Need a Quick $100 - Write a List for Listverse

Listverse is a hugely popular site that compiles the internet writer's best friend, lists.  Listverse will pay you $100 cold hard cash directly into you Paypal account.  Below you'll find the best practices to get your list accepted directly from the listverse crew.

The rules are: there are no rules. As long as your list (and we do mean yours—don’t steal other people’s stuff) is over 1,000 words you can choose any topic you like. Just remember—if it’s good enough to publish (by our standards) you get 100 bucks—simple as that.To help you out with some ideas, the lists that our readers love the most (and the ones we will most likely pay for) are usually offbeat, looking at something normal in an unexpected way (top 10 ways college makes you dumb, for example), hidden knowledge (things most people don’t know), misconceptions, facts, and just really really good general knowledge about anything—science, for example.

If accepted you can also link to your blog or social media site, which can be fantastic exposure. Just believe in your writing that's the best advice I can give. Plus if you don't get accepeted, Listverse doesn't own it, you can still post it on your own blog or Medium is a always great exposure too.

Click here to Submit a List

Never Run Out of Post Ideas by Fringe Blogging

"Fringe Blogging" is not a thing, I'm not making this a thing.  It's just a golf analogy that's been beaten to death, but hey it's the best I can do.

What I mean by fringe blogging is to look slightly outside your chosen niche for post ideas.  It is every blogger's worst nightmare, to run out of ideas for a post.  That's why it is important to fringe blog so to speak.  For example on this blog I've posted inspirational things because although it doesn't pertain to a particular way of making money, it is a very important to keep a positive attitude towards what you're trying to accomplish.  Otherwise you will stop working or think "I'll just take a few days off".

As I mentioned I used to run a mixed martial arts blog.  When I started doing it it was a fairly small niche, events would happen maybe twice a month.  So to keep the flow going I would make posts pertaining to other combat sports like boxing or K-1 kickboxing.  There were always a few readers who would make a snarky comment because it wasn't MMA related so to speak, but 99% of the readers loved those fringe posts and even thanked me for opening them up to another world.

It really is a simple idea that can be overlooked by beginning bloggers because it's not laser targeted to their niche.  Your niche is very important of course, but it pales in comparison to the number one goal; entertaining your readers.  So have a blog about movies?  Throw some TV or video game posts in there.  A blog about playing guitar?  Make a post about the banjo.  Etc. Etc.

Warren Buffet's Quotes for the Day

I love posting pertinent quotes on what we are trying to accomplish as at home entrepreneurs.  Here are 6 little gems from one of the greatest men history has ever seen.

How to Better Use Amazon's Mechanical Turk

Here's a great video on how to better use Mturk.  Mechanical Turk is Amazon's task program that allows you to make money by doing things like taking surveys or giving opinions.  It's my second favorite earner after PostLoop.  You can make some really good money with it, use this video for advice and helpful browser plugins.

Save and Earn Cash with Ebates

Saving money is something we all strive to do.  Whether it is from clipping coupons or striving to keep our spending it check, it’s something we are always concerned about and could always do more with.  Luckily there are a lot of great ways to save some extra money while online.  Ebates is one of the best programs out there.  It is set up to pay you money for the shopping you already do online.

How the program works:

Ebates offers you a percentage back on any purchase you making using a variety of sites.  These range from sites you might use every day such as Walmart to lesser known ones like Groupon.  All that is required is that you use Ebates tracking token when purchasing items.  Not only that, but Ebates also has a variety of coupon codes to help you find the best deal while shopping online.

Earning Cash Back:

Earning cash back is very easy with Ebates.  You have two options.  One, you can start every shopping adventure through Ebates site and click through to the site you want to use.  The second option is where Ebates shines.  They offer a browser plug in that will tell you if a site you are on offers cashback and how much.  It couldn’t be any easier.  I have been using this program for over a year now and its great earning 1-6% cash back on everything I purchase.

Overall Ebates is a great program that will help you stretch your dollar even further.  I use it primarily as a passive income earner.  I do most of my shopping online to save money.  With Ebates I get a check every couple months for a very nice refund.

