E-commerce Coupon Guide: To Coupon or not to Coupon?

Everybody loves to get a deal whether they are buying online or not. In fact people are more willing to open their wallets when they think they are getting a bargain.

This can have a tremendous effect for your e-commerce site, helping you to increase sales, shift stock and create brand awareness.

Coupons are by far the easiest type of discount to use as most e-commerce platforms allow for a discount code to be entered. As well as that they are perhaps the most flexible too.

Coupon Pros and Cons

As with anything there are two sides to the story and while coupons can be very useful, they also can have negative effects.

Pros

  • Easy to implement
  • Quick injection of cash
  • Can help shift stock
  • Removes a barrier to entry for first time buyers
  • Help increase brand awareness when shared

Cons

  • If done wrong, they can be costly
  • Not a sustainable method of promotion
  • Can have a negative effect on branding
  • Customers wait for deals if used too much

Types of Coupons

Coupons generally focus on price, but can also be used in other ways:

Percentage Based Discount

This is probably the most common discount coupon around, and it’s where you offer a percentage (e.g. 10%) off the cart amount. You can also offer a discount on a specific item rather than the cart.

Dollar Amount Discount

Similar to percentage, but this is a flat amount (e.g. $10) off the cart/specific product.

Free Shipping

Put in the code, get free shipping!

Free Gift

By using this code, your customers would have an item added to cart with a 100% discount.

Where Should You Display Your Coupons?

Now you have an idea for the type of coupon to use, how will you let people know?

Popups

Popups appear on your website and are a great “in your face” way of letting people know that you have a coupon available.

Call to Actions

A more static way to display coupons, these can be large images, sidebar images, or highlighted content areas within blog posts and product pages.

Emails

Using emails to notify people about your discounts helps spread the information and get people back to your site.

Coupon Sites

Often people will add items to their cart and then go hunting for a coupon. Adding your coupons to the various coupon sites out there is a great way to share the discount. We have a list of some of the best coupon sites here.

Social Media

Tweet it, Pin it, Share it – social media not only allows you to touch base with your followers, but can help increase the number of people who fins your discount.

Other People’s Sites

Bloggers and niche related websites are also an awesome way to share coupons, especially when tied with an affiliate deal.

Different Ways to Use Coupons

Just offering a flat 10% discount at all times doesn’t really help you or your customers. Instead why not use coupons selectively to help maximize excitement and sales while minimizing the costs to your business.

Daily/Weekly/Monthly

Offering a regular discount code can be used to help even out poor performing periods and help shift under-performing products. Be careful with this though as discounting too often can have negative effects.

Pre-launch

If you haven’t launched yet, or if you’re soon to be launching a new product/product line, then offering up a pre-launch discount can help to create hype and sales, especially if combined with a pre-order system.

Holiday/Seasonal

Valentines, mother’s/father’s day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are all popular periods for discounting, and perfect time for offering coupons.

As well as those, you could look to offer coupons for niche related “holidays”, such as National Sci-Fi Day, National Ferret Day and National Leave the Office Early Day (there’s pretty much a national day for everything…!)

First Time Shopper

Offering a discount for first time shopper is an excellent way to sway those that might not be ready to make a purchase yet.

Customer Loyalty

Tracking your customer sales is easy with most e-commerce system, so why not reward a loyal customer by sending them a coupon code just for them after they spend X amount in your store.

Post Purchase

After someone has purchased with you, send them a coupon code for future purchases. This can not only increase customer satisfaction but could help improve the chance of repeat custom.

Exit Intent

If you’ve ever looked into marketing techniques you may have come across Exit Intent. This system detects when a customer moves their mouse outside of the browser window (which usually means they are going to close the window or go to another site.

Offering a discount at that point could sway people to stay and buy.

Email Subscription Lead Magnet

A Lead Magnet, or in plain speak a bribe, is a method of sweetening the deal to get people to sign up to your mailing list. Often these take the form of free e-books, email courses and the like, but as an e-commerce store you can also offer a discount coupon.

Abandoned Carts

One of the main areas where e-commerce sites lose potential money is when a customer adds to cart and then abandons the cart.

There are many reasons for this, but if the customer is logged in and known you can perhaps save the cart by sending them a discount code. It’s a wise idea with this system to also save their cart content so that they can go back to the site with the cart content intact which reduces further barriers to buying.

Volume

If you’re looking to sell as much as possible why not offer a coupon that provides a discount for bulk purchases.

Cash for Credit

This is a type of cash back method, but one that keeps people tied to your store. The idea is that when the coupon is entered, and a purchase made, they receive an amount of store credit that can be used for future purchases.

E.g. if someone spends $100 they may receive $20 in store credit. This effectively turns the coupon into a flat dollar amount coupon that can be spent on anything in store.

Social Sharing

Instead of spending money with a social media company to increase your social presence, another idea is to give your customers a coupon if they share your (pre-written) message/page/etc on social networks.

Exclusive Offers to Social Followers

This method of using a coupon is to reward your social network followers. You can do this as a flat reward to thank them for being there or tie it to social shares.

Retargeting

This method of advertising has been proven to work at keeping your brand in front of people’s noses.

Not only can it work to bring back visitors to your site, but combined with a coupon code just for those visitors it could help entice them to buy too.

Influencer / Partnerships / Affiliates

Giving certain social media influencers, business partners or affiliate coupon codes can help drive new customers to your door.

Referral

Referral marketing is when you ask your existing customer base to refer a friend or family member to your site. You can use coupon codes to help facilitate this, both as an incentive to the new customer and as a reward to the referrer.

A Word of Caution

Using coupons to increase sales and brand awareness is definitely a useful strategy for any e-commerce site. I mentioned the cons earlier but I want to expand on a few things that you really need to be aware of.

Use Expiration Dates

Limiting the time that a coupon is active for not only adds a sense of urgency in the customers mind, but also helps to reduce your own liability.

Imagine a coupon that has no expiration, and suddenly 6 months later it goes viral, just when your own cash flow is perhaps not the best. That could turn into a really bad situation.

Using expiration dates means that you won’t get hit with unexpected surprises down the road.

An alternative to expiration dates is to limit the number of coupon uses, but this is harder to manage and needs to be clearly stated so there’s no customer backlash.

Run the Numbers

Make sure that your business can afford the discount! If your margins are already low, why make them lower? In that case I’d suggest trying an alternative method of generating sales.

Of course, sometimes it’s worth making little or even nothing if it means shifting a slow selling product.

Your use case will always be unique but just make sure you know what sort of financial situation you will be put in if you use coupons.

Generic or Specific

If the numbers look bad for using a coupon that can be applied to any product, try running the numbers with the coupon for just specific products or categories – that way you can generate sales without losing money.

Don’t Get Carried Away

Some business owners think that using coupons is an everyday thing, but it shouldn’t be. Not only can it ruin a brands reputation (especially for higher priced goods), but people can come to expect your discounts and wait for a discount before buying. This can put additional strain on your finances.

Instead, use coupons sparingly and know exactly why you are offering a coupon and what benefits you want to gain from it, before offering it.

Bottom Line

Hopefully this article has provided you with some idea on how to effectively use coupons with your e-commerce site.

Do you use coupons in different ways? Let me know in the comments.

10 Ways to Get Paid to Be an Online Test Grader

If you’re looking for a work-from-home opportunity that you can do from your home office (or probably anywhere), any time of the day, and not have to talk to other people (at least, not every day), being an online test grader is a job that you should consider.

Online test graders read and score assessment tests, papers, or essays. Test takers are usually college students, but you may be assigned to score tests taken by high school students or even by professionals.

You’re given a standard set of scoring rules and rubrics by the individual, school, or organization administering the test. You may also be asked to provide constructive feedback for the test taker.

Today, you’ll learn how to get a job as an online test scorer: what you’ll need, what it takes, and where to apply so you can start your new work-from-home career soon.

