This is by far the most efficient way to make ‘big’ money online and this is why I saved this part for the end. As we already analyzed in the previous methods, a website is your best companion in your online journey and can be used to enhance your presence whether you want to work as a freelancer, virtual assistant, artist, to open a store, a dropshipping business, or any other method.

A website is your online property and it’s pretty much like an offline brick & mortar business. It’s open 24/7 and can bring you traffic continuously, and the most important aspect is that it can be monetized in a hundred different ways.

This method is ideal for people that are not artists or producers, for those that don’t have a particular skill to become freelancers or assistants, for those that don’t have a product to sell in the marketplace, and those that don’t want to invest thousands of dollars to open an offline store.

But even in the case you are a freelancer, assistant, artist, producer, or you have a product to sell, a website can take your business to the next level. 

A very flexible business model with countless benefits, with the highest earning potential, and only one disadvantage, similar to the previous methods.

It takes time before you see any results, so be patient and get ready to work. The payoff is well worth fighting for.

So! let’s dive deep…

Internet has revolutionized the way we do business. Literally, it turned the world around, and we are in the middle of an epic movement. As we speak, more and more people decide to pursue a new dream by relying on the power of the internet. Now, we have access to one each other, billions of people are connected instantly at the push of a button. Not only we can communicate but we can do business with each other.

In an era of multi-transitions in all areas of life and business, people are constantly motivated to improve themselves. It’s an ever-changing world and if you’re not using the internet you’re gonna left behind.

And don’t take my word on it….Here’s what others say about it…

We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain…Stephen Hawking

If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business…Bill Gates

The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting…Dave Barry

Interesting Statistics

• According to the 2012 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report (PDF), more than half of U.S. entrepreneurs continue to operate their businesses from home long after those businesses are up and running
• 69 percent of U.S. entrepreneurs start their businesses at home.
• Out of 7.084 billion people in the world today – 2.4 billion use the Internet regularly
• U.S. Online Retail Sales will reach $370 billion by 2017
• U.S. Mobile Payments will reach $90 billion by 2017
• The author of the article…” E-preneur: The Growth of Online Entrepreneurship” on the Lucrazon website highlights…” Technology has broken down barriers, making it easier for people across every industry to start and grow online businesses. As software development tools continue to evolve, more and more e-preneurs will not only get in the game of creating and running a web-based business but be able to build a sustainable model for success.”

• Anyone can build a successful online business. There are more than 3 billion people using the internet right now (almost half of the world’s population) and this number only growing. The potential is unlimited
• No experience in online businesses is required
• No technical skills are required. You will build a website with the push of a button.
• World Wide Web = Largest Market. Now you have the chance to target the global market. With offline stores, you are limited only to people passing by.
• Very Low Initial Investment (I started out with $31). And that makes all the difference. Imagine you want to start a brick & mortar business, or a franchise. You need thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars just to get your feet wet.
• Minimum Operating Costs, almost non-existent.
• Timetable Flexibility. You set the rules. You work when you want, without worrying about losing sales in your absence.
• Very little Risk. It’s not only the low initial investment. Even in the case that your website business fails or if you decide to discontinue this business model for whatever reasons, you have the chance to sell your website for profit. Imagine your website as an asset, just like the real estate assets where their value increases over time.
• No limits on profits. From a certain point on you will face the Income Snowball Effect
• High profit margins (especially with info-products).
• Recurring Income for Years. Every piece of information you publish, every page on a website can return profits on an ongoing basis. Your website is your most valuable asset.
• Scalability/Unlimited Partnerships. With the help of other partners, you can tap into other people’s networks and scale this business to the next level(s).
• No need for inventory (in most cases). You can promote other companies and sell your own digital products. Even in cases of retail physical goods, there are ways to deliver them without having to stock them up (dropshipping).
• 24/7 Traffic and Profits. A website is on and running 24/7. There are millions of applications and automation tools that make this business easier.
• Work from Anywhere. You’ll need a computer and an internet connection. Or just a notebook you can carry on and a pen can do the trick.
• You can sell physical and information products. Info-products can be created in an instance.
• Being entrepreneur is rewarding.
• Transform Digital Knowledge into Anything see the monetization techniques below
• Skills that Last a LifeTime
• Freedom to Enjoy Family and Life. The chance to balance your business around your life, and not the other way around.

Requirements

• A passion, hobby, or interest which you can use to communicate effectively with other people
• Willingness to help others
• Ambition, dreams, a vision
• Basic marketing training (niche & market research, keyword research, SEO, website development, advertising…)

A website targets a specific segment of a market, a niche, which in essence is a group of people looking for solutions to problems, information on products and services, and they buy stuff online. We attract those people by targeting specific keywords, creating useful, unique and high-quality content based on our audience needs. The content of the website will get rankings in the search engines and will be published and advertised on various platforms and mediums.

As a result, the website will gain traffic and this is where we step in and engage with our audience by answering questions, giving advice, and solving their problems. Eventually, a part of unknown visitors will turn into subscribers and finally we will earn revenue with various methods.

• Blogging
• Promoting other companies products for commissions (affiliate marketing)
• Generating leads and referrals for other companies
• Selling advertising space
• Sponsored posts/articles
• Email marketing
• Video marketing
• Social media campaigns/advertising
• Podcasting
• Freelancing
• Dropshipping
• eCommerce Stores
• Accepting donations
• “Hire me” calls to action

• Choose a direction (niche), a market segment to target – Your role as a website owner and blogger is to connect people with the information they’re looking for. I suggest you choose a topic you’re passionate about, one that interests you, or a hobby. Of course, you want to pick a topic in which you can tie products into the content of the website in order to make money.
• To choose the best of niches take the DBR Free training which is very detailed, full of examples with numbers and data. Plus,  you’re gonna receive exclusive help from me and we’ll discuss the subject further privately.
• Identify your target audience and connect effectively with them using the Inbound methodology and the customer purchase lifecycle in order to able to target people at every stage of their buying journey. These topics are all covered in the DBR training as well.
• Research the competition to gain insights and craft your unique value proposition
• Now you need to create content in order to attract online traffic. The content needs to be useful, unique, and interactive
• There are various ways to gain online traffic with content and the most important factor is to implement proper SEO (search engine optimization) techniques to receive organic, free traffic. This is the most targeted traffic you can get.
• You can create digital content in various formats, like blog posts, articles, news, lists, reviews, comparisons, guides, research, case studies, landing pages, polls, quizzes, contests, testimonials, galleries, infographics, charts, maps, audio, podcasts, interviews, videos, webinars, presentations. In the DBR Training, I analyze various content formats with examples
• Other methods to attract traffic: article marketing on forums, communities, and groups, video marketing, social media campaigns, podcasts, interviews, free services, free memberships, relationships/connections (online/offline), influencer marketing, guest blogging, or even outbound techniques. All these methods and more are covered in the DBR training as well.
• Now that your website receives regular traffic you need to engage with your audience, interact with people, answer questions, connect them with the products/solutions they’re looking for
• Build a brand name and market yourself on forums, directories, other relevant to your niche sites. Create connections with other website owners, influencers, and bloggers.
• Create social media accounts, blast campaigns, create business pages, join related to your niche groups and communities. At later stages, you can create your own social media groups (private or public)
• Keep on practicing and educating to improve your skills in order to become an expert in a specialized field
• Guest blog on other sites and let others guest blog on your site as well
• Continue networking (online/offline)
• Continue blogging to attract subscribers and new clients by offering high-value content for free. Guest post on related blogs, publications, and networks that your potential clients spend time.
• Create ebooks, online courses, or host online webinars/local seminars to boost your credibility
• Monetize your content with various techniques analyzed below:

