Wednesday 30 January 2013

How To Make Money Online From Your Blog – A Quick Guide


Making money online it not that easy you think. It requires commitment, hard work, passion, smart work and most important thing is your website. There are lots of peoples and advert you will find online that they are making the online money and want to share their knowledge of making money with you beware of them. With this kind of wrong direction people are scamming online therefore beware and put your money after complete research. There is only little genuine way to make money online trough your website. Here we are listed those ways below for you.

You can make money online by following ways.

1 Become A Publisher:
This is best way to make money online. There are lots of advertising sites which wants publishers for their advertisement. There are sites like Google Adsense, buysellads, info-link  chitika etc. who pays you for publishing advertisement on your website. For getting approved for all these website’s publishers account it not an easy. They all required a decent amount of traffic to your website. Once you get approved for your publisher account the advertisement are start showing on your website. As users will view or click you get paid.
2 Become An Affiliate Marketer:
This is also another way to make money online. There are sites like Amazon Affiliates. Commission Junction etc. who can offer you and affiliate account. If you are a handling a decent traffic website then you can sign up for affiliate program and start generating leads. These websites will pay you on the lead basis. As soon as the products get sale you will earn your affiliate commission from the affiliate partner.
3 Start Selling Online:
If you have decent amount of traffic to your website then this option is also nice. You can make money through selling your own products online from your website. You can either offer books or t-shirts whatever you like and get paid as per you sold products. You can also sign up for the payment options like PayPal, bill-desk, cc-avenue etc. to receive your payment.
4 Get Paid Through Sponsors Review:
This option is also best if you are driving the decent amount off traffic to your website. In this option you can get paid through the reviewing product of the other brand. Once you publish the review about that product the sponsor will pay to you directly. There is lots of website which offers you paid review also.
These are the few ways to make money online and there is no scam behind them. All these listed ways are genuine and lots of people are earning decent amount of money through their website.
Article source: http://www.squarems.com/how-to-make-money-online-from-your-blog-a-quick-guide/

Tuesday 22 January 2013

5 New Content Monetization Services You May Not Know About by Kay Singh


Making money from your website or blog is one the main objectives for many webmasters. Whether you run a blog or a business website, monetizing your site to make some extra money can be very beneficial for your business.
There are many ways to make money from your website. In addition to advertising networks that let you earn money by displaying ads on your site, there are other effective ways to make money by monetizing content.
Website owners and bloggers have been successfully monetizing content to generate revenue for quite some time. However, in spite of the many monetization options, it’s not always easy for publishers to make money online. Competition among publishers is fierce and website owners need to be savvy and come up with new ways to generate revenue.
In this post we will take a look at some of innovative and effective methods to monetize your content. Here are 5 new monetization services to make money from your content you may not know about.

1. Monetize Your Content With Kindle Publishing For Blogs

Content monetization
Publishing your content on Amazon Kindle’s new blog publishing platform is a great way to make money from your blog. This is particularly beneficial if you already have a blog. All you need to do is add it to Kindle’s publishing platform and start making money from your existing content. This facility is currently available only to UK and US residents only.
Although you will only get 30 percent share of total revenue generated, it can still be good source of added revenue for your blog content.
How to Get Started?

2.  Taggstar (Monetize Graphics)


Content monetization - Taggstar
Taggstar is a free widget that makes the images on your site interactive, engaging and social. It aims to give publishers a new way of monetizing images by adding layers of content to make them interactive and shareable. It brings your images to life whilst offering the potential to generate revenue. It’s unique ‘Shop the image’ feature turns pictures on your website into a shopping experience so you can earn from them.
How to get started?
There’s no software to download and you don’t have to be Einstein to get it to work. Just sign up, then copy and paste some JavaScript into the html of your web site.

3. Monetize Your Content With NimbleNetwork

Content monetization - Nimble Network
The NimbleNetwork claims to be the first ever peer to peer deal sharing network. It allows you to make money by providing targeted offers, solutions and products that publishers can give their audiences. It is a premium transactional offers network which connects local and national advertisers to consumers through a network of publishers. It allows publishers to share deals.

