Note: I did not use any affiliate links in this article.

Making money online is a dream for many, but the simple fact is that it’s often just as tough as making money offline. Due to requests, we’ve put together a list of the most popular money making methods today, many of them focused on blogging and peer production.

A word of caution: for the sake of completeness, we’ve included a small number of sites that have been criticized for their ethics. If it sounds too good to be true, it generally is. Commenters are welcome to share their experiences of the various sites.

Get Paid To Write

Weblogs, Inc. - Apply to blog for one of their ninety plus blogs or submit your own topic idea. They will pay you per post that you write and you must meet their minimum post requirements.

PayPerPost - Get paid as much as $500 or more a month writing articles and reviews of their sponsors on your blog.

Blogsvertise - Their advertisers pay you to mention and talk about their websites, products and services in your own blog.

Review Me - After your blog has been accepted in their network, they will pay you $20 to $200 per post that you write.

Smorty - Earn $6 to $100 dollars per post you write on your blog. Amount paid for each post depends on the overall popularity and page rank of your blog.

SponsoredReviews - Write reviews for their advertisers’ products and services on your own blog. They charge a 35% transaction fee for their services.

LoudLaunch - Blog about the advertisers campaign releases that meet your interests. They pay once a month.

Blogitive - Get paid weekly via PayPal for posting stories that interest you.

BloggerWave - Select the advertiser opportunities that best suit your blog and write reviews on their products and services.

InBlogAds - Write about websites, products, services and companies on your blog and get paid for it.

BlogToProfit - Make $250 dollars or more by writing new posts on your blog.

Creative Weblogging - Write 7 to 10 posts per week for their network and they will pay you $225 per month.

WordFirm - Make money publishing books as a freelance writer from home.

451 Press - Write for a blog within their network and receive forty percent of all generated revenue.

Digital Journal - Network of bloggers that get paid to report on newsworthy articles through their blogs.

BlogBurner - Sign up for a free blog and get paid for writing new posts. Your commissions are generated through Adsense clicks.

Squidoo - Earn money by writing your new blog, or choose to donate your earnings to charity.

About.com - Become a paid guide writing articles for About.com. Compensation depends on the growth of your page views.

DayTipper - Earn $3 for every short tip you write and get published.

Helium - Earn a share of their advertising revenue by writing articles in their channels.

Dewitts Media - Get paid to write your own blog. This site requires you have a minimum page rank of 3 to sign up.

BOTW Media - Make money writing a blog for their blogging network.

CreamAid - Get paid to submit blog posts in their directory.

BlogFeast - Generate revenue from pre-installed Google Adsense ads when you blog in their network.

Mashable - Mashable hires freelancers and new staff, offering one of the largest platforms for tech bloggers.

Advertising Programs

Google Adsense - Most popular pay-per-click advertising provider. Make anywhere from $0.01 to $5.00 plus per click on site relevant ads.

Text-Link-Ads - Approve or deny the advertiser links that appear on your site. They pay you 50% of the sale price for each text link sold on your website.

BlogAds - The average blogger makes anywhere from $50 to $5000 dollars a month selling blog ads. To participate in this program you will need to get sponsored by someone in their network.

LinkWorth - Here you will find eleven different options to fit your advertising needs. Choose from text based advertisements, sponsored ads and paid blog reviews to name a few.

CrispAds - Access to over six thousand advertisers in their pay-per-click program. You choose the advertisers that suit you best.

Chitika - Offers six types of advertising to fit your needs.

AzoogleAds - Delivers targeted advertisers to their network of publishers to bring you the most profitable solutions.

Vibrant Media - Offers in-text contextual based advertisements.

MediaFed - Place advertisements in your blog’s RSS feed to generate additional revenue.

Qumana - Embeds ads directly into your posts. Ads are generated from keywords that you select. Not particularly popular with readers.

PeakClick - Austria based pay-per-click provider. Provides automatic insertion of site targeted ads.

DoubleClick - Offers a full suite of products for publishers that enable you to forecast, sell inventory, serve ads and analyze campaigns online and through other digital channels.

