In order to get that help, we are going with the style of thing that we know, contests.

Currently we are running a “Web Usability Contest” via squadhelp.com to get some usability feedback for earner.  If you would like to help earner get better and earn $100 for your trouble, head over to squad help and check out the contest.  Live for another 8 days.

The other thing that we need done is, Earner.net needs a new logo!  If you have design skills and think you could create a logo thats perfect for our website, add your design to the new design competitions section here at earner. $200 in prizes up for grabs!

Thanks for the help

Why?  Because thats how I like to work.

In my work with clients on projects I have found that I prefer working for an hourly rate because requirements change.  The client will think they want something int he beginning then as things move along, they will come up with new ideas that they will ask to be included.  When working on a fixed project rate these are the moments you dread.  Changes mean you need to you have to re-negotiate the cost of the whole project.  Re-negotiation means time spent negotiating and not time spent working.

The worker tries to get finished as fast as they can and the client tries to get the most for their fixed amount.

For me all my recurring clients have been the ones who have been on an hourly rate.  It works for me.  So here are the new features you can take or leave.

The Hourly Bidding

Per hour bids

Previously when bidding on projects the worker would have to set a fixed price for how much they wanted to complete the project along with an estimate of the length of time it would take them to do it.

Now the worker is still able to do the above, but also is able set a fixed price on how much they want per hour and bid on how long they think it will take them.

So instead of bidding $400 and 5 days, the worker can bid $40 / hour and an estimate of 10 hours.

The Project owner is free to choose the bid they will accept.  Obviously 10 hours from someone who ‘knows their stuff’ is much better than 10 hours from someone ‘willing to learn’.  So the project owner will need to make sure the person they hire is right for the job.

The Time Tracker

To help the worker keep an accurate account of the time spent on a project there is a new feature, the time tracker.

The design of the time tracker was based on a desktop application that I have always used for recording my worked time.  Gnotime is an open source time-tracking software with dairy entry system.  I really like this piece of software so based our time-tracker on how it works.

screenshot of timetracker

There is a start/stop button on the popup time tracker and a box to put dairy entries.  Whenever the clock is started or stopped the dairy is saved and allows you to keep a record of where you are at during the project build.

The Invoicing System

Once you have worked on a project for a period and would like the project owner to release some of the money held in escrow for you, you can create an invoice and send them a copy.

The invoicing system is based on a system I have used and really like bamboo invoice.

Invoicing is not an automatic process.  You can create an invoice for whatever you like.  Personally I have one rate for small projects and a different rate for large projects.   For me any project that exceeds 43 hours is a large project and I want to be able to offer a discount for any hours worked on a project in excess of 43 hours.  With this invoicing system I can.

* 43 hours at standard rate
* 15 hours at large project rate
* other additional extras…

The invoicing system is flexible.

Invoice List

Full View of an Invoice

Apologies to advanced users – yes, these are the fundamentals.  But here we go…

#1 Affiliate Marketing

This currently has got to go at the top of the list, the trend for affiliate marketing these days is totally massive and is getting bigger every day.  If you have the skills and the patience and your attracted to the industry, what better way to earn money online than with affiliate marketing. The name of the game is to direct or refer people to purchase products “or do something” so that you get paid a commission.  No after sales service, no product to stock or ship, no customer complaints, easy stuff.. or is it?

Affiliate marketing takes a good amount of skill in generating and controlling traffic, usually in multiple niche areas. The general aim is to create multiple campaigns you can promote using various methods.. for instance:

Some examples of controlling traffic are:

• Building an email list and market to that list
• Writing a Blog about affiliate enabled products
• Adding affiliate widgets or adverts to your website
• Purchasing advertising and using affiliate links in the adverts
• Develop a Twitter and FB following in order to build a contact list
• Design attractive Landing Pages for your products and offers

The key element with earning money via affiliate marketing is that you have a source of customers (traffic) interested in a specific genre or niche, the aim is to build a list of customers you can keep updated at any time.  However, the art of affiliate marketing is to keep your customers interested enough to purchase your recommendations.

#2 Provide an online Service

This works the same online as it does offline.  Offline services are provided in the shape of restaurants, hairdressers, bars, accountants etc.  To earn money online via a service it takes a different shape.  Online services take the shape of SEO consultant, Backlink builder, Web hosting company, advertising agency, programmer etc.

