Saturday, December 29, 2007

Affiliate Marketing

So I'm looking into a new way to make money with my blog: Affiliate Marketing. Basically, companies pay you to refer customers to them. People click on links from your site, which contains a special code that lets them know who referred the customer to them. If the customer buys something, you get paid. Sometimes you get a percentage of the sale, like 5%, or a fixed amount of cash per customer that you refer, like $5. A lot of popular sites have these kinds of referral programs, like Amazon, eBay, and Google.

I recently just signed up with a site called Commission Junction, which allows you to easily sign up and apply for many affiliate programs. I got accepted by eBay, and you my ad for them under the sponsored section on the right hand side of my blog.

Simple techniques like including affilate links in product reviews on your blog can be very beneficial. It provides an easy link to the product for readers, and if they purchase it, you'll make a few bucks.

I'll keep you posted as to how well I earn any money using this approach, and let you know if there are any programs that I recommend.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Pagerank...Blah

So in the short time that I've been learning about blogging, I've come to both realize and despise the importance of something called Pagerank.

Basically, Pagerank is a score, between 0 and 10, that Google gives your site based on a number of factors, such as links pointing to your site, and the Pagerank of the sites that link to your site. When you first make a site, your Pagerank starts at 0.

Unfortunately, it takes a while for your Pagerank to go up. Google apparently only updates it every few months, so new sites will be ranked 0 (or N/A) for a while no matter what. At least a couple months it seems.

So why does Pagerank matter? Well, there's one big reason that I've found so far, and that involves advertising. It looks like advertisers, including companies that pay you to post, depend heavily on Pagerank. Rather then just looking at your content, they decide how good your site is based primarily on your Pagerank.

I guess I'm just a little bitter at the moment that Google hasn't updated my Pagerank yet...let's hope that that comes soon.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas!

Hey everybody, just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas. This is probably my favorite time of the year. I hope you have a great holiday, no matter what you are doing. It's a great chance to go help some people too, and just be sure to remember the true meaning of Christmas. Take care.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Quick Bloggerwave Update

Add Bloggerwave to your list of paid to blog sites. I just received my first payment from them, via paypal, today. Unfortunately, I've only been given that one assignment, so it doesn't look like they're that active. I can now confirm that they pay, though, so go ahead and sign up. You'll get $10 for your first post, which is about Bloggerwave.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Global Test Market - Get Paid to Take Surveys

Global Test Market is probably my favorite paid survey site, if only because I've received the most money from them. Most surveys pay about 50 points, which is $2.50. You can cash out when you earn 1000 points, or $50. A really cool thing that they do is give you 5 points ($0.25) even if you don't qualify to take a survey; most companies wouldn't give you anything. They also recently re-did their website, and it looks better and is much easier to navigate now.

I actually received my second check from them today, for $100, so I can confirm that they do indeed pay. You'll get your check about a month after you request it. All-in-all, I really like Global Test Market, and recommend it to you survey fans.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Stuff - School and Blogs

Yay! School is finally over for the semester, so I'm taking a break and enjoying the time off. It was a fun semester, and I'll probably be ready to go back in a couple weeks, but it's good to have some time off to enjoy the Christmas season.

Here's a couple recent updates on my blog. First of all, I applied to PayPerPost, and was accepted. You can see my first post for them here. Your blog has to be 90 days old to be accepted, but they gave me $20 for my first post! They supposedly pay you after one month, so I'll keep you posted. I also tried to apply for Smorty, another pay you to post company. However, they rejected my blog because it currently has a pagerank of 0, and doesn't have enough pages indexed by Google. I thought I had quite a few pages indexed, but, oh well, I'll try again next month.

