In the first article dated September 2, 2009 on The Truth About Making Money At Home I covered the simple truths about working from home and the potential to make a living. Beginning with this article we will explore seven time proven ways to make make money at home on the internet. As mentioned in the first article it is best to start with the free methods, so lets take a look at some free ways.

Free Ways To Make Money On The Internet

Whenever anyone is getting started with an online business, it’s best to keep costs low and begin seeing a steady stream of profits flowing in before you move on to bigger and better things. One of the biggest ideas to hit the Internet in years is that of social networks. Maybe you heard of how YouTube was sold for an estimated $1.65 billion? That’s because these sites are so popular with the masses that everyone’s scrambling to ride the wave of the next big thing.

What Is Web 2.0 and the Social Networking System?

You might hear a lot of hype surrounding “web 2.0” and social networks. Basically, it’s how the Internet is moving from a seller-to-buyer platform to something where people buy based on recommendations from their peers. So let’s say for instance you’re a mom and you need some help because your baby has colic. You go online and start searching for information because it’s 2 o’clock in the morning and your baby has been screaming for the last two hours straight. The pediatrician’s office is closed and so is Barnes and Noble.

You might Google search the word “colic,” or the phrase, “calming a colicky baby,” and many sites would pop up. Some of those sites will be commercial, selling books and items promising quick relief. Others will be peer-to-peer group sites – networks of other moms going through the same thing. These women have been there, done that – and they can easily reply to your cries for help and offer a recommendation about a solution. You’ll likely listen to them over an ad somewhere on the ‘net because it feels more trustworthy.

Web 2.0 puts the power in the hands of the people. But as a product promoter, you can immerse yourself in their culture and cater to their needs. For instance, if you choose to create an eBook on Quick Fixes for Colicky Babies, the best place to “hang out” online would be in a forum with other mothers. You don’t blatantly Spam the forum advertising your eBook, but
instead become a trusted, valued member of the community. You become the “go-to” person for advice. And placed neatly in your signature file is a link to your authority product called Quick Fixes for Colicky Babies.

Social Networking Means You Have to Spend Time Being Social

Too many people go into the social network sites, create a profile, and leave it alone, wondering where all the traffic is that everyone’s raving about. If you want it to work, you have to be seen and heard within the environment as one of them. I personally suffer from this shortcoming. I really enjoy interacting with the people on the sites I belong to, but there just isn’t any free time in my schedule most days. And, by the end of the work day I’m usually mentally exhausted. Each social site has a different angle to it. On MySpace, for instance, it’s important to become popular by bulking up your friends’ list and having people leave comments on your MySpace page.

On Squidoo, however, you don’t have friends’ lists, but you get ranked and get to participate in camaraderie by signing each other’s guest books and joining groups with similar interests. You can tell what’s popular on the social sites by looking at tags or tag clouds. A tag is just a keyword that is relevant to your page, whether it’s a blog at Blogger.com, a lens at Squidoo, or a profile on MySpace. A tag cloud gives a snapshot of what the community as a whole is involved in. For instance, here’s a screen shot of a tag cloud on Squidoo:

Making Money Online

As you can see from a quick glance, books, marketing, money, music, shopping, travel, business and health are all hot topics. You can look at a tag cloud and develop an income stream from it. So, one way to make money would be to create a lens on Squidoo about books, using their money-making affiliate modules like Amazon.com. Whenever someone buys a book you recommend through your link, you make a commission! Or maybe you have a website about traveling. Your lens could focus on a particular geographical area and inside your lens, you drive traffic back to your site where you sell travel gear, packages, or an eBook about travel safety. If you notice people are searching for certain keywords on a social site, then bells should be going off in your head as to how you could make money from that topic. And don’t limit yourself to a single social site – reach out to your target audience on as many as you can effectively interact with, since they’re free!

In the next article we will cover blogging for bucks.

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