Social Media Companies make Money…. How? By Social Butterfly

Social media is being slowly integrated into business as a necessary change in how we share information. Yet social media is bigger than anyone could have imagined and hard to harness. Facebook has over 1 billion users, 600 of which are using the network mobily.YouTube gets 4 billion views per day, there are 150 million people tumbling on Tumblr, 140 million people tweeting on Twitter, 175 million registered users for Linkedin and 33 million people are streaming their favorite music through Spotify. These services are some of the most subscribed in the entire world—but they are, for the most part, free. How can a free service, that is incredibly popular, provide flawless product (note backlash when something goes wrong), for free?

Historically, when social networks finance their startups, they base their numbers on an assumption of growth—the money on day one is different than year two, and is still different from year five, and so forth. Getting a social media company off the ground requires involvement with a venture capitalist, or group of venture capitalists. These people invest in the company anticipating an eventual payout as the company grows more valuable, bringing  a healthy return on their initial investment. However, as platforms become more popular they often require more capital investment to build and maintain operations. In the case of a popular social media platform, servers and technicians need to be added to compensate for increased traffic. It is at these points in a start-up’s evolution that it can either go in for further rounds of investment, or hope to get bought out by a larger company.

Whether a company gets bought or not, it needs to  become profitable. The turn most companies take is towards advertising—and this is not a passing fad. Out of the $16.9 billion (up from $11.8 billion last year) in revenues made by social media outlets, $8.8 billion came from advertising. Another route is subscription based services, such as Spotify, which make considerably less comparatively to their advertising brethren—showing that people would rather be advertised to than pay a fee to sign up.
Facebook, the behemoth of the social media industry, has recently upped the advertising antie, however. Instead of simple banner advertisements, they began their “Facebook Exchange” program in June with the basic premise that advertisements are not only tailored to your interests in banner form on your facebook page, but actually follow you from webpage to webpage and remember you for long periods of time. This advancement in data mining and connectivity comes after prolonged pressure from Wall Street to make Facebook more profitable than it has been. Facebook has yet to disclose actual click numbers, yet potential advertisers and investors are very much on board and have contributed to a recent spike in the companies stock.

There are a few other ways to make money from a social service. Companies offer “levels of access” accounts, which limit the amount of functionality that a service offers based upon what a subscriber pays for. Companies have tried “professional,” “executive” and “full member” accounts in tandem with a free, less complete service—though they do not often fare as well as the non-premium-based advertising service which typically sees more use. The fear among social media platforms for requiring a provided service cost lies in the fact that users are fickle. A young up and coming company can steal another company’s user group with the click of a mouse, and it is a story we have seen before.

A roundabout way for making the user pay is a tactic called “gamification.” Here users can pay for experiences in a game, give gifts to friends, or achieve preserved status based on participation or spending. Gaming and gift strategies are being called “money-spinners” and are catching the eye of larger companies. While profits don’t come close to that those garnered via advertising, it is at this point a solid second place opportunity for financial gain beyond the current bread and butter, advertising.

Experts are predicting that the number of people joining social networks is going to taper off over the next few years, often citing that those who have the financial and technical ability to have social media already do. Because of this, instead of focusing on extreme growth (keeping up with network and hardware demands), as most social media platforms have been forced to confront in their infancies, we will see much more effort placed on the monetizing of existing companies and enhancement of already existing services. It is thought that not all hyped platforms will survive through this next phase.Groupon, a social coupon platform, began with a loud boom and wild support from people with smartphones everywhere, though just in the last few months we’ve seen stock prices plummet, and interest decrease because of lackluster performance that could not live up to original projections.

Internet start-ups continue to be one of the hottest and most interesting areas of tech business development. This is no arena for the faint of heart. A saturated market and no current gold standard solution to monetization make the barriers to entry higher and higher. Yet as obstacles to continued success grow, so does the challenge to create the next big thing in social media.

Article source: http://socialbutterflyonline.net/2012/12/10/social-media-companies-make-money-how/

Optimize Your Social Media Schedule: 4 Tips for Avoiding the Social Media Time Suck by Ashley Zeckman

Making the time to execute on a social media strategy can rattle even the most experienced marketers.  Unlike traditional marketing, social media marketing can present many different challenges and distractions.  According to a study by eMarketer 73% of marketers say finding the time to create content as their biggest marketing challenge.

I recently ran a poll of @TopRank Twitter followers to get a sense of how they spend their time online.  I asked “If you had only 20 minutes a day to spend on social media what would you focus on?”  Some of the answers we received were:

• @henryroominates – “I would try to connect with powerful Twitter users and Tweet content from my blog.”
• @SebastianX – “I’d read my Twitter Followanyday List.”
• @Paco_Belle – “Look at 2-3 Twitter lists, couple circles on G+, scroll Facebook timeline & look through my RSS feeds for new things.”
• @Paramountbuzz – “Engaging others…doing it now.”
• @GreenDolphin_ – “My RSS feed, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.”

