Go here or click the pic below.

Technically Speaking, this is the way to present the Twitter stream.

If you are in the landing page business you should always read the PPCHero. I found this older but still great landing page informational post today.

TOPIC 1: Keep It Above the Fold, Stupid!

If you read many PPC blogs, you’re undoubtedly heard this mantra before: “Keep your calls-to-action, headlines, forms, buttons, images and everything else above the fold!” Excessive? Yes. Let me explain: Keeping important elements above the fold is a common tactic thrown around for optimizing landing pages, but for the uninformed it’s the impossible mission. From one level-headed marketer to another, let me lay it out… you can’t fit everything above the fold! What does that mean for you? You have to play it smart. Take stock of the design elements of your landing page and create a list of importance. Consider your target audience, and seriously think about what is most important to them. Taking the time to go through that process will guide you to an intelligent testing process.

All of that being said, the number one priority for your landing page’s design/layout is to have your call-to-action above the fold. This is a must. Your landing page will fail if visitors do not know what their next step is. If you do nothing else, this should be a priority. For some, this is contained in the headline. Simple. For others, your call-to-action is hiding within a button – so the physical button should be above the fold. When selling a specific product, I would strongly urge you to place the image above the fold. When running a strictly lead-generation campaign, I would strongly encourage you to test placing the lead form above the fold. I’ve tested this in a few industries, and it can certainly be a contributing factor in increasing lead-gen conversion rates.

TOPIC 2: Limit Navigation and Limit Confusion

This is probably one of the more debatable tactics for optimizing a PPC landing page. From personal experience, I can say that removing typical website navigation has increased conversion rates on my PPC landing pages. The idea is relatively simple. By removing navigation, you are creating a “sterile” conversion environment. In other words, you are in complete control of what the visitor sees, interacts with and hopefully this will lead them directly to the conversion. If your PPC landing page is just another page on your website – navigation and all – the visitor can browse the website as a whole. Which, in my experience, decreases the likelihood of conversion.

Like I said, this is a debatable tactic. So, in all fairness, I’ll present some of the counter-arguments. Some marketers say that if the website is created in such a way, it won’t matter if they stray from your landing page. The entire website should be designed for conversion, and the visitor will find their way regardless. Another argument is that by stripping a page of navigation, this can act as a deterrent to some visitors – almost leaning towards SPAM. In my experience, this hasn’t been the case, but it is certainly something that you should test.

As an alternative to both, you could create a conversion path. A conversion path gives the visitor options for navigation – all of which are under control in a more complex “sterile” conversion environment. Conversion paths are great for segmenting visitors into much more targeted landing page experiences that can have a truly positive effect on conversion rates.

TOPIC 3: Un-Clutter and Place Value on Whitespace

More times than not when I arrive at a landing page, I’m blown away by the amount of stuff on the page. Stuff is not only ambiguous, it’s bad for conversions. Take stock of the cacophony of design elements on your landing page and ask yourself what is truly important for the user and for the conversion. Chances are you’ll be able to remove a lot of stuff. Clutter on a landing page is confusing for the user and can keep them from finding relevant details and your calls-to-action. Additionally, PPC visitors are often times in a rapid-fire state-of-mind. This means that they’ve been searching through several of your competitor’s PPC ads and landing pages and have come to you for a second opinion (maybe you were #1, but just work with me here). If your landing page is a cluttered mess, they will only give you a few seconds of their time – if they don’t find what they’re searching for, they’re gone. Off to the next landing page.

Users scan the text and take away only certain elements that they use to make a decision if the page is relevant to their goal or not. Clean use of space allows users to scan and absorb key messages.

The design of your landing page should lend itself to quick and simple recognition of the “key messages.” If you have the perfect flash animation that you MUST put on your landing page – ask yourself, “Does this deter from the key message of my landing page?” If you answer yes, remove it and place a little more value on your newfound whitespace.

Technically Speaking, the PPCHero rocks with good information, so I know you will want to read the rest of the tips located here.

Good article on how bounce and conversions work:

There is some overlap between what your customers want and what your web page exists to do. But the overlap is not very much, only the most dedicated (say your mom) will put up with the pain required to complete the task.

I land on your site to buy QuickBooks Simple Start but you have it very well hidden because you want me to buy the $400 QuickBooks Premier product.

Technically Speaking, I know you now want to read more.

That weapon of course is called Split Testing and this is worth a read:

What Is Split-Testing?

Split-testing is the process of creating two separate variations of anything that a visitor or a prospect is exposed to which requires them to take an action, such as a web page, a PPC ad or a banner ad. An action required for measuring a split-test can include the click-through-rate on a PPC ad, submitting a form to request a free consultation or purchasing a product online. Splitting traffic between the two variations of the same element shows you which one produces the best response rate.

Split-testing allows you to remove the guesswork from your marketing campaign by showing you the difference in response rates each variation produces. The first time that you design your web page and set up a PPC campaign, you’ll of course have to use your “best guess” and experience helps a lot here. However, once a page or an ad is activated and you start achieving results you can use split-testing to continually and incrementally improve these results over time.

Essentially, split-testing allows you to identify the combination of factors that produces the highest conversion rate and, in turn, the highest return on investment (ROI) from your advertising budget.

Why Is Split-Testing Important?

Split-testing is the fastest way to increase your conversion rate and lower your cost-per-action, which increases profitability. But more than this, it allows you to be more competitive in your marketplace by allowing you to spend more on advertising than your competition, yet still achieve higher levels of sales and growth at a lower Cost-Per-Action (CPA).

Split-testing also allows you to test what your competition is implementing on their site and to see how it affects your own conversion rates. Over time, split-testing allows you to capture a larger share of your online market.

Let’s Take A Look At The Numbers

Your competition is spending $2 per click and has a 1% conversion rate. That means it costs $200 to drive 100 website visitors. At a 1% conversion rate they are getting 2 conversions (ie sales or sales leads) for every $200, which means their CPA is $100 per action.

If through split-testing you were able to increase your conversion rate to 3% that means for the same $200 spend you would get the same website traffic, but instead of getting just 2 conversions, you would get 6. This means that your CPA is $33, rather than the $100 your competition is achieving…all from the same advertising budget.

What this really means is that you can afford to spend 3 x what your competition is spending and achieve the same CPA, which means that you will dominate the top positions on the search engines and capture the lion’s share of the online market. Convinced yet?

Conversely, if your competition is split-testing and you are not, they will get the lion’s share of the online market and you will miss out.

In the current economic climate, split-testing allows you to get the most out of your advertising budget and to continue growing your business during these tougher times.

What Should You Split-Test?

You should split-test anything shown to a visitor that requires an action. With PPC advertising you can split-test two separate ads and see which ad produces the lower CPA. With your website design you can split-test two separate pages and see which one produces the highest number of conversions. You can also split-test email campaigns, banner campaigns and other forms of paid advertising.

SEO listings (ie what displays in Google’s organic search) are harder to split-test because you don’t have full control over the information displayed in the listings. Saying that, you can split-test the page that prospects land on after they click on your SEO listing.

On your website, you should split-test the following items on your highest traffic web pages – which you can find through Google Analytics:

• Headlines
• Call to action
• Offer
• Sales copy
• Images
• Testimonials
• Button styles
• Navigation styles
• Background color
• Listing a phone number versus not listing a phone number
• And anything else which holds a prominent position on the page

For your PPC campaign, you should split-test the text ads, keywords and landing pages.

How To Split-Test

The most important metric to measure with split-testing is the CPA, which is measured with conversion tracking. If you don’t have a website form or shopping cart and all your website leads come via telephone or email, it will be much harder to split-test.

The easiest way to split-test is to use a form on your website for somebody to submit whenever they wish to contact your company. When somebody submits that form, they are taken to another page that is call the “thank you” page, which contains a short message saying something like, “Thank you for your enquiry, we will contact you shortly.”

With split-testing, a conversion code is placed on the ‘thank you’ page which then measures the results. If we were split-testing two landing pages using different headlines we would use split-testing software to rotate between those 2 pages so alternate visitors would see alternate versions of the landing page. After a reasonable amount of visits and because conversions are being tracked, one of the two versions will start producing a higher number of conversions than the other. This is then the better landing page, also referred to as the ‘control piece’. The goal with split-testing is always to try and beat the control piece.

To justify that a split-test is statistically correct you need enough visitors and conversions to make an informed decision– as a general rule you will need a minimum of 30 conversions before you can make a decision on which of the variations is best. Note that The difference between the conversions of each version has to be greater than the square root of the sum to ensure statistical integrity.

Technically Speaking, I know that you now want to read the rest or read more…

This would actually be interesting to try some time. Capturing the logos you see every day online and this guy did it in 33 minutes, with 33 logos.

Here follows 33 logos / labels seen in the first 33 minutes after I wake.
The original idea was to include logos that appear throughout an entire day, but that would leave you with A LOT of scrolling.

Technically Speaking, this person did this before he was even dressed for the day, read the entire post.

Found this one with over 400 creative business card designs:

So you want some business card design inspiration? Well here you have 400 creative and beautiful business card designs all on one page. Enjoy this 20mb load!

