Showing posts with label online. Show all posts
Make Easy Cash Online with 10 Best Ways
Today all of us is struggling hard to earn money online , in this economy all of us is looking for some easy ways to make easy cash online, especially teens you know, we teens we always want things done quickly, we really like to make easy and ready cash right? unfortunately there’s no magic button for this thought, if you want to make cash , you need to work hard , this is the unique solution if you are looking for some easy ways to make cash in the end.
Make Easy Cash
I really remember well when I was a newbie to the internet marketing world , I really was struggling hard to earn few bucks online which is normal for a newbie person, I was hoping to earn at least one buck per day , fortunately now I’m making a good amount of money and let me tell you everything here and how I have been and still making money online .
I didn’t make money immediately , I’ve started making money online after a long period of though research I tried everything I mean everything I kept looking for legitimate ways to earn cash ,of course I faced and lost my gold time on scam sites as well, but this is normal in life. We do mistakes but in the end we learn from them
The Internet is really a cool way to make easy cash and you don’t have to be a web savvy in order to make cash online .
So here are some easy ways to make cash online, these ways might be aimed for both teens and adults
1) Lease your skills and convert them into money
there are many teens that have some great skills in designing, writing or translating. These types of skills surely have a great market value, and they are in demand this is a cool way tomake easy cash online !
If you have any skills in web and logo designing you can consider 99designs which is a really awesome site if you want to make money off your designing skills
If you are a talented writer and you have a great writing style and impressive writing skills, then just buy a pair of trousers with deeper pockets
If you want to make money writing then I have a cool list for you check it out !
You can join freelance sites where you can find work and get paid doing various tasks according to your skills .
the best freelance sites include Odesk, elance and Iwriter. There are surely other ways to make cash with your skills just make use of our friend google
2) Sell you useless stuff on Ebay
I made 500$ from ebay so far because I had so many stuff that I didn’t use anymore, I realized that Ebay is the best way to get rid of your old stuff and convert it into cash
on Ebay you can sell anything such as old books,clothes , shoes, electronics etc… everything you have old on your garage could be sold on ebay.
If you have something old to sell, just fire up your brower and head to Ebay.com .
3) Design T-Shirts and make easy cash
this is another awesome method for teens for making easy cash designing t-shirts and sell them online, sites like cafepress and zazzle allow you to open your own online store and sell your own Customized t-shirts, if you make cool and fancy t-shirts ,then your earnings would be high
If you want to make easy cash designing t-shirts then check out these great sites Cafepress andzazzle .
4) Write product reviews and get paid
this is an other reliable source of income. I’ve written many reviews about products and companies and I’ve made a good cash from them
It’s very easy to review a product or company, you just need to learn lots about them and then generate your OWN review from your mind
If you want to make easy cash by writing reviews you can take a deep look at these sites as they are the best ones around
- Ciao : this is a product review service based on the UK and owned by Microsoft corporation which allows you to make easy cash by writing honest reviews about products .
- Epinions : is another great website where you can make cash by writing reviews in many different categories.
- reviewstream : reviews are very important for the customers because they help them to buy the right stuff as they want it to be, now you know how much reviews are important, Reviewstream is all about reviewing products and you can make decent money writing your honest reviews
- Ukritic : is another awesome site where you can make easy cash by reviewing stuff you own, jut review and get paid !
5) Sell your Services on Fiverr
If you need to make easy cash fiverr is probably for you, fiverr is a site which allows you to sell your services for 5$, the best thing about fiverr is that you can make cash by selling sometimes even silly services like singing a song for someone,drawing something on your face and so on, If you don’t like fiverr don’t worry there are so many fiverr alternatives ;)
6) Make easy cash with your Twitter profile
the money you can make with twitter are really limited, but since there’s no hard work to earn them they are welcome , sponsored tweets is an online platform that allows you to monetize your twitter account, by spreading sponsored news along your tweets. If you are a blogger you don’t have to lose your gold time in this
7) Make cash with your smartphone
There are so many apps out there that allows you to make easy cash by just doing some easy tasks with your smartphone, here are the best apps to make money with your smartphone
8) Make easy cash creating custom toolbars
Conduit : allows you to make easy cash by creating your custom toolbars and get paid everytime someone downloads your custom toolbar, usually 2-3 $ per download
9) Get Paid to answer questions about programming… etc
If you are a geek and you have a huge knowledge about softwares ,hardwares and programming you can make cash and earn rewards by joining Experts exchange it allows you to answer questions about the mentioned topics and earn rewards a long the way.
