Financial spread betting is a tax-free way to play and invest in the markets (all profits are 100% tax-free). One of it’s main attractions especially for new traders is that all global markets can be traded with very small amounts of money so making spread betting a great tool for learning about the markets. Here are 5 tips that will help you make more money.
1. Watch Those Dealing Costs
Spread bet brokers charge no commissions but there are costs involved. They will always quote a wider bid-offer spread than on traditional markets. For example, on Gold futures the bid offer will normally be $0.10 or $569 bid and £569.10 offered. But the spread bet broker will normally quote around $0.50 or $568.80 at £569.30.
These extra costs can have a dramatic effect on profitability over time especially if the trader likes to do a lot of short term trades. Discount costs at your own peril because what happens to many short term traders is they make money gross but lose it net when costs are taken into account. One way to combat this is to cut back on the amount of trades you do by cherry picking the higher probability ones.
2. Use Charts But Keep Your Analysis Simple
Whether you agree with charting and technical analysis is not so important because over 80% of the market does. So if you know the majority of market participants are looking at charts you should keep an eye on them, know how your enemy is thinking so to speak!
Things to look out for are when major chart levels are breached such as the 50 or 200 day moving average as well as price breakouts from important highs or lows.
But the best traders tend to try and keep their charting simple. Anyone who has access to a £300 personal computer can now number crunch with 1001 different indicators. The use of all these indicators has been massively diluted over the years. Instead, try and focus on the shape and character of the chart, does it look bullish/bearish etc and are there any major levels of support or resistance coming up. If so, watching how the market reacts and trades around these levels can give great clues as to the future direction.
3. Don’t Be Afraid To Use Spread Bets For Holding Long Term Positions
Today, everyone seems to be obsessed with trying to trade every move in the market. But with spread betting because of the higher costs involved in short term trading it’s often a better tactic to focus on trading longer term moves.
Concentrating on the longer term moves can have a three-fold benefit. Firstly, the costs become somewhat irrelevant, secondly it’s often less hard to latch on to longer term moves and trends than catch all the short term ups and downs. And thirdly, you don’t have to waste time following the market all the time. The author for example once held a Gold position using spread bets for over a year.
4. Use Dummy Accounts When First Starting Out
Most if not all of the spread bet firms will offer ‘dummy’ accounts for new clients just starting out. Practice accounts are excellent training tools to not only introduce people to spread betting but also how to trade all the different markets as well as how to correctly place orders.
Then after a month or so deposit a small amount of money in an account and trade very small positions. As you begin to gain more confidence in your own abilities, strengths and weaknesses add more money to the account over time. A lot of money has been lost by new clients depositing large sums of money and then blowing large portions of it because they didn’t fully understand the game.
Be smart, look longer term and ease yourself and your trading capital into the markets.
5. Don’t Trade What You Don’t Know Or Fully Understand
You may understand the stockmarket and how to make money but this doesn’t mean you’ll be able to carry this knowledge and understanding to different markets with altogether different characteristics.
Commodities especially those grown in the ground are a classic example of this. Weather, drought, shortages and other fundamental reasons can drastically alter the price of the markets sometimes within a few minutes or perhaps with the market opening 10% higher or lower the following day. So if you want to trade these types of markets do a little bit of research into what can move them as well as studying historical charts to see just how the price can move if things get hairy.
A good rule for all of these commodities is that when they enter what’s called a ‘weather market’ or the time of the year when excess rain, sun or frost can seriously effect the crop automatically decrease the size of your trading positions.
Summary
Trading is as much about skill as experience, in fact they most probably feed off each other. This is why it’s so important to approach the goal of making money in the spread betting world from a position of knowledge and strength. Hopefully this article has given you some tips to go forward and increase the value of your trading account.
Saturday, 12 April 2008
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Making money online without a website
You don't need to have a website to make money on the Internet. Here is a proven strategy to make money online without a website:
Step 1: Find Affiliate Product
Find a product to promote where you make good commission on each sale. Generally, you will get the biggest commissions on digital products. Digital products are defined as something that is downloaded directly to a customer's computer after purchasing, like electronic books or software.
Since there is no extra cost per unit, no inventory and no shipping, the commissions are much greater than on regular "physical" goods. The most common commission on digital products is 50%. The best place to find such products is Clickbank.com.
Sign up as a reseller (also called affiliate) for a product that looks the most appealing to you. After you sign up, you will get a unique affiliate link where you need to send people to purchase the product.
