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Saturday, February 28, 2009
From the Times
Check out this informative article about 10 ways in which there is money to be had online.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Make Money Online - About
About.com has about a billion articles on how to make money online, but this one is by far the most informative.
Become a Bike Merchant
Seriously, if you have a car and a bike rack, then you are eligible for one of the greatest money-making schemes of all-time (slight exaggeration, of course).
Have you ever noticed how used bicycles never have consistent list prices in the classifieds? That’s because nobody knows how much a used bicycle will sell for. We only have a vague idea...somewhere between $0 and the price you paid for it. Best thing is that used bicycles work on the classic supply-and-demand system. The closer you are to an area where demand is high, the more you can get for a used bike.
I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. When you went over the hills into the suburbs, used bicycles were relatively cheap. The same used bicycle would sell for double in areas close to the University of California or Stanford University. The same bike you buy for $50 in the ‘burbs would sell for $125 in the used bike shops in Berkeley. Do your own calculations, and if you can find an economical way to transport bikes from the suburbs to the university towns, make sure they’re ride-able, and sell them off to desperate students, then you have just opened up your own used bike service.
A tip...the crappier the bike, the better an idea this is. Why? Because good mountain and road bikes are bought and sold by discerning bicycle riders who are willing to pay $300 for a good used bike. These same people know more about the value of a used bicycle than your average student, so the profit margin is likely to be much lower (if there is one). On the other hand, if someone is trying to get rid of a run-of-the-mill street bike from the early Nineties, chances are good that it will sell at a very low price. You can then re-sell for an elevated price, but one that is still accessible to the majority of students looking to get from point A to point B on campus.
Have you ever noticed how used bicycles never have consistent list prices in the classifieds? That’s because nobody knows how much a used bicycle will sell for. We only have a vague idea...somewhere between $0 and the price you paid for it. Best thing is that used bicycles work on the classic supply-and-demand system. The closer you are to an area where demand is high, the more you can get for a used bike.
I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. When you went over the hills into the suburbs, used bicycles were relatively cheap. The same used bicycle would sell for double in areas close to the University of California or Stanford University. The same bike you buy for $50 in the ‘burbs would sell for $125 in the used bike shops in Berkeley. Do your own calculations, and if you can find an economical way to transport bikes from the suburbs to the university towns, make sure they’re ride-able, and sell them off to desperate students, then you have just opened up your own used bike service.
A tip...the crappier the bike, the better an idea this is. Why? Because good mountain and road bikes are bought and sold by discerning bicycle riders who are willing to pay $300 for a good used bike. These same people know more about the value of a used bicycle than your average student, so the profit margin is likely to be much lower (if there is one). On the other hand, if someone is trying to get rid of a run-of-the-mill street bike from the early Nineties, chances are good that it will sell at a very low price. You can then re-sell for an elevated price, but one that is still accessible to the majority of students looking to get from point A to point B on campus.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Bartering
Remember the guy who pixels on his homepage? What about the guy who sold one square-inch portions of his beach-front property? If you have a ridiculous idea like this, it could be worth millions (well, maybe not quite millions).
Free Stuff
There are people who give away a lot of free stuff, and it’s easy to find. Individuals will use free classifieds like Craigslist to advertise free goods; the only catch is that usually you have to pick it up yourself. Mattresses, armoirs, boxes, toys, DVDs, you name it, it’s being given away for free. What’s to say that you couldn’t pick up an old dining room table, fix it up, and then sell it off for $50. This requires a little bit of work and perhaps basic carpentry skills, but if you have it, then you’ve got possibilities.
If old mattresses aren’t your cup of tea, maybe free samples of breakfast cereals or cosmetic products are more to your liking. Go to (About.com) for the “Free Stuff” blog.
It’s updated relatively frequently, and gives you advice on where to go to get these free samples. Walmart.com shows up pretty frequently.
Perhaps you would rather go for industrial quantities of free stuff. Have a need for mulch, scrapwood, manure? If you can believe it, many people just throw this stuff away. If you’re a gardener, picking up a truckload of organic refuse (provided you can verify that it’s not toxic for some reason) is a great way to avoid dishing out hundreds of dollars in topsoil and fertilizer. Gardening is also, by the way, a good way to avoid paying out 20% of more of your income in food bills.
