3 Reasons Direct Advertisers Ignore Your Blog

Bloggers may want to supplement their earnings from ad networks that are slowly allowing their blog monetization efforts tread the coveted realms of getting direct sponsors or advertisers.

If you’re one of ‘em I’m sorry to inform you that it’s not easy to get advertisers for your blog. How come?

It’s especially difficult to get companies or businesses to buy a spot on your blog to advertise on if:

1. Your blog is still a baby.

Whoever advised that one can get direct advertisers even though his blog is just a few weeks old is a fool. Ok, if you’re Britney Spears, Bill Gates, or John Chow or anyone who’s popular enough to get advertisers drooling for some spot even if they have just bought their blog’s domain name a few minutes ago, then, go. But if you’re an average Joe, it pays to get some traffic aflowing first. According to Yaro Starak Blog Traffic School newsletter, about 500 visitors per day is ideal.

2. You’re an egomaniac or just outright greedy.

If your blog is not at any rate receiving an Engadget-esque traffic and you still managed to make some company get interested to advertise on your blog, rejoice! Now ask for an advertising rate that’s Engadget-esque and your money-making days from direct advertisers will be doomed. Just ask for what your blog is worth.Â

How much should you charge your direct advertisers?

Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspiration proposed this method of deciding what rate to offer your direct advertisers:

While advertising rates may depend on lot of factors like site traffic, your niche, ad placement and even visitor demographics, we can use contextual advertising programs like Adsense / YPN or impression based programs like Adify or TribalFusion to estimate the advertising potential of our blogs.

Say you have a 125×125 space in the left sidebar where you are seeking advertisers. Run an Adsense campaign in that space for a week and track the performance using Adsense channels.

After a week, get the average CPM value for that space (this data is available in Adsense advance reports under eCPM).

Armed with the Adsense CPM figures, you can easily quote rates that are 20% lesser than Adsense.

[Adsense ads are contextual and therefore more relevant and enjoy higher click-throughs. On the other hand, static banners look the same across all pages and return visitors generally ignore them].

Here’s an example using the above model:

Your site receives 30,000 pageviews (or hits) every month. The 125×125 Google ad that you ran for 7 days returned an average CPM of $5.00.If your client is willing to advertise based on ad impressions, you may charge him $4 CPM. If he is interested in a monthly campaign, you can quote him 30*$4 =~ $120 per month.Also, you may charge a premium (50% or more) for ads that are displayed above the page fold near the most visible areas of the site. [CrazyEgg can help you here].

If your sponsor prefers a text link ad, you can use tools from text link brokering services like Text-Link-Ads Link Calculator  and Linkworth LinkPrice Lookup to see the going price of a text link ad on your site.

3. You’re clueless about your blog’s demographics and worth.

Aside from knowing how many pages, comments, and average traffic your blog has, proving how valuable your blog is using various ranking tools that aim to help appraise a blog will be very useful in getting advertisers interested. Although their accuracy is still debatable, many companies and advertisers rely on these measures to help them make an informed decision on whether to buy ad space from a site or not.

Here are some of these blog appraising tools:

• Google Pagerank Toolbar - checks your blog’s pagerank or how Google values your blog according to the number of inbound links that your blog has. The higher the pagerank the higher the blog value.
• Live Pagerank - checks your blog’s pagerank in all Google Datacenters.
• AlexaRank - ranks a blog according to traffic received. The lower the AlexaRank the higher the blog value.
• Technorati Rank – ranks a blog according to the number of blogs linking to it.
• Blog Juice Calculator - ranks a tool according to the number of BlogLines subscribers, Alexarank, Technorati Rank, and inbound links. The higher the blog juice, the higher the blog value.
• SEOMoz PageStrength SEO Tool - ranks a blog  according to its domain name’s age, DMOZ (open directory project) listing, inbound links, indexed pages from various search engines, etc.
• WeBuildPages Cool SEO Tool - it shows a blog’s placement for a certain keyword/phrase is searched.

Have a separate page that shows these information about your blog to make it easy for advertisers to start noticing your blog.

In summary, sure, it’s a very challenging task to monetize a blog through direct sponsors, but the important thing is, it’s not impossible.

There may be a host of better tools and methods to get advertisers knocking on your door. But if you want more bits of advice on how you can win direct advertisers for your blog, Problogger has a wide array of tips.

Skype Prime

If you haven’t signed up with Skype yet, then you’re definitely missing out. I mean, never mind that it’s affordable to use Skype’s services to call your mother or long-lost-bestfriend anytime now — or to have them call you. In fact, you can hold small virtual reunions via Skype’s conferencing call system. But, never mind that.