• A domain name
• A website: there are 2 options. The 1st one is to build a custom site (expensive-not recommended for beginners), the 2nd option is to choose a website builder/platform to build a website on your own (there are free options, and the paid options are very affordable)
• Web hosting services: a place to store the website files/data and get technical support
• Basic marketing training

I cover all these topics in the Free DBR Training where I list various domain registrars, tools to help you choose a domain name, website builders/platforms, web hosting companies, and on top of that, I provide my top recommended web building & hosting solution (marketing training included).

 

Additionally, my training will cover all the basic marketing knowledge you’ll need to get started online (niche and market research, SEO, keyword research, content production, email marketing, article marketing, video marketing, social media marketing, pay-per-click, outbound tactics, various ways to monetize website content and more)

As a blogger, your job is to connect people with brands and products by offering exclusive information in your respective niche. People are looking for solutions to problems, information on products and services, and they buy stuff online. They want to make informed decisions and avoid low-quality programs and products.

You are someone with experience and specific knowledge in your niche, and you share valuable information, insights, and tips. You help people with their questions and you keep on practicing and researching the topics you cover with your blogs. You provide new solutions, review new products, write articles, and interact with people.

By blogging and creating digital content you can promote your current skills and attract people and companies interested to hire you or to co-operate with you. Whether you want to promote your freelancing, writing, design, artistic, or any skills.

In essence, you’re not making money from blogging, but blogging is essential in order to bring traffic and to be able to monetize it.

Of course, you’re not limited only to blogging and articles. You can create various formats of digital content such as audio (lessons, audiobooks, article narrating, interviews, podcasts, commercials), videos (webinars, presentations, interviews, reviews, clips, trailers),  email campaigns, social media campaigns, publishing articles and content on external mediums and platforms to gain traction.

This method is also known as Affiliate Marketing and is by far the fastest way to make money with a website. This is how I started and made my first sales online (and still is my very favorite technique).

Thanks to this advertising model, thousands of companies around the globe have increased their sales and reduced their advertising costs to the minimum utilizing this powerful model. Additionally, thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs created online businesses out of nothing and changed their lives for the better utilizing the model of Affiliate Marketing.

Compared to the traditional advertising methods, which are hard to measure and cost a lot of money, the affiliate model is flexible, cheap, and its ROI can be measured accurately thanks to the internet and the new technologies.

Affiliate marketing is a kind of performance marketing in which promotion/advertising of products and services takes place exclusively on the internet 

The formula is very simple:

You advertise products and services from other companies, products that people already consume. The companies give you commissions based on the volume of sales (Pay per Sale Model) that vary from 5% to 10%, to 30%, to 50% or even 70% in some cases (digital products give you higher commissions than physical products).

The final price remains the same, the retail customer enjoys the same quality.

You only have to tie promotions into your website’s content. 

Let’s imagine the next marketing plan in which there is 

a) the company that offers affiliate programs for some or all of its products through its own or other 3rd party networks (affiliate networks)

b) the affiliate marketers promoting those products by publishing website content, by blogging, or using other methods and campaigns, or paid ads.

The desired result is not always selling products or services.

It may be some other action on the part of customers

ie…the record of the customers in the email listings or newsletters of the company as a possible prospective buyer that showed interest, and which gives the company the ability to re-market its products, either current or future, to these prospective customers. Other actions include: customers sign up a form, give their personal data, download a software or any other digital content, and more.

There are many other forms of final actions that yield the “desired result” that generate revenue for affiliates and expense for the advertised company

The biggest advantage for the affiliates (publishers) is that they can promote thousands of different companies and products even with a single website and this is how they are scaling up their businesses. Of course, the vast majority of affiliates create multiple websites, serving different niches (market segments).

And as the content on their sites and other mediums is accessible to online visitors at all times, these affiliate sites can literally generate revenue non-stop, 24/7.

Many companies will pay off recurring affiliate commissions for sales and purchases by repeated customers, even for a lifetime. And this is another huge advantage for the affiliates. 

How it works:

You place special links on your blog posts, pages, anywhere on your website and on other channels like emails, social media profiles, and other properties. When someone clicks those links they get redirected to a merchant’s website. The moment a visitor clicks an affiliate link a special cookie is being placed on his computer (this cookie tells the company that the visitor is being sent through your unique affiliate link). Now the merchant has to close a deal so that you earn a commission based on sales.

You don’t have to worry about customer service, delivery, or support. You only have to send visitors to the companies’ landing pages. In fact, in most of the cases, you won’t even know who clicked your links. This method brings immediate results, as long as you have traffic.

The only concern is that the cookie might expire. Other companies place cookies that last 24 hours, like Amazon, other companies use 30-day cookies, other companies use cookies that last a lifetime.

Amazon uses 24-hour cookies but they will pay their affiliates commissions on any product the redirected customer may purchase during those 24 hours.

In other cases, affiliates use other methods and they advertise their affiliate links on other mediums and platforms beyond their websites

What the Affiliate Marketing Model Looks Like?

It’s like owning a supermarket. How do supermarkets operate? They buy products from various sources, they promote those products on the shelves, and customers buy those products at a higher price than the price the supermarket owner paid to own them. It’s the exact same principle, the only difference is in pricing.

Affiliates (publishers) advertise products and services from other companies, products that people already consume. The companies payoff commissions based on the volume of sales (Pay per Sale Model) that vary from 5% to 10%, to 30%, to 50% or even 70% in some cases (digital products give you higher commissions than physical products).

The final price remains the same, the retail customer enjoys the same quality.

