Sunday, August 30, 2009

Working from Home: Tips on How to Earn Money from Home

June 10, 2009 ( PowerHomeBiz.com ) - As the economic downturn continues, more and more people are looking for ways to supplement their income, if not find other means to make a living. One option is to look for ways to earn money from home, whether part time or full time.There are many opportunities for earning money from home – from buying into a turnkey businessopportunity system, finding work at home employment, starting a home-based business, or even buying a home-based franchise. The key is to know what interests you, what you’d like to do, and what your resources can allow you to do.

Here are some opportunities for earning money from home:

Start a home business. One option to earn money from home will be tostart a home-based business. Your home can be the location of your full-time job and the primary source of income. Or it can be a part-time venture providing for an extra income for the family. A home business allows you to make your own hours, commute to work in seconds, make your own choices and become your own boss. Ourbusiness ideas channel offers a number of possible businesses you can start from home.

Start a home-based franchise. There are a number of franchises that you can operate from your home, from business consulting to home-based pet services to home services. Home-based franchises typically have lower cost to entry compared to traditional franchises given the lower franchise fees. The fact that these franchises can be operated from home allows you to save on the overhead costs of running a storefront.

Start an online business. The Web offers huge opportunities for those who want to earn money from home. You can gather all your junk and sell them on eBay or Craigslist. You can also sell online and open your own Web storefront. There are also many business opportunities that are available on the Web where you buy into their system of making money (just beware of the scams out there, though). If you love to write, you can also earn from blogging and monetize your web site with online advertising.

Turn your hobby into a revenue source . It's great to delve into an interesting hobby such as artwork, photography, or crafting paper jewelry. It's even more exciting (and financially rewarding) to turn your special talents and passion for your hobby into a successful home-based business . If you are an amateur photographer or simply someone who loves to dabble in photography, you may be able to earn money from your stock photography images. If you have created a blog or web site to talk about your hobby,consider turning the web site into an income generating vehicle by putting ads or affiliate programs . If you love to shoot videos, consider turning this hobby of video production into an income-generating opportunity

Turn your skills into an income-generating opportunity. The skills that you employ (or used to employ) in your day job can be used to help you earn money on the side. Whether you are doingweb design , writing, desktop publishing , or computer repair , you can use these skills and work on the side, possibly on a part-time basis. However, be sure to read the policies of your employer particularly if you have a non-compete agreement (just make sure that you are not touching their clients and that you find your own customers).

Participate in market research. Market research pays, though not very much. You can get paid from participating in marketing research panels and studies, plus get the chance to know about upcoming products or services. The amount you earn will not get you rich, but the income may allow you to at least put some loose change in your pocket. You can sign up as a mystery shopperwhere you can pretend to be customer in order to evaluate customer service metrics of businesses such as restaurants or clothing shops. Or you can sign up with legitimate online paid survey companies (be careful of the scams out there) and be included in their consumer panels and be paid answering market surveys. . Another way is to participate in focus group discussions , where a small group of participants selected from a broader population is gathered and interviewed.

For more ideas on how to earn money from home, visit PowerHomeBiz.com Earn Money from Homechannel


How to Earn from Your Videos

With the rapid growth of broadband, videos have become a vital part of the Web and watching videos on the Web have become much more commonplace. My 4-year old son, for example, is addicted to YouTube and watches videos of Bugatti and Ferrari cars.

But if you're at the other end of the spectrum and loves to produce videos about your dogs or hilarious kids, a number of options are now available to help you get cash for your creations. Here are ways you can earn from your videos:

1. Put advertising on your videos. The best example is the Youtube Partner Program http://www.youtube.com/partners = requires that you must own the copyright of your videos and that these videos generate thousands of impressions. Other similar ad-based programs are:

2. Be paid by number of views. Metacafe Producer Rewards programhttp://www.metacafe.com/producercentral/ is open to any creator of an original short video, and the payment system is simple and straightforward – $5 for every 1,000 views, starting at the 20,000 views mark.

3. Earn money by producing videos for others. TurnHere.comhttp://www.turnhere.com/ helps small local businesses produce professional looking videos for an average fee of $1,000 per video. If you don't think you can compete head-on with TurnHere.com, you can join them as a freelance video producer.

4. Sell your videos. Some of the sites that allow you to sell your videos are:

5. Get paid for responding to requests for specific types of videos.Videos submitted to CurrentTV.com http://current.com/make.htmare broadcast on the their web site, as well as on cable and satellite channels. There are two options to earn. The first is to submit a "pod" or a 7-minute video on pre-announced topics such as the hottest trends on the street to voting outside of mainland to the juiciest hooking up stories. Payment is negotiated per pod basis, and your video may be broadcast on television. The second option is to submit a video ad as dictated by the sponsor, and you get paid if the video is shown on the Current website or on another television station.

6. Sell videos on a royalty basis. iStockPhoto.com , well known for their subscription model in selling photos, has branched out to videos. After passing a rigid test, you can submit videos and earn as much as 40% of the royalties paid. CreateSpace.comhttp://www.createspace.com/ allows your videos to be sold on Amazon.com and you can earn royalties on every sale you make.

