Online Business is an ocean of opportunity to all Internet marketing aspirants. You can make money online in various ways and you don’t need to be an IT geek or a millionaire to start your own web business. Plus, having a website or a blog is certainly not a requirement. All you need is a Facebook account to get started! This article will give you ideas on how to make money with Facebook.

Social medias are one way to interact with your friends and relatives. But it can also be a great tool if you want to make money in the Internet. Facebook is the best social media site that you can use to start your own online business. You can actually build thousands of customers using this medium alone. So how can you make money with Facebook? Take note of the following tips below.

Advertise on Facebook
Facebook is a great tool to show off your products and you can do it in a variety of ways like posting in your wall or buying an ads space in Facebook. Plus, there are various Facebook apps that you can use to easily set up your ads for Facebook. This can be used as your virtual online store but make sure that your audience are relevant to what you offer online.

Promote affiliate products 
Affiliate marketing is one of the best way to make money online. But did you know that you can actually make profit from this endeavor even without a website or a blog? Yes, this is possible through Facebook. All you need is to register a free account to any popular affiliate market place like Clickbank, Commission Junction or any affiliate programs that are related to your interests.

You can either post your affiliate id to your wall and present it to your audience but it is much more advisable to create your own Facebook page for more targeted audience. You can do this to various affiliate products that you wish to promote, of course the more the better. Plus, affiliate marketing also offers tier commission method. This means that you earn from every sale your referral make and most affiliate programs offers up to 3rd generation level. So you basically have two ways to make money from Facebook affiliate marketing.

Market your services
If you can advertise your products, you can certainly market your services on Facebook. Let say you are a writer, you can market your skills in Facebook and other freelancing Facebook pages to have a job opportunity. There are lots of employers lurking in this social site which are also looking for qualified individuals who can fill their job requirements.

Another example are writing articles, e-book and other services like virtual assistance. These services are widely common in Facebook ads that you can easily spot in your account sidebar. This ads are highly legitimate and can be your best asset in online job hunting!

I’ve been meaning to write this review for some time now. About 4 months to be exact. I’ve had a hard time getting going on it because I just couldn’t see the any real value add in SEMRush over their competitors. Sure they do some of the basic stuff well, but their interface feels less polished and a bit confusing/overwhelming when you first log on.

Today, however, I decided I had to get the review done, being that the year is nearly over, and I’m wanting to start fresh. So I logged in once again to SEMRush to have a look around for the 20th time and see what my SEMRush contact was all hyped up about. As it turns out, I found a couple of real gems that will likely lead to me forking over the $69.95 monthly fee for access to the Pro version of the service.

First, let me tell you, SEMRush has the usual array of features. Here are a few of the highlights:

• Over 80 million keywords, More than 44 million domains, All held in 11 databases – Translated: A sizable data set to search against
• Keyword data showing Volume, Cost Per Click, Competition, # of Results and Trend data on one screen
• Organic and Paid Search competitor data
• See PPC Ads from the report page
• Data results based on domain, keyword/keyphrase or URL

Those are all fine and good, but what really sets SEMRush apart? Here are 3 things I’ve discovered that will make your life easier and give you the opportunity to generate more money more quickly.

1.  Consolidation of data onto one screen

Let’s face it…time is money. Anything you can do to make your life easier will ultimately make you more money by allowing you to get more done in less time. SEMRush gives you access to a number of critical functions and data points, all in one interface. Whether you’re looking to find keywords to focus your organic or paid search efforts on for an existing site, or wanting to do research on what keywords you want to focus a niche site on. SEMRush has you covered. I particularly like the concise report interface that puts the essential data on a single line per keyword/keyphrase. This is the same for both keyword as well as domain searches.

In my testing, I plugged in the phrase “Porsche 911″ and came up with a nice report showing additional keywords I should consider, the sites, and more specifically, the URLs ranking holding the top rankings for the keyphrase, plus the ads currently showing for along with what URLs they’re sending traffic to. Invaluable data. Here’s a screen shot:

Big time saver. Plus you can drill into individual keywords to see even more.

2. Potential Ads Buyers

This feature and the next one I’m betting are overlooked by many evaluating the SEMRush tool. The first is the Potential Ads Buyers. This report shows up when you plug a domain into SEMRush. It’s a list of sites that buy ads in Google for the same keywords that the searched on site (in our case Porsche.com) has traffic for. Take a look at what comes up for Porsche.com:

What a lot of people starting out in blogging, Internet marketing, etc. don’t realize is you have to work to earn. You can’t just put up a site, throw up ad spots and expect that people will come rushing to give you money to place ads on your site. Even if you have a significant amount of traffic, north of 50k visitors a month, you’re still going to need to work for your money if you want to earn something significant. That means beating the virtual “streets” online and finding people who will advertise on your site.

