Twitter for Small Business

10 New Ways to Make Money Online

So you want to ditch your corporate cubicle and join the ranks of web workers? But you have a mortgage, maybe a dependent or two, and a taste for Venti Mochas from Starbucks? You can make money in the new economy, though it might not be […]

I’m not talking about advertising or affiliate marketing or selling your junk on eBay. Those are so last millennium! I’m talking about the new new economy.

1. Offer your professional expertise in an online marketplace.These days, you can do more than just sell your old books via Amazon and your old Coach handbags via eBay—now you can sell your professional capabilities in a marketplace. No longer are you limited to looking for a permanent or contract job on Web 1.0 style job sites like Monster or CareerBuilder. The new breed of freelancing and project-oriented sites let companies needing help describe their projects. Then freelancers and small businesses offer bids or ideas or proposals from which those buyers can choose.

Elance covers everything from programming and writing to consulting and design, while RentACoder focuses on software, natch. If you’re a graphic designer, check out options like Design Outpost or LogoWorks–you don’t have to find the customers, they’ll come to you. Wannabe industry analysts might sign up for TechDirt’s Insight Community, a marketplace for ideas about technology marketing.

2. Sell photos on stock photography sites. If people regularly oooo and aaaaah over your Flickr pics, maybe you’re destined for photographic greatness or maybe just for a few extra dollars. It’s easier than ever to get your photos out in front of the public, which of course means a tremendous amount of competition, but also means it might be an convenient way for you to build up a secondary income stream. Where can you upload and market your photos? Try Fotolia, Dreamstime, Shutterstock, and Big Stock Photo.

3. Blog for pay. Despite the explosion of blogs, it’s hard to find good writers who can turn around a solidly-written post on an interesting topic quickly. GigaOM is alwayslooking for bloggers with great content ideas and solid writing skills. How do you get noticed? Comment and link to blogging network sites. Write blog posts that are polished and not overly personal (although showing some personality is a plus).

4. Or start your own blog network. If you like the business side of things–selling advertising, hiring and managing employees, attracting investors–and have the stomach to go up against the likes of Weblogs, Inc., GigaOmniMedia, b5media, maybe you should make an entire business out of blogs. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll get a lot of time to write yourself though.

5. Provide service and support for open source software. Just because the software is free doesn’t mean you can’t make money on it–just ask Red Hat, a well-known distributor of Linux that sports a market cap of more than four billion dollars. As a solo web worker, you might not want to jump in and compete with big companies offering Linux support, but how about offering support for web content management systems like WordPress or Drupal? After getting comfortable with your own installation, you can pretty easily jump into helping other people set them up and configure them.

6. Online life coaching. Who has time to go meet a personal coach at an office? And don’t the new generation of web workers need to be met by their coaches in the same way that they work: via email, IM, and VoIP? You could, of course, go through some life coaching certification program, but on the web, reputation is more important than credentials. I bet Tony Robbins isn’t certified as a life coach–and no one can argue with his success. For an example of someone building up their profile and business online as a coach, check out Pamela Slim of Ganas Consulting and theEscape from Cubicle Nation blog.

7. Virtually assist other web workers. Freelancers and small businesses desperately need help running their businesses, but they’re not about to hire a secretary to come sit in the family room and answer phone calls. As a virtual assistant, you might do anything from making travel reservations to handling expense reimbursements to paying bills to arranging for a dog sitter. And you do it all from your own home office, interacting with your clients online and by phone. You can make $20 and up an hour doing this sort of work, depending on your expertise.

8. Build services atop Amazon Web Services. Elastic computing on AWS is so cool… and so incredibly primitive right now. Did you know that you can’t even count on your virtual hard drive on EC2 to store your data permanently? That’s why people are making money right now by offering services on top of AWS. Make it easier for people to use Amazon’s scalability web infrastructure like Enomaly has withelasticlive, a scalable web hosting platform built on AWS.

9. Write reviews for pay or perks. If you blog for any length of time on a particular topic–parenting, mobile phones, or PCs, for example–you will likely be approached to do book or product reviews. You can get free stuff this way, but are you selling your soul? Is there any such thing as a free laptop? These are decisions you’ll have to make for yourself, because no one agrees upon what ethical rules apply to bloggers. Even less do people agree on services like PayPerPost that pay you to write reviews on your blog. Check out disclosure rules closely and see whether such a gig would meet your own personal standards or not.