10 ) Make cash helping lazy students with their homeworks
if you are knowledgeable on a specific subject you can help other students to solve their homework issues and make easy money, you can join student of fortune and start making money helping lazy students
Final words
the sites mentioned above are sites that worked for me and made from them some bucks, I hope you like them, please share this post with your friends, or share your money makers by dropping a comment below
Blogger | Get Online Earning Sources
Here is the revelation of my online earning sources. Because you already know, I share the truth as I saw it, you can expect no hype but rather the different ways you can attempt to make money online.
Some bloggers who’re blogging for months but earning literally nothing wonder if there really exists any online earning sources!
Different Sources I Use to Make Money Online
Before proceeding any further, let me confess that I’m not an expert in online earning and do not make a 6 figure income. Whatever I write here are based on my experience and my online earning sources.
Image Credits: FreeDigitalPhotos
Selling Products as Affiliate
This is probably the best method for bloggers and online marketers to make money online. However, selling affiliate products is not one night job, it really requires you to be consistent, smart and trustworthy.
You can realize how hard it becomes to agree anybody to take money out of their pocket. A huge trust on you is the only key and the trust can be earned through building solid reputation.
Affiliate marketing is one of my major online earning source and truly proud to be somebody on whom you can rely
I’ve sold some products through my blogs and social networks (Facebook & Twitter). HostGator Hosting Accounts, WPZon Builder Plugin, WPDollar Plugin, MyeCoverMaker, PrettyLinkPro etc. are some of the products I sold successfully.
You can use social networks, mailing lists and sales pages to promote and sell affiliate products, but having a blog will definitely make your life easier. As I told you earlier, building trust is really vital and a blog offers you opportunity to build up your reputation.
#1. Adsense - Online Earning with Google
No need to explain it any further. Google Adsense is one of the prime revenue source for most of the blogs. I’m using Adsense for my sites like psexam.com, icttrends.com and in this blog too. Though Adsense is not earning much for this blog, it is performing well for my other blogs.
Blogs that have problem solving posts works great for Adsense earning. Often people face problems and look for solution. They do searches in Google and the like to land to those posts. Those organic traffic is much easier to convert when we aim to earn from advertisements like with Adsense.
#2. Amazon Associate to Earn Money Online
This is another great avenue to test your skills. Amazon is the largest online market containing products for all categories – from household equipment to office furniture, from books & CDs to software. You can find any product of your interest and promote them in your blog to make commission for every sale through your links.
I’ve sold some Computer Science books, Toshiba tablets (Thrive), iPhone accessories, baby and pregnancy products using different Amazon sites. The WordPress plugin WPZon Builder and some awesome Amazon themes really helped me to make those sales.
Amazon associates can be a separate sector to make money online.
#3. InfoLinks – Another Source of Passive Income
This is contextual text link ad network different than Adsense though both of these pays based on CPC. Once you register your blogs in Infolinks, you can get code to paste in your blog. It converts some words or phrases in your post into links and pays you if your readers clicked on those Ads.
Infolinks is not earning as much as Adsense yet, but the additional money it offers is worthy to collect in PayPal account.
The recent updates in Infolinks includes search links, tags and sidebars allowing you to earn more money.
#4. Sponsored Reviews – Get Paid to Write
This is relatively newer venture I’m making recently. You can register for an account in SponsoredReviews.com site and bid for different articles offer. If you can win any of the bids, you’ll be allowed to write about the offer as prescribed and will be paid for the post you publish.
The great thing about SponsoredReviews.com is that it has really huge number of advertisers and publishers; at the same time, the site claims 50% of the money you make for writing the posts will make you think twice.
I’ve published some sponsored posts to make some attractive money. If you have good writing skills, this is the way you can make some handsome money every month.
