Earn Money Online with Brandon Hopkins » Make Money Online

Are .com Domains Equal to .net and .org?

Brandon — Tue, 03 May 2011 19:01:19 +0000

If you subscribe to the FeedFront Magazine, there is an article in this months issue (April, 2011) from Morgan Linton about using exact match domains (EMDs) to rank quickly and easily. I’m a huge believer in that exact approach and about 250 of my 350 domains are EMDs. However, he and I have a difference of opinion about the value of .net and .org domains. He’s only a few hours away from me, so maybe on day we’ll get together to discuss domains when I’m in the LA area!

Morgan says, “the SEO benefit of an exact-match domain is the same regardless of TLD. This means that the owner of BuyCar.net has the exact same chance of ranking {as} well as the owner of BuyCar.com, based on the exact-match bonus, since Google and Bing will ignore the TLD.”

With Google’s autocorrect and automatically showing the suggested result, type-in traffic is a very tiny factor even for the biggest exact searches. Every domainer knows that developing a great domain is where the money lies.

As I said, Martin and I differ on our assumptions of the value of .net and .org TLD’s. I think Martin might be assuming that .com’s rank just as well without having actually tested it. I have evidence (partially anecdotal), and would be willing to prove what I already know as fact, especially if there were a compelling reason. Domains ending in .com rank better than .net and .org.

I just finished building 77 new exact match one-page sites. 61 of them are .com and the rest are .net and .org. A single domain is .info. The domains all went live about a week ago. Out of those 77 sites, 38 are on the front page for their exact match keyword. Out of those 38, 37 are .com. 1 domain on the first page is a .net domain. I haven’t done any link building, pinging, or anything like that.

If you’re new to domains and are trying to find some exact match domains, most of the good ones are taken, but you can still find some long tail domains that are unregistered. My favorite way to buy long tail domains is by using the Market Samurai Domains module. Just click Domains, then put in a list of keywords.

Exact match domains rank well! Exact match .com domains rank even better.

Keyword Stuffing and Domain Names – Does it Matter?

Earn Money Online with News

Brandon — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:49:40 +0000

There are multiple ways to earn money online using the news. Here are a few that anyone can do without any special skills or training.

1. Cover the news, again.

The first is simple, you just cover the news and rewrite interesting stories that appeal to a certain demographic. For example, you could target web developers who use Apple products. Your website can include everything from web development and related programming languages to Apple stock reports, new products, etc. This is a pretty simple approach but a lot of people would like to see a lot of their favorite things in one place. A few other examples would be Getting Things Done and small business owners. There is a lot of overlap between small business owners and a strong work ethic. This approach takes a lot of writing, if you’re willing to do a lot of writing, consider other ways to earn money by writing before committing.

2. Expand the news.

There are a lot of news outlets, but not many that take the time to research all of the facets of the news they cover. It takes a lot of time and a lot of energy. An ideal story would include the background on why a news item happened, what the ramifications are, who it affects, how it affects them, etc. This idea takes a more seasoned writer, but is the type of site that is frequently linked to, as well as quoted and used for lectures and papers.

3. Give people what they want.

Most people have a particular news outlet they prefer to get their news from. Some people love FOX News, some people hate them. It’s the same with your local newspaper, and anyone who ever writes news. If you want to make money and have a lot of readers, give them what they want. Rewrite the news with your own personal bias and some people will love you and always read your blog.

4. Give people what they hate.

Looking to start a wildfire on your blog? Write an article about a news event that most people won’t agree with. Keep in mind that this approach is likely to alienate your existing readers and might make them stop visiting your blog. Controversy sells and gives people a reason to make a comment.

Those are a few quick and easy ways to earn money online by writing about the news. Have fun!

Photo courtesy of just.Luc.

Why I Don’t Participate in SEO Contests

Brandon — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:32:29 +0000

For many people, showing their skills in a SEO contest might be good for their ego, but beyond that, there isn’t much to be gained. There have been a few contests that offered a cash prize (usually less than $500), or a small prize like a TV. Are these prizes worth spending time on?

For me, these prizes aren’t worth the time and cost I would put into a SEO contest. I pay my link builders well to get me results. If they don’t get results, they don’t stay on my team very long. As of today, I have 5 link builders that have been with my for over 3 years. Others have come and gone, but most of them stick around. I pay better than everyone else, and I expect them to build links just like I train them. Basically, they’re very valuable to me.

If these prizes were comparable to what I could earn promoting my niche sites, or my client sites, I would drop everything and join a SEO contest. Until that happens, I’m following the money, which is link building for my clients who demand results and my niche sites which make me a steady passive income every month.

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How Do Bloggers Earn Money Online?

