Sunday, August 16, 2009

Still blogging and doing a review of online money maing strategies?

I'm still at it, -- making posts in which I review online money making strategies. Right now, I'm in a temporary bit of hiatus. I'm actually in the process of writing my own e-book, which I shall release here first for free, which consists of a new spin on a time-tested strategy. Essentially, it consists of marketing on Facebook. I can't exactly say much on it until I have been able to let it run its course for about a month.

Hopefully, I will be sharing a new way to make money online with you all very soon. Keep in touch until then!

On an off-note: why is it that I have several Beatles' songs stuff in my head at the moment?

Saturday, August 8, 2009

The First Rule of Making Money Online

The first, and most important rule of making money online is a simple one. It's also a general rule of the universe. It's one of the simplest and yet hardest things to do. The rule? If you want to succeed, never give up.

It's the golden rule that works when you review online money makers, when you deal with money in general, when you deal with women and especially when you deal with the United States Parcel Service. If you're not persistent, you will be unable to go through the process of trial and error. That being said, if you are lacking in everything else it will insure that you do make a buck at the end of the day.

Making money online has not been something that has been entirely easy for myself. I spent at least two months of trial and error before I started to make actual profits. If I may, I'd like to relate it to making a blog in which I review online money making strategies: an archive of 500 posts about internet marketing can't b e achieved overnight. The same goes with three-figure sales; you can't obtain them overnight as a beginner. (Well, you could, but you'd have to have a significant knack for internet marketing, a unique spin, or a way to get your product out there already.)

Before this turns into a rambling about my past trials and failures, I'd like to say this: making money online is not an easy thing. It's not an entirely hard thing, either. The main thing is that it just takes persistence. I've yet to come across a market that I've been unable to profit from to at least some small degree. Some markets are harder than others and some are easier. The main thing is just keeping at it. Rome wasn't made in a day nor were any of the deposits into my bank account.

Regardless, that's why I've made this blog in which I review online money making strategies. I'm trying ot make it easier for you and take some of that trial and error off your shoulders. The simple fact of the matter is that because the only thing that is easy about internet marketing is being a victim of a scam, that's why I even publish this blog. I'm trying to inform you of which of the products that I test and which I review online money making strategies. You'll be the first to know how useful a product or guide is. If you have any suggestions for reviews, leave them as a comment.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Zero Friction Marketing

Today, I'll be doing a slightly different post, one where I review online money making strategies aimed towards CPA marketing. In case you're not aware what CPA (or Cost Per Action) marketing is, it is essentially where you sign up with an affiliate, such as COPEAC or Neverblue, and get paid a certain share for every "action" you get a person to take. Examples of this include getting paid for every time a person enters their e-mail in an e-mail submit or for every time a person completes a survey.

That's just a brief explanation of cost-per-action marketing; I don't feel that I should make this entire post into an overview of it. Needless to say, it deals with marketing and ads. Not the easiest thing when you have competition.

Let me just say that at $77.00, this was a little more than I was initially expecting to spend. I've seen and reviewed enough online money makers to know that roughly three-quarters were just basic information and that the other quarter of online money making courses just had that plus an extra little spin. Zero Friction Marketing is no different, except that the author does go into elaborate detail with his videos.

As I write this review, I will say that everything in the course is solid information. Everything that the author goes over, such as choosing a good CPA offer to promote, setting up hosting and buying a good domain name and even how to advertise your offer via pay-per-click advertisement networks (such as Microsoft Advertising) is all solid information for a beginner in CPA marketing. Once again, all solid information.

Then the 'extra' bit, as I would like to call it, that the author includes over Twitter marketing really got me. I knew of conventional advertising with PPC before. But Twitter? Definitely a different method that this old guy probably hadn't heard of before.

Before I go on a rant and lose my way, I would just like to say that every bit of information contained in this course is solid and will help a beginner. There are no "revolutionary" bits of information that will provide you with a way to make $500,000 in a week. But it does show you how to get started with CPA advertising, something I've found relatively hard to collect. I would certainly recommend this product to anyone who needs a basic introduction to the subject.

