How To Make Money With Web 2.0

Getting Started: 

The Breakdown

Producing Content

More and more people are relying on the internet to be their primary source of information and entertainment. The demand for such content is increasing exponentially. If you've got content that is either informative, entertaining or both; chances are there is a web 2.0 website available to help you generate income from it.

Creating/Designing Custom Products

The increasing availability of print-on-demand technology coupled with the social, global and interactive aspects of the internet have created a new class of consumer. This consumer is no longer satisfied with mass produced items that lack any individuality and this backlash against mass production has rekindled interest in handcrafted items. You can take advantage of this by either selling your own handcrafted creations or making use of available production on demand websites and offering customized products that you have designed.

Blogging

Blogs technically belong under "Producing Content" but blogs are such a huge part of the internet now, they warrant their own section.

Marketing

The social aspects of web 2.0 have revolutionized the way things can be marketed. The viral nature of the social web is an extremely powerful tool for getting your message out to numerous people in a short amount of time for little to no investment. The trick is getting people to talk about it.

Resources for Producers Providing Information 

Links that help you use your knowledge and expertise to generate income

Squidoo

Squidoo makes it easy to create web pages (called lenses) devoted to whatever topic you might have a lot of information about. Then it pays you a percentage of whatever advertising revenue your lens generates. It also has specialized widgets (called modules) that you can add to your page for even more revenue generating potential. Squidoo is a great way to make money off of any research projects you might be working on. Or if you prefer, Squidoo will let you donate the money your lens generates to charity.

Helium - Where Knowledge Rules

Helium pays you to write articles about whatever topic you wish. Once you submit an article, other readers and writers can read an rate the article amongst any others written on the same topic. Like Squidoo, Helium pays you based on the advertising revenue your article generates. However, the pay rates vary depending on the article's ranking, how many people are interested in the topic you wrote about, and how much the advertisers are willing to pay to place an ad with your article. Beyond that, Helium also provides a market place where publishers can purchase articles to run in their publications. If they choose yours you get paid whatever the publication was offering for the article (usually $10-$200) minus a 15% service and you also get credited for writing the article in the publication.

Lulu.com - Self Publishing - Free

Lulu.com offers print-on-demand publishing of books, ebooks, images, DVDs, CDs and other types of content. Lulu allows you to set your own prices in return for 20% of the revenue your product generates. For authors, Lulu helps you get your books sold and distributed globally through both local retailers and large online retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

BookSurge

BookSurge is Amazon.com's print-on-demand service. Starting at $99 (b&w press ready pdf) BookSurge allows you to self publish your book and take advantage of all the sales and distribution options Amazon has to offer. Additional printing, marketing, and publishing upgrades are available at extra cost.

ClickBank

ClickBank is a huge affiliate program that is designed to sell digital products and information. ClickBank offers 92.5% of the selling price minus commission set by the publisher. There is a one time activation fee of $49.95 per product.

Associated Content

Associated Content pays you contributing text, audio, video or image content to their library. Content must go through an approval process and then once approved Associated Content pays an initial payment of $3-$20 dollars. If the content does well, it may be eligible for their Performance Bonus. The Performance Bonus pay a small amount per 1000 page views plus a $45 bonus for every 30,000 view.

Resources for Producers Providing Entertainment 

Links that help you generate income by being entertaining

AtomFilms

AtomFilms pays royalties for user submitted videos. However, it's highly selective about the videos it chooses. You can upload a video for consideration, pitch an idea or go through their other site listed below and try to win their Upload Showdown.

AtomUploads

This is AtomFilms other website where you can upload videos without being selected. They don't pay you for the videos you upload to this site, but if your video is good/popular enough they'll enter you in their Upload Showdown. If you win, then they will put you up on the main site and you'll get paid.

Metacafe - Producer Rewards

Metacafe pays its top video producers based on the amount of views each video gets. If your submitted video meets their content guidelines and reaches of 20,000 views, Metacafe will pay you $5 dollars for every additional 1000 views your video receives.

Revver

Revver monetizes your videos through a unique method of inserting ads at the beginning of each video. Depending on the advertiser the ad will generate revenue through either click throughs (every time a viewer clicks on an ad) or through plain old views. The great thing about Revver's method is that it works regardless of how the video is distributed. That means if your video gets emailed, blogged or even shared on a p2p network you still get advertising revenue. Plus as an additional incentive to share the videos, members who share videos also get a percentage of the ad revenue. Producers get 40% and sharers get 20%.

BlastMyMusic - Sell Your Music Now

BlastMyMusic is a website for bands and musicians to sell digital versions of their singles and albums. Musicians get 65% of the sales generated with the pricing roughly around $.99 a song. They also have an affiliate program for people who want to promote other artists that pays a 5% commission.

Musicane

Musicane helps you create stores for selling music, ringtones, and videos. Artists can upload their content, set the price and then decided if they want to opt in to the reseller program. Artists set the commission they want to offer resellers who can then set up stores that sell content created by any of the artists available on the site. Musicane pays 60% per download.

