Archive for the ‘Online Business Ideas’ Category

I thought it was time to do an update on a certain topic. I often encourage my clients and readers to get started with freelance job sites when first wanting to make money online. While sometimes you may end up earning a little less than what you would like, it gives you an idea of the types of jobs people need done and you can gain a little experience in order to demand those higher rates when you know what you are doing.

I started out writing for $3 an article. While some people may argue that you don’t need to work for such a little wage, often it is more beneficial to you to do so. If you look at it as a way to get paid training, you no longer think of it as getting ripped off for your time. If after a year, you are still willing to work for those low wages, then you’re just being dumb(unless of course you have no time to market and find higher paying jobs, have come to be dependent on what you do earn, and don’t mind the wage)

Recently I made the decision to cut back on my client work and just keep the higher paying clients. I wanted to branch out and spend some time submitting articles to sites that pay upfront and have an ad revenue sharing system in place. I also want to build up my hubpages and squidoo lenses again because you can earn from so many different ways with those once you get the traffic coming in.

Anyways, while I was getting all of this stuff together and deciding what sites I was going to go with, a new client of mine who was looking for ways to make money online asked me if there were any sites around that had a variety of stuff to complete. She said that she got bored very easily, also since she had little ones running around, she could not commit to jobs that would take hours or require quiet, or too much concentration. She still wanted to be able to offer her services and thought she had a few skills that would come in handy.

So, I got to thinking about it and I knew there were a few sites that I had joined in the past, but also knew that only those few sites would never allow her to make much of an income on their own. She needed a steady flow of jobs available, which meant numerous sites.

So, the hunt was on. I decided I would go looking for these sites, ask other work at home folks at forums and such if they had any luck, and see which sites stood out to be the best.

I have gathered together a list of the top 10 sites. Remember, some of these sites only pay like .30 a job that is 2 minutes long, while others will pay up to $10/hr. If you are looking for more than $10/hr I have heard of one site that offers that but forgot the link for it, so when I find it again, I will add it.

odesk, getafreelancer, elance, scriptlance, rentacoder, and other freelance sites are similar but you usually need to take on jobs that take a while to complete. Often times the pay works out to be like $2-$3/hr which does not work for North Americans and Europeans where the cost of living is higher than other places.

If you are trying to build up a full time income so you can quit your job and work from home, you will need to sign up to as many of these sites both the ones listed above and the ones I will post below. You must be willing to work as much as possible(even including the weekends) for the first year. People who think working at home means that they can earn huge dollars for less work than where they are at their offline jobs are often disappointed when they find out it can be even more work to stay at home. But the other benefits are what make up for it. You can set your own schedule, you can decide what kind of jobs you want to do, who you want to work with, and for what wage you are willing to do it all for. You can be there for your kids outings and concerts, you can spend time to do homework with them or anything else you want to do.

It can be done with time, dedication and a willingness to make life better for both you and your family.

Here are the links for the freelance micro job sites. With most of these sites, you can earn money for referring others to the site(although, I have not bothered to do that since I do not know how much time I will have to invest in this work with my other work going on) But that is another way you can make money from these sites. Some of them give you a bonus for signing up. Most let you get paid through Paypal when you reach $10-$20. Some are less, some are more. Even if you are not sure about things, take the time to check them all out, browse around to see what types of jobs are available and then decide. These types of sites are perfect for those who do not possess many skills, and who live in any country of the world.

Microworkers
Short Task
Fiverr
Get Paid to Do Tasks
MyLot
My Easy Task
TenytThis is one of the higher paying sites
Jobboy
WeBeServe
Minute Workers

Have fun and be sure to come back here and post a comment on whether you liked the sites or didn’t. This will help others make a decision on whether to try it or not.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Making money with articles can be fairly easy for anyone. If you are a quick learner and great reader, then you can learn everything you need to know right from the Internet without any previous training needed. This is probably the best fact about niche website Internet marketing.

If you are new to the business, your best bet is to ease into it. If you jump in before you know what you are doing, you have a good chance of losing money and having nothing to show for it. There are several things that you need to make sure you know how to do before you begin creating your first site.

• Create your own great articles or hire someone to do it for you
There are many places online you can buy PLR packages. With these pre-written articles, the hard part is already done for you.They can be purchased for usually $1 an article and you are free to do what you want with them once they are yours.

You can hire someone to write them for you but this costs a lot more. While you may find someone on the freelance market sites for $2-$3 an article, these people who can afford to charge so little do not usually live in North America or Europe and are more often than not, Native English speakers. So you may find that you have way more editing than you planned on. At $10 or more for a quality article, it can get too expensive for most new beginners to internet marketing.