Depending on the pricing model and the type of affiliate site they’re operating (as we’ll analyze in this guide), affiliates earn commissions by:

• Digital content creation: blogging (articles, news, lists, best of’s, conversational, personal stories, discussions, answering questions, reviews, comparisons, guides, pillar articles, tutorials, controversial), pages (research, case studies, landing pages, members’ area, eCommerce, products, store, interactive, quizzes, polls, testimonials, datafeed, coupons, deals, directories), visual content (galleries, infographics, bars, charts, mini graphs, maps, gif’s), audio (lessons, audiobooks, narrating, interviews, podcasts, commercials), video (webinars, presentations, interviews, reviews, clips, trailers, vlogging)
• Generating leads and referrals for companies (people that signup with their email addresses and become prospects or perform specific predefined actions, such as registering, completing forms, creating accounts, downloading software, taking surveys, and other) – PPL (Pay per Lead), CPA (Cost per Action), PPCall (Pay per Call), PPI (Pay per Install), PPD (Pay per Download) and others.
• Generating referrals on affiliate networks, forums, PTC/GPT/Survey sites, companies that use one-tier or two-tier or even multi-tier structures
• Selling advertising space – displaying ads on their sites and receive commissions for ad impressions or ad clicks – PPC (Pay per Click), CPI (Cost per Impression) and others.
• Writing sponsored posts and articles for companies that pay for having their brands listed on external properties
• Email Marketing – sending out email campaigns promoting companies products, product launches, or any other offer
• Video Marketing – promoting products and services (like branded merchandising) using videos and by vlogging, 
• Social media campaigns and advertising
• Utilizing podcasting shows as hosts and as guests
• Paid advertising – utilizing PPC (Pay per Click) marketing on search engine listings, display networks, and social media
• Utilizing cold tactics, guerilla marketing

and other methods such as

• Freelancing
• Dropshipping
• eCommerce Stores
• Accepting donations

and more advanced marketing methods like

• Creating membership sites
• Selling services
• Offering online courses
• Organising workshops, webinars, seminars
• Offering training (1-1/team), consulting, coaching
• Speaking on stages, organizing live events
• Selling websites for profit
• Promoting MLM companies
• Offering local marketing services
• Creating business pages for clients
• Marketing services and campaigns for clients and companies (SEO, website creation, website development, content creation, advertising, managing social media accounts, business pages/profiles…)
• Writing their own books
• Creating digital products

and more…

PPC – Pay per Click – You get paid from companies for sending visitors to their pages. You display ads on your website and when visitors click these ads you earn commissions.

PPS – Pay per Sale – You get paid when your visitors complete a purchase on the merchant’s website

PPL – Pay per Lead – You get paid from merchants for visitors you send that sign up with their email addresses. Pay per lead is a form of CPA (cost per action) and counts only for leads (when a visitor signs up and becomes a subscriber)

CPI – Cost per impressions – You get paid for impressions on merchants’ ads displayed on your site (banners, images, calls to action). An impression is when an ad or banner is been seen by visitors to your site. It doesn’t matter if the visitors don’t click on the advertisement. 

CPM – Cost per Thousand Impressions – This is the CPI model with the only difference, is that the CPI model refers to the cost per one impression and the CPM model refers to the cost per one thousand impressions

CPA – Cost per Action – You get paid from merchants when your visitors complete an action on their pages (form completions, downloads, signups, registrations, purchases)

Revenue Sharing – is, in essence, the same model with Pay-Per-Sale (PPS) with the only difference being in the way that advertisers do not compensate publishers based on the product’s price that’s been sold, instead, they share revenue that’s generated from the ad campaigns.

VPA – Value per Action – is very similar to the Cost-Per-Action (CPA) model, extending that model to add revenue sharing with the consumer. 

Shared CPM – Shared Cost per Mille – This is the case where two or multiple advertisers share the same ad space for ad impressions or page views in order to save CPM costs. Usually, the publishers offering shared CPM offer discounts to the advertised merchants.

vCPM – Viewable Cost Per Mille – This pricing model came up as a response to the ineffectiveness of banner ads. vCPM lets advertisers pay only for those ads which really appear on the recipients’ screens.

CPV – Cost per View – Unlike the CPM, it’s a cost for just a single view, and hence, it’s not used for traditional banner ads.

CPE – Cost per Engagement – The CPE model is used for specific formats, like expandable hover ads. The engagement is complete when a user hovers over an ad, so it expands to a larger size of a banner

PPCall – Pay per Call – Pay-Per-Call campaigns are in essence Pay-Per-Lead campaigns where the publishers use phone calls as the medium to reach potential leads. The advertiser that sets the PPCall campaigns will pay for the number of phone calls generated. The PPCall providers may charge their services per call, per duration, per impression, or per conversion.

PPI – Pay per Install – advertisers will pay publishers commissions based on software or applications installs by referred visitors. The visitors are being asked if they want to download and install the software on their computer. Usually, the advertisers offer free applications that come with adware apps.

PPD – Pay per Download – advertisers will pay publishers commissions based on referred users downloads (files, software, e-books, applications, images, videos, digital media, PDFs), in essence, anything that can be downloaded in digital format.

Tenancy – merchants pay a flat, fixed fee per month regardless of the number of impressions, clicks or leads. Although the results are very hard to measure, and there are no guarantees, the tenancy model can offer large exposure for big companies and brands.

Hybrid –  is the combination of 2 or more models. It’s used when merchants want to track and focus on the whole purchase or funnel of the offer. Offering different models across one process can benefit publishers and merchants.

Single-tier – In a single-tier affiliate marketing program, you get paid based on your direct referral sales or direct referral traffic to the merchants.

Two-tier – In two-tier affiliate marketing programs, you get paid not only for the sales occurred by your referrals on the merchants’ websites but for sales made by the referrals of your referrals who signed up and became affiliates of the merchants under your link

Multi-tier – In this type of affiliate marketing you get paid commissions for affiliates and referrals in various tiers in the affiliate network. Multi-level marketing (MLM) is used for the sale of products or services where the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce (also called partners, salespeople, distributors, independent business owners…) selling the company’s products/services, while the earnings of the participants is derived from a pyramid-shaped commission system.

Although each MLM company dictates its own specific “compensation plan” for the payout of any earnings to their respective participants, the common feature which is found across all MLMs is that the compensation plans theoretically payout to participants only from two potential revenue streams.

The first stream of compensation can be paid out from commissions of sales made by the participants directly to their own retail customers. The second stream of compensation can be paid out from commissions based on the sales made by other distributors referred by the participant, who had recruited other participants into the MLM company; in the organizational hierarchy of MLMs, these participants are referred to as one’s “downline” distributors

• LinkConnector
• AffiliateWindow
• AvantLink
• eBay Partner Network
• Amazon Associates
• Performance Horizon
• Impact Radius
• One Network Direct
• WebGains
• RevenueWire

You can track companies offering affiliate programs on their own. Just use your favorite search engine by typing:  

• Your niche + affiliate programs
• Your product/service + affiliate programs
• Company X + affiliate program

Alternatively, you can search manually on websites and if you can’t spot the page you’re looking for you can consider contacting the companies directly.

As an affiliate marketer, your job is to connect people with exclusive information in your respective niche. People are looking for solutions to problems, information on products and services, and they buy stuff online. They want to make informed decisions and avoid low-quality programs and products.

You are someone with experience and specific knowledge in your niche, and you share valuable information, insights, and tips. You help people with their questions and you keep on practicing and researching the topics you cover with your blogs. You provide new solutions, review new products, write articles, and interact with people.

As I analyzed in the Affiliate Marketing Ultra-Guide, there are various content formats that can help you reach out to the right audience and bring traffic to your website and affiliate offers.

