Current Money-Makers Leapforce : many thousands Amazon Mechanical Turk : $912 Clickworker (UHRS): $85 Prolific (new): $37 If you're into surveys, this is the most no-nonsense site I've ever used. Internet search tasks  (new): $20 Pinecone Research :  $3 *New* KoinMe : $2 Passive earning; legit and very easy. Guide here . Work at Home Leads Microsoft is looking for people to participate in games/apps research panels (compensated) Lionbridge is hiring  online workers Apple is hiring home-based customer service Appen is hiring online workers From Rat Race Rebellion U-Haul is hiring work-at-home customer service reps. 

There are three simple rules for how to write a killer blog post; unfortunately, nobody knows what they are. Let's do 100, instead . Time to upgrade your trusty blog-writing toolbox with your choice of the many ways to write it, get it read, and get it linked better .

1. Ask a blogger for a favor , especially if you have no intention of reading their blog. Bonus points for starting your request like-a-so: "Hi, I don't read your blog, but would you mind..." 2. Use messaging on social networking sites ( StumbleUpon , MyBlogLog ) to ask people to visit your site. Bonus points for not visiting the sites of those you ask. 3. Sport the dollar signs in your eyes with pride. Whether it be links, traffic or money, we're all here to serve you . Demonstrate your dedication to self-enrichment with every comment, email and post. 4. Avoid writing comments that resemble actual conversation. Comments that begin and end with "Great post!", "I agree!", or "Ditto!" are best. Bonus points for fawning. 5. Copy another blogger's content. Bonus points for not linking to their original post. They love that. Gold star for submitting your copy to Digg. 6. Borrow heavily from another blogger's post...

This article is for those who have read metric tons of "how to get traffic" articles and either: have yet to see encouraging results, or just want to find out what this so-called "guaranteed 1-step plan" is. The typical list we're familiar with looks something like this: Use social networking Link effectively Comment well Be active on forums Blah Blah Blah to the Blah That's all fine advice (especially the "blah" part), but we'd all appreciate more than recycled versions of the conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom is valid as far as it goes, but also tends to be overly-general and far from guaranteed. Let's change that. The 1-Step Plan To Get Readers For Your Blog Have A Conversation With One Person As in, two-way communication. Dialogue. One-on-one. A real, actual conversation. You might link to other blogs, write good content and comment all over the place, but how often do you actually connect with someone else t...

The people listed below are but a small selection of the outstanding commenters here at FTM, each of whom has a blog well worth checking out. The comments section of a blog is where its true life is. While monologuing has its place (particularly when a would-be hero lies helpless in your clutches), dialog is the true key to success in the world of words that is the blogosphere. For challenging us with your unique perspective, raising the level of dialog, or just being plain sassy , I salute you: Ms. Q : An amusing muse Jonathan Philips : Reservoir of positivity Liz Strauss : The original SOB Avinash : Just cool Jesse Somer : Bane of the impetuous Kumiko : Certifiably enthusiastic Andy Beard : Remarkably sane Two Knives : Whose blades are not ceremonial.

Jesse of Blogspoke is; I, myself, am not. I've been talking to him about it at his blog, and I think it's a great conversation to have. Sure, blogging-for-money is a wading pool of low expectations. Low barrier of entry, little-to-no risk and, frankly, full of folks easily amused by splashing around without accomplishing much of anything. However, it's full of potential; and - as I told Jesse - although it's easy to get snarky about all the wannabes out there (which I do on occasion, and could be accused of being one, too,) there are people out there with a vision for how they want it to be, who raise the level wherever they go. Walking the talk, so to speak. Technology will eventually get us to a place where our online activities become a part of - or even integral to - how we earn our income. Will that future have room for lowest-common-denominator thinking, writing, and marketing to the level that it exists online today? I don't think so; but getting there will...

Scenario #1 If you: Regularly create high quality, valuable content Actively promote your blog Don't make a reasonable hourly wage You are UNDERPAID. Scenario #2 If you: Spend more time checking ad/earning stats than creating high-quality, valuable content Are more interested in monitoring traffic than promoting your blog Also don't make a reasonable hourly wage Whatever trickle of income (if any) you're making is JUST RIGHT - get used to it. If you are a Scenario #1 blogger: Keep doing what you're doing; you will likely be rewarded sooner or later. You are a winner. If you are a Scenario #2 blogger: Punt the ads, get off the daily traffic rollercoaster and spend your time doing something productive; like building and promoting a blog you can be proud of. Winners do it. That is all.

