Make Money Using befunky and zazzle

Sorry for the gruesome photos but I have been messing around with the befunky website and have used a photo of myself - as on the right.


befunky's claim to fame is that it can, 'Turn your photos into incredible artwork with one click.' Maybe a bit over the top but the website does allow you to manipulate the appearance of photos and images. It's all very easy to use.

There is obviously much better software to do this but if you want something easy befunky could be useful.


I've also been looking at zazzle and in a way befunky could tie in with this.

With zazzle you can set up your own gallery of products with your own designs. They have over 250 products, such things as t-shirts, cards, mugs, skateboards, mousepads, posters, calendars and so on. On each of these you can put your very own designs.

The design could be something to do with the niche of your blog or any design that you think appropriate and is marketable. You fix your own profit margin on your design products.

Of course, as with any affiliate style program, to make money you need traffic - there is never an easy ride.

I'll probably have a go with zazzle, subject to time permitting, and use some photos I have taken over the years and perhaps add some sort of slogan. I'll give it some thought.

So befunky and zazzle could very well go hand in hand. If you put on your thinking cap there are lots of uses and potential for them both.

One bit of advice: use a better photo than I have!

Good luck,
Mike.

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PLEASE NOTE: Ignore the post before this one. It's a bit of an experiment I'm doing at the moment - if I get anywhere with it I'll give you details later - Thanks, Mike.

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Tracy Tremble Virgin Shock

There has been some talk going round about Tracy Tremble, the alter ego of a certain celebrity.

First the 26 year old let it slip that she was still a virgin, much to the surprise of many celeb watchers. After all Tracy is no shrinking violet when it comes to her appearance. There is a skit on this fact on Tracy Tremble Virginity Shock.

Now it appears that there are photos of Tracy, which have come to light, showing her in, shall we say, a state of undress - if it is actually her, of course. But, if it is proven to be her, this probably won't do her any harm judging by experiences of other celebs who have been caught on camera off guard.

Tracy Tremble could be a name to watch out for on the London celeb beat.

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Ten People Can Lead To Money Making Millions

I was reading something on Seth Godin's blog that I thought might be food for thought. Seth is the guy who launched Squidoo back in 2006 and turned it into one of the top 500 most visited websites. Whoops, it was actually 523rd today!

Anyway this is what he wrote:

First, ten
This, in two words, is the secret of the new marketing.

Find ten people. Ten people who trust you/respect you/need you/listen to you...

Those ten people need what you have to sell, or want it. And if they love it, you win. If they love it, they'll each find you ten more people (or a hundred or a thousand or, perhaps, just three). Repeat.

If they don't love it, you need a new product. Start over.

Your idea spreads. Your business grows. Not as fast as you want, but faster than you could ever imagine.

This approach changes the posture and timing of everything you do.

You can no longer market to the anonymous masses. They're not anonymous and they're not masses. You can only market to people who are willing participants. Like this group of ten.

This immediately got me thinking back to my network marketing days and multi-level marketing in general. But, if you think about what he has written, it's really a legitimate marketing idea for any blog, product or whatever.

Instead of massive budgets and outlays it could be the small Internet blogger's answer to promoting whatever it is, that he or she wants to promote.

Build a reputation and then cash in on it. If your friendly contacts like whatever it is, as sure as eggs is eggs, they will tell others who will do the same ad nauseam.

It may sound like a pyramid, and in a way it is, but it's how word of mouth and virals work. It's how, say, a good restaurant gets known.

As I say food for thought.

Good luck,
Mike.

P.S. As I've mentioned Squidoo these are a few of my latest Squidoo lenses: A year In My Cornish Garden / Monumental Hotel Funchal And Madeira Reviews / Awful Jokes and my top rated lens is Making Money With Free Blogs. As you can see you can write about virtually anything on Squidoo and can make money doing so - can't be bad!

AdEngage Money Making Test Review

I started a money making test on AdEngage on the 3rd of April - see my post Money Making Test: AdEngage.