Blogging:

• Articles that examine the industry (your niche) or a part of it in general
• News to announce something concerning your brand or the industry, or anything else
• Lists
• Best of’s
• Articles to spark a conversation or to make people interested in your industry
• Sharing personal stories
• Discuss a movie, a book you recently read, something that has to do with your specific niche
• Answering a question people have (the resource can be anything, search engines, social media, on the streets where you listen to other people talking)
• Reviews
• Comparisons
• Guides/Pillar Articles (A pillar article can also be described as epic, monumental and comprehensive. Usually a longer tutorial-style post, a pillar article goes above and beyond to provide the best and most detailed information about how to accomplish something)
• Tutorials
• Controversial Topics

Pages:

• Research/Case studies
• Landing pages/optin pages
• Member’s area/dashboards
• eCommerce/products/store
• Interactive pages (polls, quizzes, testimonials)
• Datafeed
• Coupons
• Deals
• Directories

Visual Content:

• Galleries
• Infographics
• Bars, charts, mini graphs
• Maps 
• GIFs

Audio:

• Lessons
• Audiobooks
• Article narrating
• Interviews
• Podcasts
• Commercials

Video:

• Webinars
• Presentations
• Interviews
• Reviews
• Clips
• Trailers
• Vlogging

Can I Advertise my Affiliate Links Anywhere Else?

Of course, you’re not limited only to your website and you should publish content on external mediums and platforms as well to gain traction. But you have to be very careful if you want to add affiliate links.

You can utilize email campaigns, social media platforms, forums, communities, article directories, business pages, video platforms (streaming, hosting, webinars, branded merchandising, promotions), audio platforms (podcast hosting and distribution, interviews, promotions). 

Best Practices: it’s highly recommended to use external platforms in order to hook people into your mailing list and redirect traffic to your website where you promote the affiliate offers. However, you can promote affiliate offers directly on external platforms but you have to be cautious.

Because not every email service provider, social, or external network allows affiliate promotions. Make sure you read every platform’s rules and terms.

For example, the majority of email providers don’t allow affiliate promotions, Google+ is not allowing, on Facebook is risky, but you can use Twitter and Pinterest. On forums, communities, and article directories affiliate promotions are generally, not allowed, but there are always exceptions and you can always link people to your website.

Video and audio platforms have their own rules as well, so make sure you follow their guidelines.

The best practice is not placing affiliate links on external platforms, only redirect people to your website where you have placed those links. 

The same principles apply everywhere, so use those links wisely, and don’t overdo it

How to Monetize Digital Content

The digital content you create is the magnet that attracts people to your blog and website pages. You can add affiliate links throughout your website in order to make money from the traffic you generate. Along with the affiliate promotions, you can sell advertising space by letting other companies advertise their offers and banners, and there are various other monetization methods, as we’ll discover in this guide. 

People are interested in personal reviews of products they want to buy. They are looking for lists, best of’s, guides, and information that can help them with their queries, problems, needs, and desires.

They want to read the news, discuss, interact with website owners and other people on forums and communities, they want to have fun. They’re looking for tutorials, instructions, and advice. They’re searching for directories, product comparisons, coupons, special deals, discounts, and rewards.

They want to make money, save money and they’re looking for investment solutions. They want to improve their lives and their current situation.

They consume written content, audios, and videos.

And people get exposed to new products, services, and advertisements all the time. And they buy stuff.

When you publish content regularly and interact with your visitors by responding to their questions, people begin to trust you, and eventually, they will buy what you’re promoting and recommending.

Your website is like a magazine/newspaper where you advertise other companies and products along with the digital content you create.

How magazines and newspapers are making money? Mainly with Advertising. Additionally, they make money by selling the printed material and subscriptions. But these are methods you can implement, too (at later stages). 

Pay-Per-Performance (PPP)/Cost-Per-Action (CPA)/Pay-Per-Acquisition (PPA)

Pay-Per-Lead (PPL)/Cost-Per-Lead (CPL)

In the Pay-Per-Lead model, the advertisers compensate affiliates (publishers) for visitors that end up becoming leads. Leads are potential customers who share their email addresses or fill out forms or create accounts or subscribe to newsletters or become members of communities or other similar actions on the advertisers’ properties. In this case, the desired action (acquisition) is the lead.

The advertised companies need leads to expand their reach in order to communicate with their potential customers on an ongoing basis usually by sending out email campaigns or SMS messages or social media messages and campaigns or other ways, so that leads can finally become customers.

The affiliates (publishers) may choose to acquire leads via phone calls, online traffic to websites/properties/landing pages, emails, SMS, or other methods. The potential customer will have to provide an email address or to create a profile by filling out data or by answering specific questions.

The commissions vary from company to company, from industry to industry, and according to the competition

Cost-Per-Impression (CPI)

In the Cost-Per-Impression model, advertisers pay to display their ads on other properties. This cost measures the effectiveness and profitability of these ad campaigns. This model is very similar to models being used in television, print, and radio stations where advertisers pay based on estimated desired actions.

One impression occurs when an online visitor views the content of a webpage that contains advertisements. A webpage might contain more than one ads. 

This model involves risk for the advertisers as visitors might not click the ads and no conversions will be generated. For the affiliates is a handy model because they don’t care about conversions, they only need as much traffic as possible.

Pay-Per-Call (PPCall)/Cost-Per-Call (CPCall)

Pay-Per-Call campaigns are in essence Pay-Per-Lead campaigns where the affiliates (publishers) use phone calls as the medium to reach potential leads.

The advertiser that sets the PPCall campaigns will pay for the number of phone calls generated. The PPCall providers may charge their services per call, per duration, per impression, or per conversion.

This certain type of ad campaigns is popular for local companies trying to reach local customers although it can be used to reach leads all over the globe depending on the certain needs of the advertised company.

The customers benefit because they discuss with the seller (advertiser) before having to buy the product or service.

The growth of smartphones market may be responsible for the growth and popularity of this model in the near future.

Pay-Per-Install (PPI)

In the Pay-Per-Install model, advertisers will pay affiliates (publishers) commissions based on software or applications installs by referred visitors. The visitors are being asked if they want to download and install the software on their computer. Usually, the advertisers offer free applications that come with adware apps.

This model is becoming popular due to the rise of the mobile market.

Pay-Per-Download (PPD)/Cost-Per-Download (CPD)

In the Pay-Per-Download model, advertisers will pay affiliates (publishers) commissions based on referred users downloads (files, software, e-books, applications, images, videos, digital media, PDFs), in essence, anything that can be downloaded in digital format.

There are PPD networks that offer downloads and publishers upload their digital media on these networks and each time a visitor downloads material publishers are getting paid. This way publishers have the chance to offer online visitors their downloads for free and earn money by taking advantage of this model.

Beware though, because there are many fraudulent PPD networks that don’t compensate their affiliates.

This model is becoming very popular due to the rise of mobile advertising and applications.

Summary

These are the most popular advertising models you can use to earn affiliate commissions. All the models require that your job, as an affiliate, is to acquire leads for the advertised companies. Just like in the PPS (Pay per Sale) model where you get paid for successful sales, you have to send targeted visitors to the companies. If the visitors don’t convert you won’t get paid. 

Only the CPI (Cost per Impression) model gives you the opportunity to make money without having to worry about conversions. But even in this case, you’ll have to generate traffic to your pages. 

You can track CPA (PPD) offers on CPA/Advertising/Affiliate networks.

