28 Leading Ways To Make Money Online With Your Website

There are several lists with “ways to make money with a website” on the Internet, but none of them seem to be complete. That is why I decided to create this one. If you know a method that is not listed below, just let us know and we’ll update it.

Notice that ways to make money with a website are different from ways to make more money from it. Methods to increase your traffic or click-through rate will help you make more money, but they do not represent a method of making money perse.

For example, one could suggest that blending AdSense ads with the content is a way to make money from a website. In reality it’s not; it’s just a way to make more money by improving your ad click-through rate. The real monetization method behind it is a PPC ad network.

The list is divided into direct and indirect methods, and examples and links are provided for each point. Enjoy!

Direct Methods

1. PPC Advertising Networks

Google AdSense is the most popular option under this category, but there are also others. Basically you need to sign up with the network and paste some code snippets on your website. The network will then serve contextual ads (either text or images) relevant to your website, and you will earn a certain amount of money for every click.

The profitability of PPC advertising depends on the general traffic levels of the website and, most importantly, on the click-through rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC). The CTR depends on the design of the website. Ads placed abode the fold or blended with content, for instance, tend to get higher CTRs. The CPC, on the other hand, depends on the nice of the website. Mortgages, financial products and college education are examples of profitable niches (clicks worth a couple of dollars are not rare), while tech-related topics tend to receive a smaller CPC (sometimes as low as a couple of cents per click).

The source of the traffic can also affect the overall CTR rate. Organic traffic (the one that comes from search engines) tends to perform well because these visitors were already looking for something, and they tend to click on ads more often. Social media traffic, on the other hand, presents terribly low CTRs because these visitors are tech-savvy and they just ignore ads.

List of popular CPC advertising networks:

• Google Adsense
• Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN)
• BidVertiser
• Chitika
• Clicksor

2. CPM Advertising Networks

CPM advertising networks behave pretty much as PPC networks, except that you get paid according to the number of impressions (i.e., page views) that the ads displayed on your site will generate. CPM stands for Cost per Mille, and it refers to the cost for 1,000 impressions.

A blog that generates 100,000 page views monthly displaying an advertising banner with a $1 CPM, therefore, will earn $100 monthly.

CPM rates vary with the network, the position of the ad and the format. The better the network, the higher the CPM rate (because they have access to more advertisers). The closer you put the ad to the top of the page, the higher the CPM. The bigger the format (in terms of pixels), the higher the CPM.

You can get as low as $0,10 and as high as $10 per 1,000 impressions (more in some special cases). CPM advertising tends to work well on websites with a high page views per visitor ratio (e.g., online forums, magazines and so on).

List of popular CPM advertising networks:

• Casale Media
• Burst Media
• Value Click
• Advertising.com
• Tribal Fusion
• Right Media

3. Direct Banner Advertising

Selling your own advertising space is one of the most lucrative monetization methods. First and foremost because it enables you to cut out the middleman commissions and to determine your own rates. The most popular banner formats on the web are the 728×90 leaderboard, the 120×600 skyscraper, the 300×250 rectangle and the 125×125 button.

The downside of direct banner advertising is that you need to have a big audience to get qualified advertisers, and you will need to spend time managing the sales process, the banners and the payments.

4. Text Link Ads

After Google declared that sites selling text links without the nofollow tag would be penalized, this monetization method became less popular.

Many website owners are still using text links to monetize their sites, though, some using the nofollow tag and some not.

The advantage of this method is that it is not intrusive. One can sell text links directly through his website or use specialized networks like Text-Link-Ads and Text-Link-Brokers to automate the process.

Text link marketplaces and networks:

• DigitalPoint Link Sales Forum
• Text-Link-Ads
• Text-Link-Brokers
• TNX
• LinkWorth

5. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a very popular practice on the Internet. Under this system you have a merchant that is willing to let other people (the affiliates) sell directly or indirectly its products and services, in exchange for a commission. Sometimes this type of advertising is also called CPA (cost per action) or CPL (cost per lead) based.

Affiliates can send potential customers to the merchant using several tools, from banners to text links and product reviews.

In order to find suitable affiliate programs you can turn to individual companies and publishers like Dreamhost and SEOBook, or join affiliate marketplaces and networks.

List of popular affiliate marketplaces and networks:

• Commission Junction
• ClickBank
• Azoogle Ads
• Link Share

6. Monetization Widgets

The latest trend on the web are widgets that let you monetize your website. Examples include Widgetbucks and SmartLinks. Some of these services operate under a PPC scheme, others behave like text link ads, others yet leverage affiliate links.

Their main differentiator, however, is the fact that they work as web widgets, making it easier for the user to plug and play the service on its website.

List of companies that provide monetization widgets:

• WidgetBucks
• ScratchBack
• SmartLinks

7. Sponsored Reviews

PayPerPost pioneered this model, with much controversy on the beginning (related to the fact that they did not require disclosure on paid posts). Soon other companies followed, most notably Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe, refining the process and expanding the paid blogging model.