Your affiliate link will have a special code that will tell the product owner that it's you who referred the customer. The affiliate link code will allow your commissions to be tracked correctly and assigned to you.
Step 2: Get Domain Name
Get a domain name to redirect to your affiliate link. A domain name is a .COM name (like yourproduct.com). You can get it for under $9 at GoDaddy.com. GoDaddy.com will allow you to redirect your domain name to your affiliate link at no extra cost.
So when someone types in your .COM domain in their browser, it will go to your affiliate link. The visitor will see the website with the product you promote, and the commissions will be tracked correctly.
The reason why you need a domain name is that it's memorable and it makes you look more trustworthy. Affiliate links tend to be too long and arouse suspicion. For example, most people would rather click on the link bestwidgets.com as opposed to abcwidgets.com?reseller=john
A domain name will make your affiliate link look like it's your own website. So basically, you will have a product to promote and a website to send people to and get commissions - without really having your own website.
Step 3: Drive Traffic
In order to make sales, you need to get visitors to your domain name (which will forward them to the website of the product that you resell). You can pay for advertising and hope that your profit will be greater than advertising cost, or you can use free ways to generate traffic.
The most effective way to get free targeted visitors to your domain name is by writing and submitting articles. You can write short articles on the topic related to the product that you promote. At the end of the article, you include your author bio and your domain name link.
You will then submit your articles to various websites, and allow them to publish your articles as long as your link is included. Your articles will get published in many places on the Internet, and will be advertising your affiliate link at no cost to you whatsoever. People will read your articles, like what you have to say and click on your domain name link ready to buy.
Once you start getting regular sales from your articles, you can go back to step 1 and find another product to promote using this strategy. After a while, you will build up a nice source of Internet income - without even having a website.
Step 1: Find Affiliate Product
Find a product to promote where you make good commission on each sale. Generally, you will get the biggest commissions on digital products. Digital products are defined as something that is downloaded directly to a customer's computer after purchasing, like electronic books or software.
Since there is no extra cost per unit, no inventory and no shipping, the commissions are much greater than on regular "physical" goods. The most common commission on digital products is 50%. The best place to find such products is Clickbank.com.
Sign up as a reseller (also called affiliate) for a product that looks the most appealing to you. After you sign up, you will get a unique affiliate link where you need to send people to purchase the product.
Your affiliate link will have a special code that will tell the product owner that it's you who referred the customer. The affiliate link code will allow your commissions to be tracked correctly and assigned to you.
Step 2: Get Domain Name
Get a domain name to redirect to your affiliate link. A domain name is a .COM name (like yourproduct.com). You can get it for under $9 at GoDaddy.com. GoDaddy.com will allow you to redirect your domain name to your affiliate link at no extra cost.
So when someone types in your .COM domain in their browser, it will go to your affiliate link. The visitor will see the website with the product you promote, and the commissions will be tracked correctly.
The reason why you need a domain name is that it's memorable and it makes you look more trustworthy. Affiliate links tend to be too long and arouse suspicion. For example, most people would rather click on the link bestwidgets.com as opposed to abcwidgets.com?reseller=john
A domain name will make your affiliate link look like it's your own website. So basically, you will have a product to promote and a website to send people to and get commissions - without really having your own website.
Step 3: Drive Traffic
In order to make sales, you need to get visitors to your domain name (which will forward them to the website of the product that you resell). You can pay for advertising and hope that your profit will be greater than advertising cost, or you can use free ways to generate traffic.
The most effective way to get free targeted visitors to your domain name is by writing and submitting articles. You can write short articles on the topic related to the product that you promote. At the end of the article, you include your author bio and your domain name link.
You will then submit your articles to various websites, and allow them to publish your articles as long as your link is included. Your articles will get published in many places on the Internet, and will be advertising your affiliate link at no cost to you whatsoever. People will read your articles, like what you have to say and click on your domain name link ready to buy.
Once you start getting regular sales from your articles, you can go back to step 1 and find another product to promote using this strategy. After a while, you will build up a nice source of Internet income - without even having a website.
How to Make money
Things You’ll Need:
Determination
Step 1:Quick way to make money: Write eHow articles! Write 10 articles a day for a month. You'll have 300 articles and if each one averages 50~75 cents a day, you'll make enough to take care of common bills.
Step 2:Ebay. You probably have hundreds of Dollars of goods laying around your house that you can sell on eBay. It will help cut down on clutter and add some money in your pocket.