10. Become a virtual gold farmer. A half million Chinese now earn income byacquiring and selling World of Warcraft gold to gamers in other countries. If you’re not a young person living in China, this probably isn’t a viable option for you. But what’s intriguing about it is the opportunity to make real money working in a virtual economy. People are making real-world money in Second Life too.

9 Ways to Cloak Your ClickBank Hoplinks

What is HopLink cloaking?

HopLink cloaking is the process of disguising your ClickBank HopLink by essentially hiding it behind another link.

For example instead of your traditional HopLink appearing like this…

http://affiliate.vendor.hop.clickbank.net

A cloaked link would look something like this…

http://www.yourwebsite.com/link/

The cloaked link redirects to the original HopLink while still providing commission to the affiliate for any sales made.

Why cloak your HopLinks?

§  To prevent ClickBank nicknames from being publicly visible.

§  To disguise ClickBank affiliation as some websites may block ClickBank HopLinks, read more.

§  So your HopLink does not appear as an affiliate link to people, search engines, websites.

§  To make your links cleaner, shorter, and branded to your website.

§  To help prevent commission hijacking.

ClickBank HopLink Shield

The ClickBank HopLink Shield is the default tool within the ClickBank Marketplace which encrypts the affiliate and vendor nicknames in HopLinks.

As a result, the ClickBank HopLink Shield will generate an encrypted link similar to this…
http://b6e4aeioupb-7vc4ckhvf0oap1f.hop.clickbank.net/

However this encryption can also be easily decoded to find the affiliate and vendor nicknames using ClickBank’s own HopLink decoding tool.

Affiliates and vendor who want additional encryption and cloaking options will need to use other methods.

What to look for?

There are many HopLink cloaking options available, including WordPress plugins, self-hosted scripts, and online cloaking services.

Choosing the best HopLink cloaking method will depend on your specific needs and requirements. To help, we’ve provided a list of the best HopLink cloaking options available. Read through our list below to determine which HopLink cloaking option for you.

WordPress Plugins:

§  Pretty Link
Pretty Link WordPress plugin allows users to create clean and simple URLs using their own website domain that redirects to any other URL. The plugin also tracks link clicks and provides a full, detailed report of where the referring visitor came from. Users can use the free Pretty Link Lite version, or upgrade to Pretty Link Pro.

§  WPShorties
WPShorties WordPress plugin is an easy to use URL shortener for affiliate link cloaking and click tracking. This free plugin offers additional features such as the ability to open multiple URLs with a single click, as well as multi-directional distribution, which allows users to send a percentage of visitors to one destination while sending the remaining percentage to another.

§  Simple URLs
Simple URLs is a complete URL management system that allows you create, manage, and track outbound links from your site.  This easy to use WordPress plugin also keeps track of clicks on all your links.

Self-Hosted Scripts:

§  Easy Redirect Script
Easy Redirect Script allows users to quickly create redirect URLs using their own website domain. The program can be installed on any website and is loaded with other features. One standout feature is the Stealth Page, which forces the redirect URL to display in the browser’s address bar. The program comes complete with stats tracking, SEO options, categories & descriptions, along with tool tips and excellent documentation.

§  Link Supercharger
Link Supercharger is an easy to install program that allows users to create custom redirect links using their own website domain.  Link Supercharger also tracks link clicks and allows link destinations to be edited once they are created. The program also includes a page creation tool, SEO link options and social button features.

§  ClickBank HopLink Cloaker
ClickBank’s HopLink Cloaker is a custom script that allows users to cloak the ClickBank HopLink. The script sends the visitor to a URL of your domain instead of ‘clickbank.net’. Both a HTML and PHP version is available.

Online Cloaking Services:

§  Improvely
Improvely is a complete web-based marketing platform that allows users to cloak affiliate links, as well as control the URL display in the browser address bar. The program comes complete with tracking analytics, click fraud detection and blocking, split testing tools, email notifications and more.

