Bubblews Review & Constant Cash Dripfeed

Hello to all friends, followers, fans and others! I have been on a hiatus trying out new ways to make money online. These have included freelance writing gigs with various sites that worked for a while, as well as trying my hand at eBooks and apps. I feel the latter two categories are profitable, and now I’m going to try out a brand new site which I have heard positive things about. It’s called Bubblews, and I want to see if I can generate some extra cash from it! In this post, I'll talk to you more about the site as well as some excellent Bubblews tips products including the guide below.

Bubblews Guide for Tips & Info

How did I become interested in the site?

I recently received word of a new product called Constant Cash Dripfeed by Andy Charalambous. It’s available for a low price at Warrior Forum here and if you’re serious about trying to earn with Bubblews I highly recommend it. Inside the PDF guide, Andy gives his tips and strategies for how to set up your Bubblews posting schedule and how to maximize your chances to earn money. I’m not going to lie and tell you there is no work involved, but it seems easy compared to other tedious methods of making money online. This is especially true if you like to write.

What is Bubblews all about?

So with Bubblews you’re basically just writing your perspective on various topics in at least 400 character posts or articles. I’ve always enjoyed writing so this seems like a no-brainer for me. The site is free to join, and apparently the community there is helpful, supportive and worth being a part of. That alone could be worth the free price of admission!

The Bubblews moneymaking journey begins!

Earnings are accumulated based on views, comments and likes from others on your various posts. Some will be from the Bubblews site, some may be from bringing people in via social media sites like Twitter or Facebook. There's always the off-chance for organic search traffic as well, depending on how Bubblews ranks, or starts to rank. Once you've accumulated $50 you can request a payout.

Things that are frowned upon at Bubblews are things like plagiarism (duh!) and trying to game the system for views or likes. Those are big no-no’s as you might expect, but if you play within the rules and interact in the community, there’s been reports of some members earning $1,000 to $2,000 extra income in a month at Bubbles!

One thing with Bubblews is that they have had reports of payment issues, so that can always be worrisome. I have worked for various affiliate sites in the past that collapsed and I never saw a dime of what I earned. I am hoping that won’t be the case with Bubblews. That said I don’t expect it to be a career, but I will see if I can reach payout threshold which is $50 or so. Apparently, payouts come within a week, but don’t hold me to that!

Can You Make Money with Bubblews?

So can I make money with Bubblews? I think so and so can you! The answer will be related to how much work is involved and whether or not they continue with their payouts properly. As we all know, sites such as Squidoo have become a thing of the past for earning money online, but the internet is far from over when it comes to earning some spare coin. However, writing 400 character or more posts and interacting with a good community isn't necessarily a tough thing to get down with.

So if you’re down to make money with Bubblews, stay tuned for my latest updates. Also, I’d recommend picking up Constant Cash Dripfeed today and studying the PDF’s and tips inside. It’s an excellent primer on what you can expect from this simplistic money-making fun writing site!

Is Kevin Trudeau's Free Money Book Legit or a Scam?

If you’ve ever been up really late at night, or even flipping through the channels on a lazy weekend afternoon, you are probably familiar with Kevin Trudeau. He’s the guy who has been on television infomercials promoting his Free Money book, which talks about tips “they don’t want you to know about.” They refers to the good ol’ government. Before we go to far it’s important to understand that Trudeau has been in some hot water for various claims made and various products he’s been a part of.

His books are still available online for those who are curious to read them. Other titles include “Debt Cures 2014 Edition” and “Natural Cures They Don’t Want You to Know About.” “Free Money - They Don’t Want You to Know About,” was apparently updated now in 2014 to include even more helpful information to peruse. The most recent edition of the Free Money Trudeau book (pictured) is 279 pages long and ranks within the top 150,000 books on Amazon as of this report, showing that there are people out there still willing to give Trudeau and the info his book holds, a chance.

Reviews of Kevin Trudeau’s “Free Money” straight from Amazon show a slight mix of opinions by customers. At least a few people call it a scam and complaining about Trudeau’s legal issues. That includes a judge calling him an “uncontrollable huckster” and saying that Trudeau’s book could no longer be sold (as of 2004). That’s not to say that there aren’t third party sellers still offering copies of Trudeau’s titles on Amazon.

For the most part, the original hardcover and paperback listing of the book on Amazon has more one-star rated reviews on it than any other rating. There’s 69 five-star ratings and 60 three-star ratings. One reviewer even says that “the book gives some websites to aid in all these things, but most of the info could be gathered on-line.” That’s certainly true, and these days so many individuals overlook that aspect. Instead they will quickly fall for the latest “get money now” or “find money instantly” titles to get their hands on some cash. Trudeau more than anything may be a huckster, but he is also more of a marketer, in that he was able to convince people through clever marketing on infomercials that he had the cures to debt, health and other issues easily presented in his books. There may very well be that info inside his books, but it's hard to trust that advice based on the various legal findings that have been associated with Mr. Trudeau.

So my best advice to you with regards to Kevin Trudeau's "Free Money" book and whether it's a legit guide or a scam: Buy the book if you’re still curious, but use the good old internet to aid you in finding ways to increase your income. There’s plenty of ways to start generating money online, and you can find the “free money” yourself.

Some of those ways can be found right here so sign up for emails from The Monetizer blog!

Google Hot Trends, Domain Transfers & Moneymaking sites

It's been a while since my last post, and if you're a longtime fan or reader I apologize for that. If you're involved in self-employment or internet marketing, you know just how time-consuming it all can be. Sometimes you find something that is a good thing for moneymaking and you end up putting more effort into that then other projects. Throw in other aspects of "real life" and you've got a busy time of it. It's nice to have a life outside the net right? Luckily, my previous work as a project manager and caseworker helps me figure out my priorities. I'm big on goal setting, writing lists and getting things done. But I do have my "procrastinator days" as well.

So what have I been up to? Well recently, a lot of article writing. Mostly with Google trends which offers pros and cons. The great part is this can give you nice surges of traffic to wherever you want if done right. If you pick the right hot topics and get in on them in time, you can link to offers or seller sites, and generate nice sales for making money online. The downfalls are copycats who steal your material so they can make a quick buck too. And trust me, I've seen it happen quite a bit. I've even had someone accuse me of plagiarism on a site, when in fact it was another site copying my work. Strange but true!

The other thing with Google trends is we know the Big G wants to keep their searches honest. They don't want people searching for a hot news topic and finding someone's 5 sentence article about a story with a link to a news site. I see it often, or I see sites with poorly written content that has tons of grammatical errors and sentences which keep going and run together and they don't make sense but they are trying to make money as fast as they can - you know what I mean? Google will want content as always. In the past year, I've seen the Google Hot Trends listing go from 100 sites to about 40 to the current 20, and I often wonder if it will go down again to 10. I'm guessing that Google has done this to prevent all the "crap" content that gets spewed out. They limit people's ability to prey off 100 or even 40 topics.

