Squidoo - Websites for Free

Have you heard of Squidoo? A strange name, but a good concept...and one that can help you make money without spending any money.

Plus, Google and their search engine "robots" love Squidoo...so you have a decent chance of setting up some sites focusing on keywords with medium to low competition...and having those sites show up on the first page of Google.

Here's where you can sign up with Squidoo - www.squidoo.com

And, if you want to learn how to make some money with Squidoo...check out the free video on making money with Squidoo that you'll get when you sign up for this free newsletter...

Check it out Here

Mystery Shopping - What Do You Think?

Well, I guess this is kind of in the grey area of making money online...but I thought I'd share it with you because it is a method of making money.

Mystery shopping like many things has been around awhile. Also, like many other avenues available for earning extra money, chances are it won't make you rich...but you can earn some cash and get free stuff along the way.

I've been doing it for a little while now and it's sort of neat - I joked with my wife that it is like a covert operation. Plus, it's free for the most part - well, you might spend a small amount up front when shopping for certain things, but you are reimbursed by the company usually within a month depending on how they send their payments.

You've probably seen products like this one - Get Paid for Shopping and Eating Out

You can buy a product like that which provides more detailed information and perhaps a comprehensive list of companies to work for... However, you can do research and apply for free as well.

A good site to use is - http://www.mysteryshop.org/ - it's the trade association for mystery shoppers.

Just to note...some of the things I've done so far are - Talk about TVs at an Electronic Store, eat dinner at a bar, time fast food restaurants, call pizza delivery shops and visit some local attractions

A.W. Surveys - Stay Away?

You might have run across a survey site called A.W. Surveys. I had signed up sometime back just to check it out as I do with many things. I completed some of their "surveys" and noticed that there weren't really surveys involved but actually more along the lines of reviewing websites (and I would imagine the review piece is to get survey takers interested in the product and have they buy it so that AW earns a referral).

It also seemed to easy (not that completing surveys is difficult) based on the amount of time and the payout threshold. Anyway...I did a couple and forgot about it.

I happened to be searching online and came across quite a few bad things about this site. You can check out a little on your own...but I would say it's probably a waste of your time to do any work for A.W. Surveys.

See ya next time.

Paid Survey Challenge - New Blog

I mentioned the other day that I was considering creating a new blog to focus on a paid survey challenge, if you will. Well, I set that up today...

Click Here for the Paid Survey Challenge Blog

It's a simple blog really - we focus on what survey sites and companies are paying (and paying well) and how much money we're making completing surveys.

I think this will be helpful for the folks who are just getting into surveys and might want to do some research first and see what others are doing before deciding if it's right for them.

Hop on over and participate! See ya!

Paid Survey Challenge

I was thinking about starting a type of challenge in a sense where folks who have tried specific survey websites and/or free survey programs can list their experiences...as it relates to how much money they have earned completing surveys.

I will take part in this as well and post my results. This could be a good thing where those who are wondering if completing paid surveys will work for them will be able to get an idea of what other real people are doing.

I might create another blog specifically for this purpose. If so, I'll put the link here when/if it becomes available. Plus we might examine some of the programs you pay to join (i.e. Paid Surveys Etc and Survey Scout) to see if anyone who has used them has had any success.

Stay tuned...and let me know your thoughts.

Article Marketing...Also Known as BUM Marketing

You might know Article Marketing from an alias it has somewhat recently acquired...called BUM Marketing. This is a technique that has been used for years and is still one of the best ways to approach making money online since it can still be done cheaply...or free.

Here's how the process can work in a nutshell:

1. Decide on a product or program you're going to promote (could by your own or an affiliate product/program)
2. Perform keyword research to see what folks are searching for when they buy the type of product you're marketing
3. Write articles including the keywords you've selected
4. Submit those articles to article directories

Note: I've added a link to YouTube on the right-hand side of this blog...that links to videos on how to make money including article marketing (bum marketing)

If those 4 steps and their contents are foreign to you, then you might have some questions right now. So let me elaborate just a bit.

What if you don't have a product of your own and don't know anything about affiliate programs? There's an easy way to deal with that one - sign up with Clickbank and promote a product(s) you find there that interests you.

What about the keyword research? There's a good free tool offered by WordTracker that can get you started. When you get more experience with it and learn about niches, micro niches and "long tail phrases", you'll probably want to invest in an easy to use tool such as: Micro Niche Finder...

Where can you submit articles for free? Two of the best directories are: EzineArticles and GoArticles - there are many more though and you can find them if you do some searching.

That doesn't sound too difficult does it? It's not...and it's a quick way to get going and start to earn some extra cash.

If you still have questions, which would be understandable, check out some of the videos...it's usually easier to watch than just read.

Take care...

Benefits of Blogging - 5 Reasons Why Blogging is a Great Marketing Tool

What started as more or less a way to keep an online journal (Blogging) has evolved into much much more today. You can use this evolution and all the benefits of blogging to your advantage and make some money with a little marketing.

5 reasons why blogging is a great marketing tool

1. Blogging is easy - The best way to get a simple website going where you can write your ideas, experiences, promote new products, and make a little cash from those products or from advertising.
2. Blogging is real - In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims. However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising. Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.
3. It is free - Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free. Any opportunity for free webtime is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up.
4. Blogging builds credibility - As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs. You become an expert to your visitors and as a result more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs.
5. Blogging increases exposure - You can begin with blogging and use it to branch out into many other things. Use it to link to your other blogs or websites, link to affiliate programs and advertisers that can earn you money. Write articles and submit them to directories and then have links going both ways so that visitors to either can follow you and your expertise.

Until next time...