What You Need To Work As An Online Test Grader

Test grader jobs will differ depending on the company you’ll work with. But whatever company you end up working with, you’ll need the following tools, skills, and qualities to be successful:

Equipment

  • Your own computer or laptop with up-to-date operating systems (confidentiality clauses usually mean you can’t use public or shared computers)
  • High-speed internet connection
  • High-quality headphones (for audio exams and in case conversations with your employer are needed)

Qualities

  • Fair and unbiased
  • Can apply scoring guides and rubrics
  • Able to meet deadlines
  • Organized
  • Detail-oriented
  • Self-motivated

Company-Specific Requirements

  • Education: usually requires a bachelor’s degree in any field
  • Experience: preferred, but not usually required
  • Training: normally free; you may or may not be paid while undergoing training
  • Qualifying Exam: may be required to take

10 Legitimate Sites That Offer Online Test Grader Jobs

1. FlexJobs

I highly recommend starting your job search on this job board.

FlexJobs is not your ordinary job board; they actually vet each and every one of the companies that want to post remote and flexible job opportunities on their site.

Aside from high-quality job opportunities, you can take advantage of their career coaching and remote courses to help you get your dream job.

Go through the jobs under the Education & Training category and find online test grader openings that you can apply for.

2. ACT Online Scoring

The American College Test (ACT) is a standardized test taken by high school students, either during the spring of their junior year or fall of their senior year. ACT scores are assessed by colleges and universities to make decisions on whether to admit students.

The ACT exam is administered by the ACT organization, which is always looking for test graders to evaluate the written portion of the ACT.

To apply as an online test grader, a bachelor’s degree is required and high school teaching experience is preferred. Successful applicants are paid $12 per hour and there are additional incentives for top daily and weekly performers.

Strong performers can also eventually see their pay increase as they become faster and better at scoring ACT essays. Those better scorers might even be invited to work directly with ACT on generating material for future tests.

3. College Board

College Board is a non-profit organization whose programs aim to prepare high school students for college and connect them to college opportunities.

Some of their programs that you should be familiar with are the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Advanced Placement (AP) Program.

The AP Program offers college-level courses and exams to high school students that let them earn some college credits, saving money and time and demonstrating students’ motivation to study and succeed.

To earn college credit, AP students need to take the AP Exam for that course. Most include a free-response section that requires AP teachers and college faculty from all over to world to score.

This is where you come in.

College Board regularly hires AP Exam Readers for the following subjects:

  • Comparative Government and Politics
  • Computer Science Principles
  • Environmental Science
  • Human Geography
  • Research
  • Seminar
  • Spanish Language and Culture
  • U.S. Government and Politics
  • U.S. History
  • World History

Applications are accepted year-round, but invitations are only sent to qualified readers between February and May. Scoring is done during certain dates in June.

Aside from getting paid to work remotely, being an AP Exam Reader has professional benefits, too, if teaching is your day job.

However, the job is periodical and not available all year.

4. Literably

This site works with teachers and K-8 students to evaluate students on their reading comprehension and ability.

As a Literably scorer, you’ll listen to audio recordings of students reading aloud, phonetically transcribe what is said/read, and grade those recordings. For example, if you hear a student pronounce newsreel as “nessreal,” you should write “nessreal” down.

If you want to get a lot of transcription work with Literably, you’ll need to sign on between the hours of 8am and 3pm, when school is in session. If you wait until the evening, most of the recordings will have been transcribed and scored by other Literably contractors.

The pay with this site is $10 per hour. However, if you live or intend to work in the states of California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, or New Jersey, you can’t work with Literably.

5. Measurement Incorporated

This North Carolina-based company prides itself on being a leading provider of educational assessment services, such as scoring essays, developing testing methodologies, and providing innovative solutions for state governments, other testing companies, and various organizations.

Measurement Incorporated posts occasional openings for readers/evaluators on its website. The readers/evaluators score student responses to English language arts, mathematics, science, and other subjects.

At the beginning of a project, readers/evaluators receive paid training. Each project lasts 2-4 weeks, with the heaviest workload given from March to June.

They require you to have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university to join as a temporary staff member.

While MI doesn’t list its pay rates for these positions, Glassdoor reports that MI pays around $11 per hour.

6. Pearson

Pearson is one of the most well-known companies in this list, as it has been around for 50+ years and has been recognized by reputable educational institutions as a leader in testing, scoring, and assessment.

Keep in mind that Pearson requires its scorers to have at least a bachelor’s degree. If you pass the training and testing phases, you’ll need to devote at least 30 hours/week to the job.

Most temporary positions open up from February to June. Pay is $12/hour, with the potential to earn bonuses for speed and quality of assessments.

Pearson also offers something to its part-timers that few work-at-home companies do: health insurance. Once hired with Pearson, you can obtain insurance coverage not only for yourself but also for your entire family.

7. Educational Testing Service (ETS)

ETS develops, administers, and scores exams for students and professionals that colleges, universities, and licensing authorities use to admit students and teachers.

This company is similar to Pearson in that Raters score educational exams and essays. Unlike Pearson, however, remote Raters work on a project-by-project basis. Thus, you must undergo the whole application process for each project you want to work in.

Once approved, scorers sign up for set work shifts. The extra certifications and applications might be worthwhile, though, as some ETS scorers claim to make up to $20/hour.

Because ETS scorers score exams like the GRE, TOEFL, and PRAXIS, you are required to have completed at least a bachelor’s degree before applying. You’ll also have to train to use their proprietary software for scoring exam responses, as well as take a certification test.

The extra steps can prove to be worthwhile, though; some ETS Raters claim to make up to $20 per hour.

8. WriteScore

WriteScore works with schools and other learning institutions to provide learning resources, assessments, and their results to help teachers know their students’ strengths and weaknesses.

This site pays its scorers to review and grade essays submitted by students in elementary, middle, and high school. Scoring season is from late July to early August, but they accept applications all year round and place them on a waitlist. As positions open up, they contact people from the waitlist.

You are required to have at least a two-year college degree in any field to be considered. Applicants undergo orientation then take qualifying tests. Once you pass the final qualifying test, you can begin scoring actual student responses.

Payment varies and depends on how quickly you can turn around your work; however, the range is $9-$15/hour.

9. Cognia

Cognia is a global network of educators aiming to improve education for all learners by assisting schools with certifications, implementing professional learning programs, and designing assessment resources and solutions to understand students’ strengths and weaknesses.

They regularly hire seasonal assessment scorers to read and evaluate student responses in English, math, science, and social studies.

You’ll need to have a bachelor’s degree, have completed at least two college-level courses in your chosen subject, complete a training course for each content area, and pass qualifying tests to be accepted as an online test grader.

Exact compensation isn’t published, but from Glassdoor.com, the average starting pay is around $15 to $16 per hour.

10. Data Recognition Corporation

DRC is an information management company providing assessment solutions in the education sector, as well as survey services, data and document solutions, and licensure and certification exam administration for various industries.

They hire temporary test scorers who work as online test graders for the standardized tests they administer to Common Core students in elementary through high school.

From their careers page, you’ll be redirected to a recruitment website.

Take note of the location indicated, as even though this is a remote position, you might be required to attend training at a physical location.

The positions pay an average of $18 per hour.

Apply To Become An Online Test Grader Today!

If you enjoy flexing your mind and reasoning skills while helping students and other test takers, you should definitely consider becoming an online test grader.

As you’ve seen, the demand for online test graders is seasonal, as certain exams and standardized tests are only given at certain times throughout the year. Also, the hourly rate ranges from $10 to $20 per hour, which is on the low end of the pay scale.

Thus, unless you’re lucky to snag a full-time, year-round position, being an online test grader probably won’t replace your day job as your main source of income. But you can make enough at a time to build a little nest egg for emergencies or investments.

Other education-related jobs

If online test grading doesn’t sound like a good fit for you but you’re interested in other education-related jobs, here are some articles that might help you:

Have you tried applying as a remote test grader or scorer? How was the overall experience? Share your thought with us in the comments!

10 Alternative Selling Platforms to Amazon, eBay and Half.com

Amazon, eBay and eBay’s book-selling platform, Half.com, are what most people think of when they want to sell their stuff, unwanted holiday gifts, books or other inventory.

