Many months ago, I  installed a plugin on 1 Cool File that show daily deals and big savings(30-80%) on many types of software. When there, you should subscribe to the daily email. Some days, they may offer 2 deals in the same email.

Today, it's PowerDesk 7 (few hours left) that is the deal of day for $19.95.

That's the software I use to FTP my files to my domains. I know free FTP software are available but I like that it work seemingly with my file manager. Yes,  it's also my file manager, image viewer(150 file formats), archive manager(zip, rar) for many years now.

If you miss it, you can save still $10 on PowerDesk Pro 7 by using this link only.

AuctionSiteWriter
See free movies legally(and make money too)

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I posted it on misfan.com too: News: 1 Cool File (June. 16, 2008)

Major policy modifications were made on 1 Cool File:

• Blogs will be submitted for life from now on. Those with a RSS feed might want to buy the Blog Buffet to get more advantages
• No more reviews will be needed when submitted for free. We have enough feedback
• The 1 year restriction for free/paid no longer exist
• New way to sponsor a blog contest: increased the total prize value and was made easier
• Clarified the type of blogs that won't be accepted. Blogs will still be manually verified

If you have a blog, please do submit it now!

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I remember in the early 1990s, the world was in a big recession. In a normal recession, the economy drop fast but pickup faster too. In Canada, it lasted much longer than the USA. Canadian companies made significant structural change that now, they fair better that the US economy because of that. One thing I also remember is that companies that kept advertising made it out of the recession in a much better financial shape.

So what's your point?

You can take those same lessons and apply them in the Internet world too. You should "restructure" your way of thinking and go beyond your comfort zone a little.

People will still need to buy stuff in a bad economy or recession. The rich will still buy new luxury cars, the middle class will think twice and find the best deal for them and the poor, well, they will survive the best they can.

I also wrote a traditional way: Tips On Making Money In A Bad Economy Or Recession because below are some of the methods(free/paid) I'm using to make money online.

Taking Action

Most people that find my page are too "afraid" to take action to make money online. Don't be afraid! At least, you should consider looking at the free or one of first 3 paid methods. They are the simplest to do and require the least technical skills. Heck! the first one(paid) is so simple that my grandmother could use it. Okay, maybe not but you get my point.

By reading this, you made the first step that most don't.  Now, you must take action. That's why 99% of people don't make money online or offline: they just read but never take action after that!

Are you going to be in the 1% or at least, try it? You don't need it to be a full time job either. That's the beauty of making money online. You go at your own pace and earn passive income while working ar your job.

Note: After I wrote this, I got a few emails from those that tried one of the methods below. Every time, they thank me for encouraging them to take action. Sometimes, it's what they needed: a little push to start them without going broke. Do you need me to push you to get you started or a kick in the butt to take action?

Do you want FREE information first?

Not everyone are at the same technical level or want to spend money and it's okay. Recently, I found a site that will give you FREE information.

But to get the FREE information, you need to request it! It will only take you 1 minute.  They are in 2 countries(US, Canada) so click to watched the video only if you are from those country. Otherwise, you will be be sent elsewhere. They can geo target your IP so not to waste your time.

Since it is $0 to get that FREE information, you don't have any reasons not to take action on this one.

Recent Stats: Since the US are in bigger economic troubles this day, it's sad than not many visitors look at this opportunity. But the overall result of those visiting and requesting the information is 12%. I don't understand since it's FREE information.

Ideally, it should be 1 visitor = 1 request for both countries.

C'mon Americans and Canadians! You can do better than that.

I hope you do take the time to request it.  At least, you will be in 12% who did take action.

After that you have requested the FREE information, you decide if it's for you or not. Either way, you took action this year and you have other methods below.

Making money in a bad economy/recession

Now, if you can't take 1 minute to give some information or  spend a few dollars, how do you expect to make money in a bad economy/recession?