Until next time, Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 14, 2007

Blogsvertise Update #2

I just wanted to update you on my experiences with Blogsvertise, the paid to post company. You can read my 2 previous entries here and here. I wanted to let you know that I have received my first payment from them, so I can confirm that they do pay (even though it took just over a month). I have only been asked to make 2 paid posts in the last month, both of which were about online insurance companies. Here's my overall feeling about them at this point: they're a decent pay you to post company that doesn't hand out too many jobs, but can be trusted to pay you. They're also willing to give new blogs a shot, something that most sites won't do. So while they're certainly not the best, I would give them a shot...just don't expect too much.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

SurveySpot - Free Paid Surveys

SurveySpot used to be my favorite survey site, but I'm not so sure anymore. They send out a mix of surveys that either guarantee you will be paid upon completion (usually $3-$5 for about 15 minutes of time), or just enter you in their monthly drawing. I never do the surveys that just give me an entry into the drawing; they're a waste of time in my opinion. The ones that you do get paid for, though, are great. I don't like that it takes up to 4 to 6 weeks to be credited for taking a survey, but you only need to reach $5 to cash out. The main reason that I don't like them as much as I used to, is because it seems that they are sending out more surveys that just give a drawing entry, and not as many that actually pay. I have received a payment from them, and can confirm that they do indeed pay. Overall, this is one of the better survey sites out there.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

PayPerPost - Making Money With Your Blog

I've been waiting for this day for a while...I am finally signed up with PayPerPost! I've heard a lot of buzz from bloggers about them, and now that my blog is finally old enough, it's been accepted into their system!

Basically, they pay bloggers to post about certain sites. You give your opinions, include a link and maybe an image, and after they approve your post, you get money! This gets the advertisers some publicity, so everybody wins. Plus, you'll get $20 just for making your first post! From what I've seen and read, PayPerPost seems to be the most reputable paid to post company on the net.

I like that they have a full disclosure policy. They require you to inform your readers of paid posts, which helps you to maintain credibility. They also have a ton of opportunities, so you should be able to find something that relates to your blog. If you're an advertiser, you can use PayPerPost to drive traffic to your site.

Oh, and one other thing: their customer service is called "Customer Love." That makes me smile.

I hope to use PayPerPost as a way to earn some cash while going through college, since I can post pretty much whenever I want. It's tough to balance both a job and schoolwork, but this is a perfect fit for me. I'll keep you updated on my success. And don't worry; my opinions won't be swayed by the fact I might be doing some paid posts. Because that wouldn't be cool.

Thanks to PayPerPost for sponsoring this post.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

IrfanView - Best Graphics Viewer and Lite Editor

IrfanView is one of those sweet little programs that I keep on every computer that I use. It's a simple, quick graphics viewer that can open almost any file type that you throw at it. I use it often to take screenshots, do a little cropping, resize images, and save them in a couple different formats. It's a great program to optimize images for your website.

I love the fact that it opens very quickly. You can open and save in a ton of formats, both common ones like jpg's and uncommon ones like pcd's. Everyone should have a copy of this program on their computer, in my opinion.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Hulu - Watch Free Clips, Shows, and Movies

Hulu is a site run by the folks in Hollywood, and allows you to legally watch TV show episodes, some movies, and lots of clips from various shows. Some of the clips are even in HD, and they are really pretty. Right now, they seem to have a lot of shows, including Family Guy, House, and The Office, which are available on their respective network's sites as well.

The site looks pretty and works pretty good, but it is still in beta. Thus, you have to sign up with your email address, and wait until the contact you when they're ready for more beta testers. I'm not sure if it will be a successful site or not, but I like what they've done so far.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

ThinkFree - View/Create/Edit MS Office 2007 Documents Online

I was in a bit of a predicament the other day. I had an Office 2007 Word document on my computer, which I needed to edit, but I didn't have Office 2007 on that computer. And, unfortunately, OpenOffice doesn't work with Office 2007 documents. ThinkFree.com came to the rescue.

This is a site that claims to be the online alternative for Microsoft Office 2007. It has Word, Excel, and Powerpoint editors, that let you create and edit files of those types. You get 1 GB of free online storage, and the ability to share your documents with whoever you want.

As of now, it's still in beta, and understandably has a few bugs. But if you need to view or edit Office 2007 documents, and don't want to go out and buy it, give ThinkFree a look.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Meebo - Instant Message From Your Browser

Meebo is a cool little site that lets you IM people from anywhere with an internet connection. No longer do you need to download programs to send someone an instant message. Instead, just head to Meebo, enter in your login information for your IM network of choice (it works with AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ, and Jabber), and you're in.

The interface is pretty clean. You get a window with your buddy list information, with who's signed in and who's not, and the option to add or remove buddies if you want. From there, you can start IM'ing people, all from the comfort of your browser. It's a pretty cool site overall, and if you're ever stuck without an IM program, or don't want to download one, then check out Meebo.