Month: February 2019

If you are thinking or getting a website and doing research about marketing your website, then you’ve probably come across the word SEO or search engine optimization. So what is SEO and why is it so very important with people who own a website? Why are SEO classes online offered?

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a process that internet marketers use to increase the visibility of their websites in the results of the search engines through driving traffic to their website.

How Does It Work?

First, you need to know that there are a lot of search engines out there aside from Google. The other major players in search engine optimization are Bing and Yahoo, but let’s face it. Google has the most users so SEO specialists focus on it. Each search engine has a listing of every word or group of words people search on it. These are called search results. The goal of every website is to be on the top of the listing of the word or group of words relevant to the website. This word or group of words are called keywords.

The websites who are on top of the list are the ones who got more traffic or audience than the others. Of course if you are marketing something, you would want to be on top of those search engine results, otherwise, you are missing on a lot of money. There are several techniques in getting to the top of those search engine results pages. There are a lot of search engine optimization classes offered online if you want to learn these techniques so that you can compete with other marketers online.

SEO isn’t really hard to do as long as you have the patience to rank your page. Ranking your page does not happen in just a few days. In fact, ranking it takes a few months to a year to rank your website. Building your website with a good domain name is very important in starting your marketing strategy. It should be something that others would easily remember or use so that it can drive more traffic to the website. You also need to understand how the search engines rank their listings in order to know what technique to use to rank your website.

How Does the Search Engines Rank the Websites?

Search engines actually use automated robots known as web crawlers or spiders to scan and catalog the websites. After that, the pages are evaluated by algorithms that check if the page has a unique value or not. If the content of the page has a unique value and answers the question of the keyword, then it is displayed in the search engine result. The better the answer, the higher the rank of the page or website.

Search engine not only answer the questions of the users, but the intent of the question is also playing a major role in ranking a website. The algorithms of the search engines are smart enough to file each content that the users read in order to rank the websites.

Google is used by a lot of people because the Google algorithm gives more relevant websites to the keywords searched than the other search engines. In fact, as an SEO I found that Google algorithm changes constantly to maintain their edge over the other search engines so I have to be updated regularly as well. A colleague of mine even told me one time that Google algorithm updates are over 500 per year.

The updates on the algorithm are necessary because they don’t want the businesses to get into the “game” and manipulate the results of the system. Generally, the factors that affect the ranks of the website s are based on on-page and off-page penalties.

On-page SEO is based on the content of the website and the keywords that are on the pages of the website. Off-page SEO, on the other hand, is focused on the popularity of the website and how external resources are using your site. Local websites, however, have the same criteria, but algorithms added My Business, local listings, and website reviews in the criteria. My Business and reviews help check the actual location of the business and the reviews determine the popularity of that business in the area.

If you will study about SEO classes online, you will need to choose if you will go with the On-Page SEO or the Off-Page SEO. Let’s see their difference so you can determine which SEO tactic you should concentrate on:

On-Page SEO

Like I mentioned above, on page SEO is all about the content of the website. You will be using HTML codes in your keywords so that it will link the page to your website. The links are used as signals to let the search engines see your site. The content of the page should also be relevant to the niche of your website otherwise, people will get off of our page quickly and Google algorithm checks the average time people go to your page and that affects the ranking of your website. You need to optimize the title and the description of the content in order to rank well in the SEO pages. If you want to learn how to create good content, you can also get online content writing courses or SEO online classes.

If you are having problems with your website ranking, you may do a website SEO audit. SEO audit means you will need to check your website and see where you are making a mistake and correct them. There are a lot of tools that can help you do a website audit. The software will check your content, website profile, and the links that you use for your website.

There are other factors that affect the ranking of the website in on-page SEO. Google algorithm also check if your website has a mobile-friendly design, HTTPS security, the speed of the webs page, plagiarism, SEO-friendly URLs, meta description tags, and internal linking. Of course, there are numerous other factors that affect the ranking of the website n On-page SEO, but these are the major key factors that I found affecting the ranking so far.

Remember that in SEO content is king and you have to make sure you understand that your content is always SEO-friendly. If you want to know more about them, you can get SEO classes online and learn about the different writing techniques and how to insert links on your content so that the algorithms of the search engines will see your page and rank it.

Off-page SEO

Off-Page, SEO is a strategy that uses optimization outside your site in order to rank in the search engine results. The major factor affecting it is how the web or the audience view your website. It answers the question: “Is your website trustworthy?”

Remember that the algorithm is not human so the links from other sites like links from other articles, social media, and reviews help the algorithm determine the ranking of your website. In fact, a lot of people rely on link-building to rank their page with the Off-Page SEO tactic. Web content and web design still play a major factor in the Offf-Page ranking. Having a good web design and content will attract other websites to link their site to you.

If you want to do link building, however, you will need to do it correctly. You need to understand the unspoken guidelines in putting links. Google algorithm still checks how trustworthy the website where your link is coming from. A long-time trustworthy website is very ideal to build links to. You can actually check top ranking websites relevant to your niche and email them to see if they will allow you to post a guest blog. Remember that you have a niche and where the outside links are from should always be relevant to what your niche is.

The content of the website you are linking to is also very important. A sentence explaining why the audience needs to click the link is important because users may not click on the link going to your site without any explanation.

Social media can also influence your Off-Page ranking. The better the content on your website, the better chances you will have that the audience will share your link and other content writers or bloggers may see your page and decide to link it with their site. You may also get a positive review from the audience about your website because of the content that was shared on social media.

If you want to rank your page or simply be an SEO expert that will help the website rank their pages, remember that you need to understand the above tactics because they are the important factors that affect SEO. Do not just concentrate on these, however, there are more factors and tactics out there that you will need to be familiar about. SEO classes online can actually help you learn most of these tactics. It takes patience and experience to rank your website in the number one spot of Google Algorithm. If at first, you do not succeed, take up other SEO courses or read about Google algorithm updates to help you. A lot of people are also on forums and can give you tips on the latest tactic and software out there that can help you check the technicalities of your page.

A year ago, a friend approached me and told me that I am going to make easy money by doing some investments. He discovered a company that pays well as long as you make an investment so I got curious and asked more about it. It turns out that if I invest my money with them, they will put it in current pyramid schemes.

What is a Pyramid Scheme?

Pyramid Schemes are actually a business model that encourages members to invest money and recruit other members into the group in order to generate income from the money that the new members have invested. Each member actually gets a portion of the money that the new recruit has invested in the company. That way, the people involved in the scheme grows very quickly.

There are 2 kinds of pyramid schemes:

1. Naked – or the 8 ball model. This kind of pyramid scheme has no product, but they have encouraged the members to recruit others so that they can recover the money that they invested. The formula for success in order to gain money goes like this. Every person involved in the company is required to recruit two other new members and the new members should also recruit two more, and it goes on and on.

2. Product – this scheme actually uses products to mask it as a sales opportunity. The idea of the product pyramid scheme is the same as a naked pyramid scheme except that the product pyramid scheme gets products to sell in order to generate income. Every member that is higher up in the pyramid gets a percentage of the product that was sold by the people that are located in the lower portion of the pyramid. If the product is not in demand, the chances of getting a percentage are very low if you are in the lower part of the pyramid.

Only people on the higher portion of the current pyramid schemes actually reap the benefits so it’s not really a good idea to invest in it if a lot of people have already invested in that particular pyramid scheme.

Are pyramid schemes illegal? Yes. Companies that offer pyramid schemes are even illegal so you should be wary in investing in this kind of business.

Another type of investment that is offered by a lot of people is multi-level marketing or MLM. What is MLM and what is the difference of MLM from pyramid schemes?

Is MLM a pyramid scheme?

People who do not understand MLM often mistake it as a pyramid scheme. There is little difference between pyramid schemes and MLM. The difference between them is the source of the revenue that the members will get from these companies. IF the income came from sales of a certain product that was sold by an individual, then it may be a legal MLM company, but if the income came from the number of people you have recruited to join the company then that is illegal and it’s a pyramid scheme.

