Does anyone know a tired and true resource for making money on the web? There are so many out there and they appear to be scams.

This is a real tough one. You are right about scams. Even if what you read seem like a scam, at best it is a teaser for something that has maybe 10% to do with the internet.

I'll give you an example, here is an ad I answered 4 years ago. "Love to use the Computer, then you can work from home". After a few other inquiries leading from one mystery(that's what I call it) to another, I finally learned that it was Herbalife. The computer part was the fact that you had a website.

I think the best person that I know to answer your question for sure would be Sher.

I am sorry Dotsie, I wish I had more info for you.

Cheers and Blessings,
Cathi

Seems nowadays all I can give you is how to spot a scam...instead of answering your question. However, what about writing? There are some legit writing contest out there where the prize is moola and the entry fee is zero dollars. Do a search on "no-fee contest" or "free writing contest" or such...

I'm giving mall mania a shot. If any of you shop onine, please do so through BWS. Have you visited the page yet? I get a teeny tiney kickback for purchases made through my site. We'll see how this works.

Please tell your friends who are addicted to online shopping to shop at Mall Mania at BWS. The link is on the home page at the top. Eventually it will be on every page including the forums.

Thanks. Sorry to plug it, but I'd like the site to start paying for itself.

Dotsie,
Don't be sorry! With a web site that generates as many hits as yours you should be putting all kinds of money making things on here! You've earned it. It's helpful for us too!

Dotsie, please don't be sorry. My husband funds my projects from his salary, and we are not rich by any means. The costs of a site, administration, etc. add up. I'm with you, though, just now learning how to make money via computer. I got some ideas from "Mom and her Money.' For example, I didn't know until this site that Google offers pay for ad placement. Yes, our sites need to start paying for themselves. Good luck, Lynn

Dotsie,
I don't know what all you have going, but have you tried the Associate program at Amazon? You can earn up to 10% referral fees and all you have to do is show books on a web page with a link to the Amazon page. Since so many of the people here (BWS) have books, maybe they would really support your marketplace connection to Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/104-2009826-4403908?node=3435371

I'm not sure about now, but last year it was set up so that if a customer clicked into Amazon through your site, you would get a referral fee for EVERYTHING they ordered when they ordered your referral product. That could be lucrative I would think.
Just a thought.....especially since you have so much traffic which is the key to success as an affiliate.
Dannye

Dotsie,
You have nothing to apologize for. Shopping is what people do, and if I am going to shop then I would rather support people I know.

I hope this makes sense!?!

Cheers,
Cathi

I always come to the forum home page to look something up on Google, I know that helps.

Thanks everyone for your ideas.

Dannye, I just added Amazon this year and it's helping a little bit. I'm hoping women will shop the great stores on my site. There are some good ones. I have overstock.com and I understand they now have a national campaign with television ads. I need to spend some time on that site. I'm always looking for a bargain!

Dotsie,

Could you add an easy link to the website somewhere obvious - so we can "brainlessly" find it. (I'm speaking for myself) ha.

If it's easy to find - I know I'll use it!

hugs,
danita

My web designer is trying to access the code to put a link to mall mania at the top of the forum page.

There is a link to the mall on the homepage at the top right side. You'll see a lady with shopping bags. Click on that.

Danita, as one "brainless" to another, I had never noticed the link either! Sometimes I think with all the stuff passing before my eyes, I require the old 2x4 treatment to notice things more often than I used to.

THere is a link for the mall at the top of every page onthe site now, except the forum page. Still working on that coding.

I'm so glad I noticed this. I'm going to give you some ideas to monetize your website and hopefully at least some will work. I hope you don't mind cause it's gonna be sort of long.

First of all, your Google ads aren't going to make any real money for you until you put them in a place that is more easy to see. It's important to have them sort of flow in your content. What I mean by that is that they make more money for you when they are in the "middle" of content and appear as seemless as possible. (No loud colors.) Look at this page:http://www.momandhermoney.com/mystery-shopper.html. See how the ads are at the top of the page and don't have a border or color?

Another way to make more with Adsense is to put the ad code in the middle of content, but with a static image next to it so that the reader's eye is drawn there. Look at this page for an example: http://www.momandhermoney.com/Index.html

You've already implemented Amazon and that's great.

But, have you thought about allowing visitors to submit reviews of books they've read in exchange for a free link to their own website of course? On each review page, you would want both the Amazon code and the Google code displayed prominently. That way your readers can find out about a book, read a great review and then purchase it right from your site.

