Infolinks: Make a blog and use ads

Millions of people have blogs but they do not know how to make money off of them. Perhaps not many people read them or perhaps they blog not for money but because they are passionate about their topic. I have blogged for years and have become a blog monetization expert in the process, so I will share three great ways that you can make money by blogging. Companies like Infolinks, Kontera, and INTENTclick are great choices to make money off of text-rich blogs. They do not work as well with video blogs but you can still put their ads in the description. Also, INTENTclick and Kontera do not mess up your Adsense ads so they are a great choice for generating additional revenue.

Write a mobile app

Android devices and iPhones are becoming increasingly popular, and the ease of writing and selling an app has brought a resurgence of small-time software developers. Many of these developers have great apps but they do not know how to monetize mobile apps, which is marketing parlance for saying that they don’t know how to make money off of their creations. This is common among mobile app developers in part because it’s so easy to bring an app to the market to sell it since all the big operating systems have mobile app stores.

Write 25 guest blog posts per day

Many companies will pay people to write blog posts for them. They do this because the backlinks in those posts will help them show up higher on search engines. A lot of companies rely on outsourced work, usually in India or Latin America, to do their blogging for them, but these bloggers usually do not have the writing skills to be published on good websites. As a result, they’ll pay a premium to American and other anglophone bloggers to get posts for them.

This is a guest post by Murray Newlands. Murray and his company – Influence People – do blogger outreach for a variety of clients from a small office in sunny San Francisco!

For the uninitiated, an Amazon affiliate site is a website or blog that directly or indirectly promotes products sold on Amazon.com, the ubiquitous online retailer. Clicking certain links at these sites redirects you to a product page at Amazon, and when you make a purchase, Amazon pays the affiliate site owner a portion of the proceeds in exchange for the redirect. With commission rates as high as 15% and the ability to promote whatever products you’d like, including the very expensive ones, it’s easy to see how a well-implemented Amazon affiliate site could turn a tidy profit.

The trick, of course, is to build an Amazon affiliate site that passes muster in the eyes of Google Panda, and achieves the search engine results ranking it deserves.

Build Your Site Around the Niche, Not the Products

Google Panda is all about attempting to ensure that the pages ranked most highly for a given search keyword are relevant and provide the best user experience possible. As such, most of the sites that experienced severe downranking at the hands of Panda were ones that offered a list of promoted products, along with maybe a brief description of each, some keyword-rich promotional text (“This is such a wonderful product!” without any details) and maybe a few pictures. In other words, the exact same content you could find by visiting Amazon directly and simply visiting the product page. Credit to Google for sending these two-bit sites where they belong: out of the public eye.

Your job is to make your site stand out. You can accomplish this by building a site based around a niche, or a specific product category, instead of just the products themselves.

Let’s say you want to promote wireless internet security cameras. Instead of making a thin site like the one described above that simply lists and promotes the cameras, build your site around the niche of home security, and particularly the ways that technology can be used to improve it. This is something that will provide actual value to your traffic. A few examples of content ideas that could be applied to other niches as well:

• Stories of break-ins and robberies that could have been prevented with a wireless security camera.
• Comparisons of the top-rated security cameras.
• Software programs that integrate well with security equipment.
• How to set up home security equipment.
• Common misconceptions held by those purchasing home security cameras for the first time.

Once your readers see how valuable home security cameras are, they’ll be far more likely to click your affiliate links and actually make a purchase.

Know the Products You’re Promoting

Although you may be tempted to select products to promote simply based on their value or apparent immediate popularity, the post-Panda online environment dictates that it’s better to promote products that you’re actually comfortable discussing through knowledge and experience. Your readers will be able to tell whether you’re an expert regarding the products you’re discussing, and they’ll be more likely to stick around at your site if you are.

If you really want to promote a certain niche that you may not be totally familiar with, there are some good ways of conducting research:

• Visit forums devoted to discussing the products and learn from experts who use them every day.
• Watch Youtube video reviews of the products to see how they work in action.
• Download the manuals for the products to get additional details that might not be included in their general online product descriptions.
• Take advantage of return policies and trial periods. You may be able to try the products in your own home and return them for a full refund, so long as you don’t damage them. Any fees you incur in the form of return shipping will be worth the content you’re able to generate by actually using the products.

Allow for Interactive Discussion

Speaking of forums, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t set one up on your own Amazon affiliate site. Google Panda loves the idea of increased website functionality and interactivity, making a forum for your users an excellent Panda-baiting feature.

It’s important that forums are moderated and kept on topic, so don’t expect to simply create the forum, let it run itself and return to your normal daily operations. Jump in frequently to participate in discussions and answer your visitors’ questions.

Post Video Reviews of Products

Placing some multimedia content on your Amazon affiliate site can truly make it stand apart from the competition. If you have access to the products you’re promoting, record a video of yourself using them while you discuss what you like about it, how you like to use the product, your favorite features, etc. Doing so paints you as an expert with hands-on experience, and builds a higher level of trust between you and your reader.

