Before I get into this subject I need to convey the number one rule about "paid to click" sites that pay you money for viewing ads and completing tasks. That is, these kinds of websites are set up to generate money for their website owner(s), NOT for their members. They use every trick in the book to get members to give back most of the money they earn and leave them just enough to keep their hopes up for earning a profit in the future (a good subject for a future post). This is especially true for sites that rent referrals. It is a game you must learn to play if you want to stay in it. Beyond that, most of these sites just don't have good business plans and within a few months they will be out of business. Even if you research a website before joining and it looks like a good one, there is still a very good chance that site won't last. Below are some things to look out for that indicate things are not boding well for your PTC website.
Downtime - Every website needs to do maintenance and it is usually taken down for a few minutes to do so. A good webmaster will warn it's members when this is going to happen. If the site goes down for hours or even days at a time it is a good indicator that it is in trouble. These sites use many servers and sometimes the site is taken down on a few of them while keeping it running on others. If you are unfortunate enough to be connected to the wrong server you are out of luck for that time period. When you do get connected again and contact support they will make excuses (or deny that the site was down) and give you a list of things to try on your computer so that hopefully you will get the problem solved. This is just a ploy and a waste of your time. Don't fall for it. Remember, if the site is down you don't earn from viewing ads, doing tasks or from referrals. Thus, the less they have to pay you.
Payment Delays - This is almost always blamed on a script error or even an error on your part. These sites have even been known to delete your payment processor ID and then tell you to update it before you can be paid. Then they will make you wait 48 or more hours as another delay tactic. Always make sure that your payment processor ID is correct. If it isn't, they are not responsible and your money will disappear into cyberspace never to be seen again.
Your referrals are not clicking or their habits have changed - This is a common tactic that occurs on a regular basis for almost all sites that rent referrals. Now, I maintain that people generally don't change their habits on a wholesale basis. Let's say that you have 30 referrals and they are clicking on ads everyday at a certain rate. Then, all of a sudden one day they don't click at all or their clicks are drastically reduced. Clicking variations do happen, but this just does not make sense. There are at least two occasions when this happens. First is when a website does not want to give you earnings for a particular day. Obviously, they are not making payment obligations to their members and need to slow down earnings. Second, is when a member is making too much money and again they need to slow them down. In this case, it usually happens when a member upgrades. For instance, when a member upgrades they usually get double earnings from their referrals. So if a member is at break even as a free member, they might figure that as an upgraded member they will be making a nice profit. Then when they upgrade, they find that their referrals are not clicking as much and now they are at break even or less once again. In fact, a PTC site that uses this tactic can stay up and running for a long time (even years).
Not getting credited for tasks completed - This happens far too often and when you complain, support will give you some kind of lip service. They will claim to have no control over the situation and tell you to contact their partner site (the site that provided that task and is responsible for paying for it when completed) for a solution. This is hogwash as good webmaster will work with their partners to make sure all is running well.
Other things can occur, but the above should be enough of an indication for you to put your valuable time elsewhere. If you suspect even the slightest changes, go to the forum (if there is one) and check to see if other people are having the same problems that you are. But, beware because forum moderators often delete or lock posts that want to discuss problems with their website.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Friday, January 3, 2014
Selling Online - Part I (Determining What is a Good Product)
If you are fortunate enough to have a product or service or access to products, you have a head start on marketing them on the Internet. If you don't have a product and you want to start an Internet marketing business, then you are going to have to do some work. The type of product(s) you sell can have a big impact on whether or not you are going to be successful. Companies like Amazon have huge selections of products. So if some don't sell very well, they just make up for them with the ones that do. As and independent marketer you don't have that luxury. Therefore, you have to find products that are going to stand a good chance of appealing to the general public or a niche market. In that regard, if you can find one good product that sells, you are far ahead of the game. Good products for Internet marketing have certain characteristics.
They are products that -
Are small enough to be easily picked up - Unless you are going to have a product drop shipped it is advisable to go with smaller products. Big and heavy products cost more to ship both in (if imported) and out (not to mention any returns and storage).
Are specific, niche products - It is much better to find one niche product that sells rather than to sell a lot of products in a niche market. Once you become successful, you can offer others.