So to solve the problems of competition and finding more hot topics, you have to be creative. For that, figure out what the recent hot topics are and then use Google suggest. You know, the tool that will provide you with additional searches. From that you can gauge your own topics to write about, and make post titles based on them. To get traffic flowing you'll probably need authority for your site, or to write for Associate Content as a news writer. Or you can play the social bookmarking game and use Socialmarker to get your site ranked up on page 1, for a bit. I'm not going to go into what topics to look for to make money, because you'll have to develop your own strategies. I'd also recommend Yahoo! Buzz, Bing X-rank and this site News on Rails which lists 100 trends for a day.

Now about domain transfers, I do have a gripe with GoDaddy.com. Over the past year I set up about 5 new sites/blogs and used sales deals with GoDaddy to get the domains. I host with Hostgator. After hearing about the Netfirms site I decided I would switch over to them for the upcoming renewal. Netfirms offers a privacy protection in their deal that GoDaddy doesn't. The problem came when trying to make the transfer.

Netfirms requires that you set up the transfer by authorizing it with the old domain site (GoDaddy), acquiring a AUTH code from them, and then another code from Netfirms. Once you enter all that info into your Netfirms area for the domain, they are supposed to handle the switch. The problem was that GoDaddy didn't allow the transfer, and has their nice little GoDaddy page parking ads on my sites now, offering people to buy the names up when they're available. So lesson learned, the hard way.

I've seen many a domain seller site talk about how easy a transfer is, but it's really a headache. As of this article, I have yet to transfer any domains, and basically GoDaddy has blocked my attempts. Maybe it's good business, but you can imagine the frustration after all the work to write posts, build backlinks and get ranked for those moneymaking sites. But you live and learn and I'll have to go forth from there.

A few other notes of recent interest, WidgetBucks has chosen to close down. If you missed that email they basically are choosing to focus their funds and efforts in a new way. Anyone whose account was over $50 threshold at the time will be paid by the 15th of March. If you were under $50, your money is not going to be paid to you. Also, Squidoo has been adhering to their newer standards and if they decide your lenses seem too spammy or not under their guidelines, they will lock you. I must have missed an email from them at one point, but five of my lenses have been officially locked. But then again maybe that's because I had the biggest payout from Squidoo yet just today. Even in a tough economy these moneymaking sites want to tighten up their purse strings a bit.

I hope everyone else is doing well in 2010. It's been a great start for me despite the problems I've mentioned. Mainly because I have been reaching some big goals and am looking forward to the impending moneymaking season coming up.

Here's to your success,
The Monetizer

Goals, Determination, Optimism & Moneymaking in 2010!

As I reflected back on my 2009, it was quite a good feeling, mainly because I achieved many things that I didn't even really plan for or expect. That's not to say I didn't work hard to get them or focus, but when you achieve more than you planned on, it's a great thing. In the past year, I made more money online than in any previous year, and probably more than in my first two years of internet moneymaking ventures combined! That's an incredible surge of positive energy when you realize the vast possibilities that the world wide web holds for turning passion into profits...

I say passion because if you are doing something and enjoying it, then you will work even when the money isn't necessarily flowing to you. Writing has been a passion of mine since a young age. While I don't write novels or write for awards these days, I was a finalist in several contests back in grade school. I continued writing from there, working on a school newspaper and other projects, but I chose a major that was totally different from that. Oddly enough, the major I chose, Criminal Justice, lead me right back here to the internet, to writing and to making money on my own. I ended up in a job where I was put in charge of the agency's web operations and IT.

As of three years ago, I was in debt bigtime, after losing that job as an IT Project Manager. It can be a scary feeling not knowing where or how you'll get the money to pay rent, and having to use credit cards to cover bills doesn't exactly make you sleep well at night either. There came that proverbial point of "rock bottom", but amazingly what goes down often bounces way back up. I feel as if in 2009 I have bounced back up, and the momentum feels pretty darn good.

I'm telling you those little tidbits not to impress or give a tale of woe, but more to say I'm much like the average person out there who wants to make money on the internet. What I chose to do was become passionate, determined and not give up in my quest. Continual education through several websites really helped and inspired me to get where I did this past year. And oh yes, a lot of writing, writing and more writing. But as I mentioned, if it's something you're passionate about, the writing isn't necessarily so bad.

I'd like to give credit to a few internet marketing mentors who really motivated and inspired me this past year. In no particular order they are Courtney Tuttle of the Keyword Academy, Ben of Make Money Online with SEO, and Jackie Lee of Beginners Internet Marketing Strategy. These three individuals' efforts really drove and inspired me to do more with my time and focus on what was important. I recall when I first began this whole making money thing I was an avid reader of John Chow and Problogger, sometimes even Shoemoney. Honestly, if I had to count how many times I read their blogs this past year, it wouldn't require both hands to do so. No disrespect to their efforts, but I've found that what the three bloggers I mentioned above teach is invaluable information to all people who want to seriously make money online.

I give credit to them, and also to the fact I read a lot of inspirational books. That keeps me going as well. From Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" to a new favorite of mine "The Top 10 Distinctions between Millionaires and the Middle Class" by Keith Cameron Smith, I probably read at least 20 success/personal development titles in 2009. I plan to do more of that in 2010, because the more of those you read the more you begin to incorporate positive beliefs, values and inspiration.

A bit about my 2009, it was the Christmas shopping holiday with Black Friday and Cyber Monday in particular that really showed me how much is possible for making money online. Between Amazon, Squidoo and several other sites I now realize that if you can get the traffic, you can get the money. And when the money rolls in, it's quite a nice feeling. Additionally, as I mentioned before Courtney Tuttle and Ben were two bloggers this past year who really pushed me to work with Hubpages, infobarrels and Blogger blogs. Doing that increased my Adsense income to a nice level that hadn't been seen before.

So it's with great optimism that I head into 2010. On New Year's Eve I not only reflected back but jotted down my 2010 goals in a journal under headings such as Health/Business/Personal/Mental. I have several goals ready to be focused on for the new year. In 2009, I paid off several debts, and in 2010 I will pay off the rest. I've set a goal to become an eBay Powerseller which seems very achievable at this time. I already bought myself a brand new website back in late 09' which will be my pet project for the new year. I believe based on my success with specific efforts online this past year, I can turn my new site idea into something quite profitable.

I believe you also can achieve great success making money online in 2010. But remember, it will always come down to how much work you're willing to put in, how determined you are and how optimistic you remain while you're on this course to make money online.

Wishing everyone health, happiness & prosperity in 2010 and beyond!

Make Money Online with Paid 2 YouTube?

The Monetizer will try anything when it comes to making money online. I've done surveys, blogs, websites, various affiliate programs, and even have looked into how to make money with data entry jobs. There's a world of possibilities online for making money, and experimenting with different program can pay off if done with some degree of caution. You never know when you'll stumble on the next big thing, or get lucky and rake in the dough with an opportunity. You might even find the next shortcut to internet millions. You also never know when you might get raked into a scam. The latest money making opportunity I'm testing is called Paid2YouTube, which is basically a website where you're paid to watch YouTube (and other) videos online. It doesn't take a whole lot of work, but then again it doesn't make a whole lot of money at once.