If you are involved with implementing social media marketing, you know that 20 minutes a day just won’t cut it.  On top of implementing social media tactics, there’s also the task fo staying current. Lee’s post “11 Ways to Get Smarter & Stay Current in a World of Social Information Overload“ outlined how much time can be involved using social tools to collect, filter and curate social media marketing knowledge.

Avoiding Shiny Object Pitfalls

Reuters estimates that the average worker loses 2.1 hours of productivity every day to interruptions and distractions.  To avoid wasting time begin by prioritizing your week.  While it’s true that unexpected issues can come up plan for the best and the worst.  If you have 3 hours per day on average to complete tasks related to social media strategy what will you get accomplished in those 3 hours?  If you were only to have 1.5 hours per day what would you want to get accomplished?  Proper planning will lead to improved productivity and efficiency.  Also, take some time to determine what your top distractions are and eliminate them.

Optimize for Productivity

Focus on what will have the largest impact on your productivity. Determining what time of day you are most productive, and which activities are most significant will help you to stay on track.  Are you an early riser, night owl, or somewhere in between?  Creating a daily schedule and routine can significantly improve your productivity.  You will also want to keep in mind statistical data which points to the best times of day and days of the week for engaging in social media activity.  A recent infographic by KISSmetrics on “The Science of Social Timing” provides valuable insight into the best times of day to share or engage on sites like Facebook and Twitter.  Some of the findings include:

Twitter

• 5pm – best time to Tweet for re-tweets
• 1-4 per hour – most effective frequency of Tweets
• Midweek & Weekends – best days to Tweet
• Noon & 6pm – best time to Tweet for increase Click Through Rates

Facebook

• Saturday- best day to share on Facebook
• Noon- most effective time to share on Facebook
• .5 per day – best sharing frequency

Tips for an Optimized Focus

Now lets talk about some no brainer “don’ts” that the many of us “do”.  Let me know if any of these sound familiar to you:

• Your best friend is having problems with their significant other so you keep your phone close, just in case…
• It’s baseball season and your team is playing but you don’t have the day off, thank goodness for internet radio right…
• You have email anxiety which forces you to check email every couple minutes because you never know what you might miss…
• One of your colleagues is obsessed with chatting online and pings you every couple minutes with a question or joke…
• You’re scheduling Tweets, posting on your personal facebook page, and reading Psychology Today all at the same time, because after all you are a master multi-tasker…

I too have often thought that I could do everything at once.  A balancing act acquired from years of having too much to do, and not enough time.  I considered multi-tasking an art form and a higher form of organization than my counterparts who only focused on one thing at a time.  I could not have been more wrong.  In recent years I’ve had to buckle down and force myself to devote all of my attention to one task at a time.  I’ve found that the quality of my work has improved and the level of my stress has decreased significantly.  Some tactics that have worked for me include:

• Closing my email when I’m working on social media tasks
• Close all Internet windows and tabs except for the one I need to work on
• Disabling chat or closing chat windows to avoid distraction
• Pick 15 minutes a day to indulge in activities such as checking personal social media profiles, responding to texts, or chatting with friends.
• Spend 30 minutes to an hour each morning reviewing emails and responding, do the same thing before leaving at the end of the day.
• It is significantly easier to stick to your schedule if you are working ONLY on the tasks you have scheduled in the time allotted.

Tools for Optimizing Your Time

Depending on your available time and social media content strategy, there are many tools that can help you accomplish more with less time.  Below are three different types of tools that social media marketers can use to get the most out of their time:

Curation Tools – good for quickly gathering and automatically sharing content

• Scoop.it
• Storify
• Pearltrees

Social Aggregators & Management Tools –  follow and engage with multiple platforms

• Hootsuite
• Tweetdeck
• Seesmic
• Here’s a list of 22 social media management tools

Social Bookmarking – effective means of organizing and storing social bookmarks

• StumleUpon
• Reddit
• Delicious
• Evernote – not a bookmarking tool exactly but very useful for curating

Next Steps

I’m sure you’ll agree that focus and time management are something that most of us can relate to.  Based on what was covered in this post, consider the following questions and determine what you can do to better focus on the tasks at hand:

• What are your top 3 social media goals and do you have a plan for reaching them?
• How much time can you dedicate each day to using tactics to reach these goals?
• What steps can you take to improve your focus while completing social media activities?
• Which type of tool: curation, aggregator, or social bookmarking can you use to help save time?

If  you are looking for additional tips on Optimizing your SEO, social media, and content strategies be sure to take a look at the new book: “Optimize: How to Attract & Engage More Customers By Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing.”

How to Make Money Using Social Media

Social media sites are receiving millions of visitors on a daily basis. Because of this fact, there are now a lot of online marketers who are using social media to help them grow their businesses. Social media users might have heard of these successful marketers who are earning a huge amount of money by just using social media. Perhaps, you have heard of them too and maybe, you are wondering how they are making money. Want to learn how? Read on.

There are actually a lot of ways to earn money using these sites and here are some:

• Promote your own business. If you have a business, then the first step that you have to take in order to make it to the top is to promote it using your social media accounts. You can create different accounts on various social networking sites and then make use of their features to promote your business. Facebook, for instance, allows you to make your own page. You can create a page for your business, add your friends and their friends on the page, and then inform them about your business. Run promotions, host contents, offer deals and more.

