Yes indeed. In fact, it?s the model that I?ve been using over the last few years to build my successful online businesses ? both with my Biology Blog and here at Learning With Leslie. It?s the model that I love, and is the model that many people from all over the world have used to build a bunch of successful businesses.
There are different ways to accomplish this, and that?s what I?m talking about in today?s episode.
Before I get into the main topic for today, I take a call from Butch Gibson, who wanted to provide feedback on what he has been learning from the show, and from my 7 Day bootcamp. I play his feedback and then respond with a call for YOU to take ACTION.
As of today, I will be posting a new episode of Learning With Leslie once weekly, instead of twice. This is something I?ve been thinking about for a while, and I finally decided to give it a ago. Not only will this allow me to do other things that I?m working on, but it will allow me to focus ALL of my energy for learning with Leslie into one episode and make it as good as it gets. My hope is to deliver even more value as I move forward.
Also, if you ever have feedback, a comment or questions that you would like me to deal with on the show, you can call the hotline at (888) 835 ? 2414 or you can click on the tab all the way to the right of the screen and record your comment right there.
Alrighty, lets get into the meat of this episode. In this section I cover 10 different ways that you can make money while giving away free info. But first, I talk about the benefits of giving away free info:
Of course, in the episode, I go into a lot more detail on each point, so go ahead and have a listen.
Some people like to be able to read a transcript while listening to the podcast, or just read the transcript without even listening. If you are one of those people, not to worry ? We?ve made the transcript available for you below.
Introduction
[Intro by Guy Kawasaki]
Hello, hello, hello and welcome to another episode of Learning with Leslie, the podcast where you learn, I learn, we all learn about those things like Internet marketing, online business blogging, traffic generation, social media, you know, all that www stuff.
I started this podcast to share what I?ve learned about Internet Marketing, and what I?m still learning today, and to interview other experts who can help us along on our blogging journey. I?m your host, Leslie Samuel, the Internet Marketing teacher from learningwithleslie.com.
And, I have another exciting episode for you today. I just can?t hold myself back because I?m so excited. Today, I?m going to be dealing with a topic that I find very exciting. It?s actually a topic that I get asked about a lot, and that is, I?m going to be talking about ten ways to make money while giving away a ton of free information. I do this a lot. I give away a lot of free stuff, but you want to make it so that you can still have a business. So, I?m going to talk about ten ways that you can do that. That?s what I?m going to talk about today.
A New and Easier Way to Get in Touch
All right. So, that?s the topic for today. But, before I get into the topic, of course, if I have a listener feedback or questions, I take that right at the beginning. I want to also encourage you if, and you probably notice already, if you?ve been listening to this podcast, if you have a question, a comment, some feedback that you want to give me, or something that you?re struggling with that you can?t figure out the answer, you need some insight when it comes to Internet Marketing, online business, traffic generation, social media, all that www stuff, you can call the hotline. The number to the hotline is 888-835-2414.
All right, so you can call that number. That?s my beautiful wife singing that number for you. And, if you have a question, you know what to do. Just call the hotline.
Alternatively, this is something that I just set up because I went to a blog, they also have a podcast, I can?t remember which one it was right now, but I saw this thing in the side of the website, by SpeakPipe. You can actually, right now, go to my blog at LearningatLeslie.com. Over to the right, you?ll see this little tab that says, ?Ask a question.?
If you click on that, you can actually just record your question right there. So, if you have a microphone connected to your computer, or to your laptop, or whatever has a built-in microphone, you can just talk to your computer, and I?m going to get the message, and I can play it on the show. I can answer your questions, and all that jazz.
I just love technology. This is awesome stuff, and everytime I find something cool like this, it just reminds me the power of technology and the Internet, and all that stuff. Anyhow, so if you have a question or comment, you can just go to the website, and click on, ?Ask a Question,? and then, click on ?Start Recording,? and just talk to your computer.
People might think you?re strange because you?re talking to your computer, but that?s okay. You?re going to send your message in, and I?m going to get it, and I?m going to answer it on the show.
Your Feedback
So, I have a call from Butch Gibson, who had some feedback about the show, so I?m going to go ahead, and play that right now. So, take it away, Butch.
Hey, Leslie Samuel. Thank you so much for the follow up emails that you?ve sent. My name is Butch Gibson, and I wanted to send a followup to you as far as offering you some additional feedback after I?ve listened to the show, and after I?ve received a couple of emails from you.
