I just realized something! This entire blog is filled with ideas on how to help your sites make more money and receive more traffic, but I don’t have a single post that says, HEY! HERE IS HOW YOU MAKE MONEY. I want a post that tells you exactly how to reach your goals. A comment in another post (I do read them and get inspired by them) reminded me of this. So I perused through some old projects of mine and grabbed one thats very easy, very automated, reciprocal (consistantly makes money forever), and makes about a $100/day. Most of all it requires very minimal time and investment. So here ya go! Follow the instructions carefully and do as I did.
Here Is What You Do
1) Pick a generalized niche that is fairly popular. Celebrities work well, cars, animals. Anything will do.
2) Make a list of 300 items in that niche. For instance if you pick music artists make a list of the top 300 most popular music artists.
3) Download at least 20 public use(noncopyrighted) pictures of each item in your list.
4) Download or buy a screensaver maker. I don’t remember which one I use so I’ll have to update you in the comments when I get back to the office on Monday. Just make sure it is quick and easy to create the screensavers (saves you a lot of time) and comes with an exe output function that’ll easily install the screensavers on their computer without much dialog boxes or windows getting in thier way. This one looks decent. Easy Screensaver Maker and its only $25. Update: I use Screen Saver Builder. It’s $20 with fully functioning 21 day trial.
5) Create all your screensavers and put them up on a simple website. Give each screensaver its own page and download link. It also never hurts to SEO the site so it’ll do well in the search engines and make you even more money later on. Adsense also doesn’t hurt for a lil’ bit of extra cash.
6) Signup with Zangocash (Aff Link). This step is optional. See the comments for more ideas on how to monenize your new screensavers.
7) Talk to your account manager and ask him to bundle Zango software with your screensavers. Send him all the installers along with a textfile containing all the short descriptions and a sample picture. They are usually happy to do this for you. If they aren’t get a new account manager.
8) Get yourself a copy of Promosoft software submitter(nonAff link). I think it costs $95 for a copy but trust me it’s well worth it.
9) Follow the instructions on Promosoft to create the PAD files(product description files used for software sites) and submit each screensaver to hundreds of software and screensaver directories.
There you go. You will get paid $0.45 for every person who installs your screensaver. Once the screensavers are submitted you will have no problem getting tons of people downloading them everyday. If you get about 250 downloads per day(easy with 300 screensavers) you will easily make about a $100/day!
Okay so now all those people on forums and such who are bitching and moaning; saying stuff like “I want to quit my day job” and “I wish I could make a living online” can finally shut up. It is all right there, spelled out in plain english. You now have absolutely no excuses. Get off your ass and actually do it. Follow each step carefully and do a good job. It should take the average person no more than a couple days to get it done and you will make continuous money for a very long time. If you’re reading this and you suddenly realize that you are one of those people, just know that there is nothing wrong with that. We were all there. You just have to know when to quit. Quit searching forums for ideas. Quit buying ebooks hoping they’ll give that magical $100/day project idea. Quit asking “SEO experts” how they do it, and for God’s sake quit reading blogs hoping someone will post something like this, cus it just ain’t gonna happen(haha). All I expect from you is to read this post throughly and carefully at least two more times and actually follow through. There is nothing more I would love, than to hear someone tell me that an article I wrote helped them quit their job in the next 8 weeks. So make it happen!
Good Luck and Lets Get Back To Some SEO Shall We?
Update 3/20/07: The comments for this post are getting semi-ridiculous 
So a nice user has setup a forum especially for this post, where it can be discussed in a more efficient manner. Feel free to register.
http://www.zoomist.com/
Ok and for anyone who needs help obtaining 6000 pictures lol. Look for NeoDownloader 2.1! This program will scrape the images off a site in a few minutes. Its pretty intelligent too!
Thanks a lot, it made it a lot easier to get a decent amount of images
Thank you Borat for great recommended program.