Step 3:Cut expenses: Starbucks latte a day? That's $120/month. Packing lunch to work few days a week could save you $50/month. Shop around for car insurance: You could save hundreds a year. Buy in bulk at Costco or Same Club. As they say, penny saved is penny earned.
Step 4:Long term goals to making money: High school degrees and college degrees do help with making more money. Even certificate training could help you land higher paying jobs.
Determination
Step 1:Quick way to make money: Write eHow articles! Write 10 articles a day for a month. You'll have 300 articles and if each one averages 50~75 cents a day, you'll make enough to take care of common bills.
Step 2:Ebay. You probably have hundreds of Dollars of goods laying around your house that you can sell on eBay. It will help cut down on clutter and add some money in your pocket.
Step 3:Cut expenses: Starbucks latte a day? That's $120/month. Packing lunch to work few days a week could save you $50/month. Shop around for car insurance: You could save hundreds a year. Buy in bulk at Costco or Same Club. As they say, penny saved is penny earned.
Step 4:Long term goals to making money: High school degrees and college degrees do help with making more money. Even certificate training could help you land higher paying jobs.
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Making Money on the Internet
Step 1:Setting up Your Web Store Do you have a product or service to promote? It doesn’t matter whether you have a physical business, or whether you’re just a homemaker who’s working from home. The key here is to setup a professional website, promote this website via online and offline tools, and update the contents on your website regularly. If you are serious in your webstore, the choice of web design company should be an important consideration. Choose a party that is able to do more than just “design a website”, by being to offer you great tips and consultancy on how to improve your website, and facilities for accepting online payment. Some great websites that you can develop include Cakes and Cookies Delivery (either for gifts, or during festive) seasons Specialty Clothes - knitted, name - embroidery Copywriting / editiorial services - language translation, freelance writer Just evaluate your skills and strengths, you’re sure to find one that is suitable for the website. The website need not be your individual effort, check around with your other friends, and you’ll have a website with various products and services to promote.
Step 2:Join Affiliate Programs Have the time, and want to do something online but you have no / limited products to sell? Or, are you starting a website that is mainly for social or non-profit purpose? Consider joining an affiliate program to create revenue streams for your website. Some affiliate programs also allow those without website to join their programs by simply promoting the products / services via email, or through promoting your own affiliate link (referral number / id). Some will even offer you a free affiliate website, which is not really “your website” as it’s main purpose is to sell this Company’s products. Do not attempt to join too many affiliate programs, and overwhelm your website visitors with these affiliate banners. Choose affiliate programs that will appeal to your website visitors, and your friends. Be sure to read the fine print on these affiliate programs in terms of referral fee per transaction, minimum amount accumulation for payout, commission on return customers, and the company background.
Step 3:Trading Online Just take a look at the Classifieds website on the Internet, or the Auction websites. From selling your old clothes, to collector items like coins, you’ll be amazed by the amount of items available for sale on these websites. These classified and auction websites are similar to our version of “garage sale”, just that now you have a global audience who will browse through your merchandise 24 hours a day. Some sites to check include www.eBay.com, and Yahoo! Classifieds. Posting of your merchandise on these sites can be free, x dollar per listing, or % per successful sale. As the saying goes “There’s dotcom, and there’s dotcon”. Have you been bombarded with Internet schemes that promise tremendous payout? On average, I get over 15 Internet schemes and offers on a daily basis, such as get paid to read emails, get paid to view advertisements, Internet investment with high performance, and more.
Step 4:To imagine that these email messages are sent to millions of Internet users daily, it only takes a 1% response to give these companies their millions of dollars. Some of the common ones include:- a) Get Paid to Surf - you have to logon to the website a x number of times daily or download a special browser to their desktop, and read the ads / view the banners. The website company will charge the advertisers and reward the members who complete the quota. Pitfall : It takes you ages to complete the quota to be eligible for the payout scheme, if you can ever accomplish it. By the time you get your payout, your amount will be deducted of administrative charges (which sometimes can be about 20% of your total payout already). The worst scenario would be to have the website close down before any member receives their payout. One of the most famous website for Get Paid to Surf was AllAdvantage, which was closed down despite being the fatest growth website in terms of members. Mutations of this scheme include Get Paid to Receive SMS, Get Paid to Read Emails, and Get Paid to Listening to Online Radio Ads. However, if you wish to try this out, you should check out the following issues first: How much will you be paid by reading each email? What is your responsibility other than reading emails, e.g. some schemes would require you to click to a website linked within the email? Can a Malaysian participate? Some schemes are restricted to US citizens only. What is the minimum amount of pay-out? How long will it take for you to earn the minimum pay-out? Remember you are incurring charges for your internet access and phone bills for reading the emails. How is payment to be made and any charges? If payment is made by US cheque, then a significant part of it would be eaten by bank charges.