7. Sell your video on demand. If you are a more established video content producer and independent filmmaker, FlickRocket.comhttp://www.flickrocket.com/ offers a direct online VOD/rental and download-to-own/burn service. Jaman http://www.jaman.com/ and GreenCine http://www.greencine.com/ offers a venue for independent filmmakers to sell their films.

For more detailed information, check out 8 Ways to Earn Money from Online Videos


6 Hottest Businesses on the Web



The Web is moving towards a new direction. From simply being an information resource, the Internet is becoming a user-centric platform focused on the needs of users. As Newsweek in their recent cover said, this new phase is “Putting the ‘We’ in Web” (April 3, 2006 issue, pages 47-53) with the “Internet’s ability to empower citizens and enrich those who help with the empowerment.”

The Web is becoming deeply collaborative, allowing people to work simultaneously on the same tasks at the same time (example is project collaboration application such as BaseCamp). Many of the new success stories are riding on the powers of social networking (think the very popular MySpace.com); while others rely on user-driven content to create useful resources (great example is Wikipedia). The New Web has turned instant messaging into a crude application with the more powerful instant-voice-messaging and instant-video-messaging applications (Skype is a perfect example). It also allows for getting content here and there and mixing-and-matching them into unique content (Technorati puts together blogs and feeds in one easy to search site).

Experts are all abuzz in defining this next stage of the Internet, calling it anywhere from Web 2.0 to Live Web to Next Net. Whatever name this new Web is called, it is important for small online entrepreneurs to catch on and learn how to spot opportunities with the changes. The new Web is full of new business models, and what Business 2.0 magazine calls, “oceans of new opportunity.” All it takes is the ability to see a new way of using the Net to enhance every day living.

Here are six areas of the new Web that present new opportunities to small online businesses:

1. User Generated Sites

Consumer creation is the big trend on the Web today, with users stepping up creating the content of websites. Think of the mega-successful site MySpace.com, the prime hangout of over 65 million mostly young people (and those who want to reach them) where users built their own little profiles, adding photos, videos, blogs or music. Blogs and wikis as well discussion forums are all types of user-generated content, and they have become mainstream web content in the last few years. Craigslist, the mammoth online classified ads website, is another almost completely self-service and community moderated website that relies on millions of people posting content on their site.

As the Website owner, you don’t have to worry about hiring writers or buying content, because you have a loyal and committed base of users who are more than willing to create content for you. In Craigslist’s case, for example, they have become the 7th largest website in the world in terms of pageviews despite having only 19 staffs on board. Plus, your site will grow by leaps and bounds quickly – with hardly any advertising as your members will do the marketing for you and refer friends who in turn will invite friends.

Think of areas or niches that you think people could become involved with, or even become passionate about. Build your site around your users, and make them an integral part of your community. Review sites are a great example of user-generated content.

2. Think Casual

Casual is another big concept on the Web today. With broadband increasingly available, more and more people are using the Web to do even the most casual activities – chatting, connecting with friends, or sharing photos and videos.

Entrepreneurs who have realized this, such as Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield of the photo-swapping Canadian startup Flickr, hit it big time. Flickr has 2.5 million members (and growing) uploading and sharing their photos. Unlike other photo sites that allowed you to upload photos in the hope that you order prints from them, Flickr went beyond this thinking and focused on users being able to share their photos. While the founders started “very small and very poor,” their fledging startup has now been bought by Yahoo.

Even games now have what is called “casual games.” These are games sold exclusively on the Web as downloads, and are not found on n the shelves of video game or consumer electronic stores. The games are not for PlayStation 2 and Xbox game consoles. Yet New York Times (“On Screens, but Not Store Shelves: Casual Games” by Michel Marriott Published: June 27, 2005) called casual games as “growing more prominent in the ever-broadening game marketplace, becoming big sellers on a small budget.”

3. Google Adsense

While Doubleclick may be to the 90’s banner advertising heyday, contextual advertising is hot right now with Google Adsense at the forefront. Adsense has provided Web publishers a great opportunity to monetize their content. Advertising is alive and well again for small online entrepreneurs!

Adsense is not new; the program has been around since 2003 and similar programs have since been introduced (e.g. Quigo’s Adsonar, Yahoo Publishers’ Network, etc.). But smart Web publishers are continuing to find innovative ways to succeed with Adsense. PlentyofFish.com, a two-person run online dating website, veered away from the traditional business model used by established dating companies (which is paid subscription) and offered their site for free monetized by Adsense.

Go beyond the approach of buying lists of expensive keywords and building a site around these keywords. Instead, find established markets that are traditionally fee-based and offer free service supported with Adsense. Better yet, think of a website whose content will be generated by users (see #1 above), and earn money from the site with Adsense.

4. Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing has become a critical component in increasing awareness of a website and getting customers to buy products or services on the Web. In fact, advertisers in the U.S. and Canada alone spent $5.75 billion on Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in 2005, a 44 percent increase over 2004 spending, according to a report by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO).

The report, “The State of Search Engine Marketing 2005,” also projects “that SEM spending in North America will reach $11 billion in 2010. The annual totals include payments to search engines and search-related media companies, search engine marketing agencies and in-house expenditures in support of such programs. The programs include paid placement, paid inclusion, organic search engine optimization and search engine marketing technology platforms.”