Is an elite cadre of blogging gatekeepers keeping us all in our place and limiting our blogging potential? Pshaw. However, if you have too much time on your hands ( :D ), you may have been following a theatrical little debate that pits the "A-list" against "blue-collar" bloggers. Oh yes, you know where this is going. It all started with one blogger's annoyance at the trend of A-lister's who have taken to bashing poor ol' PayPerPost . What follows is a (ridiculously) paraphrased version of the debate, including links to the appropriate whines tirades posts: DeepJive : PayPerPost isn't evil. The A-list is just an elitist aristocracy who has no need for it. Calacanis : BS! If there was an A-List, which there isn't, all it would take to be an A-lister would be to stop being such slackers. And then you'd be on the A-list. If there was one. But there isn't. Lorelle : Yes, there is. Calacanis: NEGATIVE, dummies . Stop whining . Jim Kukral : Y...

Whether you're a seeker , slacker (hi!), yang kee , cash-quester or ray gun robot , you've got expectations for this whole blogging thing. You could be happiness incarnate , but expectations can still be an irritant; especially when they fail miserably in the "jibes with reality" department (even if your name is blog ). I know what my frustrations are (and in an upcoming post they shall be revealed ), but I don't know all of yours. So, an open question to all bloggers: what frustrates you the most about blogging?

You may have read " How To Make Readers Avoid Your Blog Like The Plague ". While most of that (clearly excellent) advice was easy enough to integrate into your blogging habits, some of it required actual work . Do you need more work? Pshaw. Submitted For Your Approval 5 NEW items that: Will send readers running for the hills Require absolutely no effort! 1. Don't Provide Email Subscriptions There are still too many people who prefer to receive posts by email (as my email subscribers will attest). If you were to take the 10 to 30 minutes required to provide this option, you'd be running the substantial risk of increasing your readership. Ouch . 2. Avoid Research Any amount of research will make your posts far too valuable. When I declared that " Winners Use StumbleUpon ", for instance, it generated way too much interest. I could have repelled so many more readers just by changing the headline to "StumbleUpon: A Service" and following u...

It's not that you aren't willing to invest time promoting your blog - you are. Indeed, you spend so much doing so that you haven't got much left. Have you, therefore, hit a wall in the amount of exposure you can generate for your blog? Not if you can tap into some slacker-friendly ways to broaden your community. To that end, here are a few examples of services and techniques that work. I invite you to add your own favorites, too. Slacker-Friendly Services: Communities Now, I'm not promoting a self-centered view of online communities, where the only goal is to receive and not to give. However, if you truly understand and believe in the value of your blog ( do you ? ), then even limited community participation can pay off. Does your blog sell itself? Here are two such communities that are sending traffic my way: SpicyPage A Digg-like voting site for blogs that I joined recently. Setting it up is quick and easy, and possibly all you need to do. While active community part...

Sania tapped me for this thing . I'm not a frequent visitor of sites with slogans like "Create Life In Your Image!", but I do jump at chances to be perverse. Have you ever been to Los Angeles? I live here. If you get the chance, spend a day in Malibu (you know, the city Mel Gibson " owns " - hee hee) or take a walk down Santa Monica's Promenade (try to avoid bearing a passing resemblance to any star - it sucks). When you do, you too may develop the narrow-eyed view of the word "success" that I have. There's self-improvement, and then there's masturbation - the latter often masquerading as the former here. SO, avoiding success-language kitsch, allow me to share my everyday top-5: 1. Fail Upwards I make (among other kinds) a blogging " mistake " almost every day. Huge or tiny, they're all forms of failure, so-called. Regardless, things are still moving upwards (see #2). 2. Don't Sweat Persistence, Just Be Unreasonably Ob...

I've read a number of ebooks - paid and free - and have come to rely on their nigh-monolithic failure to approach the charm of, say, your typical dentist's drill. Therefore, Chris Garrett 's excellent ebook, "Killer Flagship Content", has slightly screwed up my whole idea of God, right and wrong, the universe, etc. I already subscribe to Chris' blogs because I like his writing. Had it been almost anyone else, the mere utterance of the words "ebook" and "killer" would have ended the story right there ; but it wasn't just anyone, so I decided to scan it. Then I read it. Then I started taking notes. In other words, it was the hotness. Atypical of free ebooks, there's no sales language or anything to buy (unless you consider "sales" to be one invitation to subscribe to his RSS feed, which I would encourage anyway). Instead, it gives practical advice that can get you thinking about new ways to distinguish your blog from the r...