Here are a few examples:

• MaxBounty
• PeerFly
• GlobalWideMedia
• Matomy
• AdscendMedia
• Clickbooth
• Panthera Network
• Admitad
• AdPerio
• Convert2Media
• Glispa
• ClickDealer
• AboveAllOffers
• CPAmatica
• CrakRevenue
• CPAlead
• MundoMedia
• W4
• AdWorkMedia
• MadRivo
• Mobidea

Just like the lead generation models we discovered earlier, you can expand this model to generate referrals for affiliate networks, forums, PTC (Paid to Click) sites, GPT (Get paid to) sites, survey sites, companies that use 1-tier, 2-tier, or even multi-tier structures.

Not every affiliate network gives you the opportunity to generate referrals. The majority of them only offer you the opportunity to participate in the affiliate programs of the advertised companies. But there are exceptions, like ShareaSale or JVzoo.

There are also forums that beyond the free services, they offer premium products or other services. Some of them give you the opportunity to generate referrals.

All the PTC/GPT sites give you the opportunity to build a downline, with many of them offering multi-tier structures. Have in mind though, that only 2% of them are legitimate. The vast majority are scams and you won’t get paid. Here’s a list of the Paying Sites.

There are also survey sites offering the same opportunity but not all of them.

You can additionally, build a downline for companies that offer tiers on their affiliate programs, like MLM companies. In every niche, in every industry, there are companies where you can take advantage of this model. But keep in mind that not all of them are legitimate. 

Generating referrals can be proved a very lucrative approach as you build a downline that can bring in recurring income for years. If a company offers this model do it, don’t leave money on the table.

The majority of forums are free to join, however, I included paid options as well. In some cases, the paid communities have free membership options or trials.

There are forums exclusively for discussions, but there are forums that are part of communities or platforms. Other forums offer tools, resources, guides, case studies, tips. And there are platforms to help you build an affiliate marketing or online business from scratch offering exclusive education, web builders, web hosting services, management and monitoring tools, or you can even purchase domain names.

Why Should You Join Affiliate Marketing and Related Forums

• Education never stops (the moment you stop learning, your business starts dying…Ray Edwards – copywriting legend)
• Networking
• Visibility
• Authority
• Receive and give help
• Feedback
• Support
• Get ideas
• Get inspiration
• Get motivated
• Find partners, investors, employees, freelancers
• Outsource projects

Quick Tips:

• Read each forum rules & guidelines, follow them, and don’t spam
• Participate in the discussions to add value and ask questions if you’re a newcomer
• Try helping others first before you advertise your brand
• Add your website link in your signature or in the profile (if allowed)
• Add a solid and clear profile description to help others understand your offers, products, and services
• Before posting a new topic do a research to find out if the topic was covered in the past

It’s a very effective way to take advantage of online traffic and monetize your content. You make deals with advertising companies, and you place their code on your pages. They pay whenever someone clicks on the ads or banners, or even they pay for impressions, PPC (Pay-per-Click), CPI (Cost-per-Impression)

You can alternatively sell ad space to other website owners, bloggers, or entrepreneurs. When your site gains popularity you will receive related requests, or you can hunt down potential partners on your own. You can display your banners on other sites and let them display their banners on your site for exchange.

As your site gains momentum and the traffic increases, companies, other owners, but mostly, startups, will reach you in order to write sponsored posts about their new products or services. They know you’re getting traffic, they want exposure.

If these products and services align with your content’s theme, it’s a great opportunity to monetize it.

The majority of those startups will approach you without saying it’s about getting their content advertised. They, for example, might say something like that…

Hi, you have a wonderful site and we just released a free software that blah, blah, blah. Take a look at it, and tell me what you think. And by the way, if you find it helpful you can consider sharing it with your audience and we’ll be grateful for it.

Now it’s time for you to decide and respond. You can do it for free, or you can charge any amount you want, or you can ignore the offer.

I’m being approached by companies all the time, but I reject many of these proposals as they want to get advertised for free. I carefully select only the serious proposals that are in total alignment with my content. 

For example…If a marketing agency wants their new software advertised, I would publish an article mentioning the …” Top 50 marketing tools for SEO), with the agency’s product featured in the first 5 spots.

You can advertise those products and services as part of lists, like the example above, you can write separate reviews of their products, you can create interviews, videos, any kind of digital material you want. 

What you charge is totally up to you. You can even charge more for a sponsored article that gets your #1 sidebar spot for a certain period of time. 

Of course, you can reach out to companies yourself when your site’s traffic increases. You can even voluntarily reach out to authoritative sites or influencers, or other brands, to write an article sponsoring their products in exchange for some exposure. You might ask them to share your article with their audience whether it is with their email subscribers or social followers. If you have a strong portfolio to showcase, they will probably accept your offer so that you gain instant momentum by reaching a wider audience.

Only one key advice here: You have to be proud of the product you are promoting and test it out yourself. You want your audience satisfied, that’s matters the most.

There’s a dedicated page, here on WMS, about sponsored content. You can check my services and prices. 

Email has been around for almost 40 years and still is the most valuable asset for the majority of companies, entrepreneurs, and organizations. When people subscribe to a mailing list they give permission to the owners of those lists to communicate with them on an ongoing basis. Imagine email subscribers as your fans, just like with sport team fans. Fans may promote your brand willingly with no other incentive than they love what you do and want to share it with the world.

To hook people into our mailing list we need first to offer something valuable in return. Just like I do with the DBR training, people get access to the material by signing up.

You can utilize email marketing to engage with your audience, to answer questions, and give advice. Imagine email as a way of educating your prospects about your brand and about the benefits that they get if they purchase from you.

You can use email to conduct surveys, polls, and quizzes. You can collect those data and opinions in order to create your next big product or service. You can additionally send email messages to promote your new blog posts, or to announce the launch of a new membership section. You can advertise your products, and promote other companies products, or you can share any other marketing material like newsletters, big announcements, promos, coupons, discounts.

With email marketing, you stay connected with loyal fans and customers, and often times you can sell repeatedly to those people. In business, there is a saying…”It’s far less expensive to keep current customers than to acquire new customers”…or maybe you’ve heard the quote … “Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver, the other gold”.

Respect your email subscribers and treat them properly, give them more, make them feel like they are a special part of your company, and they are special. Offer them exclusive prices, prizes, and goodies. It’s OK to over deliver on your promises, everyone loves receiving more than they expect. With emails, you can do that very effectively.

You only have to take care of a few basic things.

You want emails to feel personal and not commercial. People hate to being sold to, they want to be educated and buy normally without any push or hard sell. If you only send out emails that are blatant promotions expect people unsubscribing from your list. Because everyone hates spamming.

Try to add value to the conversation and don’t forget to ask questions so that you know what your subscribers really want. You can even send emails that are very personal announcing important events in your life, or just to entertain your fans with photos of you with your family, or partners. Try to be social with emails, you don’t want to sound like a robot.

As your email list grows your website’s reach is growing too. No one can take your email list away from you. It’s an asset, a very valuable one, and it helps you diversify your traffic resources. You can’t just rely on search engines, social media, or forums.

