The Freedom Net

Anyone who has started a home based business has realized just how much mileage they need to get out of thier phone service. Unless you’ve been living in a closet somewhere, then you have seen signs of the voice over Internet protocol (or VOIP) telephone revolution. Vonage Forums, an independent support site, offers an array of information on VOIP, and the products and services available from this industry leader. It’s a great place to start if you are researching a change to VOIP.

Remember that old Bon Jovi song, ‘Wanted, dead or alive?”.  Well, I think that we can apply that to the Google Adsense program today.  I’ve read two special reports now claiming that Adsense is dead.  Then I read a special report (really a rebuttal of the first two) claiming that Adsense is alive and well.  Then I read several reviews of both reports.

As your researcher into what really works for real people, I feel compelled to add my two cents worth.  Here’s the bottom line:  traffic.  If you’ve got it, you will make money with Adsense.  If you don’t, you won’t.  Just like any other Internet money making phenomenon, it simply doesn’t work if you don’t get it in front of enough eyeballs.

I learned something years ago in telemarketing that has really helped me to understand the business world.  Simply put, it’s this:  you can have the best product in the world, but if enough people don’t see it, you will never make a dime off of it.  It’s a numbers game.  I had 7 websites running Adsense last year, and made just over $100, with 8,000 - 10,000 page views averaged per month!  Then again, Steve Pavlina makes $10K a month from Adsense with over a million visitors per month.  See the difference massive amounts of traffic make?

So is Adsense dead or alive?  It’s really both.  It’s still alive for anyone who has established traffic to their sites … if you don’t have any traffic, then it’s dead.  Long live Adsense!

If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, then you realize that I’m pretty jazzed about the PayPerPost business model. In fact, after years of looking to make money online, I’ve made more with PayPerPost in the last few months than I have with anything else! If nothing else, at least I can use this blog (and others) to provide funding for my purchases of yet another Internet marketing package from yet another up-and-coming guru . So you want to make some easy money? You want to get paid for blogging?

Surf on over to www.payperpost.com and sign up! Be sure and help me out by giving my email in the referral spot (michaelarcand AT gmail.com). I’ll get $5 and you will get the opportunity to make some nice cash by blogging! Three cheers for PayPerPost!!!

I thought I would blog today about something that I am seeing more and more of in the Internet marketing scene. It’s always been bad … but I think it’s getting worse. I call it the “website stuffing” syndrome. Call it what you want … it’s VERY SIMILAR to the envelope stuffing scene that hit mail-order, newspaper, and magazine ads by storm (and, remarkably, continue to do so!).

So what’s the comparison? How can evelope stuffing compare with Internet marketing? Well, for starters, let’s take a closer look at envelope stuffing.

John Doe wants to make money from home, for whatever reason. He sees an ad in a newspaper offering him $5 per envelope that he stuffs from home. Stuff only 200 envelopes a week, and John can make a nice income of $1000 per week! Sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it? Well, it would be except for one thing. The “info package” that John is sending off for that is costing him $5 plus postage is the same “info package” that John will be stuffing into envelopes himself. You see, the secret to this “opportunity” (scam is a better word) is to convince others (through national and local advertisements) to buy in to YOUR program of envelope stuffing. Then, when they send you their money, you are actually earning money to “stuff” the “special report” in the envelope you will be mailing to them! What do they learn from this packet? Only how to duplicate the process and set up another enelope-stuffing scam.

Well, the 90’s are gone, and we have entered the brave new world of the information age. The Internet has brought money making opportunities to all areas of the globe … or has it? Perhaps it has only brought the master-scammers to all areas of the globe. Now, I do truly believe that the Internet represents a wide-open opportunity for the right people to develop new sources of income. It also presents tens of thousands of regular everyday Joes (average people) a chance to earn an income online through various employment and freelance opportunities. However, in Internet marketing, there is a dark side. This is so hideous and disturbing, that most people will never talk about it. I call it website stuffing.

It goes like this. Mary Jane wants to be a work-at-home mom. Unfortunately, before she finds a real telecommuting opportunity or a real home-based-business that she can really do … she finds the allure of Internet marketing. Whether it’s a product offering “thousands a day from blogging” or “building an e-mail list of thousands in a week” … these opportunities really vary little from the aforementioned envelope stuffing deal. Dont’ believe me? Next time you get that “special offer” from your favorite “guru” ask yourself this: is he going to really show me how to generate the traffic needed to build that magic list, … or is he really just building his list? Or, perhaps it is a magic portal site … “learn to promote this site, and these three special programs will make you rich!” … and if you do have any success, you’re simply building thier downline. So here’s where the real rubber meets the road: find a successful online marketer … and if all they peddle are info products on “internet marketing”, ask them what else they sell. What real product are they using these great techniques on? If they don’t have one, then they are really nothing more than helping you to stuff internet envelopes. You learn how to earn by selling the same garbage they sell.

Ultimately, you are much better off doing one of two things:

(1) Develop YOUR unique product that you can promote in the REAL world, as well as the online world.