Search engine marketing is so huge that this is definitely one segment where many smaller online entrepreneurs can actively participate and thrive.

5. Online Classifieds

According to JupiterResearch, U.S. online classifieds is forecast to grow from $2.6 billion in 2005 to over $4 billion in 2010. The dominant market player is currently Craigslist, a bare-bones classifieds site launched in 1995 for people looking for almost anything -- from jobs, to apartments to pet sitters to concert tickets. Craigslist has become a flourishing network of online buyers and sellers while maintaining a simple look and feel free from banner ads. It currently takes its fees from a handful of users (e.g. real estate ads), while keeping the site free for everyone.

Online classifieds is a potentially huge market that even the major players are starting to jump in the fray. Google has moved into the scene with their Google Base, Yahoo has Yahoo Classifieds, eBay has moved into the fray with Kijiji.com, while Microsoft, AOL and many other players are not too far behind. Even newspapers, which have stubbornly clung to their paid model and resisted the movement to free and instant listings, are starting to realize the wisdom of free listings and are now rethinking their revenue models.

6. Power of Mix and Match

The Web has too much information that some cutting edge sites have sprung to help users filter all the information into useable content. Called “mashaps” or mix-and-match, they serve as aggregators, filters and organizers of available content. An example is Simplyhired.com , which is a 'vertical search for jobs' mashup. It gets data from various sources such as job boards, company pages, online classifieds, and other data sources.

How to Generate Advertising Revenues for Your Web Site

Your web site can be likened to a real estate property: every square inch counts. This realization has pushed banner advertising to the forefront as one of the avenues you can tap to generate revenues from your site. Consider these figures: Jupiter Communications reported that online advertising revenues will reach $7.3 billion, while eMarketer predicts an even higher figure of $9.5 billion in 2001. These figures are for U.S. online ad spending alone. Despite the downturn of the market, advertising spending on the Internet is still alive and well.

The question now is: how can your small online business get a share of that huge pie? You are not Yahoo, you're not Wall Street Journal, and you are not AOL. You do not have the kind of the traffic they have, the branding they have, and the clout they have. Worse, you will have to compete with these big boys to get a share of the billion-dollar advertising pie.

Whether your ad sales staff is one or 100, there are two ways to help you sell your advertising inventory and start earning advertising revenues for your site:

1. Join an advertising network. The main problem of a small site is the smaller quantity of ad impressions that it can serve. Let's say you generate 1,000 page views a day or 30,000 page views a month. Many ad sales representatives, who handle most of the ad buys for advertisers, will pass up your site because it isn't worth their time selling out your tiny inventory. Unless of course, your site attracts a specific kind of demographic that the advertiser specifically wants to reach. You need to remember that most banner ads are sold in huge lots of hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of impressions.

A solution is to join up with hundreds or thousands of other small sites like yours in what is called an advertising network. Advertising networks are organizations that aggregate Web sites that offer advertising space, and sell banner ads (and other advertising options) across them. A network operates under the thinking that there is power in numbers. If the network has 200 member sites similar to your traffic level (e.g. 30,000 page views a month), then the network can actually sell 6 million page views across the board. Given the higher number of impressions, the network can then negotiate for higher CPMs or CPCs from advertisers, thus benefiting member sites like yours.

Below are some of the advertising networks today. Study their requirements carefully, as well as their pay structure, the length of time before you receive your payment, accuracy of their statistics, kinds of advertisers they serve, and a host of other considerations. Note that some of the networks have tough guidelines and criteria for membership that a small business site may not be able to attain.

  • ValueClick Media. With Fastclick now under its wings, Valueclick is one of the biggest banner advertising network today.
  • Burst Media. This network is friendly to smaller sites, as it focuses on specialty and niche sites. They find the advertising for you, and you pay them a commission for each sale based on the length of your contract. Traffic requirement is smaller at a minimum of 5,000 monthly impressions, although it does not accept sites hosted by free page services. They specialize in remnant advertising.
  • Advertising.com. One of the oldest advertising networks friendly to small web sites.
  • Tribal Fusion. One of the new additions to the ad networks, what sets Tribal Fusion apart from the rest is that it is a pure CPM network (all campaigns are cost per impressions).
  • DoubleClick. Now owned by Google. This is the granddaddy of advertising networks. Offers higher CPMs, but requires a minimum of 1 million impressions per month from member sites. However, it specializes in big advertisers and publishers and does not accept small sites.

2. Sell advertising for your site directly. This is admittedly a more difficult route for a small business site wanting to earn advertising revenues. But hey, as they say: "no pain, no gain!"

The first step is to target potential advertisers for your site. Make a list of sites that may potentially be interested in the kind of demographics your site serves. If your site focuses on work-at-home mothers, potential advertisers may include jewelry stores, fragrance sites, furniture sites, baby products and many others.

Tap your partner sites, or sites that you may have worked with in the past. Generally, advertisers with whom you have established previous business relationships, and are already familiar with your site and your audience are more likely to do media buys from you.

Know the right contact person. Visit their web site to see if they list the name of their marketing manager or media buyer. Or better yet, call up their office to check the name of the person responsible for buying ads for their site.