Differentiating the two is very difficult, however. Current pyramid schemes can be mistaken as an MLM company because they offer a product and they are open to their members. This is a very common misconception mainly because pyramid schemes actually generate the income from the people who are recruited in the company through the membership fees and recruiting more people instead of selling the products itself.

A real multi-level marketing strategy is a strategy that is used by legal companies that encourages their distributors to recruit more people in order to sell their product. The existing distributors then get a percentage or a commission of the sales of the new recruits. There’s an extensive list of multi level marketing companies that are available right now. You can join one of these companies if you follow these guidelines:

1. Understand MLM – you need to know the real meaning of MLM it’s different from a pyramiding scheme. MLM companies sell products and you get a commission from the sales. In addition to that, you also get a percentage of the sales of the people you have recruited.

2. Low Start-up Costs

3. Low product cost

4. Low maintenance cost

5. Sales are made by teams – If you are a distributor and you have recruited several new distributors, you each need to achieve a certain amount of sales goals in order to generate the income that you desire per month.

Tips in Choosing the Right MLM Company to Join:

1. The product of the company that you will be joining should be something that is new and in demand. People are often curious is a new brand is introduced in the market so a new brand is better than a product that has been on the market for a long time. The product should also be something that is highly consumable so that people who have tried the product will go back and buy the product again.

2. The company that will allow you to get a down line. A down line means you will recruit other people to sell products under your supervision. Take note that this is different from pyramiding because you will have a team of distributors under you that will be selling the same product that you are selling and the new distributors don’t need to recruit more people. A lot of MLM companies encourage this practice because it encourages more sales.

3. Even though you are looking for a new brand of product, you also need to consider the age of the company that you will be joining. Companies that have been in the business for several years has a stable capital and are earning well. Joining new companies is risky simply because you have no assurance that the company will last for a long time. Be on a lookout for companies who are not open about the company status because a lot of companies that follow pyramiding schemes are very secretive about their financial status.

4. Multi-level marketing companies that go international are profitable. This also means company stability. Plus the fact that they went overseas indicate that they follow the law and are not following a pyramiding scheme. So check out these kinds of companies and consider them among the list of multi level marketing companies.

5. Observe the investors that were ahead of you and try to copy them. Remember, the MLM market has been around for quite some time so changing the system will not do you any good. Focus on what you can do to attract people to buy your goods. Generally, people love to trade or buy something. When they buy from you if you can try to recruit them to be your down line. Focus on attraction marketing because people are very wary about marketing pitches due to pyramiding schemes. Don’t try to pitch in about recruiting people to become your down line right away. Let them trust you first and convince them that the product that you have is good enough to invest their time and effort.

6. Once you get started with MLM it’s easy to get overconfident and join other MLM companies. So you end up marketing 2 or more products to sell. This is not a good practice. Chances are, you will fail with all of them. Choose only one MLM company and market the product well. More importantly, don’t give up. You won’t get a lot of money at the start, but you will get more eventually. Like anything else, MLM also takes time to generate big bucks. It just needs perseverance and patience.

7. Choose a product that you are confident with and can sell easily. Joining a company that has a product that has a lot of potential to earn money is good, but what if you are not confident with the product? In order to succeed in MLM, you need to believe in your product and be comfortable selling it. People will get discouraged if you are not happy with your product. They will sense it from the answers that you will give them when they ask you more about the product that you are selling.

8. Before you enter an MLM company, you need to make sure that you are in on it for a long haul. You need to focus only on MLM. People who make a lot of money with MLM are committed to marketing the product full time. That means you don’t need to have another job. It’s not for part-timers and also not for quitters. Some people would join and be active for only a few months then they go cold turkey.

9. Choose a company that pays well. MLM companies that are successful will also go out of their way to help you and train you on how to market the product well. They will pass on the company’s best practices to the new distributors to make sure that they have a good percentage of success.

So pyramiding schemes are actually different from MLM companies. Be on the look-out for signs that a company is practicing current pyramid schemes. To avoid pyramiding schemes you need to be careful. Be skeptical whenever a person gives you a sales pitch. The sales pitch needs to be honest and the company is open to their finances. Pyramiding schemes sales pitches tend to get you excited to the point that you cannot think straight. Get an opinion from a family member or a friend before joining a company. They may find some fault to the sales pitch that may indicate that the company is a pyramiding scheme company instead of an MLM company. Research the company and the product to make sure that they are legitimate. Lastly, make sure you understand how the company works. If it sounds like a pyramiding scheme company, then get out and don’t join them, but if it’s a valid MLM company and you have the luxury of time and the investment to join them, then don’t hesitate to join in. Bear in mind that there are a lot of legitimate MLM companies that you may join to get a lot of money.

We hear this word mentioned in ads, newspapers, and even from your friends. People often mistake a blog from a vlog. So what is the real meaning of a blog and how can you earn money from it?

Blog actually came from the word “weblog”. Early bloggers made an entry in their journal online every day regarding their day. Over time the word was shortened to blog. Overtimes, people started sharing some information in the weblogs. The business industry saw the marketing potential of a blog and took advantage of it. Now blogs are informational websites about topics that are “anything under the sun.” A vlog, on the other hand, is a video journal. So vlogs are usually found in YouTube videos.

A blog nowadays has information regarding topics that are related to the product or service of a website. A writer or a group of writers writes informative content regularly to the blog. It has their views and opinions about the subject that they are writing.

A lot of people still confuse a website from a blog, however. I admit it’s difficult to differentiate these two nowadays because a lot of companies that have a website include blogs into their sites to give information to their customers and at the same time drive traffic to the website.

There are a lot of features of a blog, however, that is not on the website:

1. Engagement – Blogs engage the audience or readers. Readers can give feedback, comments, or opinions about the blog on the blog page. Websites, on the other hand, do not engage their audience. Only relevant information about the topic is posted and the readers or audience cannot ask questions or voice their opinions on the page.

2. Updates – Blogs are updated regularly. They are usually shown in Chronological order with the latest blog on the top of the page.

3. Publishing Date – Blogs always have dates on when they have been published.

4. Author Reference – Blogs always show the name of the author and a short biography of the author on the bottom of the page.

Websites, on the other hand, will have no changes in the content regularly. It means no matter how many days you were away from the website, you won’t be missing a thing because the content in it is not changed regularly.

Why is it in demand?

Blogging is becoming popular and more and more businesses are using it as a tool for marketing. Blogging training courses have also become available for aspiring bloggers. In fact, I saw a lot of them being offered online. Some of them are even advanced English grammar courses. People pay for it too because there is a lot of money from blogging.

If you cannot put up a blogging site yourself for some reason, a lot of companies are hiring bloggers for their products. Not everyone has the gift of writing creatively and not everyone has the luxury of spending the time to learn how to blog.

Bloggers, in general, are people who love sharing their knowledge and experiences to people online. They write about it and help people learn from them through their blogs. Most bloggers do not stay in one place especially travel bloggers. They like to be on the move bringing their laptops and camera with them everywhere.

Of course, we all know now that there is money through blogging, but why do they blog?

Reasons Why People Blog

• To Share Ideas

There are a lot of people who are searching the internet for answers especially aspiring entrepreneurs. Blogs are a way to reach out to those people to help them start on their venture. I, for example, blog to share my knowledge about how to earn online in various ways especially in blogging and affiliate marketing.

• To Market

This is one of the ways companies use to market their product. By doing so, they reach more people who are not aware of the product.

• To Share Views and Opinions

Sharing views and opinions are not only done in radio, tv or newspaper commentaries. Blogging is another way of voicing an opinion as well. A lot of people divert to blogging to share their social and political views.

• To Connect

Blogging is a way for a lot of people to connect with other people who share common interests. Remember that a blog allows readers to interact with the author. Comments can be placed below the blog and the author can talk to other people about the topic through the comments section.

• To Make Money

Of course, this is what we’ve talked about above. Blogging can get you a lot of money in the long run. You can either set-up your own blog, work as a blogger for companies, or set-up a blogging training course.

