10 Sucky (But Legal) Ways to Make Money Online

While these methods of making money online are legal, they may not be the most efficient or lucrative ways to make money online. Here are 10 examples of online ventures that can be time-consuming and offer quite limited returns:

  1. Online surveys: While legitimate survey platforms exist, the payout is often low, and the time investment required may not be worthwhile considering the minimal compensation.
  2. Micro-task platforms: Websites that offer small tasks, such as data entry or image tagging, tend to pay very little for the time and effort involved.
  3. Content mills: Writing for content mills typically involves producing large volumes of content for low pay, making it challenging to earn a sustainable income.
  4. Online ad clicking: Platforms that pay users to click on ads usually offer minimal compensation, and the earnings may not justify the time spent clicking.
  5. Online marketplaces with low-demand products: Selling niche or low-demand products through online marketplaces may result in limited sales and profitability.
  6. Selling stock photography: While some photographers can earn a decent income through stock photography, competition is high, and the earnings per photo can be relatively low.
  7. Online tutoring platforms: Although tutoring can be rewarding, some online platforms have significant competition, making it difficult to secure clients and generate substantial income.
  8. YouTube channel monetization: Building a successful YouTube channel requires consistent effort, niche appeal, and significant viewership to generate meaningful revenue.
  9. Blogging without a niche or audience: Starting a blog without a specific niche or target audience can make it challenging to attract readers and monetize the blog effectively.
  10. Dropshipping without proper research: Engaging in dropshipping without conducting thorough market research and selecting reliable suppliers can result in low-profit margins and customer dissatisfaction.

While these methods may not be the most effective ways to make money online, they could still serve as valuable learning experiences or hobbies. You should always assess the potential return on any investment, considering both financial gain and personal satisfaction, before committing significant time and effort.

Case in point – I earn $0.40-$4.00/month through blogging. My Ally savings account that averages $2-3k earns over $4.00/month with zero effort.

Making shirts and other printables has yeilded no profit. YouTube never qualified for earnings. Amazon affiliation only yeilded $8 in a 6 month window.

Bottom-line: get a real job or get REALLY good at one thing online.

You have been warned.

Advertisement

Boost Your Sales with These 7 Benefits of Using a Guarantee to Back Your Products: How to Convert More Sales By Using The Power of A Guarantee

Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com

Are you struggling to close sales and increase your revenue? If so, it might be time to consider using a guarantee to back your products. Offering a guarantee is an effective marketing strategy that can help you convert more sales and win over hesitant customers. In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of using a guarantee and show you how to implement this strategy in your business.

  1. Builds Trust with Customers

A guarantee is a promise to your customers that you stand behind your product or service. By offering a guarantee, you’re demonstrating your confidence in your product and your commitment to customer satisfaction. This builds trust with your customers and shows them that you value their business.

  1. Reduces Risk for Customers

Customers are often hesitant to make a purchase because they’re worried about making the wrong decision. By offering a guarantee, you’re reducing the risk for customers and giving them peace of mind. They know that if the product doesn’t meet their expectations, they can return it for a refund or exchange.

  1. Increases Confidence in Your Product

When you offer a guarantee, you’re essentially saying, “We believe in our product, and we know you’ll love it too.” This can help increase confidence in your product and make it more attractive to potential customers. They’ll feel more confident in their purchase knowing that you’re willing to stand behind your product.

  1. Sets You Apart from Competitors

In today’s competitive marketplace, it’s important to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Offering a guarantee is a great way to set yourself apart and show that you’re willing to go above and beyond to satisfy your customers. This can give you an edge over competitors who don’t offer a guarantee.

  1. Encourages Repeat Business

When you offer a guarantee, you’re not just making a one-time sale; you’re building a relationship with your customers. By demonstrating your commitment to customer satisfaction, you’re more likely to encourage repeat business and build a loyal customer base.

  1. Improves Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is key to the success of any business. By offering a guarantee, you’re showing your customers that you value their business and are committed to their satisfaction. This can lead to positive reviews, referrals, and increased customer loyalty.

