Can you really [REALLY] make money online?

The following response (extract) is drawn from
Shailini Gupta's 400th HubPage titled:

Shailini Answers:10 Frequently Asked Questions

(It is reproduced with the written permission of Shailini)

Can you really [REALLY] make money online?(8)

"Yes and No. If you really believe you can make money
online and work without worrying about the outcome, you
can make money. You can really make lots of money.
If you doubt it, do your work half-heartedly, you won't be
able to earn money. If you want to get started, I would
advise to choose a profession that gives immense pleasure
to you regardless of income.

Some people like writing - no matter if they receive money
or not, they would be happy to write articles on various topics.
Some people blog without expecting anything in return.
Some people like photographing. Some people like talking.
If you like the activity that you are doing, it would
help you to survive the first few months of drought when you
may not get any income. If you don't like the job that you do,
you will not survive the initial stage.

The online world has plenty of opportunities. Everyone who
ventures into it can really make money. It is like any ocean,
there are plenty of fish if you get out and go looking for it.
Of course, there is NO FREE LUNCH.

I still remember when I contemplated if I should buy the
ebook "Blogging to the Bank" with my hard-earned dollars.
Once I took the plunge (guaranteed by their money-back
guarantee), the course opened a new world to me. I learned
new tips, new secrets and how to maximize your revenue
potential with new strategies and less manual work. If you
have some spare dollars in your hand, I will highly recommend
you to enrol at the "Blogging to the Bank" (3rd edition). They
are still the highly successful program for the last few years
and millions have benefited from it, I am just one among them."

(End of extract from:
Shailini Answers:10 Frequently Asked Questions )

****************************************************

Related Posts from Affiliate Marketing Coach

I have offered Shailini's comments to reinforce some
of the discussions we have had over the last few months.
In particular, Shailini is a good example of the
"Just Do It" principle:

Just Do It!...Take some targeted action
Focused Achievement
Stick-at-it-ness: A Key Success Factor
Use Your Chakra Energy to Develop Your Marketing
Massive Action for Massive Results

****************************************************

Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

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How to build a local community through Squidoo

Local communities grow by exchanging information and resources,
developing ways to interact and keeping abreast of current
community activities and planned events.

The Squidoo platform is ideal for meeting these needs. The simple
point-and-click technology makes it easy to exchange
information and build interactivity.

The following elements can be added to a Squidoo lens to
facilitate local community development:

1. Explanation of the focus, purpose and character of the community
2. Photos and images
3. Videos illustrating community purpose/activities
4. Blog feed with up-to-date information
5. A noticeboard
6. Links for access to information and resources
7. A means of interaction

In the full article on this topic, I explain which Squidoo
modules can be used to meet these needs:
How to Build a Local Community With Squidoo

By way of illustration, here's Ron's award-winning
Squidoo lens for the Morningsong Community Choir, Bulimba:
http://www.squidoo.com/morningsong


**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Squidoo lenses: offline marketing

I had occasion on the weekend to do some fortuitous
offline marketing.

I attended the local Neighbourhood Planning display
in Memorial Park at Bulimba.

While I was discussing local development with the
Council Officer, I mentioned my Squidoo lenses
and video that relate to Bulimba:

http://www.squidoo.com/bulimba
http://www.squidoo.com/morningsong

video: morning river walk - Bulimba

I know for a fact that the Council Officer passed the
information about these sites to his co-workers.
You never know they may yet end up in a Council
publication.

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

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How to make money on Squidoo

In my Squidoo Affiliate Marketing lens, I describe
three approaches to affiliate marketing on Squidoo:
1. Campaign method
2. Turnover method
3. Authority site method

The campaign method is epitmoized by the one week
marketing approach developed by Giant Squid,
PotPieGirl. Her approach integrates multiple marketing
strategies around selected campaigns. This is the approach
I am adopting at the moment.

In a recent interview, Loyalis AKA Captain Squid, describes
his approach to making money on Squidoo which tends
to involve the turnover method.

He makes numerous lenses, often 20 -30 around the one
theme, and relies heavily on volume and wider exposure
through Squidoo (reflected in 500+ lenses he has created).

In his interview with Glen, Captain Squid gives some
insight into his approach but the discussion lacks the
detailed planning information provided by PotPieGirl.

