Today I am excited to announce that I have had my first BIG sale from a website. Through the selling process I learned a few things and I just had to share it all with you!

Selling a website on the internet can be risky so be sure you only sell to a quality buyer. If you do get scammed I do apologize but don’t give up because the best is yet to come!

30 Days Prior To Sale

Before you sell your website you need to ensure a few things are in place to get accurate stats for selling purposes. The more organized and easy it is for people to know what your site has to offer them the easier the sale will go (plus people are suckers for graphs and pictures on a sales thread).

Google Analytic’s – While your web hosting provider may in fact have some sort of stats software already available, people have come to trust the Google analytics screenshots the most. (I did not have this with my sale but it would have helped sell I assure you). You can Signup for Google Analytics and install the code on your site. It is fairly simple, here is a quick video showing you how to do it:

Remove Site Errors – Another thing you should do is ensure your site does not have any obvious errors on it. Nobody wants to buy a ugly or broken website, take the time needed to fix what is not working.

What to list on your Sale

It is actually mind baffling to me how many people list the stupidest things when trying to sell there website. If that’s not bad enough sometimes they list almost nothing at all which is even worse. Remember these rules when listing a website for sale.

Be Direct With Your Text – Your sales copy should be short, to the point and persuasive. These are normal selling techniques. Don’t be afraid to ask a question to start a conversation about your sale (it gets people looking).

Show lots of images – As I said above earlier, people are suckers for graphs and images when it comes to a sale. Even if the numbers are low the fact you have images gives you an edge over another website for sale (you are not the only one).

Colors – When it comes to coloring the font (DON’T). It distracts from the site your selling and gets annoying. Be smart, professional and use plain black text. It makes you look pro even if you are not.

Price – When it comes to the pricing of your ad there are several approaches you can take. I have found making your starting bid about 10% of the actual sale price you want just seems to make sense and work really well. So if your final sale price that you are wanting is $2,000.00 your starting bid price should be $200.00. This technique will eliminate people without much money from wasting your time and gets the big boys looking. You also should set a reserve price which is the absolute rock bottom you would take for your site (WORST CASE SCENARIO).

Final Thoughts 4 Selling

The main final thought I want to leave you with is communication. When it comes to selling it will take leg work and time to answer every potential buyers questions. Don’t count anyone out of your auction. Give yourself and your buyers the allotted time to really make a good decision. Never rush a sale.

And lastly SELL that thing!

First off I do not generally make 2 posts on the same day, however sometimes I like to change things up. Here it is, the second post for the day!

Today I was browsing through some of my favorite make money online blogs and I just happen to see a Guest Post by Block Blohm on JohnChow.com. First off if you see this Block, AMAZING POST. I really enjoyed reading it! I would love to pick your brain sometime.

You can see his post about Residual Income For Life VS. No Residual Income For Life. It was a very good article and video he made for Johns blog. (This is how a guest post should be guys).

In his post he talks about how Adsense is not residual (I 100% agree with him) but the very first comment on the post is someone saying how after its optimized, Adsense becomes residual. I actually replied to that comment (out of character for me, I never really comment on Johns Blog. However for some reason I felt compelled to.).

I simply said and I quote: Actually Adsense is not very residual. I make about $150/mo off adsense on my site but all that money is dependent upon the fact I continue to post good content. If I stop, the money stops (its not truly residual).

I just wanted you all to see and know that Adsense is not now nor will it ever be a residual income maker. That’s why Adsense doesn’t have an affiliate program (they would lose to much money). Google is smart. Very Smart.

But honestly, it was just about impossible to ignore the incoming storm considering how many people live in its trajectory. More specifically, it was impossible to ignore due to the number of Tweets, blogs, and other social media posts churned out by those experiencing the bad weather.

The citizenry of every city on the American East Coast from DC to New York was bracing for Irene’s impact inside personal storage unit-to-shelter conversions. That’s millions of social media accounts and hundreds of thousands of blogs. The Internet access came and went here and there, and power is still out for many regions hit by the hurricane, but for the most part, the web was and still is being jam packed with real-time updates of on-the-grounds experiences in the form of Tweets, posts, and blogs.

