Last week, I talked about making money with targeted advertising in email newsletters. Well, that works two ways. You can also make money by publishing an email newsletter and selling advertising in it.

Businesses want their advertising to be as targeted as possible to the audience they are going after, so if you publish a newsletter in a particular niche, go after businesses that offer products that would be of interest to the readers of said newsletter.

Of course, you have to comply with the CAN-SPAM act, and build a readership before anyone will have an interest in advertising with you, but if you put enough time into marketing and promotion, you should be able to build a decent readership (it also helps if you offer quality content).

You could start with a blog or a site and work on getting people interested in that and then offer the newsletter. You could sell advertising on your site as well, but the beauty of the newsletter is that you’re getting it to the audience, rather than relying on traffic to come to you, because depending on how much traffic you get, this may not be enough to satisfy your advertisers and they will not be interested in beginnning or continuing a campaign.

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With the constant jacking up of fuel prices, online shopping has never been more practical. I don’t have any numbers to prove that eCommerce is on the rise, but common sense would suggest that people are going to be spending more of their shopping dollars online.

In a time when gas is nearly $4 a gallon, why would I want to drive to stores and waste my money (not to mention time) going to buy things at stores and shopping malls, when I can easily get them online? This becomes more of a factor the further away from these stores, the customer lives. It seems to me that typical shipping costs (I realize these are on the rise also) won’t be much greater than the cost of 1 gallon of gas and depending on the distance between one’s home and the store, there’s no telling how many gallons would be used on one trip.

So I predict that more and more people will be looking to do more online shopping, and the question is, are you going to be prepared for it? Web design, marketing, and SEO have probably never been more important to a business. If you’re neglecting any of these things, it’s time to get your butt in gear!

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You may have banner ads all over the Internet, but have you considered purchasing some ad space in email newsletters? This can not only be a good source of traffic, but also a great branding strategy, as instead of relying visitors to find your ads, your ads will be going straight to your inboxes.

Now I know what your’e thinking and I am not talking about spamming people. I’m talking about purchasing ad spots in targeted email newsletter that people have subscribed to. And when I say “targeted”, I mean just that. Find publications that would appeal to the demographic that you are trying to reach. For example, if you are a web designer, you may try advertising in an ecommerce newsletter. You might not want to advertise in a design newsletter since the subscribers to that are most likely designers themselves.

You also want to find a publisher that appears respectable. Make sure they comply with legal guidelines and are not spammers themselves.

Advertising in email newsletters is a good way to create brand awareness and become recognized by a lot of people. Eventually, you are likely to get more customers.

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One way of making money online that you might not have thought of is to participate in paid surveys.

Yes there are people who will pay you to answer some survey questions.

Online-paid-surveys.net is a site that will hook you up with such people. They say that online market research panels need input from:

- Skilled Professionals (Medical, Technology, Education, etc.)

- Movie Buffs, Gamers, and Sports Enthusiasts

- Head of a households in Charge of Purchasing home products

- Parents Responsible for Purchasing Baby Items

- Concerned Citizens with Political Views

- Teens and College Students

- and Much, Much, More!

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In your quest to make money online, you have probably done an endless amount of Internet and perhaps email marketing. Have thought to do a little offline marketing to drive potential customers to your online presence?

While your business may lie solely on the Internet, there are still a lot of eyeballs you could be attracting with the right amount of offline presence. Things like fliers and stickers are good inexpensive ways to promote your site/blog/MySpace Profile or whatever. It’s all about targeting. Do you sell books online through Amazon’s affiliate program? Why not post some fliers or hand out stickers at or near libraries or bookstores? Some places have bulletin boards that are perfect places for this kind of marketing. Sending complimentary promotional items like stickers or t-shirts to existing customers can be a good way to get yourself some brand recognition.

Make them appealing to the customer though if you want them to actually use them. If customer’s are walking or driving around promoting your business, you’ve got yourself some good free advertising to the masses. Just remember to include your URL!

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StoryMash is a site for those with creative writing talents. They whole concept of the site is to create stories by collaborating with others. The way it works is, you can either start a new story by writing a chapter, or you can add a new chapter to an existing story and take it in a different direction.

As a writer, you can make money from StoryMash, because they share 50% of their advertising revenue with the authors. The more popular your chapters are, the more money you will earn.

Currently, they’re hosting a contest as well, from which you can earn a quick $300 if you are the grand prize winner. Second and third place prizes of $150 and $60 respectively, will also be given out.

If you are a creative person in the slightest, you may as well give StoryMash a shot. It’s not going to cost you anything to try other than your time, and this is one way of making money online that can actually be more like fun than work, depending on how much you enjoy writing.

