I am going to attempt to bring into focus some different kinds of online
businesses that one is going to find when you are looking for work from
home opportunities.
There are plenty of them out there and to have some idea how they
work, and what to avoid may give some newcomers a leg up.
I am not here to bash any of these sites but only to bring to light some inner
workings of such sites so the reader can draw their own conclusion.
First, it is all about advertising… period. You are going into business
advertising advertising( that’s not a typo ).
For a large part, you will be the audience being advertised too, starting out.
If you do not have a product or idea to market then you will be selling or
marketing someone else’s idea or product and more than likely it will be
some form of advertising.
That is where the Affiliate Marketer comes into play. As an affiliate, you will
advertise a product or concept using many forms of advertising.
These marketing sites are a go-between from the website owner or affiliate
to the warm bodies which we call traffic. In some cases, you will be each
other’s traffic.
There are many types of these sites and I am only going to cover the ones
that are the most common.
A lot of them will combine many aspects of several of the categories below
to make there offering more attractive to the marketer.
The larger the member base, the more advertising, the more money they
can demand from their online presence.
I would like to add that I am not a marketing guru, graduate of a business
college or a computer geek.
If you are looking for the science behind any of this you may be on the
wrong page.
But if you are interested in the meat and potatoes of this online pie then I
believe you are just where you need to be.
I started trying to make money using my computer in 1990 and have
learned a lot of things not to do and would be happy to share those with
you.
Hang in there, it is a piece of cake!
PAID TO CLICK SITES
Paid to click or PTC’s as we call them are sites that advertisers pay to
manage their ads and these companies pay members to view these ads.
The reality is that the people viewing the ads ultimately end up joining
some programs that they are viewing.
PTC’s are usually free to join and are easy to navigate.
I never made any money to speak of using PTCs ( and yes I tried ) and one
reason probably would be that I did not have the patience to sit and click
links to view the sites for hours and hours.
I have seen some outrageous
numbers that have been claimed
to have been made at some of
these sites but did not personally experience
those results.
One click or view will pay an average of about .001 to .01 cents.
The marketing slant comes into view at these sites whereas if you advertise
there PTC site using an affiliate link that they provide you can make a
percentage off of the clicks of the people that join that PTC using your
affiliate link or commonly called your referral.
There a lot of PTC’s out there and the best way to know firsthand about
them would be to try one. Just Google Paid To Click Sites and see what pops
up.
Join one and who knows it may be something you may like or if nothing
else you can get a glimpse into in this digital world and see what’s out there.
Just because I did not the view PTC a viable free work from home
opportunity does not mean someone else won’t.
Give it a go and make your own mind as to how it may be something you
may or may not get any benefit from.
TOOL RICH MARKETING PLATFORMS
Content is king. Traffic is queen.
Getting those to together is the trick and it takes time, energy, and a lot of
tools.
You can buy a domain at any of the hundreds of Registrars then go to
another site and by hosting, then another and buy an autoresponder, and so
on and here is a list of some things that will make you competitive online:
- Website
- Domain
- Hosting
- Live Training
- Traffic
- Back Office Editor
- Keyword Tool
- Blogging Platform
- Trackers
You will find that all the Marketing Platforms will offer some of these
features in hopes of getting your business.
Some of these are all a paid service and some even have a free version. You
will have to jump in and start exploring to find the right service that will
meet your budget needs.
I do know of one particular service that does offer all of these and even has
a free version that offers all the aforementioned tools and an upgraded
version with an expanded tool chest.
I would even say that the Wealthy Affiliate would fall into a good choice for
a free work from home opportunity.
They have been around for about 10 years and have excellent reviews.
I would also mention that the Wealthy Affiliate has a top-notch
The Google Marketing Platform is an option but I would not advise that
unless you are a seasoned Marketer.
You can get into some more advanced Studios and end up spending a lot of
money so be careful and research before you click.
