40 Ways to Make Real Money
On The Internet
Even with no "product" and no "web
site", you can get paid for what and who you
know.
Making money
online in the past rquired that you have your own glossy
web site, your own unique products to sell and some
marketing brains. But a new generation of internet
businesses have appeared that will pay you for who you know
and what you know - without you first becoming a top web
designer or a marketing specialist.
But it's hard
to separate all the hype from the real stuff. I
recently made a search for "make money online",
and most of the information I found is just
promoting a wide variety of information products
(read reports, ebooks, bright concepts), mostly about How To
Succeed in Internet Marketing. I can see why some
people ask, "Is anyone making money on the Internet,
beside the Hype Professionals (read Internet Marketing
experts)?"
So
I gathered a list of business opportunities with
legitimate companies that:
- They pay real money,
not just points towards rewards or a chance to win
money, etc.
- They don't require
that you must have your own Web domain or your own
unique products
- They don't involve
any hard-selling
- They aren't just
promoting more Internet marketing
stuff
- They can provide a
good return for your time
investment
These are legitimate
companies with business models that allow you to get paid
for a wide range of activities. I obviously can't vouch for
them all, but these are pre-filtered to help you in your
search.
-
Infolinks
- Infolinks is probably the highest paying option
for your in-text advertising. On DLM, you will see
underlined links scattered throughout articles.
Those are a function of Infolinks and without
disclosing too much, it's been a great source of
income. Best is that they accept all sizes of
websites and blogs. Just sign up and
begin.
-
Build a Niche
Store - This
is a simple store development platform which enables you to
create content based sites that generate income through the
eBay affiliate programs. Pretty darn simple and
increasingly popular.
-
Adbrite
- Sell space on your
site for text ads. This would work like the DLM Marketplace
you see on the right of my pages although I chose to manage
it myself.
-
Amazon Affiliate
Program
-
Easily create a store or shopping section on your site
instead of sending your visitors to Amazon. Amazon
handles the shopping cart and
fulfillment.
-
Amazon Seller
- Sell
your stuff on Amazon. New or used for a fixed
price.
-
Associated Content - If you write a story, how-to,
rant, how-to cut grass, etc., you can submit it to them and
they will pay you $3-$20 per article if they like
it.
- PayPerPost Blogging
- If you write a
promotional story, how-to do something, or a positive
review, you can submit it to them and they will pay
you $5-$20 per article if their buyers like
it.
-
Yahoo! Merchant Solutions - This is a pretty simple and cheap
way to create an online store.
-
Azoogleads -
Another ad program. They do have some decent companies
lined up as advertisers. You provide space, they'll provide
an ad.
-
BidVertiser
- PPC (
pay per click) program with a low $10 payout
amount.
- Blog - Start a blog and consistently write
excellent content. With good ad placement, you may
make some money.
-
Cafepress
- You
provide a design, they'll toss it on a T-Shirt, Hat,
etc. No upfront costs. Get a free online shop and
promote your products on your
website.
-
Chitika -
Their eMiniMalls service has shown great results for many
Bloggers and site owners. You choose a keyword and they
show relevant products on your site using a pretty unique
interface.
- ClicknWork - Get paid $5-$150 per hour for
basically doing freelance work on a per-assignment basis.
You have to pass a pretty tough test to get
in.
-
Clickbank -
An established favorite affiliate program. They have
thousands of things for you to advertise on your
site.
-
- Clicksor - These are the guys that generate
contextual ads on sites that show up when you hover over a
double-underlined word.
-
- Commission
Junction -
If you have a site, you can join Commission Junction.
Once enrolled for free, you can choose companies
whose ads are pertinent to your site. Companies have
the ultimate say on working with you. There are
easily over 1,000 companies to choose from
here.
- CreamAid - For blogs only, advertisers
provide you with a topic and you write about it on your
site. To do this, you have to install a flash widget into
your blog post. The more people you bring into the
conversation through the widget, the more you get paid.
It's difficult to explain.
-
eBay - Come on, you know what this is. Gather
your junk and other people's stuff and sell
it!
