But as I sat here thinking about how I can write a blog post that will help people, I realized that quote a bit of the money I make in my businesses is made by me being a middle man. The reality is that a “middle man” can and often does actually provide a great deal of value and it can and often does generate a GREAT deal of money for that middle man.

Let’s list just a few of my middle man “positions:”

- With my Indianapolis Web Design business I act as a middle man by providing top-notch design services to small businesses. I then forward the order details to my designer who gives me good prices for higher than average sales volume. The business gets what they want for a fair price, the designer gets frequent business, which means more money for him with no need to advertise and I make money too. We all win!

- With my Indianapolis SEO business I offer SEO and other Internet Marketing services to small businesses. I know what it takes to execute an effective internet marketing campaign, so I gather up people from oDesk and hire them to do what needs to be done (for CHEAP) then I charge a reasonable rate to the client, which ends up making much more money in the long run because of the results of the marketing campaign. Once again, everyone wins!

- As an affiliate marketer I’m also the middle man. I’m basically doing the marketing for companies and they give me a cut of the profits in exchange. The consumer gets what he/she wants, the company makes sales, which means they make money, and I make money. Once again, everyone wins.

I could list several more ways that I currently make money by being a middle man, but there are a few off the top of my head. There are many multi-million and even billion dollar companies out there that make their money by simply connecting someone who wants something with someone who provides that something.

So what can you be the middle man for? Almost ANYTHING! For online stuff sign up at oDesk (if you are one of the few who haven’t already) and you’ll find web designers, web developers, SEO’s and the list goes on and on… all who will work for VERY little money. Now all you need is a website for the service so you can take orders and maybe a separate phone line, depending on how you want to do it. Now all you need to do is start promoting with SEO, social media etc. It’s MUCH easier to make a profit off of just a little traffic when one sale will earn you $500 or more! Keep that in mind, it’s a very important detail!

So if you’re looking for something new to add to your business in order to diversify, being a middle-man is definitely something to think about!

But guess what, I registered a new LLC and a partner and I are in the process of starting an Internet Marketing Service for Small Business. So why did I change my mind? One word: Outsourcing!

Over time I’ve realized the incredible value in outsourcing. If something can be effectively outsourced it SHOULD BE! And nearly all aspects of running this kind of service can easily be outsourced. Of course you need to be picky about who you outsource to and you need to always remain the middle man controlling quality, but if you can do that effectively the size of your company can literally grow without limits, which means a service like this could easily turn into a 7-figure business!

With my new business (BOOST Web Marketing LLC) I will be doing everything other than design and sales myself to get things started but over time the business will just about run itself.

Now that I’ve talked about outsourcing, let me hit on something else that was holding me back in the past and may be holding you back from offering your services to small businesses. And that is selling yourself short! I remember when I first started online and considered going offline. I thought I just didn’t have enough experience to offer these services. But the fact is you don’t have to be an SEO and/or social media expert to offer these services. Yes, you should have at least a year or so experience, but you really just need to know basic SEO techniques, basic Article Marketing and basic Webmastering. If you aren’t a designer (which I’m NOT) you can outsource the design. Other than that you just need to do simple things like set up Google Analytics, Alerts and Social Media profiles.

I’m not saying ANYONE could do this, but you shouldn’t sell yourself short! The average Internet Marketer who has been doing this for at least a year or so could easily run a successful offline Internet Marketing service. The average small business owner doesn’t know a thing about SEO and the few things they do know about marketing online (like social media) they typically just don’t want to deal with.

So if you know the basics and have a little experience, you might want to think about going offline!

If you’re like most people who are keen to make money online you’ve more than likely been focusing on methods that will generate passive income: income where you do the work once and get paid over and over again. Passive income is arguably the best sort of income there is, however it can take time to establish. As the months go by you can’t help but wonder if you’ll ever earn enough to go on that elusive overseas holiday or pay off that annoying credit card debt let alone quit your J.O.B.

