Exploiting free bets for quick cash
So once again I have been thinking about those of you who are looking for a way to make some money today instead of down the road. It’s not easy since I’ve never promoted “get rich schemes” here because they don’t work and always require you to buy some book or pay money up-front which is annoying. So after some careful thinking I’ve come up with “free bets” as probably the quickest way to earn some extra money today without spending anything (and not doing much work either). Before I go on please don’t think I’m suggesting gambling as a way to make money – I’m not, but a unique situation has developed on the web where you can bet for free and keep the money – here’s how:
Quick sign-up and an easy £20
So what are free bets? Essentially there are now hundreds of online gaming sites (casinos) that are desperately competing with each other to sign-up new members. These sites spend millions on marketing and one of the main ways they entice people to register is by offering them a free bet (usually around £20) when they sign-up. This money is then yours to gamble on their site and if you win you get to keep the sign-up bonus plus your winnings! Now I did look into this idea around a year ago and the main problem was that in order to get your free bet you had to deposit the same amount of money via credit card. For me this was a deal-breaker since I only want to talk about ways to earn money without risking your own. However just this week I’ve discovered that there are a few smaller bingo sites that give you a free bet without having to deposit anything or register your credit card, it’s about as free as it gets!
Is it really that simple to get your hands on this free cash though? Well yes because all you have to do is:
- Signup to the site (its actually a download for these bingo sites)
- Your free bet will be delivered to your account
- Gamble it
- If you win you keep it (plus winnings)
Ok so you’re probably thinking: “what if I lose?” and “£20 isn’t really that much, is it worth it?” Well this is where the exploitation comes in because we can sign-up to all of the sites that offer a free bets in the same day and even if we lose some bets the winners are all pure profit, there is zero investment or money up-front! Also unlike some of my other suggestions like filling out surveys or writing content for people there’s really no work involved, you just signup, confirm your email and place your bet, it takes about 10 minutes max.
How much can you make? Well it depends on how many sites are available (I’m working on finding them all) and partly your luck. The best free bet I’ve seen so far is £30 but there are lots of smaller sites offering £20 sign-up bonuses too, the key though is volume because if you took an afternoon and went through all the sites available I think you could easily make £100 or more.
One problem though is finding these free bet sites that don’t require a deposit or money up front, most bingo sites want a credit card to signup which I wasn’t going to do. So to help I’ve created my own database of legit sites that are offering a free bets today with no deposit. If you fill out the signup form at the bottom with your email and name you’ll get a signup email from each of the sites that I have tested. I’m going to keep adding to the database and hopefully ill end up with around 4 or 5 good sites that you guys can make money with. I hope this short post has ticked all the boxes for you guys looking for a legit way to earn some easy money today, so if you’re interested what are you waiting for?! Just fill out the form below and get betting! Let me know how it goes too, until next time…
Your own web-design company for £4 a month?
Let’s get down to business because here at EMO I like to get to the point. Do you realise that many local businesses close too you pay £1000s to get their own website when in reality setting up a simple one is something anyone can do? Yes I know some of you may have messed around with Dreamweaver at some point and maybe created a small site which worked but looked horrible but did you know that it’s possible to create a professional looking website with just a few clicks? I know a lot of people think web-design is all complex stuff like programming and graphic design but what If I told you there was a way to create amazing sites that’s no more difficult than installing Microsoft Word?!
So the software is called “WordPress” and it’s probably the most popular platform for building websites online today but it’s not a download or something you run on your own computer. Web-hosting companies run it for you which means all you have to do is tell it how you want your website to look and then you just add your content, there is no programming or “traditional web design” involved. And how much does it cost to get WordPress running and live on the web? Well you can get it for just under £4 a month! (You can create as many sites as you want and put them live for this price, cool huh?)
But before I get into WordPress why exactly would you want to be building websites and what does it have to do with making money? Well these days almost every business needs a website, in-fact if you know anything about computers someone has probably asked you at some point if you can create them a website. The thing is small businesses don’t really have the budget to spend £1000s on a big website, often they just want some photos up there and some contact details, but large web-design companies have no interest in this kind of work. However imagine if you could build a great looking site that had the following in an hour or two:
- Professional design
- Homepage
- Contact us page
- Image gallery
- Other “information” pages
Would a small local business in your area pay £500 or more for that? Would they also pay you £40 month to keep it live for them and make small changes if needed later? I know for a fact that many large web agencies are charging upwards of £4000 just for this kind of small setup (and people are paying it). But all you need to compete is a £4 per month account with a company that runs the WordPress system.
