Blogtomic - Learn the secrets to Blogging for cash.

I posted a link this past weekend in my Weekend link love section on a topic I though was a great idea and one I have though about doing for a while. The post from mgsblog.net that talks about starting a directory and making money from that. This is a good idea and showing that you can make money off of doing other things besides your blog. There are many other options out there besides directories and most of them are fairly easy to get up and started. It’s always a good idea to not put all of your eggs in to one basket and to test the waters in other ways to see how much money can be made from trying something new. The cost to try a few of these is not really much as long as you have the time and server space, and a few bucks for a new domain name, and some do not even require you to have any of those and some may cost a little more just depends on what you would like to do.

Directories
Directories are one of the many ways you can start making more money. They are easy to set up and most scripts are open source that can help you get started. Just like your blog you can set up Advertising and Pay-per-click ads along with pricing featured and regular links for your directory. There are a few directory scripts that are free to use unless you would prefer a premium script. The scripts that I have seen that are worth a look at are: PHPLD,  OpenLD, esyndicat and phplinkbid. For more information you can that a look at mgsblog and read his post on making money with directories.

Social Bookmark Sites
Social Bookmark sites are another site that you can start fairly easy and find open source scripts for. The same goes for adding your advertising and ppc ads to the site to generate money. Social Bookmark sites are really popular with in the blog world and most blogger are looking for new sites to promote there post on and generate more traffic. Some open source scripts you can take a look at are Scuttle, Akarru, GetBoo, and Taggly.

Forums
Nothing new forums have been around for ages and probably the most popular alternative to make money online. The only downside is that some advertisers do not allow you to use there service on a forum so you will have to check with your ad network TOS to find which services you can use. A lot of forum scripts are free and easy to set up and come with an array of themes that will make it easy for you to choose a look that is best for your site. There are tones of open source forum scripts out there but here are a few that I find to be the most popular and easiest to use. PHPBB, Seditio, and Simplemachines.

Niche Stores
I though I would add this one in. Build a Niche Store (BANS), is a fairly new script that allows you to quickly build a eBay based store and earn commission from purchases. No I am not an affiliate I just think it is a good looking script. There are plenty of ways to build a niche store but this one seems fairly easy but comes with a price tag of $97. I think in the future I may have to give this one a try and maybe write a review. Check out BANS here.

Game Sites
Another alternative. Game sites can be a good source of income if you promote your site and market it just like anything else. And the good part, people like to play games. Most scripts cost money but there are a few you can look in to. Gamescript, Flashgamescript, and Getmyownarcade.

These are some ideas to get you going. There are many more and maybe I will do a second post sometime. I did not have much time to day to go in to a lot of details with these alternatives but you can check them out and get an idea and try a few. They are some ideas I may be trying fairly soon when I get the time to work on something else. All of these can be a good source of income if you promote and market them in the right way.

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