Making Money In A Whole New Way

Hey guys,

I haven't written here in a while, as my central blog ScottMW.com has been my main place of posting, but I thought I'd give the people an update on my journey.

No, I haven't reached $5000 per month yet on a steady basis. But I have been on a long and bumpy journey! I went from spending about $10/day max advertising money to about $150/day within a matter of a couple weeks. What happened was I started getting into ClickBank and made what seemed like a lot of money (read more about this here) until I figured out I was spending more on average than I was making in the long run. So about a week ago, I decided to completely cut spending and see what happened with ClickBank.

Now I knew very well that I had to make up for the loss in some way, so I scoured the DigitalPoint forums for fresh ideas, talked to my friends, thought about it a lot and finally came up with a couple of solutions.

Anyone who knows me knows I started BlogFlare.com a couple months ago and it's been a decent success, having received a Google PageRank of 5 in its first month and already having over 400 active blogs in its index. So what did I do?

I began selling space for advertising on the site at $10/mo per ad and so far I've received about 6 subscriptions for it. Yeah, I know $60/mo doesn't sound like much but it is $2/day and anyone who is scratching by with Adsense knows that $2/day isn't bad!

So then a friend of mine suggested I help him sell advertising on a few other sites with higher PR and traffic, and we've been able to sell up to about $750/mo worth of ads on sites. Now I got varying percentages of each of those sales, so my individual income from these sales plus my sales on BlogFlare add up to about $410/mo so far.

Suddenly, it's jumped up to around $14/day from these sales alone!

The next thing I decided to do (based on a friend's advice) is creating proxy sites. You might be wondering "what the hell is a proxy site?" Well, I won't go into detail but essentially it's a tool that most anyone can use to browse the internet anonymously. The cool part is that these things make decent money.

Since I started about 4 days ago, I've been making around $14/day average from AdSense as a result of having these new sites, and it's going to get better with what I have planned. By the way, if you're interested in creating proxies, let me know! I am building a large blasting list to announce new proxies to my visitors, and so far I have over 300 subscribers.

So yeah-- I went from being in a rut to making about $28/day on average per month just from my online activities, and this is traffic that will build! In fact, I am getting over 15,000 impressions per day as a result.

The funny thing? I have still been getting ClickBank sales every day! For some strange reason, people are visiting my sites through organic search results and still buying the products. It's fantastic! However, I don't really count the ClickBank income in my daily average as it's never constant. I just consider it a bonus!

So now that I'm making a steady $28-30/day, I'm about 1/5 towards my goal. The sad part is that I wasted a lot of time getting here, but I've gotten here in the last week!

Good things are happening people. It's about to get crazy. :)

-Scott

Making $5000 Per Month Online

Recently, I posted a rather interesting question in a DigitalPoint thread. I asked the outstanding people at DP how I could make $5000/mo online.

Currently, I am making around $3.50/day so I explained that I would need to increase that up by around $164 for a nice $5025/mo. I also explained that I have PHP/MySQL skill and that I'd created websites like BlogFlare.com. Here are some of the ideas that they came up with that I'd like to share with you:

• Multiply Success
  
  Essentially this idea means that if you're making $3.50/day with your current websites, multiply your ideas enough times so that you start getting up to that amount. So if you need $167/day to make $5000/mo, just divide $167 by whatever you're currently making per day. That's the formula, and for me it comes out to about 48X which means I'd need to multiply my ideas out 50 times to bring in that kind of income.
  
  Not only that but I would have to keep them updated somewhat frequently.
  


• Create Your Own Product & Market Using Affiliate Sales
  
  The idea here is to create your own eBook, software, online software, etc. and market it online. For eBooks, you can use something like ClickBank.com to get other people to sell it for you.
  
  Any of these things can be marketed using affiliate-based sales. This way other people can sell it for you and if it's a great topic, perhaps a LOT of other people will sell it for you. They usually take a bigger percentage for profit but you aren't doing much to sell this way.
  
  So any way you can do affiliate driven sales, do it. You won't be upset you did.
  
  Personally, I'm going to write an eBook on how to get traffic to your websites since I am reasonably knowledgeable on the subject. You could write an eBook on anything you're good at. Just make sure to research what you're talking about so people spread the word without you paying them to! ;)
  


• Sell Affiliate Products
  
  You can also be the middle man, as discussed on the previous topic and make a ton of money just selling other peoples' eBooks and such. ClickBank.com is a great way to find eBooks you can sell on your website or blog!
  


• Write Hosted Scripts in PHP/MySQL
  
  If you're proficient with PHP and MySQL like I am, then a great idea is to create a script that many people can use and then put it in a hosted environment for them.
  
  This way, you can charge for the product, the support and the hosting and group it into several packages if you'd like. Or you can just offer one package and make things simple.
  