You can get 10% off printing through our partnership with UPrinting.

Technically Speaking, the wood one, while very cool, would end up making your card carrying experience a bit on the heavy side if you were going to a conference with them!

Found this list that is suppose to be a freebie Friday post or something like that: 15 Collections of Useful Freebies For Everyone – and it’s Monday! Enjoy that law breaking video after the jump!

Who doesn’t love freebies? Many people (designers, software creators, etc) release helpful freebies from time to time to the internet community. These freebies are not only useful, they also give exposure to the people who give them out. So, for the benefit of our readers, we’re starting a new series on freebies. This is the first post. Enjoy!

Technically Speaking, I’m pulling a Judas Priest, it’s Monday!

Found this graphic design list here and thought I’d share it here:

Graphic Design

1stwebdesigner Blog by Dainis Graveris in Latvia covering all things design and freelance.

Abduzeedo Created by Fabio Sasso in Brazil and now one of the most popular design blogs. Includes tutorials, wallpapers, interviews and news. Strong participation from readers.

Andy Sowards Eponymous blog covers cool links from around the world of web design, development and technology.

Anidan Design Dani McDaniel’s blog covering design and development for the web and WordPress. Dani also set up JustTweetIt with Adelle Charles at Fuel.

Arbenting From Angie Bowen and Robert Bowen, Arbenting covers design tips, tutorials, news and inspiration.

Behance Magazine. Great blog from the folks at the Behance Network. Wide range of articles for creatives in all sectors. Really high quality content.

BittBox Great blog from Jay Hilgert focusing on freebies for web designers and developers.

BoagWorld Popular podcast on web design, development and management.

Booooooom Blog from Jeff Hamada in Vancouver. Covers a wide range of creative arts.

Brian Yerkes One of the true “rock star” designers out there (our words not his). Great work and deep insights into the world of design and marketing.

Cats Who Code Is a blog run by Jean-Baptiste Jung, a blogger/web developper/web designer from Belgium. Cats Who Code covers web development, web design, blogging tips and WordPress. Jean-Baptiste also runs WpRecipes.

Colorburned Great blog from Grant Friedman covering many aspects of graphic and web design.

Computer Arts Magazine One-stop shop for professional advice on creating digital art and illustrations.

Coudal Partners The blog from the superstar design outfit based in Chicacgo. Always great features and strong opinions.

Craig Baldwin Cool blog from a student at the Winchester School of Art in England. Gathers a great list of the “best of” from across teh web.

CrazyLeaf Big design blog covering graphic design, web design, Flash, Photoshop, vector graphics, design inspiration, programming, print design, design resources and photography.

Creative Curio Blog from Lauren Marie Krause with some really solid guides to design principles. One of the hidden gems in this list.

CreativeTechs Blog from the folks at Creative Techs who run an awesome set of courses for designers.

CreatticaDaily From teh team at Envato, Creattica provides a broad range of links to articles of interest for designers and creatives.

CSSstyle Edited submission site containing galleries of high quality CSS sites.

CSS Tricks Chris Coyier’s excellent community site covering website design, development, interviews with well known designers and developers and more.

Dacheboard Blog from David Pache, a Swiss designer running a design studio called Dache.

Darkmotion Blog from Pasquale D’Silva in Australia covering illustration and animation. Good humour throughout.

David Airey A well regarded designer and incisive commentator on the design world we live in. Always original. Also moderates LogoDesignLove.

DesignBump Community powered design news. Dig it?

DesignCreme Showcase of good design.

Design Cubicle Brian Hoff’s blog covering a range of great graphic design subjects and personal insights.

Designer Daily A blog for designers and web designers by Mirko Humbert, a Swiss graphic designer who shares his thoughts on design, ressources and tips.

DesignerSide Collation of links to the best graphic design posts.

Designers Who Blog A design blog by Catherine Wentworth for designers, photographers, writers, marketeers, etc., who blog. Lots of reader contributions.

DesignFeedr Portfolios, inspiration, features, news. A broad range of design resources.

DesignFlavr Design inspiration with daily updates of cool design from across the web. UGC, rating and resources. Run by Andrew Greig.

DesignM.ag A community-based website run by Steven Snell for web designers and developers. The site includes a popular blog, a user-submitted news section, a design gallery, and a design job board. Also runs Vandelay Design.

Design Meltdown Really well structured blog on trends in design by Patrick McNeil. Organised in a very innovative way by “chapters” making it a great resource.

Design O’Blog Niki Brown’s views on design, inspiration and tips.

Design Observer Pithy and witty observations on design and the people who do it.

Design Reviver Tutorials, free downloads, sources of inspiration, and articles covering a wide range of web design related topics

Design Shard A valuable resource for designers ranging from design tips, inspiration and free resources such as photoshop brushes or textures to be downloaded.

Desizn Tech Mostly a resource site with themes, wallpaper, icons and freebies.

Dezignus.com Blog with useful freebies such as vectors, PSD brushes and shapes, textures and backgrounds, icons etc.

The Dieline Design blog dedicated to the packaging design industry. Fantastic images and graphics of great packaging design.

Digital Arts Magazine The online version of Digital Arts Magazine. Covers a gamut of subjects including graphic design, 3D, animation, video, effects, web and interactive design, in print and online

DivineCSS CSS showcase. Best described in their own words, “We know the difference between s**t and Shinola and we’re pretty good at sniffing out a website worthy of the Divine CSS showcase gallery”.

Doodlage Unique and funny site dedicated to the art of the doodle. In their own words, “On a quest to elevate doodling to the status of an art form that it deserves!”

Doug Cloud Blog from Doug with tutorials and advice. Doesn’t post frequently, but very useful when he does.

Drawn A collaborative weblog for illustrators, artists, cartoonists, and anyone who likes to draw.

Dwell The online version of Dwell Magazine. Architecture and interior design.

Dzine Yugendran’s blog on design tutorials, inspiration, freebies and more.

Elite By Design Brian Lovin’s blog on web design and Photoshop inspiration.

Elliot Jay Stocks A well known public speaker and personality in the design world. Oh, and cool design work too!

From The Couch Hosted by brothers Marc and David Perel, this online web TV show covers everything web orientated – design, development and more.

Fudge Graphics Blog from Franz Jeitz covering graphic design, sources of inspiration and freebies.

Fuel Your Creativity Awesome resource from the folks at the Fuel Brand Network. Great articles and links to inspirational design resources.

Giackop Blog from Giacomo Coppola, a web and graphic designer from Italy.

GoMediaZine Is a site dedicated to art and graphic design. Includes tutorials, freebies and advice. For example, this post on Thoughts on Design Integrity. Getting what you want from your client.

Graphic Design Blog High quality blog with features, interviews and design inspiration. Loved this article.

The Graphic Mac James Dempsey’s blog containing advice on all things Mac, especially for new Mac users and designers.

HelpDeveloper Simon North’s blog on web design techniques, inspiration and web design business. Simon also runs ReviewMyDesign.net.

Hongkiat A blog from Hongkiat Lim covering Photoshop, web design, WordPress and much more. Excellent resource.

How Magazine Online magazinefrom the folks at the How group.

I’m Just Creative Logo and brand identity blog from Graham Smith covering a wide range of design topics with an emphasis on logo design and identity. Includes his expanding portfolio.

I am Khayyam Completely original blog from Khayyam Wakil. Check out It took me 25 minutes to design my ultimate business card.

Inspiredology Great blog from Chad Mueller covering a huge range of things web and design related

IxDA The website and forum of the Interaction Design Association, an amazingly active member organisation for IX designers.

Janko At Warp Speed Janko Jovanovic is a solution architect, developer, designer and artist. His blog includes articles, resources and reviews. Check out his new ebook.

Joel on Software The blog from the fabulous Joel Spolsky, founder of Fog Creek Software and immensely respected entrepreneur – may we say “guru”?

Just Creative Design Blog from Jacob Cass, a designer & blogger with a fast-growing following and great design insight. Particularly strong on things logo-related.

Kathryn Corrick Thought provoking blog from Kathryn Corrick, a digital media consultant in the UK.

Larissa Meek Blog from Larissa Meek, creative director at AgencyNet and regular speaker on the conference circuit.

LifeDev Describes itself as “Empowering Creative People”. LiveDev is a genuinely original blog providing advice and ideas about creativity, art and design, for example, Four Reasons Why Fear is a Creative’s Friend.

Line25 Another blog from Chris Spooner of Spoongraphics. Line25 focuses more on web design.

Lines and Colors A blog from Charley Parker about drawing, sketching, painting, comics, cartoons, webcomics, illustration, digital art, concept art, and much more. Charley created the fantastic Argon Zark web comic.

Loon Design Kailoon is from Malaysia and is one of the reviewers for ThemeForest. His blog covers drawing and design, especially Illustrator and Photoshop.

Marketing Fresh Peel Chris Wilson’s blog on marketing, branding and innovation.

MarketingSherpa One of the strongest marketing blogs out there. Not always directly design-related, but impacts design thinking none the less.

MarcoFolio Blog from Marco Kuiper in The Netherlands covering links, cool designs and the great monthly imagedump.

