Sell Your Brain to Make Money

Yep, that's right, I said it... Make Money Online by Selling Your Brain!

Ok, I don't mean actually pulling your brain out and selling it. You probably wouldn't make it far if you did that. What I mean is that you have a ton of knowledge sitting inside your brain, and there are all sorts of ways to make money online from that information.

Starting, growing, and succeeding in an online home business is largely about selling information. Think about it - what do ebooks, articles, content websites, blogs, forums, etc... all have in common? They are all created with information and all can be great ways to make money online in one way or another.

Let's look at a few ways to start a home business and make money online by selling your brain:

* Blogging - This is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get your knowledge out to the world and make money from it. You can create a blog in just minutes and start posting information. The beauty of blogs is that they can be updated very quickly and often. So when you have knowledge to share, you can easily post it.

Of course, you will want to take the time to select a good topic for your blog and stick to blogging about related topics. Some people get away with posting miscellaneous ramblings on their blog and still earn a nice profit from it, but they are few and far between. For instance, the theme of this blog is "home business" so I only post about related topics such as; make money online, work at home, online business, internet marketing, and similar niches that fall under home business. Every once in a while I stray away on an off-topic post but not often.

You also need to figure out how you will make money from your blog. Some of the most popular are Google Adsense, advertising, affiliate marketing, and paid reviews.

* Websites - Building a website full of well-written original content is another great way to sell your knowledge. Similar to a blog, you will build a site around a certain theme and give the world the information they are looking for on that subject. Content websites and blogs are often interchangeable. People use blogging software to build content websites all the time.

However, for the most part, blogs and websites do tend to differ in a few ways. One of the most common is that the content on a website is usually longer and more in-depth. You can make money from a home business website in many ways but some of the most common ways are pretty much the same as with blogs - affiliate programs, Adsense, and advertising. You simply sprinkle these in with your content and make money from them.

* Ebooks - Now this is definitely one of the best ways to make money selling your brain! An ebook is one of the ultimate information resources for someone trying to learn about a certain subject. If you have a lot of knowledge about a topic (and trust me you do) then writing and selling an ebook can make you a lot of money.

If you are looking to start your own home business or already have one and want to take it to the next level, then writing an ebook may very well be a wise choice for you. With some research and a little work you could have an ebook written, sales copy finished, and sales website online in as soon as a week.

* Articles - You can sell your knowledge in the form of articles and make money online a few different ways. One way is to simply write and sell the articles. You can sell them to websites that buy articles like Associated Content, or you can sell them to people looking for PLR articles they can use as their own. There are tons of people looking to buy articles. You can also make money from articles by using them to create more websites and blogs, or combining them to create ebooks.

* Forums - I don't think a lot of people realize how great forums really can be for making money online. First of all, simply by becoming a very helpful and respected member of a forum you will gain a following and people will start to trust you. They will visit your websites more and automatically take a look at products you recommend.

Or you can start your own home business forum and monetize it a number of different ways. As with above, you will first need to be very helpful to your members and show them how knowledgeable you are on the subjects of the forum. Then, you can make recommendations to members on products or services you are an affiliate of. You can put Adsense or affiliate links below posts. You can allow members to post special offers and charge a small fee to post them. You can have a special section of the forum that is only accessible to paid members, etc... There are many ways to make money from an online forum.

There you have it, five ways you can build a home business and make money online by selling your brain!

Dedicated to your success,
Trent Brownrigg
Home Business Tips

Did you enjoy this post? Show it some love...

A New Resource for Bloggers

If you are a blogger or website owner in the online money making niche, there is a strong chance you have heard of Garry Conn. He is one of the most well-known and followed bloggers in the make money online industry.

In fact, as I am writing this his blog is ranked #31 on the top 100 make money online blogs list and my guess is that it's only going to rise from there. There are millions of blogs dedicated to making money online so being that high is an incredible feat that countless people would love to achieve.

Now Garry has started another project for newbie and veteran bloggers to benefit from. It's The Bloggers Message Board and it is poised to be one of the best resources available to bloggers.

The forum has only been online for about a week and already has a lot of great discussion and blogging information. With such a knowledgeable owner and great concept, I personally predict that it won't take long for word to spread like wildfire about the bloggers message board and membership to skyrocket.