On the subject of self-promotion and commenting , here's one method: write a comment that outshines the original post (see comment #1 ). Great self-promotion? Read it for yourself and see if you agree. Update : The excellent commenter was Sania Wyatt .

Contrary to (un)popular belief, self-promotion and good karma are not mutually-exclusive. Read on if I didn't just blow your mind: ChrisG - Comment! According to Chris, bloggers don't comment well or often enough . No, no they don't. Additionally, they often miss the point of commenting entirely. As you well know , you can't swing a cat in the popular blogosphere without hitting a few clumsy attempts at self-promotion (e.g., "Hey, check out my blog at www.ignore-me.com" ). These individuals are missing the (evidently) arcane karmic secret: the best self-promotion is about giving, not receiving. Take the advice in Chris' post, and whether your comments are three words or a paragraph, analyze them like any post you would write. Ask: "What am I offering to the conversation, and why should anyone take the slightest notice?" Successful Blog - Truly Unique and Outstanding Blogs - Recap Week 1 Speaking of clumsy self-promotion, Liz's quest to fin...

Never analyze your blog from the perspective of a first-time reader Whether in design or writing, show no passion Be as wordy as possible Always link to well-known blogs, never to obscure ones Write uninteresting titles In all things, avoid variety Focus on frequency of posts - not frequency of good posts Don't reply to comments Post infrequently Avoid displaying personality at all costs Provide only a partial RSS feed Be self-congratulatory Avoid paragraphs and white space Make links open in a new window Never add pictures to your posts Write about what everyone else is writing about, but add nothing new Fill your sidebar(s) with irrelevant pictures, widgets and ads Frequently post outside of your blog's theme When you link to other blogs, provide no compelling reason to actually visit them Never, ever say thank you

You had a personality (and it didn't suck) discovered something new that made us want to try our luck No "How To" post for love of Digg , it's something new you said - no millionth link to Problogger (which we've already read) You made us think, or maybe smile (sans web-A.D.D crap), you made us STOP, or be inspired - no sugar spinal tap The title hooked, the promise kept to rss we fed it, and there was no link to Copyblogger (we've already read it )

Cool points are hereby awarded to StumbleUpon . Think of it as a mid-point between del.icio.us and Digg , with a great social element. Here's why winners use it: It's fun, and the toolbar is actually useful. It's easy to integrate into your blogging/surfing habits. It connects your blog to a larger community. The 'Stumble Effect' is arguably better, and far less painful than the 'Digg Effect' (traffic over time as opposed to all at once) The friend/contact mechanism makes much more sense than, say, MyBlogLog 's. You get ME as a buddy. (This clearly should have been #1) The Basics and More The Basics: There's really not much to using StumbleUpon (I like this). There's a toolbar you'll use to find, vote on and review new pages, and there's your profile page which includes a mini-blog that catalogs your Stumble activity. The Toolbar: The main functions of the toolbar are the "Stumble" button, which takes you to various websites...

Write something good enough to make it to the Digg front page. Endure obscene, INHUMAN levels of Digg traffic; fall down. Against all odds , get up. Write this time about the beating Digg just gave you. It shoots to the front page! Your site takes enough Digg effect to render it clinically dead this time. Get up... "eye of the tiger, man." Repeat until you've gone the DISTANCE. CONGRATULATIONS You Have SHOCKED THE WORLD!

So you discovered the concept of link-baiting , but it isn't working for your readership-challenged blog. Chances are, you're baiting the wrong people. Who are the right people? Why will they read our blog? Who do we have to lay What do we have to do to get a link in this town? The answers are so, so simple. Who Are the Right People? The right people are bloggers somewhat more successful than ourselves. Additionally, we: Like them Read their blogs regularly Actively contribute to their community Why Will They Read Our Blog? Because we provide them with readers. Oh, yes. Call it enlightened self-interest. Want to get the right people to read your blog? Follow this simple rule: a link is not enough . Me, I'm easy; if you link to me and click that link, you're fairly assured of a visit (because, you know, I'm bored). The majority of popular/busy bloggers are not. Therefore, if you're going to link to someone, make that link damn compelling . Actually liking th...