Hi, I just registered on this forum after hours and hours of searching something about earning money online(no get rich schemes nonsense, 500 dollars per month for 6 hours work per day would be quite adequate for me). After reading all that stuff I actually got a headache and still have no idea from where to start. But, at least I learned one definite thing, if you see anywhere on a website testimonial spiel it is 100% scam, every single time. But I'm getting ahead of myself, to not bore you with unnecessary details I have to start earning money and due to some of my geographical and physical obstacles it has to be online. Nothing else would be feasible in the long run. I have a buffer of about 3 months, after that I have to regularly earn money(500dollars per month) to pay for food and utilities, thankfully I own my apartment so I don't have to pay rent. If anyone has been on this road before please give me a real specific basis to start from. I was thinking of relearning HTML, PHP, CSS, Javascript, MySql and so on, I had decent knowledge about a lot of that sort of stuff but forgot most of it now. Not to mention there is a huge gap between knowing and monetizing. I was also thinking about writing articles, Excel and all sorts of little stuff like that... I have nothing else to do so I can spend 12 hours per day learning stuff but 3 months is not very long so there is a narrow margin of error for any experimentation so I need to know a clear path and follow it. Please any suggestions are welcome because I'm quite frankly in a panic mode. P.S. I opened PayPal and MoneyBookers accounts for receiving payments and a special bank account for foreign currency along with internet banking service. Are those services sufficient for getting payment from anywhere? I never received direct payment from anyone online so I'm new at that too.
I feel your pain!!! I looked at online "scams" for a long time (years actually), and even fell for some, before I found what would work for me. First, you need to decide which "type" of online work you would like to do. The main areas are Network Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, and/or Freelance work. For me, I found success with affiliate marketing and freelance work. For example, before I began working from home full time I was an accountant, so I started out doing freelance accounting work. Also, many people who like photography sell stock photos, or people who are creative writers, write and sell articles, books and reports. I could go on and on. Now, I am a full time affiliate marketer. Because I enjoy it! So, really what you need to look for is a program or company that is going to help you "learn the ropes." Your goal of $500/mo. in 3 months is definately attainable! But, as you have already found, do your due dilligence, and decide which type of online work is the best fit for you. And, learn everything you can about it. Some information will be free, and some will come with a cost. My best advice is to read reviews on these people/companies before you buy anything. If the company or person is legit, there will be good reviews out there!
I totally feel your pain. When I got started online searching for a way to earn money online back in December of 2002, I went through a lot of scams and lost a good amount of money over the first 3-4 years. Your goal of $500 per month in a matter of a few short months is very attainable and you can do it because many have done it before you. The best advice I can give you is to try different things online like affiliate programs and/or online network marketing. You will lose some money but the most important thing is to never give up. You will face some obstacles along the way to success.
If you are looking at all at network marketing companies to join, always look at the years in business, if they are in debt and if you have an interest in what that company is promoting. I have to "like" and understand what the company does as well. I have friends involved in my companies that also do some affiliate marketing and it sounds like you do have the computer knowledge to assist you in going in that direction as well. It is a good time of year for anything involving shopping with the holidays coming up.
The best advice I can give is this: Legitimate jobs are always free to apply for and legitimate income opportunities are always free to join and start. If you are starting your own business, that may require an investment. But beyond that, don't ever pay an up front fee for anything. Good luck Applepie.
If you are just starting out and if you need money quickly I would offer a service to people like writing articles or building websites. This way you will have money commong in.. But like eveyone has said here affiliate marketing is the easiest to start. Read as much as you can here come up with a plan and implement it.