4. Monetize Content With VirURL

Content monetization - VirURL
Virurl allows you to make money by monetizing your content. They are not displayed as typical ads so users are more likely to click and ensures a higher click through. There are two ways to earn money, by displaying a widget on your website or blog content as well as by monetizing your social stream. You can get started and earn money by  installing the content discovery widget on your website and sharing links on social platforms. This allows you to maximize your potential revenues as it extends your reach to a larger audience.

5. WebAnswers – Get Paid to Answer Questions

Content monetization - WebAnswers
WebAnswers is a unique AdSense revenue-sharing Question and Answer site where you can get paid to answer questions. Its simplicity and earning potential really make it a great site.
There are two main ways to earn money on this site. You earn ongoing advertising royalties on all questions awarded to your account via “Best Answer”. Additionally, you have the opportunity to earn a share of revenue generated by displaying advertisements on your behalf on other areas of the site. Your share is calculated via a proprietary formula used on this site. The more value you provide, the higher will be your revenue potential.
Conclusion
Monetizing content is one of the most effective ways to earn revenue from a website or blog. Discussed above are five relatively new monetization services that you may not know about. If used correctly, they can prove very effective for generating extra revenue from your website.

Article source: http://socialmediatoday.com/ksingh/1164916/make-money-content-5-new-monetization-services-you-may-not-know-about

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Facebook Rolls Out Social Search Feature

by Cadie Thompson

Source: Facebook.com
Facebook launches the new Graph Search icon.
Facebook unveiled a new social search feature Tuesday that will allow users to search their friends' content on the Facebook platform.
(Read MoreFacebook Live Blog )
"Our mission is to make the world more open," said CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the event which was hosted at the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.
Facebook's stock took a hit on the news, while the search giant Google's stock got a bump. Yelp's stock also fell on the announcement.
"I think what you have here is a natural sell the news reaction, however, the stock has been one of the better performers of all the Internet names in the last couple of months," said Jordan Rohan, managing director and senior analyst for Stifel Nicolaus on CNBC Tuesday. "And I think as people realize that there are infrastructure achievements that may need to roll out first before the businesses can be built on the back of those, that's what matters."
He said that Facebook has a lot of upside in the long-term, in the near-term he said that mobile ads will help boost the stock.
The new feature is called Graph Search and is a social search tool, not a global web search engine like Google, that will allow users to search Facebook's social graph. However, users can only search content that has already been shared with them.
Facebook's 'Graph Search' Moving the Stock
Facebook shares are selling off on its "graph search" announcement, with David Fitzpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect, and the CNBC's "Power Lunch" crew.
"You can only search content that has been shared with you," Zuckerberg said.
The new feature delivers information with exact answers, Zuckerberg said. For example, if a user searches for friends who live in San Francisco, it will deliver only friends that fit that search.
Hinting at a possible move into the global search business, Zuckerberg said that while the Graph search currently only focuses on people, places, photos and interests, there will be more additions in the future.
"Facebook aims to be central in many, many ways, not just for playing games and looking at photos, they want to be much more useful to their users, which is just about everybody on the web." Rohan said. "In the Internet, being central is the first point of importance, once you're central you can do what Google has done and be the Internet's great toll-taker."
Rohan said that Facebook is currently only central for social endeavors, so the new search feature will help make Facebook's platform much more central for other realms, like recruitment, dating and recommendations for shopping.
Taking a cue from Google, the social network also plans to implement auto-complete search results, where the search engine will try and guess what the user is searching before the entire search is finished being typed.
Graph Search is currently in beta, however, the new feature will eventually appear at the top of each page as a larger search bar.
Facebook users who want to sign up for the waiting list for the beta version of Graph Search can do so on Facebook's website.
Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100381337

Sunday 13 January 2013

5 Steps to Make More Money Online by Micha Kaufman


You could say building a successful personal brand online comes down to understanding one rule:
“It’s not about what you want to say; it’s about what you want people to know.”
It may sound simple but the difference between a successful and unsuccessful online personal brand for an entrepreneur can often be measured by not understanding the difference between a ‘statement’ and ‘proposition of value’.