Tribal Fusion - They offer reliable payments, free ad-serving technology, a dedicated account manager and up-to-date, real-time reporting, with a 55% payout. Must go through an approval process.

AdBrite - Approve or reject any ads purchased for your sites. Also gives you the ability to sell ads direct with “Your Ad Here” links.

ThankYouPages - Shows ads based on demographics and relevancy. Majority of traffic must originate from U.S.

Clicksor - Inline text link advertising, underlines words directly in your posts making them clickable advertisements. Once more, we’d say that inline ads are not popular with regular blog readers.

TargetPoint - Contextually and search targeted pay-per-click ads.

IndustryBrains - Place relevant contextual text listings and graphical ads on your site.

BloggingAds - Post one-time ads on your site. Pays via PayPal.

BulletAds - Performance based online advertising network.

AdsMarket - Match your traffic to handpicked advertisers with top-converting products and services.

ROIRocket - Targeted campaigns specific to your marketing needs.

AdKnowledge - Offers complete outsourcing of your advertising management. Runs ads in websites, email and search engine inventory.

Yes Advertising - Payouts for running ads from their sponsors. Also offers a referral program that pays 20% of the referred webmasters earnings.

RevenuePilot - Offers pay-for-performance and pay-per-click advertising for your sites.

SearchFeed - Integrates paid advertisements into your site’s search feature.

Bidvertiser - Display text ads on your site and advertisers bid for placement.

Pheedo - Monetize your RSS feeds with this program.

ValueClick media - Generate revenue by displaying ads through banners, pop-unders and rich media. Be warned that pop-unders are unpopular these days.

OneMonkey - Another text based advertising program.

Yahoo Publisher Network - Use the internet giant, Yahoo, to display targeted ads on your site.

Q Ads - Monetize your site by placing ads anywhere you can add a picture.

Affiliate Networks and Programs

Amazon Associates - Link to Amazon’s products and services and earn up to 10% of the sale price. Converts well for product-focused sites.

ClickBank - Over 10,000 products to promote with commissions as high as 75%.

Commission Junction - Promote the advertiser’s products and services in exchange for a commission on leads or sales.

LinkShare - Pay-for-performance affiliate marketing network. Gives you the ability to use individual product links on your site and generate revenue from sales.

Affiliate Fuel - Serves as a middle man to bring publishers and advertisers together to promote products and services.

LinkConnector - Affiliate marketing network that offers a zero tolerance fraud policy to keep you safe while conducting business.

LeadPile - Affiliate network that allows you to generate and sell trade leads to the highest bidder.

Forex-Affiliate - Affiliate program that allows you to earn commissions from trading Forex (currency exchange) online.

incentAclick - CPA (cost-per-action) affiliate program that guarantees the fastest ROI in the industry.

AdPlosion - Earn revenue by selling leads, clicks and products from their advertisers. Also runs an incentive points program in addition to your commissions.

AffiliateFuture - Another affiliate program that pays you for generating leads, sales and clicks.

ClixGalore - Affiliate network consisting of 7500+ advertisers for you to choose from.

ThinkAction - Affiliate network that claims to have the top payouts and the possibility of earning over $100,000 dollars per month.

RocketProfit - Affiliate network, pays via check after your commissions reach $25 dollars.

CafePress - Earn affiliate commissions by selling your personally branded merchandise.

Avangate - Make money selling popular computer software titles through your site.

Paid Social Media Programs

Dada.net - Social site with a revenue sharing program that pays you for referring friends and driving traffic.

Jyve - Pays you to provide answers, advice and peer support to people in need of some help.

Cruxy - Specializes in social video, but serves as a venue to sell your digital media Writers-Strike-Hurts-LA-Economy .

BitWine - Get paid to give advice and answer questions for people, on subjects of your interests and choice.

Ether - Make money answering questions for your peers over the phone. You set your rates and call availability.

UpBlogger - Social network site that pays you based on the amount of visits you receive to your uploaded content.

JustAnswer - Help others solve their problems and earn money for your knowledge.

MetaCafe - Upload your videos and earn money based on the number of views you receive.

ChaCha - Get paid to offer support to members of their community.

