What follows isn’t really all that much curation, but I found a cool site called curate.us that I wanted to take for a test spin.  It’s free to use, and it makes grabbing information from around the internet fairly easy.  From an SEO standpoint, I guess some people might not like that it creates snippets with dofollow links, but I figure that if you really are curating, and getting some traffic due to others’ content, the least you can do is send them a little bit of link juice. So anyway, here are some sites that I have personally recommended to friends of mine who wanted to learn more about making money online. This is not an exhaustive list, but these are a good place to get started.  I recommend both of the following sites without any hesitation.  I believe that they are good sites, run by quality people.

The Keyword Academy

Clipped from: thekeywordacademy.com (share this clip)

I started out learning about making money online by reading Griz. He is something of a legend in the MMO field. He took a free blog and made a ton of money with it, much of it with AdSense. His story is worthy of its own post, so just know for now that I followed his advice and signed up for The Keyword Academy. This site has undergone a lot of changes. It started out being run by Courtney Tuttle and Mark Butler. Court was the face and the idea guy. He has since left, and TKA has moved from a model where the goal was to pick off easy keywords for AdSense dollars, to building high quality sites based on making the most of keywords. My main complaint about this site is that Mark could be more hands on with the community. However, the community, by way of the forum available, does a fantastic job of supporting both new and experienced internet marketers. They are an extremely helpful group. This is a membership site, but you can sign up for the first free month, get all of the information and leave, if that is your nature. I mention that because leaving would just be stupid. The most valuable part of the membership is access to the Postrunner guest posting system. It is essentially a one stop interface that allows you to post original content (for backlinks) on tons of independently owned websites. These are maintained by TKA members and many are very well cared for. Some are weaker than others, but you always have a choice about where your article goes. No duplicate or spun content is allowed. The best part is probably the price. As of this writing, the full membership, including Postrunner, is only $33 per month. If you are serious about making money, you just can’t skip this.

The other reason that I like TKA is the fact that they have recently completely redone their official ebook/guide to walk people through the process of building a top quality site based on keywords. It is not just a “how to blog” site. Check out The Keyword Academy for a month for free by Clicking Here.

Smart Passive Income

One site that I think is a very nice fit for new folks online is Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income blog. Pat is about as friendly as a new kid on the block could possibly hope for. He lays out everything in several easy to digest formats.

Clipped from: www.smartpassiveincome.com (share this clip)

One thing that I do really like about Pat’s site is that he makes podcasts available. Ever since I got an iPod a couple of years ago, I’ve become addicted to listening to things like audio books and podcasts. I actually find the podcasts to be the most valuable part of the site. There are a lot of helpful posts and videos too, however. The only knock I have on Pat is that he has essentially become an A list blogger, and he seems to be making most of his money from the “learn how to make money with a blog” niche. His income from actual affiliate sites, while impressive, is not his mainstay. Still, he seems like a good guy, and he offers a lot of good information for free. One of his latest Podcasts is sharing his best tips for affiliate marketing. I know that I’ll be listening. The guy posts his monthly earnings, and I’d be pretty happy to be getting his affiliate sales commissions. I’m sure there is some good stuff to learn.

Other Sites

There are a few other sites that I like and recommend a lot.  For a beginner though, one of the worst things you can do is overload yourself with information.  You end up with analysis paralysis, and nothing gets accomplished.  I will surely post more later about other sites I’ve found useful.  For now, if you are going to pick one of the two above sites, I’d recommend The Keyword Academy if for no other reason, to get access to Postrunner.  You will quickly find that backlinks are essential in this game if you want to get noticed by Google and the other search engines.  Grab the free month and see what you can do with it.  Even if you quit, your backlinks stay put.  I hope this helps a few newbies stay clear of the get rich quick jungle.  It just doesn’t happen that way, and neither of the above sites will take you down that path.  That is another reason why I like them.  They both have an approach of doing the work now and reaping the rewards down the line.

