Making money online is one of those truly unique methods for making a living. It doesn’t have to involve selling a physical product, it costs practically nothing to start, you can work from home, you can live anywhere in the world (as long as you have a good internet connection) and in a lot of cases you don’t need to work long hours to succeed.

A good majority of the population aspire to working online but never get any further than thinking about it.  And in most cases their thinking involves negative beliefs that keep them rooted to their 9 to 5 job. I’ve heard lots of excuses over the years – I don’t have the time – When my kids are bigger I might start looking into it – I spend all day on a computer at work, I don’t want to have to come home and do the same – I can’t type (hello!?…you only need 1 finger to type on a keyboard).

Every one one of these excuses is simply that – an excuse to keep that person from even trying. For most it is easier to not attempt something than to attempt it and fail. Their fear of failure keeps them stuck doing the same 9 to 5 job day after day. Unfortunately they don’t realise that the most successful people on this planet have failed again and again, but the difference between them and anyone else is that they see these failures as opportunities. They know that they can learn more from their failures than they can from their successes.

I think we’ve all heard by now the story of Thomas Edison who failed over 2000 times before he finally perfected the light bulb. Imagine if he had given up after the first failure? Would we all be sitting in the dark now? Probably not, as someone else who wasn’t afraid of failing would have taken over.

You only have to see a baby attempting to walk to see how this all works. They get up, take a step and fall straight back down again. But do they give up?…no way, they keep getting up and falling down until they take that second step and the third and before you know it they are walking across the room towards you. And the thing is, we expect them to fail again and again before they eventually start to walk properly. We don’t codemn them, or think they’re stupid or tell them to stop trying.  We know that the only way they will walk is if they keep trying.

So if you think about it why aren’t you doimg the same? What’s holding you back from taking the next step to making money online?

Let go of the fear and just do it. If you make a mistake then don’t beat yourself up about it – instead look at that failure and see how you can improve upon it. Just keep at it and you can only succeed.

FINALLY RELEASED - Our complete guide to making money online by promoting Amazon products. Head over to the AMAZONIAN PROFIT PLAN website for all the latest info.

Working from home is something that more and more people are trying to achieve.  You get to work the hours that you want and can earn money in your pyjamas…right?  Well, yes and no.  If you’re considering earning a living by writing articles at home, read on…

How easy is it to find a job writing articles?

Actually, it’s harder than you might imagine.  If you do a Google search for Work From Home Writing Articles you will get a huge number of hits so it would appear that there is a lot of work available.  However, be very, very careful.  There are many sites which look extremely professional and are easy to sign up to.  But a lot of them are scams or very low paying at best.

Scam sites

Adsense Revenue Type Sites

These sites say that you can write about anything you like and post articles to their site as often as you like.  They will then put your article onto a website that matches its content and you get paid a percentage of the advertising revenue from that site.  You can build up a modest revenue over time.  For example, if you had 150 articles up, you could expect to earn around $1 per article per month.  To do well at this you would need to know a fair bit about SEO (search engine optimization) and be sure that your article contains the correct percentage of keywords.  Too many and the search engines will boot out your article – too few and it won’t get found.  Google offers a free keyword analyzer which is worth a look.  The good news is that once your articles are written and submitted, the money just keeps coming in.  The bad news is that it’s not great money.

Credit card scammers

As we said, be very, very careful what you sign up for.  There are other sites that entice you to write articles for them and they are easy to sign up to – just your email address and name.  Then when you click to register, a grey box pops up, offering you an amazing discount to join them and get the benefits of their membership club.  This discount price is usually around $2.95.  This obviously makes it very tempting to sign up to but please, don’t!  There is a box to tick to say that you have read the Terms and Conditions and in those T’s and C’s you will read that if you give them your credit card details, they will take a substantial sum each month.  We have seen amounts varying from $47 to $70.  A quick trawl of forums shows that some people were able to cancel after the first amount was taken but many were still frantically trying to get through on the ‘helpline’ number. 

So are there any real opportunities?  Yes, there are.  Here are a few of the better ones.

Craigs List

You could try Craigs List.  This looks like a very basic site but has a wealth of job opportunities for anyone who wants to write from home.  First, select your city from the list on the left of the page.  When the page has refreshed, look under jobs and scroll down to writing / editing.  Then simply browse the jobs by each area and when you find one that you like the look of, email the address at the top of the page.  Clicking on it will take you to Outlook or you can copy and paste it into another email provider such as Hotmail etc.  You still need to be careful as some of the scam sites do post on Craigs List which can be disappointing.  But as long as you don’t sign up for them, that’s all it is.  Look for jobs that don’t require you to be in a specific area and accept ‘telecommutes’ i.e. working from home.  You can browse every city which is broken down into towns.  This can be very time consuming but it is worth it as it won’t cost you anything to apply and you may get work from it.