It’s also possible to review the promoted products using video even if you don’t actually own them. Although “talking head” videos are maligned by some, the fact is that they prove that you’re a real person and not some faceless marketer hiding behind a potentially dubious site.

Think from the Consumer’s Perspective

When creating your Amazon affiliate site, it’s important to occasionally stop and think: If I were a customer researching these products, would this site provide me real, valuable assistance? If the answer is “not really, but I think I have good advertising strategies,” then your site will need a lot more work before it’ll pass the Panda test. Think about the things that you want to see when you’re researching a potential purchase for yourself, and implement them into your Amazon affiliate site.

Guest post written by: Mitch O’Conner, an online marketer and writer. When he’s not busy testing sites, generating traffic or writing content, he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, watching TV, playing games or going camping.

Now, it doesn’t takes as much money and certainly a lot less time to begin marketing a new business. However, it’s not fool-proof. Here are 10 common mistakes to avoid when building a new business using social media.

1. Focusing on numbers rather than ideal, targeted fans.

Despite the fact that the most ideal form of business is repeat business, too many small business owners focus on reaching as many people as possible with social media rather than on those who are most likely to buy their services. This lack of focus often leads to desperate tactics designed to inflate the popularity of a business by increasing fan counts superficially, instead of real prospects.

Buying fans or simply gathering followers who are not in your ideal target market is a waste of time. It is far better to build a small fan base of people who will not only buy your product or service, but will talk about it and interact with you. This will make your social media experience more profitable as well as much more enjoyable.

2. Underestimating the amount of time required to build a loyal social media following.

Social media marketing is not a quick, 5 minute task. It takes time to build awareness, build a following, and then subsequently, to get your fans and followers to engage with you via your various channels. If you underestimate the amount of time it takes, you may end up spending too much time on social networks, or worse, too little time.

It is worth it to either allocate a significant portion of your time to social media, or to hire someone in-house (even temporarily) who can spend a lot of time nurturing and growing your presence online.

3. Not having clear roles or goals for social media in the business.

This is perhaps one of the biggest and most detrimental mistakes any business can make regarding social media. Not having clear roles or goals for social media marketing can lead to activity that doesn’t benefit the business or increase the bottom line.

Social media is about more than just being social online. Many businesses have grown from the ground up using specialized marketing and advertising techniques, but it’s crucial to realize that they are well-planned, well-funded, and measured along the way to ensure that they are actually accomplishing goals.

Take time to think about what you want to gain from social media activity. Use the goal to identify the tasks and milestones you will need to accomplish along the way. This will ensure that your social media activity makes sense for your business.

4. Neglecting the power of business to business referrals.

Many businesses become active in social media sites only to meet and greet prospective customers; however, neglecting the power of the business-to-business referral is a mistake. Making friends with other business owners via social networking could put you in contact with an already identified circle of target customers. Most businesses are open to developing mutually beneficial relationships online; it is worth reaching out to other businesses on social networks and establishing a referral network that would put your business in front of their fan base, and vice versa.

5. Focusing too heavily on one social network.

While you should definitely spend time on the network that feels most comfortable to you, it’s also very important to develop a presence where your fans are, and that might be on another site. Get to know all of the sites, and give yourself enough time on each of them to clearly identify which networks are the most worthwhile for your particular business and personality type.

Remember, not all of your customers are going to use all of the networks. Increase your reach so that you can be where they are.

6. Underestimating the power of blogging as a central part of social media.

Blogging is a central part of social media. You can do much more with the combination of blogging and social networking than you can with social networking alone. Use a blog as the hub of your activity, and then use the various social media channels as spokes, reaching out to your fans where they are and leading them back to your home base (your blog). You can also control and steer the conversation about your product much better when it is centralized on your blog, so allow your fans and followers the opportunity to communicate with you via comments.

7. Spending too much or too little money on social media marketing activities.

A common misconception about social media is that it is a free way to get the word out about your business. That may or may not be true, and even if it were 100% true, it’s not always wise to approach it with that mentality. Businesses that invest in things like contests, scholarships, and advertising via social networking often see a return that’s far greater than those who refuse to invest any money at all.

Likewise, spending too much money is also unwise. Before you spend any money, do some competitive analysis on social media campaigns that have worked in the past for other companies. If you are creative, you can find a way to make even the smallest amount of money go very far in terms of ROI with social media.

8. Outsourcing tasks that should be handled internally.

Not all social media marketing can be outsourced easily. Sometimes, it really is better to get familiar with the platforms so that you can personally engage your fans and followers. Not only is this a wise long-term strategy, but it is better for your customers all around.

There are going to be questions that only you can handle, and there are going to be times when it is simply most efficient and cost-effective for you to make real-time status updates yourself. However, some tasks, such as the physical development of your social media accounts and pages, can be outsourced with no impact on your ability to meet your fans and followers needs.

9. Limiting the role of social media only to marketing.

One trend that’s becoming more and more common among businesses using social media is the use of the networks to do more than just market to new customers. Many businesses are now using social media to take orders, respond to inquiries, and even for full-scale customer service issues.

