Extra Money Maker

There are plenty of ways of making money on the net without requiring Internet marketing knowledge and I have introduced a number of them in the previous posts of this blog. For easier searching, I decided to combine them into this post. Here are them:

1. Work Online for Others
Guru.com and Elance.com are freelance marketplaces with tons of online job opportunities. Getting an online job through freelance marketplace is similar to getting an offline job, it involves competitions. You search for an online job that is right for you in freelance site, then you bid for the job. If your bid is the lowest, the employer will usually award the job to you.

Another site offers online job opportunities is Clicknwork.com. Unlike freelance marketplaces, there are no bidding competitions involved. They will assign the work to you. But to become their home-based professionals or workers, you must pass a difficult test.

2.Submit Articles for Cash
If you are passionate about writing, you may submit your articles to the below sites for publication and earn cash for each article published:

Developershep.com/writers.php - Accept articles related to web development and Internet marketing.
Associatedcontent.com (AC) - You become their member and submit articles in wide array of topics for payment consideration. Available to US only.
Newsforge - Pay $100 to $300 for each article about Linux, open source and free software.

3.Try Companies Offers
The concepts are simple. You join a website that contains a list of offers you can sign up or try. For each offer completed and approved, you’ll be credited an amount of money into your account. Most of the offers available to US residents only. Treasuretrooper.com is one of the programs allows you to earn by completing offers.

4.Submit Photos and Images to Photo Agencies
Web designers, magazines and press need new photos and images often. They will look for photo marketplaces and agencies to buy photos that fit their need. You can submit your photos and images to these agencies and they will sell the photo and images for you. Below are some of the photo agencies:

www.dreamstime.com/sell
http://submit.shutterstock.com
www.scoopt.com

5.Write Products Reviews
Have something to say about the products and services you have used? Send your product comment to products reviews websites. If they decide to publish your review, you’ll be paid.

Softwarejudge.com - Reviews software and online games.
Reviewstream.com - Plenty of product categories to review.

6.Be a Paid Bloggers
Here are the blog networks you can apply for a blogging position:

www.creative-weblogging.com
www.b5media.com/jobs
www.knowmoremedia.com/write-for-us.html

7.Upload Videos
Large video sharing websites like Metacafe and Break willing to pay people for uploading interesting videos such as funny, amazing and entertaining videos. You can earn hundreds to thousands of dollar, if your original video attracted tons of views in these video sites.
source: http://moneysonline.blogspot.com/2007/08/7-ways-to-make-money-online-without.html

With a reported 22.1% of search traffic Yahoo is second only to Google’s 64.4% (src: Hitwise) for search user volume so it is extremely important not to forget that attaining a top ranking in Yahoo can be a big boon to the bottom line. As a result, I decided to write this update on how to attain superior rankings in Yahoo using today’s useful tools and tactics.

OVERVIEW:
Optimizing for Yahoo!
Algorithmically Yahoo is Google’s much younger sibling. I say this because many of the requirements for a successful ranking mirror Google’s requirement about 4 years ago and they sum up to one distinct fact; optimize your content boldly on Yahoo and you will be rewarded. When I say “boldly” I do not mean use SPAM; by nature SPAM and optimization do not mix… they are two entirely separate concepts (black and white in fact).

The following are the current generalized specifications for achieving solid rankings in Yahoo.

WEB SITE OPTIMIZATION
SEO tactics have not changed a great deal over the past 10 years I have been an SEO. In general terms the only effect time has had on SEO is to vary the intensity of the optimization for particular page elements. That is the rub of course; some search engines appreciate the optimization of particular page elements over others. In the case of Yahoo, this old property with a relatively young algorithm tends to favour the following elements:

Title Tag: Keep your title tag as short as 5 small-medium sized words and include one complete incidence of your keyphrase. Yahoo! blatantly favours sites that include the keyphrase in the title tag. For an example check out “car sales” or for that matter any phrase. Within the top 10 results you will notice that the majority of sites listed will include at least one incidence of the keyphrase or a crucial portion of it (i.e. “cars”). The ones that do not include the keyphrase tend to be sites that have are extremely popular so even basic title tag optimization is not required to attain a top ranking.

Meta Description Tag: Start this tag with an incidence of your keyphrase and then produce a short 15 – 18 small-medium sized word sentence clearly describing your site. Include one more incidence of your keyphrase in the sentence. Keep in mind that the description tag is often utilized as the description for any rankings you achieve so it is best to make it alluring.

