maandag 3 december 2007

Paid Surveys Online - An easy way to make money online?

Paid Surveys Online - An easy way to make money online?

Paid surveys are being promoted as an easy way to make money online. Some ads promise you up to $250 per hour for taking paid surveys. Are they realistic? Can one really expect to earn that much money from online paid surveys? Let us find out the answers to these questions.

Such advertisements are usually put up by paid survey database companies like Surveyscout. They charge you for giving access to a database of market research companies, often in the range of $30 to $60. They typically have 400 to 500 survey companies in their database.

Is it worth paying these companies to get access to such a database? Whatever information you get from these companies, you can get for free on the internet on many free online survey sites. Secondly, these survey database companies do not send any surveys by themselves, and you have to join each market research company in their database individually to get any surveys. In addition, most of the survey companies in their databases are good for nothing. Only about 40 to 50 survey companies are really worth joining.

What does this mean? If you are planning to try online surveys, you never have to pay anyone. You can get the list of the best survey companies for free on the internet. You can join them and get started.

Now let us take a closer look at on the rewards offered by paid online surveys. Survey companies can be divided into those which reward you with cash for each survey, those that give you points which can be redeemed for cash, and those which enter you into sweepstakes or prizedraws.

Survey companies that pay cash give $1 to $20 or more per online survey depending on many factors. This group includes many of the best survey sites like American Consumer Opinion Panel, Surveysavvy, Ciao Surveys, Greenfield online(Gozing) and Pinecone Research. You can expect to get 1 to 4 surveys per month from each site.

Surveys that reward you with points let you accumulate reward points which you can later redeem for cash or gifts. Some of the most reputed market research companies like Globaltestmarket, Opinion Outpost, NFO Mysurvey and Lightspeed Research reward you in this way.

Yet other companies enter you into draws for cash or gifts as reward for taking surveys. Although many people don't like this form of reward system, your chances of getting the prize is quite good as the pool to select the prize winners is usually small. Some good survey companies that follow this reward system are Synovate, NPD Research, NOP World (Surveys.com), ECN Research and Nielsen Netratings.

Another important factor which determines how much you can earn from online surveys is your profile, particularly your country. Generally residents of the USA and Canada can expect to make more money from paid surveys, as there are more market research companies operating in these countries. Also they get more frequent surveys. However, participants from other countries can also hope to make some good extra money from paid online surveys.

All said and done, the maximum earnings an average person can expect from doing paid surveys is not more than $200 to $300 per month. This can be a good source of extra income for some people. But the claims that paid surveys can make you rich or replace your real job are largely unfounded. Hence, it is always best to stay with free paid surveys.

About the author:
Shaj M is the owner and webmaster of the free survey resources site http://www.internetpaidsurveys.com. The site has separate sections for USA, Canada, UK, Australia and rest of the World, each of which reviews free paid surveys for that particular country. For example, the USA Surveys section features more than 50 free survey companies accepting members form the USA.

9 Ways to Make Money On-line

9 Ways to Make Money On-line

Are you making money hand over fist with your website? If you are then you don’t need to bother reading this article because it is not for you. If you are like most of us your website sales are slow and unpredictable and you need to think of new ways to make money online without taking more time and effort. All of your time should be dedicated to producing your product, right? Well, here are just a few ways to make a little bit or a lot of money online without any effort.

1. Affiliates
Sign up to become an affiliate for other businesses that are on the net. I only sign up with the companies that I honestly would recommend to anyone. All that you have to do is refer your customers to these sites. Once one of my referrals makes a purchase, I receive a small payment. With some of the affiliate programs the fee is quite large.


2. Google Ads
I was not too sure about this one but I signed up and I am now convinced. The first week that I had Google ads on my website I made $.18 and the next week I made $6.45! Wow! Big boost. If I keep this up, I just may be able to pay for my web host by the end of the month!

3. Google Search
Works close to the same way as the ads. People use your search tool, make a purchase and then you are compensated.

4. Amazon
Another great tool that will trickle in a few dollars here and there, all for 10 minutes of your time putting a little code into your website and Amazon does the rest.

5. Selling Ad Space
You could sell ad space if you have a site that has high traffic.

6. Selling Subscriptions to Your Newsletter
If you have a newsletter that has high demand information, you could charge for your newsletter.

7. Selling Ad Space in Your Newsletter
Sell ad space in in your newsletter. Same drill as with ad space on your website. Just put a box on your newsletter with a note inside it that says "Your Banner Could Go Here" Then have a page that tells how many subscriber that you have, how often your newsletter goes out and what type of content it usually contains plus the price per ad.