Step 5:b) Money Laundering - This is a scheme that have been around for many years, earlier on starting with people receiving letters and faxes, and now becoming more high tech with their email messages. The scheme tells you that the sender (most likely from a country in the African continent) has a large sum of money, seeks your assistance in transferring this amount into your bank account, and if successful, you will be offered a x percentage of this amount. Sounds too good to be true that they have actually identified you for this opportunity? Pitfall : Many wise businessmen, and young teenagers have been lured into these schemes due to greed, and rumours have it that after following through with the transaction, some have even been killed after travelling to meet the sender, lost a lump sum of money from their bank account, or have their identities stolen for illegal crimes.
Step 6:c) Online MLM - Companies who promise you great returns through pyramid schemes, and multi-level schemes. Although without valid local government licenses, their excuses to you would be that for Internet, they are not bound by the local laws. Remember the Malaysia government’s commercials on “Get Rich Quick Schemes”? Many have fallen prey to these schemes. These schemes should not be mistaken with the affiliate programs (which you can join for Free, with real products / services). Check through the company background thoroughly, has anyone really received the payout cheque? Pitfall : If anything was to go wrong, whom can you turn to if the Company is not even registered to any Malaysian office, and the people who’ve introduced the scheme to you are only Members? If the Online MLM scheme is to be promoted offline, either through business opportunity meetings, physical sales pitches, it is definitely too risky to be participating in these schemes. One of the most famous online MLM scheme to hit Malaysia was SkyBiz (buy online websites, of which most members have never even built) In summary, there are many ways to make money on the Internet but along the way, you are bound to come across various schemes. The option then, is to evaluate such schemes and make a wise decision before participating
Step 2:Join Affiliate Programs Have the time, and want to do something online but you have no / limited products to sell? Or, are you starting a website that is mainly for social or non-profit purpose? Consider joining an affiliate program to create revenue streams for your website. Some affiliate programs also allow those without website to join their programs by simply promoting the products / services via email, or through promoting your own affiliate link (referral number / id). Some will even offer you a free affiliate website, which is not really “your website” as it’s main purpose is to sell this Company’s products. Do not attempt to join too many affiliate programs, and overwhelm your website visitors with these affiliate banners. Choose affiliate programs that will appeal to your website visitors, and your friends. Be sure to read the fine print on these affiliate programs in terms of referral fee per transaction, minimum amount accumulation for payout, commission on return customers, and the company background.
Step 3:Trading Online Just take a look at the Classifieds website on the Internet, or the Auction websites. From selling your old clothes, to collector items like coins, you’ll be amazed by the amount of items available for sale on these websites. These classified and auction websites are similar to our version of “garage sale”, just that now you have a global audience who will browse through your merchandise 24 hours a day. Some sites to check include www.eBay.com, and Yahoo! Classifieds. Posting of your merchandise on these sites can be free, x dollar per listing, or % per successful sale. As the saying goes “There’s dotcom, and there’s dotcon”. Have you been bombarded with Internet schemes that promise tremendous payout? On average, I get over 15 Internet schemes and offers on a daily basis, such as get paid to read emails, get paid to view advertisements, Internet investment with high performance, and more.
Step 4:To imagine that these email messages are sent to millions of Internet users daily, it only takes a 1% response to give these companies their millions of dollars. Some of the common ones include:- a) Get Paid to Surf - you have to logon to the website a x number of times daily or download a special browser to their desktop, and read the ads / view the banners. The website company will charge the advertisers and reward the members who complete the quota. Pitfall : It takes you ages to complete the quota to be eligible for the payout scheme, if you can ever accomplish it. By the time you get your payout, your amount will be deducted of administrative charges (which sometimes can be about 20% of your total payout already). The worst scenario would be to have the website close down before any member receives their payout. One of the most famous website for Get Paid to Surf was AllAdvantage, which was closed down despite being the fatest growth website in terms of members. Mutations of this scheme include Get Paid to Receive SMS, Get Paid to Read Emails, and Get Paid to Listening to Online Radio Ads. However, if you wish to try this out, you should check out the following issues first: How much will you be paid by reading each email? What is your responsibility other than reading emails, e.g. some schemes would require you to click to a website linked within the email? Can a Malaysian participate? Some schemes are restricted to US citizens only. What is the minimum amount of pay-out? How long will it take for you to earn the minimum pay-out? Remember you are incurring charges for your internet access and phone bills for reading the emails. How is payment to be made and any charges? If payment is made by US cheque, then a significant part of it would be eaten by bank charges.