Price: 4/5
Effectiveness: 5/5
Return on Investment: */5 [I'll report on this after about a month. CPA advertising it's an overnight thing.]
Time: 4/5
Ease of Use: 5/5 [Everything is explained in detail.]

Overall: 4.5/5* [Averaged over 4 categories.]

If you're interested in this product, please take a look and buy it here. I would comfortably say that this product is not a waste of money to anyone taking their first steps into making money online or cost-per-action advertising.

Friday, July 31, 2009

10 Tips to make Would-be Internet Entrepreneurs Succeed

I hadn't planned on writing another informational blog for at least a couple of days, but this was actually suggested by my good friend. So lo and behold, ten tips for making would-be internet entrepreneurs succeed.


1. Pass on Buying into Get-rich-quick Schemes

The sad fact of the matter is that almost no get-rich-quick schemes that you can buy work. Neither will that colon cleanser make you lose weight. Both products have something in common, they make you lose all your... money.

There's actually a small story I remember a long time ago that someone told me about the stock market, which applies adequately to making money online. It went something along the lines of an economics professor and his student thinking of a hypothetical situation related to investment in the stock market.

The professor related the whole problem to finding a $20 bill on the ground. If you and everyone else was looking for a $20 bill on the ground, then they would all already be found. This goes the same for getting rich quick off of the internet, it doesn't happen.


2. Don't spam your website links.

I've seen many beginners do just that, spam their website's link all over the internet. It's a horrible idea. The way that search engines rank websites and outbound links essentially boils down to your link being on someone else's website, but your link must also be in a relevant context.

I could go along the entirity of the internet and spam my blog's address. It wouldn't do me a bit of good and it would just waste my own personal time. Now, if I were to write a comprehensive article detailing about internet scams and fraud, I could link my website in a manner such as:
95% of people who try to start a business on the internet fail because they lack true initiative. They buy into e-books and courses that promise them massive gains for a mere $100 starter investment fee, but those people fail to follow through the majority of the time and end up leaving a bad review on those courses. There are places that review online money making strategies fairly in an attempt to thwart this mindset.
Probably not the best example, but you get the point. Relevant keyword text is king when it comes to outbound links and search engines. Don't just spam your website around, it's wasted time.


3. Easy doesn't translate into "no learning required!"

I've probably spent a thousand hours researching things for internet marketing. Landing pages, money making strategies, what types of offers convert the best amongst African American men who are balding and have only one foot.

Selling on the internet is like fishing in the ocean. Without the right bait, you won't hook the right fish. If you want a sea bass, you need to use the right lure, otherwise it'll be more-miss-than-hit with the fish that you catch. Oh, and did I mention that there were 6.7 billion fish out in this sea but only a small fraction are willing to buy your new fishing lure?

Like everything else, learning is almost synonymous with work. If you refuse to learn, then you're refusing to profit. The only people that hand out money to you are churches and charities, not normal people.


4. Competing with the Big Dogs while you're still a Small Dog is a bad idea.

I've seen it countless times before; the newbie to internet marketing immediately goes out and purchases $300 worth of ads on a PPC advertisement service. He then ends up with, and I say this tentatively, $10 in a return on his investment. Do not just jump into the pool and immediately expect to be able to out-swim everybody else.

There's countless free resources that can teach you the basics, but the intermediates are something you have to learn and figure out for yourself. That being said, it's like how you first learned how to ride a motorbike, then how to drive a car, then maybe if you specialized into the driving career enough, you learned how to drive a race car. It takes time to know how to be able to compete.


5. Try not to Spend Money You Don't Have

While this relates to the first point somewhat, it's a general lesson I've learned from life. Don't spend money that you can't do without. How many online money making plans do you think in the entire history have failed by people who would be considered experts in the field of marketing? Plenty.