But remember, email subscribers won’t happen if you don’t have a website with valuable content to attract the right people.

Along with the educational and free material we distribute via emails, we can use email to monetize our content.

• Promote our products and services, other companies products
• Promos, special offers, seasonal offers, coupons, discounts, bonuses
• Memberships, online courses
• Workshops, webinars, seminars
• Training, consulting, coaching
• Marketing services and campaigns (locally & globally)
• Sponsored posts
• Promote your new book, a product launch, a new service
• Email campaigns for clients

Email marketing is huge and we’ll explore advanced marketing techniques with other guides as well.

Health.com usually sends out email campaigns with lots of content. Along with the free articles they share, there is an external ad, and some of the products advertised in the articles are affiliate promotions.  

WebDesignerNews uses a similar mixed approach. They curate content from other sites and blogs and it is likely that some of these promotions are sponsored. Additionally, the first link is a promo discount with a code.

Renderosity which is a digital art community sends out announcements and features new artists or collections. Some of those collections will be sold on their website, and many of their affiliates that receive emails will promote the newly advertised material with their network

Marketo promotes an educational webinar. This way they engage with their subscribers by adding value and showcasing their expertise.

HubSpot blasts their latest posts, articles, and other digital material. They build trust, interact, and entertain

YouTube, Facebook live, Vimeo and so many other video hosting services offer an opportunity to attract people with your valuable content. Just like with email marketing you want to educate your prospects on the quality of your products and how your products are going to change their lives for the better.

You can earn trust immediately if you show up as a real person in front of the camera. People want to do business with real people, and not with commercial or impersonal brands. 

Have in mind that You-Tube videos get rankings in the search engines with ease, as You-Tube is part of Google. Videos get viewed, you receive traffic, and can be used as a magnet for leads/email subscribers, thus building a fan base. 

According to a HubSpot Research, 54% of consumers want to see videos from brands they support in comparison to email newsletters (46%) or social image (41%) based content.

Here are the results of this research:

Additionally, with You-Tube and the other vlogging platforms we mentioned earlier, you can make money by letting Google or other Video platforms display ads on your videos. You can use videos for vlogging, for sponsored reviews/articles/lists. You can use them to close branded merchandising deals.

You can use videos as a lead magnet (subscribers, registrations), to promote your website, to promote other companies products, or to create videos for clients (trailers, footages, clips, advertising campaigns).

As we already mentioned in the vlogging section, you can make money by selling videos to clients. This is one of the most lucrative monetization techniques and you can advertise your services in various communities, forums, social platforms, and on your site, as we discussed.

Now, creating videos for clients is a method that could take your online business to the next level. Trailers, clips, footages, advertising campaigns, reviews, sponsored commercials, interviews. Many marketers charge thousands of dollars for 2-3 minutes videos.

This model is very flexible as you set your own prices, and you can outsource video production if you can’t produce it yourself to freelancers, artists, or producers.

Some of these techniques might not be suitable for beginners but are worth mentioning in order to shape an idea of the potential.

• Demo videos of products, releases, and launches

You have a new product coming up, or you’re about to re-launch a new version of a product, let the market and your partners know

• Brand videos, commercials, mini-films, trailers, clips

Short mini trailers that last 1-2 minutes are great if you want to catch your visitors’ attention. Place them in the background of your homepage above the fold, and let the ‘Loop’ playing. 

• Live Events
• Workshops
• Webinars
• Seminars
• Presentations
• Educational, How-Tos

With live events, workshops, webinars, seminars, and presentations we try to educate our prospects throughout their buying journey. Over-deliver on your promises, and offer exclusive bonuses and discounts for people that participate in your live shows. Always add Q&A (questions & answers) sessions at the end of the events where people ask questions.

Be social, entertaining, and don’t forget to educate and add value.

Not every webinar should contain sales messages. Ideally, you should consider a ratio 1:9 (non-sales/sales). There are many companies that never sell during their webinars and workshops. They only educate people on why their products are important, teach people how to use them, and they just build trust and authority.

But there are other companies charging for such services. 

• Live streaming, live shows

If you’re an energetic person and you enjoy social relationships go for the live streaming option. Mistakes will do happen, so be prepared, laugh, and self-criticize. 

Other types of video you can use:

• Interviews
• Explainer videos
• Animated
• Case studies
• Product reviews
• Customer testimonials
• 360-degree or VR (virtual reality) videos
• Augmented reality
• Personalized messages
• Thank you videos
• Behind the scenes
• Vlogs

• The Beginner’s Guide to Making Money with a Website
• The Beginner’s Guide to Making Money with Vlogging
• Free DBR Training
• Video Marketing Software

Podcasting is a superb medium and underutilized and can boost your visibility online faster than the other channels mentioned above. Minimum costs, instant credibility, bond with listeners, relationships with ‘Icons’ and influencers, lead and sales.

You can run your own podcasting show and appear on other people’s shows as well.

To maximize this opportunity, use these 5 core engagement strategies:

• Informing
• Teaching
• Entertaining
• Intriguing
• Challenging

To make people enroll in your offers, programs, and services use these enrollment strategies:

• Website/pixels
• Social media
• Lead magnets
• Exploration sessions

To be able to make money you can utilize these methods:

• Merchandise
• Online courses
• Membership programs
• Live events
• Coaching
• You artistic skills and products

• Steve Olsher – Profiting from Podcasts

As long as you have created some content for your site, you can utilize social channels to expand your reach and make money on the side.

Your ultimate goal is to create a fan base, loyal followers that will share your content with their network, most of the times with no other incentive than they love what you do.

In order to achieve that, you have to offer value first, just like you do on your website. You need to entertain people, interact with them, and answer questions, solve problems, showcase your expertise.

You need to be polite, to connect with other entrepreneurs, bloggers, influencers, and share other people’s content as well.

You can create both personal and business profiles/pages and join related to your niche groups and communities. At later stages, you can expand by creating your own business pages or groups (public or private) for your followers, partners, and other entrepreneurs.

The more you appear online the more people trust you. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, and so many other social channels offer you an opportunity to spread your message and add email subscribers to your lists.

• Independent campaigns/ads: Promote your products and services (memberships, courses, books…) and promotional offers of affiliated merchants (Pay per sale, CPM, CPA, Pay per lead)
• Discounts, promos, prizes, special offers, exclusive downloads
• eCommerce stores, shops hosted on social platforms like Facebook Store
• Sponsored content (interviews, testimonials, videos, articles)
• Digital content for clients strictly on social media (clips, promo videos, trailers, audio, graphics, ad campaigns)
• Create and manage social media accounts, business pages, profiles for clients (advanced)
• Paid advertising (advanced)

When promoting affiliate offers it’s better to redirect people to your website and landing pages. Do not send people directly to merchants. There are social mediums like Google+ where you are not allowed to use affiliate links. On Facebook they allow but there are also strict rules and Facebook might not allow affiliate links for certain merchants or sites in general. On Twitter and Pinterest they allow but in any case, do not overuse affiliate links. 