Again, I definitely appreciate the information that you have sent. I have tried to watch the videos as closely as I can. I think I did four out of the seven. I still just need to play a little catch up. I?ve got too many irons in too many fires, and I may be premature as far as being able to follow through with the program as described. I haven?t had the chance to install Market Samurai, or even consider any of that research, not that it matters to you, but I kind of created a deadline for myself that I want to start my podcast in March, and that?s probably premature because I don?t have all my ducks in a row, but I?ve had my hand on the trigger since like 2010. I kind of feel like, you know what? I just need to do something. I need to just get out there, and just get it started and maybe play catch up after the fact.
That might be the one move for me, but anyway, I also just want to give you a little feedback after listening to your show, definitely enjoyable, and I as I mentioned, it?s definitely a pleasure to find someone like yourself out there that?s definitely providing good information. It is very much appreciated. And, like I said, I can show this to my son?s and present you as a role model, just as much as anyone else that I have shown in the past like I mentioned to you ? ?, Frederick Ben Johnson, and all of those great folks that are out there, including Pat Flynn, Cliff Ravenscraft, and all of the other folks that are out there that just kind of doing it up, and leading by example with the ways that they are conducting business and making money online.
Anyway, hey, thanks! Your program is great. It is very easy to listen to you. You?re providing great information. It?s definitely appreciated. And, again, I might be following in your footsteps at least, in the sense that I hope to be podcasting soon, and maybe even making some money.
Thanks again. My name is Butch Gibson. Thanks!
Hey, Butch! Thank you so much for calling in and for leaving that feedback. You know, I really do appreciate that. I think it?s amazing to have a platform like this, to have a podcast where I can share this stuff that I?m learning, where I can interact with you, and we can learn together.
If you?re out there, and you?re thinking about blogging, you?re thinking about podcasting, you?re thinking about getting into this Internet Marketing stuff, my recommendation is DO IT.
The technology is there, it?s more accessible than ever before. Butch Gibson, Butch, thank you so much for calling that in, and I want to tell you this. Start that podcast. It?s not premature. It is not too early. If you have been thinking about it for a while, just go ahead and take action.
Go ahead and do it. I just listened to your audio feedback, and, it sounded good! You have the equipment that you need to get that podcast started. So, go ahead and do it. And, when you do it, send me a message. Let me know that you?ve launched that podcast. I want to check it out. I want to see what you?re doing because I just love to see people take action, and start accomplishing the things that they?ve set out for themselves. So, go ahead. Get it started.
If you?re listening to this, and you want to get started with a podcast, you want to get started with a blog, and you?re thinking, ?Ah! I don?t have my ducks in a row as yet, and everything is not lined up,? do not wait for it to get lined up. Just start taking action.
I?m also going to recommend for you to go back to my Episode 63, learningwithleslie.com/episode63. It?s entitled, ?Stop Wasting Time, Just Put it out There.? And, I share some of my opinions with you where that is concerned. I think it?s very significant, and I think it?s something that can make a significant difference in your life, in your business, in your online pursuits, and all that jazz. So, just do it, man! Just do it!
All right, so that?s Butch?s call. Thank you for calling that in.
Once again, I want to remind you, if you have a question, you have a comment, you have a suggestion, you can either go to the website at LearningwithLeslie.com, and click on that little tab to the right, or you can just call the hotline at 888-835-2414, and I will answer your question on the show.
Some Things You Should Know
Now, before I get into the content for today, I also have two announcements. Announcement number one, and this is one that, I don?t know if this is going to disappoint you, or get you excited, but it?s an announcement that I have to make nonetheless.
If you?ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you know that I produce this podcast, and usually I release it on Tuesday, and Thursdays ? twice a week. I am changing that as of today. As of this episode, Episode 65, I?m only going to be releasing this podcast once a week. There are a number of reasons for that.
As you know, I?m a University professor, and I have a lot of stuff that I?m working on, and sometimes, I find that I?m spreading myself a little thin. So, I need to cut back on some of the things that I?m doing, not cut back on the value that I?m giving, but still cut back on some of the things that I?m doing.
Making the change from twice a week to once a week is something that I?ve decided to do, and I wanted to let you know that. So, this podcast will be posted on Tuesdays, so you can listen to it anytime between Tuesday and forever. And, just know that from here on out, it?s just going to be once weekly. That?s the first announcement.
