Making Money - Online Business Opportunity

I’m sure you’ve read the phrase “content is king” but I’ll say it to you again. CONTENT IS KING! Good quality content drives traffic and return visitors and ultimately sales. This is the main reason why serious internet marketers spend time writing fresh articles. Some even go as far as hiring writers.

But how do you write an article that sells?

To help you with that, here are three things that you should always remember.

1. Use an interesting title
2. Write with your readers in mind
3. Make full use of the author’s bio

Use an Interesting Title

The title of your article determines whether it will be read or ignored by potential readers. A boring title is less likely you to be read than one that is written in a unique and interesting way. Here’s a quick example:

Bad Title: Discover How To Write Articles Properly
Good Title: How to Write Articles That Sell

The first one sounds too academic while the second one somehow satisfies a desire, in this case making money.

Write With Your Reader in Mind

Many writers love to brag about themselves but we all know that people don’t want to listen to braggers. Stop talking about how good your product or service is. Rather, write about stuff that will actually satisfy your readers need quickly. Instead of talking about the features of your product, talk instead of how to use your product to solve your readers problem.

Always keep in mind that people read your article because they think it will help them solve their problem. So go ahead and solve their problems and save the sales pitch for last.

Make Full Use of the Author’s Bio

Article directories often won’t allow you to put links in the body of your article. They however will allow you to put links in your bio so make full use of that. The author’s bio is the place where you make your 2-sentence sales pitch. It is here where you entice your reader to click the link to your website. It is here where you tell them that the solution (or a quicker solution) to their problem is just a click away.

Instead of putting in your achievements, put in your call-to-action instead.

That my friend is how you write articles that sell.

P.S. What about writing creating an article in 5 minutes? Click here to see how.

Find more Online Money Making Opportunities

I took the bait and I don’t regret it! I’ve known about Squidoo for quite a while already and during this time I realized that I can make more money from Squidoo than I ever knew. Aside from the fact that Squidoo does share its income to its members, Squidoo also allows you to sell your own products in it. The best part though is that Squidoo lenses grow in value and just like domain names, Squidoo lenses have the potential of being valued in the hundreds of dollars. Perhaps even thousands.

After learning about these income potential, I decided to buy an eBook on how to “flip” Squidoo lenses. By “flip”, the author meant to sell it. The eBook is cheap (only $19.00) and it’s one of the best and cheapest investments I’ve ever made online (Do yourself a favor and buy it). After reading the eBook, I immediately took action and started making lenses. My SEO experience helped a lot so I knew that making search engine optimized lenses will be easy for me.

I created four lenses and bought a domain name so I can create my own website where I can showcase my lenses. Check it out at MySquidooEmpire.Com. As an introductory sale, I’m selling my lenses at 50% off so don’t waste your time. I’ll be pushing this website really hard by next week so I suggest that you grab this great deal before people start rushing in.

Fresh lenses (meaning newly created ones) sell for $150 but they do grow in value immediately. I will be changing the prices on the MySquidooEmpire.Com regularly based on how much traffic and how much income my Squidoo lenses are generating. Before that happens, I want you to check them out and grab this really great deal. I’ll give it to you for only $75 instead of the normal $150. Click here to check out the Squidoo lenses that I have for sale.

Just got an email from the Adsense Team saying that they now accept third party ads. Are they running out of direct advertisers or do they simply want to “enhance” their service? Well, either way I think it’s good for publishers.

Here’s the actual email that I got.

Greetings from Google!

We’re happy to announce that the Google content network now
accepts display ads served from qualified third-party vendors.
During this initial release, only ads in English are eligible,
although we look forward to offering more options in the future.

By accepting third-party ads, we can attract a greater variety of
advertising on the Google content network, which we believe will
result over time in increased revenue for publishers and more
relevant advertising for end users.

If you’re currently opted in to image ads, you’re already able to
receive third-party ads. If not, you can enable image ads to start
receiving third-party ads immediately. (Learn how to enable image
ads at
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=9741.)

If you choose to allow third-party ads on your site, please update
your privacy policy to inform your visitors that third-party
vendors may serve ads on your site. Please also provide links to
these vendor websites and inform your users that they may opt out
of cookies (if the vendor offers this capability). For more
information about updating your policies, visit
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=94150.

You’ll continue to have full control over which ads appear on your
site with tools like competitive ad filtering and the Ad Review
Center. Also, only advertisers with whom we have proven
relationships and who’ve clearly demonstrated commitments to our
quality standards may participate in this program. Our policies
governing ad content and formatting remain unchanged.