How to Start Blogging Online

If you want to start your own blog, here are tips on how to start blogging:

1. Find a Niche

Find a topic or a niche that you can blog about. It should be something that you have a lot of knowledge or something that is a trend right now. It can be about:

a. Fashion

b. Technology

c. Setting up a Business

d. Food

e. Health and Fitness

f. Traveling

g. Lifestyle

h. Parenting

i. Entertainment

j. DIYs or Instructional Guides

k. Finance

l. Professional and Academic

2. Find a Good Web Hosting Page

A good web hosting is very important in starting to blog because it can influence your success. Check out the cost, the speed, the uptime, disk space, bandwidth. Security features and the technical support of the web hosting first and compare them before paying for it. Shared hosting is the cheapest, but not the ideal one. In shared hosting, you will share our bandwidth and the disk space of the server so there may be times that it will be slow.

A lot of web hostings now have included the WordPress capability with them. WordPress is actually very easy to use and is used by most companies online for their web page because it’s user-friendly and you can incorporate a lot of useful plugins in it. When you get a plan for your website, you can get the basic one as long as it has WordPress incorporated with it so you can set up your website easily. Of course, once you get money out of your blog, you can always upgrade to a better plan that offers more features in the future.

3. Choose a Good Domain Name

Your domain will be your identity forever. It is something that people will type in to access your site so it should be something that can easily be remembered so you need to choose the domain name wisely. You have to consider the fact, though that a lot of people have websites as well. When you have thought of a website name, try typing it on the server so you can see if another individual has already taken that domain name or not.

Your domain name should also be something that can easily be spelled and describes your blog or product. So think of a keyword for your niche that people might search online. That can be your domain name. You can also use hyphens when creating your domain name. So for example, if blogging course.com has already been taken, you can also use blogging-course.com for your webs page.

If you really have a problem with creating a web domain name, you can use a domain generator. A lot of them are available on the web for you to use.

4. Choose a Blogging platform

When it comes to blogging platforms, a lot of free blogging courses recommend WordPress.

Why WordPress?

a. It’s Free!

b. It’s easy to set-up. Even non-tech savvy people can do it.

c. Plugins and themes are available for you to use. Of course, not all of them are free, but you have a lot of beautiful and useful choices to choose from.

d. WordPress is mobile friendly

e. It has a good online support

f. There are a lot of tutorials available for you to access how to use it.

5. Created Content

Of course, the most important thing in a blog website is the blog itself. You can take up blogging training courses in order to produce great content. Here are some tips in creating your blog content:

a. Know your target audience – The tone of your content should be appropriate for your target audience. Just imagine you are writing a letter to your audience so the sentences that you should write need to be simple and clear so that your message will reach your target audience.

b. Be Consistent– Your content should be something that is relevant to the product or service of your web domain name otherwise you will confuse your audience. For example. You can’t have a blog site that has a domain name of furnitures.com and your content is about curtains and bed sheets.

c. Give the readers what they are looking for – know your audience and always talk about something that the audience can relate to. If you don’t know how to do this, you can get blogging training courses online to know how to search for what your audience needs to read.

d. Length of the Blog – the length of blogs vary. They can be just 300 words or it can be a long one and can go up to 2000 words. There is really no definite guideline on how many words you will need in a blog post, but free blogging courses would recommend 1000 to 1500 words that are very informative.

e. Always include an image – People like looking at pictures. So include a picture that is appropriate with your niche in your blog.

f. Put categories and tags on your post – these will help your audience search for topics regarding the niche on your site easily.

g. Publish your blog post– always make sure that your blog post is published successfully. Proofread your post and check if the blog has the right margins and spacing.

h. Post Regularly – You need to be consistent in producing a blog. You may have followers that check your content regularly. You would want them to keep going back to your site so you need to keep them happy.

There is no formula for creating a blog and being successful with it. The free blogging courses that are available online are only there to give you guidelines. I the end, it’s up to your positive attitude, your patience in writing the blogs, and your determination to succeed that will give you a lot of money from blogging in the future. If you’re thinking that this is hard, do not give up. A good opportunity is waiting for you.

Would you like to make a living out of selling products? You actually have 2 choices. You can either open a physical store or open a store online.

Opening a physical store, however, has a lot of disadvantages. You will need a lot of starting capital in order to start a physical store. Not only that, but you will need to do market research first and a feasibility study first before you open the physical store because the location that you will need to put the store should be a good location. After that, you would be overseeing the construction and choosing the furniture that will go with the store. Doing all that, however, would not guarantee your success. Opening an online store or an e-commerce store, however, is different. Like opening a physical store, you would need to do your research as well, but you would not have to check the location because your target market could be the whole world. You also do not have to worry about construction and furniture because all you need is a computer or a cellphone in opening a store, and of course the merchandise that you would be selling.

In order to understand e-commerce, let’s take a look at its history first.

E-Commerce History

E-commerce actually started in 1960. Amazon started selling books online in 1995 and then, eBay introduced online auctions and everything went there from then on.

E-commerce has evolved greatly. Mobile devices became popular and people started doing e-commerce using mobile phones. Social media has also played a major role in e-commerce. We all know that almost everybody is on Facebook so people diverted to social media marketing in order to get e-commerce sales.

These days people no longer need to go to the mall to buy things that they need if we are busy. People just go online and browse through different social media sites and e-commerce sites and order what they need. Everything from groceries, meals to pieces of furniture can be bought online. Even homes and cars can be bought online as well.

The Categories of E-commerce

The e-commerce business model is a large business model because it will let any individual or company do business worldwide. There are 4 ways it operates online.

1. Business to business – this type of category involves businesses connecting with each other in order to sell products.

2. Business to consumer – this type of category involves businesses selling products directly to the consumer. This is actually the typical trade and we think of online stores because of this category.

3. Consumer to consumer – this type of category involves both consumers. Examples of these are classified ads, forums, and online marketplaces or social

4. Consumer to business – this type of category happens when a consumer has a budget for whatever product he or she is looking for and companies bid to sell their product or services.

We all know that you are participating in electronic commerce or e-commerce when you purchase anything online. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce.

Advantages

• Convenience – You can purchase the things that you need at the comfort of your own homes. Not only that, but it’s available any time of the day, You don’t have to wait for the store hours to purchase anything.

• Selection – There are a lot of online shops that you can find with similar products. What’s good is that they have different prices so you can find great deals everywhere.

Disadvantages

• Quality – Since you cannot touch the product and examine them closely, there’s a tendency that the product is not of good quality or you may receive a different product than seen on the pictures.

• Not Receiving them instantly – Since the goods are shipped, you may not receive the product for weeks or worse, weeks. There are a number of companies that offer same day shipping though with a higher price.

• Customer Service are limited – There are stores online that do not have the chat function so you cannot talk to the seller about the specifications of the products and compare them to another product. Unlike in malls, you can get a recommendation from sellers on which products have the best quality.

If you have a product that you want to sell online then you can start building your store using online tools or enroll in an online e-commerce course. You can also do dropshipping. Dropshipping is a method that is used by retailers. They have a contract with a wholesaler or a third party provider for their goods, post the pictures online, and sell them. When a consumer orders the goods, they contact the wholesaler or the retailer and pay for the goods, then they give them the address of the customer and the wholesaler or the third party sends it to the consumer. This method is actually very convenient for retailers because they don’t have to pay for the shipping of the goods to them, instead, they save money because of the wholesaler or the third party ships the products to the consumer. The retailer never sees the products in person or touch the product, but they make a profit out of it.

Starting a store can be confusing. Here are the things that you need to know when starting an online store.

The Three Essential S’s of E-commerce

1. Storage – There are e-commerce sites that requires a minimum order for sales so you need to choose wisely. Choose a site that has no limitations.

2. Safety – A lot of fraudulent activity is noted online and you need to make sure that our earnings are safe so you need to choose a site that has SSL or Secure Socket Protection. SSL encryption will let you send payments securely so you don’t have to worry about online theft and fraud.