Meta Keyword Tag: Keyword tags have long been considered ineffective and no longer have any importance on Google; however Yahoo does still consider the keyword tag so it cannot hurt to include it. The keyword tag should start with the keyphrase and then all following words or phrases should be ordered according to their relevance to your website; place the most important ones up front. The max size of a keyword tag should be 250 characters – comma-delimited. Do not over repeat words; no more than 3 repetitions of a single word within the tag.

Keywords in URL: Create keyword-based filenames that closely represent the content within the file. Yahoo rewards keyword-based filenames a small amount – perhaps enough to push past your competition.

Headings: Heading 1 and 2 tags should be applied on every page where appropriate to embolden the relevance of the page. In other words, use the page’s keyphrase within a Heading 1 tag to further enhance the visibility of the keyphrase on the page.

Alt text for images: Don’t forget to provide appropriate ALT text for each image on your website. The ALT text must not provide information that is already written on the website. ALT text is supposed to provide a clear and concise description of what the image is. Fortunately this means that adding an incidence of the keyphrase or a portion of the keyphrase is totally appropriate which can add slightly more credibility to your page score when Yahoo’s crawler (Slurp) indexes the page.

Inline Links: In the midst of your page it is beneficial to include links to related pages from related content. These links will apply relevance to the linked page; which is optimized for the same keyphrase you linked from.

Site Structure: Site structure is a vital component to ranking success on Yahoo; especially in competitive marketplaces where every advantage is required to reach the top. One method that would be successful at Yahoo (and happens to work as well on the other major search engines) is a tried and true technique that revolves around the linear progression of related content throughout the website; it is commonly known as Themeing. The following example should shed some light on this subject:

Your site is a car sales site focused on Audi. In order to create a linear site structure you would focus each section of the site on an individual relevancy. Say you pick “Audi A5” as the relevant topic (see Figure 1.0). As you move deeper into the Audi A5 section you only see A5 relevant content. The search engine spider and your users will not be distracted by links to other vehicles – only information on the A5. This progresses as you proceed deeper into this arm of the website and because this section of the site is utterly focused on the subject “Audi A5” the odds of achieving a ranking for that term increase considerably.

Your site is a car sales site focused on Audi. In order to create a linear site structure you would focus each section of the site on an individual relevancy. Say you pick “Audi A5” as the relevant topic (see Figure 1.0). As you move deeper into the Audi A5 section you only see A5 relevant content. The search engine spider and your users will not be distracted by links to other vehicles – only information on the A5. This progresses as you proceed deeper into this arm of the website and because this section of the site is utterly focused on the subject “Audi A5” the odds of achieving a ranking for that term increase considerably.

LINKS
When building links for Yahoo concentrate on quality not quantity. Quality links would be one way links from sites that specialize in content directly relevant to the content on your own website. Building these links can be done by creating content and syndicating it to your own industry for link love and to build credibility. In addition, if your website is a worthwhile resource it is entirely reasonable to tell the world about your site in order to build links; hopefully they will link to you because they like your site so much.

Finally, there is another tactic that has mixed results; send out press releases once a month using PRWeb or an associated press release agency. A good press release can easily build the links you need in no time at all. Unfortunately the mixed results I noted occur when press releases inevitably become archived, at which point the link relevance will fade. As a result, link building with press releases is only useful as an ongoing practice and should be considered a small facet of a robust link building campaign.

SITE EXPLORER SETTINGS
Yahoo’s Site Explorer is a fantastic tool for monitoring your website(s) and running basic link reports. If you have not already done so you should create an account at Site Explorer and then validate your website (prove you own it) so that you can manage the information Yahoo has for your website. Once you have validated your website I have noted some Site Explorer functionality that may help your website perform on Yahoo:

• Make certain to create a sitemap and submit it to Yahoo:
  If you haven’t already done so use a XML sitemap generator to create a sitemap for your website and then submit it to Yahoo using the “Add Feed” form within your website’s Site Explorer profile.
• Removing unnecessary dynamic content from your URLs with new add-on within Site Explorer:
  Does your URLs content session ID’s or other dynamic content that is unnecessary within the URL? If so, this information can be indexed by the search engines and ultimately can cause havoc with your rankings. Thankfully Yahoo has implemented a new tool within the Site Explorer domain management section called “Dynamic URLs Beta”. Here are the instructions to use the Dynamic URLs tool.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
After reviewing our notes from current and previous Yahoo promotions and taking a look at a variety of top 10 results the following points appeared noteworthy:

• Ensure open indexing by using Robots.txt wisely
• A lot of our client’s older content appears to be sticking to top rankings with little or no monthly tweaking. As a result, I think it is fair to assume that fresh content is not currently gaining much weight in the Yahoo algorithm.
• In many cases top ranking sites have pushed the envelope and their sites border on SPAM. Considering the top ranking these sites have it appears Yahoo’s SPAM filters are far less sensitive than Google’s. I expect Yahoo will change this in the near future but then again I have been surprised how long this has been the status quo.
• One common claim throughout forums is that achieving a placement in the Yahoo Directory provides an instant boost to Yahoo rankings. Unfortunately we have not seen conclusive evidence that the annual $299 fee will increase rankings dramatically in the short term. That said, I strongly believe that a Yahoo Directory placement is a very reputable incoming link that does pay dividends in the long run at any search engine that weighs incoming links (the ones that count).
• Yahoo Search Submit was re-introduced back in February 2007 to significant criticism due to the potential favouritism to those who pay to get into the Yahoo index. Despite the negative feedback there appears to be some potential benefits to paying for submission. For one, in July I noted an interesting story where a website was banned from Yahoo and the webmaster got the site back into Yahoo’s index by paying for inclusion (“Banned from Yahoo?”). A second reason Search Submit may be worthwhile is the guarantee that your site will be indexed. Furthermore, the Yahoo’s Search Submit Pro service allows you to recommend your own title and description tags for each page submitted and to submit pages that may not normally be indexed by Slurp.

source: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/articles/2007/0921.html

Once you’ve generated your ad code by visiting the AdSense Setup tab and following the steps to choose an ad type, format, and colors, you’ll need to add the code to your webpages. In the final step of the setup, you’ll see your code in the Your AdSense Code box. This is the code that you will cut-and-paste directly into your webpages.

Because every HTML editor is different, and because only you know how you like to build your webpages, we can’t give exact instructions on copying the ad code into your pages. We can, however, give you a few tips:

• Make sure to paste the ad code into your source without making any changes to the code. This is important, as changing the code in any way can cause errors on your page (and is against the AdSense program policies)
• Copy the ad code between the body tags of your HTML
• If you’re using a WYSIWYG editor (such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver) it’s a good idea to paste the code into the Code or Source view. Pasting it into the layout view will often result in HTML tags being added to your code, and will result in errors
• If your page uses Frames, make sure that the code is pasted into the frame that contains your page’s main content. We use this content to target ads

When you’re all done, save your webpages and upload them to your server. If you have questions about uploading files to your server, we suggest contacting your web hosting company directly.

Google ads should appear on your pages immediately. Initially, the ads that you see may be Public Service Ads (known as PSAs) and won’t be targeted to your page. We have to crawl your page’s content before we know what kinds of ads to send your way - this can take up to a few hours, but usually occurs within minutes. Once our crawler has visited your page, you should see ads that are highly targeted to your content.

You might also find helpful HTML hints in the AdSense Help Forum. AdSense publishers share their knowledge and experiences in this forum, where you can feel free to post your own questions and search or browse for answers about ad implementation.

source: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=10192

The AdSense code is generated from within your publisher account. This is the code that you’ll need to add to your pages in order to display Google ads or a search box on your webpages. Please follow the steps below to generate your AdSense code:

1. Log in to your account at https://www.google.com/adsense
2. Visit the AdSense Setup tab
3. Choose your product - AdSense for content to place ads on your site, AdSense for search to add a search box to your site.
4. Follow the guided setup to choose a format and colors. You can also choose any additional options that may apply to
   your site, including channels and alternate ads
5. Your code will be generated in the Your ad code window according to your selections.
6. Copy-and-paste the code into the source code of the webpages on which you wish to display Google ads or an AdSense for search box. For tips on adding the code to your page, read How do I add the AdSense code to my site?.
7. If implemented correctly, Google ads or a search box will appear immediately. Initially, the ads that appear may be public service ads, for which you will not receive earnings. Once our crawlers have visited your page, however, targeted ads will begin to appear.

source: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10191

Google’s AdSense allows Web site publishers to display contextually relevant advertisements on their website. If a Web visitor “clicks” on an advertisement, the Web publisher will earn a percentage of the advertising revenue generated as a result of the click. Many webmasters have built content Web sites around the Google AdSense model. In many cases the specific intent of the webmaster is to profit from Google AdSense. Other webmasters use Google AdSense to supplement their revenue. Regardless of the webmaster’s intent, the following tips will help webmasters looking to profit from AdSense.