§  LinkTrackr
LinkTrackr is a powerful web-based link cloaking and link tracking software that lets affiliates easily mask links and track sales conversions. The program also allows users to split test.

§  LinkShield
LinkShield offers a high level of protection against affiliate commission theft by allowing users to create secured links and cloaked links for their affiliate links. One benefit of LinkShield is that you do not need to own your own website to use LinkShield’s cloaking.

That’s our list of top HopLink cloaking solutions. If you have a HopLink cloaking method you would like to share, please use the comment section below to tell us about it!

Make Money Online (Without Spending a Dime)

Even with no product and no website, you can get paid for what and who you know

Making money online used to pretty much require you to have your own Web site, products to sell and some marketing savvy. But a new generation of dot-coms have arisen that will pay you for what you know and who you know without you having to be a web designer or a marketing genius.

But it's hard to tell hype from the real deal. I did a search on "make money online" and "making money online", and much of the information out there is just promoting various infoproducts, mostly about Internet marketing. I see why people sometimes ask, "Is anyone making money online besides Internet marketing experts?"

So I put together a list of business opportunities with legitimate companies that:

• Pay cash, not just points towards rewards or a chance to win money
• Don't require you to have your own Web domain or your own products
• Don't involve any hard-selling
• Aren't just promoting more Internet marketing
• Give a good return on your time investment

In the interest of objectivity, none of the links below are affiliate links, and none of them have paid or provided any other consideration for their presence here. These are legitimate companies with business models that allow you to get paid for a wide range of activities.

Help friends find better jobs.

Sites like ReferEarns, Zyoin, Who Do You Know For Dough?, and WiseStepp connect employers with prospective employees, many of whom are already employed and not actively job-hunting, via networking - the people who know these qualified candidates. Rewards for referring a candidate who gets hired range from $50 on up to several thousand dollars - not chump change. If you know a lot of job-seekers (and who doesn't these days?), this is a great way to break into the recruiting business with no overhead.

Connect suppliers with buyers.

Referral fees are a common practice in business, but they haven't been used much in online networking sites because there was no way to track them. Sites like Salesconx,  InnerSell and uRefer now provide that. Vendors set the referral fees they're willing to pay (and for what), and when the transaction happens, you get paid. uRefer also allows merchants to set up referral programs for introductions and meetings, as well as transactions.

Write.

A growing number of sites will pay for your articles or blog posts. Associated Content and Helium will "pay for performance" based on page views for just about anything you want to write about. Articles on specific topics they're looking for can earn direct payments up to about $200. The rates are probably low for established writers, but if you're trying to break into the field and have time on your hands, they're a great way to start. Also, a lot of companies are looking for part-time bloggers. They may pay per post or on a steady contract. Our Weblogs Guide posts blogging jobs weekly in the forum.

Start your own blog.

You don't have to have your own Web site, or install blogging software, or even figure out how to set up the advertising. At Blogger you can set up a blog for free in less than five minutes without knowing a thing about web design, and Blogger even automates setting up Google AdSense so you can make money off your blog by displaying ads and getting paid when people click on the ads. To make even more money from it, set up an affiliate program (see below) for books, music, etc., and insert your affiliate links whenever you refer to those items. You'll have to get a lot of traffic to become a six-figure blogger, but pick an interesting topic, write well, tell all your friends, and you're off to a good start.

Create topical resource hubs.

Are you an expert on a particular niche topic? Can you put together an overview of the topic and assemble some of the best resources on the topic from around the web? Then you can create topical hubs and get paid through sites like Squidoo, HugPages and Google Knol. Payments are based on a combination of ad revenue and affiliate fees. You'll get higher rates doing it on your own, but these sites have a built-in supply of traffic and tools to make content creation easier.

Advertise other people's products.

If you already have a Web site or a blog, look for vendors that offer related but non-competing products and see if they have an affiliate program. Stick to familiar products and brands - they're easier to sell. To promote those products:

• Place simple text or graphical ads in appropriate places on your site
• Include links to purchase products you review or recommend in a blog, discussion forum or mailing list you control
• Create a dedicated sales page or Web site to promote a particular product

They all work - it just depends on how much time you have to spend on it and your level of expertise with Web design and marketing.

