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Popular software (web application) development company 37Signals have launched affiliate program for its Basecamp, Backpack, and Highrise products. If you refer a customer you get 50% of the first month’s payment + 5% of every subsequent payment as long as they keep their account open. Here is their commission breakdown chart.

Basecamp

Their flagship product is Basecamp, it is a project management tool that will allow you to collaborate with your team and clients. (i.e schedules, tasks, files, messages etc).

According to 37signals over 1 million people and small businesses: freelancers, designers, lawyers, publishers, teachers, manufacturers, charities are using Basecamp.

In a recent random customer satisfaction survey, 94% of Basecamp customers surveyed said they would recommend Basecamp to their friends, family, and colleagues.

So if your blog readers are IT professionals, then this is the product to promote! Sign up at https://affiliate.37signals.com

If your blog is making more than $300 a month, and if you are no longer interested in blogging. You can sell your blog privately to DailyBlogTips‘ author Daniel Scocco. Read his post here.

He says he has already helped two person to sell their blogs, and that he knows many people who make a living buying and selling websites.

I think there is a huge business in being a middleman (agent) in matching bloggers with potential buyers. So, Daniel is on the right track! Sure, the sites like sitepoint.com works for most of the people, but for popular blogs and sites, private arrangement is always the better option. Because the listing (site for sale) could damage site’s reputation, advertisers’ confidence and readership a lot. It’s especially true if the site is listed on sitepoint and then it didn’t sell…

So, if you want to sell your blog, you now know where to go?! Would I sell my blog? I don’t think so. It’s less likely that I will be selling my blog (with my name in the url) anytime in the future, eventhough, every blog has its own price.

However, I don’t mind to sell some of my projects once in a while, like I did with the UserInterfaceIcons.

This is a guest-post by Rajaie AlKorani of www.rajaietalks.com. In this post Rajaie discusses how to get private advertisements to your newly launched blog.

Unless your blog brings in thousands of visitors its first day of launching, you’re going to have a pretty tough time attracting new advertisers and filling all those ad spots on your blog. And having eight of them (i.e 125×125 buttons) with “Advertise Here” in bold definitely will not make your life any easier.

To start pumping in the money, you need to provide your sponsors with reasons as to why they should pick your blog from the millions of others. No, they don’t care about your mission or about helping pay your bills. The only thing on their mind is getting the best bang for their buck, and if you can’t help with that, than you’re out of luck.

What if your blog has been bringing in some impressive results for a while which happen to be sky high, and yet the image ads are still empty?

That’s it! When advertisers see all those empty spots, their brains will automatically tell them that - something is wrong with your site! What can you do to get out of this everlasting cycle?

1 - Testimonials
Ask your existing customers for a testimonial. To make your testimonials more credible; include person’s name, the name of the company he/she works for, and the position he/she holds at the company. Also provide a link to their company website and if possible get a picture of them. I’d say that this is the best way to boost your chance of selling anything since it’s real proof given by other people.

2 - Hold A Contest
Everybody likes free stuff, so hold a contest where readers can win free ad spots, this will help fill up the empty spaces. And hopefully they will turn into regular advertisers.

3 - Do A Banner Exchange
Do a banner exchange with someone in your niche, you link to their blog and they link to yours. It is a win-win situation if both of you have empty slots available.

4 - Become An Affiliate
Most websites that sell products have an affiliate program where you earn a percentage of every sale you make. Usually they will provide you with the banners so you’ll have nothing to worry about. So instead of having 8 buttons with “advertise here” word on them, display affiliate banners and make some money at the same time.

5 - Start Exploring
If you have the idea that your sponsors are going to search for you, then think again. It’s your job to hunt down potential sponsors, not theirs. Special promotions and discounts are always welcome ;-)

6 - Be A Nice Guy
Why not just email a friend telling him that you’ve added his site to your “blogroll” or that you’ve given him a free ad spot for the month. This usually pays off in the long run where it helps develop a relationship between you and him.

7 - Don’t Be Irrational
If you just started your blog a couple of days ago, then asking for $500 a paid review isn’t very reasonable. If you want to be taken seriously, then present yourself seriously!

I believe that those are the best ways to start selling private advertisements on your blog. What are some ways you used to sell private advertisements when you first started your blog?