3. Website – The site that you should use should be user-friendly. Before you use a certain site, you need to check their tools if they can be used easily and the instructions on how to use it should be clear. Since you are a beginner in the e-commerce trade, you will need to make sure that you can build your store easily in a small amount of time. Not only that, but you need to make sure that the site is also user-friendly for customers. It should have a well-designed menu and filters that customers can use to narrow down the products that they are looking for. An organized website will have a good customer experience for your customer.

What You Need To Do In Order to Succeed

1. Set goals – You need to know the goal of your store. It can be towards income, gaining customers, pricing, or increase in orders. Right after you know your goal you can now set-up a plan or get an e-commerce marketing course to know how to achieve your goal.

2. SWOT – Assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your goal. Check out your market and see where your business is heading. Even if your store is successful already, you need to look at your business as a whole and assess where you can make improvements. Be honest when doing the SWOT so your business can prosper.

3. Set Objectives – Determine where your business should be going in the next 5-10 years. After setting your objectives you can design a business strategy or get an e-commerce certificate online to help you with your store.

4. Know the E-commerce Law – You will need to understand the e-commerce law before you open your online store. There are different legal, privacy, security, and taxation laws for each country or state. There is a commission that regulates online activities which are called the Federal Trade Commission. They implement the laws for each country or state that you are trading in and make sure that the law is adhered. In addition to that, there are online advertising laws that protect consumers from data leaks and make sure that honest business practices are made by the online store. You need to be familiar with them before you start your online store so that you won’t violate any of them or be surprised by the amount of tax that will be charged to you. If you are taking an online e-commerce course, they will also be discussed to you by your teacher.

5. Learn marketing tools in e-commerce. There is a difference between a general marketer and an e-commerce specialist. Getting an e-commerce certificate online can make a difference when you start your e-commerce business, it will give you the edge that most beginners in the trade lack. The percentage of your success is higher than those who did not get the certificate because you will know the ins and outs of the business.

In conclusion, although getting an online store is easy, you will need to study a lot of things first before you start doing your e-commerce business online. Getting an online e-commerce course will save you a lot of time reading about how to succeed compared with reading how e-commerce works and how to succeed in this business online. You may find it confusing because there are some sites that can be contracting and will not contribute to your knowledge of the online e-commerce industry.

 

Our world now revolves around technology. In fact, telephones are only used in offices and some homes and we now use mobile phones most of the time. Since social media platforms have been introduced, we have been glued to our cell phones most of the time to check for updates and gossips on these social media networks.

These social media networks are actually built on mobile applications or what we refer to as an app. The apps we have on our phones nowadays do not evolve only on social media networks. Even the games that we played on the computers before and the tools we use on our computer have been developed as apps for our mobile phones.

These apps are small though and have a limited function when compared with their computer versions. The apps are used for use only on the small wireless devices that we call mobile phones or tablets. Since these small wireless devices have limited storage, the apps that have been developed for these  small devices need to have limited features as well in order to save space for other things that are needed for the mobile phone or tablet such as messages and call logs.

Given the demand for using apps, it’s not surprising that more people are developing mobile applications in order to make money making apps.

There’s a lot of money involved in developing mobile apps. In fact, a forecast has been made that the mobile app income can become $188 billion by 2020. You may wonder why there’s a lot of money in making apps when most of them can be used for free especially in games.

If you are using a mobile phone often and play games using your mobile phone, you may notice the in-app purchase that can be done during the game. The developers of these applications rely on these purchases to make money. You may notice that as you progress to the game levels, fewer bonuses are awarded to you and if you are not patient enough to wait for days or weeks so you can upgrade a feature of the game, chances are, you are going to make a purchase. I remember when I became addicted to one of these strategy games that I made a purchase of $20 each week just so I can upgrade my character and be able to beat the opponents. I was not really aware at the time that I got so hooked up on the game and gave my money to the developers.

If you don’t want to develop mobile games, though, don’t worry you can still make money because Netflix and Tinder also make a lot of money through their apps so you can still make basic app and make money from it.

The mobile application software has been popularized originally by Apple and the App store. They offered a lot of applications to use with their mobile devices. Now let’s take a look at what are the different mobile apps.

There are three categories for mobile apps:

1. Native apps

Native apps are apps that are made specifically for a particular device or platform. It uses device-specific hardware and software only and cannot be used on other devices or platforms. Native apps are also used in Macs and PCs. Examples of these are contacts, photo gallery, and mail that are used in Macs. In a wireless mobile device, however, native mobile apps are any applications that work on a specific device only.

The two major players in the operating system platform of mobile devices are IOS and Android. The codes for these native apps only work with a specific version of either an IOS or Android operating system. Programmers who are developing mobile applications often use Swift for an IOS application and Java for the Android apps. These native apps perform faster when compared with using similar apps that can be used on the mobile phone.

Developers sometimes create a separate version for the app for the different platforms in order for it to perform faster. A good example of the app is Facebook. Developers for this app found out that Facebook performs faster on an android phone compared with an IOS phone. When they found this out the developers created separate codes for both platforms so that more users can enjoy the application.

Here are the advantage and disadvantages of native apps.

Advantages:

• More functionality can be used from the app because of its compatibility of the app to the device.

• More features will come from the app because it has been made specifically for the device.

• Faster app performance

• Native apps have better quality assurance

• Push notifications

Disadvantages

• It cannot be used on other devices

• The cost of developing the app is higher compared with web apps

• It needs to be updated periodically

• Can be used offline

2. Web Apps

A web app is an app that can be accessed using a web browser. Web apps can be created using Javascript, CSS, and HTML versions so that it can be accessed from any browser. Web apps are cost-friendly and take less time to build, but since they are browser dependent, their performances are not as fast as the native apps.

3. Hybrid Apps

Hybrid apps are a combination of native and web app. The base of the hybrid application is built similar to a web app, but it can be installed just like a native app. These apps can access the features of your phone such as the camera and GPS. Most hybrid applications are built from HTML and CSS. Although they can be installed like the native apps, they have different performance. They are run through a web so they have features that are the same as the web applications. Hybrid apps do not have an offline feature, however and cannot be used without an internet connection.

The difference in developing a hybrid app and a web-based app is marginal. Developers who are developing mobile applications use codes to create applications and launch them. When it comes to creating them, however, the hybrid apps are faster to create than the native apps.

Another thing to consider developing an app in order to make money making apps is smartwatches. Now that it is not becoming increasingly popular, you may need to consider making your app smartwatch friendly so you can have a competitive edge.

Here are some things that you need to consider before deciding what kind of app you will develop:

• Marketability and Purpose

You will need to ask yourself if that app is useful and something that people will download. If it’s not a demand, how can you attract people to download it? Sure you can always use a lot of marketing strategies to attract people, but it will take a lot of time, effort, and money. It will be a huge risk and there’s not a guarantee that you will make money from it in the long run.

• Operating System Compatibility

A lot of developers are creating apps that are specific to an operating system only because of the cost. Developing an app for both Android and IOS will take a lot of time and will cost a lot of money so you may need to make an in-depth study first of which operating system are used by a lot of users and if the possibility of generating a steady income is high.

• Application Features

Remember that developing a mobile app is different from developing an app for a computer. Mobile devices have different screens so your app should be flexible when it comes to screens size. There’s also limited memory, processor and graphics interface. Make sure that your app can run on most phones so that more people can use it. You also have to take into consideration the touch functions and the limited ability of the user to use your application.

• Mobile First

Because more and more people prefer to use mobile phones than computers, the developers have now adopted a “mobile first” approach in developing apps. Even if the application that they are developing can be run in both computers and mobile phone, they make sure that the mobile application feature of the application is developed first and after that, they develop the app for wider screens and more advanced features for the computers.

The competition is very fierce in developing money-making apps because there are a lot of major players in the industry that are already established and popular. Do not give up hope, though. If you have a good marketing plan and a very useful app, you will make money making apps. If you do not wish to develop the apps or if you do not know how to make one, you can still earn. There is a lot of affiliate income and referral programs on most of these mobile apps that will help you get revenue from mobile applications. Try to check them out and be an affiliate marketer for these mobile applications.