To learn more about third-party ads, please visit our blog post at
http://adsense.blogspot.com/2008/05/introducing-third-party-ads-on-google.html
and our FAQ at
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=14535.
If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us at
adsense-support@google.com.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

Building an online business is not an easy thing to do. Just like any other business, you have to plan it carefully. Oftentimes, plan revisions are made - and not just one but many. As a result, only a few end up with a successful business because only a few really care about building a good business model.

Now, onto the topic. Can blogging really be a good business or is it good only in making some extra money along the way? Before we answer that, let us first see what my criteria are for a good business.

1. It must be a system capable of running without much supervision
2. It must generate positive income
3. It must be scalable and flexible
4. It must meet the needs of a particular niche
5. It must be legal

As you can see, my criteria are pretty simple and easy to implement in a business. Now let’s see if blogging as a business meets them.

Can a blog be legal?

Yes, of course it can and it must. Plagiarism is not an option in blogging - be it a business or not but sad to say, many bloggers still plagiarize other people’s work. For a blogging business to be legal, it must either provide original content or be satisfied with articles submitted to article directories. The first option is more expensive but is more likely to gather more readers than the latter.

Can a blog meet the needs of a particular niche?

I think it can but that pretty much depends on how the blog is organized. I’ve seen bloggers write all sorts of stuff and still expect to make good money out of it. Thing is, a blog made for business needs to have focus in order to satisfy the needs of a select group of people.

Can a blog be flexible and scalable?

This is easy - YES. For a blog to be scalable, all you need to do is add another category/topic in it and bingo, you have another set of related articles to offer. If you need more webspace and bandwidth, just upgrade your web hosting package and if you need to output more articles, just write more. The latter is even easier if you pay people to write for you. As for flexibility, a blog can be as flexible as any website on the internet.

Can a blog generate positive income?

This is where things begint to get nasty. It is true that blogs can make money but making money is different from generating positive income. Many pro-blogger wannabes fail to bill themselves for the time they spend writing articles for their blogs. The expenses grow even further the moment you start hiring writers, researchers and web designers. Add to that the utility bills you have to pay and in the case of a serious blogging business, the monthly rent for your office space. Even so, it is still possible to generate positive income with blogging.

What are the ways for a blog to make money? Well, the more common blogging business do the following:

• Join an Ad Network and make money through PPC
• Sell Ad Space either directly or through an ad broker
• Join an affiliate program and sell products related to the topic of their blog.

A few get even further by building a subscriber list and contacting them if they have something new - either just to show off or to sell. As you can see, making the money is easy. The question is if the money made is enough to cover all expenses incurred and make a positive income as well. This I guess depends on how many regular readers your blog has. The more the merrier they say.

Lastly, can a blog be a system that runs without much supervision?

I think the answer to this question depends on how the blogrepreneur (yah, I just coined that term) approaches it. Starting a blog is easy but making it into a system that sends money your way is another story. If you hire people for your blogging business then it can quickly become a system just like any other business. All you need to do is specify who does what and make sure someone is accountable for somebody else. That should keep the business going even if you do not check it on a daily basis.

However, The problem pops up if you’re some sort of a one-man-band in your blogging endeavor. Without self-disciplines, you’ll find yourself breaking down sooner than later. It is still possible to make a system even if you’re doing it all by yourself. The fun with blogs is that you don’t have to write a lot every day. Writing one article a day can be enough for most blogs to keep its readers interested and as a tip, here’s what I do.

“I write as many articles as I can in two days and schedule them for posting on my blog.”

If I write 5 articles on Monday and schedule them to be posted on a one-per-day schedule, then I’ve pretty much met my quota for the week. That way, I work on my blog only once a week and let the wonders of wordpress do its stuff.

Now, what’s my conclusion on this? Well, depending on how the blogrepreneur (there goes that term again…) approaches the subject, a blogging business can be a good business. After all, I think just about anything in this world can be turned into a business, it’s just a matter of doing it right.

Happy blogging!

Do you use Google Adwords? Maybe you should not because gone are the days when you can throw in your keywords, bid for a few cents and get lots of traffic and sales on your website. Affiliate marketers are starting to see the symptoms of a dying Google Adwords and others even say that it’s already dead. Either way, that’s bad news.