• Sell your products. Online shops are becoming popular these days because of the convenience that they offer. You can make use of your own social media accounts to sell your products. If you are using Facebook, you simply need to post the photos of your products, include their respective descriptions and prices and then wait for comments. You may also share them so that more people will be able to view them. On the other hand, if you are using Pinterest, you simply need to pin your products on your own board or on someone's board.

• Advertise someone else's products. If you don't have your own business or products, then you don't need to worry at all because you can still make money and that is by advertising other's products. This is called affiliate marketing and it is very popular among marketers. The truth is, there are a lot of people who are generating a decent income using affiliate marketing and if you are really determined, you can be like them. Of course, you have to know the ins and outs of affiliate marketing so that you can succeed.

Social media is not only for personal satisfaction, but it can also be a way of earning money online. Take advantage of the ways mentioned above and start making dollars.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7426597

How To Make Money From Blogging

Do you already have a blog? Or are thinking about starting a blog? If so, wouldn't it be nice to make money from your blog? Whether you want to make a small amount of extra cash, or would like to get to a point where you can make a decent income from home. You can make money from blogging if you are prepared to do a little work.

However, if you think that making money from a blog is easy, think again. As with any job, it takes hard work and dedication. Below are some of the many ways that you can use to make money from blogging, but please remember, what works for one blog, may not work for another, you will have to spend some time finding the method or methods that work best for you and your niche.

Advertising.

There are quite a few ways that you can allow individuals and businesses to advertise their services or products on your blog for a small fee. Advertisements can be banner ads or text links, and there are many different advertising options available such as pay per post and pay per click.

Affiliate Marketing.

Blog readers are also consumers, and will often make purchases of products and services related to the blog's topic or their lifestyles. Affiliate marketing is where you place an advertisement on your blog for a particular product or service, and then get paid if a customer purchases the item through your blog.

Write Reviews.

There are many websites that will connect bloggers with individuals or companies that want to educate potential customers about their products or services. You can often post reviews about the products on your blog, and receive payment in return.

Sell Merchandise.

There are quite a few websites that allow you to sell merchandise on your blog that you don't have to manufacture. This keeps overheads down as you don't have to pay for inventory, shipping, and other related costs. Instead, the websites keep a small percentage of your sales to cover their costs.

Guest Blogging.

You already know how to write blog posts; you do it for your own blog. So why not become a guest blogger and write content for other blogs in return for a small payment. Not all blogs will pay their guest bloggers, but many will, and there are quite a few people who have become well paid professional bloggers by guest blogging.

Write & Sell an Ebook.

If your blog has a loyal following, then people must enjoy reading what you write, and quite likely consider you an expert on your blog's topic. The same people may enjoy reading more of your work outside of your blog. Use that to your advantage and write an e-book, and then offer it for sale on your blog.

Final Thoughts.

As you can see, there are many different ways to make money from blogging, and the above information only lists a few, with a little time and research, you will find many more. However, remember that making money from blogging is not easy money. You can't expect to start a blog, and immediately be able to give up your regular job. However, with a little effort and time, it can be a very rewarding profession.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7356137

How To Make Money From Writing

There's plenty of ways to make money from writing simple articles just like the one you are reading now. If you can write about anything, in a conversational tone, and make it interesting to the average person, you can get paid. A lot. Most people are unaware of this. But the truth is that in the world of written content, it's a seller's market.

There is one caveat. You've got to be flexible. No, I don't mean if you can touch your toes you'll get rich. I mean you've got to be flexible on what you can write about. The more flexible you are, the more money you'll make. It's that simple. If you choose to only write about the nutritional benefit of carrots, then you won't make much money. However, if you've got some decent skill, and can research something enough (Google is your friend!) to write a decent article about it, you can get paid.

How do you start? For many people, the easiest way is to simply start blogging. Start a blog, on a domain that you own. It's tempting to try a free blogging service, but you'll see why that's a mistake in a minute. On your own domain, you can start writing about anything you want. Whatever interests you.

After a while, people will come to your site to read your stuff. If you write about a bunch of different stuff, then some stuff will be more popular than other stuff. Just figure out which stuff is more popular, and write about that. Once you get some consistent traffic, you can put some ads on your site. If you get enough traffic, you can make a decent living just writing about stuff you like.

Another way to make money is to write content that people want. There's plenty of freelance sites where people show up and say they want an article about toaster ovens. You show them your blog, where you've got a lot of articles on household appliances. They check it out, and like your style. They say they'll pay you ten bucks for an article about the latest toaster over.

Do this enough times, and you'll have plenty of happy customers. The more customers you've got, the more money you can charge. Pretty soon you're selling your articles on toaster ovens (or whatever) for fifty bucks a pop. Write three or four of these a day, and you'll pulling in some mad cash.

These are just a couple ways you can get paid to write. There's plenty more where they came from!



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7393368

Making money with Twitter - grow your followers fast!