(2) If you are truly wanting to earn an income from home, then start doing it today. Don’t spend hundreds of dollars on info products that teach you how to sell other info products! Find a real work-from-home opportunity and go for it! There are many, many companies that use telecommunters, as well as freelance professionals. Even if you don’t think you are experienced in an online job field … do some research and find out!!!

Don’t let someone else tell you what your dream should be! Figure out what YOU want to do, and go for it!

As you probably know, selling items on Ebay is a quick way to earn some extra cash from the Internet. Unfortunately, with so many people selling on EBay these days, getting attention to your auction can be difficult.

Well, not any more! There is a new Ebay selling tool that has been developed called List’d Express that makes selling your items on Ebay simple! Using AJAX technology, this software uses keyword search to help you find the right category to post your merchandise in. Of major note, however, is the ulimited free photo hosting (ebay charges for hosting your extra pictures, you know!) as well as the auction templates that allow you to have that professional look and feel!

So, if you are interested in making some money through the online auction scene at Ebay, you need to check out this great eBay listing tool.

Well, it’s finally happened!  Someone who is a full-time Internet marketing authority (notice I didn’t use the word ‘guru’ on purpose) has admitted to being involved in PayPerPost!  Yes, it’s true … and, in fact, it was one of our own blog visitors!  Lynn Terry of ClickNewz fame has come out of the Internet marketing closet and admitted on the PPP Blog that she is down with PPP!!!

I seriously hope that this will shed some blogosphere and Internet marketing love to the PPP opportunity.  Lynn’s been around the online scene for a number of years, and I think if she thinks it’s a good idea, then I do too!  Thanks for coming out of the closet Lynn and welcome to the PPP posties!

Well, this time the PayPerPost team has really outdone themselves! It seems that last Wednesday they staged a high profile publicity appearance in front of the Today show cameras … this is a great example of what is known as “Guerilla Marketing“. Obviously they’ve spent some time (and money) planning for this “event”. From t-shirts to the signs, it looks like everyone involved had a BLAST! So, next time you’re trying to come up with a way to get some publicity for your new business venture, take a lesson from the guys and gals over at PPP: go where the publicity is and make your own!!! Good job guys … chalk another one up for PPP.

I got to thinking about my blogging efforts in terms of writing. After all, isn’t this a bit like freelance writing? Only here, my readers may or may not subscribe, or just wander in for a specific article from a search engine. Some bloggers who make quite a bit of money off of advertisements and products promoted off of their blogs have valued thier blog posts as very substantial. However, for the majority of bloggers in the blogosphere, I would venture to say that blog posts are only worth a fraction of that amount. More likely, bloggers get paid about like freelance writers.

So, in doing some research, I have found that freelance writers get as little as 1/4 of a cent per word, up to as much as a dollar per word for a premium piece in the right publication. Some information on that is available here.

Then, I began to think of my writing experiences with PayPerPost. I decided to do some quick evaluations and discovered, to my delight, that the payments for PayPerPost are average to above average for the freelance writing market. So, as an income source, PayPerPost can actually rival the freelance writing marketplace! The lowest paying opportunity I found (as of the time of this writing) came in at an average of 1.3 cents per word, while the highest was actually 60 cents per word. This puts the payment rate per word slightly above the average freelancer. Pick your posts right, have a few targeted blogs, and you could earn over $100 per day.

Not too shabby for a few hours work!

That was the question for us several years ago. Auto Refinance is simply where you refinance the outstanding balance of your loan at (hopefully) a lower interest rate. Rate Genius offers the opportunity to re-finance. Their program is very user-friendly and is recieving very high ratings from users all over the state of Texas. If I had it to do all over again, I would definately let someone like Rate Genius shop around for my re-finance deal.

This question is sure to take on a new meaning in the months to come.  In case you’ve missed the barrage of information (as I did), you need to take the time to check out the newest search engine in town:  ChaCha Search Inc.  ChaCha is a new type of search engine for one reason: human interaction.  The basis for the service goes like this:

Ever go searching on one of the leading search engines for something, only to find dozens of links that are irrelevant to your real search topic?  Isn’t this because the pages are displayed based on some computer algorithm that obviously mis-interpreted your string of search characters, right?  Well, no more!  ChaCha offers you the opportunity to conduct the same search with search ‘guides’.  The guides are actual live humans who you interact with through IM chat.  They will conduct the search for you, weeding out the irrelevent results, and honing in on exactly what you are looking for.  At least, that’s what they are striving for.

So what’s the buzz?  It also doubles as a work-at-home opportunity for those netizens who are in a frenzy for the latest way to make money online without spending a fortune, or putting your fate in the hands of the latest up-and-coming internet marketing “guru”.  ChaCha is comprised of “guides” who progress through various levels of search proficiency, which also boosts their pay scale.  Starting at around $5 per search hour (I’m assuming thats actually logged-in search time) up to $10 (or some reports of $20) per hour.  Not a bad way to earn some extra cash on the ol’ puter!

I’m investigating further, and will report back when I have more information.  Until then, you could wander over to ChaCha and search for more information yourself!  Can you dance?