Before you get too excited, let me explain how it works. First off, I hurried over to the YouTube site and started watching cool little 1 minute videos. But that's not what you're paid for. I hurried back to my stats at the pay to site, and saw a balance of $0 still. That's because the Paid2YouTube site has its own list of video links (under the "Surf Videos" tab) that you are paid to watch. The list I was provided was about 6 videos, with only 1 on YouTube. It just happened to be someone's 6 minute make money online video to pitch a product. The other 5 or so were more interesting and entertaining to me. They included a radio control car with a camcorder attached on top (not good for those succeptible to motion-sickness), comedian Jeff Dunham's hiliarious ventriloquism act, and a video of a "Battle Bots" type fight between two radio controlled robots in a clear glass cage.

Now a few notes - So far it seems as if they only have the same six videos posted each day. So you'll be limited to those options until the site gives more choices of material. They have several categories listed, but only 2 have videos listed.

And a BIG NOTE: When you watch the "Videos From Other Websites", it will take you a site Megavideo site. In my past experience, if you aren't careful this site can have you install a toolbar which leads to some spyware. It took me a while back then to figure out how to clean my computer up. So the trick is, when it pops up the second website, close that one down. Stick with the red and green play arrow button you see on the Megavideo site, don't install anything!

Now about the payment from Paid2Youtube. Simply watching the video gets you a whopping 1 cent each! Comments bank you 10 cents and subscribing to a YouTube user's channel gets you 35 cents. Not the big money you were expecting, but the minimum payout is $10. With a referral program in place it is possible to generate some extra cash for gas money, groceries, or whatever else you may need it for. And if you like making money, getting that $10 can be seed money for starting a moneymaking website, with domain registration as low as $7.

It's took early for me to give this any sort of resounding nomination as a top moneymaker, because my account is still below $1, and I can't say I've been paid to YouTube just yet. Give it a try though for some additional seed money, but make sure you are cautious. I'll be back with an update on my moneymaking activities from the 2009 holidays and more! Best wishes!

Check out more about Paid2YouTube here.

The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires & Middle Class

I recently purchased an audiobook from iTunes called "The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class" by Keith Cameron Scott. After one listen to this addictive book, I've found myself returning it to it several more times. It teaches some valuable concepts not only for making money online, but for success and finding financial freedom. I highly recommend it as a way to engage in your own introspection when it comes to your personal journey to wealth. You'll find the material easy to follow and some of the stories he gives quite enlightening if not very entertaining.

Scott provides his 10 distinctions as mini-lessons which illustrate what makes the rich wealthy, while the middle class struggles. The middle class seems to get a bad rep, but they often have financial dreams which they allow to dwindle because they go for comfort instead of freedom. Meanwhile the wealthy are busy working on ways to create more sources of income so they can enjoy that freedom that eludes many.

Overall, I found the 10 distinctions book to be well presented, and it won't overwhelm you. It's inspirational, and if listened to enough you can begin to adopt the mindsets needed for financial success. You'll be training yourself to think more like a successful millionaire, while discarding small-minded thinking. This is not to say "poor and middle class people are stupid", but that millionaires tend to have a different though process when it comes to money and how it's made.

Some of the things you'll learn about in Scott's book include the concepts of being generous, focusing on multiple sources of income (especially passive), working for profits vs wages, and focusing on the long term rather than the short term. If you read or listen to this work, you'll find yourself realizing just how many times you might have engaged in middle class thinking, which can be quite small minded at times. One of the best examples is when he points out that poor people talk about other people, middle class talks about things, and the rich talk about ideas. How many times have you found yourself gossiping about others? You've engaged in a poor-financial mindset at least a few times. He goes on to point out that the rich are the ones who have developed the ideas, which ultimately are the "things" middle class enjoy or talk about. These include vacation resorts, sports teams and movies, many of which are funded by and created from a rich person.

If you've read Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", you'll notice some familiar concepts in this book, such as the idea of owning your own company to become rich. If you're like me and engage in online moneymaking as your main profession, you're already partly on your way. You're focused more on creating profits, multiple sources of revenue and passive income. For me the next steps involve finding more passive income streams to start building my net worth. I currently receive at least 4 or 5 different payments a month based on my online work. To me that's a good start, but I know much more can be done. Also, I realize I may need to branch out into some real world income streams including the always popular, yet speculative real estate sector. I dabble in stocks, but after listening to this audiobook it makes me want to increase my knowledge in that area as well. The book's worth its price just in terms of its motivational and inspirational factors.

One of the greatest ideas Keith Cameron Scott gives in his book is the concept of rich people continuously read and invest in their personal finance/success libraries. He notes that the middle class believes learning ends with school, while millionaires are always learning more. This concept alone is priceless and actually gives you an excuse to buy Scott's book, "The 10 Distinctions" as it will provide a great basis for your successful path towards financial freedom.

Purchase The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class at Amazon.com for a low price.

How to Make Money with SEO Traffic & Leveraging

It's been a while but I'm back again...As usual other projects have consumed me, but I wanted to share something I started thinking about more in the recent weeks. Once you're earning with Adsense on several sites, and maybe earning with some other moneymakers like Amazon, eBay, Clickbank, you might want to expand your efforts. You might produce several blogs or sites, and find that some work really well to make you money, while others fail.

Sometimes you discover that no matter how much traffic you might get on a particular blog site, it's incredibly tough to make money off that traffic. One example may be music or entertainment blogs, which are popular, but it's hard to say how profitable they are. These can be tough to monetize in my experiences. You try the Google Adsense route, but learn that the ads just don't get the clicks, or the ads just don't pay you jack for them. In some cases they even lead to smart pricing. So you swap out Google and try something else. If you're on blogger, you can't use eBay Partner Network, but can go with Shopping Ads or Amazon Associates. You continue to see that it's even tougher to convert, however there are some tricks, tips and other things you can keep in mind. Don't go hitting the "Delete" button for that particular blog, or decide to give up on the site. Here's some food for thought and ideas of ways to make money online with your content that brings the big traffic but doesn't seem to make you any money.

Leverage your Traffic to other Sites

Consider using a blog that gets big bursts of traffic as powerful leverage to bring traffic somewhere else. Why waste the efforts right? Let's say you've got a blog that you make no money with, but would like to, and it's getting a few thousand visitors a day based on some specific posts you did. Consider using that blog to bring the traffic to another site that converts. One example is Associated Content, where you can make money for writing online.. Over there you'll make $1.50 for every 1,000 page views. Doesn't sound like a lot but it all adds up, and that kinda money could pay for hosting charges or help you buy a domain. Maybe consider writing a general article that really sparks attention, that will get people clicking to it on AC. Most celebrity scandal topics could do pretty well on AC, so why write it about on the blog if you can do a 400-500 word article on AC that makes you some extra dinero? Another good example is to send them over to a good Squidoo lens, where the more traffic your lens gets, the better rank it achieves, and in some strange, mysterious formula, that could possibly give you a nicer payout.