  You can charge anywhere up to $200/mo+ for something like this. If you can get 25 customers, your $5K/mo mark has been met and you can continue the business just offering support. You could even outsource support for around $150 to an online company and only take care of the big support requests, thus freeing up your time.
  
  And if you know me, I'm all about freeing up time while maximizing income! :)
  


• Freelance Programming & Contract-Based Work
  
  You can find plenty of freelance work on the internet if you take up jobs that pay $500 at a time that take a few days. Just do 10+/month and you have your income.
  
  A great idea, I will admit but not one I am comfortable with. For me, I'd rather create something that brings me money residually and increases in profit as it continues.
  


• Sell A Kidney
  
  Someone did joke about selling a kidney as they go for $5K or more, but I replied saying I only had two and the cost of living without kidneys would far outweigh the benefits of the two month's income I'd get from selling them. :)
  


• Sculpt Your Content/Ads Around Your Traffic
  
  Not the other way around! So the idea here is to tweak your content/ads to increase income on content you already have.
  
  This is a great idea because it's something I can test on projects I already have and doesn't require me to manage as many websites if I were to use the multiplying theory.
  
  If I can get my current income up to $10/day for instance, I only need to multiply my efforts by 17X to get the desired outcome.
  


• Don't Use Just AdSense
  
  If you rely on one ad agency to provide you with all of your income, it's kind of like putting all of your internet eggs in one basket. If you spread yourself over a few networks, you might do much better than if you go with just one.
  
  A great testament to this is John Chow's article from January 1st, 2007 on using a bunch of different revenue sources which brought him a total of $2790.05. This isn't $5000.00 but it's a start in the right direction.
  
  Read the article here.
  


• Use Email Autoresponders To Generate Cash
  
  At first, I was thinking the author meant just using the kind of email auto responders you see when you email someone and they're on vacation. Although this is a great way to get advertising to people as well, the idea behind this is to use a service like Aweber.com to set up a mailing list that goes out at intervals you can specify.
  
  For instance, you can set up a 5-day course on getting internet traffic and people can get one email per day over five days about getting internet traffic to their website or blog.
  
  In the e-mail, you're smart to include links to your own blogs as well as affiliate links and things of that nature. This way you aren't only helping people but you're also generating income from people that actually ask for what you're offering.
  
  I say this because the way you get people to sign up is through a sign-up form on your website. This way it isn't like you're spamming. I hate spam.
  


• Create An Adult Website
  
  Believe it or not, someone did suggest this idea. And why not? If it doesn't negatively impact your sense of morality and no one is getting hurt, I don't see the problem with it.
  
  I personally wouldn't do it, but it is an idea, nonetheless so don't discount it right away.
  
  The cool thing about this is that you can use Turnkey Adult Sites that cost you about $500 upfront. They provide you with all the content and you own everything else. They update the content every day so people don't get bored and they also handle the credit card transactions.
  
  The adult industry is definitely going to make anyone money that jumps into it. You can probably make much more than the $5000/month that is the goal of this post. :)
  
  Just check out what's available in this google search.
  


• Start A Retail Business Online
  
  Someone also suggested earning money the good old fashioned way. Start up a retail business for something you're interested in and after about 8 months, you can be making $5000/mo online if you work full time.
  
  I agree with this notion and I would not mind going that direction. The trouble is that there are sometimes high up-front costs for creating the business as well as buying the inventory so for someone with a small budget, creating a retail business isn't always the best option.
  
  I just thought I'd mention it because it's a great idea.
  


• Focus On Subscriptions Rather Than Ads
  
  I think this ties into the creating your own product section of this post, but I thought I'd give this one its own area.
  
  A great idea is to get rid of ads altogether and go with a subscription based service, as ads only bring you one-time income but subscriptions are recurring and therefore, you aren't losing money.
  
  If you can come up with a service where you can charge $25/mo, you only need 200 sign-ups over 6 months and you can meet your $5000/mo goal. That's an average of 33 sign-ups per month over a six month period, which isn't bad at all.
  
  The problem here is coming up with something people will pay $25/mo for. ;)
  
  A great idea nonetheless.
  

How to Make Money From Your Blog

Now, there he goes again. I'm really liking this Steve guy. His writing is inspirational.

For instance, I'm already planning on buying a full-on domain name to write my posts in instead of using this blogger thing. Also, on one of my websites I'm re-building, I plan to put up a pixel wall (much like the one on milliondollarhomepage.com) for the community. This way, instead of donations, people can actually get something out of contributing money to the website -- they get traffic to their blog or website or whatever. Great stuff!

Of course, as I get more ideas from this guy and any other place (including my brain), I will pass them on to you.

Anyway, check out Steve's post on How to Make Money From Your Blog and let me know what you think of his ideas.

More later!

How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site or Blog

Good God, I'm just finding so many interesting articles tonight. I've skipped my normal routine of working on my websites and I've gone to just finding valuable articles for the night.

