Making Cash On The Web

How I Learned To Make Money With My Hobby

If you’re like me, you’ve often thought about ways to make money with your hobby—to turn your “outgo” into some income.  Over the years I’ve tried a lot of different things: selling my hobby works at shows, operating as a minor product dealer, writing how-to books, and later, hawking stuff on Ebay. I’ve even contemplated opening my own retail store.

The problem is that none of these ever paid in proportion to the amount of work. After dividing the profit by the time, supplies, etc., I found I would be better off taking a second job at McDonald’s.

Then one day, as I was cruising the web looking for stuff related to my hobbies, it hit me: more than anything else, what I have to offer is my knowledge. In my profession, and in my hobbies, I’m an expert. I’m the guy that people come to for advice.

The way to profit from my hobbies, I realized, was to create websites offering my knowledge to other hobbyists. Then, if enough people came to my site to partake of my wisdom, I could sell ads. Essentially, I thought I’d create an online magazine.

The problem was that I’m a middle-aged guy with experience at creating websites or online marketing. To me, the internet was the realm of teenaged geeks.

But then, I figured, if a teenager could do it, so could I. There is no way I’m conceding anything in the brains department to a pimply faced minor.

So I began reading everything that I could about website design, online marketing and the internet in general. I very quickly found out that there is no one source of information, and that there are a lot of con men out there trying to sell you information that you can get elsewhere for free.

Serendipitously, the blogging craze began at the same time that I began my research. I quickly came to the conclusion that what I needed to do was to start a blog about my hobby. The blogging software allowed me to update my website as easily as using a word processor.

So I began to write ... and write ... and write ... The principal thing that I had learned was that it was all about the content. The more information your site offers, the more people will visit.

I added some advertising; did some more research; tinkered and tweaked. I asked questions of experienced webmasters, and they unselfishly answered. I wrote more content.; registed my sites with the search engines; begged for links and recognition from more established sites.

And before I knew it, my site was drawing thousands of visitors a day. And the money started coming in.

I don’t make a full time living off my website, because I don’t put in full-time time on it. But it pays a whole lot better than McDonald’s. And I can work when I have the time.

But the best part is, that I’m making money from my hobby. Making money from something I love.

I created this website with the intention of passing on the information that I have learned about making cash on the internet. A lot of very nice people helped me in my early days, and I feel a sense of obligation to help others.

If you’re new to the whole idea of using the internet to make cash, click on the getting started link at the top right. If you’ve already got a site, look around and see what you find.

Posted by The Editor on 09/02 at 03:30 PM
Getting Started • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Site Spinner

Much of the advice on this site is aimed at using blogs to earn money on the internet. The reason is that blogging software allows you to have a dynamic website without all the hassle of coding pages in html and uploading them every time you want to change something.

But I’ve recently begun to experiment with a piece of software called SiteSpinner V2, from Virtual Mechanics

To put it simply, its the best site creation software I’ve ever used. It works as easily as a word processor and is highly intuitive. I have created three beautiful websites and haven’t even cracked the manual. I think that it’s well within the abilities of web beginners.

I’ve used other site creation software, including FrontPage, Macromedia’s Contribute and Dreamweaver, and several other so-called wysiwyg programs that I found on the ‘net. None of these can hold a candle to Site Spinner.

Other neat things about it: it comes with a built in upload utility, so you don’t need a separate ftp program; the code that it generates behind the scenes is W3C valid; it allows you to drag and drop graphics; and repositioning elements is as easy as pulling it with a mouse.

But the best part is the price: SiteSpinner is just $49 for a download and an additional $9 for the CD.

At that price, you can’t go wrong.

(Can you tell I’m geeked about this?)

SiteSpinner V2, the only tool you need to create great-looking websites fast. Download a free trial.

Posted by The Editor on 09/02 at 03:29 PM
Software • Web Design • (0) Comments • (412) Trackbacks • Permalink

List of Website Revenue Generators

These companies pay you to display banner ads, pop up ads and other annoying displays.

FastClick

Casale Media

Tribal Fusion

Azoogleads

RealtechNetwork

Value Click

Bidclix



These Companies Pay You Each Time Someone Clicks On Their Ads

Google Adsense

Clicksor

TargetPoint

MarketBanker

BidClix

Chitika

AllFeeds

Adhearus

AffiliateSensor

Bidvertiser

Veoda





These Pay A Commission For Each Lead or Sale:

Commission Junction

Amazon

Art dot Com
Link Share

These are the ones that I use and recommend:
Fastclick
Google Adsense
Commission Junction
Linkshare
Amazon
Art dot Com

I have not tried most of the others and can’t say anything about them one way or the other. The best thing to do is to give them a try and see what happens. If you have any experience with any of them, I’d like to hear from you.

Posted by The Editor on 09/02 at 03:28 PM
Advertising Programs • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Poodle Predictor: See Your Site Like Google Does

The Poodle Predictor is a useful tool that spiders your site in a fashion similar to a search engine and then lets you see what it’s found. This is a useful way to find out if your site is search engine friendly.

Posted by The Editor on 09/02 at 03:27 PM
Search Engines • Web Design • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Wordtracker List Top Keywords

The WordTracker site has a list of the top search terms / keywords for the past 24 hours. 

Posted by The Editor on 09/02 at 03:26 PM
Keywords • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
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