I really believe that anyone who’s serious about establishing an online business should have Skype. It’s a great tool for networking and conferencing. And now, users can even do consulting or counselling. As a way to make money online!

Yes, through the Skype Prime feature (comes with Skype 3.1), you can configure a Skype account to be your virtual call centre. You can set your price and tie-in a Paypal account to your Skype account. Then, you promote your consulting/counselling/advice service. When someone connects with you via Skype Prime, they will be charged your requested rate. Skype gets a cut off the fees. Then, you get sent payment.

Anyway, I haven’t really tried it, as I no longer pursue this type of work at the moment. In any case, it sounds like a great D-I-Y solution for folks who want to get in to virtual counselling/consulting.

And, since Skype Prime is still only beta, it’ll be interesting to see what the final result will be like.

In any case, if you or someone you know has ever tried Skype Prime, please let me know.

Yahoo WebRank Tool : What’s Your Site’s Yahoo WebRank?

It’s been a while since I shared a web tool/toy, so here’s one to help you get an idea of your Yahoo WebRank. It’s a lot like Google’s PageRank. Yahoo! Webrank is primarily based on web surfer traffic (similar to the way Alexa works).

If you have IE and you installed the Yahoo companion toolbar’s beta release, then you should already have this tool. Otherwise, you can check your Yahoo web rank using this:

Get Yahoo! WebRank For: Brought to you by Digital Point Solutions

Just type the site’s URL and hit ‘enter’ to check the webrank.

My personal verdict on Yahoo! WebRank: As it stands, it’s not exactly the most exciting web tool. I have several sites and somehow, even those that have more traffic get ranked the same way as those that have less traffic. So…

Anyway, I just wanted to share this here, in case you’re interested.

GOOGLE ADSENSE: Affiliates Program

The Google AdSense programme is a popular one among bloggers and website owners. If you don’t have a Google AdSense account, I encourage you to sign up now. This is one good way to earn some money from your blog. You can use the same account in all other blogs and websites that you have.

Some Tips About Google AdSense:

1) Create targeted content (blog entries). And, offer a LOT of relevant content that people would like to look for and to read about. Also, if you have a great blog with lots of good content, people would keep coming back to your blog. And, this way, when people search for a topic that you wrote about, you can serve Google AdSense to them. Hopefully, to encourage clickthroughs and leads as well.

2) If you have more than one blog or website, use Google AdSense in all of them. The more your AdSense is served to the public, the better. However, the basic rules of netiquette and good blog/site design should still apply.

3) Put Google AdSense ads in strategic places in your blog. But, try not to overwhelm your blog readers and visitors with them.

4) Never try to create “fake” pages that serve Google AdSense. These are pages that have no real content, but just filled with keywords or duplicate content from other places, etc. This will be considered spamming. And, if you’re caught, you might lose your AdSense account.

5) Update your page regularly. Search engines love regularly updated blogs and sites. And, if search engines love your blog, then people can find your site that serve Google AdSense much easier.

6) Don’t click on your own ads! This sort of activity may be caught by Google and cause your affiliate account to be shut down.

* Affiliate link – you can use this to sign-up with Google AdSense

6 Ways to Make Money Online with Facebook

If you’re wondering how you can monetise Facebook, then here are some ideas for you -

1. Find new business clients. Whether you’re a consultant, a writer, a photographer, an illustrator, or any other kind of freelance or online business worker, you can find new clients using this popular social networking site. Read more about finding clients on different sites.

2. Use various apps that enable you to make money. Some examples include: MarketLodge or TwitCash. You might also want to include apps by other money making ventures like Tradebit. Check some services or affiliate programmes and see if they have a Facebook app that you can use.

3. Use Facebook’s Marketplace. The Marketplace offers you ways to sell your stuff – either old or new. You can even look for jobs.

4. Advertise your business or service using Facebook’s Classified Ads. Although you’re not allowed to advertise your business or service in the Marketplace, you can still advertise them using their Facebook’s ad service.

5. Promote links to your blogs or website. This way, you can attract people to whatever you’re selling or promoting on your blog or site.

6. Be a Facebook App Developer. If you have skills in developing online applications (like those popular apps like Warbook, SuperPoke, Graffiti, etc), you might want to consider promoting your services to individuals or companies who might want their own Facebook app.

So, how do you use Facebook? Do you try to make money online through this social networking site?

10 Mistakes in Affiliate Marketing that Can Stop Your Success

Although anyone can start an affiliate marketing business, not everyone can achieve success. Why? Well, here are 10 affiliate mistakes that deter people from succeeding in the business of affiliate marketing. To avoid all these mistakes, you first need to study them and to understand them thoroughly.