  1. Boosts Sales and Revenue

Ultimately, the goal of any marketing strategy is to boost sales and revenue. Offering a guarantee can help you achieve this goal by increasing customer confidence, reducing risk, and building trust. By converting more sales and building a loyal customer base, you’ll be able to grow your business and increase your revenue.

How to Implement a Guarantee in Your Business

Now that you understand the benefits of offering a guarantee, let’s discuss how to implement this strategy in your business. Here are some tips to help you get started:

  1. Define your guarantee: Decide what kind of guarantee you want to offer. Will it be a satisfaction guarantee, a money-back guarantee, or something else? Make sure the terms of your guarantee are clear and easy to understand.
  2. Display your guarantee prominently: Make sure your guarantee is prominently displayed on your website and in your marketing materials. This will help build trust with your customers and make your product more attractive to potential buyers.
  3. Honor your guarantee: It’s important to honor your guarantee if a customer makes a claim. This will show your customers that you’re committed to their satisfaction and help build trust in your brand.
  4. Use customer feedback to improve: If you receive negative feedback from a customer, use it as an opportunity to improve your product or service. This will help you avoid similar issues in the future and improve customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

Offering a guarantee is a powerful marketing strategy that can help you convert more sales

The MVP Framework: How to Make Money as a Beginner Blogger

A great share from The Art of Blogging today. The MVP Framework is not only a great strategy for blogging, it’s also a strategy for life.

To everyone struggling to keep up with their full time jobs while trying to earn money on the side through blogging, I say don’t give up! You can do it because you are your business’ MVP!

Ever since launching the Art of Blogging in 2018, I’ve interacted with thousands of bloggers, content creators, marketers… And most of them have two …

The MVP Framework: How to Make Money as a Beginner Blogger

Is Facebook Dead? No, But Times Have Changed.

The demographics for Facebook have shifted over the last two decades. No longer is the social media giant the hub of all college activities like it was in the beginning. Those former college students now are parents of children and young teens. They host MLM parties to push their merchandise, have deeply niched Facebook groups, and connect with online classmates.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Social media marketing has been a vital part of any business’s marketing strategy for quite some time with Facebook as the first go-to location of the social media world. However, with the constant evolution of technology and changes in user behavior, the effectiveness of social media platforms, including Facebook, has been questioned. The question on everyone’s mind is: is Facebook dead? The answer is no, but times have certainly changed. In this post, we’ll explore how online marketing on Facebook has evolved and what businesses need to do to stay relevant on the platform.

Facebook’s Reach Has Decreased

One of the biggest changes in online marketing on Facebook has been the decrease in organic reach. In the early days of Facebook, businesses could reach a significant percentage of their followers organically. However, with the platform’s algorithm changes, the organic reach of business posts has decreased significantly. This means that businesses must rely on paid advertising to reach their target audience on Facebook.

While this may seem like a negative change, it has forced businesses to create high-quality content that is relevant and engaging to their target audience. It has also allowed businesses to target their audience more effectively with paid advertising.

Targeting Your Audience Has Become More Important

Targeting your audience on Facebook has become more important than ever before. With the decrease in organic reach, businesses need to ensure that their content is reaching the right people. Facebook’s targeting options allow businesses to get very specific with who they are targeting, from demographics and interests to behaviors and life events.

Businesses must take advantage of these targeting options to ensure that their content is reaching the right people. This means understanding their target audience and creating content that speaks to them directly.

The Importance of Video Content

Video content has become increasingly important on Facebook. According to Facebook, video content receives higher engagement rates than any other type of content. This includes both organic and paid content.

Businesses should be creating video content that is engaging and informative for their target audience. This can include product demos, how-to videos, and behind-the-scenes footage of the business. Video content should be short, to the point, and optimized for mobile viewing.

Engagement Is Key

Engagement is a key factor in the success of online marketing on Facebook. Facebook’s algorithm favors content that receives high engagement rates, including likes, comments, and shares. This means that businesses should be creating content that encourages their followers to engage with it.

This can include asking questions, running polls, and creating content that is shareable. Businesses should also be responding to comments and messages in a timely and helpful manner. This helps to build a relationship with their followers and encourages them to continue engaging with the business on Facebook.

