It seems no matter where you look on the internet today you will see ads everywhere telling you how you can make money from the internet. Now I do not deny that you can make money on the internet. I mean I do it every day, I have adsense ads on some of my sites as well as paid advertisers. But make a nickel per click or less is hardly what I would call making money on the internet.

True I have built and managed many online stores and they have all made money as well. But they have had to sell products. It takes money to buy the products to sell, money to store the products etc. I have also been paid for teaching people how to do things. But this was always a one shot deal. That is until I decided to make some informational products and sell them on the internet.

This is not a new idea of mine, and in a sense I have already been doing this. I mean I have many photoshop tutorials on this site that have adsense ads plastered all over them. But I have always want to make and sell training videos. So I decided to get more involved in this. Along the way I came across Kevin Rileys Program How To Make A Bundle Of Extra Spending Cash For Christmas – In Just 3 Days From Now. The price was right and I thought hey this would be a good way to cut my teeth on marketing an information product. Besides, having a product in three days. How could that not appeal to you?

I got the paid my money and promptly got distracted onto something else. Almost forgetting about it, and then I thought you know it is time to get off my butt and give this a try. That is exactly what I did. Kevin Rileys instructions were clear and very logically laid out. He takes from finding the idea of what to write about, actually writing the guide, to putting it online and making sales as well as promoting it. In less then three days I had my guide “Pictures Sell!” written and on the internet.

The one thing I didn’t really do from Mr. Rileys guide was promote my new product. In fact all I did was add the link to my signature on a few of the forums I visit regularly. Well the morning after I had my guide posted I was checking my e-mail as I always do and I was surprised to see not one, but a couple of sales for “Pictures Sell!”. I always love the excitement of selling something or getting money from an ad click. But this time instead of a puny few cents I had made close to $10.00. I know, big wow right? But it didn’t stop there through out the day I kept getting e-mails that another copy of my guide had sold. I mean come on, I haven’t even started promoting it yet. Now I really look forward to checking my e-mail because just about every time I do I find I have made another sale.

Kevin Riley is a stand up sort of guy. In fact he has even given me a little additional help over Skype. Not only is he very helpful he is a lot of fun to talk to. Although I always feel I am infringing on his valuable time, he never makes me feel that way. When Kevin asked me to write a testimonial for How To Make A Bundle Of Extra Spending Cash For Christmas – In Just 3 Days From Now I jumped at the chance. It was then I realized that I was not really sure how to write a testimonial. But it was easy because “How To Make A Bundle Of Extra Spending Cash For Christmas – In Just 3 Days From Now” is truly a great product.

The only possible flaw it could have is telling you how to take and edit the pictures. But don’t worry about that “Pictures Sell!” will teach you how to do that with FREE image editing software.

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I think every blogger at some point has the dream of getting paid for blogging. Most bloggers run across sites where the blog owner is doing just that. Let’s face it we are envious of that lifestyle. I mean wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to work from the local coffee shop via a wireless connection and your laptop? No boss, no designated work schedule. The freedom to set your own hours. Your salary only limited by how much you want to do.

Working for oneself is rewarding and working from the comfort of your own home is even better. But how exactly do you go about doing that? I am sure you have all seen the ads on the internet claiming to make you a millionaire or something crazy like that with no work and in a short period of time. Well you know the rule, if it sounds to go to be true it generally is.

Most of us bloggers sign up for a Google Adsense account and wait for that glorious Google money to start pouring in. But after weeks upon weeks of only receiving pennies from Adsense many people get discouraged. In fact I know many a person who has never even received their first payment from Google. Getting to that $100.00 mark can take a very long time. I have been fortunate, I generally receive around $120 US ever three months. But let’s face it that is not going to pay the mortgage.

At this point many people give up on the whole idea of being able to make money online. But what if I told you that in only three days you could be making some quick cash for Christmas from the internet? That’s right in three days you could actually be seeing some cash from the internet. I have caught your interest now I bet. If you are serious about doing three days worth of work to make some quick cash on the internet I guarantee you will succeed. Click here to find out how.

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Well a lot has happen since my last post in April. I have moved to a different city, and taken on a different (but coolest in the world) job. However as I said in the last post I want to once again get tenacious Creations rolling.

Maybe even get some page ranking back. Although I am pretty impressed that even with an almost total lack of new content this site still attracts 200 or more visitors a day. Most of my visits are for my photoshop tutorials. With the one about making a better virtual tattoo receiving the most traffic right now.

I guess that goes to show that if you have content the traffic will come. I only wish I knew then what I know now about Search Engine Optimization. I am sure I could of made all those photoshop tutorials rank a fair bit higher in the search engines.

So what am I going to do to get traffic back?

If all goes well I hope that with in two months I can increase the traffic to this blog to 400 hits a day. Not to big of a goal, and one that should be easily accomplished. As always if you have ay suggestions on how I can increase the traffic to this blog please feel free to let me know.

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 Are you blind when it comes to seeing ads on websites? Do you just read the content and not even see the ads? This was me before I started to run AdSense on this site.

 I would just surf along ignoring ads left and right. I did not need to run any specialize ad blocker for fire fox. I would just naturally turn a blind eye to any advertising. In fact I do the same thing while watching television. I even have an entire strategy for not watching commercials while watching TV.

 I find the program I want to watch, then I find another one that interests me and quickly turn the channel there. Then I can use the last button on my remote to switch between the two. When commercials start on the program I am watching I quickly turn to the other program. Most times this works well and I end up watching a bare minimum of commercials. Sometimes I get caught and there are commercials at the same time for both programs. It is then that I drive any one else watching TV with me nuts by channel surfing.

 I think this is a pretty common thing out there with people. You see the advertisements just do not provide any value for you. So you do other things while they are on or don’t even watch them at all. This was generally my mode d operandi while surfing the web too. Then I decided it would be nice to make a few bucks from this blog and I installed Google’s AdSense. Like many people new to AdSense I would check my stats every couple hours only to be disappointed that I had not made any money.

 Then came the day I had few clicks and made a whopping $0.45. I was excited and over joyed, even though I hadn’t made enough to buy a cup of coffee. That’s when I started to think about these ads in a whole new light. I thought to myself if this made me excited I bet it would make another blogger excited. Plus what really is Google selling from my site with these ads. It was then that I resolved I would from now on click on an ad if the site it was displayed on interested me.

 Clicking on these ads actually gave me a really good feeling. To me, I feel as though I am rewarding the blogger for a good post by clicking on their ads. Kind of like giving them a tip. An Adsense publisher cannot come out and ask you to click on their ads, its a big Google no no. Almost as bad as clicking on your own ads. So you will never see an author asking you click on their ads. But let me tell you by doing so, you are showing your support for that author. Plus what does it cost you? Just a bit of your time and who knows you may even find some great deals.

 I live in a small town and there is really no where to buy computer hardware. So I am used to having to order it online. Well I have noticed I am actually saving money by clicking through these ads on websites I frequent. Hopefully this is generating more revenue for the blog owners that I find the ad on. In order to spread the wealth I have changed how I buy computer hardware. First after I identify what I need/want I will research it to make sure it is indeed what I am after. Then I will check prices and write them down in my note pad (I always have a notepad on my desk). During my daily surfing if I find ads for these items, or ads for places that sell these items I will check the price. If I come up with a good price I will use that online merchant to make my purchase. There by giving some revenue to the blog or site I was reading when I found the ad.

 I don’t know maybe I am crazy or just turning into a hippie as I age. But I really like the idea of supporting the blogging community this way. My father was a small business man and during summer break from school I would accompany him to work. My father and a bunch of his friends who were also small business men got together every morning for coffee. It was a community of small business men, and they supported each other. If one sold an item the other needed, they would always buy from with in their community. My father would tell me that you have to support the community if you want the community to support you. Basically what goes around, comes around. That is what I feel I am doing by clicking on ads and buying items from them with in the blogging community.

 Hey maybe I am nuts. I am really interested in what you, other bloggers, think on this issue. Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

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 Yet another web 2.0 type site is circulating through the blogshpere. It is called Qassia. One thing I have learned in my time blogging is that some fads fizzle and some take off like a Triton Missile. But the most important things is the people who get in on the ground floor tend to be the ones who benefit the most from these new ideas. So I decided to jump aboard even though I am still not quite sure what this Qassia thing is all about.

 Now the way I understand how Qassia works is you submit your intel. Which means you submit your recipes, tutorials or basically any information you think others may find relevant. Then other users rate it and you get paid in Qassia dollars. The amount varies dependent on how your content was rated. Now if Qassia earns revenue from your intel through adsense you get 100% of that revenue. Sounds good doesn’t it?

 So whats the catch? Well as of yet I am not sure, but there has to be one. First off when you submit your “intel” your are limited to 25 images and 10 external links. So I large photoshop tutorial is out of the question. Unless one posts a summary and then links back to the original tutorial.

 Yet another thing to eat up my valuable time. But it is not a total loss as it did help my friend Nicole earn $500.00 in Qassia money. As always I will keep you updated as I learn more.

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 Sometimes it seems as though the internet is full of thieves. When I first started my blog I noticed that my high resolution finished pictures were being stolen. That lead me to learn how to place an unobtrusive water mark into my images.

 Now it seems my posts are being stolen word for word and published to sites full of ads. I guess I should be flattered, that some one thinks my posts are worthy of stealing. But they don’t even include a link back to my site. If I even get the idea for one of my posts from another site I always make sure to credit that resource. I would ask people do the same for me.

 It turns out this is common practice out there in the big bad internet. They even have a term for it – Blog Scraping. Well I thought there was nothing I could do about it until I came across this post.

 I was all set to add some code to my site when I thought “Hey I should just make a plug in to do this.”. Thats when the light bulb went on, and I realized that there probably was a plug in already written for that. So I resolved that I would search first to see if there was a plug in out there already made. Well it just so happens that some one beat me to the punch in writing the plug in. If your running word press you should check out Joost de Valk’s SEO Blog to grab a plug in that inserts a link back to your site in your RSS feeds.

 I really don’t know what else one can do to prevent these Blog Scrapers from stealing your content. But if you know some better ways please tell me how in the comments.

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 Every now and again while viewing my site I get distracted by a head line in the BlogRush Ad. The head line catches my eye and I am off I go to read the post on that site. But today it seemed every post I went to had another headline that caught my eye. I do enjoy reading blogs but this wasn’t the most productive part of my day.

 But I did notice something common to virtually every blog I visited with in that hour. They were all running this thing called Entrecard. Now there is a real good chance that I have seen these on other sites and never really noticed them. But today I did notice them and decided I would check into it..

Well Entrecard is yet another one of those web 2.0 social whatchama call its. It is based on the premise of business cards, your create one (mine is the image at the top of the page) or use one of their (boring and lame) designs. Then you install their widget on your site (I installed mine beneath the fold in the left column). When another Entrecard user comes to your site they simple click on the widget to drop their business card. This action earns them and you an Entrecard credit.

 Now you’ll also notice that in the Entrecard widget another Entrecard users business card is displayed. They paid X number of Entrecard credits (at the time of this writing it costs 7 credits for an ad on my site) to have their card displayed in that widget for 24 hours.

 So does it work? Well when you first sign up you are barraged with people trying to buy ad space on your site. Mainly because when you first sign up it only costs 2 Entrecard credits to buy 24 hours worth of ad time. You have the option to choose which ads you wish to accept and you do get half the credits the advertiser paid to advertise on your site. But be warned there are lots of vultures out there waiting to prey on new sign ups. The price it costs to advertise on your site depends on how many people click the business card and how many people drop their cards on your site. The good news is in the span of a few short hours your price per ad will go up.

 So right in the beginning you do experience a bit of a traffic surge as people are checking out your site to see if they want to put an ad there. You will also get a deluge of e-mails from Entrecard telling you someone wants to advertise on your site. I figured this would die down after I filled the 10 ad spots (you presell your ads for nine days in advance).

 Well I am happy to report that the traffic did not really slow down. I think one of the main reasons for this is because I went to other sites running Entrecard to drop my “card”. When you drop your card Entrecard displays your card in the dashboard of the users who site you dropped it at. Now lets face it we are all curious as to who reads our blogs so naturally you go and check theirs. So far my Entrecard experience has been positive. From this I recommend giving them a try.

 However be warned I do not think you can be passive with Entrecard and still keep good traffic coming from it. Plus I have not yet bought any ads and cannot comment on there performance. But I will keep you updated. I still feel that best way to get traffic for the lazy blogger is to use Blog Rush.

 If you do decided to give Entrecard a try let me know and I will stop by and drop my card.

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