Here are the top 5 steps to take to ensure the success of your personal brand:
1) Assess your position
Before you can begin to define your online brand and position yourself, it’s important to understand what works. For example, say that you would like to start a business by selling designed goods in online marketplaces. A reasonable move would be to look at successful sellers on sites from Fab to Etsy and identify how they do it: Look at the voice they use, the social media channels they operate on, even the colors and fonts they employ. Do the same with sellers that don’t resonate with you and the contrast between the two will more clearly reveal how you would like your message to be received and the methods to achieve it.
2) Create the foundation
Just as the services or goods you provide are unique and valuable, so too must be your personal brand. The most important process in personal branding is defining what makes you unique and why should anyone pay attention to what you have to say? More importantly, try to understand what it is about you that would be of value to both your target audience and your peers. If you can define who they are and what they are looking for, you can then begin to structure a truly authentic brand message. It’s not easy having a clear vision of yourself, so it might help to ask your friends, family and your fellow entrepreneurs how they perceive you and what are your strengths. Authenticity is central to personal brand success.
3) Extend your reach
Look at the social platforms you operate on and refine them in line with your message. If you don’t have a blog, maybe you should think of creating one. If you do, optimize its brand message. More importantly, identify areas important to your audience you aren’t active in and get involved. The key here is to be both consistent and individualized. Your message needs to be standardized across your digital footprint, but tailored to suit the unique environment of each social platform. What works for Facebook doesn’t work for Twitter. Don’t forget there are plenty of services out there to help you customize your personal brand content exactly as you want it. Don’t be afraid to play around and see what works, but always stay on message and maintain your authenticity. Just like you as a person, you’re building something greater than the sum of its parts.
4) Leverage your worth
So you’ve defined and built your personal brand, optimized the message and are now spreading it online. Now what?
The key to leveraging any brand is targeting not only the right audiences, but linking with the like minded. Get involved in the forums your audience participates in. Connect with trendsetters, thought leaders and of course your fellow entrepreneurs in your niche. Comment on blog posts that resonate with your personal brand, and always follow up with those who post on yours. Building connections and a community comes from being not only authentic and topical, but most importantly being seen as creating value, not noise.
5) Establish your leadership
For your online personal brand to be truly distinct and widely recognized, you need to lead. Build authority by bravely spreading your thought leadership wherever you can. Contribute guest articles on relevant blogs, lead discussions on forums and use your social media channels to invite opinions and debate. Remember, to be heard on the Internet you first need to be seen.
Of course, this process never really ends: Continually focus on how best to optimize your personal brand, keep making those connections and always ensure that what people hear about you is authentic and on message.
Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michakaufman/2013/01/12/5-steps-to-make-more-money-online/

Monday 7 January 2013

The 16 Most Important Social Media Updates of 2012 by Rachel Sprung


social media updates 2012
In the last 12 months, there have been tons of updates to our favorite social networks, several of which were extremely relevant for marketers and business owners.
Many of them were just little tweaks, but a lot -- 16 in our estimation -- had a huge impact on marketers' jobs. The latter are the ones we want to highlight;

not just to show how much can change in a year, but to emphasize how critical it is to remain agile as an inbound marketer so you can keep up with all these updates. Plus, if you're not already using some of these new features (or perhaps didn't know they existed), what better time to get started than the new year?
Here are the biggest social media updates of 2012, and why they were so darn important to marketers.

The Biggest Facebook Updates of 2012

1) Global Brand Pages

With users coming to companies' Facebook pages from all over the world, Facebook needed to do something to make marketing easier so community managers wouldn't have to either 1) keep up multiple brand pages, or 2) maintain one brand page with really untargeted content. That's why we were so excited in October, when Facebook announced Global Pages that allowed marketers to maintain just one Facebook page URL, but route fans to different versions of the page based on their location. Here, look at Facebook's own Facebook page, for an example:

pages global brands 3 resized 600

This update makes the job of a social media marketer much more efficient and effective. Before, marketers had to manage multiple accounts in different languages, or decide which language they were going to cater to and settle for unhappy followers who couldn't understand the content. Now, you get the best of both worlds -- one page to manage, personalized content, and one centralized dashboard to measure it all.

