For years now many have noticed that quite a few people are making a name for themselves via the world of the internet. From teenagers developing success with viral videos on services like YouTube to older generations acheiving full time incomes blogging, the internet has quickly become a vital tool for those seeking renown.

I’ve noticed, during my random web surfing, that tons of people are trying to duplicate that which has brought a few to popularity and mass wealth. But is there success in being a mimmick? I’d have to say no.

I’m writing this particular article to cncourage readers to be creative, fresh, and prosperous. There are solid ways to increas your presence online and I’m going to share a few with you.

First off let’s take a look at a few basic, but CRUCIAL, keys to building a strong online reputation.

These are:

• Being Original
• Being Creative
• Being Consistent
• Being Timely

These four points are probably the best rules of thumb to live by online.

Let’s look at each one in more depth.

Being Original

This is by far the most important point of them all. If you don’t remember anything else, remember this.

Being original, or unique, is crucial to success and to viewer/reader interest. Most people know what they are looking for by the time they click your link and if they land on your site and see any cookie cutter content they have seen before, you can bet they’re going to make use of their web browser’s back button!

Before you write a post or article, upload a video, or publicize a photo, go ahead and do a search on the topic it’s related to. Visit the links presented on the first page of the results and see if your content is pretty similar. If if is, go back and edit it and see if you can present it in a unique fashion that you didn’t see within these results.

This leads perfectly into my next point:

Being Creative

Ok, you have your topic or basic content picked out, now what? Jazz it up by BEING CREATIVE.

As I mentioned before, analyze search results on content relevant to your own. Really look at how it’s presented, the mood it sets for you, even how the graphical or textual content is placed. These may seem like small details to pay attention to, but I promise you they all matter. Content placement has a lot to do with the way your readers view your page.

Now that you’ve broken down the content think of ways that you can present yours entirely different. Ask a friend or relative to review it. See if they feel it’s attractive and inviting.

On a side note, don’t tell your friends or relatives that the content you’re showing them is yours! You’ll get a much more honest response when they aren’t looking at it in your favor

Being Consistent

This is another major point to follow. When I first started out blogging and writing articles I fell short in this aspect and this is a lesson I quickly learned and prospered from.

You can post one video or article and get lucky and receive thousands of hits on it, but eventually that inital fame will die down. In order to keep an audience online you have to consistently produce quality, relevant content.

For bloggers this generally means posting articles three to four times a week, sometimes more.

For producers of viral videos or podcasts it can be once or twice a week that will keep readers/viewers coming back for more.

Like I said earlier, I didn’t do this in my beginning stages of blogging. Now that I am I have increased my readership by more than five times. That’s a significant jump for just making a simple change and updating more often.

Consistency is powerful.

Finally, my last point to building an online reputation:

Being Timely

Being timely is something that will have your readers/viewers drooling waiting for your next post or submission.

What does it mean to be timely?

Being timely means being one of the first to produce content on a particular subject within your niche.

This isn’t an easy task, of course. It requires time and effort. One thing I’ve found to be very helpful in this is to keep up with current news that is relevant to your niche, or topic.

So if you write a blog about dancing, keep up with “hot”, relevant news such as who the current top dancers in the t.v. series “So You Think You Can Dance” are. Being one of the first to present breaking or current news in your niche can drastically improve your website traffic and get your name to places you can’t even imagine!

KEEP UP WITH YOUR TOPIC.

BE TIMELY.

Well, that’s all I have to write about this subject for now. I really hope you will take this information and run with it. I’m personally sick of going through several websites that contain the exact same content!

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Lately I’ve been reading more and more on personal finance. To be more specific I’ve been reading a lot about credit and credit cards.

Being only 21 years young I don’t have tons of experience with credit or related issues, but I have become very well informed on the subject for my age.

First off, I want to say that for those around my age (early to mid twenties) it is CRUCIAL to start building credit. When you get into your late twenties or early thrities you’re going to be wanting to start looking into getting a house of your own, being able to finance a car that doesn’t cost a fortune, or even get a loan. All of these things require credit. Unfortunately, in the current day economy, these things require an almost impeccable credit score to get a decent rate and sometimes to even be considered.

Credit cards, in my opinion, are a lose-win contract. And when I say “win”, it only applies to cards with rewards. Credit cards that offer rewards often reward you for paying on time and staying under your credit line. Rewards can be several things, most being frequent flyer miles, cashback, and some even offer a slight APR reduction for your purchases.

Just a little side note here: if you would like more information on credit card rewards or would like to compare cards to get an idea, head over to CreditCards.com for more.

These are all nice little bonuses for your effort, but if you take a look at the applications for such cards you will notice that you will have to already have a good or excellent credit standing to be approved for these cards. So, in other words, these aren’t cards for us 20 somethings looking for a start.

Personally, I don’t use credit cards at all. I don’t own even one. There are many other ways that you can build your credit that are more valuable than these plastic demons that devour our lives.

A few alternatives for building credit are:

• Paying Bills On Time - This applies to just about any bill. Rent, cable, cell phone service, internet service, utilities, insurance payments, all of these can contribute to a good credit score if maintained well.
• Keeping Bank Accounts in Order - This is something that is overlooked often. Making sure you steer clear of overdraft fees, keeping a positive balance, and staying with banks for extended periods of time also contributes to improving your FICO score.
• Co-Signed Loans - This is thought of as the fastest way to build credit. Although I highly recommend not taking a loan, because it does put you in debt, this can be an easy way to better your credit score.
• Store and Gas Cards - Many department stores and gas stations offer credit cards for their services and products. These cards don’t rack up good score points as much as normal credit cards do, but they are typically easier to get approved for.
• Secure Cards - In all reality these are prepaid credit cards. Your initial deposit onto the card is your “credit limit”. You do have to pay interest on these cards and its usually very high. There are also fees that apply to most of these. Most allow you to become “unsecure” after a year or two of good standings.