1. Paid to do surveys

You can get paid or get stuff by participating in surveys so anyone can do that. You might not get rich but you could earn a few bucks more each month. Companies are willing to pay for your feedback about their products and services.

Surveys can be hard to find so you could become a member of a site that find real surveys(since 2003) for you. They will often ask for a one time fee for their time(i.e. searching for surveys).

Since companies can't afford to waste too much money, I expect a growth in this market. The surveys will allow them to better target their market.

Note: If you are not North American, those type of sites are not for you since it's mostly for the American/Canadian market with a few international surveys(UK).

2. Information, Information, Information

I realized that many might not have all the time or initial money for  #4,5,6 below. That I understand that perfectly. So, I found the $7 Secrets report that will be the easy for new people to get started.

You can sell it to others for $7 and you get $7. It's all explained in the report.

But first, you will need to open a free PayPal account to buy it and received payments when reselling it. Don't worry, PayPal is own by eBay. It's also one of the most common way to buy online without giving your credit card number.

Plus, the information in the $7 Secrets report is very useful if you know information about a subject(flowers, cars, sports, electronic ...).

Btw, the included script alone is worth more than $7 if you decide to apply the method in the report. You will understand when you read the #2.

3. See Free Movies Legally(and make money too)

Edit: 2008/11/11 Version 3.0 is now available. I added a family Project chapter.

Using the $7 Secrets report script, I wrote this $7 report: See Free Movies Legally(and make money too). Yes, it's 100% legal and safe to do with the family.

My method is generating $50-100 per month or $600-1200/year in my spare time.  In the report, I gave a realistic expectation because I don't oversell it.

The "make money too" part is what will be profitable for buyers if they apply the method not just with movies but with other subjects like Play Free Games with a Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii... added in v3.0.

I know, I could tell you that they would make $200-500/day from the start but I don't. So, beware of those that will tell you something like that. Is it possible? Of course it is but with time and mostly experience. You need to crawl before running to the bank.

Bonus: If you don't want to use my method with movies, then use it for other subjects. If you don't have a subject, you can get 100% commission by reselling my report to others using the affiliate link(easy). That's $7 that go directly into your PayPal account every time.  Like the $7 Secrets report, you don't need a website to promote it but it helps. I will tell you how/where when you buy it using free places on the web.

Plus, you will get for free the newer versions of my report.

4. Selling PLR products(ebooks, software...)

I'm using a private label site that I reviewed(new window) the service for you. For those that can't afford PLC yet, you can use NBN(review) to start you out with niche blogs.

Tip: You might also want to download this free guide: Make Money With PLR Guide(PDF)

5. Buy/resell stuff online

It's traditional but still part online. What might be junk for you, might be a treasure for someone else. For example, you could buy rare DVDs and resell them locally for a profit.

In any case, I suggest that you open a free account anyway. You might need to buy something that you need or resell something to make room for other stuff. You could always do a trial run after registering by buying a very, very cheap DVD to see how the whole process works so not to get a surprise.

Hint: Beware of shipping fees(sell/buy) on the heavy objects unless it's delivered locally. It will eat all of your profits.

6. Targeted auction sites

A few days ago, I saw a news(TV) that people were turning to auction sites to sell their things. I was thinking of writing this post for some time now and that news confirmed my suspicion.

You can start making money by building BANS or phpBay sites(Ebay store). That's one of the reasons of the lack of updates on my blog. I started to build very "product targeted" auction sites a few weeks ago. Some sites are now starting to pay off. I'm very patient and I know that some will take months while some will pay off faster.

January 2009 was my biggest month to date.

What is a BANS/phpBay site?

Simply, a BANS/phpBay API is a script that show products from eBay. Once people buy items using your auction site, you get a commission from the fees.

BANS is the simplest for most beginners. I use AuctionSiteWriter to build phpBay API sites.

Update 2009/04/07: I created MyStarterBlog(Windows only) and Rob created a plugin to show eBay items. At this time the cost is($7 for MyStarterBlog and $7 for the MSB eBay plugin). Both give free updates for life.