Joining one of these sponsored reviews marketplaces will give you the opportunity to write sponsored posts on a wide range of topics. Not all bloggers are willing to get paid to write about a specific product or website (because it might compromise the editorial credibility), but the ones who do are making good money out of it.

If your blog has a big audience you could also offer sponsored reviews directly, cutting off the commissions of the middleman.

List of sponsored reviews and paid blogging networks:

• PayPerPost
• Sponsored Reviews
• ReviewMe
• BlogVertise
• Smorty

8. RSS Feed Ads

With the quick adoption of the RSS technology by millions of Internet users, website owners are starting to find ways to monetize this new content distribution channel.

Feedburber already has its own publisher network, and you can sign-up to start displaying CPM based advertising on your feed footer. Bidvertiser recently introduced a RSS feed ad option as well, with a PPC scheme.

Finally, some blogs are also opting to sell banners or sponsored messages on their feed directly. John Chow and Marketing Pilgrim are two examples.

Popular RSS sites:

• Feedburner – Currently Feedburner do not support this feature.
• BidVertiser
• Pheedo

9. Sponsors for Single Columns or Events

If you website has specific columns or events (e.g., a weekly podcast, an interview series, a monthly survey, a special project) you could find companies to sponsor them individually.

This method increases the monetization options for website owner, while giving advertisers the possibility to target a more specific audience and with a reduced commitment.

Mashable illustrates the case well. They have several advertising options on the site, including the possibility to sponsor specific columns and articles, including the “Daily Poll” and the “Web 2.0 Invites.”

Problogger also runs group writing projects occasionally, and before proceeding he publicly announce the project asking for sponsors.

10. Premium Content

Some websites and blogs give away part of their content for free, and charge for access to the premium content and exclusive tools.

SEOMoz is a good example. They have a very popular blog that gives advice and information on wide range of SEO related topics. On top of that visitors can decide to become premium members. It costs $48 monthly and it grants them access to guides, tools and other exclusive material.

11. Private Forums

While the Internet is populated with free forums, there is also the possibility to create a private one where members need to pay a single or recurring fee to join.

SEO Blackhat charges $100 monthly from its members, and they have thousands of them. Obviously in order to charge such a price for a forum membership you need to provide real value for the members (e.g., secret techniques, tools, and so on).

Performancing also launched a private forum recently, focused on the networking aspect. It is called The Hive, and the monthly cost is $10.

These are just two examples. There are many possibilities to create a private and profitable forum, you just need to find an appealing angle that will make it worth for the members.

List of popular forum software:

• vBulletin
• Simple Machines Forum
• phpBB
• Vanilla

12. Job Boards

All the popular blogs are trying to leverage job boards to make some extra income. Guy Kawasaki, ReadWriteWeb, Problogger… you name it.

Needless to say that in order to create an active and profitable job board you need first to have a blog focused on a specific niche, and a decent amount traffic.

The advantage of this method is that it is passive. Once you have the structure in place, the job listings will come naturally, and you can charge anywhere from $10 up to $100 for each.

List of popular job board software:

• JobThread
• Web Scribe Job Board
• SimplyHired Job-o-matic
• Jobbex

13. Marketplaces

Sitepoint is the online marketplace by excellence. Some websites and blogs, however, are trying to replicate that model on a smaller scale.

Depending on your niche, a market place that allows your visitors to buy, sell and trade products could work well. Over the time you could start charging a small fee for new product listings.

The problem with this method is that there are no standard software on the web, so you would need to hire a coder to get a marketplace integrated into your website.

You can see an example of a marketplaces being used on EasyWordpress and on Mashable.

14. Paid Surveys and Polls

There are services that will pay you money to run a small survey or poll on your website. The most popular one is called Vizu Answers.

Basically you need to sign up with them, and select the kind of polls that you want to run your site. Most of these services operate under a CPM model.

15. Selling or Renting Internal Pages

Million Dollar Wiki made this concept popular, but it was being used on the web for a long time around (check Pagerank10.co.uk for instance).

These websites sell for a single fee or rent for a recurring fee internal pages on their domain. Usually they have either high Pagerak or high traffic, so that people purchasing a page will be able to benefit in some way.

Implementing this method on a small blog would be difficult, but the concept is interesting and could be explored further.

16. Highlighted Posts from Sponsors

Techmeme probably pioneered this idea, but somehow it has not spread to other websites. The tech news aggregator displays editorial posts on the left column, and on the sidebar they have a section titled “Techmeme Sponsor Posts.”

On that section posts from the blog of the advertisers get highlighted, sending qualified traffic their way. Considering that the monthly cost for one spot is $5000 and that they have around 6 sponsors at any given time, it must be working well.