Sell for between $10-200 - These price points allow you to have a workable profit margin while keeping start-up and overhead costs low. Furthermore, any markets that do have volumes under $10 are typically going to be run by big companies that can work on low margins.
Have a constant stream of buyers - Although you can make a lot of money selling fad products, you are going to be better off in the long run by selling products all year long and for the foreseeable future. Stay away from products that change often. You also don’t want to sell seasonal items, like Halloween Costumes or Christmas Ornaments.
Sell for twice as much as your buy price - Don't even look at a product with less than a 100% markup, which is a 50% margin.
Products to stay away from items that -
Are mechanical in nature and that demand high quality standards and warranties -This one should be self-explanatory. You definitely don’t want to be dealing with things like power tools and manufacturing machinery, as this is just a headache waiting to happen.
Are sold at big box stores - Selling products that are sold by the giant retailers is missing the point. You want to find a single deep-niche products with consistent buyers. The idea is to undercut current selling prices and to reduce risk.
Are fragile and require perfect shipping practices - Selling products like this is a nightmare waiting to happen.
Have multiple “Power Sellers” already selling in large volume - Selling products that already have many power sellers who sell thousands of units a month is not going to get you very far You just won't be able to compete with them. Don’t let a little competition discourage you, but also don’t try to to compete with companies say on eBay that are selling 20,000 factory items direct every month.
Are trademarked – If you are importing products, don’t buy anything with a trademark on it. They are probably counterfeit and selling them won’t get you very far. In fact, you will be inviting a law suit.
Please note that there are always exceptions to everything. For instance, if you are interested in affiliate marketing then you want to be playing with the big boys or selling products that sell well (more on this in a future post).
Finally. the right informational, subscription, and service type products can and do sell well on the Internet. Obviously, your online business(s) can go in many directions. The bottom line here is to keep looking, keep learning and keep trying different ideas. It all takes time, but if you keep the above three things in mind you will eventually succeed.
They are products that -
Are small enough to be easily picked up - Unless you are going to have a product drop shipped it is advisable to go with smaller products. Big and heavy products cost more to ship both in (if imported) and out (not to mention any returns and storage).
Are specific, niche products - It is much better to find one niche product that sells rather than to sell a lot of products in a niche market. Once you become successful, you can offer others.
Sell for between $10-200 - These price points allow you to have a workable profit margin while keeping start-up and overhead costs low. Furthermore, any markets that do have volumes under $10 are typically going to be run by big companies that can work on low margins.
Have a constant stream of buyers - Although you can make a lot of money selling fad products, you are going to be better off in the long run by selling products all year long and for the foreseeable future. Stay away from products that change often. You also don’t want to sell seasonal items, like Halloween Costumes or Christmas Ornaments.
Sell for twice as much as your buy price - Don't even look at a product with less than a 100% markup, which is a 50% margin.
Products to stay away from items that -
Are mechanical in nature and that demand high quality standards and warranties -This one should be self-explanatory. You definitely don’t want to be dealing with things like power tools and manufacturing machinery, as this is just a headache waiting to happen.
Are sold at big box stores - Selling products that are sold by the giant retailers is missing the point. You want to find a single deep-niche products with consistent buyers. The idea is to undercut current selling prices and to reduce risk.
Are fragile and require perfect shipping practices - Selling products like this is a nightmare waiting to happen.
Have multiple “Power Sellers” already selling in large volume - Selling products that already have many power sellers who sell thousands of units a month is not going to get you very far You just won't be able to compete with them. Don’t let a little competition discourage you, but also don’t try to to compete with companies say on eBay that are selling 20,000 factory items direct every month.
Are trademarked – If you are importing products, don’t buy anything with a trademark on it. They are probably counterfeit and selling them won’t get you very far. In fact, you will be inviting a law suit.
Please note that there are always exceptions to everything. For instance, if you are interested in affiliate marketing then you want to be playing with the big boys or selling products that sell well (more on this in a future post).
Finally. the right informational, subscription, and service type products can and do sell well on the Internet. Obviously, your online business(s) can go in many directions. The bottom line here is to keep looking, keep learning and keep trying different ideas. It all takes time, but if you keep the above three things in mind you will eventually succeed.
