This is a guest post by Kevin Frost. Read his short bio at the end of this article. Please note that this piece contains a number of external links that take you to different websites outside of JMMO. Please note that JMMO is not affiliated with any of these sites/links. Thanks! — JMMO Editor

One of the most common questions we get is: “How can I make money online if I don’t yet have a website?” Websites, after all, usually require at least a small investment in purchasing a domain name, web hosting, etc. Then before you can make money with a website, you need to spend time adding useful content, marketing it, and building links before Google will notice you and start to send a bit of traffic your way.

So, what do you do if you just want to know the easiest way to make money online, without having to worry about any of that technical stuff?

Fortunately, these days there are several options for making money online that don’t require a website. If you have a computer with internet connection, a bit of free time, and a dash of creativity, you can be earning your first online cash tonight!

5 Ways to Make Money Online With No Website

1. Do a Simple Task on Fiverr
   Fiverr is the best of a new breed of “microjob” websites that allow people to outsource very small jobs for very small payments. Right at this moment people are earning 5 bucks a pop for such tasks as becoming someone’s Facebook girlfriend, recording a sexy voicemail message, or critiquing a blog design.
2. Get Paid to Write
   If you can write well, you can quickly and easily make money writing articles for a number of websites online. The easiest way to get started is via revenue sharing websites like Helium.com, AssociatedContent, or eHow. At these sites you’ll generally only earn a few dollars per article, but they can serve as “credits” to help you get higher-paying gigs writing for blogs or other websites. For example, right now my site MakingMoneyOnline.com is hiring an experienced blogger to write 2 “blogging tips” articles per week at a much higher pay rate then eHow. Interested? Inquire within!
3. Help out a Student
   Remember those days of struggling to figure out a homework problem? Today students have “virtual tutors” on call 24 hours a day. If you know a thing or two about book-learning, you can get paid to help stuck students at websites like StudentofFortune.com and eHomeworkHelp.
4. Sell a Domain Name
   Domain name investing is a great first step into making money online – all you need to get started is a credit card and a knack for words. You can find high quality domains for sale at auction sites like TDNAM.com.
5. Become an Expert
   The say that everyone is an expert at something. Now, new websites allow you to cash in on your expertise by helping people with specialized problems (for a fee, of course!). One of the best is MiNeeds.com, where people are willing to pay anywhere from a dollar to hundreds of dollars for specialized expertise.

Hopefully that’s proof enough for you that there are legitimate ways to make money online without a website. Now it’s up to you to get started!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Kevin Frost gives 50+ more free ideas for easy ways to make money online at MakingMoneyOnline.com.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

How to Make Money Online without a Website

Membership sites seem to have become a really popular way to make money online. And, this is understandably so.

One great thing about membership sites is that if you do have a great product/site, then chances are, you will have recurring income – weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even annually – through membership or subscription fees. Your best strategy is to make sure that you take care of your existing members and to encourage them to keep their memberships.

So, how do you get started with setting up membership sites?

There’s a lot to cover regarding this topic, so I’m hoping to break this down in to a series of articles/posts. This one’s just an introduction to the whole idea of membership site building.

In any case, here’s a quick overview on what to do to set up and to make money from membership sites -

1. Choose what kind of membership site that you would like to run. Consider your niche and your target audience. What kind of products/benefits will you offer? What’s your “hook”? What would make people want to pay money to be a member of your site? This is really a very important part of your planning process when it comes to creating memberships. So, take your time in considering your options.

Just remember that all paid membership sites offer premium services that you can’t find easily for free on the web. That’s why it’s vital to think about this aspect of your business.

Some examples of paid membership sites that I have come across include:

• a guitar or piano membership site where you can download free music sheets
• a blogging services site where they offer free installation a blog software plus some premium plug-ins
• a food site where they offer restaurant vouchers and other freebies
• an educational site that have printable lesson plans and other resources
• a web design site where they offer free premium blog/site templates

2. Decide on the technology that you wish to use for your membership site. Although this may seem daunting, there are many ways now that you can run membership sites with just very little programming and designing expertise.

Some ways of setting up a paid membership site include:

• Running a WordPress blog and adding on membership plugins
• Using third party services such as Ning to run membership sites and then charging member fees
• Creating a website with both free and premium content. You can then charge for the premium content. To help you to automate the process, it is highly recommended that you use a membership programme/software.

3. Decide on your membership programme. You need to consider things like: What’s the membership duration that you wish to offer? Weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually? How much will you charge for membership? There are no hard and fast rules here. It will really depend on the kind of site you have and the services and products that you offer.