The good news is there are plenty of ways to supplement your income with more active income methods such as article and ebook writing, blog commenting, link building or even web design. Whether you have a specific need such as school fees, a holiday or a huge electricity bill, there are ways to make money online more quickly whilst your passive businesses mature.

One method that I’ve enjoyed earning some extra cash with is selling web property. From domain names right through to Squidoo lenses; people are out there looking to buy virtual real estate.

There are so many ways to develop web property to sell such as building brand new sites with the intention of selling them immediately, or building sites up to be consistent earners and selling them as established businesses.

Then there’s site flipping in its purest form whereby you purchase an existing website, make some improvements then sell it for more than you initially paid: think ‘house flipping’ only without the need for hundreds of thousands of dollars just to enter the market and get your feet wet!

You might previously have had a keen interest in site flipping but then shied away from it for fear of the technical transfer amongst other things. I completely understand that fear because I felt it once too but rest assured it’s not that hard and after only a couple of site transfers you’ll start to feel quite confident.

So where do you begin if you want to finally jump in and test the site flipping waters?

Walking before you run is always a good motto to live by so with that being said I suggest you create a basic site to sell with your main goal being to get a feel for the process rather than focusing solely on profit.

Below is a summary of the ten steps you can follow to get you started building a basic blog to sell. These steps are covered in detail in my free QuikCash ebook.

10 Step Summary

Step 1: Market Selection
Flippa.com is the number one marketplace for selling sites and is a great place to get a feel for what buyers are looking for. By visiting the Just Sold tab you’ll be able to literally view what the more popular sites and niches are. You can also get an idea of what markets are hot by visiting sites such as Dummies.com and viewing popular articles at article directories.

Step 2: Domain Name
.com domains have a higher perceived value so where possible grab one. .org and .net are fine too if you’re focusing on a keyword rich domain name but avoid .info simply because they are perceived as the lowest value and could put buyers off.

Step 3: Hosting & Cpanel Set Up
For all sites you plan to sell I highly recommend you set them up on their own account. A reseller account is not too expensive and really is your best option when it comes to access and keeping the site transfer process clean and simple.

Step 4: Nameservers
After you have set up the account where the new site will reside you need to note down the nameservers of that account and then adjust them at your domain register. It can take up to 48 hours with some registers before the domain resolves to the new servers.

Step 5: WordPress
As I’ve mentioned above, there are many different ways you can develop web property to sell, for this example though I’ll focus specifically on a WordPress blog. WordPress is very popular and creating a blog this way can be simple for you to build and for the buyer to update. You can install WordPress automatically using Fantastico which is offered by most hosting providers.

Plugins: Adding plugins to the site is a quick and easy way to add value to the package you’re creating. The popular All In One SEO Pack is always good to add as well as Sociable and Easy Privacy Policy. There are plenty more to choose from such as image sliders and video feeds that can lend themselves to certain markets.

Step 6: Adding Content
I recommend you add at least eight articles to the site but ten if you can manage it. If your content is unique then your site will appeal to more buyers but it is possible to sell sites with PLR content.

Keywords: Writing your content around keywords with reasonable search volume that are not too competitive will get the site off on the right foot. The Google Keyword Tool is a free option to help you with keyword selection.

Step 7: Theme Selection
For basic sites you can use a free WordPress theme but be sure you are clear on the usage rights as many are for personal use only. I use the Artisteer WordPress theme builder software to create my own basic blog themes.

Theme Installation: Once you’ve selected your theme you can upload it to your blog using an FTP program such as FileZilla.

Step 8: Monetization
Adding various monetization methods to the site can help potential buyers get a good idea of ‘what’s possible’. You can add Amazon widgets, ClickBank products, CPA offers and AdSense ads to name a few.

Step 9: List For Sale
Flippa.com is my preferred auction marketplace, it does cost money though and that money is not refundable if your site doesn’t sell so you need to be aware of that.