With that, what I?m going to strive to do is put more into each individual episode, and try to overdeliver in each episode. I want you to listen to the episode, and feel like, ?Man! That was some awesome stuff!? Not that you didn?t feel that before, but I want you to feel it even more so now that I?m switching to once a week.
Like I said, it?s not less value. It?s just a lower frequency, but still delivering the same amount of value if not more. I?m sure you?re going to find that I?m going to deliver a lot in this episode, and it?ll give you a taste of what I?m trying to accomplish.
Second announcement is? Let?s see what?s the second announcement here? Actually, I already said the announcement. The thing that I have in my page now that you can leave messages.
I also want to announce, and not that this is a new thing, but you can follow me on Twitter, Leslie Samuel on Twitter, Learning with Leslie on Facebook. I just opened up my page to the public. I don?t have a bunch of fans over there, yet. But, I know that they will come, and you are going to go over there right now, Learning with Leslie on Facebook, and check me out over there. Let?s connect over there, because I want to connect with you guys. I want to connect with you, not you guys, YOU, you are listening to this right now.
Let?s Start Talking about Making Money
Okay, now that we have those announcements out of the way, let?s get to the main content for today, ?Ten Ways to Make Money while Giving Away A Ton Of Free Info.? Now, I?ve been doing this Internet Marketing stuff since 2008. At least, I?ve been doing it relatively successfully since 2008. Before that, I did do some Internet Marketing stuff, but it was not successful. And since then, what I?ve really enjoyed doing is giving away information.
You know, at my Biology website, I put up Biology videos to help people learn Biology, and to help make Biology fun, and I?ve been getting people from all over the world checking out those videos. People come here to Learning with Leslie. They get this podcast 100% free. They go to my 7daybootcamp.net, and it?s 100% free training on how to get your business up and running in seven days.
That is what I enjoy doing because it allow me to interact with people. It allows people to get to know me, and to get to learn from the stuff that I?ve learned, and I enjoy sharing that.
However, if you?re going to have a business, well, you have to make some money because the business needs to run, and you need to be compensated for your time, and so on. So, I want to talk about ways that you can still make money eventhough you?re giving this information away for free.
?
How do Free Resources Help our Site?
First, I want to talk about the benefits of giving away the information for free because this is very significant.
Number one, it helps you to establish credibility and build trust. When you put information out there, and this information is high-quality information, it?s information that helps people, it answers their questions, it helps them solve problems. In my situation, for example, with my Biology videos, it helps people to learn Biology.
When you do that, you establish credibility. People come to see you as an expert, someone that they can trust. And, really when it comes down to it, if you?re going to have an Internet business, if you?re going to have a blog, an online presence, a brand that?s going to make money, what it comes down to is this: People will buy from someone that they know, ?like, and trust. They will buy from a trusted expert friend.
So, if you?re the expert, and you are someone that they can trust, if you recommend something, they are more likely to buy it. So, that?s point number one. It helps you to establish credibility, and to build trust.
Number two, people are more likely to share stuff if it?s free. If you?re on Facebook, which most likely you want, because it seems like the entire world is on Facebook, you?ve probably seen that people share a lot of stuff. And, typically, the stuff that they share is free. And, if your stuff is available, if your stuff is high-quality, and it?s available for free, they are more likely to share it.
Number three, when you have this type of free stuff, free information that you?re putting out there, you can take advantage of sites like YouTube, the number two search engine in the world right now, very powerful for getting exposure. And, also directories like iTunes.
If you have a podcast, you can submit it to iTunes. You can be found in the iTunes directory when someone is looking for a topic that?s related to the keywords that you?re targeting in the podcast, or on your videos, and so on. It gives people more ways to find you. And, with YouTube, with iTunes, that can be very powerful.
In other words, the benefit of giving away a lot of information for free is it?s much easier to get traffic, whether it?s from iTunes, whether it?s from YouTube, whether it?s from your blog, and people referring people from Facebook or Twitter, or Google+, it is much easier to get traffic when the stuff that you put out there is free.
All right, so I?ve spoken about the benefits. Now, we know why it?s beneficial to give away stuff for free, let?s talk about why you should try to make money from your website even if you?re giving away stuff for free.