Do you value your kids’ teachers?  I do, and I think it is a shame that many of them (especially younger teachers) are in a position where they have to work a second job to make ends meet.  Most of them are paying off tens of thousands of dollars worth of student loans while being “encouraged” by their employers to continue the education to at least the Masters level.  At the same time, teacher furloughs are being lined up in some districts as a way to save money.  Qualifications to teach are being lowered, while politicians are demanding higher student scores on standardized tests.  That is a lot to think about if you also happen to have a class to teach and manage.  Below you’ll find helpful information about a site I found called Teachers Pay Teachers.  It is a great site to check out if you want to make some extra cash from the work you are probably already doing.

Another Way for Teachers to Make Extra Money

I want to take this opportunity to make a strong recommendation to anyone who might be in danger of losing their teaching position.  Go to The Keyword Academy site and sign up for the free month TODAY.  You will learn how to make a profitable website.  Make it about education if that is your passion.  People who build sites about the things they have strong feelings for tend to do very well.  I think they are still offering free site set up when you join, but you’ll have to double check since things change over time.  Follow the step by step instructions in the eBook you will have full access to.  It is not an instant money type of thing.  It is going to teach you to build a profitable online business, but it will take a bit of time.  I can honestly tell you that I know of many people making several thousand dollars each month simply from following instructions and building legitimate sites.  I can also honestly tell you that there will be work involved.  Like I said, it is not a get rich quick scheme.  The key is, you’ve got to start before you are in desperate need of money because it is not an instant turn around opportunity.  Believe me, I myself am waiting to see what is going to happen in Pennsylvania where Governor Tom Corbett has proposed a budget that I simply cannot fathom.  Even if you decide making money with a website isn’t right for you, you can simply quit when the free 30 days is up without any strings attached.  You will have received a tremendously valuable, step by step explanation of how regular people make money on the Internet.  Go sign up for the free information NOW, before you have to scramble to find something out of desperation.  The Keyword Academy

 Teacherspayteachers – A Winning Strategy for Teachers

Teachers are a hard working group, and many are extremely devoted to what they do. Just like anyone else though, they sometimes need to look for the best prices around or even for way to make extra money. Many teachers work a second job after spending the day with a classroom full of kids. Now there is an opportunity for these professionals to help each other out and make some money while they’re at it.

Teachers Pay Teachers is a website where teachers can both buy and sell teacher related materials to other teachers. There are also some helpful free downloads available. If you are a teacher who has spent years creating materials to use with your students, you can now make some extra money for your efforts.  When you sign up at the website, you will be able to upload, and offer for sale, a variety of teaching materials (as long as they are your original work). These can include all sorts of curricular materials. Study guides, lesson plans, units, tests, differentiated materials, and many other items are eligible. You can even offer hard goods for sale, which is a great opportunity for teachers who have changed grade level assignments. The entire site is like a giant teachers’ store, but without the enormously marked up prices that are often found at offline specialty sites. This is an outstanding opportunity for teachers to make extra money simply by sharing what most of them already have on hand. The really great part of this for teachers is that because these are mostly digital products that others will download, you can keep making money from each product you post for years to come. Each time one of your products is downloaded, you make money!

Teachers Pay Teachers has a thriving community of both buyers and sellers, and if you choose to sell, you do have to pay for the privilege of putting your product in front of so many potential customers. The cost is pretty reasonable though, and teachers can still make a very nice profit when they sell. I would imagine that a teacher with years worth of materials to upload, could do very well with just a minimal amount of time spent on the endeavor. Sellers can set up their own store on the site by choosing one of two different membership set-ups. You can find all of the details by visiting teacherspayteachers.com today!

Of course if you are a teacher and would like to learn about other legitimate methods of making extra money that do not involve taking on a full time job, you are cordially invited to visit the ways to make money homepage to pick up some more pointers!