Another consideration is using Widgetbucks which also pays for clicks and impressions. I used Widgetbucks in this form months ago until I earned a payout, and have re-introduced it in a few places that were scoring high traffic. Widgetbucks pays you for both clicks and then impressions, so the more impressions you get on your blog or site, the closer you'll get towards a payout. The minimum for Widgetbucks is $50, which again is not going to help you retire, but it will help you squeeze money out of that blog that's not performing.

Chitika is yet another one to try, and in their case the payment is just $10 minimum, so you can earn a bit of extra money to invest into your online moneymaking, buy yourself lunch, go see a movie, or whatever else the money can do for you.

From there, I just recommend testing to find what works. Consider trying related affiliate programs that Pay-Per-Lead on your blog. Back to our hard-to-monetize blog examples, a friend recently asked me about making money with a blog, saying he'd like to start a music blog. He specifically mentioned making money with Google Adsense, and based on experience, music blogs are tough to monetize. That's when you really need to put your thinking cap on though. Can you refer people to buying sheet music, musical instruments, artist albums, or joining some sort of subscription site? Consider using programs from Linkshare, Amazon Associates and Shareasale as well as Commission Junction.

Always think of Monetization

If all else fails, consider creating a catchy, clickable advertisement banner to go up at the top of your highly trafficked blog (or hire someone to make a simple one). Use it to grab those viewers and direct them to another site that you can make money with, or even to a Clickbank product. It will be indirectly making you money if you have your traffic sent to the right place (including AC or Squidoo). My overall point here is you need the mindset to make money online, to keep finding ways to monetize all your content, even the stuff that doesn't seem worth it. That's not to say put all your effort in, but keep it in the back of your head.

You need to try new things with the under-performing blogs until you can determine what works best with them. And yes, in some cases you'll try 5-10 ideas and nothing seems to work. Give them a chance though, maybe several thousand impressions before you swap them out though. Do your best to track the stats using what the various programs allow you to. There's no sense in letting any traffic go to waste these days, so always be thinking of ways to monetize it if you really want to profit at this online moneymaking game...

(As for Adsense, there's a really interesting, informative forum post over at Warrior Forums, you may or may not have seen from a guy that makes $300-500 a day using about 30 websites he built with Adsense. Check it out here.)

Goog Cash4U - Beware of Money Making Scams!

Goog Cash4U which is also GoogCash4U.com and comes up in browsers as "SundayBikeRides.com" when typed in, is among the latest in potential money making scams. Making money from home is something everyone wants to do, and when they see the attractive advertisements online that make it look so easy, they're immediately lured in. According to GoogCash4U, you too can make money online by simply signing up with them and following their simple advice. You can be your own boss and work on a laptop while you sip drinks on the beach... But beware!

Scams run rampant when it comes to online moneymaking ventures, and this one does not look much different. The Goog Cash 4 U site makes claims that you can make up to $250 to $943 a day online just by using search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. We all wish it were that simple, but it takes a lot of hard work to make money online. Don't be fooled so easily! Don't be fooled by their claims of being on major cable stations either, unless you actually saw them on there. They cite ABC, MSNBC and CNN, but are really referring to the fact that "working from home" has been discussed on those networks.

The product being advertised by the site is an Internet Wealth Builder, which supposedly will teach you the easy path towards passive income and wealth online. They say the product guides you step-by-step to learn how to place online advertisements, target a worldwide audience, make money with every ad click, and then get your paycheck from the search engines...

Of course to get in on this, they want your Full Name, Country, Zip, Email and phone number. I'm sure they won't harass with phone calls or emails right?

Basically take any claim like this about how easy it is to make money online with a grain of salt. I've been in the online moneymaking world for several years now, have read ebooks, studied other successful blogs, websites, and have done a lot of my own research. Most likely, this program wants your money, rather than wants to make you money. Tread with caution and investigate any opportunity fully before you jump in. If you give up your info to them, be prepared to possibly be hounded.

If you want to learn some real secrets to making some money on the internet, I recommend you check out The Rich Jerk's ebook for a one-time price of $10. At least this guy doesn't hide the fact that he's obnoxious, yet loves to make money and shares his secrets..

Make Money Over Internet - Free Online Moneymaking Sites

When it comes time to make money over internet connections, many people imagine they can turn on their computer, use some secret formula and start earning thousands of dollars easily. It's not that simple though friends, because making money on the internet will require either a lot of hard work, or investing your own money into the venture before you see significant payouts. However, there are some great free ways you can start earning money online, which are perfect for beginners to learn about how money is made here on the world wide web! On this page, I'll detail three particular websites you'll probably want to focus when you are just starting out. If you're already keen to online moneymaking, stay with me, as you may want to use these sites as well (if you're not already!)

The first option to make money is a website called Infobarrel. You can join the Infobarrel site for free and start to earn money with them almost immediately. You will also need to have a Google Adsense account, but those are very easy to apply for. Once you've got the Adsense account, you will place a special publisher ID (from your account) into your Infobarrel account. The way infobarrel works is very simple. You write articles for their site with good content, and then earn a percentage of their advertising revenue. The more visitors or views your articles get, the more likely you are to get a good bit of money for writing articles on Infobarrel. It's a very easy site to use in terms of publishing articles. The only thing to be aware of is they have built their site on good content, so don't think you can get away with writing any old article and pasting it there. Infobarrel prefers how-to's and more educational type articles. The editors will reject or deny your articles if they feel they aren't up to their standards. For a way to make money online for free, I recommend you join Infobarrel now, and give it your best shot.

Another site where you earn money on the internet is called Hubpages. The Hubpages site is similar to Infobarrel, in that you will be publishing written content there also. The difference is that Infobarrel offers you 10% more revenue than Hubpages does. However, Hubpages offers you the ability to put some other moneymaking modules onto your "Hubs". These include modules with eBay and Amazon products. When someone makes a purchase after clicking on your module, you'll receive a % commission from the sale. You'll need to be a member of eBay and Amazon's affiliate programs in order to do this, both of which are free to join. Hubpages is a great community-oriented site where other members join your fan club and post comments on your articles. Your articles can include all sorts of extras such as big pictures and even Youtube videos to help illustrate your article's points. Again, it's free to join Hubpages and get started earning income on the net there.