• Optimize your website for search engines
This means including meta tags and descriptions in your pages, writing a page with your keywords in mind so the search engines will be able to rank you for those keywords.

Many people find this part of internet marketing the hardest to grasp when just starting out and often ignore it, thinking that it won’t make a difference. It does. Look for books online that will show you step by step how and where to set everything up so you are optimized the best you can be.

• Find reliable web hosting
There is a ton of web hosting companies online today and many more being started every week. How do you choose which company to go with? Ask your friends, hang out in forums with other internet marketers and you will soon hear which ones are the best and most reliable. I have been using Hostgator for years. They have only been down once or twice in the 6 years I have used them. For less than $10 a month, you can get the Baby package and have unlimited domains and websites running. This is ideal for those who want to start setting up little micro niche sites for affiliate income and adsense earnings. Use my link above and you can get your first month for only $1 when you type in the coupon code : wordpress

• Pick a catchy URL
When you click on my link above for your hosting account, one of the things included in a domain name for your first and primary site. This will be your main one and you will want to make sure it is a good one. Use keywords in your url but try to keep it short and simple. As more and more domain names are bought, it will be harder to do that, but if you can, test it out. You may find that you have to come up with a few options you like as more than likely one, two, a few or even all of them could have been chosen by someone else already.

If you are part of a forum, start a thread and ask others what they think about your choices or if they can help your brainstorm something suitable. Take you time and pick something you will not regret later.

• Create a small site that is easy to navigate, have one created for you, or pay to use a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) website builder.
With Wordpress taking the world by storm, almost all other site building programs are left in the dust. Wordpress comes with every hosting account and can easily be installed in 3 mins by just filling out the information you will want for the site. You can then create pages, posts, install plugins that will add even more features like the ability to sell your own products, and much more.

If you are not really a techie or do not have the time and patience to learn a new program, you can go to those same freelancing sites I mentioned above(elance, scriptlance, odesk, and others), and see if you can hire someone to help you install your site and add some content. You should also be able to find someone on the forum that you can hire and may even get a deal.

In the beginning of every business, there is always a bunch of work to do where sometimes you can feel like you are working 60 or more hours a week. But one of the benefits of an online business, is that once you have set up these sites, all you mainly need to do after is concentrate on marketing them and driving as much traffic to them as you can. It takes time to build up any business, but with the affordability of an online business, it makes waiting it out so much easier. Where else can you get started with a business for $20 a month?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

It has been awhile since I talked about making money on eBay, so I thought I would bring the subject up
again. Let’s say you have your business set up now. You’ve picked out a good name and bought the domain.
You’ve signed up and registered all the info you needed for eBay. So, now what do you need to do next to
start making money on eBay?

It is advisable that when you first start out selling on eBay that you need to pick just one product and
learn everything you can about it. You need to become an expert with it so you can effectively learn to
advertise and sell them to the best you can. Once you are on a roll and making consistent money with that
one, you can apply what you found works the best to more products. There are many advertising and selling
techniques to be used online today. Some you will find work better with certain products over other ones.

The next section has some mixed ideas on the best methods of selling and making the best money from each
product. Some people think it is better to have multiple auctions going at once, that way, if something
doesn’t sell, chances are, something else will. Other people think it is best just to have one auction
at a time and then you can concentrate solely on getting the highest bid for that one item. If you are selling
$5 cds, you may want to have several auctions going in order to make some decent income.

As eBay becomes more popular every year, it is going to become more difficult to find quality unique products
that you can make a decent profit from. You can try going to Estate sales, taking an ad out in the paper
offering to take on consignment items for others who do not know how to sell on eBay, By taking a percentage
of the sale, this enables others to make money and still get their stuff sold by someone who knows what
they are doing. You may want to find out if there are any city or state laws that require you to obtain
a license as an auctioneer in your town if you plan to do this on a large scale.

You could use a dropshipping company. This is a company that allows you to sell their products at a retail
price while you only have to pay them a wholesale price. You may find other sellers who have bulk orders
of something and are willing to sell the products to you at a wholesale price as well. You can go to fleamarkets
liquidation stores, bulk barns, and garage sales in your neighborhood. What you may find over in your country
readily may not be available in someone else’s, thus making it a popular sought after item.