Additional Content Production Links 

Helpful tips, tools and advice for content producers

Sites that Pay for Film and Video: From CinemaTech

This is an extensive list of sites that pay for videos. Many of the sites listed are for more serious video producers. So if that sort of thing is your bag, then this site should be a big help.

Filmmaker's Tool Kit: Creating a Movie with Web 2.0

Links to software and websites that you can use to make movies.

Sell Your Designs or Creations 

Etsy :: Your place to buy and sell all things handmade

Etsy is an online marketplace devoted exclusively to handmade products. They offer free accounts including a shop to list your products. It costs 20 cents to list a product and then a 3.5% commission on all sales. According to their stats, for every 5 products listed, 2 sell.

Ebay

You can always sell your creations on Ebay. Payment depends on outcome of the auction. Insertion fee starts at $.20 and increases with the starting price/reserve. Service charge starts at 5.25% and increases with the outcome of the auction.

CafePress.com : Create, Buy and Sell Unique Gifts, Custom T-Shirts and More

CafePress is one of the largest and most recognizable websites offering print-on-demand products. You can create everything from custom t-shirts to wall clocks. You can create a basic store for free or upgrade to a premium account for as low as $4.95 per month (pay by the year).

Zazzle

Zazzle is another print-on-demand website with a wide variety of products to choose from. Zazzle works on a royalty basis which means that you earn money based on the number of products sold with your artwork on it. So instead of just creating your own personal store to sell your designs you can make the design available for anyone to use and customize on their own products. Zazzle pays a 10% royalty on all products and a 7% commission for affiliates.

BoardPusher

BoardPusher allows you to design custom skateboard decks. For $5.00 a month or $50.00 a year you can set up your own shop and sell your decks above cost ($44.99) for profit.

Spreadshirt

Spreadshirt is another print-on-demand website offering unique items to customize and plot printing with flex (similar to vinyl) and flock (similar to velvet) options. It's free to sign up and create a store and you set your price above cost to make a profit.

Shopify

If you already have products to sell (e.g. crafts, shirts, ect...) and want a quick and easy way to setup a web store, Shopify offers nicely designed turnkey websites hosted on their servers. Shopify will also add your store to their market place which will give added exposure through their search engines. Pricing starts at $24 per month plus a 2% transaction fee and goes up depending on the plan you choose. (Transaction fee goes down with more expensive plans.)

Blog hosting services 

Blogger

This is Google's blogging service. Free and easy to setup and maintain. If you already have a gmail or igoogle account you can use that to setup your Blogger blog. Plus AdSense (Google's advertising service) is tightly integrated, so once you get your blog up and going adding AdSense is a snap.

WordPress.com

Wordpress is a blog hosting service run by the same people who create the WordPress blogging software. Running Adsense ads is not available yet but it should be coming soon as an upgrade option.

Blogit

Blogit is a blog hosting service that works based on a subscription model. Blog writers and blog readers subscribe to Blogit in order to read other peoples blogs. Blogit then calculates all the different blog pages a subscriber visits and splits half the subscription fee between all the blogs visited.

Blogcharm

Blogcharm is a blog hosting service that splits it's ad revenue with it's bloggers. Bloggers can sign up for a free blog and they'll run a strip of ads across the top and then split the revenue generated by that with the blogger 50/50. Bloggers can also run Google adsense ads and keep 100% of the revenue generated from that.

Blogging Software 

Nucleus CMS

Good software for managing more than one blog at a time. Easy installation. Requires PHP 4.0.6+ and MySQL 3.23.38+. Many templates and pluggins available.

WordPress

One of the most popular blogging platforms. Designed for managing one blog at a time. Easy installation including a list of hosts that offer one click installation. Requires PHP 4.2 or greater and MySQL 4.0 or greater. Tons of templates and pluggins available.

Textpattern

Another popular blogging platform. Features textile which simplifies the conversion of text to html markup. Easy installation. Requires PHP 4.3+ and MySQL 3.23+. Lots of pluggins and templates available.

Resources for Generating Income With a Blog 

BlogKits

BlogKits is an advertising service that offers bloggers a simple way to include relevant advertising on their blog. The ads are CPA, which means bloggers get paid commission when a sale is made. BlogKits is also developing a pay for review system that will pay regardless if the review is negative or positive.

Google Adsense

Contextual advertising offered by Google. The ads are CPC which means bloggers get paid on a cost per click basis.

Text Link Ads

Text Link Ads sells add space on your blog for you. Once approved, bloggers get 50% of ad sales.

Additional Blogging Links 

OpenSourceCMS

Directory featuring opensource content management software. Check out reviews, view demos and see how other people rate software that can be used to create and manage blogs.

ProBlogger

A blog all about how to make money by being a blogger. Great resource for learning the in's and out's of blogging.

Dosh Dosh

A blog about how to make money online. Examines ways to make money online and topics like blogging for money, affiliate marketing, advertising networks, social media monetization and other ways to make money on the internet.

Blogging To The Bank 2.0

ClickBank offer for information on how to run a successful blog.

Viral Media Cash

ClickBank offer for information about making money by running a blog dedicated to viral media.

Copyblogger

A blog about copy writing and blogging tips. Good resource for helping you make sure you content is as successful as possible.