Free Ways to Make Money Online

Squidoo - Websites for Free

2009-02-27T17:57:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-08-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-07-30T22:44:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-29T20:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

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:

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

2008-07-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

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

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.
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.
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.
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.
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...

Make Money Online For Free - Blog Making Money

2008-07-23T16:52:00.000-07:00

Another way of making money online without spending anything but your time is by blogging. If you're new to this term - basically a blog (aka weblog) is a simple website where one can post their thoughts, tips, plans...whatever....like this site you're on now - it's a blog.

Make Money Online For Free...with a blog

How can you make some extra money with a blog you ask? There are lots of neat little ways actually. As I mentioned my blog here is a free blog through Google's Blogger (anyone can sign up and create one). You can make money with a blog in a number of ways:

Use the blog to promote your business (maybe other sites, other blogs)
Promote specific products to sell on a blog
Promote affiliate products in your blog
Earn money through Google Adsense
...and more (get the ideas rolling around in your head)

Blog Making Money

If you want to examine a live example of a blog making money, then just consider the one you're on right now. This is one of the free methods that I use to make extra money. The blog is free, provided by Blogger. The only cost involved is the time I spent setting it up - which was minimal - and the time it takes me to write these entries.

I make money from this blog by promoting products, driving traffic to other sites and through the Adsense revenue it generates when visitors to this blog click on the ads looking for more information. It's that simple.

I've been doing this for a little while now - so to me it might be simpler than it is to someone new. With that said, I should recommend that you do some more research on your own. As with just about everything, there is tons of free info available out there on making money with blogging.

There are also some products that you might want to consider if you don't have the time to do the research or you want a more in-depth, expert approach... Check out this website on how to make money with a blog - you don't have to buy anything (although it is selling) and you can sign up for free tips and free videos: Blogging to the Bank

How To Make Money Online For Free - Adsense

2008-07-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Adsense? We're going to talk about it a little today and touch on whether or not you can make money with Adsense.

Basically Adsense (by Google) is a process where ads are placed on your website or blog and when a visitor clicks on the ad you get a commission or part of the ad revenue that the advertiser pays Google for the ad. Of course Google can explain it better and in much more detail - go to Google.com and then select Advertising Programs below the search box.

Back to the question about making money with Adsense. Well - yes you can and, in fact, there are folks who make up to a full-time income just from promoting Adsense ads on their sites and/or blogs. Now to earn that much, you either need a high traffic website/blog...or you need to have many sites and blogs with less traffic earning you money.

Here's how to make money online for free with adsense in just a few simple steps (this is a very high level overview):

Sign up with Google Adsense and get a Publisher ID
Place the ads on your websites and blogs - note: you can get some websites for free and Blogger (what this blog is on) is free...and you can have as many as you want
Drive traffic to your site/blog
Visitors click on ads that interest them and you earn money

There are plenty of tutorials and guides out there that you can pick up for free that will give you much more detail about how to make money with Adsense.

If you're running short on time to research, then check out this site - it does promote a product, but you can sign up and receive a free course with good information from the owner and you don't have to buy - Adsense Videos

Bye for now...talk to you soon.

At Home Money - Are Paid Surveys A Scam

2008-07-21T20:31:00.000-07:00

This is a question that comes up often as do similar questions about anything done online or being represented as a way to make money online.

The short answer to the question is "no". There are plenty of legitimate paid surveys that you can take and earn extra money. Think about all the times that you are asked for your opinion - whether it be online, by phone, mail...whatever. Obviously our opinions are valuable and that is because merchants use this information for marketing purposes. They make more money by knowing what the people want.

This is not to say that there aren't some scams out there - I'm sure that there are. As with most things, we have to be careful and do a little homework. Before you give out your personal information to paid survey programs, do some research and check out the company, the website, do some searches on the company on the internet.

Again - as I've stated before - you can get paid to take online surveys and make nice little extra income from it. I've personally made hundreds of dollars doing this. I continue to make money on legit paid surveys and know that it is one of the way to earn extra income when I need it. I could certainly make much more if my interests didn't lead me to other things periodically.

The following are two good free paid survey sites:

http://www.globaltestmarket.com/gtm/gtm/index.php
http://www.surveyclub.com/

Thanks for reading - see ya next time...

Free Way to Make Money Online - Paid Surveys

2008-07-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

Ok...so let's talk about one of the free ways to make some extra money on the internet - getting paid to take surveys.

I'm sure that you've heard a lot about this way to earn some extra money and you might have tried it. And, if you haven't tried it, then you might be wondering if it works... Well, it does work and you can make money on surveys.

Now if you're thinking about quitting your job and doing it full-time, I'm afraid that you're out of luck. While you can make some extra cash for free through just supplying your opinion and some time, you're not going to make a career out of it most likely.

This method of paid surveys gets a great deal of hype and if you do a search online for the phrase "paid survey" you're going to see a lot of listings. You'll find that money of them of websites that offer to provide lists of the best paying survey sites for a free or through the purchase of an "ebook" or download, etc.

It's not necessary to join one of those paid sites or buy a list since you can do some searching on the web on your own and find companies that pay you for taking surveys. However, I guess there is a trade off of your time versus the price of one of the memberships or ebooks. Of course that trade off always exists - you can pay for something that adds convenience and saves time or you can do it free where you're only spending more of your time.

Well enough that...went off on a little tangent. Anyway, below I'm listing some websites (companies) that will pay you to take surveys - you don't have to pay a fee, you only have to sign up with them. This is only a few. You can find many more by doing a little research. And, oh, almost forgot to note something - not all pay in cash, with some you earn points that you can redeem for cash later or other products.

http://www.globaltestmarket.com/
http://opinion.trone.com/
http://www.pineconeresearch.com/
http://www.greenfieldonline.com/
http://www.harrispollonline.com/

If you're interested in checking out one of those paid sites I mentioned because you're concerned with the trade off of time versus convenience, then check out the below which is one of the hottest programs going at the moment:

Paid Surveys, Etc - Click Here

Free Ways to Make Money Online - Introduction

2008-07-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

Hello World...

This is my first entry into this new blog on free ways to make money online. If you're interested in making money online and you don't have much money (if any) to get started, then you've found a good place.

I'll be covering the various methods out there for earning money on the internet including the tried and true methods, current methods that are earning cash for folks as well as new techniques and programs that are popping up around the web.

I hope that you find this blog useful and learn some things that will help you on your way to making money online...whether you're already having some success or are new entirely to online money making opportunities.

Some of the topics I'll be covering in the days to come include: article marketing (some call it bum marketing), affiliate programs, paid surveys, google adsense, work at home programs, blogging...and so on... Hopefully what I offer here will help you with what you're already doing and/or open some new avenues for you going forward.

Stay tuned and please check back with us soon for tips on making money online.