If you recently started a blog or have a website you may be looking for creative ways to generate revenue. As I considered all the various ways to make money online I was able to boil it down to just three generic methods. As you review the concepts and some of the specific examples, consider how you can execute all these opportunities to maximize your own websites and blogs.

1. Sold Content. Every website provides some level of content to its visitors. This may include video, text, images, etc. Anyone who sells a product and believes that your website visitors are among their target market, may consider paying you to introduce that product. Here are some of the more common types of content that you can sell from your website.
1. Reviews. In some cases this may involve your client submitting exact copy for you to publish or they may rely on you to write a high quality review based on your true experience with their product. Generally this means you will receive a complimentary product above and beyond the investment you secure to produce the review.
2. Email Blasts. If you have an email list of your website visitors you can sell email blasts to that list. Generally these are priced by the number of sends and clients will be interested in your average delivery rate, open ratios, and ctr.
3. Social Media Mentions. More and more often advertisers are willing to pay for your social media endorsement or mention. Awhile back I reviewed SponsoredTweets, but there are many different ad networks and direct advertisers who are interested in this type of publicity.
2. Sold Advertising. These are the traditional advertising options you notice on other websites.
1. Banners. Banners offer advertisers a great way to brand their business while driving web traffic. Generally advertising buy a number of impressions, clicks, or actions.
2. Rich Media. This could include various video integration options, or other media above and beyond traditional banners. The benefits tend to be similar to banner advertising but offer more opportunities for engaging with customers and getting out a message.
3. In Text Links. In text links are gaining in popularity. Advertisers can select existing text on a page or post of your site and pay you to hyperlink that text string to their site. They may also pay you to add a new text link in a page, post, or in your footer. Advertisers like in text links because they don’t tend to annoy web visitors as much, they drive direct traffic, and they help in search engine optimization efforts. Generally these are sold at a fixed price per time period or by the click.
3. Sold Products
1. E-Commerce. This is relatively straight forward. If you have a product you can sell it online. The quickest product to turn a profit on is an information product. It requires no production since buyers download it and thus your profit margin is higher. You can also become a retailer for a wholesale product. Many wholesalers will even drop ship the product directly to your buyer. This makes you the perfect middle man, just taking your margin and processing the sale.

I’m sure that I’ve missed an angle or idea that you may be able to implement. Hopefully this gives you a generic outline that will spark some new ideas to make money from your websites!

In my series of Internet Basics videos by Google I wanted to introduce the topic of Google Webmaster Tools and Google XML sitemaps.

When you first build a site you need to submit it to Google so that it can be indexed. Google can more easily index your site if you have a sitemap. Since the recording of this video several years ago, Google has created a robust and helpful dashboard of tools called Google Webmaster Tools. Check it out.

In my series of Internet Basics I’d like to add this great tutorial video from Google that explains browsers.

As you develop a strong list of Twitter followers it becomes necessary to consistently put information in front of those people to keep them engaged. People do not read every single tweet in their news feed so you have to push out content to your followers at different times of day on an ongoing consistent basis.

The Tweet Old Post plugin allows for that. In addition to automatically tweeting on your behalf at a regularly defined interval, it will also introduce your followers to older content you have written which is good for your traffic and your SEO efforts.

Here is a video tutorial that will overview Tweet Old Post Plugin for WordPress

We have become a digital society but we have also become a heavily regulated, law-suit happy society. It doesn’t take too much effort to safeguard yourself against legal liability by following some simple steps when working with your online marketing strategies and presence.

Here are my Top 10 Legal Tips to Protect You and Your Website:

1. Create a Privacy Policy Page in your website. It doesn’t have to be found in the main navigation but I would suggest putting a link in the footer and including it in your sitemap. If you are unsure what to include in your privacy page just copy the text from mine.
2. Create a Terms of Use Page in your website. In the same way make sure it can be found in the footer and you may also consider putting it at the bottom of any web forms where you ask for user information. Again, you can use my text as a guide.
3. Email Marketing Rules. The CAN SPAM act of 2003 does not ban unsolicited emails but it does outline some legal guidelines. You must identify yourself or your organization as the sender, the subject cannot be misleading, your mailing address must be disclosed, and an unsubscribe link or method/tool must be included. Most Email Marketing Software Solutions require and assist you in these requirements.
4. Mobile Marketing Rules. The same basis premise and legal requirements discussed above in regards to email marketing, also apply to mobile marketing. Be sure to check out the provider who is helping you execute your mobile campaign and confirm that they are 100% in compliance.
5. Deliver on what you promise. If you offered to send a free report, monthly newsletters, coupons, etc be sure that is all you send without asking for further permission or telling the consumer in advance what your intentions are. No less, no more.
6. If your website includes member registration or eCommerce solutions, take security of the data VERY seriously. You cannot afford to have a leak or be the means by which an attacker obtains your customer’s data. Hire a professional web service provider to limit your own legal liability and ensure compliance and top security standards.
7. When it comes to collecting user data, less is more. Don’t gather information unless you really will have a use for it. Street addresses for example are completely unnecessary unless you are going to send direct mail. Generally asking for a city OR state OR zip really gives you all the geographic information you will ever need.
8. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires strict guidelines to companies who are marketing to children under 13 years old. If you have any information on your site that could even be interpreted as being designed for youth; you must comply with COPPA in collecting information and that can generally require parent’s consent. If you ask for birth dates, be sure not to save any user data with an age under 13.
9. Be consistent and complete with coupons or printed offers. Be sure that all your printed coupons have an expiration date and all other terms that you intend to enforce on customers. If it isn’t in print, it isn’t valid. Be consistent across the board to reduce your headache.
10. Prevent Complaints by being Accessible. Consumer will almost always try to resolve an issue with the merchant before filing any formal complaint. Be available and quick to respond to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Remember the customer may not always be right but you better keep them happy!

I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t follow very many people on Twitter who aren’t willing to follow me back. Outside of Stephen Colbert and a few other celebrities I automatically unfollow people on Twitterwho aren’t following me in return. I utilize a software program called Tweetadder to do that, but in case you are just too cheap or would rather manually browse a list of people who don’t follow you back, you can use Tweeter Karma by dossy.org.

 This Twitter Tutorial Will Guide You Through Using Tweeter Karma by Dossy.org

Navigate to http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/

Click on the “Sign In With Twitter” Button and enter your Twitter credentials.

After you have signed in you will be returned to the Tweeter Karma page and you will see a message under the blue sign in button that reads “Successfully logged in using OAuth”

Decide if you want Avatars (pictures of users) displayed. It will take longer to load if you choose to display them.

Press the “Whack!” button and…. wait… wait… wait. The more Twitter users whom you follow and that follow you, the longer you will wait for the page to load. Be patient.

After it is done loading you will see something like this:

In the pull down menu on the right hand side you can filter out which type of Twitter Users you want displayed below.

As you browse through the various users you will be able to see if each user is following you, if you are following them, etc. You will also be able to manually follow or unfollow any user by clicking on the link below their name.

By default users are sorted according to how recently they have updated. You may also choose to sort them in alphabetical order or according to the number of followers that they have.

Hopefully this Twitter Tutorial will be help you sort through all the twitter users you are connected to. Until next time…

@jacobspaulsen

With the recent changes to the Twitter platform, it has become more difficult to build a custom Twitter background. The background area of Twitter is not completely fixed. The amount of space that you have to design around the twitter frame varies based on the screen size / resolution of the computer screen that the visitor to your profile is using.

In doing some research for this tutorial I read a lot of different suggestions as to the proper dimension to design around.  Most users want the greatest amount of room possible to work with. Myself I would assume design within a smaller space but have a greater guarantee that visitors coming from any computer will be able to see all of my custom content. In short here is an overview:

• 100% of users will always see at least 41 pixels on each side.
• 72% of users (viewing in 1280 x 800 or higher resolution) will see 108 pixels on each side.
• 28% of users (viewing in 1440 x 900 or higher resolution) will see 200 pixels on each side.
• 4% of users (viewing in 1920 x 1080) will see 312 pixels on each side

For users who intend to have a repeatable design that tiles across the screen vertically and horizontally, you really just have to give some thought to how much of your pattern should be visible. More complicated decisions lay with users like myself who want to include images and text within the “sidebar” of the frame.