#5. Direct Ads – Monetize Your Blog
Once you make your blog popular, you can attract advertisers to purchase banner Ads or text ads. Most of the advertisers count the Alexa rank and Google PageRank, so, you need to try to improve these metrics for your blog.
Till last year, I enjoyed my psexam.com and icttrends.com having PR 6 and 5 respectively and earned good money by selling text links. I’m still selling some text and banner ads in my blogs. They constitute my regular income.
When you have good PageRank but did not find advertisers, register yourself in Teliad, BuySellAds etc to help you get advertisers. Getting approved in BuySellAds is a bit difficult but you’ll find Teliad a great source of online earning.
#6. Guest Blogging – Good Work Pays
You may wonder, but it is true! You can make money online by guest blogging. When you demonstrate your authority and impress with your great writing skill, the publishers will be attracted and interested to offer you. You can join those sites as paid author and get paid for your every published posts.
I joined a couple of blogs as paid author and started to write posts for them. I did not find much time to exploit the opportunity fully but I’m happy with whatever I make from guest blogging.
#7. SponsoredTweets - Free Online Earning
This is another opportunity you can make money online. You don’t need to have your own blog neither needs to research and write long text to get paid from SponsoredTweets.
If you are active in Twitter and have large twitter follower base you can register in SponsoredTweets to get offers. You need to check the offered message and site if it suits your followers. If yes, shoot the message to your twitter followers and earn money. The payment can be boost if your followers clicks on the link.
I’m using SponsoredTweets for some time and earned a few dollars. I know it is not a huge money but some dollars earned only to tweet message is not bad. Additionally, if you can have some referrals under you, you can make considerable money every month from SponsoredTweets.
Well, these are the different ways I make money online. Hope you got some glimpses of online money in this post. Please don’t forget to comment and share this post if you find it useful. Are you using any other method for online earning? I’d love to hear your views.
Earn Money Online with Micro Job ( Websites)
This post provides information for the online job seekers to make money online with micro job websites.
The internet technology has changed our lives by providing unlimited information and helps to connect with the world through social networks, emails, video chatting and so on.
We should thank to the internet as we could work and make money from home in many different ways. Yes, there are plenty of ways to earn money online without investment.
Now days, most of the people are looking for the sources to earn money online as it has various advantages like comfort of work from home, work without travel and not much skills are needed to perform them.
While saying the words “online money making” then the three popular ways named Blogging, Freelancing and Affiliate marketing strikes my mind. But all these need consistency, dedication and patience to thrive in it.
Then, you might ask “How come the people with little skills can make money online?”
Here is the answer!
Since the outsourcing is working well for big businesses, it is logical for the medium and small businesses too. So they need workers to perform short and easy jobs for small fee to get their job have done effortlessly.
As the growing number of people are ready to work from their home at spare time, many start-up organizations are overcoming the frustrations by getting the required jobs done on time from them.
Working with small projects and earn money with it? Yes, it is called Micro lancing and let’s discuss in detail.
What is Microlancing or Microfreelance?
Micro lancing is a freelancing job where the type of jobs could be done in a short period of time.
In other words, workers can complete the mini projects with little experience or even with no experience and get paid for it.
What are the advantages of doing micro jobs over freelancing?
Workers need not to work hard to fine the micro jobs and little time is required to complete these types of jobs.
Unlike freelancing, most of the websites offer the jobs without the bidding system and it is possible to earn money without any specific skill.
Moreover, not much reputation and attractive profile are needed to perform the micro jobs.
What are the types of Micro jobs?
There are various types of microjobs and let’s check some of it.
Online services marketplace:
- Workers offer small service for buyers with a little fee.
Simple online tasks:
- Buyers posts simple tasks on microjob websites and get the work has done by the people who are willing to do it.
Writing and commenting on blogs:
- Busy blog owners required workforces to write short articles and comments for their blog.
Real world tasks:
- Some types of buyers need to finish the jobs which cannot be done online.
Crowdsourcing jobs:
- Some online companies hire people to complete small tasks for their large projects.