1. Believing that visitors would only click on their affiliate links. Although the task of an affiliate is only restricted to pre-selling, it isn’t just limited to displaying the affiliate links. It also entails enticing visitors to click on them by listing out the benefits of the affiliate products, giving positive recommendations by writing reviews to encourage readers to check out the products.

2. Promoting too many affiliate programs at the same time. If an affiliate markets 8 affiliate programs at the same time, he or she will have 8 affiliate marketing campaigns to handle. Most probably, the affiliate will find difficult to manage all his campaigns and unable to concentrate on each one of his or her affiliate programs in this situation and ends up losing money.

You should begin with one affiliate program. So, choose a program that you are passionate about. Then, put your best effort to market the product. Test different marketing strategies to see which one works best. Once you are making a steady commission with the product, then maybe you can look for second affiliate product to sell.

3. Believing that using a single method of marketing technique is sufficient. There are people actually think that submitting a few articles to article websites will generate the amount of traffic they expected. But this is wrong. Focusing only one marketing technique will limit the number of potential buyers you can send to your affiliate merchant’s website

4. Failing to improve the performance of your marketing campaign. Many affiliates tend to concern on checking their daily commission only and have no interest on studying and analyzing their marketing campaigns performance. When their campaigns don’t work as expected or don’t generate sales, they will fail to make corresponding adjustments because they don’t know which aspects of their campaigns need to be improved. It is essential to learn every aspect of our marketing strategies. Which marketing techniques are attracted most visitors? How many unique and returning visitors generated? How long do they stay in our website? Where they come from? These are the questions that could help us enhance the performance of our affiliate marketing business.

5. Promoting affiliate products that are lacking of demand. Some affiliate programs offer extremely high sale commission to their affiliate. But, the products aren’t salable and thus earning nothing.

6. Failing to find an affiliate program with a proven record of consumer satisfaction. The trustworthiness of a company relies on how people view it. If the affiliate program has established good relationships with their customers, then it has established a brand which is recognizable for its excellent service. You will find easier to pre-selling such an affiliate product.

7. Failing to keep abreast with the latest developments in the industry. There will come a time when the marketing knowledge we know would become obsolete, more so in the field of internet marketing where everything transpires at a rapid pace. You have to constantly update yourself with the newest trends, techniques and news in this field to always keep your competitive edge.

8. Failing to invest on knowledge. Knowledge likewise evolves and you have to evolve with it. Buy noteworthy eBooks, special reports and the likes… those which would teach you the latest tactics to help you conquer your field.

9. Resting on your laurels once a semblance of success is achieved. Success is not eternal. You have to sustain it. If you leave your business alone once it shows the promise of success, you’re just setting it up for failure.

10. Thinking that affiliate marketing can help you to become rich fast. No, affiliate marketing isn’t a “get rich quick” scheme. You have to put in a lot of effort and time, and some capital before you can make money in affiliate marketing.

5 Tips to Boost Your Adsense Revenue

Google AdSense program has made it easier for webmasters to make money through a website. Webmasters who run an AdSense campaign will display Google’s contextual Ads relevant to the content of their sites and thus encouraging visitors to click the ads and earn money for each ad click.

However, you will earn very little AdSense revenue if you don’t know how to optimize your AdSense ads on your website. Here are some tips to increase your AdSense earning:

1. Focus on one Adsense ad format. The Large Rectangle (336X280) ad format seems to work better than other ad formats because this format tends to result in higher click through rates (CTR). Another reason is that the ads will look like normal web links that visitors use to click on them. It doesn’t matter whether the visitors know that they are clicking AdSense ads or not, as long as there are clicking, you earn AdSense commission.

2. Create a custom palette for your ads. Select a color that matches your website’s background. If your site’s background is white both, the color of ad border and background should set to be white too. Also the color of the ad title should be similar to coloe of the links in your website. This is to make your AdSense ads look like it is part of the web pages. Again, this will boost AdSense CTR.

3. Don’t place your AdSense ads at the bottom of your webpages because it is proven to be less effective. Displaying your AdSense ads at the bottom is like hiding your AdSense and thus leads to low CTR and AdSense revenue. Try to put them in the place where people can see them quickly. You will be amazed how the difference between AdSense locations can make when you see your earnings.

4. Try to place your AdSense ads near rich content as visitors main focus usually are your content. There are several ways to insert AdSense ads into your content and one of the ways is place your AdSense just after the end of your content.