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Selling Products Online
How would you like to own a store where you could sell just about any product with potentially little or no inventory, that could be visited by anyone in the world, and had much less overhead than the standard brick and mortar shops you see on the street? Amazon, Zappos and the other giants of Internet retailing figured out long ago that people like shopping online and are willing to commit part of their discretionary spending doing so. Online retailers maintain elaborate websites and carry massive inventories to lure their customers and have done it with great success. These types of online stores don't exactly fit into the scenario outlined in the first sentence above and any individual that is contemplating on competing with the Amazons and Zappos of the world is probably not going to succeed. This does not mean that you should not try online marketing. It just means that you are going to have to go about it a little differently.
There are three things that are required to successfully market products online.
1. You must have products that people are going to want to buy. The three most popular ways to get products are to produce them yourself, buy them (wholesale or from a garage or estate sales), or to affiliate yourself with one or more online wholesalers or retailers. Your product could also be a service such as providing book editing, filling out tax forms, transcribing documents, and others.
2. You need a system to advertise and track your sales. The system you use could be your own or someone else's. Arguably, the most popular is the online auction site, Ebay. Here everything is done for you except the process of listing and shipping your items. If you have the skills or know someone that does, you could put together your own website, list your products and buy your own domain and hosting services. This can get expensive, has a learning curve, and requires a lot of work to design and maintain your web page(s). There are other methods, but they are beyond the scope of this post.
3. You need to get traffic (viewers) to your website or product. This is not an issue if you are using Amazon or Ebay to list your products as they have an ever expanding audience. If you have your own website, then you are going to have to figure out for yourself how to get people to see your products. There are a lot of ways to do this. Some work great while others won't work at all.
Obviously, the above is just a brief description of what is required to sell products online. Future posts will include specific strategies on how to get products, set up or join a system, and how to get traffic to your products.
.
There are three things that are required to successfully market products online.
1. You must have products that people are going to want to buy. The three most popular ways to get products are to produce them yourself, buy them (wholesale or from a garage or estate sales), or to affiliate yourself with one or more online wholesalers or retailers. Your product could also be a service such as providing book editing, filling out tax forms, transcribing documents, and others.
2. You need a system to advertise and track your sales. The system you use could be your own or someone else's. Arguably, the most popular is the online auction site, Ebay. Here everything is done for you except the process of listing and shipping your items. If you have the skills or know someone that does, you could put together your own website, list your products and buy your own domain and hosting services. This can get expensive, has a learning curve, and requires a lot of work to design and maintain your web page(s). There are other methods, but they are beyond the scope of this post.
3. You need to get traffic (viewers) to your website or product. This is not an issue if you are using Amazon or Ebay to list your products as they have an ever expanding audience. If you have your own website, then you are going to have to figure out for yourself how to get people to see your products. There are a lot of ways to do this. Some work great while others won't work at all.
Obviously, the above is just a brief description of what is required to sell products online. Future posts will include specific strategies on how to get products, set up or join a system, and how to get traffic to your products.
.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Online Surveys: The Good and the Bad
A lot of people like the idea of earning an extra income online
from the comfort of their home and paid online surveys seems like an attractive way to it. Today, there are several hundred different online survey companies
advertised on the Internet. I participated in online surveys years ago and recently decided to take another look at them. Not much has changed over the years as there are many good survey companies out there, but there are also a lot of bad ones.
The good survey companies have certain characteristics that separate them from the bad companies. That is, they don't sell your information to telemarketers or send you thousands of e-mails (most of which end up in your spam mailbox), and they tell you exactly what each survey you're taking is worth in terms of dollars or other incentives. The good survey companies are an excellent way to earn a few extra dollars and are usually maintained by parent marketing research companies. It is possible to make $3, $7 or more per survey. You can pick and choose and do them when you have spare time. After applying (signing-up), your acceptance comes via e-mail. Their website will provide extensive information about the company and their earning incentives. Unfortunately, sometimes is takes a while to get a check or deposit into your PayPal account even from a good survey company.
Some questionable survey companies partner themselves with Paid to Click websites. These can be particularly frustrating as most of the time you must qualify for each survey by answering a long list of questions. More often than not you won't qualify. Other times, after qualifying and taking the survey, it will say that all the surveys have been fulfilled. It is best to stay away from these types of surveys.