Here’s what’s freakin cool about the Potential Ads Buyers report. SEMRush gives you a list of nearly 1400 sites in this example that you can hit up to buy traffic from you or take ads out on your site. It’s highly targeted, and available at the click of a button. That’s a big time saver and can easily pay for the monthly price of admission from just one ad sale for a site with 5k to 10k visitors a month.

What’s more, if affiliate marketing is your thing, then hit up the top sites for a keyword or phrase you’re ranking well for. Find new sources of income and places to send your valuable traffic you’ve tapped into. The possibilities for using this data are endless.

3. Potential Ads Sellers

The second of the the diamond in the rough reports is the Potential Ads Sellers report. This is the reverse of the Potential Ads Buyers report in that it gives you a list of sites that get traffic from Google AdWords for the keywords the searched on site has traffic for. Check out this sample for our Porsche.com example:

What I find extremely useful about this report is it’s a list of sites that rank for the keywords I want to rank for. With this data, I have a couple of options. First, I can go to the sites directly and look to buy traffic from them. They’re great sources for placing ads, setting up partnerships with, buying reviews from, etc.

A second option is to see if cheap traffic is available through another source on the site I want my ads to appear on. Google Adsense for instance. Lots of sites use various methods for monetizing their traffic and you can, oftentimes, buy the traffic cheap through those mechanisms.

You could also take this data and determine how those competing sites are ranking for terms you want to rank better for. Our sample list for Porsche.com contains over 53k sites ranking for the same keywords. You’re sure to find some valuable ideas that will lead to boosting your SEO efforts.

The Bottom Line

Is SEMRush worth it? That depends on what you do, what your budget is, and how much money saving time is worth to you. For me personally, one of my goals for 2012 is to put systems into place that save me time. SEMRush is on my list to consider.

What I would highly recommend, even if you’re certain you wouldn’t pay for SEMRush, is to jump over to their site and have a look at the sample data. You can plug in your domain name, keywords, etc. and see real time results from actual data. That alone may generate some ideas for your next SEO or SEM campaign. The best part is it’s free!

Check out SEMRush here:  SEMRush.com

Once you really start getting into the practice of blogging, you start to see blog and post ideas for everything. With the rise in popularity of niche blogs, this is only getting truer. Particularly if you have a fairly good number of specialized interests, it can be extremely difficult to determine which interests would make better blogs or which interest would be better suited for your writing.

Questions to Ask Yourself

After the brainstorming period, you should have a whole bunch of ideas that may excite or intrigue you in different ways. Now is the time to refine the list of ideas through a series of questions. These questions are designed to signify whether the topic is right for you:

• How often do I think about this topic or idea a day? If you’re thinking about dedicating a whole blog to one topic, you must think about the topic multiple times a day at least. If you only think about it once or twice a week, you should probably cross it off your list for now.
• How many ideas or subtopics can I generate from this original topic? This answer can get somewhat tricky depending on what type of blog you have in mind. For instance, some blog themes are defined by form, rather than a particular topic (like an interview blog, photoblog, or satire blog), so they inherently allow tons of subtopics. However, other niche blogs are harder to branch from and expand. You want to have a lot of different ideas and subtopics to associate with your blog so you aren’t pigeonholed into one type of blog with little variation or flexibility.
• How familiar am I with this topic? This is one of the most difficult and important questions to ask yourself. You obviously want to be extremely knowledgeable in whatever topic you blog about so you can provide unique and valuable content that attracts loyal readers. Granted, you can always write a narrative blog about your explorations in a new field, but there has to be a significant reason why your perspective into this new field is insightful (perhaps you find surprising parallels in a seemingly unrelated field?).
• Who will read my blog? This is important to consider for a number of reasons. For marketing purposes, you need to consider who your readers are and cater content to their sensibilities and desires. For your own pleasure in blogging though, you must also consider whether you will enjoy corresponding with your prospective audiences.
• Why and to what extent do I actually care about this? This is fundamentally the most important question to consider and will probably make or break your blog. I know that it’s extremely tempting to blog about topics that seem easy to monetize, but if you don’t care about the topic for any other reason, it will show to your readers.

Test Blogging

I’m going to skip a few steps here. Normally after brainstorming and then refining your list, you take your most promising ideas (top three, at most, works best for me) from your brainstorm and outline them in great detail. The questions above will definitely help this process, but it is also good to go through possible post ideas, design ideas, marketing strategies, and monetization strategies. For now, we’re going to say that we’ve done all of that and decided on which blog we want to write.

