11 Great Ways to Earn More Money

If you'd like daily tips, thoughts, and suggestions on how to grow your net worth, subscribe to Free Money Finance for free by clicking this link.

I get bashed from time to time for talking about how important it is to spend less than you earn. I've defended my rationale on this issue, but detractors wonder why I don't spend more time talking about growing income rather than limiting spending. Well, if you're one of those people, this post is for you. Buckle up, because we're about to enter the world of earning more money!!!!

Many of you know that I spent last year trying to earn an extra $10,000 above my salary (FYI, I'm including anything I can get above the 3% cost-of-living adjustment most people get from their employers.) I'm doing the same this year, and I thought many of you would like to join me. As a starting place, I'm identifying all the major ways I've compiled on how to make more money. Here's my list:

* Ask for a raise -- Your job is your most important financial asset and using it to make more money represents the low-lying fruit of all money making opportunities. Of course you simply can't demand a raise for showing up. You have to ask for a raise in a way that maximizes your likelihood of getting one. Fortunately it's rather simple: do a great job, make sure others know about your success (especially your boss), then pitch the proper person on why you deserve a raise. If you do these things better than most, you can secure a 5-7% raise while the others are stuck with a cost-of-living adjustment. Also note, it's just as important to NOT do certain things when asking for a raise. Otherwise, you might torpedo your chances for the extra loot.

* Get a promotion -- Ok, let's say you're squeamish about asking for a raise -- how about earning a raise by getting a promotion? It's generallyaccepted that if you have more responsibility you get paid more. But how do you go about getting a promotion? Basically it's the same way you go about building your case to get a raise -- perform well and make sure everyone knows about it. (Plus you can go "above and beyond" most others by doing things like taking professional classes to enhance your marketability.) Since this tip is dependent on the fact that a position actually opens up in your company, it's not quite as good as asking for a raise in my opinion.

* Change jobs -- Just like it's usually the case that you'll earn more when you get a promotion, most people earn more money when they change jobs (either a lateral change that earns you more or a promotion via job change.) The key here is to market yourself correctly in the job hunt process so you can actually land a job that pays significantly more than your current position. Some job-hunting success tips: make the most of your cover letters, stick with a classic resume that highlights significant job accomplishments, and make the most of your interviews (which includes not asking stupid questions). I've applied these principles several times and I've averaged roughly 13% increases when I've made a move.

A couple other tips that are important when it comes to changing jobs:

* Don't quit your job before you get another one. Quitting without another job is not a good idea and by doing so you're risking your most important financial asset. Believe me, I've seen the disaster. If you're stuck in a job you hate, take specific steps to get out of it, but don't quit without another position lined up.

* Once you do get a job offer, ask for more money before you accept the position. Doing so can pay off big, netting you $1,000 a minute. Not a bad return, huh?

* Turn your hobby into an extra income -- How would you like to do something you love and make some extra money at the same time? Then consider turning your hobby into an extra income. This could be anything from starting your own website to monetizing your artistic penchant to launching your own blog (if interested in this, see How to Get Your Blog to 100,000 Visitors and Beyond) to creating crafts to whatever.

I've done this with my hobby of writing. I've sold somewhere around 160 financial and business/marketing articles in the past ten years, earning me around $60,000 total. In addition, I started this blog on the same topic and it now generates a substantial amount of money (though I give away all the proceeds to charity). I have friends who've done the following: turned their love of cycling into a part-time job of repairing and maintaining bikes, turned their love of hunting and art into making decorative hunting knives that sell nicely at flea markets, and turning their love of baking into a side business selling high-end cookware. Is there something you love doing that could earn you some extra money?

* Start a side business -- Ok, let's say you have a hobby like growing roses or playing video games -- something that may not lend itself easily to making extra money. Instead, you could start a side business (here are some additional tips) of something totally different. Not something you love doing, but not something you hate either. A few examples of what you could do:

o Take a job no one else wants to do (can you say "pooper scooper?")
o Become a lifestyle manager
o Advise college-bound students
o Stage homes
o Start a sign-in-the-yard business
o Take pictures or play music
o There are literally all sorts of things you could do (including selling your blood -- admittedly it's not a "business", but I just had to through in this idea to show how some people are so creative when it comes to making money)

Or, if you don't feel like you're able to start your own business, maybe you could buy an existing business.

* Maximize your investments -- At first blush, it may not seem like there's a lot of extra income potential in earning an additional percentage or two on your investments. Over the short-term, there isn't. However, when time and compounding are considered, eeking out even an extra 1% could mean thousands of extra dollars for you. Personally, I like index funds because they beat most investments in the long term and take a minimal amount of time to manage. Combine them with the proper asset allocation and regular rebalancing of your portfolio and you're on your way to earning a good bit more from your investments.

