Written by George Manty · August 24, 2011
It’s been a while since I have written on Can I Make Big Money Online, because Jill and I are busy adding new services for our business, re-working some of our branding, and other things. Anyway, as part of our cleaning house process we are going to be putting some of our 250
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Written by Trent Brownrigg · September 26, 2011
Accepting credit cards isn’t a do-it-yourself project. It requires a credit card processor (also called a merchant services provider) who establishes and administers your merchant account. During a transaction, the processor also acts as a middleman between the merchant and the credit card issuer to make sure the process goes smoothly.
Choosing the right merchant services provider requires an understanding of your credit card processing requirements and research into the various deals that are available. Here are five steps you should take when making your decision:
1) Learn about merchant accounts and the associated fees. You must establish a merchant account before you can accept credit cards. Basically, a merchant account is a bank account that acts as the depository for credit card transaction revenue. Once your merchant services provider has processed your transactions, it deposits the proceeds into your merchant account. The provider charges fees for its services — ask about them upfront and make sure you understand them.
2) Consider your technical requirements. What types of credit card processing are you planning to do? Traditional point-of-sale (POS) at a credit card terminal? Online processing from your website through an electronic gateway? Mobile or wireless processing when your business takes you on the road? Mail order/telephone order (MOTO)? Are most of your transactions card present or card not present? What business expansion or diversification plans do you have for the near future? It could be you need one or more credit card processing options, and you should make that clear to the merchant services providers that you are considering so they can come up with the best package deal for your needs and budget.
3) Identify merchant services providers who want your business. Not all processors work with all businesses. Some don’t deal with start-up operations or merchants with bad credit histories. Many will not service so-called “high risk” businesses, a category that includes adult-related businesses, online casinos and businesses located outside the United States. Look for a reputable processor who deals with businesses similar to yours.
4) Compare fees and services. Once you’ve compiled a list of potential merchant services providers, compare their fees and services to see who comes closest to meeting you requirements. Ask detailed questions about the types of hardware and software each offers. If you’re in the market to change processors, determine if your current system is compatible with their technology. When it comes to fees, going with the cheapest may not be your best bet. Be sure you know what you’re getting for your money, that it fulfills your needs and fits your budget.
5) Scrutinize security. Solid, reliable security may be the only thing standing between your business and disaster. It’s no secret that credit card fraud and identity theft are major threats to merchants and consumers alike. Make sure your credit card processing takes security seriously and is PCI compliant. Your merchant services provider should be able to answer all your security-related questions and train you and your staff in the proper protocols to keep you and your customers safe from a data breach.
Guest post by Marc McDermott, the Online Marketing Manager at Merchant Express, a full-service merchant services provider that has helped thousands of businesses with their credit card processing needs since 1998.
Written by Trent Brownrigg · September 27, 2011
I spend most of my time writing about ways to make money, which is great and all, but a lot of the time it can take months before you actually start earning anything. So what if you need a little extra money right now?
Glad you asked… Here are a few ideas which hopefully won’t mean waiting for months and months for your Google Adsense earnings to get into double digits:
1: eBay!
There are lots of ways to make money on eBay, but the simplest way to start is to sell some of your own stuff. Seriously, just a few things. First it will help later if you have at least sold a few items, and second you are going to need some seed money.
Next step, once you have a little bit of experience and money to spend, you are going to start looking in the wholesale section on eBay. This is by far the easiest way to find potential lots.
Try to buy mixed lots of “stuff” – look for lots which already have bids so that you know you are getting a good price. The bottom line is that you have to take a punt and learn what works, but if you are careful, you can re-sell any lots that don’t work out and at least get most of your money back, so the risk is pretty low.
2: Fiverr!
This is a simple site where people go on and say what they will do for $5. If you can think of some service, or quirky product that you can sell for $5 each, you might be able to make a little extra money on Fiverr.
To get ideas, simply navigate to fiverr.com and see what other people are offering. The key is to come up with something novel that can be done quickly and cheaply.