8. Selling E-Books
Do you know something about your craft or hobby that you know people would pay to learn as well? Then sell it in an e-book. What a great way to make a little extra money. You take the time to write a good quality e-book then just fill the orders. You could even set it up so that once the e-book order has been processed and paid for, it goes out automatically using an auto responder without you even having to lift a finger, except to go to the bank to collect your money.

9. Consulting - Offer your services
Do you sell wedding supplies and know all of the best suppliers around? Do a little research and offer your services as a wedding coordinator. Offer your assistance to the people that want to plan their own wedding, but need a little bit of help.

Remember, you wont get rich with just one of these programs, but you just may make a tidy little sum every month with a combination of all of them.

Google Adsense

Google Adsense
by: Phil Wiley
here's an all about Google letter. It didn't start out that way, but when my fingers got typing that's what flowed out of them.

My brain could have had something to do with it too. But not a lot. It's still quite muddled from being ill.

Hope you find this stuff below useful.





1. Google Adsense stuff

I've heard that Google have been getting tough on Adsense sites recently, investigating sites displaying Adsense and removing ones which don't meet the criteria.

You see, what's happening is that people are getting approved for one site, then adding the code to other sites they own.

That's fine by Google as long as the new sites have nothing wrong with them/don't break Google's small print.

Well some of that small print is mighty small and two friends have written to me this week to say their sites have been banned in the past 7 days.

Why?

Well both for the same reason. They both put a lot of work into building new content sites and put the Adsense ads up on almost every page.

But it was obvious that the sites had no purpose other than displaying the Adsense code.

They didn't try to get subscribers to their ezines, they didn't promote affiliate programs, etc.

All they did was have good quality targeted content + Adsense.

Now you might think there's nothing wrong with building a site like that, but Google just doesn't like it when it comes to Adsense.

One friend sent me the letter Google sent him. Here's part of what Google had to say:

"Ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant."

______________________________________


Ok, so seeing that having quality content isn't enough, what can you do to make sure your own Adsense sites don't fall foul of the rules?

______________________________________


Well what you have to do is give your sites an extra purpose.

Here are a few ways of doing that:


# also display some affiliate links on the pages, and include an affiliate graphic or two.

# perhaps run a news ticker. You can get good ones from a number of sources, but one of the best is http://www.moreover.com which
has newsfeeds covering a huge variety of niches.

# link to authority sites on the subject, even though they're probably not linking back to you.

# start an ezine and have a subscribe box displayed prominently on each page.

# if your site is about online business/marketing give away a free ebook or two. But make sure they're quality one's you can customize with your affiliate links so that you stand a chance
of profiting from them.

# have a poll running on your site. I use a good one from One Minute Poll

If I were you I'd do all of them.






2. Google Adwords Traffic:

One way of GUARANTEEING plenty of visitors from Google is by buying Adwords.

If you do it right you can make a fabulous income. If you do it wrong, you'll be well out of pocket.

Recommended Adwords Resources ->

Chris Carpenter's GoogleCash ebook, which details how Chris makes a living from Adwords. An excellent resource.

I'm a big user of Google Adwords to promote my many mini sites. And it's now made easier because of the help I get from using GoogleCash and AdWords Analyzer. Read the page listed below to
follow this strategy (it works).

http://www.ozemedia.com/google-adwords.htm






3. Google and blogging...

Google is still ranking frequently updated Blogs very high. And having your own blog (and keeping it to the theme of your main site) could be a great way of getting more traffic.

To learn how to do it well I'd like to recommend you read James Maduk's Blogging Secrets which is a really good multimedia ebook. Very tasty.

Like his excellent Google course "How to Get Ranked #1 On Google" it's a combination of Audio / Video / Whiteboard Training and Screen Captures. (plus you get 4 Hours of bonus audio
interviews from his private E-learning sessions.

If you're thinking of blogging for profit you need to read this first.





4. More Google Stuff...

Your commercially oriented sites probably took a rankings kick in the guts in the last Google update.

Don't worry, you're not alone. This site lets you enter the main keywords for your site and see how many other sites with the same keyword phrase have dropped in rankings.

Not really useful, but interesting.

http://www.scroogle.org/

More useful - in fact a MUST READ if you're at all interested in learning more about how and why Google's latest update is affecting your sites - is a detailed online report "A Statistical and Experimental Analysis of Google's Florida Update" written by Leslie Rohde who developed that marvelous ranking software Optilink.

There's no charge to read it, though Leslie could easily have packaged it up into a "special report" and sold it.

When you've done with reading it though, I seriously suggest taking a look at Optilink.

