1. http://www.google.com/profiles/playboyp
Just the good stuff
James Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, said, “Misuse of Craigslist for criminal purposes is utterly unacceptable.”
, one of the most popular Web sites in the United States, is on track to increase its revenue 22 percent this year, largely from its controversial sex advertisements. That financial success is reviving scrutiny from law-enforcement officials who say the ads are still being used for illegal ends.
The ads, many of which blatantly advertise prostitution, are expected to bring $36 million this year, according to a new projection of Craigslist’s income. That is three times the revenue in last year’s projection.
Law-enforcement officials have been fighting a mostly losing battle to get Craigslist to rein in the sex ads. At the same time, officials of organizations that oppose human trafficking say the site remains the biggest online hub for selling women against their will.
Last week, in the latest example, the arrested 14 members of the on charges of, among other things, selling the sexual services of girls ages 15 to 19 on Craigslist.
The company that provided the revenue projection, the Advanced Interactive Media Group, has been preparing such analyses since 2003. Followers of Craigslist consider AIM’s work to be the most comprehensive estimates of the fiercely private company’s finances. The estimate was calculated based on the number of sex ads counted on Craigslist over the month of February and the fees for posting such ads — $10 initially and $5 for repeat postings.
James Buckmaster, Craigslist’s chief executive, said in an e-mail message that the site would not confirm the figures because it is private and does not discuss its finances. Of the sex ads, he wrote, “Of the thousands of U.S. venues that carry adult service ads, including venues operated by some of the largest and best known companies in the U.S., Craigslist has done the best and most responsible job of combating child exploitation and human trafficking.”
Mr. Buckmaster was referring to alternative newspapers, phone directories and sex Web sites that carry ads for prostitution, although authorities say that Craigslist is the largest place for such ads.
Craigslist, based in San Francisco, had seemed to put the conflict over its sex ads to rest. Attorneys general in 40 states, including New Jersey, Illinois and Connecticut, investigated the company for facilitating criminal activity, after a wave of publicity about prostitution and violent crimes linked to the site.
Although Craigslist has continually argued that it is legally protected by the Communications Decency Act against liability for what its users post — an analysis that judges and legal experts generally agree with — it promised last May to begin manually monitoring these posts for illegal activity.
But it also decided to stop committing to donate the profits from sex ads to charity, saying it would make no further comment on how that money would be used.
In a private letter sent to Craigslist’s lawyer on Thursday, , attorney general of Connecticut, complained about the continued presence of prostitution ads on the site and asked what additional steps Craigslist was taking to keep such solicitations off the site.
He also asked the company to reveal precisely how much money those ads generate, and criticized the company’s announcement last May that it would no longer commit to donate those profits to charity.
“I believe Craigslist acted irresponsibly when it unilaterally decided to keep the profits from these posts,” Mr. Blumenthal wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.
In the e-mail message, Mr. Buckmaster said, “Misuse of Craigslist for criminal purposes is utterly unacceptable, and Craigslist will continue to work with its partners in law enforcement and at nongovernmental organizations until it is eliminated.”
He declined to say whether the company was continuing to donate revenue from sex ads to charity, but he said the company was continuing to develop its charitable initiatives.
The company has two charitable organizations; one, the nine-year-old Craigslist Foundation, which received $648,000 in contributions in 2008, according to public documents, does not make any donations. It “connects people and organizations to the resources they need to strengthen communities,” according to its Web site.
There is also a newer organization, the Craigslist Charitable Fund, which was capitalized in 2008 with $2.7 million by Craigslist, according to public documents. But little else is known about it, and Mr. Buckmaster declined to comment further on the organization or say whether say whether that was the money from the sex ads.
Meanwhile, staff members for Illinois’s attorney general, , have counted more than 200,000 sex ads since late 2008 posted to Craigslist in Chicago alone — which they estimate have generated $1.7 million for the company. Officials in Illinois and Connecticut, as well as South Carolina, are leading the effort to get the site to improve its monitoring of sex ads.