It's free and it will be an amazing resource. I recommend getting into the discussion right now. You can only gain from this. I've only been a member since yesterday and already have a few new readers of my blog who only found me because of the bloggers message board.

Start your learning now: The Bloggers Message Board.

Dedicated to your online success,
Trent Brownrigg
Make Money Online

Did you enjoy this post? Show it some love...

Building Your Blogs Credibility

In order to be a successful blogger, or successful at just about any other method of making money online, you need to build credibility. But how do you do that? One way is to learn from one of the master bloggers in the make money online niche, John Chow.

In one of his latest lessons on the science of making money blogging he gives six great ways to build your blogs credibility.

Read it here: How to Build Your Blog Credibility.

I definitely recommend you check out the post and the rest of his blog because it's full of great advice for making money online.

Dedicated to your success,
Trent Brownrigg
Home Business Opportunities

Did you enjoy this post? Show it some love...

Making Money Online - A Quick Reminder

Here's a quick online money making tip that you may not be aware of, or may have overlooked in all your holiday thoughts.

Even though the end of the year and beginning of the new year are very busy times for you with all the holidays and family gatherings, remember these are also the best times to make money online.

It has been proven again and again that this is the overall best time of the year for internet marketers. Website traffic, product sales, and profits are consistently higher this time of year for most online businesses.

So while you are frantically trying to get ready for the holiday season don't forget about your online business. This is the online money making time of year too!

Dedicated to your success,
Trent Brownrigg
Free Money Making Advice

Did you enjoy this post? Show it some love...

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to wish a safe, fun and happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate this wonderful holiday! Take a moment to think about what you are thankful for this year so you will know what to say when everyone asks you tomorrow. ;-)

I am thankful for many things... Some of them are my family, friends, health, and the amazing lifestyle I get to live.

And another thing I am extremely thankful for is YOU, my readers, because without you I wouldn't be able to do what I love and live the lifestyle that I said I was thankful for above.

I'll be celebrating at my dad's house tomorrow. I haven't seen him in a while so I'm looking forward to that. Plus, I love to eat and that's a nice bonus on Thanksgiving.

Ok that's all for now. Remember not to eat too much tomorrow. Actually I take that back, eat as much as you possibly can! I know I will.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Trent Brownrigg

Did you enjoy this post? Show it some love...

Free Way to Make Money from Your Blog

There's a new site that has just launched a system you can use on your blog for free and make money from it. It's called, "ScratchBack" and it's basically a way for your readers to tip you while getting something in return.

This is a win/win situation for you and your blog readers because you make money with this simple system and they get to share some of your traffic for a while.

There's a bunch of different widgets for you to choose from and you can put them wherever you want on your blog or website.

Plus, here are a few more things you get to control:

1) Your own price.

2) Whether or not you give text or banner links.

3) How many links you accept.

4) How long the link stays or if new links move to the top.

5) Moderate links or have them go live right after payment.

This is something you can use to earn more money from your blog without putting in any extra work. It only takes a couple minutes to sign up and put the code on your blog. Then you are done. Go about your blogging as usual and make a little more money from your efforts!

If you want more information, I also wrote about this method here:
A New Way to Monetize and Advertise Your Blog

That's it for today's free money making advice!

Dedicated to your home business success,
Trent Brownrigg

Did you enjoy this post? Show it some love...

Does Your Online Business Rule Your Life?

The other night while I was trying to fall asleep I started thinking about how I actually spend my days. Have you ever done that? You know, lay there and think about what you do on a daily basis. Well, the next morning I sat down and really thought about what I do on a typical day. Here is what I discovered...

My online business rules my life!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I truly love what I do. I can't imagine there are very many better ways to make a living than sitting on my home computer running my own home business.

The problem is that when I’m doing things like watching TV, running errands, hanging out with my friends, or even going to get something to eat, I'm always thinking about business and what I could be doing online. About the only time I don't feel like I am wasting valuable online business time is when I'm sleeping. I love my sleep! But even then I'm almost always thinking about business stuff while trying to fall asleep.

I spend almost my entire day online. I get up at around 9:30 everyday and after my shower, I go straight to the computer. I'll admit ahead of time that I am not always working directly on my business but I am usually doing some sort of business related task, even if it's just reading other money making blogs, internet marketing forums or replying to emails.