It’s a free program that requires very little personal information.  I encourage you to check it out and help you save even more money while living frugally.

[Sign up here] 

Don't Neglect Other Types of Blog Posts

If you are starting a blog to work from home and make money then you should already know that researched content is everything. A lot of people will immediately think articles, articles, and more articles. This is partly true. Blog articles will help the most in determining your search engine ranking, but let me tell you a universal truth, they can be boring.

The last thing you want is for your loyal readers to be bored. Bored readers become non-readers. Now don't get me wrong, the majority of your blog should be good researched articles, but here are some suggestions to keep a good flow of posts going that intertwine with your articles and make your blog more entertaining.

-Videos - Look at other blogs in your niche and if they post a youtube video, grab the embed code and post it also, make sure the headline is different. In addition search youtube yourself for videos in your niche.

-Infographics - People love a good infographic, you can easily find one pertaining to your niche.

-Pic of the Day - If you have a blog about making money like this one, find a picture and superimpose an inspirational quote on it. Of course if you have a sports or entertainment blog well that's easy.

-Quote of the Day - Speaking of quotes. They are perfect for a nice quick blog post.

-Link Club - Start a link club in your niche, even if other blogs don't want to participate, just inform your readers of good links once a week.

-News Snippets - There is news in virtually ever niche. I'll be writing a post in the coming days about how to write a good news snippet.

-Events - If there is an upcoming event pertaining to your niche, let your readers know about it in a short blog post.

Thanks for reading and try some of these. You may find that it's easier to have a productive blog when you aren't stuck doing the same thing constantly.

Getting Started with Postloop

I recently wrote about my favorite earner Post Loop. In that article I mentioned what you need to do to get the most out of the time you spend there.  Well I didn't mention the basic things you should do to get started. Lucky for me a youtube user made a short video explaining just that.

Need a Flood of Traffic? Write a List - A Crazy Story of Success

When you start a blog and that's the way you would like to earn your work at home income there is just ONE hurdle you need to leap.  The traffic hurdle.  Now traffic from search engines is the most valuable traffic there is, but it takes awhile to get a steady stream.

If you're a true writer, writing a list might seem like a cop out or an easy dumbed-down version of writing. For the most part it kind of is, but sprinkling in a few can be very valuable.  

Lists are one of the most popular things on the internet, a ton more people will be inclined to read a list than a news piece or a normal article.  Lists are also more likely to go viral and bring in an amount of traffic you could never even dream of.  

Here's a short explanation of how one of my lists went viral awhile ago and brought in the most amount of traffic I ever witnessed.

-Submitted list to Fark.com

-Fark accepted the list, changed the headline slightly, and put it on their front page.

-Traffic is really spiking at this point, about 8k visits per hour.

-Nearly every blog in my niche picked up the article and linked to it.

-Stumbleupon users start stumbling the Fark link, which redirects to my link. 

-Sites that are essentially "link farms" in my niche pick it up.

-The yahoo blog in my niche picks it up.

Yahoo really sent it into the stratosphere and there I was glued to my adsense earnings and traffic stats. Final tally?  Over the next 3 days I generated over a million page views and made about $900 in adsense.  This all came about from writing a list in about an hour and a half.  

It was like a drinking binge, I was hungover, it was a rush.  It was like watching a slot machine winning for 3 days.  The exposure was invaluable as I received emails from more advertisers in the coming days and earned a little respect within my niche.  

Think of a list, write it, promote it to free sites like Fark, Digg, Reddit.  It happens all the time, it can be you the next time, just do it.

Find Out What People Want from Your Blog

This is a fantastic guest post over at Problogger by Sabina Stoiciu about how to find out exactly what your blog readers want from you.

Giving out free content is quite the gift, but it has to engage your readers so they'll keep coming back for more and tell their friends.  New readers are certainly valuable, but developing a loyal following of people that check your blog on a daily basis is the real key to success.  Here's a snippet:

5. Analyse engagement

The last point on our list (but definitely not one that should be neglected) is to analyse the engagement around your blog posts and around their reverberance in social media.