Cara Smith, Ms. Madigan’s deputy chief of staff, said Craigslist’s manual review of the ads had had a minimal impact. “Certainly the manual monitoring has tempered the photos posted along with the ads, but I think there’s no question that the site continues to facilitate prostitution,” she said.
The AIM Group, which sells research on the advertising market to newspapers and Web sites, conducts its annual Craigslist study by tabulating all the posts to Craigslist in 39 major United States cities over a 30-day period, and then extrapolating to reach a final revenue figure.
This year, the study showed Craigslist on track to bring in $122 million in 2010, a 22 percent increase over its projected revenue last year. Though the site is largely free, it does charge people to post job listings in 19 major United States cities, and real estate listings in New York City, in addition to sex listings in all 438 markets in the United States. Revenue in those other categories remained largely unchanged since last year, according to AIM.
The increase in revenue from sex ads to $36.3 million for the year, according to AIM, was largely caused by Craigslist’s decision last May to double the rate for these ads in all of its American markets to $10.
The windfall from sex ads has touched a raw nerve with groups that oppose human trafficking, who are typically heated in their discussion of the company.
“Craigslist has not given any indication that they are outraged and disturbed that their site is the primary way children are bought in the country,” said Rachel Lloyd, executive director of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, which provides assistance to sexually exploited and trafficked women. “All they have done is made cosmetic changes.”
Craigslist’s reliance on the Communications Decency Act has also angered law-enforcement officials, who complain that the law could not have been drafted with this particular example in mind. But the company has repeatedly won rulings in cases brought against it, including one in 2008 over discriminatory housing ads. A federal appeals court said Craigslist was an online service provider, not a publisher, and so was protected by federal law.
Questions about where that revenue is going are sure to arise from this latest financial analysis of Craigslist. In an accompanying report, the AIM Group estimated Craigslist’s expenses at under $50 million, though it acknowledged that this particular calculation involved “educated guesses.” The analysis took into account estimates of salaries, server and bandwidth costs, and the lawyer fees associated with Craigslist’s continuing legal battle with a minority shareholder, .
Even if the numbers are slightly off, that leaves a lot of room for big profits. Mr. Buckmaster and Mr. Newmark own a majority of the company’s shares and by all accounts do not live flashy lifestyles.
I’ve always blogged for fun, and initially, like most of you, I had no idea that money could be made out of the activity. The fact is, people can earn a living out of blogging, and do it quite easily (after a while). It only takes 4 things:
Knowledge
You have to know things that people will want to learn about and are going to be searching for. Answers to the simplest questions are your best bet. How to blog? How to recover your windows password? How to recover data out of damaged hard drive? Yes, 10’s of thousands of people are asking Google these questions everyday, so you want to give them your best answer right? You also have to be knowledgeable enough in all things web to set up a proper blog. Just starting a free blogspot account to regurgitate your thoughts will not be enough; it takes a lot more then that to turn a site into a resource that will be both informative and profitable.
Persistence
Making money out of blogging takes time. If you want to blog for a living, you must be ready to write new and innovative content consistently (as in 5 to 7 times a week) for many months until you start seeing the fruits of your labor coming in. Yes, there are some exception out there (John Chow is earning $7000 per month after only 6 months), but in most cases, most of you won’t see a penny before 5 or 6 months of hard work.
Exposure
If nobody is reading you, where will you get the visibility needed to attract advertisers? Who will click on your ads? The answer is simple: no one. Being a good blogger involves a lot more than writing great content, it’s also about having good virtual PR skills. You will have to invest a lot of your time reading and participating to conversations on other blogs, submitting your articles to social networking sites and building yourself a large network of like-minded bloggers. Making friends in the blogosphere is the key to success. Friends will link to your articles, put you in their blogroll and talk about you wherever they roam. You’ll also do the same for them, not only because doing this will be profitable to you, but also because you care about the success of everyone.