The Importance of Messenger

Facebook Messenger has become an important tool for businesses to connect with their customers. With over 1.3 billion active users, Messenger provides businesses with an opportunity to provide personalized customer service, answer questions, and build relationships with their customers.

Businesses should be taking advantage of Messenger to connect with their customers in a more personal and meaningful way. This can include sending personalized messages, responding to inquiries quickly, and providing valuable information and resources.

Summary

Here are 5 practical ways that businesses can utilize this information:

  1. Create targeted Facebook ads: With the decrease in organic reach, it’s important to invest in Facebook ads to reach your target audience. Utilize Facebook’s targeting options to create ads that are specific to your target audience’s demographics, interests, behaviors, and life events.
  2. Focus on creating engaging video content: Video content receives higher engagement rates on Facebook than any other type of content. Businesses should focus on creating short, engaging, and informative videos that speak directly to their target audience.
  3. Encourage engagement on your posts: Engagement is key to Facebook’s algorithm. Encourage engagement on your posts by asking questions, running polls, and creating content that is shareable. Also, make sure to respond to comments and messages in a timely and helpful manner to build a relationship with your followers.
  4. Utilize Facebook Messenger for personalized customer service: With over 1.3 billion active users, Messenger is a valuable tool for businesses to provide personalized customer service, answer questions, and build relationships with their customers. Utilize Messenger to connect with your customers in a more personal and meaningful way.
  5. Monitor your Facebook analytics: Monitor your Facebook analytics to see what type of content is performing well and adjust your strategy accordingly. Look at metrics such as reach, engagement, and click-through rates to see what is resonating with your audience and what needs improvement.

By implementing these practical ways to utilize the knowledge shared in the blog post, businesses can stay relevant and successful with online marketing on Facebook.

Conclusion

So, is Facebook dead? The answer is no, but times have certainly changed. Businesses must adapt to the changes in online marketing on Facebook if they want to remain relevant and successful on the platform. This includes creating high-quality, targeted content, utilizing video content, encouraging engagement, and utilizing Messenger to connect with their customers. With these strategies in place, businesses can continue to see success with online marketing on Facebook.

How to Interview the Right Way

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

There is nothing more tormenting than to watch an interview crash and burn — at least not during the interview.

Unfortunately, many people seeking long-term careers struggle to perform during a job interview. A recent string of interviews convinced me that I should offer some help. I have been doing interviews for a decade now and this is my attempt to give you the best shot at landing your next job.

Remain Calm and Rehearse

To be honest, you are going to get nervous. But try to remain calm. The questions you will be asked are not just to see how you will answer them. Your interviewer will want to see the confidence you have in your answers. It shows experience. But life experiences are never neatly packaged as answers to questions, so you have to rehearse your interview responses. You’ll find that by rehearsing your responses, you will feel more confident and present more confidently.

Rehearse your responses!

How to Rehearse

You will get any number of interview questions thrown at you. The Muse has one of the best list of questions and answers available. Please look over these and prepare responses to each. Here are the three steps I recommend:

  1. Write out your answers in a way that you would speak.
  2. Adjust those answers to be concise.
  3. Practice answering interview questions out loud, preferably with a friend or family member.

Why Rehearse this Way?

Each of these is important. The two reasons you write out your answers in the way you speak are because you need to have your answers written out for review and you need to sound natural when you give those answers — too sterile and your responses will sound insincere.

The reason you want to be concise is that rambling gives your nervousness away. A concise answer, which I will further discuss later, is a confident answer. Lastly, practicing your answers out loud is true practicing. You aren’t going to answer interview questions in your head, so you might as well hear how you sound answering them before your interviewer.

Tell Stories

This is the most important thing I will tell you — tell stories! Here’s what I mean. Imagine you were just asked, “Tell me a time when you had to deal with conflict with a customer and how did you handle it.”

How you answer a question like this reveals if you will win or fail the interview.

An inexperienced interviewee will answer like this:
“Well, there was a customer mad that they had to stand in line too long and I just told them I was sorry for their wait.”

Is that a bad answer? No. Should you answer like this? Absolutely not.

