Today, thanks to increased spending on Internet advertising, you can make an actual income from your websites. Learn how I do it!

I don’t want to make it sound easy, because like any business it involves a lot of hard work, some amount of timing and luck and learning a whole lot about how to earn money online.

There are so many methods to make additional money from your web site that it doesn’t matter truly if it makes it to the top lists in any of the search engines, so long as you don’t count on traffic for all of the revenue.

Using your website to make more money means helping it to live up to its potential by finding the right way to optimize it for search engines, to work at gathering new traffic and the means to draw visitors to come back to your site at least on a weekly basis.

But as we all know, some of those things can fail and still leave us with a smaller site, with somewhat less traffic than we might wish for. But, if you develop something compelling enough to attract an audience, then you will have plenty of ways to "monetize" it!

Here are some of the ways I have found to make a good living working from home, using nothing but my computer, hard work and experience to build a portfolio of over 50 websites:

1. One method is it use your site as some kind of platform for a service or product such as to sell affiliate web hosting. Low cost hosting of web sites is one of the ways you might consider. It has become one of the ultimate ways to make extra funding on your site. There are myriad people out there who would purchase that hosting from you, which you may brand with your own title or tag and use it as your hosting service including billing your users while the actual physical hosting is done elsewhere, while you pay them a nominal fee to do so.
2. Another method you might consider would be to experiment with the various different advertising systems, each of which should ideally be in tune with your overall theme of site. For example, if you sell Labradors, then something you might like to try would be taking in related advertising that matches your topic, or even taking in advertising from veterinary supply warehouses or online vet clinics, which could certainly help you to make a better living from a hobby site.
3. If you maintain a blog site, checking into advertising and using your blog to advertise others blogs or services will be a method that might work for you.
4. Another way to make money is to build an elist and use that to help advertise the service you want to sell, or to help it to become more popular. Using another persons blog or e-list to advertise your service is another method that works well for building up your own list and your own sales potential.
5. A different kind of advertising or traffic building method is cross listing, or taking in an advertisement, one that fits well with the topic and discussion of your list, and advertising for that person on your own list, while he or she will advertise your services on their own. In this way you will probably gather future leads that will help you to further expand your income potential. There are certain aspects of this kind of marketing that you will need to consider prior to choosing a list. Among those things will be to check out each lists topic of discussion, how well they receive new advertising, how much they discuss, or how busy the list is. Are they receptive to new advertising methods and new users to the list? How well do they take to new ideas and new proposals and how well do you think your advertisement will be accepted. If you think there is room for an improvement in the way that it will be received, then its better that you look around to find another list that will use your advertising to its full potential.
6. Another thing that I’ve personally found useful is to take advantage of a new technology, any new product or new idea that someone has which is just out of the box, so to speak or an upcoming fad, then advertise it on your site, drawing traffic to this fad, which will stay on your site, if your content is a draw to them. Using perhaps a new computer technology, you can draw people to your home site, and then keep them by offering further computer articles or products for sale.

While I don’t suggest quitting your day job until you have built up a steady income working at it part time, I can tell you that not having a commute or a boss is great and making money on the Internet is a great way to earn money if you have the discipline, know how and persistence to make it work!

There are several huge concerns in gaming, among them Gamehouse, , Real Arcade, as well as Bigfish Games, each of which I’ve tested, used and purchased from.

With minimal exceptions they seem to be fairly close to the same thing, however there are some differences to take a hard look at.

Gamehouse provides you with a registration code, which is useable to reload the game if you should have issues with your computer, permits you to keep a backup on another computer, or use it on a second computer in your home.

The cost is relatively close to the others, although lesser in price if you should join the gaming club, that provides you with the chance to purchase at a reduced cost if you purchase a given number of games.

Having lost the registration code, they provided it to me readily and when I sent a message to their support it was taken care of in short order.

Real Arcade was largely the same, their support was good, and the response to my emails was fairly timely. I was not impressed with the fact that they have a game control device that loads in, rather than just the game, and that it scans your systems as well as sends multiple ads to your computer even after you purchase the game. If I choose to be flooded with advertising, I will select that in my email, not have it attached to something I’ve had to pay for.