The real question is, do you think that they bet their last dime and penny on their plans? Probably not. I know it's an oxymoron when it comes to talking to people who are trying to earn more money, but don't spend money unless you can do without it.


6. Spend Smartly

Once again, a point that's related to a previous point. Spend your money smartly, especially if you're starting out. Rather than buying expensive keywords in Google Adwords, buy some of the cheaper ones. Stay out of bidding wars for keywords, on that same note.

On the same side of that coin, don't be afraid to spend if you know what you're doing. If you can pay someone to do something that earns you a 800% return on your investment, do it (so long as it's legal and moral). There's two kinds of wasted money on the internet, that which is hastily spent and returns nothing on your initial investment and money that stays in your pocket and could have been used to increase your own investment.


7. Be Unique

The guys who profited from big ideas, Google, Apple and even Microsoft, all had one major thing going for them—unique ideas. Microsoft had DOS, Apple had the mouse, and Google had the idea to use ordinary budget PCs to run a giant search engine that now is the leading search engine on the internet. All of these were small ideas that grew into giant things.

Find your own niche when it comes to internet marketing, preferably something that you know something about. Write a whole bunch about it, practically until your fingers bleed. If you put enough effort into it and you can find a way to make yourself stand out from everybody else, you'll develop a following that will support you. Then and only then can you truly make a living from whatever niche you're writing about. Be unique, even adding a small spin to an already-made idea will benefit you.


8. Spam is Best Left Canned

This is the internet, 6.7 billion fish live here. Don't pollute it with something else that's unnecessary and makes it hard to swim. Every time I see a newbie starting off by spamming, be it either an affiliate link or whatever, it makes me sad. The poor kid will never get anywhere.

Now don't get me wrong, advertising can be used efficiently to market a product and turn a profit. Spam is advertising, but it's inefficient advertising. Who's going to click on an email that says, "xxx viagra market cows fish long nights microsoft word http://some-site-that's-fake.com"?

And please don't tell me that you can make it efficient by automating it. If you remember auto-dialers, they worked on the same concept. If you've been paying attention to the news, you'll know that you can go to jail for mass spamming. Just don't do it.


9. Build Rome One Brick at a Time

The old adage says that Rome wasn't built in a day. Nor was any fortune amassed in a week. You have to earnestly try and give it your all if you ever want to truly succeed. Do it and you will eventually get somewhere. I keep saying that get-rich-quick schemes don't usually work, but get-rich-in-the-long-or-mid-term plans do. Stick at them and make them work as best as you can, no matter how you're doing it.


10. Make Sure to Have a Constant Supply of Effort

Internet marketing is like a car that runs on fuel. What kind of fuel? Effort, my dear boy (or lass). Without it, you'll give up. What person has made money from trying something and then giving up? Not a one.

Sometimes internet marketing is about as simple as trying and failing until the one day that you try and succeed. It's a funny market and an even more peculiar job, but if you think about it, it's no different than anything else. Just keep at it and one day you're guaranteed to succeed!


And that about wraps it up, with my 10 tips for making would-be internet entrepreneurs succeed. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be going back to some seriously hard work and managing some more blog posts in which I review online money making strategies and schemes.

The Pitfalls of Money

This post isn't a review about a product, but more of a general overview of the pitfalls of money. When I review online money making strategies, I always try to be fair. With every product I review, I take a grain of salt.

It's almost a given fact that "Earn $19,793 a day!" e-books are either one of two things: easily learned facts from Google or catchy headlines that stretch the truth a little bit in order to manage some extra sales for a product. It makes sense, but then wherein lies the truth? What actually makes a product worth buying?

To me, I answer that with another question: Can I turn a profit? I always try and see if investing $79.97 into buying a book is actually worth it. Can I recoup that $79.97 expenditure? Generally, I can. But I always then try to gauge the method on its difficulty. If it's too hard to use, then it's almost like tossing your wallet outside and hoping that someone will put some money inside of it and throw it back to you.