The "bad" survey companies actually offer cash and pay cash, but soon you will find your email spammed with all kinds of junk. These companies are legitimate to the point that they actually do pay cash once you've accumulated a certain amount, but their main goal is to get you to visit the websites of their marketing partners. Once there, you will be pressured into signing up to learn more about affordable health insurance or some other product. Do not fall for these because if you show any interest, expect to get several calls a week from telemarketers.
The worst survey companies are just downright scams. They won't offer you any money, but instead, they'll offer you a chance to win "thousands" in their sweepstakes. Or they'll make ridiculous claims about making "thousands of dollars a week" on their site. Beware of testimonials from people claiming to have made tens of thousands of dollars or more a month on their site. It does not work that way or everyone would be doing it. They will attempt to get as much information from you as possible and then promptly sell it to third parties. They will try to trick you into accepting "free" magazines and then charge your telephone bill for a subscription. They will ask for your cell phone number and charge you for ringtones. They'll do anything and everything to try to get money out of you and you'll receive nothing in return. You should not have trouble falling for these as they are easy to spot.
The good survey companies have certain characteristics that separate them from the bad companies. That is, they don't sell your information to telemarketers or send you thousands of e-mails (most of which end up in your spam mailbox), and they tell you exactly what each survey you're taking is worth in terms of dollars or other incentives. The good survey companies are an excellent way to earn a few extra dollars and are usually maintained by parent marketing research companies. It is possible to make $3, $7 or more per survey. You can pick and choose and do them when you have spare time. After applying (signing-up), your acceptance comes via e-mail. Their website will provide extensive information about the company and their earning incentives. Unfortunately, sometimes is takes a while to get a check or deposit into your PayPal account even from a good survey company.
Some questionable survey companies partner themselves with Paid to Click websites. These can be particularly frustrating as most of the time you must qualify for each survey by answering a long list of questions. More often than not you won't qualify. Other times, after qualifying and taking the survey, it will say that all the surveys have been fulfilled. It is best to stay away from these types of surveys.
The "bad" survey companies actually offer cash and pay cash, but soon you will find your email spammed with all kinds of junk. These companies are legitimate to the point that they actually do pay cash once you've accumulated a certain amount, but their main goal is to get you to visit the websites of their marketing partners. Once there, you will be pressured into signing up to learn more about affordable health insurance or some other product. Do not fall for these because if you show any interest, expect to get several calls a week from telemarketers.
The worst survey companies are just downright scams. They won't offer you any money, but instead, they'll offer you a chance to win "thousands" in their sweepstakes. Or they'll make ridiculous claims about making "thousands of dollars a week" on their site. Beware of testimonials from people claiming to have made tens of thousands of dollars or more a month on their site. It does not work that way or everyone would be doing it. They will attempt to get as much information from you as possible and then promptly sell it to third parties. They will try to trick you into accepting "free" magazines and then charge your telephone bill for a subscription. They will ask for your cell phone number and charge you for ringtones. They'll do anything and everything to try to get money out of you and you'll receive nothing in return. You should not have trouble falling for these as they are easy to spot.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Get Paid to Play Strategy Games
Online game have existed since the beginning of the Internet. Do a search and you can find board games, multiplayer games, action games, adventure games, casino games and more. Over the last few years strategy games have become popular because of the premise they are based on and because you can actually earn money by playing them. They are free to join, fun to play and don't take much of your time. The key to them is to be consistent and try to play everyday. Not that you have to, but the games will progress much faster if you do and you will see earnings much sooner. Three of the most popular strategy games that I play are listed below (including their links), and with a description of each. In future posts I plan to do a full review on each game and provide strategies for playing them.
Goldentowns
Officially launched on 08-19-2013, Goldentowns is a free online strategy game that is played straight from your browser. The game is a town construction, political, and military simulator in which virtual gold can be exchanged for real cash or for real 24k gold. It is the first game in the world that is backed up with real 24k gold. The author comments that, “The game is based on a paper published by Mr. Vlad Cristian (CEO ANNO1777 Labs) in 2011, which describes a deflationary economic system in which the amount of virtual currency is fixed and covered by 100% real gold. In GoldenTowns there is a limited amount of virtual gold (100,000 GoldenTowns Coins or GTC) which is distributed gradually in a steady pace to players. The entire amount is covered by a growing amount of real 24k gold in bullion.”