This is how I have got on and, as you will see, it hasn't gone too well. All I have managed to earn in 16 days is a derisory $1.82!

The Stats:

Period: April 3 to April 18 (inclusive) - 16 days

Page Impressions: 86440

Number of clicks: 63

Earnings: $1.82

To sum this up, on the blog I tested AdEngage on I only had one click per 1372 page impressions and each click was worth only 0.0289 cents.

As a comparison I get about 35 cents per click overall with AdSense so 63 clicks would have given me $22.05 but ...

... with AdSense and 86550 page impressions I would have expected to have at least 216 clicks and this would have earned me $75.30 in the same period.

I'm actually underestimating AdSense figures and per click revenue.

Perhaps it's not completely fair to compare AdEngage and AdSense as there are variations as to how they work. With AdEngage, for example, it's possible - at least in theory - to sell ads on your blog or website through them. This would supplement earnings, but I haven't managed to do this.

On this short money making test I feel, no I know, that I could get a much, much superior return for the space utilised than I have with AdEngage.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Good luck,
Mike.

See also:
Making Money With AdSense

The Beginners Guide To Keywords and SEO

The previous post was really a beginners guide to using keywords and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Okay it was very basic but I remember when I started blogging I hadn't even heard of keywords and certainly wasn't aware of any form of SEO. I had no idea what was required to get a reasonable position in the search engine results.

So for those who might be as naive as I was let's look at the basics of keywords and SEO.

Firstly keywords.

As I have said I didn't know what they were when I started. I later found out that they are words which you think / hope other people may use to enter into the likes of Google as a search.

You also hope that, if anyone does search for these, your own blog or website will be towards the top of the search results and this will therefore get referrals to your blog.

If we look at the previous post the keywords I picked out were Pointless Hippo.

Yes, silly words but they are for demonstration purposes only and, sure enough, if you do a search on Google for these, that post is in number one position. Nothing clever in this, it's simply following a few basics.

Firstly the keywords should be in certain positions within a post.

(1) In the Post Title
(2) Towards the beginning of the main text.
(3) Further on in the text and
(4) At the end of the post

I also find it helps to include the words singly within the post as well. So I used hippo, hippos and pointless within the main body of the text.

To reinforce the words I also used them in the 'alt' option for the photo of the hippo. In other words if you hold the cursor over the photo the words 'pointless hippo' are shown.

And that is really the basics of keywords but ...

... because you do this it doesn't mean you are guaranteed a top spot. What if hundreds of people have done the same thing? And with some popular keywords or phrases it could be thousands and thousands of webmasters who have used them.

So with smaller blogs, beginners blogs you have to pick the right words, perhaps secondary to the obvious ones - but still words that people will actually use to do a search. (Obviously not many people are going to enter 'Pointless Hippo' for instance!)

This is where, what are called, long tail keywords can be useful - see The Long Tail Way To Make Money.

To help you choose your keywords use a Keyword Suggestion Tool such as the one at WordTracker Keywords - it's free to use. Enter your main word and see what combinations come up.

Now, as I'm keeping this very simple, let's move on.

You've chosen your keywords, put them in the positions suggested and have published your post - what next?

The secret Google algorithm has lots of aspects which it considers when deciding what blog or website to place where in it's search engine results.

An important one is links into your post and better still if these links are the same as your keywords. In my example the link Pointless Hippo would be the one to use.

Also use your keywords as 'tags' or 'labels' for your post

I'm going to leave it there, even though there are other points to consider.

To recap choose your keywords carefully, enter them in appropriate places within a post and try to get links containing your keywords.

Regular practise of these principles will help to get search engine referrals and there is heaps of info on the Internet to enlarge on this and to fine tune them.

Seek and you shall find - you might even come across a pointless hippo.

Good luck,
Mike.

Ad: Monumental Lido Hotel, Funchal, Madeira Reviews

Pointless Hippo Not So Good For Making Money

A few random thoughts, some of which may make sense!