These are all pretty good ways to increase your FICO score and become more eligible for loans and financing after proving you’re trustworthy.

Keep in mind, though, this is not a quick and easy process. Building credit takes a long time. And unfortunately making mistakes like missing payments and having bills sent to collection agencies amounts to taking 3 steps back after taking 1 step forward. So, if you choose to make it a goal to bring up your score, you HAVE to stay on top of things. Otherwise it will end in financial disaster.

Now, in my opinion, those that are in their twenties, thirties, fourties, or whatever age group you fall in, shouldn’t put themselves on the road to demise by using credit cards or loans. I believe you should budget yourself and save your pennies for everything you want. This includes cars and houses. IT IS POSSIBLE. Start saving now.

Most of you already know that main key to financial success, and if you don’t, here it is, SPEND LESS THAN YOU EARN. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. Live it and you CAN obtain your goals and desires.

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I was recently introduced to two more “get paid to” programs on the Web. The first being FusionCash.

FusionCash is much like Cash Crate as far as completing offers and surveys goes, but it does have a bit more profitable referral program.

Their referral bonus system is very simple:

• Refer a friend who confirms his/her email address: $1 bonus
• Your friend completes his/her first offer: $2 bonus
• Your friend cashes out: $5 bonus (each and every time they cashout - for life)

Everything is setup in an easy to read and understand format on the site and there are plenty of offers to do. The only downside that I have found about this particular “get paid to” program is that the cashout, at a semi-high $25, can only be made if $15 of that is from offers that you completed. This means unlike other GPTs you can’t just send referrals their way and expect to be paid. But if you have a little time on your hands to complete even just a couple offers a week you will for sure reach cash out easily. Solid program here.

If you’d like to sign up simply click the banner:

The second program that I was introduced to is The Cash Grab. This site is simple in design and easy to navigate.

A couple things that I found to be extremely positive in their favor:

• Great Customer Support
• Active Forums
• They Have a Nice Tutorial for Beginners
• You Receive %20 of all Referral Earnings
• Minimum Cash Out is only $10
• Pays through either PayPal or Check

There are a lot of good things that I have seen rummaging through this site. Another thing is that they have a lot of mid to high paying offers. Programs like Cash Crate have a few of these, but The Cash Grab has quite a few to choose from.

If you’d like to sign up simply click the banner:

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Unfortunately the great Amazon affiliate program that we have all come to know and love has decided to cut North Carolina residents out of the program. Due to the new tax legislation that is to come Amazon has made the decision to take us out of the equation.

I’m sure, along with myself, many are very disappointed by this. Amazon has one of the best and most reputable affiliate programs out there. Many of us are losing a great supplemental income.

For those of you in other states, consider yourself lucky. Hope you guys don’t have to face this rejection anytime soon!

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Let me start this off by saying that I have always been and probably always will be somewhat of a nerd That said, I’ve been on Xbox Live and Second Life quit a bit lately.

Now, a lot of people already know the marketing potential of Second Life, but have many thought about the possibilities of using online console communities for promotion and marketing?

I personally thought of the idea a few weeks ago while playing the ever popular Halo 3 on Xbox 360. When I saw the number of players online in this particular game, well over two hundred thousand, it struck me that this is an audience to preach niches to.

I know what most of you are thinking. Aren’t video game communities comprised of young kids? Well the answer is yes, and no.

You’d be surprised at how many people you see in these online games that are between the ages of 18 and 45. So why not make use of this? Think about the organic traffic you could send to your websites, the referrals you can connect with in a fun and personal enviroment, the sheer exposure potential for your blog is phenomenal.

How do you go about doing this? On Xbox Live this is very simple because you have what is known as a gamer profile. This is your online bio that every player you come across is able to see if you choose so. What’s the best way to promote yourself here? Just as you would with your Twitter bio, keep this short, simple, and to the point. A simple two line paragraph describing what it is you do and slap your website’s URL on it. Its that easy.

If you’d like to take this another step further one thing that I did was actually make my gamertag my website URL. The gamertag online reads ‘ BRADA7XoCOM’. Notice how I capitalized. This is because in order to the the “.” in front of com, you have to use a lower case O because you are not allowed to have characters in your gamertag. The only other downfall of this is that your gamertag is limited to a certain number of characters, so if you have a lengthy URL this more than likely will not work for you.

Advertising like this on online games, in my opinion, is something you should really consider. The gaming market is one that is growing at an expontential rate and the gaming crowd no longer consists of your tots and teens. Grown men and women are getting in on the action as well. This is a real route to potential customers and blog viewers! Especially if you’re in entertainment, gaming, or electronic niches.

Note that the Wii and Playstation consoles also have online services in which you can connect with others, too.

For extended information about Xbox Live I suggest heading over to Major Nelson’s Blog on Xbox Live.

I tried looking up more information on the topic of advertising like this, but I wasn’t able to find anything so maybe I’m the first to write about this! If you have any information about this from personal experience or from reading about it elsewhere, please comment and let me know!

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