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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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

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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.

Beware of Jordan Daniels’ My AE Success and Other Online Coaching Scams

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What do My AE Success, Online Success Plan, Ultimate Online Success Plan, and MOS (Millionaire Operating System) Success Plan all have in common?

These are all products promoted by someone who goes by the name of Jordan Daniels.  These products also offer the same setup:

  • You are promised a millionaire website- you just pay for the domain name and hosting.
  • You are guaranteed to make at least $500 in just 4-6 weeks.
  • You get coached by an expert in the field, who will conduct regular calls with you.
  • You get free additional products such as “The Wealth Factor, Mindset for Millions.”
  • There are a limited number (i.e., 50) of spots available.

So, how do these success plans really work? And just what is their angle?

It’s all about “online coaching.”

When you go to a site like My AE Success, you are told that, for just $97, you’ll gain access to actual millionaires who made their money online using My AE Success. These millionaires will coach you on how to also become an online millionaire.

The truth of the matter is that, your $97 purchase of My AE Success, or Online Success Plan, Ultimate Online Success Plan, or the MOS Success Plan, is just a way for Jordan to get your personal details and phone number. Once this information is captured, you’re caught inside his system’s long-term sales funnel.

You’ll know you’re in a sales funnel when you get your first call from your “success coach.” This coach will ask you a few questions about your personal and financial situation to gauge how much money you can spend. Once you’ve answered those questions, your coach will try to convince you to purchase expensive educational and training programs.

As for the actual millionaire coaching, it’s going to be lackluster. You’ll most likely talk to a person who not only isn’t an Internet millionaire, but who will be reading to you from a script. If any money-making techniques are recommended to you, they will be outdated, spammy or just plain illegal.

You get a millionaire website.

The My AE Success, Online Success Plan, Ultimate Online Success Plan, and MOS Success Plan all promise a ‘millionaire website’ that will generate money for you on auto-pilot. All you have to do is pay a small one-time fee for the server that hosts this website. In the case of My AE Success, that fee is also just $97.

The real deal behind these millionaire websites is that Jordan is either an affiliate of a website host, or he owns his own server. So, you’re paying money to support the website host and/or server. As for your ‘millionaire website,” it’s going to be a poorly executed sales page that contains a few affiliate links…and not much more.

You’ll gain access to traffic sources.

Your coach will recommend that you spend money to promote your website by buying traffic, ad packs, etc. Naturally, all those traffic exchanges, ad pack sites, etc., will be Jordan’s own affiliate products. These traffic sources will cost you money so that you can drive traffic to your “guaranteed to make money” website.

Once you get your paid traffic sources to come to your website, your leads will be delivered to Jordan and his coaching team. That coaching will consist of educational and training product upsells. In fact, this is noted in the below descriptor derived from the MOS Success Plan:

The MillionaireOS

You get guaranteed money (and a Mercedez Benz!)

My AE Success Plan makes some outrageous claims about how you are guaranteed to make $500 in just 30 days following the set-up of your millionaire website. In fact, if you don’t make $500, you’ll get $500 from AE. If you do make $500 in your first 30 days, you’ll qualify for a free Mercedes Benz car.

Mercedez Benz

The truth is far less glamorous and can be gleaned from the site’s earnings disclaimer:

Purchase Agreement

So, if you don’t make the additional product purchases (purchases that might cost several thousand dollars), you won’t see that ‘guaranteed’ $500. As for the free car, it might as well be imaginary: Nothing is mentioned about it either on the site or disclaimer area.

You pay only once and get your money refunded.

My AE Success states that you have a 30-day money-back guarantee on its products. However, there are numerous online complaints about this system regarding how it has charged its buyers repeatedly, and how it has not processed refunds as promised. Here are just a few such complaints:

complaint1

complaint

It’s a unique product.

My AE Success claims that it’s a brand new and never before seen or launched program. However, AE has existed under different program names in the past, including MOS Success Plan and Online Success Plan. As of November 2016, this program is now being touted as Ultimate Online Success Plan- complete with the same bogus promises of $500 and a Mercedes Benz.

Why so many iterations of the same BS?

As these past programs were tried out, angry consumers posted multiple complaints about them. So, Jordan merely shut down those sites and re-launched the same product but under a different name.

