Everywhere you turn nowadays, you hear about the recession. It seems to be happening all over the world. So, for this month’s poll, I’m curious to know: Are you preparing your online business for the recession?

If you have some tips and ideas on how you’re preparing for the recession, please share them in the comments section of this post too. I’ll be highlighting some of the best tips and ideas on JMMO.

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

New Poll: Are you preparing your online business for the recession?

Saving money is like making money. So, it’s always useful to practice frugality, even in online business. Here are some money-saving links and resources for you:

• 10 Money Saving Ideas
• Money Saving Tips for Business Owners
• How to Save Money
• Simply Thrifty
• 15 Money Saving Tips for Business Travelers
• Frugal Money Saving Tips for Small Business Owners
• Practical Money Saving Tips for Small Businesses

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

How to Save More Money

Many successful people claim that part of their success is due to the fact that they managed to envision good things for what they were trying to achieve. What about you? Do you have a vision for your dreams/goals in life? What’s your vision for your online work/business? Where do you see your work/business, 3 to 5 years from now? In ten years?

I started working online over 10 years ago. I began my online adventures late in 1997. My initial goals were:

• to ‘get my name out there’
• to connect with people
• to find an audience for my writing
• to make extra money

Eventually, as I met those little goals, I ended up making bigger and grander goals. Now, here I am, making money online and living a full time income from my web work. Plus, getting recognised as one of the top performers in this field.

So yes, it does help to have a vision. No matter how simple it may be. Perhaps, you’d like to share YOUR VISION here with us.

Image Source: Microsoft Stock Photo; Edits: Shai Coggins

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

Open Mic Monday: Vision for Your Online Business

Image details: Man Lying Down and Using Laptop served by picapp.com

With so many new tools available for the web worker, is it still worth investing one’s time in creating and/or joining forums as part of one’s online business? Although monetizing forums may seem tough, there are people who are using them to make money online successfully – either directly or indirectly. Here are some ways on how to make money online from forums:

1. Use forums as a way to look for client leads. If you join or start forums that are related to your line of work or business, chances are, you’ll meet people who will eventually need your products and/or services. If they see how valuable your contributions are at a forum, they’re more likely to buy from you or hire you. Just remember not to spam forums and/or do ‘the hard sell’, as you’ll most likely get banned and turn people off.

2. Run ads. If you own a forum, you can post ads – either Adsense-type ads, Affiliate ads, or Direct ads. If you don’t own the forum, make sure you’re allowed to add affiliate links to your profiles and/or signatures before you try that route.

3. Use a subscription model. If you set up a niche forum that is useful, then people might be willing to pay money to belong to your forum. This is especially the case if people can immediately see the benefit of belonging to the forum (help them to make money, gain unusual information, etc.).

4. Build backlinks to your blog or site. As a member or administrator of forums can help you by having links to your blog or site. So, make sure to set up your profile and your forum signatures accordingly. If you’re a valued member of that forum, they’re bound to want to find out more about you even if you don’t ask them.

If you own a forum – or you support one – feel free to share your experience about them with us here.

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

4 Ways to Make Money from Forums

As promised, here’s the result of our poll: Have you ever read a book about making money online?

And, as you can see in this chart, majority of the JMMO voters say that they haven’t read any online business books, but they plan to do so (35%).

The next group of voters say that they have read a few (28%) and 13% said that they’ve read 1 or 2 so far.

Interesting to note is that there’s a good 24% who seem adamant that they’ll never read an online business book. And, I imagine there are varied reasons for this.

Anyway, here are some interesting comments:

From Barbara Ling -

My favorite to date is Jim Edward’s Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business (he advocates writing a superior customer care autoresponder sequence that solves 99% of customer questions ahead of time, as well as create a great helpdesk).

The problems with MMO books are that if they require actual hard work…people tend to become quite unhappy with them. Folks are always looking for the Silver Bullet and after doing this now for 10+ years, I know for sure… there ain’t one EXCEPT hard work.