A few quick tips for making the best of your selling experience on eBay:
1. NEVER sell counterfeit or fake items on eBay, not only can you risk losing your account, you could
be sued or blacklisted.
2. Do not let your friends or relatives bid against others bidders on your auctions in an attempt to drive
the price up. This is known as shilling and is illegal. Not only will you be shut down and banned from
eBay, you could also face criminal charges.

To get the most from your selling on eBay, you will want to promote your auctions. You can do this by
creating a personal web page to promote your eBay auctions, you could run an online store that links back
to your auctions, or any numerous ways you may find. This gives you a more professional appearance online
and helps your customers get a better feel for who you are.

Finally the number one way to build your eBay business bigger and start bringing in more money is by
building up a mailing list. If you send out emails to your subscribers on a regular basis, they will be
able to know right away when you have a deal or new auction going on.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I know I write a lot about ways to make money with your writing but that is because that is what I do for a living and what I liked to think I know quite a bit about.

I would like to offer you a copy of my new 12 page report “Write for Pay” and you can download it here now. It comes with links for software that will help you cut your work in half and allow you to make twice as much money.
Grab it here:
http://makemoneywriting.melaniebremner.com

Today though, I would like to talk more about PLR and the use of it. I recently participated in a few giveaway events to see about building up my list some more. I don’t know how much longer though I am going to continue with those types of events though. It seems that there is no new products being put into them. I can sign up to 8 different giveaways and see the same products being given away in each of them.

If PLR can be used in so many different ways to make new products, why is no one using it to create these unique reports? Is it because no one knows how, or is because no one can be bothered?

Think about this. Say you wanted to create a new product. What would be more beneficial and time saving for you:
1. spend hours researching a niche topic and then taking notes, and creating an outline for a new report. Then either writing it up yourself or paying for a ghostwriter to do it. One way would take you about a week or more depending on how much time you had to put into it, and the other could cost you anywhere between $100-$600 depending on how many pages you wanted.
2. do a half an hour of keyword research to see what niche products and information people are looking for. Then go through your plr material and look for some articles on that topic, work through them, get them organized, edited and put together into a new report. This could take maybe a few days. Or if you don’t have anything already on that topic, you could go looking for some plr from a membership or web writer and get it. This would take you a little while longer and would cost a little more but it would be more specific than trying to re-work some related articles.

You can see the point I am driving at. There is no reason that with all of the PLR floating around for cheap or even free a lot of times, that serious marketers who want to get ahead and make a name for themselves, can’t go out and create something new.

I would really like to see more new reports and products coming out on the market instead of the same old things. How can anyone expect to build a list and get new people if the same marketers are telling their list about these same giveaways that have the same freebies available that they saw the last time they joined up. This will in turn make giveaways become extinct and completely useless for list building purposes.

Next time you want to think about writing a report, if you have any questions or concerns feel free to write a comment here or email me and I will help you out. I would be more than happy to help you get set up with a unique product of your own.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

If you have been online for any length of time you’ve been exposed to a blog in one way or another. In fact you’re probably using one yourself and understand the importance of a small business utilizing a blog for several reasons such as increasing traffic, building a relationship with your readers, etc.

Not all people are as fortunate as those of us that know the importance of blogging. Speaking on a local level if you’ve ever had a conversation with a small business owner who has a brick and mortar business you have probably come to the conclusion that some of them don’t even know what a blog is!

That’s where a Virtual Assistant who loves Wordpress, has a creative side and doesn’t mind working mostly behind the scenes can utilize their services by becoming a blog consultant. Then you can start evangelizing to small business owners in your local community not only the importance of blogging but the truth – blogging is smart for business.

So exactly what is a blog consultant?

It’s someone passionate about blogging. They love blogging in general but more importantly they understand the importance of blogging for small business owners and want to share that understanding with small business owners especially on the local level.

So if you’re that VA mentioned above and are passionate about blogging and want to share that passion with others then be sure to check out Become A Blog Consultant. If you’re not a VA that’s ok too, this course was created for anyone who has a passion for blogging and wants to share it with local small business owners.

Be sure to visit our site where you can watch a quick two minute video and see a real life client example and sign up for a 16 minute audio that will help you decide if this is for you. Become A Blog Consultant

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

It has been awhile since I went browsing around jobs on odesk.com. I write a tutorial last year on how to get work on odesk as a freelancer and was thinking that was a great place to find work.

Over the last year though, I have found so many other places to get jobs for a wage that you can live with. odesk.com may be a good site for graphic designers but not for virtual assistants, office workers or writers.

I went browsing through the data entry section today. I was shocked at the jobs posted and the wages that these clients were only willing to pay.