Offline services are useful offline, Online services are useful online. (but there is no reason you cant advertise offline for an online service or vise versa.)

#3 Sell an online Product

Everything that is online is digital.  There are no hamburgers online.  So if you are going to earn money online by selling a product then the product is going to be digital.

• Photos can be digital products
• eBooks can be digital products
• Software can be digital products
• Unique articles can be digital products
• Video animations can be digital products
• Music can be a digital product.

What you sell is up to you, but it must interest the viewer enough to want to pay your asking price for it.  The advantage of these types of digital products is that they can be created once then sold many times.  So you don’t need to have any interaction between you and the customer when you are selling them.  The customers clicks the order button, pays the money, gets the product. (So while your sleeping, you earn money online.)

#4 Build a Website and Sell Advertising.

The first thing is to have a website built.  Then get the traffic to your website.  Then get increase the user base.  Then send them away through advertising links.  Wow that sounds dumb.

Why would you go to the effort of building the website, and getting traffic to it only to send them away again…. Well, because the servers cost money, the programmer costs money, the designer costs money and the site isn’t generating any of it.  So a common solution is to slap adverts up everywhere in the hopes that all the people who came to see your content will go away again via one of your advertising links.

It can work though.  If the adverts that you put on your site are targeted and USEFUL to the visitors of your site, they will click on the links and thank you for putting them there.

This method to earn money online is one for the long-route.  It will take time to build your site, but once its built it has the advantage of being able to be found by the search engines in their Natural Search Results.  Which means FREE TRAFFIC! (when it happens.)

#5 Learn to program and bid on freelance work

There are a ton of things that people want done and ideas that people want created.  If your technical minded and like looking at code, like logical structure then pick a programming language and start earning money.

The key here is to focus your talents.  At least in the beginning.  Focus on one area and get really good at it.  Because there is a ton of competition and you need to stand out.  Don’t focus on being a “webmaster”, but instead focus on being a specific thing.  There are a mountain of CMS systems that are vastly complex.  Instead of trying to generally understand that all of them do work. Focus on a single one that you like that has people needing work done.

Drupal is a good example of a CMS system.  Jamroom is a good example of a CMS system.

Focus on being a module builder for either of these.  Or for Joomla, or Magento, or any other system that already has customers looking for programmers.

#6 Put your Design Skills to work.

Want to earn money online…. Design something.  Design and programming are completely opposite each other, but both are necessary in order to get a great project up and running on the web.

Designers are the people that make the impact in a website.  Because its the designers work that the end customer is looking at.  When the buttons don’t work, its the programmer who has to fix it, but the buttons need to look good first in order for the customer to want to click on them.

There are many programmers who are earning money online by writing the code and bidding on freelance projects, but most programmers are not designers.  If you have the design skills you can either team up with a programmer to offer a complete website building service. Or bid on projects available for freelance work that are open to designers.

Designers have the advantage of not being limited to a specific platform.  The designs they create can be used on any CMS system.  Or as logos for companies.

Designers have a very large and spread out base to work from to earn money online.

#7 Freelance Article Writing.

The search engines demand that new content be constantly provided in order for a sites rankings to remain at the top of Natural Search ranking lists.  To sustain this there is a huge demand for quality fresh content.  So even if you are not a programmer or a designer, but you can read and write, there could be a demand for your services.

#8 Transcribe Audio Files.

Just like dictation.  If you don’t have the skills to think and write, then how about just writing.  Take the mp3 file that someone has dumped all their ideas onto and wants it turned into a document.  Listen to it and write what the project owner is saying.

#9 Install stuff for a fee.

There are a lot of tasks that need to be done that are not super technical but take time. Such as:

• Install wordpress,
• Move a website from one host to another
• Do things that people could do themselves, but having you do it saves them time.
• Purchase software like seNuke X or xrumer (that charge a monthly fee), then use it for people.

#10 Combine What works for you

Try out a few things and combine them.  The more unique and specialized you make yourself the more likely it is that you are going to be the perfect person for someone.

You don’t need to be right for everybody, you probably only need to find a few people in the world that value what you do in order to have enough business to keep you earning money online.  It then comes down to how far you want to take it.