Apparently, Jordan’s motto must be, “When you can’t escape bad press, rename yourself.”

We don’t recommend Jordan’s coaching products.

If you’re looking for an online business that will help you attain financial independence, My AE Success (and its many other iterations) from Jordan Daniels isn’t it. Also, the other online systems that Jordan has promoted, and which are now defunct, are also not going to make you money. Save yourself the hassle and heartache.

I’ve Tried That has been reviewing products since 2007. In that time, there’s one program that stands above the rest. It’s free to get started, has no ridiculous hidden charges, and will help you build a sustainable income from home.

Click here to see our top recommendation.

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

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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.

A Review of AmaSuite for Amazon Affiliates and Sellers

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Last May, I reviewed Amazing Selling Machine (ASM) and noted that its nearly $3500 price tag was a bit steep for some would-be Amazon sellers and affiliates. Luckily, some members of ASM have created their own Amazon training courses and mini-communities, and often with much lower entry costs. One such example is AmaSuite, which is offered through Chris Guthrie and Dave Guindon.

The AmaSuite software, which is now available in its fifth version, trains members to not only become successful Amazon affiliates, but Amazon sellers too. How? The name of the game is sourcing and selling private label, not brand name, products. In this way, you can say goodbye to two of the biggest obstacles with making a decent profit via Amazon:

  • Low affiliate commissions. Amazon offers its affiliates either a 4% or 6% commission on sales, which means you need to move hundreds of thousands of dollars of product each month to make a viable income as an Amazon affiliate.
  • High product license fees. If you purchase your own brand name products to sell on Amazon (or through your own website), you typically have razor-thin profit margins because of high manufacturer license fees.

Chris Guthrie is a well-noted Internet marketer and Amazon affiliate, and he has promoted the Fullfillment by Amazon (FBA) selling platform for some time now. He also referenced that he recently signed up for ASM. From there, his involvement with Amazon selling has deepened, from hosting a mastermind group to selling his own Amazon products, to now offering a bulked-up AmaSuite 5 that incorporates many of the principles of ASM.

Currently, the program is discounted to just $197. However, even at its regular price of $297, the software is still a bargain compared with the ~$3,500 charged for ASM.

What do you get with AmaSuite 5?

Lots of software:

  • Amazon research tools, including an Amazon keyword suggestion tool that helps you locate the best keywords for your product niche. Keep in mind that Amazon provides very little in the way of Analytics (like Google does), so this is valuable and saves you lots of time.
  • A Top 100 analyzer that provides you with data on the hottest Amazon products based on sales, reviews, etc., enabling you to obtain competitor information quickly.
  • A product inspector that helps you select low competition products that you can quickly rank well for and generate sales from. It’s essentially a niche marketing tool fitted for Amazon.
  • An AmaSync WordPress plugin and tutorials that help you quickly set up your product websites, generate content, and integrate your Amazon products into them. You also get free WordPress themes.
  • An Amazon reviewer finder for your product category. This software tool locates top reviewers on Amazon that you can contact and ask for help from, which is an absolute must if you are trying to sell private label products.
  • Social media tools and plugins that enable you to quickly post across numerous platforms, encourage Facebook Likes, implement pop-ups, show different ads, etc.
  • Educational courses on online/content marketing, SEO and website creation.

Amazon seller training:

  • Private label products are explained as well as how to pick one or several by using the software tools outlined above.
  • How find and contact candidate product suppliers using Google search or Alibaba (which Amazon is now also affiliated with).
  • How to generate sales of your Amazon products and reviews using the provided AmaSuite software tools.

What do you not get with AmaSuite 5?

  • Promotion tools and guidelines. Unless you already know how to generate website traffic and promote niche products, AmaSuite 5 won’t help you become a successful Amazon affiliate and/or seller. This software suite assumes that you already have an action plan for promoting your products on social media platforms, through your website(s), etc. Having said this, AmaSuite does offer a Video Traffic Guru, which instructs you on “how to drive traffic to your videos.”
  • Lots of hand-holding. ASM’s offerings include a yearly conference and community support, plus one-on-one support with Amazon veterans. With AmaSuite, you don’t get a lot of support and it is assumed you are somewhat adept at selling on Amazon. Even after emailing Chris or Dave, you might be waiting several days for a reply. To be fair, AmaSuite does offer a members area that you can log into and take advantage of.

