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A great way to make money on almost any website or blog you have is by using Google AdSense.

If you already have a blog or a website that gets traffic…but wish you could earn money with your website, Google AdSense is the perfect solution.  With Google AdSense, some ads that are related to your site will show up on any web pages you put them on.  Since the topics will be similar to your site, some of your visitors may be interested in the ads and click to visit the sites.  Whenever someone visits one of those sites, you will earn a little bit of money.  Over time, this can add up!

If you don’t have a website…it’s still not a problem.  Think of a topic that you are very passionate about, and create either a blog or content site.  If you give people good and helpful information, they will visit your site.  Once they are there and read what you have to say, they might be interested in visiting some of the sites on the ads.  Again, if they do, you will earn a little bit of money.

Another great thing is that you don’t even need to spend any money to create a site like this!  If you want to start a blog, you can go to blogger.com and create a blog for free.  You can then put AdSense on that, and then you are set.  You can have a blog that earns an income, and you didn’t even have to spend any money to do it!

Google AdSense is really a great way to monetize a site, especially when you don’t have anything to sell, but have some great information to share with the world.

I received my first issue of Revenue magazine, the how-to-guide on affiliate marketing this past week.  I should start by saying that ever since I have started my own business, I’ve been looking at different magazines, to see what kinds were helpful.  I now have a subscription to Entrepreneur, Inc, Fast Company and more..and while I enjoy reading them, none of them really deal too much with the completely online entrepreneur who does a lot of affiliate marketing.

I don’t have to look any further.  Revenue is great.  It’s completely targetted towards people who are affiliates, or run affiliate programs.  Even most of the ads were interesting to me.  So I am very excited, and already can’t wait until the next issue.

If you’re interested so far, I have something even better to tell you…they give away free subscriptions depending on what you do for a living.  Even if you can’t get a free subscription, it’s only $17.49 for the year, which isn’t too bad at all.  I have to tell you, just from reading this one issue I’ve already gotten a lot of ideas…so I am excited.

I figure if I feel this way, someone else might be interested as well.  Enjoy it, and let me know what you think.

Writing up that last post yesterday reminded me how much I now rely on one piece of free software - KeePass.  In KeePas, you enter all of your logins, passwords, and the URL’s that are associated with them.  It then makes it very easy when you come to a site you need to log into, you just double click on the login or password field, and it will copy the login or password to your clipboard for 10 seconds, giving you just enough time to paste it into your browser. 

Since almost everything has a login and website these days, there are a lot of passwords to remember!  Especially since you really shouldn’t re-use the same password over and over.  So it can be hard to remember 10 or more passwords.  With this program, you just have to remember the password to get into the program itself, and you’re set.  This is good though, because if someone uses your computer, they won’t be able to get into your password file. 

I really recommend this free software - especially if you belong to as many affiliate programs as I do!  It really makes things a lot easier.

On Friday we talked about why you want to join an affiliate program.  Of course, now the question is…where can I find a good affiliate program, and what companies have affiliate programs?  While most of the time if you go to a company’s website, you will see a link at the bottom of the page for affiliates if they do have a program, that isn’t always the case.  Many times you will find them listed in one of the bigger affiliate companies though.  Here is a list of many affiliate programs, and some of the companies that belong to each.

• LinkShare.com -Linkshare is one of my favorite programs, as they have a lot of companies that are retail stores that most people have heard of, so they can be easier to promote.  Some examples include:  Target, Apple, GameStop, J&R, Lands’ End, Macy’s, Nordstrom, and many, many more.  The way their software is set up, it is very easy to create links, and I really recommend them.
• Commission Junction - CJ is another great program that has a lot of companies that most people have heard of.  Some examples include:  CompUSA, eBay, Gap, Old Navy, Payless, Staples, and many more as well.
• Be Free - Both Be Free and CJ are owned by the same company, but their interfaces are very different.  There aren’t that many companies using Be Free, but there are some big ones that do!  Some of the companies you will find here are Best Buy, Expedia, Gateway, Rand McNally, Ace Hardware, and more.
• Performics - When I first joined, I wasn’t that impressed, but new companies keep joining all of the time, and I really like using their interface now.  Some of the bigger named companies they have are Barnes & Noble, Circuit City, Eddie Bauer, Kohl’s, GNC, and many more!
• ClickBank - If you are interested in promoting e-books and other software, Clickbank is a great resource.  You will find many different digital products you can promote.  You can also sell your own digital products through ClickBank as well, which is really nice since you will automatically have affiliates helping you sell your products, and you decide how much to pay them.
• Chitika - Chitika is an interactive product merchandising kiosk, where you can have comparison shopping right on your website.  You can put products, and it will show the store with the lowest price.  While I have not had a chance to use it much, I think it’s a great idea, and can’t wait to play around with it a little more.
• Amazon.com - Everyone knows Amazon, but did you know you could refer people to Amazon and earn money if they buy something?  Under “Amazon Services”, click on “Associates” and you can sign up.
• Share A Sale - Share A Sale has a lot of companies as well.  While some of them you might not have heard of, a lot of them are great.  Here are a few that you have probably heard of:  Checks Unlimited, Best Deal Magazines, Batteries.com, Luggage.com, and many more. 
• Fusion Quest - Fusion Quest has a lot of companies as well, and are worth taking a look at.  I just joined them recently, and like it so far.  They are also a lower cost solution if you are looking to create an affiliate program with your product.