Just bought NeoDownloader. Thanks for good recommended program. Works great!
OMG, Eli, not this one. Not Zango, please. Zango is the absolute gutter of the internet.
So for everyone - should you follow this tip (from an otherwise interesting blog), be aware that you are spreading the spyware / parasiteware infestation, increasing the number of zombie computers, allowing someone to steal commissions from many affiliates - by bundling Zango with the screensavers, you make the internet a worse place.
Besides - you may earn measly one-time $0.45, Zango will however earn (steal, whatever) hundreds and thousands from one download.
Think about it.
Oh hell! I love this blog! Right now im thinking, why didnt I think of that? haha.
Thanks for the great tip!
For more on Zango… I mean 180 solutions affiliate hijacking, read http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/180-affiliates/ that is a shame because this is such a good post.
All is not lost though - let’s see if anyone else can come up with a way to monetize this stream of content besides adsense. Surely there must be something good.
hi all,
you could add a “how to create a gallery website” page that your visitors can sell for a small amount e.g $2 - that way each hit becomes a promoter for your gallery website
great site BTW
Your a pimp. This next drinks for you.
*spanks everyone on the ass*
GOOD GAME!
Very nice Eli, thanks a ton for this man.
very interesting idea…wow…genius
Sounds great, but then i saw the comments here about zango which makes me think not so great. Is there another pay per install program that is reputable?
before you attempt any pay per install program itz always a good idea to understand fully what you are distributing. From my experience Zango used to be an aggressive company. Since they’ve gotten their licensing they realy have toned it way down. They are definitely adware not spyware. They are very strict on the bundles to make sure that they aren’t tricking any users into installing. Their software has also become quite a bit less agressive. I hate spyware and adware as much as the next person but i have to defend them on certain unjust counts. they do not hijack your affiliates. That is highly against terms and unethical. If you suspect a company is hijacking your aff links be sure to test it. The guy who wrote that article is an idiot. Even valueclick said so. After that article was released Commission Junction changed the way certain cookies updated from banners and text links just to prevent people from confusing the cookie update with a hijacking.
Eitherway i was just using zango as an example. There are plenty of other ways to monotonize the install. If you really don’t want to distribute anything, you could always just change their homepage to include your google search link.
The article critical of 180 mentions:
“this article describes only behaviors that I observed in June-July 2004.”
I can’t believe you are promoting zango
Go to gfy and read some threads about these scumbags
they DO highjack affiliates.
Cool idea for the newbs out there that includes me as I am new to this stuff, the aggressive stuff that is. It is said there are other ways to monetize this so can we discuss this? Find some new ways to make a buck from this so people who don’t like zango can use some other means? I like the search page idea so how can that be done? seems if you used a themed search/news/portal page along with a themed screen saver that could bring people in over the long term that would really rock as in continuous income stream instead of a one time install fee from scumbo/zango. any ideas on exactly how to accomplish this? Eli? anyone?
Alrighty how about this idea. Watermark all your images with a second website url. The second website is nothing more than a PPC campaign to other screensaver terms. The second website gets advertised everytime the screensaver runs. Also, ppl will pay money to have you include their site in a bookmark on the users computers. There are tons of ways to monotize this. Infact it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do ALL of them. It doesn’t hurt to blend in immediate income with reoccuring income.
First, once again Eli thanks for such a great article, and as long as you write great articles, I’ll bring in great comments
About the technique to “bundle an installer into your own software”, my feeling (and it just represents my feeling) is that if you spend hours writing a piece of software, maybe at the end, you might use this to get some cash, but just as a bonus for a software that you would have written for your pleasure.
Now, if it is only about making money, when it comes to spend time creating hundred of screensavers, it might not bring good cash compared to the time spent. BUT THAT IS ONLY MY FEELING, I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR ANY FEEDBACK from anyone who’ll try Eli’s technique.
