In the spirit of full transparency, know that this AppCoiner review contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. In fact, you will often receive a discount or bonus signing up fee! Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
You probably agree that getting paid to play on some apps and review them sounds like a great idea.
Most people think that just can’t happen. But AppCoiner appears to be the answer.
This AppCoiner review, with video, will show you the truth about the program and how you will actually make money from the platform.
AppCoiner Review- The Overview and Rankings
Name: AppCoiner
Owners: Unknown (0 out of 100)
Website URL: appcoiner.com
Type: Make Money From App Reviews Affiliate Marketing/ Adverts
Training: 10 out of 100
Success Stories: 10 out of 100
Price: $47$27 $17 + Upsells ($27 + $47)
Maketimeonline.com Rating: 7 out of 100
Pros and Cons
Pros
Chance to make money through affiliate marketing and adverts
Provided with a subdomain website (more on this later in the AppCoiner review)
Cons
Misleading information
Black hat sales tactics
No control over your website
VERY hard to get any traffic
Upsells
No training on Internet Marketing (i.e. SEO, website building, email management etc.)
What Does AppCoiner Do?
AppCoiner looks like it is as simple as 1, 2, 3.
Simply review an app and get paid.
Why not?
People get paid for their opinions all the time right, you know like those online surveys.
Plus check out their cool short video…
As you continue to read this AppCoiner review, you will realise this sales pitch couldn’t be further from the truth…
What Does AppCoiner Actually Do?
First of all, let’s define affiliate marketing. Because, without this, this whole AppCoiner review won’t make sense:
Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so.
This may help:
So with that being said…
Here is what you will actually need to do if you give AppCoiner a go…
Create a Clickbank affiliate account (a website that provides affiliate products that YOU can get paid to advertise… if someone clicks on your link and buys something)
Create your website that is provided i.e. mikebeatty.popularreviewer.com
Choose an App to review from AppCoiner’s database.
Download and test it.
Write a review (on your own website).
Try to get people to look at your website (this is hard!)
Get paid (through banner ads, app downloads & affiliate sales from your Clickbank account)
Clear as mud?
Yep, thought so.
As you continue to read this AppCoiner review, you will learn the truth about how you can get paid… and how likely that is.
Now, I can almost hear your mind saying…
Is AppCoiner a Scam?
There are two main ways an online course can be a scam:
Take your money and run off into the sunset, never to be heard from again
Provide some information but it doesn’t live up to their promises
It certainly is not scam type #1.
But it really doesn’t deliver what it says it will (get paid to review apps).
It is possible to make money from it, but it’s much different to what they suggest and MUCH harder than they make it sound. Therefore, it really falls under scam type #2…
Just to be fully transparent with you, I have not purchased this program myself.
I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn more “Ways to Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.
Here are some of the BIG hidden truths that you should be aware of before trying AppCoiner.
Key Terms:
Black Hat Methods – Using lies and unethical methods to make someone buy something
White Hat Methods – Being honest and genuine to help people make informed decisions about purchases
Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
Red Flag – A warning sign
#1 Black Hat Sales Tactics
One of the first things I noticed when I found the AppCoiner website was that all I needed to do to start was put in my email address.
Done.
And then I got redirected to this page.
Hey up, there’s a discount in Qatar! (most people don’t even know where Qatar is… woop!)
It’s only $27 reduced from $47, but I’m still not sure I want to pay that… hang on…
I can earn $12,000 a year from writing reviews on apps!!
Plus there are people giving a review on camera about using it!
STOP!! STOP!! AND STOP!!
I have been through this sales funnel more times than I care to admit and I still fall for every trick going.
Let’s take a step back to see what has actually just happened:
You gave your email address so you already feel like you are committed to the website.
The discount in your specific country makes you feel more co-operative (it turns out this is available in any country… they just use your IP address to change the country).
You see how much you could earn and those numbers are exciting… (but no proof of how or why)
The social proof makes you think it must be legit (people can pay actors to say anything!)
Same offer… different countries
Actors will literally do anything you want for $5!
Plus how different is launching your own digital product business to writing app reviews by the way!
#4 How You Are Really Paid With AppCoiner
Adverts and affiliate marketing!!
This is the honest truth.
There are ads on every page of your website. To get paid anything more than $0.52 per month you will need to get a lot of traffic (like thousands of visitors to your website EVERY month)
And when you click on the “get from the app store” buttons you get redirected to a page with a 10-second timer.
To get paid affiliate money you need 3 things to happen:
If someone clicks “App store” on your website
If they then click that advert whilst waiting they would jump to your affiliate link for a Clickbank product
And then if they purchase the Clickbank product you get paid a commission
But here is what happened when I tried numerous different popularreview.com websites…
This is your affiliate link in the URL
But the page no longer exists!
You also get an email “opt-in form” on every page of your website.
If someone signs up with their email address on your website, your ClickBank affiliate products get emailed to them.
Therefore, if someone buys something through this link you get paid from ClickBank.
Seriously, count how many times I just wrote “if”!!
#5 Your Website
Here are 3 big truths about your website:
You are not in control of it
Subdomains don’t get ranked as high
You are competing against other people using AppCoiner
The next 3 red flags in this AppCoiner review explain what this means…
#6 No Control Over Your Website
Imagine you had written thousands of reviews and were starting to make money.
You put a lot of time and effort in and committed to making this work.
You even received over $1,000 in one month!
Now imagine AppCoiner disappeared tomorrow…
Your website would disappear overnight.
Does this sound like a long term stable business model to you? (Yes you would have actually created an online business… not just reviewed some apps).
#7 Traffic Issues
Subdomains (i.e. popularreviewer.com) don’t get ranked as high.
Fact.
This ranks on page 2 on Google (not many clicks here!)
I tried searching for a lot of different apps reviews and I only managed to find one that ranked in the top 5 pages of Google
(There’s literally no point searching past page 5… when did you click 5 pages into a Google search to find your answer?)
Without ranking on Google this leaves spamming social media or wasting loads of money on Paid ads (or spending money on another course to teach you how to get traffic).
#8 Competing Against Other People Using AppCoiner
Let’s say you do manage to do well with your website.
You will always have other AppCoiner members competing for the same traffic you are searching for.
If you are looking to replace your full-time income or have a great boost for retirement then keep reading (this is a long term strategy)…
An Evergreen Strategy That Brings You The Money
It wasn’t long ago that I was looking for a strategy online that ticked 3 boxes…
I could work on when I wanted (I was still in a full-time job)
Didn’t cost a fortune to start and maintain
Didn’t need me to sell stuff to my friends and family
It was in September 2018 that I found the system that I still use today to make a passive income stream. In September 2019 I have seen the proof that it can work and I quit my full-time job.
The best thing about it is:
It’s free to start
Customers are brought to you that are already interested (just think about how you found this review… there was no money or time spent from me promoting this and I know you are interested in making money online)
You get access to over 1.5 million members (and me as a personal coach to help you on your journey)
When you try out this program you will see why so many people recommend it.
It’s deceptive and the chances of you making ANY money are very minimal.
But you will get a pretty (it’s not really pretty) website and feel like you are doing something!
Keep changing for the better,
Mike
P.S. Since you’re still here, I’m going to assume that you are interested in making money online to free up your time. So check out my review of my #1 recommended program to help you do just that…
This Blog Income Reports Study on how to make money from a blog quickly has no affiliate links on it. It was made with the sole purpose of helping new bloggers go from 0 to 4 figures a month quickly by using the proven path already laid out for you.
You probably already know that it’s possible to make money blogging.
But for most people, it is hard to know how to monetise your blog at the start. Every “guru” you turn to tells you something different… you should do more freelancing, or use adverts, or affiliate marketing or write an ebook.
Here’s the truth…
Every niche has a slightly different trend in making money within the first year or so.
I’d like to tell you that hard work and dedication will make you money online in the end. But the fact is if you don’t see results quickly, you’re more likely to give up.
This blog income reports study will show you how to make money from a blog quickly in 7 different niches. It is a proven road map for you to take a blog from zero to 4 figures a month… and beyond!
This has the proven path to make 4 figures a month so it is split up into 3 parts:
The Income Distribution of 7 Niches
The Blueprint to Make $1000+ Per Month
The Key Findings
Infographic
Use Visual.ly if you would like to get the code to embed this infographic and link back to this page.
How is This Blog Income Report Study Different?
Brandon Gaille produced a lot of amazing facts in his 2018 blog income report study.
However, one important thing was missing…
How does each niche make money?
More importantly, how does each blog niche make money in the early days?
The generic advice doesn’t work for every niche, as you are about to find out.
For example, if you have a food blog is there any point in looking for affiliate programs to promote? Or if you have a marketing blog, should you bother using adverts?
The more you read this study, the more you will see the proven path that is laid out for how to make money from a blog in your niche.
The 7 Niches in This Blog Income Reports Study
There are 7 niches researched in this blog income reports study:
Food
Health and Fitness
Lifestyle
Mommy
Marketing
Personal Finance
Travel
And if you look into the majority of successful blog niches they will normally fit under one of these categories.
The lifestyle niche includes blogs that write about a variety of interests but could have an emphasis on DIY crafts, home decor, journaling etc.
