Make Money Online By Growing Your Social Media

Being a blogger and attempting to make money online as a teen can be a tricky subject. Add attempting to get a steady flow of loyal readers on top of that and you've got yourself an even harder obstacle to tackle. If you're looking for an extremely effective way to add readers on top of your search engine optimization efforts, social media is the way to go. In the beginning of the 21st century, social media has seen an incredible boom. To think that Facebook was launched less than 10 years ago and already has close to 1.5 billion users is mind boggling.  What better way to capture readers than to use those stats to your advantage. Here are 5 tips to keep in mind when using social media to boost your blog:

1.) Give people reasons to follow you
If you feel like your in a rut give your followers something fresh, something new. Nothing is worse than drawing in readers with interesting status updates, then completely dropping the ball and forgetting to post for a month...and by that time all your new followers are probably gone. So stay on top of your social media, don't forget to post and when you do, give your followers reasons to follow you.

2.) Start Conversations
Encourage your readers to leave comments and actually respond to them! You don't want your readers to think your account is simply a robot, but instead a real person with real emotions that has actual conversations with readers. By doing this you will build steady relationships with your readers and they will be more likely to share your posts via Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, etc.

3.) Don't be afraid to try new platforms
When I first started my social media efforts I stuck to the two biggest ones, Facebook and Twitter. Now believe me, I had incredible success using those two than before I did. However, once I began using other platforms such as Tumblr, Google Plus and Pinterest I found that I was receiving more traffic than ever. Keep in mind though that you should never sway away from Facebook and Twitter as those are by far the most popular, but by using others as a supplement to those two is the idea I'm trying to get at. Just be open to new programs that often come out!

4.) Stay on top of current trends
Adding on to the last tip, make sure that you consistently put in an avid effort to stay on top of the latest trends in social media. You don't want to find your marketing plan come to an end at Facebook and Twitter while another new platform is expanding at an astounding rate and you are left picking your nose. Instead, be open to new ideas and be creative with your efforts, however, ensure that you always have your blogs reader's best interest in mind and aren't just trying to flood your website with the wrong type of visitors.

5.) Understand your target audience
By understanding your target audience, your status updates will reach more people in a more effective method. For example, this blog is catered towards teens and college students trying to make money online. Do you think a good post would be about how to raise and care for your child? I think you know the answer. How about a post on the latest methods to monetize your blog? Perfect! Make posts that your followers will want to read or else you will just find yourself losing readers faster than you can say "oh no."

Benefits of Making a Blog as a Teen or College Student

Have you ever considered writing and a blog to make some extra income online? Chances are you have, however chances are that you also quit after a few months. The current blog you are reading How Teens and College Students Make Money Online was created about 4 years ago. In that time I have written very few articles, however this blog still ranks fairly high for the search terms "teens make money online" or "college students make money online." Due to that, I am still making money off it, with little work each month.

I also own a few other blogs on the topics of Stock market trading as well as a Detroit Red Wings blog. I put a little bit more effort into those blogs and am making even more money off them each month. Long story short, if you are considering making a blog to make some extra money and can write about a simple topic, do it. When I first made this blog 4 years ago, I was in high school and had no idea that it would still be around in 4 years, let alone still making me money. I am now in college and do not have nearly enough time to be constantly updating it, however when I do my earnings increase. While I am not getting rich off of it, it's a fantastic way to earn some extra money each month.

At first, creating a blog is a lot of work. You have to find the right niche, do keyword research, get backlinks, etc. However, after the beginning stages are over you will find yourself doing less and less work, while earning more and more money off of services such as Adsense (which is what I use) due to increased traffic. So if you are on the fence about whether or not to create a blog and already have an interesting niche that people would want to learn more about, then go for it! I can guarantee that your future self will be kicking you if you decide not to do it. This is corny, but....you wont succeed unless you try. Good luck and make some money online!

How to Make Money Writing Articles

As a teen or college student looking to make some extra money online, what better way then to hone in on your essay writing abilities you learned from school to earn to you some extra cash. Submitting articles to websites such as EzineArticles can yield you a serious profit...if you know what you're doing. Here are 6 ways to increase your profits when submitting articles.