MarketGlory
Has been online for over two years and has become very popular lately. MarketGlory is a strategy game, in which you have the possibility to convert your virtual currency into real money. It is an online browser game, therefore, you don't need any other programs installed in order to play. It is one of the few business games where you are rewarded for your daily activity. As a simulation game, it offers you the possibility to fight, work, open companies, start wars. It is a very complex game , and the more you play it, the more options you find for your own development.
Anno1777
Claims to be the first social game in which you can change virtual currency into real money. Online since 2009, Anno1777 claims to have paid out over 333,000 euros during that time. It is very similar in structure to MarketGlory in that it does not have to be downloaded to your computer as it can be played with your browser. The game is an economical, political and military simulator. Virtual money can be exchanged into real money and back and the time spent in the game can become, gradually, very profitable.
As with most online earning opportunities you can add some of your own money to the above games to progress faster. Although, I would not recommend it. I view these types of games as entertainment just like any other game. They are interesting and fun, but until I get an actual payout they will continue to be treated as such.
Listed below are several other similar games you might want to take a look at. They all claim to provide earnings for their players. Use your own discretion.
Exodus 3000
New Goldenbattles
Goldencash
Proeconomica
Secondlife
New Sportsplays
Goldentowns
Officially launched on 08-19-2013, Goldentowns is a free online strategy game that is played straight from your browser. The game is a town construction, political, and military simulator in which virtual gold can be exchanged for real cash or for real 24k gold. It is the first game in the world that is backed up with real 24k gold. The author comments that, “The game is based on a paper published by Mr. Vlad Cristian (CEO ANNO1777 Labs) in 2011, which describes a deflationary economic system in which the amount of virtual currency is fixed and covered by 100% real gold. In GoldenTowns there is a limited amount of virtual gold (100,000 GoldenTowns Coins or GTC) which is distributed gradually in a steady pace to players. The entire amount is covered by a growing amount of real 24k gold in bullion.”
MarketGlory
Has been online for over two years and has become very popular lately. MarketGlory is a strategy game, in which you have the possibility to convert your virtual currency into real money. It is an online browser game, therefore, you don't need any other programs installed in order to play. It is one of the few business games where you are rewarded for your daily activity. As a simulation game, it offers you the possibility to fight, work, open companies, start wars. It is a very complex game , and the more you play it, the more options you find for your own development.
Anno1777
Claims to be the first social game in which you can change virtual currency into real money. Online since 2009, Anno1777 claims to have paid out over 333,000 euros during that time. It is very similar in structure to MarketGlory in that it does not have to be downloaded to your computer as it can be played with your browser. The game is an economical, political and military simulator. Virtual money can be exchanged into real money and back and the time spent in the game can become, gradually, very profitable.
As with most online earning opportunities you can add some of your own money to the above games to progress faster. Although, I would not recommend it. I view these types of games as entertainment just like any other game. They are interesting and fun, but until I get an actual payout they will continue to be treated as such.
Listed below are several other similar games you might want to take a look at. They all claim to provide earnings for their players. Use your own discretion.
Exodus 3000
New Goldenbattles
Goldencash
Proeconomica
Secondlife
New Sportsplays
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Earning Money From Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing
My previous post on this subject discussed the benefits of crowdsourcing for businesses and entrepreneurs. This post provides information for individuals that want to benefit from crowdsourcing. Some of the benefits include earning money, to win business, winning a contest, to get perks, and more. Below are a few of the best crowdsourcing websites along with a brief description of each. To learn more, click on the provided link.
99Designs - currently has over 265, 000 designers ready to design logos, web design, and more. Other projects include business card design, mobile app design, t-shirt design, banner ad design, book cover design, art & illustration. Signing up as a designer requires no previous experience and is free. Once you join, you will have access to over 1500 projects worth over $500,000 at any one time.
CastingWords - provides transcription services. Can you type quickly and accurately? Maybe transcription work is your thing. To participate, you have to sign up with Mechanical Turk (see description below) where CastingWords posts all of their jobs. You can search for CastingWords to see their specific assignments. You are paid through a bank transfer to a U.S. account or you can opt to receive Amazon.com store credit.