If old mattresses aren’t your cup of tea, maybe free samples of breakfast cereals or cosmetic products are more to your liking. Go to (About.com) for the “Free Stuff” blog.
It’s updated relatively frequently, and gives you advice on where to go to get these free samples. Walmart.com shows up pretty frequently.
Perhaps you would rather go for industrial quantities of free stuff. Have a need for mulch, scrapwood, manure? If you can believe it, many people just throw this stuff away. If you’re a gardener, picking up a truckload of organic refuse (provided you can verify that it’s not toxic for some reason) is a great way to avoid dishing out hundreds of dollars in topsoil and fertilizer. Gardening is also, by the way, a good way to avoid paying out 20% of more of your income in food bills.
Pay-per-Use
An addendum to the last post. Suppose you actually offer a product or a service...downloadable images, songs, videos, etc. You can ask your audience to pay what they believe to be a fair price for your goods and services. The band Radiohead pioneered this a few years ago by offering their entire album online in exchange for donations to be determined by the downloaders.
This technique evolved in response to the advent of free file sharing and “digital piracy” by services like Napster, Gnutella and Limewire. This is a way to avoid paying huge sums to the middleman (record company and film production company) and instead send your money directly to the artist. While sites like ITunes allow you to download content at a price that fits its relative market value (new as of February ’09), the “pay-per-use” technique allows the audience itself to determine market value. Sure, you’re not Radiohead, but if you have goods and services to offer with a low overhead, this may be a way to avoid giving it away for free.
This technique evolved in response to the advent of free file sharing and “digital piracy” by services like Napster, Gnutella and Limewire. This is a way to avoid paying huge sums to the middleman (record company and film production company) and instead send your money directly to the artist. While sites like ITunes allow you to download content at a price that fits its relative market value (new as of February ’09), the “pay-per-use” technique allows the audience itself to determine market value. Sure, you’re not Radiohead, but if you have goods and services to offer with a low overhead, this may be a way to avoid giving it away for free.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
"Your Donations Keep This Going"
How many times have you seen this on a blog? Do you imagine that sites with millions of hits per day actually need people to donate to keep their sites going? If you have a good product (website, blog, podcast, whatever) then you can enter the world of “pay-per-use” media. Public Radio and Television pioneered this seemingly ancient technology in the Fifties and Sixties, and the internet has certainly given new lease to this form of survival. Paypal is the easiest way to get this done. Here’s how:
Say, for example, you’ve got a great blog about Kittens, with tons of cute pictures and helpful advice on how to keep them from scratching your couch when they get claws. If you’re readership is active, and they care about what you are doing, you can consider going to Paypal.com and adding a donation button to your blog. Take the time to plead with your readers about your job, your family, and the time it takes to actually take care of your kittens, and ask them to support you by making a small donation. It might work, it might not, but there’s no harm in trying.
Say, for example, you’ve got a great blog about Kittens, with tons of cute pictures and helpful advice on how to keep them from scratching your couch when they get claws. If you’re readership is active, and they care about what you are doing, you can consider going to Paypal.com and adding a donation button to your blog. Take the time to plead with your readers about your job, your family, and the time it takes to actually take care of your kittens, and ask them to support you by making a small donation. It might work, it might not, but there’s no harm in trying.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Start a Web Directory
Companies pay money (not always good money) to be listed in a web directory. If your web directory is good, comprehensive, and fills an “in-demand” niche, then you can ask for more money to be listed. The reason why companies would pay for such a service is that they are more specific than a search engine like Google. Although Google is very good at what it does, it still has to accommodate the interest of billions of different parties (like me, for example)...a directory that fills a good niche can eliminate 99.9% of the junk that your readers wouldn’t be interested in.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Guerilla Marketing
Got a good way to advertise a product or service? Websites will pay for you to get the word out...this is how collegehumor.com became big, and has afforded its creator the right to semi-retirement as a HuffingtonPost.com blogger and a celebrity with his own webisodes. He basically hired college students at a reasonably low rate to become marketing associates whose job was to get the word out. It worked, because within the span of one year, collegehumor.com was an international phenomenon. How will this work for you?
