MacinDroid /Software: make money 2013

make money 2013 - make money online

make money 2013

I love list posts, especially ones that can be bookmarked and revisited as a resource. I’ve always wanted to create something like that, which is what led me to this article. I’ve been working on this article for a couple months now, adding to it little by little. I’m proud to be able to finally share it with you today.

The contents of this article are not in any way revolutionary. Given enough time (this actually took much longer than I expected), you could easily compile a similar list. The concept of making money online is so broad, however, that I wanted a resource that captures most aspects of it. Take from it whatever you’d like, or simply bookmark it for future reference.

Here’s some food for thought: If you could find a way to make just $1 per day utilizing each of the following sources, you would earn over $52,000 per year!

Side note: I could have easily used affiliate links for the majority of the items listed below, however I have decided to only use affiliate links for services that I actually use, or ones that I’ve seen highly recommended. The vast majority of these links are not affiliate links. I want this article to be a valuable resource, not a source of income for me.

[Update: In addition to this list, I have now published one titled "64+ Ways to Save Money Online" that I think you'll enjoy if you enjoyed this one.]

Getting Paid for Performing Simple Tasks

Cash Crate - This site is pretty cool because you can get paid for doing a variety of simple tasks online. Just for signing up, they give you a free dollar. In addition to getting paid for simple tasks, there are also a lot of great ways to get coupons and cash back for purchases you might typically make. For example, you can sign up for a free trial of Stamps.com, and Cash Crate gives you $9.60. Although each individual task may be small, it adds up.

Getting Money Back for Regular Online Purchases You Make

It’s pretty common to shop online these days, so why shouldn’t you use this as an opportunity to make even more money online? Here are some places you can sign up to and you’ll be able to shop at many of your favorite stores AND get cash back (in addition to whatever your credit card gives you).

eBates - This one is my favorite. [Free $10 gift card after your first $25 purchase.] I love this site because there are over 2,000 stores to choose from including Walmart, Sears, Target, and many others. If you are doing any online shopping, you should be using a site like this. It’s free money that you wouldn’t otherwise get.
Mr. Rebates - Get $5 free just for signing up. This is very similar to eBates, so it makes sense to sign up for both and then when you go to shop at a store, just go to whichever one offers the better cash back deal.

Revenue Sharing Article/Bookmarking Websites

I’m leading with this category because I believe article writing is one of the best ways to get started making money online if you’re new to the game. It costs nothing, and you can be up and running within a matter of minutes. There is a learning curve (especially with respect to SEO and researching keywords) and you’ll need to be patient, but in time, this can be a significant source of passive income. Not sure of what to write about? I’ve discussed that before. Note: These are not listed in any particular order.

InfoBarrel - This has been a continually increasing source of online passive income for me (ever since my original “challenge”). Last month, I earned $96 with InfoBarrel. If you want to see what others are earning, check out Mike Moyer’s January InfoBarrel earnings rankings. The top person on there earned $1,586 from InfoBarrel last month. InfoBarrel’s AdSense revenue share ranges from 75% to 90%, and also includes Chitika and Amazon ads.
Squidoo - Another revenue-sharing article site (great for building backlinks to your niche sites). They share revenue, but the way they do it is a bit complicated.
HubPages - One of the more popular revenue-sharing article websites. I still prefer InfoBarrel to HubPages due to its relative youth and growth potential, but HubPages is also a great option, even just for backlinking. The AdSense share here is 60%, and you can also monetize with Kontera, eBay and Amazon.
Bukisa - Article site with 60% revenue share (Adsense or Chitika).
Xomba - High-ranking bookmarking site with 50% AdSense revenue share (links are no-follow). They recently changed their rules to disallow links to your own content (to improve the quality of the site), so use this at your own risk.
Snipsly - Social bookmarking site with 80% revenue share (AdSense).
Seekyt - Article site with 70% revenue share (AdSense and Amazon).
SquidStop - Social bookmarking site with 100% revenue share (AdSense).
Jevitt - Social bookmarking site with 80% revenue share (AdSense).
SheToldMe - Social bookmarking site with 100% revenue share (AdSense).
TipDrop - Social bookmarking site with 75% revenue share (AdSense).
Best Reviewer – Get paid to write top lists (e.g. “Top 10 Ways to…”) – 100% AdSense revenue share.
Flixya – Share video, photos, and blogs – 100% AdSense revenue share.
OnGoBee – Social bookmarking site with 60% revenue share (AdSense).
Tagfoot – Social bookmarking site (along with others types of content you can share) with 50% revenue share (AdSense).
Mixx – Share a variety of content (articles, photos, videos) for 50% AdSense revenue share.
Rate It All – Write reviews or rate products, and get 50% AdSense revenue share on your content there.

Peer-to-Peer Lending

Peer-to-peer lending is an interesting concept, because it allows individuals to secure relatively large loans without getting a bank involved. On its face, it sounds like a risky proposition, but these P2P lending sites generally have good measures in place to mitigate your risk (not to mention, you’re compensated for this risk by earning very high interest rates). In addition, you can usually invest in someone else’s loan for a small amount (e.g. $25), which reduces the risk you take for any given loan.

Lending Club (U.S. Residents Only) - I’ve been talking about this site ever since I started this blog, so there’s no reason to stop now. Lending Club is an important part of my passive income strategy. I discuss it in all of my income reports, so you can read those for more detail. As I’ve said several times, I believe this is my only true source of passive income.
Community Lend - Like Lending Club, for Canada residents. I have not done business with them, so do a bit of research first if you plan to invest here.

Books to Help You Make Money Online

How I Made My First Million on the Internet

These are some of the top books (according to Amazon.com) for making money online.