Now, I think this one is pretty obvious. If you have more money, it can help you to do more things. Money helps you to do things. It gives you the ability to outsource more and accomplish more. If there are certain things that you need to develop for your website, if you need a new website designs, and so on. If you have money, it gives you the ability to do that more easily. If there are certain plugins that you need developed for WordPress, for example, you can pay someone to do it.
If there?s a certain aspect of your site that you need developed, like there are certain things that I want added to my Interactive Biology site, then I?m going to have to pay to get developed. Well, you need money to do that. But, not just that. You do not actually have a business unless you are making money.
It?s a vital part of the process! It allows you to do stuff for your business, but it also allows you to do stuff for yourself, and for your family. It allows you to be able to take that trip that you?d like to take. Go on vacation and do some fun stuff. It?s good to make money with your website.
So, we?ve looked at the benefits of giving stuff away for free, and we?ve also spoken briefly about why you should be trying to make money from your website.
Making Money in Ten Ways
Now, let?s go into the ten ways to make money while giving away a ton of free information.
I?m going over ten things. This does not mean that if you have a site, you have to do all these things. But, I?m talking about these, so you can know different options, and you can pick one or two, or three, or how many ever you want to pick that?s ging to work for your business, for your brand, for what you are trying to accomplish online.
#1 Build a List
The first thing I want to talk about, the first way to make money online, this actually, in my opinion is the most important part. And, it kind of sets the foundation for many of the other things that I?m going to be talking about. And that is this, you need to be building a list. I?m going to say it again, you need to build a list. Your list is one of the biggest assets when it comes to your online business.
Yes, you can have your blog, you can have your podcast, and those are significant assets. But another great asset is your list. The reason why that?s so powerful is because it helps you to nurture relationships with your subscribers. It is all about the relationship.
As I mentioned before, people will buy from a trusted expert friend. Your mailing list is a system that you can use to communicate with your subscribers, and to grow that relationship, to establish that bond to become that trusted expert friend, so that when you recommend stuff on your list, when you recommend stuff on your blog, they will know who you are. They will trust you, and they are more likely to buy.
So, point number one, make sure that you?re building a list. If you?re just starting your blog, build a list. If you?ve been blogging for a while, and you don?t have a list, start building your list today. Very important, and I don?t want to under-emphasize the importance of that. And, I think I?m going to record a full episode sometime soon, talking about building a list, and different strategies that you can implement to build your list effectively, because there?s a wrong way to do it? No, there are many wrong ways to do it, and there are a few right ways to do it. I?m going to talk about that in a later episode.?So, that?s the first way.
#2 Repackage Free Stuff into an Ebook
Number two, this is something that I started doing a few months ago with my Interactive Biology site, and it has been very powerful. And, that?s this. It?s very simple. Take your free stuff, and package it into a nicely packaged e-book. Take your free stuff, the stuff that?s available on your website, the stuff that?s available in your videos, and so on, and package it into an e-book.
This is something that I learned from Pat Flynn a while back with his Green Exam Academy site that he put up. What he did, when noticed that he was getting a significant amount of traffic is he took the content that was on his site already, and he packaged it as an e-book, and started selling it from the site, and he?s made a significant amount of money with it. So, when I saw him do that, I thought to myself, ?Hey, I should try that!?
Now, I put videos on my website, and those videos are based on the notes that I took in college. So, what I decided to do was to take those same notes that used to make my videos, and package it into an e-book. And, I call it the ?Human Physiology for Regular People,? and it?s just an ebook that I put together. It has nice pictures. It?s nicely formatted, and you can see ?if you go to my Interactive Biology site, and click on ?Study Guide,? you can see that I also included a link to it in my show notes. This is Episode 65. So, just go to LearningwithLeslie.com/episode65, and you can get a link directly to the page where I sell my study guide.
I have been selling it for a few months, and it?s been doing pretty well. I have not optimized the sales process. I just have a link in the navigation menu, and every month, it?s selling between $500, and $1500 worth of that ebook. And the ebook is for $34.95. Very simple process. I just made the ebook from the content that I already put out there for free, but because it?s repackaged, because it?s available now in a format they can download, they can print it, they can have it on their computer, they are willing to spend $34.95 to get it.
How do you go about doing this? I want to talk a little bit about that because it?s a relatively straightforward process.