Do yourself a favor. Download the report and save yourself hundreds or even thousands of dollars. After reading the report, I realized that the world of online advertising might be taking another evolutionary turn into something new and better. Google is making changes and it appears that marketers don’t like it.

» Click here to Download Death of Google Adwords report

Work at home jobs are getting more common everyday. I myself work at home. We all like the idea of making good money while staying at home with the family and kids. Add to that the fact that work-at-home jobs often offer the leisure of working at any time and at any pace you want - the perfect dream for every employee.

I’ve seen lots and lots of work-at-home offers online mostly as data encoders and that’s for a good reason. Data encoding can be done by just about any work-at-home wannabe plus it is a popular need among offices. It’s a perfect work to worker match. The need is there and the skills are just about everywhere.

Click here to start working as an online data encoder »

How much can you earn from doing online data encoding? It really depends on how much time you are willing to spend doing the job and how fast and accurate you are at typing. The more you accomplish, the better you earn, it’s that simple. You get paid either via check, wire transfer or even Paypal. I’ve heard people earning hundreds of dollars per day just doing stuff like this.

Just about any company offering online data encoding jobs will ask you to pay a small amount. This is not a joining fee but is rather used for your training and the software that you will use. If that’s not enough of an explanation, just think of all the savings you get by not traveling to work? A small fee to do online data entry is very little compared to transportation expenses alone, not to mention the time you spend just going to work.

Click here to start making money today »

Point by point, working at home is the best way to work. All you need is a computer and a little space for you to work in. You can even work in your bed.

» Global Data Entry is a company providing high-paying online data entry jobs.

If you are familiar with Clickbank.com ®, or even if you are not but you want to make profits online, then you will want to check this out ASAP. While I like Clickbank, and they are a great marketplace, they are limited to many restrictions to sell products or earn affiliate commissions. One such restriction is not allowing many countries like mine to sign-up. I live in the Philippines and I want to make money but they won’t let us do so.

Good news is there is a GREAT NEW SERVICE now and it is a new FREE marketplace where you can sell any product you want. You can sell your OWN product and the best part is you can become an INSTANT Affiliate for ANY item in their HUGE marketplace. That’s as good as instant cash!

It is called PayDotCom.com! Did I mention it is 100% FREE to Join!

Click Here to Sell Your Products or Become a Super Affiliate

This site is going to KILL all other marketplaces and I believe by now, almost EVERY SINGLE SERIOUS online marketer has an account with PayDotCom.com so get yours now and see how much they offer. They give you cool tools like BLOG WIDGETS, and they even have an advertising program to help you get traffic to your site. If you want an ARMY of affiliates to sell your products for you, they also allow you to have Free placement in their marketplace!

Even better… If your product becomes one of the Top 25 products in its category in the marketplace (not that hard to do) then you will get Free advertising on the Blog Widget which is syndicated on THOUSANDS of sites World Wide and get Millions of impressions per month.

So, what are you waiting for? PayDotCom.com ROCKS!

Click here to Get your FREE account now »

Cheers!

P.S. - Make sure to get your Account NOW while it is Free to join.

Flogos or flying logos I believe is going to be the next fad in advertising. Advertisers are always thinking of new ways to advertise and there’s no stopping them from doing anything that technology allows. It seems like they’d jump into an idea whenever their imaginations meets reality.

Flogo says Peace

Oh yes, you see that photo just right. These flogos fly like clouds. Back in the 90’s when I was still staring at the clouds imagining the shape of my favorite superhero, two international special effects inventors, Francisco Guerra and Brian Glover, wondered what would happen if they could make clouds into shapes. What if they can make logos? And so they did and Flogos was born - www.flogos.net.

These cloud-like flying logos are actually a mix of soap-based foams and helium. The machines that produce it can pop one flogo every 15 seconds. Size range from 24 to 48 inches and they typically fly around 300 to 500 feet but they can even fly as high as 20,000 feet if the conditions are right (but who’d see it at that height anyway?). At that height, you might worry about airplanes hitting it but that’s no big deal. Hitting a flogo is just like hitting a cloud. It will even safely pass through a jet engine.

Look Ma Mickey’s flying!!!

Flogos are also environmentally friendly. They’ll just burst harmlessly in the air. The foam used is plant-based which means it’s organic. It does not pollute the skies.

But how much does it cost? Well, it’s not very cheap if you’re just planning to use for fun but using it for advertising might be just well worth it - especially for branding purposes. Renting the machine for a day costs around $2,500. Balloons (other way to advertise in the air) are cheaper but Flogos are more fun.