I like to help others when I can.  It makes me feel good.  I love random acts of kindness and giving to others.  The problem I run into sometimes is knowing how to go about the actual act of helping others without convincing them that I’m crazy.  Today I was talking to a very nice woman with a talent for cutting hair.  She cuts what is left of mine, as a matter of fact.  As we spoke, she mentioned that she loves cutting hair, but she is looking at other career options simply because of finances.  Because I’m sort of hooked on this whole making money online “thing”, I mentioned that there are opportunities and ways to make money online, that people don’t ever think about.  I gave her a very basic description of how people make money online, but didn’t go into too much detail.   I touched on affiliate marketing and Adsense, but I’ve learned from experience that letting myself run at the mouth about these topics just results in glazed over expressions in most people.   As I drove home, it occurred to me that she is probably the PERFECT example of someone who could make money with what they already know.

Affiliate Commissions Anyone?

A World of Website Ideas

Think about it.  The best websites out there are put together by people with a passion for their topic.  Here is a woman with a deep and thorough knowledge of the hair care and beauty business.  Do you think there is any money spent on that?  The knowledge she has is money, pure and simple.  Visions of affiliate commissions dance through my head just thinking about what she could do with her expertise.  The only problem is, she doesn’t know (or at least she didn’t) that the opportunity is there.  How many other people with a professional skill set, or a passion for something, never even consider putting up a website?

This is where I personally run into my problems and frustration.  I have tried to tell people I care about, all about online opportunities, and they often give me a look like I’m crazy.  A lot of people see the internet as a big, intimidating “thing” that is far too technical for them.  The simple truth is, it isn’t.  Setting up a website is not all that complicated.  Here is the quick and dirty description of the actual process.

1.  You pay a company like Hostgator about ten bucks a month to host your site (that means it is available on the internet).

2.  You buy a domain name from a site like Namecheap for ten bucks per year.

3.  You use WordPress to put your content online.  For those who are not familiar with it, WordPress is a free content management system that makes posting things on your blog/website about as easy as using a word processor, really.  You honestly could have your first domain up and running in less than half an hour.  With some experience, you can set one up in about 5 minutes or less.

Learning How to Make Money

I’ve been a member at The Keyword Academy since early in 2009.  In that time, I’ve seen several people arrive and build their incomes into the thousands of dollars per month.  I’m not quite at my personal goals yet, but I’m getting there.  These people took that big step into the unknown and actually developed some property on the internet.  I doubt that any of them regret it.

I’m actually saddened a bit as I talk to people at my “regular” job sometimes.  Some of them put in their full time hours, and then leave to go work at another job.  That stinks.  It especially stinks because they are just trading hours for dollars, straight up.  If they don’t go to that other job, they don’t make a single dime.  When you build websites, they are constantly working for you as people find them in the search engine listings.  What makes me sad is not just the fact that my friends are running themselves into the ground, but that they completely dismiss me when I tell them that there is a better way.

Why Won’t They Listen To Me???

I think a big part of the problem is that most folks have no idea that the internet is already a very commercial place.  Sure, there are bloggers who just love to write about their latest trip to Aunt Suzie’s house, but almost any website you happen to visit will have some commercial interest, whether you realize it, or not.  Affiliate links are everywhere.  These are special links that give the website owner a commission when you follow them to some product or service and then make a purchase.  Another thing… did you know that Google actually makes money?  Yes, it is true, believe it or not.  Google does not provide search engine listings out of the goodness of their heart.  How do you think they pay for all of those top graduates coming out of college?

People and Companies DO Make Money Online...and that's OK!

Making Money

Advertisers pay Google money to make sure that their ads show up high in the paid listing area when you do a search.  There is nothing dirty or wrong about it.  It is just how things work, and I only mention it to open the eyes of people who think that making money online is some dark secret.  It is not only legal, it has become a driving force in what you find online.  Try this Google search on the term “Makeup” and then look at the listings that show up on the top of the page and on the right hand side.  Do you see the tiny print that says “Ads”?  Did you ever notice that before?  Mmmm, Hmmm.  If you see ads, that means that there is money being spent and earned by someone.  Think that Makeup is just a very commercial term?  OK, try doing a search on something a little bit less commercial.  Check out this search for “algebra“.  Yep, still ads.  My point is, many different things are already being monetized online.  You just don’t realize it.