Method to the Mayhem Great blog about marketing, design, self-promotion and business from Calvin Lee at Mayhem Studios, who is also one of the most prolific designers on Twitter.

My Ink Blog Andrew Houle’s fantastic resource for all graphic and web designers. Also, beautifully designed IOHO.

Naldz Graphics Provides tutorials, tips, resources, inspirations, freebies and other interesting things.

Nerd Business Top of the list for innovative, thought provoking and original posts.

.Net Magazine Online version of the UK’s .Net Magazine.

Nettuts+ From the Envato team and aimed at web developers and designers. Offers tutorials and articles on technologies, skills and techniques to improve how we design and build websites.

Noupe For designers and web-developers, Noupe provides news, articles and tutorials on all subjects of design, ranging from; CSS, Ajax, Javascript, web design, graphics, typography, advertising and more.

Observin Cool blog covering design related topics.

Outlaw Design Blog Fresh and inspiring design blog by Danny Outlaw. Great emphasis on passive income, which is an objective of many freelancers.

PointBrake Blog from Ann Edwards, a web designer and developer from the Midwest. Covers topics from web development to freelancing.

Positive Space Blog A great blog from Anthony Zinni with topics that range from the typical inspirational roundup to functional articles based around running a successful agency and working as a professional graphic designer.

Pro Blog Design A more technically focused blog covering many aspects of blog design, creation and development.

Reaction High quality blog from the folks at Etre.

Redswish Great blog from Nathan Beck, a designer working in Manchester, England.

Scene 360 Illusion The illusion project highlights artwork that is “unique”—amazing for its skills, level of creativity and vision.

sCommerce sCommerce is a self-hosted blog site for news and stories on Social Commerce and Social Sourcing.

Sharebrain Great site for web designers from Thomas in Germany. Covers front end web development as much as design.

SiteInspire Blog by Daniel Howells showcasing innovative and high quality website design. Well edited.

Sitepoint One of the biggest and broadest design resources on the web. One of the top 3 most popular ebusiness websites in the world.

Six Revisions Provides great resources for people who design AND code. Founded by Jacob Gube who also writes for Smashing Magazine.

Smashing Apps Describes itself as “Free and useful online resources for designers and developers”.

Smashing Magazine One of the biggest graphic and web design blogs out there. Awesomely original articles covering a huge range of subjects. Known for really in-depth and original pieces.

Snook.ca Blog of Jonathan Snook, well known designer, coder and man-about-web. More technically focused than some blogs on this list.

SpeckyBoy Mostly “top” lists, and very well put together/edited. How lists like this should be done.

SpoonFedDesign Blog from Matt with some genuinely original tutorials and design inspiratons.

Spoon Graphics The blog of Chris Spooner, a well respected designer and blogger, covering a range of design subjects, with an emphasis on vector work and graphic design. See also Line25.

Styl.eTi.me Blog from Roger Byrne, originally from England, now in Egypt. Posts his own tutorials, “best of” lists, etc.

SwissMiss A “must read” blog from Tina Roth Eisenberg, covering an eclectic mix of “design” that is quirky, cool, or simply inspiring. How she finds time to blog and run her design business beats me. Great resource.

That Indie Dude Alex Linebrink’s blog – really forthright views on how design and design blogging is becoming “me too”. Having looked at over 400 design blogs we truly buy into that!

The Design Superhero Blog from Aravind Ajith in Bangalore, the design superhero is a design blog which handles posts on design, CSS, usability, inspiration and tutorials. Also gives away a lot of design freebies.

The Everyday Web Expert Is a blog from The Everyday Web Expert, a full service web design company run by Kyle Reddoch.

ThinkDesign Blog by Nick Pagano of ThinkFour with design resources, freebies and inspiration.

Think Vitamin Great design resource from the folks at Carsonified.

Tianodesign Thought provoking blog from Stephen Tiano that includes design issues and a lot more. Very original thinking.

Tony Naccarato Cool blog with great viewpoints from designer Tony who runs 325studio.

Tracey Grady Design Great blog from Tracey who is based in Hobart, Tasmania (Australia).

Turbomilk Great blog from an icon design team in Samara, Russia. If you are into icon design, this is a must-read blog.

Typographica Awesome resource for typefaces, fonts and typographic design.

Unbeige Mediabistro’s blog about design, “Where designers read design”.

Under Consideration One we missed initially. Oops! Definitely worth including.

UsabilityPost Blog from Dmitry Fadeyev who also writes for Smashing Magazine. Covers tips and insights into good design practice including articles like 8 Characteristics Of Successful User Interfaces.

UXMatters Online magazine about user experience design strategies.

Vandelay Design Blog covering a range of design topics, plus a showcase of design galleries.

Veerle’s Blog Top graphic design blog from Veerle Pieters.

We Are Just Creative UGC blog showcasing, well… anything creative. Run by Graham Smith who also runs I’m just Creative.

WebAppers Blog by Ray Cheung focusing on open source, high quality and free resources for web developers.

Webdesigner Depot A collaboration between leading designers around the world providing a wealth of expertise in all fields of design, such as coding, typography, Photoshop tutorial, etc.

Web Designer Mag Design focused online magazine from the UK.

Web Design Ledger Broad design blog covering design tutorials, resources, inspiration and freebies.

WebDesignerWall Design ideas and tutorials from Nick La of N.Design Studio and who also runs Best Web Gallery.

WebJackaloupe Blog from Glen Stansberry covering a range of web design and development topics such as Taking Back the Homepage: 12 Ways to Design For the Fickle Web User

WebResources Depot Free web resources for web designers and developers.

WebToolkit4Me A blog from Gerasimos based in Thessaloniki, Greece. Lists bookmarks to great resources covering design, frontend development, backend development, SEO and useful apps.

WeFunction The blog from the team at Function, containing interviews, tips, icons and more.

Well Medicated Great blog from Andrew Lindstrom with inspirational links, showcases and freebies.

YouTheDesigner Blog from Gino Orlandi featuring tips, freebies and jobs.

Freelance Life

Blog Perfume Bills itself as a WordPress related site, but covers a wider range of subjects for designers, writers and bloggers. Always useful.

Escape from Cubicle Nation Blog by Pamela Slim, a coach and writer who helps frustrated employees in corporate jobs break out and start their own business.

Freelance Folder A great collection of articles from an awesome group of writers, including

Freelance Switch This is one of the top blogs for freelancers. It is packed with advice, news and opinion pieces from top freelancers, plus the great Freelance Freedom cartoon series from NC Winters. A great example of the posts is this article on 50 Simple Marketing Ideas All Freelancers Can Use.

Fresh Thinking Ok, this is a product blog by the folks at Freshbooks, but it contains lots of useful information for budding freelancers.

Lifehacker Ever popular blog that features tips, shortcuts, and downloads that help you get things done smarter and more efficiently.

Men With Pens Great blog from the team at Men With Pens focusing on web business for writers, freelancers and online entrepreneurs.

Paul Graham Not really a design blog, but a great inspiration to anyone working as an entrepreneur.

Ronnie Lebow Blog from one of Canada’s leading creative directors. If you are freelancing, this is a MUST.

Photoshop & Illustrator Sites

10Steps.sg Photoshop tutorials, resources and freebies from Johnson Koh in Singapore.

AiBURN Is a site from Sean Hodge who is also a writer for PSDTUTS, Smashing Magazine and GoMediaZine. Centres on vector graphics, but covers a lot more.

BrushKing Brushes and tutorials.What more can we say?

High Resolution Textures Close-up photographs of surfaces such as wood, stone, metal or fabric.

Layers Magazine Magazine for everything Adobe

Lost and Taken Caleb Kimbrough’s fantastic resource of free textures.

Photoshop Creative Provides Photoshop users with lashings of practical advice and inspiration.

PSDFan PSD tutorial site from Tom Ross.

PSDtuts+ From the Envato team and aimed at web developers and designers. Showcases some of the best Photoshop tutorials around.

QBrushes A Photoshop resource site showcasing quality Photoshop brushes from different talented designers.

QVectors Showcase site for free quality vector images from around the net.

RasterVector Wonderful resource for all things Mac and Adobe.

Tutorial9 A group authored site run by David Leggett with tutorials on Photoshop, photography, web design, blogging and more.

TutorialKing A collection of high quality Photoshop tutorials.

Tutzor Photoshop tutorials from Walter.

Vector Diary Vectordiary is a blog on vector illustration. It was created by Tony Soh who is an exclusive vector art contributor to iStockphoto.

Vectips Site by Ryan Putnam (Rype) dedicated to Adobe Illustrator® tips, tricks, and tutorials.

Vector Diary Vectordiary is a blog on vector illustration. It was created by Tony Soh who is an exclusive vector art contributor to iStockphoto.

VectorTuts+ From the Envato team.

Vector Vault Huge collection of vector art and related articles. Includes free downloads, content and tips.

Wake Up Later Blog from Samuel Ryan writing about freelancing and entrepreneurship.

We are not Freelancers Not about freelancers, but about a web design firm in South Africa.Nice approach dubunking the myth that all web designers are freelance.