Oftentimes, big companies utilize advertising agencies to handle media buys for them. Some advertisers will refer you to their agencies. If you have already established a relationship with the advertiser, you can inform the agency that you have already discussed the potential media buy. If the advertiser has already expressed interest in an ad buy from your site, tell the agency about it.

If your first point of contact is the ad agency, request the media buyer's permission first before contacting the advertiser directly. There is nothing to gain from infuriating the media buyer.

Present your offer succinctly and clearly as soon as you make contact with either the advertiser directly or the media buyer. You can send an initial email message describing the range of online advertising available (e.g. whether sponsorships, banner buys, etc) and your advertising fees. Make sure that you emphasize the benefits the advertisers will reap with their exposure from your site. You can send the complete media kit (with your site description, demographics, traffic levels) once the potential advertiser has expressed interest in your site.

Tirelessly follow-up your advertising prospects, without being a pest. A day or two after sending your email message, call the person to discuss the potential ad buy and whether they need additional information. As soon as the ad buy is approved, you will be presented with an Insertion Order (IO) that specifies the commitments of each side guaranteed number of impressions (if any), make-good strategies if you fail to reach the guaranteed number, rates and billing instructions, who will be responsible for tracking statistics, cancellation policy, and other specifics of the ad buy. Carefully review the IO, checking whether you can really deliver what the contract entails. Remember, the goal is to establish a long-term relationship with the advertiser.

Soliciting advertising buyers for your site is a tedious task. However, the benefit of selling advertising directly is that you can negotiate a much higher CPM or sponsorship fees for your site. You don't have to settle with the miniscule $0.25 CPM rate the some advertising networks give. You can also negotiate a shorter payout rate: many ad networks pay only 45-90 days after the campaign ended. With you at the negotiating helm, you can require advertisers to pay-up before you install any of their banners, or immediately at the end of the campaign.

3. Participate in contextual advertising networks. Contextual advertising are text ads delivered based on the content of the web page using an automated system. The technology determines the content of the page, then serves ads that are targeted to the page's topic. For example, an article on website design will show ads of companies offering web site designs -- the idea being that ads targeted to the audience of the page will elicit greater response.

Contextual advertising providers strive to seamlessly integrate the ads with the content, some more so than others. Vibrant Media's Intellixt, for example, seeks to integrate the ads within the content of the page so well by highlighting keywords. Normally thought of as a hyperlink, a user who scrolls over these words is shown an overlib ad box up that contains the full ad text.

Some of the contextual advertising programs are currently offered by the following companies:

4. Sell your own advertising. You can also earn revenues by selling banner advertising and text ads yourself.

Unlike contextual advertising networks, you may not have the technology to serve ads based on the content of the page. You may also not have a wide pool of advertisers (mostly pay-per-click) competing and bidding for the premium spots in your site. Nonetheless, many websites have found that selling their own advertising, commonly labeled as "Sponsored Links" for text ads to be a lucrative income source.

Note, however, that potential advertisers will be looking for information on your site's reach and traffic, with some even considering your site's pagerank.

An important ingredient in selling your own ads is to have a capable and robust ad server that can handle ad management for you, allow the serving of various types of ads including banners, text ads, rich media and flash based advertising. It is also highly beneficial to use an ad server that will allow your advertisers to check in the status and performance of their campaigns.

Here are some advertising servers that you can check out:

  • OpenX http://www.openx.org/ = a free open source ad serving tool.
  • Google Ad Manager http://www.google.com/admanager = Recently introduced by Google, this ad serving tool is available to small and medium sized businesses. However, to date, the tool is available by invitation only but you can request an invite.

Earning Money From Online Surveys

How Online Surveys Work

Online market research companies are always on the lookout for members of their panels. Retail firms, manufacturing businesses, and other organizations contract online research companies to get consumer input on their products. Consumer panels are then set up, often based on demographic profile and interests, to respond to surveys designed to get inputs from consumers in the development and improvement of products.

Online surveys include product concept studies, wherein you will be asked of your opinion about a new soon-to-be-launched product based on the pictures and description shown. Others will query you on your usage of a particular type of product, while others would seek your comments on the clarity and effectiveness of a product advertising copy. In some cases, you will receive a sample of the product to test and use. Your opinion will have an impact on everything from product performance to style, varieties, features, pricing, among others. The goal is to determine what product ideas are winners and which are losers.

You will be contacted through email for surveys that fit your demographic profile. Filling out these surveys takes anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. You will be given a timeline to respond to the survey, from one to two weeks, the comfort and convenience of your own PC and at a time that is convenient for you. In between, you may be asked to fill out "qualification surveys" to help the company match up your profile and interests with their clients. Usually, no compensation is given to qualification surveys.

Earning Money

Some reputable online market companies give monetary compensation, albeit small, to members of their consumer panel. While you will not get rich answering surveys, you will be given anywhere from $5 to $50, sometimes with free products to test, for every online survey completed. If you are asked to participate in 10 surveys in a month for $20 each on average, that's an additional $200 for less than an hour of work!