17. Donations

Placing a “Donate” link or button on a website can be an efficient way to earn money, especially if your blog is on a niche where readers learn and gain value from your content.

Personal development and productivity blogs, for instance, tend to perform well with donation based systems (one good example being Steve Pavlina).

A small variation of this method appeared sometime ago with the Buy Me a Beer plugin. This WordPress plugin enables you to insert a customized message at the bottom of each article, asking the readers to chip in for a beer or coffee.

18. In-text Adverting

In-text adverting networks like Kontera and Vibrant Media will place sponsored links inside your text. These links come with a double underline to differentiate them from normal links, and once the user rolls the mouse over the link the advertising will pop. Should the user click on it the site owner will make some money.

Some people make good money with this method, but others refrain from using it due to its intrusiveness. It is also interesting to note that very few mainstream websites have experimented with in-text advertising.

19. Pop-ups and Pop-unders

Pop-ups are a common yet annoying form of advertising on the Internet. If you are just trying to make a much money as possible from your website, you could experiment with them.

If you are trying to grow the traffic and generate loyal visitors, however, you probably should stay away from them. Just consider the hundreds of pop-up blockers out there: there is a reason why they are so popular.

Ad networks that use pop-ups:

• Tribal Fusion
• PayPopup
• PopupAd
• Adversal

20. Audio Ads

Also called PPP (Pay Per Play), this advertising method was introduce by Net Audio Ads. the concept is pretty simple: play a small audio advertising (usually 5 seconds) every time a visitor enters into your website. The user should not be able to stop it, creating a 100% conversion rate based on unique visitors.

The company is still rolling tests, but some users are reporting to get from a $4 to a $6 CPM. Regardless of the pay rate, though, this is a very intrusive form of advertising, so think twice before using it.

21. Selling the Website

Selling your website could be your last resource, but it has the potential to generate a big sum of money in a short period of time.

Market places on online forums like DigitalPoint and Sitepoint are always active with website buyers and sellers. Keep in mind that they most used parameter to determine the value of a website is the monthly revenue that it generates, multiplied by a certain number (the multiplier can be anything from 5 to 30, depending on the expectations of the seller, on the quality of the site, on the niche and other factors).

Some people also make money trading and flipping websites. They either create them from scratch or buy existing ones, and after some revamping they sell them for a profit.

Indirect Methods

22. Selling an Ebook

Perhaps one of the oldest money making strategies on the web, using a website to promote a related ebook is a very efficient way to generate revenue.

You could either structure the website around the book itself, like SEOBook.com, or launch the ebook based on the success of the website, like FreelanceSwitch did we the book How to be a Rockstar Freelancer.

23. Selling a Hardcover Book

Many authors and journalists leverage their blogs or websites to sell copies of hardcover books. Examples include Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell.

While most of these people were already renowned authors before they created their website, one could also follow the other way around. Lorelle VanFossen did exactly that with her Blogging Tips book. First she built her authority on the subject via her blog, and afterwards she published the book.

List of self publishing and publishing services:

• Lulu
• Self Publishing
• iUniverse
• WordClay

24. Selling Templates or WordPress Themes

As more and more people decide to get an online presence, website templates and WordPress themes become hotter and hotter.

On this segment you have mainstream websites like TemplateMonster, as well as individual designers who decide to promote and sell their work independently.

Brian Gardner and Unique Blog Designs are two examples of websites that make money with the sales of premium and custom WordPress themes.

25. Offering Consulting and Related Services

Depending on your niche, you could make money by offering consulting and related services. If you are also the author of your blog, the articles and information that you will share will build your profile and possibly certify your expertise on that niche, making it easier to gain customers.

Chris Garrett used a similar strategy. First he created a highly influential blog on the blogging and new media niche, and afterwards he started offering consulting services to clients with related problems and needs.

26. Creating an Email List or Newsletter

Email lists and newsletters represent one of the most powerful marketing and money making tools on the Internet. They offer incredible conversion rates, and the possibility to call people to action in a very efficient way.

Creating a big list is a difficult task though, so if you have a popular website you could leverage it to increase the number of subscribers on your list.

Yaro Starak is a famous Internet marketer, and if you visit his blog you will notice that right on top he has a section encouraging visitors to subscribe to his email newsletter. Yaro generates five figures in revenues each month from his email newsletters, proving that this method works.

List of software to manage email newsletters:

• AWeber
• SendStudio NX
• PHP Autoresponder
• Constant Contact

27. Mentoring programs

People are willing to pay for someone or something that will teach them and give them knowledge (as opposed to mere information). Education is one of the biggest industries in the world, and the online landscape behaves in a similar way.

Creating a mentoring program related to the niche of your website could be very profitable if you manage to structure and promote it adequately. There is a wide range of media and tools that you can use to deliver the information, from text articles to audio and video lessons.

