Google Alert - Make Money Online

Google News Alert for: Make Money Online

Find Your Financial Style -- and Avoid Its Pitfalls Wall Street Journal Then there are the emotional ones, those who cling to money at the wrong times and make impulsive decisions. So, what kind of investor and saver are you? ... See all stories on this topic

New York Times How High Will Real-Time Search Fly? New York Times Analysts say Twitter may well find ways other than search to make money from the huge amounts of data that flow through its system. ... See all stories on this topic

UFC 104: Weigh-in flops and overhype, we get answers tonight Yahoo! Sports The weight difference and power should make the difference. I would put money on schaeffer just because its MMA and those are good odds to take. See all stories on this topic

Online report cards sure to make grade with parents Houston Chronicle She said she plans to use computers on campus to stay informed until she and her husband save enough money for their first home computer. ... See all stories on this topic

Losing Out After Winning an Online Auction New York Times The buyer never saw his money again. To make matters more complicated, some sites are putting a twist on traditional auctions. For example, Swoopo.com and ... See all stories on this topic

Your Money Money Talks to Have Before Marriage New York Times A few things that he suggests couples discuss early on: If one person is making most or all of the money, does that person get to make most or all of the ... See all stories on this topic

Microsoft's results: online, it's losing more money than before guardian.co.uk That's not good - especially for a company that is ostensibly trying to make itself into an online behemoth. The OSD includes Bing, MSN, ... See all stories on this topic

Could you make this business idea work? Chicago Tribune This would also make money for whoever wanted to take on the task of matching up real estate customers. I have been trying to sell my property in Bremen ... See all stories on this topic

Online Music: The Song Remains The Same Forbes What if everyone comes to realize what the music industry and Steve Jobs have always known, that the only way to fight piracy and make money in digital ... See all stories on this topic

Five easy freemium tricks Hulu can use to make more money Econsultancy (blog) Cutting off access to those shows could greatly inhibit Hulu's efforts to gain prominence online (and compete with efforts of a web giant like Hulu). ... See all stories on this topic

Google Blogs Alert for: Make Money Online

Transfer Files From Windows XP to Windows 7 With Windows Easy ... By GeckoFly October 25, 2009 · Filed Under How To and Online Tutorials ↓ Sponsored Links. Transfer Files From Windows XP to Windows 7 With Windows Easy Transfer. How to easily transfer files, folders and settings to Windows 7? ... GeckoandFly Make Money Online - http://www.geckoandfly.com/

Watchdog signs off on DHS plan for stimulus spending; political ... By Matt Apuzzo ... drscb There isn't an easier way to make money online - http://bit.ly/kn093 - Download the FREE business plan and decide for yourself. helenpickard New business news Buying your own business online: Marketplace (blog) He'd worked in ... Breaking News - http://blog.taragana.com/n/

Brad Pitt Photos & Pics | Brad Seeks Shelter In Nearby Apartment ... By X17Online They always make brad look younger than he really is :)by removing his wrinkles but then they write something like "oh he looks so old." LMAO The public is not as gullible as we used to be. October 24, 2009 2:19 PM. Posted by: Anonymous ... X17 Online - http://x17online.com/

SLAM ONLINE | » 30 Teams, 30 Days By Jake Appleman The 2009-10 New Jersey Nets are playing with house money. They're the NBA's equival Devin Harris & Courtney Lee ent of a guy that was given $82000 to make 82 bets. The real estate magnate that handed the money over couldn't care less ... SLAM Online - http://www.slamonline.com/online/

Want to Invest in my Latest Project? | TylerCruz.com: An Internet ... By Tyler Cruz I think it'd make for an interesting read to see how both investors in an online project fare from their investment, and how the project itself turns out. I'm guaranteed to make money on this right? No! You're not guaranteed anything. ... TylerCruz.com: An Internet Entreprene... - http://www.tylercruz.com/

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Top 5 Microstock photography agencies

ShutterStock

ShutterStock is probably the most popular Microstock web site and the one that provides the best returns. The reason is quite simple: ShutterStock is subscription based; For a monthly fee of $249, buyers are entitled to download 25 royalty free image a day.