You may not be able to make a lot doing this, but there are certainly people who do make a nice little bit of extra money by doing silly, fun things. The first step is to spend a long time studying the site and other people’s offers; you will soon get a feel and hopefully some ideas for your own offering.
3: Textbroker!
If you are a native English speaker and you can write pretty well, you can sign up to be a writer on Textbroker.com. The system is simple enough – people who need articles request them, and as a writer you can pick the titles you want to write.
There are different quality levels, and you generally have to start at the bottom, but if you write well you can soon go up to the top quality level and you can actually make some decent money. The key is to get to level 5 – at this level the amount you get paid is actually pretty reasonable – much better than you stacking shelves anyway!
So, there you have it, three ways to make money online fast! Now all you have to do is get started.
This is a guest post written by Alex at http://www.tomakealiving.com
Written by Trent Brownrigg · October 11, 2011
We all know that every business organization needs to create a unique webpage to boost their business profit and be seen among a large number of online visitors. As there’s a lot of fuss surrounding social media these days, you too must take a jump onto this bandwagon if you haven’t yet. There are many social media websites where a large number of people socialize and also try to make profit out of them. Marketing your business website through social networking sites is an effective part of SEO and can have a good effect on your profits. Here are a few ways how…
Ascertains a brand and raises awareness: Since the majority of the population is visiting social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can also create your brand name by letting people know about your webpage. As these are the names of some authentic social networking websites, having a business profile on such sites will help boost your brand image and also raise the awareness among the people.You may spy on your competitors: You can easily spy on your competitors by following them on Twitter or Facebook. You can easily see what the tools that they have up their sleeve are and that they’re using in order to keep an edge over others. You can adopt any methods you like that your competitors are using.You can track your customers: Almost everyone nowadays uses websites like Twitter and Facebook and therefore they are great places to track your customers. You may come to know what they like about your company or products and services, and also about the problems that they have with the services offered by you. Utilize their constructive criticism and use them for enhancing the quality of your products so that you can make more profits.Boosts customer confidence and loyalty: If you have a business profile in all the popular social media websites, you can speak to your customers more easily and frequently. This will boost the confidence of the customers and you can easily maintain a good relationship with them that is beyond the relation of a typical customer and business owner. This will also enhance your customer retention ability.Conduct market research: You can visit various websites and make sure they are on par with the others. You may speak to your competitors so that you can share your opinions on various social media websites. Use your new-found information so that you can boost your productivity and also keep an edge over your competition.Therefore, if you are a business owner who wants to increase its visibility, you must use the social media websites to promote your business in a natural way. This will also help with your SEO efforts to boost the search engine ranking of your website. There really is not downside to utilizing social media for your business other than the small amount of time it takes, so go for it!
This is a guest post sent by Alex Brown of http://www.all360.net
Written by Trent Brownrigg · October 14, 2011
When it comes to making money with your blog, monetizing your blog is an important part of it. Some bloggers monetize their blog the day they publish their first post and others monetize their blog when they have established the blog and have a steady stream of traffic coming in everyday. But, no matter which group of bloggers you belong to, sooner or later, you have to think about monetizing your blog. Thankfully, when it comes to making money with your blog, there are a few good options.
Here are :
1) Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC is one of the most popular ways to make money with a blog and Google Adsense is the most popular PPC network that bloggers use. As the name “pay per click” suggests, you get paid each time someone clicks on ads displayed on your blog. The amount of money you can make with each click depends on a few different factors, the most important one being the importance of the topic and the keyword. For instance, Keywords related to finance like credit, mortgage and home loan are some of the highest paying keywords.
PPC advertising networks like Adsense and Bidvertiser, use a smart technology that displays laser targeted ads based on the content of your page. So, if your blog is about food, you won’t see finance related ads displayed on your blog, it will be ads about food and cooking.
2) Cost Per 1000 Impressions (CPM)
With CPM you get paid per impression, usually a few cents per impression. The good thing about CPM is that no one has to click on your ads for you to get paid, the bad news is that most of the time you get paid only a few cents per thousand impression. So, CPM would work much better on blogs with high amounts of traffic.