Why you need Twitter Followers?

Why you need to have more followers on Twitter? Simply because this number is an indicator!

Some social media savvies think that numbers doesn’t matter if it’s just numbers, what’s the benefit of having 1000s who are following you on Twitter if you don’t actually know them or engage with them. 

Some other people have a different opinion.  They don’t see the Twitter followers number as whatever number - they can see what’s beyond that; they can see the business opportunity in the followers number.

You see, my blog gets a lot of traffic from Twitter, I actually make money from Twitter. The number of Twitter followers is important in my case! Anyway, who hates to have a lot of followers on Twitter!

In my personal experience, you won’t be able to engage with 1000s of people that are following you on Twitter.  I am here assuming all of people who follow you are actually engaging with you on daily bases (this is why businesses hire social media managers).

If your case is different, here we talk about small level of interaction and engagement, with some little management you actually can engage and make use of that number. Twitter is very powerful if you focus on it!

How to increase your targeted Twitter followers fast?

I bet you would look for an easy and working way to increase your targeted Twitter followers fast.  One of the secrets that I can share with you is as follows

1. follow some targeted people in your niche every day;
2. some of those people will follow you back;
3. after a few days flush away (unfollow) those who have not followed you back.

In this way the more you follow, the more you get people to follow back.  Hence, you will increase your targetted twitter followers fast.

That is why I recommend using a Twitter management tool like Tweetadder.

TweetAdder

TweetAdder is probably the best Twitter management software out there. It’s a fast and easy way to automate Twitter promotion and Marketing. Here are some things you can do with it:

• Laser Targeted, Global Twitter User Search Tools
• Multiple Twitter Account Management
• Full menu of Auto Follow and Auto Unfollow Benefits
• Full History of Followers and Following
• Powerful Automated Tweet Posting and Direct Messaging
• Twitter Current Trends and Historical Trends Research
• Click here for more…

The good thing is TweetAdder has a demo version with full functionality!  Try out Twttet Adder by setting up the demo version of their application.  

The Tweet Adder demo is fully functional and has all features of the full version. However it’s only limited by using a single twitter account and limited number of follows, unfollowes, tweets and messages. After all, it will be a good start!

How to Make Money Online Without Selling Anything - Are You Eager to Find Out?

Are you wondering how to make money online without selling anything? Well, to a certain extent, almost everything you do to earn money online involve selling something. Technically speaking, if you are working as a freelancer, you are still selling something. You are selling your service in exchange for a payment.

However, in this article, we will just consider freelancing as not selling anything. So, here are 3 ways to make money online without selling anything.

1) Being a Free Lancer

You can become a free lancer and earn money online if you have certain skills. For example, writers, programmers and graphic designers are in high demand. If you have any of these skills, you can offer your service as a freelancer. You can find freelance assignments at freelance websites like eLance and RentaCoder.

2) Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost Per Acquisition is a way of earning money when your visitor perform certain desired action. For example, you can drive visitors to a page which require to fill in the zip code. Everything a visitor do this, you will earn anyway from $1 to $5.

Of course, there are CPA offers that pay you more money. However, those offer will usually require visitors to fill in more personal details like their residential address.

3) Google AdSense or Similar Programs

You can earn money from Google AdSense or other similar programs without selling anything. Basically, what you do is to build a website with some content. Then you will install a code on your website. This code will display an advertisement relevant to the content that you have created.

For example, if you have a website about dog training, Google AdSense will display advertisement relevant to dog training. When people click on AdSense advertisement on your website, you can earn anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars per click.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4049279

Conducting Expert Interviews to Create Great Content

If you don't know how to create content online, then you probably aren't going to be very successful at your internet marketing efforts. In many ways, your ability to come up with a steady stream of fresh, valuable content is what's going to determine whether you are able to make any kind of money over the internet. This can be intimidating at first (especially for people who aren't accustomed to writing, producing videos, etc.) but it's actually not that hard at all. You just need to learn a few systems and you'll be churning out valuable and useful information in no time. One of the best ways to produce great content is to learn how to conduct interviews with experts.

Now, first and foremost, you need to understand that "expert" can be a misleading term. I'm not saying that you should lie and say someone is an expert in your field if they know nothing about it. After all, if you are in the niche of sales letters and you conduct an interview with someone who has never written a sales letter before in your life, it's going to be pretty obvious to your readers that neither of you know what you're talking about.

When I say that "expert" is a misleading term, all I mean is that someone doesn't need to write a guest column for the New York Times 3 times a month to be an expert. In order to have expertise in something, a person just needs to know more about their field of interest than most other people.

So when you go looking for your experts to interview, you just need to find people who are going to be at least a little bit more knowledgeable than your readers about whatever you are talking about. They don't even need to know more than your readers about the entire field; they just need to know more than your readers about a small part of it. If you find someone who is really knowledgeable about writing killer headlines that get great click through rates, then it doesn't matter if they know a lot about creating effective resource boxes. Just focus the interview on the sub-topic that they know their stuff about and you will produce an extremely valuable interview.