Unfortunately, each one of these platforms has been steadily increasing its seller fees over the years, to the point that many sellers can’t make enough of a profit to justify the time and energy spent on listing.

eBay is a prime example of a platform that has been steadily jacking up its rates over the years. Currently, the platform lists the following basic fees for its auction-style and fixed price listings:

ebay

Unfortunately, there is more than meets the eye when it comes down to just how much money you will eventually pay in the form of commissions. In addition to the 10% final value fee, you must also consider Paypal, which is the payment system that eBay now requires all sellers to use.

With Paypal, you’ll be paying an additional 30 cents per transaction, plus a 2.9% fee on the amount transferred in from the buyer. Furthermore, that 2.9% is charged on the entire monetary amount -which could include a significant portion devoted to shipping costs. So, if you’re selling anything heavy, like a textbook, beware: You might just end up giving your merchandise away for free!

In the past, a safe(er) haven for sellers who wanted to sell big, bulky books was the Half.com platform. Here, you could list your books as long as you wanted. If something sold, you paid a more reasonable commission, and you also were reimbursed for shipping costs by the buyer.

Well, Half.com must’ve realized that it could squeeze a lot more money from its sellers because I received the following email today. The bad news? Some fee tiers are about to increase by as much as 200%!

half

As for Amazon, it doesn’t fare that much better. Sellers who don’t have subscription plans with Amazon and who are just looking to sell a few low-priced items are in for a surprise:

amazon-com-help_-fees-and-pricing

Fortunately, other selling platforms have emerged in recent years. These alternate platforms are not as expensive to use as Amazon, eBay and Half.com, yet they offer many of the same key benefits.

1. Etsy

This well-known arts-and-crafts site charges listing and final value fees on its fixed-price listings; however, the fees are significantly lower than those of eBay and Amazon. With Etsy, you pay a 20 cent listing fee and just 3.5% on the final value of your sold item. Also, for the same price, your Etsy listings will run four times as long as those posted on eBay.

2. Bonanza

Like Etsy, Bonanza offers sellers a platform where they can sell unique and quirky items at a fixed price, yet the items don’t necessarily need to be homemade or “crafty.” Also, the site also doesn’t charge any money for simply posting a listing. Once an item sells, Bonanza’s average fee per sale is as low as 3.5%.

3. eBid

If you’re looking for an auction-style platform, give eBid a try. This easy-to-use, intuitive platform charges no listing fees whatsoever and asks for just 3% of your item’s final value. Best of all, if you’re looking to constantly sell items online, you can become an eBid “lifer” for just shy of $50.

ebid

4. Ealtbay

This site looks like eBay, but it isn’t. For starters, Ealtbay doesn’t charge sellers any money to list their products on the platform. The final value fee charged for all items, regardless of their tier, is just 1.60%. And finally, Ealtbay doesn’t force you to use only Paypal as your sole payment method.

ealtbay

5. Craigslist

If you have bulky and/or heavy items to sell and wish to avoid exorbitant shipping costs, your best bet might be to list those items on Craigslist. This platform caters to local sellers who pay no money whatsoever for listing their items for sale. When those items do sell, these sellers don’t pay any final values either. In other words, Craigslist is completely free to use.

6. Facebook Marketplace

This platform operates much like Craigslist but offers both the seller and buyer additional information about each party, ensuring a better sense of personal security. Like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace is completely free to use. Most sales transactions and item pickups occur locally; however, you could potentially list your items in several geographic regions, then pay for shipping charges out of your own pocket.

facebook-marketplace

7. Nextdoor

This neighborhood-based social network platform and app enables neighbors to message each other about area crime, curb freebies, school news, and items for sale. With Nextdoor, there are also no listing or final value fees. Best of all, you may already know a good majority of your buyers.

8. Newegg

This site started out as a place to buy and sell computers and software, but it has since expanded and now offers other product categories such as apparel, hardware, toys, jewelry, etc. The site has much of the same look and feel as Amazon but without the huge seller fees.

newegg

Newegg features reasonable seller commissions ranging from 8% to 15%; these commissions include credit card processing fees. Perhaps best of all, Newegg offers an Amazon FBA-like service called Shipped by Newegg.

9. iOffer

This platform operates very much like eBay and has been around since 2002. There are no listing fees with iOffer, and the final value fees range from 5-10%. If you have lots of items priced from $25-$100, this is a good site to use because you’ll pay only a 5% fee on sales.

ioffer

10. eCRATER

This online marketplace is not only free to use, it even offers a free online store builder. Sellers have the option of using Google Wallet at checkout and can also import their listings from eBay.

ecrater

Don’t put up with high seller fees

As a seller, you don’t have to tolerate unreasonable seller fees and other required commissions from online marketplaces. Luckily, there are many other selling platforms out there that don’t gouge you for trying to make money by selling your items online.

How to Prevent, Spot and Stop Affiliate Fraud

If you are a merchant and are selling your products online, you might also be working with fellow affiliate marketers and paying them a commission for every click, conversion or referral they direct to your website and its products. Unfortunately, anytime there is money involved, there is the risk of affiliate fraud.

What is affiliate fraud?

In brief, affiliate fraud refers to the cheating of merchants, affiliate marketers and/or buyers out of money and/or product using illegal practices. Typically, affiliate fraud involves tricking merchants into paying out affiliate commissions for nonexistent purchases.

Affiliate fraud occurs a number of ways. In some cases, the tricksters employ third parties or software to click on CPC/PPC ads while they collect the profits (i.e., click fraud). In other cases, fraud affiliates hijack a sale and redirect it to a duplicate site that then accepts the buyer’s information. As a result, the merchant pays a commission to the duplicate site (and the fraudster behind it) instead of to the original affiliate marketer who generated the sale.

Some entrepreneurial fraud affiliates go as far as using stolen credit card numbers to make purchases from the merchant. Those purchases are eventually refunded to the buyers, but the affiliate commissions have long since disappeared to the perpetrators of these bogus sales.

Buyers can be affected by affiliate fraud too. In some cases of fraud, buyers are directed to checkout pages that contain a typo in the merchant’s domain. These fake checkout pages not only steal buyers’ money upon checkout, they eventually lead to a high rate of chargebacks, resulting in merchants losing out on their profits.

Other fraud affiliates clone entire product pages and redirect traffic there, harvesting clicks and conversions.

Fraud affiliates can also combine their deception strategies, such as by tricking buyers into clicking on a merchant’s banner ad in order to ‘learn more’ about the product or to contact support.

How to spot affiliate fraud

In many cases, you can determine that there is affiliate fraud at play. If your CPC ads are suddenly experiencing a sharp increase in clicks yet their conversion rates remain low, then you might just have affiliate fraud. If you see massive increases in traffic from locations that aren’t your typical customer base, you may have an unethical affiliate on your hands.

You can do due diligence to a point, such as by regularly checking referring URLs to spot typos. You can also examine payments at the transaction level to better understand where that transaction originated and who the buyer actually is.

However, such vigilance only works up to a point and will take up more and more of your time as your affiliates and buyers grow. To this end, your best bet is to invest in affiliate fraud detection software. There are many different platforms available, including ScrubKit, CPA Detective, Improvely, Corsearch, RiskIQ, TypoAssassin, and PlanetPayment. Some of these platforms, as their names suggest, focus on one key aspect of the affiliate marketing process, while others are more generalized and detect many types of fraud.

Also, some affiliate networks, such as Clickbank, offer their own fraud detection solutions for merchants. Before you sign up with various affiliate networks, ask them how much fraud protection they offer as one of the perks of being a member.

How to prevent affiliate fraud

It is highly recommended that you “vet” new affiliates before working with them by checking out their websites and finding out if that website is related to the products your selling.

It also doesn’t hurt to sign up to your own affiliate emails and promo offers to spot spamming issues and/or marketing practices that don’t fall in line with your established rules. Naturally, you should maintain separate and dedicated email addresses for this exercise so that you don’t end up flooding your own personal inbox with email.

Consider having a yearly sales conference with your affiliates to find out how they are doing and to bring them up to speed with developments and issues.

You should also maintain a list of affiliates that you have rejected or excluded from your network. Such affiliates often reapply by simply plugging in a different website or IP; however, if you have some key information on them, you’ll rediscover them long before they start pitching your products.

In some product industries, merchants maintain files on affiliates who have engaged in fraud. It’s useful to ask about such possible records, and to keep those violations in mind should those same affiliates come knocking on your virtual door.