 To be more specific, take a look at the number of likes, shares and comments a post received directly on your blog, as well as on the social media channels where you shared it. Naturally, posts that sum up a lot of engagement have always proved themselves to be a hot topic for those engaging with them. Hence, why not consider exploring more of these topics that your readers were so keen on?

 These are some ideas on how to find out what your blog visitors are looking for. Remember, you can always test to see what works out best and let the results point you towards the direction worth following.

Click Here to Read the Entire Article.

Post Loop -Tips to Succeed

Post Loop is a site where you are paid to post on forums and also paid to post blog comments.  

It is my favorite site because I have found forums that I am actually really into and it never feels like work to me.  Don't get me wrong if you are a good writer and want to joining 30 forums and grind it out to make extra money, you absolutely can.  That's not really for me though, I prefer to not be a drone if I can help it, but like I said that isn't a bad thing if you have the motivation and savvy to do it.

The way I like to use Post Loop is to just have fun and get in to really interesting conversations on the forums.  You can also customize your forum signature to promote your favorite referral sites or your blog.  If you are interesting, people will genuinely be curious and give you some traffic or possible business from those signatures.  Here some tips to help you succeed:

-The First 10 Posts are Everything - Post Loop will hand you out a rating from 1-5 stars that determines what forums you will be able to participate in.  Be sure to use good grammar, write 2 informative sentences, don't be long winded, have a clear point, and don't bash anyone.  I scored a 4 and it has gone up ever since because I maintain the same quality at all times.  You will be rewarded with bonuses for continuing to put up good content.

-Take Advantage of Your Signatures to Promote Other Things - Like I said above, this is basically free marketing, especially if  what you promote pertains to the forum.   

-For Quicker Cash Use the Blogs - I've found that if you need some quick points to hit your payout ($5 Minimum) run through some blogs as it is quicker.  Blog comments can be shorter and less informative in my experiences, but don't get cute and just post like "Good Article" or something.  

-Set a Daily Goal - Let's say you want to reach the $5 payout tomorrow.  Just do it, it is absolutely possible.  Change your daily goals frequently though.  Some days I'll just focus on hitting the maximum at one particular forum that the owner has given me positive feedback on already.  In turn this can turn into the owner giving you bonuses, basically he will increase the amount you get paid for each post.  

Remember these tips when navigating the site, they will help you maximize your experience. You can sign up by clicking here, hit those first 10 posts out of the park, you won't regret it.

You Can Work from Home on the Internet

First off, I started this blog because I hear everyday that working from home on the internet is an impossible task and that only so-called "geniuses" or people who are already wealthy can do it. Let's just eliminate that right now. 

I am 31, never went to college, but for 5 years of my adult life I worked from home and loved every single second of it. I started a Mixed Martial Arts blog for fun and it turned into my job and I was proud of it. I sold the site in 2012, which is something I regret, but for the past year I have been working a regular job and making money online with the ultimate goal of just working from home again. Here are some important factors to help you along the way.

 -Creativity - Find your muse and marry her. If you work on being a more creative person an entire new universe of online income opens up for you. 

 -Work Ethic - At first, treating it like a regular job is a must, you have to grind a little bit to reach your ultimate goal. 

 -Picture Yourself Making It - Everyday take a moment and picture the life you want for yourself, you can achieve it, all these negative people will tell you to the contrary. You need to block that out. Don't tell people you plan on doing this, just let the results speak for themselves. 

 -Be Open to Other Entrepreneurs - Work with other people, help them, answer your emails promptly. This is not a competition, don't be afraid to help your fellow people who are wanting to work from home as well. The internet is entirely too vast to think you need to keep some good ideas to yourself. So that's it for now, wake up, get up early and do something, anything to forward your progress in this. I will be making posts daily to help you along the way. I will be setting up an email account specifically for this blog and I will gladly be prompt in my communication. Thanks for reading, onward and upward.

Feel free to email me - chordsdude@gmail.com