No hard sell. Just practical tips, ideas, inspiration, and other resources to help you to make money online.

A couple of weeks ago, I received this email via JMMO -

Hi,

I heard that you want to sell off your blog. I would like to purchase it for USD70. Is it OK with you?

Thanks,

A

For a moment, I wondered whether this was a serious email or not. I wasn’t quite sure if I should laugh or what when I read it. I considered just deleting it.

But, like any good writer, I decided to use it instead. I thought it might make for an amusing post here. So, here you go.

And yes, here’s my response -

Hi, A.

Yes, I did consider selling my JMMO blog. While I’m happy to continue considering offers for this blog, I have decided not to proceed with the sale for a variety of reasons.

And no, sorry, since I make more than USD$70 a month from this blog, it is *not* OK to sell it for that price.

Thanks for your interest.

Shai

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In our last poll of the month, I asked the question: “Which social networking site do you use the most for your online business?”

And, based on 129 respondents, it was found that Facebook was the most popular social networking tool being used by JMMO readers and visitors (49%) who run their own online businesses.

Twitter comes as a far second, with 28% respondents saying that they use it for their online business. Then, there are MySpace (13%) and LinkedIn (10%) users.

Thanks again to everyone who voted. We’ll be sharing our latest poll shortly.

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This is part of the A-Z of Making Money Online series. This series covers the various ways of making money online, in alphabetical order.

So, if you’re looking for money-making ideas that start with the letter M, here they are…

Mofuse - This is one way to make money using mobile web content.

Multiply - Learn how you can monetise this social networking service.

MySpace - Find some ideas on how to monetise this popular social networking site.

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This is a guest post submitted to JMMO by lisafolder from the site Little Money Maker. The author’s email address is: lisafolder@gmail.com .

Google AdSense program has made it easier for webmasters to make money through a website. Webmasters who run an AdSense campaign will display Google’s contextual Ads relevant to the content of their sites and thus encouraging visitors to click the ads and earn money for each ad click.

However, you will earn very little AdSense revenue if you don’t know how to optimize your AdSense ads on your website. Here are some tips to increase your AdSense earning:

1. Focus on one Adsense ad format. The Large Rectangle (336X280) ad format seems to work better than other ad formats because this format tends to result in higher click through rates (CTR). Another reason is that the ads will look like normal web links that visitors use to click on them. It doesn’t matter whether the visitors know that they are clicking AdSense ads or not, as long as there are clicking, you earn AdSense commission.

2. Create a custom palette for your ads. Select a color that matches your website’s background. If your site’s background is white both, the color of ad border and background should set to be white too. Also the color of the ad title should be similar to coloe of the links in your website. This is to make your AdSense ads look like it is part of the web pages. Again, this will boost AdSense CTR.

3. Don’t place your AdSense ads at the bottom of your webpages because it is proven to be less effective. Displaying your AdSense ads at the bottom is like hiding your AdSense and thus leads to low CTR and AdSense revenue. Try to put them in the place where people can see them quickly. You will be amazed how the difference between AdSense locations can make when you see your earnings.

4. Try to place your AdSense ads near rich content as visitors main focus usually are your content. There are several ways to insert AdSense ads into your content and one of the ways is place your AdSense just after the end of your content.

5. Try to automate the insertion of your AdSense code into the webpages using SSI (or server side included). Ask your web administrator if your server supports SSI or not. How do you do it? Just save your AdSense code in a text file, name it as “AdSense text”, and upload it to the root directory of the web server. Then use SSI, call the code on other pages. This tip is a time saver especially for those who are using automatic page generators to generate pages on their website.

These are some of the tips that have worked well for some who want to generate hundreds and even thousands on their websites. There are other ways to optimize your AdSense that produce high CTR also. You can learn more tricks by reading in AdSense and webmaster forums.

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Happy 1st of June! Here Down Under, this month marks the beginning of Winter. Not my favourite season, I have to admit (I get cold easily!). But, I do realise that each season brings its own beauty. I do like the fact that the surroundings look a lot greener at this time of the year, due to the rains. I also enjoy the cozy feeling of being able to sit in front of a warm fire on a cold winter’s day.

What about you? What do you look forward to the most every time a new month starts - or when a new season begins?

When it comes to my online ventures, new months mean getting paid for my efforts from the previous month. My bank/Paypal account looks a bit healthier, thanks to such payments.

New seasons also mean having to re-evaluate certain aspects of my online work. It has been traditionally known that things go a bit slower on the web during this time of the year because it’s the summer months in North America. So, this means I need to figure out how to make the most out of such a situation.

In your case, what do you do with your online ventures when new months and new seasons come?

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We’ve had a few discussions on social networking and making money online lately, so hopefully you have had a chance to look in to this concept. And, if you haven’t done so yet, please vote in our poll of the month -

I will be closing the poll shortly and sharing with you the findings. I’m looking forward to your input!

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One of the very first social networking sites that I have enjoyed is Multiply. But, it doesn’t seem to have the same pull as MySpace or Facebook. In spite that, I know a few people who are using Multiply actively. In fact, some of them are using it as a commercial platform, as some of its built-in features lend to ecommerce.