AssociatedContent - Earn money by uploading your videos, text, audio and images to their site. Earnings are determined by the exposure you receive from your content.

myLot - Pays you for posting, commenting and using their social network.

KnowBrainers - Another site that pays you to get involved with the community and answer questions. Optionally you can answer questions through the RSS feeds on your own blog.

Everything Else That Pays

Google User Research - Google Pays you money to participate in their user research studies online.

Microsoft Research Panel - Get paid from Microsoft for providing feedback on their products.

Amazon Mechanical Turk - Amazon pays you to complete simple tasks that their computers can’t understand. Payments are a matter of cents.

eJury - Earn $5 to $10 dollars per verdict rendered as a mock juror for practice trials.

WorkingSOL - This company pays you to handle technical support for many large companies. You can work from home on the computer or by phone and decide what times you are available.

Appingo - Always looking for experienced copy editors and proof readers. Must submit a resume.

IntelliShop - Pays you to shop at stores in your area and write a review of your experience.

Mahalo Greenhouse - They pay $10 to $15 dollars per site you submit to their directory.

Focus Pointe Global - Get paid to join their focus groups and voice your opinion. Available to teens and adults.

Agloco - Sign up, download their toolbar and get paid to surf the internet. This site has been criticized as a “pyramid scheme”, although the founders deny the allegation.

Arise - Make money providing phone, web and email support and sales for 40 plus companies in their network.

CraZoo - Earn money for starting new threads and posting in online forums.

Tutor.com - Get paid to tutor people online.

ForumBoosting.com - Make money posting in forums across the internet.

Share-A-Pic - Earn money by uploading and sharing your pictures on their website.

Opuzz Voice - Earn money by doing voice overs for their clients online.

SlashMySearch - Get paid to search the internet with their search engine.

Here’s an oldie but a goodie. Confounded by trying to track down fancy-looking WordPress themes? Check out this Web-

based theme editor that lets you tweak every nook and cranny of a theme then spit it back to your server to go live. You can add columns, change fonts and backgrounds, even throw in a customizable tag cloud–all with no coding experience required. All you need is a little creativity and some working knowledge of drop-down menus.

While some WordPress themes have excellent built-in support for doing this right from the WordPress dashboard,

many more don’t, and trying to figure out all the little things like text color is made far easier with a WYSIWYG editor than with WordPress’ built-in editing tools.

Advanced users can throw in graphics or design elements they’ve hosted elsewhere on their server (as long

as it’s got a URL to link up to), and when all is said and done each bit of the theme can be grabbed as an individual file to whatever theme you’re currently using. This is an easy way to try out new fonts and colors without making a mess out of your existing style.css file.

Google announced on Friday the release of a number of updates to its Blogger publishing platform–well, sort of. The updates have gone into Blogger in Draft, the service’s beta platform, with the expectation that they’ll eventually become full features.

The updates will seem a bit humdrum for people who don’t use Blogger, but for those who do, it’s a set of important baby steps toward shaping the service to fit customer feedback. That’s especially important for Google, as this is one niche of the Web where Mountain View doesn’t have a huge lead: there is tough competition in the blog-publishing market, especially from the likes of WordPress and Six Apart.

Blogger users who want to be on the cutting edge will now be able to set their default “dashboard” to Blogger in Draft, and have the Blogger in Draft blog bookmarked as an easy reference. There’s tighter integration of Google Gadgets, as well as a number of minor fixes to a recently redesigned dashboard.

But the “by popular demand” features are likely to gather more interest: five-star rating options on posts, much like those of Pownce; a revised post editor interface; support for Google Account logins and OpenID in comments; and perhaps most importantly, the ability to back up blog posts on a computer or export them to another blog.

Now may be the time to become an Apple iPhone owner at last.

When the iPhone was introduced, I found it tempting … very, very tempting. But just enough features and capabilities were missing from Apple’s initial cell phone offering that I held off on buying one.

I wasn’t alone in waiting, but that doesn’t mean the first-generation iPhone didn’t sell well. In fact, the iPhone moved 6 million units worldwide, well enough to make Apple extremely competitive in the smart-phone market.