If you have a hobby, or you love to collect something, BINGO!  Perfect.  Anything you have a passion or knowledge about can make you money.  You just have to learn the best way to go about it.  Visit The Keyword Academy and read everything they have there.  You will never look at the internet or your own potential for making money the same way again.

Visit The Keyword Academy.  That is the best advice I can give anyone looking for ways to make money.  They offer a tremendous knowledge base on how to achieve massive traffic and a passive income by providing high quality content based on proper keyword selection.  If you don’t know what that means, you really need to visit.  There are regularly scheduled webinars appropriate to every level of internet marketing experience, and The Keyword Academy forums are filled with fellow members who have also spent time and money searching for the best ways to make money.  They love the place, and they are always ready and willing to offer a helping hand.  Seriously, go grab a Keyword Academy free trial now.

I’ve spent a lot of money and time on my journey to learn how to make money online.  Most of the time is was in chunks of money along the lines of $37, $67, $97 and even more.  If you noticed that the numbers all end in “7″ well, that is a common internet marketing practice.  It seems that there is some psychological factor at work and people tend to buy more when things end in that “lucky” number.  Anyway, I thought I would make a post about the best investment I actually made over the past couple of years since I’m actually seeing some return now.

If you have read the other posts I’ve written, it should be pretty clear that I do not go for scams.  They are just not worth the effort and I don’t like to cheat people.  I think doing that kind of thing comes back around to bite you in the tail later.  With that said,  I can honestly say that  the best investment I ever made online was checking out The Keyword Academy.  When I signed up, it was $1 for the first 30 days.  As of now, I believe it is free to join.  You get 30 days to check everything out, and if you decide to stay, it is $33 per month from that point on.  If you have been doing much in the way of internet marketing, you may have heard of this place.  When I signed up, the site was run by Court Tuttle and Mark Butler.  Now, it is just Mark Butler.  These two guys decided to start a site devoted to teaching people how to make money online.  I found their site back around March of 2009 and I think I’ve visited it just about every day since then.  I no longer have to sort through offers for work at home jobs or questionable offers that teach you how to earn money online by taking advantage of others.  There are plenty of money making ideas that you can use to build a serious online presence, make money, and still feel good about what you are doing as you work at home.

Why I recommend The Keyword Academy so highly for learning about ways to make money

So why am I so high on the place?  Well, the guys over deliver in a major way.  Now if it was just a bunch of information, I may have soaked in all that I could for a month and then taken off.  As it stands, I’ve been a member for over two years.  The difference with The Keyword Academy is that for $33 you get some serious value.  One of the first things you need to know when you get into internet marketing of any kind, is that you need links to get your site noticed.  The Keyword Academy features what is known as the Postrunner system.  This is a huge guest posting system that gives you access to an incredible selection of websites owned by other members.  These are not throw away blogs.  They are legitimate, cared for sites that people maintain and own.  Many of them have page rank built up.  Once you are a member, you can even put one of your own sites into the system to get free original content posted on it by other members in exchange for letting them point links back at their own site.  It is all above board, white hat stuff.  There is NO garbage content or spun junk allowed.  Lately, the push is toward a new TKA 2.0 model that emphasizes high quality content that gives visitors exactly what they want.  Do you suppose that is something that Google would like too?  Postrunner allows you to guest post on relevant, related blogs from one central dashboard.  Believe it or not, that is included in the $33 per month price.  Compare that to other, similar networks.  Nothing comes close to that value, and they actually give you full access to Postrunner during that first free month.  Really.  No strings at all!

