offering residual commissions. It's a great way to make effortless, automated monthly cash!

11. Does The Program Pay Lifetime Commissions? A program that pays lifetime commissions pays you (the affiliate) a commission for each and every product that your referred customer buys from that merchant. This includes any applicable residual commissions. This kind of commission structure is the best there is.

12. Does the Program Use Cookies to Track Sales And How Long Do The Cookies Last? So what are cookies? Simply put, a cookie is a harmless piece of computer code or script that captures harmless information (such as identifying a computer through current and subsequent visits, websites visited and date of visit). This is of importance to you because this is how a merchant can tell that a particular customer was referred by you, thus ensuring you get your commission. The importance of cookies does not stop there. There're cookies and there are cookies! Cookies are coded to expire after a set period of time. So if a merchant supplies you (the affiliate) with cookies programmed to expire after 120 days, this means that if one of your referrals makes a purchase anytime within those 120 days, you'll get credited for that sale and get paid your commission. Remember, it takes at least 7 exposures to a product before a person is ready to buy! So the longer lasting the cookie, the better...at least from your point of view as an affiliate.

13. Do You Get To See Your Sales Statistics In Real Time? Make sure any affiliate program you sign up for offers real-time sales tracking (within seconds to one hour) or almost real-time sales tracking. This is important because you need to be able to assess the success of a particular promotion campaign.

14. Does The Affiliate Program Offer sales Tools? A well-organized and professional affiliate program offers their affiliates advertising copy, banner ads and/or item-specific links. Sales tools such as these make your job easier. If a program does not offer these it's probably best for you to look at other affiliate programs.

15. When Do I Get Paid? How Do I Get Paid? Make sure you know how often the affiliate program pays: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly. Also consider what currency you're going to get paid in. The big plus here is, if you're located outside of the United States, you're still going to be paid in U.S. Dollars as most internet companies transact in U.S. Dollars.

16. What Kind Of Billing Mechanism Is In Place? To avoid payment issues, it's better to join programs that are part of a bigger affiliate network (such as Commission Junction or ClickBank). Such affiliate networks make sure that each and every merchant who is part of their network has sufficient funds in its account to pay its affiliates on time. When you sign up for a program that handles payment and everything else itself, you lack this kind of security.

17. What's The Minimum Payout Amount? Most programs require you to earn a set minimum amount before they'll issue you a check or deposit earnings directly into your bank account.

How to Make Easy Money With Google Adsense

Some people think that making money with Google Adsense is hard; but in fact, it is quite the opposite. Setting up Google ads on your site is simple, and you can earn from it rather quickly. 

First of all, Google Adsense is a program that welcomes any webmaster or blogger to sign up for free, and display Google ads on their site or blog. 

Marketers and companies are paying Google every time someone clicks on their ad, whether it be from Google itself, or from a participating website or blog. 

This is called "Pay Per Click Advertising" and it is one of the most popular forms of advertising nowadays. It is more important to have a Google or Yahoo listing these days than it is to be in the Yellow Pages. This is because the internet is more accessible and convenient for more people searching to satisfy their needs. 

Companies or webmasters pay to show up (in the Google search engine) for certain keywords or keyword phrases such as "lose weight" or "make money." They have to place a maximum bid, which is the maximum amount of money they are willing to pay for one click. 

When someone does a Google search for a keyword, their ad spot shows up if they bid on that keyword. If the surfer or visitor clicks on their ad, the company or webmaster must then pay Google for the click.

Companies are bidding against each other for top listings. For popular niches, each click can be costly. That is why it is so lucrative to make money with Google adsense.

When you venture out to make money with Google Adsense, you must keep in mind that there is no adult-related materials allowed (such as pornography or racist) or offensive materials of any kind. There may be a few other restrictions regarding online gambling and other related activities. 

But for the most part, it is very easy to make money with Google Adsense. Many people earn a full time income from it alone. More and more bloggers are becoming famous - and rich - due to the money they make from Google ads placed on their blogs.

In order to make money with Google Adsense, you must have a website or a blog. The difference between the two is trivial. They are both 'websites' - Your own website costs a small amount of money for the domain name and hosting. Your blog can be free, or it can cost you a little money too if you're going to get a domain and host for it. Let me explain...

A blog will give you your own domain name, but it will have the blog company's name in the URL as well. For instance, if it's a free blog from Blogger.com, it would be something like: YourBlogName.blogspot.com. Of course, you would replace 'YourBlogName' with whatever you want your blog’s web address to be. 

