| Recently, there was a discussion on the | | | | MP3s Music Magazine. |
| MusicThoughts list regarding how to develop passive | | | | Commission Junction. Their redirects seem to have |
| income as a musician. Of course, there are many | | | | the same problem as Clickbank. I mainly use them for |
| types of passive income open to musicians, but this | | | | web hosting services that earn about $150 per |
| discussion in particular involved using affiliate programs | | | | month. |
| to earn money. | | | | Linkshare. I've used it for years. Earned no money |
| For the newbie, affiliate programs are program online | | | | (like the vast majority of affiliate programs I've tried). |
| that allow you to earn money by selling products or | | | | I did sign up for iTunes earlier this month. And we'll |
| services that you do not own. Companies like | | | | see if that changes matters at all. |
| Commission Junction, LinkShare, ClickBank offer a | | | | I also earn another $100-150 per month from the |
| variety of a affiliate programs on every subject. | | | | Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine's |
| While companies like (books, music, and more), | | | | various affiliations with IMHO some of the best music |
| MP3DownloadHQ (free music downloads) offer more | | | | marketers out there. Course, I also have a decent |
| specific products or services. | | | | online CD sales income, and other artistic projects |
| Building a successful affiliate income is NOT easy. And | | | | that earn me money (and I still have a day job for at |
| as internet companies come and go, they are also | | | | least another year). |
| not a hugely reliable source of income for the | | | | 3. The Key to remember when you're making money |
| long-term. I prefer to focus on offering products and | | | | with affiliate programs is really to blend it into your |
| services for my active websites, but most of my | | | | website. |
| websites were created with affiliates in mind. | | | | For instance, if you go to thebards.net. You can |
| Consequently, I've learned the affiliate game quite | | | | download our MP3 "Tolkien (The Hobbit & Lord |
| well. | | | | of the Rings)" on the homepage. It downloads from |
| Most people don't like sharing how much they earn | | | | using my affiliate link. So it creates another cookie |
| from passive income. So finding those stats Will be | | | | which hopefully will earn me more income from |
| difficult. But frankly, I prefer helping folks with facts. | | | | future orders from that customer. |
| So, here's a couple notes on the various passive | | | | Prominent ads also work like at my Directory of Free |
| internet income sources I earn or have earned in the | | | | Music Downloads. Meaning, Google has really hit upon |
| past: | | | | a great style of advertising. Oh, and Vertical ads out |
| 1. Google Adsense. | | | | perform horizontal ads. |
| Google CAN be great, but a lot of it depends on | | | | I'm also a big proponent of creating a website that |
| what keywords your site is focused on. Head over | | | | will earn you income as well as popularity. Again, |
| to PixelFast offers a great Overture Keywords and | | | | check out the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine. The site is |
| Bid Amounts Tool and you can find out how much | | | | designed for two purposes: |
| people bid on certain types of keywords through | | | | Promote independent Celtic music by luring in signed |
| overture. | | | | Celtic music fans of Enya, The Chieftains, etc. It's a |
| Having done testing which got me banned from | | | | technique I learned from David Nevue's How to |
| Google I learned a few things when I was using | | | | Successfully Promote Your Music on the Internet and |
| Google Adsense. I found on the average, I made | | | | has proved exceptionally profitable, and |
| about pittance on each of my random websites. | | | | Promote my music. You'll see a lot of links and |
| Some however, did MUCH better. Namely the 'free | | | | information about the Brobdingnagian Bards and my |
| music downloads' websites. | | | | own solo Celtic music recordings. |
| You'll note at PixelFast that companies bid heavily for | | | | There is one other aspect I would like to point out |
| those keywords with clickthrus averaging at about | | | | that will make whatever you do more money. It's |
| 45c per click. Seventy percent of the income I | | | | sales letters. Quite honestly, I detest hard sales. I |
| earned on Google was from one free music | | | | don't typically care for sales letters online. But they |
| download website that somehow made it high on the | | | | DO perform well. |
| search results. I'm not allowed to say how much I | | | | Some of the best-selling webpages are composed of |
| made, but you can do the math when a site gets | | | | one long sales letter like some of the stuff you'll see |
| approximately 500 unique visits a day and has a | | | | at I've no doubt that David makes well-over $3000 a |
| 5-10% clickthru rate. | | | | month for any of his webpages just from some of |
| The point is if you create and promote webpages | | | | his passive income sales letters. By learning about |
| with high impact keywords, you will do fairly well. | | | | copywriting, you can create webpages to perform |
| 2. Affiliate Programs. | | | | just as well to promote your affiliate programs. It's |
| Since I'm no longer with Google, I've sense learned to | | | | an amazing skill to have. |
| find other alternatives using Google style ads. You | | | | One Last Important Note: I have NO Faith in most of |
| can those on my Directory of Free Music Downloads | | | | my internet affiliate income. Sure I think Amazon will |
| as an example. | | | | be there for years to come. But the passion for 'free |
| I've found other affiliate programs to fill the gaps lost | | | | music downloads' will die with the next internet fad. |
| by Google through: | | | | My suggestion is to create a hard product that you |
| Clickbank. I've focused primarily on free music | | | | can sell. For instance, create and sell ebooks using |
| downloads. The big problem I have with Clickbank is | | | | your knowledge and those sales letters I mentioned. |
| that my Mozilla browser at home doesn't like their | | | | People are willing to pay fo your knowledge of the |
| redirects. But I still earn about $500 per month from | | | | most mundane things. It's not about being stupid, it's |
| Clickbank. | | | | about ease. If you can compile that knowledge and |
| MP3Dollars. This is a free music downloads site for | | | | sell it, more power to you! |
| MP3DownloadHQ. Their affiliate links are good | | | | You will constantly need to fine tune everything. And |
| redirects. So I've made them much more prominent | | | | learn how the search engines work. |
| so as not to lose income that might've been lost | | | | Passive money on the internet is not unreasonable. |
| from Clickbank. The affiliate program is solid paying | | | | But it's also not easy. It takes quite a bit o'work and |
| 50% of the money they earn. So I earn about $500 | | | | a lot of patience because it can take months for |
| per month from them. Best of all, it's paid weekly! | | | | search engines to find out if you're website is |
| Usually earns me about $50 a month. And this | | | | important. |
| comes from a lot of heavy referrals from my Celtic | | | | Hope that helps some folks, slainte! |