Your auction listing copy is your opportunity to influence potential buyers as to why your site is worth considering. Below is a summary of what you should include as a minimum:

• A catchy headline.
• A short summary of the site.
• The domain name.
• An overview of the site in list format.
• Describe how the site will make money.
• Explain why you’re selling the site.
• Point out why your site is a better buy than the hundreds of other sites for sale.
• List any bonuses or extra services you offer for anyone who buys at the BIN (buy it now) price.
• List out and answer frequently asked questions such as what happens after the sale, where the domain name is registered, what hosting you offer if any and who will move the site.

One mistake I see a lot of sellers make is over pricing their sites. You will probably find yourself convinced that the sites you build are worth triple what they really are in terms of what the market is willing to pay, this can set your auction off in a downward spiral from the get go. You overprice it, which puts buyers off, whereas if you price the site “to sell”, ie make it almost too good to refuse, then you are more likely to receive early bids or at least some questions or private messages.

Expecting $300 for a basic blog is in the main unrealistic especially as a new seller who has no previous feedback history, so keep things like that in mind when you set the reserve and BIN (buy it now) price for your sites.

Step 10: Site Transfer
Be prepared for the fact that not every site will sell first time every time and remember that failure can be your best teacher. When it comes time to transferring your first site it can be daunting but try not to let it overwhelm you. You can find a step-by-step guide in my free QuikCash ebook where it’s all laid out for you in Step 10. Once you complete your first transfer it’s time to celebrate!

Starting off selling a basic blog at the same time as learning the process can leave you feeling like it’s too much effort for not enough reward. Like everything though, you will improve over time and be able to move your way up to selling premium blogs, established sites, membership sites and everything in between!

img credit: Ron Dauphin

I made quite a bit of money writing articles for others, but it did take some trial and error and I could have definitely started making money with my writing much quicker than I did.

So today I’m doing a review of a product by Courtney Ramirez, who I’ve worked with several times in the past, called “The Content Chef” which is basically a guide she has put together that will help anyone who wants to get the same start I had making money online and do it quickly and correctly!

What you get

As soon as you purchase the product you receive a zip file that contains LOADS of info! You get:

1: The primary product, which is presented as 3 PDF’s. Each PDF is a different “module.”
2: A 30-day Success Guide, which offers in-depth instructions on how to get started for the complete “newbie” to content writing.
3. A “What is Internet Marketing” report for those who are completely new to Internet Marketing in general.
4. A Business Forms pack to help you stay organized.
5. A 46-item list of free web resources to help you with your new writing business.

If you already have a basic understanding of writing for money online then you’ll only really need the primary product. If you’re BRAND new to this whole thing they will all be useful and together they will help you get a profitable web writing business going fast.

First, an important note

If you think you need to be an excellent writer in order to do this you’re wrong! I’m a decent writer and I made good money when I wrote for others and I’ve seen people with HORRIBLE grammar do this and make loads of money. If you can write the English language and it makes sense, you can make money writing online!

What I like about “The Content Chef”

- The thing I like most about this product, which I knew before I even read the PDF’s, is that it comes from someone who REALLY knows what she’s talking about! TOO many products out there these days, especially electronic products, come from people with mediocre to substandard knowledge on the subject. They do it for one reason, to make money.

While I’m SURE Courtney’s goal is also to make money, this is a topic she certainly knows a great deal about! I’ve known Courtney for years and I’ve personally paid her to do writing work for me. She’s one of the best online today, so when you take the advice she offers within “Content Chef” you know you’re getting solid information!

- You’re not limited to just one type of writing job. Courtney goes into detail and shows you how to make money writing for multiple types of individuals and organizations doing multiple types of writing jobs. If you just want to write 300 word articles for people, that’s fine. If you just want to write ebooks, that’s fine too. She shows you how to make money doing ALL KINDS of different proven methods. If you want to do everything you can possibly do, that’s fine. Courtney lays it all out there!