The first thing I do every morning is check everything; all my email accounts, sales, statistics, private messages, make sure my main sites are up and looking good, etc...

Then, I move on to forums. I am a moderator of 5 internet marketing / work at home forums and visit a few more on a daily basis. There are always questions to answer, posts to catch up on, new threads to read, and spam to delete.

After that I check out a few of my favorite internet marketing / make money online blogs to see what everyone is writing about. There's always something to learn and blogs are one of the best ways to get information. Some days I will spend a little extra time on blogs to comment on a few posts or submit some posts I really like to social bookmarking sites.

Once I'm done with that I go back and check some of my main email accounts again. And reply to any questions I've gotten.

Then, I'll take a quick look at the forums I moderate again to see if there are any new questions. Might even hit up a couple more blogs at this time.

It's about 1 or 2 in the afternoon now and I am getting hungry. So I take an hour lunch break. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, but an hour is about average.

Notice I have been online for about four hours by this time and still haven't done any direct work on my online business. Once lunch is over it's time to do some real work.

At about 3:00pm I finally get to working on things that directly help grow my online business. It's time to update some of my sites and blogs.

For the next couple hours I write 3 blog posts; one post for three different blogs. Then, I write 3 articles. Again it's one article for three different websites. Then I publish them.

Keep in mind that I have a lot of websites and blogs, and I usually update three of each everyday, although some of my main ones get updated much more often that the others.

By this time it's about 5 or 6 o'clock and it's time take a break from my computer for a while. Usually a couple hours. Sometimes I stay on it just to do something fun like get on Myspace or Facebook, or something else totally unrelated to my online business. I also eat dinner some time during this stretch.

At about 8:00pm I get back to business and start by checking my email, sales, and all the other stuff I checked right away in the morning.

Then I do some miscellaneous business tasks that change everyday. It might be writing posts for blogs I guest author, doing some article marketing, working on a new product, writing my newsletter, or any of about a thousand other things that are a part of my "job" as an internet marketer.

When my work day ends, it’s about 11:00 at night. Then, I watch TV until about 2:00am and go to bed. I do a routine very similar to this everyday Monday - Thursday. On Fridays I usually end my work day in the early afternoon sometime, so I can get started on my crazy night! Weekends are completely random, although I do always get some online business tasks done on those days too.

Ok, that's a typical day in the life of Trent Brownrigg - internet marketer, blogger, home business mentor, and money making machine. Ok I made that last one up! ;-)

And guess what? ...

I love every minute of it! I'd go crazy if I was doing anything else. I know that I could take a few days or even a couple weeks off and my income wouldn't go down any (actually it would probably still go up) but I am addicted to internet marketing and don't want to work any less.

The only exception to this are vacations. I do love being able to take a trip any time I want to and I tend to take advantage of that benefit quite often. One of the perks of being your own boss and I wouldn't trade it for the world!

How about your day? Do you enjoy doing what you're doing? Has your online business taken over your life? Step back and look at how you spend your days. Make sure you really enjoy what you are doing or you are simply wasting your life away.

If you don’t enjoy what you do, you won't be happy. That's a fact of life.

Did you enjoy this post? Show it some love...

John Chow Visited My Blog Today!

Ok I admit this probably isn't quite as exciting for you as it is for me, but I had to post it. We all get a little star struck sometimes. Today this blog was visited by a very famous blogger, John Chow.

If you don't already know, John is one of the most well known money making bloggers online. His blog is always in the top 5 of every list of make money online blogs and he makes more money in a month than most people do in a year. He's a dot com mogul and blogging celebrity...

...and he visited here today!

That's about like Tom Cruise strolling into a little business that you run in the offline world. Ok maybe not exactly the same but it's somewhere along those lines.

Now I assume he only did so because I mentioned his blog in my last post but it's still pretty darn cool. At least I think so.

You might be wondering how I know he came here? Well, that's one of the many benefits of a great site called MyBlogLog - it tells you the latest visitors to your blog (as long as they are members too). And it's free! You can see my blog log profile here. I encourage you to join. Be sure to add me as a friend if you do. It has done amazing things for my blog.