Bigfish games is the last site we worked with, and having purchased more than ten games from them, I confess to being dissappointed in the service and the support.

The games themselves are exemplary. They do however require that you have an internet connection to activate every game, and when you have done so, you are given an activation code.

One person we installed for had some real computer issues, and had to reinstall several times within a three day time span. On the last reinstall we were told that they only received five reinstalls, and if they went over that amount, they had to repurchase the game or not install it again. While this is a safeguard for the company, in fairness to them, having contacted support to explain the situation, it took upwards of five days to receive a reply.

Outsourced support, using Trymedia systems, was lax in response and was not satisfactory when it did arrive.

Overall the best experience we had with the online games download was with Game house and we recommend them to purchase games.

What it is?

Video conferences are nothing more than integrating audio and video so that two people, or more, can communicate on just one line, and see as well as hear the other.

So that you can see aunt Martha in London while the two of you visit for the first time in several years, or hear your sisters baby gurgle while you see her image.

Video conferencing is not available nearly the world over, and those family members, or co workers who live in multiple states, or continents, can view as well as talk with each other.

How Does That Work?

To make the video conference functional, you’re going to need microphones, cameras, some software and hardware as well as some peripheral devices that permit you to send both audio and video over your line.

When you have your conference, codecs will translate the information into digital from the analog and then transmit them to another codec, owned by the others computer gear, which is a highly simplified explanation.

Why is it Suddenly Cheaper?

The costs for this vary, but they are no longer unable to be borne by the home computer user, and in fact are largely affordable to even middle income families now as it has grown so much less expensive than it was just a year ago, due to technological advancement in the codecs, lowered costs of the hardware and is not unknown or uncommon anymore due to a more technical group of people, even older Americans.

Given new codecs, new hardware and faster more intelligent computers as well as hardware that takes less bandwidth to operate, the cost of video conferencing dropped and it became far more easily available to even small business and individuals.

Using video conferencing can make communications easier among co workers, save money for businesses and make learning a great deal easier, cheaper and more fun when it is used by co workers world wide.

It can also facilitate your own family communications, making it easier to stay close with relatives and friends who live quite distant from yourself.

Video conferencing is not only the wave of the future, it is the path of the present. Explore how it might work for you and your own small company or home and family.

NASA, The DOD, Microsoft, the New York Times, have this in common.

They’ve all been hacked. It’s big business, and even if the hacker makes no profit, it was just good fun for the hacker, its a pain in the neck.

Strange, ironic, Google’s blog had a hacking incident just days after their post telling about their good security was published.

A security flaw permitted it to happen to Adwords in April of this very year, allowing a malicious file to be installed into adwords users systems to retrieve their passwords and some personal information

In the Internet savvy world we live in, where everything can be bought on the web for a price, hacking those sites who may have personal information or credit cards is a huge business worth a fortune.

Small sites, even those which sometimes sell things, tend to rely on a thing that we used to term, security by obscurity.
What it meant was that since they were small, and a faceless nonentity, they just assumed that the site was safe because no one really noticed it, it wasn’t that big and it wasn’t a real target.

Up to a point that’s true, but even one credit card number, even one flaw that lets someone use your site to do something somewhere else, is just one too many when its used in a detrimental way.

Your best defense against the hackers and script kiddies of the world is to find a way to defend yourself, not to hide.

While there are some superb software’s out there guaranteed to defend you, and you certainly should use one of them, one of the best defenses that you are going to have is plain old common sense.

About fifty percent of the hacks today are accomplished using something called social engineering.
One very popular bumper sticker among the geeks of the world says, “become a social engineer, because there is no patch for human stupidity”.

Sadly enough that seems to be true. If you don’t know someone, at least a minimal knowledge, including having their real phone number, and their real address, don’t pass along your web site login information.

That’s common sense right? But it would amaze you how many people meet someone, either online or offline, and pass along their login information, and let the person store files with them, which may or may not be illegal files.

