We’ve already talked a little bit about how you can turn your talents into profits on the internet. There are a lot of methods other than the ones we’ve already covered, and we thought it might be a good idea to take another look at the topic. so, without further ado, here are some more ways to turn your talents into profits.

Twitter Backgrounds

If you have any artistic ability, and a copy of Photoshop at your disposal, you can probably crank out a half decent looking Twitter background in a short amount of time. Twitter backgrounds don’t generally sell for much, but they also don’t take a lot of time to create. Once you have a reputation for creating decent backgrounds, you can begin taking custom orders for higher prices. Generally speaking, if you can crank out graphic work quickly, and without a lot of hassle, Twitter backgrounds can be a great way to bring in some money.

Design Contests

A lot of companies and websites offer logo design contests. In these contests, graphic artists submit a logo in hopes of winning the prize money offered. Just to be clear, this isn’t a good idea for an established graphic designer. If you’ve been working in the field for some time, there are better ways to get clients, and you’ll be guaranteed payment instead of hoping to win prize money. If you’re just starting out in design though, entering logo contests is a great way to build up your portfolio, and possibly generate some income at the same time.

Local Businesses

If you’re a talented web designer, you can make decent money by approaching local businesses to see if they’re looking to create or upgrade an online presence. Be prepared with information about what the internet can do for them, and they’ll be more likely to take you up on your offer.

Graphic and web designers stand to make decent money on the internet. Knowing which methods to choose can ensure that you’ll make a great deal of money from your design talents.

Running a social media marketing campaign can be a tricky process. Each different social media site has it’s own pro’s and cons, and if you don’t know how to work within the confines of a particular site, you’re not going to be able to use it effectively as part of your marketing campaign. If you’re not familiar with all the ins and outs of social media marketing, you might want to hire a social media marketing manager.

If you’re going to hire a social media manager, it’s important to hire the right person for the job. Your reputation can take a lot of serious, irreversible damage if your social media marketing campaign is run poorly, so you need to be sure you’re hiring someone with experience, and knowledge about how to use social media effectively.

When you’re talking to a candidate, don’t be afraid to ask for references. Take a look at any other social media campaigns they have worked on or are currently working on, and take the time to examine those accounts closely. Make sure that your candidate handled themselves professionaly on the social media accounts they ran for other people. If you see any signs that they may have been inconsistent, or anything other than professional when dealing with previous clients, they may not be the social media manager for you.

It’s also a good idea to take a look at their own social media accounts. A good social media manager will have accounts set up to promote themselves. Those accounts should be updated regularly, and they should have high quality friends and followers. Numbers aren’t everything – just because they have a lot of friends or followers that doesn’t mean they are high quality friends and followers. Look to see how often they interact with other people on social media sites, and you’ll get a good idea of how well they manage their own social media accounts

If you take the time to pick the right person for the job, you’ll be on your way to a successful social media marketing campaign. Social media can have a huge impact on your reputation, so it’s important to treat it with the right level of importance.

Starting a successful newsletter is tough, no matter what type of site it’s for. Most people delete the majority of newsletters that hit their inbox without ever even opening them. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t run an email marketing campaign, it just means you have to follow a few important guidelines while doing so.

First, and probably the most important, is don’t buy subscribers. We’ve all seen the ads that promise tens of thousands of subscribers for one low, low price, but it’s still not worth it. The price might be affordable, but you probably don’t want the subscribers they’re tying to sell you. You can’t be certain how they got a hold of those email addresses, so there’s always a chance they were obtained illegally, or at the very least, by underhanded means. If they were all obtained on the up and up, you still have no way of knowing whether or not they’re active email addresses that get checked by someone regularly. Even if they do get checked regularly, you still don’t want them. There’s no way to guarantee that each email address you bought belongs to someone who is likely to be interested in your newsletter. You might be buying subscribers that are likely to flag your newsletter as spam, and hurt the overall reputation of your newsletter, and by proxy, your site.

Instead of paying for subscribers, ask for them. Put an opt in page on your site, and put an opt in box on the sidebar. Also, if you have a store, give your customers the option to sign up for your newsletter during checkout. By asking your customers to sign up, you won’t get as many subscribers as you would by buying them, but you’ll get subscribers with a genuine interest in your site, and your niche.

Once you have the right subscribers, it’s important to start sending them the right things. Don’t just send out sales emails, try to send out entertaining and informative content as well. If you can entertain your subscribers, they’ll be more likely to open and read all of your emails, including your sales emails.

A successful newsletter just comes down to sending the right information to the right subscribers. If you have subscribers that are interested in what you have to say, and you’re sending them meaningful content, your newsletter will perform well.

So you just launched a new website, and you want to generate some positive attention for it. Generating buzz or hype isn’t as hard as you might think. You just have to follow a few simple steps, and you’ll be on your way in no time.

Start off by using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to talk about your site. Don’t just talk about the site using your social networking accounts, but encourage your friends and family to talk about it on their own. In order to generate buzz, the positive attention your site is getting on social networks has to appear natural. If other users suspect that you’re just trying to generate hype for your site, then you will actually achieve the opposite effect of damaging your site’s reputation. Try to get a group of your friends and family together that can start spreading the word about your site for you. As they talk about it, their friends will go to your site. Some of those friends will talk about it too, and slowly, but surely, you’ll begin to build some buzz around your site.