Step 5:b) Money Laundering - This is a scheme that have been around for many years, earlier on starting with people receiving letters and faxes, and now becoming more high tech with their email messages. The scheme tells you that the sender (most likely from a country in the African continent) has a large sum of money, seeks your assistance in transferring this amount into your bank account, and if successful, you will be offered a x percentage of this amount. Sounds too good to be true that they have actually identified you for this opportunity? Pitfall : Many wise businessmen, and young teenagers have been lured into these schemes due to greed, and rumours have it that after following through with the transaction, some have even been killed after travelling to meet the sender, lost a lump sum of money from their bank account, or have their identities stolen for illegal crimes.
Step 6:c) Online MLM - Companies who promise you great returns through pyramid schemes, and multi-level schemes. Although without valid local government licenses, their excuses to you would be that for Internet, they are not bound by the local laws. Remember the Malaysia government’s commercials on “Get Rich Quick Schemes”? Many have fallen prey to these schemes. These schemes should not be mistaken with the affiliate programs (which you can join for Free, with real products / services). Check through the company background thoroughly, has anyone really received the payout cheque? Pitfall : If anything was to go wrong, whom can you turn to if the Company is not even registered to any Malaysian office, and the people who’ve introduced the scheme to you are only Members? If the Online MLM scheme is to be promoted offline, either through business opportunity meetings, physical sales pitches, it is definitely too risky to be participating in these schemes. One of the most famous online MLM scheme to hit Malaysia was SkyBiz (buy online websites, of which most members have never even built) In summary, there are many ways to make money on the Internet but along the way, you are bound to come across various schemes. The option then, is to evaluate such schemes and make a wise decision before participating
Make Money from Home
Learn How to Make Money from Home with Almost No Work
Money – The question everyone asks is how to make money from the comfort of their own home. The answer is that people all over the world are making money working from home, but how? Home Based Businesses and Affiliate Programs are the most popular ways of doing this. So how do you make money?
Money – The question everyone asks is how to make money from the comfort of their own home. The answer is that people all over the world are making money working from home, but how? Home Based Businesses and Affiliate Programs are the most popular ways of doing this. So how do you make money?
Make Money at Home
If you are a stay-at-home parent, just retired or crave the flexibility of working for yourself, making extra money from a home-based business may be worth looking into. Set your own hours and do what you love.
Step 1:Consider your talents and expertise. If you have an accounting degree or a law degree, consider moving your practice to your home or working from home in addition to your full-time job. A teacher could tutor or a musician could offer music lessons. There are many options here.
Step 2:Open an online store to make extra money. Research products or manufacture your own creations to sell to the public. Many wholesalers will drop-ship products to your customers. You could start out on eBay to work out the kinks before you launch your independent online store.
Step 3:Write articles, newsletters or other projects for local businesses or newspapers. Consider writing articles based on something you know about well. Many publications would welcome expert advice columns or articles.
Step 4:Care for children in your home during the day, after school or in the evenings. Check with your state for the guidelines governing in-home daycare centers.
Step 5:Offer a service, such as interior decorating, professional organizing, catering or a cleaning service.
Step 6:Check job board sites, such as Journalism Jobs, Career Builders or Monster for telecommunication jobs. Many companies offer home business option for consulting, writing or other positions.
Step 7:Shop for extra money and products by becoming a mystery shopper. Be careful about which company for which you choose to shop. Some companies require you to pay to become a shopper. Choose a company that doesn't charge you.
Step 1:Consider your talents and expertise. If you have an accounting degree or a law degree, consider moving your practice to your home or working from home in addition to your full-time job. A teacher could tutor or a musician could offer music lessons. There are many options here.
Step 2:Open an online store to make extra money. Research products or manufacture your own creations to sell to the public. Many wholesalers will drop-ship products to your customers. You could start out on eBay to work out the kinks before you launch your independent online store.
Step 3:Write articles, newsletters or other projects for local businesses or newspapers. Consider writing articles based on something you know about well. Many publications would welcome expert advice columns or articles.
Step 4:Care for children in your home during the day, after school or in the evenings. Check with your state for the guidelines governing in-home daycare centers.