How I?ve done it is, I have the program Pages, which is on the Mac alone. It?s kind of like Microsoft Word. It?s a word processor, and I just take the content. I put it in there, and I format it nice, just like you?re writing a document. Then, I bring some images and some pictures that maybe, I purchased online. I found a new stock photography site.
I used to use iStock photo, but that was getting pretty pricey, so I switched to using canstockphoto.com, and they are really good.?They have excellent quality images, and you put some of those images in there. Make it look nice, and then, you just export it as a pdf.
If you don?t have Microsoft Office, if you don?t have Pages on a Mac, you can do it for free by using Open Office. Just go to openoffice.org, and that does exactly the same thing like Microsoft Office. You can format your document to look good. You have certain sections that are highlighted maybe, some things that are bold, some links to pages on your site, and you can sell that as a product.
Yes, the same information you?re giving away for free. So, if you have a series, like for example, a friend of mine, Rochelle Hanson, from Simply Natural Ideas, she listens to this podcast. She just did a series of blogpost on smoothies. And, what she can do is she can take those series of blog posts, and package it as a nice ebook to sell on her website ? the same free information, but repackaged, looks nice, and you can sell it, and you can make money from that.
So, that?s way you can do it. In terms of delivering that ebook, so that people can purchase it, I use E-junkie at E-junkie.com. Very simple, very easy. I don?t have to worry about setting up all the payment stuffs. They take care of that. They take care of delivering the ebook. I think I paid like $5 or something like that to get it going, and it?s easy, simple, and you can start making money with free content you?ve been giving away, repackaged and ready to go.
So, number one, build a list. Number two, take your free stuff and package it into a nice ebook.
#3?Record an audio version of your ebook.
The third startegy is to record, you?re taking that same free information that ebook you probably created or information that you have on your site, and record an audio of your ebook.
Well, if you?re a podcaster, that?s something that?s very simple. You already know who to record. You have the equipment that you need, and you can just simply read your ebook, and create an MP3 file, and you can provide that as something that can be packaged with your ebook at a higher price point.
This is something that I am working on right now. I?m getting ready to record an audio version of my ebook so that, I can sell my ebook for $34.95 and then, I can package it with the MP3 for a higher price point. So, maybe $67 or something of that sort. So, that?s something to consider.
If you?re not a podcaster, and you?re not exactly sure how to do it, it?s very simple. The cheapest way is by just getting a USB headset or a USB mic. I?ve used a USB mic in the past, the Rode Podcaster microphone, very good microphone that you can use. You just plug it directly into the USB port on your computer, and then, you can start recording.
If you?re trying to get a headset, I know that Plantronics makes some great headsets, and I?ll link to one of them in the Show Notes on Episode 65. And then, for actually recording the audio, you can use Audacity, which is a free program, very powerful, very simple, and easy to use, and it can get you started recording your audio version of that ebook, and now you have another product that you can sell.
Make sense, right? Yes, I know it makes sense. It?s relatively simple, but it?s a way that you can monetize, and make some money with that same free information.
#4 Create an iBook
Another alternative. Another thing that you can do for making money with free stuff is creating an iBook. I don?t know if you?re aware of this, but a few weeks ago, Apple launched a program called iBook?s author. And, what that is, it?s a very simple program. I?m using it right now to produce an iPad version of my study guide. So, they released this to allow anyone with a Mac, of course, to publish multi-touch ebooks for the iPad.
And, this thing is beautiful. It is amazing what you can do. I mean, you can have your ebook there. You can put images, and click on the images by just touching the screen, and you can scroll through multiple images. You can make it interactive. You can actually take a video, and put it directly into the ebook, and it?s just awesome. They made it very simple and easy to use.
If you understand how to use a word processor like Microsoft Word or Pages, you can do this. It?s that simple. And, you can produce something that is just awesome. It?s beautiful. I started working on mine and then, I showed it to some friends, and they were so impressed. But, it?s not something that takes a lot of work. So, if you have a Mac, this is another alternative. Creating an iBook.
Okay, so we?ve spoken about building your list, producing an ebook, recording an audio version of your ebook, creating an iBook, these are all different ways. Those are the first four.
#5 Make a DVD from your videos
The next thing you can do, if you are someone like me that creates videos on a regular basis, for example, I make videos for my Biology website, and my Biology blog, that?s the main content on my site. Well, what you can do is take those videos, and package them onto a nice DVD.