Just a few common sense rules are going to help you get through your Internet experience without big incidents.
IF you sell on your site, make sure you know about the software you are using and check it out for security flaws.

Limit the permission to your site to people who need it, those who work for you or who you know reasonably well, whose personal information you have, and have tested it to be sure its real.

Know how to maintain your own servers and email servers. Having a knowledge of your own equipment will help a lot.

Keep close track of your logs. Don’t check them monthly or expect someone else to do it for you, unless that someone is your assistant. Check them every few days and pay close attention for strange activities there.

ALWAYS back up your site on a regular basis.

Keep all blog and forum site software updated and check for security holes. Software’s such as this are the very best way to enter a site.

I remember, and frankly although I don’t’ like living in the past, I certainly miss the days when quality entertainment didn’t involve spending a hundred dollars to take your family to the show.

There are alternatives now which are nice to see appearing.

Free movie sites are beginning to dot the web with ways to get a quality older movie for the price of a few mouse clicks to find it.

Yes we all know about wares and piracy and all those things which are somewhat less than wholesome, but getting something for nothing on the Internet now days doesn’t mean taking it illegally.

Free movie sites are far more available than you might thing. Granted you won’t find grade A state of the art, just released movies without paying for them, but you will find a lot of old favorites, some classic movies which are now public domain, and a few that will surprise you.

Where do you look?

How do you know if its legal or illegal and how do you avoid getting something that you shouldn’t have? Chances are, common sense will help you there. If what you just downloaded hasn’t’ been released to video yet from the movies, then run a mile, its not something that you are meant to be watching.

The following are just a few of the available sites where you can download a free movie or two. Completely legitimate. Legal AND free. Whats not to love about that?

Here are a few sites where you can download free movies; they are all free, all legal, and feature hundreds of high-quality movie clips and full-length movies.

Desert Island Films: features a whole batch of cartoons, moves and more from the public domain . Many of them are free, while others may take a nominal payment.

http://www.desertislandfilms.com

Free Movies and Documentaries:

features older cartoons, documentaries and docudramas

http://www.moviesfoundonline.com

Free Documentaries.

The number one source for documentaries of all genre, and whats more, they are free

http://www.freedocumentaries.org

Free Movie Downloads features, again, older, public domain categories of movies that are now free and legal to download

http://emol.org/movies

Many of these sites add movies continuously and daily there are new additions to what you can view. Many of them will offer you an e-list so that you can be made aware of new additions to their site and go to find them. Many also offer videos, and older cartoons to amuse your children.

The good old days of older movies and cartoons, fortunately, isn’t entirely past.

What many of us don’t know is that some companies save the contents of their instant messaging for up to two years and I don’t find myself impressed by that.

Instant messaging allows instantaneous communication between a number of parties at the same time, by transmitting their information so rapidly that is seems instant, and features instant acknowledgement as well as some other features such as web cam abilities, and speaking directly by voip for no cost.

In contrast to e-mail, both parties know when the other user is available. Most I’m software will allow the user to set an online status or away message so peers are notified when the user is available, busy, or away from the computer.

One of the best of these software’s, and among the more secure, is Pidgin, an open source project.

Pidgin is a graphical IM program that lets you sign on to AIM, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo!, and other IM networks including icq at the same time.

It uses GTK+and was formerly known as Gaim software.
Pidgin is for Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unixes. You can talk to your friends using AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr.

Pidgin can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AIM, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time.

It offers more security than some of the others, is open source and is constantly under development and when an issue is found it’s patched nearly as rapidly as the for pay larger companies in use today.
If you are interested in a truly secure IM, take a look at Pidgin.

Virus scans tend to have tentacles in every aspect of your computer and some of them can wreak some real havoc, popping on at inopportune times, erroring or failing to update.

After looking around to find software that would assist me in keeping my personal things personal, I hunted the web to find chat programs and anti virus software that was dependable, professional, easy to use and reliable.

I personally think I’ve found the best of the best.