Associated Content

AssociatedContent is free to sign up to and will pay an upfront payment ranging from $1 – $20 depending on the content of what you submit.  The average payment is $5.  They accept articles, as well as audio, slideshows and others.  You can either write whatever you wish or look for assignments.  These are articles which AssociatedContent wish to be written so it’s a good idea to go for these.  They also offer Performance Payments which pay $1.50 for every 1,000 page views your content receives.  It’s worth noting that if you’re not a resident of the United States, you can’t get upfront payments – you may only submit content for Performance Payments.

There is a lot to learn about how to get the best from this site so spend a good chunk of time reading their faq’s, their help pages and other people’s articles on what to do.  There is money to be made but you need to put a lot of work in to get started.

Elance

Elance is a site for professional freelancers and writing is among the skills that buyers are looking for.  You can signup for a basic free membership and get to work that way, although it can be slow to start with.  If you’re really committed, shell out for an Individual or Business membership which will display you higher in the search ranks when Buyers are looking for a writer.  You can also optimize your chances of success by filling out your Profile page and taking the free online tests that Elance provide to show Buyers your level of ability.

A Buyer will post a project.  They describe the job, how long they wish you to spend on it and how much they are willing to pay.  You then bid for the job, using a ‘connect’ to do so.  Each level of membership awards you a certain number of connects.  If you are awarded the job, it then goes into a ‘workroom’ where you and your buyer can Private Message each other if required.

Before bidding on a job, check out how many projects the Buyer has posted and how many they have accepted.  If a Buyer has posted several and not accepted any, it’s a good idea to pass – however tempting the job may sound.  You can also checkout the Buyer’s feedback and they can look at yours so make sure it’s good!  Elance displays your 6 monthly earnings, lifetime earnings and feedback score when you bid.  Payment is usually through Escrow and you can then transfer it into your bank account or PayPal.  Don’t forget that Elance takes a cut so add that to the price that you bid.  Be aware that there are many providers on Elance so the competition is fierce.  However, stick with it and if you are lucky, you may find a Buyer who posts repeat projects and invites you to bid for them.

Other bid sites

The other main sites where you bid for writing jobs are GetAFreelancer, Guru, and iFreelance.

Advice

This will sound obvious but it is something that many Freelancers don’t pay attention too, surprisingly.  Always remember that you are selling your writing, so first of all, make sure that your profile is filled in as comprehensively as possible.  Check the spelling and then check it again.  When you get a job, do it to the best of your ability, present it well and make sure it’s in on time.  And enjoy!  Good luck!

Tonight I read a forum post by an internet marketer who found that although he was making money online and was successful at it, he found it all incredibly lonely. He was so lonely that he was asking for suggestions from readers as to how he could get around this problem.

What the…?! was my initial response but as I sat and thought about it I realised that in fact, working from home can be very isolating for many. As the ‘Lonely Affiliate’ said, the ‘grass is always greener on the other side’. In other words, those lucky people working a 9 to 5 job have got it all when it comes to social interaction – they get to communicate all day long with other people…they get feedback and hopefully lots of recognition for the good work they’re doing. They get to chat about the latest fashions, which celebrity has just died and gossip to their hearts content about the latest office relationship. 

If you work from home, you don’t get any of that. The feedback especially is non-existent and you are often left wondering if you are doing the right thing for the most part.

For this reason, working from home is not for everyone. If you don’t like being on your own, and I know lots of people like that, then you might have trouble adjusting to this sort of lifestyle. I personally like being on my own…not all the time of course, but when I am I relish it.

I don’t feel isolated…I kind of figure that I have millions of people right inside my computer if I want to interact with any of them. And as for face to face contact?…well there are plenty of options open to me if I choose to take them and the same applies to the ‘Lonely Affiliate’. How about taking up a hobby, or joining a gym, or getting involved with your local community centre or joining a club. The possibilities are endless.

I know that I will never get bored or lonely working from home – there is so much more to life than that…but what about you…are you a ‘Lonely Affiliate’?

Paula and I recently took part in the James Martell Bootcamp on affiliate marketing.

This was one of the most informative exercises the we have undertaken in relation to our affiliate websites, where we learnt how to rank highly in google.

At the end of the course James and Arlene sent us our Certificates showing that we had successfully completed the course and an ‘Easy’ button.

So now whenever we complete a task we press the button that says “That was easy”. It’s a great little motivational tool that I think everyone should go out and buy one. The easy button is available from Amazon.com and Staples stores.

For anyone who considers themself to be a good writer there are plenty of opportunities on the internet to make a few extra dollars. If you are serious enough you can turn those few extra dollars into a full time job with a matching full time income. There are literally thousands of webmasters looking for good content for their websites or blogs and they rely on people like you who can provide that good content for them.