The point I’m trying to make here is that this is a small business you can start with no risk at all, just the WordPress fee and some time to learn how it works, plus web-design is one of those skills that’s going to be in demand for a long time. I should also mention that with this type of hosting account you can run as many sites as you want so if you offered to host someone’s site for them at £10 per month then that’s pure profit.
But back to the main issue, how easy is it to setup and create these WordPress sites? It’s a three step process:
Installation
Actually this is the easy bit since Hostgator (my recommended host) have it as a point and click process (since nearly everyone who signs up is using WordPress). Luckily for you they have it down in a 3 min video:
Design
The best bit! This is where you get an amazing professional design for your site in a few minutes. There are 50,000 + free designs (called themes) at wordpress.org/extend/themes/ or if you want to pay (around £30) there’s loads here Templatemonster.com . If it’s a free theme you want then you can just search and install it from your WordPress admin in about 1 min, once you apply it then your whole site (blog) automatically has that look. As you can tell I’m skipping some of the “how tos” but WordPress setup is covered much better by others and I don’t have the space to go through it all here, I will say it’s very easy though.
Adding content
WordPress is a blogging platform (this site is a blog and runs WordPress) but that doesn’t mean your site has to look like “a blog”. You can configure it to just have a single piece of content on the homepage and then you just create normal pages which show up in the menu. Content is all added through an editor which is very similar to Microsoft Word, you’ve got stuff like underline, bold, paragraphs and images etc. Sometimes you have to play around with content to get it looking right but on the whole it’s pretty simple.
Another large part of the system is all of the free plug-ins available, for example if you wanted to have an image gallery there is wordpress.org/extend/plugins/image-gallery-reloaded/ . All you have to do is tell WordPress to install the plug-in then you add the images. There’s zero technical skill involved but its looks amazing to your average user, it’s easily something you can charge £100+ for to someone.
So I don’t want to overload anyone with too much info here as I could probably make this post 3 times longer lol. A good place to start though is by getting your own host that can run the platform and the one I recommend is Hostgator because they are super cheap but also very reliable (I’ve been with them for over 4 years). I also managed to get a coupon code for you guys – if you enter “emo_super_coupon” in when you signup you can get another 25% off! So if you’re ready to risk £4 on a real business that actually works then click the link below to signup.
Here are a few more resources on how WordPress works and all the things you can do with it, ill update this post with more when I find them. Until next time, Pablo
http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Quick_Start_Guide
http://www.wpbeginner.com/
http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/wordpress_start.htm
Making money with internet marketing
There’s plenty of confusion about what internet marketing is or isn’t but here it is in a nutshell (in my opinion):
“Internet marketing is putting your content in front of as many targeted people as possible”
To start with I have to point out that marketing on the net is as a step above the simpler methods that I have talked about on the blog like filling out surveys or creating content for people because there are no guarantees on how much you will earn. I know this fact puts many people off, especially when they’re just looking for a generic way to make money online without any real “thinking”, but as I’ve said before if you want to make it big on the net you have to think a little outside the box. I’m also aware that many people reading this blog (EMO) have no idea what’s involved in building a website or marketing to other internet users but there’s not actually as much to it as you think.
So as the opening statement goes the purpose of all types of internet marketing is to get your message out to as many targeted people as possible but how exactly do you do that?
Where does the money come from?
Advertising is probably the main way internet marketers earn money because if you have targeted people with a need accessing your content then those people have value to other online stores/services. The most important point though is that you don’t get paid just because someone “views” your ads, you get paid when they convert into a sale or lead for that advertiser. It’s the pay for performance part that weeds out all of the time-wasters when it comes to who has the right type of content and visitor. I’m still amazed when I see people buying 10,000 popup visitors from China and wondering why they aren’t making millions. You’d also be surprised how many of your favourite online stores have affiliate programs, its big business and everyone from Amazon to eBay are in on it and they’re desperate for more sales, if you can deliver you get paid – it’s that simple.
What are you going to build/create?
This really depends on what specific type of internet marketing you are undertaking, the main method is building a website but it doesn’t have to be that, people are now using twitter/youtube/facebook to find the visitors they need but even so having some sort of website as a “base” makes sense. So let’s say you do have a small website, what’s going to be on it? In short its always going to be a combination of content you have created and advertising which is hopefully related to that content, please don’t make the mistake of thinking all types of advertising will make money, if I see one more banner ad for “home loans” on a technology blog I’m going to freak out. Its only related advertising that works which is why Google adsense does so well, you just stick the code on the page and Google picks the right type of advertising content for your website.
You can also look at affiliate programs where you partner with an online store who sell a product that your sites audience will be interested in. It could be anything, say you have a blog that talks about gaming laptops well if you then put up some ads for Alienware who make high performance gaming laptops there will be a percentage of visitors who click through and buy. How many people buy and thus earn you a commission will depend on where you get your visitors.