- Not only do you learn HOW to write for money online, you also learn WHY, which for some people including myself, is an important part of any instruction. I like to know WHY I’m doing something… why people are willing to pay me to do this, what they’re using it for etc.

- Unlike ANY other product of this kind, after Courtney teaches you everything about writing for others and making money from them, she goes into how you can get started on your OWN stuff! Your own websites etc. In other words, she shows you how to get started making cash by working for others, but she also explains how you can expand from there and eventually flip the script and make money like the people who are paying you are making money!

What I don’t like

You know, I’d be a liar if I told you I don’t make money if you purchase this product. The fact is I will indeed make money if you purchase it, so any type of review of this type from anyone is going to be a little biased. But I’ll also tell you that although I can’t avoid being a little biased due to those facts, everything I said above is true!

Now it’s time to add a little negativity to add to the credibility of the review because that’s how you write a good review to get people to buy But I honestly don’t have anything bad to say about this product. I’d say Courtney is probably offering too much, that’s about it. Most people won’t need all of the bonuses. Some people won’t need any of them. But there will be a few that get something from all of them, so it’s not a bad thing.

My conclusion

I can honestly say, putting my reputation on the line, that this is an EXCELLENT product for anyone who wants to start seeing REAL money coming in from their online efforts!

I used many of these methods to make money first money online and there is no doubt in my mind that you will to if you get this product and put the advice within into action!

The Content Chef

You can grab your copy above. Highly Recommended!

Twitter Search provides many benefits. Probably the most talked about is its ability to track brand awareness. Just do a search for your name, company, product etc. and you’ll see every “tweet” that mentions that word or phrase, from the newest (usually seconds ago) to the oldest.

But one thing that that I’ve found, which has incredible profit potential, but is rarely talked about (I haven’t heard ANYONE talk about this yet) is the ability to find potential customers who are minutes, even SECONDS away from buying! There is no other social platform, or platform in general for that matter, that I know of that allows you to see and connect with people who LITERALLY have their credit card in their hand!

Here’s what I mean. Type any or all of the following phrases into Twitter Search:

I’m buying
thinking about buying
will be buying

(put the search phrases in quotes for more targeted results)

Cool huh?

There is incredible opportunity in that, which means idiots will also see it as a new spamming route. Take my word on this, Twitter isn’t the place to spam! If you start spamming these people your account is going to be removed quickly and people are going to block you!

Spamming won’t work with this! BUT, if you happen to have a blog post etc. about the product/service these people are about to spend money on, with maybe a review or something helpful, and you sent them a manual, useful @reply letting them know about it…

I haven’t done anything with this, but I know if a solid plan was put into place and alot of thought was put into it, this could turn into something very profitable!

I had originally told my clients over at Coaching with Josh about this and planned on keeping it behind closed doors there, but I realized it’s going to be talked about publicly whether I blog about it or not, so I might as well be one of those who do it… so there you go, take it how you will!

photo credit: Fosforix

Ironically, while I was in the middle of submitting some articles, Maurice emailed me congratulating me on my product “Article Marketing Domination” being featured as the deal of the day at DealDotCom. To be honest with you I didn’t even know it was the deal of the day It was certainly a nice surprise though.

“AMD” has now been recommended by Dr. Ralph Wilson, Tim Gorman, DealDotCom and several other high-end marketers.

So how did I do it? I just sat down and starting writing about something I had a great deal of knowledge in. Just about everyone knows a bit more than the average Joe about something; whether it’s Internet marketing related or not.

So read the post I linked to above and get started on your own product. If I can do it you can do it!

I see it all the time in forums, on blogs, social media sites etc. People who obviously have at least some knowledge, but complain or just state that they’re still making little to no money online.

So what the hell do I need to do??