5. Try to automate the insertion of your AdSense code into the webpages using SSI (or server side included). Ask your web administrator if your server supports SSI or not. How do you do it? Just save your AdSense code in a text file, name it as “AdSense text”, and upload it to the root directory of the web server. Then use SSI, call the code on other pages. This tip is a time saver especially for those who are using automatic page generators to generate pages on their website.

These are some of the tips that have worked well for some who want to generate hundreds and even thousands on their websites. There are other ways to optimize your AdSense that produce high CTR also. You can learn more tricks by reading in AdSense and webmaster forums.

Make Money with Twitter Idea: Link with Amazon Affiliate

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Ever since Twitter became the latest biggest thing online, people have been trying to find different ways to make money from it. I have shared some of these ideas here at JMMO in the past. And, I thought I’d share another one that I came across recently.

You see, one of Amazon’s recent affiliate tool is a great way to make money using Twitter by linking to books and other products on Amazon using the Site Stripe. All you need to do is visit a product page while you’re logged in as an Amazon Affiliate (as well as logged in to your Twitter account), and you can find the “Share on Twitter” link via the Site Stripe (found near the top of the web page). Click on that link and you’ll have a readymade Tweet that you can use as is, or edit accordingly.

Now, how will this work best?

Well, say you wish to Tweet about a book that you’re reading or a product that you want to buy. Now, you can easily link to whatever you wish to talk about that’s also available via Amazon (using your affiliate ID). And, your contacts can readily check out the product via Amazon using your affiliate link on Twitter. If they decide to buy, you get the commission.

It’ll be interesting to see how people will use this tool.

Also Read Amazon’s Social Networking FAQ

Make Money Online Tagging Photos

Are you one of the netizens who get a kick out of using the Google Image Labeler? Google Image Labeler is this application that allows two people to get into a sort of game simultaneously describing images. The more matching labels that you and your partner (random user) were able to enter, the higher you score. What’s in it for you? You will help improve Google’s image search engine. That’s it.

Now what about getting paid to do a similar task sans the partner/game part? One similar task that allows you to earn about USD1.20 per hour is TagCow.

TagCow is a photo tagging service that outsources (I think) the tagging job to Mechanical Turk service providers. Mechanical Turk is this Amazon service that lets people work on tasks called Human Intelligence Tasks or HITs that computers can’t do well.

As a data entry job hunter myself, I remember signing up for a Mechanical Turk account about a year ago. I haven’t found too many available tasks back then so I forgot about it. But since photo tagging is not something I can really consider work since I enjoy such tasks, hmmm…

Anyone has ever tried Mechanical Turk? Were you able to successfully find work using this Amazon service?

12 Steps to Make Money Online with eBooks (and Other Ideas)

If you’re considering making money online with ebooks, there’s really just a few basic steps to go about it:

1. Think of a topic that you’re really familiar with or passionate about.
2. Find out how many other books, websites, ebooks, and blogs about that topic.
3. After your research, start writing.
4. Edit, edit, edit.
5. Proofread.
6. If possible, get someone else to proofread. It’s always helpful to have more than one pair of eyes to look through your manuscript.
7. Format your manuscript in to an ebook format. It really is up to you what type of format you want. Most popular format is PDF, as most people can easily download and read it.
8. Get a good digital cover.
9. Create a sales package for your ebook.
10. Create a marketing package. Websites, blogs, sales letters… And perhaps, even affiliate programmes.
11. Promote, promote, promote!
12. Follow-up – and promote some more.

Of course, I realise that these steps are the absolute basic. You can even write a whole ebook to flesh these topics out!

In any case, if you want to read more ebook ideas, here are some resources:

From the Web

• 8 Creative Ways to Make Money With eBooks – Some interesting ideas on how to make money with ebooks.
• Make Money with eBooks – A collection of featured articles on making money with ebooks – including an ebook tutorial, how to price your ebook, and ebook formats, among others.
• Writing An Ebook That Sells – How To Choose A Topic For Your Ebook That People Will Want To Buy – Just some basic ideas.
• How to Make Money Selling Your Own eBook – An article from WikiHow.

How to Save More Money

Saving money is like making money. So, it’s always useful to practice frugality, even in online business. Here are some money-saving links and resources for you:

• 10 Money Saving Ideas
• Money Saving Tips for Business Owners
• How to Save Money
• Simply Thrifty
• 15 Money Saving Tips for Business Travelers
• Frugal Money Saving Tips for Small Business Owners
• Practical Money Saving Tips for Small Businesses

4 Ways to Make Money from Forums

With so many new tools available for the web worker, is it still worth investing one’s time in creating and/or joining forums as part of one’s online business? Although monetizing forums may seem tough, there are people who are using them to make money online successfully – either directly or indirectly. Here are some ways on how to make money online from forums:

1. Use forums as a way to look for client leads. If you join or start forums that are related to your line of work or business, chances are, you’ll meet people who will eventually need your products and/or services. If they see how valuable your contributions are at a forum, they’re more likely to buy from you or hire you. Just remember not to spam forums and/or do ‘the hard sell’, as you’ll most likely get banned and turn people off.