Clickworker - is a German based crowd labor site that boasts to have 450,000 workers in 136 countries speaking 30 languages. You get paid to provide writing, translation, research, data processing and search engine optimization. You can work for this site if you're in a SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) country or have a valid PayPal account. Before you start as a Clickworker, you have to qualify for the task you’ve chosen to work on, including a base assessment and a project assessment. Some scoring to assess your skills will happen automatically while others will require manual review from the company.
Cloudcrowd - work includes editing, reviewing and translating documents, data entry, image processing, Internet research, content creation, and merchandising products. You need a Facebook account to work for them and a PayPal account to get paid.
Crowdflower - is one of the industry leaders in providing crowdsourced solutions. Unlike some of the other crowdsourcing companies, CrowdFlower does not operate it's own platform. Instead, tasks are published on partner websites. Earnings grow and are paid by the partnered websites. Jobs are designated as Mini-jobs or Mini-tasks or just Tasks. You may have to become a member of Crowdflower and login (via the partner website) to complete the tasks. Some of the websites that I belong to that partner with Crowdflower are Neobux, Probux and Clixsense. A list of Crowdflower partners can be found here.
Crowdspring - is definitely the go-to site for companies looking for the largest marketplace for logos, graphics, graphic design, and even naming. Crowdspring.com currently has over 146,000 talented designers and writers which serve the role of active participants in projects. Joining as a "creative" is free and opens the door to many design and writing projects. Of course you will have to compete with others, but if your work as selected the pay can be substantial.
Kickstarter - is a crowdsourcing funding website that serves as a platform for professionals like designers, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and inventors alike. Projects are solely created by the people behind each results presented upon deadline. Talents have complete control and responsibility over their projects, thus they are guaranteed offers for jobs well done. A project creator will set the price as well as the deadline. A project that is successful means that adequate funds will be available from all backers. A failed project on the other hand will not be funded by the creator or backers. Talents who are interested in trying their hand at creative projects need to meet general guidelines before staring a project.
Mechanical Turk - is one of the most popular websites that facilitates crowdsourcing and is one of Crowdflowers partner platforms. The website is owned and run by Amazon. After signing up, participants click on tasks or projects that they want to work on. The tasks which are featured are simple and very straightforward such as answering surveys, commenting on blogs, rewriting jobs, image labeling, and even simple micro tasks as well. The payment system is straightforward in that payment for work done is directly forwarded to your Amazon payments account. You won't get rich quick, but the tasks and projects can become addicting.
oDesk - may be right for you if you have experience in any of the following: web development, software development, networking & information systems, writing and translation, administrative support, design & multimedia, customer service, sales and marketing, and business services. After signing up for free, you can interview for freelance jobs in the categories above. If you get a job and get paid, oDesk charges a fee equivalent to 10% of the total amount charged to your client. For example, if your rate is $18 per hour, oDesk charges an extra $2 so that your client pays a total of $20 per hour.
If you search the Internet, you will find many more inviting websites. To help you get started I have included a list below.
blur Group
Crowdtap
Create My Tatoo
Genius Rocket
NamingForce
Poptent
Squadhelp
Threadless
Tongal
Whinot
My previous post on this subject discussed the benefits of crowdsourcing for businesses and entrepreneurs. This post provides information for individuals that want to benefit from crowdsourcing. Some of the benefits include earning money, to win business, winning a contest, to get perks, and more. Below are a few of the best crowdsourcing websites along with a brief description of each. To learn more, click on the provided link.
99Designs - currently has over 265, 000 designers ready to design logos, web design, and more. Other projects include business card design, mobile app design, t-shirt design, banner ad design, book cover design, art & illustration. Signing up as a designer requires no previous experience and is free. Once you join, you will have access to over 1500 projects worth over $500,000 at any one time.
CastingWords - provides transcription services. Can you type quickly and accurately? Maybe transcription work is your thing. To participate, you have to sign up with Mechanical Turk (see description below) where CastingWords posts all of their jobs. You can search for CastingWords to see their specific assignments. You are paid through a bank transfer to a U.S. account or you can opt to receive Amazon.com store credit.
Clickworker - is a German based crowd labor site that boasts to have 450,000 workers in 136 countries speaking 30 languages. You get paid to provide writing, translation, research, data processing and search engine optimization. You can work for this site if you're in a SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) country or have a valid PayPal account. Before you start as a Clickworker, you have to qualify for the task you’ve chosen to work on, including a base assessment and a project assessment. Some scoring to assess your skills will happen automatically while others will require manual review from the company.