Brandon — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:11:04 +0000

An online friend, Codrut Turcanu has interviewed and posted his results with 22 professional bloggers asking them about how they earn money online. After reading the 22 responses, I thought I should share some of my favorite ideas.

Selling Your Services

A common theme is to sell services. These could be design services, article writing services, web development, link building services, social media services, consulting services, coaching, and an offline service such as computer repair. This type of freelancing is always nice because you’re getting paid when you work. With many other types of online work, you can do work but not get paid, such as with affiliate marketing.

This is one of my favorite methods of earning money online, and has consistently been one of the best ways that I earn money online. On top of selling services and earning money, you make a lot of friends and connections that can be valuable down the road.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing has never really been something that I’ve cared for. Why should I sell your product and get 50% of the earnings when I could create my own product and keep 100% of the earnings, then hire affiliate marketers to sell the product and give them 50% and keep 50% after doing nothing? Well, the truth is that creating that product and marketing it is a very difficult task. Your product needs to stand out among other similar products, then you need either a large list, or a way to get the word out to a lot of people. Definitely not as easy as it sounds.

Product Reviews

I’ve done a few product reviews in the past and have been happy to do them. They’re usually fun and easy to do. I only do product reviews when the company is willing to send me the product if I don’t already own it. I wouldn’t review a product that I’ve never used myself. I’ve been sent a military grade encryption USB drive, and a few other small items to review.

Selling Links or Paid Posts

5 years ago I would imagine that 75% of bloggers would consider this their main form of income. With Google cracking down on paid posts and selling links many people are scared to venture into that territory. The best new strategy is to build links naturally.

Is the Sun Shining or is it a Rainy Day?

Brandon — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:59:48 +0000

A “best case proposal” is often referred to as a sunshine proposal, and the opposite is called a rainy day proposal. Most people will find themselves somewhere in the middle of the spectrum for their financial situation. I tend to be conservative in my investments and the amount of money I feel comfortable having as liquid assets. What about you? Do you prefer to have your money in a risky investment that might yield greater returns, or do you prefer something safer?

If you’re reading this post, hopefully you’re interested in making money online. If that’s the case, the absolute best investment you can make is an investment in yourself. Often

times this type of investment isn’t even a financial investment. Investing in yourself can look different for most people. For me, it’s a belief that I can do whatever I put my mind to and focus on. I’ve seen this time and time again. Given enough time and adequate resources, we can all become anything we want right? You want to become a Fortune 500 CEO? You can either join a company and work your way up, then get hired as a CEO, or you can start a company that become so large it’s part of the Fortune 500. Both of those situations are completely possible with enough time and resources. For most of us, having adequate resources will be tough to find.

What about more modest goals such as retiring early and devoting yourself completely to your family or your passions? That’s absolutely possible! You first need a starting point, and a strategy. Can you create vector graphics? Can you write simple articles? Are you technical and can create websites? Can you sell something?

On a side note regarding sales, I’m always looking for people who can close pre-qualified leads. If that’s you, contact me.

So are you a sun shining kind of person with all your money the stock market? Do you have it all in savings earning 1%? A mix of both?

Photo of California Sunrise courtesy of SF Brit.

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What Do You Need More Of?

Brandon — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 21:50:24 +0000

When it comes to internet marketing and making money online, there is no shortage of “experts” as I mentioned in my guest post about Link Building in 2011. With all of these self-proclaimed experts, who’ve never made any real money online, telling you what to do, how do you separate the fact from the fiction?

Before I started really making money online (around 2004), I followed the same people that everyone else followed. That’s how you know they’re experts right? They have a large following. Wrong. Just because a lot of people are doing something, does not mean it’s the right thing to do.

If you haven’t been reading what I’ve been writing lately, here are some of my most recent posts. These will give you an idea of who I am and what I do.

What is Link Diversity and Why is it Important?

How to Select Profitable Keywords

First Steps for Indexing a New Website

Link Diversity Tips and Other Awesomeness

So here is my offer to you. You post a question, or send me an email with a question and I’ll do my best to answer it.

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Making Money with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk

Brandon — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:41:21 +0000

Everett Sizemore made me want to blog a little more, so I thought I would give this to you.

If you’ve never used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk), you’re missing out. MTurk lets you pay people for specific tasks. These tasks could be things like writing short articles, but anyone can write a short article. MTurk does let you do a few other things that can make you a lot of money. I’m still making money using MTurk so I can’t divulge ALL of my secrets, I can give you some tips and let you adopt them into your marketing plan.

