Because I make my living online, I hear from a lot of people who wish to do the same thing.  I have been making my living online for nearly 20 years now, with a couple of interruptions.  But, for probably 15 of the last 20 years I  have earned my income exclusively through online methods.  It’s not really all that unusual, many people go to an office or a warehouse or some other place to earn their income.  I go online.  There is nothing magic about it, really.  A lot of people think it is somehow magic, though. Really, I would argue that anybody can make their income online.  There are lots of different ways to make money … [Read more...]

Do you have products that you sell as part of your online earning strategy?  I’m talking mostly about things like e-Books or special reports that you offer to your readers?  Well, first thing, if you don’t have such items you really should.  Not only are those kind of items real money makers, they may well be your best way to earn money from your blog or website.  I have been offering eBooks for over 10 years now.  For the first 5 years or so, I had only 1 eBook, and did well with it.  Since 5 years ago or so, I started offering a wide variety of eBooks, and I’m glad I made the effort to do that, because I make a nice … [Read more...]

Last year, I wrote an article entitles “Why you need to be more security minded,” with a few security tips that related to the fact that a friend of mine had his Paypal account hacked.  Mostly that article was about making sure that you use strong passwords, using a different password on every account, etc.  I stand by all of those tips, and to date, I have never been hacked due to a weak password, I can assure you.  I use very strong passwords, and I am very security conscience. Today, I want to revisit security, but from a different angle, mostly.  I have two other friends who are currently experiencing security issues on … [Read more...]

Last year, I tried an experiment, something I had never done before.  I made a spin-off. No, I didn’t make a TV show!  I actually made 3 different spin-offs of a website that I own.  When I first decided to do the spin-off, I wrote about it here, Time for a Spin-Off?  Only about 2 weeks later, I wrote a follow up article on the topic to report that the spin-off was already making money!  To be honest, it is very rare for a brand new website to be earning money in just the first 2 weeks or so if it’s existence.  I was quite happy. Spin Off Well, because that first spin-off was so successful, that is why I decided to do two … [Read more...]

When it comes to eCommerce, it seems that there is a new player in town.  I guess he’s been in town for a while now, but I didn’t know about him until the other day.  I’m talking about WooCommerce. WooCommerce comes from the people at WooThemes.  WooThemes is a long time player in the WordPress Themes market, but now they are venturing into eCommerce too.  I’m glad they are, because competition always brings a better product. Woo As anybody who has been reading my writings for a while knows, I am a big advocate of OSCommerce, which is what I currently use on all of my eCommerce stores.  OSCommerce is very powerful … [Read more...]

What is a paywall?  Basically, it is a membership site.  It is a name most commonly used for newspaper websites.  With a paywall, that just means that you have installed a system on your website where people must pay to view the contents of your site.  Really it is no different than any kind of website where you must become a member in order to participate on or read the information on a website.  I don’t know why the newspapers must use a special name, i.e. “a paywall,” but they do. Paywall Over the years, I have thought seriously about using a paywall on one of my sites.  That site where I have been considering that … [Read more...]

Do you use Google AdSense to monetize your various websites?  I do, although for me AdSense is certainly not the most important revenue source on any of my sites, but still, I make a relatively nice amount of money from Google AdSense every month. If you use AdSense on your sites, it is important to keep up with the latest rules or policies from Google in conjunction with AdSense. Let’s have a look at some AdSense policies or ideas that have come out lately. Font Settings for AdSense A tree of fonts When you set up an AdSense ad to put on your site, Google gives you a bunch of default settings for the ad, which you can accept or edit. … [Read more...]

It’s 2012 already and the year is still fresh.  It’s that time of year when many of us make New Year’s Resolutions, resolving to do this or that to improve ourselves.  I don’t usually make such resolutions, but I do make plans for the new year, including plans to improve myself in some ways, I just tend to do it in a less formal way, I suppose. I tend to be a fairly productive person.  If I decide that something needs to be done, I get it done.  I don’t usually procrastinate much, if at all.  It is one of the “good things” about me.  But, I do feel that I can still improve in the area of time … [Read more...]

In the past week or two, I have been surprised that I have gotten questions about selling on eBay from five different people.  It seems that there is a real spark in interest on the topic of selling on eBay. In both of my business books, 49 Ways to Make a Living and 99 Ways to Make a living on the Internet, I talk about eBay selling as a great way to make money. I have made my living, off and on, through eBay for almost 15 years now, pretty much since eBay went into business.  When I first started out on eBay, it was still a relatively small site, at least in comparison to what exists on eBay today.  Things were a lot “looser” … [Read more...]

This morning I scanned my news feed on Facebook, as I do most every morning.  I came upon a status update from a friend, something that fits in nicely here on the Virtual Earner blog, so I thought I’d write a little something on the topic today. So, here is what my friend had to say about online business: It amazes me at how many people (wrongly) believe how money can be made on the internet, or don’t believe at all money can be made on the internet. Here is what I think. It’s all about three things: A) Giving people what they want, B) Being able to be found, and C) The right strategy. I want to tackle the last part first. … [Read more...]