2) Mobile-Only Facebook Ads

In June, Facebook launched an important feature for marketers who use sponsored ads. For the first time, they allowed marketers to pay for ads only in the Facebook mobile app, as opposed to the mobile app and desktop app combined.

titanic mobile ad sponsored

Many companies may have known that their audience was predominantly using mobile over desktop -- or perhaps at certain times one is preferable over the other. However, they had to pay for both advertising placements to have the chance to reach mobile users. Now that these options are separate, marketers can now target their mobile audience differently than those accessing pages on their desktop. They can also see which platform performs better to understand where their advertising dollars should be going.

3) 9 More Facebook Targeting Options

In August, Facebook announced that they were going to allow advertisers to target their audience based on more criteria than before, including age, gender, gender the user's interested in, relationship status, education, college grad (college name, major), in college (college name, major, years), in high school, and workplace ... all in addition to the options already available including language and location.
Before this update, everything that a Facebook page updated would appear in a user's newsfeed just because of their language and location, even if it didn't really relate to them. With more nitty-gritty targeting options, social media marketers can target parts of their audiences with more personalized content.

4) Open Graph Opens Up

In January, Facebook announced that it was opening submissions for Open Graph applications. Open graph applications allow third-party developers to automatically share user engagement after someone gives them permission once. For example, if you read an article on the New York Times and have given the Open Graph application permission, it will automatically post your engagement with that app -- namely, what you were reading -- on your Timeline.
By using Open Graph applications, marketers now have a significantly larger reach than before. Think about it -- if one person is playing a game from Zynga and has 2,000 friends, a healthy portion of those 2,000 friends will learn about the game, and have a pseudo word-of-mouth recommendation for it, too!

The Biggest Twitter Updates of 2012

5) Tailored Trends

In June, Twitter announced Tailored Trends, which notifies a Twitter user about popular trends on Twitter based on what Twitter knows about his or her interests, followers, and location. This update allows Twitter to notify users about important topics that matter to each person, instead of the broad topics that only resonate with some.
Tailored Trends give marketers a chance to be ahead of the game. When breaking trends affecting the industry happen, Tailored Trends is a way marketers can immediately find out about it, and possibly even do some newsjacking. It can also help you decide what kind of content your followers might be interested in hearing from you.

6) Twitter Cover Photos

In September, Twitter announced a change to the layout of its profile pages. Similar to Facebook, Twitter now has cover photos on a user or company's profile page.

hubspot twitter resized 600

Marketers now have more real estate to promote their company and give followers a better feel of what the company is all about. Followers' eyes will immediately go toward the larger image that also promotes the username, location, and bio, which was far less visible with the old layout.

7) Targeting by Interest or Username

In September, Twitter expanded paid advertising to have the ability to target by interest or username. Before, you could target with a search term, but now Twitter allows marketers to get more specific.

twitter3

When targeting by interest, Twitter looks at who the user is talking about, following, and what keywords he or she is using. When targeting by username, Twitter looks at other people who are similar to another username (and not just following them). This update allows marketers to segment during their paid advertising more effectively to reach a greater number of people with interests that are more aligned with the company. 

The Biggest LinkedIn Updates of 2012

8) New LinkedIn Company Pages

In September, LinkedIn announced a new design for their company pages. Before, all of the LinkedIn pages basically looked the same, with the exception of the unique logo and company information blurb. However, the new pages display Company Updates and Products & Services more prominently, provide space for a cover photo, a different layout for Jobs, and the option to better target your company updates to certain segments of your audience.

linkedin1

One of the best parts of this new layout is how much more visible your products and services are to page visitors -- that page was even redesigned to showcase recommendations in the sidebar!