Do you have a blog?

If you have a blog, I recommend using the phpBay Pro WordPress plugin. I recommend the paid version(more parameters). The free version only has the first 2 parameters so don't waist your time.

[ phpbay]Blu-Ray Player, 4, 15077,"firmware broken"[/ phpbay]

It will show the first 4 blu-ray players in the category(15077) and exclude players that have "firmware" or  "broken" in the title. You, those parameters are useful.

US Auctions Australian Auctions Austrian Auctions Belgian Auctions Canadian Auctions French Auctions German Auctions Indian Auctions Irish Auctions Italian Auctions Dutch Auctions Polish Auctions Spanish Auctions Swiss Auctions UK Auctions

Best Match Time: ending soonest Time: newly listed Price: lowest first Price: highest first Price + Shipping: lowest first Price + Shipping: highest first

NEW SONY BLU RAY DVD PLAYER MODEL BDP BX37 BDP-BX37    US $.01

NEW SONY BLU RAY DVD PLAYER MODEL BDP BX38 BDP-BX38    US $.01

NEW SONY 3D BLU RAY DVD PLAYER MODEL BDP BX58 WI FI 3 D    US $.01

LG BD640 Network Wireless Blu-ray Disc Player    US $.99

Have garden a blog? Add garden related items instead

Conclusion

I just gave you 6 methods to make money online. Also, depending on your free time, the first 2 methods will cost less to do and take you less time to apply. If you are just beginning, the 6 methods are in the order that you should start in.

I'm bias here, but See Free Movies Legally is a good way to get your started online at a reasonable cost. It will help if you like movies and when you apply the method in the report. Otherwise, just promote my report at first.

Even if it's online, you must treat this like a real business, be patient(BANS) and invest money if/when you can. Yes, it may take some money but it's far less than going with brick and mortar business model.

The only thing that can stop you is yourself. SO TAKE ACTION NOW!

Again, the 6 methods are:

1. Surveys
2. $7 Secrets report
3. See Free Movies Legally
4. Buy/resell
5. Private Label Chest/NBN
6. BANS/phpBay auction sites/blogs

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Edit: I will update this post when needed. You may bookmark it. Send it to friends that might also act on it. You can do it in groups if you want.

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Now that you have a free AlertPay account(PayPal Alternative), you may say to yourself: "Where to use it now?"

Here are simple solutions:

• If you have a blog/site, you could accept AlertPay payments from advertisers. Not every country has access to PayPal. It could generate new possibilities for you.
• You could offer to pay a logo designer with AlertPay. I just thought of it. :p
• To accommodate clients, I accept being paid with AlertPay on 1 Cool File, TrustURL and with my own software AuctionSiteWriter.
• Using a contest is another option to pay people

Many affiliate sites are now paying with AlertPay only.

The ideal is to start using AlertPay to receive payments. The more people knows about it, the more you can start using it on other sites like mines. Plus, the fees are a bit lower than PayPal.

Do you have your free AlertPay account yet! It's my PayPal Alternative(backup payment processor)

P.S.
I Made $40 In A Few Minutes With AlertPay because I used it

Edit 2008/06/26: I added AuctionSiteWriter

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For the last few days, I'm doing the boring task of "assembling" all my papers(digital mostly but printing them) for my 2007 income taxes. I do take a minute or two to read my emails, feeds and more time to check files that were added on 1 Cool File.

Drive to make money online

While checking my feed today from Blogger Unleashed, I viewed a video made by Vic. Vic may come across as a mean guy but to understand what drive him to make money online and the way he his, you must go watch the video. It's is 22 minutes and 12 seconds of real Vic. I made this post because of this video and of below.

Contests

Some of you know that I sponsor contest using 1 Cool File and I now have a few contest running at the moment. I will be using the feedback from those to improve the site later on. I heard the critic(negative on a particular part) about my site and they confirmed what I thought I should priorities. I'm in the process of doing something about it.