1.) Promote Affiliate Products
Promoting affiliate products is a great way to utilize article writing. You can promote products in your author bio and create commissions on all the sales you refer. However, make sure that you direct readers to a URL that you own, because directing them to a link you don't own will get your article deleted.

2.) Start a Mailing List
Collect your website visitor names as well as emails and regularly email them a newsletter containing promotions to your website. This will keep readers updated on your content and have them coming back for more each week.

3.) Promote Your Website
Promoting your website through article marketing is probably the most widely used goal of article marketing. In your bio, use a backlink to link directly to your website to your blog or website. You will get direct traffic from the article, as well as increased SEO which will increase your search engine rankings. Article marketing is one of, if not the best way to boost your backlinks.

4.) Start a Blog
Begin publishing a blog. Blogs are regularly updated with fresh information and articles, so search engines often love them. Break up your larger articles and post several shorter ones each week.

5.) Content Sites With Adsense
Use articles you submit to directories in order to gain visitors to your content blog/website. Pack your blog with tons of useful information and you are guaranteed to be lots free traffic. Use Adsense to place ads throughout your blog so you can monetize your traffic.

6.) Build Information Products
This may take a while, but after you have created a good amount of useful articles, compile them into an e-book. Obviously change some things up here and there so the reader doesn't read the exact same articles again, but eventually you will be well on your way to selling an informative e-book.

There you have it! If you follow these tips you will surely be able to make a decent income with writing articles. Remember, work smarter and not harder. Good luck!

Make $100 a Day With Pay Per Download as a Noob

As a college student constantly looking for ways to make money online I recently came across PPD or "Pay Per Download." A Pay-Per-Download network is a network that pays you on file downloads. After uploading a file to a network, a landing page is created for visitors to get your file. Visitors have to fill out an advertiser survey before they can download a file. Usually these advertisers pay anywhere from $0.30 to upwards of $25 and that money goes directly to you. 

How you can make $100 a day with PPD

In my first month of PPD I was able to earn $1,238.67 (May). Just last June I was able to collect $3,187.91...in my second month! I learned all I do about PPD from www.blackhatworld.com, I highly recommend you check it out if you have not already. Tons of methods and tips to help you earn some serious coin. Okay now on to my method to bring in $100 a day as a teen or college student. What you will be doing is PPD with Youtube. You create youtube videos based on popular niches, upload a file to your network and put the files URL into your videos description box. People will watch your video, (hopefully) be intrigued enough to visit your file and fill out a brief survey to ultimately unlock and have the ability to download the file.

Lets Get Started

First off you will need to join a PPD network. Here are a few that I recommend:

www.cleanfiles.net

www.fileice.net

You will need to fill out an application in order to join these networks. As long as you sound somewhat intelligent and let them know that you plan on "using youtube to monetize your files" then you should be fine. After you create your account you will need to find a niche that you believe will be successful. As a teenager this should be quite simple. Some of the popular ones are gaming codes, movies, health, etc. Just think to yourself what would you be willing to fill out a survey in order to download. Often times people lie and claim that they are offering "free netflix or xbox live accounts," but I have found that a simple free e-book that you can download from another website works just as well. 

Create Your File

Once you have your niche, you will need to create the file that people will be downloading. For example if your niche is weight loss, create a weight loss e-book and save it as a PDF file in Microsoft Word. Then go onto your PPD website and upload your file.

Make A Youtube Channel and Video

After you have uploaded your file you will need to go onto youtube and create an account designated to your niche, i.e. "WeightLossToday". Using a video editing software create a short video about the file (make the video legitimate and actually put some time into it) and then upload it to your new channel. Put your PPD link into the videos description so viewers will have an opportunity to click on and download the file. 

Boost Your Video

Your next and final task is to boost your video so it ranks well on youtube as well as google. Although many of these views are often fake they will still allow your video to rank well which in turn allows for "more natural views." Some programs you can use for this are:

www.u2bviews.com

www.enhanceviews.net

www.hitleap.com

There you have it! Work on ranking your video and create more videos and in no time you should be pulling in $100 a day.  I know some people making over $500 A DAY with this method which equates to over $182,000 A YEAR. Now you may not make that much, but even $50 a day really adds up and after your videos are ranked this is all automatic income, meaning you can sit back and watch your bank account grow. Of course, you can obviously change this method up, this is a very basic method just to get you started. For example, the higher earners often use landing pages and custom URL's instead of directly pasting their PPD link in the youtube description. This often creates the idea that the download is more legitimate and can allow for higher earnings. As a teen or college student trying to make money online, I'm sure you will find this post extremely beneficial to you, best of luck!