2. Run ads. If you own a forum, you can post ads – either Adsense-type ads, Affiliate ads, or Direct ads. If you don’t own the forum, make sure you’re allowed to add affiliate links to your profiles and/or signatures before you try that route.

3. Use a subscription model. If you set up a niche forum that is useful, then people might be willing to pay money to belong to your forum. This is especially the case if people can immediately see the benefit of belonging to the forum (help them to make money, gain unusual information, etc.).

4. Build backlinks to your blog or site. As a member or administrator of forums can help you by having links to your blog or site. So, make sure to set up your profile and your forum signatures accordingly. If you’re a valued member of that forum, they’re bound to want to find out more about you even if you don’t ask them.

If you own a forum – or you support one – feel free to share your experience about them with us here.

Making Money Online: What Keeps You From Doing it Full Time?

While checking out the making money online as an occupation poll results, and found out that majority of BTMM’s readers are not doing it full-time yet, it got me thinking what stops one from fully jumping into the make money online wagon.

There are lots of factors to consider before anyone can decide to drop his current day job and get into making money online full-time:

- Viability of the online business or online job. What job or business you’re going to work on will greatly affect your decision. Does this online business interest you enough? How saturated is the market? Is your skill set enough to grow in this line of business? These are just a few of the important considerations if you are to gauge whether you can survive the online jungle.

- Financial status. If you don’t have an emergency fund, let alone seed money, it will be harder for you to follow your heart and start that web startup.

- Dependents. If you have, say five kids, some in high school, some in College, and you are the breadwinner, it will make you think twice whether you’re going to be all out in pursuing an online venture, especially if you’re not so sure if it’s viable enough.

- Tools. Same with financial status, an example is if you’d like to be a full-time transcriptionist but you don’t have the funds to pay for a foot pedal and a decent headset, it may not be high time for you to join the online force just yet.

- Scams. If you can’t distinguish the rotten apples from the good ones when it comes to online business opportunities, again, better learn more about the bad signals first.

I’m sure I haven’t even covered half of the reasons why one may not choose to get into making money online full-time. As for me it wasn’t a hard decision because aside from falling in love at first sight with making money online (how’s that possible? another story), I have no dependents and I was able to stock on theories that made getting it on first-hand not that too difficult.

Now how about you dear BTMM readers, since according to the poll, many of you are trying it as a hobby or as a part-time gig, what’s stopping you from going all out?

Make Money Online on Google

Whenever I check the coveted ‘make money online’ search term on Google, I always send a quiet kudos to those who get listed in the first couple of pages. I know how difficult it is to get there.

So, when I read that JMMO was on #7 over at Top 20 Make Money Online Sites, I had to check it out myself. After all, JMMO was not even on page 2 or 3 or even 4 last time I checked a few weeks ago.

Well, it wasn’t at #7 when I checked. But, it was #9. First page. I was gobsmacked.

Anyway, I just thought I’d celebrate being on page 1 of the ‘make money online’ Google search by blogging about it here. Maybe one day I’ll be considered a “Top Making Money Online Guru”. Heh.

Make Money Online with 5 Stock Photo Sites

There are many sites nowadays that showcase the art of photography by amateur photographers. Sites that allow you to express yourself through photographs and in the process earn money for your photos.Â

How is this made possible? Simple, sites allow you to show off your skills in the field of photography by letting you have a space in their site for your photos and then buyers are allowed to choose from the several photographs showcased on their sites. This will allow you to have prospective buyers for your own photos and you never know if you will have a buyer sooner or later. There are various schemes on how each site would pay for your photos but there are almost the same requirements for the file type that they would want your photos to have. That are usually, JPG, EPS, AI or PSD depending on the site that you wish to sell your photos.Â

So if you have those photos there stored in your PC and just sitting to be explored for a possible work of art, why don’t you try these sites for your photographic explorations. You might be an artist after all.

Below are a five of the stock photography sites where you could showcase your art. And you might like to take a look at the packages that they offer photograph sellers, if you intend to sell your photos online. Some have very interesting offers (commissions *wink).