The final site I want to tell you about is called Squidoo. Squidoo is very much like Hubpages, but offers a lot more modules. On Squidoo you can create a lens on any topic you choose (without it being adult content). A lens is basically a one page website you are creating on your topic. It can include written text, videos, Flickr pictures, Amazon products, eBay products, countdown timers, and much, much more. Squidoo is a site where you can really let your creativity run wild. Now the reason I've listed this particular site as the third and final make money online site is because it's a real mystery how your earnings work there. Squidoo uses a special algorithm formula to determine your earnings, based on page visits, your lens page popularity and more. Basically, each month Squidoo divides its revenue amongst all publishers who did well, and you receive a certain amount. It may be a big amount or small amount, and usually you have to earn at least $10 to receive a Paypal payment from them. Nonetheless, Squidoo is free to join and make money online, although I'd recommend it third of the sites mentioned here.

I've now given you three very easy sites you can join to start making money online today. Keep in mind your success on these sites will be directly associated with how much work you're willing to put in, and how much research you do. The more articles you write with good content, and the more you work to get traffic to those articles, the better you'll do with your online income. You'll find yourself able to make money over internet sites with great confidence. Here's to your success!

PS: If you want to learn even quicker ways to make money on the internet, I highly recommend The Rich Jerk's ebook!

Latest Obsessions: Hubpages & iTunes Podcasts

It's been a while friends, and unfortunately I was getting a bit complacent with my earnings and chose to enjoy some time away from blogging. Complacency is definitely a bad flaw at times, as it will rob you of your drive to make money as you feel "well this is good enough". A break was needed though, as we all burn out at times. I'm now focused again. I've recently been devoting my attention to two great moneymaker tools online: Hubpages and Podcasts.

First off, Hubs are compared a lot to Squidoo lenses, and in many respects they are similar in how you craft them with text, pictures, videos, RSS feeds and eBay/Amazon products. However, the Hubpages staff seems much more prone to kick you off for "overly promotional" pages. They generally don't allow more than 3 links to a blog or site. So when you build a hubpage, consider building it on a topic related to the keywords you want to rank for. In the past few weeks, I've been inspired by Courtney Tuttle's personal experiment to create 100 hubs in 30 days time and see how much income and link juice they generate. While I don't expect to do 100 like Courtney due to other projects, I've completed 10 hubs in about a 5 day span now, and set up Adsense, Amazon Associates and eBay Partner Networks to be associated with my Hubpages. It seems hard to track how much you're earning on Adsense from Hubs, but you may notice you've made X dollars and your report doesn't account totally for all the clicks. Those missing clicks are most likely from your hubs. Some simple math will tell you how many dollars or cents you've made. You don't even need to link out if you choose not to, as you may just decide to create free hubs for their potential revenue. Keep in mind it's a revenue sharing deal, so Hubpages will be giving you a % of the click money (more info on revenue sharing). Hubpages, like Squidoo, social bookmarking and article directories, can be a great way to get powerful links to your keyword content, so consider utilizing the free site as best you can. Get started at Hubpages here.

My other obsession as of late is listening to iTunes Podcasts during occasional free time. I know many bloggers who will tell you that you should be podcasting in addition to blogging and making videos all while marketing your stuff. Honestly though, who has time for all of that? Many success mentors and gurus suggest that we should constantly feed our minds with positive food, such as books, and audio tapes. Podcasts can do that if you find ones that interest you, and you can listen streaming through iTunes, or download to listen to later, or put on your iPod/iPhone. I recommend that when you have down time, you take a gander at what's available for free to listen to at iTunes Podcasts. The "Self-help" and "Business" categories offer a plethora of great shows, and some which are bad or just blatant advertising. I've enjoyed a few that talk about how to apply the Secret to your life, how to create wealth, entrepreneurial topics and SEO. And if you need to relax, there's some great meditation and relaxation style podcasts. The Inner Health Studios one in particular seems to put me at ease and to sleep almost whenever I want...so check them out, because they just might give you the inspiration, ideas or stress relief you need to make more money...Now it's about time for the The Monetizer to go listen to a relaxing podcast and take a power nap!

Amazon Associates Program Changes

A few important changes were made to the popular Amazon Associates moneymaking program. These new changes involve the way in which some moneymakers have gained traffic to Amazon to earn referral fees, as well as the use of Amazon RSS feeds. The changes will only affect Amazon Associates from North American. Here's the official email The Monetizer received earlier today:

Dear Amazon Associate:

We’re writing to let you know about a change to the Amazon Associates Program. After careful review of how we are investing our advertising resources, we have made the decision to no longer pay referral fees to Associates who send users to www.amazon.com, www.amazon.ca, or www.endless.com through keyword bidding and other paid search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines, and their extended search networks. If you're not sure if this change affects you, please visit this page for FAQs.

As of May 1, 2009, Associates will not be paid referral fees for paid search traffic. Also, in connection with this change, as of May 1, 2009, Amazon will no longer make data feeds available to Associates for the purpose of sending users to the Amazon websites in the US or Canada via paid search.

This change applies only to the Associates programs in North America. If you are conducting paid search activities in connection with one of Amazon’s Associates Programs outside of the US and Canada, please refer to the applicable country’s Associates Program Operating Agreement for relevant terms and conditions.

We appreciate your continued support and participation in this advertising Program. If you have questions or concerns, please write to us by using the Contact Us form available on Associates Central.

Sincerely,

The Amazon Associates Program

Download Jean Chatzky's The Difference FREE!

There's a great free download available over at Oprah.com. Today until 10:59 PM EST, the website is offering a free PDF download of Jean Chatzky's 2009 book, The Difference: How Anyone Can Prosper in Even The Toughest Times. The book is a great look at the traits and habits that wealthy people have that we can all acquire as well as how to find the right career for you, how to take risks, working hard and working smart and making money work for you.

Here's Amazon.com's product description of The Difference:

Can you really start from nothing and become truly secure financially?

What’s the difference between you and Warren Buffett? Between you and your boss? Or between you and your successful neighbor? What do the financially comfortable have that you don’t?

It’s not that those people were born into money, caught a lucky break, or have an Ivy League education. It’s not even that they are smarter than you or make more money than you do each year. So what do they have that you don’t . . . at least not yet? What’s The Difference?

Trusted financial coach Jean Chatzky shares the secrets her groundbreaking research of the self-made wealthy has uncovered so that anyone can break through the barriers that stand between them and true financial freedom. Find out why it’s important to:

• Get happy, but not too happy
• Do what you love, but don’t quit your day job
• Read every day
• Remember that failure is not an option–it’s a necessity
• Harness your intuition to take risks that make sense
• Practice the Kevin Bacon Principle–make connections
• Say thank you–and mean it
• Make your money work as hard as you do

Through candid interviews and a study of more than five thousand people, Jean reveals the traits and habits of those who have moved from the lowest economic strata to the highest. The Difference helps you take a look at where you are now and offers simple strategies for going where you want to go. The Difference, you’ll see, is within you: You have the power to determine your financial future and achieve the next level of wealth.

From what I've read so far, The Difference is an interesting and entertaining book. One habit mentioned early on is the habit that many wealthy people have of constantly reading and learning. Definitely worth a free download, but it's a limited time offer. Download yours by heading to Oprah.com and registering for a user account.