In North America, minimum wage ranges from $7-$14.00hr. Rent alone can run from $600-$2000. Food prices range depending where you live. And taxes in Canada run high.

One ad in particular was asking for North Americans only for data entry, and then they said they were only willing to pay $1hr and you had to work 6-8 hours a day. I could not imagine with the expenses that I have, working for $6-$8 a day! Ludicrous!

If you truly believe that you have the skills and experience to demand the wage you think you are worth, then I think you should keep doing what you are doing, network, do whatever marketing you can to get the word out, offer samples, deals or what not to attract people, but stick to your guns, and you will find those people who appreciate time, effort and value in people.

If you are just starting out you may need to work for a little less than what you would like but use this as a foundation for your business. Build up testimonials, take repeat clients if you like the work, and in a little while you should have enough experience to go out and drum up business outside of these freelance places with the right ammunition to prove to potential clients that you are worth you fee and they will be 100% satisfied with you as a professional.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Legit Online Jobs has been created by Ross Williams. It’s a method that helps you take advantage of the freelance Ad creating opportunities available on the net. According to Ross, companies spent close to $50 billion in advertising online last year and this figure is expected to rise. These companies are looking for people who can create their Ads and post them in various online forums; they will pay you for doing this simple job. The best thing is that there are no special skills required for this job, you don’t need a degree in marketing, and all you need is a computer and time.

When you become a member, you can learn what the whole process is with the help of Image Tutorials and a Video guide that explains everything in a step-by-step manner. You will able to learn everything at the pace you like. There are also no restrictions on the number of hours you work. You can work part-time or full-time, it depends on you entirely.

There are no restrictions on the time or quantity, you can submit the ads on your own schedule, any time of the day, and you can make as many as you want. There is no shortage of work in this field.

Ross will show you all the exact system that he used to make money by posting ads. According to him the system works by itself. Once your ads are submitted, they’ll become a source of money that you can benefit from continuously. So, you don’t have to attach your self to the computer for the whole day, you can do other activities that you normally do.

With this system you will have access to large networks of thousands of companies to work with. You can choose the companies by category or how profitable they are.
You can either use the free methods or the paid methods to post your ads, both will make good money for you. However, with paid methods, you can be making money instantly. If you decide to take the paid option, you will be given over $200 in free credit to start with. That way, you’re guaranteed to make some instant money, without spending your own money.

In order to wok for these companies, you just have to register with them, which is free of cost and not complicated at all. After submitting a few ads, you could start seeing money show up in your online account. The amount that you make depends on the number of Ads you post. Ross guarantees that you could earn back your membership fee multiple times over within just a day or two with no problem at all.

You’ll be provided with everything you need to get started including some sample info that you can just copy and paste into the forms, along with our complete step-by-step System.

With this method you will never have to own your own website, sell anything, and contact customers directly. You have more than 10,000 companies to pick from that are from different categories.

The payments are made on a weekly basis by many companies. You can receive you payment in many different ways including check, wire transfer, direct deposit, and PayPal. The package includes 4 bonus products and the price is $ 49.95.

If this sounds exciting to you and something you could definitely get into, what are you waiting for? Go get started now! Legit Online Jobs

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Because there are so many blogs and web sites about
blogs on the internet, it can be tough to distinguish your
blogging web site from all of the others. Whether you
are starting up a new web site aimed at bloggers or
whether you are looking to make your existing blogging
site more distinctive, the key to building and
maintaining a site that will capture the interest and
attention of the blogging community is finding your
niche.

If you can fill a unique need in a way that no
other web site does, you’ll be able to build a lasting
readership among web surfers. Once you have
discovered a niche, you will still have a lot to do, but
finding your place in the blogosphere is the place to
begin.

Every great blogging web site starts with a great idea,
and you can’t build a successful site that will last
without one. There are many great sites aimed at
today’s bloggers, and competition for the attention of
this growing demographic is fierce. To make your
blogging web site stand out from the pack, you will
need to offer something that no other site is currently
offering, or you will need to do the same thing that an
already popular site does but in a more impressive or
valuable way.

One way to discover an ideal model for your blogging
web site is to look at the sites that have successfully
captured a blogging audience already to determine if
you can appropriate some of their strategies to help
realize your vision. Of course, you will also need to add
a unique flair to your project in order to stand apart
from your competition. Many people agree that the web
sites that do the best in today’s market are the sites that
have the most personality. The fiercely individual
surfers who are bloggers are a demographic that
responds especially strongly to personality, so consider
how you can give your site a unique and attractive
feeling by lending your own voice and sensibility to
your site’s design and content.