1. *BigStockPhotoÂ

BigStockPhoto requires a photo seller to take the Photographer Test after studying the Tutorial pages. If you pass you’ll be able to upload photos, which will be reviewed by the editors. When users download them, you earn fifty cents each time (or up to $60 for some downloads if you have elected to also sell photos under our Special Licensing agreements). BigStockPhoto mail checks or make payment to you via Paypal or MoneyBookers.

2. DreamstimeÂ

Dreamstime requires that the image must be at least 3MP in size or more; it must be RGB saved at highest JPG quality 12. You should also have a model release on all people recognizeable in your image. Sellers get 50-80% from each sale made. Payment is via bank check, Paypal, and MoneyBookers.

3. FotoliaÂ

Landscape, Architecture, People, Fauna & Flora, Objects, Transport, Food & Drink to Social Issues and Travel are the most in-demand image subjects that Fotolia suggest to those who want to upload photos using their site. Requires minimum of 1600 x 1200 pixels for web use and 2272 x 1704 pixels or greater for print use
The preferred files are with atleast 2000 x 3000 pxels. Fotolia pays an average of 52% commission to its contributors.Â

4. iStockPhotoÂ

iStockPhoto requires that the images be RGB JPG format only. Required file sizes: the bigger, the better. 300 dpi 5″ x 7″ is optimal. 640×480 images are not usable by most graphic artists. All files should be 1200 x 1600 pixels minimum (anything smaller will be automatically rejected The royalty structure on iStockphoto is 20%. If you’re eligible for exclusivity, you can make up to 40%. Pay is via Paypal and Moneybookers, or you can request a check by mail; Electronic payment requests are usually processed within 3 workdays. Check requests are processed at the beginning of each month and the checks are sent out at the middle of the month.

5. ShutterStock

Shutterstock pays 25 cents per download and it also has a referral program that users can also earn from. ShutterStock also accepts stock footage. Images must be at least 2.5 megapixel to be accepted. But new photographers’ minimum size is 4.0MP. Pay checks are mailed monthly.

To make the most out of making money online with stock photography make sure that your image is original and truly copyrighted by you. All trademarks must be removed. This includes logos, brands and entities with copyright or trademarked elements. This many also extend to trademarked products such as cast sculptures, toys, architecture and other elements of design. This is necessary to avoid future legal problems.

Always check the sellers’ portion for frequently asked questions, you better check it out first before trying to publish your work and sell your photos. This will help a lot in clarifying whatever you want to know about how to make money online from that stock photo site.

Also, don’t forget to know what are the most in-demand image subjects to avoid wasting your time uploading least requested images.

Good luck to your artistic experience into the world of stock photography and start earning!

More references for making money from photography – and a forum on stock photography.  If you want to know how lucrative stock photo sites have become – CNN.

 *referral link

Make Money Doing Desktop Publishing: A Career in Digital Arts and Media

Thanks to desktop publishing, producing and designing newsletters, brochures, magazines and other print and online media have gotten easier and cheaper. This is an excellent career, particularly for people who love working with computer software, copy and graphics – mostly virtual assistants. It’s one of the businesses that are cheapest to start as well.






If this is your idea of a perfect job, here are some things you need to know about desktop publishing:

Education and training

Generally, you do not need to complete a college degree just to get hired as a desktop publisher. Many professionals in this field obtained their expertise through interest and practice. However, obtaining a certificate, a bachelor’s or associate degree will help, particularly because these qualifications often lead to the best jobs.

Knowledge in the appropriate computer software is also required. Since you will be working with computer peripherals such as scanners, cameras and printers, it’s also important that you are comfortable using these accessories.

What the job entails

As a desktop publisher, it’s important that you know how to use the appropriate computer software. Having good artistic skills and knowledge in visual aesthetics are also key to success.

Other than that, you also need to be capable of making critical decisions regarding certain elements that affect the final product. Being able to identify strong and weak points in a presentation and give alternative suggestions and approaches are also vital to your work.

Since you will be working with a computer, expect to be spending most of your work hours sitting in front of a monitor. Expect to be working and communicating closely with clients during projects and job assignments.

Job prospects

In 2006, over 30,000 people worked in desktop publishing and the figure continues to rise. Many of these individuals work independently either as self-employed workers who own their own firms or work-from-home contractors. It’s important to create a strong portfolio and obtain excellent reviews from past clients. Build your network and market your skills to gain more projects. Do research so you can price your services appropriately.