You just take them and copy them onto a DVD, and you can provide that as a service, as a product from your website. So, if you have a series on a particular topic, you can make a DVD on that topic, and sell it from your website.
Now, I know that this sounds like a very complicated process, producing a DVD but, it really isn?t. There?s a service called Kunaki, and if you?ve never heard of it, go to Kunaki.com, and it?s a very inexpensive on-demand duplication service. What it does is you can purchase DVDs from there for as little as $1, and have them ship it directly to your customer.
You upload your stuff onto their server and make the DVD, and they will fulfill that order for you.
It?s awesome. It?s simple. It?s inexpensive. You pay shipping and handling, but of course, if the DVD is only $1 or $1.50, depending on what you are doing, you can charge shipping and handling, and then, you can say, okay, if this is a high-value DVD, you can sell it for $29.95 or $97, or $197, depending on the content. Repackage it, use Kunaki, create a DVD, have them ship it directly to your customer.
Easy, simple, straightforward, and very, very effective. I?m also going to be working on doing that for my site. I haven?t done it yet, but I?ve started the process. So, you could see, there are a number of different ways you can make money. But, of course, that?s just way number five, and we have five more to go.
Number one was build a list. Number two, make an ebook. Number three, an audio version of your ebook. Number four, create an iBook for the iPad. Number five, create a DVD, and use a service like Kunaki to fulfill it.
#6 Sell advertising.
Number six is that you can sell advertising on your site. Advertising, of course, you know, many websites online, this is how they thrive. Now, I was never a big fan of advertising. But then, I realized, really, if you want to provide free content, good quality content, you need to have a way of compensating yourself. You need to have a way of funding your business because it takes money to provide this content for free, and advertising is one way that you can do it.
In terms of advertising, a service that I recommend is one that was created by a good friend of mine, Yaro Starak from Entrepreneur?s Journey, and it?s called, CrankyAds. It?s a free WordPress plugin, and really it?s the best plugin that I?ve seen for managing advertising.
And, I say it?s the best not because it has a million features. I say it?s the best because it?s very simple, easy to implement, and you can set it up on your website. If you?re using WordPress, it?s very easy to connect with WordPress. You just get the plugin installed, and then, you can go and sell advertising on your site.
What I recommend is charging a monthly fee. So, you might say, I?m going to charge $20 or $50 a month, $100 a month, $200 a month, depending on your level of traffic, of course, you can sell advertising on your site, and you can make some decent money.
#7?Promote affiliate products.
There was one I was going to mention before that, and somehow, I switched it around to selling advertising. So, I?m going to go back to the one that I was going to say first because this is one that I have used extensively, and really, it?s the one that has driven a lot of what I?m doing here at Learning with Leslie, and that is to promote affiliate products. I love affiliate products.
You know why they are so great? Because it?s much less work than making your own product. The things that I spoke about before like creating a DVD, and creating an iBook, an ebook, an audio version of your ebook, those are things that take time. You have to write the content. You have to record the audio book. You have to make the DVD, and so on.
However, affiliate products are ready-made products, and they are a great way to start making money. You don?t have to deal with making the product. You don?t have to deal with delivering the product.
All you need to do is sign up for the affiliate program, and use your affiliate link to promote that product so that, when you promote it, and someone purchases that product, you get a commission. This is very significant when it comes to making money online.
I have my 7-Day Boot Camp at 7daybootcamp.net. And, it?s a course where I teach people to set up a blog, to get started making money online, to show them how to drive traffic, what kind of content you need to make, and all those types of things. And, I don?t charge anything for it.However, as a part of the program, if you want to have a website, you need to sign up for hosting.
So, what do I do? I provide you with my affiliate link for hosting. And, anytime you sign up for hosting, if anyone signs up for hosting using my link, I get a commission, and it?s a pretty significant commission.
That is one of the main ways I?ve been able to monetize what I do here at Learning with Leslie, at my 7-Day Boot Camp, and I?ve even used, and this is awesome to see, but I?ve even used affiliate marketing at my Interactive Biology site because I went to Click Bank at clickbank.com and I found an Anatomy and Physiology study guide that was for sale. A pretty good study guide.
What I did is I sent a message to my list, and I promoted the study guide, told them about it, told them what I thought about it, and then, a certain amount of people purchased that study guide, and I made a few hundred dollars just from doing that.