Some basic english-writing skills
Yes, I know, my english isn’t perfect, but blogs are the realm of the people. Some of them excel in writing, others don’t, but does this stop Google from indexing your pages? Absolutely not. Does it stop people from being interested in what you have to say, as long as you know what you’re writing about? Nope. English is the language of the Internet. If you want to maximize the exposition of your content as an independent blogger, you’ll have to write in English.
After having done all this, your blog will be ready to be monetized. One of the most important things to consider when adding revenue sources to your site is to diversify. Don’t put all your eggs in the same basket! You need a good mix of “cost per click”, “Cost Per Mille” and “Cost per action” ads. Here’s a small definition of each term:
Here is a quick list of advertising services u should use to monetize your blogs.
Article By: John Chow
You’ve signed up for Sponsored Tweets and now you’re waiting for the advertisers to order some paid tweets from you so you can start making the $300 to $7,500 an hour I talked about in the easiest way to make money with Twitter post. However, you haven’t gotten one single offers. What’s going on? Here are ten tips to increase your chances of getting a sponsored tweet.
1 – Experience Counts
If you’re brand new to Twitter, then your chances of an advertiser ordering a paid tweet from you is slim to none. Your Twitter account should be at least 120 days old before applying to Sponsored Tweets as most advertisers simply will not buy tweets from any accounts that are younger than that.
The account age is valuable for advertisers to filter out spammers and low value Tweeters. If someone has a high number of followers and just recently created an account it may be reason for suspicion. If your Twitter account is brand new, don’t apply.
2 – Have a Complete Twitter Profile
Advertisers like to know who they’re advertising with. If your Twitter profile is incomplete and still running the default background, don’t expect many orders. You don’t have to get a custom Twitter background like what I used but you should make sure all your information is filled out. Make sure you upload your photo or custom avatar as well.
3 – Add Sponsored Tweets To Your Advertise Page
If you’re going to accept Sponsored Tweets, then you might as well tell your advertisers about it. You can use your advertise page to list the benefits of using your Twitter account to help get the advertiser’s message out. Then you can link to the Sponsored Tweets website so they can order.
4 – Show Some Tweet Click Stats
If you use Hootsuite as your Twitter client (and you should if you’re not) then you can take advantage of its built in stat tracking feature. This is a great way to show advertisers that your followers click on the links you send out.
5 – Turn On ClickWatch
ClickWatch is a program designed to provide a level of protection for advertisers who engage Tweeters in the Sponsored Tweets marketplace. When a Tweeter participating in ClickWatch makes a sponsored tweet the system checks the click performance of that tweet after 48 hours. If the cost per click (CPC) for that tweet is above $1.50 the system will automatically schedule another tweet. The system will check performance again after another 48 hours and make a 3rd tweet if necessary.
Advertisers are lot more likely to order paid tweets from a Tweeter who has ClickWatch on rather than someone who has it off. You can tun on ClickWatch in your Sponsored Tweets control panel.
6 – Monitor The Competition
Wondering if your paid tweet price is too high or too low? You can find out by checking out your competition. Sponsored Tweets maintain a list of tweeters and how much it cost to advertise with them. You don’t have to be an advertiser to view the list.
I’ve made three price adjustments to my tweet price since signing up with Sponsored Tweets. These adjustments help to maintain my competitiveness. Sponsored Tweets gives you a recommend price when you first sign up. However, you don’t have to take it. The best way to set the price is to see what the competition is charging and then charge accordingly.
7 – Maintain a Good Followers to Friends Ratio
When an advertiser views your Sponsored Tweets profile, they’re presented with some key information about you. One piece of info is the Ratio. This show the number of people you’re following vs. the number of people following you. A Ratio of 1 means you follow the same number of people as the number of people following you. It can also mean you’re using auto following programs to inflate your follower count.
From an advertiser standpoint, the higher the Ratio number, the better. It tells the advertisers that your followers are following you because they want to hear what you have to say and not because you will auto follow them back.
