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“When I took office,” said Bill Clinton, “only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide Web…Now even my cat has its own page.”  Indeed, over the course of the last two decades, the internet has gone from techie pet projects to a resource for the  privileged to a near necessity of business, if not life.  Whether you’re Bill Clinton’s cat, one of Facebook’s 500 million friends, or if you have twenty  minutes on the train  to and from your white collar job to blog on Blackberry, American personal and business lives and the internet have become inseparably intertwined.  If you’re company or work doesn’t involve some kind of online social media, said company may be in trouble!  There are dozens of ways to make (more) money on the internet, some more effective and lucrative than others.

Websites are one way to make money online, whether you have your own brilliant, unique idea or your building upon a previous idea and just need proper online representation.  According to Top Rank Online Marketing, the three marketing tactics readers will use most often are Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Network Participation, and Blogging.  So how does one going about doing such things and where/when does the money come in?

The idea is that you’ll have more hits on your site due to search engine searches relevant to your content.  To improve your site’s SEO, develop a glossary of keywords on your site (and blog, but more about that later) using a service such as Keyword Discovery or WordTracker.   In a similar way, Social Network Participation (such as Facebook) is a way to connect 500 million people (about 13% of the world’s population)  with your product or idea.  Blogging plays a slightly different role for a website.  It gives a uniquely human aspect to a website.  Its a way for websie viewers to  So here’s the money making part: the content.  Either your site simply enhances a previously established business or idea, for which online marketing simply brings you more customers or patrons.  On the other hand, if your main work is the site itself, quality content and aesthetics, along with SEO development is pivotal.  Providing quality leads us to another money making possibility: website development.

Someone has to have the umbrella idea and delegate and manage tasks of web design, writing and programming, but there are millions of ‘menial’ jobs for writers, artists and experts online.  These types of online tasks can be taken on in as freelance work or as regular work.  Writing is probably the most common form, mostly in the form of blogging and article writing, but even photographers and musicians can sell their work online.

If you don’t think you have any particular talent or artistic ability to add, you can also make money simply with your time, filling out surveys and writing reviews.  Sound Out, for example, helps amateur musicians upload and edit their music for a small fee.  They also pay reviewers to listen to the music and put in their two cents.  Of course you have to be careful surveys and such, as they can be tedious and the pay is not always worth the effort.  Also effective is the use of an affiliate marketing program.

The best part about online jobs is the scheduling, so why not try a little of it all?  You never know if something fits until you try it on, after all.

Let’s preface this by saying I absolutely love to cook nearly any type of cuisine and for large amounts of people. That usually occurs once a week as a little dinner party (well, by little I mean around forty people), and things thankfully turn out pretty darn good.

Here’s the problem: There are only 24 hours in a day, in which you need to run a household, do your paid work, bathe, eat (which usually means cooking time), and sleep. What’s missing there? Oh, right, family time. You know your family, those people you live with and see on occasion, or those kids that have made you and your vehicle into their personal limo service.

Of course, there’s the option to go a restaurant with rude waiters, noisy patrons, and silverware that isn’t quite as clean as it should be. The other option is to order in, which may seem like the lazy way out of things, but with all that you have to do -  it’s it’s a great way to free up an hour or two of your day for the family.

My favorite to order in from is SeamlessWeb, a sort of umbrella food delivery service. They are located in 14 different cities and feature menus from restaurants serving all types of cuisines, including those catering to dietary restrictions. While mostly businesses use it outside of New York City, it’s still very easy for the individual to order food from. As the chart (below) shows, you order food from your computer, where SeamlessWeb will send the order to the restaurant to print. The restaurant then confirms your order, estimates delivery time, and shoots over an e-mail to you letting you know when you can expect the food. Then they deliver it when it’s ready, of course. Pretty simple, but it cuts out an unnecessary step for the consumer while providing a solid amount of options from which to choose.

They’re fully running in New York, and have expanded to limited areas in other cities. Check out their website, which you can input the delivery address and check if SeamlessWeb offers service in your area. I also really like that they’ve joined and are active on Twitter … someone even proposed marriage to them!

Since I home school our two boys, I’m always on the lookout for fun educational activities. That’s why, when I saw this tweet by Queen of Spain, I had to check it out.

Unfortunately, the boys weren’t nearly as impressed as I was at first, watching the preparations in real time is a little slow when you’re 6 or 11. They enjoyed it more today, watching the launch and skipping the “boring” parts.

Watching Apollo 11 reminded me that NASA has a presence on Second Life, and sure enough, they’ve had events there all week, including moon buggy races and visits by Buzz Aldrin and others.

Just as an aside, although the boys enjoy lessons that are enhanced by visiting Second Life, until/unless SL completes their merger of their teen site and the regular Second Life site, I wouldn’t recommend letting them explore the world on their own.

Rumor has it, that Starbucks free Wi-Fi will start today in most US Starbucks stores. According to The Zatz Not Funny Blog, Dave has seen the corporate memo dictating a June 3 launch……

“Earlier today the manager approached me (unsolicited) and said the system was configured a few days ago and they’ve confirmed it works. I saw the back of the store memo and the manager says they’ve got signage behind the counter ready to go in conjunction with the June 3rd launch..”

This is very exciting for me. I have been asking at several of my local Starbucks when they were expecting their free Wi-Fi service to start and no one seemed to really know. Evidently, patrons will need to buy a Starbucks Card and use it at least once a month to receive two consecutive hours per day of blissful, Chai lovin’, internet access. Sign me up!