I've often quoted that, with blogging, traffic equals money and I haven't changed my mind about this. There are, however, different grades of traffic. Targeted traffic is obviously superior for making money whereas Pointless Hippo traffic is, well, probably pointless.

This is why it makes me smile when pitched with the idea that such and such company will guarantee me a number one placing on the Google search engine. Of course the catch is that most of us can get high in the search engine rankings with words such as Pointless Hippo. In fact that's exactly what I'm trying to do now! But will this do us, or in this instance me, much good?

Now if someone could guarantee me a top ranking with something like 'make money' I might just be interested. But if they can only get me there with some obscure keyword or keywords then it's all a wasted exercise - or is it?

If, for example, I can get a good position with words associated with, say, hippos any referrals - should there actually be any - won't really be interested in this money making blog and are therefore unlikely to earn me much money.

But I still stick by the premise that all traffic is good traffic because there will be a small percentage, of even hippo loving people, who will also be interested in making money. The percentage won't be as high as with proper targeted traffic but, the more people who see something, the greater the number of clicks on the ads - regardless of how they arrived at the blog. At least that's my theory.

I've previously written about having certain keywords, such as Mikes Money Making, in good positions on Google (the phrase is number one at the moment) and immediately people say, "Yes, but how many people will search for Mikes Money Making?" Maybe not many but the fact is that some do, and also for Money Making Mission (which is also number one on Google at the moment).

My real point is that anyone, who knows a little about SEO, can get a good position on Google, even a Pointless Hippo. But you'll no doubt say, "Who on earth will search for something like that?"

My pointless random thoughts now over. Get the drift?

Good luck,
Mike.

Hippo Images and Photos For More Traffic

Money Making Test - AdEngage

I thought I would try out an alternative to AdSense for text ads on various blogs. There are a lot of choices about so I picked out one at random and came up with AdEngage.

Now I must admit that I hadn't heard of them previously but they are based in California and claim, "AdEngage operates a major online advertising network that displays over 12 billion ads on over 4,500 websites each month."

The text ads are easy to put on websites or blogs (enter some simple HTML) and ads can be on sites within minutes - no pre-approval required.

There is a choice of ad categories: Everyone, Teen and Adult. 'Everyone' is 'safe' and suitable for all websites. In each category it's also possible to opt out of ads for certain products or services you may not like.

Publishers may also set a rate for ads should an advertiser specifically want to advertise on their website/blog.

What do you get paid?
There official answer is: "On the 15th of each month, AdEngage pays the webmaster or publisher 75% of all the income generated from ad sales on the website. This is believed to be one of the highest revenue shares in the industry."

This is a little vague, as far as I'm concerned, but time will no doubt bring a more detailed answer via stats produced.

I've only been using the ads on a couple of blogs for about 48 hours so obviously no conclusions as yet. I'll keep you updated as to how this compares with AdSense in due course.

Good luck,
Mike.

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Ten Ways To Get Web Traffic Fast - And Free

A guest article today:

Ten Ways To Get Web Traffic Fast - And Free
by James Gladwin

There are several ways to get website traffic fast and free, and I'm going to share ten niche ways with you.

Article Submission:
You don't need to be an award winning expert on the topic you are writing about - just pick an area that is related to the theme of your website, do a bit of research using a search engine and before you know it you will have more knowledge on that subject than most.

Write in a relaxed, straightforward way. And, of course, when you add your details at the end of your article, make certain that you include your web address as well.

URL submission:
This sounds so obvious, yet so many people overlook it. Website URL submission is about getting more links to your website to help your website get high ranked on major search engines, thus getting more visitor traffic by, well, submitting your website URL to the major search engines. You can buy or subscribe to software that will do this, but it is quite possible to get a good return by submitting manually.

Social Bookmarking:
Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to store, classify, share, search and discover Internet resources that they find useful. Since social bookmarks are saved online, users are able to access them from anywhere - at home, at work or while travelling.