Not all WordPress themes are created equal. Naturally themes can be edited but you can imagine that it is much to your advantage to spend time looking for a theme that is as close as possible to what you have in mind. The less changes you have to make the better. When you are logged into your dashboard you can search for WordPress themes but it is my opinion that anything you will find within the free database available on WordPress.org isn’t generally worth using. Those free themes will give you something to start with as you begin creating some initial content but in the long run they won’t serve your needs.

Some people spend a lot of time searching the internet for premium themes for free. “Pirating” paid themes for free is not only illegal its also dumb. Themes are not simple and the biggest reason you should buy them from their designers is so that you will have support. When I’m looking for a theme I first start by doing a Google Image search that best describes what I’m looking for. You may try a search such as “wordpress rustic theme” or “wordpress 3-column car theme.” Try several combinations and different words as you like. If I don’t find what I’m looking for I move directly into the best WordPress Theme designers websites.

There are several top quality theme makers. My absolute favorite is WooThemes. WooThemes has sold me the themes I use on almost all my personal sites and blogs. They go a long way to create versatile, easy to use and customize, professional looking themes. You can also check out ThemeJunkie and iThemes who I also have bought themes from.

Editing Themes

Editing themes is really something that is generally reserved for “advanced users.” It requires HTML and CSS knowledge and some PHP would go a long way too. This tutorial is not designed to teach you these programing languages. I will however give you a brief outline on the way these theme files work into WordPress, where they are stored, and how you can access them.

WordPress themes are organized in folders within the www.yoursite.com/wp-content/themes directory. To edit them you need to navigate to the “Editor” sub-menu under the “Appearance” menu. When the editor loads you will see a list of all the different theme files on your far right. Clicking on any of the files will open them for editing in the main editor window in the center.

All themes are different but if you are familiar with html and other basic programming languages you shouldn’t have any issues navigating to the file you need. Refer to the WordPress.org codex for PHP questions.

If you aren’t familiar with coding I suggest you be very cautious about making any changes.

This 10 minute tutorial video is designed for people who are new to WordPress and are logging in for their first time. In this tutorial you will learn how to read your WordPress dashboard and how to edit and create new pages and blog posts.

On Christmas Eve 2009 all of my websites were attacked. I have two hosting accounts with GoDaddy and all of my wordpress sites on both accounts were down. In addition two business partner’s of mine who have their own unique hosting accounts (one with GoDaddy and the other with HostMonster) also had all of their wordpress sites go down at the same time.

After almost a full month of work I have finally managed to clean my server completely of any and all malware and to rebuild my sites with MASSIVE increased security way above and beyond the standard WordPress stock installation. Knowing that I was not the only one to be attacked and that there will yet be many more people in the future I would like to outline some suggestions of both how you can prevent these types of attacks in the future and how to clean out the malware on your site if you have already been infected.

I recently purchased the “Lock Your Blog” Program from Alex Sysoef who is a WordPress Genius! The DVD is free if you pay the requested $9 shipping. In addition to having the DVD shipped to your home, you can also access the videos on his site after you pay the shipping fee. I highly encourage anyone concerned with WordPress Security to follow this link and purchase his program and go through it step by step. Just the same I will outline some of the highlights here:

PREVENTATIVE WordPress SECURITY: Keep me safe!

You have to understand that wordpress is so widely used by so many people online that it becomes a primary target for hackers. While I assume that you have already installed WordPress on your server, preventative security starts with the install process. Changing the default table prefixes and WordPress user keys is essential to protecting your site from intruders. Check out www.expertwordpress.com for a custom version of wordpress that eliminates these stock security loop-holes.

If you have already installed WordPress download and install the WP Security Scan plugin. By activating and running this plugin you will be able to determine which of the basic loop-holes you have. This plugin has a few tools that may be helpful in closing your site down from future attacks also.

Install the plugin Secure WP which will change some of the default codes in the background of your WordPress that otherwise leave you exposed including hiding the version of WordPress you are using.

Install the plugin Limit Login Attempts. The default settings are good enough but you may choose to enable to notification setting so you can receive and email when anyone tries to login more than 4 times unsuccessfully.