In the case you use affiliate links on social media make it obvious by including a mini disclaimer:

Campaign Examples:

• The best insurance services in Washington [ADVERT]
• Do you want to lose weight fast tonight? Try this product #ad

We already analyzed Freelancing at the beginning of this guide. If you have a specific skill you can make money as a freelancer for other companies and clients. We also mentioned how you can use Freelancing websites to showcase your work and find clients.

But you can speed up your results by creating a website on your own…

A website is your online property, where you’ll be showcasing your artwork, portfolios, case studies, successful projects and you can use it as a platform for announcements, news, updates, to collect email addresses, for blogging and content creation, to upload multimedia and so much more…

By having a website, companies and clients can find you easier, you immediately build trust as an independent business owner, and they know what to expect from you. You can further make connections and proceed with Joint Ventures at later times with other entrepreneurs and partners in your respective niche.

We already analyzed Dropshipping in this guide and how you can leverage the power of this model to create a business online, part-time or full-time.

Having a website is crucial as you can create content on a regular basis, thus increasing the site’s visibility and authority. This way, your store will get rankings in the search engines, and your listings will be found by potential customers.

You are building a brand name and trust, people can find you easier, you’re an independent business owner.

We already analyzed the eCommerce business model earlier in this guide. You can use your website to host your store there, or you can alternatively create stores on various mediums and use your website for content, blogging, news, announcements, as a magnet to attract traffic and clients.

The more you appear online, the easier potential clients will find you, you build trust and credibility.

If you’ve managed to build a following and you have readers and visitors that interact with you and even if your website is not receiving tons of traffic you can ask for donations. Don’t be shy, there are thousands of artists, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and owners that use this monetization technique.

Some use other terms, like:

• Buy me a coffee
• Help me buy new equipment

and they continue:

• So, that I can offer more useful content for free
• To continue offering you free photos every week
• To offer you even more qualitative products in the near future

You won’t be rich, but you can cover some expenses, like web hosting, you can hire others to create content or multimedia for you, you can spend money on research, to develop an app, anything at all.

A few extra dollars won’t hurt you. If you provide value to your visitors, they will happily help you out.

You can easily add a PayPal or other donation buttons on your site. Alternatively, you can ask for donations with your emails

This method is ideal for freelancers, artists, developers, producers. You can create special landing pages to showcase your portfolios, case studies, previous successful projects so that companies and potential clients know what to expect from you.

Again, offer samples and downloads for free, create useful content, and build trust.

There are more beginner-friendly ways to monetize website and content in general, but I will analyze those methods in another guide. This guide’s goal was to present the most solid solutions with long-term potential. 

Additionally, we’ll expand upon advanced monetization techniques for websites in another guide as well.

Topics that will be covered:

• Pay per click marketing (paid advertising)
• Memberships
• Services
• Online courses
• Workshops, webinars, seminars
• Training (1-1/team), consulting, coaching
• Speaking, live events
• Sell websites for profit
• Promoting MLM companies
• Local marketing, Business pages
• Marketing services and campaigns for clients and companies (SEO, website creation, website development, content creation, advertising, managing social media accounts, business pages/profiles…)
• Write your own books
• Create digital products

and more…

As you can see, you can take advantage of a website to build any business you like. A website as an online property can be transformed into a store, into a dropshipping business, it can help you big time as a freelancer, assistant, or an artist, you can build a client base both globally and locally, is a magnet to showcase artwork, products, services, you can connect with thousands of companies to co-operate and you can expand in new niches at later times.

It’s the core of any online business and should be treated in a decent manner.

The best advice I can give you is one that many others will give. The key thing is to connect effectively with others by offering value, answering questions, interacting, and solving problems, pointing people to the right direction, so that they respect you, and finally trust you. And when people trust you, they do business with you.

I hope you enjoyed this guide and that it opens up new doors, new possibilities, and new hope for your dreams and your future.  

I am waiting for your comments and thoughts. Till next time, your online partner.

• Take the Free Digital Business Roadmap training in order to create a website that can stand out from the competition and learn the ropes of online marketing, how to decide your perfect niche, identify opportunities, keyword research, and more. This way you can enhance your visibility, credibility, and overall status online and you’ll be able to expand on news areas, create your own products, and scale up your business in the near future.

• The Best Marketing/Business Related Training Programs
• A-Z List Free Online Marketing Trainings
• A-Z List Marketing/Business Forums
• A-Z List Advertising Networks
• Ultimate Guide – How to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing
• The Beginner’s Guide to Making Money Online
• TOP Recommended Web Building & Marketing Solution (builder, hosting, domains, keyword & niche market research, marketing training, security, 24/7 tech support, community, forum, live chat, marketing tools, website management & monitoring)

Management, tracking, organizing:

Asana – track your work, get results. Track projects from start to finish. Stay in sync, hit deadlines, reach your goals. Bring emails, files, tickets, and more into Asana with over 100 integrations to choose from, so you can see everything in one place

Evernote – Capture, organize and share notes from anywhere. Your best ideas are always with you and always in sync. Enhance your notes with links, checklists, tables, attachments, and audio recordings. Even handwritten notes are searchable.

Trello – Trello’s boards, lists, and cards enable you to organize and prioritize your projects in a fun, flexible and rewarding way. Dive into the details by adding comments, attachments, and more directly to Trello cards. Collaborate on projects from beginning to end. Integrate the apps your team already uses directly into your workflow. Power-Ups turn Trello boards into living applications to meet your team’s unique business needs. Trello stays in sync across all of your devices. Collaborate with your team anywhere, from sitting on the bus to sitting on the beach.

And.co – Send proposals, invoice, get paid and manage your time and tasks. Proposals & contracts, invoicing and payments, tasks, expense tracking, time tracking, reports. Over 250,000 businesses already use the app. It’s a project of Fiverr. 

Any.do – Get life under control with the ultimate app for getting things done. Keep your tasks, lists, and reminders in one place, always in-sync across all your devices. Plan your day, week, month, and life. Beautifully designed to help you rock your day, every day. Any.do Assistant takes care of your tasks, so you can spend time on the things that matter.

• Any.do full review

Timely – fully automatic time tracking. Manage your profitability, productivity, and efficiency from one place. It works on any device. 

Citrix Podio – Customizable work management. Components: web & mobile, automated workflows, meeting scheduling, data visualization, social collaboration, task management, granular access, calendar, unlimited storage, personal dashboards, connected CRM, project management, integrated chat, full customization.

LiquidPlanner – Eliminates outsourced plans, deadlines, and surprises so your team can get more done. They offer a free eBook: Introduction to dynamic project management.

Toggl – Hassle-free time tracking so your business runs like clockwork. Break down your hours by projects, clients, and tasks to see what’s making you money, and what’s holding you back. Export any report into any format you need, or use our public API to move the data. Start tracking in your browser, stop the timer on your phone – all your time entries are synced between the phone apps, desktop apps, the Toggl Chrome extension and the website.

Timr – Cloud-Based Time Tracking for Efficient Teams and Companies. Track: work hours, project time, mileage. Available via browser and mobile app. Centralized admin dashboard. Customizable reports.

Nusii – Professional proposal templates, open notifications, your own custom domain, proposal tracking, personal branding, automation, online signatures and more. They’ll let you know when your client opens the email that contains their proposal link, and again when they open their proposal.