A lot of women that come here are looking for ways to either publish books, or make extra money or lose weight. If you add content pages for each of those things, you can really do well with Google and with affiliate ads that are geared to that topic.

For example, one simple page that follows a topic of picking up a few extra bucks here and there could feature a new money making craze called Cells for Cash. Most people have old cell phones lying around. Did you know that you can now sell them for anywhere from a few bucks to $100.00 depending on the model? The company even sends out a postage paid mailer. Not only would you be able to direct your visitors there, you would earn an affiliate commision on every sale.

You can read more about that program here:
http://momandhermoney.blogspot.com/

If you had a page that talked about dieting, you would want to maybe find a good affiliate program for a company that has to do with dieting. You can look for one at www.cj.com or www.primaryads.com or www.offersquest.com. Again, always put Google there as well.

Another way you can make more money with your site is to SELL ADVERTISING SPACE. There is no shame in that, Dotsie and with your traffic, you really need to consider it. You'll do very well selling ad space.

A great company that can make the most of the advertising space you have to sell is LinkWorth.
http://www.linkworth.com?a=175. I really suggest you check it out for yourself.

And before I go, you should think about a blog and about putting Google on it as well. What would you talk about? Anything! How you are getting press, to what you did in a day to promote your book, etc. Once you have a blog and have posted for a few weeks, put a link to your site feed there so that people can choose to be constantly updated on what's new. Blogs are big and they are going to get much, much bigger. Some people make their entire monthly income by blogging... but you can at least make extra money by having a blog that you list in your navigation bar.

Well, I've probably said way more than I should have and its likely stuff you already knew. Just FYI!

Sher, you did not say way more than you should have! In fact, keep the ideas coming. I didn't realize that we could put Google on blog pages as well. Yes, I have blog in my navigation bar. I am using my blogs for reviews and anything pertaining to my topics from BTT. What do you mean by: put a link to your site feed? How do you make an entire monthly income by blogging? Sher, these are outstanding excellent ideas! Thanks! Love and Light, Lynn

OK. I'm just learning about this site feed (RSS) stuff myself, but here's what I'm learning.

First, to understand what RSS is, go here:
http://www.websearchguide.ca/newsletter/030228.htm.

Supposedly, if you put a link to your site feed on your site so that people can grab it, they can use My Yahoo for example to receive notice every time you update your content. You can see why that's valuable. Most blog services make it easy to do that... I use Blogger and I can do it under "formatting".

The way some people are making such good money with blogs are with niche blogs. For example, if you know a lot about computers and every day your write about what's new in the world of computers and get good SE rankings, you'll do well with Google. Really well. Search engines love blogs partly because the content is updated so frequently.

Just remember that once you put your Google code on your blog, try to keep good keywords in mind when you are writing. If you want Google to show ads for certain keywords that you know your readers will want to click, use those keywords often in your writing. Believe me, writing for the web is WAY different than ordinary writing. You have to keep your content keyword rich to get the ads you want.

As you can see, I'm a big fan of Google. Although talking about how much you make with Google will get you kicked out of the program, I can tell you that I'm very happy at the end of the month when the check arrives. I'm not making what I hope to make someday, but it increases every month as I learn new things. I truly believe it's worth anyone's time to learn how to effectively use Google Adwords.

I started to put some of the moneymaking ads on my blog, but I didn't want my visitors to be bothered with popups. Is there any way to prevent the popups and popunders?

Thanks! - Donna

Google ads are not pop up ads.

Affiliate ads will specify whether they are pop ups or not so you can always keep pop ups off your site. You have the option of what kind of ad you'll run. You can choose a banner ad, a text ad, a button ad, etc...

I should have mentioned that the best way to see how it all works is to sign up for an affiliate account. One of the easiest ones to get is Offersquest. That way, you can check out some of the options available to you. You never need a credit card to sign up, but some sites will ask for your SSN for 1099 purposes. If you have a question as to whether a site is legitimate, just ask and I'll let you know if I know anything about them.

Here is a link to check out Offersquest. Be advised that I am using my affiliate link, which means I do get paid when you sign up and then use your account. (Just want to make sure you know that.)
www.offersquest.com/r.php?a=CD1755

Sher, thanks so much for all this valuable information. I'm going to forward it to my web queen and let her take over from there. I admire you for being able to do all this on your own. You must be a computer wizard!