If you don’t have a site with potential like this, then become an associate for one or many sites. Webmaster will pay you to get the word out...the best way of doing this is link dropping. Webmasters will pay you to paste their link in forums, in social-networking sites, on people’s blogs, etc. The more links they can drop, the more likely that someone will see their website and the higher it will rank with search engines. Do a good job and you just might find yourself working in a more full-time capacity, making a salary (if that’s what you’re into).
If you don’t have a site with potential like this, then become an associate for one or many sites. Webmaster will pay you to get the word out...the best way of doing this is link dropping. Webmasters will pay you to paste their link in forums, in social-networking sites, on people’s blogs, etc. The more links they can drop, the more likely that someone will see their website and the higher it will rank with search engines. Do a good job and you just might find yourself working in a more full-time capacity, making a salary (if that’s what you’re into).
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
A skeptic
This article from Newsweek talks about how it's not possible to make a fortune with a blog. Most realistic bloggers already know this to be the case, but the stats he wields can be instructive. I didn't really understand what he was blogging about, so maybe that's half his problem.
www.newsweek.com/id/183666
www.newsweek.com/id/183666
Facebook, MySpace, Blogging continued...
Search engines, advertisers and webmasters love to see popularity, which is why it pays to advertise your own stuff. Have you created a blog, an application, a website, etc. If you can show to the in-charges that your site has coverage, the money that people pay for these advertisements grows exponentially. So again, you can use your popularity as a social networker to try and advertise your site, to generate hits and visits, and most importantly, to get your link out there so people can see it. How many times have you clicked on a link just because it was there, or because its title vaguely interested you? Go to forums like Answers.com and post your link for people to see. If you’re lucky, someone will like your product so much that they’ll start posting and advertising your link for you, at which point you’re well on your way to a popular website.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Make Money Buying Lost Baggage
This isn't an online opportunity, but pretty enticing nonetheless:
http://www.moneymagpie.com/article/buying-lost-luggage/27
http://www.moneymagpie.com/article/buying-lost-luggage/27
Saturday, February 7, 2009
My Blogs
http://allaboutsolarenergy.blogspot.com/
http://mostsearchedterms.blogspot.com/
http://barackobama2010.blogspot.com/
http://beerpeople.blogspot.com/
http://foodiesinparis.blogspot.com/
http://earn-some-dough.blogspot.com/
http://nelsonweddingphotos.blogspot.com/
http://crosschannelfriendships.blogspot.com/
http://ftap-guide.blogspot.com/
http://seinfeldtopfive.blogspot.com/
http://punditsareidiots.blogspot.com/
http://ftap-info.blogspot.com/
http://www.simmonsfields.com
http://www.renewablesolarinfo.com
http://mostsearchedterms.blogspot.com/
http://barackobama2010.blogspot.com/
http://beerpeople.blogspot.com/
http://foodiesinparis.blogspot.com/
http://earn-some-dough.blogspot.com/
http://nelsonweddingphotos.blogspot.com/
http://crosschannelfriendships.blogspot.com/
http://ftap-guide.blogspot.com/
http://seinfeldtopfive.blogspot.com/
http://punditsareidiots.blogspot.com/
http://ftap-info.blogspot.com/
http://www.simmonsfields.com
http://www.renewablesolarinfo.com
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Facebook, MySpace and Blogging...
Yeah, I know you (and I) spend a lot of our good, waking hours screwing around on social networking sites, so why not get paid for it. If you’ve got a lot of friends, it’s easy to “bulletin” advertise where you send them to affiliated websites who pay you for the traffic you generate. Facebook can work the same way, and if you’re computer literate, you can generate an application or a program that will pay through advertisers in the same way. If you own a blog, go ahead and monetize it with Google Adsense and use your capacity as a socialite to advertise for your blog. Have you tried making and selling trinkets like backgrounds, templates, animations, scripts, etc? It’s like the twenty-first century equivalent to selling your own jewelry or homemade mittens. For that matter, why not make jewelry and homemade mittens and sell them to your “friends” online. You can do the same with music, with poetry, with homebrewed beer....Especially as you get into your twenties and thirties, people begin to appreciate homemade and artisinal stuff more than they like the hustle and bustle of the Gap. Remember, your popularity as a social networker is the key to generating traffic to and selling stuff, so if you’re a prolific networker already, you’ve won half the battle. Got like, 3,000 friends? Some upstart social networking sites will pay you to migrate to their platform and bring your friends with you. Look for these guys, they’re everywhere.