A better answer will go something like this:
“My former job was in retail and sometimes, as I’m sure you’ve experienced, the lines can get backed up. On one particular occasion, a customer waited in line ten minutes before checking out at my register. He was quite expressive that he should not have to wait so long to purchase a few items. I apologized to him, but he kept complaining. So, I asked if he would like to speak with a manager so our store could have his feedback for improvement. He said yes, and I paged to manager to the front to speak with him. The customer left feeling better after getting his frustration off his chest. People want to be heard and valued.”

This is the most important thing I will tell you — tell stories!

I know, I know — I just said to be concise earlier. But go ahead and read this out loud and you’ll see that the answer is only about 35–40 seconds at a natural speed. That’s fine for an interview. Plus the response is packed with information.

Breaking Down the Response

Here are the elements I included in my response:

  1. I related with the interviewer(s) with “as I’m sure you’ve experienced.” Said with a humble smile, this is relatable. Said the wrong way, it might come off as, I know you know ___. So mind your tone.
  2. The story showed that I recognized the problem the customer was experiencing. I knew the customer had a right and legitimacy in his complaining.
  3. I showed that I tried to address the problem first by apologizing. I didn’t push the customer away as “someone else’s problem.” This also shows that I can communicate with customers/clients/patients/etc.
  4. I escalated the issue up the proper chain of command. This reveals I understand boundaries and I can properly communicate within the company.

Not all of your answers need to be like this. Only use stories to describe scenarios that demonstrate how you perform in a workplace. Some questions are simpler, but if you hear the phrase “tell me about a time” in any question, paint me a picture.

Superficial Matters, Matter

Coming prepared to an interview means that you are prepared beyond simply answering questions. You need to consider your arrival time, dress, and follow-up.

As a rule of thumb, always arrive 15 minutes early for an interview. Even if you have to wait until your appointment time, get there early. It shows the hiring team that you want the job. If you are unsure where to go, drive it the day before. Walk into the building! Your interviewer may never see these efforts, but it will save you the embarrassment of getting to an interview late.

How you should dress depends on the type of job you are seeking and the general culture of the workplace. If you are interviewing for a mid to high level position, business or business casual is expected. If you are interviewing for an entry level position, business casual, even if you are just going to wear jeans and a t-shirt on the job. Culturally, dressing nice indicates respect for your interviewers and even yourself.

A thank you card is a simple way for you to stand out.

By follow-up, I mean sending a follow-up thank you card to the office or an email to the interview team. Send it the day after your interview if the hiring decision is in the future. Send it that afternoon if they want a decision by the end of that day. A thank you card is a simple way for you to stand out. Everyone I know has always loved. It tells me that you go above and beyond. However, just remember that follow-up is just icing on the cake. If your interview was horrible, a thank you note will not make up for it. But if there are 3 good candidates and you send my hiring team a thank you note, we will remember that. Even if we don’t hire you, we will tell another hiring team about you. Good people are hard to come by and I want as many as I can in my company.

Go Get Hired

I hope this quick article will help you in landing a great job. Remember, your interview is about learning about you. A good interviewer will be looking deeper than your answers, but I cannot promise you will have a good interviewer. So, be prepared and relatable and smile! You are your best salesperson and I believe in you. Now go out there and interview with confidence!


If you have any questions about interviewing, please let me know in the comments. I would love to help you out!

Better Blogging Starts with a Single Sentence

Today, I was reading a post made by Will Ellington on Medium about better sentence structure. Here’s the link:

https://willellington.medium.com/how-to-write-a-killer-sentence-14684b6e5226

Better blog posts start with analyzing single sentences. And this should really only take place AFTER you have written your post. That’s right, after.

You should spend at least twice as much time editing your work than you do writing it. I know I’m guilty of not following this rule. Sometimes you just want to finish a post and move on with your day.

Have you ever had that happen to you?

Try writing better sentences and then paragraphs. The next thing you know, you will want to expand to the entire work! And what will the end product be?

A blog that you will be proud of and will actually want to share with others.

Also, better blogs mean better traffic and there’s your sales funnel working organically.