For the true newbie

These are the guys and gals who really are new to all this; go learn. Sounds bad, but that’s the best advice anyone can give you. There’s no secret, you just have to find what’s appealing to you and learn all about it. Dig through this blog, the Warrior Forum and elsewhere until you know the basics. Once you have that come back and read the following:

For the knowledgeable newbie or the broke guru

Let me tell you, I was in your shoes for quite some time. However, I have somewhat of an excuse, although not too valid when you look at Tim Gorman; I was in the Army when I began so I didn’t have much time to devote to this. But judging by the way I ran my business, I have a feeling the first year and half or so wouldn’t have yielded much income had I been out of the Army anyway.

What was I doing wrong? I didn’t have a schedule. I didn’t have a plan. I wasn’t organized. I didn’t know what I was going to do next.

Then one day it clicked and I started doing things differently

1. I set aside a certain amount of time every single day (excluding weekends sometimes) and used that time. There where and still are many days when I didn’t feel like doing much. I felt like checking my email, checking my earnings (if there were any) etc. No matter what I FELT like doing, I made sure that during that set time I did something constructive. Before I began doing this I was “working” in the living next to the TV. Needless to say I wasn’t very productive.

2. I set a schedule. Whether it was a report, ebook, webpage or something else, I set a date and time to work on it.

If you have an idea make it happen! Don’t keep thinking about it, telling yourself “I need to do this” over and over.

3. Every time an idea popped into my head I put it in a notepad document. That same exact notepad document is still on my desktop and I add to it just about every day. Some of the ideas turn out to be bad ones, but many of them work out and bring in cash in the long run. The way my memory is, if I don’t write them down I’ll most likely lose them for good.

Seems simple enough and it is. If you’re like I was, your problem is that you don’t take action. You simply must organize things. You must have a routine and you must write down your ideas.

Treat it as a business and believe in yourself. Set up an office and be confident and I promise you, you’ll go from a knowledgeable newbie to a knowledgeable guru.

Most of my newer niche sites get a CTR of around 30% and it’s not hard, nor is it a secret. The best converting advert in the adsense arsenal is the large rectangle. The best converting position for the large rectangle is just beneath the page header, where it’s the first thing your visitors will see after they read the header.

Of course I can’t guarantee this will get you a 30% CTR, as it depends on the relevance of the ads that Google serves etc. I can tell you that many of my sites do produce a CTR of 30% doing just what I stated above.

Just think; if your site is generating $20/day from adsense, but getting a 15% CTR; doing this may very well double the income from that site.

If most of your sites are getting a 15% CTR you could literally double your income just by placing adverts in the right spots!!

In other words, if you don’t think much about the placement of your ads, you’re leaving money on the table. And when I say “your leaving money on the table” I mean lots of it!

It’s called “article arbitrage” (that’s what I call it anyway) and it involves capitalizing on a whole in the market. That’s actually what the term “arbitrage” is anyway, capitalizing on a whole in a market.

How “Article Arbitrage” works and how you can use it to make easy money online In a nutshell

1. Set up a simple ghostwriting service (very simple, can be done in a few hours)

2. Find good writers who sell articles for $10 or less (the less you buy them for, the more money you’ll make). I found my writers in Internet Marketing Forums, but you can find them at Elance and RentaGhostWriter as well. If you can find Brits or Americans living in India, snatch them up. Many of them will write for VERY cheap because the cost of living there is so low.

3. Market your Ghostwriting Service in order to get customers, as I explained previously.

4. Do you see where this is going?…Joe orders 10 articles for $12/article, you order the same thing from writer#1 for $8/article. You send payment then receive payment. You pocket $40 then rinse and repeat over and over and over and over.

It works, I’ve done it! Give it a shot!

Think it’s unethical? I don’t. “Joe” needs articles. Joe gets articles. Writer needs money, writer gets money. You want some of that money, you get some of that money You’re getting paid for making the connection, you just don’t tell them.

The first money I ever made online was through writing articles for others, Ghostwriting. It does take some work, like any legit money maker, but if you can write 400 word articles it’s actually pretty easy to start making money from your writing.

Important note: This is a relatively long post but if you’re at all interested, I urge you to read it. It’s really not as hard as you may think!!