Now is the time to start writing posts. I would actually write your original few posts before starting design or writing any of the accessory pages (about me, etc.) because if you are struggling to write your first few posts, you should consider choosing a different topic. I recommend writing ten full posts at least before publishing. After writing your content, pick or create a design for your blog, but don’t publish anything yet.

Before publishing your blog, you should use this opportunity to put your new blog against a test audience. If you have a blog hosted on WordPress, then WordPress allows you create a blog that is “private” and therefore only available to people you give a unique link. If you are self-hosting a WordPress blog, then you will want to use a WordPress plugin (I recommend Absolute Privacy) which allows you to let others in through registration and passwords.

Who do you want as your test audience? I always think it’s a good idea to have some experienced bloggers (with a related topic to your new blog) take a look around and give you comments. Another good opportunity would be readers of any of your current blogs (particularly if they are somewhat related). Of course, those with strong backgrounds in your topic would also be extremely valuable. I would definitely try to limit it to people you know and trust because it would definitely be counter-intuitive to have a bunch of trolls ripping apart your posts before they’re even published. So shoot for fewer rather than more people, and invite them to be critical.

Evaluating the Test

This part is fairly self-explanatory. If you have a positive response, take away the privacy plugin, and start publishing your posts one at a time! If you receive some very thoughtful critiques, perhaps you should make some adjustments to your content or the angle you present it. If responses are overwhelmingly negative, you may want to hold off publishing or consider rewriting from a different perspective or highly altered topic. Then again, sometimes a plethora of negative responses on a blog can be a good thing; it might mean that your topics are controversial or provocative. You just have to be sure that people will actually want to read them.

This is a guest post by Alvina Lopez who is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez @gmail.com. 

It’s fair to say that Amazon had a heavy hand in pioneering the affiliate landscape with it’s Amazon Associates program. In a nutshell, Amazon Associates offers you the ability to get paid by Amazon simply by referring buyers over to their site. Most people know of Amazon’s affiliate program, but most don’t realize the power of the program.

Case in point is an Apple tips site I own. I haven’t had much time to devote to it over the last year, so it pretty much just sits and enjoys traffic from some long standing rankings for a few keywords. About a year ago, I put up a post with a link over to Amazon for a product I reviewed in the post. Last month, my earnings from Amazon were $229.25 from this one site. What’s crazy is the last post on the site was on June 14th.

It’s always a bit like Christmas every month when I log in and see how much sites like that have been earning me passively.

Now I’m not saying every site you throw up will be like that. There are a number of factors that impact how well you do, not the least of which is what niche you’re writing to, but when you come across a gem, it’s pretty cool.

Here’s something a lot of people don’t realize about Amazon’s affiliate program, though, that sets it apart from other affiliate offers. As long as you get someone over to Amazon, it doesn’t matter whether or not they purchase the product that got them there in the first place. I have another site that is a sports car enthusiast site. Once in a while I’ll talk about a book or movie on the site and include a link to Amazon for the product. I’ve had people buy things like TV’s and computers through my affiliate links…for which I get paid!

If you’re wondering how you can get into the game, you’re in luck. Check out this detailed post I came across today on IncomeDiary.com that walks you through everything you need to know: Making Money With Amazon Associates.

Pay close attention to the Making Money section. There are some great tips in there for what type of content you should be putting together to capture traffic ready to buy stuff.

On Wednesday, Facebook announced what they built up to be monumental changes to their service that was supposed to blow my socks off, redefine innovation in social networking, and massively one up the competition. Based on the hype I was seeing, you’d think they’d discovered the cure for cancer.

I was massively disappointed. Course I’m not a Facebook addict like many, so maybe someone out there, other than Mark Zuckerberg, was blown away.

What I found interesting though is the big backlash and steady stream of users bitching about the changes. Were they really that earth shattering that people would feel the need to complain so vehemently? What strikes me as funny about this is the fact that Facebook is……..FREE!!!

Sure everyone is entitled to their opinions, but at the end of the day, if you don’t like it, stop your moaning and take your eyeballs somewhere else. Google would be happy to welcome you with open arms. Heck, take all that time you spend in status land and do something constructive with your time like learning a new online skill that stands to actually RETURN something to you.

All of this reminds me of a post I read on a blog a year or so ago about someone on a plane where they had just fired up their inflight wifi access. They were offering it for free while they worked out the bugs. During the flight, people were livid when the service crashed and Internet access was not available. Yes, livid. Again, a FREE service, that is in beta, and people get pissed when they get inconvenienced.