Others, however, simply offer a chance to win prizes in their monthly raffle drawings. You will have to answer as many surveys as you can to give you more points that will then be factored in the number of chances you can win in the raffle. Raffle prizes range from a low of $100 to as high as $10,000, and are usually drawn every month. While some may prefer the opportunity to win big prizes in raffle draws, there are others who would rather get paid no matter how small for every single survey completed.

There are also companies that offer both cash and non-cash prizes as incentives, such as cruise or merchandise.

Resources to Check Out:

Earning Money from Your Articles

I often read of internet marketers extolling the virtues of article marketing -- how it is a great way to market a website, get more backlinks, more traffic, and establish the writer as an expert in the field. However, I've seen very few people talk of how a small online business actually make money from their content through syndication.

In the early 90s with the dotcom boom, content syndication seemed easier to do, even if you have a small online presence. In the pre-Adsense era, you don't have to be a Reuters or Associated Press to earn money through syndication. Companies such as iSyndicate (bought out by YellowBrix) and ScreamingMedia (bought out by Dow Jones' MarketWatch) accepted even small content providers -- and getting accepted and syndicated by these agencies assures you of earning a few thousands a month.

Instead of giving away your content for free in websites such as EzineArticles.com, check first if you can generate revenues from them. Today, here are some companies that can help you earn more money from your content:
  • Mochila = free to join and you will set the price for your content. Mochila gets 30% of the selling price while the publisher gets 70%.
  • Uclick = syndicates works of cartoonists, puzzle constructors/developers and gamers
  • iCopyright = one of the leading reprint solutions today allowing publishers to earn by selling reprints of their content. Publishers pay a percentage (about 10%) of the closed sale done through iCopyright technology
  • Associated Content = pay range is about $3 to $20 and accepts both exclusive (never been published before content) or non-exclusive (previously published).
  • YellowBrix = top tier content providers; hard for small businesses to get accepted as a provider
  • Suite 101 = they recently relaunched the site and now accepts freelance writer for a revenue sharing proposition. Writers earn a percentage of the income earned from Google Adsense ads served on the article pages. The downside is that they want to be first place where you publish the article, and wants the article to be exclusive to Suite 101 for 1 year - after which you can republish in other places including your website (a significant downside if you have your own blog and website)

If you know of other places that can help in syndicating and monetizing content, please let me know.

How To Earn Money On The Web

The Internet offers a myriad of ways to earn money. However, choosing the type of business to start depends on the skills, types of interests, and business goals. Some of these business models are suitable for small entrepreneurs working out of their homes, while others are better left to the big boys with hefty capitalization.

Below are the main ways a home business entrepreneur can profit from their web sites:

1. Selling Products on the Web.

The Web has opened tremendous opportunities to home business entrepreneurs. It offered the chance for entrepreneurs with little capital to sell their products without the significant overhead costs, rental fees, and other expenses of a traditional retail store. The Web has allowed home business entrepreneurs to start a business selling a physical, shippable product online such as books, Indian silk paintings, or even gourmet foods from the comfort of their homes.

Selling on the Web can take many forms, ranging from a simple web site offering details of products or services to fully functional sites incorporating searching, shopping carts, ordering and automated payment systems.

There are three major ways of selling on the Web:

a. Selling through a storefront

Often called e-commerce, an online storefront is similar to a traditional store - it has a product display section, utilizes shopping cart to hold items ordered, and has a checkout process - except that everything is done online. When choosing products to sell, a home business entrepreneur must consider its overall fit with the medium, and whether customers are likely to overlook the shipping costs.

A successful e-commerce business is a result of various factors. The storefront must have a "hot" product to sell - a product where demand is high and customers are known to buy the item on the Web. The web site must be designed to sell, taking into careful consideration how the copy (both text and pictures), navigation, and overall design affect users.

b. Selling through online auctions

Online auctions such as eBay and Overstock Auctions have afforded home business entrepreneurs the chance to earn a living online. Many people from all over the globe are now using online auctions to launch their full-time or part-time businesses. From selling "excess and unwanted" things from their homes, many home business entrepreneurs have created businesses - many of them profitable -- selling collectibles, antiques and even new items at a discount on Ebay.

Online auctions are ideal for home business entrepreneurs, particularly those with limited web skills. There are no hassles of creating and managing an e-commerce store, no bricks-and-mortar storefronts to rent, no distribution channels to create, no marketing campaigns to launch, and not even HTML skills to learn. All they need is a picture and a description of their items to create a basic auction listing.

Even big businesses are discovering online auctions. Large manufacturers and retailers such as Disney and IBM are using auctions for liquidating their excess inventory and closeout products. Small business etailers are also using online auctions as another sales channel, as a means of reaching out to a wider clientele, even for marketing their own web sites.

c. Selling through classified ads.

The classified ads website Craigslist.com has become an important marketplace for small and home-based entrepreneurs. Listings are mostly free and items for sale are primarily targeted towards the local market. Other classified ads website include Kijiji.com for those who do not live (or wants to reach) in big cities that Craigslist typically reach.

2. Information Delivery.

One of the key purposes of the Web is to deliver information. Web sites have been created as means of sharing information to the world in a fast, efficient, and practical way. A home business entrepreneur with keen interest, knowledge and passion in a particular topic (as well as strong writing skills) can earn their living from producing Web content.

