2/13/2011

Freelance Writing, eBay, and Blogging as Online Income Sources

In today's post, we bring you this article by Anthony Trister - who developed the Coffee Shop Millionaire brand. He discusses some online income sources which may or may not be familiar to you: Freelance Writing, eBay auctions, and Blogging. 

The great benefits (as Anthony exhibits) is no dress-code, commuting, or set schedules. 

Now a disclaimer: none of these by themselves will help you to really replace your day job. These three ideas are simply ways to get started. You'll still need to know the background data about how these various strategies can actually start generating money for you.

I offer free lessons for An Online Sunshine Plan - where you learn the nuts and bolts of Honest Internet Marketing. This was written after being badly scammed on top of a couple of years of trying to learn online promotion and sales. I've been where you are now, and worse - believe me. And before you dive in and sink a lot of time or money into "getting rich quick", you should really test the temperature of that water. Again: free lessons for learning honest Internet marketing.

Oh - just remembered - I also have free lessons on how to get started blogging. Completely self-paced and no email sign-up needed.

Additional caveats:
  • Freelance Writing is another job. It isn't passive income. So realize that if you are trying to supplement your income with this, it is really a second job - so you have to budget your schedule accordingly.
  • eBay isn't what it used to be. I did substantial research into eBay and found out that it's now mainly for: big box stores, collectors / hobbyists, and lead generation. Getting started with your own eBay store takes most people years - and you're paying monthly rent to eBay meanwhile...
  • Blogging is over-rated for making any income. Again, to really rank, you have to love writing - or it's just another job. Most people use blogs to generate leads for their mailing list, and affiliate sales. Adsense and Amazon ads haven't made any millionaires (except for the owners of of those companies.)
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I'm going to show you three quick and dirty ways to make money online, by working as much or as little as you want, from anywhere in the world, whenever you choose...

Freelance Writing

Online freelance writing jobs are plentiful, if you know where to look and can distinguish the legitimate opportunities from the potential scams.

Most people don't have a clue about the wide variety of writing opportunities available to them all over the Internet. These include writing simple articles, press releases, and even complete e-books.

Some clients pay upfront for your material, offering a certain amount per word or per assignment. Others will pay you per the hour for other writing and publishing related tasks such as proof-reading and editing web content.

Freelance writing networks such as "The Freelance Writing Jobs Network" are a great place to start looking for writing jobs and advice. And then there are what I call "freelance matchmaking" sites or "job boards" like Elance.com and Freelancer.com.

On these sites, almost every day, thousands of businesses post various types of writing projects, gigs and requests. If you get aggressive in applying for these open spots, then there's a virtually unlimited supply of writing opportunities that can make you money relatively quickly.

When starting, reply to as many project requests as possible, offer to work at a reasonable rate (but not dirt cheap), and be quick and responsive.

Landing that first gig is always the hardest step, but once you've built up a portfolio and some clientele, you'll get more and more consistent work.

The key to making money with freelance writing is to quickly produce as many quality pieces as you can for your portfolio, and then use job boards and social networking strategies to promote your writing. The more traffic you get to your online work, the more companies you'll have approaching you to write for them.

Here are some additional tips when setting up your portfolio:
  1. Set up a professional web page with your resume, contact information, and some writing samples.
  2. Establish yourself as a reputable, talented freelance writer by submitting only your best quality work to potential clients.
  3. Network with other busy writers who may be able to send extra work your way. Participate in writers forums by writing useful comments and including links to your website and online work.

Making Money with eBay

If writing is not your thing, then hop on over to ebay.com and you can start selling almost anything you can imagine within just minutes.

Imagine having access to 100 million cash-spending buyers. That's exactly the kind of gold mine that's waiting for you on eBay. It has over 100 million registered users, all of whom are out there shopping for great deals.

To become a successful eBay seller, first you must first figure out what to sell. You can sell your own items, check out trade shows in your local area, or search online directories like Doba.com and Alibaba.com to find hot products.

Here's how to get the most out of your ebay listings and auctions:
  1. Create good titles and descriptions, and include quality photos of the items. Write descriptions that stand out, but do not make them obnoxious by using all capital letters or excessive punctuation. Also, be honest about any defects in the items you have for sale.
  2. Consider starting your own eBay store for selling large quantities, since they have a longer run time than typical auctions. Participate in the eBay community and read the forums to stay involved.
  3. Other ways to get traffic to your auctions and items for sale include creating an page on eBay and linking to your auctions from other sites. You also could register a domain name dedicated solely to promoting your own auctions.

Once you find a hot product, keep selling it, and then gradually find more and more products you can promote. Over time, your income will grow exponentially.

How to Make Money with Your Own Blog

Blogging is another easy way to make money online. The secret to profitable blogging is to focus on a particular that is, your area of expertise or a very specific subject that is popular in the search engines.

Here's how to get started blogging:
  1. Like freelance writing, you should approach blogging with the intent to write unique, quality content. Offering useful information and establishing yourself as a trustworthy resource to your readers will quickly lead to lots of word-of-mouth traffic to your blog. Readers can tell if you do not know what you are talking about, so do your research and focus on producing quality content.
  2. Starting a blog is as simple as getting a free account at Wordpress.com, Blogger.com, or another blog hosting site. You can also pay for a domain name and hosting services if you want to personalize your blog even more. I suggest you start with the free options. (editor's note: Wordpress.com frowns on affiliate links, Blogger doesn't.)
  3. Once you have established your blog, then you can focus on monetizing it by incorporating relevant ads through advertising networks like Google AdSense or Chitika. Affiliate programs such as Amazon also are becoming increasingly popular ways to earn extra revenue. In addition, you could sell private ads or review products on your blog.
  4. Promote your blog by utilizing social networking opportunities such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and blogging forums. If you're creative, then you'll find endless opportunities to promote your blog throughout these social communities.
Freelance writing, selling on eBay, and blogging are only three of the many ways to make money online. They might require an initial investment of time and effort, but you are likely to see some quick income and even huge profits in the long run if you follow these hints.

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