Entries fromJanuary 2007

A witty picture from bLaugh, an online comic strip about blogging and the blogosphere. I wrote about passive blog marketing a while back and bLaugh is a classic example of how promoting your website can be easily achievable with minimal and near zero effort.

Their strategy for generating buzz and inward links is rather simple two-step process: Offer fresh, attractive and easily digestible content. In this case, bLaugh uses a comic strip that is regularly updated and easily accessible to all visitors who are even remotely familiar with internet and blogging.

Selling stuff online has always been a tried and tested way to make money online. There are basically a zillion places where you list your gear for sale, two of my favorite websites being Ebay and Craigslist.

However, Ebay involves some work in setting up a decent store and Craigslist has weak functionality when it comes to sales automation. Enter RightCart, a free embeddable shopping cart which allows bloggers and webmasters to sell or promote products on their websites.

Vizu Answers is a ad network that allows you monetize your website by including interactive poll widgets that provide targeted content to your audience. How does this work? After registering for an account and choosing a poll template that fits your website, simply copy and paste the code for the widget on any place on your website. You’ll make money on a CPM (cost per thousand page views) basis. Here’s something you don’t expect: As a publisher, you’ll get to set the minimum CPM price for each poll you put up on your web page. More details below:

SponsoredReviews is the latest pay-per-post network which allows bloggers to earn cash by writing reviews about advertiser’s products or services.

Currently in beta testing, and primed for a public launch soon, Sponsored Reviews works in the same vein as other websites like PayperPost and ReviewMe: Advertisers announce specific campaigns and bloggers will get paid if they choose to write a review about it.

Nothing earth-shattering but it does prove the tenacity of sponsored posting, which continues to sprout its monetizing tentacles over the blogosphere. Here are some specific points from their pre-launch press release:

Social video websites has pretty much burst out from the gates ever since the YouTube phenomenon. Millions of eyeballs are glued to the computer screen daily, actively devouring thousands of user-submitted videos. Monetization was clearly the next step.

While Google is still sorting out copyright issues and monetization strategies for Youtube, other smaller social video sites have started aggressive push campaigns to get a share of the lucrative online video market.

Winzy is a search engine that allows you to win free prizes just by using it to search the web. You’ll stand to win prizes such as iPod Nanos, $500 cash and Amazon gift certificates. Kinda like Blingo, don’t you think?

There’s basically three ways to win with Winzy: (1) By using the search engine at the right time of the day,

(2) By referring friends - If they search and win a specific prize, you’ll get the same prize as well. That means that, if your friend Silent Bob won an iPod Shuffle by using the search engine, you’ll automatically get one too.

MakeThatDollar is yet another get-paid-to website that pays you to complete offers, sign up for trials and fill out surveys. Open to international members, MakeThatDollar pays via E-Gold, money orders, Visa gift cards and Paypal.

What stands out for me, when it comes to this get-paid-to startup is it’s very efficient member support center. The site admin is consistently on AIM Live support and so far, there aren’t any major hiccups concerning their service.The question on everyone’s mind. Does MakeThatDollar pay?

Citizen Image is yet another website that helps you to sell your pictures to prospective buyers, a process that they call “image syndication”. Based in New York and created for creative photographers and citizen photojournalists, Citizen Image will market and sell your photographs to various editorial, creative and media buyers.

You’ll just need to upload them from your phone or computer and viola, the rest is taken care of. After reviewing Spymedia, a similar image reseller in a previous post, I’m beginning to feel that profit-sharing marketplaces like Citizen Image are interesting ways to exploit the growing digitization of images.