OK, so that was a ton of stuff to jam into one paragraph.  The short version is, there is a ton of information and resources, and you get full access for 30 days.  If you are at all serious about making money online, I doubt you will want to leave, but if you do, they do not hassle you or give you a hard time.  I think they have a pretty high retention rate because people actually start making money by using what they teach.  Believe me, I would not have stayed there for all of this time if I was not getting some serious value from it.  Whether you are brand new to making money online or a seasoned vet, you will find something to benefit you in the videos they provide and in the highly responsive forum.

When I originally signed up, it was just informational videos and a forum for discussing what was taught.  There was no Postrunner at that time, and I still felt like I was getting good value.  Now, there is no way I’d want to leave.

Let’s face it, it is likely that you are jaded from reading a bunch of garbage promises about getting rich online.  I’ll just say that The Keyword Academy is nothing like that.  You will have to do work to succeed.  There are no promises to explode your earnings over night.  Making money online is a process that takes some time and you will be building quality websites.  You will not have to live in fear of a visual inspection from Google, because you will be learning to build quality sites that give people what they want.  When you do that, and you know how to get traffic to your site, you will make money.

Unlike many of the get rich quick scams that are out there, The Keyword Academy is not promising a money back guarantee.  They are going one step better.  They are not even asking for a dime unless you want to continue using the site after a full thirty days of total access.  What is not to like?  They do have an affiliate program (I am one), but you cannot become an affiliate until you are a member of the site and can speak from experience to other people about it.  If you decide to check out The Keyword Academy, and then end up staying, I’ll get a commission and I thank you.  If you decide to leave after that first month, I’ll be pretty surprised, but that is your choice.

If you want to learn how to build up a legitimate online income and you are willing to do some work, you should visit The Keyword Academy and sign up for the free 30 day offer.  If you would rather chase bogus money making opportunities at $47 a clip,  until you are ready to give up, I wish you luck.  If you would rather not waste time, and you want to learn about legitimate ways to make money, go visit The Keyword Academy and grab your free 30 days.

Most of the experts recommend having goals and picturing yourself experiencing them with an intense clarity.  It’s a great idea and it can help a lot of people to keep themselves moving forward.  Sometimes though, you need something more powerful than potential happiness to get you moving.  Most people will do a lot more to avoid pain than to get pleasure (including me), so here is what I like to do when I feel that I may have lost some motivation.  It can be pretty intense, so I’m not really telling anyone to do it.  It is just what works for me…

Looking Forward with Regret

This is something I heard described a long time ago.  I think it was when I was in a class where we were talking about living a life without regrets.

Do you want this in ten years?

This is a very simple exercise, but it can be extremely powerful and motivating (at least for me).  I do this if I feel like I’ve had a couple of days that were unproductive.

The first thing I do is find somewhere where I can be alone.  I know that can be tough, especially if you have kids.  That’s why I usually end up doing this very early in the morning, before anyone else wakes up.  Sometimes, I’ll even drive to a nearby park and find a place to sit in the car by myself.  It’s best if it is quiet and there are no distractions.  I picture myself in the future, but I take a different approach than you might expect.  Instead of seeing myself where I want to be in the next one, five, and ten years, I picture where I’m headed if I don’t take action.  For me, that means in the same job, doing the same things that I absolutely can’t stand doing.  I think of the reasons why I cringe as I wake up at 4:50 AM on work days.  I picture with extreme clarity what it would be like to still be sitting in meetings talking about things that I could not possibly care less about.  I picture my boss’s face, ten years older, as she tells me about the next “initiative” that we will be putting in to place.  Then, I picture my own face as I imagine it would look after ten more years of doing something I hate.   Next, I force myself to feel every ounce of pain I would feel as I looked back and regretted not taking action and making things change.  I let myself soak in that regret for about a minute.  Finally (and most importantly), I refocus myself and realize that I am still at the point

I finish up by realizing that today, I'm actually at the beginning, NOT the end.

where I can make the changes that have to be made.  I can start taking action NOW to ensure that the future I just imagined will NOT happen.  Usually at this point I’m able to easily fire off a list of four or five things that I could do that very day to get things moving (and I actually DO them).

