From Chris Jennings…
So what could I be doing to better myself in this moment of weakness? Here are five ways that I could be making money right now.
1. CPA Advertising - CPA stands for Cost Per Action, meaning you only get paid if someone goes through with the ad in some form. I use CPA Empire (affiliate link) and I have been doing $100-200 a month from sending out bulletins to my friends on myspace. I could be doing this right now.
2. Affilate Advertising - I could be making a landing page for a few popular ClickBank ebooks, buy some links on a high traffic website and expect a few sales a month with little effort. If I upped the ante a bit, worked a little harder on getting visitors and retaining emails I could be doing big business. You could be doing this right now.
3. Exploiting Niches - I read a great article about randomly finding niche’s here. Basically, you find a popular search phrase or keyword that doesn’t have much competiton, set up a blog and use the traffic to bring you money with little or no upkeep. If you’re pressed for cash, use Blogger to make this a zero investment opportunity, excluding time of course. We could be doing this right now.
4. Squidoo Lensing - I’ve got a Squidoo Lens. I think i’ve made 32 cents that has all went straight to charity — and that’s fine by me. I wonder how much more I could make if I actually promoted the lens and put a little more time in it? Either way, I could be doing that right now.
5. Networking - This one is inspired by the life of Noah Kagan. Everyone knows a few people who are really good at something whether it’s Design, Coding, SEO, Marketing - whatever. Maybe your friend can mow a yard like Wrigley Field, I don’t care. Your job would be to approach them and see if they’d give you a little off the top in exchange for the business you bring in. To keep things profitable, work on making new friends daily - create a few different email lists and notes for everyone. Hook it up and you could be making money right now.
I want to hear more ways that I could be making money right now so if you have some non-spammy advice for us, please leave a comment.
Chris Jennings is a designer, entrepreneur and young professional.
Anonymous on September 16th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
CPA Empire is excellent. I have an account with them and love their offers.
-anon
Chuck on September 17th, 2006 at 5:58 am
Thanks for the insight about CPA Empire… any success stories you’d like to share?
Arc Light Solutions on September 18th, 2006 at 11:16 am
I agree with the top 5 that are listed but you have missed the most valuable asset and that is to actually have a website. Unless affiliate marketing i run via email systems or other such devices they are extremelly ineffective as it is increasingly difficult to fight for keyword positions is search marketing. The key is a website. It has been acknowledged that turnkey website businesses time and time again prove to be the most successfull way of promoting both products and affiliate links. If you are only interested in affiliate marketing then the one page mini site is ideal for search marketing. Keep in mind the more people utilize affiliates the harder it is to beat the competitioin.