Having purchased Norton for three years running, I became somewhat unsatisfied when I attempted to renew it after a format, only to find that it would not renew, that when it did my months of updates were no longer there, and that if I wanted to speak to tech support about that, it was nearly impossible to do and was going to cost me significant amounts of money to fix the problem. I liked the antivirus software, and in truth find it very well done, but having

I like open source and I think theres a huge group of people out there who underrate it,thinking that somehow, if its free, its low rent or less than professional.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
ANTI-VIRUS, developed by Grisoft, offers a free version of their excellent antivirus to personal computer users for their home computers.

This is the same award winning software whose corporate version is used by many Internet service providers, by private and public networks and by me, on my networks.

AVG is easily navigated, providing ease of use, easy understanding even if you are new to anti virus sofware, has won not one, but two awars from PC Answers 2007.

“Both AVG Anti-Spyware and AVG Internet Security were given the PC Answers Recommended Award. PC Answers made note of AVG Anti-Spy ware’s removal of all major threats on the infected system, its excellent real-time protection and the program’s clear alert messages.”

While AVG free does not offer technical support, to be honest, it isn’t normally necessary
I have never had an error with my AVG on my personal computer, nor have I ever needed to have tech support because the program is both easy to use and auto updates to keep my virus definitions current every evening.

If you are looking for an antivirus for your PC, and you want the best that is available, pay a visit to the folks at Grisoft/AVG Antivirus. I think you’ll be impressed!

Having paid the traditional phone bills for multiple years, I decided a few months ago that VOIP was for me and contacted one of the many companies who now provide it, with a view to buying and installing it.

VOIP can be used in one of three ways.

You may connect your normal telephone using a special adaptor, download software, some of it free, and use your computer, or in fact may use a special telephone which is made for the internet,

Using your regular home telephone.

To use your regular home phone, which many people opt to do for convenience and cost sake, you must purchase and use an analog adaptor for your phone. This will convert the signal of a normal phone (that is to say, the analog signal that is your voice) into a digital signal that your computer can recognize. Ask your VOIP provider if they will offer one of these services. In most cases since this is the preferred method of new users, they will provide the adaptor .Be certain to ask prior to signing up for a service if you are permitted to use your own phone.

Connect to the VOIP using an IP Telephone.

This is a special phone that is used specifically for VOIP. You don’t need a separate ata. Everything that you need to use your own internet connection as a phone service to make local and long distance calls will be included with your service. Instead of a normal looking phone jack you will use an Ethernet connection much as what connects you to connector, it uses an Ethernet connection to plug into your router.

Making a Connection using your Computer.

Provided that your computer has a microphone, speakers and sound card as well as a broadband, or high speed internet connection you can use your computer for voip without a special adaptor or phone.

Many companies such as Yahoo , Earthlink or several others offer low cost or completely free software that permits you to use your computer as is to make phone calls.

This method is usually free of cost, with some simple exceptions, that being what it costs you to connect to the internet through your service provider. Earthlink provides a service that is free for the user, including both software and service at no cost to you.

The software tends to be rather proprietary however so the biggest hitch in the wagon is that in many cases with the free services you may only .talk with those who also use the same free software and service(i.e. Earthline users could not talk with Yahoo users)

I personally went with Vonage and purchased a dual purpose adapter which functions as a phone adapter but also a 4 port wireless router, which can also be combined with another router, either wireless or wired, to feed the extra computers in your home.

The hookup was straightforward and simple, i connected the cable to the adapter, connected the phone to the adapter, ran the cat 5 to the modem from the adapter and connected my computers.

Having a couple computers that are not Windows there were some minimal issues making the network connections but they were not lengthy to sort out and in no time flat the phone and all three computers were up and operational on the network again. The phone works well, the service has proven to be very good and the bill is about half what I paid with a traditional phone company.

I’ve had people ask me if it has slowed my connection at all, and the answer to that is no, it has not in any way compromised my internet connection, which is a cable modem, at about 5 megs per second speed. Post connection when doing a speed check, it has not changed in any significant way.