Archive for Blogging For Money

I’m MAD! – These Guys Give Marketing A Bad Name

I used to get very, very angry at the people who start so-called “online money making schemes” like the Empower Network scam  Now I’m just tired. Tired of the bullshit and tired of the people who are endlessly looking for the easy way out.

Let’s keep it simple people – there is no way to make money in your sleep, with no experience, online. Its not going to happen. If it sounds too good to be true – then it is.

Which is not to say you can’t make money online. I make my living online, and have for a couple of years. But to make money online you have two choices:
get yourself a job
start a business

Just like in the real world! There is no magic about making money online. Its the same as offline. You either sell your goods and services to others (think freelance writers, or sellers of hand-made goods on etsy.com), or you build a business.

I’ve chosen to build an online business – which is tough hard work. Its easier than doing it off-line because at least I don’t need to get a bank loan and spend thousands on rent and equipment for my business.

On the other hand most people don’t walk into a high street shop thinking “this is a scam”. Online a lot of people think just that!

And I don’t blame them because the thieves behind the Empower Network scam  has given all online businesses a bad reputation.

Empower is a classic, in fact its not just a scam, its an illegal pyramid scheme. The only way you make money from Empower, is by recruiting people to sell, Empower. They in turn recruit more people, and you get paid a percentage of their recruits. Do you see the pattern? Why’s it illegal – because its selling nothing of any value – about from itself.

Of course they don’t actually say that – the signup page claims to be offering you an “exclusive blogging system”, killer sales leads, an 8-part video system and much, much more.

I’ve been in this business a lot time and I can tell you for sure – you get absolutely nothing of value. The Blogging System – is just WordPress – available free from wordpress.com, installed on their own domain – so all you are doing is giving them free content! The video series is a joke – the videos are very, very short, in fact the longest one is about how to setup your merchant account to get paid – oh that’s another $20/month – did they forget to mention that on the sign-up page!

The Empower Network scam XXX needs willing suckers to succeed. While there are people who are prepared to believe in the tooth fairy, and free money, they will get suckers to sign up. Make sure you are not one of them.

Diversify And Your Online Business Will Thrive

The dream of full-time blogging certainly is an appealing one. There is a lot of conflicting information on the Internet as to whether or not someone can achieve that goal. I am firmly in the camp of those who think it can be done, if only because I have done it myself.

I believe that where the vast majority of the doubters go wrong is that they think that being a full-time blogger is just about writing. Well if you’re going to build this into a business, you definitely have to be a little more creative than that! It will be very hard for you to earn a full time living from any online properties if you think that all it takes is to write.

Diversification is the name of the game, and it’s the only way to make sure that you have a business that derives its income from a variety of sources.

The first order of business (literally) is to try and build an audience. You become a trusted voice for the members of that audience. This will allow you to establish a relationship with those people. Once that is done, the marketing opportunities will literally present themselves. Another nice perk of this method is that it is independent of the search engines and whatever direction they choose to take with their algorithms.

What can you do when you have a sizable audience? Well, for starters, you can review and recommend products and services to them. Because you have taken the time to establish a relationship in the first place, your conversions will be higher.

Other people will notice the size of your audience and approach you for joint ventures, meaning that they offer that you share their products with your audience in exchange for a cut of the sales proceeds.

If you have the chops for it, you can write and self-publish books and sell them. Amazon has made this really easy and potentially very lucrative.

You can further diversify in your area of expertise. If you’ve been able to develop your own social media presence, you can offer your services as a social media consultant to other business owners who might need the help! You could do this in person, or via webinars. Do you see where I’m going with this?

Whenever people say you can’t make money online, I’m willing to bet that it’s because they have blinders on. If they took the time to realize all the possibilities, I’m pretty sure they would think otherwise.

Make Money From Your Blog

More and more people are getting interested in work at home jobs and finding out how to make money at home due to the decline in the job market. One of the most simplest ways to start earning some potential money is by creating a blog. The main focus will be on creating content that people will be interested enough in to actually tell their friends about. At the same time, you need to set up your blog and write in a way that will give your blog some SEO benefits as well.

Is blogging for money for everyone? Of course not. In fact, many people try but fail to actually make anything. You typically can’t just blog about anything and expect to build a following. You need to blog about things that matter to people but at the same time, something that can also be monetized as well. So focus on getting traffic.

Once you get traffic, the way you can monetize your blog is through using programs such as Adsense or affiliate programs like Amazon. If people like and trust you, when you recommend products that you truly believe in, people will buy and when they do, you make money from it. Just remember to disclose the fact that you make money from your recommended products.