Install the plugin WP-DB-Backup and configure it to email you a daily or weekly backup of all your WordPress databases. This will help you restore your site should it be compromised.

Keep all your plugins and core WordPress updated. Developers update their plugins regularly to close security gaps and fix bugs that could otherwise leave you exposed. Visit the tools menu of your blog as often as possible to run all available updates.

Configure and install the Akismet plugin to automatically quarantine spam comments. Set it up to auto-delete comments after 30 days.

LIKE I MENTIONED BEFORE THERE IS SOOOO MUCH MORE YOU CAN DO IF YOU ARE WILLING TO SPEND THE $9 AND PURCHASE THE “LOCK YOUR BLOG” PROGRAM I MENTIONED ABOVE!

RECOVERY: I’ve already been hacked!

Bad news huh? Your site has already been compromised and now you need to clean it out and get it back online.

1. Contact your hosting provider and let them know you think you have been attacked. Ask them to verify that your databases are still clean of any malware. Most hosting providers do not have the resources to automatically scan and clean all of your files at any given time but they do monitor your databases and can scan them with relative ease. They may also have other suggestions to help you clean your site.

• Via your FTP client software (e.g. Filezilla) delete all your themes that you are not using. Also delete any other files that you aren’t concerned with keeping. This will speed up the time you will spend cleaning through files.

• Setup an account with Google Webmaster Tools and setup and verify your site. If Google has crawled your site recently and found any malware it will display a warning in your Google Webmaster Tools account and walk you through locating and deleting the malware. After you clean your site you will also come back here to request a new crawling to verify that your site is no longer infected.

• Also check with http://stopbadware.org/ to see if your site has been registered. They also have a lot of good tips (non wordpress specific) to cleaning your site.

Ok, now for the WordPress Security specific things you have to do. To be perfectly honest if you have been compromised then there is most likely malware code in almost every php file on your server. It spreads quickly and hides in very unique places. This essentially means you have to delete everything and start over. This means the process of cleaning malware from your wordpress site basically includes backing up all the non-replaceable files, and starting afresh. The only way to do that without losing all your content will be to purchase a new hosting account and rebuild your site almost from scratch. This will be 100% less time consuming and more secure in the long run than it would be to attempt the manual scan of every file on your server. Here is a step by step solution that should help you complete this process.

1. Just in case we fail in duplicating your site we want to create a full backup of all blog in case we have to revert back to it eventually. Do this by installing the wp-db-backup plugin and performing a backup of your databases.

• After you verify with your hosting provider that your databases are clean from any malware navigate to your tools menu and select the “Export” option. Export content from all the authors. This is the process of saving all of your posts, pages, and comments. The file needs to be less than 2MB.

• On the new hosting account install a new version of WordPress. I suggest doing a custom install utilizing the suggestions on www.expertwordpress.com. The stock version of WordPress has far too many WordPress security holes and we want to install a custom version that will avoid the common issues from the beginning.

• Follow the steps listed in the “Preventative Security” section above to secure your blog against future attacks.

• Search out, download, install, and activate a fresh copy of the theme you are currently using on your blog.

• In the Tools menu perform a WordPress Import of the XML file we saved in step 3. You should now have all your old content on your new blog as well as have the same general look.

• Make a list of all the plugins you used in your old blog and install fresh versions of each on your new blog. Double check all the settings and configurations to make sure they are the same.

• Copy the content of each of your widgets under the Appearance menu to your new site. As long as you are copying and pasting the content from within the WordPress appearance menu you will NOT have to worry about inadvertently copying over any malware code.

• Custom theme changes. By now your site should be almost 100% duplicated. The only things left to do will be to make the subtle changes that you made to customize your theme. Since these can vary in a billion ways I can’t provide instructions here but whoever helped you customize your theme last time can certainly help you do it again!

Now that you have rebuilt your site from scratch you should be safe from any potential future threats. Make sure all of your passwords including Database, Hosting Account, and WordPress passwords rank high in the password quality scale including at least one number and upper case and lower case letters.

GOOD LUCK!

Jacob S Paulsen