Jeff Paul's Shortcuts to Internet Millions - for Real or Scam?

(Jeff Paul - moneymaking plan or scam?)

So are there really shortcuts to make fast money online? Well in the current information age many internet marketers would love for you to believe so including a man named Jeff Paul. I just caught the second half of one of his infomercials they run about how people make quick money online. The commercial was for Jeff Paul's "Shortcuts to Millions" which includes information and websites guaranteed to make you money. The promotional ad featured "examples of success stories" from older men around an estate's luxurious swimming pool, with babes in bikinis hanging out poolside. The main hostesses were also hot babes in tight outfits, speaking in front of new sports cars about everyone's other favorite subject, money. It's unknown if the hostesses themselves were millionaires, but that's another story...

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(Jeff Paul girls - Palumbo and Hayes)

Extra info: For anyone wondering, the Jeff Paul girls seen in the new commercial are brunette babe Carmen Palumbo and blond bombshell Stacey Hayes (seen above). The previous infomercial featured two busty Jeff Paul babes, Kelly Britz and Tina Milano, discussing how easily they created moneymaking websites and even taught their "girlfriends" to do the same with Jeff's easy system.

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Most likely the advertisement wanted viewers to see how great life is for these guys now that they earn automatic income by making money online. As we all know sex sells and even Napoleon Hill mentioned how most men are concerned with earning money to impress women. The Jeff Paul Internet Millions ad featured various people talking about the success they had with Jeff's internet millions system. One guy mentioned how he is living his dream life, debt free after two bankruptcies and having a long walk near the edge of a cliff. You can check out Jeff's about me page here to see his rags to riches story about making money online. According to the story, he was once in debt over $140,000 but turned it all around to become an internet millionaire. Jeff showed examples of daily checks he has now generated ranging from $5,700 to $14,000. Of course the fine print at the bottom of the infomercial read "results vary".

As for shortcuts to making money online, if there were some we'd all be using them. The shortcuts usually involve a lot of time and effort or a lot of your money coming out of pocket. This particular product included guides and DVD's on "Automated Income", "Quick Start" and "10 Free Instant Website Businesses Guaranteed to Make you Money". Funny thing is that the guy selling this is showing us for free the best shortcut to generating wealth: create and sell your own product to others. If it talks about how to make money and people jump on it, you've found a shortcut, no matter if the product works or not. You can judge that by the number of Make Money Online blogs in existence, just on Entrecard alone. Jeff Paul's product is just $40, with your money guaranteed back if you don't make money. I'm not pitching his product because I've never used it and have seen some reviews & scam alerts for it online, plus as many of us know learning is free these days and many of the ideas people are selling are just collections of various information we can all find on our own, for free.

As for my own make money online recommendations, here's your quick start to make money online: Set up a blog, whether it be free with Blogger or self-hosted on Wordpress. The latter is the better option as it can provide more ways to make money. Find a profitable topic you can blog about to build your blog site around, and find products or advertising to go with it. Using those sites with Google Adsense, Affiliate programs or to market and sell your own e-book, online course or product is a definite way to make automated passive income. But be forewarned, you will need to put in some work, or some money to get it done. You'll also face competition and other obstacles, but the payoff can be quite nice if you learn how to do things for free, online.

Check out The Monetizer's Recommended Ways to Make Money Online!

Find Hot Content & Make Money with Trendhunter

Ready to blog about the latest or up and coming new trends? It can be a great way to increase potential traffic and blog subscribers, by staying ahead of the crowd. There just happens to be a helpful, stylish new site which consists of members who hunt down the coolest stuff out there... Trendhunter.com is an online magazine, community site where members spot and hunt for the latest and hottest trends. (join community for free) Built in 2005, Trendhunter is the brainchild of Jeremy Gutsche, who wanted a creative business site to spot trends. The concept has the site able to identify all sorts of trends & even micro-trends in anticipation of "the next big thing"s. One of the testimonial quotes promoting the site from MTV says "At Trendhunter, find out what's cool, before its cool". See more testimonials and media here. The site presents visitors with the hottest trends over the past day, week, or month. You may already see the wheels spinning in your mind as to how this can help you with blogging about the latest and greatest info for your particular niche...

Google Trends is the popular program many bloggers have taken a liking to as it helps you spot search trends. From there you can craft blog posts to take advantage of these hot topics, and possibly gain a lot of search traffic to your blog. Trendhunter may present an even better way to do this, and allows you to embed the hot new trends right into your blog. They offer 99 flavors of RSS to add into your blog's sidebar columns, as well as widgets for Myspace, Twitter & Facebook, banners and many other cool tools to show off the hot or upcoming trends.

Just to give an example of last Thursday's hot trends in a 24 hour period:

Real Furbys, 40 Facebook Innovations, Top 20 Kickass Extreme and Gothic Greetings ranked amongst the top 5 hottest trends over a 24 hour time frame on Thursday, November 20, 2008.

In addition to their free trend reports, Trendhunter offers what many companies really want, the 2009 niche trend reports. Their perfect for strategizing and marketing to the current and up-and-coming "it" generations. These reports come at a price which may be hefty for the average blogger or small business owner. A year long subscription to reports runs about $1,500, with individual reports costing up to $500 or so.

Trendhunter offers a section of "Top Sites", where websites and blogs which are identified as top trend-finding sites are listed. The aforementioned Google Trends is there, as are well-knowns like Boing Boing & Techcrunch. If you author a blog of this nature which looks at the latest trends (mixed bag niche even), it may be a great promotional idea to submit your blog or site to Trendhunter. According to the site, you'd leverage their 8 million visitors worth of traffic!

And wouldn't you leave it to the Monetizer to find the "EARN $" section of Trendhunter.com! They have a small section which they say is ideal for students or bloggers, because in reality we're all trend hunters. From the looks of their revenue-sharing program, you're payed for submitting new trends. They also run Google adsense, so you may be sharing in those profits, similar to Squidoo. They claim to have 8 million visitors to the site, which could make for a lot of page views if you get a trend into the top trends. According to their site, their top trendhunters earn $1,000 a month! You can read more info about their moneymaking program here.

So bookmark Trendhunter and keep an eye on it. It just might give you something to blog about before the rest of your niche does, and give yet another way to make money online!

Monetizer's 5 Tips for an eBay Business

As mentioned before, The Monetizer recently started another part time internet income venture, the almighty eBay business. Many individuals have turned trash into treasures as they've scoured garage sales, yard sales and thrift stores. My experiences have been interesting so far, and I feel that if you truly commit to this sort of part time business it can be fun and rewarding. I'd like to share 10 things I've learned so far that may help you in your own eBay venture.

1) Best deals come from yard sales - I've had more success so far buying items from yard sales and garage sales to resell on eBay. I also read about a lady called the Queen of eBay sales who once bought a yard sale item for just $2 and sold it for over $2,000!! It's amazing that people are willing to part with items for the prices they are, but there are many people who just need money badly right now. For example, picking up a portable DVD player for $5 at a yard sale, and it turned into a $40 sale on eBay. Most of my best deals have been items I purchased for under $5 at garage/yard sales. Make sure you have specific items you target...