Resources on Earner.net to help you Earn Money online

#1 Affiliate Marketing.

Promote Butto

• the promote button for Services
• the promote button for Files
• the widgets tool

#2 Provide an online Service

• Create your Service
• Bid on open Projects

#3 Sell an online Product

• List your files in the marketplace. Create
• Design your landing page for your product

#4 Build a Website and Sell Advertising.

• Create a project and have freelance workers bid on it.
• Invite workers who you think can do the Job

#5 Learn to program and bid on freelance work

• List of all Projects on earner.net

#6 Put your Design Skills to work.

• Showcase your design skills by displaying a Portfolio

#7 Freelance Article Writing.

• Write for others as a worker on Projects
• Sell your own work as a Service
• Sell your documents as Files

#8 Transcribe Audio Files.

• Work for others as a worker on Projects
• Sell your own work as a Service

#9 Install stuff for a fee.

• Work for others as a worker on Projects
• Sell your own work as a Service

#10 Combine What works for you

• Display all your Files and Services in your Store
• Display all your talents in your Profile

Surely with all these features available there must be some way for you to earn money online.  If its not enough, use the feedback and demand more.  We’re willing to listen.

Here’s to your success!

When your selling a file on earner.net the layout of the page that the file is on is semi-customizable.  You can write a description of the file, and you can upload a picture.  You can add a category and a sub-category and some tags…… But what if this isn’t enough?

If you want to make a TOTALLY CUSTOM design for the sale of your file, THIS is what landing pages are for.

Standard VS Custom Landing Pages

This is the new Feature to earner.net

How to Create Your Custom Landing Page

To start creating your custom landing page, the first thing to do is to download the landing page template.

Once you have the landing page zip file then you can un-zip it, alter it to suit your needs, re-zip it and upload it to earner.net from your file Create/Modify page.

There are only a few limitations when creating your landing page:

1. No Javascript
2. The file structure _MUST_ be the same as the zip package. (one index.html file, one style.css file, one /images/ directory).
3. The uploaded file must be in .zip format

You upload the zip file in the same location as the file for sale is uploaded.  When a landing page zip file is attached, it gets unpacked and purified to remove all unwanted elements (like javascript, inline css etc.) then saved to the server.  Once the file has been approved for sale your Landing Page template goes live.

Why Create Landing Pages?

Landing Pages are especially useful if you are allowing promoters to promote your product. With a well crafted landing page your promoters will see a better conversion rate on the traffic they send you.

Its far easier to convert a visitor to a customer if the customers is arriving from another site and they land on your page which is solely dedicated to your sale item.

The basic principle is simple, the Buyer purchases the Sellers service either by credit or by Paypal. The Seller gets all the information he needs to start work and the work begins.  During the time between the start of the service and the completion of the service there is communication.

However in reality it can get more complicated than that, so this blog post will take a look in-depth at the flow and try to identify key points of where things can go wrong so they don’t go wrong for you.

The Service, Postcard from Tokyo

The service the Seller is offering is “I will send you a postcard from Tokyo.”

The Buyer of the service expects to receive a postcard in the mail from Tokyo for the order to be considered complete.

Purchasing

In order to start the service in action the first thing that must happen is that the Buyer must purchase the service.  This can be done from the service details page using the “Order Now” button.

Order Now Button

If the Buyer has enough in credit to cover the cost of the service, then the order will go once to the shopping cart page to confirm the order then straight thorough to the service beginning.  If the Buyer does not have enough in credit to pay with credit, then they will be redirected to Paypal to pay the outstanding amount and the service will begin when the payment is complete.

Service Begins

After payment is made, the Buyer will arrive at the “My Purchases” tab in their control panel

and will have a new item in their list of “Open Services”.

Open Services

Because the Seller needs the Buyers address to complete this order, there will be a note in the status column with the Sellers notes to the Buyer.  This time it reads “You will need to give me the address to send it to”.

For the Buyer to comply with the instructions that the Seller has left, they will need to contact the Seller to tell them their address.  This can be done with the “Contact Seller” button.  Currently there are no messages so the button reads “Contact Seller (0)”.  If there were messages this number would be the number of messages there are.  eg. “Contact Seller (6)” for 6 messages.