I agree that sifting through work from home opportunities can be a bit of a hassle. And if you don't know someone who will give you an honest opinion of it, it's very hard to know which information is true and which isn't. My recommendation to people has always been this: When looking for an online opportunity, consider something that you can use and benefit from yourself...something that is an actual need and not a luxury. It's hard to be able to honestly and legitimately promote or answer questions about anything if you haven't experienced it yourself. And it should be something you enjoy and are proud of. More times than not, we have to work jobs in the work force that we don't enjoy. If you're going to do something from home, you shouldn't bind yourself to an opportunity that you won't enjoy because you have more a of a choice than you might with jobs. So first, look for something that YOU will be happy and proud to promote and benefit from. This makes selling much easier and your appreciation of the product or service much more genuine. Next, I have never been of the belief that you can earn thousands from a few hours a day. Running a business properly (as in taking care of ALL of your customers with the same level of service, marketing, following up and innovating to stay ahead of your competition) takes dedicated time. In most cases when I've worked from home I worked longer hours than I ever did at a job. I would sometimes have 14 and 15 hour days. The difference is that you can choose WHEN to work those hours throughout the day, what days to work them and whether you want to take breaks in the day or the week. I too would beware of anything that tries to suggest you can make LOTS with little input or work. That's just not the way life works in most cases. Even if it is true of some things, they don't seem to me like the income would be sustainable. I don't mind putting in 4 or 5 hours a day if it means the income will continue to come in for months or years. I don't recommend trying to take the quick road. You might make lots of money quickly, but it may not last for as long as you need it to become truly financially free. _____________________________________________________ As far as relearning HTML and the other languages...I'm all for it! My background is primarily in web design with a little development and not only does knowing those coding languages help me with my own ventures, but they also end up being something that I can easily fall back on. One thing you might consider is consulting. When you have that kind of knowledge you can easily do consulting opportunities as well as actually being hired to do the work. There's a network called Maven that puts clients who need work done or have questions on specific topics in touch with experts in those fields. You could use your coding knowledge as a way to fulfill consultations that might be needed on that network. They began a few years ago and weren't very popular, but I've noticed in recent months a lot more invitations to consult coming to my email so you might try it out. You can also benefit from sites like Odesk where you can be hired as a contractor and work from home using those skills. That site is great because you can take tests to prove your knowledge in specific areas and promote yourself using the results from those tests. You can also have several contracting opportunities at once without any problems. _____________________________________________________ Now for payment. I have used Paypal for the last 6 years and never had a problem accepting payments from clients in other parts of the world. The only thing is, I realize that Paypal isn't available in some countries for certain reasons that have to do with those countries' governments. So you're likely to have problems with payment regardless of what platform you use. For us, Paypal is just safer, it's more well-known, has many more features now (card swiper that attaches to your smartphone or tablet for accepting payments while on the go, bumping to send payments to other users etc.). They also help protect sellers in many more ways than other services do and don't require some of the credit checks and other things that some merchant accounts do just to get set up, which is helpful. So Paypal would be my recommendation. ______________________________________________________ Just don't panic. Panicking can often cause you to make decisions you'll later regret. Take a deep breath, then make a list of products or services that you have a passion for and wouldn't mind promoting. Once you know that, you can start to figure out who your target market will be and from there you can look for opportunities that will allow you to sell what you want. Also consider whether you want to take the time to set up your whole web presence (website included) yourself or whether you want an opportunity that will handle that for you. Once you find some programs you're interested in, ask around on here and other forums to get an idea of what the programs are like. Hopefully there will be some honest individuals who can give you a real answer and not a sales message. Whatever you decide, good luck to you. I know it can be hard not to panic (I'm in a similar situation where it became necessary for me to take a few months off from my job which means no steady income coming in), but we have to take a deep breath and then focus. There are lots of ways to get information once you zero in on what you need to know. So start with thinking of what you'd be proud to promote to help you zero in. Then you can start a more focused searched on opportunities (affiliate, freelance or otherwise) that will allow you to sell those specific products or services. Hope that helps some.
I hope that my information will assist you and reaches you in time. From what I gather from your post, you are looking for an actual job online and not an online business, at least not right now. I am here to assure you that even though the scams are in the multitudes, there are actual jobs out there that you can work from home. I personally, in addition to being an online marketer, have worked from home in a couple of virtual call centers, where "worked" means having an actual set schedule, and also get an hourly wages versus commissions for completing work. These jobs most definitely exist, but you have to do your due dilegance in not only finding the positions and evaluating them, but also where you are looking as far as is the site legitmate as well. The two best sites I have found for finding such positions are VirtualOfficeTemps and HomeworkersNet. These websites are similar to Careerbuilder in their operation, but only list virtual positions that you can work from home. You still have to do your research with their positions, as they accept postings from everywhere, but these two sites have the highest number of legitimate jobs that I have ever seen. I hope that this information is of value to you.