Leslie is one of the most knowledgeable search engine people around, and the Optilink software works a treat.


_______________________


Looks like an Adsense competitor is on the way early in 2004 http://www.quigo.com/adsonar.htm

Overtures efforts in this field are in beta, with some major sites already running content matched Overture advertising, (and rumors that it's going to be opened up to all of us) and Commission Junction have got a contextual advertising/content matching solution in the works - though unlike Adsense it's very unlikely
to offer pay per click.

You can get more on Overture's Content Match here and while you're there you might want to consider advertising on them. I've had an account there for years now and get tons of traffic to my mini sites. A friend of mine, Paul Manuel, wrote a free report
detailing how he makes a great living from his Overture advertising. you can get it here.


Ok, one last Google thing: Trackmeat.

It's no cost software that saves you logging into Adsense 50 times a day to check how your commissions are doing.

Once you install it and click "Go" it minimizes right away, and your AdSense income will update down in the taskbar and system tray at intervals set by you.

It also works for Commission Junction.

(note: I haven't used this software, so I'm not recommending it, just informing you that it exists)


About the author:
Phil Wiley is the author of the best selling book Mini Site Profits www.minisiteprofits.comand writes the free weekly Letter from Phil at www.ozemedia.com

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10 Great things NOT to do with Google AdSense

10 Great things NOT to do with Google AdSense
by: Diane Nassy
There is no question that you can make some good money with Google AdSense, but you’re setting yourself up for disaster if you make any of these Top 10 mistakes!

1. Do not use fake information when opening your Google AdSense account.

Google says that’s a no-no and they will cut your account off and keep all the money you may have earned. Besides, trying to hide your true identity can cause serious problems with the I.R.S. or whoever your tax authority is.

2. Do not hack or modify Google AdSense code other than to change the parameters that Google authorizes you to change.

Any attempt to bypass Google’s built-in algorithms not only poses a danger to the integrity of the network, but it threatens the financial modle that Google operates under. You’re not dealing with some Mom-and-Pop company here, and Google has the legal muscle and deep enough pockets to drag you through every court in the land if you damage their business with your hacking antics.

3. Keep AdSense ads off of your registration, confirmation, and all "thank you" pages.

Don’t ask me why you can’t put your ads there. It makes sense to me that those would be wonderful locations. Google thinks otherwise, however, and doing so is a hanging offense according to their Terms of Service.

4. Do not display AdSense ads and a competitor's ads (like Overture's) on the same page at the same time.

That just makes plain good sense. Google doesn’t demand 100% SITE loyalty from you, but they do insist that their own ads not be cluttered up by offerings from their competitors.

5. Don't "beg for clicks" or provide any incentive for clicking on your Google AdSense ads.

This is a biggie and you see this rule violated all the time. Any of the “get paid to do stuff” sites that put Google ads in the member’s control panels are walking the plank and they don’t even realize it. Even those sites with the polite little messages asking you to “help keep my site running by clicking on our sponsor’s ads” are asking to be cut off if those happen to be Google ads.

6. Never click on the ads running on your own site, even if you are genuinely interested in the product or service and are thinking of buying it!

Nothing screams FRAUD louder than a webmaster running up his or her own click counts by happily clicking on ads fromtheir own site. The Google Gods can track this activity and it won’t be long until you find yourself getting a goodbye note from their fraud team.

7. No misleading labeling

Google is very specific about what text can be placed around their ads. Their Terms of Service state: “Publishers may not label the ads with text other than ‘sponsored links’ or ‘advertisements.’ This includes any text directly above our ads that could be confused with, or attempt to be associated with Google ads.”

This is to keep visitors from becoming confused and barking up Google’s tree when they clicked on an ad that led to a porn site instead of the recipe site they were expecting to visit.

8. Avoid keyword spamming and other divisive tricks

You may be tempted to buy one of those “generates thousands of key-word rich pages in seconds” programs that are so popular these days but I’ll tell you this: Their days are numbered. Google is wise to such shenanigans and they will be hot on your trail. Other prohibited gimmicks include:

• ”Sneaky” page redirects that send a visitor off to a different site then they were expecting to visit.

• Multiple sites, domains, pages, etc. which have substantially duplicate content.

• Hidden text or links of any type.

• Excessive outbound links on any page. Google recommends no more than 100. I’d keep it way below that.

• And here is a nugget of wisdom straight from Google’s mouth: “Do not participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your website may be affected adversely by those links.