At the moment, I've found a fantastic blog by this guy Steve Pavlina and I'm making my way through a couple of his articles.

Right now, I'm reading through another post that I'll link to in a few minutes but I just finished the one that this post is linked to (click the title or click here).

Basically, he goes over exactly what you have to do in order to bring in a bunch of traffic to your blog. What I got out of it was basically this: create quality content to help people and traffic will come.

I guess the key is just having the patience and faith that people will find what you have to say useful! :)

21 Surefire Tips for a Successful Blog Launch

For those of us just starting out with blogs and wanting to make a great impression on our readers and our neighbors in our chosen niche, it is extremely important that we take the right steps to ensure that our blogs are launched correctly.

To ensure a good income stream and additionally ensure that we will write excellent quality content that people will actually pay attention to, it is key that you launch your blog properly.

Jeff over at Aviva Directory has written a fantastic article on just how to do that. Make sure you read this thoroughly, as it will have a huge impact on the success of your blog in its infancy.

You can click on the title to this post or click here to read the article.

5 Skills To Teach Your Kids

There's a lot my parents never talked about with me and my school never covered that I had to learn on my own, especially when it came to finance. I wish that my parents had helped me to develop good habits when it came to money but unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way. This article will give you a few great ways to help your kids get a head start on money management.

1. Manage Checking/Savings Accounts
   Most guides will tell you that teenagers need to know how to manage their checking/savings accounts, but I firmly believe that you should start teaching your kids about these things at an even earlier age.
   
   Every child should have an account for their own good and learn how to keep it balanced.
   
   
2. Managing Allowance
   I recommend starting your children early on allowance, no matter what your financial situation. I also believe it should be set up according to their age.
   
   If your kid is 12 years old, give him $5/week to spend and don't pay for him. Let him figure out how valuable money really is when it comes to paying for even small things.
   
   
3. Goal Saving
   On top of teaching your kid how to manage their allowance, throw in the added complication of saving up for a goal. No matter what the goal is, this will teach them money management that will help them for the rest of their lives.
   
   
4. Price Comparison
   Comparison pricing at the grocery store is a fantastic way to teach children how they can save money to reach a specific goal and still buy what they need. Start with cereal comparisons and work your way up to clothing. They should know that brands aren't necessarily everything.
   
   
5. Time Value of Money
   And finally, your children should know that money saved over time can amount to a lot. Start your kid up with an INGDirect or HSBC account and let them put their own money into the account and watch it grow. Make sure they know that whatever goes in gets locked in until they're older. This will inspire them to save as much as they can. Run some numbers with them to help them see how easy it will make their lives later on, especially if you show them how they can actually become millionaires at an early age.
   

Hopefully you use these tips to guide your children on the right path to financial freedom. They'll thank you later for the lessons you hard-code into their little brains.

Raise Your Credit Score

If you're looking into buying a house anytime soon, then you've probably heard the word "credit score" more times than you can count. Trouble is-- not all of us have the best scores and that can mean high interest rates on loans or sometimes no loan at all. For anything you want that involves a credit score, here are a few tips to increase yours quickly!

1. Pay All Bills On Time
   Before you pay anyone, it should be yourself first. Most experts will tell you this and they are 100% right, but it should only apply once you can pay yourself AND your bills. You should never let the colors on the bills change and credit scores are a great reason to avoid this with a passion. A great way to avoid late fees is to set up automatic payments with your online bank, if they offer it. Services like this generally range from $5-10/mo and are well worth the peace of mind they bring. By the way, payment history makes up the bulk of your credit score at around 35%.
   
   
2. The 30 Percent Rule
   The rule states that you should never let your credit card balance go over 30% of the limit and also about 30% of your credit score depends on how much credit you have access to versus how much of a balance you actually have on it. Personally, I never use credit cards but for those of us that do-- it's important to remember that these should only be used for money we already have. If not, make sure you pay your debts are all paid off on time. Don't ever pay the minimum, either!
   
   
3. Don't Make Your Credit Cards History
   Credit history makes up about 15% of your credit score, and the longer you have a credit account, the better your score will be. Always keep a credit history of at least a few years!
   
   
4. Quality, Not Quanitity
   Having a few credit cards with a good history and no late payments is golden compared to a bunch of credit cards with no history. The latter indicates that you are in need of credit and are headed down a treacherous path of debt consolidation. Also, pay attention to how many times your credit report is requested. Around 10% of your credit score depends on this very factor and less is better in this case.
   
   
5. Secured Credit = Good
   Loans such as mortgages, car loans, etc. are considered secured because they involve a good source of collateral (usually the object that you're taking the loan out for). Unsecured loans like credit card debts, student loans, etc. are like poison because they involve a variable collateral (your income). Make sure you get rid of unsecured loans as soon as possible. The type of credit you use also makes up about 10% of your credit score.

Use these tips and you'll be sure to increase your credit score and banks will love you. Good luck!