If you’re thinking of ways to monetise Multiply, here are some ideas*:

1) Use Market Feature - This has to be the most obvious built-in ecommerce feature of Multiply. Basically, when you sign-up for a Multiply account, you get a section on your Multiply site called “Market”. There, you can add products that you wish to sell - just upload photos, add a description, and include other details like pricing and categories. I know some users who build a full online store using this function. However, one drawback is that it doesn’t really have a shopping cart or built-in payment system. You have to arrange this yourself, either by finding ways to incorporate something like Paypal links to your market listings or coming up with alternative payment systems.

2) Create Affiliate-Linked Reviews - Another built-in feature of Multiply is a section called ‘Reviews’. It pretty much does what it says — you can write reviews of just about anything. Some people then review books, music, and other products - and add affiliate links to their reviews.

3) Write Other Affiliate-Linked Posts - As long as you don’t overdo the affiliate linking, you can actually add affiliate links to Multiply’s ‘Links’ section or even write-ups on the ‘Blog’ section. Just make sure you also include other interesting content for your contacts. Otherwise, you might just be seen as a spammer.

4) Create Gift Items for Sale - If you upload photos on your Multiply account, you can easily turn them in to gift items such as photo books, calendars, cards, and prints through Multiply’s Shop. Once you have such items available, you can sell them - anywhere you want (including your ‘Market’ section on Multiply!).

* Please note that you must always check the Terms and Conditions of the site before following any of these ideas.

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Time to share the latest news on the $100 challenge: Year 3 *! No new participants added to our $100 Challenge: Year 3 participants list. But, it was good to hear from one of our participants, Katelyn, who said that her project is already working its way towards its first $100. Woohoo! Well done and thanks for the update, Katelyn. Looking forward to more.

Now, here’s my own update on my $100 challenge projects (based on April ‘09 events).

Project A Update: A long-time blog that needs to increase income after major shifts. Initial target is $100 a month, working towards $100 a week.

It’s quite exciting to see this project’s income continue to climb. This month, it’s due to a mix of Adsense, direct advertising (both banners and text), and affiliate marketing. Total for the month was $188.33.

So again, the tally for this site: Month 1 was $66, Month 2 was $147.80. Month 3 was $154.06. Month 4 was $188.33 So, there you go. Consistently reaching a minimum of $100 a month for three months now. It’s still a way to go before we get to $100/week. We’ll see how long it will take to get there.

Project B Update: Bringing a Brand new site to make its first $100

Suddenly, there’s an interesting twist to this project. Even though I haven’t been working on it, it seems to have started making money via Adsense. To give you a background, this is the income tally for the site so far: Month 1: Non-existent site. Month 2: $0.00. Month 3: $0.21. Month 4: $2.27.

So, even though I haven’t updated the site since I set it up way back in February, it looks like it’s beginning to get some income. Definitely a good incentive to start working on it again, right?

Project C Update: To see how long it will take for a relatively new online venture to make its first $100.

Thankfully, I can now report that this project took approximately three months to meet its $100 goal. And, considering that I didn’t really spend that much time on it, I thought that it’s actually not a bad way to earn some extra cash. In fact, I hope to continue working on it even though I’ve reached this project’s target, as I’m seeing other benefits apart from the obvious monetary rewards.

In any case, as a round-up, here’s the income tally for this project: Month 1: Not yet officially started. Month 2: $20.00. Month 3: $51.30. Month 4: $30.52. Total of $101.82!

Previous Updates:

• $100 Challenge: Year 3, Month 1 Update
• $100 Challenge: Year 3, Month 2 Update
• $100 Challenge: Year 3, Month 3 Update

*If you wish to join the challenge just let us know and we’ll add you in!

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There was once a time when I did not want to talk about money. Not about saving them, making them, or spending them. I wanted to take it all in a stride.

I believed that no one should ever be money-obsessed.

Well, I suppose I still believe that an obsession with money is still unhealthy. After all, I’ve seen how destructive money can be in many people’s lives.

However, a few years ago, I had a change of heart when it came to my attitude with money. I realised that if I never ever think about money — then I would never attract money properly in to my life. And, if and when I do have money, I may never know how to spend and/or to save money properly.

So, I told myself that instead of burying my head in the ground when it comes to money, I needed to be a bit wiser about it. I needed to change my attitude towards it and not to look at it as if it were evil.

I still don’t like obsessing about money. I try not to fret too much when there’s not enough. And, I avoid over indulging when there’s enough. I don’t always look at everything as a money-making opportunity.

But, I have learned to look at money as a tool for life. It’s good to be able to think of ways to make money. And, it’s good to consider how one spends and how one saves money.

I still have a lot to learn and all that. However, I think my view of money now is better than it was ten years ago. I guess, that’s why I’m able to write about money now through JMMO. I never would’ve thought I could “talk/write money” in the past.

What about you? What’s your relationship with money like? How do you view money in your life? Are you comfortable talking about money?

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