The ones listed below are still affiliate programs, but they are set up a little differently.  In these you are promoting a specific offer.  These can be great as advertisements, etc.  They are all still helpful in helping you make money, and I belong to these as well:

• Azoogle - They have a lot of offers to choose from.
• CPA Empire -Besides paying commissions, they also have a rewards program where you can earn Visa Gift Cards!
• Hydra Media -They have a LOT of offers, and I am enjoying promoting them.
• Kolimbo - They have a lot of offers to choose from.
• NeverblueAds - They have a lot of offers to choose from as well.

There are many more, but here’s a list to get you started.  I am signed up with all of them, so I know they are all real, and reputable.  Have fun with it, and earn a lot of money!

Last week was the eComXpo, held twice a year.  It is a virtual tradeshow, and really incredible!  It’s almost as if you are at a “real” trade show, with booths, people at each booth, and lots of information.  Of course, you are doing all of this in the comfort of your own home!

There were over 550 exhibitors in this one, and you were able to go to each company’s booth, and find out more about the company.  They even had a lot of contests going on where you could win iPods and more.  The part I liked the best was that each booth had at least 1 (and usually many more) employees available to chat with.  It was a great easy way to find out more about a company, since many times it can be hard to get in contact with a real person to ask a question.

The next one is October 9th - 11th.  Since it is completely free to attend, I recommend going.

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After reading the article Jimmy D. Brown wrote yesterday, I thought you might want to read a special report of his.  It’s a 24 page report, and really explains how just writing small reports (nothing big) you can make a lot of money.  His description of the report is, “How to turn 7-15 page reports into a 6-figure empire”, and is called 5 Steps To Big Profit. 

After reading it, I was pumped up…and really want to start writing them.  I think it’s a great idea!  It’s also a lot easier than writing huge e-books.  Hope you like it!

One way to get the word out about your business is with business cards.  You can hand them out, and leave them places to get your business known.  One way to cut the cost of business cards is to create them yourself.  You can easily download some free business card software, and use one of their templates to create your own business cards.  You can then go to a place like Staples, buy business card paper, and print them yourself.  That is the most inexpensive way to go. 

If on the other hand you don’t want to make them yourself, but don’t want to pay a lot either, you can use VistaPrint.  They will send you 250 free business cards, you just have to pay for shipping.  What is the catch you ask?  On the back, it does have a small ad for VistaPrint at the bottom.  I am looking at one of mine right now, and the exact words on the back are ”Business Cards are FREE at www.vistaprint.com!”  I have gotten these myself, and am happy with them.   The quality of the card is nice, and they did a great job with the business cards.  You can choose between 42 designs, and can add the text that you like.   If you don’t want the ad, and want to be able to choose from more templates, you can pay $9.99 for their premium business cards, where you will get a choice of 300 designs.

I have found that it feels more professional when talking about your business to someone, to just take out a business card and give the person one.  Maybe that will get them to visit your website, or to pass it along to someone else.  You never know!Š

While this doesn’t exactly fall under the category of running your own business, it is a nice way to pick up a little bit of extra income.  There are many companies that offer Mystery Shopping jobs.  Here is a list of a bunch of them to get you started.  It’s really great.  You get to go to a store, restaurant, hotel, apartment complex, etc… and buy something, eat, or whatever makes sense depending on the store, and what they want you to check out.  You then report back to the company, letting them know about the service you received, the food (if it’s a restaurant), and things like that.  In turn, you get a small fee, or a product (if a store), or food (if it’s a restaurant).   Sometimes you get the food and a small fee, which makes it even nicer.

While it in no way could replace an income, it is a nice way to get a free meal, or pick up a few extra dollars every now and then.  You can choose the ones you’d like to do, based on their availability. 

Personally, I enjoy doing the restaurant ones.  It’s nice to get a free meal every now and then, plus I like the fact that I can report back on the service to make sure that the restaurants are offering good service.  I have to admit though, more often than not, the servers are all very kind, and I have very rarely had a problem while doing a mystery shop. 

So while this can’t exactly replace an income…while you are starting up your business, here is a way to get out for a little while, and earn a little bit of money.

You may have heard about Squidoo lately.  It’s a social website where you can make lenses on any topic, and others can take a look at it.  It’s really great for two things.

First off, you can have multiple ways to monetize your lens, and you can make money.  So you don’t even need a web site in order to make money!  There is Google AdSense, where you will get a portion of the money earned.  You can also add modules where you can earn money.  Some of these modules include Amazon products or other stores.  By spending a few minutes creating a lens, you can earn some money.

Secondly, this is a great place to advertise your websites and get traffic.  If you add links to your website, or an RSS feed, you can get people to go to your websites!

Setting up a lens doesn’t take much time, and doesn’t require any programming knowledge at all.  So it makes sense to spend the time, since you can get a lot of out it!  While I created my Squidoo lenses recently, I have already gotten some traffic out of it, and am sure I will be seeing more in the future!  In the future I will give you tips on how to get your lens to be ranked higher.