If on a given day, a subscriber only needs 5 photos for his immediate needs, he will probably rush and download another 20 photos that he will save on his hard disk for future use. ShutterStock subscribers therefore tend to download more photos than they really need and this probably explains why sales are comparatively fast on ShutterStock


Commission: $0.25 per download

Picture Size: 4 Mpixel or larger

Approval process: You should submit your 10 best photos and 7 need to be accepted.

Payments: Paypal, Moneybookers, check

Languages: English, German, Spanish, French

URL: http://submit.shutterstock.com/


iStockPhoto

iStockPhoto was historically the first Microstock web site to be launched and is considered by contributors to be among the most lucrative. Some photographers even find iStockPhoto more lucrative than ShutterStock.

Submitting photos on iStockPhoto is a bit more complex and tedious than with other Microstock web site; however given the high returns you can expect, it could well be worth the extra work.


Commission: 20%

Picture Size: 1600 x 1200 pixels or larger

Approval process: Pass a quiz and submit 3 photos

Payments: Paypal, Moneybookers, check, Payoneer MasterCard, Direct Deposit (US bank accounts only)

Languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Russian

URL: http://www.istockphoto.com/


Fotolia

Fotolia is a relatively new comer on the royalty free micro stock photography arena and represents a substantial source of revenue for many microstock photographers.


Commission: between 33 and 47% depending of the contributor's ranking

Picture Size: 2400 x 1600

Approval process: Pass a test

Payments: Paypal, Moneybookers. Wire transfer in the case neither Paypal nor Moneybooker is supported in your country of residence.

Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Japanese.

URL: http://www.fotolia.com/



DreamsTime

DreamsTime is among the best microstock agencies and offers generous commissions of up to 80% to contributors. Might not be easy to be approved but if you fail on your first attempt don't get discouraged and try again later.


Commission: 50 to 80%

Picture Size: minimum size of 3 MP and a maximum of 70 MP

Approval process: You should upload 10 photos

Payments: Paypal, Moneybookers, check

Languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese

URL: http://www.dreamstime.com/


StockXpert

Part of JupiterImages group is a fast growing microstock agencies that puts emphasis on quality. Here again, getting approved might not be easy but it's worth the effort.


Picture Size: at least 4 Million pixels/Megapixels (2200 x 1700) in JPG format

Approval process: Upload 5 photos

Payments: Paypal, Moneybookers, check

Languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Japanese

URL: http://www.stockxpert.com/

How to get started in Microstock photography

You don't have to be a professional photographer to sell your photos for money. People are constantly in need of stock photography for websites, presentations, brochures and so on, and are willing to pay for the right image.

People generally search for images on stock photography sites by keywords, not by photographer, so you have the same chance as anyone else of having your image picked. Just be careful that you don't have images of trademarked brands, copyrighted art or people's faces that are readily identifiable (unless you have a model release), but just about anything else is fair game, and I promise - you'd be amazed what people need pictures of, so don't make any assumptions.

If it's a decent photo, upload it. Some sites to get you started include Fotolia, ShutterStock, Dreamstime and iStockphoto. The great thing about this is that it's truly "set it and forget it".



Some tips to get you started in Microstock photography

Here is a simple guide to help you get started in Microstock photography and sell stock photos online.


Step 1: If you haven't already done so, open an account with Paypal and Moneybookers. Most royalty free Microstock sites pay commissions through Paypal and Moneybookers.


Step 2: Open an account with the Top 5 Microstock sites. Take the time to browse these sites and read the Terms and Conditions and other small prints. It's particularly important to understand what photos you can and can't upload.


Step 3: Copy all the photos you took in the past years into a folder. Then, delete the photos that have no commercial value. You should also make sure to delete any photo that contains a brand (for example a photo of a Fedex truck, even if the Fedex truck is not the main subject of the photo). You should also delete any photos containing copyrighted items such as painting, sculptures etc...


A model release should be uploaded along with all photos containing recognizable human faces. If you don't have a model release and can't get one, then you should delete the photo.


Step 4: Edit the IPTC tags of the photos you intend to upload on Microstock sites. To do so you can use an IPTC editor such as iTag. Make sure to write descriptive titles, descriptions and keywords, else it is less likely that buyers will find your photos.