TRAFFIC EXCHANGES
We could not talk about online marketing without a mention of Traffic
Exchanges.
They are probably the first place a lot of us got our first taste of online
marketing, myself included.
They are similar in nature to PTCs in that you are clicking links and viewing
advertising or splash pages.
The difference is that for your views you will get credits in place of cents or
you can buy the credits.
You can then use those credits
and get views of your web page
of the program that you are
promoting.
They all will have their own theme and ways
of keeping your interest with things like referral contests,
chat boxes, free credits for a certain number of
views, and prize pages inserted in the rotation.
There is a zillion of these traffic exchanges and even a few that I still use.
Easyhits4u, for instance, is one that I use and has over a million plus
member base.
LeadsLeap is another exchange that I like and that has some very useful
advanced features that you will not find on any other exchange.
None of these exchanges could be considered as a stand-alone free work
from home opportunity but they all have a free version and the better ones
offer free digital tools plus a little traffic along the way never hurts.
MAILERS
There have been mailers around forever and at one time they were just
postal mailers but as the digital world blossomed so did digital marketing.
This came in the form of email marketing and the LIST we hear so much about.
Safe lists are another form of mailers that
come with their own list that you can mail
to if you do not have a list of your own.
After joining you become another person on
their list.
See how it works.
You will get a ton of emails as members send out emails through the system.
It is a good idea to have a Gmail account just for this. Some traffic
exchanges have a variation of a mailer that is included with the service.
There are a number of mailers out there that claim to have thousands and
even million member lists that they will mail your ad to for you for a fee.
Do not go there.
Any traffic, if any, would be rehashed old traffic that would be
unresponsive at best.
You get what you pay for.
Last Thoughts
I am sure there are marketing platforms out there that built a legit biz
around there ability to capture organic traffic.
That’s where you want to be, getting your traffic from these mammoth
browsers using the same technique over and over again collecting targeted
eyeballs for your affiliate offering.
This same topic is the core message Wealthy Affiliate brings to the table in
their free training.
As for work from home opportunities, I would add that whatever avenue
you head into always do your due diligence and research these companies
and get a good feel for what they are all about.
Time is money and nothing is for free.
Please leave comments or any questions below! I am always happy to help
anyone on their online journey.
All The Best
Paul Price
Hey Paul,
I’ve been hearing a lot on traffic exchanges and I’m quite interested in giving it a try, especially Easy Hite 4 U. Just curious though, is there any catch to them since it’s free? Learning from experience, I always have this feeling like if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Also, if I do get those visits, would it be good SEO-wise? Like if Google noticed that my site has an influx of 1000 visitors in one day and those visitors just come and leave, won’t the bounce rates go up
Bounce rates do matter and so does no traffic at all. If a person is getting zero organic traffic then a bounce rate at any level would at least mean a person is out there. If a person is just using traffic exchanges exclusivly then I do not believe a high bounce rate would effect them.
I use Easyhits4u and go to my back office and invite the contacts of other members to contact me. When they except my invitation then I send them a thank you notice with my invite to check out Wealthy Affiliate.
I keep my affiliate links active in the exchange but do not add a large number of credits for views of my links. Hence trying to keep that bounce rate to a minimum.
You can also market to your referrals which get added to your account if you are a premium member.
If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me.
All The Best
Paul Price
Very interesting post Paul, this is the first time I am reading about traffic exchange, never knew something like that existed. I bookmarked this to check it out later. You said something about making use of the two you mentioned about, if you dont mind my asking, how productive is it?
Secondly when you get views on your site, does it include comments or just for someone to glance through a post?
The traffic exchanges are all different, some have a comment feature and some do not. The traffic is not that targeted. After all, the people that click on your affiliate link are just trying to get credits for clicks to there affiliate link. I use them for the tool features they offer and there are only a few worth that. Ones with a large member base offer a message system where you can message other members and market to them your affiliate offer. I would not spend to much time with them as your time may be better spent on more productive traffic avenues.