Ok, so here an another alternative to Zango…
say you make a screensaver for that fancy singer, just create a dull webpage about the guy, with some ads on it.
e.g. your page would be called
http://www.mybluehat.com/bonjovi.html
WHat next? You create the screensaver installer with the screensaver maker software, called in this example : bonjovi-screensaver.exe
you rename this file into something like
bonjovi-screensaver.ex_
Then, you create a good old .bat file, containing the following lines:
rename bonjovi-screensaver.ex_ bonjovi-screensaver.exe
explorer “http://www.mybluehat.com/bonjovi.html”
bonjovi-screensaver.exe
And finally, you right-click on your .bat file and “create a shortcut”. Finally, you rename your shortcut “Setup.exe”
And you just need to zip the three files : your shortcut, the .bat and the screensaver.
You distribute it, just as Eli explained.
When somebody will get the screensaver, he will of course click on the “Setup.exe” link that will execute the .bat
the .bat will open a window to your internet page before launching the setup of the screensaver
Then, most people will close this internet page, but some will actually have a look at it and click on some of your ads, bringing you some money.
What will bring more cash ? the cents from Zango when the user accepts to install it, or some cents from adwords when someone clicks on your links? I couldn’t tell you, so it’s up to you to test it and discover!
And remember what Eli says “this blog focus on creativity”! What I wrote is just a base, I tried to make it as easy as I could, but you can obviously improve this and use something else than a damn .bat file!
There we go. Now we’re starting to get some good ideas. This kind of brainstorming is what i like to see.
How about this idea for those who want to remain aggressive but don’t want to piss anyone off. Make your own version of Google Desktop Search. Put a little bar in their taskbar that searches google and have it use your pubid. Just be sure to include it in your installers TOS if your going to do this. That way you’ll be in the clear.
This I’ve never tried, but i’m very tempted to
Great Monetization Idea, If you Don’t Mind Being a Little Dirty
Bluehat SEO has a great idea up on how to make $100 per day. He proposes creating some free screensavers and packaging them with the software from ZangoCash. Zango pays $0.45 per user download, so this could add up pretty quickly. The post very clearly…
Everyone is prattling on about zango’s practices and policies etc. I would suggest they read their practices page http://www.zango.com/Destination/Corporate/BestPractices.aspx I personally am going to try this Eli, I am not using screensavers though I am using financial how to lists i.e. get startup moneys etc. Think Matthew Lesko… Thus far making landing pages with these lists has done really well, and people rave about the content. I am going to package it in a flash-pdf and export it to exe and run it through zango, I will let you know how well it works. Great idea man, and frankly Im a little pissed I didn’t think of it on my own. Keep posting, and maybe we can make a difference for a few.
Best Regards,
J-Man
I don’t really want to get in on the whole zango debate. Just thought I’d mention that I’ve had some success using Screensavers.com’s affiliate system to monetize screensavers. Mixing in a good many free ones with some CPA screensavers seems to work well.
Lol @ post #18. I identify that as link/comment spam.
that’s not comment spam..
Any good resources out there for free images to use?
Also, Zango available to Brits?
I’m Joe Cracker and yea incase you didn’t notice Im a cracker
Your idea is OK but lame.
How are people going to find our sreensaver site? And how are you doing to get 250 doanloads in a single day and repeat it month after month? You mention a $95 program, but lol thats a rip.
Doesn’t seem possible when the niche is already way oversaturated. Celebrity wallpapers? What are gonna think of next? Rap music ringtones? Or Free Ipod razers?
I know you put time and fort into your post, but it isnt a great idea. Infact, it kinda sucks to be honest.
I give it as Ebert would say 2 thumbs down.
Learn to read AND understand something before you pass judgment. If you were not ignorant you would have understood that there is no “screensaver” site we are driving people, at least not primarily. We are distributing PADs to hundreds of software listing sites (a la download.com). llama.
Great post Eli!!
Where can I find those hundreds of directories you mentioned?