4. Think about how you will market your membership sites and attract members. Just putting up a membership site isn’t a surefire way to make money. It’s important to know how you can actually encourage your people not just to sign up to become a member of your site (this in itself is a challenge, even for free memberships!)… but to part with their hard-earned cash just to be a member.

Some questions to consider: Will you advertise your site? If so, how? Will you run ads on your member site? Can paying members have the option of turning off those ads? What kind of functionalities will members get? Will you offer a free membership? If yes, what are the benefits of becoming a premium member? For example, popular photo sharing site Flickr has a free membership option. However, they offer a premium (“Pro”) version by giving paying members some benefits like increased upload limits and other improved functionality.

5. Have a plan to keep your existing customers happy! Although it’s very tempting to focus a lot of your attention to gaining new members, you must always remember to think of ways to encourage existing customers to remain loyal. Give them a reason to be a member for as long as possible. And perhaps, even talk about the benefits of being a member of your site to people that they know.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Making Money with Membership Sites

One of the things I’ve started to learn more about lately is domain cash parking. And, ever since I blogged about it, I realised that it’s a subject that a lot of people want to learn more about. But, other than the usual suspects with domain cash parking services (Sedo, Godaddy, etc), I wanted to find out other options.

A few days ago, I found out that Chitika offers a similar product/service, wherein you can redirect your domain name to a pre-made Chitika shop site. If you already have a Chitika account and an available domain name, you simply choose that service on your Chitika account management area. Then, you input your domain name and your chosen keywords. It will then generate a shop site. You then update your domain’s nameservers to point to Chitika’s nameservers. If you have some domain names that you’re not using, this might be worth exploring.

To see this in action, check out Crafty Toys.

Have you tried using this yet? Let me know what you think of it!

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

DIY Domain Cash Parking on Chitika

I love Flickr. It’s not perfect. In fact, I have a long wish list when it comes to this service – including better protection for photographers and artists. But, in spite of its shortcomings, I’ve been a loyal customer since 2004 – long before it was acquired by Yahoo (and paying for a Pro account every year since ’06).

And, while there are no direct ways to make money online with Flickr, there are ways you can use the site to help you in your business/career. Here are some ideas:

1) Take a photo of a product and put a link to your affiliate link via notes function. To see a sample of this idea in action, click on the photo of books on the right hand side. You will then be taken to the image’s Flickr page. Once you’re there, put your cursor over the books and you’ll see notes with affiliate links to Amazon.

2) Make your picture available as stock photo and put a link to your sales or downloads page. If you use a service like Tradebit, for example, you can mention in your photo description that a higher resolution/non-watermarked version of your photo is available for download.

3) If you sell on eBay, Etsy, or your own shop, you can take a photo of your product and put a link to your store front. Many Flickr crafters tend to use this approach. Flickr then helps to introduce your products to people. One example is artist and designer Elsie Flannagan: when she has a new piece available for sale, she uploads an image like this and mentions that it’s available as a print or original in her Etsy shop. Another example is Mahar Dry Goods, run by Robert Mahar who tend to upload new product photos on Flickr, and his profile reflects the fact that he is the owner of craft gift shop for kids (with a link to shop front).

4) Build your portfolio and market your service/business. Even if you don’t have products to sell, but you have a service to offer, you can use Flickr as one of your online portfolios. This especially useful for artists, photographers, illustrators and designers. Many folks have claimed to have gained new clients based on their Flickr account. One such person is author/illustrator Debbie Ohi. You can see that her profile reflects the nature of her work and that she accepts commissions.

5) When you use a photo on your blog that you uploaded on Flickr, add a link to your blog post or portfolio site. If your blog runs ads, product sales and/or affiliates, then you might get new customers too.

6) Sell them as prints. You can either use a third party service for creating high quality prints, or you can do the printing yourself if you have the equipment and knowledge to do so. Mention that your photos are available as prints in the description and/or your profile.

7) Create products off your photography. Flickr, for example, has a partnership with Qoop, where various products like mugs, keychains and photobooks may be created based on your Flickr photos. You can create them there and resell those products. Another option is making your own image-based products available on Cafepress. Again, you can mention the availability of these products in the description and/or your profile.

Some Bonus Tips:

1. Make sure you upload a good quality image. Otherwise, it will not encourage people to buy your products or use your services.

2. Adding good titles and descriptions are always helpful.

3. Don’t forget to add tags! Tagging helps to get your images to show in relevant searches.

4. Never ever oversell. Flickr users will know if you’re just using the service to peddle your products/services. Don’t plaster “for sale” signs.