So where exactly can you find desktop publishing gigs? You can start looking for this type of job through visiting job boards, online marketplaces, social networks, and oftentimes by simply asking for referrals.

image from sxc.hu

About Me

About



Believe To Make Money(BTMM) is a blog by Emelda, with some posts from guest or temporary bloggers. It’s included in the Top 100 Making Money Online Blogs list. It’s also included in various Top 100 blogs list in Australia & the Philippines.

BTMM is a site dedicated to help people from all walks of life to make money online by offering various practical tips, advice, ideas, and resources on the web. The articles here are mostly based on experience and recommendations. It is especially geared towards beginners and newcomers to online businesses. It avoids tech jargon and offers a community feel, to let readers know that they are not on their own in this web journey.

Background:

This blog was started on the 2nd of January 2005 (shares Emelda’s real birthday!), as Make Money Online: The Internet Income Blog via the AboutWeblogs network. When AboutWeblogs merged with b5media, this blog was reborn as Believe To Make Money (BTMM) in June 2006.

When the AW-b5 merge happened, Nomad became a partner/co-owner of b5media. She is also now the Vice President of Community for the network. b5media raised $2M funding late in 2006, from Malaysia-based VCs: JLA Ventures and Brightspark. b5 is based in Toronto, Canada.

About Emelda:

Emelda has been a long-time web and business enthusiast. Growing up with business-minded families taught her that making a living for yourself is not only doable – but also worthwhile. She started her first business ventures in first grade. And, never stopped since.

When it comes to making money online, Emelda began exploring the web for pleasure – and profit – since late 1999. Her first jobs and cash from the web came from writing content for various websites and online publications.

She later ventured in to making websites, publishing ezines and e-newsletters, running forums, selling on eBay, selling her own digital products, online counselling and consulting, and online teaching, among others.

Emelda is currently making money online on a full time basis – and slowly edging her way to a six-figure income.

From Emelda:

“Hello and welcome to Believe To Make Money! I hope you find something useful in this site. And, if you don’t find what you’re looking for, please know that I welcome questions. Sometimes, I offer these questions online as part of my Advice series. This is so we can all help each other out when it comes to learning more about making money online. If you do not wish for your email to be published, please let me know advance.

In any case, thank you for visiting BTMM. If you like what you see, please subscribe via a feed reader or by email (see sidebar). Or, simply bookmark this site and please come back again soon.”

Some comments from readers, bloggers about BTMM…

* “Believe To Make Money lists tons of great ways to make money online, including websites, links, and easy to understand descriptions of how each site works. The site is a nice change of pace that is low on the techie insider stuff and heavy on the practical pick-up-some-quick-cash tips and tricks.” – Ryan Shamus, via blog post
* “I have come across a million and one blogs about making money online (okay, okay, maybe not quite that many) and most of them are either full of crap, or full of affiliate and referral links and nothing useful to anyone who is really looking to make money online. Your blog, however has some real information and makes the reader feel like you are here for more then just trying to make money. Thanks.” – Aiden, via comment

7 Ways to Make Money on Flickr (+ Bonus Tips)

I love Flickr. It’s not perfect. In fact, I have a long wish list when it comes to this service – including better protection for photographers and artists. But, in spite of its shortcomings, I’ve been a loyal customer since 2004 – long before it was acquired by Yahoo (and paying for a Pro account every year since ‘06).

And, while there are no direct ways to make money online with Flickr, there are ways you can use the site to help you in your business/career. Here are some ideas:

1) Take a photo of a product and put a link to your affiliate link via notes function. To see a sample of this idea in action, click on the photo of books on the right hand side. You will then be taken to the image’s Flickr page. Once you’re there, put your cursor over the books and you’ll see notes with affiliate links to Amazon.

2) Make your picture available as stock photo and put a link to your sales or downloads page. If you use a service like Tradebit, for example, you can mention in your photo description that a higher resolution/non-watermarked version of your photo is available for download.

3) If you sell on eBay, Etsy, or your own shop, you can take a photo of your product and put a link to your store front. Many Flickr crafters tend to use this approach. Flickr then helps to introduce your products to people. One example is artist and designer Elsie Flannagan: when she has a new piece available for sale, she uploads an image like this and mentions that it’s available as a print or original in her Etsy shop. Another example is Mahar Dry Goods, run by Robert Mahar who tend to upload new product photos on Flickr, and his profile reflects the fact that he is the owner of craft gift shop for kids (with a link to shop front).

4) Build your portfolio and market your service/business. Even if you don’t have products to sell, but you have a service to offer, you can use Flickr as one of your online portfolios. This especially useful for artists, photographers, illustrators and designers. Many folks have claimed to have gained new clients based on their Flickr account. One such person is author/illustrator Debbie Ohi. You can see that her profile reflects the nature of her work and that she accepts commissions.