I guess this serves as a reminder that there are a lot of dumb, lazy people out there. Not dumb in the sense of no smarts, but dumb in the common sense way. There’s not a lot of logic to complaining about a free service. It’s one thing to make suggestions and offer constructive criticism, but complaining because of change is pointless. Those are the same people that will never accomplish their goals and dreams because they have to actually WORK for something. If it doesn’t come easy, or isn’t handed to them, they complain about how tough they have it and how they can’t catch any breaks.

Foster the opposite with the limited amount of time and energy you have each day. Think positively and critically about the challenges you face. One of the things I absolutely LOVE about the Internet is what a level playing field it is. Literally ANYONE can turn nothing into millions. The difference between winners and losers is attitude and some good old fashioned hard work.

Maintaining a positive online image has become a task everyone with a Facebook account needs to keep track of. Some celebrities and multi-million dollar organizations, who can afford to hire expensive publicists and PR firms, can’t even keep a firm grasp on their online brand identity. But normal people can’t afford to have a team of publicists working for us like Britney Spears. When it comes to managing your own online reputation you are your own best publicist; no one else has better access to your information than your number one client, yourself.

Do not ruin your online reputation by posting harmful or slanderous statements about ex’s or former employers. If you left someone on bad terms, you should keep it to yourself and not publicize it to the whole world where it can fall into the wrong hands. If you are tagged in a Facebook photo or other dubious image you don’t feel comfortable with, the polite thing to do is ask if the poster can remove it. If they refuse to do so, you need to distance yourself from that user.

If you are using your personal website as a way to gain freelance work, make affiliate money, or land a job; then your site needs to emphasize your best skills. You should separate many, if not all, personal aspects of your life from your professional aspirations. Clients and employers will see how serious you are about your trade or craft and will even take you into extra consideration when making final hiring decisions.

It is possible for a potential employer to perform a Google name search or a reverse phone lookup and uncover more about you than you even know existed. Not only are your personal blog posts, websites, and social media accounts susceptible to scrutiny; your friends can post incriminating photos or information about you that can be used against any positive character references you might be disregarded.
If you are not sure of your online indiscretions, the best course of action to take is to completely eliminate yourself from the fray and start from scratch. It is possible to create new Facebook and Twitter profiles, but it is not as easy to erase the stigma of an embarrassing online presence. Most industry professionals attend the same networking events and being blackballed from your profession is not a great career move.

With the correct attitude and the proper discretion you can avoid common mistakes and pitfalls for controlling your own online brand. If you are successful, you might even be able to start your own consulting business or teach a PR course at the local community college.

Guest post by Karen Arnold, a reputation and online identity specialist.

Yep, this is one of “those” posts. How to rank well for low competition keywords and keyphrases. And I’ll tell you straight up, it’s a VERY simple answer you’re likely already aware of. For those of you who don’t want to read past the first paragraph, I’ll cater to your short attention spans. The key is the keyword or keyphrase being in the domain name.

There you go. No need to read further unless you want to hear about my latest accidental experiment.

Of course I fully realize this is nothing new. Every guru and Internet “expert” with even half a brain has beat the keyword or keyphrase being part of the domain trick into the ground. It’s common sense. However, today I discovered yet again just how powerful the proper domain can be. Especially with lower competition keyphrases.

Without going into the specifics of what site/domain I bungled to see these results, here is what happened.

Like many site owners, we have dedicated servers (a full rack of them actually) that do different things for us. Web, email, databases, etc. On our web servers, we run both Windows and Linux depending on the best fit for the technology used on any given web site. Blueverse.com is just one of a number of sites running on the particular server it lives on. It happens to be the default site on the server though.

A few days ago, we moved a site over to the server Blueverse.com lives on. One of my admins accidentally left out a couple of letters in the domain we were moving when he set things up on the server. When DNS was updated to complete the site move, instead of the correct site showing, it showed Blueverse.com.

Not a huge deal. A dumb mistake, but easily fixable.

The results were pretty interesting though. For a handful of terms with the number of results ranging from around 27,000 to as many as 244,000, Blueverse.com all of a sudden achieved page 1 rankings in Google, within a 24 hour period. This happened with nothing more than accidentally pointing the domain to the Blueverse.com content.

What’s even more interesting is the domain we were moving maintained it’s rankings as well. We were, in effect, double dipping on results.

Why this happened could be the result of existing rankings for the domain we were moving, the keywords and keyphrases being in the domain, as well as other factors. How long we would maintain the page 1 rankings is tough to say. My hunch is we would have fallen down on the rankings in the not so distant future due to the lack of relevant content.

Regardless, it’s a great reminder of how important a keyword/keyphrase rich domain is. Don’t underestimate the power a relevant, targeted domain can bring.

Oh…and make sure you spell your domains correctly when setting them up on your server!