2) Know what to buy - The biggest personal investment you can make into this business is constantly being up-to-date and knowledgeable about what sells. After your rounds at the yard sales and thrift shops you'll remember items you considered buying. Look them up on eBay when you get back home. See if you missed a blockbuster deal and start to learn what's selling. For example, many yard sales list in their classified ads "childrens toys" or "DVD's". There's also some great blogs out there which suggest items to buy from thrift stores and places like Dollar stores or Wal Mart. Knowing what's hot on eBay or familiarizing yourself with these categories will go a long way.

3) Buy what you know - This is very similar to blogging in that if you focus on buying items that you know about, you will tend to enjoy your business more, and in turn enjoy greater success. At one yard sale, a woman was selling probably about 100 different DVD's. The Monetizer enjoys movies and was able to select 15 of the hotter titles she had (action, drama movies from the past few years) for just $5. That $5 purchase turned into another $40 sale on eBay. You can already see the potential profit if you do your homework and buy what you know.

4) Handle shipping from home - One way to greatly save yourself money and make sure you're not losing money on shipping charges, is to invest in a postage scale. The Monetizer bought one soon into this business venture from Amazon.com for just $25, and it's worked quite well. It's already allowed me to save on several shipping jobs. Knowing what your items weigh with packaging is key to pricing the auctions right. You can also order free priority mail boxes, print USPS (or UPS) postage online and have the mail carrier pick up your packages. All of these things save you time and money with your business. You can also set a flat rate shipping charge and should you get lucky, your winning buyer is from a close by state meaning you can either refund the extra shipping money, or you've made a little extra!

Another tip is to utilize the flat rate boxes from USPS, as they can save you money on shipping heavy items. The charges on these are about $9 and $12 to ship as much as you can fit in them. There's also been important recent changes made to eBay shipping. For items such as books, DVD's and other media eBay has a maximum shipping charge you can charge ($3 or $4). I was able to slyly change a category to "Toys" just by adding a toy to the auction, therefore allowing Priority shipping. Keep this in mind before you try to sell. Also, I strongly recommend using the shipping insurance option on your auctions for items that are breakable. It goes a long way to protect your customer's purchase and your eBay reputation!

5) Reinvest in the business - The biggest goal is always to grow the income and profits of the eBay business. Warren Buffett gave the advice that reinvesting profits into your business is one of the most important things you can do to help it grow. So that means if you've made $20 off your latest eBay sales, take that money back out the next weekend to more garage and yard sales. Set yourself an item budget in the beginning or else you might buy just 1 item you think is great for $20 and end up not selling it. That's a quick way to diminish your profits and your eBay business! Also, consider buying necessary items for shipping or your business. Examples are the postage scale, bubble wrap, packing tape and books to educate yourself on eBay selling.

Once again, I guarantee that an eBay business can be profitable for you, but you have to put in the effort and not give up quickly. If you start it on a part time weekend basis, take it slowly. Do your research, find ways to save on shipping costs and keep reinvesting in the business to make it thrive!

(Bonus tip: Find freebies to sell to offset your eBay and Paypal costs. These can be things like new gift items you received that you don't really want, coupons you get in the mail, or free sample products. These days people buy just about anything on eBay so look it up, you may be surprised!)

Vote in the 2008 Presidential Election!

(image source: Google.com)

This is a friendly Public Service Announcement from The Monetizer. Today is November 4, 2008 and we all know what that means...time to vote! Google's got the spirit as you can see, so make sure to get up, get out and vote today!

You may ask what this has to do with making money. One of the biggest issues many people are focused on is the poor economy. There's been rising prices at the gas pumps and grocery stores, less opportunities for work, companies needing bailouts and families in need of money. So if nothing else the economy is great motivation to go cast your vote! The next president faces a tough challenge with all that the nation faces. Let's hope the right man for the job wins this!

Just to give some voting day humor, check out the official page for the Rabbit Hash Mayor Election. You'll find the candidates quite humorous in their official election!

Have a great day, and may the best man win the presidential race in 2008!

How to Find Legitimate Work at Home Jobs

A July 10th, 2008 Wall Street Journal article examines the concept of working at home, during these tough economic times with high gas prices, job losses and credit crunches. The article cautions those looking for cushy jobs where they can earn a regular salary from home, saying that many of the work-at-home opportunities are for mundane, difficult tasks that other people would find tough. An example is telemarketing, transcribing inaudible MP3 files from meetings, or hours of tedious data entry.

Another caution is that you often receive spam emails or see sites advertising simple data entry for thousands of dollars salary a week. Be warned that these need to be treaded cautiously and can be scams. The WSJ article provides some great resources on freelance type jobs such as virtual assistant or travel agents. The three sites listed below will help you identify if a job you've found online for working from home is legit or not.

3 Sites to Use to Find Legitimate Work-at-Home Jobs:

bbonline.org - Click on "For Consumers"

WomenForHire.com - offers resources/ideas on working from home.

FTC.gov - In the search box enter "work at home scam".

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Websites for Legitimate Work-at-Home Jobs: The following websites were all profiled in the WSJ article. As always read the details and find print on any opportunity you get involved with. These all appear to be legitimate companies which hire freelancers for clients, post job listings, and provide work at home opportunities.

Arise.com - 8,000 home business owners as agents, with plans to add another 4,000 by year's end.

AlpineAccess.com - 7,500 home agents, hiring at least 2,500 more by December 08'.

Elance.com and oDesk.com - Link clients with freelancers from around the world. Freelancers can take skills tests on the site and have results posted. The sites also work on commission, taking 4 to 10% of the freelancer's fees. A college student dropped out of school realizing he could make up to $60,000 doing computer programming on a freelance basis through oDesk.com.

LiveOps.com - Has 20,000 home agents who work on at least a part time basis each week.

Sologig.com - A work at home posting site with screened free-lance opportunities.

TeamDoubleClick.com - Offers $10 to $20 an hour for "Virtual Assistants", who perform the tasks of Administrative Assistants, but from home.

VirtualAssistants.com - For $14.95 a month get screened job postings for at home work.

WestCorp (west.com) - Has 15,000 at home agents and is currently expanding.

(Info source: Wall Street Journal "Nice Work If You Can Get It: We Sites for At-Home Jobs" - WSJ 07/10/08)

Note: Another great site to check out is WAHM.com which provides info on work-at-home job opportunities, points out scams and much more!

Keep this work out home sites in mind and you just might be working from the comfort of your aeron chair in your own home office...That's the American dream right?