Any suggestions regarding bundling Screensavers.com within your system? They have a much higher pay out per lead (CPA)!
Thanks a lot!
Hey joe and michael,
If you’ve never given software submitting i strongly recommend you give it a shot. If youc can’t afford the $95 for promosoft you could always do them the semi automated way for free. I recommend using robosoft http://robosoft.rudenko.com/.
its semi automated and has tons of sites but it sucks big time when your submitting 300+ pieces of software(screensavers). To answer your question joe, you will get the traffic to both the downloads and the pages by submitting to the software and screensaver directories. I have software sites that get over 7k visitors/day from simply submitting to software sites. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself.
how long does it typically take to create a screensaver?
How do you these screen savers to hundreds of directories? That seems to be the bulk of the work.
The Zango part is a moot point! Don’t use it if your not comfortable. There are lots of cost per action offers you can throw in front of those downloaders. Some short surveys pay 1-5 dollars each. You can use any way you monetize other traffic. Just DO IT! If one way doesn’t work, switch to another. C’mon.
I am going to give a try,maybe 30 screensavers are ok(since making a screensaver is really quickly).If that turns out to be fine,we could get in:)
ps:why can’t I reply in thunderbird?
What’s up with the hatin Joe Cracker…
And for the record…Ebert can only give “one thumb(s)” up… although wielding two thumbs he is only allowed a mono-thumb vote
I wasn’t aware that you could make your own version of Google Desktop Search and offer the modified install exe to others. I haven’t been able to locate any information on how to do this. Can anyone steer me in the right direction?
http://commons.wikimedia.org should be a help for those of you looking for images
matt, thanks man that was exactly what a lot of ppl were looking for. I was going to address that issue cus of all the emails i got about it but you beat me to it
Thanks!
Steve, Look up on Microsoft msdn for deskbands
Creating Custom Explorer Bars, Tool Bands, and Desk Bands
I’m not going to answer any questions regarding how the site will be promoted, how to get it on hundreds of screensaver directories, or how quick it is to do. All these questions are answered very clearly in the post.
i searched the web today and i think it’s nearly impossible to find pics which i can use in promotional-use screensavers for free.
someone knows sources?
Tom - look a couple posts back, I posted a good source. Here are a few more.
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/
http://www.freeimages.co.uk/
http://freestockphotos.com/
http://www.istockphoto.com/
http://www.free-photographs.net/index.php
http://www.sxc.hu/
Eli - when you get a chance could you post the name of your screensaver maker? Waiting to hear what you use before I make my decision on what to use.
How long is it taking you guys to collect these images?
Are you sticking to the 300 screensavers with 20 pics for each screensaver (I’m not!)
I’m going for 300 screensavers with at least 7 images… 20 would drive me crazy!
Also, how many of these sites have you got going Eli ?
thanks you for the sources.
my english is not the best. does the following text mean that i must put a text with the author on each photo? someone doing this?
http://commons.wikimedia.org:
“Everyone is allowed to copy, use and modify any files here freely as long the source and the authors are credited and as long as users release their copies/improvements under the same freedom to others.”
Just stick a disclaimer on your site - e.g. if you think you own copyright to any of the images on here please contact us and we will take them down immediately.
Gives you a little breathing space in the unlikley event someone contacts you.
Maybe a point that was beat to death, but certainly not moot. For all the talk saying that they don’t swipe aff commissions, I haven’t seen any proof that they DON’T. I have however, seen at least antecdotal evidence that they DO. Besides that article in comment #4, check out
their recent settlement for $3 million
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Spyware/?p=861
more discussion at - http://blogs.zdnet.com/Spyware/?p=856
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/paperghost/116068614159181859/
God no, please not zango!
I love your blog but really zango is nothing more than scumware.
More info on zango scumware and how it affects everyone that is in to affiliate marketing on the net:
http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/180-affiliates/
Anyone using a script for their site? If so, what script?
