How to make passive income on the internet: Part 1

Passive income, it’s what we all want. But how do you make it happen? Well, here is a quick-start guide for you. These are some ideas that can help you create passive income (well, not completely passive) by owning a content based website. First, let’s talk about blog sites. If you didn’t already know, blog websites are simple to open and they allow people to express their opinions, talk about their expertise, provide reviews, etc. Anyone can get one of these up and running in just a few hours. First, decide on a topic or a variety of topics you want to write about. For example, you might want to talk about “parenting skills” or maybe you are a wine connoisseur. Let us pretend we are going to blog about wines. Visit Blogspot.com and create an account (it is free), or create a blog site from scratch if you already know how. For example, our account on Blogspot.com is http://tekprosus.blogspot.com/. We also have a blog on our webpage at www.tekpros.us/blog. Let us pretend we created an account called “SimpleWineReviews.Blogspot.com”. Now you have to fill your blog with content. You can start off slowly and grow over time or you can immediately add various articles. The idea is to keep your readers interested in the articles you write about and have them want to visit your blog again. Loyalty is key! You could write up a quick review about a different wine every day. You could also write about different wineries. Be creative.

Another important factor to remember is consistency. Consistency can make you or break you. Be sure to add something new EVERY DAY! Why? Because this will help with your search ratings. Let me explain: When someone wants to find information about wines, they will probably use a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. These search engines are constantly checking websites for changes and for keywords. Every time you add a new article to your blog, the search engines make a note of it and the likelihood of your blog being found increases. You want to be one of the first sites that come up when someone types “wine reviews” into Google. Again, the only way to do this is by being consistent!

Now we need to help get the word out about your blog. You need to become familiar (if you aren’t already) with different social networking tools such as FaceBook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, LinkedIn, SumbleUpon, MySpace, and many more! Create accounts at these sites and read about ways to link them together and to your blog. For example, our FaceBook account, fan page, and Twitter accounts all update at the same time and have links back to our blogs. The different search engines will begin to see “SimpleWineReviews.Blogspot.com” popping up everywhere.

Another good practice is to link your blog’s site with other blogger sites. The more links to your blog, the better! Recruit your friends and family to help get the word out about your blog. They can also post links to your blog on their social networking pages (like FaceBook, Twitter, etc.).

GREAT! I created my blog, I opened various social networking accounts, and everyone I know is helping me promote it – but how does this make me money??? Click on the link below to continue reading part 2 of this article.

Continuation of How to make passive income on the internet: Part 1

Ah, the big question we all have! The answer is simple: through advertisements. Now the question becomes “How do I get companies to advertise on my blog page?” Well, it is not as hard as you might think. In fact, Google offers a free advertisement service called AdSense. You can incorporate AdSense on your blog through a simple copy-and-paste code that Google will provide to you. To learn more about how it works, visit this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEk1PHEXemQ. It is a very good overall explanation of this powerful tool. Once you feel you are generating enough traffic to your site, you can start selling advertisement space on your site to other companies (not just Google).

For more information on how to use these tools or if you have other techie questions, feel free to contact Tek Pros by visiting our website at www.tekpros.us. Also, be sure to add me as a friend on FaceBook to ask me questions directly or for regular technology updates. Find me at www.facebook.com/stiehm.

Written by Casey Stiehm with Tek Pros

About the author:
Casey Stiehm is an IT professional and business consultant. He is the Vice President of Tek Pros as well as an IT instructor with Insyte Technical Training. His technical certifications include: A+, Network+, Security+, MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, and others. He has taught and continues to teach these certification courses to individuals, government agencies, military personnel, non-profit organizations, and businesses around the world. For more information about his services, please visit www.tekpros.us or www.insytetraining.com.

• Previous Entry: Google Voice – Yup, its super cool!
• Next Entry: How to make passive income on the internet: Part 1