Is affiliate fraud avoidable?

Affiliate marketing is now in its tenth year and shows no signs of decline. Because it is a big business, fraud and scams are naturally going to become part of the equation. However, you can take steps to spot and stop con artists from taking advantage of you, your legitimate affiliates, and your customers. Affiliate networks are also growing more cognizant of affiliate fraud and ways to prevent it.

How to Earn Extra Cash by Sharing Online Coupons and Promo Codes

You may already use online deal and coupon sites to get discounts on your .com shopping excursions. However, did you know that you can also earn money by submitting discount and coupon codes to these sites? The following deal and coupon sites award you money when you submit promo codes to them.

Coupon Chief

This site’s “Pays 2 Share” program pays out 2% of the sale when someone uses the coupon code you submitted- and that includes you. Cashouts are possible once your account is at $25 or more. The downside with Coupon Chief is that you are limited to making up to $25 per store per month for each coupon code you enter.

pays-2-share

Once you enter a candidate coupon code to Coupon Chief and it’s accepted, you’ll receive a message like this one:

coupon-code

Coupons.com

Find and submit an online coupon code on the Coupons website and you’ll earn $25 in your Paypal account. You will need to submit codes that haven’t been listed before, that aren’t limited to only one retailer or one use, and that aren’t personal referral codes. Payouts are made 30 days after coupon code submission. Additional details are provided here.

coupons-com-savings-guarantee

Dealspotr

This recently launched coupon site and blog offers members points-based incentives for coupon codes and deals that they submit. Those points can be redeemed for e-gift cards.

dealspotr

Dealspotr accepts coupon codes for any brand, not just brands already listed on its website. Also, the Dealspotr community rates submitted coupon codes and deals based on their validity, accuracy and discount amount. So, the better your submitted deals perform, the more points you are awarded. For example, here is a promo code I submitted to the site for free shipping, which earned me 56 points:

Here is a promo code I submitted to Dealspotr for free shipping at Harry & David, which earned me 56 points:

dealspotr

Savelex

If you share coupons and/or product deals on this site, you’ll earn “S-Dollars,” which can be exchanged for real money. Every 100 S-dollars equal 1$, and there is a monthly payout limit of $25. You earn S-dollars by either sharing information about discounted products with your Savelex friends, which earns you 10 S-dollars; alternately, you can submit coupon codes, sales and online deals to the general community and earn 25 S-dollars.

savelex

Hunting promo codes for fun and profit

So, how do you locate coupon, discount and promo codes that haven’t been listed before? Here are some covert methods for finding those elusive promo codes.

  1. Join coupon and deal sites. The first thing you’ll need to do is to sign up with as many daily deal and promo code sites as possible. Big name sites include RetailMeNot, Krazy Coupon Lady, Slick Deals, CouponPro, etc. You are best advised to create a unique email account and use only that address when signing up; otherwise, your inbox will be flooded with daily notices and other marketing collateral from these companies.
  2. Generate checklists of store codes. Maintain an Excel file of coupon codes you come across and to which stores these codes apply. By maintaining organization up-front, you’ll be able to quickly and easily submit codes to numerous sites.
  3. Look for exclusive coupon codes. Individual deal sites often make arrangements with retailers for unique discount codes that are showcased only on their site. However, once these codes are published, they can be considered public domain and used by anybody, including another deal site. Even if the eventual credit goes back to the originator site, the big draw with promo codes is their SEO power. This is why other sites will often publish exclusive promo codes.
  4. Create and/or use a deal aggregator. Many industrious affiliate marketers use or generate apps that scour the Internet and retrieve all kinds of codes and coupons for them. Such deal scraper apps are useful for quickly finding deals; one example includes the Chrome plugin DealTrunk.

Extra credit: Create your own coupon code site

What’s arguably the best way to make money from coupon and promo codes? By using them on your own affiliate website and/or blog. Here are a few reasons why:

  1. SEO. You can use the lure of discounts and coupons to improve your rank in search engine results pages, which will generate more traffic to your website. This extra visibility and traffic will inevitably help you better promote and sell your products.
  2. Audience loyalty. By employing promo codes as a kind of “clickbait” on your site, you create a reason for your audience to return there.  A loyal following of readers is more likely to sign up to your email list and to eventually purchase from your website. By pairing coupon codes with your affiliate products, you also provide a reason for audience members to use your website as a “one-stop shop” for their online shopping and checkout activities.
  3. Retail agreements. Once you have sufficient traction on your website and/or blog, and shoppers mention your site as their referral, retailers will eventually take notice and offer you exclusive deals of your own. These exclusive deals will give you a far better profit margin than the 4-6% rate that Amazon provides. Having exclusive codes will also further improve your site’s SEO and audience loyalty, creating a positive feedback loop.

Online shoppers are becoming ever more price-conscious and coupon-savvy, and you can take advantage of this trend by finding and, in essence, selling coupon and promo codes. These codes can also be utilized on your own website and/or blog to generate extra SEO, traffic and affiliate income for you.

Why You Should Create and Submit Coupon Codes for Your Online Business

If you have an online store, you know that getting traffic to your pages and products can be a challenge. However, one easy strategy for getting eyeballs, purchases and Google Page Rank to your website is to submit coupon and promo codes on third party coupon and deal sites.

Coupon code business advantages

Posting coupon codes to coupon sites offers several advantages to the small business owner, including the following:

  1. High-quality backlinks. Coupon sites like RetailMeNot boast over 1.7 million users and 30,000+ retailers. Needless to say, such sites have incredible Page Rank. A backlink from such a site can do wonders for your own website’s visibility in the search index.
  2. Increased traffic. Online shoppers are increasingly using promo codes and e-coupons, and couponing sites like Krazy Coupon Lady promote the extreme couponing lifestyle. In fact, according to Statista, 52% of adult Internet users living in the U.S. had used an online coupon in 2013.
  3. Going viral. Most coupon sites offer their members the ability to log-in via social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. Because of this link, members that use a promo or coupon code on the site can immediately share that code with their own social network. As a result, the code can go viral and reach a larger audience.
  4. Increased revenue. The goal of publishing a promo, coupon or deal code is (naturally) to increase revenue. With increased traffic to your website via your codes, you increase the likelihood of boosting your bottom line.

Which coupon code is best?

There are many different discounts, offers and promos available, including percent discounts, buy-one-get-one deals, free gift(s) with purchase, etc. How do you choose the promo that best resonates with your audience and generates the most conversions?

According to a 2016 AYTM Market Research survey, almost three quarters of online shoppers preferred receiving money off their purchase over any other promotion, discount or deal. In second place, consumers chose a set percentage off their entire purchase, followed by a percentage discount on a single item.

You could also poll your own audience to learn which incentive is preferred Alternately, you could generate several different codes in order to learn which one performs best.

How to create coupon codes

Most e-commerce platforms offer the ability to create coupon and promo codes quickly and easily. For example, the WooCommerce plugin offers an area where coupons can be created and applied towards specific products on the website. WooCommerce supports four different discount categories, namely cart discount, cart % discount, product discount and product % discount. Such categories consolidate well with the data generated by AYTM.

While creating an incentive code isn’t difficult, it pays to keep code terms and conditions (T&Cs) in mind so as to avoid both shopper confusion and profit loss. Some T&Cs to incorporate into your code include the expiry, applicable product quantities and sizes, and minimum/maximum spend. Other T&Cs you should consider are whether the code will apply to sale items, and if the coupon should be for individual use only (not to be used in conjunction with other coupons).

To create a sense of urgency, you might also consider setting coupon usage limits; for example, you might limit how many shoppers can open and use a particular coupon code.