Step 5: Upload your photos to the Top 5 Microstock sites. They are considered as the best earners by most Microstock contributors. Some of these sites will let you upload your photos right away. Other request that you first get approved by submitting a sample of your best photos and/or passing a test. It's usually fairly easy to get approved but if you are turned down, don't get discouraged. It also happened to me. :( Try to understand why you were not approved and try again later on.

If you have a large number (several hundreds) of photos, it's probably better to divide them in several batches of 50 or 100 photos and upload one batch first, see how it goes and then upload the other batches one by one.


The microstock photography business is growing out of nothing. The leader in the market, iStockphoto, is projecting $200 million in revenues this year.

When iStockphoto was bought by Getty Images February, 2006 for $50 million, its revenues that for year were about $23 million, according to COO Kelly Thompson. In 2007, revenues were $72 million, 2008 revenues were around $150 million.

The demand for affordable images for use on Websites and in print is catching on and iStockphoto is the main beneficiary. It sells a photo, illustration, or video every second, and pays out $1.2 million a week to the photographers and artists who upload images to the site. There are nearly 80,000 artists in total represented on the site and 5 million images. “Definitely the print side is declining and we are seeing lots of Web usage,” reports Thompson.

But iStockphoto is not without competitors. Rival Fotolia is trying to catch up and recently received a massive cash infusion from TA Associates. It has about the same number of images and recently launched a completely free stock image service called PhotoXpress (which competes against Getty-owned Stock.xchng). Fotolia also has about 6 million images and roughly 90,000 contributors.

The battle, though, is now going to be around quality and price. iStockphoto is trying to go upmarket by exposing some of its top photographers to Getty clients. And today it just launched its Vetta Collection, which is comprised of about 35,000 higher-quality photos which are more produced than the typical stock image (the space farmer image above is one from Vetta). The Vetta images start at around $20 each, compared to regular images, which start at about $1.

How to Automate your income

How to Automate your income

One of the best ways to simplify your life is to put your income on autopilot. It’s not an easy task at first, but once you’ve got it set up, it’s well worth the effort.

Instead of working hard to earn money every day and every month, work hard to set up your income stream, and then do minimal work from then on out to maintain that stream.

I’ve talked before about how to put your bills and savings on autopilot — now let’s look at how to do the same thing with your income. This isn’t an original idea, of course — author and blogger Tim Ferriss talks about how to do it in The 4-Hour Work Week (read an interview with Timothy Ferriss at Write To Done), and my fellow blogger Brian Tracy calls it Passive Income (also see his excellent Five Ways to Create Passive Income). Author Robert Kiyosaki, among many others, has been talking about doing it with real estate for awhile now.

But in this article, we’ll talk a little about how automating your income can simplify your life, and then look at ways you can go about doing it.

Simplify, simplify, simplify
On this site we’ve talked a lot about simplification, from simplifying your to-do list to simplifying your closets and everything in between. The idea is that by eliminating the unnecessary and the clutter in your life, you can have more time to focus on what is truly important, and enjoy more calm and less stress in the meantime.

These same concepts apply to income, although we rarely give that much thought. Most of us work a salaried job, putting in the hours every day to get a paycheck, and that’s what supports our lifestyles. Sometimes we work a second job, to help pay the bills, or pay off the debts, or save. That’s the normal way of generating income, and there’s nothing wrong with it.

But if you give it a little thought, our means of generating income can really complicate our lives. We have a lot of daily stress from our jobs, and the daily grind can be tedious and exhausting. We have long to-do lists and endless meetings and phone calls and emails and interacting with co-workers all day long. A job is the ultimate complication.

Now imagine that you create a small business for yourself, perhaps on the side, or maybe you create a property such as a book or a CD that can be sold over and over again once it’s created. Sure, this will take a huge investment in time and energy, and perhaps money (though not always), but once it’s done, your investment of time and energy is minimal, and the return is well worth that initial investment.

Put in some hard work, and soon a steady stream of money could be coming in, and you only have to put in a small amount of time each day or week to make sure that things are running smoothly. Now your automated income supports your lifestyle with very little work required, and you’re free to pursue your dreams and passions. No more long to-do lists, no more meetings and days full of calls and emails and co-workers. No more commutes. That’s the ultimate simplification.