9. Don’t advertise anything on Google’s prohibited items list.

It’s a lot shorter lists than PayPal’s or eBay’s, but it includes a lot of the same stuff like hacking/cracking content, porn, illegal drugs, gambling sites, beer or hard alcohol (I guess wine is OK), weapons, and the other usual stuff.

10. And the 10th dumbest thing NOT to do with Google AdSense is to let the other nine things stop you from running an honest site that’s designed to make the most out of this very profitable opportunity that Google offers!

About the author:
Diane provides marketing and internet profit tips.
For more Google AdSense tips, visit http://www.adsense.deeljeabiz.com
Email : deeljeabiz@gmail.com

4 Steps to eBay Affiliate Success

4 Steps to eBay Affiliate Success
by: Anthony Samuel
Copyright 2005 Anthony Samuel

Getting started with the eBay affiliate program is as simple as 4 easy
steps. eBay knows you have a business to run, so they have created a step-by-step guide to see you down the road of success. With the eBay Affiliate Program, you could bring in an extra $25,000 a month, as well as gain access to many tools and strategies that will optimize the working of your website, its effectiveness with search engines and on the Web in general. Getting started in a successful venture has never been so easy.

Step# 1

To register for the eBay Affiliate Program simply to go http://affiliates.ebay.com/ and do a little research. When you have seen the unlimited opportunities for success that the eBay Affiliate program affords its members, you will next want to click on the ‘API Program Join Now’ button. At this point you will be prompted to select the platform you would like to join with. The platform you choose will influence the tier and type of business your eBay Affiliate Status becomes. Each platform offers unique advantages, and should be considered carefully. Once you have selected your program platform, simply click the Join Now button for that particular platform.

Step# 2

After you have completed your application, the eBay Affiliate network you
choose will send you an email with your login details and instructions on getting started. The application process itself is easy, and simply requires some information about your business. This information helps eBay optimize the tools and guidelines they provide you for your success. The application takes only a few minutes, and is not sold to competitors. The Affiliate network you chose will be in touch with your personal information and you can get started with your successful new venture.

Step# 3

Once you have received your password and login information, you can proceed to the affiliate network site http://affiliates.ebay.com/tools/ to find eBay banners, text links, and search boxes. This website offers detailed tracking statistics. The tracking statistics will help you see which products and companies are performing best. This information will help guide you as you develop your affiliation with eBay, and will enable you to make the best decisions for your website’s performance.

Step# 4

The last step to success with the eBay Affiliate Program is to further grow
your eBay strategy using the affiliate website and all of its many features.
The affiliate website will not only get you started down your road to success with eBay, but they will provide you with invaluable tools to maximize your strategy. These tools and kits will help you transition into the affiliate member you want to be, and will continue to keep you updated so you stay current with trends and technology.

These 4 easy steps take you from learning about the eBay Affiliate Program, to being a super successful eBay affiliate.


About the author:
Anthony Samuel is a successful entrepreneur with over 15 years home based business experience in, Internet Information Marketing, Real Estate, & Stocks. Visit his website http://www.sanjen.comfor the internet's top money making opportunities.

12 Tips For A Successful Affiliate Program

12 Tips For A Successful Affiliate Program
by: Ken Hill
1. Look around at other competing businesses that offer affiliate programs, and think of ways that you can make your
affiliate program more attractive.

2. Pay your affiliates well for their efforts.

If you're thinking about offering a 10% commission for sales of your product and a competing business is paying a 50%
commission for referrals, you'll lose affiliates to your competitor.

3. Make your affiliate program more lucrative by offering residual commissions.

This is an excellent choice if you offer a product that is paid for on a residual basis such as webhosting or access to your membership site.

4. Offer lifetime commissions.

Your affiliates will see the power of lifetime commissions, and work hard to promote your business and send you more
sales.

5. Make your affiliate program two-tier.

Reward your affiliates by giving them a commission on the sales of people they refer to your affiliate program.

6. Don't leave your affiliates out in the cold.

Provide your affiliates with lots of sales items that they can use to successfully promote your products.

Some items you could offer your affiliates:

- e-zine ads (sponsor ads, classified ads, 2 liners)
- signature file ads
- sales letters/solo ads
- brandable ebooks
- sample recommendations
- email courses
- your articles that they can reprint with their affiliate URLs in your resource box.

7. Be quick to respond to your affiliates' emails.

An easy way to lose your affiliates is to not respond to their questions in a timely manner, or to not respond to their e-mails at all.

It shows that you don't value them, and since their are tons of other affiliate programs, you would be losing potentially
very good affiliates to other businesses.

8. Provide your own tips and advice.

Follow up with your affiliates with tips and strategies that they can use to increase their commissions.