9) Targeted LinkedIn Updates

In April, LinkedIn announced the ability to segment updates based on company size, industry, job function, seniority, geography, and including/excluding company employees. Using this criteria, advertisers can publish updates right to a user's homepage. Your company's LinkedIn admins will also be given metrics for number of followers targeted, impressions, clicks, shares, and engagement after 24 hours.

linkedin img

As a result of targeted ads, LinkedIn has seen a 66% increase in engagement. Marketers who are able to segment and personalize messages to their audiences consistently get better results -- what's not to love about the ad personalization bandwagon social media networks are jumping on?

10) LinkedIn & Twitter Break Up

In June, LinkedIn & Twitter announced an end to their partnership. Previously, users could post updates to LinkedIn through their Twitter accounts. The end of their partnership marks the end of users having the ability to do this. Users can still post to Twitter from LinkedIn, but they cannot post to LinkedIn from Twitter, affecting many marketers who had synced up the two for a more streamlined social media management experience.
So while marketers are still able to post to both networks, the change takes away some of the efficiency of having posts update to both accounts.

The Biggest Foursquare Updates of 2012

11) Promoted Updates

In July, Foursquare announced Promoted Updates. Before they were announced, companies could only reach users who had already checked into their business. But with the launch of Promoted Updates, companies had the ability to appear in people's "Explore" tab even if they had not been to the restaurant before. They could promote a special, share photos, or share another message encouraging users to come to their place.

foursquare promoted deals

This new feature has helped marketers extend their reach and appear in anyone's feed, even if they have never been in contact with the business before. For example, if you're a small coffee shop, your name may not be known by many people, especially in areas dominated by Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts. But if you have a promoted post in Foursquare, you have the opportunity to reach a completely new audience.

12) Ratings System

At the beginning of the month, Foursquare announced ratings, a new system they created to recommend places. They don't just ask people whether or not they like a location, but they use a combination of factors including tips, likes, dislikes, popularity, loyalty, local expertise, and check-ins from all over the world. When you go to the 'Explore' tab, you're able to see what the popular places nearby are based on these rankings.

Explore Rating

Marketers have a unique challenge with this update -- unlike your typical ratings where people say how much they like or dislike a place, this ranking also takes into account other factors including check-ins, tips, and loyalty. It is the marketer's job to encourage people coming to your restaurant or location to leave tips and provide specials that will lead to customer loyalty. 

The Biggest Google+ Updates of 2012

13) Hangouts on Air

In May, Google announced Hangouts on Air to the public to allow people to have hangouts with 9 other people while being broadcasted to an even larger audience. Not only can you broadcast to more people, but you can track how many people are watching at a time, and Google will upload your video to YouTube at the end of the Hangout.
Before this update, Hangouts could only really be used in a business setting for smaller conference calls between teams. However, by opening it up to more viewers, Hangouts now have a larger business purpose. Press conferences or company announcements now have a new outlet. Webinars, events, and conferences can now be broadcast to a larger audience. Interviews can now take place on a new channel. And hey, if you can't stand writing content, here's another medium for you to create marketing content ... without ever picking up the proverbial pen!

14) Search Engine Updates

In January, we all learned that Google is now integrating Google+ into search results. So whenever you search for something on Google, it uses information from Google+ accounts in your results, including photos and updates that you or others in your network have shared. Additionally, when you search for people's names in Google search, it pulls in people you're connected with or may be interested in connecting with based on your Google+ profile. Finally, after you search for a particular topic, a list of business pages appear on the right side of the business page.
For marketers, the takeaway is clear -- if you care about SEO, but don't really want to use Google+ ... tough cookies. If a potential customer searches for a company in your industry and you don't have a presence on Google+, competitors that do might be the ones that get the click.

15) Google+ Places Becomes Google+ Local

In May, Google+ decided to get rid of Google Places and put all of its energy into Google+ Local. By searching for a place or restaurant in Google+ Local, the contact information, reviews, and photos of that place appear in the SERPs. Google+ Local is also now integrated when someone searches for places on Google Maps.