I then try to gauge how fast I can earn a profit when I review online money making strategies. Can I successfully earn an income from it? Or will it just pay for the odd tip to a waiter here and there? The majority of guides and books on money making all focus on earning money quickly and easily. If they were quick in easy the book would either cost and astronomical amount or everyone would be doing it right now.

There's also some products that I feel cross a few ethical boundaries. I won't go into any details, but I will say that if I find a product that crosses an ethical boundary, I will either keep it off my reviews or mention it. It really depends on how bad the infraction is to me.

With all that being said, that is how I generally try to avoid the "Pitfalls of Money." Fast and easy is a selling point for, ironically enough, quickly and easily selling a product. Turning a quick dollar is possible, but I'd prefer to be able to turn a dollar and let someone else turn a slightly smaller dollar in comparison to the effort I put into writing something. Generally, I want ot be able to continually have a group following. If a product doesn't come across to me as such, it's probably a scam and one everyone should stay away from.

To make it simple, never let a man with gold teeth talk you, your neighbor, your aunt, your uncle, your sister, your brother, your grandfather, your grandmother and your parents into buying his easy system of making money online, especially without seeing it in one of my posts in which I review online money making strategies first.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Making Money By Taking Pictures?

The e-book, Make Money Taking Pictures With Your Digital Camera is something that I thought wouldn't fit into my "review online money making strategies" outlook. I've seen a lot of different marketing strategies, such as paying for people to submit stories on the internet and whatnot. But pictures? I'll admit, like everything else that I've tried, it caught my genuine interest.

Initially, it begins off as less of a how-to guide and more of a here's-some-tips-if-you-want-to-make-money-as-a-photographer book. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to spend a few hours a day to earn a $500-$2000 commission. I mean, maybe if I really caught the photo-taking bug.

This is a relatively short blog in which I review online money making strategies. This is largely due to the fact that the book is just that simple. All-in-all, it's a decent course for anyone with a passion to take photographs with your digital camera, but it's just not something that a washed-up vacuum salesman was thrilled about.

There is more of a start-up cost to it than just the $39.97 e-book fee. You have to have a decent digital camera. You can generally use a $100 or so camera, but there is a cost. As far as a return on your investment, it was hard for me to see. I ended up making about $200 from this course, which is more than enough to recoup the cost of my camera and the e-book. I think if I gave it a little more effort, I could have made a lot more money.

Price: 4/5 [It was on sale.]
Effectiveness: 4/5
Return on Investment: 3/5
Time: 4/5
Ease of Use: 4/5

Overall: 3.8/5

If you would like to purchase this book, please take a look at it here.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

My Online Income System

I was skeptical, I'll admit, without anyone to review online money making strategies. But being a businessman for the greater part of 21 years told me to be. But I tried it anyway. But at $47 a sale, especially to a newbie to internet marketing, it seemed like a steal for a 300-page book when it came with two additional bonuses. Hence, I tried My Online Income System.

It looked great; it was a course by a mother with a child who had her husband leave the both of them. Apparently, she had tried other internet money making schemes and they were scams. She ended up in debt. Makes sense to me.

But the shocking bit is now the tear-jerker, but the part where she begins tos how her profits. I was amazed. I knew that it was possible to make that much money from internet marketing, but in a single month?

It was an immediate download, so after I began reading it I put what I learned into action. It was fairly simple to follow, there were a few times that I had to double-check and even one time I h ad to email support inquiring about the website, but it worked. After one month I had made a profit.

Now, the profit wasn't anything as the landing page said the author made, it was about 10% of that. Regardless, it was a profit. I took it and was happy that I made up the price of the book and then some in about a month's time.

Price: 4/5 [The bonuses very much worth it.]
Effectiveness: 3.5/5
Return on Investment: 4/5
Time: 3/5
Ease of Use: 3/5

Overall: 3.5/5

All in all, it was a definite worthwhile buy. I would not say that this is an end-all product and that you could quit your day job, but it certainly does bring in a nice chunk of change with relative ease and minimal investment for an online money making strategy.

If you're interested in trying it out, buy it here.