8 – Sign Up for a Klout Account
Another stat Sponsored Tweets advertisers see is your Klout score. The Klout Score is a numerical representation of the size and strength of your sphere of influence on Twitter. The size of your sphere of influence is calculated by measuring true reach (engaged followers and friends vs. spam bots, dead accounts, etc).
The strength of influence is the likelihood that someone will listen or act upon any specific message and is measured by looking at interactions across the social graph. The scores range from 1-100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Here’s the key. Unless you sign up for a Klout account, your score shows up as zero in the Sponsored Tweets page.
9 – Build Real Influence
If you thought that the way to make money with Sponsored Tweets was to build a big list by auto following and unfollowing thousands of people, think again. Advertisers are not dumb. They know how that game works. They’re looking for Tweeters with real influence. That means you actually have to work to build up your Twitter profile instead of letting a program do it. It means you have to get people to follow you because they want to follow you and not because you’ll auto follow them back. When you have real influence, you’ll have a lot of more offers, you’ll command a higher price per tweet and you’ll be able to do step 10.
10 – Apply for Celebrity Status
When advertisers search for tweeters to advertise with, Sponsored Tweets list the stars and web celebrities first. It goes without saying that being listed on the first page will give you a lot more exposure and therefore a lot more offers.
Sponsored Tweets monitors new Tweeters as they sign up. If they recognize your name they will automatically upgrade you to Internet Celebrity. If not you will need to fill out a form. Pass along things like your Wikipedia page, Blog, YouTube Channel or other relevant sites. Having a bunch of followers on Twitter does not automatically make you a Web Celeb. Acceptance into the program requires influence, visibility and marketability.
If you can’t get celebrity status, then asked to be a “staff pick” as they’re listed right after web celebrities.
Making money online is a dream for many, but the simple fact is that it’s often just as tough as making money offline. Due to requests, we’ve put together a list of the most popular money making methods today, many of them focused on blogging and peer production.
A word of caution: for the sake of completeness, we’ve included a small number of sites that have been criticized for their ethics. If it sounds too good to be true, it generally is. Commenters are welcome to share their experiences of the various sites.
Get Paid To Write
Weblogs, Inc. – Apply to blog for one of their ninety plus blogs or submit your own topic idea. They will pay you per post that you write and you must meet their minimum post requirements.
PayPerPost – Get paid as much as $500 or more a month writing articles and reviews of their sponsors on your blog.
Blogsvertise – Their advertisers pay you to mention and talk about their websites, products and services in your own blog.
Review Me – After your blog has been accepted in their network, they will pay you $20 to $200 per post that you write.
Smorty – Earn $6 to $100 dollars per post you write on your blog. Amount paid for each post depends on the overall popularity and page rank of your blog.
SponsoredReviews – Write reviews for their advertisers’ products and services on your own blog. They charge a 35% transaction fee for their services.
LoudLaunch – Blog about the advertisers campaign releases that meet your interests. They pay once a month.
Blogitive – Get paid weekly via PayPal for posting stories that interest you.
BloggerWave – Select the advertiser opportunities that best suit your blog and write reviews on their products and services.
InBlogAds – Write about websites, products, services and companies on your blog and get paid for it.
BlogToProfit – Make $250 dollars or more by writing new posts on your blog.
Creative Weblogging – Write 7 to 10 posts per week for their network and they will pay you $225 per month.
WordFirm – Make money publishing books as a freelance writer from home.
451 Press – Write for a blog within their network and receive forty percent of all generated revenue.
Digital Journal – Network of bloggers that get paid to report on newsworthy articles through their blogs.
BlogBurner – Sign up for a free blog and get paid for writing new posts. Your commissions are generated through Adsense clicks.
Squidoo – Earn money by writing your new blog, or choose to donate your earnings to charity.
About.com – Become a paid guide writing articles for About.com. Compensation depends on the growth of your page views.