Brian Clark leveraged the success of Copyblogger to launch a mentoring program teaching people how to build membership and how to sell content online. The program is titled Teaching Sells, and it costs $97 monthly. Sounds expensive, but they have over 1,000 members.

28. Creating a conference around the website.

How to Monetize Your Website?

Are you running your own website or blog? Do you want to get paid for working at home? If your response was “yes” to both questions, then you may be closer to earn money lounging in your pajamas and enjoying your coffee than you might think. See, many site and blog owners attract thousands or hundreds of thousands of Internet users to their resources each months, but only few of them know how to monetize website traffic. With new services and technologies monetizing your website or blog is much easier than ever before.

See also: 28 Leading Ways To Make Money Online With Your Website

Measuring Website Traffic

The first stage of monetizing any website is measuring its traffic to determine what monetization method will work best of all. Quantcast and Google Analytics will help you to analyze and quantify your traffic. Google Analytics provides website statistics, including number of page views, bounce rate, keywords that attract visitors to your site, etc., whereas Quantcast is focused on providing demographic data based on visitor`s location.

Ads

Publishing ads on your website or blog is the most apparent way of deriving an income. Advertisements can come in the form of banner ads or text links. Google AdSense, Pay-Per-Post, are just two of the most common advertising programs available for websites and blogs.

Affiliate Programs

Participation in affiliate programs can bring you solid income. You just need to offer products or services to your readers and get paid when viewers buy them clicking on your affiliate link. There are thousands of affiliate programs in Internet, including Amazon and ClickBank, and you can choose any of them.

Display Related Content

A simple way to enhance both your monetization and provide your audience with relevant content is to join a program, which offers displaying related articles, blog posts and content for money. You’ve probably come across this type of advertising. They look natural on the site and don’t irritate the visitors unlike the ordinary advertising.

Ad Server

Ad server is an advanced technology, which allows displaying advertisements on your website or blog. What differentiates ad operations from direct ads selling is that users can easily manage their inventory and distribute the number of impressions the way they want. Having own ad server is a brilliant idea. Let’s know why:

• better control over advertisements appearing on your site Ad servers allow users to specify tags related to their site
• enhanced accountability over advertisements as the software, which tracks their performance, is on your website.

3 Secrets To a Happy Life

By Raf Adams

One of the questions I keep hearing in my workshops is, “how do I live a happy life and enjoy the journey and what does it mean?”

Living a happy life is something we all want, yet so few of us are able to live happily continuously. During the journey of our life when we look at other people and they smile, we tend to believe that they are happy because they smile. We believe laughter and smiling equals happiness, but nothing is further from the truth.

Everyone seems to be happy around us, but what about you?

Let me tell you a secret.

Most people are NOT happy. The reason I can say this is because I run workshops for 3 years for people from different cultures, backgrounds and education and I haven’t met a single person who tells me “I am happy every single day, every single moment”. In fact, one of my friends asked me, can you be happy every single day, every single moment? The answer is YES, you can, so how do we do this?

First of all we need to understand what happiness is and where it comes from. Happiness comes from the heart, it is an internal state of feeling or being. If internally you don’t feel happy and you smile (like most people do) you are still not happy within, right? This happens to most people. We don’t want to show our unhappiness so we smile.

Happiness can be developed by the following 3 areas:

1. Stay true to yourself and be who you are. By accepting yourself as who you are, you allow your heart to flourish. You allow yourself to express as who you really are. Are you currently hiding things from yourself to live up to others expectations? If the answer is yes, try to reduce this part and stand up for yourself.


2. Find out what your purpose is, in life. By following your life purpose your heart can express itself through its purpose which brings joy and happiness.


3. Letting go of negative emotions you carry with you, breaking up from a relationship, an argument with a colleague are emotions you carry with you. By accepting these experiences and letting go you will reduce suffering. When you reduce suffering, happiness will arise.

Happiness is a journey towards self-discovery. Happiness is not something to be achieved, it’s not something you can have today and tomorrow it disappears. Happiness is every lasting. The more you are true to yourself, love what you do and let go of negative emotions and feelings the more inner happiness you will cultivate.

Remember, you cannot change others but you can change yourself.

Editor’s note: My name is Raf Adams, I am a workshop facilitator, professional speaker and book author of The Suited Monk an Empowering New Book on Life Purpose, Happiness and Self-Discovery.

Tips To Enhance Your Online Shopping Experience

By Chariahs

No matter what you are in the market for, chances are, it can be purchased online. Shop brand name websites, online auctions and big box stores from the comfort of your home. New or used, you can buy nearly everything at a discount. The tips below will aid you in tracking down the best deals on the net.

See-also: Want To Get The Most Of Online Shopping? Read This

1. Avoid shopping on sites that aren’t familiar or have no online user reviews. No matter how much you might want to order their merchandise or how low their prices are, you just don’t know what you’re getting into. Reserve your online shopping dollars for the well-known and trusted sites that keep your info safe.