This doesn’t offer much in the way of making your blog more popular. Creating content on the hottest topic of the hour is unlikely to draw your attention from the far more popular web sources featuring the identical content. This is, of course, the “echo chamber” most bloggers must learn to avoid. But it does say something about the power of the real-time blog and social media connection, especially during times of disaster. It says that these days there’s virtually no story without it.

Traditional press sources are currently being lambasted by the public – ironically often through blogs – for appearing preemptively on American coasts clad in raincoats for every hour of the day possible. This criticism of the media’s reaction to the hurricane in fact became news itself. Imagine Irene without the blogs and the millions of New York Tweets. It would have been nothing but wind-whipped reporters on wet beaches and not the story itself – that is the real-time experiences of those in the middle of it.

When starting a blog, don’t underestimate the modern role it plays in the propagation of information. Respect the power it has to relay the story in real-time, but more importantly how easily blogging can become the story itself.

Also around the turn of the century alternative metals were making a splash on the scene. Titanium rings were introduced and were thought to be very exotic at the time. They are light weight and are made of the same material that airplanes are made out of. Another positive from titanium rings were that they also held up much better than gold or platinum. They were much more scratch resistant. After titanium made a big splash tungsten wedding bands were introduced to the market. These rings are great. In fact when they were first introduced the wholesale price was more than $300. This has come down significantly since then but the properties that made them so great are still there. They are virtually scratch resistant, which is the biggest factor people site for purchasing a tungsten wedding band.

Recently more and more alternative metals have been added to the market. Where there is a need there are always people ready to feel the needs. Tungsten rings are great but they really don’t match her ring. So there was a need for a white alternative metal. That is where cobalt chrome rings were born. They are much stronger than platinum or palladium but at a fraction of the cost. In fact the color is so close to platinum that the naked eye has a very hard time telling the two apart. Another plus side to them is that they are highly scratch resistant. Not as much as tungsten but much more than titanium. So unless you work a lot with your hands you will have a ring that has that perfect finish all the time. There is no need to go and get it recoated or do anything like that. The last alternative metal rings are ceramic rings. They are a great alternative to black tungsten rings. Black tungsten rings are just coated and the coating comes off.

With all that said making money online is becoming a regular trend in today’s society. So its no wonder that buying those wedding bands with that money makes sense!

Of course, the answer is always more complicated than a simple figure, but in recent years, the employers have shown that they’re far more likely to hire someone with a masters or doctorate over their associate degree holding counterparts. For the most part, an MBA holder can generally expect to see a salary increase, but there are other factors that come into play when figuring out the final earnings and what you can expect. The devil is always in the details, and once you figure this out, you’ll have a much better idea of how much money you can expect to make with a higher-education degree.

Depending on what field or area that you’re wanting to get into, sometimes the prestige of a school’s name can play a factor. Even if it’s an online school, generally it’s a starting point and you want to make sure that any school you attend is accredited and has a good reputation. This is going to get your foot in the door and get people to take notice. Past that, where you go to school also depends on the quality of connections and networks you build. Better schools will translate into better pay. If you’re interested in an online school, do a lot of research to see how well the school has done and any feedback it’s gotten. You don’t want to waste precious time and money on a junk degree that translates to zero earnings.

The field you ultimately decide on, according to a GMAC Survey, plays a huge part in your earnings. It’s not that surprising, but important to take note of. According to the same survey, those graduates that decide to go into investment banking or find employment with consulting firms will usually earn a lot more than other people that hold an MBA. It usually translates into several thousands of dollars more per year. The same goes for the IT sector. This is a growing field since companies are relying more heavily on their technological capabilities. As always, government work seems to be an excellent place to go. People with good degrees that end up working for the government usually do quite well for themselves.

Have a specialized approach to your degree is always the best approach, perhaps the most important one. Automatically, when you get a higher degree you’re opening doors for a brighter future filled with more opportunities. This is even more so when you have a greater idea of what area of the market you want to get into. Very often people graduate school with even less of an idea of what they want to do as when the started their program. Deciding on a specialized education will cut down on the time it takes you to get the training and experience you need. Just think all of these things through before you make any decision so you’re not wasting your time and money.