Most likely, you won’t get rich doing this, but it can and will bring in a very nice extra income. I did this for several months while I was in the Army but I just didn’t have the time to keep up and to be honest I didn’t really NEED the money. I did however receive lots of orders, many of who were regular customers, and I could pretty much make as much money as my fingers could type.

How it works (If you don’t already know)

Webmasters need content, whether it’s for their Websites and/or blogs or it’s to promote them, many people just don’t have the time or patience to write articles every single day. (myself included these days) This is why they seek out ghostwriters to do the job for them.

Getting Set up
The first thing you’ll need is a page where customers can learn about yourself and your service, as well as see some of your work. You can use a free blog from WordPress or Blogger, but I recommend registering a domain and getting it hosted to be more professional. However, if you don’t have the money to spend on that, you can get by with a free blog. Your “sales page” will need to have the following:

1. An attractive picture of you (if that’s possible just kidding) … A professional picture of you (better?) and a little information about your writing background. Don’t have a writing background? I bet you do. Did you write reports in school? Have you written content for your websites? Most people have actually done allot of writing. Don’t lie but if you need to beef it up, well, beef it up

2. A description of EXACTLY what you offer. Don’t just say “I write articles for webmasters.” Tell them the word count options, topics you specialize in etc.

3. A clear statement that the customer will have full, exclusive rights to the articles after purchase and you will never publish or sell the articles again! (and stick to that!) Also, don’t even think about getting a membership to some PLR article site and selling that junk! That’s as easy to figure out as going to copyscape.com I do that when purchasing articles and I’m sure many others do as well.

4. Prices. How much will it cost them? (I charged $10/article but I’m not the best writer in the world ) If you’re an excellent writer you may want to charge $15 or more.

5. Customer testimonials. This is where you may want to offer a few articles for free at a forum or elsewhere under the condition that they provide an honest review. You may have friends that can vouch for your writing skills as well. Get a picture of them (if possible) along with their testimonial and a link to their site (if they have one). This is help gain the trust of potential customers and help them lean toward a purchase.

6. The order process and way for them to contact you. This is how I did it:

Customer finds my page and emails the subject and details to the email address that I provide on the page. I reply letting the customer know that I received his/her email and that the article(s) will be finished by …whenever. Once the article(s) was finished, I email the customer letting him/her know that they are ready and will be sent upon receipt of PayPal payment and of course provide my PayPal email for them to send payment. (I accepted payment after the article(s) was finished but many require payment up front, it’s up to you)

Getting Customers
Once you’re set up and ready to start taking order you’ll need to find customers. Don’t be discouraged, it’s not as hard as you may think. I really thought it would take forever and a day to get a steady flow of customers but it didn’t take long at all. Keep in mind that you really only need a few regular customers to stay busy. Many regulars will order loads of articles. I had one customer that wanted as many as i could write at all times!

The easiest way to get customers is by running a simple Google Adwords campaign. This costs money though so it’s not an option for everyone. If it is an option you can find a basic explanation of how to set up a Google adwords campaign through the following link: http://ez-onlinemoney.com/Google-Adwords-Setup.html

If it’s not an option don’t worry, there are other ways that are effective as well. Go to each of the Internet Marketing forums in my post titled

7 Reasons to Participate in Internet Marketing Forums

and put a link to your service page in your signature. Find all the posts that are even slightly related to article marketing and writing and take part in the conversation. You will get visitors to your page just by doing this alone. Some of these forums allow you to actually announce your service and some, like the Warrior Forum, have special offers sections where you can actually offer your service at a discounted rate. Although you’ll need to offer a cheaper than normal price, it’s a great way to get regular customers!

If you want to see an example, take a look at my old page at http://ghostwriter.josh4info.com/ Please keep in mind that I no longer offer this service so please do not order or refer others to it.

That’s it, you’re done. Follow these steps and you can and will start making money with your very own GhostWriting service