Using social media for more than just marketing significantly increases social media awareness, so the benefit is extensive. The only downside of this is that customers who do not use social media still need a way to place orders, contact customer service, etc. So be sure to use social media wisely in this manner (e.g., don’t require it, only add it as an option).

10. Expecting too much out of social media marketing.

At the end of the day, it’s important to keep your goals and resources in perspective. If you have very little money or very little time to invest in social media marketing activities, it’s unreasonable to demand a huge return on investment. So often, you will reap what you sow when it comes to social media.

Keeping in mind that it takes time (and usually some money) to get something tangible out of social media marketing, manage your expectations. While it’s important to measure effectiveness, don’t do that too soon. Too often, small businesses quit while they are really ahead, just because they haven’t been able to manage expectations well. Go into it with some goals, but keep in mind what you have to work with in terms of time and money and always be sure you are not asking for more than you can reasonably expect.

This guest post was written by Lior Levin, a marketing adviser to an online task management website.

The exact phrase you may have heard isn’t the important part. It could have been anything related to the ones above. However, what I am getting at here is that we all hear about this mystical “X factor” that successful businesses have and that we, as business owners, need to find.

Okay so we’ve all heard about this big X factor, right? But I would bet my bottom dollar that if you randomly stopped 100 different people walking down the street and asked them what the X factor is for any popular business, they wouldn’t know. They might make something up but they would probably just stand there with a dumbfounded look on their faces without a clue what to tell you.

Most people assume that the X factor is what a particular business or person does the best. However, that could really just be a skill they have. It’s not necessarily anything special that others don’t have. As an example, if a business said that their X factor is that they write amazing salesletters, you could say that really isn’t so unique. There are hundreds of people that can write killer salesletters. So, how can that be called a businesses X factor? In my opinion, it’s nothing more than somebody that writes great sales letters.

I racked my brain on this subject for several hours trying to come up with an answer to it. What I finally figured out is that in reality the elusive X factor isn’t something that you can really put your finger on; it’s just something that exists for some and doesn’t exist for others.

Here are two examples of what I think are good illustrations of the X factor:

1) You walk into an event full of highly successful businessmen. All of them are multi-millionaires at the top of their professions. Every one of them is dressed for success and looks the part. You are in awe. But then Donald Trump walks into the room and suddenly all of these other super successful business men don’t seem quite so cool. You barely notice any of them anymore. Donald Trump has something about him that none of the others have, and it’s called the X factor.

2) A man walks into a party filled with beautiful women. There truly isn’t a bad looking one in there. Every one of them could be a successful model. However, there is one woman in particular that is surrounded by an aura. It’s not something you can see or describe, but you can feel it. She isn’t the prettiest woman in there but she still stands out above the rest. She carries herself in a certain way. She comes off as having real confidence without arrogance. She seems approachable unlike many of the others. There’s a mystery about her but she seems down to earth at the same time. You can say that she has an X factor separating her from the others.

The above examples are more or less what I think the true X factor is. The reason it’s so hard (or even impossible) to pinpoint is that you really don’t know what it is. That’s why it separates the highly successful businesses and very exceptional individuals from everyone else.

You might be wondering how all of this applies to an internet home business. It’s simple; many internet marketers are trying to find the X factor that will take their online business to the top. The problem is that they will never find it. It isn’t something you can just go out and find. It’s either there or it’s not. You will if know if it is because you’ll feel it. When you see an internet business that has it, you just know it. But it’s one of those feelings that can’t be described.

So if you ever sit down to try and figure out what the X factor is for your business, don’t make yourself crazy searching for an answer. You won’t find it by looking. You will just know it when you see it!

It makes perfect sense of course, you want to be as successful as they are, right? But you might just find that emulating them isn’t quite enough. Here’s why…

* Success breeds success

It is a shame but often very good blog posts will be largely ignored when they are published on small lesser known blogs, whilst posts that aren’t as good that are published by established bloggers will receive much more acclaim.

The fact is that a successful blog instantly has more credibility than a new one, sometimes almost regardless of quality. In the online world, first mover advantage is alive and well and if you are just starting out you probably don’t have it.

* How can you become established and credible?

Well firstly, you need to find your own angle. It is easy to think that if you can write as well as another blogger you can be just as successful. This isn’t true most of the time.

You need to either be better, or different. Ask yourself the question “why would people read my blog instead of theirs?” If you try to emulate a successful blog, you might find you can’t answer this question.

* Up and coming blogs

A really helpful way to find your own voice is to look at the up and coming blogs in your niche. These are the guys that are doing exactly what you want to do – they are gaining popularity and becoming established.

Each of these up and comers have one thing in common; they have found a way to differentiate their blogs (even if they don’t realize it).

Again, just copying them isn’t enough, but try comparing them to the big guys and try to figure out what their unique selling point is, what angle have they used to set themselves apart and how are they promoting themselves?

You can build up a very successful blog and become a professional blogger, but it will take a lot of time and hard work. You aren’t going to do it by copying others, you must find a way to be unique while still following the overall success recipe of the top blogs in your niche.

This guest post was brought to you by Alex from ToMakeALiving – A site dedicated to showing you how to earn money online.