You can check out Captain Squid's interview here:
An Interview with the Captain

In addition to giving you a very good insight into his
overall approach, Captain Squid highlights some
very important points that are relevant to whatever
approach you use on Squidoo:

1. lensmasters underutilize the sub-headings on modules
2. images used on lenses but hosted on your own site
can attract heaps of traffic (and good lensrank)
3. lensmasters don't appreciate the value of the Plexo
voting module (he explains how he uses it).

Of special value is the insight he provides into how
Squidoo payments are determined and what is meant
by "pay tiers" (he even has a lens dedicated to this).

This interview is well worth a read. To gain more
insights into how Squidoo works (and pays) and observe
a PRO in action, check out:
Captain Squid's Interview with Glen


**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

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10 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Squidoo Lens

We often talk about Squidoo as a Google magnet - which it is.
However, Squidoo traffic generation has to be a two-way
street.

Google values Squidoo lenses because they are focused and
regularly updated. However, Google also assesses popularity
- the level of traffic attracted by the Squidoo lens and it's
backlinks.

This all goes into the mix in determining the page ranking and
positioning of a Squidoo lens on Google - and the resultant
level 0f organic traffic to the Squidoo lens.

Squidoo, in turn, takes traffic into the equation when it
assesses lensrank. Traffic, understandably, is a major
component of Squidoo lensrank. Additionally, the higher
your lensrank, the more traffic you will get from
Squidoo members themselves.

There has also been the suggestion lately that Google
takes the Squidoo lensrank into account when determining
the page rank and positioning of a Squidoo lens. I can't verify
this statement but it is consistent with my own observations
of my lenses.

So the basic message is - don't just create a lens and expect
traffic to flow to you. You still have to work at
generating traffic to your Squidoo lens.

The payoff is the compounding effect that traffic generation
has - on your Squidoo lensrank, your Google page rank and
positioning and your direct Squidoo traffic flow.

10 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Squidoo Lens

1. Write and submit articles to article directories

2. Create your own blog posts

3. Make comments on other related blogs

4. Use Twitter daily

5. Write a free e-book with links to your Squidoo lens

6. Use free classified ads

7. Participate in Giveaways or free downloads

8. Use pay per click (PPC)

9. Use paid advertising

10. Use social bookmarking.

The combined effect of these traffic methods can boost
your organic Google traffic, build your lensrank and
increase your Squidoo direct traffic as well.

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Promote your Squidoo lens with a FREE e-Book

Here's a case in point. Here I have combined a series of articles I have developed on the inner game of tennis to create a free e-Book.

The e-Book promotes both an affiliate product on tennis mind strategy and my Squidoo lens on
the inner game of tennis.



You could create a squeeze page to capture the email addresses
of the subscribers and provide them with a series of email
messages on the topic of the e-Book. I have not done that
on this occasion.

You can download the FREE e-Book here now:
Playing The Inner Game of Tennis

The free e-Book is designed as a pre-sell for the affiliate
product on tennis mind strategy.


**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Purple Star award for Morningsong Squidoo Lens

Well, our Squidoo lens on the
Morningsong Community Choir
has just been awarded a Purple Star.

Only a few Purple Stars are awarded each week to
exceptional NEW lenses created by Giant Squids.

Squidoo Headquarters have this to say about
Squidoo Lenses awarded a Purple Star:

"This page was handpicked by Squidoo's editors
as one of the most remarkable pages on the entire site.
So if you like it, "remark" on it, share it with a friend,
and know you're spreading the word about something
really exceptional on the web."

For more information on the Purple Star awards,
visit:
http://www.squidoo.com/purplestar

For information on becoming a Giant Squid,
check out this post:
How to become a Giant Squid


**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Top Marketing Downloads - top internet marketing products for free

On last count there were 419 gifts covering
many aspects of Internet marketing.

Reed Floren has approached a host of
top online marketers and got them to give
heaps of free products and services including:

-ebooks
-scripts
-memberships

There are thousands of dollars worth of products
in the Top Marketing Downloads.

Amongst the downloads is my Squidoo Marketing
Strategies e-Book.