5) When you use a photo on your blog that you uploaded on Flickr, add a link to your blog post or portfolio site. If your blog runs ads, product sales and/or affiliates, then you might get new customers too.

6) Sell them as prints. You can either use a third party service for creating high quality prints, or you can do the printing yourself if you have the equipment and knowledge to do so. Mention that your photos are available as prints in the description and/or your profile.

7) Create products off your photography. Flickr, for example, has a partnership with Qoop, where various products like mugs, keychains and photobooks may be created based on your Flickr photos. You can create them there and resell those products. Another option is making your own image-based products available on Cafepress. Again, you can mention the availability of these products in the description and/or your profile.

Some Bonus Tips:

1. Make sure you upload a good quality image. Otherwise, it will not encourage people to buy your products or use your services.

2. Adding good titles and descriptions are always helpful.

3. Don’t forget to add tags! Tagging helps to get your images to show in relevant searches.

4. Never ever oversell. Flickr users will know if you’re just using the service to peddle your products/services. Don’t plaster “for sale” signs.

5. Join groups and participate in them. Send some of your good images to these groups (within the group rules). Communities help!

6. Add friends and leave comments. Being an active participant is a good thing.

7. Promote your Flickr photos on your blog, your email signature, and anywhere else you can think of.

8. There are 2 versions of Flickr – a Free and Pro version. With the Free one, you have limited number of uploads in a month, plus a few other restrictions. But, it’s still worth using. The Pro version has unlimited uploads and a few other perks – like getting your photos organised in several sets and collections.

So, do you use Flickr at all? And, do you have any other money-generating ideas with the use of Flickr?

Image credit: Shai Coggins

Making Money with Membership Sites

Membership sites seem to have become a really popular way to make money online. And, this is understandably so.

One great thing about membership sites is that if you do have a great product/site, then chances are, you will have recurring income – weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even annually – through membership or subscription fees. Your best strategy is to make sure that you take care of your existing members and to encourage them to keep their memberships.

So, how do you get started with setting up membership sites?

There’s a lot to cover regarding this topic, so I’m hoping to break this down in to a series of articles/posts. This one’s just an introduction to the whole idea of membership site building.

In any case, here’s a quick overview on what to do to set up and to make money from membership sites -

1. Choose what kind of membership site that you would like to run. Consider your niche and your target audience. What kind of products/benefits will you offer? What’s your “hook”? What would make people want to pay money to be a member of your site? This is really a very important part of your planning process when it comes to creating memberships. So, take your time in considering your options.

Just remember that all paid membership sites offer premium services that you can’t find easily for free on the web. That’s why it’s vital to think about this aspect of your business.

Some examples of paid membership sites that I have come across include:

• a guitar or piano membership site where you can download free music sheets
• a blogging services site where they offer free installation a blog software plus some premium plug-ins
• a food site where they offer restaurant vouchers and other freebies
• an educational site that have printable lesson plans and other resources
• a web design site where they offer free premium blog/site templates

2. Decide on the technology that you wish to use for your membership site. Although this may seem daunting, there are many ways now that you can run membership sites with just very little programming and designing expertise.

Some ways of setting up a paid membership site include:

• Running a Wordpress blog and adding on membership plugins
• Using third party services such as Ning to run membership sites and then charging member fees
• Creating a website with both free and premium content. You can then charge for the premium content. To help you to automate the process, it is highly recommended that you use a membership programme/software.

3. Decide on your membership programme. You need to consider things like: What’s the membership duration that you wish to offer? Weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually? How much will you charge for membership? There are no hard and fast rules here. It will really depend on the kind of site you have and the services and products that you offer.

4. Think about how you will market your membership sites and attract members. Just putting up a membership site isn’t a surefire way to make money. It’s important to know how you can actually encourage your people not just to sign up to become a member of your site (this in itself is a challenge, even for free memberships!)… but to part with their hard-earned cash just to be a member.

Some questions to consider: Will you advertise your site? If so, how? Will you run ads on your member site? Can paying members have the option of turning off those ads? What kind of functionalities will members get? Will you offer a free membership? If yes, what are the benefits of becoming a premium member? For example, popular photo sharing site Flickr has a free membership option. However, they offer a premium (”Pro”) version by giving paying members some benefits like increased upload limits and other improved functionality.

5. Have a plan to keep your existing customers happy! Although it’s very tempting to focus a lot of your attention to gaining new members, you must always remember to think of ways to encourage existing customers to remain loyal. Give them a reason to be a member for as long as possible. And perhaps, even talk about the benefits of being a member of your site to people that they know.