US citizens now have a better deal when it comes to purchasing things online. People now can use Microsoft Live to find products, and get cash rebates when they purchase products through Microsoft’s Live Search Engine.

Under the cash program revealed Wednesday, Web shoppers who sign up for an account and buy items found using Microsoft’s Live Search cashback site will receive a percentage of the purchase price deposited into their account.

When the total reaches $5 (euro3.17), the shoppers can redeem their “cold, hard cash” via eBay Inc.’s PayPal. Microsoft said the rebates are funded with a portion of the money it collects from advertisers.

So far, more than 700 merchants, including Home Depot and Zappos.com, have listed products on the site reports AFP.

What it means to bloggers?

It means Microsoft is skipping the middlemen (like you and me) and working directly with the product sellers. So, now consumers can go directly to live.com and buy stuff, instead of going through other third-party referrers. Therefore, from consumers’ point of view it’s a great service. Google Product Search (previously froogle) has been around for some time already, but they have failed to come up with this idea. And I personally think, Microsoft’s cashback might actually work!

As for bloggers, I think it’s a matter of time before Microsoft involves bloggers in this program and comes up with a publisher program. Probably bloggers will be able to use Live’s “search form” on their blog and sites. When someone searches for a product from your blog and if the search results in a sale, then the blogger will be paid some percentage.

If Microsoft comes up with publisher program, then it will be competing directly with other publisher programs like WidgetBucks and Chitika. When this happens I wouldn’t wish to be in Chitika’s position ;)

search.live.com/cashback

Google made many of his employees millionaires when it went public. Similarly when Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion, Yahoo’s stock price increased substantially. And when Microsoft withdrew its offer few days back, Yahoo’s stock price started to fell and it’s expected to fall further.

So what will it be for Yahoo? Will it be acquired by Microsoft after all? And if it does (and I think it will be) do you want to be the shareholder of Yahoo’s stocks, and make money out of this acquisition? You better be, because if Yahoo gets what it asks for, that is $37 per share (now trading at $25/share) then you can make $12 per share, that is if you buy now. Analysts are suggesting that Yahoo’s stock price will go further down to $20 per share.

But, what if I’m not US citizen?

Fortunately at this internet age, that’s not a problem. You can buy US company shares even if you are not US citizen. One such site that offer foreigners to trade US stocks is OptionsXpress. The company has been lauded by the industry and apparently won “Best Online Broker by Barron’s” in four of the last five years.

What you can trade besides stocks on OptionsXpress? You can trade Futures, Mutual Funds, Advanced Orders, Contingents, Options, Bonds, Spreads, ETFs, and SSFs.

Registration is of course free.

I signed up for it and the registration was very extensive. But at least that tells us that they are serious and know what they are doing. After you have signed up you need to verify your account. You can fund (deposit) your account through ACH, Wire, and Checks.

If you are not ready for real deal, remember UpDown that I talked here? It’s a site that allows you to trade stocks for fun, with the possibility that you can even make money. So you might try that first.

As for the Yahoo, what is your opinion? Will it be bought over by Microsoft? And when is the good time to buy its stocks? Now, or a little later?

P.S You know why they called it OptionsXpress and not Options Express? Well, try this optionsexpress… do you see anything? ;)

UpDown.com is a social network for virtual investing that has more than 40,000 members. It provides members with virtual portfolios and $1,000,000 in virtual money to invest. UpDown.com provides a free platform for people to improve their skills through collaboration, competition and aggregated wisdom. In the process, UpDown allows members to earn real money with zero risk of financial loss.

UpDown.com members earn money whenever their virtual portfolios outperform the S&P 500. The higher the margin that their portfolios beat the S&P 500, the more money they earn each month.

When I asked how much a person can earn from UpDown.com, Liz Bradley (Director of Public Relations) said that:

The total amount that individual members can earn is unlimited, but the average payouts really depend on the community’s overall performance. Currently, UpDown.com’s total monthly payments average about $10,000 over the community, and the site expects that monthly payout average to grow significantly as its membership continues to expand. The site’s top earner has made over $3,000 in a few months.

Not bad huh? You get paid for improving your financial skills… it will be and advantage if you have finance background. I have been trying to persuade my wife to give it a try, because she has bachelor’s and master’s degree in finance. But so far no avail :( She is too busy with our two sons (one 2.5 years old, another is only 27 days old). I guess I just have to wait until my son grows up a little.