Alright that's it for this great blog post senseless rambling.

Dedicated to your online business success,
Trent Brownrigg
Owner of Free Home Business Blog

Did you enjoy this post? Show it some love...

Did Google Lose This Battle?

Unless you've been living under a rock in the desert for the past month (or you just don't read any blogs), you have no doubt heard about the latest Google PR update and the affect it had on the PR of blogs selling text links. In case you didn't hear, they have now started lowering the page rank of blogs that make money by selling text links.

A lot of very well known, high PR blogs were affected by this latest update. My blog was lowered from a PR4 to a PR3 but many were hit even harder than that. For instance, one of the top "Make Money Online" blogs - JohnChow.com - dropped from a PR6 to a PR4.

Ok that's all the deeper I am going to get into the details of what happened in the latest update. It has already been blogged to death by countless people. I have a different point I am trying to make here.

Without further ado, let’s get on to the real reason for this post...

I'm seeing Google as being the biggest loser in this update. Not because they lost any PR or anything like that, but it looks like they have started a revolution or a lash back of sorts.

Since the update more and more blogs seem to be selling text links now and very few have stopped selling them, even those that were hit with the PR drop.

I don't know if there were a lot of bloggers who simply didn't know they could make money selling text links until it was brought to their attention with this latest update. Or if there are just more bloggers selling them now as a way to show Google that they do NOT own the internet. I personally think it's a combination of both.

Another thing that Google is trying to push on bloggers is putting the "nofollow" tags in links so they are not followed by robots and no PR is passed. Well, there has been a huge increase in bloggers saying screw the nofollow rule and are now implementing "do follow" so all links are followed by search engines and PR is passed. I've seen an even higher increase in this since the new update than those selling text links.

Not to mention the fact that text link brokers will now just find a new formula for basing prices of text links and this new Google "crack down" will have little to no effect. Instead of selling links based on PR they will just use a new set of factors, such as the blogs Technorati ranking + Alexa ranking + PR, and base prices on a score derived from that combination.

So, as far as I'm concerned, Google has lost this battle! Yes, there will be more. Nobody knows what they will do next but those of us in the blogosphere will band together and fight on!

Of course, these are just my opinions. What do you think?

Dedicated to your success,
Trent Brownrigg
Owner of the Biz Tips Blog

P.S. - Want to buy a text link on this blog? See option #5 on my advertising page.

Did you enjoy this post? Show it some love...

Become a Pro Blogger Contest

MyBlogLog is holding a "become a problogger contest" for the blogger who grows their community the most this month.

If you are not already a member of MyBlogLog then I highly recommend you take advantage of this free service, even if you aren't interested in the contest. Since I joined MyBlogLog I have gotten a lot more regular readers of blog and the overall traffic to my blog has shot up. You can see my profile here.

Now back to the contest...

The winner gets a bunch of great prizes worth over $2500, and will also get a nice jumpstart in their quest to become a pro blogger.

Anyway, you can read more about it on their blog: MyBlogLog Problogger Contest

Dedicated to your success,
Trent Brownrigg

Did you enjoy this post? Show it some love...

HaHa, You Gotta Love This Post!

I was just reading one of my favorite money making blogs, "How To Make Money Online For Beginners" owned by a nice fella named Grizzly Brears. His newest post is quite clever and pretty darn funny as well.

You can find it here: When you Have Nothing to Say...

I especially like the Paypal screenshot!

The post is really not a bad idea, I think I might write one up answering some of the questions I get on a regular basis.

Ok, that's it for this post. Short and sweet!

Dedicated to your home business success,
Trent Brownrigg

Did you enjoy this post? Show it some love...

What is a Meme and Why Should I Participate?

What are meme's and how can they help you and your fellow bloggers? You will know the answer to that when you are done reading this post.

There's a good chance you have come across the term "meme" while online sometime recently. If you haven't, you have now! And you will again soon because they are starting to stir up quite a buzz around the internet.

Memes come in all sorts of different forms, depending on where you look and who started it. Usually when it comes to blogging, a meme is a list of questions that you answer and post on your blog. Then someone else sees it and does the same, and so on. Memes are viral in nature and are meant to propagate around.