From Kay -

I’ve read a few articles and blogs about making money online. It always struck me that I would find it far too boring to devote sufficient time and hard work to the online aspects, rather than making the objects I like to make and may want to sell. I tried some scheme that turned out to be a pyramid thing of just persuading people to subscribe to introduce more people. BORING! As soon as they wanted my money for “nothing”, I dropped out. I haven’t got a business head and need more intellectual stimulation than what I’ve found online regarding selling.

From Michael Clark -

Books have far too long a lead time, so the information is generally going to either be very generic; or out-of-date. Ask this question again in a few years after self-publishing and on-demand publishing have matured.

From Jennifer Kyrnin -

So far, I haven’t found any that were worth the cost of their printing. All the ones I’ve tried to read have either been MMF schemes or all the same SEO and marketing techniques of every other “build a website” book out there.

Thanks again to everyone who voted. I’ll be posting a new poll soon.

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

Poll Result: Have you ever read a book about making money online?

Today, I learned about Photrade, a new photography marketplace that’s still in beta. The basic idea is that you upload your photos in the service, then you can sell products based on your photos. These products include: photo prints, apparel, and gift items, as well as digital downloads (stock photo). You can set your own price and they’ll take care of delivering the products to the customer. It also seems like they plan to offer an affiliate programme in the future.

In any case, payments may be: 1) collected in the system and used to buy stuff from the site; 2) donated to your chosen charity; and/or b) sent to you via Paypal (with US$15 minimum payment threshold).

Since it’s still in beta, there are a couple of issues: a) You can only try out the service if you get an invitation; and b) There’s still a few kinks in the system. Plus, I’m not sure yet of its track record when it comes to quality of products, payment systems to photographers, etc.

In any case, I still think it’s a service worth watching. And right now, I have 3 invites available to give away. If you’re interested, leave a comment here answering the question: What kind of camera do you own?

If there are more than 3 folks interested, I’ll raffle off the invites.

NOTE: Thanks to Janette Toral for sending me an invite and telling me about Photrade.

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

Photrade: Make Money Online with Your Photos

It seems like it has been a while since I shared a round-up of online business-related links that I’ve enjoyed reading lately. So, here you go…

• eBay Australia Moves to Single Payment System – ZDnet talks about eBay Australia’s attempt to get all its users to make use of Paypal as its payment system. Interesting discussions from different readers follow.
• WordPress Plugin Contest – About $3,500 worth of prizes for people who can develop good plugins.
• Monetizing WordPress Plugins – Just found this old post by Lorelle and thought I’d share it here.
• eShopOwner – Here’s another b5 biz blog. Written by Suzanne, it’s all about making money online through selling.

I was planning on sharing more, but my Internet connection’s really acting up right now. So perhaps, you can fill in here and share some of YOUR favourite links of the week in the comments section? Really great links may be featured in the future!

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

Link Love Tuesday

It’s now the month of June. We’re almost past half the year of 2008. So, how’re you doing with your online business ideas and goals?

Early in the year, I asked JMMO readers how much money do they wish to make in 2008. Are you anywhere near your target dollar amount? Or, have you surpassed your expectations?

What have you done right so far when it comes to your online business? And, what would you like to change for the rest of the year? Do you have any new goals?

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

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

Open Mic Monday: Reviewing Your Online Business

I love ideas. I love brainstorming about them, talking about other people’s ideas, and finding ways to execute ideas. I love reading and listening to how people got their ideas for what they’re doing (or what they did).

To me, part of the lure of online money making lies in the creation and execution of ideas. The question, “What if…” comes to mind often.

So, what about you? If you’re already making money online, how did you get your idea to get started with your online business/work?

If you’re still considering what to do to make money online, where are you looking for ideas? What are you doing with those ideas that you find?

If you already have ideas – and you’re still not making money online – why? Is there something stopping you from doing something about your 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 The Business of Ideas

It’s that time of the month again, when we wrap up our monthly poll. This time, we’re talking about social networking and online businesses.

If you haven’t voted yet, I encourage you to do so. I’ll be closing this poll shortly and reporting the final votes in the next few days or so.

If you already voted, thank you. I really do appreciate your feedback.

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

Poll Reminder: Do you use social networking to help you to make money online?