Cloudcrowd - work includes editing, reviewing and translating documents, data entry, image processing, Internet research, content creation, and merchandising products. You need a Facebook account to work for them and a PayPal account to get paid.
Crowdflower - is one of the industry leaders in providing crowdsourced solutions. Unlike some of the other crowdsourcing companies, CrowdFlower does not operate it's own platform. Instead, tasks are published on partner websites. Earnings grow and are paid by the partnered websites. Jobs are designated as Mini-jobs or Mini-tasks or just Tasks. You may have to become a member of Crowdflower and login (via the partner website) to complete the tasks. Some of the websites that I belong to that partner with Crowdflower are Neobux, Probux and Clixsense. A list of Crowdflower partners can be found here.
Crowdspring - is definitely the go-to site for companies looking for the largest marketplace for logos, graphics, graphic design, and even naming. Crowdspring.com currently has over 146,000 talented designers and writers which serve the role of active participants in projects. Joining as a "creative" is free and opens the door to many design and writing projects. Of course you will have to compete with others, but if your work as selected the pay can be substantial.
Kickstarter - is a crowdsourcing funding website that serves as a platform for professionals like designers, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and inventors alike. Projects are solely created by the people behind each results presented upon deadline. Talents have complete control and responsibility over their projects, thus they are guaranteed offers for jobs well done. A project creator will set the price as well as the deadline. A project that is successful means that adequate funds will be available from all backers. A failed project on the other hand will not be funded by the creator or backers. Talents who are interested in trying their hand at creative projects need to meet general guidelines before staring a project.
Mechanical Turk - is one of the most popular websites that facilitates crowdsourcing and is one of Crowdflowers partner platforms. The website is owned and run by Amazon. After signing up, participants click on tasks or projects that they want to work on. The tasks which are featured are simple and very straightforward such as answering surveys, commenting on blogs, rewriting jobs, image labeling, and even simple micro tasks as well. The payment system is straightforward in that payment for work done is directly forwarded to your Amazon payments account. You won't get rich quick, but the tasks and projects can become addicting.
oDesk - may be right for you if you have experience in any of the following: web development, software development, networking & information systems, writing and translation, administrative support, design & multimedia, customer service, sales and marketing, and business services. After signing up for free, you can interview for freelance jobs in the categories above. If you get a job and get paid, oDesk charges a fee equivalent to 10% of the total amount charged to your client. For example, if your rate is $18 per hour, oDesk charges an extra $2 so that your client pays a total of $20 per hour.
If you search the Internet, you will find many more inviting websites. To help you get started I have included a list below.
blur Group
Crowdtap
Create My Tatoo
Genius Rocket
NamingForce
Poptent
Squadhelp
Threadless
Tongal
Whinot
Monday, November 18, 2013
CrowdSourcing
Crowdsourcing is the idea of outsourcing work, usually
online, to a group or crowd of people. "Crowdsourcing" is a combination of the words
'crowd' and 'outsourcing'. The principle behind this concept is that more heads are better than one for any given project. By using crowds of people, generation of ideas, skills, and quality of content is usually superior resulting in a better product. A great example of this was the creation of the most comprehensive encyclopedia in the world, Wikipedia.
Crowdsourcing has five major forms (listed below). Each form involves a crowdsourcer or manager, a crowdmarket and a crowd of people. By choosing the right form of crowdsourcing, you can manage large jobs with thousands of workers or do small jobs that require just a single person. You can create jobs that you carefully monitor and control, or you can let the crowd organize itself and decide how it should do the work.
1. Crowdcontests - can be used for graphic design, answering questions, testing software, creating films and other creative projects. For example, say you’re looking for a book cover design, you can solicit a crowd of cover designers and tell them what you want, how much you will pay, and when you need to have it done. All interested designers will create a finished book cover specifically for you. You’ll receive dozens of different book cover designs, and you can use whichever design you like the best. By doing design this way, you get better quality at a reduced cost, compared to hiring one person.