Check out my other method to Make $100 a Day as a college student or teen if you have not already!

Motivational Quotes: Never Give Up

Ever felt like giving up on your quest to make money online as a teen or college student? I know I have, but one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life is sticking through the difficult times when I felt like I was wasting my time and never giving up. While one method may not work for you, keep trying, you're bound to find that one method that makes you rich. I was feeling extra motivated today so I thought I would share 20 of my all time favorite quotes to keep you going. 

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.  –Robert Frost

If you can dream it, you can do it. –Walt Disney

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. –Wayne Gretzky

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. –Michael Jordan

The best revenge is massive success. – Frank Sinatra

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. – Albert Einstein

We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls. – Winston Churchill

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Motivation alone is not enough.If you have an idiot and you motivate him,now you have a motivated idiot. – Jim Rohn

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen. – John F. Kennedy

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. – C. S. Lewis

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. – Thomas Edison

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. – Winston Churchill

When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place - Unknown

Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is nightmare. - Japanese Proverb

In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing. - Theodore Roosevelt

If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a chance of being a prophet. - Isaac B. Singer

Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down. - Charles F. Kettering, Engineer and Inventor

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success. - Unknown

Besy of luck to you all and remember, "If you think you can, or you think you cant, you are probably right."

How College Students Can Make Thousands Reselling Items on Ebay

I'm sure that most of you reading this have either bought or sold something on Ebay at some point in your life. Whether you wanted to get rid of your old Xbox 360 or were in the market for a cheap iPhone, Ebay offered you a system that had exactly what you were looking for. An easy to use, multi-billion dollar platform that allows you to buy and sell items with ease. Recently, I came across an article stating that people were becoming millionaires through Ebay. Although most of those people probably have their own store and products to sell, I thought that there could be an easy way around the fact that I don't have a product to sell. I did some research and lo and behold I came across "Ebay Reselling." Ebay Reselling is exactly what you think it is. You buy a product with hopes that you can turn around and sell those products for even more money on Ebay. You may not think that it could work, but if you have an eye for cheap products and an ability to act fast then you can make some serious coin. Here are some methods to get you started:

1.) www.fatfingers.com
Fatfingers.com allows you to search Ebay for misspelled listings. For example, the first thing I searched on Fat Fingers was the clothing brand, Lacoste. It took me to Ebay and gave me listings for the items (laciste, lacosse, lacosste, laccoste, laoste, lacote, and lactose). Clearly, none of those are how you spell "Lacoste" yet I was given page upon page of Lacoste clothing with little to no bids. I quickly recognized a nice pullover, brand new with tags, with a starting bid of $19.99. I knew that the pullover was worth more than that so I placed a bid, won the item, and was able to resell the pullover on Ebay a week later with the correct spelling for $45. Not too bad! Now, I've heard of people finding cheap phones and selling them for 10x profit so as long as you keep your eyes open you can make some serious cash with this method. Electronics and brand name clothing seem to work best.

2.) Dollar Stores, Garage Sales
Yard sales, dollar stores, auctions, flee markets, friends and relatives along with countless others are home to cheap, cheap, cheap products. Buy low and sell high. Something bought for 99 cents at a garage sale can usually easily net you $5, if not more on Ebay. A good example of this is my mother who bought an antique lamp at a yard sale for $10. I was able to turn around and sell that lamp on Ebay for $130! Plus, the good things about yard sales if that you will usually be able to haggle your way into a price that the seller would normally not agree too, yet they are more often than not just looking to get rid of their items, so they will oblige.

3.) Craigslist
Just like buying things on Ebay and selling them on Ebay, a lot of people succeed at making money online by buying products on Craiglist then selling them through Ebay. An example I have for you is concert tickets. If a hot artist or a band is coming to town in a few months you can usually find very cheap tickets on Craigslist. Then a few weeks before the show, put the tickets on Ebay and you can usually double your money. This works visa versa for buying on Ebay and selling on Craigslist.