However, the giveaway finishes on:
Friday May 22nd 2009 @ 09:00:00 AM CDT

You can download your FREE gifts here:
Top Marketing Downloads

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

How to Write Free Classified Ads

This is a guest article by Jinger Jarrett:

How to Write Free Classified Ads That Sell

If you've ever visited classified ad sites, and read
some of the ads, you really have to wonder if some
of these people actually make any money from the
ads they post. Certainly, not all of the ads are bad.
You should study some of the ads on these sites.

This should be your first step in writing a good ad:
Study the ads that pique your interest. This can be
ads in the newspaper, in magazines, on Google and
Yahoo, and on the free classified ad sites.

You want to study the type of ads you want to write.
Create a swipe file. This can be a simple text file of ads
you liked, that made you want to click through, or
write for more information, or whatever.

The purpose of a good ad is to get you to do something.
To act.

If you've ever written an ad, then you've probably heard
of the ad writing formula AIDA, but it's worth repeating
here:

A - Attention
I - Interest
D - Desire
A - Action

Attention applies to your headline. You want to
generate attention and get readers to read the rest
of your ad. You need to write a good headline.
Your headline should be short, to the point, and
demand attention.

Here are some examples:

The Secret of Making People Like You
A Little Mistake That Cost A Farmer $3,000 A Year

The shorter your ad, the shorter your headline needs
to be. Make every word count.

One thing you should remember here is before writing
your ad, choose your audience. Your ad can't be all
things to all people. Your ad must appeal to those who
are looking for what you have to offer.

If you have the attention of your reader, the next
step is interest. Focus on the main benefit of your
product or service.

If you are writing a short ad, then you can only
focus on one benefit.

Remember, a benefit is different from a feature.
A feature tells you what something will do. A benefit
tells the person how it will help him/her.

For example:

If you are selling a product to end baldness,
a feature might be that it's easy to use. A benefit
would be that the person would have a full head
of hair that makes him look 20 years younger.

Here's the beginning of an example ad:

Headline: End Male Pattern Baldness Forever?

Interest: Unique formula ends male pattern
baldness forever.

Next, you want to create a desire for your product.

Example: In just 15 minutes a day, you can be
on your way to a full head of hair.

Finally, you want the reader to take action.
Send for free details, write for free details,
click through, etc.

Example: Get your free subscription to the
"Male Pattern Baldness Newsletter" now.

These are just examples, and I'm sure that
they can definitely be refined.

Once you've written your ad, it's time to start
posting. You will need some way to track your
ad. You can use different email addresses, different
links, or some type of tracking software.

It's important that you track your ads because
you want to know which ones are getting results
and which ones aren't.

You can change your ads one element at a time
to increase effectiveness.

The point is:

1. Study good ads.
2. Create a swipe file.
3. Know Your Audience.
4. Apply the AIDA formula.
5. Test and Track Your Ads.

Not only will you write better ads, but you'll also
get better results.

***********************************************
Get Jinger Jarrett's resources on classified ads.
Learn about free classifieds on Squidoo and CraigsList.
Learn how to get 15,000 visitors a month to your site:
http://www.killermarketingarsenal.com

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Squidoo lenses: local marketing

I was reintroduced to classified ads recently
by Jinger Jarrett.

Jinger has developed her own classified ads site that
also provides syndication of your ads by promoting
your classified ads on all of the top classified ad sites
like Local.com, Walmart, Facebook, MySpace,
Backpage and over 200 top classified ad sites.

I have been using Jinger's site lately to promote
my Squidoo lenses, free and paid e-books and
affiliate products.

Jinger suggests that you write five ads per day
(that stay in circulation for a month) and offer
five products (across three main areas). As
the ads are renewable by a click of a button, you can
have hundreds circulating through multiple sites
very quickly.

Jinger's classified ad site enables you to do
local marketing within the US
by City within State.

The steps I take are:

1. Check out the keywords for my product on
the Google Insight for Search

2. Identify the cities that have high search
volumes for the particular keyword (...and
the State involved - great for us Aussies who
do not know all the US cities)

3. Write a classified ad for the keyword with
the city and State in mind (...you can do this
in a coffee shop or on the plane, as I do)

4. Submit the classified ad to Jinger's site.

Then I repeat the process to submit as many ads
as I can in the time available.

