It would be more common to ask "What are the MOST effective ways..." that question has been asked on forums millions, and millions of times. Maybe over a billion at this point in time. So why do I ask? I think too many people new to the scene end up wasting their time pursuing stuff like paid surveys and link shorteners. In this post I wrote about why paid link shorteners are such a waste of time ( but most people would agree that a rate like $2.00 per 2,000 clicks of a shortened link is not a good deal at all ). - No work is being done, no value is being added in any way that is why I wouldn't expect it to be more. Affiliate programs which sell digital products have higher commission rates for obvious reasons - (software is free to reproduce)