The stock market has been around for a long time. Along with the technology changes, the stock market has also evolved and now has online trading. Before we tackle online trading, let’s take a look at what the stock market is and how it works.

A stock is actually a share in a corporation. People who invest or buy stocks are putting their money for the future of the company. The share prices changes depending on the performance of the corporation and the condition of the economy of the country. If a company offers its stock for the first time to the public, this is called IPO or initial public offering. It is also called “going public” by many.

Once the business has made a profit, the money is shared among the stockholders through a dividend. If a stock gives out dividend often, that is called income stocks. A business can also opt to save their dividend and invest it again through business improvements or adding employees to the company. This is called growth stocks.

In buying or selling stocks there are middlemen called brokers. They charge commissions for buying or selling stocks through them. Not anyone can be brokers though. Brokers need to be licensed in order to negotiate in buying or selling the stocks. The exchange can be done through phone, in person, or electronically.

The exchange that is done in person or on the trading floor is usually done through auctions. Now that technology has become a player in the stock market, a broker can be a software that replaces a human broker. Of course, the exchange still involves money, but you don’t get to talk to a real person. Instead, you will rely on your own judgment when buying or selling the stocks and request for the exchange. Some have features that have the option for you to get advice from a real live broker.

If you are new to trading, social trading is something that you need to consider using. Social trading gives users access to the same functions that traditional platforms have. You will have access to the charts, indicators, and the buy or sell tools. The difference between social trading networks is a social function. Users will have the ability to share their strategies and decisions to others. This became popular in cryptocurrency.

One of the social trading platforms available is eToro. eToro is trading that started in 2007. eToro has been serving UK clients under an FCA regulated entity. They also serve Australians through an Australian entity. All the other users of eToro forex are served under a Cypriot entity. If you want to know what exchange eToro is listed, it’s not in any list of official exchange. It doesn’t have an annual report on their site and is not affiliated with any bank. However, it is one of the best trading platforms available in Europe and it’s safe to use because of the regulation of the UK financial authorities.

eToro trading is actually a CFD or contract for difference broker. If you do not know how a CFD broker works then you should get familiar with it. It is a very complicated broker to use in the stock market. The leverage is very low and you could lose a lot of money because of the leverage. People who go for CFD are not afraid to take the high risk because of the bigger monetary gain that they will be getting if they win in their stock investments.

Here are the features of eToro that you may find useful:

• They have a verified icon for investors. In order to get a verified status, all you need to do is give out your real name and a photo. Of course, this will be verified by the customer support of eToro before giving you the verified icon. It gives assurance to users of the system that they are talking to a real person and not to a robot.

• eToro bonuses are given to traders that are copied by a lot of investors. They get a commission each month if they get a lot of copiers. eToro now has a system that will help create a lot of interaction between the investors and the copiers. The history of popular investors is displayed so that copiers may choose which investor to copy.

• Trader charts are also added as a feature so that copiers may study the trend of the popular investor.

• eToro has a statistics propriety tool that has a score table showing the number of copiers thus you can see the risk involve over a period of a year when you make an investment. It’s very easy to use and investors make use of this tool as well to check their own performance.

• The trader charts is a feature that has been added to see the traders that you can copy. You can use this feature to compare traders and will help you decide which one you should copy.

• eToro is free to use. You are only charged overnight rollover fees and the broker fee cost once you started trading. The rollover fee of eToro maybe higher than other brokers, but it will display the costs before you do an exchange.

• There’s a lot of training materials available in eToro trading for first time traders. Webcasts and daily news are available on the site so you’ll be updated with the trading trend. Since eToro is a social trading platform, there are a lot of people who can answer your questions about trading.

Can You Make Money with eToro?

Since it’s a trading platform and we’re talking about stocks, you can definitely make money with eToro. It’s not easy, however, you need to be willing to take a risk to invest in order to make money. There are always low-risk profitable investors to copy, but there are only a few of them. Some of these investors can leave the trade open for several months and can force you to have a long-term investment with the possibility of a fluctuating investment.

It’s not easy to just sit back and relax once you make an investment in eToro forex. You have to monitor the progress of your investment to make sure that you will not lose it.

Since you are taking a risk in using eToro, here are some mistakes most copiers do that hinder their success.

1. Not Monitoring your Portfolio

A lot of copy traders make the mistake of thinking that after they have made their investment, they can just relax and wait for their money to come in. As with any business, you can succeed if you invest time, money and effort in trading. Do your research so you’ll know the latest trend and make sure that your investment is still safe. You don’t really need to monitor it full time, but you need to check on the updates regularly.

2. Not being familiar with the strategies of the investors.

If you are new, you may just check the performance of the investor if they are making money or not, but one very important thing that you need to do when you look for an investor to copy is their history. A lot of investors may be successful today, but their statistics may show that they are using a strategy that is only successful short term. You need to be familiar with the different strategies used in trading so you will copy the trader that uses the right technique or formula to succeed. It’s actually so much better to choose an investor that has a small, but steady profit than copying an investor that is only successful for a short period of time and lose a lot in between as well.

3. Spending all your capital copying just one investor

Spending all your capital with just one investor in stocks is a bad idea. In fact, it’s better to choose several investors to copy. Why is that so? Remember that investing in trading is a risk. In order to lower your risk of losing money, you need to invest in several good stocks. Be wise in distributing your capital and study each popular investor carefully.

4. Not familiar with the social trading networks

If you are a newbie, do not get into a social trading platform just by one recommendation and because you see a lot of potential money in it. You need to know how it works first. There’s more to it than downloading a software and clicking on several buttons on it. You need to know how trading works and the risks involved in the business. This will reduce your risk of losing your money in the long run. It’s wise to be a part of a social trading community as well while you’re learning the trade.

In conclusion, social trading is a very profitable business to be in, but in order to succeed you need to be familiar with how the stock market works and how you can succeed with your investments. eToro trading is an easy to use social trading platform. It has a lot of useful features that you can use if you are a beginner. If you want to succeed in investing in the stock market, but you don’t want to use a broker, I would recommend using eToro as a broker.

 

While searching the web for ways to make extra income online, you may have come across affiliate marketing several times. It is a very popular way to earn some extra cash.

There are a lot of techniques used by companies nowadays in order to get more sale for their respective products. These techniques include advertising, email marketing, online ads, and affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing has been a tend. This technique in earning money online is way different from Adsense. Affiliate marketing is actually a referral program. If you refer a person to a certain product or service, the company will pay you a referral fee. This technique has been practiced for a long time. Since time has changed and people are very reliant on the internet, the marketing world online has adopted the referral technique through advertising affiliate marketing program.

Why Use Affiliate Marketing?

If you are a company, having an affiliate marketing program for your product or services will help you save money. Advertising, email marketing, and online ads will cost you a lot of money. With affiliate marketing, you will just allow people to market your products for you. The best thing is, you don’t have to train the people who will be your affiliates on how to market your product or services. All you have to do is create the terms and conditions for promoting your product or service, set the privacy policy, and set the amount of commission that they can earn per sale that you get through the affiliate link that they used.

If you want to do affiliate marketing, here are the terms that you need to be familiar with:

1. Affiliates

Affiliate means to connect or attach. This means in order to be an affiliate you need to connect and sign up to be a part of the company in order to market the product of that company you are affiliated with.

2. Affiliate link

This is the most important part of affiliate marketing. An affiliate link is a unique link that is given to an affiliate in order to promote a certain product. The link has a unique code for each affiliate. That way, you will know which affiliate link has been used to purchase a product and gets a commission.

3. Payment Mode

There are different kinds of payment methods for each affiliate marketing program. It can include cheque, PayPal, or checking account wire transfer.

4. Affiliate Marketplace

An affiliate marketplace is a central database for affiliate programs of different niches. This is recommended for beginners who don’t know how to start with affiliate marketing because of the different niches these marketplace offers.

5. Affiliate ID

This is a unique code given to you by the product host to identify that you are affiliated with them.

6. Affiliate Manager

An affiliate manager is provided by some companies to help you get the best results in marketing their product. Most of them are free and they’re very useful.