Our Review: Is AmaSuite 5 worth it?

Success as an Amazon affiliate and/or seller depends on three key factors:

Sales + Reviews + Outside traffic

With AmaSuite 5, you can improve your chances of generating product sales because the keyword and niche product research tools will help you select products that have low competition and thus are more likely to be suggested to buyers by Amazon. Likewise, the software will help you find reviewers, and product reviews help improve product rankings on Amazon.

Regarding traffic generation, you’ll be spread out pretty thin. Even if you already know how to generate traffic to your websites and Amazon products, you won’t get much help if you encounter a problem with your methods. Additional help or tools may be necessary, especially if you don’t have the time to generate AdWords ads, grow social media audiences, involve other affiliates, guest post on outside blogs and websites, etc.

In summary, for its $200 or even $300 price tag, AmaSuite 5 offers a lot of bang for the buck. However, if you are a complete newbie to Amazon selling/promoting, you may still be better off with ASM.

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

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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.

I’ve Tried That Reviews Tribe Writers 2.0

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This past Wednesday, I introduced Jeff Goins and his free e-book It’s Not Too Late.

In this e-book, Jeff defines a tribe, explains why every writer needs a tribe, and lays out the process of finding and growing that tribe.

Jeff bases his e-book on his personal journey to find his own tribe, which he succeeded in doing, but only after first quitting his blog of four years and starting a completely new one.

From 100 to 100,000 subscribers in 18 months

Jeff had maybe 100 subscribers when he started his new blog. Yet, within just 18 months, he went from 100 subscribers to 100,000. Six months into his new blog, he was being asked to sign a book contract.

This didn’t happen by accident or sheer luck. Jeff followed a methodical process of getting readers interested in his blog by first having them subscribe to his email list. Once subscribed, his followers received regular content chock full of value. Jeff also involved his subscribers in content critique and editing. This tactic not only provided Jeff with valuable feedback from his readers, it also provided those readers with a sense of pride in and ownership over what was being published.

By the time Jeff published his first book, he had amassed a loyal audience of over 100,000 readers who were more than happy to refer his work to their friends and family members. This prevented Jeff from experiencing the all-too-common problem of new authors- finding interested readers beyond a handful of close friends and relatives.

After all, the whole point of publishing is to actually publish, or to declare something to a wider audience.

But how does an aspiring author go about gathering this audience, or even declaring something worth hearing?

Welcome to Tribe Writers 2.0

The process of finding and growing a tribe is a bit more involved than what can be summed up in a single blog post- or even 10 blog posts.

To this end, Jeff developed a course called Tribe Writers that illustrates how one can go about finding, growing and nurturing a loyal base of followers.

Tribe Writers was so successful in its first launch that Jeff added even more material to the course and is now launching Tribe Writers 2.0.

I recently had the privilege of looking over this course and its materials. Jeff had granted me with full access behind the scenes and what I discovered has inspired me to pick up where I left off in my own journey to be an author. In brief, Jeff’s course was the kick in the pants I needed to get back in gear and finally publish my novel.

Tribe Writers 2.0 contains four learning modules comprised of the following subjects:

1. Honing Your Voice

In the first module, Honing Your Voice, you learn how your voice fits into the overall scheme of things. You learn that what you say isn’t as important as finding an audience with whom your message will resonate. And there is an audience out there for your message, so don’t worry about that.

Jeff describes how good writing is the kind of writing that some people will get, but not necessarily all. That’s because, in Jeff’s words, “If you’re writing for everybody, you’re writing for nobody.”

Also, good writing is brief and to the point. Finally, all good writing is actually copywriting, which is defined as writing with an outcome in mind.

2. Establishing Your Platform

In this module, Jeff states that you need to establish a platform in order to amplify your voice, communicate regularly with your tribe, and attain a level of legitimacy with your message. To this end, Jeff recommends starting a blog and, by association, a website.

Jeff identifies five different blogging platforms that you can choose from to identify your unique platform personality. After that, he discusses the process of finding your platform’s focus- in other words, what subject are you going to blog about?

The module finishes with Jeff teaching you how to write a blog post and how to craft a great headline.

But wait!