Just to make sure I start my day off right, I also follow this exercise by visualizing myself achieving my goals and experiencing THOSE feelings.  The contrast is amazing.  The fear of living a life filled with regret is enough to get me moving and taking actions that I previously had been scared to take.  The image that comes to me is standing next to a pool of cold water.  Jumping in seems daunting, but if an angry dog came charging at you, you’d probably take action and jump in to get out of the way.  My current fears about taking action and trying things I’m unfamiliar with, are the pool.  Dealing with my same work situation in ten years is the angry dog.

Here Is my promise to anyone now, or in the future who might visit my Ways to Make Money Blog.  I’ll be honest with you about the things I’ve learned on my internet marketing journey.  I can’t promise that I’ll always be right about everything, but I think anyone who would do that, is a fool.  I’ll do my best to get you to the point where YOU are making money on the internet.  I’m not promising that you will make money.  That is entirely up to you and your work ethic.  I’m just saying that I’ll try to teach you about things that have the potential to help you out and that have worked for me.  I am still learning and trying new things too, so what I’ll share the new things that I learn as well.

Where is Internet Marketing Headed?

I think the direction of internet marketing is definitely going toward what some people call “transparency”.  That is basically coming clean and not trying to get anything past the people who you want to trust you.  Don’t be naïve though.  There are still plenty of dishonest people waiting out there to pick off anyone who will hand them their money.  They have the mentality that if the people are stupid enough to believe their outrageous lies, then they deserve what they get.  I have a different opinion.  I know that a lot of the people who fall for get rich quick scams are just good people who are feeling desperate to make a change.  I know, because I’ve been there and I bought a lot of stupid things from people peddling the latest and greatest Clickbank items back when I started a few years ago.  Thank goodness Clickbank’s return policy is pretty easy to deal with.  When you’re sick of your job, or creditors are hassling you, those fancy sales pages can look very good.

Honesty is the Best Policy

Just like in the movies... I found a photo of Truth Serum. How do your sites rate?

It is an old saying, but “honesty is the best policy” still holds true for me.  Even a cynic would have to admit that it is much easier to keep track of things when you only tell the truth.  On top of that, it just feels a lot better to not be burdened with knowing that you took advantage of someone.

To Thine Own Self Be True

We also need to be honest with ourselves.  If you have websites up already, do you ever look at your them objectively?  You should, or have a friend or relative give you an honest opinion.  This isn’t just to help you feel better about yourself or your websites.  It makes practical sense.  Have you ever experienced trying to find something on Google, only to be greeted by annoying “made for Adsense” sites (MFAs) sitting at the top of page one?  As a searcher, this is really annoying.  Google doesn’t want searchers to find that junk.  That is why they are constantly making tweaks to their algorithm.  It isn’t that they have it in for people who want to make money online.  Their “product” that they depend on to thrive is high quality search engine listings.  The people who choose Google over the competing search engines are their customers.  The big brains at Google are just trying to protect their product.  When you are trying your hardest to get your sites to rank, it can feel like Google is stacking the cards against you, but that might just mean that you need to make your site better.  Take an HONEST look at your site and then ask yourself if it is really the best that it can be.  Is it so good that it deserves to outrank the other two million related pages that Google has in its index for your topic?  Now I’m not going to be naïve here either.  For the time being, Google has not entirely worked out all of the quality issues.  People still build a ton of links and see good results in the SERPs.  The question is, how long with that model last?  What will happen when you have built nothing but thin sites and Google finally figures out a way to crawl a site and actually measure quality?  If your sites are all weak, thinking about this possibility will be painful.  The good news is that it hasn’t happened yet.  You still have time to make every page that is getting some traffic the best that it can be.
Here is a very good video of Gary Vaynerchuk that I think is relevant to this topic. Be warned that he uses some language that some people might find offensive.