9. Reward your top affiliates with higher commissions and bonuses.

You'll be able to achieve more sales over the long term because your top affiliates won't jump to another affiliate program where their efforts are more appreciated.

10. Publish an affiliate's newsletter.

Your affiliate's newsletter will help you to share your tips with your affiliates, and keep them going in the right direction.

You could also use your newsletter to keep your top affiliates excited about your program.

Some effective ways to do this are:

- Share what your top affiliates do to earn big commission checks.
- Showcase their sites and tell why their sites sell.
- List your 5 or 10 highest earning affiliates for the month.

11. Track your affiliates' sales accurately.

Your affiliates will find out if they send you customers and you don't credit them with their commissions.

Your affiliate program will lose credibility and you'll end up losing your affiliates as word gets around.

12. Participate in affiliate marketing forums.

Share your valuable advice and expertise with the members of the forums you participate in.

Include your signature file that promotes your affiliate program, and always follow the rules of the forums you join.


About the author:

Article by Ken Hill. Want To Start Your Own Profit Driving Affiliate Program? Power packed solution has what you need. Includes affiliate program software, shopping cart, ad tracking and easy e-zine management. Automate your online business today at: http://www.scstats.com/r.cfm?i=5029

3 Keys To Success With Your Affiliate Program

3 Keys To Success With Your Affiliate Program
by: Andy Murray
Copyright 2005 Andy Murray

Affiliate programs (also called Referral Programs or Partnership Programs) are essentially commission-based sales schemes.

Joining an affiliate program is a neat way to make money from your users. But just as you can join someone else's affiliate program, so you can set up your own program and invite webmasters to sign up. Here are my top 3 tips to succeed with your own affiliate program.


1. How to attract affiliates

One of the biggest fears new Affiliate managers have is in finding new affiliates. This fear is a stumbling block that stops many site owners from getting started with affiliate marketing. Interestingly, with a proper marketing strategy, getting affiliates may not be very difficult. Given below are some tips that may help in attracting new affiliates.

Find complimentary sites - "Complementary" sites are sites that sell products or services that compliment your offers. If you sell "gardening tools", a site that sells books on "gardening tips" would be a perfect affiliate.

Find content sites - There are many sites that do not sell any kind of product or service but are mainly content oriented sites. Such sites promote an idea, concept, study or belief. Content sites that are used as a resource for your target market are ideal affiliates.

Finally, there are several sites on the Internet dedicated to listing affiliate Programs. Get your program listed in these directories.


2. Classifying Affiliates for Better Management

The hardest part of administrating an Affiliate Program is deciding what your affiliates need to help make the sale. But, by carefully categorizing your affiliates, you can easily determine what their needs are and how to accurately meet them.

The first step is to pick at least three types of affiliate. Take a look at your affiliates and try to determine one outstanding characteristic that can easily be compared across the board and choose at least three types of the characteristic.

The Second Step is to determine the needs of each type. Each of your affiliate types will have different needs; some of their needs will overlap, but you should find a distinct difference in many of their needs. If you find that all of them have the same needs, go back to step one and re-think your types.

The Third Step involves the process of creating and compiling linking methods for each group of affiliates. Based on the needs you identified in Step two, create and compile linking methods for each type.


3. Safe Guarding Against Spam

Any time you run a program where your affiliates rely on other signups to generate profits, you will eventually have a problem with spam. One of your affiliates will inevitably get it into their head to blitz the Web with unwanted garbage.

When this happens you need to be ready to take action otherwise it will cost you! Your Internet company can boot you off your server and you can find yourself blacklisted. Not good for business. If you get an email from someone claiming they received spam with your URL, then take it as an early warning.

I am not advising you to immediately terminate the affiliate's account, but be sure to contact them to follow up on the complaint. Let your affiliate know you received a complaint and advise them to remove this person from their list.

If you only get one or two complaints, it's probably not spam, the complainants might simply have signed up for an email list and forgotten all about it. You will know when one of your affiliates is spamming, because you will get anywhere from 10 to 100 complaints in the same day all regarding the same URL.

The best thing to do in this case is to immediately terminate or disable the account of the affiliate URL that was spammed.

Running your own affiliate program can become an extrememly profitable venture for your business. You can recruit a HUGE sales force promoting your products for you, and ONLY pay them when you make a sale!
Andy Murray is a marketer and publisher writing informative reports to help grow your online business. Get his latest offering "Get Stinking Rich From Affiliate Programs" for FREE by simply following this link: http://www.zerohourmarketing.com/Affiliate-Marketing-Report.htm