Surveys and reward programs:
Many online businesses pay money to the people to participate in surveys and reward programs to improve the quality of their product/service.
Useful Micro Job websites to make money online
Conclusion
Many websites acts as a platform between the businesses which need to get a variety of small jobs to be done and the people with various skills who want to make money online.
Within a short period, the micro jobs has become popular among the people to earn money online as it requires simple tasks without bidding system.
Search for the legitimate microjob websites and register in it. Offering quality work to them rather than focussing to make money with it would improve your presence among the buyers and so you’ll getdirect offers from them.
Most of the microjob websites are paying money through Paypal, so it would be better to create a Paypal account to withdraw the payout.
I earned some bucks with Fiverr and iwriter with my writing skill.
What do you say about make money online with Microjob websites? Speak your opinion
Good News | Opportunities for Students to Earn Money Online
From a recent study, I came to know that the students are spending much time on the internet and most of them are searching the best job opportunities to earn money online with a question “how to earn money as a student?” Previously, I discussed some online jobs and useful websites for them to make money online without investment. Here am gonna discuss some good job opportunities with which the students can earn online cash at their convenient time.
The internet has opened wide variety of job opportunities for motivated students to make fast bucks with genuine online jobs. Only few of the students are wasting their time in social networking websites and online games. But most of the students are passionate in online money making so that they help their parents to cut off the daily expenses.
Image credit: Flickr.com
Are you a student and desiring to make online cash with genuine job opportunities?Hope this post would help you to earn some bucks on the internet.
Previously, I had a couple of discussions specifically for students to make residual incomefrom home. I suggest you to look at the job opportunities specified in the following blog posts which would help you to get some ways of making money online as a student.
1. Top 5 online jobs for students
2. How students can make money online?
Let’s continue the talk here and check few more job opportunities available for students to earn money online.
Online job opportunities for students
1. Vlogging on You-tube
Vlogging is nothing but the video blogging which is the fastest growing internet business and it is best part time job for students. Like television, the you-tube is getting popular among the people as it is a convenient source to learn or get anything. As the advertisers are showing interest to promote their products/services in you-tube, the students can earn huge money with vlogging.
Internet connection with webcam is needed to create the videos of your choice and post it regularly on your you-tube channels. You can publicize yourself with the help of social networking websites and make sure to communicate with your audience. If they like your work, they used to share your videos and the more shares you get, the more money you could make from advertising.
2. Proof reading jobs
Proof reading jobs are growing in demand as the online businesses needs people to identify the mistakes in the web pages before posting. They want to look at the correct word usage, sentence construction error, mistakes in spelling and punctuation, grammatical faults and so on.
Proof reading and editing jobs are the real internet jobs for students to make income from home. For this, you just need to familiarize yourselves with several style-books and build a reference library. You can practice your skills by reading newspapers, books, TV news programs, websites etc.
If you are a student with creative skills, just have a look at this post to get the job opportunities related to it.
Creative ways to make money online
3. Earn with smartphone
Students always like to use the smartphones and their computing capabilities increase with it. More than 60% of the students own a smartphone as they wish to stay updated with current information and to do college related tasks. Installing the apps related to social media advertising and crowd-sourcing, it is likely for the students to earn money with their smart phones.
Gigwalk and Easyshift are the popular task oriented crowd-sourcing apps and the Shopkickand Viggle are the rewards program apps for the smartphones with which you can get money at appropriate time. Many mobile application developers are ready to pay the customers to use their programs and the students can make use of it.
Conclusion:
Students have the power to shape and change the future of their country by building up the career on their own. They are excellent in learning new stuffs and showing eagerness to earn some cash through internet at their spare time or whenever they feel bored at studies. Online jobs offer the pleasant money making opportunities for the students to earn at spare time.
If you are a college student, utilize your time to perform some constructive stuff on the internet to make extra money at home. Use your common sense and beware of scam websites that assure you fast ways of making money. There are hundreds of job opportunities available for students to make residual income online and they could get financial freedom with it.
Are you a student and seeking the genuine job opportunities to earn money at home?
What do you think about my listed part time jobs for students?
Share your opinion with me and stay tuned here to know more job opportunities to get money from internet.