7. Commission percentage

The commission percentage is the percentage that you would be getting from each sale of the product you are affiliated with.

8. Link Cloaking

The affiliate links that are given to you are often very long. Link cloaking is a technique that shortens the URL of your affiliate link.

9. Custom Coupons

Custom coupons are discount links that are allowed to be used by the companies in order to sell their product. Most bloggers use this to attract traffic to their website.

What is the Best Affiliate Marketing Program that you can recommend?

1. Amazon

Amazon is a trusted brand especially in doing online shopping, but did you know that it has an affiliate network program that you can use to earn money online?

Amazon Associates is one of the leading Affiliate network programs available online. It’s even one of the first affiliate programs that were launched. It has been around since 1996. So in the 12 years that they have been in business, they have already established their name as a trusted Affiliate Network. This free affiliate marketing is very easy to use.

Joining this affiliate marketing program is easy and free. Anyone who has a website can join the Amazon affiliate marketing program. They also allow Amazon sellers and web developers to join. All you have to do is fill out an application form that is found on their website.

Like any other business, Amazon Affiliates program has Pros and Cons.

Advantages:

• Once you start marketing the product and you already have considerable success, you will find yourself getting a steady source of income.

• The Amazon advertising affiliate marketing program is not picky in approving those who want to join. So if your website is just new or if you do not have a lot of traffic yet on your website, they will approve your membership. Amazon knows that the algorithm for the search engines changes all the time and websites that may have less traffic now can get a lot of traffic in the future.

• You get paid within 24 hours after a visitors click on your link and buys the product you are affiliated with.

• There are a lot of promotional tools available on Amazon. They are:

a. Site Stripe – This is a toolbar that you can add so you can view the funds that you have earned with your affiliated products. The toolbar will also let you link any page and build short links. One of its very useful features is the share to Twitter or Facebook button. You can easily share any Amazon page that you are viewing on your Twitter or Facebook pages.

b. Product Links – As the name suggests, you can link the Amazon product to show the information about the particular product. It will let you enhance the product links so that you can convert it to promotional banners that can be displayed on your own website.

c. Banners – This tool will let you choose from a wide range of banner sizes, shapes, and designs. You can even include the special promotion of the month or week of the product you are affiliated with.

d. Product Advertising API – This tool is for advanced users who know how to develop websites and can integrate the link to the Amazon products to the website. Web developers can use this tool to add customer reviews and similar products.

• Amazon motivates you to create a lot of helpful content that is related to your product in order to earn from Amazon associates affiliate. When you produce high quality and informative content, people will tend to read them. So the more helpful content you produce, the more traffic you will have and a higher chance of earning a commission from your affiliate. One important tip that you need to remember always, however, is to be transparent and include why you are putting the link in your content. Otherwise, people will just click on the link and be confused about why they are redirected to a certain product they don’t know about. You should always introduce the product first to your audience.

Disadvantages:

• Amazon has a lot of restrictions – On the policy agreement that they will send you, they will ban you if you shop on your own link, put the affiliate links in the email marketing letters you send, put the affiliate marketing link to your eBook, or open multiple accounts on the platform. I suggest you read their policy agreement first before you sign up with them.

• They will close your account if there is no activity. So make sure you market the product that you are affiliated with very well so you’ll have a steady income and can keep your Amazon affiliate marketing program. Otherwise, they will think that your website is dormant or no longer active and will close your account.

2. eBay

Like Amazon, eBay is also a marketplace but offers affiliate marketing as well. eBay as we know it is the largest shopping and auction website that has a lot of products to choose from eBay Partner network or APN is a tool help sellers get a lot of traffic from eBay users around the world. They have unique items to choose from that are in demand in today’s society.

Advantages of EPN

• Easy application

Signing up for EPN takes around 5 minutes or less to complete. You can get approved easily as long as you read their terms and conditions.

• Low Threshold

You can get a payout for as low as $10 per month. Your money can be deposited directly to your bank account or through PayPal.

• New Buyer Bonus

The eBay affiliate program gives a 200% bonus for attracting new buyers to eBay. They also run deals and promotions every now and then to help you earn more with their affiliate program.

• Trusted Online Brand

eBay affiliate program has been around since 2001. eBay itself has been established in 1995 and since then have earned the trust of millions of people around the globe because of their transparent working procedures. Because of its many users, you are instantly getting access to a lot of potential customers.

• Large Collection of Products

You have a lot of products to choose from eBay. You can browse each category and choose from among the different products.

• eBay Solutions Provider

Tools are available for you to use to aid you in marketing the products.

• Social Network Promotions

eBay lets you promote the products through social media pages.

• Customer Support

EPN has dedicated customer support that can help you through your problems with the advertising affiliate marketing program.

• Options for Promotion

You get to choose between paid search, paid placement, sub-affiliate, and natural website referrals if you affiliate with them

Disadvantages

• There are fees on eBay that can be billed to you.

• The auction feature of the program can be a disadvantage since there are a lot of “joy bidders”. There’s a feature that doesn’t require payments upon purchase so it’s not a guarantee that you will get a sale.

• Payments are only done once a month. Although you can cash out for as low as $10, payments are only made every 22nd of each month.

• eBay has a reputation of favoring buyers over sellers. eBay now has a 180-day return policy even if the seller has no fault. Buyers can leave a negative comment on you despite the fact that you gave them good customer service.

Overall, affiliate marketing is a good way to earn money online. In fact, it’s the easiest way to earn without shedding any money. It’s free to sign up and you just need to know how to market the products well. Do more research so you’ll find the best niche for you to affiliate.

Are you one of those people who is looking to earn extra cash online, but doesn’t know where to start or you don’t know much about using computers?

You can make money online doing surveys. It’s one of the free and legitimate ways to earn money online. Of course, there are other sure ways to earn money online, but they require hard work and a lot of time. Online paid surveys are for people who want to earn but do not have the luxury to spend a lot of time and effort to earn online.

How do you make money doing surveys?

If you are a big company, you would always want to know the feedback of your consumers and if your product is doing well. Doing surveys for your business is the way to go to get the information that you need to make sure that your business will be going smoothly. In fact, a lot of well-known brands are willing to pay a lot of money just to know what the consumers think about their products through these surveys.

If you want to start doing these surveys, you may want to do your research first on the survey sites that pay well. You can also go to forums or online communities and ask some recommendation on the tips to getting paid a lot of money doing surveys. There are a lot of surveys sites available on the market, but only a few of them pay very well. In fact, if you will do all the survey sites without doing your research first, you will end up being frustrated for only getting a few cents doing the surveys.

Once you choose the eligible survey sites that pay well, you will find a lot of offers from other sites coming your way as well. Not all the survey sites offer payment though, some of them offer gift cards and free stuff to mail to you after you do these surveys, Whatever you choose, make sure that it worth your time and effort.

The Disadvantages of Taking Online Surveys

Like many other jobs or ways to earn money, there are some disadvantages to doing paid surveys. Here are some of them

1. It’s not a guarantee that you will always get cash

As I mentioned before, not all the survey sites give cash to those who answer their surveys. A lot of them send gift cards to the people who did the surveys and there are also some that will send you free stuff in exchange for the survey.

2. You cannot do these 40 hours a week

There are a lot of surveys, but you will not be eligible for all of them so I would recommend that you so these surveys on your spare time.

3. Surveys have a target audience

Bear in mind that each product is different and made for a specific type of people only. So do not expect to be eligible for each survey that is available. The survey sites will only allow you to do the surveys that you are eligible to take each day. The survey sites get your general information first and match the product survey that is available to you. Then, they give you a set of questions first before giving you the actual survey to make sure that you are the right fit for their client.

High Paying Survey Sites

Here are the survey sites that I would recommend you to sign up with in order to make money online with surveys:

1. Survey Junkie

It’s one of the survey sites that are used by a lot of people. You can either get money with them through cash or through gift cards. Their reputation is good when it comes to paying those who have done their surveys. Not only that, but you can sign up using your Facebook profile. This survey site is one of the highest paying survey sites out there. If you register to their site, you won’t get any spam messages on your inbox regularly as some survey sites do and they will let you know how much you will earn before you start taking the survey from them.

