So I am back from a semi-relaxing fishing trip. Let's just say that my anti corporate attitude has increased over the last few days. Being disabled is one big jumble of paper work and it appears the people who handle this paperwork do not communicate or know the laws very well.
I have been really been trying to put some effort into this series and I keep coming back to one thing. Traffic!!
The only way that you will earn an honest living online is through the traffic your site/blog generates. I firmly believe, and have said it before, organic ways of build search engine traffic is still the best. I like the term "organic", not sure who coined it, but it is a good term. "Organically" grown vegetables/meats/dairy are better for us because they do not have any unnatural toxins in them. "Organically" grown traffic is best for your blog/site because, most likely the person who found you was looking for you. There are plenty of sites devoted to directing "targeted" traffic to your site, but expect to pay $$$ and who knows if this traffic really was looking for what you serve up.
I know this might be a bit of a It is absolutely free to add your site to most, if not all major search engines. It is common these days for you to create a profile with these search engines. I know this to be true with Google, Yahoo and MSN. All allow you to create a personal profile, claim a homepage and add favorite Pages/Feeds. Oddly enough Google indexed my site faster than the rest. I am still trying to get indexed by MSN, however it was told to me that MSN should be the fastest. Keep in mind these engines are constantly changing their algorithms and procedures, so make sure you abide by their most current rules. You should also submit you site to the DMOZ. (note the DMOZ was not accepting new submissions for a while. As of this writing I believe they are back to normal.)
The next step I believe you need to follow will be joining as many of the "Social Bookmarking" sites as you can. There are also some blog/community sites which you should join. Basically all of these sites are easy networking sites. Even if you join some of the networking sites geared towards other webmasters, remember everyone is a potential customer/subscriber. Be very careful how you "Tag"(tag = keyword) your site when joining the different networking sites. You want to make sure that the site is well represented and related to your tags. Also, find yourself an avatar or pic of yourself. I think people are more likely to click your posts if they see who you are or can tell something about your personality from your avatar. I almost always ignore those without avatars, unless their content is brilliant.
I have decided to follow this post with a resources post. I will link all sites that I use.
Now getting to the main purpose for this series. Making money online for free. First let me start off by saying that you should never, ever, never, never, ever have to invest any money into any affiliate/associate system. You should not be required to sign up for any "offers"(offers = hidden ways to get you to buy things before becoming a member or winning a prizes).
You have most likely heard of affiliate/associate programs. Amazon is one that is well known. The basic idea of affiliate/associate links is to get your readers to say "oh yeah, I need to buy that book." etc. If you can generate a lot of traffic, then you can really do well for yourself. There are so many affiliate/associate programs out there that it is hard to make sense of it all. My theory is stick with what you know. If you use the site/store, product, service or can relate in any way to the site, then get a referral link/I.D. for that site.
Survey sites are another way of earning money. It is hard to find a good paying site, that is not filled with hidden "offers". I will be posting the trust worthy ones that I have found, in my resources post. Remember that most of these sites will pay "pennies" for the each survey. You want to find the highest paying and most interesting survey sites out there. These sites will not make you rich!! They can provide a good P/T income stream.
Secret Shopper sites are those that have been paid to have you evaluate there store/site, service, product, etc. There is a set of rules you must follow for each of these tasks. Some may require you to visit a local store, browse the internet or use a service. There will be a form you fill out that will need to be faxed/sent to the company along with a copy of any receipts for charges you incurred during the shop. Now you say, "charges", you said this would be free. I can tell you form my experience most of the shops you are sent on do not require actual purchases, but if they do it will be limited to a small amount of money which is reimbursed along with your payment. So you are getting whatever you bought for free. The other good thing about these secret shopper sites is that you get to choose what assignment you do. I have been paid $15 to go to McDonalds and eat lunch. I had to order a specific meal. The hardest part was getting a receipt, and by the way that was a strike against the cashier. I needed lunch and to get paid $15 to do it was not that bad.
My absolute favorite way of making money online for free is Amazon Mechanical Turk. This is a division of Amazon the online retailer. You can be paid in either Amazon gift certificates or transfer money into your bank account. One draw back to this site is that it does not use Paypal, which I feel makes people a lot more comfortable. I have spent about an hour with this site and been able to complete over 30 tasks. Basically companies need humans to complete certain tasks that computers are incapable of performing. I would like to see in the future a referral program so that you can share in the wealth of the people you refer, but as of this writing I have not seen anything.
As I have said before, you will not become a millionaire with these items, unless you build a tremendous amount of traffic. You will have fun and earn some extra income along the way. In the resources post that will follow, I will list all the legit sites that I have discovered. Try to build that traffic and set goals for the sites which require a human touch. You need to set daily goals of how many tasks you can take on.
This project has given me an idea to start a full disclosure and case study blog. This blog will chronicle the ability to earn and generate traffic for free.