Step 5:Offer a service, such as interior decorating, professional organizing, catering or a cleaning service.
Step 6:Check job board sites, such as Journalism Jobs, Career Builders or Monster for telecommunication jobs. Many companies offer home business option for consulting, writing or other positions.
Step 7:Shop for extra money and products by becoming a mystery shopper. Be careful about which company for which you choose to shop. Some companies require you to pay to become a shopper. Choose a company that doesn't charge you.
How do I make money from Internet
Asking "How do I make money on the Internet?" is like asking "How do I make money on the telephone?" The Internet is a communications device; use it to communicate with people and maybe you'll make some money. Ignore it and you'll be about as prosperous as a company that doesn't answer its phone.
An example of a good commercial site is www.fedex.com. They took an internal database containing information that customers need (i.e., "the location of package #2389156") and made it available to everyone on the Web. You can nose around for their press releases if you like, but basically the entire site is functional. Does the site sell anything? Not really.
Examples of awful Web sites are too numerous to list, but prime candidates include
www.ford.com. Note that here is a company used to cramming information down consumers' throats whether they like it or not. You've basically got the on-line equivalent of advertisements and product brochures. Can you find out which dealer in your area has the highest satisfaction rating? Can you fill out a form to pick the options for a car, seeing which options preclude what and then getting the invoice and retail prices? Will it query the Ford database to find out which dealers in your area recently got shipped cars similar to what you want? No, no, no, no.
[In fairness to Ford, it should be pointed out that the GM site, which came out about six months later, is even worse. EDS built it, presumably for zillions of dollars.]
www.kodak.com. Here is a company whose ad agency makes some of the nicest consumer campaigns in the world. Their Web site looks like randomly scattered product brochures. Notice how the whole focus is company-centric instead of consumer-centric. Yet Kodak has hundreds of in-house publications that contain information that would help photographers. None of these have been placed on the Web. As of March 4, 1996, McDonald's was still waiting for this Internet thing to catch on and consequently didn't have a Web site. However, I'm sure that after they've spent their $millions, their site won't be half as good or 1/10th as trafficked as McSpotlight.
The Internet is a 26 year-old community. Businesses with billions of dollars that discover the Net and decide "let's see if we can make a quick buck off this Net thing" are probably not going to endear themselves to anyone. The people who will prosper are those that figure out how to provide a useful service that people in the community value.
Do something that is isn't done well in traditional mediaWhy does Travels with Samantha get 1/8th the traffic of Pathfinder and 1/3 the traffic of HotWired? Pathfinder is maintained by hundreds of full-time people; HotWired by nearly a hundred; Samantha took me two weeks to Webify. My theory is that Travels with Samantha, an illustrated travelogue, does something that is very poorly done in traditional media. Magazines print lots of nice pictures but don't want to print long text. Book publishers printing travelogues print long text but don't want to pay for color separations and printing for a lot of pictures. Pathfinder, by contrast, is mostly news. News is something that is done very well by TV, radio, news magazines (including Time-Warner's own), and newspapers.
An example of a good commercial site is www.fedex.com. They took an internal database containing information that customers need (i.e., "the location of package #2389156") and made it available to everyone on the Web. You can nose around for their press releases if you like, but basically the entire site is functional. Does the site sell anything? Not really.
Examples of awful Web sites are too numerous to list, but prime candidates include
www.ford.com. Note that here is a company used to cramming information down consumers' throats whether they like it or not. You've basically got the on-line equivalent of advertisements and product brochures. Can you find out which dealer in your area has the highest satisfaction rating? Can you fill out a form to pick the options for a car, seeing which options preclude what and then getting the invoice and retail prices? Will it query the Ford database to find out which dealers in your area recently got shipped cars similar to what you want? No, no, no, no.
[In fairness to Ford, it should be pointed out that the GM site, which came out about six months later, is even worse. EDS built it, presumably for zillions of dollars.]
www.kodak.com. Here is a company whose ad agency makes some of the nicest consumer campaigns in the world. Their Web site looks like randomly scattered product brochures. Notice how the whole focus is company-centric instead of consumer-centric. Yet Kodak has hundreds of in-house publications that contain information that would help photographers. None of these have been placed on the Web. As of March 4, 1996, McDonald's was still waiting for this Internet thing to catch on and consequently didn't have a Web site. However, I'm sure that after they've spent their $millions, their site won't be half as good or 1/10th as trafficked as McSpotlight.