- eefoof - Think of it as YouTube + Flickr +
Music. You add original content and they pay you based on
the visitors you attract.
-
Ether - If
you are an expert on something, Ether provides a way for
people to pay you to talk about it in a one-on-one setting.
If you want to charge $250/hr, that's fine. You have to do
all the advertising so you should have a blog or site
already established.
-
-
eBay
Stores - If
you have a real store and want to sell your stuff online,
this is a decent option to get you started.
- ELance - This one's name gives it away.
Programmers, Codes, Web Designers, Writers, Editors, can
look for freelance opportunities.
-
Feedvertising - This is an arm of Text Link Ads
and is currently only good for Wordpress 2.0 Users. This
does me no good currently, but as you can guess, they place
ads in your feed(s).
- Feedburner /
Google -
Not only are they the best place to house your feeds,
they will also add ads to your feed and website. You
get paid per impression and if you implement Google
Adsense to your feed, you are paid per
click.
-
Google Adsense - Come on, you don't need an
explanation; these ads are all over the place. Google
displays relevant ads based on your site's
content
- Google
Adwords -
Create simple text ads and choose keywords that
determine when they are displayed. This is where the
Adsense Content comes from. You do not need a site
for this.
- H3.com - Get paid to fill jobs.
Commissions range from $50-$5,000. It all depends on how
tough the job is to fill and how desperate the hiring
company is. It's all about who you know.
-
- Indeed.com - Add their job board to your site.
They then post jobs based on the geographic location of
visitors and the position types you
pre-select.
- InnerSell - If you have a customer that wants
to buy something you cannot sell, you can sell the lead
here.
- Jigsaw - It's a pretty flaky model but if
you have a Rolodex full of good contacts, you can sell them
here. I can't make sense of it but it looks like you get
$0.10 per profile.
-
Microsoft Adcenter - Bid on keywords and Microsoft
places your created ads then they are searched for. This is
similar to Google Adwords. You do not need a site for
this.
-
Overstock.com
- Sell your stuff on
Overstock.com
-
LinkShare.com
- If
you have a site, you can join Linkshare. Once enrolled
for free, you can choose companies whose ads are
pertinent to your site. Companies have the ultimate
say on working with you. Like Commission Junction,
there are a ton of companies waiting to evaluate your
site.
- Pheedo - If you have an RSS feed, run it
through Pheedo. Like Feedburner, they can include ads into
your feed and if you really become large, advertisers will
pay a premium for you to show their ads.
-
Shareasale.com
- I've never really
worked with them but I do have an account. They are similar
to Commission Junction and Linkshare however they seem to
have lower tiered companies with advertising
offers.
- Shoemoney
- This is a blog that
can teach you a ton on
making money online.
-
-
Software Judge - They will pay you up to $50 to
review software.
-
Text Link Ads - I have never made a dime here but
I know people that have. You can earn by sending
advertisers to them or by selling spots on your site. You
must have a real site or blog to do this - nothing on a
shared domain (i.e. /blogspot).
-
Vibrant Media - Don't bother unless your site has
500,000 page views of text based content a month. If you
have that readership, these are the guys that display
bubble box ads to underlined words on your
site.
-
West Work At Home Agent - Not
entirely
online but this
is worth a mention because it's won awards and is
very legitimate. If you are an at-home Mom or
free-lancer without work, you should check this
out.
- ReviewMe - In order to participate, you must
have a blog and it has to be active. Companies go to
ReviewMe to advertise a product and ReviewMe asks their
members to write a review of the product in exchange for
cash.
In regards to ethics,
ReviewMe mandates that the blogger/site owner indicate that
they are being compensated to write the review AND the
advertiser cannot insist on a positive review. This is the
opposite of other similar services that don't mandate
trustworthy behavior. Ultimately the goal is to spread the
word honestly. You can
expect to earn $20 - $200 per review that you
write.
- Revver - You basically upload your
video to Revver and they attach an ad to it. You get 50% of
what the ad makes. If any of you have been on YouTube or
other video sites, you can easily understand that some
videos, even bad ones at times, go viral and thousands of
people see it, and your ad! If you want to see a sample of
this, here is a link to Revver's '
most watched'
page.