So you want a personalized phone number… and you want it to be FREE! Well, lucky for you Google is giving these numbers out right now! Let me tell you a little bit about how their service works. First, you need to visit www.google.com/voice. Once you get there, you can create a Google Voice account. Now here is the really cool part: you can search for available phone numbers by zip code, area code, and even words. So how did I do it? I entered in my area code (571) and then I entered in my name (Casey). One of the numbers that came up in the search results was 571-40-Casey, which I selected. Next, it asked me to enter any numbers that I wanted to link to my new Google Voice number. How cool is that? Now all my friends, family, and co-workers can call one number and it can ring all of my phones at once! Also, you can listen to voicemails as people are leaving them, and even take the call in the middle of the voicemail. Confused? Let me explain. Your mom calls. You love your mom, but she talks a lot. The game is starting in two minutes. So, with Google Voice, you let the call go to voicemail. Your mom starts to leave you a voicemail. But what she doesn’t know is that you are listening in on the voicemail that she is leaving for you. And if you decide to talk to her while she is leaving you a voicemail, you can hit the * button on your phone and begin speaking with her immediately. Pretty cool, huh? There are tons of great features available with Google Voice. One of the best features is a widget that you can put on your website which allows someone to call you directly from your site. When they click on the button, Google calls them and then connects them to your number – and it even keeps your phone number private! So get a Google Voice account today and start having fun! If you want to test it out – just click on the “Call me” widget below – enter your name and your phone number and it will connect you to my phone!

Written by Casey Stiehm with Tek Pros

The Battle of the Tablets… or Not?

It was just a matter of time before Toshiba would produce a tablet PC – or is it a notebook? If you haven’t seen it before, the Toshiba Libretto has dual screens! Users have the capability to watch a video on one screen and browse the internet on the other. It not only runs multiple applications, but you can use both screens to read e-books. Each screen has a resolution of 1025×600 which is great for watching movies on those long flights or metro rides. With its dimensions being 4.84 inches wide and 7.95 inches long, it’s easy to carry and does not take up much space. The only downside to this unique gadget is the price. The Libretto is around $1,100 bucks! So if you have the funds, go for it! If you have a tight budget… a simple NetBook might be the way to go. Get more information on the Libretto by visiting http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/libretto.

AWESOME camera for the summer!

It’s officially summer! Now it’s time for you to live up to all those promises you made. You’ve decided how you were going to spend that two week vacation, but how do you want to remember this trip after spending all winter planning for it? With digital cameras being one of the best ways to capture those memorial moments, The Sony Cyber Shot TX7 is the way to go. It has a cool 3.5” inch touch screen that allows you to lock and capture targets, with the touch of a finger and an awesome panoramic mode that rotates 258 degrees to capture that beautiful scenery in one motion. With its capability to record movies in Full HD 1080i AVCHD and a USB connector, you can share video and images on your TV or computer. This camera will definitely make those who weren’t able to make the trip really feel like they were there. You can find out more about the features of the Sony Cyber Shot TX7 by visiting www.Sonystyle.com.

Build Your Own Tablet with the help of Liquidware

Yes! That’s right! You heard me correctly! You can build your own tablet! This is great for my developer friends out there who want to create and customize applications of their own. With the help of Liquidware, an open source hardware company, and $400 bucks you can purchase a tablet starter kit.

This start kit consist of a 4.3-inch OLED touch screen that mounts directly on a Beagle Board with a 1GHz processor, a battery module, and a 4GB pre-formatted SD card for booting Angstrom Linux. Users also have the capability of running the Android OS. The only type of memory storage for the Beagle Board is the SD card, but I will mention there?s an alternative to increasing memory by connecting an external hard drive to its on-board USB port. You will also find that it’s very light, no more than 8ounces. Also, tts battery life can last up to 6hrs. For more information about building your own tablet visit them at www.liquidware.com

Just in: Mac and PC users coming together

We all know there is a war going on between Mac and PC users. Who is better, Mac or PC? Well if you’re like me, then you are tired of seeing a commercial of one bashing the other every two minutes. If only there was a way to bring these two giants together! It would make our lives easier, especially those of us who go back and forth between Macs and PCs. maComfort was created to help bridge the gap between the Mac and the PC. This amazing application provides PC functionality on the Mac such as previewing files, hotkeys, and even has skinning options.. The maComfort is an application that runs in the background and can automatically starts when your PC boots. Unlike Parallels, which is a virtual machine, maComfort does not require you to install a separate operating system. How well does it work? Well, we haven’t tested it out. However, there is a lot of talk about it through the grapevine. You can get it at www.rafaelklaus.com.

YouTube Makes Editing Uploaded Videos a Little Easier

For all you YouTubers out there constantly making changes to uploaded video clips, we are proud to announce that YouTube has launched a new video-editing tool. This tool allows users to edit already uploaded videos inside their web browser. This tool won't turn your videos into Oscar award winning productions, but it simplifies the editing process quite a bit. It's simple and easy-to-use interface features "drag and drop" functionality, music additions, and video trimming. So before you go out and spend your hard earned dollars on video-editing software, you might want
to give this a try.

Now you can edit those videos of your friends singing karaoke or that time
your college roommate shaved your pet gerbil!

by Shawn Pitt with Tekpros