So, you can see that affiliate marketing is very significant. It has a lot of potential to make you a significant amount of money. But, there?s a keypoint that I want to make because really, when it comes to affiliate marketing, you see a lot of shady stuff out there. You see a lot of spamming. You see a lot of people just promoting products just so that you can make money.
Of course, here, you?re trying to make money, but you want to do it in the right way. And, in my opinion, the decision that I have made is this. I only promote products that I know and trust. I only promote products that I know and I trust, and I promote products that I think you?re going to need in order to accomplish your goal.
You?re going to need a website if you?re going to be doing Internet Marketing. It makes sense, right? So, you?re going to need hosting. If you?re doing keyword research, it?s good to have a tool that you can use, so I can recommend to you the tool that I use which is Market Samurai, and I can use my affiliate link, let you know that it is an affiliate program, and I do get a commission, but that is a way that you can monetize a site, monetize your programs, monetize whatever you?re doing online if you?re giving away free stuff, or even if you?re selling paid stuff, you can use affiliate products to supplement your income to make some more money online.
Okay, so, let?s take it in the correct order. Build a list, make an ebook, an audio version of your ebook, create an iBook, take your videos and create a DVD if you?re doing video marketing, promote affiliate products, sell advertising.
#8 Adsense
The next one has to do with selling advertising, but it?s a little different, and it?s called, Google Adsense. Google Adsense is something that has surprised me significantly over the last month. I just started using it at the end of January. And, I just said, you know what? I really need to do something to make a little more money than I?m making for my Biology website.
Let me test this Adsense thing. And, let me test doing YouTube ads. You know, like when you?re watching a video, you can see an ad that pops up on the video, or a pre-roll ad, and so on. And, I have been very much surprised! Because from one day to the next, I?m making now, an average of $30 everyday just by having Adsense active. Having it in my blog, having it in my videos, and what I did, actually, because I was a little uncomfortable with the idea of putting Adsense on my site.
So, I went to my Biology community, Facebook, and I asked the question, ?Hey, what do you guys think about me putting ads on my videos, on my website, and so on.? And, you know what the response was? Please do it. You?ve been giving us so much value that we want you to be compensated. You?re not charging for these videos, and if this is going to help you to be able to put out more content like you?ve been doing, please do it.
And, when I saw that response, I was encouraged, and I decided, I?m going to test it out. And, from one day to the next, literally. The first day I did it, I made something like $10 or $15, and then, it went up to $20 something, and then, $30 something, and $40 something, and now I?m making an average of about $30 a day, just from doing Adsense, not from doing anything actively. I haven?t been doing, I haven?t done much on my Biology website recently at all. But, I?m making a significant amount of money.
I think this month I?m going to make about, between $900 and $1000 just from having Adsense on my blog, and in my videos.
Doesn?t that sound good? I think it sounds pretty good for something that I?m not working on, and it?s just an additional income stream coming to my bank account every month. And so, Adsense definitely another way of doing it.
#9 Get sponsors.
So, we have two more. We?ve spoken about eight, so far.
Number nine is, you can get sponsors. This is similar to selling advertising, but I look at it a little differently especially if you?re someone that?s doing video or podcast. These are people that you endorse. For example, I can say that at the beginning of my podcast that this podcast is brought to you by a certain company, if they are my sponsor. And, they will pay me a certain amount of money on a monthly basis.
That?s one option. Or, on my videos, I can do the same thing. I can talk about a certain sponsor. You hear this on radio shows all the time. It?s pretty much advertising.
But, I just look at it a little differently because you are actually endorsing these guys by saying, ?These are your supporters, and you want to promote them whether in your podcast, on your videos, or even on your website. So, very similar to advertising, but I just wanted to mention it separately.
#10 Have Premium Content
Number ten, let?s recap on the nine before I go to number ten. Number one, build a list. Number two, take your free stuff, package it into a nice ebook. Number three, record an audio version of your ebook. Number four, create an iBook. Number five, take your videos and create a DVD. Number six, promote affiliate products. Seven, sell advertising. Eight, you can use Adsense. Nine, get sponsors.
And ten, have premium content!
Now, this is not my favorite strategy, but it definitely works. What you can do is this. You can say, I have all these content that I?m providing for free, but there are certain content that you will have to pay for in order to get access. So, you can protect them, and you can protect the content and say, if you pay a certain subscription, or if you pay a certain fee one time or over time, you can get access to this content, this special content, this premium content.