To find experts, all you need to do is search for your niche on Google. You'll find people who create content about your niche, and you'll find people who run websites about your niche, and you'll find people who run brick-and-mortar business around your niche. All of these people are valuable- just find out what they seem to have the most interesting and unique information on, and focus your interview on that.

You can record audio versions of your interviews, but there's no reason to. It's a hassle, it is overly complicated, it reduces the chances that people will actually consent to the interview, and audio content doesn't travel as easily online as print content. Instead, you should just conduct an e-mail interview.

Figure out at least 5 questions that you want to ask the person, and then send them an e-mail asking if they would respond with a few paragraphs on each question. Tell them they can promote their business or themselves however they want at the end of the interview to ensure that they get something from it all as well. It's a good idea to send out a bunch of e-mails like this to a bunch of different people at once. There will be some people that you won't hear back from, so it's a good idea to cover your bases and make sure you get at least a few interviews out of your efforts. This is especially important if you are releasing a new interview a week, so that you can stay ahead of the game and to ensure that you won't be scrambling for content at the last minute.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5038924

Free video tutorial on how to use Google Keyword Tool

In this free video tutorial, I will share with you some tips and tricks about how to use the free Google Keyword Tool to identify hot niche markets.  Click the play button below to learn more.

Tips on Using Google Keyword Tool

Successful marketing online is dependent on Keyword Research. While after doing keyword research is not real difficult it is one area that will help you increase your traffic online. To become proficient at keyword research takes practice and lots of trial and error but as you continue to do your research you will become more and more skilled at finding the keywords that the search engines are looking for and thus increase your traffic.

In beginning to do keyword research the best tool you can use is Google Keyword Tool. This is a free tool and is available to everyone but to get the maximum benefit you need to sign in to Google, this is easy to do if you have a Gmail account or other Google services account. The difference in logging into the Keyword Tool or not is with a Google account when you do a keyword search you will get up to 800 keyword ideas instead of just a few.

Once you login start by entering your keyword or phrase such as make money online. Then on the left side of the page scroll down to where it says Match types. Now depending on what you are doing if you have to choose between broad, exact or phrase. Lets say you are wanting to target a specific phrase to use in a PPC ad on Google or Microsoft/Bing, then click on the box next to "phrase" and go to the next step. I will use Phase for this example.

The next step is to go to the area that says advanced options and filters and depending on whether you want to search keywords for just US searches or all countries or some other specific country or even language then you would click on the appropriate box and choose for my example I will use all countries and English.

Then click search. You will get two different options one is keywords and the other is ad group ideas which you could use to put together different ad groups for your blogs, PPC or SEO advertising. Lets use the actual keywords found. In our example of Make Money Online the tool brings up 800 different keywords related to the Phrase. You then choose the keywords you wish to use for your blog or advertising that will get you searched by the many search engines.

One thing you could look at is the number of Global Monthly Searches or Local Monthly searches. If you are wanting to get ranked Globally then look at the Global Monthly Searches. Now here is a little tip if you are wanting your ad or article or blog post ranked high on say Google for a particular keyword phase look at the number of searches for a particular keyword and look for hidden gems that are searched say 1000 to 3000 times and experiment using those as the competition will be less and the chances of getting placed on the first page of Google for that search will be greater.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7156502

How to Choose a Niche Market?

Choosing a hot niche market according to your own experiences will give you more advantages as you already know the inner secrets to market your product or services. It is also very easy on your part to point out what are the benefits that your product or service can give to the hungry crowd. You need to be precise in your campaign. You can have one of the most visited sites all because you have carefully considered a certain chosen market niche.

The web has been cluttered with examples of niche markets. The key is to learn how to find markets in many avenues so that you will know what to consider as the most profitable option. ClickBank is one of the most popular sites where there is a constant and reliable update on hot niche markets.

Choosing a market niche among those that are already on the top 10 list is very commendable. But of course you can start with what you already have and go from there. Examples of a hot market niche that really generate the most traffic are those that are passionately advertised.

Search on topics that you are passionately looking to share with the public. Allow them to see your point of view. Convince the hungry crowd that the service or product you are affiliated with is worth checking. Find a hot niche market then promote your chosen niche and deliver it to the starving crowd.

It is also best to consider the crowd that you are trying to attract. Is it the teenagers or the homemakers that will give your market niche the most visits or even maybe the busy business crowd? Examples of niche markets include products, services or an individual personal audience.

So find your hot niche market among your sea of interests and develop that into a niche market that will blast your way to financial success. Claim your right to the abundance of cash that the universe has been storing for you!
Choose a hot niche and look within yourself and find that financial freedom. Are you ready for the millions? Are you ready to earn an extra income? The choice is yours.

Start now! Search for examples of hot niche's online and that will help you decide on what to offer in your own niche market. Find a hot niche that the hungry crowd cannot resist. Keep yourself updated.

Always trust the uniqueness of your voice that can call out the vast resources of the universe which can drive traffic to your niche. Choosing a niche market very carefully is a reflection of the millions you wish to attract.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3412095

What Can I Do To Make Money?