Where to submit coupon codes

The following sites list incentive codes for free and are ideal locations to submit your coupon codes:

Coupon Chief: You can easily submit your promo or other codes at this site once you sign up via its merchant portal.

submit-coupon

CouponGreat: This site features loads of cash back deals and even product samples. At the bottom of this website’s page, you can click on and fill out the “Submit a Coupon” or “Submit Local Coupon” areas.

coupongreat

My Coupons: This site has been around since 1995 and features many well-known retailers such as Nike, Sears, Old Navy, etc. You can submit your code by going to the right-hand column of the home page or to the dedicate “Submit a Coupon” page.

mycoupons

Promotion Code: This site includes online deals and a blog on saving money. To submit your code, go to the top task bar and click on “Add Code.”

promotion-code

RetailMeNot: This leading coupon site offers members the ability to “Submit a coupon” from their account areas.

retailmenot

To reach markets outside the U.S., you should also consider submitting your coupon codes to Canadian sites like Coupons.ca, Australian sites like I Love Coupons, and U.K. sites like Coupons and Deals.

To reach even more coupon sites and to save yourself a good amount of time, you might wish to outsource your coupon code posting to Fiverr.

fiverr

Finally, in order to gain even more traffic to your codes, and hopefully sales, you may want to post your coupon codes on business cards and leave those cards at local businesses, venues and events. You could also create small stickers that contain your code(s) and affix those stickers to stationary, envelopes and business cards.

Coupon codes and your online business

The months of October and November are typically when consumers shop the most, and likewise look for the most discounts and deals. Give your online business a sales boost by creating some timely deals and coupon codes to go with those deals. Then, post those incentives and watch your profits grow.

Google’s mobile first index is coming: How to prepare your website

It’s official: at the recent Pubcon event in Las Vegas, Gary Illyes, a webmaster trends analyst at Google, announced that Google would soon be switching to mobile first indexing of websites. That means that Google will be seeking out and preferentially ranking mobile websites over desktop ones.

Until now, Google had deferred to desktop-based websites over mobile ones. This occurred even when users were on a mobile device.

Why the mobile first index?

According to comScore’s 2016 US Cross-Platform Future in Focus report, mobile devices now use 65% of digital media time, with mobile apps taking up a good portion of that time. Desktop media time has receded to an all-time low of just 35%.

Due to this development, Google noted early last year that it was working on a mobile index that was completely separate from its desktop index. Then, the search engine mentioned that it would be indexing mobile sites over desktop ones.

That means that webmasters who have not taken the time to create and optimize their mobile website will soon lose out on SEO. It also means that, even if you have a mobile site, getting that site to rank well will require more work than just making it responsive.

Getting mobile-ready, now

How can you prepare for Google’s newest indexing strategy? Here are six tips.

  1. Don’t rely on responsivity.

Having a mobile-friendly website requires more than just making it responsive. However, responsive content is certainly a step in the right direction, and you can easily check using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool.

Google has created fact-checking tags for content that it indexes on desktop sites; these tags point readers to references and fact-check organizations that either support or discredit stated claims. Currently used tags are labeled as Highly Cited, Opinion, Local Source, and In-Depth.

Google will be rolling out fact-check tags on its mobile website indexing as well. To pass muster with these fact-check tags, your content’s claims should be backed up with references to primary and first-person sources, not gossip or opinion sites.

2. Add content to your mobile pages.

Many website owners have hesitated to create long form content mobile pages, reserving additional text and keywords for desktop content only. However, with Google now giving preference to mobile pages, it’s high time that those pages get updated with the same content as their desktop siblings.

Long form content need not appear clunky on mobile pages. By creating bookmarks and anchor links to relevant areas, you can direct users to those places that logically follow what was just viewed/read. Meanwhile, the entire scope of the content is available for reading enthusiasts.

3. And make sure it’s the correct content.

Some website owners ensure that their desktop website is mobile-friendly by only checking whether it’s actually rendered on mobile devices. What these owners neglect to check is if their mobile websites are providing correct content.

Keep in mind that websites rendered “mobile-friendly” are actually parsed into columns, with the mobile device displaying a single, scrollable column to the viewer. This means that displayed content may differ substantially from actual site content and deem the page irrelevant.

Within the Google Search Console, you can check your website’s content using Fetch and Render. There, you’ll your website’s pages as Google does. You’ll also be able to switch between mobile and desktop versions of your website to view key differences between them.

4. Organize your mobile pages.

Are your mobile pages organized according to a logical structure? In other words, are the pages layered into rational levels such as L1, L2, L3? If you have a mix of pages that only blend into each other without any order or structure, your site will get penalized by Google.

Create a sitemap of your content and go through your pages to understand how they are organized. Add structural pages to those pages that are insufficiently supported. Repurpose extraneous content into novel categories and topics. Also, delete content that bears no resemblance to the main theme of the website.

5. Check your site’s load speed.

Back in 2015, Google adjusted its search algorithm so that faster loading web pages would be preferentially displayed over slower ones. Google also offered Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) in its search results area so that users could select sites with faster loading content.

Optimize your content for faster load time by eliminating extremely large images, extraneous ads and code and other clunkers. Then test your site’s load speed with Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

6. Your desktop content will still matter.

Unless you have no desktop website to speak of, your desktop website will still be indexed by Google- so don’t let it fall completely by the wayside. Google’s main focus right now is to launch a rapidly updated mobile index of websites. However, it will still index desktop websites, just not as quickly.

Mobile search is here, so get ready

Mobile websites are growing increasingly popular and are the future of online activity. So, if you haven’t updated your mobile website in a while, now’s the time.

14 Ways to Make Money in the Fitness Niche

If you have a love for fitness, whether as a professional or just someone who loves keeping healthy, I’ll let you in on a little secret: you can make money from it!

With the rise of health movements such as vegan, keto, and paleo diets, coupled with exercise trends such as HIIT and circuit training, it’s safe to say that the fitness industry is booming and will only continue to grow.

Now is the perfect time to jump in!

In this article, we run down how to make money in fitness so you can start working toward both your fitness goals and your financial goals.

14 Ways to Make Money in the Fitness Niche

I’ve broken down the top ways people are making money in the fitness niche.

Your best bet is to become a trainer of some sort, but you can also help people figure out nutrition, or even become a brand ambassador and make money as an influencer.

Find an area that interests you and run with it.

Make money on the side as an influencer:

Brands are always looking for feedback from influencers and ambassadors to develop their product lines and the fitness industry is a perfect match.

The following companies pay CASH.

1. Become a personal trainer

Whenever an average Joe thinks of the fitness industry this is probably one role that stands out, and with good reason.

Most people, really really hate the gym, but this just means opportunity. Personal training is highly profitable if done correctly.

Starting off you will need to get certified. Certification helps you to build trust with both gyms you may want to work in, and clients you want to work with.

These bodies all supply legitimate certifications:

  • American Council on Exercise (ACE)
  • National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)
  • International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA)
  • American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
  • National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA)

After getting certified, it’s often best to then look to specialize in an area. Ideally, this should be something that you yourself would be interested in, but it pays to take a look at what’s popular as well.

From that point, you can then start applying to local gyms and fitness centers to start working for them or hiring out facilities with them.

Another approach is to look at teaching at multiple gyms in different areas, which helps expand your network of clients and make sure that you have less risk of clients drying up.

2. Teach group sessions

Group fitness training is quite different from the one-on-one approach of personal training.

In group training, a trainer leads an exercise class while coaching all of the participants, making sure that everyone is using the correct form.

Group training might seem like the obvious choice: more people equals more money, right? Well, that’s not always the case; the fees for group fitness are often much lower than personal training.

However, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make money from it. Plus, running this sort of training has many benefits.

First, it gets you in front of a lot of different people, helping you expand and refine your personal brand.

Second, it allows you to promote additional services, such as one-on-one training sessions, dietary and nutrition plans, your own products, and other services that help you earn more (as we’ll see below).

Lastly, it allows you to broaden your skill set by offering a variety of classes to a variety of people. For instance, you could teach classes for kids or older people, CrossFit and other short classes for busy professionals, and so on.

Keep in mind that you’ll still need certification to be able to go into group training.

3. Expand to online coaching

Once you’re working as a personal trainer or a group trainer, a natural offshoot is to become an online fitness coach.

Not everyone has the luxury of having a quality gym nearby or being able to afford a personal trainer. However, with the rise of high-speed internet, they don’t need to!

You might already have existing clients as a personal trainer, but going online gets you an unlimited client base. You can always find a new audience to market your services.

Online coaching can be done via video chat apps and ideally via two-way video feeds so you can check your client’s form and correct it if you need to.

