Online money

Opening an Affiliate Website – What I Have Learned

insidedianeslifeLeave a comment

(Have you tried to open an affiliate site?)

I decided that opening an affiliate site sounded like something I could do.  I kept hearing that once it is open you will start receiving passive income  I found a channel on YouTube that had a video walked me through how to make a site, set it up with products and then sign up to be an affiliate with a company.  It was about a 1 1/2 hour video.  I am not great with computers and get frustrated easily.  Even though he opened his in one and a half hours it took me 3 months to get mine up.

Even though it  was a pretty good video, I would change a few things or add more information to help the newbie.  Here are some things I would do differently.

  • I would have listened to the video first then go back and follow the instructions.
  • I would have started from the beginning with the video.  What I did instead was buy a domain ahead of time.  So, when the video showed me how to do something with his web host it didn’t work quite the same way with mine.  This delayed me days if not a full week till I figured out how set it up with my host.
  • I would not buy everything (add-ons) because I bought one that I ended up not needing.  I Just wasted  money and time.  I understand it is hard to know what you will need when you are starting out.  Next time I will use my site first to see if I really need the add-ons that are recommended.
  • I definitely would not sign up for the affiliate company till my site is almost ready to launch.  I decided to go with Amazon Affiliates.  Amazon gives new affiliates a time limit to make their first 3 sales, then they come to look at the site to see if they want to accept you.  I signed up right when I opened my site.  I ended up wasting 3 months, just getting my website made and working, out of the 6 months they gave me.

Now my ecommerce store is designed and ready for the next stage.  At this moment I still would not sign up for an affiliate yet.  Why do I say this?  I say this because I got denied by Amazon.  I am now grateful, but at the time I was surprised.  Looking back I realize that my site was not ready.  Only after doing the following will I sign up with an affiliate company.

For the following, I can only tell you how I will proceed with the Amazon Affiliates program.  Though as I learn more I think I will find that the other companies procedures will vary, but they will probably check out your website before accepting it just like Amazon.

WHAT I WILL DO BEFORE SIGNING UP WITH AMAZON AFFILIATES.

  • Decide most of the products I want on my site and put ASIN numbers in a word document so I can just input them into my store once I sign up to be an affiliate.  Also, that way you can see if there is enough products in that niche.   (It would be good to check out products before picking the niche)
  • Have several blogs written.  I have heard different recommendations.  Anywhere from 5 – 30 written blogs.  These blog posts should be at least 1,000 words long.  Google puts more importance in longer blogs than shorter ones.  One YouTube group even says you should have one or two 3,000 word essays in your mix.
  • Figure how I will get the word out for my site.  How will I advertise my site?  Investigate what I think will work for the new type of site and for my personality.  This took me at least another month to figure out what and how to do ads.  Then it took time to actually do the ads.
  • I may not make my niche so broad.  Having a broad product site takes more work.  At least filling it with products takes more time.  Example:  If I decide to choose mugs as my niche.  Selling every type of mug will be harder to fill my store, than deciding on just selling mugs with an animal theme.  Or to narrow it more I could just sell mugs about cats.  How narrow can I get my niche?  Though, I don’t want to get it so narrow that I can’t branch out if I want to.

Doing the above will make me feel more ready to sign up to be an Amazon Affiliate.  Hopefully, next time I will not be denied.  I did come across a YouTuber that got turned down 5 times before they accepted him.  Finding this out has given me new hope and if I do get denied again after doing all of this, then I will do some more learning, make my site better and try again.  Amazon Affiliates wants us to try again.

Have you tried to open an affiliate site?  What hurdles did you have?

Cryptocurrency -Bitcoin – Coinbase

insidedianeslife1 Comment

(Have you dabbled in cryptocurrencies yet or thinking about it?)

Here is my story so far.
I started buying Bitcoin the end of 2017 right before the downward falling of the price.  It would go up and tease, but then fall again.  You have to be careful what YouTube channels and news articles you get your information from.  I kept hearing ‘Bitcoin is going to hit a million… keep investing.”  Luckily, I don’t like to lose money and I don’t put in more money than I can safely lose.