2. If you want to save money on the products you buy online and want to make online shopping more fun, consider auction sites. You will get some great deals if you place your bids at the right moment and have some fun while browsing through auctions. Learn more about bidding strategies before getting started.

3. When getting things shipped to your home that you bought online, know your consumer rights regarding time tables and condition of products. You have a right to receive items according to the terms stated when you ordered them and reasonable expectations of goods being undamaged. Check with the BBB for exact specifics and get what’s coming to you fairly!

4. Before purchasing a product online, find out more about shipping. If you do not find any information about shipping costs, contact the seller to find out if there are additional charges for shipping. If there are several shipping options, choose an affordable and reliable option to make sure you receive your product quickly.

Always, always read reviews.

• When shopping for a product online, take the time to read reviews. Try finding the same product on different sites to read as many reviews as possible. Reading many reviews will help you get a more general idea of whether or not the product you are interested in meets high standards of quality.

• Prior to buying anything, particularly something costly, it pays to conduct your research and read consumer reviews first. There are many websites that offer nothing but reviews of products. Use this information to ensure the product you are buying is the best on the market.

• Read reviews before you buy. When you shop online, reviews are easy to access, and can keep you from making a purchase you regret. Don’t just rely on star ratings. Look over the reviews and see what the customers really liked or disliked. Reviews can be a surprisingly great resource.

No matter if you are a bargain hunting pro or not, the more knowledge you have, the better off you will be. You’ll always be able to seek out the best deals if you’re aware of what it takes. Read this article and others like it if you want to find new and exciting techniques to hone your approach to online shopping.

Editor’s note: I am a mother of a 6 year old bubbly girl who happens to be the most important person in my life. My passion includes photography, technology, and others.

Image: iStock Photo

Want To Get The Most Of Online Shopping? Read This

By Chariahs

Even though shopping malls are big business these days, more and more shoppers are finding that these retailers are inaccessible or overcrowded. Whether you like to be able to compare prices or save money, online shopping provides the ability to buy from home. Read on to learn how you can have the best possible experience while shopping on the Internet.

See also: Tips To Enhance Your Online Shopping Experience

• When shopping online, use a credit card rather than a debit card. This is because credit cards are based on your credit, not the amount of money in your bank account. If an internet hacker gets your banking information, they can completely ruin you within a matter of hours.

• Get engaged in the social media of your favorite online stores. Brands with big online presences typically put lots of money behind their social media, and that includes offering their followers some mega-discounts and exclusive deals. You can be one of the lucky ones scoring these deals with just a quick follow or fanning.

• Keep your computer protected. If you are doing any shopping online, especially at a site you are not familiar with, make sure your computer has up-to-date virus protection. This is essential to prevent your computer from being infected by malicious websites. There are several free options that can be found on most search engines.

• Look into online shopping clubs. Sites like ebates.com have some tremendous offers. You not only find out about sales going on at different sites, but they pay you a percentage of your purchase when you buy from those sites. It is a great way to get a bonus check every four months and get the things you need.

Read Reviews

• When shopping for a product online, take the time to read reviews. Try finding the same product on different sites to read as many reviews as possible. Reading many reviews will help you get a more general idea of whether or not the product you are interested in meets high standards of quality.

• Prior to buying anything, particularly something costly, it pays to conduct your research and read consumer reviews first. There are websites devoted to reviews, including consumersreport.info and pricegrabber.com, where you can read reviews on products before making a purchase, helping you feel more confident about your purchases.

• Read reviews before you buy. When you shop online, reviews are easy to access, and can keep you from making a purchase you regret. Don’t just rely on star ratings. Look over the reviews and see what the customers really liked or disliked. Reviews can be a surprisingly great resource.

As you might realize, online shopping is often lots of fun. You have a virtual world of merchandise right there at your fingertips, with a simple click. The more you understand about online purchasing, the more you can save and the happier you will be with your decisions.

Editor’s note: I am a mother of a 6 year old bubbly girl who happens to be the most important person in my life. My passion includes photography, technology, and others.

Image: iStock Photo

How to Create the Perfect Password [INFOGRAPHIC]

With more and more of us shifting everyday tasks — banking, education, social interaction, even shopping for groceries — to the virtual world, securing our personal information has become more important than ever. One of the simplest ways to help protect our financial and other info from prying eyes and would-be identity thieves is to use a strong password. Yet many people take a decidedly casual approach to choosing a password, with potential disastrous results.

Having your password compromised is no laughing matter. More than half a million hackers have a go at cracking Facebook passwords every single day. In an effort to protect its users, the site gives specific tips for protecting both your Facebook account and any financial information you may have saved on the site — unsurprisingly, choosing a strong password is high on the list.