Thanks
for those who might be a bit confused - there appears to be two matts here, I’ll use afmatt from here on out to keep confusion down
Yea this idea is lame
Issues with Zango and spyware
Copyright issues
Too much work
There are better methods of making 100 bucks a day. One method involves myspace…
I suggest if you are reading this to not waste your time.
By now im sure 100s of noobies have copied Eli’s method which will make it een less effective.
Also if you want to make big money online consider using myspace bulletins and adder programs.
I made over $1000 in a single day with this method and its all automated, too. No stupid directories or spyware or that crap.
Why don’t you share your technique with us?
Joe Cracker - how about instead of insulting Eli and poking cheap shots you make a useful detailed post on how to use Myspace to make money? Just badmouthing stuff and dropping hints of how you do better at something else seems kinda cheap to me…
oh bummer. I was hoping this was the ONLY way to make $100/day online
Joe, If you got a cool idea feel free to share it with the rest of us.
Joe
Why are you wasting time smearing that post? Got make $1000 dollars a day on myspace.
Joe Cracker, Eli took the time to write up a nice, detailed post on how to make good money - something that he could’ve kept to himself. I don’t understand why you’re such a hater.
Give the guy some credit.
Oh no guys please don’t defend me or the post from people who don’t agree with the project. I appreciate the support but one of the biggest reasons why I posted this was to get the entire range of comments about it. You’ll understand why on my next post, but I really do want to encourage comments bashing the post. Infact don’t hold out on me. If theres a reason why you aren’t doing this project please share. If theres a reason why you are doing the project please share as well. I really do want everyone to come out and say exactly what is going through their thought process when they were reading this post.
Well, despite all the above i’m just going to follow Eli’s excellent post step by step and see what happens, I’ve already got about 3000 images last night, my domain is registered. I’m just looking at what to use my site with. Probably Joomla or similar.
I will let you know my results. I agree that many people may be tying this, but there is a LOT of traffic for screensavers, so all you are trying to do is get a small proportion of that massive traffic per day.
Well we’ll see.
well, how ya doing on this?
How the hell are you getting so many images so quickly?
I’ve done 24 out of 300 topics so far.. and it’s taking me an age.
I’m going to make a site out of this .. and I’ll see how good this idea is
This was a really great post and I plan on utilizing some parts of it. However I’d like to explain something on the Zango part to those saying it doesn’t steal affiliate money. On many sites, when you get redirected there, an affiliate for that site has paid to have their full page ad pop up. Now say you send a potential customer to an affiliate program’s site hoping to make a sale. But as soon as they get there a second window for the same site appears on top of the one you opened only with this other person’s affiliate id. The surfer will most likely mistake the pop up for the link they clicked and viola a good way to lose money. I’m not bashing Zango or those who use it, just trying to explain a point of view. Regardless of the entire Zango debate this is a fantastic post though.
Hey I just wanted to state that I found the screensaver program I used.
Its called Screen Saver Builder.
http://www.download.com/Screen-Saver-Builder/3000-2409_4-10353859.html?tag=lst-0-1
its $20 but it has a fully functional 21 day trial.
Eli thanks a lot for this post. I have no problem with following your plan step by step. I have already invested the money and get employee to do the repetitive work. I know the logic of business already.
Anyway, I would like to ask. What’s the risk of using non public images? For example the ones I find wiht google image search? Is it a big risk for me?
And if I understand it right, with Zango I get money after they install the exe file. Why the hassle with 20 images at all? Surfers could get away with 3 images screensaver and I still get the money, no? They won’t realise the quality of my screensaver. I will already cash the money from them.
But I am the most interested about the non public images and the risk involved, if anyone could share their opinion or even experiences, please?
neon, Excellent question! I was expecting that exact question and wondering why no one has asked it yet. The bad advice for me to give is to tell you to go ahead and use any ol’ pictures you find. However, chances are the pictures are so spread around even if the original owner tried to track them down the chances of them finding it on your screensaver are slim to none. The chances are even slimmer of them caring. If they did find it, before they could take any legal action and actually expect to win they must first send you a cease and desist letter.