The Internet is a 26 year-old community. Businesses with billions of dollars that discover the Net and decide "let's see if we can make a quick buck off this Net thing" are probably not going to endear themselves to anyone. The people who will prosper are those that figure out how to provide a useful service that people in the community value.
Do something that is isn't done well in traditional mediaWhy does Travels with Samantha get 1/8th the traffic of Pathfinder and 1/3 the traffic of HotWired? Pathfinder is maintained by hundreds of full-time people; HotWired by nearly a hundred; Samantha took me two weeks to Webify. My theory is that Travels with Samantha, an illustrated travelogue, does something that is very poorly done in traditional media. Magazines print lots of nice pictures but don't want to print long text. Book publishers printing travelogues print long text but don't want to pay for color separations and printing for a lot of pictures. Pathfinder, by contrast, is mostly news. News is something that is done very well by TV, radio, news magazines (including Time-Warner's own), and newspapers.
Making Money on the Internet
How much money will our company make on the internet?
This is a question I often hear from businesses.
The answer, the majority of the time is, "in the best case scenario; you'll break even."
When their color returns, I usually ask them this,
"How much money does a bank make off an ATM machine?"
Answer: The bank pays out thousands in installation, insurance, daily maintenance, rental, network linkage, upgrades, theft-prevention, etc. for each ATM. The bank does not make money from its ATMs, it pays money to provide them.
Next question: Would you bank at a place that did not have ATMs?
My answer: No. ATMs are a valued, often essential, service that we have come to expect. For example, I bank at a credit union whose nearest office is 300 miles away. I haven't seen a teller in over two years.
I'm not suggesting that your next modem should come with a cash dispenser. I am saying that the services provided by the web are fast becoming essential and valued services that will help the customer define who they will look to for their needs. Much the same way as the explosive growth of ATMs in the 80s, I expect web sites to continue to bloom in the near, medium, and far future.
Let's look at three areas where the web will become a necessary center for commerce:
Technical and sales support.
Intelligent web-mail processing programs, aka CGI's, can dissect questions for key words and phrases, assigning probability scores and grouping questions into defined categories. The batched results can be forwarded to the support or sales people best able to answer them or even directly responded to by the CGI. At the very least, the CGI can send a comforting acknowledgment to the querying user that the message was received and will be processed in a timely manner. All of these functions, not to mention the saving on tangible and intangible costs of keeping 800-number callers on hold for an hour, dramatically help ease the cost of providing support for the products or services sold. Providing these services, such as support, is not an area of income; the web can help reduce, but not eliminate the cost.
Nexus for product information and technical specifications.
How much information can be given in a 30 second commercial? We've all heard contest rules or car dealership specifications mumbled incredibly quickly at the end or beginning of a radio commercial. The information given there is an extreme précis, just enough to satisfy the legal department. Now consider the ads for prescription drugs in magazines. What's that, around three pages of ultra-small type? The point here is that there are limits to the quantities of information capable of being transmitted over traditional media. On the web, users can go as in-depth as they wish, without imposing this vast bulk of information on another, not-as-interested, user. It is an ideal place to present complete information about a product or service that cannot be summarized into a 30 second spot, and at a considerable savings.
Product purchasing, update, and upgrade distribution.
This is what most think of when asked about commerce on the web. It has become so ridiculously expensive to distribute software through the traditional distribution channels, that for the international corporation and independent developer alike, the web can be defined as a place to save a great deal of money. Software upgrades and updates cost a company tens of thousands of dollars to distribute through a traditional mechanism such as floppy disks and postal distribution. The one-time cost of setting up an easy to use internet file transfer system that can serve thousands of users a day, is a small fraction of that of the mailings. This promotes more timely updates and incremental upgrades. The newest, coolest stuff gets out as it is developed, rather than being held up for a major overhaul that would justify the cost of the mailing.
"This is all fine and good for software, or even hardware companies, but what about my business?" You may ask. This is just one model of how the web can save money. I have built subscription-based trade information centers, secure two-way database access points, internationally distributed scheduling systems, ordering systems that can assist the buyer in obtaining all the requisite parts of a multi-part purchase and many others. There are other examples and uses that stretch only as far as the imagination.
This is a question I often hear from businesses.
The answer, the majority of the time is, "in the best case scenario; you'll break even."
When their color returns, I usually ask them this,
"How much money does a bank make off an ATM machine?"
Answer: The bank pays out thousands in installation, insurance, daily maintenance, rental, network linkage, upgrades, theft-prevention, etc. for each ATM. The bank does not make money from its ATMs, it pays money to provide them.
