Blogging for Cash

A good rule of thumb for making money on the Internet is a simple one. "If you are required to pay money up front, it probably is a scam". This rings true 90% of the time, I'm afraid. I've read it, and I've experienced it first hand.

Urban Legend Alert! A 16 year old high school sophomore buys first car with cash earned by blogging and taking surveys. While I have not seen absolute proof of this, there may be some truth to this recently started and wildly popular urban legend...

People get paid to take surveys on the Internet, all the time. And, successfully, too. However, most of the time it's a website that offers to sell you a list that contains companies that may or may not offer surveys. The real successful survey or secret shopper companies are the free ones, inside the stores you wish to survey or shop for. Don't be shy! Just ask somebody in customer service if they have a secret shopper or survey program. If they don't, they probably have a company they outsource. They'll tell you.

Get rich quick schemes or business ideas being sold on ebay are obvious paths of destruction if you don't set them up right. Ponzi schemes are the worst. It all implodes eventually, or when the new customers stop signing up. Unfortunately, a lot of people get stripped of their bank accounts with hopes and dreams to become the next self made millionaire. Try to get it for free first, if you can. Sadly, it's the selling of the information that make all the monies at the end of the day.

HOT TIP! Self made millionaires are usually by accident. Real success comes from the next proverbial "Pet Rock" or "Slinky". Society is bored too quickly, forgets and always is ready to move on to the next "thing". Wait 30 years and it's just called "nostalgia".

There are always exceptions.

Cafepress for example, is free - but you'll earn more by paying the $6.95 fee per month while running a premium shop. Technically, it's free if you sale at least one or two items a month. The fee pays for itself if you have a markup that earns you a return on investment (ROI). CPShop isn't free, but it guarantees you better SEO if you use it creatively as I and so many other shops have done. You have to pay Adwords if you want people to click on your ads, right? The list goes on and on...

Ebay charges fees for listing auctions. Obviously, your ROI is guaranteed as well - but only if you sell your item. You could pay an extra $19.95 to run a showcased gallery auction listing, too. This guarantees you at least 1-200 extra hits by visitors.

Best Intentions

I read and skim others blogs all the time. The ones with the photos of little Lola's first birthday are adorable. Blogs have now shifted from personal to business, like MySpace kinda did. People in Hollywood now throw out a Myspace URL instead of a business card. Sometimes, the business card is the Myspace page. It's nice to see a new trend with companies or entities becoming more personable to its potential buyers and readers by starting blogs now.

One thing important that I cannot stress enough is try to make money on your blog if you can. All you cafepress storekeepers out there still using the old "?pid=3041422" tag need to update your links to Commission Junction links from Cafepress's new affiliate program. If you are signed up with CJ, please update your links so your CJ checks get bigger in the mail. Anything even related to Cafepress at all should be updated with tracking links looking something like: "http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-2387222-10462227?sid=3041422&url=http://www.cafepress.com" , like mine.

Sign up for CJ if you haven't yet. You'll need to be approved (takes 1-2 days) and then you can generate your links via Cafepress's program. Look at my link...its custom with tracking, but it trails off ending with url=http://www.cafepress.com . To promote other shopkeepers, you'd just add a "\shopname\section#" after the trailing cafepress.com.

Here's the signup page to be a publisher through CJ: https://signup.cj.com/member/brandedPublisherSignUp.do?air_refmerchantid=1585594 .


HOT TIP! As a rule of thumb, you don't want to link to other people, products, or sites unless they are going to make you money. Unless they are putting your links on their sites as well (crosslinking).... It's considered wasted ad space, or the other guy gets your hits for free. Zazzle and PrintFection, and others to date don't really have a good affiliate tracking system yet. I say yet....because it just has to change soon. My reports aren't showing up to par with my "Zazzle Star" asterick mark after every url. http://www.zazzle.com/kaptainmyke* . But, they are currently making me money, so I promote them. Cafepress earns me more money, so I devote my 90% to them as my primary distributor.

Hey, this is America. Nothing's free.

HOT TIP! It's okay to give free information, but outweigh it with the money making links. Talk about anything you like! Start plugging in Amazon Associates links to keyword text in your paragraphs, too.... It is relatively easy to create links with their automated API. Signup today! http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join.

