I just purchased a Sony GC1 NET-Sharing CAM to start recording videos for my gardening site, my fly fishing New Brunswick site and my Adventure Travel site. I love the camera but I think that I could have used some help getting started.

That’s where Jim Kukral comes in. Jim has a great site started at Online Video Toolkit and well worth visiting. Checkout the videos Jim has created to help you get started with your own videos.

I picked a camera similar to Jim’s flip camera but with a bit more memory so that I can store up to nine hours of video or a ton of images for my blogs.

I am just moving from Jim’s Choosing a Camera video to Video #2, Buying Lights. Lighting has been my biggest problem so far, well that and the fact I have a hard time not being scared to death of talking or being on video. I’ll get over myself eventually.

I am watching the videos in order but I can hardly wait until I get to the videos that show me how to handle natural light and also filming outside. This is vital to my success as my blogs are hobby blogs and my hobbies all take me outside.

I am going to continue through the videos Jim has provided at Online Video Toolkit and see what else I can learn that will make my videos the best they can be at an affordable price.

Image via WikipediaI have been online for almost ten years and have made money online from the start, just not a lot from any one place. I even tried a few get rich quick schemes that came back and bit me right on the ass but I have never found a truly legal system where you can make money online with no money invested and no work either.

If you are willing to work and to even invest a bit of your hard earned money you can make a great living online. The biggest part is the learning curve and that is where I like to use other people’s knowledge as it makes my learning curve much smaller, meaning I can be in the money quicker.

Here is a video by Chris Pirillo @ chris.pirillo.com on how to make money online.

I like the first two suggestions Chris has.

1. You need to be willing to work for it.

2. Blogging is a great place to start. Personally I was stuck on static page sites that I almost missed the blogging boat.

The key to blogging, if your goal is to make money online, is to be unique. Write what people want to read. No one is going to read something they don’t want to read about unless they are still in school writing exams.

Be sure to take notes while you are viewing this video and like Chris says: GET STARTED

One great way to make money blogging is to earn commission on products and services that are of interest to your readers.

Currently I work with a few different affiliate managers but today it’s all about how to make money online blogging through…

Commission Junction - was founded in 1998 and has been growing and adding advertisers and publishers ever since.

Affiliate marketing, otherwise known as performance marketing is a reward system that pays you commission when you sell something. You can also have affiliate programs that pay you for leads as well. Get a good credit card company and you can earn $50 to $200 per lead, a very competitive market.

I like to blog about my hobbies as it is something I know a bit about. I like to fish, fly fishing especially so why not make mone blogging by adding a few affiliate program banners and posts that complement the blog. I can talk fishing all day long but at the end of the day I haven’t made a penny, unless I am promoting something my readers are interested in.

How do I go about making money from CJ?

First I had to become a CJ member

1. I browsed to Commission Junction.
2. I clicked the join as a publisher option.
   • Read the entire page, noticing the explanation of what a publisher is so you know you’re on the right page.
   • At the end of the page you will find a link that will take you to the signup page for Publishers.
3. Fill in the blanks and waiting for approval.
   • First you will specify your language, country and currency you prefer. Then you will click NEXT.
   • A warning window will open explain what your site should not be doing. Read it and close it.
   • Read the publishers service agreement before continuing to fill in your details. At the end of the agreement there is an agree button you must click to accept the agreement.
   • Read their privacy policy as well and agree to it before continuing.
   • NOTE: You must be 18 years of age or old, click the box to confirm that.
   • At this point you would continue to fill in your website details being as accurate as possible.
   • Next your personal details and tax info.

After you have been approved you can start learning more about CJ from CJU online.

Seeking Company Products and Services To Promote

Once accepted I log into my account using the email address I provided and my case sensitive password.

As a publisher this takes me to my Publishers Home where I can see some quick stats and the menu that will lead me to anywhere I need to go in CJ’s member area.

The CJ Publishers Menu

Home - Account - GetLinks - Run Reports - Mail

Home shows me Program Performance, Quick Stats, Trend Graph, Today’s Tasks along with a list of new advertisers. I can also see a list of the current advertisers I have applied to and been accepted by.

Account takes me to the administrative page and gives me a couple of new menu choices:

Administrative Settings - Web site Settings

• The administrative page shows me my name and address info, User settings and payment information.
• The Web site Settings page is where I have all my websites listed. I can add sites or delete existing ones. Also this is where I can see my PID number so I can track my promotions and sales.

Get Links is where I find the advertisers and products and services I would like to promote.

I do have to apply to any and all companies I wish to promote. While some approve immediately most are approved manually so you will need to wait a few days, some times longer to be accepted or rejected.

Once you have just the right program to promote you can get links to add to your website.

I like to make posts about the programs and products I like along with a good graphic that adds to the content and visual appeal.

Run Reports

Promoting your products and website to get more traffic is important and for another post but as you start to get impressions or eyes on your site you will see those impressions as stats in CJ.

As your readers see the value in the products you present they will purchase or signup for them giving you sale or a lead which in turn will earn you commission.

You will be able to use the Run Reports option to find what your sales and leads are.

Commission Junction isn’t the only affiliate manager on the net but it’s a great place to make money blogging about your special interests.

Who doesn’t like to watch videos over reading long blog posts. I personally read rather slowly and even at that I still have to reread things more than once. So, for me personally making money video blogging sounds like a plan to me.

Since having a heart attack I have to meds that leave me groggy most of the time. I started getting up at about 5am daily without using an alarm at all. I just wake up but I guess that’s better than having to drag my butt out of bed like my son does every day after about the 5th call.

I start my day, after freshing up a bit, with a coffee. I take it to my home office and start watching videos and scanning my email for junk. I don’t respond to any emails at this time.

I spent, past tense, most of my online life promoting make money online but in the past year I have realized that I make a whole lot more money online when I promote my hobbies. I also find it much easier to come up with content for the things I love doing.

Today I was watching a video on making money online with your hobbies and figured you might need to hear it from someone else too.