There are several ways a content publisher can earn money from the Web:

a. Earning from Advertising

A website can make money by selling space on the site to those interested in promoting other sites or goods or services, while offering its services for free. Sites such as CNN.com, WashingtonPost.com and PowerHomeBiz.com earn revenues from selling advertising spaces on their sites while keeping their content free.

The keys to a successful advertising-based site are two-fold: the number and type of visitors it attracts. The more traffic a site attracts, the greater number of ad impressions that it can sell. The demographics or type of visitors the site attracts also dictate the ad rates that it can charge - a site catering to CEOs may be able to attract high-paying advertising compared to a site for lovers of rabbits.

Home business entrepreneurs can leverage the income potential of their site's content by selling their advertising directly. They need to identify products and services that would interest their visitors, and then solicit the advertising interest of these companies. Site publishers, however, must submit a media kit, detailing their rates, reach of their site and type of visitors. They must be able to provide ad serving capabilities (e.g. using software like OpenX) and results tracking.

Joining a third party ad network is another way of maximizing the site's revenue potentials. Burst Media and Fastclick (now ValueClick Media) are some of the ad networks that cater to the smaller publishers and mom-and-pop web operations, although these networks require a minimum level of traffic (about 5,000 impressions a month).

Contextual advertising program has also become important in recent years, with Google Adsense at the forefront. Google Adsense allows content publishers to display Google's text ads. Income potential is variable depending on the keywords that can be served up on the site.b. Paid Online Content.

Whereas "free" was the mantra of the Internet in its early days, fee-based online content is poised to grow significantly in the next few years. A growing number of web publishers are finding that people are willing to pay for content - if it's the right content and marketed in the right way. As a result, more web publishers (including home business entrepreneurs) are looking for ways to charge for their content and instead create members-only websites.

The types of content that customers are willing to pay to access include article libraries, searchable databases, coverage of in-depth topics, researches and white papers, and even content written by well-known columnists.

c.. Affiliate Programs

Web site owners with no products of their own can earn money by selling other people's products through affiliate programs. Affiliate program is defined as the revenue sharing between online advertisers/merchants and online publishers/salespeople. The compensation is based on performance measures, typically in the form of sales, clicks, registrations, or a hybrid model.

d. Content Licensing and Syndication.

Content syndication is a business model prevalent in the print, radio and broadcast media and has now been adopted on the Web. The need for specialized content is created by a shortage of resources (like talent or money) to satisfy the demand. Original content can be expensive to create; hence Web sites that produce quality content can offer their content to other web sites through syndication deals.

2. Earning from Online Videos.

Videos have become an important medium on the Web, with the popularity of video sharing sites such as YouTube and Hulu. For those who love to create the videos (not just watch them), there are now a number of options on how to earn from videos such as advertising, even online marketplaces for commissioned video assignments

How to Make Money from Blogs

Blogs have become a popular tool for both businesses and individuals to share their voice, thoughts and musings to the world. Here are steps on how to start a blog and earn money from your blogging

Webopedia defines a blog as “a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.”

Blogs have become a popular tool for both businesses and individuals to share their voice, thoughts and musings to the world. Some blogs are created to give a more “humane” face to a business, allow interaction with customers, even as a tool to generate traffic. Others write blogs to share their passions and attract like-minded individuals.

Whatever the reason for creating a blog, the next question is: What can you do to make money from your blog?

Here are steps to starting a blog and earning money from your writings:

1. Set up your blog. You can have the option of using their URL (e.g. http://widgetsblog.blogger.com) or use the blog software in your own domain name (http://www.widgetsblog.com). Some of these are free, while some has monthly/annual subscription

Here are some places that will allow you to create your own blog

However, if you are thinking of using your blog to earn money, you need to check first with the blog platform whether they allow ads to be put on the blogs. Some blog platforms have strict policies and will delete your blog if you put ads on them. Blogger.com, being owned by Google which also runs the contextual advertising program Adsense, is one of the ads-friendly blog platforms around.

2. Create great content. Everything starts with content. With great content, you can attract more traffic and more engaged visitors, which gives you higher likelihood of monetizing your blog.

Why will they want to read your blog? Why will they want to spend their time in your blog? Provide value, useful information and other benefits to the readers. Your blog can contain up-to-the-minute news and analysis; or it could be a witty and amusing look at pop culture. Give a reason why visitors will frequent your blog.

3. Get traffic to your blog.

You can't earn from your blog if the blog does not have traffic. Many make the mistake of believing that once they create a blog, people will immediately flock to it. There are millions out there so why would they visit your blog?