Facebook’s not the only place you have to worry about securing your financial info, of course. A 2013 investigation by Verizon found that, across 27 different countries, attacks on banks and other financial institutions account for a full 37% of data breaches. In 76% of these intrusions, the hackers simply used a weak or stolen password to access the system. Password theft is one thing, but if all that separates a would-be thief from millions of dollars is the name of someone’s pet gerbil, it may be time to beef up password protocol.

So what constitutes the “perfect” password? If you’re serious about security, a strong password will include a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers, symbols, and even non-keyboard characters. It will be unique (using the same password for everything might be common, but it’s also spectacularly unsafe). It’s also greater than eight characters in length, contains arbitrary phrases made using numbers and letters (e.g., “b4D P4S$W0Rd”), but no complete words. And no matter how secure your password is, it’s made more secure by changing it regularly.

Strong, adequate, or weak, no password can protect against every possible threat. But by following our tips, you can help keep your social media accounts in your own hands, make your financial info safer, and encourage meddling thieves and hackers to seek easier prey.

Here is an infographic to help you protect yourself from losing your password, specifically from WhoIsHostingThis? a webmaster tool that lets you discover which web hosting company any site is hosted with.

The Heartbleed Checklist: The Passwords You Need to Change Right Now

The Heartbleed bug — a major security flaw in OpenSSL — has seriously disrupted the online community this week. OpenSSL is one of the most popular pieces of encryption software, and the bug has potentially exposed millions of user details to hackers.

Some online service providers acted quickly, patching the flaw as soon as it was announced. However, many others have yet to act.

If a service provider is yet to apply the patch, you should not change your password. Instead, wait until you receive confirmation from an official channel that the servers have been patched. Only then should you log in and update your details.

Conflicting reports have led to panic — nobody seems to know which sites have been affected, or whether their servers have been patched.

To dispel the confusion, we’ve created a simple password change checklist. It identifies the major sites which have been affected by Heartbleed – and whether they’ve patched their servers yet.

Last update: April 12, 1:12:00 p.m. GMT

Image: IVPN

What is the Heartbleed Bug?

Video Courtesy: CNN, Quest Means Business

Learn more about the Heartbleed Bug at Heartbleed.com

How to Optimize Twitter SEO for Your Business

It is undeniable that Twitter is one of popular social media websites. It offers fast information through 140 characters. Many companies start to pay attention to the use of Twitter for their business. They even create account for their company and share information about the company itself, the products, services and other related stuff.

See also: 10 Twitter Tips for Businesses

You can use Twitter to promote your business. It allows you to post something short but has sharp information to keep in touch with your customer or gain new potential customers. Twitter is perfect place to keep your business heard by massive users on it. Even if you are new or a seasoned pro to Twitter, here we have simple ways to optimize your company’s Twitter profile through some simple SEO campaign. Fancy to know?  Here is how to optimize your Twitter and get better rank in Google’s eyes as well as promote your business.

Your account name and user name should reflect your business

One of the first things you will have to do when signing up for a Twitter account is to choose your account name and user name. While your account name will show up in your URL, your user name can be seen on your Twitter profile page. Even from here, you will have to consider how your choices will affect your SEO efforts. Choose an account name and user name that are relevant to your business. If you have a brand name, it is best to use that. Although your account name and user name do not necessarily have to be the same, it will be good if you can use the same name for both.

Optimize your bio

The Bio part in your Twitter page is where you will put the description or details about your business. Basically, it is your ‘about us’ page in Twitter. Unfortunately, you are limited to using only 160 characters so make sure that you use relevant keywords especially since this portion is indexed.

Write only quality Tweets

With limited characters available to you per tweet, it is important to consider what kind information you want to share, include all the details. Keep your tweet short and contain sharp information about your business, products or even just share piece of information that relate to your business. This action will give something valuable to your followers and customers. Keep in mind that quantity of tweets is not important as share a quality tweet.

Tweets are a form of linking, and linking can still affect your SEO campaign. While your account might be new and you manage to get a link from a site that has authority on Google, this will start to see an increase in your Twitter Profile’s popularity. If more people start to re-tweet your updates, this will help your site be seen as an authority on a topic, and help to build authority around your site and potentially increase its rankings in Google’s eyes.

Updated your Twitter account frequently

People like something fresh and new on a website. If your company account barely updates the status, potential customers will assume that you are out of business now or you stop the production and they will stop following and even unfollow your Twitter account. To avoid this situation, make sure you update your account frequently; with interesting information to make sure they keep visiting your account because they are curious about what information will you share next through the account.

Re-tweet someone else’s tweet

You can always find a certain information that relate to your business, maybe article from popular newspaper, quote from popular businessman or just tweets relate to your business written by other Twitter users. You can simply re-tweet it again as the opportunity to gain better ranking when it comes to Google search as well as build brand awareness. When your followers have interaction to your account do not forget to reply it and create warm interaction with them. This will keep the intention to your business and company well-maintained and of course attract the customers as well as new potential customers.