Web Worker Daily Practical tips and advice for anyone who uses the web for work. Excellent resource for freelance designers.

Advertising Sites

Adrants Round-up of ads and marketing news from around the world, edited by Steve Hall and Angela Natividada.

Ads of the World Community site for people in advertising. Includes a huge archive of ads from around the world, news, a forum and much more.

AdGoodness Advertising showcase created by Frederik Samuel who describes the site as “The best and sometimes the worst around the globe”.

Technically Speaking, let me know if this list was at all useful to you!

Found this post – 25 Ways to Spice Up Blog Post Photos

Images enhance the visual impact of a blog and make it more likely a post will be read. One good photo can grab a reader’s attention and drive them to the article.

A post without any graphs, drawing, or photos can look daunting. Even if it’s well written, the wall of text might not appeal to anyone. A good image is often a must-have for a great post.

But sometimes the images available for publishing are poor quality, or just don’t suit quite right.

With the tricks below, you can use Photoshop to fix up your images in minutes. Instead of a dull photo, you can liven it up to an image that might actually appeal to someone.

Technically Speaking, it’s probably a great idea to do this if you have time!

Found this listing – 50+ Best Photoshop Poster Design Tutorials

Posters should be inovative and informative, In our earlier roundups 50 Hottest Movie Posters Of All Times! we presented the best posters for inspiration and in this post we are presenting the best photoshop tutoirals for poster design. These tutorials are carved to the detail and are most viewed! Go ahead and check out these tutorials and the techniques involved in them. Enjoy!

Technically Speaking, posters are still cool by me!

Found this, 50 Totally Free Lessons post. Looks legit.

While many of us can create something that looks good in Photoshop or attractive when spliced into CSS, but do we actually understand the design theory behind what we create? Theory is the missing link for many un-trained but otherwise talented designers. Here are 50 excellent graphic design theory lessons to help you understand the ‘Whys’, not just the ‘Hows’.

Technically Speaking, I’m graphic challenged – nothing looks good after I get done with it in PhotoShop!

Found this list : Top 50 work and make money at home blogs:

1. Breaking Free: A blog all about how to start your own business at home, filled with ideas on how to reach this goal.
2. Business Entrepreneur Executive Training Blog: This blog is dedicated to your professional and personal development as a business entrepreneur.
3. Day Job Nuker: Get rid of that day job (if they haven’t already dumped you!) and learn how to work at home. This blog talks about how to work at home and, even better, offers some great resources to that may help you begin your path to autonomy.
4. Home Based Small Business Ideas: Home-based business tips for home business owners.
5. Home Business Blog: According to this blogger, “The beauty of working from home and ultimately yourself is that you are free to do what you wish with the most valuable commodity; time.” Learn more here.
6. Make Money Online: Although some articles in this blog deal with making money through personal blogs and Web sites, a great many entries focus on how to make money through other methods.
7. Make Money Online : Yes, another “make money online” site. This one focuses on various ways to make money online through various business opportunities, including auctions.
8. MLM Business Opportunities : This blog covers multi-level marketing (including opportunities in this field), but it also covers various topics that reach out to the home business owner.
9. Serious Home Based Business : Learn how to work from home and how to make money online through this easy-to-browse blog.
10. The Home-Based Business Blog : Learn how to optimize every aspect of your business, using the right balance of new technologies and old-fashioned business sense.
11. Thinking Home Business : This blog focuses on sharing ideas and experiences with other professionals who work from home.
12. Work at Home Resources : Tools for you to succeed in your home-based business.

WAHM Blogs

A wave of “mommy blogs” began to hit the Internet about five years ago and they have become a legitimate resource for ideas on how to make money online and work from home (and not just for women). Here are a few blogs written by WAHMs (Work At Home Moms) for WAHMs:

13. At Home Mom Blog: A mom named Genesis started this blog as a way to connect and help other women who want to work from home or who are already doing so.
14. Christian Work at Home Moms: If you feel the need to connect only with other Christians, try this CWAHM blog (Christian Work at Home Moms).
15. Cyndi’s Work at Home Blog: Part of the Moms Network, this blog focuses on tips and support for moms who work at home.
16. Contest for Moms: This is an interesting niche, where Amanda provides moms with contest and product review opportunities to win money and prizes from home. She also shares her personal life here.
17. Laureen’s Work at Home Mom’s Blog: This About.com site brings resources, support and information to WAHMs everywhere.
18. Mommy Enterprises: Thoughts, opinions, reviews and more from a WAHM.
19. The WAHM Blog: A blog that will help you get started making money from home.
20. Work At Home Mom – Making Money At Home: A real WAHM writes about how you can make money at home, online and with blogging (so you can forget the last one if you don’t want to blog!).
21. Work at Home Mom Revolution: This blog is a daily work-at-home opportunity and mom news site.
22. Work at Home Moms Talk Radio: You’ll also find a blog at this site, where WAHMs talk about working from home.

Blog Articles

The following articles came from blogs that don’t necessarily deal with making money online or home businesses. But, the articles deal with work-at-home ideas and home business advice and trends in today’s home-business market.

23. 45 Home Business Resources: Things and People That Help You Make Money In Your Underwear: A great resource from a slightly irreverent blog on how to build your home business.
24. Freelance Job Growth Accelerates in the U.S.: Take a look at these charts and comments to learn more about the validity and trends of working and making money at home.
25. How to Make Money at Home: Women’s Day has a long article on ideas and tips about making money from home. They offer ideas that speak to specific companies, too.
26. How to Make Money Using the Internet: Seth Godin is a marketing guru, and his ideas about how to make money online might stimulate your gray cells.
27. How Bloggers Make Money Online without Blogging : ProBlogger provides a long list of ideas on ways to make money online without a blog.
28. Starting A Successful Home Business In Tough Times: This article is on the Kelsey Publishing Knowledge Base blog, and it talks about how to start your business in a rough economy.
29. The Best Ways to Sell Your MLM Home Business Over the Internet: Kathy runs this blog on how to lose weight, but she has an insightful article about how to sell your MLM business online. Her advice might apply to those who sell Web sites online, too.
30. The Top 25 Home-Based Business Ideas: This article is brought to you by AllBusiness, and offers twenty-five great ideas for that work-at-home opportunity.
31. Top 10 Internet Home Business Ideas You Can Start and Run in Your Underwear: Sparkplug CEO is a great resource for any home-based business owner, and this article is a down-to-earth look at some at-home business opportunities.
32. Work At Home Trend On the Rise: Read in this article how people view working at home. They provide links to more articles that can help you have a positive attitude about working from home.

Resources

Tools for the home entrepreneur:

33. Entrepreneur: This site carries informative and helpful blogs, but it also has many other resources for the work-at-home entrepreneur.
34. Freelance Directory: This site holds a blog filled with resources, a directory and other tools for the entrepreneur.
35. Freelance Job Feed: This is not a slick site, but it’s up-to-date and filled with posts about freelance job opportunities and writing about how to find money online. One of the trends in this blog is to learn how to make money by finding jobs and outsourcing the work.
36. Freelance Switch: This site holds an informative blog, a job board, forums, podcasts and more.
37. Home Business: Randy Duermyer brings his expertise to this About.com site, where home business workers can find a blog, tax advice and more for their ventures.
38. Home-Based Business Network: This site has a blog filled with great ideas for the home-based business owner; but, it also is a way to build a network with other like-minded individuals.
39. Moms with a Spine: We would have included this blog in the WAHM section, but the site covers so much more. And, the advice offered isn’t just for WAHMs.
40. Online Scams Uncovered: If you’re starting a home business and you work online, this is the blog to have at hand. They uncover online scams so you don’t get caught with your hand in the wrong cookie jar.
41. Product Sellers Talk Radio: Run by a work-at-home mom, this site offers personalize coaching programs, an Internet marketing blog and a product sellers talk radio show, information on how to start a business and more.
42. Small Business Development Center Blog: If you want information from the National Information Clearinghouse on Small Business, this is your resource.
43. Small Business Trends: This link takes you to the blog on this site, but look around to find more resources for small businesses, including home businesses.
44. Trend Tracker: If you’ve wondered how this economy and online tools have affected small business, look no further. Anita Campbell does a great job with bringing pertinent information to you in a timely manner.

Corporate Business Blogs

Some money-making businesses on the Internet provide blogs that show you how to make money using their sites. But, you can take their information and apply it to any other similar site.

45. Associated Content Blog: Learn how to make money online through writing content for yourself and for others.
46. Fotolia Blog: You can make money with your photographs, and this blog shows you how to do it with the Fotolia business.
47. Helium Blog: Another pay-for-content site presents a blog about how to make money through their program, information that can be applied to other online writing ventures.
48. Salesconx Blog: This company creates sales teams for other companies and provides a blog that focuses on sales techniques, no matter your product or service.
49. Virtual Assistant Blog: If you have considered becoming a virtual assistant, log onto this blog to learn more about how this company views virtual assistant positions.
50. Zyoin Blog: Another recruiter blog. They also have the tools for you to work with, and their blog helps you learn the trade.

Technically Speaking, yes, that was actually a list of 50!