Anyway, one of the blogger that I'm sponsoring minimized the importance of directories in general and link building. My problem is that some of the comments left by participants, thus readers, went the same way too and that started to get me a little mad. Not Vic Mad but mad none the less.

Why, tell me why!!!!

It's simple: the blogger is costing money to his readers and that's from a make money online blog. Hmmm! I wonder when I heard that before.

From reader to doer

To get some of you started, I created a free ebook that I published last week. The basis of it will give you that little push to become a doer and start making money online if you really want to. It's simple really but you must take the first step.

Conclusion

I did not make the grand total but I invested a lot of money in promoting 1 Cool File and my other sites/blogs in 2007. But if you use what I show you in my free ebook, you will save yourself more money by just using those optional tools. I learned it the hard way but you don't have too!

I will now go back to my boring task.

P.S. I push "Publish" while I wanted to "save" it. That's why some of you got the first draft/paragraph. I'm sorry.

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I did not wrote the word but you can imagine what it is.

After reading those 4 blogs for a while, I can no longer stay silent. So, I have to get this off my chest. This is no longer tolerable to me. I will take each blogger and tell you why they are full of ... you know the word.

Court

Let's start by Mister SEO(search engine optimization). He has the audacity to modify 90 WordPress themes and make them SEO friendly. He has the bad habit of being always polite and ready to reply in his comments. What a ... ! Anyway, Court's latest coup was to make a guest post explaining H1, H2, keyword authority.... Who does Court think he his making a guest blog that is actually useful? It's even worst on his own blog. I bet he will open Court’s Internet Marketing School next!

Vic

Vic, Vic, Vic .. Where can I start? Mister Get links. Vic is the opposite of Court but still his accomplice by creating that abomination that is Blogging Zoom. Telling us to keyword stuff our description for SEO, using tools to make it faster and telling us not to watch television. About that, sure, I watch less television because of him but I waist my time to watch this new video blogger for 5-30 minutes each time. How can I get backlinks when I'm force to watch his video? Like Court, Vic replies to reader with another Comment Reactions video!!! The warst, worst, worste thing, he makes maure more typos than mi, me .... And his langage is very colorful that he could be a color coordinator. Vic is a real Blogger Unleashed.

Griz

Griz is a fellow Canadian but new to me thus less to say. I will call him Mister Blogger. He has the bad habit of making money by using free Blogger blogs. When Griz do a post, it goes on and on full of tips. Like I said he is new to me but I can't bear him any longer.

But what about X?

X

He is the worst offender and I sadly know him. He use what he learned from those 3 bloggers above. He even created sites like 1 Cool File(blog directory/marketplace) and TrustURL(short URL service to hide affiliates id too). Not only that, he helped 7000+ people remove Virus Heat from their infected computers for free, has a funny sense of humor and second handily won the HD Format war for Blu-Ray by posting this in Canada. Often being just under Toshiba in Google depending on certain keywords. Plus, X is an AlertPay fan by supporting that PayPal alternative. I did not know he wrote a free ebook until recently.

Yes, they are full of information. I hope that's the word you were thinking about.
All of them make money online using Adsense and affiliates and each has his own style/methods. My lessons is: Read, Learn and Act!

If you leave a comment elsewhere like on BZ, don't write " It's funny" for comment but "You are right, a must read!" . I want people to come, read it, laugh and discover 3 bloggers that is a must and me, of course.

Now you can leave a comment here

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One way to rank well on Google and other search engines, it's to have many websites to link back to your site or blog. You can:

• find directories and submit your site(time consuming but free)
• use a paid submission service so that will add it for you(a fee per site, easy and no control)
• use a Directory Submitter software solution like I will review below(free/paid, more control, easy, less time consuming)

I tried all those ways.

Directory Submitter

Because I used Robosoft to submit my freeware, I thought that Directory Submitter was very easy to use in comparison. You just need to open a project for your site/blog and enter the information about it. Once it's done, you go submit your site to every directory in the list. For each directory, you will see it's PageRank and Alexa ranking.

