For the third entry, lets stop talking theory and start talking about how YOU the “average joe” can make money online. This is what I hope will be the first post of a sporadic series of articles about how to employ different methods that I have employed to make money for yourself online.

One strategy that has worked for me in the past is short fill leads. These are leads that are generated by a very short form that is filled out and submitted to an affiliate. My personal favorite is one field leads.

I recently read a great article about this on VikingBlogger (link goes to the post), while that article only deals with how to earn off zip submits ill go into some more detail on email submit one field leads.

Under one field leads we have:

• Email Adress Submit – only an email adress has to be submitted here to generate you a lead
• Zip Submit – these are offers where a user has to just submit their gift code to generate you a lead

• Email- these are any of the above categories but these offers are available only for email advertising or are advertised through your email (in newsletters etc)

In all these leads the user of course goes through other things after submitting their email, but that’s all you care about, after they submit an email. YOU get paid.

In theory zip and email submit sites are the same. Create a site about a hot topic, launch an adwords campaign and link the answers to the questions asked in the one field submit (make the box’s on your site link to the landing page, and write a small disclaimer about going to another site, and a small description of the incentive).These are usually general questions asked by the website, “like what do you like more, coke or pepsi?” The answer is usually associated with some sort of incentive reward by the website. And of course there is the infamous disclaimer at the bottom of the website saying WHAT you actually have to do to get the reward advertised.

Now once you have the site running, your adwords (or other advertising campaign) maximized it should make money as people convert to leads as they come in. Be sure to link both your options on your site the link to the leads landing page. You should carefully watch your campaign, because remember, try to maximize your keywords to make the most possible. If over time a keyword isn’t converting, drop it there are others that may do better for you. Be sure to also watch the affiliate program you get it from, offers often are rotated in and out and while one day your sites offer may be converting the next you may not get anything for the leads your paying to get.

Here’s the formula you want to follow, it’s the simplest economics one out there revenue-costs = profit. You want your profit to be in the positive, so watch your costs, you want your website to be a moneymaker not a money sinkhole.

The costs should be small, just the advertising of your website. The best service to use is Adwords, Yahoo or Bidvertiser (for a few niches). Both have coupons floating around that will net you free advertising money for a small down payment. What’s better than free money? NOTHING (other than more free money of course)! The domain name is simple, make it relevant to your offer. For example if your promoting, a comparison of Jessica Alba vs Demi Moore, who’s hotter, or whatever, your website should be relevant. For example AlbavsMoore.com (net, info, org, whatever, but .com is the best).

Now you just have to find the place to start, who offers what campaign? Even though you have ZIP submits I prefer email submits, here’s why. Zip codes some people find personal and identifying, they don’t want to receive mail to their house if they decide to bail out of the offer. Email addresses on the other hand are less personal to many. They are a digital address, and many are free and can be created on a whim. This is why I feel email submits convert better for me personally.

My company of choice for this type of affiliate advertising is MaxBounty.com (affiliate link is in the hyperlink and the banner).

The reason is they have a fair number of email submit programs that are current and high converting (for example a Clinton vs Obama survey). These programs are mostly pre-approved with acceptance to the program and the rates are first class. As well your affiliate manager is helpful and available during business hours to cater to your every question and help you earn (remember, the more you make, the more they make).

I hope one of my readers reads this post and is able to create a money making website with the tips and steps outlined above. If you do please tell everyone how you do! Best of luck, and have fun earning.