There are four ways to make money online (MMOs).


The first way to make money online is to remember, your website is just like a traditional business. Your shop front is simply a website, that’s it. 

So the first thing you can sell is physical products. And so they don’t have to be anything special, just cameras, books,you name it, anything that people want. Physical products can all be sold from a website. They can be your products or somebody else’s.

Secondly, you can sell digital products. They are products you can download, 
like software, e-books, audio files, and videos. Digital product is just another way for you to get information or solution. It can be your own digital products as you create them yourself, or you can buy somebody else’s digital products and sell those from your site. Either way, you have options. And people often said, “How can I possibly sell products online, I don’t have and I don’t have any product idea?” That’s okay, you can find other products which have licenses that are allowable and you can buy the licenses and you can sell the product at your site, it’s a great way to start.

The good thing about digital products is the margins can be great, as you have got very low costs. It can be a great way of getting ahead. There are so many tools nowadays to enjoy digital product; we have iPads, iPhones etc. Therefore it’s a fabulous area to get into.

The third way to get yourself online is to sell your services. Solicitors, dentists, hair dressers, all wonder, “How can I do it online? Do I really need a website?” 48% businesses in Australia still don’t have a website. It’s crazy, they need a website. How do you do that? Simply educate your market. Give away your best secrets. Create a website and that allows you then to contact people if they join your database and give you their name and email. You can contact them with special offers or about coming in to your store. If you don’t want to sell things from yourself, you can sell other people’s stuff. You can  recommend other people’s stuff and take a commission. So selling your services is totally doable online and very very cool.

The last way is simply to recommend other people’s products. You simply  make a business by recommending other people’s products. You don’t have a  business; you don’t really have anything other than good recommendation. You can recommend someone else’s software, like I have software and if you recommend someone to buy that software, you get 50 cents for every dollar I make. There’s no reason you can’t set up a deal where you send people along to their site and if they turn to a customer they give you 10-25% of the sale which can be a grand at least. It’s called Affiliate Marketing; you may have heard of it, it’s really awesome :)

5 Tips for Starting a Career in Social Media Today

So I take it you’re looking to start a career in social media? Well unless you’re one of the lucky few who can “blow up” with a viral hit, it’s going to take some hard work and passion. I should know- I’m not writing this from some ivory tower. I’m writing this with the belief that what I’m about to share with you will continue to propel me forward as well.  There’s a lot of opportunity out there in online marketing and I’m guessing you want in as well. Businesses are finally taking social seriously, and now is the time to learn the tools, theories and people to set yourself ahead of the competition. Are you committed? Are you serious? And most importantly, are you ready?


T- TODAY: Is it bad to start an acronym with the word itself? I don’t have the answer to that, but I digress… Social media is both an art and a science. To become knowledgeable, you have to both study and practice regularly, starting today. Read up from sources like Mashable or Social Media Today and listen to thought leaders like Michael Stelzner and Brian Solis. Trust that other people are smarter than you and use the internet to your advantage to learn from the best. After a while, you’ll begin to internalize the best practices and make them your own. When the ideas become your own, you can reflect them back into the world and help to grow the thinkers of tomorrow. For all we know, you may even write a book someday- but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

O- ORIGINALITY: If your plan involves being a copy of someone else, why would anyone follow you over them? Instead, bring your own dip to the party and be happy that a career in social media allows your creativity and personality to show through. There’s only one right way to change the oil in a car, but there’s countless ways to build a following on Facebook or Twitter. Experiment and find what works for you. Though it may take some time to find your niche, you can already cross off copying “that guy” with a million Twitter followers, because what he did to get there has already been done.

D- DATA: Data is your friend with online marketing- Learn to love it. Sooner or later someone is going to want to see behind the curtain of your work and you’ll need to come up with sexy-looking reports to show your progress. Previous generations have had to struggle finding and collecting data, so be thankful that now it’s just a click away. Find ways to interpret meaning from the numbers and use them to your advantage in future planning. Ask yourself “Why?” again and again, and test your hypotheses to see if you were right. You’ll know when you are, because the data doesn’t lie.

A- ALWAYS: Here’s a list of a few things you should always do: Create what you’d want to see, share your content, cite your sources, being engaging, network with like-minded individuals, stay on top of the trends, accept that your know nothing and continue learning, go to meet-ups, update your profiles, keep it classy, have fun, keep trying and most importantly- be yourself (I said it twice because I mean it).

Y- YEARNING: There are plenty of jobs out there, but is this what you want to be doing? If I were to search Google and ask what you’re all about, what would show up? I’d hope to find employable social profiles and see some initiative on your part- Otherwise your talk is just fluff. It’s easy to say you have passion and drive, but if you’re truly passionate, then start putting your name out there. Spend the time to build a website, show the world the plans inside your head, and develop a deep understanding of all the social tools and the tactics that drive them. Faith is an action word my friend, so take the plunge and get started following your dreams today.

How are you getting started? Tell me in the comments below and share your success stories.