That’s because Google and other search engines have a hard time indexing Flash web pages. They manage to do what they can (it is, after all, in Google’s best interest to index all possible websites), but the search engine industry consistently speaks out about the need for Flash websites to feature HTML alternatives. Google suggests that you use Flash for decorative purposes, but keep content and navigation strictly text-based. Text, after all, is what the search engine was designed around.

Back when bandwidth was extremely limited due to connection speeds and videos were nearly impossible to present effectively on homepages, Flash was a worthwhile way to create an interesting website. Yet, the price you paid has always been a decrease in search engine optimization. In order to still garner a competitive search engine result, you have always had to built a traditional HTML site alongside any Flash development. The effort in maintaining Flash has always been in addition to preexisting website management.

The burdens of Flash call for its extinction. In a world where SEO is everything and interactive alternatives abound, there’s really no reason to use it anymore. The kinds of visually-striking animation capable through Flash impresses few individuals today who have had a decade to get adjusted to such Internet capability. Chances are those who have the option to experience the Flash version of your site will choose the text-based replica instead, for the simple reason that they innately recognize the traditional site as the easier experience.

Forget about Flash. It does you no favors. At once time it was the only way to provide people with an exciting alternative to the boring websites of competitors, but these days it’s a time consuming design tactic with virtually no upside. When it comes to cool ways to make your website exciting, avoid just being another Flash in the pan.

You would be amazed to learn that more than $2 billion dollars were earned by website and blog owners in the year 2008 in terms of affiliate marketing fee. There are two important aspects you need to be aware about affiliate marketing – first there is minimal or no startup costs, and second that there is some amazing income to be generated. The fact is that affiliate marketing is among the top business opportunity to make money online.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is the process of direction traffic from your site or blog to another site that sells products or services. Every sale that results from your site lets you earn a specific percentage of the sale amount. It is up to you to perform affiliate marketing on a part-time or full-time basis. It requires nothing more than a few hours to start working as an affiliate marketer. The amount of time and effort dedicated by you in the work is going to determine your success and the amount of money that you would be making. If you are serious to make money online through affiliate marketing, then the following steps are going to help you.

Step 1 : Create a blog or website :-

The first step to make money online through affiliate marketing is to create a blog or website. You will have to place links on your site. These links will direct to the products that you want to recommend to your site visitors. You can find several website services that are not expensive, such as GoDaddy and Hostgator. You can also setup free and easy blogs using services like Blogger. Or, you can get a cheap domain from Hostnine or Namecheap to host your own website.

Step 2 : Choose the products or services :-

Once you have created a blog or your website, the next step is to choose the products or services that you want to promote on your site. You can help sell anything ranging from web services to jewelry to books to smart phones. It would be best to choose a product or service line that you have some knowledge about or about which you are interested. You can find several affiliate networks that help you make money online by linking you with merchants.

Step 3 : Join Popular affiliate network :-

Some of the leading names are like Clickbank, PayDotCom and E-junkie that can help you to make money online. These sites help in connecting manufacturers or suppliers of software and e-books with affiliates. Google AdSense is where you don’t have to do much to perform the sales. You will be getting a regular income on the basis of pay-per-click when traffic clicks on your site and is directed to the merchant’s site.

Step 4 : Promote your affiliate products :-

When you want to setup your affiliate site there are several templates and business models from which you can select and make money online. Resource Sites offer you several posts and articles on the concept of “how-to” guide, where banner ads and affiliate links are placed for visitors to click onto. Review Sites offer a review of the products tested by you. You rate the products and the visitors to your site decide whether they would consider your recommendations or not.

In my own career, I’ve learned and benefited so much from others that I wanted to help build some way to give back to an industry I love show appreciation to the up-and-coming leaders. The World Media Awards will culminate in a one day event in San Francisco that will celebrate the best in blogging, forums, publishing and media from around the world.

So if you are a superb blogger, why should you enter?