While you’re online with them, you can also pitch your other products, such as your nutrition and training guides.

It’s not ideal from a fitness training perspective but think of it as a middle ground between a fitness DVD and actual personal training.

What’s more, people are willing to pay to be able to get fitness training from the comfort of their homes.

4. Develop training and nutrition plans

Not everyone wants or needs to head into a gym or hire a personal trainer.

What they are looking for instead is expert guidance on their diet or pointers for their own training regimens at home or at the gym so they can tailor their fitness routines into their specific lifestyle.

Meal plans are a popular product in the fitness niche, especially if you create ones that are based on diets that are all the rage, such as vegan, keto, paleo, Atkins, HCG, or any other diets that are touted to promote health.

Workout plans are equally popular, especially for beginners to a certain kind of workout routine, such as strength training, HIIT, CrossFit, calisthenics, etc. Workout plans that target specific areas of the body also have a wide audience.

Meal plans and workout plans are ideally created in a digital format, such as an ebook or PDF. Creating digital products minimizes your overhead and makes them easier to sell, as there are plenty of free or at least inexpensive digital marketplaces where you can sell these plans.

You can also offer custom training and nutrition plans at a higher price to specific clients with specific needs. These plans can be based on a standard template and tweaked with little to no work to fit the needs of a specific client.

You can also sell your nutrition and training plans together as bundles.

If you’re already working as an online or offline personal trainer, you can offer these as extras to your existing clients.

5. Start a meal delivery service

If you have culinary training aside from nutrition certifications, you can take meal planning a step further and actually create the meals yourself for delivery to your clients.

You can start small and deliver to nearby addresses at first. As your business grows, you can start getting all the necessary permits (your health license is the most important one) and hire a few people to help you prepare and deliver the meals.

The good thing about creating and selling your own meals is that you can bundle this service with your workout plans and increase your income.

Of course, turning your house into a custom kitchen isn’t going to be simple, especially considering the various dietary requirements you’ll have to cater to.

But if you have the knowledge and the capital, a meal delivery business is a lucrative way to make money in the fitness industry.

6. Sell your digital products

If you’ve already gone into creating nutrition and workout plans as digital products, it’s not that far a leap to create a fitness video course.

Of course, producing a video course requires more requirements: a high-quality webcam, editing software, activewear and equipment that look good on camera, and snappy background visuals and music to come up with a polished video with high production value.

If you’re not an expert in video production, you’re going to have to hire professionals to take care of that for you.

All these increase your overhead costs significantly, so if you don’t have a steady, strong client base yet, you’ll struggle to recoup your losses.

Now, you have a suite of digital products that you can sell in various online stores. For instance, you can sell your ebooks on the Amazon Kindle store.

You can also build your own website and sell your digital products there.

7. Make a fitness app

A mobile app is yet another digital product that you can create or have a developer create for you.

Even fitness enthusiasts aren’t without their phones in their hands all the time. So why not make it easier and more accessible for them to track their fitness goals through their phones?

You can run advertisements on your app so you can earn some passive income from that. Or, you can have users download the app for free and then offer paid features and upgrades so you can earn more directly from those.

The good thing here is you can incorporate your existing digital products into this fitness app.

You can make it into a nutrition app, where users can choose a meal plan template or create their own. You can make it into a workout app, where users can choose a specific workout to do or create their own with individual exercises. Or, ideally, you can make combine them into one app.

8. Establish a tangible fitness product line

As I’ve mentioned, not everyone can afford to go to the gym, and even some of those who can afford it actually prefer to work out from home.

If you can find a supplier of high-quality home fitness equipment that you can trust and can sell you those products for an inexpensive price, you may be able to make money in fitness products.

Here are some examples of fitness products that you can sell:

  • Yoga mats/exercise mats
  • High-impact floor tiles
  • Dumbbells
  • Lifting racks
  • Kettlebells
  • Exercise balls
  • Medicine balls
  • Sandbags
  • Boxing bags
  • Yoga blocks
  • Jump ropes
  • Battle ropes
  • Resistance bands
  • Foam rollers
  • Plyo boxes
  • Steppers
  • Water bottles
  • Sports socks/yoga socks
  • Sports shoes
  • Sports bras
  • Leggings
  • Sports bags
  • Massage guns

Selling your own product line is not for the fainthearted but this can be a real money-spinner.

9. Write about fitness

As the fitness niche is exploding, written content about fitness is also highly in demand.

Blogs, magazines, journals, and other publications are on the lookout for fitness writers who can create compelling, expert content that appeals to fitness enthusiasts, both beginner and advanced.

You may even get a higher rate than usual, especially if you have certifications, years of experience, and an existing fanbase who read and share your articles.

Another way you can earn money through writing about fitness is if you start a blog and write articles for it. You aren’t going to get paid directly for your articles, but your blog will help you in your money-making endeavor by building your online reputation and providing you a platform to promote your products and services to your audience.

10. Be a motivational fitness speaker

Fitness is not only physical; you can only meet your fitness goals when you’re mentally focused and motivated to do so.

Another way to help spread your brand, expand your customer network, and make money while doing it is to be a fitness resource speaker.

You could contact local businesses, schools, and communities to offer your services for free or at a cost.

Talk about fitness and how your specific audience can benefit from incorporating fitness into their lives.

For example, you can talk to businessmen about how having even the simplest fitness routine keeps their minds sharp.

You could discuss ways older people can stay healthy and active at a local retirement home. You could talk to kids about how an unhealthy lifestyle will affect them later in life.

The more you get known, the more benefits it can bring to your business.

11. Set up and attend unique events

Gyms often have everything a person needs to get fit and stay healthy, but they can be boring and sometimes scary places to visit.

By offering more unique options, especially outdoor events, you can help create a name for yourself while making money.

What sort of events could you run? How about:

  • Bootcamps
  • Assault courses
  • Zombie runs
  • Hiking and walking trips
  • Mini Olympics
  • Dancing
  • Parkour
  • Outdoor Calisthenics

These events are perfect to promote your brand and your fitness products and services to new audiences.

Also, these types of events can help bring communities together and offer opportunities for other local businesses as well to promote their own products and services.

Thanks to technology, it’s even possible to bring these events online through livestreaming, expanding your audience and increasing your potential earnings through ads or sponsorships.

12. Become a social media brand ambassador

Don’t write off social media yet as a way to make money from fitness.

Social media is an incredible tool for fitness trainers who want to get themselves out there. By showing people how to get fit via YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, it’s easy to get a large following.

With a large audience and engagement, you can then apply to become a brand ambassador, or even be approached by companies looking for people to promote their brand.

A brand ambassador is essentially modern jargon for having a sponsor. You do shout-outs, reviews and generally promote a brand in return for cold hard cash, affiliate commissions, and free swag.

I’ve covered what it takes to become a brand ambassador in more detail here.

13. Start your own blog

Writing a fitness blog is certainly not the quickest way to make money from fitness, but it has the most potential to make money from fitness, in terms of the different directions and activities you can do from your blog.

Firstly, you will need your own website, and to have a love for writing about fitness (at least until you can get some other writers to write for you).

Writing about the trials and tribulations of attaining a healthy body and keeping it can attract not only people wanting to get started but even those already on their journey wanting more ideas, tips, and tricks.

A fitness blog can make money in a variety of ways.

You can make money directly by placing ads on the site, using affiliate marketing to promote fitness products you trust and recommend, selling your own products and services, and even through flipping the website if it becomes popular enough to be worth six digits.

Indirectly, the site can garner more real-life customers for you as a personal trainer. It can also help you to find sponsors and brands interested in having you promote their products.

The cost of setting up a blog is minimal, and you don’t even need to be certified to offer advice and help; you could simply be a fitness fan documenting and showcasing your own journey in the world of fitness.

The easiest way to get started with your own blog is through a platform like Wealthy Affiliate. It’s completely free to get started and they’ll give you all the tools and training you need to get up and running.

14. Lend your expertise as a consultant

When you hear “consultant,” you might automatically think of financial consultants or management consultants.

But companies, schools, and other organizations may feel the need the services of a fitness consultant to develop programs that cater to the physical fitness needs of members of these organizations.