Found this one here today: 50 logo design inspiration

Technically Speaking, these are 50 very cool logos to look over for inspiration!

Don’t know how recent this data is, and it probably doesn’t really matter as at one time this was the top 30 money making blogs:

30 Blog’s That Make A Lot Of Money Online

Rank	Website	Owner	Monthly Earnings	Main Income
1	Techcrunch	Michael Arrington	$200,000	Advertising Banners
2	Mashable	Pete Cashmore	$180,000	Advertising Banners
3	Timothy Sykes	Timothy Sykes	$150,000	Affiliate Sales
4	Perez Hilton	Mario Lavandeira	$140,000	Advertising Banners
5	Gothamist	Jake Dobkin	$80,000	Pay Per Click
6	Venture Beat	Matt Marshall	$62,000	Pay Per Click
7	Slash Gear	Ewdison Then	$60,000	Pay Per Click
8	Life Hacker	Nick Denton	$60,000	Advertising Banners
9	Smashing Magazine	Vitaly Friedman	$58,500	Advertising Banners
10	Tuts Plus	Collis Taeed	$110,000	Membership Area
11	Dooce	Heather B. Armstrong	$50,000	Pay Per Click
12	Steve Pavlina	Steve Pavlina	$45,000	Pay Per Click
13	TPM	Josh Marshall	$45,000	Pay Per Click
14	Car Advice	Alborz Fallah	$42,000	Advertising Banners
15	Problogger	Darren Rowse	$40,000	Advertising Banners
16	JohnChow	John Chow	$35,000	Affiliate Sales
17	Kotaku	Nick Denton	$32,000	Advertising Banners
18	Shoemoney	Jeremy Schoemaker	$30,000	Private Advertising
19	Coolest Gadgets	Allan Carlton	$30,000	Advertising Banners
20	Joystiq	AOL	$18,000	CPM Advertising
21	PC Mech	David Risley	$16,000	Affiliate Sales
22	Freelance Switch	Collis Ta’eed	$13,000	Membership Area
23	Abduzeedo	Fabio Sasso	$11,000	Advertising Banners
24	Sizlopedia	Saad Hamid	$9,000	Pay Per Click
25	Retire at 21	Michael Dunlop	$5,000	Affiliate Sales
26	Noupe	Noupe	$4,930	Advertising Banners
27	Uber Affiliate	Paul Bourque	$4,500	Second Tear Affiliates
28	Click For Nick	Nick Skeba	$3,900	Pay Per Click
29	Tyler Cruz	Tyler Cruz	$3,200	Advertising Banners
30	Just Creative Design	Jacob Cass	$3,000	Services

* * * * *

The Longer You’re Not Taking Action, The More Money Your Losing

I have helped tens of thousands of people start to make money online from blogging. The biggest issue I see across all my students is consistency and procrastination, if you want to make it in any business you got to actually start and then keep at it. Although I have had several websites that have made me a lot of money over night, this is not always the case, in fact quite the opposite with some blogs, so remember don’t give up to soon.

The first thing you need to do after visiting this page is to sign up for my FREE 7 day eCourse to making money online, this basically teaches you how I created IncomeDiary and how you can do it yourself to make a full time income (and more) from your own blog. Next I recommend you check out some of the eBooks I recommend, educating yourself is so important, even now that I am somewhat a success, I keep re-educating myself, every single day. You might want to start with Rob Benwell’s Blogging to the Bank eBook or Yaro Starks Blog Mastermind membership website.

How They Make Money From Blogging

Their is over a dozen methods these top blogger’s are using to monetize their blog, different techniques for each niche. Some niche’s are easier to promote products to, some have high paying keywords and some are easy to drive millions of visitors easy month! Bellow is a run down on some of the techniques used.

Advertising Banners By far the most popular advertising method so far in 2009. A great new service called BuySellAds take care of finding you advertisers and takes care of all the process for a small 25% which is well worth it!
CPM Advertising This method is really popular for the website’s that receive a huge amount of traffic, advertisers pay you for impressions rather than sales or clicks! Check out Adtegrity for CPM Advertising.
Affiliate Sales Selling on commission depending on your niche can be a huge earner and is by far my biggest earner. You promote great products and then get great commissions. Affiliate networks include CJ.com and Clickbank.
Pay Per Click By far the easiest way to earn money from you website is getting paid per click you send to website’s. With programs such as Google Adsense and Netklix it’s so easy to add their code and start earning today.

Technically Speaking, there was a lot more, so you should read more …

Yesterday we had the Top 7 Tips, now we have the 5 worst ways to make money with Amazon Associates:

1. Do not use Amazon.com banner ads: 5% of total 2009 earnings

Even though I made 5% of my total earnings from Amazon banner ads (which is the same amount as the Buy Now buttons I implemented on my websites) it’s important to recognize just how much screen real estate I devoted to their use (most times a 468 x 60 ad and a 300 x 250 rotating ad unit with Google Adsense both above the fold). The reason why I believe these ads perform so poorly is two fold:

a. Web visitors avoid clicking advertisements in general, but I’ve found the Amazon ads especially tend to convert very poorly (all varieties)
b. The ads Amazon does offer are far too general and don’t work well for niche specific websites. i.e. if I was running a site focused on just LED HDTV‘s the closest ad I could use is one for electronics.

The most effective Amazon ads I did run were carousel widgets and even those performed poorly when compared to the tactics I know work. One unknown trick is to simply create your own ads for products on Amazon; however, you must email the customer service team to get approval before running them (if you want to play it safe that is, which I always tend to do). The ads I did go through the hassle of creating and getting approval for were even more effective than the carousel widgets, but again none of these solutions were as effective as linking to content within posts my most effective means of earning money from Amazon. In fact, as you can see from the last post I earned over 80% of my total income share based on in content related tactics.

More terrible ways to make money with Amazon Associates are continued after the break

2. Do not use an Amazon store: 1.2% of total 2009 earnings

I used Amazon stores for almost every one of my websites in 2009 and linked to the store via the navigation bar on each respective website. I would also link to the store from time to time when new products were made available for purchase. In the store I’d include products that were related to the niche and include both low priced items and high priced items. I’d also customize the color scheme to match the site in an attempt to make the appearance look seamless. So what I’m trying to get across is that I did everything right that Amazon describes for the best results and I still couldn’t any money. I wouldn’t even waste your effort building a store and instead use the space freed up in the navigation bar to link to “money articles” or categories.

3. Do not display ads unrelated to your niche

This is an obvious tip in my mind, but I’ve seen new and experienced bloggers alike use Amazon consumer electronic banner ads on their blog about puppies (as an example). At the very least display ads related to dog toys and even then that’s not going to make you much money as you can see from my results above. It’s all about staying within the confines of your niche if you want to get the best results. Remember, people came to your blog, website, forum etc. for the topic you’re covering – that’s it! So your readers will respond best to content related to your niche.

Technically Speaking, the rest of course is a task where you need to read more …

This is kind of old information, but might help to satisfy the need to make money fast:

Here are quick and easy ways to make money on the Internet. Will you get rich? No. But you just might bring in a few hundred dollars a month and maybe keep your lights on this Winter!

Project Payday

If you can use a computer to surf the Internet, chances are good that you can use Project Payday to earn extra money on the Internet. It doesn’t require a lot of technical knowledge and it’s pretty darn quick and easy to use.

Project Payday is free to join and they have loads of free training Video’s to help you get started. Plus they also have a mentoring program where you’ll get hands on tutoring if you need it. I’d highly suggest you watch the video’s and even consider the mentoring program to maximize your potential income opportunities. You can expect to get offers in the $15 to $30 range. I’ve seen some as high as $50 though, but those are rare. Most people can do several offers a day once they get the hang of it and get their routine down and become familiar with how the system works. Click here to learn more about Project Payday.

Ebay

No article about making money online would be complete without mention of eBay. While it’s not as good as it once was for the person looking to make money fast on the Internet, it still allows many people to stay home and make a darn good income from selling goods online.

You can find goods to sell on eBay on Craigslist, Garage Sales, Big Box stores like Sam’s and Costco and in your own home. I bet most of us have stuff we haven’t used in months that could be auctioned off on eBay to make a quick dollar or two.

Time was once where you could go out and hit Garage sales and Estate auctions and bring the stuff back to your home, list it on eBay and make some good money. You can still do that, but the money isn’t as good as it once was because of the higher listing fees and many of the commercial companies drowning out the smaller individual auctions.

A way some people have started taking advantage of these changes at eBay is to start their own stores. ProStores is an eBay company that offers several packages that make it easy to get up and running with your very own ecommerce store. This is a great way to get started without having to know a lot about web programming and using a lot of different programs. Check it out here if this sounds like something you’d want to do —-> One Month Free Trial! ProStores – an eBay Company

Freelance Yourself

There are any number of places on the Internet where you can go and sign up as a freelance writer. Many people do not realize that there is a great demand for Writers due to the need for Content on the Internet. I myself buy a lot of articles written by several of these services. Businesses, Internet Marketers and mainstream sites like About.com all use freelance writers. The best part is, you don’t have to be an expert writer in most cases.

One of these services, Freelance Home Writers, is a membership site that you join to access databases of companies looking for writers. You then pick and choose which writing jobs you want and just pass over the ones you don’t want. Typically you’ll be writing Blog post and Content articles for Websites. However you can get the chance to write fiction and non-fiction story’s as well. They also have several other opportunities for you to make money on the Internet. That’s pretty good money for people who can turn out a few articles per day. Currently they’re running a $2.97 for a 7 day trial. This is cheap enough to get in and see the writing opportunities they have as well as the other programs to make money at home. Click Here to find out more about this opportunity.

Read Emails – Take Online Surveys – Product Evaluation

In my opinion, this isn’t as easy as Project Payday, but it’s real close. There are companies that receive thousands of emails every day that need to be read. Obviously the CEO or other employees can’t spend every day reading emails, so they outsource this.

There are several companies where they outsource this type of work as well as other tedious, time consuming chores such as product testing and evaluation, online surveys, online mystery shopping and others. Send Earnings is one such company that other companies outsource to. Consumers such as you sign up and are normally paid on a per assignment completed basis. The pay varies by what type of assignment you choose. You choose where you want to make money. Click Here to learn more or to sign up for this opportunity. It’s FREE to join and you can get started making money online very quickly.

Etsy

Do you create crafts? Etsy is a huge online marketplace where people sell their crafts. Since it draws people looking for handmade products or craft supplies, Sellers find it more profitable for many crafts than eBay.

My Wife and Mother-In-Law have sold many items on Etsy including quilts and hand sewn dolls. They received pretty respectable prices for their items, much more than what they received on eBay for items of similar nature.

As I guy, I have to admit there are some pretty interesting handmade crafts on that site. Some will make you scratch you head and wonder how anyone could make such a thing! If you have some crafts laying around you could get rid of, or if you could make some up quickly, then this might be the outlet for you to make money fast.

Craigslist

I love Craigslist! Mostly for the cool stuff I buy off of it in my local area. But Craigslist can also be a Goldmine if you’ll put the time into it. I call the method I use to make money from Craigslist “Craigslist Arbitrage” because this is how it works.

I scan the Free section of Craigslist looking for valuable things people are giving away. If you live near a large Metro area, you’ll simply be amazed at what others will give away just to get rid of it. You need to be quick, because others are doing the same thing you are! Once you pick up your Freebies, turn around and put them back on Craigslist for sale at a below market price. Chances are they’ll go quick and you’ll have made some quick cash.

I first learned of this when we were moving and I was trying to score free moving boxes. I was constantly amazed at how quick they would go until someone told me people do nothing more than drive around grabbing up free boxes and turning around and selling them for $1 or more per box. The same goes for Furniture, electronics and other items. You need to be sitting at your computer refreshing the FREE page often. You can also find great deals in other areas of Craigslist so don’t just spend all your time in the FREE section.

Sell Ebooks

Do you have a particular skill or knowledge? Maybe Award winning recipes? Special technique for training dogs? Then write an ebook. Don’t care or don’t think you have the skills to write an ebook? Then find a freelancer at one of the places mentioned above. Don’t think your idea will sell? You’d be surprised! I know of one gentleman who does quite well ($1000+ per month) selling an ebook on raising Tomatoes. Nuff said!

But if none of these thrill you, then there are places like BestChoiceForEbooks.Com where you can buy the Master Resell Rights to ebooks, software and other products and rebrand them for yourself and sell them. You get to keep all the profits! You can sell them on eBay, Craigslist or set up a PayPal order page and advertise your products. There are hundreds of ways to drive traffic to your sales page so don’t get stuck in a rut! Get yourself a network of sites specific to each product and promote the crap out of it to bring in some quick money.

Become a Go To Guru

Getting back to those special skills or knowledge you have, have you ever thought about becoming a Consultant? Everywhere you look these days, there are consultants for this and that. Consultants for organizing a home, creating a baby’s room, throwing wedding showers and the list goes on.

You’d be surprised at how much people will pay for information that they need and need quick! Show your community that you’re an expert in your field and they’ll beat a path to your door.

One great thing about this business is that it’s easy and inexpensive to start. You can do it part time, in the Evenings or on weekends right from your home. Over time you may find your “part time” job is making more money than your “real” job!

Have Camera, Will Take Photo’s

Do you like taking pictures with your digital camera? Have you thought about selling them but thought you weren’t good enough because you’re not a “professional”? Have to fear. Many people make extra money fast by selling their pictures online.

Websites like BigStockPhoto, ShutterStock, Fotolia and others pay you each time one of your photo’s are downloaded. Many of these sites pay anywhere from 25 cents per photo downloaded to a percentage of the commission on specialty photo’s.

Photographers who do this type of work are called Stock Photographers and the Photo’s they take are known as micro stock. It’s the same kind of pictures you’ll see on this site. Although 25 cents per photo doesn’t sound like much (some sites pay more), consider that you may have thousands of photo’s uploaded. One of the best know Stock Photographers is pulling down $300 or more a day from just one of the Stock Photography websites!

Another huge advantage of taking stock photography is that your photo’s keep making you money over and over and over. One of the best residual income generators on the Web. Not only is this making money fast, it’s making money fast again and again!

Small Business Web Design

With all the WYSIWYG web generation software out there today, just about anyone can make a website. Plus with programs like WordPress and Premium Themes, building an attractive and functional website is easier than ever.

There are Small Businesses everywhere looking for simple and functional sites. Many believe they have to spend thousands on a website. If you can go in and show them that they can have a eye appealing website that is functional and brings in customers for a few hundred bucks, they’ll be telling everyone they know.

Technically Speaking, always go and read more …

You should read the entire post:

Make Money Online – A Step-by-Step Guide

This is a nuts and bolts guide to making money online by building affiliate style blogs. We won’t be diving into technical details, but with this guide you will have a tested and proven blueprint to follow.

How much money will you make? How fast will you make it? Well…most of that depends on what you know now, how many hours you put into this, and how fast you learn on the job. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme, it’s an actual business strategy used by thousands of other successful online marketers. The mindset of successful affiliate marketers is this: Others have done it, I can do it. I will work every available waking hour until I succeed.

Just like any new business venture, things tend to start slow. If you turn a profit in your first month, you’ve done very well. If it takes you 3 months, you’re still ahead of most beginners. If you are smart, have a strong work ethic, dedicate a great deal of time, and you are not easily discouraged – you can be earning an actual living in 6-12 months.

Technically Speaking, you should always read more …

Remember, this is kind of old information, so some of the data may be dated. Also, it says 28 ways to make money with you website:

Notice that ways to make money with a website are different from ways to make more money from it. Methods to increase your traffic or click-through rate will help you make more money, but they do not represent a method of making money per se.

For example, one could suggest that blending AdSense ads with the content is a way to make money from a website. In reality it’s not; it’s just a way to make more money by improving your ad click-through rate. The real monetization method behind it is a PPC ad network.

The list is divided into direct and indirect methods, and examples and links are provided for each point. Enjoy!

Direct Methods

1. PPC Advertising Networks

Google AdSense is the most popular option under this category, but there are also others. Basically you need to sign up with the network and paste some code snippets on your website. The network will then serve contextual ads (either text or images) relevant to your website, and you will earn a certain amount of money for every click.

The profitability of PPC advertising depends on the general traffic levels of the website and, most importantly, on the click-through rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC). The CTR depends on the design of the website. Ads placed abode the fold or blended with content, for instance, tend to get higher CTRs. The CPC, on the other hand, depends on the nice of the website. Mortgages, financial products and college education are examples of profitable niches (clicks worth a couple of dollars are not rare), while tech-related topics tend to receive a smaller CPC (sometimes as low as a couple of cents per click).

The source of the traffic can also affect the overall CTR rate. Organic traffic (the one that comes from search engines) tends to perform well because these visitors were already looking for something, and they tend to click on ads more often. Social media traffic, on the other hand, presents terribly low CTRs because these visitors are tech-savvy and they just ignore ads.

List of popular CPC advertising networks:

• Google Adsense
• Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN)
• BidVertiser
• Chitika
• Clicksor

2. CPM Advertising Networks

CPM advertising networks behave pretty much as PPC networks, except that you get paid according to the number of impressions (i.e., page views) that the ads displayed on your site will generate. CPM stands for Cost per Mille, and it refers to the cost for 1,000 impressions.

A blog that generates 100,000 page views monthly displaying an advertising banner with a $1 CPM, therefore, will earn $100 monthly.

CPM rates vary with the network, the position of the ad and the format. The better the network, the higher the CPM rate (because they have access to more advertisers). The closer you put the ad to the top of the page, the higher the CPM. The bigger the format (in terms of pixels), the higher the CPM.

You can get as low as $0,10 and as high as $10 per 1,000 impressions (more in some special cases). CPM advertising tends to work well on websites with a high page views per visitor ratio (e.g., online forums, magazines and so on).

List of popular CPM advertising networks:

• Casale Media
• Burst Media
• Value Click
• Advertising.com
• Tribal Fusion
• Right Media

3. Direct Banner Advertising

Selling your own advertising space is one of the most lucrative monetization methods. First and foremost because it enables you to cut out the middleman commissions and to determine your own rates. The most popular banner formats on the web are the 728×90 leaderboard, the 120×600 skyscraper, the 300×250 rectangle and the 125×125 button.