* Trade/barter skills -- This is a new one for me, but one that I've had a bit of success with. For instance, I've exchanged marketing advice for some legal counsel. Maybe you're a carpenter who can build something for a plumber who can fix your clogged sink. Or maybe you're a dentist who can offer free cleanings to a veterinarian in exchange for free pet visits. Or perhaps you could design a website for a chiropractor who could give you free adjustments. Or maybe you can offer dance lessons in exchange for someone tutoring your child. The possibilities are almost endless.

Yeah, this option doesn't put cash into your pocket, but it does save you money on something you need to have done. And it could serve as a launching point for your own new business -- you get some experience providing services for others and maybe you'll be able to sell some of those services to people who can't trade but would be willing to buy what you have to offer.

* Use your current job skills -- Take what you do in your current job and consider selling those skills to others at night. If you don't like this option, consider teaching what you know to others. Simply take what you do 40-plus hours a week and extend it into a new business/side income.

* Sell stuff you own and don't need -- If you're like the rest of America, you've got a boatload of stuff in your home that you don't need/use. So why not sell it and create some extra cash for yourself? With the popularity of EBay, doing this is often a cinch. And let's say you're in the 1% of people who don't have anything useful to sell -- maybe you could find some items at auctions and then sell them for a profit.

* Use credit cards strategically -- In 2006 I earned almost $500 simply by charging purchases on a cash back credit card. My 2007 results aren't in yet, but I'll be way over this amount. Why? Because I picked the right card for my spending habits (which is THE key to making the most with credit cards) and charged as much as I could on it (including creative ideas like buying gift cards strategically.) In 2008, I'm planning on earning even more by using a hybrid cash back credit card method to earn upwards of 2.6% on my charges by combining uses of the Blue Cash from American Express card and the Chase Freedom Cash Visa Card. Eventually I hope to earn in the high three figures simply for doing what I'd normally do -- buying what I'd normally buy. You can do the same.

* Get money owed to you -- As I've noted before, there are billions of dollars in abandoned and lost checking accounts, pensions, and so forth collected by governments. You should see if any of it is yours I'm a pretty good money watcher, but when I went to Missing Money I found that I had a claim (for "under $100") from a past job. Sure, it's not a ton of money, but someone out there is likely due a significant sum. Since it takes about one minute to check and see if it's you, what's the harm?

That's my list for now. I have a lot more ideas that I couldn't include on this list. If you'd like to check them out you can visit my making money category. But for now, let me ask you: do you have any other money making ideas to add?

How To Get Higher Clickthrough Rates (CTR) On Your Google Adwords Campaigns

There are a number of ways to improve your clickthrough rates (CTR) for ads on Google Adwords. Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Target your ads to the right Audience. You do this by selecting keywords and phrases which are relevant to your product or service. Avoid keywords that are too general because although they generate a large number of impressions, they often generate very few clicks. To improve your CTR, use more descriptive phrases so that your ads will only appear to prospective customers searching for what you have to offer.

2. Use the correct keyword matching option(s). Google offers four different methods of targeting your ads by keywords: Broad Match, Phrase Match, Exact Match and Negative keyword. By applying the most focused matching options to your keywords, you can reach more targeted prospects, improve your CTR, reduce your cost-per-click and increase your return on investment.

3. Target your ads by location and language. When creating your adwords campaign target your ads by location so that you maximise your sales and improve your CTR. Target the right audience by selecting the language and countries that you want to reach.

4. Use your main keywords in the Title or Body Text of your ad. By using your keywords in the title or ad body text of your ad, it will stand out from your competitors and grab the eye of your prospective customers.

5. Create different Ad Groups for different search phrases/keywords. This will allow you to refine your ads and test them for relevance and therefore maximise your clickthrough rates. For example, if your service offers loans, you can create different ad groups for home equity loans (and all other phrases that incorporate this phrase), consolidation loans, student loans and so on.

6. Calculate what you can afford to pay for each clickthrough. You will find that more focused keywords and search phrases have a higher conversion ratio than other more general keywords. It's a good strategy to pay more for clicks from keywords or phrases with a high conversion ratio than from the more general keyword groups.

7. Use highly targeted Keywords and search phrases. Be specific when selecting keywords and search phrases for your campaign. General keywords will be more expensive and will result in lower clickthrough rates. If you're bidding on general keywords that are relevant to your site consider using the Exact match and the Phrase match keyword matching options in order to increase your CTR.

8. Test and monitor your ads to get the best clickthrough rates. Refine and fine-tune your ad to maximise click throughs. With Google you can do this in real time. You can do this by creating different ads for each ad group and then checking which ads have the best clickthrough rates.

9. Give Google users a compelling reason to click on your ad link. The easiest way to do this is to provide something of value for free. You can also achieve this if you tailor each keyword to your offer and use relevant terms/ words in both the title and the ad body. Use a different ad for each keyword group or search term. This increases relevance and the likelihood that Google users will click on it.