2. Swagbucks

This survey site will give you a $5 signing up bonus just by joining their survey site. The site has a point system, however, or what they call SBs. The SBs can be converted to cash or gift cards. They not only offer the people who go to their site to take surveys, but they also offer people to do online shopping, watch videos, and search the web while earning SBs. Of course, you don’t necessarily need to watch the videos in order to get those SBs points. You can always play them on one tab and move on with your other tasks.

3. My Points

My points is actually a sister company of Swagbucks. They work the same way: you can take surveys, search online, shop online, and watch videos to earn points, but the difference is, they offer a $10 bonus for signing up with them.

4. My Survey

My survey is also one of the top paying survey sites available. You receive points for each survey and you can cash these points when accumulated

5. Vip Voice

This survey site has a unique way of dealing with the people who go to their site. Like Swagbucks and my points, they will give you points for every survey that you take, but these points are converted into sweepstakes or raffle tickets. The prizes vary every day and they can be electronics gadgets, vacations trips, appliances. Etc.

6. Toluna

You can make money online doing surveys from this site. This survey site values your opinions and they ask for your feedback for a lot of big brands. In return, you get points which you can cash in.

7. Earning Station

You can earn points as well when you use this survey site, but they don’t pay through cash. They give out gift cards instead from stores like Amazon.

8. Inbox Dollars

This survey site has a good reputation like survey junkie. They will give you a $5 sign up bonus for joining them and will even let you play games in order to earn. How cool is that? You get to play games and earn, but you have to be very competitive at these games. So if you are bored doing the surveys and you are a gamer, this site is really the right fit for you.

Tips and tricks in order to make money online doing surveys

1. Be consistent

Have a regular schedule to answer these surveys. Even though the survey sites pay you less at first, they are just checking who are the ones who are doing their surveys consistently. As soon as they determine that you are doing the surveys often, higher paying surveys will be offered to you.

2. Honesty

You can always select random answers on the surveys, but survey sites sometimes do a check. And if you are not consistent with your answers, you will be suspended from that particular survey site.

3. Select the Surveys Wisely

Do not just go for those surveys that pay well. They should be something that you really use regularly and not at random only.

4. Flexibility

You need to sign up to more survey sites that pay well. Do not just go with those that pay cash. Choose those that give you coupons as well. Even though they are just a small amount, over time you will see that you will have enough to buy what you need.

5. Watch out for scams

Let’s face it. The internet is full of scammers. If the offer is too good to be true, then don’t accept it. Especially if they are asking for your sensitive information.

6. Do not pay upfront

Legitimate survey sites do not ask for a fee for you to join them. In fact, a lot of them will offer you a sign up bonus just so you would sign up with them. Sites that will ask for your money upfront are very shady so watch out for these type of sites.

7. Don’t forget to cash in

Remember to cash in regularly unless there is a contest that will give you a reward for earning more money from these survey sites. Always check the validity of your points or coupons that you have for each site. Some have expiration dates so make sure that you take advantage of them before the expiration otherwise you answered all those surveys for nothing.

8. Set-up a different email

You may need a separate email for these survey sites so your inbox will not become cluttered. Each survey site will ask you to verify your email so make sure that the email is valid and you have access to it to begin to make money online doing surveys.

There are a lot of people who have considerable success doing these surveys. All you need is information on where you should start doing these surveys in order to earn money online paid survey.

Email marketing is one form of a marketing tool that entrepreneurs use to market their products. I get one of these in my email all of the time. There’s more than just selling products in email marketing though. Do you know that you can make money with email marketing?

It’s a very powerful tool that needs to be used to make money with internet marketing.

It is very effective especially if you are selling products. The conversion rate of the sale is very high compared with other marketing strategies.

Of course, before you start sending those emails you will need to build a list of target audience. You can do this by doing a search on various websites where you can get the email information of people or you can create a landing page on your website. Doing a search for the emails, however, can take up a lot of time while getting a landing page for your website will cost you a considerable amount of money.

Take note, however that email marketing does not work with every niche. Products or services that are related to entertainment would not benefit from email marketing. It can only be effective for people who are looking for a solution to their needs.

How do you make money with email marketing?

Building a list is just the first thing that you need to do in order to be successful in marketing your product. If you want to sell your product or services and earn from it, here are some tips for you.

1. You don’t need to have a very long list of people to email to. You need to identify your target market for the product or service that you are selling and just email it to these specific people. Remember that they need to click on your link and buy so that you can start earning so you need to know your product very well in order for you to be successful in your endeavor.

2. Build rapport to your target audience. I have received a lot of emails before that are impersonal and upon receiving them I discard them. Think before you send those emails. It needs to be short and sweet.

3. Give them good content even though they are not buying anything now. Make those people comfortable in receiving your emails or as much as possible make them anticipate your emails because they have something good to read every day that is relevant to the product or service you are selling. Of course, along with these content should be a link where they can buy your product or service.

4. Identify a good product or service that is a good fit for you. There are a lot of ways to make money with internet marketing. Some of them are:

a. Sell your own products or services. You can make your own products to sell or offer them services. You can write content about anything related to your product and introduce your product to them.

b. Be an affiliate marketer. Can you make money with affiliate marketing? Yes, you can. In fact, this is free to sign up in order to be an affiliate marketer. You can choose from products or brands that allow affiliate marketing and get a link from them so you can sell their product through that link. Whenever someone clicks on that link and buys a product, you get a commission from the sale. It’s very easy and less tasking compared to selling your own product or service.

c. You can also get a sponsor to put their ad in your email. Of course, this is only offered to those that have successful product sales. Not everybody gets to have a sponsor, but once you have established your name, you’ll have sponsors offering you money just to put their banner or button on your emails.

5. Know what is now allowed to do when you do email marketing. Here are some of them:

a. Never sell your email list to anyone.

b. Some people do not introduce their affiliate products and just put a link to click. This is not right because people can be suspicious about why there’s a link and will not click on it.

c. Do not email something that is not related to the product or service that you are selling. People need to be informed, but it always has to be related to the product or service you are selling. Otherwise, people will lose their trust in you.

d. Do not email your list only when you are selling something. Remember that they need something to look forward to your emails even though they do not read them at first.

e. Do not send any Amazon affiliate links through email. Amazon affiliate program does not allow this.

f. Do not send AdSense ads. AdSense does not allow this.

g. Your emails should not have every information that is available on your website. You need traffic to go to your site so they would buy the product or service that you are selling so your email should only have a piece of general information and should have people be interested enough to read more on your website.

h. Get a good content in your emails. They should not should boring or very patchy. I find these kinds of emails annoying and do not read through them. Instead, I discard them immediately.

i. You can also promote social media channels in your email list so people can be aware of what’s going on with your channel.

6. Use tools that can let you send emails faster or in bulk. Of course, you can always send the marketing emails using the traditional method, but that will take up a lot of your time. Here are some tools that entrepreneurs use to do send emails.

a)  Mailchimp – this email marketing tool is very user-friendly. It has features like letting you create campaigns for each project that you have and incorporate some other tools that are very helpful in making your life easier. This tool also helps you by giving tips on their blogs on how to send an effective email for marketing your products. It has good customer service and has a good reputation with users.

b)  Drip – this email marketing tool can help you with how to make money with internet marketing. Drip also lets the first time users use the software for free for the first two weeks. Drip will need a JavaScript snippet installed in your computer for it to work.

c)  Aweber – Aweber is user-friendly as well. It has a drag and drop editor that will allow you to add logos, products, and pictures in your emails. It also has the HTML templates feature so you can insert it in your newsletters with ease.

d)  ConvertKit – ConvertKit will let you email forms, and reports your progress with your email marketing campaign. It will even let you send RSS feeds to your target audience. It will also allow you to send test-based emails so it will not be marked spam or junk email by the email providers that your target audience are using.

e)  GetResponse – This is a very effective marketing tool in order to make money with email marketing. Unlike other email marketing software available, it will let you schedule your emails and will let you do email cycles. It also has a landing page creator that can help you capture more leads for your business.

f)  Constant Contact – This email marketing tool will help you get free photos for your emails. Additionally, there are tools integrated with this software that will allow you to email faster. It stores all your information as well so you can send email blasts anytime with the same list that you have previously sent emails to.

g)  SendinBlue – It’s a very reliable tool for doing email blasting. Along with the package that you will get from them it also features responsive templates that are free to use. You don’t need to be very techy to use this software because it’s very user-friendly as well. It has a drag and drop feature as well so all you need to learn how to use this marketing tool. You can check out their well-designed templates for you to use on their website.