Microstock photography.

You don't have to be a professional photographer to sell your photos for money. People are constantly in need of stock photography for websites, presentations, brochures and so on, and are willing to pay for the right image. People generally search for images on stock photography sites by keywords, not by photographer, so you have the same chance as anyone else of having your image picked. Just be careful that you don't have images of trademarked brands, copyrighted art or people's faces that are readily identifiable (unless you have a model release), but just about anything else is fair game, and I promise - you'd be amazed what people need pictures of, so don't make any assumptions. If it's a decent photo, upload it. Some sites to get you started include Fotolia, ShutterStock,  Dreamstime and iStockphoto. The great thing about this is that it's truly "set it and forget it".

The above list is by no means comprehensive, but it highlights some of the new and interesting ways to make money online without investing any money, without having a product of your own, and without having expert sales and marketing skills. Most of all, unlike taking surveys or getting paid to read e-mail, the potential return on your time investment is substantial.

5 Tactics to Grow Your Email List

Back in January, many email marketers said increasing their lists was their top goal for 2013. Well, spring is here. Is your mailing list growing as fast as your flowers and lawn? If not, it's time to execute a new plan.

Many marketers have email addresses only for 30% or less of their customer and prospect lists. They're tempted to revert to their direct-mail experience and reach for a quick fix like email append ("e-append") and list rental/purchase.

But in today's engagement-based inbox placement world, this "quick fix" approach can give you more headaches than new sales.

If you seek quantity over quality in list growth, you're practically inviting the ISPs either to block your entire opt-in mailing list or route everything to your recipients' bulk folders, where they'll languish in obscurity until the ISPs dump them automatically.

So, what should be in your email list growth plan? Below are five tried-and-true methods to ignite your email list growth, in a safe, permission-based way.

1. Make It Easy to Opt In on Your Website

Your customers and prospects must be able to find your opt-in form easily on your home page. This advice has been around for years, but today's web designers apparently didn't get the memo. They position Facebook and Twitter icons prominently but send you on a search-and-rescue mission to find the opt-in field.

Many websites undersell the email value proposition, using just a link saying "Sign Up for Email" relegated to the homepage footer. Worse, the email opt-in call-to-action isn't even on the page. Make your forms stand out.

If you want to get more opt-ins, make the email invite more visible. Use a benefit-based call-to-action, and test an offer that you subsequently deliver in your welcome series.

2. Don't Stop at Just One

Add more opt-in forms throughout your site and in various placements: above the fold (the horizontal halfway point on your website, like the fold in a newspaper), below the fold, in the right rail, in left-hand navigation and on a dynamic layer that displays according to visitors' site activity.

Test these locations to see how many more opt-ins you can drive, each one alone and in combination with each other. One opt-in form on a page might drive X, while having two opt-in form placements on a page might drive 1.5X to 2X.

At the EEC Summit in 2012, Tommy Hilfiger reported that his company drives 2% of all site visitors to opt in by using a dynamic opt-in layer served to new site visitors on site entry.

3. Collect Emails at Your Stores

Ask your customers to opt in for email at your checkout counter or when requesting an email receipt. However, be sure you are collecting high-quality names.

You'll have to develop a request procedure that helps you overcome two big pitfalls of point-of-sale requests: phony addresses, either provided by reluctant customers who can't say no to the request or keyed in by sales associates who have to meet email quotas.

Mistakes, which happen when sales people misspell a written address, misunderstand a customer's spoken address or omit a crucial detail like the "@" symbol.

Here are a few suggestions for collecting more and better addresses:

• Let customers type in their email addresses on a POS touchpad or credit card terminal.
• Give them an offer or benefit for signing up in-store.
• Explain what they'll be receiving.
• Get explicit permission before adding the address.

4. Make It Mobile

Consumer adoption of mobile sites and apps makes mobile another important collection point for opt-in for both email and SMS text. The best mobile site home pages have two opt-in forms: one for email, one for SMS. Remember the constraints that mobile puts on viewing and data input.

Don't ask users to fill out lots of form fields. Keep the form short and simple. You can collect more information later in your welcome series using progressive profiling.