Before you leave this module, Jeff introduces his course-with-a-course, called Intentional Blog. Here, in a completely separate set of modules, Jeff offers valuable blogging lessons on topics like how to set up your autoresponder, write cornerstone content and guest posts, find and interview experts, and find photos.

This course alone spans five modules and 33 total lessons, plus four recorded coaching calls.

3. Expanding your reach

At this point, the assumption is that you’ve created your blog, chosen its focus, and have written a few posts. Now it’s time to build your email subscriber list.

Jeff goes over the email newsletter services that are available, how much they cost, and how you can use sign up forms on your website and blog to grow your list. He also talks about creating a unique incentive for people to subscribe, such as an e-book.

Granted, creating an incentive such as an e-book is a time-consuming process. Also, you have no guarantee that people will even want your incentive. How do you create demand for your promotional item?

By getting your fans involved in the process of generating it. This way, your fans are emotionally invested in your incentive and have a sense of ownership. Also, because they’ve helped you create this item, you’ve had to do a lot less work as a result.

4. Getting published and paid

The end result of all the time and effort you’ve spent setting up your blog, growing your subscriber list, creating your incentive(s), etc. has been to get published and paid for your book, article or other piece of content.

Jeff provides a process for doing this, including contacting editors at publications (e.g., magazines) and pitching them. If you want to publish a book, such as a novel, Jeff outlines how to create a book outline (i.e., a book proposal).

If you are unclear about whether you should self-publish or go with a traditional publisher, there is a full segment devoted to the pros and cons of either approach. Likewise, Jeff talks at length about literary agents and why having one is a good idea, especially as you start out in book publishing.

That leaves you with the final step- launching your book. However, you should not leave your tribe out of this phase. In fact, going to your tribe and involving it directly in your book launch (which is actually a three-phase process) is one of the best moves you can make in terms of successfully launching your book. Jeff outlines how you can approach your tribe for help- and turn your tribe members into your book’s best advocates.

What else does Tribe Writers 2.0 offer?

In addition to the 4 modules and 34 lessons provided in the Tribe Writers 2.0 course, and the course-within-a-course Intentional Blog, there is yet another meaty bundle here- a complete WordPress 101 course, which is divided into 4 modules and 23 lessons. This WP 101 course teaches you everything you need to know about setting up your WordPress-based blog and even integrating a custom Tribe Theme into it, which Jeff uses on his own website.

Add to this a member forum that is divided into separate discussion areas based on the individual modules provided by Tribe Writers 2.0. And finally, there is a separate resources area packed with interviews, additional lessons, free e-books, and product discounts and offers.

To keep everything straight and measure your progress through all these lessons and exercises, Jeff also provides Tribe Writers members with a downloadable workbook.

The Tribe Writers 2.0 tally

So, what do you get with Jeff Goins’ re-vamped Tribe Writers 2.0? Here’s the final tally:

Tribe Writers 2.0: 4 modules, 34 lessons total

Intentional Blog: 5 modules, 33 lessons total, plus 4 recorded coaching calls

WP 101: 4 modules, 23 lessons total

32-page Tribe Writers Workbook

Interviews including:

– Tim Grahl: Results-Driven Tribe-building
– Corbett Barr: It All Starts with Passion
– Brandon Clements: Using Amazon to Get Found
– Daniel Decker: Getting Published — What Does It Take?
– Joe Bunting: Living & Working as a Full-time Writer
– Marion Roach Smith: How to Get Published in Magazines & Get Featured on NPR
– Tor Constantino: How to get 12,000 Likes on Your Facebook Page
– Mary DeMuth: Managing a Fiction & Nonfiction Platform
– Paul Angone: Self-publishing Like a Pro
– Randall Payleitner: An Insider’s Perspective on Publishing
– Carol Tice: Freelance Writing & Building a Blog-based Business
– Sean Platt: Finding a Fan Base to Support You
Bonus interviews with Tim Ferriss, Seth Godin, and Michael Hyatt

Live Chat area

Tribe Writers Forums area

Learn more about Tribe Writers 2.0 here

If you would like to get a taste of Tribe Writers 2.0, Jeff Goins offers his e-book called Every Writer Needs a Tribe. This e-book provides a great introduction to his course. Best of all, it is completely free.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by reading this inspirational e-book, which will help you launch your own plans on how to become a successful and published author. Download it here.

How to Make Money with Pokémon Go

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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

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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.