Getting traffic is going to be your biggest challenge. Here is a comprehensive list of places where you can list your blogs and syndicate its content - Resources for Marketing Your Blogs and RSS Feeds

One useful technique for getting traffic to your blog is to use carnivals. Carnivals are a technique for showcasing your blog. Carnivals occur once a week to once a month, and you need to submit your blog post to the carnival moderator. Find blog carnivals that fit your topic at BlogCarnival.com http://blogcarnival.com/bc/

4. Think of how to monetize your blog. One of the most common ways of earning money from blogs is through advertising and donations. Here are some ways you can earn money from your blog:

Contextual advertising programs

  • Google Adsense = Adsense is one of the easiest to join and best way to make money from blogs, and Google’s ownership of Blogger.com makes it easy to start earning from blogs
  • Yahoo Publisher Network = in addition to their contextual advertising program, also offers RSS advertising
  • Chitika eMinimalls = contextual advertising that pays per click and focuses on product-based advertisers
  • WidgetBucks = pay-per-click shopping widgets

Blog-specific ad networks

  • Federated Media Publishing = ad network that represents high traffic and most influential blogs offering mostly through CPM and flat rate advertising
  • Blogads.com = ad network for influential blogs
  • CrispAds = offers keyword targeted text ads (not contextual)
  • AdGridwork = an advertising network offering text ads; as well as a traffic exchange network

RSS Advertising

  • Feedburner = text link ads in RSS feeds are offered by CPM basis
  • Moreover’s Feed Direct = advertising program which inserts contextual ads in the RSS feeds (in partnership with Kanoodle)
  • Pheedo = RSS ads are both CPM and CPC basis, and appear at the end of each post
  • BidVertiser Ads For Feed = the contextual ad agency now offers an advertising program for RSS feeds
  • Feedvertising = run text link ads in RSS feeds via flat rate pricing (not CPM or CPC)
  • OrangeFeed

Other sources of income

  • Text link ads - you can sell for fixed price for a fixed period of time
  • Donations (yes, you can beg)
  • Affiliate programs such as Commission Junction http://www.cj.com and the Amazon Associates program

Earn Money From Freelance Writing

If your writing skills are not so good, or you've failed your English test in the high school, you may be feeling a little slighted about writing an article, report, sales copy or ebook. If it's your case, there is a solution just for you. Writing doesn't have to be the hardest part of your ebook creation. You can actually hire someone to do it for you by going to a site like Elance.com and let qualified people ( Ghost-writers or freelance writers ) bid on your project. There are plenty of good writers there willing to write your ebooks for you at a discounted price.

Many novelists, Hollywood celebrities, biographers and others utilize the services of a freelance writer at some point of their careers.

So what's a ghostwriter?

It s someone you pay to provide you with quality professional content in about any format you require.

Here is what a ghostwriter / freelancer can do for you:

  • Research on the internet and other sources
  • Compilation of all the information you provide them
  • Professional writing that makes your ideas sound really great
  • Write a compelling book that rivets a reader's interest
  • Usage of language that is apt according to the topic
  • Delivering the complete packaged product version ready to sell.

All you have to do is provide them with your ideas, research, and information about your ebook then let them do the work for you.

Here are some of the advantages of letting a ghostwriter write for you:

  • All the writing work and designing is easily outsourced to ghostwriters. They do all the work you get the benefit (and the profits)!
  • Save time and energy that could be used efficiently in other directions.
  • You keep 100% of the copyright.
  • They can do the research for you.

The procedure is as follows. You have to post your project on the website. The freelancer who is interested in your project will place a bid. The cost of this work depends on the expertise required, the nature of the project and the volume of work. You are free to negotiate. Ghostwriters work mostly for themselves. If you generate repeat business for them a business relationship gets established. The ghostwriters or freelancer may then charge a lower fee for the returning client as it helps generate higher business volumes. The investment you make in hiring a ghostwriter is returned many times over and gives beneficial results. You get an excellent product made and the readers get their value for money through high quality material. This is definitely a win-win situation where you, the freelancer and the client, all are benefited.

To have an idea on how Elance works and what kind of projects people are posting. Visit this link:

Elance.com

There are plenty of great resources to hire a freelancer. These are:

To post your project on Elance.com or any other freelance site you should first open a free account with them, and then open a bid request. Your bid request should include:

  • A clear description of your project without giving a lot of details.
  • Maximum Bid. This is the highest bid offer you will accept. Freelancer can bid lower to gain your business, but not higher.
  • Bidding Close Date. This is the date (in U.S format--mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss) you want to close bidding and not accept any more bids.
  • The number of days the freelancer have to work on the project and deliver the final work. If you omit a deadline, then the he is under no time obligation to deliver!

Before accepting any bid you should verify that the person you are selecting is apt to handle the project effectively. You can do this by:

  • Asking the ghostwriter for his references.
  • Asking for a sample of his work.
  • Visiting his profile page, where you can find more information about him and also what people who worked with him have to say about his work.

Earn Money from Your Hobby

It's great to delve into an interesting hobby such as artwork, photography, or crafting paper jewelry. It's even more exciting (and financially rewarding) to turn your special talents into a successful home-based business. That's exactly what Mary Maturi of Cleveland Ohio, Leslie Croyle of Bay Village, Ohio, and Marlene Stephenson of Virginia, Minnesota, did. Each turned her hobby into a cash-generating business complete with paying customers and a bank account.These aren't isolated stories. Men and women across the country are joining the ranks of entrepreneursconverting hobbies into money-paying propositions. It's important to note that none of these women originally planned to start a business. On the contrary, interest by others in their hobbies convinced them to sell their work.

Mary Maturi's Killer Whales

Mary Maturi markets a line of "Killer Whale" petroglyph tee-shirts, sweat shirts, and note cards both in Alaskan gift shops and in natural history museums in the lower forty-eight states.

