Have you ever wondered what affiliate marketing is?

Affiliate marketing is essentially a way of generating money on the internet whereby you as a publisher are awarded for helping a business by marketing their product, services or website. There are a lot of different ways you can promote a webpage, but in most cases they involve you as a publisher cashing in on a commission when an individual follows a link on your blog to a different web-site where they then buy something.

Commissions are traditionally a percentage of a sale but can also be a fixed amount per conversion. Conversions are traditionally tracked when the publisher (you) uses a link with a code only being used by you embedded into it that will allow for the advertiser to monitor where conversions come from usually by cookies. Other times an advertiser might give the publisher a ‘coupon code’ for their readers to use that helps them trace conversions. So while there is a bit more to affiliate marketing that gives you a good idea of what affiliate marketing is. Continue reading →

If you can write a decent paragraph and have access to a computer with internet, there are lots of things you can do these days to earn a few bucks. If you can type and have good grammar skills the possibilities are endless. Here are five of the easiest:

1. Freelance. Alright, so freelancing is probably not what most people would consider “easy.” But, it is easier than a lot of other jobs, like removing fangs from poisonous snakes, or cleaning up after rock concerts. There are lots of sites that do the work for you by aggregating potential employers and projects in one place, like oDesk or Elance. Beware of any site that asks you for money up front, however; it is probably a scam. A genuine site will usually make their money as a small percentage of the amount paid for a finished product.

2. Name internet domains. The easiest way to do this is to use the website PickyDomains.com, which serves as a sort of facilitator between people looking for a cool domain name and people who think up cool domain names for a living. Registration is free, and you can start work right away sending suggestions for domain names on the site. If the client selects your particular idea, you get paid a portion of the purchase price (prices vary, and amount you receive will also vary based on your “rank,” which is basically how long you’ve been working with the site for). Continue reading →