DayTipper – Earn $3 for every short tip you write and get published.
Helium – Earn a share of their advertising revenue by writing articles in their channels.
Dewitts Media – Get paid to write your own blog. This site requires you have a minimum page rank of 3 to sign up.
BOTW Media – Make money writing a blog for their blogging network.
CreamAid – Get paid to submit blog posts in their directory.
BlogFeast – Generate revenue from pre-installed Google Adsense ads when you blog in their network.
Mashable – Mashable hires freelancers and new staff, offering one of the largest platforms for tech bloggers.
Advertising Programs
Google Adsense – Most popular pay-per-click advertising provider. Make anywhere from $0.01 to $5.00 plus per click on site relevant ads.
Text-Link-Ads – Approve or deny the advertiser links that appear on your site. They pay you 50% of the sale price for each text link sold on your website.
BlogAds – The average blogger makes anywhere from $50 to $5000 dollars a month selling blog ads. To participate in this program you will need to get sponsored by someone in their network.
LinkWorth – Here you will find eleven different options to fit your advertising needs. Choose from text based advertisements, sponsored ads and paid blog reviews to name a few.
CrispAds – Access to over six thousand advertisers in their pay-per-click program. You choose the advertisers that suit you best.
Chitika – Offers six types of advertising to fit your needs.
AzoogleAds – Delivers targeted advertisers to their network of publishers to bring you the most profitable solutions.
Vibrant Media – Offers in-text contextual based advertisements.
MediaFed – Place advertisements in your blog’s RSS feed to generate additional revenue.
Qumana – Embeds ads directly into your posts. Ads are generated from keywords that you select. Not particularly popular with readers.
PeakClick – Austria based pay-per-click provider. Provides automatic insertion of site targeted ads.
DoubleClick – Offers a full suite of products for publishers that enable you to forecast, sell inventory, serve ads and analyze campaigns online and through other digital channels.
Tribal Fusion – They offer reliable payments, free ad-serving technology, a dedicated account manager and up-to-date, real-time reporting, with a 55% payout. Must go through an approval process.
AdBrite – Approve or reject any ads purchased for your sites. Also gives you the ability to sell ads direct with “Your Ad Here” links.
ThankYouPages – Shows ads based on demographics and relevancy. Majority of traffic must originate from U.S.
Clicksor – Inline text link advertising, underlines words directly in your posts making them clickable advertisements. Once more, we’d say that inline ads are not popular with regular blog readers.
TargetPoint – Contextually and search targeted pay-per-click ads.
IndustryBrains – Place relevant contextual text listings and graphical ads on your site.
BloggingAds – Post one-time ads on your site. Pays via PayPal.
BulletAds – Performance based online advertising network.
AdsMarket – Match your traffic to handpicked advertisers with top-converting products and services.
ROIRocket – Targeted campaigns specific to your marketing needs.
AdKnowledge – Offers complete outsourcing of your advertising management. Runs ads in websites, email and search engine inventory.
Yes Advertising – Payouts for running ads from their sponsors. Also offers a referral program that pays 20% of the referred webmasters earnings.
RevenuePilot – Offers pay-for-performance and pay-per-click advertising for your sites.
SearchFeed – Integrates paid advertisements into your site’s search feature.
Bidvertiser – Display text ads on your site and advertisers bid for placement.
Pheedo – Monetize your RSS feeds with this program.
ValueClick media – Generate revenue by displaying ads through banners, pop-unders and rich media. Be warned that pop-unders are unpopular these days.
OneMonkey – Another text based advertising program.
Yahoo Publisher Network – Use the internet giant, Yahoo, to display targeted ads on your site.
Q Ads – Monetize your site by placing ads anywhere you can add a picture.
Affiliate Networks and Programs
Amazon Associates – Link to Amazon’s products and services and earn up to 10% of the sale price. Converts well for product-focused sites.
ClickBank – Over 10,000 products to promote with commissions as high as 75%.