The health & fitness or Mommy niches are closely linked to lifestyle but there was a clear focus on these blogs.
The Blog Income Reports Study Criteria
This study had a few criteria that had to be met:
At least 5 blog income reports in each niche
All income reports also need to be over $1,700 per month (most reports below this amount are just “a bit of this and that”)
All income reports are below 6 figures a month (51 out of 57 were under 5 figures per month with the highest at $19,889)
Income reports must also have a break down of where the income was from
Why use these criteria?
We wanted to find blogs that are making money from their own niche. Not just making money “blogging about blogging”.
Just think about it… have you seen those headlines on how to make money blogging like this?…
How I Made $1.5 Million Blogging Last Year... With my Eyes Closed on a Beach
Disclaimer- the “eyes closed and beach” part is totally made up!
These are great for motivation but when you see a Mommy blog with these numbers it’s almost always because of one thing…
It has expanded into blogging about blogging.
Therefore, it’s not an accurate representation of how that niche makes money anymore…
It’s really just another marketing blog.
For this reason, many of the income reports used were not the blogger’s most recent income report.
The farther back you look, the farther forward you are likely to see.
Winston Churchill
By finding the income reports towards the start of the blogger’s journey we are able to see how to blog for money in the early stages.
Key Terms for the Study
So here are some key terms that you will need to be aware of for this study to make sense:
Ads: The amount of income from ad networks.
Affiliate: Affiliate marketing income (being paid a commission if someone buys something through a link on your website for someone else’s product).
Own Products: Any products that the owner creates and sells. This includes ebooks, courses, physical products and apps.
Other: Any other income. This includes freelance work, sponsored posts, sponsorship for their website or podcast, coaching or other services they provide.
Start Year: The year the website was created.
Important Disclaimers
There are also some things to take into consideration with this study.
1. Some blogs overlap 2 or more different niches i.e. Fit Mom Journey is part Mommy and part Fitness.
However, the main niche that is written about is the one recorded in this study (hence, Fit Mom Journey is more about health and fitness).
2. Mommy bloggers often fall under the lifestyle niche but there were enough blogs that clearly had a focus on Moms and parenting.
3. It’s hard to find blog income reports from websites that are not blogging about blogging!!
And there is a big reason why people make income reports…
Most income reports promote more affiliate links.
Yes, they can be educational, motivating and helpful. I’m grateful for them just doing this- research! But, 99 times out of 100, they are used to recommend more affiliate products.
But the truth is, many successful blogs will never produce a detailed income report.
This makes finding income reports that fit the purpose of this study quite challenging!
Part 1- How to Make Money From a Blog: The Income Distribution of 7 Niches
You can find all of the blog income reports used in this study towards the bottom of this page.
But if you’re like me, you’ll be pretty excited to see the difference between each niche.
How to Make Money From a Food Blog- Income Distribution
There is a clear monetisation method for food bloggers.
Ads for food blogs are crucial.
This is why getting onto the best ad networks and understanding what the requirements are to do this is so important for them. You can learn more about this on The Best 5 Ad Networks for Blogs.
Food Blogs Focus on Ads
Well duh!
But let’s think about why and what this means…
The obvious reason for this is that food blogs tend to get a lot of traffic because everyone needs to cook.
When the typical “house chef” (AKA Mom… please don’t shoot me for the stereotype!) struggles for ideas they do one of two things, in 2019:
Google recipe ideas
Search Pinterest for recipes
This means that new blogs can get hundreds of thousands of page views from Pinterest alone if they use it right.
Pinterest still has a high majority of active users that are aged between 25-45 and female. Hootsuite shows there has been an increase in male sign-ups since 2018, but they are still not as active on the platform.
Therefore, Pinterest is crucial for how to make money blogging about food. If you have a new food blog, all of your efforts should be spent on Pinterest promotion at the start.
How to Make Money From a Health & Fitness Blog- Income Distribution
There is again a clear method that health and fitness blogs use…
Advertising networks.
However, it’s important to note this doesn’t have to be the case.
For example, Avocadu didn’t use any ads on the website at the start and focused much more on affiliate marketing and selling their own products quickly.
Health & Fitness Bloggers Get the Least Income from “Other” Means
Out of the 5 blogs in this study, Only Root and Revel started making any money from sponsored content.
None of these websites reported income from freelance or coaching work.
So how did health & fitness blogs make money from a blog?
Common Affiliate Opportunities for Health and Fitness Blogs
In a moment you’ll notice there are a range of products promoted on each website without any real common trends.
Here are the main money earners for health and fitness websites (excluding ads):
Organize Yourself Skinny- Own products i.e. ebook and meal plans
Remember these are not affiliate links, but the links for you to join the affiliate programs.
Using Pinterest is again where the majority of your time should be spent if you have a new Health and Fitness blog.
Once you see what articles your readers are interested in, then you can look for appropriate affiliate products to promote.
How to Make Money From a Lifestyle Blog- Income Distribution
So how do lifestyle websites make money from a blog?
As you can see below, ads are also super important to lifestyle blogs when they first start to make money blogging.
However, due to the large range of topics lifestyle blogs cover there really is no right or wrong way to monetise these types of websites.
Lifestyle Blogs Use Different Income Streams
You can see from Chasing Foxes that it’s possible to get an insane amount of traffic quickly to your blog. Silas and Grace pumped out 50 posts before they even launched their website and had over 2 million page views in a single month… within their first year!
This is obviously going to bring in some great income from ads. They relied heavily on Pinterest for this again.
Whereas Let’s Reach Success focused on freelance work and sponsored posts in the early days.
Lifestyle Blog Formula
Despite there being many ways lifestyle blogs can earn money there is a general theme across the blogs in this study.
The main focus was on making money from a blog with ads and affiliate marketing:
Typically the websites built up traffic to monetise with some ads.
They used Amazon Associates to place links for products they were writing about. See this example from Sharpshaft on best crossbows; they link to many different crossbows on Amazon and other affiliate programs in the same article.
This way they could test out what their audience was interested in.
Eventually, they could create their own product tailored to their readers wants.
To be honest this is not just a lifestyle blog formula.
It’s also really the trend across the majority of these successful blogs as you are about to find out.
How to Make Money From a Mommy Blog- Income Distribution
Mommy’s make money blogging in a very similar way to lifestyle blogs.
But again ads stand out as the main way to make money from a Mommy blog at the start.
There was an interesting finding from this study…
Mommy Blogs Quickly Blog About Blogging
Maybe this isn’t always the case.
But…
Every one of the Mommy blogs (with Easy Baby Life less so) in this study started “blogging about blogging” or promoting some of their favourite blogging tools.
This kind of makes sense as a lot of Mom’s will be interested in making some money from home so they can spend more time with their kids.
However, these income reports prove it is possible to make money without doing that as none of them had really monetised in this way… yet!
Common Mommy Blog Affiliate Ideas
There was one platform which dominated in all of these reports:
Amazon Associates.
That’s a bit vague, so here are some common ideas they promoted:
Baby gifts
Baby gear- buggies/ prams/ car seat etc.
Breastfeeding stuff
Nursery ideas- cribs/ lamps etc.
There tend to be lots of different items promoted. But the “comparisons”, “reviews” or “how to use” posts did well.
How to Make Money From a Marketing Blog- Income Distribution
This niche is where you see the biggest difference to every other niche!
This is why you need to take “blogging about blogging” websites with a. pinch of salt.
Have you noticed yet that the things that work for these blogs may not work in your niche?
There are 2 key findings from this blog income reports study….
#1 Marketing Blogs Rely Less on Pinterest- They Do Not Focus on Ads
Readers on marketing websites (i.e. blogging about blogging or podcasting or how to use affiliate marketing etc.) do not want to see a load of pop-ups or ads everywhere.
There are two main reasons for this:
They want readers to click on their products and affiliate links, not the ads!
It slows the website down.
Simply put:
Ads are annoying and readers on marketing websites are more aware of them, unlike the typical readers in other niches.
Therefore, the last thing the readers on marketing websites want is to be interrupted every two seconds.
…Or struggle to scroll down without the website glitching.
#2 Marketing Blogs Make Money From Their Own Products Quickly
This was another interesting finding.
Even when I put in Pat Flynn, Melyssa Griffin and JLD’s super high incomes ($150,000 a month+) the income distribution hardly changes…
This just shows that it is possible to make money from your own products even with a new website.
However, you are about to find out that the income distribution changes a lot for other niches.
This is why it’s good not to include these kinds of blog income reports in this study.
The Best Marketing Blogs Have Less Traffic and a Smaller Audience… But Build Better Relationships
With a relatively new website, Pete generates 60% of his income from his own courses. You can listen to my chat with Pete on the Make Time Online podcast about what he sees as the “Future of Digital Marketing“.
Also, Ana from The She Approach has already had a lot of success from her own ebooks and courses, with 47% of her income coming from them.
Common Affiliate Networks for Marketing Blogs
There are some common networks for marketing blogs:
Remember these are not affiliate links, but the links for you to join the affiliate programs.
There are also loads of different affiliates depending on your specific focus i.e. credit card sign-ups or stock trading programs etc.
Plus, here’s a little bonus look inside Jeff’s income-generating platforms (this is super useful if you’ve never seen the backend of affiliate programs before)…
This was from their October 2018 Income report at $61,915, after Dollarsprout was more established.
Remember these are not affiliate links, but the links for you to join the affiliate programs or use the platform.
Freelancing and sponsored income comes in such a variety.
However, the best opportunities tend to not actually come from sites like Fiverr and Upwork.
This makes it harder to set out a blueprint for the best ways to do it.
For example, Will from Travel Blog Breakthrough got a big chunk of his income from a Trekking company after they saw his work on the Inca Trail Guide.
He jumped on a skype call to make that happen.
Make sure you check out the income reports below to find other ways of how blogger’s make money from a travel blog.
Part 2- The Blueprint to Make $1,000+
Now, I bet you’re looking at all of these pretty charts thinking…
So what?
Well, let’s summarise the key takeaways and more importantly…
Let’s work out an action plan moving forward.
#1 Every Blog Needs Traffic
First of all, let’s start with the obvious.
If you want to make money from your website you have to get traffic.
Period.
5 out of 7 niches have a large chunk of their initial income from using ad networks.
Yes, Google Adsense is easy enough to get onto and start the ball rolling.
But the majority of these bloggers were getting most joy by using Mediavine or AdThrive.
Note only 34 out of 57 bloggers used AdThrive or MediaVine, but they earnt the vast majority of the ad income.
So it would be wise to aim for this.
Agreed?
Now, I can almost hear your mind saying…
But How do I Get This Traffic?
If you’re like me, this is THE question you want to be answered!
This short video will explain exactly how many of the bloggers in this study have made sure they are writing content that people are actively searching for.
AKA how they get more traffic…
So if you use these techniques rather than just guessing, you will notice your articles will start getting much more attention quickly.
Even the bloggers that did not focus on ads still needed the traffic to work out what affiliate programs or products their audience wants.
If you aren’t getting 5,000 monthly sessions yet then check out “How to Use Pinterest for Beginners“. As many of these income reports prove… Pinterest is still the fastestfree way to get traffic to your website.
The most successful niches on Pinterest are still:
Recipes
Home decor
Fashion
DIY (crafts, decor etc.)
Followed closely by:
Kids and Parenting
Travel
Health & Fitness
Many other niches can be successful, but these are still the most widely pinned and active niches.
#3 Use Affiliate Products to Match Your Readers Interests
Once you get traffic from Pinterest (at least 5,000 page views a month) you can use Google Analytics to see what posts most of your readers are reading.
This proves exactly what the people reading your blog are most interested in. And are you beginning to notice you don’t need to guess?
Use the data!
Once you know this, you can start to recommend great products that fit with these articles.
Plus, you can write more posts on these topics to get even more traffic!
There are plenty of niche-specific affiliate marketplaces in the sections above if you want some ideas of where to find these affiliate products.
#4 Create Your Own Product (Optional)
If you really want to start making a big income then this is the next step to take.
As you can see from this study already, it is possible to make well over $1,000 per month blogging without even thinking about this stage. (*Cough cough Chasing Foxes with $15k/ month from ads alone!*)
But if you make a better version of the affiliate product that you are promoting, you will get to keep all the profit instead of a per cent of the sale.
Hence, instead of making $5 commission on a $30 ebook, you can make the full $30 (or whatever you choose to charge for it).
This is the proven path that has already been laid out for how to make money from a blog.
Part 3- The Key Findings
There were some important and some unexpected findings from doing this blog income reports research.
#1 It is Possible to Make Money Blogging… Without Writing About Blogging
This could well be the biggest takeaway from this blog income reports study.
It is possible to make money in other niches than marketing.
All of the income reports below will show you how these blogs made money without talking about blogging.
You can tell that some of them (i.e. The Busy Budgeter) have clearly started to blog about blogging. But there was very little money made from “blogging about blogging” in these income reports.
#2 Some Niches Tend to Reach an Upper Limit
For example, Mommy & lifestyle blogs only have so many affiliates they can promote and only so many pageviews they can get in a month.
At this stage, it’s hard for them to create a specific “Mommy product” so many of these blogs tend to start “blogging about blogging”.
This opens up many more affiliate programs and provides an opportunity to create their own courses.
Just as I eluded (ooo posh word from me!) to earlier, most blog income reports will exist to provide motivation for others. But they also promote more affiliate links i.e. Bluehost hosting or an autoresponder or favourite theme to use etc.
Therefore, it is hard to find income reports that are based solely on a “non-blogging” niche. Many of the websites featured in this blog income reports study will eventually have affiliate links to blogging tools or courses.
#3 Income Distribution Changes Over Time
The graph below shows the average income distribution of 7 blogs, one from each niche.
The second graph is from the same 7 blogs. But they have since kicked on and made at least $40,000 a month.
As you can see there is a much heavier reliance from their own products and affiliate marketing.
All 7 of these websites now have a focus on blogging about blogging (Show Me The Yummy has a course on how to make videos for food bloggers, which is sort of related).
Simply put…
Once you start making good money from your blog, focus on automating with affiliate marketing and funnels selling your own products.
The most successful blogs tend to have affiliate opportunities for their own products meaning it becomes even more passive.
Every single blogger that has started making $2,000 per month or more has done this one thing.
There are ZERO exceptions.
I bet you want to know what it is, don’t you?
But you won’t like it…
Seriously though you won’t…
Hustle.
I told you, you weren’t going to like it.
There’s no magic sauce that made these blogs earn money.
They all hustled at the start.
They all found “other” ways to make money or put in an incredible amount of effort to make money through the more “passive” ads, affiliate marketing and own products.
As you can see… content creation is key!
But you don’t need to reinvent the wheel (in fact, it’s better that you don’t because if it hasn’t been written about before, there is probably a reason!)
Find what works for others and make better versions of them.
57 Blog Income Reports in 7 Different Niches
So here are the blog income reports that were used in this study.
Feel free to click on the blog name and look into any of the reports in more detail.
**This is Ana’s first $50,000 income report. The total has been divided by 12 even though it took 2 and a half years to get there because the income has sped up more recently.
***Only the income from Inspired BU was used for this study (not the income from Meet Penny)
***** Only travel related income was reported in this study- not the “blogging about blogging” income.
**** This income report gets updated every month but was used with the figures from August 2019
One Final Note on How to Make Money From a Blog
Remember this…
It is possible to make money in any way in any niche.
Of course, it is possible for food bloggers to create their own course or “monthly meal plans” and sell them in the early days.
Of course, you can make money from ads in any niche.
But what you have above is a proven path that successful blogs have taken to start making good money in different niches.
Use what they have left behind to your advantage.
Once you get that regular income, it then becomes possible to put more time into automating things and generating passive income from affiliate marketing funnels and sales of your own products.
How to Make Money From a Blog Quickly Summary
You can see a clear roadmap that successful blogs have taken to make money blogging in 7 different niches:
Food, Lifestyle & Mommy blogs should focus on Pinterest. Ideally creating list posts that people want to read & aim to get on Mediavine or AdThrive ad networks.
Health & Fitness blogs should do the same but quickly find affiliate products for their most popular articles.
Personal finance should also use Pinterest, noting that budgeting does better on Pinterest closely followed by ways to make money (use low cost or free affiliate products such as survey or cashback sites).
Marketing blogs should have an idea of a product they can create i.e. an eBook or Teachable course. The focus is on creating high-quality articles and really connect with the readers.
Travel blogs should still use Pinterest to drive traffic. Hustle to find sponsorships and freelance work to make up the income initially.
It doesn’t mean that you have to stick to this, but it does give you an idea of the quickest and proven ways for your niche to start making money.
Feel free to use any of the charts and graphs from this study. All I ask is that you kindly link back to this study from your blog post.
In the spirit of full transparency, know that this Take Surveys For Cash review contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
You may agree that receiving $500 checks in the mail a few times every week would be great.
Most people think that is really unlikely to happen without putting in a lot of time and effort into something. Take Surveys For Cash promises you can do it simply by giving your opinion on websites for a few hours.
This Take Survey For Cash review, with video, will reveal the truth behind the program. It will also show you a legit way that you can start earning money from home today.
Take Surveys For Cash Review- The Overview and Rankings
Name: Take Surveys For Cash
Owners: Jason White (not a real person- 0 out of 100)
Jason White names himself the “King of Paid Surveys”.
Supposedly by joining this program you will make $3,500 per month and reach financial freedom.
The truth is, you can’t find anything about Jason White online.
If he really has found this way for you to receive thousands of dollars a week by filling out a few surveys, then don’t you think this guy would be well known and show himself on the sales page?
This begs the question…
What Are Online Surveys Really?
Yes…
Legit online survey sites do exist.
Yes…
It is possible for you to get paid money from providing your opinion.
BUT…
Not like Take Surveys For Cash makes out.
Check out this short video below…
You can find a list of legit survey sites further down this page.
It’s possible to make a few dollars per survey as you will find out later in this Take Surveys For Cash review.
But you will only be able to make a couple of hundred dollars in a month.
And that’s if you set things up well!
Now, I can almost hear your mind saying…
Is Take Surveys For Cash a Scam?
The short answer is yes.
The long answer is below…
There are two main ways an online course can be a scam:
Take your money and run off into the sunset, never to be heard from again
Provide some information but it doesn’t live up to their promises
Take Surveys For Cash will send you some survey opportunities.
But they will not live up to their promise of reaching financial freedom and making $3,500 in a month!
Therefore, it is a…
Just to be fully transparent with you, I have not purchased this program myself.
I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn more “Ways to Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.
I’ve been there and got the T-shirt for this one through another survey scam, “Gold Opinions“.
Paying for an intermediary survey site does NOTHING that the “free to join” sites do (note- some survey sites even payyou a signup bonus as you will find out later in this Take Surveys For Cash review!)
Apart from sending you more junk, if anything at all.
Don’t worry though… there is a special discount in your country!!
Or is there…
#2 Black Hat Sales Tactics
This is where their marketing is quite clever.
They certainly know how to pull on your wants and emotions.
First of all, they claim there’s a special discount in your country.
However, look at what happened when I used a VPN to use the website.
They just use your IP address.
There is no special deal for you!
They then go on to show you some amazing holiday you could receive by becoming a member.
And that your membership is basically free because they will send you $50 once you take your first survey.
This is all lies.
They know what you want and they will do anything to make you put your hand in your pocket.
Honestly, just think about it…
What serious business will charge someone $39 then give them $50 and a free $700 holiday?
#3 Fake Proof
This is actually just borderline illegal I’m sure.
You can clearly see that the check on the right is identical to the one on the left.
The difference is the owners of this scam have changed the digits on the check. Notice the bold writing that stands out and doesn’t quite align with the rest of the check.
$3 for a survey is legit.
$500 for 50 surveys (let alone 1) is FAKE!
#4 Too Good to be True
Remember, you can get 12 of these $500 checks a week!
Sorry to burst their bubble again…
But they are lying!
Yes, you can get 12 checks from surveys in a week.
But they will be for around $1 each… not $500!
#5 No Positive Experiences
If you Google any legit company online you WILL find some people that have something good to say about it.
You will find someone that shows you the proof of success they’ve had with it.
The only people you find saying anything good about Take Surveys For Cash are the people promoting it.
Let me explain who these people are…
#6 Clickbank Product for e-Business
Clickbank is a legit website that offers “affiliate marketers” the opportunity to promote someone else’s product and receive a commission for doing so…
If someone clicks their link and then BUYS the product.
Here’s the truth…
Clickbank has a bit of a bad reputation for its e-Business products.
Here are some scams that I have reviewed previously from this section of Clickbank:
Now, if you are interested in earning more than $200 a month online there is another way…
An Evergreen Strategy That Brings You The Money
It wasn’t that long ago that I was still trying to figure out how it’s possible for people to make money online.
The problem I had at the time was that it needed to suit me. I wanted to find something that:
I could work on when I wanted (I was still in a full-time job)
Taught me step-by-step what I needed to do
Didn’t cost a fortune to start and maintain
Didn’t need me to sell stuff to my friends and family
It was in September 2018 that I found the system that I still use today to make a passive income stream.
The best thing about it is:
It’s free to start (honestly it is)
Customers are brought to you that are already interested (just think about how you found this review… there was no money or time spent from me promoting this!)
You get access to a huge community of online marketers (and me as a personal coach to help you on your journey)
I’m doing this full time now and I genuinely want to help you achieve the life you want.
When you try out this program you will see why so many people recommend it.
Take Surveys For Cash Review: The “MakeTimeOnline” Final Word
To sum up this Take Surveys For Cash review…
The program sucks!
If you have purchased Take Surveys For Cash and found it to be terrible then contact Clickbank.
When I made the same mistakes with another program the actual company went awol when I messaged them. But Clickbank can sort it out for you (if you are inside the 60 days).
Keep changing for the better,
Mike
P.S. Since you’re still here, I’m going to assume that you are interested in making money online to free up your time. So check out my review of my #1 recommended program to help you do just that…
In the spirit of full transparency, know that this SaleHoo review contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. In fact, you will often receive a discount or bonus signing up fee! Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
You may agree that creating an online business is vital to support yourself in uncertain times and ensure you and your family are set for retirement.
Most people think it’s really hard to do and you’d need a lot of money to get started. SaleHoo promises to be a place where you can learn all you need to know about dropshipping.
This SaleHoo review, with video, will make sure you understand the pros and cons of starting a dropshipping business with SaleHoo, whilst offering my own opinion about it.
Type: Dropshipping Training and Supplier Directory
Training: 88 out of 100
Success Stories: 85 out of 100
Price: $67 for the year or $127 Lifetime access
Maketimeonline.com Rating: 88 out of 100
SaleHoo Pros and Cons
Pros
Well known and vetted suppliers provided
Good training to help your dropshipping business
Low minimum orders (don’t need to buy in bulk like usual for wholesale prices)
No hidden fees
Good for finding trending products
Cons
Training upsell
Live support not great on weekends
Low margins due to normally selling on another marketplace i.e. Amazon/ eBay
Only 1.6 million products compared to 16 million by Worldwide Brands.
What is SaleHoo… What Does Salehoo Do?
SaleHoo is a supplier directory for dropshipping businesses, wholesalers and online retailers.
They also provide training and community support and product research tools.
Simon Slade the founder
It was founded in 2005 by Simon Slade in New Zealand and has over 130,000 members.
First Things First… What is Dropshipping?
In a nutshell, it is selling products from cheaper wholesalers (i.e. China) to people paying the retail price (i.e. USA) without ever touching the products yourself.
There are really 4 main areas that you can use SaleHoo for:
Wholesale Supplier & Product Directory
Salehoo Labs for Product Research
SaleHoo Training Guides
The SaleHoo Community
Let’s dig in a bit deeper shall we?
SaleHoo Product and Supplier Directory
Simply put you can use SaleHoo in one of two main ways:
Look for a product supplier to purchase from
Source a certain product
If you don’t want to buy any products at a wholesale price or sell any products, there is no point in using SaleHoo
You can find 1.6 million products on SaleHoo as of September 2019.
You can search by supplier type:
Dropshippers
Wholesalers
Liquidators
Manufacturers
…or by:
Location
Min order
Worldwide shipping
Tax ID requirement
Categories
You can then click on the supplier’s profile and contact them through the inbuilt messaging service.
Messaging service inside SaleHoo
It even has email templates to choose from.
SaleHoo Labs- Product Research
The product research helps you to find products that suit your “niche”.
You can filter this with four options:
Product type
Sell rate
Average price
Competition
You can make this as specific as you want or use this platform to produce your own research…
Once you find a product you like it’s up to you to sell them i.e. using eBay, your own online store or Amazon etc.
SaleHoo Training Guides
There are 9 full training guides with a bonus guides section.
As you can see it covers pretty much everything that you need to get a dropshipping business up and running through SaleHoo.
It includes registering a business and guides to tax laws, importing in different countries (UK, USA, Canada, Australia) and much more.
The bonus guides section includes some eBooks and guides to selling different products i.e. games, DVDs, fashion, electronics etc.
SaleHoo Community
SaleHoo has its own forum where you can get help for pretty much anything you need with your online business.
It’s a really engaged community and has thousands of topics and posts…
One of the big advantages of using SaleHoo for your online business is this community as you will learn in this SaleHoo review.
Now I can almost hear your mind saying…
Is SaleHoo a Scam?
Absolutely not.
There are two main ways an online course can be a scam:
Take your money and run off into the sunset, never to be heard from again
Provide some information but it doesn’t live up to their promises
As you continue to read this SaleHoo review you will find out more about some of the good parts and bad parts about the program.
Just to be fully transparent with you, I have not purchased this program myself.
I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs similar to this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn more “Ways to Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.
Black Hat Methods – Using lies and unethical methods to make someone buy something
White Hat Methods – Being honest and genuine to help people make informed decisions about purchases
Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
#1 Good Well Know Brands Available
This separates it from other online suppliers such as AliExpress.
This means you can find products easier that actually sell!
#2 Suppliers Have Been Vetted
You will find it hard to find any cowboy suppliers here that just take your money and run.
All suppliers have been vetted to make sure they are legit.
#3 Good Training & Community
The community of over 137,000 members is a testament to the great service that SaleHoo provides.
You can also contact SaleHoo directly, but we’ll touch on this later in the SaleHoo review.
#4 No Hidden Fees
The price you see is what you pay.
Lifetime means lifetime and there are no additional fees to pay later down the line.
#5 Market Research & Trending Products
You can easily find what products are trending and being sold easily.
This can be a quick way to see if the product is something that people want, but you will need to do your own research.
#6 Low Minimum Orders
Possibly the biggest advantage compared to buying wholesale prices normally.
It’s possible to place an order of 1 item if you have sold one item on eBay so you never need to store stock and still get the best available prices.
#7 60 Day Money Back Guarantee
Just for peace of mind.
This is a Clickbank product so if you do have any trouble getting your money back from SaleHoo, contact ClickBank and they will be able to help.
SaleHoo Honest Truths
There are some things that everyone should know before diving into using SaleHoo…
#1 Marketplace Fees- Lower Profits
You may see great mark up prices on many products. For example:
The issue here is that you are likely going to be using another network to sell these products i.e. eBay or Amazon.
This means you will have to pay more fees to these networks and it eats into your profit margin.
Also, the example you see above is from the websites sales page so is clearly one of the best examples you can find!
#2 Hard to Create a Brand
If you are selling products through another network using other people’s products you are not going to be able to create a brand for yourself.
People tend to buy things from people (or brands) they trust so you will be missing out from a key component of business.
#3 Amount of Products
There are 1.6 million products on SaleHoo, which sounds pretty impressive.
But when you compare it to other networks such as Worldwide Brands, who have 16 million, it’s actually hardly any!
#4 Live Chat & Customer Support at Peak Times
Peak times= Weekends.
For many people, this will be a side hustle in addition to their usual 9-5. That means the times when you want the help (weekends) is actually very hard to get the support you need.
#5 Upsell
Whilst there are no extra fees there is another surprise that may come to you when you’re on the inside.
The extra “Online Selling Tactics” training costs $247 one time payment or $97 a month.
It doesn’t seem like it’s necessary, as it’s additional training.
But it’s never nice to think you are paying a certain amount only to find it may not have all the information you first thought.
#6 You Can Often Find These Suppliers Yourself for a BETTER Price
There are ways for you to find a lot of these suppliers for free e.g. inventorysource.com has many of the same suppliers completely for free.
Or just search wholesale suppliers on Google.
Many of the good suppliers won’t run ads so they will be further down the list. Check out the video above for more information on this (take this with a pinch of salt though)…
But personally, I think there are better ways to make passive income online than dropshipping.
It has a lot of moving parts that you need to keep on top of in order to do it successfully i.e. find a supplier, sell it for a markup, customer support for your customers, manage different platforms i.e. SaleHoo, the supplier, eBay, Amazon, Shopify etc.
This prevents it from being a passive income unless you outsource the tasks aka hire a virtual assistant (which again need managing).
This is why I found another way to make money online…
An Evergreen Strategy That Brings You The Money
It wasn’t that long ago that I was still trying to figure out how it’s possible for people to make money online.
The problem I had was that it needed to have 3 things:
I was still in a full-time job so it needed to be part-time efforts
Low cost to start and maintain
No selling needed to my friends and family
It was in September 2018 that I found the system that I still use today to make a passive income stream. And in September 2019 I quit my $45,000 a year full-time job (don’t be fooled here I had other income streams i.e. property and my wife!!)
The best thing about it is:
It’s free to start
Customers are brought to you that are already interested (just think about how you found this review… there was no money or time spent from me promoting this!)
You get access to the community of over 1.5 million entrepreneurs (including me as a personal coach to help you on your journey)
When you try out this program you will see why so many people recommend it.
It’s a legit way to start a dropshipping business, with training, support and a list of suppliers and products you can sell.
Just be prepared to work and learn and engage in your online business.
It won’t happen overnight, nothing good ever does.
Keep changing for the better,
Mike
P.S. Since you’re still here, I’m going to assume that you are interested in making money online to free up your time. So check out my review of my #1 recommended program to help you do just that…
In the spirit of full transparency, know that this Make Time Online podcast show notes contain affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Click here to read the full disclosure policy.
Make Time Online’s podcast is officially back!
Many people still think the only way to make money is with a traditional 9-5 job. This podcast will show you real people who are living life on their own terms and making money in unconventional ways.
In this episode, I’ll cover a few things for you to know about the podcast in the future:
The 2 main ways that people make money on their own terms
The best ways to create passive income
What to expect from the show over the next few months
What the new case study is about and how it can help you
Make Time Online Podcast
It is possible to live life on your own terms
Time is more important than money. You can always get more money but you can never get more time.
Jim Rohn
There are really 2 main ways that I have seen people live life on their own terms.
Usually, this is by creating passive income streams.
Apart from investing in the stock market (or index funds ideally), these are through:
Property investment
Online business
So, the focus for the next few months will be all about online businesses.
Real online entrepreneurs will come on the show to share their experience and tips for starting an online business.
The Make Time Online Podcast Until 2020
There will be 3 main topics on the Make Time Online podcast leading up until the end of 2019
October- Start a Blog to Make Money
There will be 2 guests in October over 4 episodes.
They have made money blogging with numerous websites each and will share their journey, experience and tips with you.
November- Different Make Money Online Ideas
During November there will be some guests that make money online in slightly different ways such as:
Freelance writing
Virtual assistant jobs i.e. email/ social media management
Creating blogs in different niches
Different strategies i.e. SEO, viral content, contributor sites etc.
These are all ways that can supplement your income and potentially open your eyes to new ways to make money online (it certainly opened my eyes!)
December- Getting Traffic Quickly With Pinterest
Pinterest is still the fastest way to get a lot of traffic to your blog.
This month we’ll cover:
How to use Pinterest to get blog traffic
Pinterest SEO
What the changes will mean in 2020 and beyond
Are group boards still worth using?
The best way to automate your pins
How Pinterest works
The best niches on Pinterest
New Blog Case Study!
Using some of these strategies discovered from these chats I am starting a brand new blog.
The sole focus is to get traffic from Pinterest to monetise the blog with ads initially.
If you’d like to know exactly how much time and effort it really takes to make money blogging, this study will show you:
How many posts are written each month
How many pins are created each month
The number of sessions to the website
The number of pageviews each month to the website
How many Pinterest followers the account has each month (not the best metric, but an easy one to track and it can be useful to know)
The income the blog makes each month
This is not going to be full-time work, it will be around 10 hours a week with some help from my lovely wife (let’s call it 15-20 hours a week max!)
If you’d like to follow the journey you can get the results sent to you with the opt-in at the bottom of this page.
Note- The case study results will not be shared on this website
Any Thoughts? Is There Anything You Want To be Included? Let me Know!
Do you have any questions? Or maybe there’s something you really want to know more about. I can make sure I get the right guests on the show for the future.
In the spirit of full transparency, know that this Gold Opinions review contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. In fact, you will often receive a discount or bonus signing up fee! Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
You probably agree that you have some spare moments each month where you could earn some extra pocket money if you used your time more wisely.
Most people think that’s really hard and can only be accomplished through extra jobs or side hustles. However, survey sites have changed the game for those of us looking to make a few extra dollars each day.
This Gold Opinions review will expose the truth behind the website, explaining our own personal story about using the company. It will also provide some of our own recommendations that we have since discovered (but wish we found sooner!)
Gold Opinions Review- The Overview and Rankings
Name: Gold Opinions
Owners: Paul Parker (Not really though- 0 out of 100)
So back in 2018 my wife Sarah and I were trying out some online survey companies.
Because we were living in Qatar, we were finding it pretty hard to find any that could work there or that actually paid any money.
So we did what anyone would do…
Googled loads of different survey sites…
Enter Gold Opinions.
Well, that sounded pretty promising!
And the thing that made it seem like it may suit us was that it was a “paid to play” survey site.
Surely that means premium?
Boy, were we wrong!
As you read the rest of this Gold Opinions review, you will find out the truth behind the website and some alternative recommendations we have since found.
What Does Gold Opinions Do?
Supposedly Gold Opinions sends you paid survey opportunities.
It seems like a great way to make sure that you can make some dollars for sharing your opinions whenever you have a few spare moments i.e. lunch break, travelling, watching TV, waiting in a queue etc.
What you are promised and what you actually get are two completely separate things though!
What do You Get With Gold Opinions?
Nothing.
Here is what you are promised though…
Whilst it may seem like a great idea to get paid for sharing your opinions, Gold Opinions does not help you do this in any way!
Is Gold Opinions a Scam?
The short answer is yes.
The long answer is below…
There are two main ways an online course can be a scam:
Take your money and run off into the sunset, never to be heard from again
Provide some information but it doesn’t live up to their promises
To be honest this scam pretty much covers both of these options.
It’s not worth your time, money or anything else you can give it.
I’ve been there got the T-shirt, simply don’t do it.
Since this disaster, we have found out that it genuinely is possible to make money on survey sites by giving your opinion.
You just need to be aware of some things…
Legit Survey Recommendations
We have since discovered some legit survey sites that do pay you money (although they do not work in every country… the review below includes a list of countries you can use them in).
Here are Make Time Online’s top 5 survey site recommendations:
Definitely check out Rakuten, which gives you cash back just for shopping online and a $10 bonus…
But here’s the truth.
You will only make $100-$200 per month MAX by filling out surveys (and that’s with a good system).
If you are looking at creating a passive income stream online to free up your time then maybe this will interest you…
An Evergreen Strategy That Brings You The Money
It wasn’t that long ago that I was still trying to figure out how it’s possible for people to make money online.
I also had some pretty important kickers in what I was looking for:
Something I could work on part-time (I was still in a full-time job)
Didn’t cost a fortune to start and maintain
Didn’t need me to sell stuff to my friends and family
It was in September 2018 that I found the system that I still use today to make a passive income stream. In September 2019 I quit my $45,000 a year job to “double down” my efforts.
The best thing about it is:
It’s free to start
Customers are brought to you that are already interested (just think about how you found this review… there was no money or time spent from me promoting this!)
You get access to 1.5 million like-minded people in the community… and me as a personal coach to help you on your journey
When you try out this program you will see why so many people recommend it.
Gold Opinions Review: The “MakeTimeOnline” Final Word
Just to summarise this Gold Opinions review…
Don’t get it!
Congratulations on taking the time to research it before diving in… I wish we did!
Oh, and if you have got it… contact Clickbank to un-get (I don’t think that’s a real word) it ASAP!
Keep changing for the better,
Mike
P.S. Since you’re still here, I’m going to assume that you are interested in making money online to free up your time. So check out my review of my #1 recommended program to help you do just that…
In the spirit of full transparency, know that this post on how to use Pinterest for beginners contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. In fact, you may receive a discount or some money for free! Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
As you start reading the beginning of this article you find yourself wondering what it would be like to receive regular free traffic from Pinterest.
You’re intelligent enough to know that some people use Pinterest to drive most of their traffic to their blog.
The further on you read you’ll begin to understand how this is possible.
Welcome to how to use Pinterest for beginners…
Firstly, Why Use Pinterest?
If you’re anything like me you’ve probably not used Pinterest much.
The little time you have spent on it has been wasted by pretty pictures of barn weddings and girly stuff.
So why bother to use Pinterest?
Because it’s business model is designed to connect users to content. No other BIG social media platform is designed for this.
Now, read that again.
Simply put, the best way to get NEW visitors to your site are:
Pinterest = user to content (awesome)
Google = user to content (awesome)
Facebook = user to user (good)
Twitter = user to user (good)
Instagram = user to user (average at best- it is good for creating “followers” and a brand though!)
Any social media can be a great way to drive traffic to your website, especially if you already have a “presence” on there.
However, Pinterest really takes the biscuit for getting new visitors to your website.
A pin that is months or years old can still bring traffic to your website.
This is not the case for most other social media platforms (especially Twitter… imagine!)
As you pay close attention to this page you will find out how this is all possible…
It doesn’t sound too bad but if you do this stage right it can take some time. Click any of the links above to find out more about each step.
I will leave this little nugget with you to help find your Pinterest keywords…
Click ads in the top left corner on Pinterest (only available to those with a business account).
Click “create ad” (don’t worry you won’t actually do this)
Hit continue
Scroll down to Keywords
Type in your keywords and it will show you the number of people that search for variations of your keywords every month
Top tip- target keywords with the highest searches as Pinterest doesn’t care (as much) how old your account is unlike Google.
That stage alone is enough to make your Pinterest game way better than a lot of pinners!
If you’re worried about doing all of that or not understanding you can sign up to the free course at the bottom of this page. It has all the information there that you need to get started with much more detail and help than in this post.
#2 How to Create a Board on Pinterest
I’m not going to waste your time here… but this is an important step for how to use Pinterest for beginners!
Click your profile, click boards, click add board.
The bit I do want to mention is what you should have on your board.
Specific title (“blogging” is bad “blogging tips for beginners” is better)
Keyword-rich descriptions (put in keywords i.e. “get more traffic” “SEO tips for beginners” “Affiliate marketing tips” etc.)
Design a brand cover photo using colours and fonts that you usually use (see below)
Snappa costs $10 a month (or you get 5 downloads for free each month).
Canva is great for starting out, so here are my top tips:
Bookmark different designs you use so you can quickly find the layout you like.
Use Pexels.com to get all the FREE stock photo’s you need
If you want a transparent background (especially for logo designs) use this website for free.
Use a png compressor to make sure your pins are a smaller storage size (which improves the SEO of your website)
Snappa basically can do all the above (minus the png compressor) in one place.
Here’s why you may choose Snappa:
You pay for convenience!
It’s much more user-friendly to use
You can save unlimited pin designs (to save you time rather than recreating them EVERY time)
The stock photos are better than pexels.com
UPDATE- Since trying Jeff and Ben’s (yeah you know the guys who make $240k/ month) “The Perfect Pin” course, I actually now use PowerPoint for a few reasons:
Your pins stand out compared to most people
I like the shading on letters which makes your words POP off the page
Using colour boxes with gradients behind words can help your words look much clearer & more professional
You have more control over how your pin looks
They really know their stuff!
Now, I can almost hear your mind saying…
But What Should Your Pins Look Like?
There’s really only one rule… Make them “Pinterest Pretty”
But what does that mean?
Just look at the best pins for “affiliate marketing for beginners”:
Top tips for how to use Pinterest for beginners:
Don’t make them ugly
Make Writing BIG and clear to read
Use LOTS of whitespace
Don’t make them ugly
Use COLOURFUL text
Use a 2:3 ratio (typically 600 x 900px… don’t go over 1,260 px tall but I’m currently trying out 735 x 1,105 px to make it stand out a bit more)
Don’t make them UGLY!!
Here’s an example (be sure to Pin this so you can come back to it later!)
Pin me!
UPDATE- Your pin design is often the thing that will let you down at the start. I know because I have been there!
Funny story about this one- I didn’t try the “Perfect Pin” course for a few months because it was only $9. I figured it couldn’t be much good for that price.
It hands down beats other Pinterest courses I’ve taken for $40+! You can learn more from their on brand vs off brand and pins for engagement vs click through part than most other courses I’ve seen
Click this picture to find out more about the Perfect Pin course
#4 How to Get Followers on Pinterest
There’s no secret sauce here!
Here’s the scientific 2 step process (which can be used on ANY social media platform):
Follow Pinteresters that you’d like to follow you!
Pin stuff!
NEXT MEAL PLEASE!
Honestly, it has been said numerous times by Pinterest that the number of followers you have on Pinterest DOES NOT MATTER.
STOP!!
Re-read that sentence.
Partly because your content can be found through the search bar and the home page but mainly because of Tip number 5…
#5 Ultimate Tip! How to Join Pinterest Group Boards
So this is the game changer!
This is how Pinterest can help to drive so much more traffic than other social media platforms.
Hold on a jiffy… What is a group board?
It is a board that has 2 or more “collaborators” (people that can post pins on a board)
You can invite others to collaborate on your boards but the exciting part…
You can become a collaborator on other boards.
So if you are new and you get on a board with 10,000 followers then all of these people can see, share and view your pins!
Boom!!
If you would like to know how to do this then I would recommend you start this free Pinterest email course.
This includes an email template of how to ask to become a collaborator and how to track who you’ve asked!
How to Use Pinterest for Beginners Summary
The more you keep reading this article the more you begin to understand how to use Pinterest and how it can be a MAJOR traffic supply.
Since you’re still here I’m going to assume you want to take Pinterest seriously.
If that’s the case you can find out a lot more tips and tactics about how to set up Pinterest in the best way for traffic in the FREE 6-day email course above…
The best part is:
There’s a way to automate it so you only need to put in one hour a month once it’s going!
In the spirit of full transparency, know that this post on how to make money at home contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. In fact, you may receive a discount or some money for free! Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
You don’t know it but, by the end of this page, you will have learned how to make money at home.
Pin me!
Imagine what it would be like if you could spend each day deciding how to spend your time.
Just picture waking up in the morning without the alarm going off to the smell of a freshly brewed coffee.
Visualise yourself having a leisurely breakfast with your family knowing that you control what time you need to work and IF you need to work that day.
And as you read this web page, remind yourself of what this would feel like.
Why Bother to Make Money at Home?
If you’re like me then you don’t wont to work in a job until you’re 75 years old.
In fact, you probably would quite like to have more time to do the things you love whilst you’re still young and energetic!
Well here’s a fact for you:
Being in control of your schedule has the biggest impact on your happiness.
Most of us know some people who work from home or don’t have a “typical job”.
Now, let me ask you this…
Do you think these people dread Monday mornings?
Here are 6 reasons why everyone should find out how to make money at home:
It increases your chance to reach financial independence and retire early (FIRE)
It can provide you with additional income to spend on treating yourself and loved ones
Making money at home can be done part-time with as much time as you want to put in
There are soooo many ways to make money at home that there is something to suit you
You can spend more time doing something that you are passionate about
You spend less time “doing stuff” and therefore spend less money on things that don’t make you happy
Try it out yourself and tell me if this is wrong!
How to Make Money at Home on the Computer
If you’re thinking “but I don’t even know where to start!” then you are not alone amigo!
Most people would jump on the opportunity if they knew how to make money at home. You can find out more ways to make money from home on Single Moms Income.
Now I would like to help you experience what it’s like to actually do this!
#1 Start a Blog or Online Business
This is without a doubt the best way to make money at home on the computer to earn passive income.
Really think about it…
Do you want to HAVE to work for the rest of your life?
Would you like the option to be able to pick and choose days and times when to work?
If you would then earning passive income is a must!
A couple of years ago I genuinely didn’t know it was possible to earn money through a blog…
But it is!
Here’s how:
Adverts/ Sponsors
Affiliate marketing
Selling your own content
I’ve put a lot more information about these types of income in other posts which you can find below.
For now, you just need to know that it’s not super hard to start a blog.
However, it can be harder to set up a blog that suits monetisation (which is how to make money at home).
But not to worry!! You could have a blog set up in a great way for monetisation within the next 30 seconds after you read this article:
#2 Use Online Surveys to Make an Extra $200+ a Month
The easiest way that ANYONE can make money at home is without a doubt filling out surveys…
The issue with most survey companies (and there are loads of them!) is that they will only send you the odd survey depending on your background information (age, gender, nationality, religion etc.)
So it’s important that you find legit survey sites and ideally sites that pay in cash rather than vouchers.
Here are the top 5 recommended survey sites by Make Time Online:
There are some important tips to be aware of to make good money from surveys too:
Join as many as you can that you find are legit (they won’t send surveys to you all the time)
Create a separate email address just for surveys (you can receive a lot and it will get confusing in between your normal emails)
Cash out as soon as possible- there’s rarely any advantage for not doing this!
Use your spare time wisely (lunch breaks/ waiting in a line/ watching TV during adverts etc.)
You won’t become rich or be able to quit your job from this but it is realistic to make a few hundred dollars a month by giving your opinion in your spare time.
It’s one of the best ways to connect with other people.
Not only can you interview people you admire and would like to learn from, but you connect with the people that listen much more than you can from a blog.
Some people think it’s really hard to start but if you have a laptop and internet chances are you could start one by the end of the day!
Many podcasts use advertising as a form of income but it’s often the relationships that you build that can help to monetise a podcast.
Do you remember a time when you just started teaching? The amount of time and energy it would take to plan ONE lesson!
New teachers will gladly pay for some of these lesson plans that you have sitting on your hard drive (if you did a PGCE in England you know what I mean!)
In the spirit of full transparency, know that this time-saving tools and resources post contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. In fact, you may receive a discount or some money for free! Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
You probably know there are thousands of time-saving tools and resources. But knowing which ones to use can sometimes waste more time than anything.
Pin me!
Most people think that it’s super hard to do all the extra things they want each day. However, by using these time-saving tools and resources it’s possible to be way more efficient with your time and money.
This resource page is a list of the recommended services, products and companies that I use or have used that I KNOW are valuable. They can save you hours of time each week, which can make a huge difference in your productivity and sanity!
Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money but you cannot get more time. Jim Rohn
Recommended Blogging Resources
Hosting
Wealthy Affiliate
Are you interested in making money online to free up your time?
Maybe you’ve started a blog or maybe you have an existing business that isn’t being well promoted online. Or maybe you would just like to know where to start…
Wealthy Affiliate literally holds your hand into getting an online business set up and driving FREE traffic to your website.
This is my TOP recommended blogging resource!
The reason for this is because it’s not only a hosting platform for up to 50 websites. It also comes with:
Affiliate marketing training (120 lessons with video and text, that is constantly updated, plus weekly live webinars)
Keyword research tool (Jaaxy costs $49/ Month by itself)
The support and community are second to none (there is always someone on live chat with over 1.5 million members)
& too much more to put in this time-saving tools and resources post
It’s completely free to start and costs $359 a year for the pro membership (there are many courses that cost more than this alone and come with none of the added benefits or support groups). If you’d like to learn more, check out my review here.
Bluehost
Maybe you already know what you’re doing with blogging and you just need to get your hosting (essential for monetising your blog and getting it ranked on search engines).
I used to use Bluehost as it’s super easy and affordable to use and you can start from $3.95 per month through this link.
If you are new to blogging I’d recommend getting the one-year hosting plan which will cost you just under $72.
Build Email Lists
MailChimp
Autoresponders are crucial blogging resources.
It’s how you build a real relationship with your readers.
If you’re just starting out and you have 0 email subscribers, you’ll likely want to join a FREE autoresponder such as MailChimp.
However, I wish I knew this from the start…
I started with MailChimp and found it very frustrating to have to manually change all of my opt-in forms on EVERY post when I finally did upgrade to a superior autoresponder… plus it’s just clunky and awkward (but you don’t know what you don’t know!)
ConvertKit
Wow, this is so much easier!
You can create as many sequences, automations and opt-in forms as you like.
Combine that with the awesome analytics to see what your readers open and click it becomes very easy to provide personalised and specific information that suits your readers.
It does cost $29 a month but if you’re serious about making money online an autoresponder cannot be overlooked. Try ConverKit out for 14 days for free here.
I actually tried a lot of different autoresponders for the free tirals when I made the switch (GetResponse, Aweber, MailerLite, SendLane).
But none of these compared with the ease of use, analytics and quality layout of ConvertKit in my opinion
For Traffic
Tailwind
Pinterest is THE best way to get traffic for free quickly to a new blog.
Fact.
The main reason for this is because it acts in a similar way as Google (sending users to content). But it’s possible to create viral pins and get traffic much quicker than it takes for Google to recognise your website. Read more about this in “5 Secret Pinterest Hacks to Drive Traffic to Your Website“
Tailwind’s now the only legitimate partner to Pinterest and is a way that you can automate your pins (rather than sitting on Pinterest all day or waking up at silly O’Clock to pin at the best time for your audience).
You can give it a try with 100 pins for free here. It will cost $9.99 a month after that to continue but it’s one of the things I wish I purchased much sooner than I did as it saves soooo much time and brings in sooo much traffic!
Create Pins/ Design Logo’s
PowerPoint
Now, I can almost hear your mind saying… SERIOUSLY???
Well… yes
For 3 main reasons:
You probably already know how to use it (thank you ICT @ school!)
It’s easier to create designs that STAND OUT on Pinterest (everyone else uses Canva!)
You have more control over the details and design (i.e. using shadows to make words “pop” out)
Do you notice the difference between my old pins (left) and new ones (right)?
I didn’t want to believe this either until I tried out BTOP’s $9 “Create the perfect pin” course. This was a HUGE game changer in seeing some awesome traffic from Pinterest and it walks you through how Jeff and Ben have designed their pins to help them grow their websites to over $240k/ month business.
Click the picture to see more about this insanely cost-effective course
True story- I didn’t try this course for a few months because I thought it couldn’t be much good for $9… I kicked myself hard when I tried it!
Canva
An amazing FREE graphic designer website. You can design some amazing pins (for Pinterest) blog cover pics and logos here.
Graphic designers are highly recommended for blogging resources but I’ve already mentioned how you can use programs such as Powerpoint to get the same if not better results.
I would also recommend Colorcinch and Snappa. There are free or paid options that come with these design programs too.
For Writing
Grammarly
I’m not sure how I ever used to live without this one!
Grammarly fixes spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes online so you can write freely knowing a big red line will show up whenever you misspell something simple!
Another great free extension. It has a paid version but the free one is great for the basics.
A massive tip is to use a hypnotic writing cheatsheet and analogy book so you can go edit your writing with words that scientifically proven to increase reader engagement. Get yours for free here…
Podcast Resources
Podbean
You also need hosting (somewhere to store it) to put a podcast out there into the world.
Podbean is user-friendly, has no limits to how much you can produce in a month (great for long formats/ interviews) whilst also the most friendly way to do this on your pocket ($9 a month)
Audacity
This is another free resource and is fricking awesome!
It’s easy enough to learn how to use with a couple of YouTube videos or just playing around and it can help to produce a professional-sounding podcast quickly. Did I mention Audacity it’s free?
Levelator
Have you ever listened to a podcast where someone is being interviewed and one voice is WAY louder than the other?
Problem solved with Levelator… another free resource!
Ecamm recorder
If you intend on interviewing people you will need a way to record your voice… and their voice!
Ecamm call recorder for Skype is so simple to use and only costs $39.95 for life.
Recommended Time Saving Resources
For Learning
Audible
Easily one of the best apps EVER!
If you find it hard to find the time to read, check out Audible. It’s an amazing use of time (check out the NETIME life hack).
Listen to some of the best advice from the worlds most successful people on your phone, laptop, iPad, Alexa anywhere ANYTIME!
I pay £69.99 for 12 books over a year. There are alternative memberships such as 3 books a month for a free 30-day trial then $14.95 after.
Fits in nicely with the above and you can find some amazing information for FREE using this app.
Overcast massively improves your podcast listening. It’s great for customising playlists and has a cool “smart speed” feature that speeds up in silences and plays at a comfortable listening speed.
Apple Podcast works well for iPhone users too obviously!
Would you like to be able to read 4 books a day? With this app, you genuinely can get the best information from some of the world’s most productive people in 15 minutes.
Honest!
There is written and audio format so if you have a spare 15 minutes on the way to work you can get some amazing little gems of information here.
I pay $89.99 for an annual membership for unlimited summarised books.
For Productivity
Trello
Don’t you hate it when you get interrupted? Isn’t it impossible to remember the things you had to do from the day before?
This is one of the top time-saving tools and resources.
This app how I plan my weeks, days and effectively my life… and Trello is FREE!
Asana
Like Trello but better if you like lists.
You can be as glamorous as you like with Asana, but I keep it simple.
I have a project for each quarter of the year. I then have a “to do” list, a “to do this week” list, “started” and “done”.
It’s amazing because you can move the tasks along as you go and it helps to remember to do all those pesky things that you usually forget like pay a bill, do a tax return or call your Mum (jokes… I always remember that Mum!)