Where do your visitors come from?
The way I see it there are three main ways the modern internet marketer gets people to see his content:
- Pay per click
This is where you pay per actual visitor based on that visitors circumstances, so who they are and what they are looking for. The two main places marketers are buying traffic from these days are Google adwords and Facebook who also allow you to pay for ads at the side of their pages. The problem with PPC though is that it can cost a lot to learn and especially so if you’re dealing in a competitive market. I was recently talking to a PPC guy on a big webmaster forum and he said unless you have about £3000 to spend learning PPC don’t even bother as you will burn out of cash before you learn anything. The main benefit of PPC though seems to be that you can start getting traffic for targeted terms straight away, which means you’re learning from day one so it appeals to the impatient internet marketer the most. - Search engine optimisation (SEO)
SEO is arguably much more difficult than PPC but its free which is a huge plus. Essentially it means getting your site listed at the top of Google or other search engines for keywords that people may be typing in. The problem is that Google doesn’t really say how it works so working out the signals that may result in lots of free traffic can involve quite a lot of trial and error. There are many large communities (forums & blogs) dedicated to the SEO field and there’s plenty of discussion on what’s working and what’s not, however who you believe and who you ignore can be time consuming /overwhelming, it’s a long and steep learning curve. - Social media
This is the new kid on the block and I should point out that social sites like facebook, twitter and YouTube don’t deliver the same type of targeted traffic as the other two methods. But they make up for this by delivering in a much higher volume and at a cheaper rate too. I talked in my last post about Viral marketing on YouTube and the principle is really the same for all social, create something that people want to share and then sneak in some advertising at the end. I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s possible to get millions of visitors overnight on social media, plus if you’re good at it you might even land yourself a real job with a top company as they all seem to be going mad for viral marketing these days (check out the Pepsi ad below).
So as is probably becoming clear to you there’s quite a lot to this internet marketing business, I’m 1000 words in and barely scratched the surface. Still the basics for getting started are here and if you’re serious about earning money then you’re going to have to invest in learning a skill for the long term.
So where do you go from here? Well there’s a few web marketing blogs that I follow regularly listed below, be warned though that like this site they won’t spell out any money making “system” for you, it’s up to you to put the pieces together. Until next time…
SEO
www.seobook.com/blog
www.seowizz.net
General marketing
www.my4hrworkweek.com
www.smartpassiveincome.com
How to make money on YouTube
So YouTube is in the top 5 most visited sites on the net, it’s addictive and has many millions of viewers logging on each day. And It’s because of its global reach that many of the top advertising agencies and global brands are starting to use the site to sell to advertisers. I remember only a few years ago when YouTube didn’t even have adverts, at most there were just a few banner ads. But these days almost every time you watch a video there is some kind of advert at the start, annoying to a point but I suppose they have to earn money too!
So what does all this mean for you? Well there is money to be made on YouTube but like everything it’s not easy and you definitely need to put your own spin on things.
YouTube partner program
So as I mentioned YouTube are now showing ads before many of the videos start to play, what’s new is that you can now get paid a percentage of the money YouTube makes from the ad if they show it on your video. So before you buy that Ferrari take note that the amount per view is very low and they only way you’ll make any real £££ is if the video goes viral. The thing is if it’s possible to go viral anywhere it’s online because if you create something people like it can be all over the web in days and that’s when the real money rolls in. For example that Charlie bit my finger video (which I really don’t get) made over a £100,000 for the creator.
A few things you have to bear in mind with the partner program though:
- All work must be 100% original (you must own the rights)
- To get accepted you need to be publishing videos regularly
- Your video needs to make over £60 before you get paid for it (so you can’t make millions of low quality videos)
Sponsored videos
If you have a knack for creating viral content or even just something that gets people interested then sponsored videos could be an easier way to make money than the partner program. Big brands are really starting to embrace viral marketing as it gives them the potential to reach millions of people overnight for a fraction of the price of TV advertising. A great example is the “Old spice guy” commercials (yes they are commercials) on YouTube which went truly viral last year. Over a hundred million hits from essentially just a guy talking in a bathroom!
So how do you get these kinds of jobs? Well you have to get noticed, start by making free videos for a local business and if it works you can bet other companies/advertisers will be contacting you. But there are two important points:
- You need to promote the product/service too and not just make “a funny video”, remember it’s all about money for the advertiser!
- You need hard numbers when pitching for work, being able to show over a million views on a video will be very impressive to any business owner.