My personal fealings are, if finding nonpublic use pictures took you an extra couple minutes to get each picture than its worth recreating the screensaver if you get such a letter with nonpublic pictures. Using any random pictures of your subject actually works to your advantage time wise.
The only major reason why i said get noncopyright pictures was because Zango WILL ask you if the pictures are copyrighted. If you say I don’t know or no they will tell you no on creating the bundles and you will have to redo them first.
The other issue is, a screen saver with only 3 pictures - may get poor reviews on the download sites.
Whereas a picture with say 20 pictures in 1024×768 resolution of trees for a north american nature screen saver would probably fly under the radar. =)
-rob
Those of you looking at this post and thinking about doing it but don’t want to spend hours looking for images to use I suggest you try posting a project on rentacoder or getafreelancer to find someone to outsource that part of the project. I just hired a freelancer from a company I’ve worked with before to provide 150 screensavers worth of images (3,000 images total) for the grand price of $50
Outsourcing is your friend!
Eli you strike again. I’ve been reading your blog for quite some time and i think im gunna have to give this idea a shot. I talked to my AM at zango and will be testing this some time next week with an awsome niche that i thinks pretty untapped. Maybe ill throw something up on wf about it if it works well. Thanks for the idea!
Hi,
thx for the idea
.
I’ll give it a try.
some
Why do we have to do step 5? Do we have to upload onto a sepereate website before sending them to be bundled at zango?
Thanks
scott, step five is actually very important. the pad files and software directories will want the url to the description of the screensaver. Many ppl prefer to visit the download page before they click the download. So you will get a greater increase in installs. This also has the added benefit of giving you more inbound links instead of each download site linking to the same page. Which causes it to loose link value. Each page and download you create should pull about a PR4-5 after the software submission. This also helps in the seo aspect.
Thanks kaveman and someone.
aftman and robert that is some great advice.
Is there a free hosting domain that I can upload these screensavers onto that isn’t geocities or something?
NeoDownloader 2.1. Does this program just get the pictures from databases or websites or whatever or does it make sure they are not copywrited?
Thanks a lot!
Will definitely be trying this.
Antz.
nevermind about neodownloader
I would like to know about the free hosting as well. What about blogger or something??
A couple of Free hosting places I recommend are zephyrhosting.net (no ads at all) or Byethost.com. Much more professional and very easy to setup.
anyone on here have any idea of a “off the shelf” script for a screensaver site? Would be nice to skip having to design/outsource the site.
I like the byethost.com. Is 20gb bandwidth and 150mb storage enough for over 300 screensavers?
150mb should be just enough. If you go through zango then they will host the screensavers for you so no worries.
So we have to upload our screensavers onto our website, THEN talk to zango? Once they bundle them for me do i put the bundled ones onto my website and replace the ones i uploaded before?
150mb storage won’t be enough for 300 screensavers, unless they’re really small ones.
Just buy some cheap $2 hosting or something.
What is good bandwidth?? I have no idea
If your not going to have the screensavers hosted elseware consider the daily bandwidth. If you got 20gb/monthly then thats a little over 650mb/day. Consider at least 100mb for page traffic and another 10mb for padfile pulls(they pull quite often). Than that leaves you with 540mb/day. If your screensavers are about a meg each thats a max of 540 downloads/day. One way to lighten the load is to signup with two free hosting accounts, one strictly to host the files. then in your pad(download description file) specify two mirrors. That will often help you lighten the load. Often times ppl will click on Mirror 2 instead of Mirror 1.
Edit: I forgot to mention that if you start seeing bandwidth issues a 301 redirect also works in emergency cases.
Thanks! great advice!
Does Zango host the files after they bundle them and i just link to the files on my website?
Do i have to host them? Can you explain this?