The Communications Screen

The Communications Screen for Services

On the communications screen, the Buyer and Seller can communicate with each other.

Messages are sent back and forth between Buyer and Seller.  Each time a new message comes in from the other person, it will be updated on this screen.

There is no need to keep refreshing the screen to get new messages, if you are looking at the screen when a new message comes in, it will automatically be loaded onto your screen.  This is useful if both the Buyer and the Seller are online and on the communications screen at the same time.

When the Buyer and Seller are send each other messages and the other person is NOT on the communications screen at that time but is browsing around the site, a message box will open to tell them that they have a new message on the communications screen with a link to take them to the new message.  This ensures that you always know when new messages come in without having to check your email.

When the Buyer sends their address the Seller will immediately get a message in their popup message system:

Seller Receiving a Message

The messaging system currently contains 3 messages.  Two that the Buyer has seen before and another that has just come in.

Once the user viewing the messages CLICKS on the messages or visits the page that they are about, they will be automatically removed from the messaging system.  So since there are 3 messages it means that the Seller has not yet visited the pages.  They can do that by clicking on any of the links.

Finishing the Service

To finish the service, the Seller must first send an “I’m Finished” message to the Buyer of the service.  This too can be done from the communications screen.

Send Im Finished Message

To send the “I’m Finished” message the Seller should select the “Finished?” tab from the bottom of the communications screen then select the “Send I’m Finished Message” from the list of available options.

There are other options there too for when the sale of the service does not go smoothly.

When the Seller sends the “I’m Finished” message, the Buyer will receive an “I’m Finished, Please Rate Me” message.

I'm Finished, Please Rate Me

Which will allow the Buyer of the service to leave feedback for others to see on how well this Seller completed the service they offer.

If anything is going wrong, then the Buyer of the service has the option to cancel the service and get a refund on their money at this point.

Or they can choose to reject the work the Seller has submitted as “Finished” and give the Seller another chance to re-submit the finished work.

A Seller would usually prefer to have a chance to re-submit a finished product again rather than receive a negative review, so Buyers please give the Sellers this chance.  If your not happy with the work, use the “Reject Delivered Work” option and tell the Sellers why you reject it in a message to help them get their service better.

When all is finished and the review left, then the project is complete!

Service Complete

Promoter Widgets

When a Seller creates a Service or uploads a File for sale, they have the option of allowing promoters to promote their service in return for a percentage of the sale when it happens.

The Widget is an easy way for you to display more than one offer on your website, blog, or social networking page at a time.

First you select the options that you want to display on your widget, and click “Create Widget Layout” and your widget is displayed.

2 widgets which are showing in order of highest payout. Both vertical and horizontal formats

There are many customizable options for you to use to get a widget that best suits your site.  You can choose:

• Vertical or Horizontal layout
• the background color
• Whether to show all users or just a single user
• Whether to show all categories, just a main category or main and sub category
• Whether to show just Services or just Files or Both.
• The width of the widget,
• The Height of the widget,
• How many items you want per page.
• To list by the Newest items to the site,
• To list by the Highest Percentage paid to You, the promoter
• To list by the Highest Dollar value paid to You, the promoter
• To list by the items that sell the best first

Once you have selected the contents of your widget the code will be generated for you. Just click on the code text box and all the code will be highlighted for you.  Ready to click ‘ctrl+c’ to copy it, then paste it into your website to make the widget appear.

Copy the Widget Code

Only Files and Services that pay a percentage out to Promoters will appear in your widget.  Try to choose the services that you think will match the visitors to Your website to get the most click throughs and the most sales.

Whenever someone clicks on one of the items in the widget on your page and comes to earner.net and purchases that (or any other) file or service, credit will appear in your account.

You can use that credit immediately to purchase files and services on earner, or go to the ‘My Accounts’ tab and get the money sent to you via paypal.

Your Promoter Stats

To see how well your efforts as a promoter are doing, there is a load of information under the ‘Stats Promoter’ tab

Stats Promoter tab shows Promoter Info

In this area you can

1. See graphs of how well your are doing as a Promoter.
2. Get banner ad links to link to the earner.net home page instead of an individual offer
3. See a tabled layout of all the transactions you as a promoter have sent to earner.

You can use this data to refine your Promotion campaigns and improve your conversions of clicks to sales.