It all started when Mary and her family spent a year living in Wrangell, a small town located on Wrangell Island in southeast Alaska. One day Mary ventured down to Petroglyph Beach on the island. Petroglyphs are ancient rock carvings left by an unknown people. Using rice paper and different colored ferns, Mary "rubbed" the petroglyphs to capture their images on paper. When others saw her rubbings, they offered to buy them.

"Peoples interest really surprised me, so I thought of other ways to share the uniqueness of the petroglyphs with out having to deal with their awkward size (some were several feet in length). That's how the "Killer Whale" notecards were born," Mary says. Using her rubbings as a guide, she created smaller scale pen and ink drawings which she took to a printer to get price quotes for paper, printing and envelopes."

The major cost of printing is making the plates. Therefore, it's wise to get price quotes for different runs of 1,000," says Mary. For example, a run of 3,000 cards might cost around 10 cents per card while a run of 6,000 note cards could drop that per unit cost below 8 cents per card. That decreases your card cost by more than 20 percent - quite a savings. Mary also recommends getting bids from several suppliers or even splitting up the order.

While printers know how to price their printing competitively, they don't make their own envelopes. Mary uses the least costly printer that can deliver the quality of paper stock she desires, but buys her envelopes from a warehouse specialist at a savings of nearly 35 percent from prices quoted by printers and other envelope suppliers. It pays to let your fingers do the walking and get competitive quotes.

Once Mary obtained the cost estimates, she visited several gift stores and museums to gather pricing information on competing notecards. She also talked to store owners and museum managers to determine their interest in ordering. After all, it would make no sense to have the notecards printed unless buyers would purchase at prices that can generate a profit.

Leslie Croyle's Photo Finish

Leslie Croyle converted her love of photography and knack for framing into a full-fledged photo decorating business.

Leslie and two friends offered for sale enlarged photos of popular Cleveland events such as the start of the Revco-Cleveland Marathon & 10K, and a spectacular shot of the United Way Kickoff's release of thousands of colored balloons in Public Square.

"We hired several photographers to cover the events and used the best photographs of the bunch," say Leslie. Advertisements for photo promotion proved popular. The trio sold 600 photos at prices ranging from $8 to $10 a piece, gathering a bit less than $5,400 in revenues. Not bad for the first venture. Unfortunately, the combined costs of ads, fees for the photographers ate up the $5,400 and more. "Although we ended up with a loss, it gave us a lot of market exposure and a proven track record," says Leslie.

Next, Leslie and her friends put together a portfolio of photographs and contacted local businesses. This marketing move landed them a job of photo decorating PJ McIntyre's Restaurant in a Cleveland shopping center. "We tied in the nostalgia theme of the restaurant by contacting area historical societies and arranging to have their vintage photographs copied. It's important to make sure you have the right to reuse the prints. Ask for proper releases and permission to use whatever photos you have copied," advises Leslie.

She stresses the importance of networking industry contacts. A decorating firm they worked with on one project led to additional work when that firm recommended Leslie and her partners to some of their other clients.

Since 1987, the photo decorating business has progressed well since its initial unprofitable photo event ventures. Major projects include photo decorating the guest rooms and suites for the historic Glidden House, which has been made into a unique bed and breakfast, and an all-sports photo motif for the Grand Slam Bar & Restaurant in the refurbished Cleveland Flats night spot area.

"From our humble beginnings, we're now getting into some pretty good sized jobs," says Leslie. "Just keep bumbling along - don't give up."

Marlene Stephenson's Paper Products

Marlene Stephenson makes her money tearing paper. Actually, her unique sculptured jewelry draws rave reviews wherever she wears it. In fact, people routinely ask to buy her unique designs right off her dress when she appears at public functions.

Marlene is a medical technician by trade, and her paper profits grew out of a coffee get-together group of friends that met once a week to try their hands at new craft ideas. One day one of the ladies brought a book on making paper jewelry. "I just fell in love with it and made a pin and some earrings to wear to a business meeting. Lots of the women at the meeting asked me to make some for them also," says Marlene.

As with any fashion item, Marlene pays attention to color schemes and design. Even though she makes several copies of different designs, each is unique in color, shading, size, and even texture. Marlene crafts her one-a-kind jewelry to match her customers special outfits.

"With any small business, it's important to link up with other small businesses," stresses Marlene. For example, her local hairdresser lets Marlene display her paper jewelry at her shop. Local gift stores either buy the pins and earrings outright or take them on consignment, which means they pay for the items after they sell. Marlene also teamed up with several other artists to display their work at trade shows.

"Try to tailor your product to the particular market. With the loon as the state bird of Minnesota, my loon pins always do well at local craft shows," she says. Likewise, when Marlene sent samples of her pins to trade show in Anchorage, Alaska, she made some new designs to capture the wilds of Alaska, These pins included a polar bear, Alaska wild flowers, whales, and fish.

What ever your own hobby pursuits, you may be over looking an opportunity to turn personal interests into money-making enterprises. Investigate the possibilities, calculate the costs, analyze the market, and move forward with your plan of action. Take your lead from these three women who have turned hobbies into profits.

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