Regardless of whether you stood in line on launch day or you chose to sit the first round out, today’s announcement probably got your attention. It certainly has tongues wagging everywhere. Apple is once again in the spotlight, and that has everything to do with the iPhone 3G features the company revealed today. Should you queue up when the iPhone 3G becomes available on July 11? Read on.

1. Price

The original iPhone was innovative and groundbreaking. It also was an expensive toy. Sure, around the country both technophiles and the masses lined up to procure the original iPhone, but at $599 and $699 for the 8GB and 16GB models, respectively, the audience remained somewhat limited. As time passed, as the models’ prices dropped, and as the device’s reputation spread, the iPhone picked up more steam. But even Jobs himself admitted that about 50 percent of people surveyed who didn’t buy an iPhone said that they didn’t because of price.

With Apple’s iPhone price drop, announced today, you pay significantly less money up front at the time of purchase: The 8GB iPhone will sell for $199, just one-third the price that the 4GB iPhone sold for at launch a year ago. The 16GB model will sell for $299.

Those prices put Apple’s smart phone into the reach of more consumers than ever before. Only four handsets on our current Top 10 smart phones chart–Palm’s Centro ($100 with a Sprint contract, $200 with an AT&T contract), T-Mobile’s Shadow ($200 with contract) and Dash ($150 with contract), and RIM’s BlackBerry Pearl ($150 with a T-Mobile contract)–cost less than the least expensive iPhone. And the iPhone 3G, with its integrated audio and video player, Web browsing, and GPS, offers far more versatility than any of those competing phones.

2. 3G Browsing Speed

One of the biggest drawbacks of using a mobile phone for Web activities is the lag time. Much as point-and-shoot digital cameras frustrate their users with seemingly interminable shutter lag, cell phone users roll their eyes at how long it can take for a Web page to load.

The first-gen iPhone notably omitted 3G wireless in favor of the more widely available–and significantly slower–EDGE connectivity. A year later, 3G seems even more necessary than before, as Web pages grow more graphically intensive.

Now that a 3G-capable iPhone has been unveiled, it’s hard to imagine going back to not having 3G. According to Apple, Web pages will load up to 2.8 times faster. That’s a compelling argument: I’ve waited for what felt like hours for a PC World Shopping price-comparison page to load on my old EDGE-based Treo when I’ve been shopping in a store, for example. I’d much rather get the information I want sooner, rather than twiddling my thumbs and reaching for a cup of coffee.

Unfortunately, 3G wireless service on AT&T has one catch: AT&T Wireless’s service plans for the iPhone 3G will follow the company’s standard pricing structure, which means that you’ll be paying for whatever pricing plan you choose plus AT&T’s unlimited 3G data services ($30 a month for personal use, $45 a month for business use). Individual users will see their iPhone bill jump by $10.

Reddit, the social news site that publishing giant Conde Nast acquired in 2006, has made a big announcement: The site’s code, as of Wednesday, is open source. It’s been released under the Common Public Attribution License (CPAL).

“We’ll leave it to the users and see what they come up with,” co-founder Steve Huffman told CNET News.com in an interview when asked what the site expected would happen. But more than anything, he’s hoping users will tweak some of what they want to see changed and add new features. Social news sites like Reddit and Digg are often home to extremely opinionated communities, and by making its code open-source, Reddit will be able to let those users work on the site themselves to an extent rather than repeatedly petitioning for changes.

“It was kind of an easy decision for us,” Huffman explained. “One of our driving goals is to stay as open and transparent as possible and give our users an alternative to mainstream media…this is just the next logical step toward that goal of opening up the actual system.” He added that he was surprised that Conde Nast was so quick to approve Reddit’s proposal to go open-source.

Reddit now counts 4.5 million unique visitors monthly, significantly smaller than rivals Digg and Yahoo Buzz. But the site has grown 1,000 percent since the acquisition by Conde Nast’s Wired Digital division, Huffman said. And its open-source move is something that none of its competitors is doing, he emphasized.

Growth of news aggregation start-ups, however, could take a hit when the frenzy over the 2008 U.S. election is over. “I’m not too worried about it,” Huffman said. “I think traffic will definitely change a little. We’ve seen that in smaller scales already. We saw when the Ron Paul movement kind of came and went…when Ron Paul kind of cooled down, a lot of those users left but the traffic stayed up.”

Reddit has a history of openness, too. Last year, to celebrate its acquisition, the company toured around the country giving away free beer.

You might think you don’t need search engine optimization for your blog, but playing nice with the search engines is the very best way to get organic, targeted traffic to your blog or website. The biggest problem I had learning SEO was that there is just an awful lot of information. And some of it is conflicting. As a newbie - or even a seasoned blogger who just hasn’t bothered with search engine optimization - SEO can seem daunting and deep. The truth is, it can go about as deep as you want it to. As a blogger, it behooves you to know at least the basics of how to make sure that your site makes friends with the search engines.

With so much information out there, it is hard to know where to start. Since I have been a student of search engine optimization for a long time now (much longer than I have been a blogger), I am going to tell you a secret: All the SEO training you need is available for free. You don’t need to buy a $495 video set from an SEO “guru” to learn how to get targeted search engine traffic to your blog. Believe me. I have never paid for an SEO training product] and most of my online income now comes from my ability to get my niche sites at (or very near) the top of the SERPS (search engine results pages) through time-tested (white hat!) search engine optimization methods.

This collection of articles is just a small sampling of some of the great SEO information that is available online for free. There are literally millions of articles out there that will help you through any aspect of SEO at any skill level. The majority of these articles are basic enough for newbies to follow, but contain enough specialized information to still teach the experts a thing or two (or eight!).

1. Introduction to Search Engine Optimization :: Tim Nash ::

   Tim Nash knows his SEO and he can really break it down into easy-to-chew chunks. This article is lengthy, but it is an excellent primer in terms of both terminology and nuts-and-bolts information.

2. Introduction to Keyword Sniping ::

   Keyword Research and Search Engine Optimization are the old married couple of the internet. You can’t have one without the other. Court Tuttle should be your keyword go-to guy. His articles on keyword sniping are brilliant, easy to follow and simple to implement. If you really want to start making money online with a niche blog, stick with Court’s Internet Marketing School.

3. Dateless Sniper Theme Tutorial Video :: Court Tuttle ::

   Once you have read Court’s keyword sniping introduction, watch him customize a Wordpress theme that he tailor made for search engine optimization. Important Note: Since I started using Court’s free SEO themes for all my Adsense niche sites they have been indexed faster and my Adsense profits have vastly improved (from a few cents a week to several dollars a day!).

4. How Search Engines Rank Web Pages :: Search Engine Watch ::

This is just one of Danny Sullivan’s many articles for SEO beginners. I picked this one to feature here because it really focuses in on what a search engine is looking for when it ranks your blog or site.

5. The Blogger’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization :: SEO Book ::

   This site is packed with great search engine information and tools. I suggest you start with this article. It is well-organized and will give you a good foundation for both practicing SEO and talking about it. If you have ever read an article about search engine optimization and felt lost in a sea of strange terms, this article can really help bring you up to speed. When you are done reading it, take some time to explore SEO book - it is full of treasures.

6. Welcome to Professional SEO :: Vic Franqui ::

   Blogger Unleashed is one of my very favorite blogs and Vic is just a human goldmine of fantastic information. The video in this post was created after Vic read some guy trying to give SEO advice who clearly didn’t know what he was talking about. Vic goes over interesting SEO stuff in this video, explaining it in his trademark no bullsh!t style.

7. Make Money Using Blogs - Lesson 2 :: Griz ::

   If you haven’t yet made it to Griz’s Make Money for Beginners blog, now would be a great time to head over there. The article linked is part of the best series I have ever read about making money with blogs. This lesson explores keywords, SEO and everything related. It is dense so be sure you take the time to really read it carefully. This information will help you endlessly.

8. The Difference Between Domains :: Blogging Zombie ::

   In this article, Justin compares the benefits of buying a new, never-owned domain to a pre-owned, aged domain. Your domain name choice can play a big part in how the search engines treat you so I highly recommend you read this article and hang on to what it can teach you.

9. Blog SEO: Get Your Blog Out of the Supplemental Index :: Chris G ::

   Chris does a killer job of explaining Google’s supplemental index and how you can save your blog from this limbo.

10. Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization :: SEOmoz ::

    Totally about thiry pages (as a Word document) this SEO guide is a dream come true for newbies. It is not too long, but it includes enough information to really get you up to speed. Once you have read this, you will be able to follow more advanced SEO articles much easier than if you just jump in cold.

This is by no means intended to be a comprehensive or “best of” list. These are just my particular favorite SEO articles right now. In fact, all the sites featured here are some of my favorites for many topics related to internet marketing, blogging and making money online. Just remember the next time you see a $47 report that promises to get your site to Google’s front page by next week, just keep in mind that there is nothing new in that report - you can get to the front page (or even the first few listings!) for free, you just need to know the right methods and put in the work necessary to get there.

If you have an SEO article or tip you’d like to share, please feel free to link or share it in the comments.

This post is about Copywriting

What is Copywriting

Copywriting is basically marketing. Copywriting is persuasive and it promotes an overall idea about a company, product or service. It is one of the most important aspects of marketing. Copywriting can include anything from slogans to articles. Understanding copywriting is essential to being able to successful run a marketing campaign.

Basic copywriting has the single intention of selling. The reason for the copy is to sell a product or service. When it comes to website copywriting, though, there are two main intentions.

Website copywriting has the goal of selling and also a goal of boosting search engine rankings. For this reason, website copy is usually more in depth and wordy rather than the typical copy.

Copywriting is the aspect of choosing words and text. It does not usually include the look of the copy. However, when it comes to website copy, all aspects are considered.

Since the main idea of copywriting is to sell an idea, product or service, it is very important for a business owner to understand what makes up a good copy. It is all about quality content that gets to the point and captures the potential customer’s attention.

Copywriting is about knowing how to use words. You have to know how to manipulate them and put them together in a way that achieves your ultimate goal. A good copy will grab attention and make people excited.

The internet is a large place to try to run a business. Success in the internet market place is all about catching people’s attention. You have to be able to get people to come to your website if you ever want to sell a thing.

Copywriting can be the way to get visitors and make money. With all the competition online, copywriting can be the way for you to make your business stand out from the crowd. You have to have something that will set you apart or you will get lost in the crowd very easily.

Effective copy is going to speak your target audience. It is going to offer useful information that will captivate them. You should address concerns, answer common questions and explain your product or service in your copy. Remember, though, that your copy must be easy to read and something that will hold the readers attention.

Your copy should make your customers want your product and feel, even, as if they need your product. You have to sow the seed in their mind that they can not live without your product. Effective copy can do just this.

It helps to write your copy from the point of view of your target audience. Use language they would use. Talk as they would talk. You have to relate to them on that deeper level or they will likely click away to someone else’s website.

Copywriting can really make a huge difference in your online presence. It can bring in a large crowd or it can keep people turning away. Hat is why it is so important to understand copywriting.

As a business owner, you understand that marketing your business is important, in fact, essential to your businesses success. However, if you never understand and grasp the concept of copywriting then you will never be a success.

The quality of your products and how great they are is something only you will know until you start telling people about it. Essentially, that is what your copy will do.

You should approach your copywriting with the same enthusiasm you have when talking about your products. You want to convey that in words to your readers. You have to be passionate and articulate. You have to use the power of words to draw a mental picture for your readers about just how great your product is and why they must buy it.

Your copy is something that is so very important that you should spend plenty of time developing it and revising it until it is perfect. This is one area where you will not want to just throw something together.

Copywriting is something that not everyone can do. If you find yourself struggling with copywriting then you may consider hiring someone to write it for you. This is a good idea for someone who can talk passionately about their product, but that can not seem to get those words into print.

A trained and experienced copywriter can turn verbal passion into written passion for a copy that will blow your customers away. That is the bottom line of copywriting. You want to blow your customers away so you can start your business on the road to success.