The process is semi-automatic. Once you click on the directory the window below(basic web browser) will fill the information that you entered previously. You will then need to select the category and read the information. In the software world, we have a PAD file. It's XML files(text) that let know the directory owner in which category the freeware or shareware will go and the information about it. We don't have that option here so the need to manual select a category.

A directory can be free, paid or both. If you use the free option, you will wait longer unless you use the reciprocal link option. Of course, paying a fee will get you added/reviewed much faster. I know because that's what I do with 1 Cool File for a blog submission.

Once you have submitted your blog or site, you will see the date, link text and description you used.

Directory Submitter comes in 2 versions:

• Free: It's the default version and give you 350 directories.
• Paid: Once you get the free version, you can upgrade to 2210 directories

I will suggest that try it first for yourself. The directories that I did with the free version were transferred when I upgraded to the paid option.

How many submissions per day

Yes, it's a boring task to do so I would recommend that you do at least a few directories a day. With the free option, you could be done in 35 days if you submit to 10 directories/day. You could submit more with the paid option.

The cost

I expect that some of you will cringe when I tell you the price. It's only $76USD.

To put that in perspective, I paid $99 for Robosoft and it had 1200 software directories. Robosoft is good for life but the database of software directories is good for 6 only months. After that, I have to pay $8/month or less if I take more months to get an updated list.

Now with Directory Submitter, you pay once and the updates are free(database/software). So, you know why I only wrote only $76USD.

You must also understand that directories owners can change the way they let people add a site, close the directory... Someone has to keep it current.

Btw, when you go at the Directory Submitter page, you can see a short video(2m42s) of the software. When it was recorded, the database had 1830 directories. 380 new directories were added since then.

If you are serious about your blog, site or your mini web empire , I recommend Directory Submitter for you! Plus, it's free and worth it

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Recently, many bloggers entered in what I call a "big contest frenzy". I have nothing against big contest because I have The contest Winner blog thus love contest too. But, because I have 1 Cool File, I'm often asked to sponsor contest too.

Selling it to sponsors

To help bloggers that want me to sponsor them, I now have a page of what I asked from bloggers. The sponsor want some return on investment(ROI) and that's what bloggers don't always understand. The sponsor maybe looking for: traffic, customers, new affiliates, brand awareness... or all of them.

One blogger that understand how to work with sponsors is Gyutae from Winning the Web. To keep the contest alive and in the mind of readers, participants are asked to do some tasks in relation to each sponsors during the course of the contest. That's the best way to go.

One way to make it even better for sponsors, it's to ask bloggers to post about it by also including the list of prizes and sponsors with an optional anchor text or description.

For example:

1 Paid Review - sponsored by 1 Cool File ($X value)
1 Cool File is a directory for software downloads and also a blog directory/marketplace. Simply submit your blog to 1 Cool File and you’ll have a chance to get your site reviewed.

For that, the dateline for sponsors to answer your request must be determined in advance. Else, those that are added after the start of the contest won't have has many backlinks.

When is it too big?

Gyutae started with $5,348 in prizes and now it's $12,201. So, my prize is now a smaller drop in the bucket. That's the real downside for a sponsor with big contest. With too many prizes, the sponsor visibility becomes greatly diminished. Even if you add the task part, participant may become tired and not do them thus also diminishing the sponsor ROI. For example, my prize is always the second from the bottom but that's because it's related to his blog(win a review). Up to now, I did not have many visits from that original post. Thanks to the task, I should be fine... in theory. I will have to wait and see.

My recommendation

The best is to get around 5-10 sponsors/prizes. Ask participants for a task for each sponsor to get more entries. Make it last for 1 or 2 weeks by mixing tasks and posts. Of course, the total value will be lower but a sponsor my up the prize amount knowing that they will have a greater exposure and that no other prizes may be added.