1. 1. Get Recognized- You Deserve It !

You put a lot of work into making your blog amazing. You understand it and your readers know it. The World Media Awards is a way for you to get authoritative credit from other bloggers and industry experts. That recognition will help you build your readership, make new collaborative connections, and hopefully have a few warm fuzzy moments that make all the late nights even more rewarding.

1. 2. Meet Other Bloggers Who Care

Blogging, forums and most other on-line media is about conversation and interaction, but sometimes it’s easy to end up trying to hide away behind a monitor in your office or home all alone. Meeting other bloggers and publishers keeps the fire lit and the conversation going. When you enter the World Media Awards, you’ll be listed alongside other bloggers and publishers who put the same level of satisfaction, attention and work into making their blog great.

1. 3. Expose Yourself to New Partners

If your blog or forum is part of your business, being part of the World Media Awards will increase your exposure by putting your name in front of numerous visitors to our site and the award ceremony. That means you can find out who else is doing great work, strut your own stuff, and expand your network of contacts and collaborators.

1. 4. Make Yourself Irresistible to Clients

What helps your chances at being victorious that next pitch more than increasing your network? Telling that network that you are the winner of a World Media Award. Winning an award shines a light on your achievements, and it serves as an example of the commitment, engagement and exacting standards you apply to your work.

1. 5. Be Part of the Beginning of Something Big

Because 2012 is the first year for these awards, you have the one-time benefit to be the inaugural winner and set the standard for the World Media Awards in your category. Getting in on the ground floor of these awards will open doors for you as a blogger and a publisher.

The bottom line is, the World Media Awards will shine a spotlight on the year’s most prosperous bloggers and publishers, and on the companies that serve and interact with them.

Now is your chance to be one of them.

The sponsors include Growmap, Pace Lattin, VigLink and Trancos.
World Media Award judges include Steve Hall, Sarah Austin, Chang Kim, Julie Wohlberg, Pierre Zarokian, Ivka Adam, Cheryl Contee, Krystyl Baldwin, Adrian Harris, Jeremy Wright, Rob Bloggeries, Dave Duarte, Tanya Alvarez, Dana Oshiro, Tom Foremski, and Judith Lewis. hashtag #wmads on Twitter.
Media partners include Adrants, Bloggeries, MediaVision, The Affiliate Marketing Awards, Read Write Web, My Blog Guest, Web Traffic Control and FeedBlitz.
Murray Newlands is author of How to Make a Blog Book and Online Marketing; a User Guide. He is also founder of the Affiliate Marketing Awards. Born in the UK, he now spends his time in San Francisco and New York. Murray works for Audience Mindshare and consults for Trancos Ins as well as being an advisor for VigLink. Actually he is working on his new book: The Email Marketing Book.

Today I want to dive into the world of blogging to make money. I have talked about it before but never quite like this. Today we are going to do it in video format!

Today we are going to talk a little bit about buying links. Generally speaking all us seo guys tell everyone not to buy links.

You all don’t listen. So rather and re-hash that same message again and again instead I am going to simply give you the guidelines you should follow when buying (since you will anyways).

Search Engine Link Buying Guidelines

The process of buying links can be very tedious. Not only is buying links difficult to keep out of the engines eyes but often times when you do buy them they still don’t affect your rankings as one would think and hope. However if you are going to delve into the world of buying then here is what you need to know most.

What To Not Look For In Links

The first step to properly buy links is to first know what you should be looking for. A lot of time people skip this step and its the most well known mistake people can make. So this begs the question what should you be looking for?

1. The quality of the content your linked in matters. Contextual links is where the most power and relevance comes from so be sure to research where you are wanting to be placed and ensure its relevant to what your site is about.

2. Do not look at PageRank no matter how bad you want to. The page rank means absolutely nothing anymore to the search engines and using it as a factor in todays search will provide terrible links the engines can spot easily.

3. Price point matters. There are always exceptions however in general a well paid link means a well placed well worth it link. Just a little nugget of Gold for you.

I hope these tips prove to be useful for you. Here is a video to sum-up the post and be sure to comment below with your thoughts!