Google

If you're already using Google+, this should make your life easier -- and if you're not, here's one more reason to do it.

The Biggest Pinterest Updates of 2012

16) Business Accounts for Brands

In mid-November, Pinterest finally answered every marketer's prayers and announced business accounts for brands. And the process of setting them up is, luckily, really simple.

pinterest

Even though you may not have heard about Pinterest until recently, it has actually been around for a while, and totally blew up as a marketing mechanism in 2012. This shift to creating dedicated business accounts is an encouraging sign of things to come from Pinterest -- we're thinking features like analytics (pinalytics, even?) might be a hot new addition to the already awesome platform ;-)

What other social media updates from this year rocked your marketing world? Which updates are you hoping to see in 2013?

Wednesday 2 January 2013

How Instagram Can Make Money — Without Alienating Users

Photo-sharing site Instagram recently upset many of its users by suggesting in an amended terms of service agreement that the site might start using their photos in ads. Instagram later retracted the change, but the controversy raises questions about Instagram’s business model and how its owner, Facebook, might eventually make a profit from the free service. Wharton marketing professor Pinar Yildirim says the answer is to build a mutually rewarding relationship with its users.
Within two years of its launch, Instagram has grown to 100 million users who have posted some five billion photos. But loyalties run fickle in the world of online services. A day after its revised terms-of-service prompted outrage among users, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom clarified in a blog post that his company didn’t intend to sell users’ photos to advertisers. The service was working to update the terms to make them clearer, he added. But some damage had been done: Within a week of the first announcement, Instagram’s number of daily active users fell from 16.4 million to 12.4 million, social media traffic tracking firm AppData told the New York Post. Many unhappy Instagram users threatened to take their photos to rivals like Yahoo-owned Flickr, which recently revamped its mobile app, along with Instaport.me and InstaBackup, according to a New York Times report.
Facebook, which bought Instagram last April for $1 billion, “needed some of Instagram’s functionality, and Instagram is worth much more to Facebook than it is alone,” Wharton operations and information management professor Eric Clemons told KnowledgeToday soon after the purchase.
But the big question for Instagram is how to become profitable. Yildirim suggests several viable routes for Instagram to monetize its services, including low-risk options such as charging subscription fees, selling photo products and selling advertising. Higher-risk options include commercializing users’ photos and selling data to third parties. “Depending on which route they take, their major competitor will vary,” she adds.
“The first two options of monetization are relatively straightforward to implement and would result in low backlash from the consumers,” Yildirim notes. Most photo services allow for free subscriptions and limited storage, and begin charging for storage beyond a certain level. Flickr, which has such offerings, would become more of a competitor if Instagram pursues the subscription route. “The difficulty comes from convincing consumers to switch,” she says.
Instagram could also choose the option of selling advertising, including location-based or contextual ads relevant to the text or content of users’ photos, according to Yildirim. But unlike search engine-based advertising, advertising on Instagram would create some difficulties, she adds. “Technologies to process images [and offer ads based on the content in the photos] are not all that advanced at this point, but soon they will be.”
Another option for Instagram is to monetize its services in a way that would allow consumers to get “something in exchange” for their photos being appropriated for ads or other uses, says Yildirim. “There is an … opportunity for user-generated advertising for Instagram and YouTube. Creations — images and videos — of consumers can be picked up by firms for promotional purposes and distributed. It is cheaper to create promotional content this way, and ads can be more effective when the material comes from loyal consumers rather than an advertising agency.”
For such a strategy to have a chance of garnering the support of users, Yildirim notes, Instagram would need to give photographers some sort of recognition — monetary or otherwise — when their photos are picked up on the app and subsequently used in advertisements. “I think we will be moving in this direction,” she predicts, noting that on Twitter, “brands are collecting consumer photos and distributing them through tweets and re-tweets. There is no reason why this activity cannot be monetized.”
This entry was originally posted in Knowledge@Wharton TodayManaging Technology.