5. Remember Your Social Networks

Give your Facebook followers a simple opt-in form page. Call out the benefits and differences between your social experience and your email communications.

Consider using social login, also known as social sign-in. This uses existing login information from social networks such as Facebook or Twitter to sign in to a website without having to create a separate login account specifically for your website.

You can also use this process to allow your site registrants to quickly and easily sign up to receive your marketing emails.

How To Choose A Niche (Quick Exercise)

I've often said there are 3 good ways to choose a niche for an online business.

But in this post I'm going to give you another idea - a 4th way, that will get you past your niche-discovery hurdle for good!

The most popular advice is to "do what you love", or go with a niche you are passionate about. This most likely includes a hobby or lifestyle choice.

This is a great idea because you are already knowledgeable and experienced on the topic. You're also less likely to get bored with it than niches where you don't have a personal interest.

The second suggestion is to choose a niche where you have professional experience or expertise. Another great approach, except that most people are already burned out on their chosen profession, or still doing it as a day job, and can't get excited about spending their nights and weekends at it as well...

The third way to select a niche, and one that I recommend a lot, is to choose something you'd like to start doing. A new hobby or lifestyle, or something you'd like to collect or get into.

Since you are just getting started at it yourself, you actually are your target market. This puts you in an ideal position, and gives you insight and empathy with your market - you can easily connect with them on their level.

You're in research phase, finding resources and discovering what works and what doesn't - or the best way to do this or that. Sharing all of that information becomes your "content". And it's very easy to generate since you're already actively collecting information on the topic.

Of those top 3 ways to choose a niche, the last one would be my favorite. I have often started a new online business based on new personal interests. I find that it makes work fun, and that fresh enthusiasm for a topic will take you a long way.

With all 3 of these viable niche-selection methods, you are limited to choosing from what you already know or feel comfortable with...

4: What would you do if there were no limits?

Life is full of limits: physical, financial, situations & circumstances, you name it. Often we'll dream big only to remind ourselves of all the reasons those dreams can never become a reality.

But just for a moment, let's imagine that there are no limits. Maybe you've always dreamed of spending your winters in New Zealand, owning a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes, going on an Alaskan Cruise, or backpacking across Europe.

This is what they mean when they say "think outside the box".

They are talking about your box.

Your box is your current frame of reference. It includes your personal experience, things you've experienced by association, and all of the elements you draw from to make choices and decisions.

Your box is not the same as mine, or anyone else. It's also not real. We are all drawing from a unique combination of circumstances and experiences. So it's basically just perception. And perception is not reality.

Let's do a quick exercise...

Step outside of your frame of reference for a second, and consider everything that the world has to offer. What appeals to you most?

Dismiss any negative thoughts that appear, and allow yourself to just imagine your ideal life. How would you spend your time? How would you spend money if you had an unlimited amount at your disposal? Jot down everything that comes to mind.

(don't think or hesitate, just jot it down)

Your next step is keyword and market research. Find out if there is interest in that niche, and whether it is a buying market.

This exercise will open up a lot of new options for you, new niches you may not have considered before. And just imagine getting to wake up every day to work on something you can really get excited about!

You may just be amazed at the things that present themselves along the way when you start thinking and working outside of your current frame of reference. Things that were once outside your reach may quickly become real possibilities - and even options.

We'll go back to the example of New Zealand vacations. You may be a single mother that lives in a small town in Tennessee. You have a work schedule, your children have a school schedule, and New Zealand is just a fantasy place in your mind that you realize you'll probably only ever see on tv or on the internet...

You do this exercise, your market research, and you start an online business around New Zealand Travel and Vacations (over 57,000 combined searches each month). You see that it's sort of competitive, hesitate for a second, and then decide to just go for it. This is what you want, and you're willing to put in the work to grow this business into an online authority.

And you do.

Now you're in a position to take that trip to New Zealand, and it's no longer a personal expense. It's a tax deductible business trip. You meet people, take photos and videos, blog about your experiences. And before you know it, you're getting VIP invites from airlines, hotels, restaurants etc that would love to be reviewed and featured on your popular travel & vacation website...

See how that works? 

Dream big. Choose your niche... and make it happen!

Powerful Inspirational true story...Don't give up!