Your Online Image is Important
The people who have earned masters degree in management knows the importance of online image for business owners.
As a business owner, there are many things you will need to think about for your business’s reputation. One of the most important in today’s society is your online image.
There are a few factors you need to keep in mind with this.
How is Online Image Established?
The first thing to keep in mind is that your online image is much more than just your social media sites and blog.
Rather this includes everything you do (or don’t do) online, from images and videos you share to comments and posts on other blogs and articles.
Even if your business checks in with Foursquare or similar sites, it will be part of the online image.
Why is Online Image Important?
Studies have shown that most people will look up a company online before they use them.
What many people do not realize is that even posts on Twitter and Facebook, even though they seem to be private, can be found during a Google search. This means that potential customers can see your various activities and posts.
This is why it is important to make sure that you are putting out the right information online.
How to Start Building Your Online Image
If your business is new to the internet, there are a few things you will want to do to create a solid online image. For one, having a website is an excellent way to tell people about what you offer.
You will also want to create a blog. The idea of the blog is to give useful information to your potential customers rather than just tell them why you are the best.
Now you can talk about and link to your business in the blogs, but you want the majority of the article to be about useful information.
You also want to establish social media sites for your business. Not only will this help to make your business more visible, but it is also a great way to communicate with your customers and know what they are looking for.
There are many different sites out there that you can use, such as Facebook, Twitter and more. If you are concerned about managing them, then there are even apps that help to sync your sites.
With this, Instagram can be a great marketing tool as you can post new products or teaser pictures of different things for your business.
Managing Your Online Image
Once you have established an online image, the best thing you can do is ensure that you keep the image you want.
There are a few tips you can use to get the best results from this.
1. Be proactive
The best way to avoid having a negative image is to keep it from happening in the first place.
2. Think about every post or comment before you put it online
Anything you post can stay on the internet for decades. This is why you want to think about any negative connotation something you say will have before it is said.
3. Be careful about who has admin rights
Some companies allow several admins on their social media sites. The issue with this is that this is the most common cause of insensitive or negative posts being made. This could simply be someone accessing the social media site from their home after having a few drinks or a disgruntled employee. Make sure you have the right admins to avoid issue.
4. Keep posts positive
No one wants to do business with a company that is always negative. This is why the best thing you can do is keep posts light and fun with a positive twist. The only exception to this is when there is some sort of disaster and you want to send out your thoughts and regards to those involved.
5. Stay Neutral
There are many issues that people get fired up about, specifically politics and religion. Though as the business owner you have your own beliefs, the worst thing you can do is express this as the views of the business. Rather you want to make sure that you steer clear of this negative image by staying neutral on the topic.
6. Regularly conduct Google searches
Doing a search for your business will help you to have an idea of where you stand. Not only will this allow you to see what has been posted by your company but also what other people are saying about the company.
Outside Online Image Help
There are companies out there that can help you manage your online image. This can be ideal for companies that have a negative image that they want to change or even just for companies that do not have time to focus on this aspect of the business.
The thing to keep in mind though is that the cost for this can be substantial. However, if you already have a company that handles your online marketing, then this may not be much more.
Info | Alternatives To PayPal For Online Transactions
There are a few things people are concerned about online shopping, be it their credit card information being at risk, the security of their mobile transaction, or not being able to get a refund if the item they purchased is unsatisfactory.
Others may not be able to use their local credit card on a website. This is why there are online international payment services like PayPal which makes it easy to send, receive and even request for money across borders.
Image Source: Fotolia)
Because it’s so popular, there are a lot of rules and regulations that might hinder a few people from successfully completing a transaction. If you find that PayPal isn’t really a good pal to you, this post will give you a few alternatives, complete with comparisons of features, differences and added services they can provide.
PayPal – The Service To Beat
We’ll start with the favorite (somewhat hated), PayPal.
PayPal works in many countries and some allow you to link a bank account to transfer or withdraw funds. If linking a bank account is not an option, a debit or credit card would work as well. Once you have a payment method set up, your account will be verified and you can send or receive money with it.
