Money for Free!

(almost free at least)

Recently, I have discovered that the internet is doing a very poor job of enforcing the "Money does not grow on trees" rule.  I have found that there are a lot of companies out there on the net that are very willing to pay handsomely for your referrals.  In many cases, you can build a simple web page in a couple of hours, submit it to the search engines, and earn 10 or 12 bucks a month off of it without really even promoting it or updating it frequently.  You plant the seed, and harvest the cash off of your "Money Tree" each month.  Below are my links for webmasters who would like to earn a little extra cash with their web site.

A couple of rules of thumb to protect you and your visitors.  Never pay anyone for the right to advertise for them.  I see all kinds of MLM programs floating around on the internet that require a substantial investment in order to get in the game.  There is no reason to do that.  There are plenty of quality programs out there that are totally free to get started in.  Radio and TV stations do not have to invest in their clients products before they are allowed to advertise.  The web should be no different.  Unless otherwise noted, the programs below are totally free to get started with.  You risk nothing.  It is free money that you will be harvesting! I also would like to point out that most surfers are visiting web sites in order to learn. They are usually not surfing to shop. You are going to find a lot more success if you include useful content in you site. People who appreciate your site for its content are much more likely to trust you with their business.
 
 

Symbol   Description
  Web sites that pay you money for referrals
  Programs that help you to get people to visit your site
  Reference Sites that will help to make your pages better
  Tools for Ecommerce
  Programs that provide extra content to your site

cognigen Long distance services.  This is a program that has products that sell themselves.  Long distance rates from 2.9 cents per minute are an easy sell.  It is free to join this program, and your get a premium on your customers monthly phone bills, so it is also very lucrative.

Amazon.com associates program.  Amazon pays 5 - 15% commissions on books purchased by visitors that you refer to their site.  I have found this to be a effective tool that brings me a nice little paycheck each quarter.  I find it to be especially effective if you have a niche web site, and you can answer a lot of your visitors questions with one inexpensive book.  My site,  The Reighley BatHouse Project is an example of this strategy.

Linkshare.  This is a clearing house of affiliate programs.  I believe that they have literally thousands of programs to choose from.  Most pay 5% to 15% commissions on your visitor's purchases.

HumanClick.  This site adds a human element to your site.  If your visitors have questions, they can click on a Icon on your page, and it will open a chat session with you, or another operator of your site.  I think that this is a super cool feature. It also provides real time tracking.

Extreme Tracking.  I have found this counter-tracker to be very good.  Not only does it tell you how may people are visiting your site, but it also tells you how they are getting there, and what kind of systems they are using.  This information helps you to refine your site's layout and META tags to get the maximum number of customers.

Search Engine Watch.  This site will help you understand how search engines rank your site.  You will be able to understand why some sites don't rank your site high enough for many people to find it.  You can then make adjustments, and you should start to raise in the list.

CCnow.  This service allows you to accept credit cards online without having your own merchant account.  It has some pretty hefty fees, 9% of transaction cost, but there is no monthly charge, so this may be a good choice for someone testing the waters a bit.

merchant-systems   this company provides full service merchant accounts for reasonable prices.  They also offer very generous referral program

Bigmailbox.com  This will allow your domain to offer free web based email.. (like hotmail or yahoo mail etc..)  It is a free service, and they share the banner space with you, so you can make a little extra cash off of this deal as well.  I have used it for a few months, and I have found them to be quite reliable as well.

x.com this is an excellent internet bank that pays good rates, and good commissions on referrals that you provide.  The also have a handy feature that allows you to accept credit cards on your online auctions.  Check it out...  and tell them josh@reighley.net sent you.

Web Design Group has an excellent HTML help website that is a very good reference guide for those who are fairly new at HTML.

Epinions.com This site does not pay as well as the others, but it is a ton of fun. You write opinions about products and services that you use, and they pay you when people read your opinions. This site is also a very good referance when you are looking to invest your hard earned (or your free money) in a product. Lots of good experience is posted there for you to read.