If you are in the weight loss niche, your blog URL might be something like, "LoseWeightFast.Blogspot.com." If you want your own personal and brandable domain name (YourDomainName.com or YourDomainName.com/blog), it only costs about $8-$10 for a .COM domain name and around that same amount for a hosting account. 

My suggestion is to upload your blog to your own host and give it a domain name representing your company or profile. It only costs a little more per month, but it’ll give your blog a more professional image; hence, building your reputation. 

Once you sign up for a free account with Google Adsense, you can start displaying ads on your site within minutes. You don't need to have a super popular site with millions of viewers in order for Google to do business with you, like what some people might think. 

Anybody with a website or blog can sign up for a free Google Adsense account. They give you the HTML code for you to copy and paste in your website, so that ads related to your content will automatically show up on your site/blog wherever you want them to be displayed.

As far as monetizing your site with Google adsense, it doesn't matter whether you are using a free blog or a paid one (with domain name and hosting). As long as you can drive traffic to the site, you are in good shape. 

That is the name of the game by the way - driving web traffic to your site/blog. Once you have a website or blog up in the niche that you want to market to, and have added some useful content to it, you can then place some Google Adsense ads on your site and earn a decent income by driving traffic to it.

You may use Pay-Per-Click Advertising for your own sites, online classified ad sites, article marketing, press releases, video marketing, social network marketing, and other methods to generate traffic. By the way, search engines love blogs; so as long as you post beneficial and keyword-optimized content on your blog, the search engines will find it.

To recap, here are the steps:

Create a website or start a blog, sign up for a free account with Google Adsense, and place the ad code on your site. Then, advertise your website or blog using various techniques of getting traffic and exposure. 

These are just the basics for learning how to make money with Google Adsense. I hope you have a much better idea of how it works and what you need to do to get started.

You can make money with Google Adsense in a multitude of ways, and it costs little to nothing to get started. You can start earning money within hours of launching your site or blog, so just do it!

How to Make Money Online - A Guide For Beginners - Part 3 - Using Pay Per Click (PPC)

Using pay per click advertising is a vital tool for anyone looking to make money online. In this article, I discuss the key areas required for effective PPC advertising. Google AdWords is the most popular PPC scheme and there are a number of factors that determine the success or failure of any AdWords campaign.

Before beginning a campaign you must have clearly defined goals for example are you trying to send customers to a review page of an affiliate product your advertisment will not be aimed at selling the product but designed to encourage click throughs to the review page. 

The aim of PPC is to drive targeted traffic to a specific page where a pre-sell via a review or a direct sell is made, a % of which you receive as commission. The amount of people who see your advert is dependant on the popularity of the keywords you choose. More popular keywords attract more competitors and push the adverting price up, however may provide greater opportunity for making money online. 

To make money online the most important aspects of a Google AdWords campaign include: 

• Keyword selection. In general terms the more targeted the keyword, the better. You'll get less click throughs but they will be from people who are genuinely interested in your product or service. 

• Advertisement. The headline is the most important aspect. Make sure that it relates to the keywords you have chosen to bid on - this will help keep the advertising cost lower. 

• Display URL. The more relevant this appears to be to the keywords you're bidding on, the greater chances of a click. For example if you are selling DVD copy software the name of the software should be used. 

• Landing page URL. This needs to be specific to your keywords and advertisement. If you're bidding on Madonna then you shouldn't be sending people to a page about trainspotting. If it's not relevant Google will penalise you by charging a lot more per click. 

• Budget. How much are you willing to pay per click? Estimate how many visitors it will take for a single conversion (sale) start of around 1% and work out from your commission how much you can afford to pay and still make money. 

For example: If your commission is $30 per sale at conversion rate of 1% that means that every 100 clicks = 1 sale. 

Therefore $30/100 or $30 x (1/100) = $0.30 pay per click is break even so a figure less than this for advertising is required to make a profit. 

• Daily Budget. The amount of money you are willing to spend in a 24 hour period. Keep in mind that if you're making money, it's okay to spend money. 

These are just some of the basics associated with creating a successful AdWords campaign. The truth of the matter is that being able to consistently make money online with Google AdWords takes knowledge and experience. The more you work with pay per click advertising, the better results you'll have.

James Curtis BSc writes on how to make money online with a wealth of experience in management and business.