5. Join groups and participate in them. Send some of your good images to these groups (within the group rules). Communities help!

6. Add friends and leave comments. Being an active participant is a good thing.

7. Promote your Flickr photos on your blog, your email signature, and anywhere else you can think of.

8. There are 2 versions of Flickr – a Free and Pro version. With the Free one, you have limited number of uploads in a month, plus a few other restrictions. But, it’s still worth using. The Pro version has unlimited uploads and a few other perks – like getting your photos organised in several sets and collections.

So, do you use Flickr at all? And, do you have any other money-generating ideas with the use of Flickr?

Image credit: Shai Coggins

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

7 Ways to Make Money on Flickr (+ Bonus Tips)

Thanks to desktop publishing, producing and designing newsletters, brochures, magazines and other print and online media have gotten easier and cheaper. This is an excellent career, particularly for people who love working with computer software, copy and graphics – mostly virtual assistants. It’s one of the businesses that are cheapest to start as well.

If this is your idea of a perfect job, here are some things you need to know about desktop publishing:

Education and training
Generally, you do not need to complete a college degree just to get hired as a desktop publisher. Many professionals in this field obtained their expertise through interest and practice. However, obtaining a certificate, a bachelor’s or associate degree will help, particularly because these qualifications often lead to the best jobs.

Knowledge in the appropriate computer software is also required. Since you will be working with computer peripherals such as scanners, cameras and printers, it’s also important that you are comfortable using these accessories.

What the job entails
As a desktop publisher, it’s important that you know how to use the appropriate computer software. Having good artistic skills and knowledge in visual aesthetics are also key to success.

Other than that, you also need to be capable of making critical decisions regarding certain elements that affect the final product. Being able to identify strong and weak points in a presentation and give alternative suggestions and approaches are also vital to your work.

Since you will be working with a computer, expect to be spending most of your work hours sitting in front of a monitor. Expect to be working and communicating closely with clients during projects and job assignments.

Job prospects
In 2006, over 30,000 people worked in desktop publishing and the figure continues to rise. Many of these individuals work independently either as self-employed workers who own their own firms or work-from-home contractors. It’s important to create a strong portfolio and obtain excellent reviews from past clients. Build your network and market your skills to gain more projects. Do research so you can price your services appropriately.

So where exactly can you find desktop publishing gigs? You can start looking for this type of job through visiting job boards, online marketplaces, social networks, and oftentimes by simply asking for referrals.

image from sxc.hu

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Make Money Doing Desktop Publishing: A Career in Digital Arts and Media

If you’re considering making money online with ebooks, there’s really just a few basic steps to go about it:

1. Think of a topic that you’re really familiar with or passionate about.
2. Find out how many other books, websites, ebooks, and blogs about that topic.
3. After your research, start writing.
4. Edit, edit, edit.
5. Proofread.
6. If possible, get someone else to proofread. It’s always helpful to have more than one pair of eyes to look through your manuscript.
7. Format your manuscript in to an ebook format. It really is up to you what type of format you want. Most popular format is PDF, as most people can easily download and read it.
8. Get a good digital cover.
9. Create a sales package for your ebook.
10. Create a marketing package. Websites, blogs, sales letters… And perhaps, even affiliate programmes.
11. Promote, promote, promote!
12. Follow-up – and promote some more.

Of course, I realise that these steps are the absolute basic. You can even write a whole ebook to flesh these topics out!

In any case, if you want to read more ebook ideas, here are some resources:

From the Web

• 8 Creative Ways to Make Money With eBooks – Some interesting ideas on how to make money with ebooks.
• Make Money with eBooks – A collection of featured articles on making money with ebooks – including an ebook tutorial, how to price your ebook, and ebook formats, among others.
• Writing An Ebook That Sells – How To Choose A Topic For Your Ebook That People Will Want To Buy – Just some basic ideas.
• How to Make Money Selling Your Own eBook – An article from WikiHow.

From Just Make Money Online:

• Free Online Business Start-up Ebook – A document about an online entrepreneur’s journey.
• Make Money Online With Repackaging and Recycling Content – Ideas on repackaging content with ebooks, among other things.
• Making Money Online with Lulu – All about a resource for folks interested in DIY publishing.

Image credit: Shai Coggins. All rights reserved.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

12 Steps to Make Money Online with eBooks (and Other Ideas)

While checking out the making money online as an occupation poll results, and found out that majority of JMMO’s readers are not doing it full-time yet, it got me thinking what stops one from fully jumping into the make money online wagon.