Market your Twitter page

This means promoting your Twitter page to other Twitter users. At the start, a lot of users will not have any idea that your Twitter account exists so promote it by putting up a Twitter button on your website if you have one, asking your customers to follow you, informing your customers through email, asking your followers in your other social media networks to follow you on Twitter as well.

Give the Twitterverse New Content

Just because you are on Twitter and you have a website does not mean you are guaranteed better search engine placement. Your best bet is to update your website frequently and tell Twitter about it. Every time you add a page or write a blog entry, be sure to tweet the URL of the new content. Tweeting the URL of your new content will help drive new traffic to your website, increase exposure, build a better online presence, and encourage search engines to crawl your site. If the content is really good, you may even get a few powerful retweets! In other words, Twitter can help spread the word of any website updates much quicker and to a much larger audience.

7 Reasons To Quit Facebook In 2014

Feel less positive, have less real users, get bad effects to health, etc.! These are one of the 7 main reasons why we should quit Facebook – one of the best social networks.

“Facebook is causing irritation.” Have you ever shouted or heard this statement before? If yes, how many times? We believe a lot, right. So why to delete Facebook? It’s because more and more people seems to get more tiredness of its social networking, especially the youth. There are dozens of irritation relating to Facebook in the previous year (2013). Even the company has admitted that the number of young people is using Facebook less regularly. Now, take a look at a couple of reasons that might mention us the reasons to delete Facebook in this year (2014).

1. No one truly wants to know about what happens to us.

Update statuses or sent birthday messages or post photos seem to receive less attention from Facebook users. Here is a typical example. Some says that the number of birthday messages is less than before. It can be explained that perhaps some people don’t take care of us. However, the truth is that this network has no longer attraction. Moreover, there are more and more social networks nowadays. Especially, the young people prefer some specific social networks i.e. post all statuses on Twitter or photos on Instagram.

2. Facebook is not private any longer.

Previously, we can select useful options in Privacy Settings that can help us hide on Facebook for some valid reasons. Nevertheless, now, it’s not right anymore because Facebook has restructured its searching form. Accordingly, the only way to ensure that no one can enter our profile is to block them. Or simply change our name so that the others can't search our real name on Search bar.

3. Our parents know about Facebook.

Facebook is no longer for the young people. Besides, the number of dads, moms, grandparents or aunts joining in Facebook is gradually increasing. It means that whenever posting any status or any photo, we will easily get our parents’ keen and curious eyes. Of course, they do that because they just want to take care of us. However, we have no freedom when using this social network.

4. We easily feel pessimistic when using Facebook.

According to a last study of the UVU Behavioral Science Department – Utah Valley University, more and more Facebook addicts feel unhappy in comparison with the happiest people out there. Using Facebook regularly can increase our loneliness as well as decrease our studying or other activities.

5. Ads are everywhere.

One of the other reasons to leave Facebook is Ads. At first, advertisements just appear on the right side of the screen. However, lots of pieces of ads have started sneaking in with each individual profile, home page. Even people create a new account and just use it for advertising. One more thing is that Facebook has applied some irritating ads out in December. So, whenever entering Facebook, some videos will be automatically played, but just tap on it to hear the voice. Is it the good news?

6. Our health will decrease.

Some scientists say that spending too much time on Facebook will cause some bad impacts on the users’ health, including the mind and the body. Moreover, we can easily get some symptoms as eating disorder and psychophysiological disorder or even be stressful, feel less positive, depression, etc. In addition, almost Facebookers are online at night. It makes the parts in the body work too much and leads to some bad cases about health.

7. The number of “real” friends is truly less.

Try to imagine! The total number of our friends in Facebook is about 1,000 people. Nonetheless, can we assure that we will receive all 1,000 messages on the birthday? Of course, not! Playing Facebook is rather similar to our real life. We just contact those guys, who are really familiar with us, right? Although Facebook proposes advanced searching tools, sometimes we can receive strange suggestions. How can we know that who are “real” and who are “virtual”? If we don't like making “virtual” friends, to stop playing Facebook is the good choice.

How to Tell That Your E-mail Has Been Hacked?

You may suspect that your e-mail account has been hacked when you can’t login to your account or you are getting undelivered or bounced messages for the e-mails you didn’t even send or the people on your e-mail contact list are complaining of receiving e-mails that wasn’t sent by you. There could only be one of the two reasons for this — a virus or a hacker. You should know that your e-mail account has been compromised when you see yourself facing any of the symptoms stated below.

When you receive Bounce Messages and Undelivered Notifications

The people who actually send spam mailers normally replace their genuine e-mail address with an e-mail address that they have randomly picked from the mailing address book or something that they have just made up arbitrarily.

So, in order to track down the real source of the e-mail check the ‘Reading Email Headers’ because some e-mailers don’t normally distinguish between the manually editable “From” ID and the genuine sender source. The best way to combat this is to simply delete the undelivered notifications and the messages that bounced back without clicking on any link mentioned in the e-mail.