Remember that this is not a “get rich quick” scam. You may need to do your research and work hard in order to make money with email marketing, but in the long run, you will have a steady amount of income coming your way. Check out each email marketing tool I mentioned above and let me know which ones that you find works best for you.

 

There are a lot of legitimate ways to earn online and one of them is blogging. How can you make money online blogging? Don’t know how to start blogging? This article will tell you what you need to know to start your own blog.

Starting something which you do not understand can be very confusing especially if you are searching online. There can be a lot of conflicting ideas on how to be successful for each online money making opportunity.

First, you need to know the basics of blogging. What is a blog and how do you make a blog?

Blogging

According to a dictionary, bogging is a noun that contains a writer’s observations or experiences.

The first people who blogged were those who would record their daily activities online or an online journal. The word was coined from the term “web log”. Overtime, entrepreneurs found that people liked reading blogs so they took advantage of it.

Do you need a website to blog?

There are a lot of people who are like me when I started to blog that have the impression that you would need a website in order to blog. Although entrepreneurs nowadays have a blog on their website, a website and a blog are different.

It’s easy to spot a website once you know what the main features are. First, a blog is updated and should have content regularly. Second, blogs engage readers.

How Do I Start?

• The first thing that you need to do is identify your niche. Know what you want to write about. It can be a travel blog, reviews about products, or about entertainment. As soon as you identify your niche you can do your research on how to write the blogs in order to make money blogging for free
• The blog that you should write should be engaging and interesting to the readers. Otherwise, they would just be on your blog for a few seconds and then get out and go to another blog.
• Write something that’s informative. People search for certain topics in order to get information. The competition is very tough because there are a lot of bloggers out there who may be writing the same topic that you have. In fact, there are around 12 million people who are blogging around the world.
• You should also get a website or sign up for blog sites that would let you submit articles, but it’s better to get a website because the money that you can get from them is bigger.

How Do I earn from Blogging?

• Use CPC or CPM Ads – this is a very common way to make money blogging for beginners. CPC means cost per click. These are the banners that you see in the middle of your blog or the sidebar. You can earn from it whenever a visitor for your website clicks on the ad. CPM ads, on the other hand, are the ads that pay you whenever a number of people view their ads on your website. Google Adsense is the most popular form of advertising network. If you do not want to use advertising networks, however, you can sell private ads. Websites that have enough traffic or visitors going to their website are offered by private advertisers to market their ads. Selling private ads can let you earn more because you can charge more or set your own rate if they want to advertise to your site.
• Use Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing is a sure way how to make money blogging for free. You market the product of another company that you are affiliated with. Basically, you do the effort for marketing other people’s products and you get a commission for each product that is sold using your link.

So, how does it work?

1. You look for a product that is similar or related to the niche that you are blogging and sign up for affiliate marketing.

2. Get your affiliate link. There are two kinds of ways to earn through affiliate marketing. First is the affiliate banner ad where a banner is put up on your website by the affiliate marketing company you are affiliated with. Second, is the affiliate marketing link which you can insert to your blog using specific keywords. Affiliate links are used more often by bloggers.

3. Include the affiliate link in your blog or website. The better the content of your blogs are, the more likely the customers will go to your blog and click the link to buy the product you are advertising and raises your chance of getting a commission as well.

There are a lot of affiliate marketing ad networks that you can use to earn using affiliate marketing like Amazon and Clickbank. You can also affiliate with private companies. It’s up to you to do your research on which will work best for you.

• Sell Digital Products – we use the internet every day so it’s not surprising that even shopping is done online. There are a lot of digital products that can be sold online like an eBook, an online course, a software, or even pictures. Just keep in mind before doing this that you need to check if the product is has a lot of demand and if it’s relevant to the niche that you are blogging. Otherwise, your efforts will be for nothing.
• Advertise your business – A lot of entrepreneurs are blogging so that their products or company will have an online presence. If people are well informed on how and where to use their product. The more people they educate about their product, the more people will use it. Blogs are really a great way to market your own business.
• Use the blog to build your credibility – if you write accurate and very informative blogs, people who are always online will get to know you. Nowadays, people who are popular online are invited to speak in local conferences or asked to write a book or be hired in a company to blog for them. I remember a friend of mine who started blogging 3 years ago about taking care of broken hearts. Now, his online presence is so good that he is asked to speak at the different schools around the country. Not only that, he is even asked as a guest for various radio stations.
• Sell memberships – Once you have a steady flow of traffic, you can start selling memberships to your followers. Of course, you have to interact with them regularly. With the membership that you will sell, you can give them exclusive access to blogs that can teach them more about the niche you are talking about or you can give them exclusive access to tutorial videos about the niche or product you are marketing. Just make sure it’s unique and cannot be found on other free websites.
• Spend time on other blog sites – in order to reach more traffic, you can ask to be a guest writer for a website or a blog site that has the same niche that you are writing. The idea is to get some of their traffic to go to your website and read your other blogs if they find your content interesting enough. You can also spend some of your time on social media, forums, and online communities so that you can interact with other people and educate them about your website. This is called building a relationship with your target audience. Once you have built a relationship through these, you will find that you have regular visitors to your website.
• Experiment – You can try out one or all of these avenues to earn from blogging. Do not be afraid to fail. If one avenue doesn’t work, then you should see if another avenue will work for you. Overtime, you will find the right formula to make money online blogging.

The Pros and Cons of Blogging

Pros

• It’s like starting a new business

You get to do a lot of research so that you will know what niche you would be blogging about. You have to consider your target audience and if the product or topic is in demand or not.

• It’s very flexible

You get to work and be a blogger part-time or you can be a full time blogger. You can even travel and blog about it!

• You can get traffic to your website through blogging

If you have very good content on your blogs and it’s very credible then people will go to your site often for advice on the niche that you choose. If you have a business, blogging is a very effective means to get people to go to your site.

• Use it as a daily journal

Originally blogs are used as a daily journal of experiences of journalists. Of course, you can still do this especially is your niche is about traveling or about budgeting.

Cons

• Blogging should be a commitment

Blogging requires commitment and it can take up a lot of time even if you are just blogging from home. Remember that you need to have regular content on your website because people would want to see if something new and interesting has been posted on your site. Not to mention the search engines would need those regular blogs coming so your site will rank in SEO.

• It’s very tempting to be lazy

If you are a full time blogger, then you may find yourself being at home most of the time. Writing from the comfort of your home can be a cause for you to be lazy. You may find your room or your bed calling you most of the time. Even the living room is a temptation because of the television and the easy chairs that you may have.

• SEO takes time

If you are not familiar with SEO or Search Engine Optimization, then I’ll explain it to you. SEO is when your website gets recognized by the search engines like Google and puts your website on the first page of the search results when people type in the keywords that you use on your blogs for your website to the search engines. SEO is not easy because the algorithm changes all of the time. So you need to be on a lookout or be updated with the latest algorithm from time to time.

• You need to be serious

Blogging is a business so you need to take it seriously. Make sure that you interact with your audience and listen to what they need. You also need to make sure that your images are of great quality, you avoid spelling and grammar mistakes, and avoid using jargons. As much as possible, your blog should be simple in order to make money online blogging.

• It takes time to make money online for beginners

Like anything else, it’s not an overnight thing. You need to work hard and blog regularly in order for you to earn a lot of money from blogging. You will need to engage and build your audience first in order to have a steady income. It can take 3 months or even a year of blogging until you have steady traffic and a steady flow of income from blogging.