There are lots of factors to consider before anyone can decide to drop his current day job and get into making money online full-time:

- Viability of the online business or online job. What job or business you’re going to work on will greatly affect your decision. Does this online business interest you enough? How saturated is the market? Is your skill set enough to grow in this line of business? These are just a few of the important considerations if you are to gauge whether you can survive the online jungle.

- Financial status. If you don’t have an emergency fund, let alone seed money, it will be harder for you to follow your heart and start that web startup.

- Dependents. If you have, say five kids, some in high school, some in College, and you are the breadwinner, it will make you think twice whether you’re going to be all out in pursuing an online venture, especially if you’re not so sure if it’s viable enough.

- Tools. Same with financial status, an example is if you’d like to be a full-time transcriptionist but you don’t have the funds to pay for a foot pedal and a decent headset, it may not be high time for you to join the online force just yet.

- Scams. If you can’t distinguish the rotten apples from the good ones when it comes to online business opportunities, again, better learn more about the bad signals first.

I’m sure I haven’t even covered half of the reasons why one may not choose to get into making money online full-time. As for me it wasn’t a hard decision because aside from falling in love at first sight with making money online (how’s that possible? another story), I have no dependents and I was able to stock on theories that made getting it on first-hand not that too difficult.

Now how about you dear JMMO readers, since according to the poll, many of you are trying it as a hobby or as a part-time gig, what’s stopping you from going all out?

image credits to David R. Munson

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Making Money Online: What Keeps You From Doing it Full Time?

Since I just celebrated my birthday yesterday, I thought I’d lead this week’s Open Mic on to the subject of birthdays and making money online. The main question: Can you think of different ways to make money online using the theme of birthdays?

When I started a blogging network 3 years ago, one of the first blogs that I launched was The Birthday Blog. It’s no longer online, but I can say that it was an interesting topic to cover. And, it actually did well in advertising and some affiliate sales.

Other than that, other ways people make money online with the birthday theme may include:

• Selling ecard club memberships.
• Selling birthday-related items on eBay, etc.
• Letter, greeting card, or poetry writing services.
• Selling personalised items and ecards as birthday gifts.
• Birthday party organising services.
• Selling pre-packed birthday themes.

Any other ideas?

Image: Based on Microsoft Stock Photo. Edits, Shai Coggins.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Open Mic Monday: On Birthdays and Making Money Online

Are you one of the netizens who get a kick out of using the Google Image Labeler? Google Image Labeler is this application that allows two people to get into a sort of game simultaneously describing images. The more matching labels that you and your partner (random user) were able to enter, the higher you score. What’s in it for you? You will help improve Google’s image search engine. That’s it.

Now what about getting paid to do a similar task sans the partner/game part? One similar task that allows you to earn about USD1.20 per hour is TagCow.

TagCow is a photo tagging service that outsources (I think) the tagging job to Mechanical Turk service providers. Mechanical Turk is this Amazon service that lets people work on tasks called Human Intelligence Tasks or HITs that computers can’t do well.

As a data entry job hunter myself, I remember signing up for a Mechanical Turk account about a year ago. I haven’t found too many available tasks back then so I forgot about it. But since photo tagging is not something I can really consider work since I enjoy such tasks, hmmm…

Anyone has ever tried Mechanical Turk? Were you able to successfully find work using this Amazon service?

image credits to sxc.hu 

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Make Money Online Tagging Photos

Reader Jordan McClements gave this piece advice for folks who wish to make money with their digital cameras -

“If your photos are not quite good enough to make a killing on the stock web sites (e.g. like mine), you should consider setting up your own web site to give them away free while making money off the advertising.”

Sounds simple – and yet quite brilliant, really. People love looking for photos online – whether to use for personal projects or commercial purposes. Offering your own ‘free stock photos’ site can yield some good results. I believe that this will especially work if you take photos of highly sought out images that will do well on search engines. Definitely plenty of ideas that you can work with!

It may take a bit of time and effort to set up in the beginning. But, it’s definitely worth looking in to, especially if photography is something that you love to do.

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NOTE:
It’s always great whenever I find interesting comments from readers and visitors to this blog. And sometimes, I wish to refer to those tips and ideas. So, I decided to feature some of the best ones that I found here on Just Make Money Online.

Image based on: MS Office Stock Photo. Edits, Shai Coggins

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Reader Advice: Make Money by Offering Free Photos