I was recently invited by Grizzly Brears from How to Make Money Online for Beginners to join a new meme. It wasn't started very long ago but it has already spread to several blogs and is starting to pick up even more steam. It has the potential to go hyper viral by getting posted on thousands of blogs as long as the people who are mentioned in each blogger's version of the meme keep it going by posting their own.

Here are the details of this particular meme...

First, you answer 5 questions about the ONLINE version of YOU…

1. How long have you been blogging?
2. What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors?
3. Are you trying to make money online, or just doing it for fun?
4. Tell me 3 things you LOVE about being online.
5. Tell me 3 things you STRUGGLE with in the online world.

Then you "tag" several bloggers, including me, and ask that they join in and spread this meme on their own blogs. When finished you simply write a comment on this post with the link to your meme post so I can then read your responses to the questions.

If everyone plays along you can see how this could easily end up all over the blogosphere. There is incentive to keep the meme going because we are all passing links to each other. We all win!

As I stated above, it's simple to play... Answer the five questions above in a post on your blog. Also, in the post that you create, reference this post and then tag 5 of your blogging buddies. If you don’t know who to tag, just tag a blog that interests you or one you have learned from. This way you can get a link from that blog and also find out more about the owner.

If you would like to join in and I didn't tag you, just leave me a comment with your blog URL and I will add a tag to you as well. If you need some quality backlinks this is a great opportunity to get a link from me and hopefully from others as they join in.

Ok, here are my answers to the questions...

1. How long have you been blogging?

I started my first blog in November of 2003 but it was full of random worthless posts because I didn't have a clue what I was doing, so I dumped it after a few months. Then, in July of 2004, I started my first real blog - Free Home Business Tips - the one you are reading right now!

2. What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors?

At first I started it just as a quick and easy way to add articles and other content to my website. I was set on gaining high search engine rankings and I figured a blog would help. It worked!

My mentors... The person who helped me the most when I was first getting started online was named Tina A. (I never knew her full last name) but she does not do any online business anymore, as far as I know. If not for her I never would have succeeded. Now I follow just about all of the top internet marketers and bloggers.

3. Are you trying to make money online, or just doing it for fun?

I own several blogs and websites and all of them, either directly or indirectly, are for making money in one way or another. I am a full time internet marketer and my entire income is made online so they better be making money! ;-)

But I also have a lot of fun doing what I do!

4. Tell me 3 things you LOVE about being online.

Freedom of being my own boss.

Helping others make money online and build a better life for themselves.

The money I make doing it.

5. Tell me 3 things you STRUGGLE with in the online world.

Keeping up with all the latest techniques and changing technology.

Trying not to spend all my money on new products.

Motivating myself to actually sit here at my computer and work.


Ok that's if for my answers. Now I am going to tag some people who have blogs that I like and hopefully they will play along by continuing this meme. It was originally suggested to tag five bloggers, so here they are...

* Matthew at the WhyDoWork blog. I've been a member of the forum at this website for a long time and have always been a fan of the overall site and blogs. However, they have really stepped up their blogging recently and have become a blog that I have to visit every day.

* George Manty at Can I Make Big Money Online. This is a terrific blog full of all kinds of online money making information. I visit this blog often, and have even contributed content to it, but I don't know much about George so it will be nice to see his answers.

* Monika Mundell at The Writer's Manifesto blog. She writes about all sorts of online topics and is darn good at it. I've actually somewhat known Monika for a while from a forum we both frequent. However, I only recently discovered her blogging skills. She's one of the best writers I have seen.

* Terry Didcott from The Honest Way. This is another blog with loads of great online money making information from an excellent writer. It's growing fast and I predict it will be one of the top blogs of its kind before too long. I am familiar with Terry from other online ventures but never knew he was such a great blogger until recently.

* Gary Conn has built a very successful blog. In fact, it's one of the most well-known blogs on the internet dedicated to making money online. I don't know Garry at all so I look forward to getting know him a little more from this.

Ok, that's it for my meme. Hopefully everyone who was tagged will play along and keep it going.

To all who were tagged... Let me know when you have completed your post so I can read your answers.

Everyone else... Remember if you want to join in and get a link from me just leave me a comment with your URL.

Dedicated to your success,
Trent Brownrigg
Home Based Business

Did you enjoy this post? Show it some love...