Top AdSense Tips:

1. Niche Sites
   Targeted niche sites that have a clear theme, tend to generate more advertising revenue simply because it is easier to achieve decent search engine placement. Be warned though, you want to chose a niche where there is a sufficient number of advertisements available.
2. Target Keywords
   When determining the site’s focus, consider how much the advertisers pay for the advertisements. If the site is focused on ringtones, like Ringtone Central , the payout per click is going to be very small. Because ringtones are not high ticket items, advertisers will not spend a lot on pay-per-click advertisements.With less obvious markets, use Overture to determine how much advertisers pay per keyword. The cost will usually be similar on Google. Search Overture for a keyword then click “View Advertisers’ Max Bids” in the top right corner. This will show the Overture inventory and how much is paid per keyword. Because the market has become very competitive, it will be difficult to rank well in search engines with a new Web site that is optimized for the terms that have the highest payout. Consider targeting terms that are moderately priced.
3. Aged Sites / Time
   Over time, as a Web site is spidered by Google, advertisements will generally increase in relevance. In general, older Web sites will rank better in search engines. The closer the advertisements relate to the Web page’s content, the higher the “click-through” the publishers will see.
4. Coding
   In order to minimize a Web site’s maintenance, place the Google generated AdSense code in the Web site template or an “include” file. This will allow you to easily experiment with different advertisement sizes and ad placement, and keep the Web maintenance to a minimum.
5. Tracking Channels
   In order to know how effective a specific Web site or ad placement is, use distinct channels and subchannels within Google. This will allow you to discern what performs best on a specific Web site. Using channels will tell you what sites are making money, what advertisements are making money and what ad position is the most profitable on a specific Web site. Keep in mind that you should run an advertisement for a full week, in order to properly test its effectiveness, different days of the week will vary the Web traffic so comparing one week to another will give the most accurate reflection of how effective a campaign performs.When testing different advertisement sizes, placement or color schemes, be sure to leave campaigns in place for one week. Different days will often result in Web traffic fluctuations. Comparing Web traffic week to week will give a clear indication of what ad formats perform the best.

• Integrated Ad Placement
  Many webmasters have been successful at integrating advertisements into a Web site. The easiest way to integrate an advertisement into a Web site is to remove the advertisement border. This will allow the ads to better blend with the Web page. Google recommends contrasting the link colors with the Web site colors to increase click-throughs. It is also suggested that webmasters randomize the color of the advertisements, so that frequent users will not naturally “filter” the ads.

example of integrated ad placement: http://www.golf-clubhouse.net or http://www.security-protection.net

• Number vs Value of Advertisements
  Up to three advertisements can be listed on each page.This decreases the value of the advertisements served, so publishers should cautiously add advertisement units, as it dilutes ad inventory. In other words you want to serve the most expensive ads at all times.
• Hot Spots
  Like Web copy, “above the fold” holds true with AdSense as well. This means that advertisements that appear without having to scroll will be read more frequently. Hot Spots are areas on a Web page that result in a higher percentage of click-throughs. According to Google, the highest paying advertisements are located on the hot spots.hot spots map - http://www.small-business-software.net/heat-map.htmGoogle does not indicate if image advertisements or text ads perform better, so webmasters are encouraged to experiment with both.
• Highest performing Ad SizesAccording to Google the 336 x 280 rectangle, the 300 x250 rectangle and the 160 x 600 sky scraper result in the highest number of click-throughs. Depending on the website’s design and layout, publishers may experience different results with different ad sizes, placements and color schemes. Expirement and track the results for each website to maximize the AdSense payout.source: http://onlinebusiness.about.com/od/advertising/a/adsensetips.htm

Google’s AdSense support staff recently published a checklist to help those who are just getting started. The list was compiled to help e-tailers get their applications approved the first time around by avoiding common pitfalls seen again and again when registrants are reviewed, according to Google. The following was posted at the AdSense blog by Courtney Chin and Rohit Jenveja, of AdSense Publisher Support. Do I have what I need to apply?

• Web Site: To display Google ads, you need administrative access to the site you submit for AdSense in order to place Google’s JavaScript ad code on your site. Adding the Google code to your site’s source code will enable you to show ads, search boxes and referral units on your pages.
• Valid payee name: Payments will be made out to the name on your account, so make sure to include your full and valid name, or that of your business, rather than just initials. If banks won’t accept the name you enter in the ‘Payee Name’ field, neither will Google.
• Valid address: Please provide a complete valid address where you can receive mail. If you live in a country or territory that doesn’t have a standard format for addresses, please be sure that your application includes as much information as a mailman would need to find your residence.