Adsense Tips, Layout Optimization Tricks for Higher CTR

Google Adsense is perhaps the easiest way to attract advertisers from across the globe to your blog. Just submit your blog to Google for approval. If Google likes what it sees, it will place contextual ads linking to products likely to appeal to the readers. Each time a reader clicks a link, the advertiser pays Google a small fee, and Google splits that with you.
The next interesting question - How to Make Money with Google Adsense ? Here are The best Google Adsense Tips and Tricks for making more money (profit) from Google adsense program.
a. Strictly follow the rules mentioned in Adsense policies. You will always earn more revenue from Adsense by playing it clean.
b. Never modify the Google Adsense HTML code.
c. Don't ask your friends or visitors to click on your Google ads. Do not include incentives of any kind for users to click on ads. Don't label the Google ads with text other than "sponsored links" or "advertisements.".
d. Don't click on your own ads - Google is much smarter than you think. You should not reload your pages excessively. If you are testing your website layout with Google adsense, follow some precautions. Or you can use the unofficial Google Adsense Sandbox Tool that is accessible from Firefox, IE and other browsers to see what kind of Google ads will be served based on content (website address URL) or keywords.
e. Don't place ads in pop-up windows, error pages or even empty pages.
f. Don't start a "adsense asbestos" or "home equity loan rates" website merely to make money from accidental clicks (accidence). You will never make money out these "made-for-adsense-only" websites. Instead, write on topics what you are passionate about. Don't waste your money on high-paying adsense keywords lists.
g. For short articles, CTR is best when ads are placed just above the content
h. For long articles, CTR improves if ads are placed somewhere in middle of the content - visitors read the long content and then they are looking for more resources.
i. Use Text Ads instead of Image Ads as users get more options. If you still want to display image ads, consider ad formats that support image ads - Choose either the 300x250 medium rectangle or the 160x600 wide skyscraper - or both, if you display multiple ad units on a page.
j. Google Ads without background color and borders always perform better. Make the border color and background color same as your page background color.
k. Always put ads above the main fold. Make sure that the ad unit with the highest clickthrough rate is the first instance of the ad code that appears in the HTML. Since the first ad unit is always filled before the rest, you want to make sure that ad unit is located in the best placement on your page.
l. Try setting the ad link URL color to a lighter shade. If your text is black, you may make the adlink as light gray.
m. Go Wide - The large rectangle is the best paying adsense format (336x280) - The Google Adsense Publisher team also feels that the best formats are the wider ones - the ad formats that contain the widest individual ads. Try using the 336x280 large rectangle, 300x250 medium rectangle, or 160x600 wide skyscraper.
n. Placing images next to ads or above ads does help in attracting user attention.
o. Blend AdLinks with other navigation links or place horizontal adlinks at the top of your webpage. AdSense publishers are permitted to click on link unit topics on their web pages, provided that they do not click on any Google ads on the resulting page.
p. Organize an Adsense Party for your friends and colleagues - Request them to navigate your website, watch their activity - it will provide vital clues about which regions on your website draw more user attention. Try putting ads near those areas. (Thanks Darren)
q. You can put upto 3 adsense units on a page. Try putting a large skyscraper on the right navigation sidebar of your website. That area is close to the browser scrollbar. You can also add 2 AdSense for search boxes, 1 adlink unit and 1 referral button per product (i.e., 1 AdSense referral button and 1 Firefox plus Google Toolbar referral button).
r. The first few lines of your content are an important factor for determining what Ads are served on your webpage. That's the right place to put keywords in bold (strong or &ltb> tags) or header tags (h1, h2, etc).
s. Always select the setting to open Google Adsense search box results in a new browser window, so you won't lose your visitors. Click the Open search results in a new browser window checkbox and this add target="google_window" to your form tag.
t. Maximum people think the search box is on the top right corner. So you know where to put it.
u. Don't syndicate full content. If people can read everything from the newsreader window itself, why would they visit your website where your ads are.
v. Use URL channels to determine performance of individual pages. I track my most popular pages with Google Analytics, Statcounter and create a channel for each of the URL. You can even track Adsense Clicks with Analytics
w. For low CTR pages, try changing titles or adding more content to get better focused ads
x. Block low paying advertisers with Filters. Why to loose a visitor for 0.01 cents. Use Overture or Google Adwords Keywords tool to discover keywords that are less popular with advertisers.
y. The AdSense for search Top Queries report shows you what your users are looking for, by listing the 25 most common searches conducted through your AdSense for search boxes. Use this report to identify additional topics to add to your site, or to keep track of your most sought-after information. Focus and improve that content.
z. Not everyone has a RSS reader. Use RSS to Email services like FeedBlitz, Bloglet or Rmail to let users subscribe to your blog by email.
Remember, you are the best judge when it comes to choosing ad formats. Even Google doesn't offer the best advise always. For instance, in the visual heat map, Google suggests that webmasters are best served by positioning ads on the upper left-hand side of a Web page. But on the Google homepage, you will find ads on the far right.