These lists can be accessible to the public by users of a specific network or website. What you need to do first is register with a social bookmarking site which allows you to store and tag bookmarks. Most social bookmarking services allow users to search for bookmarks which are associated with given "tags", and rank the resources by the number of users which have bookmarked them. This means that other visitors and members of social bookmarking sites can search for resources by topic, category, keyword, tags, or popularity to see what others have saved. As a user, social bookmarking sites let you find useful, informative resources through pages that have been tagged because others have found them to be valuable sources. Voila - more web traffic. Free.

Forum Posting:
Forum posting is a hands down alternative to paid advertising methods. For only a few hours of work every week, you can capture batches of interested leads everyday. The more forums you contribute to, the more you will gain traffic. If you are an active forum poster, you will also get good feel about the kind of products that are hot on the market.

Please don't overlook the forum signature or commonly called resource box - it's a powerful free advertising tool for you. What you must do is edit your forum signature. Basically, a curiosity inducing one-liner and a link to your website is great. Once you have edited and saved your signature, it will appear at the bottom of all your comments in the forum discussions. That means, the more you participate in the discussions in the forums, the more people see your semi-ad written on your signature. I promise, this will encourage people to visit your website, and hopefully buy from you.

Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways to get the word out about your website and can be done with very little technical expertise and therefore is easy to start up. If you have a product or service you believe in, visit a site such as ClickBank and open an account. Follow the simple instructions to gain affiliates - and traffic.

Press Releases:
It's a fact that a well-written Press Release can dramatically increase your sales, expose your company to the masses, and greatly enhance the image of your business or products. Publicity is the most cost-effective web traffic building marketing tool there is, and, surprisingly, web traffic can be generated by ink and paper!

Classified Ads:
Again, it's easy to associate Classified Ads with yesterday's technology, but they are extremely cheap and a one line product or service description, together with your website, will pay dividends.

Blog Comments:
If you are an avid blog follower, you have to include Blog Commenting in your web traffic arsenal. You will almost always find a "comments" link at the end of each post. You will know that good blog commenters add to the discussion and are known as knowledgeable, informative, friendly and engaged. Join them!

Facebook:
Don't forget that you can use Facebook to its full potential to attract more visitors to your website. You can get away from just interacting with your school or college friends and start interacting with people within your industry or other industries that you want to get into.

An easy way to do this is to join groups that interest you as well as make friends with people that you want to get to know. Fill out your profile (fully) - the best profile on Facebook is a complete one.

Videos:
Finally, why not make a video and post to video sites too! This is not a Warner Bros. effort! Your PC or Mac may well have a webcam, or you can borrow a camcorder or Flip. Write a brief script - lights- camera - action - and upload to YouTube. (Just remember to be sure to link it back to you.)

Well - there you are. Not all of the ten suggestions I've outlined may appeal, but if you select three or four, stick with them, and implement them on a regular basis, you will see your web traffic increase significantly. My best to you.

About the Author
Did you find these suggestions helpful? Is your website making you money? Go to: http://www.ultrasimplewebtraffic.com to find out more and claim your free visitor traffic mini course by James Gladwin.

Make Money Searching The Internet

Tom, a reliable blogger I have known for a couple of years, has introduced me to Homepages-friends which is a money making program where he has just paid him.

I have to be honest and say that this isn't really my cup of tea but I know many readers do like these sort of programs. Tom has received £47, which is just under $100, via PayPal and the opportunity is worldwide.

So what is it all about?
It's about being paid to search the Internet. In other words instead of searching through Google, Yahoo or whoever you do your searches via Homepages-friends. Obviously searches must appear to be genuine and not simply searching for searching sake to fiddle the system. There are guidelines in place to cover this.

There is also more money to be made by introducing friends to the program. Payments are made on three levels. On the first level you 'earn' 10% of the revenue Homepages-friends receive from your friend's searches. There is a further 5% on level 2 and 2.5% on level 3.

Okay, I don't think this will make you rich but, if you are looking for a little extra cash for doing something you probably already do most days (i.e. search the Internet) it could well be of interest. Full info at Homepages-friends.

Good luck,
Mike.