2. Macrotasks - enable you to get a specific skill for a job or project. This way you can hire people (a team) from the crowd to work on a single project or task. Workers communicate over the Internet and are paid by project. This type of crowdsourcing works good for general business work, web and other forms of design, assistance with writing and editing, and application development.
3. Microtasks - involves breaking large jobs up into tiny tasks and sending the work to a crowd of people. For example microtasks could involve transcribing business cards, medical records (or other documents), tagging photos and finding business information. Work is done faster, cheaper, and usually with less errors (when validation systems are in place).
4. Crowdfunding - This idea involves asking a crowd of people to donate money to your project. Some examples are getting support for non-profit organizations, raising funds for artistic endeavors, getting cash to companies by offering goods or services, and raising equity for a company. You find an appropriate crowdfunding platform (site that offers the service you are looking for), set the amount of money, the deadline, and any rewards offered to donors. If 100% of the donations are not raised by the deadline, all money is returned to the donors. Crowdfunding is mostly used by artists, charities, & start-ups to raise money for their projects.
5. Self-organized crowds - Sometimes call Open Innovation, here the crowd organizes itself into teams. The teams compete to provide the best answer to a challenge. The winning team is compensated and decides how it is to be divided. Self-organized crowds are good for creating new products or services, finding and collecting information, processing information and offering judgement, and solving challenges. This type of crowdsourcing can bring people together from different parts of the world and different sectors of business to work together on a project. This is effectively a collection of different fields and levels of expertise that would not otherwise be available to any budding entrepreneur.
Although crowdsourcing provides many ways for businesses and entrepreneurs to get work done at a reasonable cost and with better results, it also provides earning opportunities for those wanting to become part of the "crowd." In a follow-up post I am going to discuss ways to earn online by becoming part of the croudsourcing community.
Crowdsourcing has five major forms (listed below). Each form involves a crowdsourcer or manager, a crowdmarket and a crowd of people. By choosing the right form of crowdsourcing, you can manage large jobs with thousands of workers or do small jobs that require just a single person. You can create jobs that you carefully monitor and control, or you can let the crowd organize itself and decide how it should do the work.
1. Crowdcontests - can be used for graphic design, answering questions, testing software, creating films and other creative projects. For example, say you’re looking for a book cover design, you can solicit a crowd of cover designers and tell them what you want, how much you will pay, and when you need to have it done. All interested designers will create a finished book cover specifically for you. You’ll receive dozens of different book cover designs, and you can use whichever design you like the best. By doing design this way, you get better quality at a reduced cost, compared to hiring one person.
2. Macrotasks - enable you to get a specific skill for a job or project. This way you can hire people (a team) from the crowd to work on a single project or task. Workers communicate over the Internet and are paid by project. This type of crowdsourcing works good for general business work, web and other forms of design, assistance with writing and editing, and application development.
3. Microtasks - involves breaking large jobs up into tiny tasks and sending the work to a crowd of people. For example microtasks could involve transcribing business cards, medical records (or other documents), tagging photos and finding business information. Work is done faster, cheaper, and usually with less errors (when validation systems are in place).
4. Crowdfunding - This idea involves asking a crowd of people to donate money to your project. Some examples are getting support for non-profit organizations, raising funds for artistic endeavors, getting cash to companies by offering goods or services, and raising equity for a company. You find an appropriate crowdfunding platform (site that offers the service you are looking for), set the amount of money, the deadline, and any rewards offered to donors. If 100% of the donations are not raised by the deadline, all money is returned to the donors. Crowdfunding is mostly used by artists, charities, & start-ups to raise money for their projects.
5. Self-organized crowds - Sometimes call Open Innovation, here the crowd organizes itself into teams. The teams compete to provide the best answer to a challenge. The winning team is compensated and decides how it is to be divided. Self-organized crowds are good for creating new products or services, finding and collecting information, processing information and offering judgement, and solving challenges. This type of crowdsourcing can bring people together from different parts of the world and different sectors of business to work together on a project. This is effectively a collection of different fields and levels of expertise that would not otherwise be available to any budding entrepreneur.
Although crowdsourcing provides many ways for businesses and entrepreneurs to get work done at a reasonable cost and with better results, it also provides earning opportunities for those wanting to become part of the "crowd." In a follow-up post I am going to discuss ways to earn online by becoming part of the croudsourcing community.
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