Commission Junction – Promote the advertiser’s products and services in exchange for a commission on leads or sales.
LinkShare – Pay-for-performance affiliate marketing network. Gives you the ability to use individual product links on your site and generate revenue from sales.
Affiliate Fuel – Serves as a middle man to bring publishers and advertisers together to promote products and services.
LinkConnector – Affiliate marketing network that offers a zero tolerance fraud policy to keep you safe while conducting business.
LeadPile – Affiliate network that allows you to generate and sell trade leads to the highest bidder.
Forex-Affiliate – Affiliate program that allows you to earn commissions from trading Forex (currency exchange) online.
incentAclick – CPA (cost-per-action) affiliate program that guarantees the fastest ROI in the industry.
AdPlosion – Earn revenue by selling leads, clicks and products from their advertisers. Also runs an incentive points program in addition to your commissions.
AffiliateFuture – Another affiliate program that pays you for generating leads, sales and clicks.
ClixGalore – Affiliate network consisting of 7500+ advertisers for you to choose from.
ThinkAction – Affiliate network that claims to have the top payouts and the possibility of earning over $100,000 dollars per month.
RocketProfit – Affiliate network, pays via check after your commissions reach $25 dollars.
CafePress – Earn affiliate commissions by selling your personally branded merchandise.
Avangate – Make money selling popular computer software titles through your site.
Paid Social Media Programs
Dada.net – Social site with a revenue sharing program that pays you for referring friends and driving traffic.
Jyve – Pays you to provide answers, advice and peer support to people in need of some help.
Cruxy – Specializes in social video, but serves as a venue to sell your digital media.
BitWine – Get paid to give advice and answer questions for people, on subjects of your interests and choice.
Ether – Make money answering questions for your peers over the phone. You set your rates and call availability.
UpBlogger – Social network site that pays you based on the amount of visits you receive to your uploaded content.
JustAnswer – Help others solve their problems and earn money for your knowledge.
MetaCafe – Upload your videos and earn money based on the number of views you receive.
ChaCha – Get paid to offer support to members of their community.
AssociatedContent – Earn money by uploading your videos, text, audio and images to their site. Earnings are determined by the exposure you receive from your content.
myLot – Pays you for posting, commenting and using their social network.
KnowBrainers – Another site that pays you to get involved with the community and answer questions. Optionally you can answer questions through the RSS feeds on your own blog.
Everything Else That Pays
Google User Research – Google Pays you money to participate in their user research studies online.
Microsoft Research Panel – Get paid from Microsoft for providing feedback on their products.
Amazon Mechanical Turk – Amazon pays you to complete simple tasks that their computers can’t understand. Payments are a matter of cents.
eJury – Earn $5 to $10 dollars per verdict rendered as a mock juror for practice trials.
WorkingSOL – This company pays you to handle technical support for many large companies. You can work from home on the computer or by phone and decide what times you are available.
Appingo – Always looking for experienced copy editors and proof readers. Must submit a resume.
IntelliShop – Pays you to shop at stores in your area and write a review of your experience.
Mahalo Greenhouse – They pay $10 to $15 dollars per site you submit to their directory.
Focus Pointe Global – Get paid to join their focus groups and voice your opinion. Available to teens and adults.
Agloco – Sign up, download their toolbar and get paid to surf the internet. This site has been criticized as a “pyramid scheme”, although the founders deny the allegation.
Arise – Make money providing phone, web and email support and sales for 40 plus companies in their network.
CraZoo – Earn money for starting new threads and posting in online forums.
Tutor.com – Get paid to tutor people online.
ForumBoosting.com – Make money posting in forums across the internet.
Share-A-Pic – Earn money by uploading and sharing your pictures on their website.
Opuzz Voice – Earn money by doing voice overs for their clients online.
SlashMySearch – Get paid to search the internet with their search engine.
More ways to make money online here
1. http://www.google.com/profiles/playboyp
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