PayPal charges fees for any sort of money transfer and the rate varies between the currencies or country the money is sent or received at. When it comes to withdrawing money, there is also a flexible fee that PayPal charges depending on whether it’s withdrawn to your card or bank account. PayPal also has buyer protection for up to 45 days and it’s very easy to issue or ask for a partial or full refund within that period.
PayPal is internationally known and used by many online shops, telecommunication companies and a ton of other online services. When it comes to convenience and worldwide recognition, it’s the number one choice.
PayPal Alternatives
Well that’s PayPal but let’s look at what other alternatives we can try out.
At the moment, Google Wallet is mainly used in the US but it accepts credit or debit cards frommany countries. It acts like a digital wallet, more so in the US as you can tap to pay in-store with anNFC-enabled Android device. As for online shopping, there are a handful of online merchants that accept checking out with Google Wallet.
Unlike PayPal, Google Wallet is strictly for mechants, so you cannot send money to other Google Wallet users. However, there are no chargeable fees when using Google Wallet online or in-store, this is good if you’re shopping on one of their online merchants where it only accepts US credit cards and not your local one.
MoneyBookers (currently also known as Skrill) allows you to send and receive money to other users. It works with other online banking services in certain countries and for all other countries, you can send and receive money with a debit or credit card. Each country is also charged differently when sending and withdrawing funds from MoneyBookers.
MoneyBookers focuses more on sending money between users as there are very few online merchants that allow you to checkout with its services. However, their main focus of being able to send money of any currency to anywhere in the world is solid, making it a close competitor to PayPal.
Paymate is a great way for sellers based in Australia and New Zealand to get money from international buyers from many countries. Sellers from the two countries can use Paymate on theirwebsite or on Ebay Australia for a small fee.
As for the buyers, all you have to do is key in your credit card information to pay, taking away the hassle of creating an account. Although this means there’s no way to send money to another user, online merchants can take advantage of Paymate as an alternative payment. Also, your credit card details are not sent to the seller but handled securely by Paymate.
Formally known as AlertPay, Payza lets you send and receive money from 190+ countries across 21 currencies. The service is mainly based in US and Canada but also supports certain banks and credit/debit cards from their recognized countries. You can add funds to your Payza account viabank transfer or credit card, send money to other users, and even request money through invoices.
Creating an account is free but for all the above services of transfering money, there is a small feewhich is quite competitive compared to PayPal. Besides transfering money between users, Payza is a great payment service for online merchants with a lot of security features and can also help youmanage multiple businesses with one account.
Payoneer is an interesting way to pay for online shopping. Registering for the service grants you access to a prepaid MasterCard which will be sent to your doorstep. Creating an account is free and you’re only charged when you activate the card. Once the card is activated, you can load money into the card from your local bank or other credit cards.
An activated Payoneer card can be used in many countries and in different currencies. Of course, maintaining the use of this activated card requires an annual fee. With the card, you can purchase items and even withdraw money from a MasterCard ATM.
Don’t Be A Troll Magnet: Tips To Minimize Online Harassment
Everyone who’s been participating online for longer than a few months has a troll story. It’s seemingly impossible to avoid those obnoxious, rude, incendiary losers who haunt the dark, moist corners of every internet conversation forum. If you’re a professional making your living primarily online, it can be difficult to navigate the treacherous world of trolls and their preferred method of getting under your skin: online harassment.
(Image source:NLshop)
The common advice for dealing with bullies, cyberstalkers, identity thieves, and the like basically boils down to "stay as hidden as possible," but for professionals who do business as themselves, this can be tricky. If your job revolves around interacting with other members of your industry (and it probably should), there are a few ground rules you can follow to keep yourself free of the more malicious forms of trolling.
Recommended Reading: How To Handle Cyber Hecklers
Trolls Love Controversy
Controversy is a magnetic substance to those who are looking to pick a fight. And the more controversial your opinion, the more hate you will attract. This is normal, and frankly, there’s nothing that can really be done about it. Most everyone will experience a snarling comment or two in the course of their online participation.
But there are some people who take things to an extreme level.