Coming Clean

I have to admit that not all of my sites are the best that they could be…yet.  Some have good rankings, but that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t stand some improvement.  I’ll be working on those as part of my summer clean up.  I once heard someone say that you should build your sites so that you would be proud to show them to your mom.  That seems like pretty good advice.  If she were around, I’m sure my mother would be able to find a few improvements to make on some of my sites.  How are your sites looking?

Hi folks.  My name is Mike, and I’m an internet marketer.  I also have another job that I perform, but I’ve come to realize that I really enjoy doing this.  It is more than just a hobby for me.  To some people, the idea of making money on the internet has a dirty feel to it.  Sort like selling snake oil.  It doesn’t have to be like that though.  There are a lot of really great websites on the internet and guess what?  Most of them are making money for someone.  What you decide to provide for people is up to you.  I think providing quality is the most important thing for long term success in this business.  But I’m going off track here…

Getting Back on Track

I’ve been away from this blog for a little while, and I’ve recently decided that I really need to get back to it.  The problem I’ve been having is a common one.  I have spread myself way too thin.  It’s great to finally be making money online, but if I was going to start over today, I’d go about things a little bit differently.  I have decided to make this site the best resource that I can for people looking for ways to make money on the internet.  Here’s why…

Where Do I Start?

I've been trying to do too many things at once. Ever done that?

Today, I was talking to a friend of mine.  He wanted me to take a look at a website he has been working on.  It is a site he started years ago, but did not do a whole lot with.  As I was talking to him, he had a lot of questions.  I realized as I was answering him, that I’ve lived and breathed this internet marketing stuff for years now.  I’ve accumulated a fair amount of knowledge from both successes and mistakes.  I sure don’t claim to know it all by any means, but I have learned a lot.  If he has all of these questions, I’m sure some other people do too.  In fact, I’ve had several friends and relatives ask about starting online businesses and websites in general over the last couple of years.  Each time I’ve tried to answer their questions as completely as possible in less than five minutes, but there is so much to share that I usually just left them looking interested, but confused.  Hopefully this site will help you and teach you how to make an online income painlessly.  That is not to say that there isn’t work involved.  There definitely is, but the payoff is nice if you can be patient enough to keep working for it.  I hope that you’ll keep visiting and reading and eventually share your success stories right here on this blog.

Just in case you are wondering what the Clickbank marketplace is, I guess a good brief description would be that it is giant collection of digital products that internet marketing affiliates can offer for sale.  The nice thing about Clickbank is that it is very easy to sign up for and when the products do sell, affiliates get a pretty nice commission.  Often, it is at least half of the selling price.  That is the big perk in selling a product that is a digital download.  Once it is written and uploaded, there is no issue with having enough product to sell (despite what the sales pages might say).  You really can make money with Clickbank, but it can be a challenge finding the right product to promote.  I should also say that once you have met the requirement of five sales from five different credit cards, Clickbank is pretty good about cutting you checks as soon as the pay period ends (assuming you have met the base amount).

OK, so why is it so hard to find a legitimate Clickbank review?  Simple.  Everybody and their brother who got an offer to be part of a joint venture (JV) for whatever the product is, writes a “review” that almost always leads to an affiliate link for that product.  They also backlink the heck out of the “reviews” to get them ranking well above what some poor schmuck wrote on his blog about getting burned by a purchase.  Some people even buy up domains with “review” in the name plus the product they are promoting.  Maybe it is just me, but even before I had much experience, a domain built just to review one product always set off warning bells for me.  After a while, it isn’t just the JV partners writing “reviews”, it is all of the people who search the Clickbank marketplace, see a ton of gravity for an item, and then decide to promote it themselves.  Finding someone’s real opinion becomes even more difficult.  By the way, the same thing goes for the word “scam” being added on to the end of a product name.  I’m sure if you check, there are plenty of review sites ending in that little four letter word.  I was looking at Google and noticed that Clickbank Scam was pretty heavily researched.  I’m sure there are many other similar phrases just waiting to be found.  I must also say that while I was looking up some Clickbank items, I was actually impressed by a few people who said they just wanted to get information about a product before they decided whether or not to promote it.  That’s good to see.