We pay writers to develop good articles for our websites. We use rentacoder.com and elance.com. Both of these websites provide a service for people like us who are looking for professional writers like you. And when we say professional it doesn’t mean that you need to have academic qualifications or literary accolades – it just means that you need to be able to write a good article.

We pay writers anywhere between $6 and $20 for an article. The price is generally dependent on the number of words in the article.

Basically the process works as follows:

1. You register with Elance or RentaCoder as a writer. There may be a cost involved with this like an annual fee so check out the individual website for more info.
2. Webmasters, or anyone looking for written content will also register with Elance and then post a project. The project may ask for a certain number of articles or for an eBook to be written or some web content and so on.
3. The writer then views the projects that are available and places a bid. Your bid is the amount that you would want to be paid for the work requested.
4. The person who has posted the project will check your bid and any other bids that have been posted. They will also check samples of your work and your previous track record. If you are new, then you will have to show some pretty good examples of your work as many are hesitant to take anyone without previous feedback. This is why it is important to keep your bids reasonably low to start with in order to attract buyers.
5. If your bid is accepted you will have a certain amount of time to complete the work. You will also need to keep the buyer updated on your progress.
6. Once your work has been submitted and the buyer is happy you will be paid. Be prepared to revise your work if the buyer isn’t 100% happy.

Some Final Tips

• Maintain your professionalism at all times.
• Communicate with the buyer solely through the Elance or RentaCoder email systems so that if anything should go wrong you will have everything documented.
• Proof read your work before submitting to the buyer. This may sound obvious but the biggest problem we see with writers is their failure to proof read. Get someone else to do this for you if you can. There is nothing more off putting than receiving copy that is sloppy in presentation and full of incorrect punctuation and grammar.

Once you build up a reputation and have received positive feedback you will find that other opportunities become readily available. You may even find yourself writing for one or two buyers on a regular basis, meaning you will have a steady income.

Article provided by our guest author Nia Sowden author of Survival Wytch

Online Surveys

I wish I received a dollar for every time I heard a colleague complain, “I want to be at home with my kids, I want to be able to enjoy their sports days with them and attend concerts and assemblies. But how can I do that and hold down a job?”

I felt the same when I was stuck working for someone else

One answer is – become a survey panel member.

What’s Involved

I was looking around the internet and came across some information on survey panels from a website on there. So I joined up and have since become a member of the ‘recommended survey panels’. After the initial sign up with each site the surveys come thick and fast and since joining I have been receiving a couple of surveys to complete every day.

Sometimes the surveys are simple questionnaires about candy or insurance or cars and sometimes they are more involved. I have watched videos, listened to recordings and filled in forms.

On one site I became so engrossed in what they had to offer and I ended up posting recipes and travel articles. I liked the simple format of their newsletter and the accessibility and the lure of 200 points to get published in the newsletter!

What are the Rewards?

Some sites pay you for your opinion in points and others pay in dollars so you’ll need to set up a pay pal account.

The surveys take between 5 and 25 minutes to complete. And when you build up enough points you can bid on prizes, like an eBay auction or go into a draw for prizes every time you complete a survey. I find it fun and exiting and I get paid to be at home with my littlies.

It isn’t the grand overnight money train but I have pocket money for extras and gifts for the family that I wouldn’t normally have purchased. The really wonderful thing is that I am at home with the kids, not stuck in an office looking out a window at the sun in the distance and thinking about how someone else is enjoying my child’s formative years instead of me.

Raising Awareness

Doing the surveys has made me more aware of what I buy, what we eat, and I am more conscious of why I buy things. I had never examined my motives for buying things before and I now have the skills to determine what elements are needed to get me to part with my money.

I feel that I am playing a vital role in the success of some advertising campaigns. Because that is what survey panels are for. Members are invited to critique advertising campaigns and give feedback to companies who pay for those opinions.

Valued opinions, survey pro, survey advice, global test market these are just some of the companies that can introduce you to a more leisurely approach to earning money.

Staying Focussed

Just remember though working from home requires more discipline than going to the office.

I complete my surveys when the children are involved in an activity that doesn’t require me to supervise them too closely because sometimes the surveys require concentration. For instance the ideal time is when it is play dough play time or they are dressing up playing their make believe games, whereas when and the kids are having water play I need to give them my full attention rather than complete a survey.

Am I Enjoying This Form of Work From Home?

I certainly am!!! My experience so far has been a very fulfilling one. I have extra income, the time to enjoy my family and the pleasure of being able to work from home. I get to play games play on the computer, answer a myriad of questions, get a first look at lots of ideas for advertising and have the opportunity to inform advertisers what works for me and what doesn’t – and the best part is that as I am a valued customer they pay me!

Now to put that time at home to good use, the children and I are off to a Wiggles performance tell the CEO I said hi….