Depending on various factors, most of which are beyond your control, an innocent comment, blog post, or social media broadcast about a controversial subject can invite a deluge of nasty insults, rants, and even threats on your life or safety.
However, this is not a warning to stay away from controversial issues. There are problems that plague every industry, and if no one is brave enough to address them, they will continue to cause misery for everyone. Just know that, if you choose to tackle a touchy subject, you’re going to have to be extra vigilant about not getting swallowed up by the angry uproar.
Get Smart
Look, I’m not saying that harassment or bullying is ever excusable. But sometimes, people say things that are just plain dumb and that invite ridicule because of their sheer dumbness. Poorly researched opinions, gross blanket statements, and ignorant or offensive stereotypesaimed at those in the design industry who disagree with your point of view are just some of the things that practically beg for a harsh response.
Many of us have been guilty at one time or another of at least one of these, myself included. But there’s a very simple solution to this type of attack, and it involves genuinely knowing what you’re talking about.
Arm Yourself With Knowledge
Research your opinions very well and inoculate yourself against frivolous counter-arguments. Most trolls are lazy; they aren’t going to bother with coming up with a reasoned, well-researched argument against you. And if they do, well, perhaps they’re not such a troll after all.
People with sound, legitimate criticism of your points just might be worth listening to now and again, if only to understand the other side of the argument.
Stay Contained
If it’s stalkers, hackers, or identity thieves you’re trying to avoid, placing a limit on the places you frequent online can be a smart solution. Pick a handful of social media sites, blogs, and forums, and stick with them. I know it seems counterintuitive to restrict yourself to just a few places to interact and market yourself, but bear with me.
With so many sites to choose from, you may be overwhelmed by analysis paralysis and think you have to be “everywhere.” But it’s simply impossible to be “everywhere,” and there’s ample evidence that shows you may actually be hurting your brand if you show up on too many social media or networking sites at once. Pick a small number of well-populated sites and direct your contacts, clients, and peers to those.
Avoid Hostile Engagement
This is commonly known as ‘not feeding the trolls.’ The more attention you give a harasser, the more encouragement they have to keep harassing you. If no one is directly threatening your life or personal safety, it’s almost always a better idea to simply ignore the offending comment.
Blocking weirdos and trolls is a tried and true method of disengagement. If the comment is suggestive or licentious in some way, this is especially a good reason to ignore it. A disturbed individual may take your reply as encouragement to continue their bad behavior.
Be Undiscoverable
It’s a good rule of thumb to avoid giving out your exact location to strangers. If you live in a large metropolitan area, it’s easier to give a general idea of where you are in the world without inviting people to look up your address and such. But no matter where you live, it’s better to be vague rather than specific about your location.
This applies especially to professionals who take on speaking engagements or attend other live events. Use as little personally identifying information as possible for yourself and your family.
Act Like An Adult
Don’t be childish in your responses to criticism. If someone disagrees with you, there’s no need for ad hominem attacks or mean-spirited replies. If you genuinely feel you are being misrepresented, then deliver your response in a mature, polite way.
Stooping down to their level only eggs them on. Emotional responses to criticism may be natural, but they’re rarely productive and they almost never end well.
Don’t Back Down
There are numerous stories of well-known bloggers and industry professionals who have caved in to the vitriol lobbed at them by trolls and subsequently withdrawn from participating in the online community altogether.
This, in my opinion, is the worst thing that can result from cyber-bullying: a person gets so hurt and discouraged that they withdraw from the online conversation completely, taking their invaluable store of talent, knowledge, and creativity with them.
Don’t be this person. The trolls will always be around; they aren’t going anywhere. So why should you?
In Conclusion
Lastly, I need to address something: no matter how polite and well-informed you are, you may still become a victim of online harassment. Yes, it’s true. Sometimes people just get unlucky. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you won’t be able to avoid a vicious attack by someone who is hell-bent on tearing down your reputation, your self esteem, or your business.
It’s important to remember that those people are the ones with the problem – not you. If you should find yourself the victim of an unfortunate attack, don’t lose heart. It’s still possible for most people to avoid the major disasters in which the police have to get involved or some such, simply by using a bit of common sense, courtesy and decorum.