Social Lending
Looking for an investment opportunity? Wave of the future, Dude! Well maybe I wouldn’t go that far, but social lending is catching on because lenders have the ability to make 9%, 12%, 15% or more on their investment.
What is it? Basically, through the medium of a reputable website, you become the bank and lend to your peers. The website does the vetting by means of a detailed credit check, the results of which are available to you the lender. The better the credit score, the better the borrowing rate for the perspective borrower. Those with high credit scores can usually receive a loan for about 8%, while those with abominable credit scores (although they all have to be higher than 660) can borrow at 18%. You, the lender, have the ability to decide which borrower you would like to choose, and for as little as $25, you can fund a loan. Generally, the borrowers are asking for loans from $1,500 to $10,000 or even more, and their loans will be funded by the thousands of people who make up the social lending community. Any given loan is usually funded by at least 50 different people.
If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is! Why do I say this? Because you need to be warned that, just like banks who lend, you are subject to default by the borrower. If you lend $100 bucks to someone with a low credit score hoping to make an 18% return, the chances are very real that you might get burned. On average, 5% of social borrower default on their loans. What this means for you, the lender, is that you need to be careful about who you lend to (tell that to Citigroup, Wells Fargo, WAMU, etc.), and that you also need to diversify your portfolio. Personally, I have been lending socially for two years, and even in this rough economic climate, I haven’t seen one single default in my portfolio, but that means that it won’t happen to me tomorrow.
For the wise lender, it is possible that you can make a 10% return on your investment, which is much higher than your average CD, Money Market or Orange Savings Account, and even most Mutual Funds (but of course, much riskier). It’s also a way to start sticking it to the banks and financial institutions that basically burned our money in a bonfire of excess and over-calculation over the past few years. But most importantly, DO YOUR RESEARCH AND DECIDE WHAT IS RIGHT FOR YOU!
Check out: LendingClub.com, Prosper.com, Zopa.com
What is it? Basically, through the medium of a reputable website, you become the bank and lend to your peers. The website does the vetting by means of a detailed credit check, the results of which are available to you the lender. The better the credit score, the better the borrowing rate for the perspective borrower. Those with high credit scores can usually receive a loan for about 8%, while those with abominable credit scores (although they all have to be higher than 660) can borrow at 18%. You, the lender, have the ability to decide which borrower you would like to choose, and for as little as $25, you can fund a loan. Generally, the borrowers are asking for loans from $1,500 to $10,000 or even more, and their loans will be funded by the thousands of people who make up the social lending community. Any given loan is usually funded by at least 50 different people.
If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is! Why do I say this? Because you need to be warned that, just like banks who lend, you are subject to default by the borrower. If you lend $100 bucks to someone with a low credit score hoping to make an 18% return, the chances are very real that you might get burned. On average, 5% of social borrower default on their loans. What this means for you, the lender, is that you need to be careful about who you lend to (tell that to Citigroup, Wells Fargo, WAMU, etc.), and that you also need to diversify your portfolio. Personally, I have been lending socially for two years, and even in this rough economic climate, I haven’t seen one single default in my portfolio, but that means that it won’t happen to me tomorrow.
For the wise lender, it is possible that you can make a 10% return on your investment, which is much higher than your average CD, Money Market or Orange Savings Account, and even most Mutual Funds (but of course, much riskier). It’s also a way to start sticking it to the banks and financial institutions that basically burned our money in a bonfire of excess and over-calculation over the past few years. But most importantly, DO YOUR RESEARCH AND DECIDE WHAT IS RIGHT FOR YOU!