However, you can still benefit from CPM even if you don’t get much traffic and views. Usually ad networks allow CPM to be used in conjunction with other kinds of ads like PPC ads. Since PPC pays per click, you could place PPC ads above fold and above or under your individual posts, and place your CPM ads on less prominent parts of your blog, where they won’t replace the PPC ads, but you will still get impressions on them. One of the most well-known CPM ad networks is AdBrite.
3) Cost Per Action (CPA)
CPA is self explanatory. Its a method of advertising where in order for publisher (you, the blog owner) to get paid, the visitors has to click on the ad and take the necessary action that is required by the advertisers. These “action”s could be as simple as submitting an email address, registering for a website or subscribing for a free newsletter, to purchasing a product or opting in for a paid service. The most popular kinds of CPA ads are 125×125 ads that are usually placed in the left or right side (side bar) of the blog.
Of course, the commission you receive for each valid transactions, depends on the individual ad and the kind of action it requires. Usually ads that ask visitors to purchase a product or pay for a service pay much higher than ads that ask for free sign-ups and entering basic information such as name and email address. But either way, CPA ads pay a lot more than PPC or CPM ads. Amazon Associates, ClickBank and Commission Junction are some of the biggest CPA advertising networks.
4) In-text Advertising
This is one of the newest kinds of blog monetization methods. There is no need to set aside space on your blog to place ads. With In-text advertising specific keywords within the text of your content are matched with ads, turning those keywords into underlined or double underlined words. In text advertising works the same way as CPC. You get paid every time someone clicks on the ad.
In-text advertising is not for every blog. It really depends on the audience and the topic of the blog and sometimes even the structure of the blog.The key to using in-text advertising successfully is moderation. Don’t set your option to having 1 ad in each sentence, its a big turn off. A few in text ads in each post is plenty. Kontera is one of the biggest In-Text advertising companies out there.
5) Text Links
Text links (I call them affiliate links) are basically links that point to another site. Text links direct visitors from your blog to someone else’s blog or website. When it comes to getting paid, Text links work differently than other methods, meaning the pay is based on the popularity of your blog. The more popular your blog is, the more money you get. Text-Link-Ads and Link Worth are two of the most famous text link advertising companies.
These are some of the most popular and easy ways you could monetize your blog. However, when it comes to blog monetization, there is no one method that could work for every blog and every blogger. That is why you need to do your own research. Experiment with different types of monetization methods, and try different things with each method.
For example, if you use PPC, move your ad blocks around on your page and keep track of the results. Doing so enables you to find out which kind of ad block (color, size, etc) in which spot on your page gives you the best results, thus allowing you to make more money from your blog.
This is a guest post written by Satrap of http://www.blogstash.com
Written by Trent Brownrigg · December 8, 2011
Social networking this, social bookmarking that. It’s a social media crazed world out there. And it’s only getting bigger. Every day there are thousands more people getting on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and LinkedIn. Oh and let’s not forget about Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit, and countless others.
Whether you are a casual user who is on these sites for fun and connecting with others, or you use them as a business marketing tool for making money online, there’s no denying the power of social media. The world is now more connected than ever before. On any given day you might have an online interaction with someone from every continent of the planet.
So, what does all this social media stuff mean for you?
If you are a casual social media user then it means you can connect with people you have not seen or heard from in many years. It also means that you could use your connections to start an online business, whether you have ever thought about that or not. You don’t have to be full-time but you could earn extra money on the internet using social media in various ways.
If you are a business owner it means you have the opportunity to use the power of SMM to your advantage. You can reach your customers and potential market like never before. You can also tap into a whole new client base worldwide that you never could have done without social media. Even small local businesses can expand into a global market nowadays without needing an entire marketing team or a huge budget.
Of course, it will still take time and work. You can’t expect to just sign up for a few social networking sites and have your business explode overnight. You need to build up a following, be consistent with your efforts, have patience, and set yourself apart from everyone else in your niche trying to do the same thing. The key is to be unique, informative, entertaining, and valuable.
It’s a whole new digital world out there. Make sure you aren’t getting left behind!
