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Add Comment »Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have all proven that social networks are big money, even when the initial sign up and basic use is completely free! The possibility to cash out on advertisers, games, products and services and so on seems endless and very tempting. But it might be time to haul back a bit and focus on reality; unless you are incredibly lucky, it is unlikely you will be able to build something that will rival Facebook for sheer size. However, you can build a perfectly viable social network in a niche area; a way to bring people together who share similar hobbies, worldviews or other things and make money from that. How can you develop your own social network?
It’s not an easy task and will require at least a month or two’s worth of effort, marketing, and sometimes some knowledge of coding if you want to build one from scratch. Fortunately, there are social network platforms and social networks scripts that you can use to build something basic. You can also customize the platforms and scripts or even build an entire network from scratch if you have the proper training. If you’re new to building networks, it’s probably a good idea to use and experiment with a functioning platform before diving off the deep end. But before even starting to build the site, it’s important to do a couple of steps.
First determine what your niche is going to be and this requires careful research. Find niches that are popular, such as dating, gaming, hobbies, pets, and family and then cross check that with things that are of interest to you. Once you’ve determined a niche, you then have to have map out the functions that you want your social network to have.
Successful social networks have the following ways for people to connect and share:
- blogs
- forums
- videos (or music sharing)
- linking
- photos
- articles or other things that provide an interesting baseline to draw people in
- privacy settings
- personal profiles
- applications/widgets
Most of these things, if not all of them, are desirable to have in a successful social network and you’ll likely think of other things to add. Research big name networks to see what functions they have and try to apply as many of them as you can to your own; after all, millions of users must know what they like!
Once you’ve mapped out what your social network will be on and what functions you will have, it’s time to choose a social network platform or script to work with or build the site yourself (or hire someone to do it for you if you have the cash). Make sure that the end result will be attractive, easy to navigate for your users, and has plenty of security.
Once your site is live, it’s time to market it, the same way you would market any site. While the long term goal will be to let the users add their own content, in the meantime, you have to do the legwork yourself using the same methods you would for any site: SEO, article marketing, backlinks, social networking and so on. If you do it well, you should start getting a core of members within the first month or two and slowly you can decrease the amount of time you spend on marketing and let word of mouth do it for you. Use this time to update, maintain and expand your social network site. Remember-if your site breaks, no one can use it! Attract advertisers and affiliates and promote products to your users (without being obnoxious about it of course). Give it time and you will soon have many users and income coming in from advertisers wanting to post their things on your network plus whatever else you choose to try to sell on it.
It can be really fun and rewarding to build a social network site, but it can also be frustrating. Make sure to do your research carefully and don’t try to do more than you’re capable of. Keep in mind the needs of your users as well as your income desires; a balance of the two will bring you the money making success you want.
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Add Comment »Making money online is all about having something to sell that the maximum number of people will buy; this is how you are successful in any venture and in the internet world with so much stiff competition, it’s even more important. One of the most efficient ways to make money online is through creating and selling your own product; usually an e-book or videos. Creating and selling your own product online is a good moneymaker because of low (or no) production costs and you can sell them right on your website. There are several kinds of products you can sell online to make easy money.
E-books
E-books are informational books that are written on a wide range of topics. They are popular because they are cheap to buy, almost free to produce, and there are always people looking for information on a wide range of topics. When it comes to making your own product to sell, it’s hard to beat the e-book.
Writing e-books takes more time than writing a bunch of blog posts and articles though. You have to choose a topic that people are genuinely interested in and one that you’re interested in, put together chapters, information, research, and care and then edit it once, twice, and three times before putting it out. You can take a few shortcuts: take related articles and blogs you’ve already done and put them together with some clean up work, hire someone to help you out (hiring a good editor is a good idea because you’re too close to your own work to make the tough choices about it), and keep it below eighty pages or so; but for the most part, it will take work. However, this work pays back in spades; you can sell an ebook for a few dollars, it will sell day and night, seven days a week and you don’t have to pay much to make it; no more than you pay to host your website and the cost to hire a helping hand.
Video/Podcasts
Another popular medium for making money online is through the creation of videos and/or iPod casts. These are popular again because they are fairly easy to make, especially if you enjoy being in front of a camera, and they sell well because people enjoy watching videos with information or entertainment. Podcasts in particular are booming because of the sheer mass of audience available who have iPods or MP3 players which can read them.
Video or Podcasts are created much the same way as an e-book; you write up a script of what you want to say and talk about and then add any special effects you want, such as backgrounds, music and other things. You can even turn them into a series and get subscriptions or sell them as a bundle. Like e-books, videos and podcasts can sell in your sleep, so once they are set up, they provide passive income for you.
It only takes a bit of work, creativity and some passion for a topic to allow you to set up and sell your own products for money online. They provide nearly passive income for a long time and you are providing informational services for anyone who needs them. All in all, making your own products is a great way to make lots of money online.
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Add Comment »The publishing world has always been a hard one to break into and lately, it seems to have grown even more difficult as it has become more glutted with would-be authors and writers. For those frustrated with the lack of break through, finding alternative means in the form of e-books is a God-send. For others, writing e-books is a fairly quick and simple way to make some cash, especially if you have a knack for writing them or know someone else who does. E-books are popular to produce nowadays; they are generally made up of pre-written articles or they are simply fun to write and because they cost nothing to produce, they start making profits from the get-go.
If you want to sell e-books for money, there are a few ways to go about it. The most profitable way is to sell them through your own website. Write e-books on things that people are always searching for knowledge on (health, wealth, and sex are the three most popular topics; though if you write them well enough and market them properly, you can write on just about anything you feel passionate about) and make sure that they are easy to follow, enjoyable to read, and effective. Then, you simply sell them on your website and work on ranking your website high so that people will purchase your books.
If you don’t want to own a website, but you do want to sell your own writing, you can use sites such as lulu.com, amazon.com or other self publishing sites. The main benefit is that you don’t have to worry as much about marketing yourself (though it’s still a good idea to do some legwork) and you can paired off with designers (if applicable) or design your own art for it. Many of these sites also allow you to sell hard copies which is a good idea if you want to target both the e-book and the hard book markets. However, these sites do charge a fee for use; either off your profits or a monthly/yearly subscription fee for services.
So which one should you use? This is not an easy question to answer and largely depends on what you’re writing and how much time or money you have to market it. If you want to write more fiction, starting with a third party site is a good way to get everything you need done for you so you can concentrate on your writing. If on the other hand you’re writing more info-e-books, then selling them yourself is a good idea because you can attach them to your existing website. Plus, info e-books tend to be a lot cheaper than fiction e-books since there is more competition.
E-books are a popular way to make money online; they are fairly easy to put together, many people who normally hate writing may enjoy doing them and you can outsource at the very least the editing, so you end up with a nicely polished finished product that can be sold without having to pay for production costs. They make an excellent addition to any information based site or you can base an entire home business on producing e-books on a given subject. Whatever you decide to do with them, remember to enjoy making them and choose the right platform to sell them on. With proper marketing to follow, you’ll soon be making a decent amount of money to put back into your online business or into your home.