When Bitcoin was heading down then I started hearing, “buy it when everyone else is selling.”  So when it goes down I would buy a little, and I mean a little. One thing about cryptocurrencies is that if I want to buy $3 of Bitcoin I can. For $3 I will only get a small portion of a Bitcoin, may be about 0.0001.  Though I will own 0.0001 of a Bitcoin.
I was so excited that I started buying small amounts weekly.  I still hardly own anything and if it did get to 1 million dollars per coin and I sold all my Bitcoin , I would only have about $2,000 dollars.  Which is way more than I put in, but I would not be rich.  Like I said I only put in what I can afford to lose and I don’t have much.

Now saying that, I did get burned.  I bought a stake in Bitconnect.  Bitconnect was a lending platform with promises of great returns.  I found out later that there were people talking about Bitconnect being a Ponzie scam.  If I had heard that part of the news before I put my money in I would have never invested.  I got caught with my money in there when the program shut its doors and I lost about $100.  It hurt, though it did not destroy me.  I heard of people losing their life savings because they thought it was a sure thing.  There are other lending platforms out there now, but I have been burnt and don’t plan to go down that road again anytime soon.

I consider the money I put into crypto as a kind of savings account.  It may not make much, though anything it makes is a bonus.  There is also a chance I could lose it.  I have to know what kind of risk level I am comfortable with.

If you are interested in dabbling in Crypto and want to start small, you can use Coinbase. Coinbase only sells 4 types of Crypto at this time.  There is hundreds of cryptocurrencies out there and Coinbase’s crypto is usually in the top 10.  The interface of this site is pretty straight forward.  If you decide you want to use Coinbase they have a bonus for the both of us if you use my link.  You and I will get $10 in bitcoin once you have invested $100.  You can do this amount all at once or just a little money at a time till you reach $100.

ONLY DO THIS IF YOU INVESTIGATE CRYTOCURRIENCIES FIRST AND ONLY INVEST THE MONEY YOU DO NOT CARE IF YOU LOSE.  This idea of cryptocurrencies could take off or tank.  And if it does take off it could take another 10 years.  I am looking at this as a long term place where I am keeping my money.  We will see how this story turns out years from now.
If you want to try it out through my link, here it is……. Good luck!

https://www.coinbase.com/join/5a2da51ea4b85d0226c4f892
(you may need to copy and paste)

Have you dabbled in cryptocurrencies yet or thinking about it?

Making Money Online: Playing Games

insidedianeslifeLeave a comment

(Have you played games for money or think it would be fun?)

I have started looking for ways to make money on the internet.  I am doing this so I am not tied down to a job in a building.  I want to start traveling.

About 3-4 months ago I watched a video about making money by playing games on your phone.  That sounded so cool and something I had the ability to do.  I downloaded an app that would pay me and got started playing.  So much fun at first (and kind of still is).  The thrill of seeing the points adding up felt awesome.  The points get turned into money that the company will send you or you can get a gift card instead.  The lowest you can withdrawal for money (Paypal) is 50 cents once you make 4,999 points. For a gift card you need to make a minimum of 24,253 which will get you a card worth $2.50.

How it works:
1)  You sign up for the app.
2)  They will give you 2-3 choices of games.
3)  You sign up for one or all of them.  This means you pick the game from this app and it will direct you to the store where you can download it.  You must connect through the app.
4)  Once the game is downloaded, then you just press the icon like you are playing a regular game and it will start adding up your points as you spend time playing.

The first downside is the longer you play the less you earn per minute. Example: Let’s say the first 5 minutes you earn 500 points. The next time it gives you 500 points is in 10 minutes. And so on.
The second downside for me is that my phone ran out of space.  I will say my phone is a couple of years old, so if you have a newer one you may have more space to store games.

Since I have been playing one game for a while my next payout is in 7 hours.  Not making much, but it is still more money than if I was playing for free.  I just took my first withdrawal out.  The sum was $10.32. I know that will not be enough money for me to travel.  Even if I played all day I couldn’t make enough to support myself.  Plus I don’t want to be playing all day.

I do like playing games on my phone and to know that I am making a little bit of money is a side bonus.  There are several apps out there that will pay you for playing.  I have only tried one and this one pays you in EUR.  It is called AppLike.

If you find a better gaming app out there share it with me.  Right now I am hooked on two games and don’t really want to give them up yet.

Happy Gaming!

Have you played games for money or think it would be fun?