It’ll take a lot of work at first, but isn’t the simplicity that results worth the effort?

How to Automate Your Income
There is no one way to create an automated stream of income — there are many different approaches. And the details required to implement them would take a book to cover. The following are just some ideas to get you thinking, and to open your mind to the possibilities. I should also note that there is always a risk of failure to any of these types of ventures — nothing’s guaranteed, but with some smarts and hard work, it can be a success.

* Creating a business. For many employees, the thought of creating a small business is scary, perhaps even unthinkable. But there isn’t that much to it. And if you keep your costs down — say, operating off the Internet instead of opening a real-world retail outlet — your initial costs don’t have to be super high. Do some brainstorming, do some research and testing, and then go for it! If you do it right, you don’t even need to hire employees — contract out the services you don’t want to do to freelancers or contract firms. The possibilities of small businesses are endless, but what you really want to do is create a product, and sell it on the Internet. Create a product that you would actually use, aimed for a niche market that you actually belong to, so that you will know a lot about the product and the customers and their needs.

* Websites. Why sell on the Internet? The initial costs are way lower, for starters, plus it’s much easier with less hassle, and everything can be automated, unlike real-world establishments. No real estate to rent, no equipment or furniture to purchase, no utilities or IT infrastructure to set up, no employees to hire. Keep it simple. Creating a website has low costs, all of which can be done under $1,000. Research each of these steps before getting started:

o buying a domain
o getting a web host
o hiring a web designer (or doing it yourself)
o buying CPC ads (such as Google or Yahoo)
o getting a checkout system (again, like Google’s or Yahoo’s)

* Turn your service into a product. Do you currently provide a service? If so, you have to devote many hours each week to provide that service. However, if you can turn that service into a product, such as a book or DVD or web site or CD, you can create it once and sell it over and over. Brainstorm the best way to create a product that gives customers the same information or skills that they would get from you in person. See how others have done it for inspiration. Most of these products can be created easily and cheaply, using software on your home computer, and can be mass produced by a number of companies for a pretty low price.

* Other types of automated incomes. Instead of creating an information product, you could create a real-world product, such as a gadget or nutrition product. Freelance designers can turn your idea into an actual design, and contract manufacturers can turn the design into a product. Other types of automated incomes include real estate, online retail businesses (including an eBay business), affiliate marketing, a blog, and a membership-type website. There are many possibilities. Find ways to turn your strengths into a revenue generator.

* Initial investment. Most of these types of businesses require an initial investment of time and money. The time investment just means you’ll have to put in some hard work, at least for the first 2-3 months, until you have it automated. But the money investment can stop a lot of people. If you’ve got a little money saved up, creating a low-cost, low-maintenance business might be a good investment for that. You could also get a small business loan, or a personal loan from friends or family. If this is a problem for you, consider some of the lower-cost setups, such as a blog (only costs are domain name and hosting) or creating a DVD yourself and selling it online.

* Test first. Before you launch your business and start manufacturing your product, test it out with some ads first. You can do this with print ads in niche magazines (don’t try to sell to everyone, just a small, focused niche) or with Google Adwords. Set up your website to take orders, place the ads, monitor the stats, and see if there’s any demand. If the demand is good, begin the manufacturing immediately. If not, you may need to tweak either the ads, the niche you’re marketing to, or the product itself.

* Automate your business. Once you’ve got your website up and running, and you’ve begun taking orders and mailing out the product yourself, find ways to automate every part of your business. There are companies you can contract to take the orders, place the orders with a manufacturer, process the credit card charges, and ship the orders off to the customer. If you contract out the manufacturing, the credit card processing, the shipping and order handling, all you have to do it make sure there are no problems. Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Work Week is a great guide to making this happen.

* Sit back, and enjoy. Once you’ve got everything automated, you’ll only need to monitor things to make sure everything is running smoothly. And to make sure the money is piling up in your bank account. At this point, your time commitment could be as little as 30 minutes a day or even an hour a week. Quit your job, watch your automated income flow in, sip Margaritas. Life, simplified.