Dude, my iPod logo is flying!

I was doing some math and I realized that if you rent a Flogo machine for a day and say run it for about 4 hours then you’d have lots and lots and lots of Flogos in the air. 4 hours = 14,400 seconds and the machine can pop 1 Flogo every 15 seconds. That’s 960 Flogos flying in the air! Wow!

I haven’t seen these Flogos in action yet but I can already imagine one problem - the wind. Oh well, you can’t have them all. So, if you’re curious and if you want to find where these guys are then go to Alabama. SnowMasters, a research and development facility in northern Alabama is the home of what is now known as Flogos - or you can just check out their website.

Hey there folks! Just wish to share with you my recent experience with Paypal. The story goes like this…

Back in January 28, I tried withdrawing some cash from my PayPal account to my BPI Family Bank account (for those of you who don’t know, BPI Family Bank is in the Philippines). The withdrawal process was easy, smooth and fast. It just asked for the bank code, the account number and the amount I wish to withdraw. No, it didn’t ask for my account name but I thought it won’t be a problem. Before long the amount I was withdrawing was deducted from my PayPal account and I was given a message that I should receive the money in my bank account within 7 banking days - oh how excited I was!

7 days passed… still no money. Two weeks, three weeks, still no money. I contacted both PayPal and BPI Family Bank. BPI said they did not receive any and PayPal said that they didn’t receive any return of funds from my bank so I thought it might just be a pretty loooonnngggg delay. After repeatedly contacting both my bank and PayPal, my bank finally informed me that they returned the funds to PayPal because the account name PayPal used was my business name. That of course is understandable because my account with PayPal is a business account.

Knowing that my money was returned to PayPal, I was already getting ready to contact PayPal about it but one day… when I logged on to PayPal, it just informed me that my account is now limited due to possible security issues. I’m pretty sure that no one knows my password but PayPal knows better. The thought however that this could be connected with my funds withdrawal came into mind. Nevertheless, I followed the steps that PayPal asked me to do to restore full access to my account and within 24 hours my account is back to normal and 24 more hours after that, the funds I tried to withdraw was returned to my PayPal account.

I knew it! The situation was related to my withdrawal and it does make sense. If someone was able to log on to my account and withdraw my funds to his/her bank account then it will result to a discrepancy with the bank due to the account name not matching - that is if the hacker does not have an account with the same account name as my business name of course. But that’s pretty unlikely.

So, what lessons did I learn?

1. Never withdraw to your personal account if you have a business account because PayPal will use your business account for the transfer and therefore may result to discrepancies with the bank
2. Never forget step 1.

All is well now except that I was charged 250 pesos for the failed transfer as listed in PayPal’s website. That’s OK with me. 250 pesos is not much for such a lesson as this.

I have one request to PayPal though. Is it possible that you good guys in PayPal provide an option to choose the account name for bank accounts? Make the choice just between the business name and contact name.

Lastly, will I still recommend using PayPal? Certainly! Businesses and individuals should have PayPal. If you don’t have one then sign-up now and make use of PayPal’s outstanding worldwide services.

I finally made my first real PayPal referral and here’s the letter I got from them.

Dear Transcendental Innovation Technologies,

Thank you for referring insert name here to PayPal. Because insert name here just signed up for a Premier or Business PayPal account, you are now eligible to receive a Merchant Referral Bonus.

Here’s how it works:

As soon as insert name here has used PayPal to receive a total of $200.00 USD in payments, you will receive your initial bonus of $1.00 USD, which will be deposited directly into your PayPal account.

In addition, once you’ve received your initial bonus, you will receive a residual payout based on the total amount of insert name here PayPal payments for 12 months after insert name here initial PayPal account creation.

PayPal encourages you to assist the new merchant get started with their account so you can get your money faster!

Sincerely,
PayPal

As you can see, it’s kinda funny that I get a bonus of $1.00 when my referral receives his first $200…  While I do appreciate the bonus, it’s just kinda low.  Well of course, I will also receive residual income 12 months after I get the $1.00.  Now I wonder, how much would that be?  Makes me think if pursuing PayPal as a source of referral income is a good idea.  Maybe yes, maybe no.  Well, it’s there anyway and it’s passive income so might as well get it going.

So there ya go, go ahead and sign-up as a PayPal Merchant if you’re interested.  After all, lots of people use PayPal so it’d be a good idea.