Once you have a great idea for your site, have
pinpointed a special niche that you are well equipped to
fill, and have infused the site with personality, the next
step is figuring out how to get the word out to bloggers.
In the long run, a great idea just isn’t enough to propel
your blogging web site to success. You will need to
draft a smart and realistic marketing plan in order to
draw readers to your site. Once you hook a blogger,
your great content will keep them coming back, but it is
vital to get that first glance or your site won’t have a
chance to shine.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

If you can either write articles or have the promotion and marketing knowledge to publicize articles that others write, becoming an affiliate for several companies may be a great way for you to generate a good income right from your own home. You can do this by receiving part of the revenue off of sales that the company gets from people who “click through” from your website via the company’s links that are placed on your pages.

Since you will be promoting a product or service, you will need a killer sales pitch and website content to get your readers interested in the product, convince them that they cannot live without the product, and to keep them coming back to your website time and time again for more recommendations and your useful content, which will get them clicking on your links once again. Although many affiliate companies only give you money off of the first sale you make from each customer, you have the option of promoting a good range of companies so that you can still make a profit off of your returning customers.

If you cannot write this kind of content of your own, there are many ways to pick up free or paid content to place on your affiliate website. There are many reasons why paying for such articles would be to your advantage. First, you will be able to tell the writer exactly what you want, what product you are trying to sell, and what direction they can go in to keep your readers interested and informed. On the other hand, when you search for free content, you are limited to what is already out there. Secondly, you will own the copyright to this content. That means that no one else can reuse it without your consent. If you opt for free content, you will be sharing that content with an unknown amount of other affiliate websites, plus the original author will be able to place their byline at the bottom of the article which could result in them stealing your traffic.

There are many products that have nice affiliate commission rates for those who know how to pre-sale their product and deliver click through customers who are ready to buy. As long as you choose to promote a product or service that can be very useful to a wide variety of people, then pre-selling your chosen company may not be that hard at all. The key in this situation may likely be getting those customers to your website so that they have a chance to see your recommendations and click on your affiliate links.

Next we will discuss places you can go to look for a ton of different affiliate products for your niche. Lots of fun ahead so stick with us!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

When I was going through my bookmarks the other day, I realized I had so many that they were getting impossible to organize and keep track of. So I have decided to list them all in separate pages for you all to take a look through and see if you can’t find something useful to use as well.

These links were all the places that you could make money as a writer. Some of them are like Hubpages where you make money by posting articles with a share of the sites revenues and the adsense made from people reading your articles. Sometime that can be like 5 cents a day, other times it can mean hundreds or a thousand a month. It all depends on what you write and how many others like it enough to read and pass along.

I use a few of these links and get paid per article written. I have not really spent much time on the sites that pay per article as some of them are geared to only Americans(which I am a Canadian), so I went with where I ended up getting work and making money. I will also list the freelance job sites that pay ok and where I have made money.

http://www.workathomespace.com/freelance.php

http://factoidz.com/create-account.php?refer=1B4766(blogging job)
http://www.dailypixel.ca/join.php(blogging job)
http://tipdrop.com/(blogging job)
http://www.needanarticle.com/writers/login.php?ret=/writers/index.php(you need to apply for this one by inquiring in email. you may need to go to main site page-not this writers page-article writing job)
http://www.today.com/register-new(freelance writing job)
http://hubpages.com/help/landing_e2?utm_content=lpt4_landing_e2&utm_source=adwords&utm_campaign=blogger(articles/adsense/revenue sharing)
http://www.workathomecareers.com/workathomejobs/index.php?cat=26(assorted writing gigs)
http://www.gofreelance.com/join/comfort1/indexed-location.php(have to pay to get into this database-but it is legit)
http://www.ehow.com/how_4888010_freelance-work-online.htmlGreat article to help you learn the best way to make money with freelance writing-related article links on same page-take some time to read through the articles, I found some good info that can help)
http://www.talkfreelance.com/showthread.php?p=528933(forum where you can find job postings)
http://www.online-writing-jobs.com/jobbank/detail/link-115661.html(directory like Craigslist)
http://www.fastcashfreelance.com/resources/(tons of great links for other job leads)

So, this is the writing section I have narrowed it down to. Next I will get to my other job links I have saved for those of you who would like to try your hand making money in other careers.

Good luck! Have fun! Enjoy the freedom of working from home.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites