For those people who have started writing blogs using WordPress blogging software the idea of building your traffic to increase the numbers of hits you are getting will be nothing new. You will already be alert to the possibility of making some money from your site using Adsense advertising and you will probably have learned a little about the scale of Internet Marketing these days. You probably wonder if the glossy adverts can be true – that there really are ways how to earn money working from home on your computer? How can there be – you get 100 unique visitors to your interesting blog every day and yet your Adsense revenue is meagre – a few $ per month! Not a very good method of work at home employment!

Adsense earnings can be hard fought for – yes there is a huge budget available for paying web masters to include Adsense on their sites – but the competition is huge. To rely on Adsense alone for bringing in a useful income means that you must be writing totally commercially with an extremely astute choice of subject matter – such that the browsers happening upon your site are actually looking for the item that you have written about!

It is arguably easier to find a product to write about and use an Amazon link to encourage browsers on your site to buy the item from your affiliate prompt. Take for example a subject that I write about on one of my blog sites – scuba diving computers. These cost around $300 to $1000 each. If a visitor to my site hits upon a page that is about a particular computer that he is looking for, the Adsense adverts will most likley be pointing to scuba diving holidays in the Maldives or some other holiday location. I will be unlikely to get my $1 click from Adsense going to my bank account.  However, if my product review of the particular computer instead has a dedicated link to a good deal for that item on Amazon – there is a much higher chance that my visitor will click through. Not only is there a higher chance he will click through, but even if he visits Amazon and decides upon a different computer I will still earn the commission on the sale. And guess what, with commissions starting at 5%, this means $50 on a $1000 computer! I would rather have one click in 10 producing a commission of $50 than one click in 100 earning me $1!

The sums do add up in preference of Amazon – or indeed other affiliate sales. Adsense is easy to install to your WordPress blog and is the route in for many aspiring Internet Marketers. However, using Amazon as one of your ideas for making money can be just as easy. If you use an Amazon Widget Shortcode (simply browse for this in your “Add New Plugins” option) – you will get a tool added to your new post toolbar in your blog. You will also need to register as an Amazon affiliate in order to get a code for adding to your Amazon Widget Plugin dashboard. Once you have done these two simple steps you are ready to write product reviews and install an Amazon link into each one.

Now whatever the subject of your blog you can find something relevant to sell from Amazon to write about – even if it has to be a book. For example if your site is a business or career related discussion forum you can review few books on it. Don’t forget to link internally within your blog site to the review and also spend time building back-links to your review post.

Of course if you are blogging specifically to make money on the Internet then you will be choosing your niche areas to promote with care. You can use the Amazon browsing facilities for this and it is a good idea to look on their bestseller list to see what is popular. Essentially you want a subject area with a number of categories so that you can write a unique post targeting items within these categories. In this way you will be building up a strong site covering a wide range of products that are linked. As the site strengthens over a year or so each new product you add will be ranked much easier for the key words (in this case product names and brands) you are targeting.

And for those of you that think this is complicated – consider this:

1. It takes me about 15 – 30 minutes to research a new product item and write a post about it.

2. It takes me about 10 seconds to locate the item in Amazon (I usually do this first to make sure it is being sold) and copy and past the ASIN code into the drop down box on my new post window.

So if you are writing posts anyway why not add an Amazon widget to it – it acts as an illustration improving your post anyway and might result in a few commission clicks!

There are a lot of ways to make money from home but you need to set out on a specific path. Too many people go online and end up getting so confused that they end up going in circles and never start anything. Picking a course of action and sticking with it until it proves to be a winner or loser is your best bet.

Now that the economy is not good, more and more people go online every day to try to make money. Most are looking for a quick and easy system and that is why they are very gullible to all the scams online. When people are desperate, they become prime targets for scammers in any industry.

A lot of people hear about online surveys for money and get their start there. They then find out that it is a lot of hard work for very little pay. Not everyone quits after this type of experience though, and some even learn from it. After all, it is obvious that someone is making money online or there wouldn’t be the billions of websites that there are.

If you are convinced enough to work hard at it, you may break out and learn that making money online can start with your own well designed website. If you have a service to offer and can get people to come to your site that are in the market for what you sell, you will find out that money can be made online. A lot of people fail at making their own website, getting traffic to it, or any point in between.

The one thing that is the same online as offline is that nothing comes easily and those who work hard are more likely to succeed. If you are not willing to spend the time learning and building your business, you will fail online just as you would in the real world.

Let’s say you lost your job, had no savings and no one to borrow money from. Could you come up with $100 in a day or two, legitimately? Don’t feel bad, most people couldn’t. But I’ve been in a similar situation several times in my life and I’ve learned ways to make money that other people overlooked or just wouldn’t take the effort to do. As with any method, if you’re not willing to put forth the time and effort, it isn’t going to work for you!

Here are a few ways to make money in a rather quick way. Ways your Mama never told you (if she told you any way at all!!)

One of my favorite past times is hunting for old junk to resell. For me, it’s a challenge to find something of value another person has thrown away or under valued. I love browsing through pawn shops or visiting estate auctions looking for bargains. I’ve done really well over the years doing this. The only thing you have to keep in mind is that you have to know something about the products you’re searching for. You can lose a lot of money on stuff if you don’t know what you’re buying.

I know a guy who runs a home based business. He has a flat bed pickup and advertises locally that he’ll clean out your Garage and haul off your junk for free. The catch? He gets to rummage through all that stuff and find items of value that people throw away. And even in this economy, people throw away a lot of valuable items! In fact, he says his “business” has really picked up since the recession hit.

Another way to make money that has worked well for me is to watch the freebie section on Craigslist. I then make several pickups during the day and then come home, sort the stuff and either list it on Craigslist for sale or put it up on eBay. You’d be amazed at what people give away just to get rid of it! I bet this is another way to make money your Mama never told you about!