So anyway, I got tired of dealing with the bogus reviews.  My very simple “trick” for finding real reviews is simply to type “forum” and then the name of the product I’m interested in learning about.  It may seem simple, but it works for me a lot of the time.  Let’s say that the name of the Clickbank product was “WidgetBlaster 2000”, I would type “forum WidgetBlaster 2000” (without the quotes) into Google.  Usually it brings back forum posts somewhere on page one where people are actually discussing the product.  Usually someone is asking about it in a forum related to the product’s niche, and most of the time, several people will respond with honest, real life experiences with the product.  I have found that this works particularly well with items based on ways to make money.  Surprisingly, people who have already made the purchase will often spill the beans and pretty much explain the whole program that was selling for $67 or more.  This method works MUCH better for me than typing in “WidgetBlaster 2000 Review”.

If you are ever contemplating the purchase of a Clickbank product, there are some other things to keep in mind.  First of all, as with most things, if it seems too good to be true, it often is.  Sign in to Clickbank and find the product in the Clickbank marketplace.  Follow any links you can find for affiliate information.  The sellers will often give you a lot of details related to the product you are interested in learning about if they figure you are going to sell it for them.  Also, if you ARE thinking of selling the product as an affiliate, drop the seller an email and ask if they will comp you a review copy.  Some, but not all, will.  Many people also buy themselves a copy through their own affiliate link.  The online consensus seems to be that Clickbank is OK with this, but if you are going to do that, I’d double check with a Clickbank representative.  (If you do that, please leave a comment with the response you received.)  I’m interested, but I don’t have an official response to share at the moment.  Maybe I’ll send an email after I post this.

By the way, now when I am going to buy a Clickbank product, I never click on the “Buy” button on the first page.  I always try to close the sales page.  This usually brings up one of those “stay here” option buttons.  I’ve found that most of the offers I was ever interest in will come back with an offer to save at least fifteen or twenty dollars off of the original price.  Be careful of this though on sites that offer monthly membership fees.  Sometimes they will offer a very low sign up fee when you try to leave, but come back with a monthly subscription fee that is higher than what everyone else is getting if they went through the first link.  You’ve just got to take a look around to see what will be offered to you.

This post is already way longer than I thought it was going to be, so I’m done for now.  I hope that helped someone out.

photo credit: andryone

I decided to see what I could find out without actually spending any money. Of course the top of the search engine rankings were all bogus “reviews” hawking the same program for affiliate dollars, but I did eventually find a forum post that went into more detail on how the program led to a subscription upsell and hitting up the social networks. It was posted by someone who bought the program and then returned it. Hey, whatever works for you, but it was definitely not the almost instant earnings promised in the email and sales page. Most of the scams out there are just some variation of this. They make big promises and then bait and switch you. How many noobs are jumping in and dumping hundreds or thousands of dollars on this garbage before they realize that they have been fleeced?

I wish that this blog was seen by more people just so that I could let them know that there really are no instant online millionaire programs out there. As I listened to the latest sales pitch, I found that I was able to predict pretty much every single thing that was going to be said. These guys try to bond with you by telling you that they have been where you are, broke and feeling stupid for throwing your money away. They say that they put years of time into learning what they now know and that they just need to give something back. They tell you that you have to act now (the call to action) or you will miss out. They can describe what you are feeling because it isn’t all that hard to describe letting yourself get built up and then let down. The funny thing is, often, the very product they say you have to act immediately to get, is the very thing they want you to hawk as an affiliate of theirs. Does that make sense?

There are hundreds, and probably thousands of offers and programs like this out there. Use your head. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Is everything out there garbage? No. Is a lot of it? Yes. Definitely, but don’t lose heart. There are legitimate ways to make money. If what you find sounds like it might involve some work that will pay off in the long run, you might want to look into it more. Another thing to remember is that if you buy something through Clickbank, they are pretty good about giving you a refund without making you beg for it. I’ve done it a few times myself.