Social Media (Specifically, Twitter)

Social networking and social media is a great way to share your content, gain followers, and in general, increase your presence online. There are, however, ways to make money by sharing someone else’s content with your followers via Twitter. I generally don’t consider this to be a great way to make money online, but it can be lucrative for those who have a big following. (Side note: I tried to see if there was a way to sell Facebook “likes” or get paid to share content on Facebook, and couldn’t find anything.)

Sponsored Tweets - Just like it sounds, this site allows you to make money by tweeting for someone else. I wrote about it here.
MyLikes - Very similar to SponsoredTweets, however I like Sponsored Tweets a bit more.
Magpie - Another Twitter advertising platform.

Freelancing / Pay-Per-Project

You’ll recognize many of the sites below. However, when I usually write about them, I’m referring to them as means of outsourcing. In this case, I’m listing them as ways to make money online by being a provider of services.

Elance - I love Elance for outsourcing, and on the flip side, it could be a great way to make money online as a freelancer.
oDesk – Same as Elance, although many say that oDesk is the better choice for hiring programmers.
Microworkers – Make money by performing mini-tasks. I wrote a review on Microworkers early last year.
Mechanical Turk - Owned by Amazon, this site is similar to Microworkers, but maybe a bit more sophisticated.
Fiverr – Make money online by offering virtually any service or mini-task…the catch is, you have to charge $5!
Just a Five – Very similar to Fiverr.
TenBux – Make money with gigs that cost either $5 or $10.
GigMe5 – I think you get the idea…
UpHype – Another gig site, with odd price points: $8, $16, or $24.
Dollar3 – A gig site with price point in multiples of $3, starting at $3.
Jobs for 10 – Take a guess at what this one’s about.
Fittytown – A little bit more upscale – all gigs are $50 each.
Demand Media – A great site for freelance writers, however you must be approved first (and I’ve heard they’re somewhat selective). Once you’re accepted, however, you can earn up to $15+ per article, which can be quite lucrative if you’re a fast writer.
Constant Content – Another freelance writing site.
Associated Content – Earn up-front payments for articles and also get paid based on views (I’m told it’s a very small amount).
Break Studios – Freelance writing site similar to Demand Studios, though they pay less (up to $8/article), however the article length requirements can be shorter.

E-Mail Marketing

E-mail marketing is one of the oldest forms of making money online. As the old cliche goes, “the money is in the list.” Within the MMO niche, e-mail marketing has become somewhat annoying, but there are some people who still do it well. I like to think my newsletter subscribers get value out of my e-mail, as I very rarely promote anything. I think e-mail marketing is critical, not just because it’s a way to drive traffic to things that make you money, but because it’s another way to stay in touch with people who follow your website, blog, or brand. I only use Aweber, but I thought it would be helpful to include a list of alternatives. I’ve noted the ones that are free.

Aweber – This is what I use for my newsletter, and it works really well.
Getresponse
Stream Send
iContact
1AutomationWiz
Send Free – Has a free ad-supported option.
Free Follow Up – One time fee of $4.99, and then free lifetime usage (I can’t attest to the quality of the service though.)
Supersponders
Topica
MailChimp – Send up to 12,000 e-mails per month to a list of up to 2,000 subscribers for free.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

There are some people who make a living with PPC ad campaigns, so it’s definitely a viable way to make money online, either as a publisher or advertiser. Be careful though – you can easily lose a lot of money if you aren’t continually testing and optimizing ads.

Google AdSense – Probably the most common way to monetize a website or blog. You can easily add AdSense ads to your site and earn money for each click. Click value depends on your niche and targeted keywords.
Google AdWords – This is the flip side to AdSense. You can use Google AdWords to drive traffic (which costs money of course) to a landing page or website where you will ideally make more money off that traffic than what it costs you per click.
Chitika – Another way to monetize your website with ads, similar to AdSense. Usually, Chitika ads don’t pay as well, but can still be effective.
Facebook Ads – Similar concept to AdWords. Create ads that drive traffic to a landing page, blog, or an affiliate offer (I’m not sure if you can still use affiliate links with Facebook ads). Facebook ads are nice because you can target very specific demographics and funnel that targeted traffic to a product or service you’re selling.
MySpace Ads – Similar concept to Facebook Ads.
LinkedIn Ads
7Search – An inexpensive alternative to AdWords. There’s obviously less traffic, but it’s a fraction of what it costs you on AdWords.
Speedy Ads – Another PPC alternative. Looks like a pretty cool site, though I’ve never used them.

Pay-Per-View (PPV) Advertising

Another way to drive traffic to your affiliate promotions and landing pages. The benefit here is that they are usually less strict than PPC sites (i.e. you can usually directly link to an affiliate offer). It’s a different beast though, from what I’ve been told, so it’s best to do a little bit of research before you spend money on PPV traffic.

Cost-Per-Action (CPA) Offer Sites

These are great for monetizing your blog/website, or using in conjunction with PPC/PPV ads. In general, CPA offers allow you to be paid for someone completing an action. For example, there may be an offer that requires someone to input their e-mail address or zip code. Upon that submission, you’re paid an amount, usually ranging between $1-10. There are more lucrative offers that pay $20+, like filling out a short form for a free credit report. It may require some creativity to use CPA offers to monetize your website or PPC ad campaign, but there are people who make a living doing this online.

Note: Many of these sites are selective about who they accept. They want to make sure you’re going to send legitimate traffic to offers, and will often want to talk to you on the phone before they allow you to begin making money with them. There’s a thread on Warrior Forum that gives you some good tips.

MacinDroid /Software

5.09.2013