Promoter Affiliate Graphs

There are many graphs available to you:

• Clicks
• Successes
• Clicks needed to get one success
• Conversion rate
• Commission Activity

These are all to try to help you earn the most money you can from being a Promoter.  You don’t need to sell something to earn money online, you can Promote someone who is selling something.

screenshot of the create a widget process

This is a quick blog post to let everyone know of the updates that have gone live today.  We have moved from a single category system in the Services and Files section to a unified multi-level categories system that is the same for Projects, Services and Files.

New Category System

This new category system should help get your work found as the site continues to grow.  The main obvious feature is that you can now narrow the searching down by price (as you always could) and now by Category as well.

While before you could categorize by Price OR by category.  Now you can categorize by Price AND category.

So someone browsing can now bring up a list of all “Advertising Services starting from $10.” or narrow the results down to “Show all the services and order by ‘most liked’ above $20 in the ‘Advertising’ main category.”

or “Show the latest services in the ‘Advertising -> Jingle and music Production’ services category with a price above $50″

The point is that browsing stuff just got easier.

One thing I would like your help with though, is that now with all the extended categorization, could you please check that your listed Services and Files for sale have ended up in a category that is correct for them.

I tried to match the previous categories to the new categories and hopefully haven’t totally missed the mark.  But if you could check your categories and update your services so they are where you want them to be so they can get found, that would be great.

Thanks.

For the Worker the benefit of using Escrow is that they know that money has been set-aside for them before the project begins.

For the Project Owner the benefit of using Escrow is that they know that the work will get done.  If the work does not get done, their money can be returned to them.

In a standard model without escrow the flow would go something like:

1. Project owner hires a worker,
2. Worker wants to be paid in advance,
3. Project owner wants to pay when the work is complete.

Stuck. If the project owner pays first, the worker may disappear without doing the work.  If the worker does the work first and the project owner doesn’t like the quality, so doesn’t pay, the worker looses.

With Escrow, both parties know they are safe.

Earner Escrow Diagram

When the Project Worker bids on the project, they also set a percentage that they want placed into escrow in order to start work.

So to begin work using Escrow, the Project Owner puts money into Escrow, the Project Worker starts work.  When the project reaches a point where the Project Owner is happy it is done, the Project Owner can release part of the Escrow to the Project worker.

The Worker knows the money is there for them.  The Project Owner knows the Worker will only get paid _after_ they have completed the work.

Safe for everyone.  Always use Escrow for projects.

A project always starts with the ‘Project Owner’ creating a project.

screenshot of create a project form

Once the Project Owner has outlined the details of the project and has submitted the new project to the system, it will be visible on the projects list screen.

screenshot of the projects list

Projects in the project list that have a blue link and appear more vivid are still open for bidding on. Projects that are greyed out are either closed or a worker has been selected.  Either way, new bids are not being accepted.

Workers who are interested in doing some freelance work can browse the projects until they find one that they like, then place their bid using the “Your Bid” form at the bottom of the project.

screenshot of place a bid form for worker

The details of the workers bid will be visible to everyone along with the message submitted when the bid was placed.  For private communication between the Project Owner and the Project Worker, use the Project Messages system.

screenshot of projects private message system

All communication in the Private Message system is just that, private.  Use this to get clarification on the project before it starts, and for communication during the project once a successful worker has been selected.

Inviting Workers to Bid on your Project

Once the Project Owner has created a project, they have the option to invite workers to come and bid on their project.

The Project Owner can go to the Hire section and search for workers with suitable skills and invite them to bid on any open project via the “Project Invite” button.

Selecting a worker

Once the Project Owner has decided on a worker from the existing bids, they can click on the “Accept this Bid” button.

screenshot of accept this bid button

The details of the workers bid are all contained on each bid.
In the screenshot above

• The workers name is “one”.
• They have completed 1 project for which they have a review.
• Their average rating for completed projects is 4.5 stars out of 5.
• They say their delivery time for this completed project is 12 days.
• The bid was created/updated at 25th May, 2011.
• 9 people have given this user a positive vote.
• They require 100% in escrow before they start work.

