Know How To Barter Online

In this part of Greece, a relaxed, rural area in the rugged heart of the Peloponnese, money isn’t everything. Following the old Greek traditions laying down elaborate rules for the giving and receiving of gifts (there really is no need to beware of Greeks bearing gifts, despite what Homer said), bartering is part of the unique, Spartan way of life.

I am not so much talking about going to the market and trying to buy fish with chickens, but the bartering of services. For example, I designed and ordered some business cards for my friend, Aris. A few weeks later, I took my family to his taverna and enjoyed a lovely, traditional Greek meal, and he tore up the bill.

This is a great system, which keeps the taxman out of the loop and helps to strengthen economic ties and friendships within the local community. I am a great believer that maintaining a thriving local economy is the best way to fight back against the current corporatism masquerading as a free market.

Online Barter System – Fish and Chickens

Anyway, I digress. The point of this post is that I believe that bartering online will grow as we look to sidestep the growing dominance of the big players, with multimillion dollar budgets. If you want proof that this can work, feel free to take a tour around my website. I often receive comments and emails about my web-designing skills, from people who like the layout of the site. Sadly, I cannot take any credit whatsoever, and the praise must go to a professional web designer.

This was a great business barter arrangement: she designed my site and In return, I wrote her some content, a barter website agreement that we are continuing, as I seek to build another website about my beautiful local area. I could have made a website myself, but learning how to do it would take a lot of time and effort, and it isn’t something that I particularly enjoy. It is a far better use of time to concentrate on what I am good at, and let a talented professional concentrate on producing what they are good at.

Stone Age Barter System by bannedhumor

Hunting for Pandas – Maximizing Meagre Resources

Taking this a little further, in the wake of the recent Google algorithm changes that have everybody panicking, content sites such as Hubpages and Squidoo have the same issue. On the content sites, you have a lot of marketers who can write a little, and a lot of writers who can market a little. Only a supremely talented few have the skill, time, or inclination to do both, and I am certainly not one of those.

The dust is settling after the recent changes and it looks like backlinks are still the unshakeable foundation of internet marketing. Now, I could spend a few days dutifully building backlinks, but I have no idea of the best way to go about this and it would be a waste of my resources, as I could use that time to work for clients and earn money. It makes sense to trade services with an experienced internet marketer, letting them build the backlinks as I concentrate upon writing them some content.

As an example, I am looking at guest blogging as a good way to build an online presence. Normally, I am reluctant to give anybody content for free, but this is a slightly different case, a barter system of skills and expertise. Ultimately, I resent backlinking and really don’t want to spend valuable time on it – I would rather stick with what I know, which is writing. Writing a post for a good marketer and letting them take care of the backlinks is much more productive for both of us.

Online Bartering – Starving the Banks

Barter Services Online - Avoid The Online Shylocks

Everybody is trying to make money from you making money. PayPal and bank charges are extortionate, so starting to barter services online is a way to starve these modern-day Sheriffs of Nottingham of their ill-gotten gains. In an age when many of us moan that the taxman takes an unfair cut, there is another advantage: you have earned no money, so there is no paper trail and no bank statements for them to take Shylock’s pound of flesh.

I believe that in some areas they do try to count barter exchange as earning (the Land of the Free, no less), but I am sure that a little creative accounting can take care of that. Instead of spamming my website with comments about Obama stealing your money, you can be proactive in your resistance towards taxation without representation.

At the end of the day, most marketers want high quality content, because that is the way that the net is moving (as long as Google doesn’t completely sell out to corporate interests). Conversely, freelance writers often need a little help with marketing, so why not trade by barter and help each other out?