SlideShare – Share what you know and love through presentations, infographics, documents and more. 

GetPocket – When you find something you want to view later, put it in Pocket. Put articles, videos or pretty much anything into Pocket. Save directly from your browser or from apps like Twitter, Flipboard, Pulse, and Zite. If it’s in Pocket, it’s on your phone, tablet or computer. You don’t even need an Internet connection.

• GetPocket full review

Sales, payments, finances:

Proposify – streamlines your sales process and helps you close deals faster. Put proposals in front of your sales leads quickly before they go cold. Quickly access and collaborate on proposal content while you manage their activity with roles and permissions, commenting, and tracking through version history. Proposify notifies you every time your client interacts with your proposal, from opening the email to closing the deal. Stay on top of sales and your success.

Mint – Effortlessly manage your finances in one place. Easily create budgets, and see their suggestions based on your spending. Track and pay bills like never before. Get alerts and schedule payments on the spot. Receive alerts for unusual account charges, and get custom tips for reducing fees and saving money.

SquareUp – Accept credit cards anywhere. Sign up and get a free reader. With Square’s credit card processing, you can accept all major cards and get deposits as fast as the next business day. Connect a Square Reader to your device or slip an iPad into Square Stand to take payments at our standard rate. Or sell with Square Register, our first fully integrated point of sale, for 2.5% + 10¢ per tap, dip, or swipe.

PayPal – Secure transactions, PayPal Buyer Protection can cover your eligible purchases if they don’t show up or match their description. You can shop at millions of websites around the world, and pay friends back almost anywhere.

Xero – Online accounting software for small business. Use our mobile app to reconcile, send invoices, or create expense claims – from anywhere. Send online invoices to your customers – and get updated when they’re opened. Xero imports and categorizes your latest bank transactions. 

Expensify – From receipt scanning to reimbursement, Expensify automates every step of the expense reporting process. Expenses, travel, mobile, adult & compliance, and more…

Social Media (scheduling, planning, discovering ‘Hot’ trends):

Hootsuite – Get the most out of your social content. Scheduling, content curation, analytics, monitoring, team management, security. The Hootsuite academy offers training and certification. 265,000+ students, 35,000+ certified graduates, 880+ schools enrolled.

• Hootsuite full review

PostPlanner – Postplanner is not a simple post scheduler. The app delivers content that is already successful to guarantee social engagement boost. Get more engagement, clicks, and sales from Facebook and Twitter. 

• PostPlanner full review

Design:

PicMonkey – Photo editing, effects, filters, vectors, graphics, design maker, collages, magnifier, labels, overlays, textures, themes, frames, templates. An awesome photo editing app that transforms your computer into Photoshop.

BeFunky – BeFunky is a special photo editing online app with which you can apply unique effects to your images and create projects from scratch.High-quality results. Produce stunning photographs and captivating designs with fun, easy-to-use editing tools.

• BeFunky full review

Snappa – Create online graphics in a snap. Whip up graphics for social media, ads, blogs, and more without Photoshop or graphic designers. Over 3 million images have been created using Snappa. You can create banners, eBook covers, social media covers & headers, infographics, YouTube channel art & thumbnails, and more.

• Snappa full review

Riddle – create quizzes & polls, personality tests, lists, and more. Ideal for websites, facebook fan pages or other social networks. Engagement is guaranteed.

• Riddle full review

PowToon – a beautiful online application to create slide presentations or animated videos. It is easy to use with many features, effects, and other tools.

• PowToon full review

Canva – Create designs online for free, banners, headers, images for social media, blogs, websites.

• Canva full review

Fotojet – a free online app where you can edit your photos, create photo collages and other designs.Plenty of options and effects.

• Fotojet full review

BannerSnack – a professional and reliable banner maker. Extended settings dashboard, tracking ads feature and affordable prices. Start from a custom size or grab a standard-size layout from the gallery. Add a background, animate your text and shapes, experiment with different colors and push the banner creator to the limits.

• BannerSnack full review

Icon Finder – the leading search engine and marketplace for vector icons in SVG, PNG, CSH and AI format.

A list of free web design icons

Design resources to find free images and other tools

The ultimate list of free stock photo sites

StarWatermark – Image and PDF watermark tools on Mac and Windows

CSS Reference – a free visual guide to CSS

PageCrush – helping creatives become globally visible by showcasing the best websites, videos, and apps from Designers, Developers, and Multimedia

Tableau Public – free software that can allow anyone to connect to a spreadsheet or file and create interactive data visualizations for the web

Gliffy – diagramming software. Communicate and collaborate visually.

D3js – a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS. D3’s emphasis on web standards gives you the full capabilities of modern browsers without tying yourself to a proprietary framework, combining powerful visualization components and a data-driven approach to DOM manipulation.

Favicon & App Icon Generator 

Favicon generator

Adobe Creative Suite – It consists of:

• Creative Cloud: Quick desktop access to Creative Cloud apps and services
• Photoshop: Image editing and compositing.
• Lightroom: Edit, organize, store, and share photos from anywhere
• Illustrator: Vector graphics and illustration.
• InDesign: Page design and layout for print and digital publishing.
• AdobeXD: Design, prototype, and share user experiences.
• Adobe Premiere Pro: Video production and editing.
• After Effects: Cinematic visual effects and motion graphics.
• Dimension: Create photorealistic 3D images for branding, product shots, and package design
• Acrobat Pro: Create, edit, and sign PDF documents and forms.
• Dreamweaver: Design and develop modern, responsive websites.
• Animate: Interactive animations for multiple platforms (formerly Flash Professional).
• Adobe Audition: Audio recording, mixing, and restoration.
• and Lightroom Classic, Character Animator, Spark, Bridge, Media Encoder, InCopy, Prelude, Story Plus, Fuse.

Keyword, Market, and Competition Research:

BuzzSumo – Analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor. Find the key influencers to promote your content.

Jaaxy – Keyword & competition research, niche market research. With over 500 Million “brand new” search terms being searched every day, it is important that you have a keyword tool that can offer accurate traffic, competition, and domain insights into billions of keywords. Jaaxy is that tool. There are literally millions of niches online, many of which have little to no competition. Having access to the Brainstorm, Affiliate Search, and Alphabet Soup platforms within Jaaxy are going to give you true insights into brand new niches…without you having to do the dirty work.

• Jaaxy full review

200+

Business & Marketing Tools Collection

Work management, tracking, organizing, payments, accounting, Google, keyword, market, and competition research, SEO, analytics, and related, marketing & advertising, web development, website monitoring, domains & website hosting, coding, and related, design & multimedia, marketplaces, entrepreneurial communities, hiring & outsourcing.

Other free tools that can help you generate ideas, popular and trending hashtags, create catchy headlines and titles to promote yourself, find keywords, find free stock photos you can use on your blog/website/social media, track what people are discussing on social media, internet trends, create alerts and get notified for specific terms, search stories being told.

• Free Tools Mini Collection
• More apps and tools reviewed on WMS
• Free stock photos – The Ultimate List