HOT TIP! Affiliate marketing is a lot like throwing out a big cast net in the Internet's creek or pond. Toss, pull, and see what you grab up when you check your reports at the end of the month. Note, I said month.

Nothing can take a full effect after a day, even 7 days. Wait at least a month before making any drastic changes. This can be applied in business, life, or website design. Sometimes, if you make too many changes at once, you really don't know what one thing made the biggest difference.

Passing on information to help others can and will reward yourself as well! - Especially in Affiliate Marketing.

Blogging is free. Sign up for free. Use the free tools in front of you. I repeat, the one thing important that I cannot stress enough is try to make money on your blog if you can. Use Ebay, Commission Junction, Amazon Associates , and anything else that is related to what you are writing or selling.

Read this article if you haven't yet - http://onemancorporation.blogspot.com/2008/07/commission-junction.html. I try to explain in detail some creative ways to market other people but you make money, too.

I just told you all this. For free.

Commission Junction

One my favorite money making vehicles working at home is Commission Junction. It's ironic, that in 2003 I was kicked from CJ because I didn't make any money after a duration of 6 months. I got pissed and was like, "whatever.", right? Yeah, I actually typed that, sorry. So yes, if you don't make any money, they weed out the loafers in their database. Who knew?



Fast forward to 2006. One of my primary sources of online income drops their inhouse affiliate program. Guess who they were outsourcing all affiliate driven sales to? Commission Junction! I try to sign up, but they already have my email on file. I can't login or get my password either. Now what do I do? I called them up and explained that I needed my account reinstated. A week and new application process started all over again, I'm back in.

From the website: "Maximize your revenue opportunities by developing sustainable relationships with top-tier advertisers. Perform and get paid for every sale and lead you generate. For qualifying publishers, take your program to the next level with our industry exclusive solution for top-performers. Join our unparalleled network of publishers and learn more about our commitment to the long-term success of top-performing publishers."

Sign up as a publisher. What you do is you search the marketplace for Advertisers you are interested in. Maybe you want to start a blog about cars. You search for car parts, accessories, auto loans, anything your heart desires - and click "Apply to program". You will have to read some terms and conditions on some advertisers. Most advertisers approve manually and you must wait until you get approved.

Apply to advertisers and place their ads on your blogs, myspace pages, even Google Adwords accounts! Some people have literally made fortunes doing that technique. Google has rules about linking to affiliate driven links sometimes, but you can do redirects on your own webspace for those situations. (I'll discuss that later)

TIP! Look for advertisers that offer leads. Some of the best programs on CJ in my experience are advertisers like GameFly, Service Magic, and PerfectMatch.com. These advertisers will pay you anywhere from $1.50 to $25 just to get someone to type in their email address for a free or trial service! GameFly pays you $6.50 if someone signs up for a free 30 day trial. I know, because that's how I signed up!

By the way, Gamefly actually is a great service if you are into video gaming on your PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 or whatever you play. Personally, I have wasted so much money on a $60 game that turns out sucks because I can't pass the first level. With GameFly you can keep one at a time for just $15/month as long as you like.

HOT TIP! People sometimes can't get a credit card or bank account. If you have a site or offer a product that is only available via credit card, you can recommend your visitors to get a All Access Prepaid VISA card , which is another advertiser that uses CJ.

HOT TIP! People need things repaired on a home. Houses fall apart, it's true! We had to do some repairs and maintenance on our 15 year old house. We had some flooring that needed to be put in, we needed a termite inspector, etc. We found a company called Service Magic. They found us contractors in our local area. We're talking about top notch professionals, too. Certified, guaranteed, insured and bonded companies recommended by only the best. Service Magic is an advertiser in the Commission Junction marketplace. If you know somebody who needs some repairs on their home, send them an email with a link to Service Magic. They pay publishers anywhere from $1.00 to $10.00 per lead. You can apply this logic to anybody that needs something. I'll tell you later how to use some of these tried and true methods using your CJ links on your own webspace and domain.

You have to be creative and use your CJ ads in a way that draws attention and interest. It works, because we get a check sometimes twice a month from Commission Junction in the mailbox.