THE DIARY OF A HUSTLER

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 So as promised I am providing some work from home ideas for everyone who has ever thought about how they could make ends meet or make  a little extra without getting another job.   This is only intended to be a starting point for each of the ideas. As with anything worth doing,  it actually takes work to achieve results.  Keep in mind that these are just a few, there are countless other possibilities.  Feel free to comment with your suggestions and I will give you more ideas in future posts.  Ok here we go and these are not in any particular order:

1.  BLOGGING.    Did you know that people and companies will pay you to write for their blogs? Don’t tell me you don’t know what a blog is because you are reading one now (smile).   Companies and small business owners hire bloggers for the purpose of writing content on their blogs.   I found a site that update blogger jobs almost everyday. How do you make money? Some businesses will state the type of  article they need written and ask how much it would cost them to have that need met.  So you are charging for your writing skills!  Others will pay you an amount per article or a regular salary based on a contract. In either case you get paid for writing content on a site. I would suggest this work from home option only if you love to write and have significant amount of time to spare so that you are sure to provide quality and value.
2. FREELANCE WRITER.   You may write articles for magazines, advertising copy for brochures, technical manuals and other literary products on weekends or in your spare time.  Write about your expertise or experience. For example, if you are a new bride, you can write articles for wedding and women magazines about the process of preparing for a wedding.  How do you make money?  Based on my research, some writing projects will pay by the hour-usually about $20 to $75 depending on your writing skills.  Most however, will pay by the number of words or by a percentage of the selling price (if it’s a book).  There are a number or resources out there that lists potential markets for various kinds of writing be it poetry, screenplays, articles, books, or web. Start with Writersmarket.com. This site is the “freelance writers’ bible” because it provides contact information for thousands of publishers, literary agents, and editors.
3. CREATE A WRITTEN PRODUCT.  While we’re on the topic of writing… have you ever thought about creating a written product.  It can be a simple how-to article about something you specialize in, such as, how to unclog a drain(just an example).  Or a review of a book, movie, play, ect.  How about writing about your experience?  Produce an article and post it to sites such as ezine.com, hubpages.com, and squidoo.com.   The product is written articles that get traffic from search engines. In order to be successful, the content you produce should be on topics that people search for on Google or other major search engines. The key to success here is high quality, valuable information.  A well written piece of content that does an excellent job at answering a question, explaining how to do something, or reviewing a product or place in detail will be worthwhile reading.  But how do you make money from these articles? One way to make money is through Google AdSense. AdSense places ads that match the content of your writing. Advertisers like placing ads through AdSense since they are so highly targeted. Users will click on the ads if they are interested in them and google will pay you money. The way you generate earnings will depend on the type of ads which have been displayed on your site. You can receive earnings for valid clicks on cost-per-click (CPC) ads and valid impressions on cost-per-thousand-impression (CPM) ads.   This creates a great opportunity for you to make a decent side income depending upon how much traffic visits your article.  I will talk about how to attract traffic in a future post, but if that is something that you would like to learn about immediately, the book  “The Marketers Manifesto” (it’s free…find it under featured books)  does a great job of showing the power of attraction marketing.  More on attraction marketing coming soon!   Another advantage to creating written products is the opportunity to sell your product for whatever price your heart desires (of course you would want to be reasonable and do some research on how much your work is worth to your target market).  Think about it.  You can write an e-book (an online book), report, or manual, turn it into a pdf file (very simple to do), and sell it.  Sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter are great sites to promote yourself and your items. 
4. NETWORK MARKETING. Many people think that network marketing aka multi-level marketing(mlm)… is a pyramid scheme because of the structure of the industry.  The truth is network marketing is a $20 billion dollar industry and there are thousands of  different mlm companies.  This article explains what network marketing is and why it is not a pyramid scheme.  it also explains where the confusion lies and how to look for a reputable company.  Most people do not realize the value of becoming a network marketer.  I didn’t either until I read Robert Kiyosaki’s (a business guru among other things) book,  Rich Dad’s Business School - For People Who Like Helping People. The entire book is dedicated to the network marketing industry and it cleared up a lot of confusion for me.  Anyhow, how do you make money?  Network marketing companies do not advertise which allows them to pay individual people to  advertise for them.  These companies also reward you for recruiting other salespeople, creating a team.  You then get paid a percentage when they sell an item.  Perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects of these companies is that they pay you a residual income.  The power of this type of income is incredible!  Think about selling a person a service one time and getting paid every time they use it or renew their membership-that is residual income, in music it’s called royalties.  There are literally thousands of network marketing companies out there.  I would suggest doing research to find out how long they’ve been in business, what services and/or products are offered and whether those products are valuable to others and profitable to you.  The rule for me is, if I wouldn’t use it, I wouldn’t sell it. Just my personal philosophy.  But be careful, many people in the industry still use traditional marketing techniques that can take you a long time to become successful.  Be willing to become a learner. I would strongly suggest reading “The Seven Great Lies of Network Marketing”. It is a free report about the traditional marketing strategies that the network marketing industry teach. Next, I suggest reading the Renegade Network Marketer. Both books are written by Ann Sieg and she teaches how to become a successful network marketer of the 21st century.  There are keys to being successful in network marketing and I didn’t discover them when I joined my first network marketing company.  It wasn’t until after I partnered with my second network marketing company that I learned how to truly become successful with this type of home-based business.More on network marketing soon, but if you have a specific question feel free to leave a comment or email me.
5. SELL A TANGIBLE PRODUCT.  The big difference here is that you have to actually deliver a physical product. There are types of products that I think are better for selling online. First, if you can resell high margin products that are small and easy to ship.  Highmarginproduct.com allows you to market and sell their products.  You can market them on your site, ebay, facebook, or any other social networking sites.  The best part is they will ship the product directly to the customer.  I just found out about this company.  I plan on checking out their products to see if there are things that I would be interested in promoting.
6. MORE TANGIBLE PRODUCTS.  Are you creative?  Why not sell something you create. This could be holiday candy, specialty baskets, candles or a product that you figure out how to manufacture.  The key is to sell products that cost little to nothing to make, but are worth good money.  One of my students (I am a 7th grade teacher) make beautiful candles out of crayon!  Those could easily sell for ten, fifteen dollars or more depending on the size and style (and she has many styles).  How much would her investment be? She only needs crayon and wax.  The key is to have a high margin product and a market available that can move them. How do you make money?  You make money when a product is sold. The amount of money you make is dependent upon things such as, is there a market for your product, if you are marketing correctly, the price of the item, just to name a few.  However, there are sites and tutorials for free or little to no cost at all that will show you step-by-step how to set up a website that people can purchase from.  Tune back for more information about setting up a website.