Dont be discouraged if you don't succeed at first. Ebay is full of profit as long as you find the right products to buy and resell. It is extremely possible to earn hundreds if not thousands of dollars this week alone as long as you have an effective strategy. Fatfingers.com is a fantastic place to start. Good luck in your endeavors to make money online teens and college students and let me know how your efforts go!

How You Can Make Money Blogging

As a college student constantly looking for ways to make some extra money online I know how difficult it can be to come across scam after scam. You spend countless hours reading about 19 year olds and their success stories in making money online yet you managed to make $0.39 the past 5 days. Trust me, I've been there done that. What most websites won't tell you is that there is no magic program that allows you to make thousands of dollars with little to no effort. If there was, then the world would be filled with teenage millionaires. The reality of this story is that you probably won't be making thousands of dollars online this week, let alone this year. However, what if I could promise you that there is a way to possibly make upwards of $100 a day, if not more in the next few years? Well I can, and the answer is blogging.

 Chances are that you are passionate about something in your life. Whether it is basketball, video games, 13th century historical figures or even food, there is money to be made in it. The nice thing about blogging, especially as a college student or teenager, is that there isn't much effort that you need to put into it. If you can come up with 2-3 interesting articles on your niche that are well written a week then you are well on your way to getting an established following which translates into cold hard cash. I've always loved blogging as a source of income because I am writing about something that I thoroughly enjoy, while being paid at the same time. Got a favorite sports team? Blog about them. Technology geek? Blog about the latest tech gear. The list truly is endless.

How to Start a Blog?
Teensmakemoneyonline.com is a blog based on Google's Blogger platform. I pay $10 a year for hosting and receive a load of benefits that really make things easier for myself when managing this blog. In the past, blogger was the go to platform in terms of where to begin when starting a blog. However, times have changed and while blogger is still phenomenal I highly recommend you check out Wordpress. Just like blogger you can start a free blog, or receive your own .com domain name for a fairly low cost. The reason that Wordpress is so highly coveted is that it is so easily designable. Basically every big website on the internet now days is made using Wordpress and I think that just goes to show how high of a reputation it has. However, Blogger is definitely more user friendly and if you have little to no design expertise then you will struggle on Wordpress, so chose your host website wisely. Once you go to Blogger.com or Wordpress.com the process to start your blog is as easy as 1-2-3.

How to Get an Established Audience?
It's one thing to write a few articles and own your own blog, but it's quite another thing to actually receive traffic and readers to your blog. As I have stated numerous times in previous posts, you need to know "how" to write for SEO (search engine optimization). Keywords and Backlinks play a huge role in how successful your blog will be and I highly suggest you check out those posts before you begin.

How to Make Money With Your Blog?
Advertising. Now you're probably thinking to yourself, I'm only a teenager looking to make some money and I just started off, how in the world am I going to get people to advertise on my website? 1 word answer for that, Adsense. Google Adsense is a program that allows you to monetize your blogs traffic and is very easy to implement. All it takes is a google account, a website/blog and traffic. But before you get excited, Adsense like all other programs on the internet, is not a get rich scheme. You have to have an established blog with consistent traffic before you can expect to earn decent income on the side. However, I'm not trying to scare you off, I know many college students on the internet that have their own websites and earn close to 6 figures a year. All it takes is a plan and ambition to realize that anything is possible.

Advertisers pay google to have people like me and you advertise their ads on our websites. Every time some one clicks on an ad on your blog you receive roughly 68% of what the advertiser paid google, and google receives the rest. Page views without traffic are irrelevant in terms of generating revenue, commissions are only applicable when users actually click on the ad, so ad placement is very important.

Summary
There you go, those are the basic guidelines to follow when you begin your blog. It's important to keep in mind that you should spend about 20% of your time writing articles and 80% generating backlinks and increasing traffic. It may seem like your blog is going no where when you first start out, however if you keep to it and put a solid effort in then you will be heavily rewarded. It may take some time, but I can guarantee that if you have a well written blog on a good niche then you can make hundreds of dollars a day in the future. Just implement a plan and stick to it! Good luck everyone!