Requirements may vary depending on the client; some may hire you with a high school diploma, while others may require you to have master’s degrees in nutrition and sports science or other related courses.

Having degrees and certifications would certainly be an advantage when it comes to the hourly pay you can charge, but don’t underestimate the value of experience.

If you’ve worked as a personal trainer for years, you’d certainly have a leg up over those who are certified but don’t have enough hands-on experience.

The Bottom Line

Whether you’re already a professional fitness instructor or you just simply love keeping in shape, there are many ways to make money with fitness.

Hopefully, one or more of these 14 ideas will help you make more money in the fitness niche!

Here’s one more thing to keep in mind:

Start working on building your following and brand today.

The earlier you start getting your name out there, the better. Don’t wait until the new year to try and capitalize on all the resolutions or the summer to make money off those who want “summer bods.” You’ll be too late by then.

Which one of these ways to make money in fitness are you most interested in? Or have you tried before? How was it? Tell us your stories in the comments below!

How To Make Money From Your Phone: 17 Easy Ways

How much time per day do you spend looking at your phone? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could learn how to make money from your phone and get paid for the time you spend using it?

I’ve done a little bit of digging to find some cool apps that make you money.

With a little bit of work, you could stop watching Instagram stories of exotic locations and start posting some of your own.

How to Make Money on Your Phone: 17 Different Ideas to Try Out

The ideas below will help you make money from your phone by watching videos, surfing the web, taking pictures, etc.

Sign up for everything that looks appealing! The more apps you download, the more money you can make!

1. Get paid to surf the web and watch videos

Swagbucks is an absolute MUST join and you get $5.00 simply for signing up!

This site offers a smartphone app that enables you to earn Swagbucks (SB) for watching videos, answering surveys, and completing merchant offers.

You can also surf the Web using the Swagbucks toolbar and win additional SB. Once you have at least 300 SB, you can trade them in for Paypal payouts (or gift cards if you prefer).

2. Make $50 by downloading an app

Get a whopping $50 just to download the Nielsen app.

They currently are offering a $5 bonus on top of the $50 you get paid, making the total you can earn here $55!

You’ve likely heard of Nielsen in the past. You know when you hear of a TV show being canceled or renewed for a new season due to ratings?

Well, Nielsen is the company that assigns the ratings to TV shows.

They do this by tracking what their users watch. The more people watching a show, the better the chances are at renewal. If no one is watching, it will probably get canned.

They are expanding into new areas and want to know how people are using their phones.

As a thank you for helping them out, you’ll get paid $50 just to download their app.

It’s non-invasive and how you use your phone will help shape a lot of trends in pop culture.

Pretty cool, yeah?

3. Get paid to submit your receipts

Ibotta Special offer: Get a special $10 welcome bonus when you create your account!

Ibotta was one of the first rebate apps on the market and offers cashback on grocery, apparel, electronics, restaurant, pet, etc. purchases.

The rebate amounts are fairly high (as much as $1.50) and work across a number of stores.

Many qualifying rebates are brand-independent (e.g., $0.50 off any orange juice), while others require that you purchase a given brand at a certain store.

4. Answer questions and make money from your phone

VIP Voice pays you CASH to answer questions about famous brands.

Plus, they’ll drop money in your account just for signing up.

Vindale Research

The more questions you answer, the more money you can make!

5. Invest your spare change

Acorns is an app that offers a cool opportunity that will allow you to start investing your money without even realizing it.

Let’s say you head to Starbucks and buy a latte. The price comes out to $5.25.

Acorns will round up your purchase to $6.00 and take that extra 75 cents and invest it for you.

It’s an incredibly easy way to start saving money and building towards your future. They also recently started offering cash-back on purchases at most major retailers. Now you get your spare change invested, and a little extra.

Plus, you get $5.00 just for creating an account. Win-win.

6. Watch videos

InboxDollars pays you to watch videos on your phone.

It literally does not get any easier than this. Load up the videos you want to watch and your earnings will continue to grow with them.

Cash out to PayPal or in gift cards when you’re ready.

If you were wondering if they have a signup bonus as well, you’re in luck because $5.00 is yours for the taking.

7. Visit stores and mystery shop

Field Agent has you earning money by completing tasks such as checking store displays, taking photos of grocery shelves, finding specific store products, and going through checkout.

You can complete jobs and make money on your phone at almost any major retailer. The assigned job must be completed in a given amount of hours.

Payouts are made via PayPal.

8. Run errands while on your phone

GigWalk is a mobile app that offers you paid tasks while you’re on the go.

Gigwalk App

These tasks are geo-focused on your specific location and might include checking a street sign, verifying a transportation option, or examining a landmark.

After you apply for an assignment and complete it, your payment is sent to your PayPal account.

Once you prove your worth as a Gigwalker, you’ll be sent higher-paying (i.e., hundred-dollar) assignments.

9. Sell your photos and videos

You likely have a few thousand photos on your device. Here’s how you can make money from your phone and its giant photo gallery.

Upload photos on Foap app and they will pay you $5 a pop every time someone wants to use one of them.

Foap connects publishers with creators and you can make some decent money just by sharing access to your photos.

Keep in mind that simple candids of your cat likely aren’t going to fetch anything, but more creative shots showcasing interesting sights can definitely pull in extra money for you.

10. Test out new products

Survey Junkie is one of the oldest and most reputable survey companies online making this one of the easiest ways to make money from your phone.

Survey Junkie

You can get to try out new products before they ever hit the shelves.

Answer a few short questions about them and help the company shape the future of their product lines.

You can get paid directly to your PayPal account or cash in your rewards for gift cards.

11. Answer (more) questions

1Q pays you $0.25 or $0.50 for every question you receive and answer in a set amount of time.

You’ll receive a notification that a new set of questions is available to be answered.

For example, you might be asked how many times in the last week you used a foot moisturizing cream.

The number of questions you receive depends on your demographics and geographic location.

Payments are sent to your PayPal account.

12. Make money from your phone by testing websites and apps

Companies will pay you to test their apps before they launch through the UserTesting app.

You do need to successfully complete a sample test with this company, but once that’s done, you’ll be earning $10 for each app you download, test, and review (via voice recording) for UserTesting.

earn-money-for-user-testing

13. Do almost anything and get paid

Earnably pays you for seemingly random things: listening to the radio, completing surveys, viewing videos, and completing online offers.

What’s especially beneficial with Earnably is that the site pays you bonuses and increases your payout options as you advance on the site.

It takes just $2 in collected earnings before you can request a payout through PayPal or a gift card.

14. Listen to new music

SliceThePie allows you to check out new music and get paid for giving your opinions on it.

If you have time to kill and like listening to new bands, this app is absolutely perfect.

There are other ways to get paid to listen to music, but they might involve having to be on your computer.

15. Download free gift card apps

There are apps that you can download on your phone that pay you in gift cards for doing various tasks.

I say “tasks” but some of these involve playing games on your phone.

Go through our list of recommended apps, download a couple, and start earning.

16. Get paid to lose weight

Losing weight is usually a solitary endeavor, but what if you can bet on your success and compete with hundreds of other app users?

DietBet is an app that gives you the financial motivation to lose weight.

It hosts games where participants wager a bet on who can lose 4% of their body weight by the end of the competition period. DietBet keeps a percentage of the pot, but all participants who lose the required percentage split the rest.

Here are other options to get paid to lose weight.

17. Take care of other people’s pets

How to make money on your phone by playing with dogs?

Rover is the answer!

Rover connects pet owners with pet lovers who can take care of their pets while they’re away.

With Rover, you can walk dogs, take care of them during the day in your house, stay with the dogs in their house, or even board the dogs overnight for pet owners.

Providing a safe place for someone else’s pet can be rewarding and lucrative.

Final Thoughts About Making Money from Your Phone

Let’s be real.

You aren’t going to get rich by making money from your phone.

At best, you have the opportunity to bring in some extra cash while you sit on the couch and ignore The Office as it runs in the background.

If you’re looking for more serious ways of making money, I would suggest you look into a work from home job, or browse this list of passive income ideas for ways you can make money even while you sleep.

Do you know of other money-making mobile apps? Share it with us in the comments below.