1. Content Generation – Would 100 real reviews make your product review site stand out? I have paid about $.10 per review. Works great with a WordPress review plugin.
2. Legit Comments – Want to make your site appear well trafficked but get sick of posting comments to yourself?
3. Social Bookmarking – I’ve moved into more automated methods of social bookmarking, but if you’re still doing it yourself, this is a great way to outsource it cheaply.
The following are likely against the terms of service for at least one of the sites, so use at your own risk.
4. Digg Votes – Want to get a site to the front page? Would 100 votes from unique IP’s and unique Digg accounts help? Make sure you’re sending traffic to the page, not directly to Digg.
5. StumbleUpon - I hate SU traffic, it’s pretty much useless. They don’t buy anything, they don’t click ads so to me, they’re a waste of time. If you can monetize this traffic, use it the same way as you would Digg.
6. Arbitrage – DEFINITELY against the TOS…Pay $.25 per signup to a CPA offer that doesn’t require a CC. NeverBlue has some good email offers.

Keep in mind, these are only suggestions to help you think outside of the box. I personally don’t suggest that you violate the terms of use of any of the sites listed, including MTurk. MTurk is a little trigger happy to ban your account…Trust me on that.

From Adsense to Affiliate Links

Brandon — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:47:08 +0000

Typically webmasters start out with Adsense as their revenue stream. While it’s easiest and definitely quick to use, Adsense is not always the best performer if you’re looking to earn money online from your websites. With Adsense you’ll always run into a couple problems.

1. You can’t presell. With an affiliate link, you can talk about the product so your visitor knows what to expect when they get to the advertisers page. You can give them the price and details, and if they still click, they’re likely to buy since they already know everything. If that isn’t the product they’re looking for, they’ll continue browsing your site. You’ll make a sale, or keep a visitor. With Adsense you don’t get the chance to do either.

2. You’ll earn less. While I can’t say that every single one of my sites that has affiliate links makes more with those affiliate links, a majority do.

3. All your eggs in one basket. If all of your income is coming from one source and something happens to that source, your revenue drops to $0.

4. Unknown revenue share. This has always been the biggest issue with me. Google doesn’t tell you how much you’re going to earn. In fact, they tell you how much they will give you per click, after you send them the clicks. It’s totally backwards but until they have a reason to give you that info, they never will.

Moving away from Adsense is tough, and I wouldn’t suggest dumping it all together. Start slow, remove the ads from one page and replace it with affiliate links. Test it for a month and see what the revenue is like when compared to Adsense.

Earn Money Online with Vector Art

Brandon — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:32:49 +0000

I don’t normally tell you about ideas that I don’t do myself, but I do see a huge opportunity for the right graphic and vector art designers. There are a handful of great companies that play the middle man in finding buyers for photography and vector creations.

My favorite is iStockPhoto.com. I’ve been buying stock photography for over 4 years from iStockPhoto and am a huge fan.

In the last year there has been a shift from traditional photography towards vector art. Take a look at this search for “trees”. Out of the 32 pictures for sale on the first page, 15 of them are vector. That’s almost 50% of the top pictures of trees are not real trees, they’re digital art.

If you are talented, browse the popular files, or just do a search like I did and you’ll find people selling stuff that you can make at home that will earn you money. Each time you sell something, iStockPhoto.com will pay you a royalty on that picture or graphic. The more you sell, the more you earn. The more you design, the more you sell. Design one or two each day and you’ll be earning a lot of money online in no time!

How to Brand Yourself Online

Brandon — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:30:52 +0000

This is part 5 of 34 in Poker and Making Money Online, a 34 Part Series.

Your “brand” is important.

OLD:

NEW:

Branding started out with a steel rod with your brand (or logo) that was then seared into a cow. That effectively meant that cow was yours. Everyone in town knew what your brand looked like and you knew their brand.

Today things haven’t changed too much except that now companies are branding us. They put their logos on our clothes, cars, computers, and just about everything else. Does that tell you how important branding is?

In order to set yourself apart from the sea of competition you need to establish your brand and make sure that brand is recognizable and reputable. Your brand doesn’t have to be your logo, it can be your name. Many internet superstars (not this kind, but this kind), are famous (internetely speaking, yes I just made that word up.) while others do indeed have a visual brand (Shoemoney).

So to brand yourself online you need to understand what people “see” about your brand. What they “see” is what they can find online. If you search for your name, do you find positive or negative stuff? It doesn’t matter if it’s about you, or about the other guy who has the same name. Protecting your brand is often called brand management or reputation management.

One of my recent clients had a bit of an online reputation problem. A newspaper insinuated that he did something he did not. He hired me to bury that story, which I did. His brand is still strong because what you see is only positive stuff about him.

When writing online, filling out sing up forms and commenting on blogs, consider this. Every time your use your name, it will be archived for ever. One day when you need that big client, and he goes digging, what is he going to find?