By Ryan Connors.  Article source: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/5-tips-for-starting-a-career-in-social-media-today-0301228

Facebook Marketing Secrets: Buddy Media Report Shows The Best Times To Post

Wednesday is the worst day of the week to advertise on Facebook, while Saturday and Sunday are the best, according to a new report analyzing user activity from brand pages of the world’s biggest companies.

On Wednesday, the rate at which users “like,” share or comment on Facebook brand posts is 7.4 percent below the average daily interaction rate, according to the report by Buddy Media, a social media consulting company. The weekends, however, show a spike in engagement. Brand posts published on Saturdays and Sundays receive 14.5 percent more interaction compared to weekday posts.

Yet many companies advertising on Facebook are doing it all wrong. Only 14 percent of posts published by brands appear on the weekend, while Wednesday is the most common day for brands to post Facebook content.

And that’s not the only mistake marketers make on Facebook. It turns out users are most likely to engage with brand posts in the evening and early morning. Yet few brands publish during those times. HuffPost found Coca-Cola, for instance, published all of its posts last week in the late afternoon. A lost opportunity given that brand posts published between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. receive 14 percent higher interaction than those published between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m, the report found.

The reason: "When not at work, people are more likely to spend time perusing Facebook and interacting with Page content,” the Buddy Media report says. (Obviously, social media marketers aren’t going to get up at ungodly hours to publish posts -- which is why Facebook scheduling exists.)

Not every industry is the same, though. For example, a clothing or fashion business is most likely to see users engage with its content on a Thursday. For a company in the retail or the technology space, Monday is the best bet. Perhaps unsurprisingly, leisure brands start to see interaction rates climb as the weekend nears on Thursday, peaking on Sunday.

Here are some other nuggets of social media wisdom from Buddy Media’s report:

• Limit brand posts to one to two times per day (brands that post one or two times per day see 19 percent higher interaction rates than those who post three or more times per day).


• Much like marketing on Twitter, brevity is key. Posts should be no longer than 80 characters (posts with more than 80 characters receive 23 percent less interaction).


• If you want comments, ask questions (posts with questions generate 92 percent higher comment rates than non-question posts).


• Use emoticons (posts that contain emoticons receive 52 percent higher interaction rates; the emoticons :D and :P have the highest interaction rates). But, as Buddy Media's report notes, "the use of emoticons proves most successful for health and beauty and food and beverage brands, while automotive, clothing, fashion and technology brands all have lower than average interaction rates when using emoticons."

By Nate C. Hindman, Article source: The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/28/facebook-marketing-secrets-best-time-to-post_n_1924134.html

Can you double your time to make money?

We often cry for more time.  I remember that a few years ago when I finally decided I wanted to leave my job and have my own business, I attended as many seminars as I can to educate myself.

I stayed up till 1am every night reading books, and watching a lot of DVDs and MP4 files to learn internet marketing.

This media player called VLC Media Player has helped me double my time and productivity.  It is the #1 free media player, and great time saver!

VLC is quick and easy to install. You can make VLC your default media player for various (or all) file types, but if you just want to try VLC without giving up your current player, you can skip the file associations. 

The secrets of doubling your time and productivity is to choose faster speed x2 to play the educational DVD/MP4 files as illustrated below.  As such, you could halve the time to play a normal MP4 file, thus doubling your productivity.

You can download this #1 free VLC Media Player from http://www.videolan.org/

How to Start Making Money With Facebook

Facebook is now the most popular website for social networking. Half a billion people already use active Facebook accounts. Most of the Facebook members use the website to connect with friends or even to flirt. But there are good reasons why anyone who is into online-marketing should make use of Facebook. If you are just starting, you must understand that making money with Facebook will not be easy at first since you are still beginning to understand this type of money- making business.

Top Reasons for Making Money With Facebook

As mentioned, Facebook is the biggest social network site in the Internet, this is why it is a perfect place to make money and advertise. You can create a Fan page and invite people to join your page. You have to make you page attractive to members so that your site visitors and fan base will increase in time. You can offer promos or freebies to make sure that a lot of Facebook members will join your page. If you already have tons of people visiting your page, you can now market your product or service to anyone who visits your page. Through this, you will be able to make money online with Facebook.

Facebook apps are also very popular to members. Facebook apps enhance the experience of using Facebook such as games and quizzes. Integrating your app directly into Facebook is possible by using the Facebook app features. For example, you can integrate an app into Facebook using the 'Requests' feature. Requests are a great way to enable users to invite their friends to your application and for users to confirm connections from your application. Making money with Facebook using apps can be very rewarding because there are various apps that are already gaining incredible response from members.

If you have a product, service, or affiliate offer to advertise, Facebook paid advertising is a good option. You can launch an advertising campaign in Facebook at a budget that you can afford. You will create your own advertisement design and any user who will click on your advertisement will be directed to your website.

Tips For Beginners

Facebook has good features that impart itself to marketing. However, you have to do some research and use your creativity in making money with Facebook. It is not an easy endeavor but if you keep on trying and give it a good shot every time, you might just reach your goal. You also have to weigh the efficiency of your efforts by examining if your profit exceeds your advertising costs. If you are making profit, you then have to ask yourself if it is worth the energy and time you have spent. If all the answers are 'yes', then you have succeeded.