Consider volunteering some of your services to another website. If, for example, you have launched a site about technology, consider doing a guest spot writing for another tech website. This will give you the chance to introduce yourself to another audience, and get them excited about your site.

Don’t underestimate the power of physical items. Get some T-shirts, pens, and buttons made up with your site’s information on them. Hand these items out generously, and give some to your friends and family to do the same with. As these items spread, so too will your site.

Give out your business card whenever you can. If you’re out to lunch, leave your business card on the table along with the tip. If you see a bulletin board at the grocery store, pin your business card to it. This might seem a little futile, but remember, everyone who sees your URL might visit it. Everyone that visits it might tell a friend.

It’s important to remember that, while these methods can help, the amount of buzz your site generates will be directly related to the content it holds. For example, if you run a plumbing supply website, don’t expect to generate a huge amount of buzz. Plumbing supplies are great when you need them, but on a day to day basis, they’re just not very exciting.  If your content is interesting, and you follow these steps, you’ll start to see buzz for your site in no time.

Sometimes, when you’re buying an ebook, or other information product, you will have the chance to buy resale rights for that product. Sometimes those rights are free or cheap, and sometimes they’re a bit more expensive. Before you automatically dismiss the additional expense, take a second and think about the product, and it’s value. You might find yourself interested in selling it.

When you get resale rights for an ebook, most of the time you’ll be given a direct download link to pass on to your customers. Each time someone orders the product through you, you get paid for it. Typically, you can sell the ebook any number of ways, including ebay, and setting up your own website for the product. All you have to do is send traffic to the product, and you can collect a solid amount of money.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind before setting out to make money with resale rights. You’re selling someone else’s product, and as such, they get credit for creating it. By selling their ebook, you’re not doing anything for your reputation, just your wallet. The other side of the coin here is that you don’t have to produce an ebook of your own to sell. All you really have to do is market an existing product. You may not pull in as much money as you would selling an original product, but you also don’t have to put in the same amount of effort you would if you were creating a new ebook of your own.

it’s also important to determine whether or not there’s a market for the ebook you’re interested in reselling. Consider the niche the product covers, and whether or not a broad audience would be interested in the product. You should also search the internet, and see how many other people are reselling the ebook you’re looking at, and take a look at what marketing strategies they’re using. If the product you’re looking at is being sold by a lot of other people, and the market for it just isn’t that big, it’s probably better to skip it.

Buying resale rights for an ebook can be a great way to make some money, but only if you can manage to sell the product. Do your homework, and pick a product with a strong resale value, and you’ll be able to bring in some extra money easily.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of those things that is either really hard for you to grasp or very easy. The good news is there are a ton of people out there that are willing to help you with your SEO plan. The bad news is there are a lot of people out there that can claim to help you with your SEO plan.

When you hire a contractor, whether online or not, it is best to check their references. Ask them to give you past work from clients or from themselves and to give a short bio about themselves so you can get to know them a little bit.

Hiring a contractor can be a great experience, or it can be a constant struggle and fight to get the work done as it was promised and a complete waste of time. In order to make sure you receive the former experience, rather than the latter, there are a few things you can keep a look out for.

Pay Rate
If one contractor who is bidding on your project is extremely low, they probably aren’t going to be of high quality. I know that this may seem like common sense to a lot of people, but it gets over looked. You will see a trend of where the average is on a project for good work (when 10 people are $300 and 1 is $50, I don’t think the $50 is going to do as good of a job for you). Also, don’t take the highest bidder, either get them to come down in price with the rest of them or pick the best out of the following criteria.

Experience
How long has the contractor been active on the website you are using? If they have been their for 3-4 years compared to someone who signed up yesterday, I am going to go with the person that has the better reputation and experience on the website.

Reviews
Most websites like Elance.com or Odesk.com allow users to post reviews and feedback from completed assignments. Read through the reviews thoroughly and create a list of information about each contractor so you can keep their offers straight. Also see how much earnings that have made from working on the site. Someone with $30,000 vs $100 is going to have a lot more experience and better reputation.

Make sure you do not jump at the first SEO consultant that comes your way, do your research and find the right person for your job.

Photo Credit: Host Wisely

Drop ship internet business

A drop ship internet business is great if you don’t want to keep any stock.  Drop shipping basically works like this:

1. Customer buys a product on your website
2. You then order the product from your supplier at trade price
3. Your supplier then delivers the item directly to your customer
4. You pocket the profit on the order without having to see the product

You need to find a niche, e.g drop shipping electrical items from a seller in a different country could be a good idea.

You need to be very careful when dealing with suppliers in different countries as there are alot of scammers out there. I personally have been caught out on occassions loosing money from fake sellers.  When searching for a seller, do your research on the company and check their reputation among the community they are advertising in.

Another thing to look out for is if the products you will be drop shipping are real and not fakes.  If you are dealing with a seller in China then it is more then certain the items are fake, as this country is the number 1 place to find counterfeit items