Conclusion

What about your next contest? Will sponsors be willing to sponsor you again if their ROI was not worth it on your big contest or another blogger's big contest? Will readers expect an even bigger contest from you next time? Are you in competition with other big contest at the same time?

Those are a few questions to ask yourself. Plus with big contest, you will have to manage many prizes thus cutting into the time you write new content.

If you like contest, check out the MISfan.com RSS feed contest.

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When I started blogging, I submitted my blog to Blogarama. It's a free blog directory. Your blog is manually verified and it takes a few days to be listed.

Of course, you should add the tracking code so that people can visit them too. If you don't, your blog won't appear in the front of the others.

They have an option to get the Premier Service Listing for $10(one time). For some bloggers, it's a lot of money but you must consider the long time traffic effect. With this fee, you can have multiple blogs and each one will be a featured blog. It has a little heart before the blog name.

In my case, I have 4 blogs that gave me a total of around 2000 visitors in the last year based on their stats. I have about 1000 on Google Analytics. Google Analytics doesn't count everything but it's still a benchmark for most of us. So far, I paid about $0.01 per visitor and 3 of this blogs were added later and one was started in June.

Yes, Blogarama is a competitor to my own 1 Cool File. We are both blog directories but with very different goals.

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For many, a contest is a way to be discovered by new readers, increase backlinks, increase their RSS readers or to give back to readers.

With this in mind, I thought I would use a weapon into my own arsenal: 1 Cool File(PR6) . You see, I want to increase the number of permanent blogs on 1 Cool File but I want real blogs for the 150+ categories.

I'm often solicited to sponsor a contest but my ROI(Return On Investment) is often less than impressive.

Edit 2008-08-21: I since change the sponsoring that it's a lot more simpler.

How will you sponsor my blog contest?

I have a free way and a paid way.

One of the way that bloggers can be approve for free on 1 Cool File is to make a short 25 words review about 1 Cool File. If they do that, their blog will be approve for life. I don't even asked to be dofollow in that review. But in the case of a contest, you would make it so that they must link to your blog and contest post too. Or, you could ask another task like subscribing to your RSS feed. This take care of the free way.

Of course, not everyone want to write a short review on their blog. That's why, I have a small fee of $4USD to be approve for life. Plus, they got their last 5 posts of their RSS feed shown versus 1 post with the free way above. In the case of a sponsored contest, I would give back $1 for every bloggers that used this way. At the end of the contest, I would pick a random winner from those bloggers. I would also give to you $1 per blogger that used that way too. So, I'm giving back 50% of the $4. Depending on the number of entries on your blog, you could have $0, $5, $25 or $100+.

With both ways, the blogger must leave a comment with the link of their blog on 1 Cool File when it's approved. And if they wrote a review, they should add the link too in the comment.

Note: The new blog will need at least 10 real posts in the last 30 days.

I will also post the contest on The Contest Winner.

What about the prize?

You can write a short review/post about the winner. But if you got some money from the paid option, this could be enough to have the equivalent(depending on what you charge) of a real paid review about the winner. In any case, the winner will have visitors from the post or review you will make.

The winner will get from 1 Cool File(need a minimum of 10 entries):

• Option to add a banner(468x60) to their listing making it more visible(Value of $1.50).
• A staff rating of their blog(Value of $5).
• Written review on 1 Cool Review (Value of $15).

Conclusion

With this method, everyone wins:

• Every blogger get a quality backlink from 1 Cool File(PR6).
• You get backlinks to your blog or what ever you asked. Plus, the possibility of some money.
• I get new and real blogs for life on 1 Cool File and use the feedback to improve the site.

Like any advertiser, I want some ROI and by doing it this way, I'm assured to get new blogs in the blog directory/marketplace part of 1 Cool File.

If get solicited again, I will direct them to this post. I don't want to be a prize among too many prizes.

So, do you want me to sponsor your next blog contest?

P.S. you should bookmark this post just in case

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