Article source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Birkett

Make money from your social-media efforts

David Jacobson has figured out something that has eluded many an entrepreneur: how to generate revenue through Twitter. Mr. Jacobson is the founder of TrivWorks, a 3-year-old Brooklyn-based company that runs corporate team-building sessions and live events built around trivia contests.

Since 2011, he has organized six public trivia competitions and several corporate ones with collaborator Pat Kiernan, the longtime news anchor on NY1 who is a pop-culture buff and former game-show host. They promote the events in a Twitter stream filled with fun trivia questions, as well as on the TrivWorks blog.

“This has resulted in direct revenue,” said Mr. Jacobson. Thanks mainly to his firm's success in spreading the word on Twitter, it will typically sell out the public events, which seat 275 to 300 people, at $26 a head. That adds up to between $7,150 and $7,800 a night in gross revenue.

According to a survey by the Social Media Examiner, an online social-media marketing magazine, nearly 38% of marketers spend one to five hours a week on social media, and another 26% spend six to 10 hours. If you have only a fuzzy idea of how much your efforts on these sites are helping you, you may be misdirecting them. As Mr. Jacobson's experiences show, it's very possible to go a step beyond raising brand awareness and pull in real paying customers by using social-media sites. Here are some tips from entrepreneurs and experts on how to boost your bottom line by using a well-focused approach.

Choose the right venues.

Paying attention to the social sites your target customers respond to—and directing your efforts there—can go a long way. Mastering YouTube, for instance, has paid off for Dan Nainan, a Manhattan comedian who has performed at venues such as the Democratic National Convention, a TED conference and three presidential inaugural events. He has posted videos of his live performances on the site. “If people like it, it will be forwarded to other people,” he said.

As a result of these efforts, Mr. Nainan, a former senior engineer at Intel who began his comedy career three years ago, said he now gets a “a fair chunk” of his domestic work and all of his international bookings from people who've seen those videos. His one-man business now generates about $200,000 a year in revenue as a result. (It doesn't hurt that he's been able to post a YouTube video of President Obama saying, “Dan is just hilarious.”)

Deliver the right message.

To attract corporate clients through his blog, Mr. Jacobson writes posts that target their interests and concerns. For instance, one candid entry, “5 Companies Trivia Team Building Activities Won't Work For,” discusses the types of clients who might not benefit from hiring TrivWorks (among them, “the incredibly small company” that won't be able to muster decent-size teams for trivia competitions). One client who booked Mr. Jacobson's services after reading the post “saw this as a level of transparency and honesty,” he said. “Showing that this is not just a faceless company resonated.”

Try deals and contests.

Although many professional-services firms are shy about offering coupons on social-media sites, they can help attract clients. Ask Nickie E. Robinson, a former compliance officer on Wall Street who is president of Good Girl PR, a three-person firm in Manhattan. She has attracted projects and retainer work for the company, founded in 2008, by sending out a deal on Twitter advertising $100 off on press releases. “If you do a nice marketing campaign around a coupon and send it out consistently, people are going to pick it up,” she said. Ms. Robinson estimates that, from Twitter, she gets about 25% of her more than $250,000 a year in revenue, which comes from a combination of publicity work, event planning and compliance consulting for banks.

Retailers often need to be creative to grab consumers' attention. For Cory N. Schifter, vice president of family-run Casale Jewelers on Staten Island, promotion on Facebook of the store's Race for the Ring, where couples complete challenges to compete for a $10,000 engagement ring, has been a powerful way to draw in customers—though it's costly. “People come in and say, 'I read your post on Facebook,' ” said Mr. Schifter. (His business is now getting some additional publicity because it is a winner in a contest run by American Express Open called Big Break for Small Business, where the prizes include $25,000 and professional marketing advice.)

Use search-engine optimization.

Many companies include keywords designed to pull in customers on their websites but neglect to weave them into their social-media presence—missing an additional opportunity to be found in customers' searches. “As you're tweeting or writing blogs, make sure to use your keywords,” advised Ms. Robinson. For instance, a publicist hoping to attract new clients through Twitter might use the hashtag #PR.

Stay alert to business development opportunities.

LinkedIn isn't the only site where you may find potential business partners, so pay attention to the notes and comments that arrive via other social-media sites. Mr. Kiernan, for instance, reached out to Mr. Jacobson at TrivWorks by a direct message on Twitter after seeing Mr. Jacobson's stream. “If it were not for Twitter, he would not have known about me,” said Mr. Jacobson.

Use search-engine optimization.

Many companies include keywords designed to pull in customers on their websites but neglect to weave them into their social-media presence—missing an additional opportunity to be found in customers’ searches. “As you’re tweeting or writing blogs, make sure to use your keywords,” advised Ms. Robinson. For instance, a publicist hoping to attract new clients through Twitter might use the hashtag #PR.

By Elaine Pofeldt, Article Source: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120907/SMALLBIZ/120909939