Not able to login to your e-mail account

If your e-mail service provider claims that the password that you have entered is invalid, there is a possibility that someone else has accessed it and changed your password. However, most e-mail service providers have an option of password recovery. If you ever feel that your e-mail account has been compromised, change your password to an immediate effect. Ensure that the alternate e-mail address that you have provided as a part of your password recovery is thoroughly active and regularly visited. Nevertheless, also make sure that the problem does not lie at your e-mail service provider’s end before hitting the panic button.

Sent Items folder getting updated on its own

Often, some e-mail worm acts in a way that makes copies of itself and appear in the sent items folder of your e-mail. It is most likely to be an older version of a worm which can be removed easily, as the new–age malware normally doesn’t leave behind such obvious evidences. The best way to challenge this problem is to update your antivirus software and run a full scan on your PC on a regular basis.

When e-mail is sent to a recipient and cannot be traced back in the sent folder on Webmail

This happens when the hacker knows your e-mail username and password and sends spam and malicious e-mails to the people in your address book. They usually remove the traces from the sent items folder to avoid exposure. If you ever happen to face such a situation, change your password immediately as your e-mail ID is at the risk of being gravely misused. Also, make sure that you never share your username and password with anybody.

Recipients in your address book complaining about e-mails that you remember not sending

The recipients on your address book may be sending you angry responses for the spam they might receiving from you, and you clearly remember not having sent any such e-mail. You run a malware check on your PC and notify the e-mail service provider of the situation.

If you face any of the situations above, you should know that your e-mail account has been hacked or compromised. Take the necessary measures to rectify them or prevent them from happening in the first place by monitoring your account on a regular basis.

An Infographic on “Social Networking Stats”

Do you ever wonder what social networking sites you should be focusing your marketing efforts on?

Social Media has grown beyond expectations over the past few years, with terms like “Facebook me” becoming a part of the lexicon of everyday life. But while we all may think that everyone is just on one or two sites, the fact remains that different social media venues resonate more with different people.

Find out who likes and how these social media channels make an impact. The “Social Networking Stats” Infographic contains statistics about people who are using social network.

Image: CueSEO

Embed This Infographic On Your Site (copy code below):
<div style="clear: both;" ><a href="http://www.milanaryal.com/2014/04/social-networking-stats-infographic.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivbYcQoSmPGwJWCC9meSK64osXrRCHyF0KUhMsKoAh-1DBMWVLyolURvt60F8SsJ9X-VLjnGs4CM6V9diNgCyeQiRzErQc0-FpA0SYYG391s6JtQa3m7lQNpLNQF6FCMbDEKPGovgJwg/s1600/social-networking-stats-infographic.jpg" style="max-width: 100%;" alt="" /></a></div>Via: <a href="http://www.milanaryal.com/">Milan Aryal</a>

6 Simple Advices on Photography

By Chariahs

One way that many people use to express their creativity, is through photography. With photography, you can use a camera to capture moments in life through ways that many people have never imagined. Lenses and filters change what we see with our eyes and make it seem like another world. Anyone can practice photography, especially, if you use the tips in this article.

• Compose your photograph carefully. Sometimes you might have to actually move things around to get the proper contrast or light you want. If you are taking pictures of objects, turn them to get the proper angle. As you progress, you will learn how to make a scene look natural when you compose it.

• Play with the aperture settings. Take a number of photos of the same subject with different settings to see how it affects the look of the final photo. Bigger f–stops allow you to get an entire landscape in focus, while a smaller f–stop will draw attention only to the center of your frame.

• Always highlight your very best images for showcases and displays. Don’t show too many photos and vary the subject matter. It might bore people if you keep showing the same photo multiple times. Be fresh, and try different kinds of photography.

• A great photograph tip is to not be afraid of making mistakes. Mistakes are all part of the learning process. If you refrain from taking a picture because you’re afraid of making a mistake, you’re missing out on a learning opportunity. You must remember that making mistakes is crucial to learning.

• Learn how to use the ISO setting on your camera. It is the setting that determines the film speed. The higher you set your ISO, the more light that will come in. If you increase the ISO in dark settings you will capture more light making the photo turn out better.

• Take photos of people wherever you go. Always ask people first before photographing them. After you get home from your trip, these images will provoke thoughts and memories, even if they are nothing more than ordinary. When selecting people to photograph, always look for those dressed casually and sporting candid expressions.

In conclusion, photography is one way that people use to express their creativity. Photography allows you to use cameras to turn life into unimaginable views. New worlds can be created with simple lenses and filters. If you use the tips from this article, then you can dive into the world of photography.

Editor’s note: I am a mother of a 6 year old bubbly girl who happens to be the most important person in my life. My passion includes writing articles, blogging, photography, technology, and others.

Image: 123RF