The downside of direct banner advertising is that you need to have a big audience to get qualified advertisers, and you will need to spend time managing the sales process, the banners and the payments.

Related links:

• How to Find Advertisers for Your Website
• Finding Advertisers for Your Blog
• Direct Advertising Sales for Beginners
• Openads Ad Server
• OIO Publisher Ad Platform

4. Text Link Ads

After Google declared that sites selling text links without the nofollow tag would be penalized, this monetization method became less popular.

Many website owners are still using text links to monetize their sites, though, some using the nofollow tag and some not.

The advantage of this method is that it is not intrusive. One can sell text links directly through his website or use specialized networks like Text-Link-Ads and Text-Link-Brokers to automate the process.

Text link marketplaces and networks:

• DigitalPoint Link Sales Forum
• Text-Link-Ads
• Text-Link-Brokers
• TNX
• LinkWorth

5. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a very popular practice on the Internet. Under this system you have a merchant that is willing to let other people (the affiliates) sell directly or indirectly its products and services, in exchange for a commission. Sometimes this type of advertising is also called CPA (cost per action) or CPL (cost per lead) based.

Affiliates can send potential customers to the merchant using several tools, from banners to text links and product reviews.

In order to find suitable affiliate programs you can turn to individual companies and publishers like Dreamhost and SEOBook, or join affiliate marketplaces and networks.

List of popular affiliate marketplaces and networks:

• Commission Junction
• ClickBank
• Azoogle Ads
• Link Share

6. Monetization Widgets

The latest trend on the web are widgets that let you monetize your website. Examples include Widgetbucks and SmartLinks. Some of these services operate under a PPC scheme, others behave like text link ads, others yet leverage affiliate links.

Their main differentiator, however, is the fact that they work as web widgets, making it easier for the user to plug and play the service on its website.

List of companies that provide monetization widgets:

• WidgetBucks
• ScratchBack
• SmartLinks

7. Sponsored Reviews

PayPerPost pioneered this model, with much controversy on the beginning (related to the fact that they did not require disclosure on paid posts). Soon other companies followed, most notably Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe, refining the process and expanding the paid blogging model.

Joining one of these sponsored reviews marketplaces will give you the opportunity to write sponsored posts on a wide range of topics. Not all bloggers are willing to get paid to write about a specific product or website (because it might compromise the editorial credibility), but the ones who do are making good money out of it.

If your blog has a big audience you could also offer sponsored reviews directly, cutting off the commissions of the middleman.

List of sponsored reviews and paid blogging networks:

• PayPerPost
• Sponsored Reviews
• ReviewMe
• BlogVertise
• Smorty

8. RSS Feed Ads

With the quick adoption of the RSS technology by millions of Internet users, website owners are starting to find ways to monetize this new content distribution channel.

Feedburber already has its own publisher network, and you can sign-up to start displaying CPM based advertising on your feed footer. Bidvertiser recently introduced a RSS feed ad option as well, with a PPC scheme.

Finally, some blogs are also opting to sell banners or sponsored messages on their feed directly. John Chow and Marketing Pilgrim are two examples.

Related links:

• Feedburner
• BidVertiser
• Pheedo

9. Sponsors for Single Columns or Events

If you website has specific columns or events (e.g., a weekly podcast, an interview series, a monthly survey, a special project) you could find companies to sponsor them individually.

This method increases the monetization options for website owner, while giving advertisers the possibility to target a more specific audience and with a reduced commitment.

Mashable illustrates the case well. They have several advertising options on the site, including the possibility to sponsor specific columns and articles, including the “Daily Poll” and the “Web 2.0 Invites.”

Problogger also runs group writing projects occasionally, and before proceeding he publicly announce the project asking for sponsors.

10.Premium Content

Some websites and blogs give away part of their content for free, and charge for access to the premium content and exclusive tools.

SEOMoz is a good example. They have a very popular blog that gives advice and information on wide range of SEO related topics. On top of that visitors can decide to become premium members. It costs $48 monthly and it grants them access to guides, tools and other exclusive material.

11. Private Forums

While the Internet is populated with free forums, there is also the possibility to create a private one where members need to pay a single or recurring fee to join.

SEO Blackhat charges $100 monthly from its members, and they have thousands of them. Obviously in order to charge such a price for a forum membership you need to provide real value for the members (e.g., secret techniques, tools, and so on).

Performancing also launched a private forum recently, focused on the networking aspect. It is called The Hive, and the monthly cost is $10.

These are just two examples. There are many possibilities to create a private and profitable forum, you just need to find an appealing angle that will make it worth for the members.

List of popular forum software:

• vBulletin
• Simple Machines Forum
• phpBB
• Vanilla

12. Job Boards

All the popular blogs are trying to leverage job boards to make some extra income. Guy Kawasaki, ReadWriteWeb, Problogger… you name it.

Needless to say that in order to create an active and profitable job board you need first to have a blog focused on a specific niche, and a decent amount traffic.

The advantage of this method is that it is passive. Once you have the structure in place, the job listings will come naturally, and you can charge anywhere from $10 up to $100 for each.

List of popular job board software:

• JobThread
• Web Scribe Job Board
• SimplyHired Job-o-matic
• Jobbex

13. Marketplaces

Sitepoint is the online marketplace by excellence. Some websites and blogs, however, are trying to replicate that model on a smaller scale.

Depending on your niche, a market place that allows your visitors to buy, sell and trade products could work well. Over the time you could start charging a small fee for new product listings.

The problem with this method is that there are no standard software on the web, so you would need to hire a coder to get a marketplace integrated into your website.

You can see an example of a marketplaces being used on EasyWordpress and on Mashable.

14. Paid Surveys and Polls

There are services that will pay you money to run a small survey or poll on your website. The most popular one is called Vizu Answers.

Basically you need to sign up with them, and select the kind of polls that you want to run your site. Most of these services operate under a CPM model.

15. Selling or Renting Internal Pages

Million Dollar Wiki made this concept popular, but it was being used on the web for a long time around (check Pagerank10.co.uk for instance).

These websites sell for a single fee or rent for a recurring fee internal pages on their domain. Usually they have either high Pagerak or high traffic, so that people purchasing a page will be able to benefit in some way.

Implementing this method on a small blog would be difficult, but the concept is interesting and could be explored further.

16. Highlighted Posts from Sponsors

Techmeme probably pioneered this idea, but somehow it has not spread to other websites. The tech news aggregator displays editorial posts on the left column, and on the sidebar they have a section titled “Techmeme Sponsor Posts.”

On that section posts from the blog of the advertisers get highlighted, sending qualified traffic their way. Considering that the monthly cost for one spot is $5000 and that they have around 6 sponsors at any given time, it must be working well.

17. Donations

Placing a “Donate” link or button on a website can be an efficient way to earn money, especially if your blog is on a niche where readers learn and gain value from your content.

Personal development and productivity blogs, for instance, tend to perform well with donation based systems (one good example being Steve Pavlina).

A small variation of this method appeared sometime ago with the Buy Me a Beer plugin. This WordPress plugin enables you to insert a customized message at the bottom of each article, asking the readers to chip in for a beer or coffee.

18. In-text Adverting

In-text adverting networks like Kontera and Vibrant Media will place sponsored links inside your text. These links come with a double underline to differentiate them from normal links, and once the user rolls the mouse over the link the advertising will pop. Should the user click on it the site owner will make some money.

Some people make good money with this method, but others refrain from using it due to its intrusiveness. It is also interesting to note that very few mainstream websites have experimented with in-text advertising.

19. Pop-ups and Pop-unders

Pop-ups are a common yet annoying form of advertising on the Internet. If you are just trying to make a much money as possible from your website, you could experiment with them.

If you are trying to grow the traffic and generate loyal visitors, however, you probably should stay away from them. Just consider the hundreds of pop-up blockers out there: there is a reason why they are so popular.

Ad networks that use pop-ups:

• Tribal Fusion
• PayPopup
• PopupAd
• Adversal

20. Audio Ads

Also called PPP (Pay Per Play), this advertising method was introduce by Net Audio Ads. the concept is pretty simple: play a small audio advertising (usually 5 seconds) every time a visitor enters into your website. The user should not be able to stop it, creating a 100% conversion rate based on unique visitors.

The company is still rolling tests, but some users are reporting to get from a $4 to a $6 CPM. Regardless of the pay rate, though, this is a very intrusive form of advertising, so think twice before using it.

21. Selling the Website

Selling your website could be your last resource, but it has the potential to generate a big sum of money in a short period of time.

Market places on online forums like DigitalPoint and Sitepoint are always active with website buyers and sellers. Keep in mind that they most used parameter to determine the value of a website is the monthly revenue that it generates, multiplied by a certain number (the multiplier can be anything from 5 to 30, depending on the expectations of the seller, on the quality of the site, on the niche and other factors).

Some people also make money trading and flipping websites. They either create them from scratch or buy existing ones, and after some revamping they sell them for a profit.