How to Make Money with Pokémon Go

Crazes and fads are an exciting prospect for marketers, and also quite scary.

How soon is too soon to jump on the bandwagon and try to make money off of the back of the latest thing to create a buzz?

Too early and you could be wasting time and money on a flop; too late and you could miss out on gaining traction in the market.

Take Pokémon Go for instance. This app filled with fun and crazy characters has just exploded worldwide.

While it’s been 2 months since its initial release, the game is still going strong and there has been a flood of ways to make money from it.

How then can you make money with Pokémon Go?

Become a Pokémon Trainer

Pokémon fans have wanted to actually be a Pokémon trainer since they were kids, and while the reality has come one step closer with the app, there’s still some way to go.

That being said, not everyone who plays Pokémon Go fully understands how to play it, I know I had some difficulty and battling is still just mashing the phone for me.

If you’re skilled and knowledgeable with Pokémon Go you could hiring your “training” services out for an easy $20 or more per hour.

You can offer your services locally on sites like Craigslist.

Sell Your Pokémon Go Account

Much like selling a World of Warcraft account back in the day, people are willing to spend a large amount of money for a pre-existing Pokémon Go account.

The selling price will depend on several factors including team, player level, and what Pokémon’s are on the account.

If your account has a rare Pokémon type then it could easily fetch several hundreds of dollars.

You can sell accounts on eBay and sites like PokeTree.com.

Bear in mind though that selling an account is technically against Niantic’s (the people behind the app) terms and conditions.

Pikachu

Get Paid to Drop Lures

In the game, dropping a lure will increase the chances of Pokémon appearing at Pokéstops.

The odd thing is, people will pay others to drop a lure, especially businesses close to Pokéstops.

Imagine a café that is next to a Pokéstop and suddenly a bunch of people turn up to hunt Pokémon.

Of course they’re going to want to sit inside in the warmth and have a drink at the same time, so café’s like that are more inclined to pay people to drop lures at specific times of the day and to advertise that fact.

This sort of service might not net you much per lure but you could easily buy the lures via the app and mark them up for a profit.

Why don’t local businesses do this themselves you may be wondering? Well some do, some even hire or pay staff to specifically focus on it. Others however aren’t technical or are just too busy serving customers.

Card Collection, Games and Memorabilia

While the buzz is high, anything related to Pokémon is selling like hotcakes! If you have any memorabilia now is the time to drag it out and put it on eBay!

Become a Driver

While Pokémon Go is designed to get people out walking there is a demand for Pokémon drivers.

Via cars, or even buses, Pokémon drivers take their passengers to a wide variety of different Pokéstops and Gyms around their locality which may not be accessible to people normally because they are so far away.

Drivers can easily charge $25 an hour for this service, for example PikaSpeed charges about $30 – $45 per hour.

If you’re an Uber driver you could even incorporate this into your service, for free or paid.

Design tools and apps

While there’s no direct API for the game, it hasn’t stopped people from data mining the app and creating all sorts of crazy services and tools such as the PokéAPI, Silphroad, PoGoToolkit and Poke Assistant.

You could earn money by creating similar apps and services or by using the existing ones to create new and innovative services.

Walk the Walk

If you don’t drive or prefer the fresh air, why not charge for walking?

Pokémon walkers will take someone’s account and do the walking needed to hatch eggs.

Generally you can charge $1 per kilometer so $2 for a 2 kilometer egg, $5 for a 5 kilometer egg and $10 for a 10 kilometer egg.

pokemon go egg

Hacks

Hacking the app is obviously against the terms and both the hacker and hacked can get their accounts banned. Many people are still willing to take the risk and if you’re technically minded, hacking the app for others can be very profitable, from $25 to $200 per hack.

There are several types of hacks, the most common being to trick your phones GPS into thinking you’re moving when you’re actually sat on your couch.

Another is to get unlimited Pokéballs.

IF you can come up with the same or even more desirable hacks, people will pay for them.

Write a guide

Every marketer out there knows that guides, tips and training sell!

Creating an e-book or short video course outlining how to use the app, the best ways to find rare Pokémon, tips for training and battling and so on can easily make a profit if marketed right.

There are numerous ways to promote something like this: get the e-book on Amazons Kindle e-book marketplace, sell it on Craigslist, advertise your own site selling the book and so on.

Craft Pokémon Items

If you’re into arts and crafts, creating and selling Pokémon related items could easily turn a profit. Etsy is full of Pokémon stuff, from Charmander panties, Bulbasaur planters and actual Pokéballs!

The possibilities are endless with this type of gig.

The Bottom Line

Like any fad, Pokémon Go will eventually run its course, but seemingly not for the near future. Niantic has many plans up its sleeve to try and expand the features, reach and commercialization of this popular app.

While it’s going strong it makes sense for marketers and anyone wanting to make a little bit of cash to jump on the bandwagon.

How to Make Money with No Money

I’m pretty sure you’ve heard the often quoted phrase

“You must spend money to make money”

That advice is over 2,000 years old and nowadays it just doesn’t always apply.

The reality of our modern world is that it is possible to make money with no money whatsoever.

How then can you do this?

Time vs. Money

The thing you need to understand here is that if you have no money, you need to replace it with something else: time.

Time is after all, money!

Time is valuable to everybody which is why so many people out there use cash to obtain things that they could actually do themselves, just to free up their time.

This is where you come in; you take their cash and give your time instead.

Ways to sell your time

If you have access to an internet connection then there are a million and one ways to give your time in exchange for cold hard cash, here’s just a few of them:

Fiverr

Fiverr.com is a marketplace where people sell services for (in theory) $5 dollars. It’s changed recently so people can charge much more than that.

Not only is the marketplace proven, but people will buy all sorts of stuff, from proofreading to video testimonials, to logos and coding.

There are a lot of options and a large variety of them will cost you nothing but time.

Upwork

This site is more aimed at people hiring freelancers, but the basics are the same. If you have a skill you can promote, you can swap your time and energy for money.

Unlike Fiverr where you can sell yourself singing happy birthday in your birthday suit, Upwork is more professional so you will need to have a skillset.

Swagbucks

If you prefer to sit on the sofa and earn cash why not check out Swagbucks? This site allows you to earn cash from surveys, web browsing and more. They even give you $5 just for signing up!

MechanicalTurk

Like a cross between Fiverr and Upwork, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk is a marketplace for micro jobs. The system is designed to use crowdsourcing to perform jobs that computers can’t currently do, for example:

  • Inputting specific values from an image
  • Label objects displayed in images
  • Internet research
  • Classifying tweets as useful or not

The rewards are low but the tasks are generally easy.

Do the hustle

Using time to create money doesn’t have to be about working for someone else. Instead you can use that time plus a bunch of free services out there to actively create an income.

Take affiliate marketing for instance. While it’s not the fastest way to do it, you could start with a small free website such as one at Blogger, Hubpages or Squidoo.

Each of these sites offers the ability to get your content out there and potentially earn cash from affiliate marketing.

YouTube is another great opportunity. All you need is a video camera and an idea. If you don’t own a video camera, then use a webcam or smart phone. Borrowing one from a friend or family member is an option too.

Social networks are another great place to make cash just by using your time. Take Instagram for instance. By posting great photos it’s possible to get tapped by a company to do product placement and advertising.

Sometimes you do need to spend money

Once you’ve earned some cash, now would be the point to stop trading time for money and start spending your cash to create more cash. The reason is simple, if you continue to trade time for money you won’t make as much money as you could by spending money to make money.

You could start by teaching yourself to create an online business, that way you invest in your own future.

Or you could invest that cash for more short term goals like creating a website to promote your skills through or even hiring someone to do what you’ve been doing but at less than you charge.

Automation of your tasks is also a great way of spending cash to help speed things up and/or free up your time, to allow you to do other things to make money.

The Bottom Line

The reality is clear: while in the beginning selling your time for money pays off, it’s not a long term solution.

Far from it, instead you should see it as a stepping stone to building up enough money to really start your own business and start spending money to free up your time instead.

If you’re serious about investing a small amount to learn and grow and make more money online, then I’d suggest checking out sites like Wealthy Affiliate which are an affordable way to learn to earn.