Like I said, it?s not something that I like, but it is something that I?ve considered, and I?m not saying that I would never do it. It is definitely a viable option. It is a good option, and I know a lot of people do it successfully. And, it?s something that you can do.
I won?t say that it?s something I?ll do in the future, but it?s something that I?m going to be doing in the very near future. I?m talking about days to weeks. With my buddies Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick, we?re going to be relaunching BecomeaBlogger.com, and I?ve contributed most of the content there, and I?m working on putting the finishing touches on it, and I can?t wait to let you know when it?s launched because it?s going to be exciting stuff.
Premium content is definitely a viable option especially if you want to have like a membership site that?s the way we?re doing it, and you can consider that to be premium content. It?s content that you?re paying for, and in this case, it?s going to be a monthly subscription. So, this is definitely one that works.
So, those are the ten tips. Actually, you know what? I have to say a little bit more about that.
When it comes to creating premium content and protecting that content, I have some recommendations. My main recommendation would be to use the program, Digital Access Pass. There are a number of different options for protecting content. There?s Wishlist. There?s E-member, and there?s Digital Access Pass.
I have fallen in love with Digital Access Pass because it is awesome. It allows you to do all kinds of stuff. You can protect your content. You can charge subscriptions. You can create an affiliate program. You can customize every aspect of it. It is what I highly recommend, and you can check it out, learningwithleslie.com/DAP, for Digital Access Pass. You can check that out. That is an affiliate link if you?re interested in protecting content.
Let?s see? I?m going to give you one bonus tip because I, oh wait? I?m sorry. I gave you the wrong link. Not DAP. learningwithleslie.com/digitalaccesspass, that?s my affiliate link, that?s the correct affiliate link.
#11 Bonus Tip: Accept Donations
Let me give you one bonus point. This is something that I?ve done also, and it?s not something that makes a lot of money, but it makes a few hundred dollars here, and there, which is always a good thing. If you can diversify your income, that?s always good. And, that is this. Accepting donations. Something that?s very simple, you can have a donations widget that you have on the sidebar, and people can donate to your website.
This won?t work for everyone, but if you?re generating a lot of good will at your site for example, with my Biology site, where I?m teaching Biology. I am helping them save money on expensive tutors and those types of things.
I decided to test it out, and see how it would do for me, and I use the plugin called, Donate Plus. I search for donations in the plugins directory, and that?s one that came up amongst a number of others, and I tested out a bunch, and I really like this one, Donate Plus. Really simple.
I just have it in my sidebar, and just today, someone donated $20 to my website. That?s something that happens every few days, so that?s another way of making some money.
Recap
So, to recap on the ten, well, eleven ways, I guess you can say since I added in that little bonus at the end,
1. Build a list.
2. Make an ebook.
3. Record an audio version of your ebook.
4. Create an iBook.
5. Make a DVD from your videos.
6. Promote affiliate products.
7. Sell advertising.
8. Adsense.
9. Get some sponsors.
10. Have premium content.
Bonus and last final tip:
11. Accept donations.
So, that?s pretty much it for this episode. I really hope you found a lot of value in it. Remember, you don?t have to do all of these things, but I wanted to give you a number of different options. And, you can pick one that you think is going to work for you, and test it out. And, if it doesn?t work, try something else, or try a combination of things. These are ways that you can make money even while giving away free stuff.
As usual, if you have questions, you know what to do. Call the hotline. And, I want to let you know that this program is brought to you by my 7-Day Boot Camp at 7daybootcamp.net, 100% free.
If you?re struggling trying to start your online business, go over there, sign up, I will teach you step-by-step. I mean, you?re going to watch my screen as I do the things that I?m talking about, and I will show you exactly how I?ve done it, how I recommend for you to do it, and you can get your business started in seven days.
So, head on over there, and check it out. That?s pretty much all I want to talk about. At the end, I?m going to play the number again if you want to call the hotline, and leave a question, a comment, feedback, or anything of that sort, or you can come to my site at LearningwithLeslie.com, and use the new little widget in the side of the website to submit your feedback.
So, that?s it for now. Until next time, take care and God bless!
Source: http://www.learningwithleslie.com/4285/ten-ways-to-make-money/
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