-
Vizu - I
really like the sound of this one and may try it on Dumb
Little Man. Instead of putting ads on your site, you insert
polls. You get paid based on the CPM (cost per thousand)
that you set. The better positioning on your site, the
better you will do. The nice part of this is that
everything is embedded into your site allowing visitors to
participate without leaving. That is key.
- Break.com - Upload your videos and pictures
all day. If they like them and place them on their
homepage, they will pay you $400 for original videos (you
know, snowboarding off a house onto a trampoline and
breaking your arm, etc) and up to $2000 for short films.
They also have other random contests that pay out $50 a
picture.
- CelltradeUSA: Refer your visitors to CelltradeUSA.
An they now offer an
affiliate program now. In
short, if people need to get out of a cell phone contract,
cell trade helps them by matching them with someone that
wants to enter into a phone contact without all the
fees.
-
Bitwine - If
you are an expert or even mildly knowledgeable on
something, Bitwine provides a way for you to set a per
minute rate and charge people to talk to you in a private
meeting space. Bitwine is currently in "beta" so they are
waiving fees which at some point will most likely be a % of
your earnings.
- Clickbooth - Clickbooth is a site that blog
owners or site owners can join to place
Cost Per Action ads on their site. It has a good
base of advertisers and is similar to Commission Junction
or Linkshare.
- LoudLaunch - This service has not officially
launched yet but it's something to watch. I first learned
about this on
Micro
Persuasion and the consensus seems to be that
it is similar to Review Me (which is on this
list).
-
Rent-A-Coder: As I
type this, there are thousands of job requests on this
site. These requests are opportunities for coders to earn
money. Take on a project, get it done and get paid. I like
this concept because Rent-A-Coders doesn't get paid a thing
until you do a job so it is in their best interest to keep
you busy.
Smorty: Simply get paid to blog about topics or
products. You can earn anywhere from $6 to $100 per
"opinion". They seemingly use Google Pagerank to help
determine your pay. If your blog has been around for more
than 3 months and it has a decent Pagerank, it may be worth
checking out.
-
Shopping.com - Add widgets to your site that
display products based on keywords. For the ultra-skilled,
you can even customize the entire user experience by
tapping into their API. I guarantee you've seen sites with
this installed and you never realized it.
- Sell
your pictures: If
you have a knack for photography and need some cash,
putting them online can make you some money. Check
out fotolia or Shutterstock.
- Blogs
need Writers: If
you don't have the time or know-how to start your own blog,
get in slowly. Some blogs, are always on the look out for
contributors. This is not uncommon in the blog world,
most of us have real jobs! If you need some money - there
is no harm in asking the blog owner of your favorite blogs
if you could write a few articles.
- Mylot: This is an interesting social site that
actually pays you to respond to discussions, start
discussions, and refer friends. I say it is interesting
because it seems to be a huge public forum that you get
paid to contribute to. When you think of the ways you are
all ready contributing to forums on the internet,
this can be a way to collect extra income for
something you might do anyway.
-
Tutor.com: If you
are a teacher type, you can get paid to tutor people like
me online. Help a student in Algebra, Geology, Excel or
whatever.
-
Zilo: Setup an
online store and never have to worry about shipping or
inventory. They handle it all for you.
-
User Testing:
Review websites and get $10 each.
- Get A
Freelancer:
This site lists a ton of projects that need to be
completed. If you have the skills for any of these,
it could lead to some
quick cash.
- DealDotcom: You get a 35% commission on things
people purchase through your affiliate link. If they sign
up people, you get a 15% commission on those purchases as
well. This is a 2-tier affiliate program.
So go ahead and check them
out. Find the one or two that are exactly what you are looking
for. Them simply do it. Invest in the program, do the training,
apply it and then learn
from the feedback of real results. Then make changes. Find out
what's not yet right and make it right until it sings for
you.
Rule 1: HAVE FUN
Rule 2: MAKE MONEY
Rule 3: ADJUST, RINSE and
REPEAT.
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