It’s a great tool to use if you are delegating tasks in a small team or to a VA and it’s again a free tool!
Evernote
Ahhhhh my digital brain.
If you don’t use this I literally do not understand how you can cope!! One of the best time-saving tools and resources around.
Have you ever been out and about for someone ask you what your date of birth is and you had a complete brain fart?!
It remembers your passport details, your tax number, your companies address, that great article that you read on your phone when you were on the loo… it remembers everything and more.
Some awesome benefits…
You can search for anything and it finds it (including handwritten notes!!)
It works offline and then stores it when you get the Internet again
It’s FREE!
Recommended Money Saving/ Making Resources
For Investing
Vanguard
If you live in Australia, the UK or the USA then investing in index funds through Vanguard is the best way to earn passive income.
On average you will receive a conservative 7% a year on average (some years it may be much higher and some years it can be negative)
If you are an expat or live somewhere else, then you can invest in index funds through ETF’s. Be sure to check out the 3 part podcast series to see why, how and the best strategy to invest in index funds here.
You can still invest in index funds through ETF’s from Saxo bank.
Bullion Vault
I’m not going to go in too much detail here about why to invest in gold and silver as I find people tend to fall asleep but if you want more information about this check out this post!
BullionVault stands out to other ways to invest in precious metals because:
It has low storage fees (0.12% a year for gold and 0.48% for silver/ platinum)
The best prices you’ll find to buy gold or silver (it’s peer to peer trading)
By spending on this Amex and working with your partner you can easily get enough points to do this.
Click here to get a bonus 6,000 points when you spend £1,000 in your first 3 months!
Plus it’s a FREE card… an absolute no-brainer!
Uber
Imagine how would you feel if you could take your own personal driver anywhere in the world?
Well with Uber you pretty much can!
Plus it’s cheaper than a normal taxi
Plus it’s often quicker than to call a taxi
And you can often get in a NICER taxi
If you don’t already have it get Uber now… plus get a FREE ride with this link!
So there you have the best time-saving tools and resources I have personally found. Did you find anything new here? Want to add anything else? Drop a comment below…
Keep changing for the better,
Mike
P.S. Are you looking to get more traffic to your website? Find out the #1 way that new sites get thousands of views a month quickly by clicking here.
In the spirit of full transparency, know that this Starting From Zero review contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. In fact, you will often receive a discount or bonus signing up fee! Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
You probably know that many people make money online today.
Fred Lam promises to show you how it’s possible for you to do exactly this with his $1.99 ebook on Drop Shipping.
This Starting from Zero review will reveal the truth behind the book and what you should expect before you jump in.
Starting From Zero Review- The Overview and Rankings
This is where dropshipping beats previous forms of eCommerce stores. It’s possible to set up without owning any stock or physically shipping anything yourself.
3. Targeted Visitors
This section particularly mentions one strategy and one place you need to go.
Spoiler alert- it’s Facebook advertising!!
The book goes into more detail about how to do this effectively but you’ll really need the upsells to learn the most about this section.
4. Profit Multiplier
This part of the book will show you how to scale and ask your customers for more money whilst providing real value. In marketing terms, this is called a sales funnel, and funnily enough, this book is actually a sales funnel for Fred Lam.
It also shows you some alternatives to multiply your profit:
How you can create micro-niche websites
How it’s possible to sell your website
Mentions it’s possible to outsource things too
Again it kind of skims over this topic though.
5. Rinse & Repeat
Either create a new one or scale it up.
Simples!
Once you can use the 5-steps effectively there’s nothing stopping you from
What’s the Real Price and What does it Include?
As you can probably tell from the price of the book it’s not where it ends!
Yes, it’s possible to get your dropshipping business up and running purely from reading the book. However, you will need to spend a lot of time and money on trial and error with things like Facebook advertising (to drive traffic to your store) and how to systemise things properly.
This is why the book leads onto some other courses you can purchase from Fred Lam (aka upsells).
Here are the upsells that Fred Lam has in place:
Front End: $1.99 Audiobook
Order Bump: $27 – B.S. Framework 6 Step Guide
Upsell 1: $147 – eCompreneur for 90 days then $49/mo
Downsell 1: $1 trial 7 days then $49/mo
Upsell 2: $197 – Masterclass Training
Downsell 2: $79 x 3 months.
As you can see the total investment after 3 months is well over $440.
Is Starting From Zero a Scam?
There are two main ways an online course can be a scam:
Take your money and run off into the sunset, never to be heard from again
Provide some information but it doesn’t live up to the promises
It’s certainly not like scam number one. However, it’s not completely honest upfront with the investment you will need to make.
Plus, there are some people that have done extremely well from Fred Lam’s training.
Just to be fully transparent with you, I have read the book but I have not purchased the upsells myself.Therefore I will stop short of calling it a scam.
I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn more “Ways to Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.
The more you read this Startinfrom Zero review the more you will see there are some of the good parts to the book…
#1 Real Testimonials
It’s clear to see that there are real testimonials.
There are also some big names (including Rich Dad Poor Dad’s author Robert Kiyosaki and Grant Cardone) the recommend Fred Lam’s training. Certainly, take these with a pinch of salt though.
The video and written testimonials make it clear that there are real people that have benefitted from Fred’s training. There is no sign of these being paid actors as are often seen on scam courses.
#2 Fred Lam has Actually Done This
I know it’s easy to fake a screenshot about how much you earn online.
However, when you combine the below screenshot to what other people say, it’s hard to argue that Fred knows his stuff!
Just see what Anik Singal (another credible online marketer) has to say about him.
#3 Low Business Startup Costs
One of the big attractions about many online businesses is the low start-up costs.
You could purchase the training, waste loads of money on Facebook ads, purchase your online store and companies to handle the shipping and still have only spent a few thousand dollars.
Most physical businesses will need 10’s of thousands of dollars just to start.
Starting From Zero Red Flags
The support offered with the product. Is there a community, forum, personal support, do the owners support it.
Key Terms:
Black Hat Methods – Using lies and unethical methods to make someone buy something
White Hat Methods – Being honest and genuine to help people make informed decisions about purchases
Dropshipping – when a store sells a product it purchases the item from a third party and ships directly to the customer
Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
Red Flag – A warning sign
#1 Upsells
Chances are you got drawn in by the $1.99 price tag on the book.
However, if you want to be successful with a dropshipping company without wasting loads of time and money figuring it out yourself it would be wise to get the proper training.
Fred doesn’t make this clear in the sales page of the book.
To get set up properly you will likely need to spend at least $400 and $49 monthly. Not to mention the cost of hosting your online website and Facebook ads.
It can quickly add up to a lot of money, so it’s wise to be aware of this from the start.
#2 Outdated Screenshots
The book has many screenshots to show you step by step how to set up your online store etc.
However 3rd party online websites change their layout so regularly that it’s very likely the screenshots will not match what Fred shows you in the book.
Obviously, the audiobook will be no good for these either!
#3 Clickbank Product
Often this is seen as a bonus as Clickbank provides a 60-day money-back guarantee.
eCommerce is definitely a great way to make money online. Many people have become super successful with it.
But here are some things to be aware of before diving into an eCommerce business:
Financial risk- need to pay for adverts (for traffic), hosting etc.
Often need to bulk buy the product (not in dropshipping’s case!)
Manage/ rely on it being stored and shipped somewhere else
Provide customer service
Refunds & returns can become a problem
Due to the reliance on 3rd party companies if they were to not exist anymore you wouldn’t have a business left at all.
Hence, this is why Fred’s worst nightmare happened and his business collapsed overnight!
Check out my chat with “Jeremy Ong from Hustlr” on why he has moved away from his $70k/ month eCommerce business and has started an affiliate marketing business instead.
You can build a personal brand around something you are passionate about rather than selling random products
But saying that, dropshipping may be a great fit for you. Click here to find out more about Starting From Zero. It is a great way to learn whether dropshipping is something you are interested in.
An Evergreen Strategy That Brings You The Money
It wasn’t that long ago that I was still trying to figure out how it’s possible for people to make money online.
The biggest issue I found was that most systems either required a load of time, money or for you to sell to all your friends and family. I wanted to find a passive system that had a few things:
I could work on when I wanted (I was still in a full-time job)
Didn’t cost a fortune to start and maintain
Didn’t need me to sell stuff to my friends and family
It was in September 2018 that I found the system that I still use today to make passive income and have since quit my full-time job.
The best thing about it is:
It’s free to start
Customers are brought to you that are already interested (just think about how you found this review… there was no money or time spent from me promoting this!)
You get me as a personal coach to help you on your journey
When you try out this program you will see why so many people recommend it.
Starting From Zero: The “MakeTimeOnline” Final Word
As you come towards the end of this Starting from Zero review you will realise the book is definitely not a scam.
But it’s important to be realistic about your expectations. It won’t be possible for you to create a thriving dropshipping business just from investing in a $1.99 book.
If you have any questions and I mean any questions about Starting From Zero, please leave them below. If you have used or currently are a member please also add your opinions below.
Keep changing for the better,
Mike
P.S. Since you’re still here, I’m going to assume that you are interested in making money online to free up your time. So check out this 1-minute video to see more information about my #1 recommended program…