What happens when the Project Owner clicks on the “Accept this Bid” button is this:

1. The project fees of 10% are deducted from the Project Owners account.
2. An email and message are sent to the chosen worker telling them they have been accepted
3. A new button appears to the Project Owner on the “Escrow” tab of the project.
   

   project owner escrow after worker selection

4. A new button appears to the Project Worker on the “Escrow” tab.
   

   project worker escrow after worker selection

The Project Owner has the option of “Revoking the Offer and selecting a new winner” up until the point where the Project Worker selects the “I Accept” button. Once the “I Accept” button has been clicked by the worker, the project has started.

Now that the project has started, the Project Owner can transfer money into escrow to be held until the project worker completes the project and the escrow is released.

Portions of the escrow can be released to the Worker by the Owner at any time during the project.

When escrow is released to a worker, their credit balance goes up and the transaction is visible in their “My Accounts” tab. This credit is available for use immediately.

Depositing into Escrow

Escrow can be deposited for a Worker by the Project Owner from the credit that is available in the Project Owners credit balance.  If the Project Owner does not have enough in credit to fund the Workers minimum balance  into escrow, they must first purchase credit before trying to move funds into escrow.

If the Project Owner does have enough in credit, then they can move funds into escrow by using the form on the “Escrow” tab of the project.

project worker seeing details of escrow

project owner adding funds to escrow

The details of the project are all laid out on the escrow tab so it is clear to both parties how much is owed.  The Project Workers bid should include the 10% fee charged by earner.net so 100% in escrow is 100% of the Workers Bid minus the Project fee which is paid by the owner when the worker is selected.

When there has been a deposit into escrow it will show up on the escrow tab.

money in escrow

Release Escrow

Escrow can be released by the Project Owner to the Project Worker in increments if they both choose to use milestones for the project where portions of the escrow are released after tasks have been completed, or all at once at the end of the project.

release escrow

When releasing escrow in increments, the Project Owner can choose either a set dollar amount like $10 or a percentage of the amount in escrow like 50%.

Project Complete

Once the project has been completed and the project has been closed,  both the Project Owner and the Project Worker get to leave a review of each other.

rate each other

The ratings each person leaves will be visible on the closed project and on the users profile.  These ratings are especially important for trust.  Workers will find it easier to get paid well for projects if they have a lot of good ratings from their previously completed projects.

rating reviews are public

When things go wrong

Sometimes things just don’t go well.  When the project worker and the project owner are not moving forward on a project and want to part ways.  If communication channels are still open and the two parties are talking, the Project Owner can ask the Project Worker to return the funds that are in Escrow and the Project Owner will then be able to select another worker from those that bid on their project.

This button will always be visible at the top of the Project Workers “Escrow” tab for the project.

If a Project Worker does decide to remove themselves from the project, both parties will still get to review each other.  There is nothing worse than for a Project Owner than having someone say they can complete a project and waste time only to discover the worker does not have the skills to complete the project.

Project Workers, get clarification of what you need to do to finish a project _before_ you start or bid on the project.

Project Owners, you get what you _asked_ for, not what you wanted.  make sure you ask for what you want in your project description.  (add steps so that the worker knows how to finish the project too.)

Stalemate

If a stalemate is reached, contact the earner.net staff with the details of the project and the issue and we will mediate the situation.

Its a quick way to earn money online.

Under the services tab on earner.net is a list of all the current services on offer with the newest services at the top by default.

When you create your service it will start its life tagged as a ‘New’ service and will get good exposure a the top of the default listings.

The listings are able to be sorted by category and searched and divided by category to enable the visitors to locate interesting  services that they might want to buy.

To help you get your services under the noses of your target audience each service you create is able to be allocated a percentage of each sale to the person who sent you the customer.  People who send you services are know as promoters on earner.net.

You can set the value your promoters will earn if they send you a sale when you create your service.

If you do have Allow Promoters set to ‘Yes’ then your service will have its own affiliate program.  When a promoter sends you a sale, you pay the promoter a percentage.  Promoters can see this percentage when they are looking through earner.net.

It will show up on the full listings tab along with the details about your service that the customer needs to see.

And it will also be visible on the detailed view of your service as a popup from the “Promote” button.

When the promoter clicks the button, they will get their promoters link that will link directly to your service’s page.  They can put this link in their own website, blog, or email list to send you customers directly.

Screenshot of the services list:

screenshot of the services list