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Squidoo lenses: local business promotion

One of the applications I have been exploring is the use of
Squidoo for local business promotion.

I have not offered this on a paid basis yet but have built
a few Squidoo lenses to illustrate the power of Squidoo
for local business promotion.

Here's one example:
http://www.squidoo.com/TheCupcakeCompany

This Squidoo lens is ranked 907 overall and 60
in the food category.

It was created on 21 June 2008 and has had
1,665 visitors since then.

In the last 30 days, 228 of the 347 visitors have come
from Google. In this time, there have been 56 clickouts
to The Cupcake Company's blog and 85 clickouts to the
Company's cupcake photos on Flickr.

The Squidoo lens appears on the first page of Google for
at least four keywords that I tested.

I think the application of Squidoo to the promotion of
local businesses is very under-developed. This is
certainly an area that has a lot of potential.

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Squidoo lenses: using SquidUtils Toolbar

The SquidUtils.com site is something you have to
see to believe.

This has a tremendous range of tools that you can use
to improve your Squidoo lenses and management of
your Squidoo groups.

This website based collection of tools, developed by
thefluffanutta, is quite extraordinary and includes
features such as a Squidoo chat room, RSS feeds for
your lenses, links to a Squidoo lens auction site,
pinging facility.... (and the list goes on).

A visit to the SquidUtils site is a must for
the committed Lensmaster:
http://squidutils.com/

BUT before you go, check out what
you can add to your own Browser Toolbar.

The SquidUtils Toolbar lets you:

• Keep up to date with the latest blog posts from Squidoo HQ
• Switch easily between multiple Lensmaster accounts
• Quick access to your dashboard, with notification of Lensrank updates
• Rate, favorite and comment on lenses without scrolling up and down
• Submit a lens to social bookmarking sites and lens directories
• Build a new lens with any of the co-brands
• Access affiliate RSS feeds for Amazon products
  
• Direct access to all the tools you love at SquidUtils.com

The SquidUtils Toolbar is available for Windows, Mac,
and Linux on Internet Explorer and Firefox.

CHECK out these free tools now and start using them
today:
SquidUtils Toolbar

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Squidoo lenses: using the SquidUtils function on your Squidoo lens

If you have downloaded the SquidUtils
workshop addon feature for Firefox, you will
make management of your lenses and groups
that much easier.

When you are in edit mode for your Squidoo lens,
you can see a heading, SquidUtils.com,
below the TAGS heading in the right hand column.

If you click on the arrow beside the SquidUtils.com
heading, you will see a drop-down menu with
the following options:

1. Ping - this enables you to ping the search engines
and blog directories, when you have a new lens or made
significant change to an existing lens. This is a great
tool because you can ping from within the edit
mode once you edit and publish.

2. Check backlinks - enables you to see how many
and what sites are linking back to your lens. This
backlinking is a major factor influencing lensrank and
Google PR.

3. Table Generator - enables you to convert your
data into a table - great tool.

4. Amazon Links & RSS Feed - you can generate links
for individual Amazon products as an affiliate or an RSS
feed of multiple products. This feed can include items
from a particular category (node), or items from List.
The feed will also include images and formatting,
unless you decide to turn it off. This is very handy
if you are seriously promoting Amazon.com products.

This SquidUtils.com workshop feature has been
developed by Giant Squid, thefluffanutta , and is one
of the many Squidoo tools that have been created to
make life easier for Squidoo lensmasters.

If you want to know more about SquidUtils, check out
my next post.

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Squidoo lenses: how to select modules

It is even easier now to create great Squidoo lenses
with the new module showcase to help you select
your Squidoo modules.

You can access the showcase by editing lenses as you
normally would and clicking the "Add Modules" button
on the top right hand side.

The new showcase will appear and you can make
your choice of module.

You can check out the most popular, see modules by
category (sell stuff, write stuff, web stuff, social stuff)
and even create your own list of favorites.

Megan Casey explains the new Module Picker here:
http://www.squidoo.com/new-module-showcase

As with all things Squidoo, there is always assistance
and guidance on hand to help you. Ener-G,
aka Gia Combs-Ramirez, has created a special
lens to act as mentor in your choice of modules. Gia
shows you how to use the different types of modules
in her module mentor lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/modulementor


**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo authority
site:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************