Check out: LendingClub.com, Prosper.com, Zopa.com
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Get Paid to Click
InboxDollars.com, in particular, has a relatively decent program. How, you ask, could I be paid to read emails? It’s simple. InboxDollars is essentially a marketing firm, trying to get their clients’ message out to as many people as will read. If it means that they have to pay an email recipient, say, 5 cents to read an email, then sure, why not? Sign up for their service and you will receive on average two or three emails a day. Find a clicking system that works for you, and you will earn about 15-20 cents per minute (I use Firefox and have new links open up in a new tab...that way I’m done with the advertisement almost instantly). Over the long run, that’s $9-$12 an hour. You won’t get rich doing things like this, but if you sign up for multiple sites and services, your earnings will add up over the long run. And there’s no commute. InboxDollars also does paid surveys and consumer rewards programs, so there are multiple ways of earning with them. Their payout isn’t fantastic, but in the one year that I have been with them, I’ve already earned about $100 bucks for very little work.
In addition to InboxDollars, try mypoints.com (best if you couple it with a MyPoints VISA rewards cards and its consumer rewards programs), Fusioncash.com, and the ever popular clixrate.com.
In addition to InboxDollars, try mypoints.com (best if you couple it with a MyPoints VISA rewards cards and its consumer rewards programs), Fusioncash.com, and the ever popular clixrate.com.
More Paid Survey Info...
These two have recently come to my attention. They are based in the UK, but US residents may have access to them depending upon how you intend to be compensated. If you aren’t concerned about privacy (petty details, I know) you may be interested in sites like YouGov or Ciao.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Paid Survey Sites
Most paid survey sites are scams. DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT pay to become a member of a paid survey site. Even ones that are reputable, like surveyscout.com, aren't worth it. Why? Because it will take you months to earn back the money you invest, and that's only if you are diligent about doing surveys. If you lose interest quickly (which I have been known to do) you lost money instead of making it. Here are a list of free survey sites that I have used and profited from, in order of preference:
1. SurveySavvy.com
2. globaltestmarket.com
3. greenfieldonline.com
4. fusioncash.com
5. cashcrate.com
6. mysurvey.com
7. harrispoleonline.com
8. e-rewards.com (in conjunction with Delta Skymiles or Blockbuster)
It depends on what you're looking for, of course, because each site is different in the way they dole out payments or rewards. E-rewards, for example, doesn't pay in cash...this means that they can offer $5-$25 per survey that you will never see, but will be able to use for rewards. Others, like greenfieldonline.com, lean heavily on Sweepstake entries, but also offer cold hard cash as a reward. The rule of thumb is generally that if a reward sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
1. SurveySavvy.com
2. globaltestmarket.com
3. greenfieldonline.com
4. fusioncash.com
5. cashcrate.com
6. mysurvey.com
7. harrispoleonline.com
8. e-rewards.com (in conjunction with Delta Skymiles or Blockbuster)
It depends on what you're looking for, of course, because each site is different in the way they dole out payments or rewards. E-rewards, for example, doesn't pay in cash...this means that they can offer $5-$25 per survey that you will never see, but will be able to use for rewards. Others, like greenfieldonline.com, lean heavily on Sweepstake entries, but also offer cold hard cash as a reward. The rule of thumb is generally that if a reward sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Work From Home
If you are considering working from home, the following websites may be of interest to you:
http://www.workathomedesk.com
http://www.wahm.com
http://www.workathomecareers.com/
Each are trusted, professional operations with the employee's best interest at heart.
http://www.workathomedesk.com
http://www.wahm.com
http://www.workathomecareers.com/
Each are trusted, professional operations with the employee's best interest at heart.
Avoiding Scams
First rule is not to get taken for a ride. My general rule of thumb is not to pay for anything. Too many sites will ask for a membership fee of, oh, say $60 or more with no guarantee to their effectiveness. To learn more, visit: http://www.scambusters.org.
Avoiding Scams
First rule is not to get taken for a ride. My general rule of thumb is not to pay for anything. Too many sites will ask for a membership fee of, oh, say $60 or more with no guarantee to their effectiveness. To learn more, visit: http://www.scambusters.org.
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