Promote your own site/blog/product
You don’t just have to promote other peoples products or rely on YouTube to pay you pennies per thousand views! You can use the video to promote your own business or website. Again with this and the other methods of earning money you do need to be able to create videos that people want to watch and share. But if have that ability it’s a great way to drive massive amounts of traffic to your site.
All you have to do is watermark your video with your website address (don’t forget to put it in the description too) and people will be able to visit your site if they like what they see. Also since YouTube is owned by Google they are starting to incorporate YouTube videos into certain search results. Indeed for some high value terms on Google a YouTube video is often way ahead of larger established sites, this is incredible opportunity to make money if you have the right skills for creating content.
That’s all folks
So that’s my YouTube roundup! As you can see making money there isn’t a simple 1-2-3 process, for a start you need a lot of people (think thousands) to hit your video before you make any real money. But there are lots of opportunities too particularly the “sponsored videos” option, could be a pretty cool gig if you had a job creating viral videos for an ad agency, would it be like madmen? Until next time.
Earning money in 2012
Filling out online surveys
Pros: Can start straight away, open to most people, no investment of time/money needed
Cons: Limited payouts, shortage of surveys for certain demographics, sometimes you get paid in credit not cash
There are lots of sites offering payment for filling out surveys online but I’m going to recommend just a few, Valued Opinions, MySurvey and Justtheanswer. These three all have a good reputation for paying on time and supplying plenty of surveys to fill out. The payout per survey will vary from 10p to £3.00 and how many you get offered will depend on your profile i.e. your job/gender/age/location so surveys can be hit and miss. I think the most you can realistically make is around £200 a year which doesn’t exactly get my pulse racing but could appeal to some.
Writing content
Pros: Very scalable – write more content and you make more, huge demand
Cons: You won’t earn much in the beginning, time consuming
I’ve spoken about this before on EarningMoneyOnline but most people are unaware of it. One of the main building blocks of any website is content and with 1000s of new sites being created every day there’s a huge demand for articles/blog posts and general text to go on these sites. Some people may think “I’m not good at writing” but even so there is a demand for all levels of content and if you’re a native English speaker you will definitely get work. Content is priced per word and how much you earn will depend on your reputation and the quality you produce. To start with you will probably write for 1p per word and you can get it up to 3 – 4p if you’re good, if you can get the work you could easily be making £20 – £30 a day. To get jobs you have 2 options, go to an agency like TextBroker who will get you writing jobs but take a cut or you can promote yourself on webmaster forums like DigitalPoint or Warrior forum to webmasters who need content. Remember if you build up a reputation as a reliable writer then webmasters will keep coming back for more and you won’t have to bid/look for work.
Freelancing web design/seo/programming
Pros: Make much more money than surveys or article writing, skills that will last for years
Cons: Lots of competition, you need to have a real skill
I bet the title of this has already put some people off! It’s important to realise that there are many different levels of web design/programming/marketing and while all require you to have that skill (to some extent) often the skill isn’t a difficult one to learn. Since many businesses are outsourcing these kinds of tasks freelancing sites like elance, freelancer and fiver (all jobs are $5 lol) have sprung up which allow employers to post projects which freelancers then bid on. Now the main issue is do you have a skill that you can sell, and if not what would it take to learn one? This is very difficult to say as I don’t know your circumstances but the best route would be to try out one of those “for dummies” books as I learnt php in around a week with one (the basics). Also remember the goal with this type of work is the same as the last example, you want to build up a reputation with clients so that eventually they can give you steady work and you don’t have to bid on the freelance sites (they can be a pain).
Niche affiliate marketing
Pros: Unlimited earnings, your own boss, work on projects your interested in, no technical knowledge required
Cons: Some investment of time and money
I’ve saved the best until last (in my opinion) and it’s the one I’ve talked most about on this blog. In short affiliate marketing is the process of building small niche websites which are used to attract traffic (website visitors). Because the website is geared around a specific subject the traffic is valuable to advertisers who will pay commission on the sales we generate for them. Ok so the above statement may be simplifying things a little as the main job is getting people to the site, but the unique aspect of this system is that a successful website can be making you money even when you sleep. If you are interested in this method then I will be bringing out a new and improved ebook very soon which explains exactly how to build a website (with no technical knowledge) and get it earning money fast.
Ok so that’s 4 great ways anyone can make money from the internet in 2012, there’s something here for people of all skill levels, time and financial constraints. As with everything your results will depend on how much you’re prepared to put into any system, there’s a reason people filling out surveys are only getting 50p a time, anyone can do it. Until next time…
PS. If you’re looking for motivation check out the video below by Anthony Robbins, it’s about how Sylvester Stallone got the movie Rocky made, amazing stuff.