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Let me tell you, one good way to make money online is to answer emails from potential customers that come to your website. Let me share a little story with you.

I have recently been in the market for an exterminator because my yard is full of trees and shrubs by the windows which seem to be a haven for spiders that decide the inside of my house looks like a more suitable environment for them to hang out.

I have never been a fan of spiders and when they are frequently getting into my house, and in particular, my bedroom. We’re going to have some problems. So…

I got online, Google Maps to be specific, and looked for local exterminators in my area. Being the cheap guy that I am, I chose one that made a point of saying that its services were affordable. This was probably almost a month ago. I visited their web site, and found a contact form, from which I could supposedly request a free quote on services to be rendered. I wrote a polite note explaining my situation expecting to be contacted by them in the near future. It was a Sunday, so I expected to hear from them Monday or certainly sometime that week. To this day, my request has gone unanswered.

This past Saturday, and many spiders later, I might add, I decided it was time to seriously get an exterminator. It had clearly been put off long enough. I didn’t care if they didn’t respond to my email. I was prepared to call them this time. Yes, I even tried them again because something about that “affordable” quality was really appealing to me. I called them. I got a recording that said that they were either on the other line or away from their desk and to please leave a message and that they would promptly get back to me. I left a message.

After I hung up, I decided to continue exploring other options and I ended up at Orkin’s website which contained a similar form to request a quote. I filled it out. I figured, wouldn’t hurt to at least see what they want to charge me. I figured they would be more expensive, but I thought, “what the hell?” No more than five minutes had past and I did not only receive an email from Orkin, but my phone rang too. I figured, “well that must be the affordable place returning my call”. Nope. It was Orkin. A helpful representative gave me a quote over the phone, and I decided to just go with them. It’s now Wednesday, and the Orkin Man has already come and gone, and I have yet to receive a reply in any form from the other guys.

The moral of the story is….when you have prospects coming to you via your website, don’t ignore them, or you’re going to lose their business and who knows how much money. Customer service is a HUGE part of making money online.

On a further note, if I was a real bastard, I could call out the “other’s guys’” name right here, where it would remain on the Internet from here to eternity, and would certainly not favor their online reputation. Others are not as generous as I am. Let this be a lesson to all of you who ignore your customers.

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Last week was National Small Business Week here in the United States, and coinciding with that, was a 2-day conference for small business folk dedicated to providing information and hands-on workshops to boost small business marketing efforts.

Now, perhaps not all of you are small business owners, but I would wager that a good deal of you are, and even if you’re not there was plenty of good advice given at the conference that can help the average joe make money online.

Both WebProNews and SmallBusinessNewz have been featuring a good deal of content in the form of articles and videos covering the sessions from the event and conducting interviews with the experts that spoke and ran the workshops.

They’re full of useful knowledge, strategies and tips to help you in your marketing efforts, and I highly suggest checking out the coverage.

As far as videos, WebProNews has several up here, with possibly more coming, and SmallBusinessNewz will be posting different ones throughout this week.

Both sites also have articles covering the workshops here and a little more in depth here.

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Have you ever created a viral marketing campaign? With all of the tools available to you online, it’s never been easier.

The only hard part is coming up with something that is going to both make you money and be interesting to other people. The whole point is to create a buzz, and then before you know it, people will be blogging about it, bookmarking it on sites like Digg, talking about it in forums, and across social networks, and your buzz has snowballed calling who knows how much attention to your product or service.

A good recent example of a successful viral marketing campaign would be the marketing strategy used for the movie Cloverfield which is now on DVD. This movie was being marketed before it even had a name. And that was one reason that it created the buzz that it did. They showed an intriguing trailer both in theaters and online, but wouldn’t tell you what it was. They would just give you a date I believe.

So of course, curiosity across the web and among moviegoers everywhere was spiked, and everyone wanted to know what this mystery movie was. A huge buzz was created over it similar to the Blair Witch Buzz of the late 90s.

The point is…create something that will get people talking, and you just may find that the buzz will bring you the business that you are so desperately seeking.

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Today is Earth Day, so in the spirit of that I thought I would take this opportunity to direct you to an online forum dedicated to allowing entrepreneurs to come together and exchange ideas for running a greener business.

GreenBusiness.net describes itself:

This Community is filled with like-minded entrepreneurs and professionals who understand the unique challenges and opportunities presented by running and working for a green business.

Here you can share your thoughts, learn from others, brainstorm, develop partnerships, share best practices, generate ideas for new businesses, network, learn what is working for others, discover cost saving practices, forge alliances, refine strategies to increase profits, get feedback, and much more.

While you’re on your quest for cash, why not keep the environment in mind too, and collaborate with some other intelligent minds in the process?

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