Does my Web site meet all the necessary requirements?

• Valid URL: If you manage an entire Web site, give the URL of your home page. If you manage a blog or other account within a larger Web site, you should provide the URL of the specific page that you manage and not the URL of the entire hosting Web site. Don’t forget to double-check your URL for typos.
• Fully launched Web site: Google won’t be able to review sites that are not fully launched or built, so please ensure that your site is live and functioning at the time you submit your application.
• Unique content: Google wants visitors to sites in the AdSense network to have an engaging experience, so please publish content that’s interesting and unique. Avoid using “doorway” pages created just for search engines, or other cookie cutter approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content. If you’re participating in an affiliate program, give people a reason to visit your site first.
• Supported language: Google says it is constantly working to provide targeted, relevant ads in more languages. However, until then, Google can only approve your application if the majority of your Web site is in one of our supported languages.
• Pay-To Sites: If your site participates in programs that compensate people to perform activities that drive traffic to you, Google can’t approve your application. Some examples of these “pay-to” programs are sites that encourage users “to click” or “to surf” or “to read e-mail.” In addition, you shouldn’t encourage others to join these programs in the content, links or third-party ads on your site.

Google also encourages you to read the program policies provided here in detail for further insight on how to create a successful application. Now that you have all the necessary information, you can apply here.

source: http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/affiliate/article.php/3703936

HYIP, which stands for High Yield Investment Program is just what it sounds like, a program offering a high yield investment. HYIP’s are offering probably the most profitable investments available today. Interest rates of up to 100% a monthis not uncommon. In general the interest rates are ranging anywhere between 5 – 250% a month.

HYIP’s are using different investment strategies. Some invest in stocks, others in property. There are even HYIPs investing in other HYIPs. Probably there are also programs that are not investing at all. These belong to the scammers. You’ll read more about unserious HYIPs further down this text.

Most HYIP’s use different e-currencies as their way of accepting funds from members. E-gold is undoubtedly the most commonly used one hence the many program names containing “Gold” or “E-gold”. E-currencies makes instant and secure money transfers possible online and have very much paved the way for HYIP’s.

The phenomenon of Hyips is growing bigger and bigger on the internet today. Every day new programs are being launched. Lots of people are earning fortunes investing in these programs.

Sounds too good to be true?

Well, while the statements above are not lies, they don’t give you the whole picture. Many program owners are scammers. Their only will is to run with your money. There are more scams out there than serious long term programs.Over the years large amounts of people have lost their money as a result of being involved in High Yield Investment Programs.

Given the fact that the HYIP industry is a very risky one, most people are very hesitant when it comes to investing in HYIP’s – which is legitimate. However, not being aware of the risks is the main reason why people are losing their money. There is a great number of cases where people have thought they’ve found an incredible opportunity and gladly invested their entire fortune. When the programs later went out of business, the consequences have been devastating.

Although there are unserious players in all markets, the HYIP arena seem to have more of them than many other industries. The reason for this is the big amounts of money involved and the fact that it’s pretty easy to steal money on the net.

Taking both the negative and positive aspects of High Yield Investments into consideration, the conclusion is; If done right, High Yield Investments can be extremely lucrative.

source: http://money-making-ways.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-is-hyip.html

Google’s AdSense is perhaps the fastest and easiest way to generate revenue from a website that contains great content.

If you’d like to see an example of Google AdSense in action, visit this page about what is the best day to purchase a cars. On the left side of the page, you’ll see “Ads by Google” followed by one to five text-based ads. The ads themselves are called “Google AdWords,” and the program that lets publishers display them on their site is called “Google AdSense.”

Here is how Google answers the question — what is AdSense — in its FAQ (frequently asked questions):

” Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant, un-obtrusive Google ads on their website’s content pages and earn money. Because the ads are related to what your users are looking for on your site, you’ll finally have a way to both monetize and enhance your content pages.

“The program is free, and combines pay-per-click and pay-per-impression advertising - meaning you get paid for valid clicks on the ads on your site or search results pages as well as impressions on your content pages. So go ahead and try this program.”

What is AdSense: A Brief History

Google AdSense is an outrgrowth of the Google Content-Targeted Advertising program that was launched in early March 2003.

This early program let large websites integrate Google AdWords into their websites. Each deal was independently negotiated with Google, and sites with less than 20 million page views couldn’t participate.

The Google AdSense program lets much smaller websites play. Even if your site only gets a few hundred page views per month, you can now apply to the AdSense program.

source: http://about-adsense.com/what-is-adsense.html