Related links:

Technically Speaking, there are still more ways obviously, and you need to go read more …

These tips might work, an remember there are 52 ways to make extra money:

1. Delivering Pizzas – If you have a car and a decent driving record then you qualify for this easy extra money maker. You’re likely to get some free pizzas too.
2. Waiting Tables – This is the perfect job for nights and weekends. That’s when all the big tips are made anyway. Pick the nicest place in town.
3. Bar Tending – Even better, I think, than waiting tables is tending the bar at nights in a busy bar. Typically at least $1 for every drink you serve.
4. Teaching Swimming Lessons - If you’re a good swimmer you might be able to pick up a weekend swim teacher gig at your local recreation center. Keep in mind that some places may require a special certification or that you be a lifeguard.
5. Car Valet – If you hook up with a for-hire car parking service (the type hired out for fancy neighborhood parties) you can make some nice cash tips in just a few hours at night and on the weekend, when parties are held.
6. Create Websites – Businesses will pay you to take them online.
7. Blogging – This isn’t quick money, but you can make decent money with a little luck and a few months of solid, consistent effort. Believe me, it can be tough and a bit time consuming, but it can be done. Get started with a nice domain and cheap hosting plan from the provider I use Bluehost.com. Or consider the services of a more notable provider like GoDaddy.com.
8. Write an eBook - I hesitate to put this one in here because an eBook by itself usually doesn’t make money unless you’re an excellent marketer. What a great eBook can do though is act as a sales lead to one of your other online businesses.
9. Design Web Logos – If you’re good with Photoshop and can work quick, you might could make some decent cash with this online business.
10. Re-write Poorly Written Ads - Search the ad listings at Ebay.com and Craigslist.org for big items like cars. Email the seller and offer to re-write their ad for a 1% commission.
11. Write Reviews - There are many websites that will pay you a little cash to write product reviews. If you’re knowledgeable and can write fast, this may work for you.
12. CashCrate – There’s some money to be made with CashCrate.com completing the free offers, but the real cash comes from the referral program.
13. Freebie Trading – Freebie trading is a real money maker. But it takes a special person to master the techniques and be consistent with the process. See how The Freebie Guy made over $28K in his First Year
14. Freelance Writer – Right now on Elance.com they are looking for more writers. Set up an ad and start offering up your fast writing skills.
15. Sell Digital Photos – (Digital Photography School) – Take nice pictures. Get them up on the web at a broker, or microstock site. Make some money. It’s not as easy as that, but those are the basics. If you need a better guide, check out Photo Nuts and Bolts: Know Your Camera and Take Better Photos
16. Sell Yourself Online – Get creative and sell you and your time online in a fresh, new way.
17. Sell Micro Ad Space Online – Start a website and sell tiny ads. Can this be duplicated? Or can you take the concept and make it fresh?
18. Start an Online Store – Setting up an online store is extremely easy with sites like Amazon, Ebay, and CafePress. Once you learn how to market that site you can begin making some cash.
19. Focus Group Participant – Researchers need people to help them develop their results. Become a member of a focus group in your area and get your share of their research funding. Call your local university, museum, or look in your local paper for opportunities.
20. Sell Bottled Water – Buy bottled water in bulk and sell it for a dollar where there are a ton of people: parks, festivals, concerts, etc.
21. Sell Your Body – Not talking about the oldest profession here. I’m talking about your plasma, hair, eggs, and sperm.
22. Have a Car Wash – Find a business that’s willing to loan you their parking lot and gather up a few friends to wash some cars. Take donations or ask for very little. People usually do this to raise fund for an organization, but there’s no reason you couldn’t do it for the You Foundation.
23. Cleaning Houses – This is a job with flexible hours, but requires a bit of elbow grease. Some homes would provide their own cleaning supplies and tools.
24. Get a 2010 Census Job - Work opportunities begin in the Spring.
25. Sell Your Baked Goods – Are you skilled at a few special recipes? Contract your items out for parties, meetings, etc.
26. Rent Out Your Truck or Van – If I had a truck and needed extra money this is one of the ways I would do it. Nothing seems much easier to me.
27. Drive People to the Airport - Another good gig for someone with a reliable car and the ability to be on-time all the time. Once you have a few happy clients and word gets out, you’ll find you have to turn business away.
28. Lawn Care – I grew up doing this job on the side and loved it. But it’s not just a teenager gig. Obviously better for warmer climates.
29. Be a Mystery Shopper – Get paid to shop and share your experience.
30. Become a Ticket Broker – No special permit required. If you know sports or entertainment enough to pick the right events, and have access to purchase the tickets at face or below, then you can use a service like Stubhub.com or Craigslist.org to re-sell the tickets for a profit. I’ve done this both out of necessity and just to make some extra money.
31. Paper Route - This job will likely take up only your early morning hours. You can also search for a paper that only comes out once a week.
32. Walk Dogs – If you love animals and live in an urban area then consider this job.
33. Pet Sitting – Take dog walking a step further and actually be paid to watch someone’s pet for a few hours or days. This may just entail checking in on the pet a few times a day.
34. Baby Sitting – If you enjoy kids and are good with them, this can be a fun and easy way to make a little cash. Advertise your baby sitting services for free online with Sittercity.com. In need of a baby sitter, browse their website for free.
35. Tutor – Have a knack for a certain subject and live near a college? Consider offering up your brain power and teaching skills for some quick cash. Grade school kids need help too, and parents pay better than college students.
36. Play Music in Church or at Weddings - Some churches don’t have volunteers for their music. A talented pianist can make pretty good money doing this on the weekends.
37. Teach English to Adults - Go through your local schools and colleges to find classes where teachers of English are needed.

Technically Speaking, you will want to go read more …

Didn’t know there was a FAQ written about making money online, but apparently someone wrote one:

These are the frequently asked questions (FAQs) on how to make money online. Making money online is also known as working at home. This is suited for beginners or newbies who want to learn how to make money online, and even for veterans who failed to make big money on the net. This could make a big difference into your life.

How do people make money online?

There are many ways people making money online. Many are blogging and maintaining web site and sell their products and services. Some are selling other people’s stuff. Some are selling web site or blog space for advertising. Some people are just playing online games, reading emails, filling up surveys and even by socializing.

What is the best way to start making money online?

The best way to start making money online, for me, is to have your own blog or web site by sharing your expertise, knowledge, experiences, and ideas to help other people solve their problems or make them happy in some way. With your own blog or site, you may sell whatever products or services you have. You may also sell other people’s products and services for commission. You may also offer your web page as ad space. Having your own blog or site, you can control almost everything. And another great thing, you will learn a lot of things. From here, we will talk about making money by making a blog or site, without having your own products or services to sell.

How much is the minimum and maximum income online?

Well, the minimum is zero or nothing but the maximum income is unlimited or open-ended. The highest possible income online depends on your determination, desire, and actions. Your maximum income could reach more than $10,000 per month.

Do I need to learn computer programming to start making money online?

You don’t need to learn computer programming. But it will be helpful if you learn the basics of HTML programming. With HTML knowledge, you may enhance or modify the design of your blog or web site as you desire. Good layout may increase your web site revenue.

Do I need to invest money to make money online?

If you already have an internet connection, then you may not spend additional money. You can have your own blog for free using WordPress or Blogger. But, you can only have your own subdomain name under the domain name “wordpress.com” or “blogspot.com”. To have your own domain name, you have to register your own domain name and lease a web space. Approximately, this will cost you $10 for domain name and $60 for hosting annually.

How long does it take to start making money online?

It depends on how fast you setup your blog or site and how quick you put original and interesting content in it. Also, how well-optimized your content for search engines and for humans as well. Original and interesting content attracts both visitors and search engines and will create a buzz in the internet world. Search engine optimization will make it easy for search engines to index your blog or site and will be happy to show it to its users. The more the search engines show your blog or site to its users, the more traffic it will have. The more traffic it gets, the more chances it will make money from your sales promotions and/or advertising programs such Google ads.

Now, if you stop asking questions and start making your blog or site, you will make money online earlier. Just kidding. Actually, the more knowledge you have, the more effective you can start making money online. It is really better to clear all your questions during planning a web or blog design.

How do I start to effectively make money online?

First, list down all a not-so-broad topics that you know and you love to learn. From the list, select the topic you love best and would love to share to other online users. That would be the topic for your blog or site.

Second, learn search engine optimization to give you an idea on how to optimize your would-be articles or content. You may start with the quality guidelines of Google.

Third, plan the flow of information or content of your would-be blog or site. It is recommended that you start from main topic to sub-topics and then articles regarding the sub-topics. It is also recommended that each page focuses in one topic.

Fourth, choose the path of having your own blog or site for free or with paid domain name and web hosting. Choose web design layout from free templates in free blog sites, especially WordPress and Blogger. In paid hosting, you normally have free templates and format in C Panel Fantastico.

Fifth, apply for Google Adsense and other affiliate programs and deploy its codes within your pages that will not annoy your readers. Your first objective, must be to help your online readers understand the information you are sharing to them. Making money online must be your secondary goal only. Visitors will normally help you make money if your blog or site helps them in some way.

Technically Speaking, you should read more …