Next question: Would you bank at a place that did not have ATMs?
My answer: No. ATMs are a valued, often essential, service that we have come to expect. For example, I bank at a credit union whose nearest office is 300 miles away. I haven't seen a teller in over two years.
I'm not suggesting that your next modem should come with a cash dispenser. I am saying that the services provided by the web are fast becoming essential and valued services that will help the customer define who they will look to for their needs. Much the same way as the explosive growth of ATMs in the 80s, I expect web sites to continue to bloom in the near, medium, and far future.
Let's look at three areas where the web will become a necessary center for commerce:
Technical and sales support.
Intelligent web-mail processing programs, aka CGI's, can dissect questions for key words and phrases, assigning probability scores and grouping questions into defined categories. The batched results can be forwarded to the support or sales people best able to answer them or even directly responded to by the CGI. At the very least, the CGI can send a comforting acknowledgment to the querying user that the message was received and will be processed in a timely manner. All of these functions, not to mention the saving on tangible and intangible costs of keeping 800-number callers on hold for an hour, dramatically help ease the cost of providing support for the products or services sold. Providing these services, such as support, is not an area of income; the web can help reduce, but not eliminate the cost.
Nexus for product information and technical specifications.
How much information can be given in a 30 second commercial? We've all heard contest rules or car dealership specifications mumbled incredibly quickly at the end or beginning of a radio commercial. The information given there is an extreme précis, just enough to satisfy the legal department. Now consider the ads for prescription drugs in magazines. What's that, around three pages of ultra-small type? The point here is that there are limits to the quantities of information capable of being transmitted over traditional media. On the web, users can go as in-depth as they wish, without imposing this vast bulk of information on another, not-as-interested, user. It is an ideal place to present complete information about a product or service that cannot be summarized into a 30 second spot, and at a considerable savings.
Product purchasing, update, and upgrade distribution.
This is what most think of when asked about commerce on the web. It has become so ridiculously expensive to distribute software through the traditional distribution channels, that for the international corporation and independent developer alike, the web can be defined as a place to save a great deal of money. Software upgrades and updates cost a company tens of thousands of dollars to distribute through a traditional mechanism such as floppy disks and postal distribution. The one-time cost of setting up an easy to use internet file transfer system that can serve thousands of users a day, is a small fraction of that of the mailings. This promotes more timely updates and incremental upgrades. The newest, coolest stuff gets out as it is developed, rather than being held up for a major overhaul that would justify the cost of the mailing.
"This is all fine and good for software, or even hardware companies, but what about my business?" You may ask. This is just one model of how the web can save money. I have built subscription-based trade information centers, secure two-way database access points, internationally distributed scheduling systems, ordering systems that can assist the buyer in obtaining all the requisite parts of a multi-part purchase and many others. There are other examples and uses that stretch only as far as the imagination.
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
For beginners
http://makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com/How to Make Money Online with Blogspot BlogsSEOYahoo AnswersProject PaydayAdsenseSquidooPayday LoansBloggerMore...
Make Money from Blogs
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/12/06/how-bloggers-make-money-from-blogs/How do bloggers make money from blogs?
I’ve been reflecting this week about the amazing diversity of opportunities that are opening up for bloggers to make money from blogging.
I’ve long advised that bloggers seeking to make money from blogging spread their interests across multiple revenue streams so as not to put all their eggs in one basket.
The wonderful thing is that this is becoming easier and easier to do 2005 has seen many options opening up. I thought I’d take a look at some of the methods that bloggers are currently using to make money through blogs.
Income Streams for Bloggers - How to Make Money Blogging
I’ve been reflecting this week about the amazing diversity of opportunities that are opening up for bloggers to make money from blogging.
I’ve long advised that bloggers seeking to make money from blogging spread their interests across multiple revenue streams so as not to put all their eggs in one basket.
The wonderful thing is that this is becoming easier and easier to do 2005 has seen many options opening up. I thought I’d take a look at some of the methods that bloggers are currently using to make money through blogs.
Income Streams for Bloggers - How to Make Money Blogging
Money Maker Info
http://moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com/
Resources of how to make money online. Find money making opportunities. Update of latest free Internet marketing e-books, reports and tools released by experts.
Resources of how to make money online. Find money making opportunities. Update of latest free Internet marketing e-books, reports and tools released by experts.
Thursday, 3 January 2008
Make Money with Amazon
How to nake money with Amazon http://www.amazon.com/tag/how%20to%20make%20money
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