Ways to Make Money with Ebay & Craigslist!

eBay & Craigslist continue to be two of the big online buying and selling sites. Craigslist is a great place to advertise not only items for sale, but also services (such as your blog). There's quite a few ways you can combine the eBay & Craigslist websites in order to generate income. Sometimes if I'm selling items I like to cross-promote them on eBay just by picking out random spots to advertise. Usually I like big cities like NYC and LA, but I've tried elsewhere. It's hard to say if it helps, but its a free form of advertising. Some eBay expert sellers like to go into the "Free" sections of Craigslist and grab anything they might be able to sell on eBay. Or, they look for items being sold on Craigslist locally that they can sell at a profit on eBay. Both are great ways to start a part-time eBay biz with little or no real start-up cost.

Craigslist also provides "Wanted" sections, where people can list off things they're looking to buy. For example, if you're currently selling items on eBay, you can do Google searches for the items you're selling as "wanted" items on Craigslist.

An example Google search: "craigslist wanted toddler Halloween costume"

Now it's not guaranteed, but you're likely to turn up at least a few results from around the United States of people looking for toddler Halloween costumes (or whatever items you're selling on item) on Craigslist. You can consider foreign Craigslist want ads such as UK/Canada, but only if you're offering sales and shipping to these on eBay. Once you find some want ads, check out the Craigslist want ad to get a feel for what they want, and reply to the email given. Make it simple, saying you noticed their ad, wanted to help and are selling an item they may be interested in. Provide them a link to the item auction and the eBay item number, but don't be overly agressive or pushy about it. Make it calm and simple because you don't want to get blacklisted as a spammer from the email.

Taking this concept a step further, you can become an eBay or Shopping Ads affiliate and start doing this for items you're not selling. You can go to the various Craigslist cities around the US and check the "Wanted" sections for items such as mp3 players or video game systems, or anything else that is hot on the market. Again, make the email calm and simple but not a pushy sales pitch. Write it simply as if you're just helping someone out by providing the item # of something they want to buy. eBay and Shopping Ads offer nice commissions for signups and sales on eBay, so check into their program details for more info.

My experience is generally that Craigslist buyers want even better deals than eBay has to offer so this may be tricky to pull off. Also many Craigslist buyers seem to prefer buying items in person, rather than paying the shipping charge. It's worth a shot though, and if you have your own domain/website you may also consider setting up a page full of listings for items such as the iPod or video game systems. With Shopping Ads you can set up ads to be PPC (pay per click). Provide a Craigslist buyer with a full web page of listings you've created, and profit from the clicks and buys!

If you've had experience making money with Craigslist and eBay combined, feel free to share your info and tips below!

Ways to Get Cash in Rough Financial Times

"Tough Times don't last, tough people do" is a very fitting statement right about now. The stock market has dipped to its lowest levels in about 5 years time. Gas prices have soared up over $4.00 a gallon, and luckily come back down a bit lately. Airfare travel has become even more expensive as the airlines are forced to add more and more charges so they can continue to operate. Grocery store and roadside stand prices have even been on the rise. With the way the economy has become a major issue in our lives as well as the upcoming 08' presidential election, it's time we adopted more of a deal-finding, opportunistic and saver's mentality!

The Roanoke Times has a recent article titled "How to Get Cash Fast" as part of its Good Housekeeping Reports. The article gives several tips on how to get money right now. Some may be obvious, others might be something new to consider.

1) Sell your unwanted gold jewelry - Gold is valued at over $900 per ounce right now so why not cash in? You've seen the ads all over TV. The article says to stay away from those places, but instead consult your yellow pages for jewelers who buy gold. Then begin the process of calling or going to each and finding out their commissions and offers. Draw up a list and find the best deal for your gold. Also, don't worry about workmanship of your gold pieces as the buyers will just be melting it down. Turnaround for this is about a day to sell your gold.

2) Borrow from peers - This doesn't mean your friends, because we all know if we're hurting financially, then so are they. Instead try out peer-to-peer lending at sites like prosper.com and lendingclub.com. You can usually borrow $1000 or more with an interest rate around 8% or so depending on credit. Good credit is vital to getting a loan this way. Turnaround for this is 1-2 weeks.

3) Tap home equity - As the article describes it, a home equity credit line is like a big credit card account with your home as the collateral. You can write checks against the credit line and interest is often tax-deductible. Use this in extreme desperation, because you'll be paying it back. Ask your bank or mortgage lender for their terms, as you may get a break as their customer. Turnaround for this method is about 2 weeks or so.

The Monetizer suggests IDEA #4, start your own home-based or internet-based business. Things like eBay sales, monetized blogging, paid article writing, affiliate marketing, survey sites and more can get you money without you even having to leave the house. You can consult the Monetizer's Moneymakers for a great list of sites to sign up for today!

And #5 is of course to play the lottery every week, but we all know about the chances associated with that!

Slate.com Looks at Blogging for Dollars

There's a fascinating 10/1/08 article over at Slate.com by Michael Agger entitled "Blogging for Dollars - How Do Bloggers Make Money?" The article takes a look at how blogging has exploded in size and continues to grow exponentially each day. According to the stats there are 900,000 blog posts created daily across the world. So this post is just a fraction of that!

Even more interesting, the article takes a look at the big money some people command from their blogs. Examples you may have heard of:

The LOLcat empire rakes in $5,600 per month;
Overheard in New York gets $8,100 per month;
Perez Hilton, gossip king, scoops up $111,000 per month.

(info source: Slate.com)

The article may state the obvious to us bloggers. That is in order to get the income you want from writing a blog regulalry, you need to have visitors and a high level of traffic. The example of 43f is given, which started out small then exploded and began to pay the bills.

Agger writes:

While monetizing your blog may be easier than ever, all of this comes with an ever-present hammer: the need to drive traffic. This month, the writer/blogger/productivity thinker Merlin Mann opened a window onto his angst with an anniversary post. Mann is best-known as the creator of the Hipster PDA (index cards clipped together by a binder clip)* and his Inbox Zero talk (turn your e-mail into actions). In a post titled "Four Years," Mann sketches out how his site, 43 Folders, grew from a personal dumping ground for his "mental sausage" into a full-featured destination for productivity nerds and life-hackers. In 2005, he experienced a key transition:

At some point that year, 43f became the surreal and unexpected circus tent under which my family began drawing an increasing amount of its income. This was weird, but it was also exactly as gratifying as it sounds. Which is to say, "very." But, my small measure of something like success did not go unnoticed. In fact, the popularity of small blogs like 43 Folders contributed to the arrival of a gentrifying wagon train of carpetbaggers, speculators, and confidence men, all eager to pan the web's glistening riverbed for easy gold. And, brother, did these guys love to post and post and post.

It is amazing the amount of money and traffic that some blogs generate. Shoutouts are given to Shoemoney and Problogger in the article, with link backs to their respective blogs. Both of their blogs command lots of visitors, subscribers and moolah. Yours can too if you follow in their footsteps, build something people return to and find often, monetize it properly, and you're well on your way...

Read the full artice here at Slate.com for inspiration and possibly some ideas on how to get your moneymaking blog into full gear!