Okay first off take a deep breathe and exhale it's going to be fine! In fact, most people that begin in the online business get scammed initially but, that doesn't have to hold you back. It's great you took the initiative to sign up for paypal because you would need that account down the road but if you're truly interested in making a residual income online there's a method, E.U.I. E.U.I. means to educate yourself in your interest, understand what you're educating yourself on, and implementing what you understand. Other than that I would just recommend patience and a humble mindset. Kind Regards
To add to what's been said, I will share that from what I've noticed most of the actual online job sites (elance, ifreelance, guru, odesk) where you can post your experience, take skills tests and apply for contract positions allow payment via Paypal. So you'll probably be fine with just that as your merchant account. A couple of things that will also help you in regards to Paypal and taxes...Paypal will allow you to create actual invoices that can be sent to your clients once you get them. And you can create invoice templates and save them if you find that you're charging for the same types of services regularly. At the end of the tax year you can get an earnings and expense report from them in PDF format in case you need to include anything like that with your taxes. I use Outright.com to help manage my taxes. They integrate with Paypal and most major banks and you can track your earnings, set specific expenses and incoming funds and they'll help you estimate what business taxes should be each quarter so you don't fall behind.
I've got to be stark honest. Running a business, working for yourself and working as an employee for someone else are NOT the same thing. I did the freelance thing for a year earning $40/day roughly $700 a month. But then I had to factor in all my expenses. I almost always came up short. Thankfully the freelance work was steady. But the company found me. I didn't find them. I now work for an SEO agency at a publishing company, and I do appreciate having the benefits and a steady paycheck. But guess what...you're dealing with small businesses of different niche markets. And wow. I didn't realize finding good links was an all day affair. If you need money, then there's no shame in getting a job in the short term while you work on your business on the side. Cut costs where you can. If you want immediate online work, go for writing article. Textbroker and London brokers are great places to start. If you're more confident in your writing, then Zerys is the way to go. Having freelanced and working for an SEO agency, I assure you that content is always in demand and it never seems like there's enough people to write good content, but it has to be good.
It is very possible to make $500. per month working from home - but - three months may not be reasonable, unless you are freelancing at something you already know - or - are an experienced Internet Marketer with a list of at least 3 or 400 who may be interested in buying what you are selling. "The money is in the list" saying is very true. Why? Just about every other way to make money on line involves selling or promoting something and there is one huge problem; Internet marketing is driven by large numbers - out of 100 leads (people who MAY be interested in your product), you may get 10-15 prospects (people who ARE interested in your product), and of these you may get one or two sales (if your sales page converts well), but usually only after multiple contacts. So you see starting from scratch takes time - Choosing your niche - setting up your sales platform (website or blog) - setting up a "squeeze page" to capture name & email address of prospects - setting up some sort of auto-response to contact these people, etc. I don't mean to discourage you - it CAN be done, but it is not easy. Here is my suggestion: 1. If you have some skill that can be freelanced - go for it. Try to pick up some jobs for immediate income - while at the same time, look to Affiliate Marketing (the easiest and least expensive why to get started earning money from home on the internet: 2. Determine what "niche" you would be interested in (mine are home based business, and personal development for example). It should be something you know and are passionate to tell the world about. 3. Go to Clickbank.com and set up an account (it's free) and read all about "Affiliate Marketing" 4. Go to the Clickbank Marketplace and of the 23 categories pick one that fits your niche (your interest). Look at all the products until you find one you want to promote. Sign up as an Affiliate, and get your link. Then promote and send people - through your link - to that vendor and if a sale is made, you will recieve a commission (sometimes up to 70% of the sale price). Now, while you are building your Affiliate Marketing business, you MAY want to take a look at Multi-Level Marketing (aka Network Marketing). And I hesitate to recommend this for two reasons 1) it is better to focus on one business rather than spreading yourself out & getting overwhelmed by new "stuff", and 2) many Multi-Level Marketing companies are "pyramid schemes" in disguise. How do you tell the difference between a legitimate business model and a "pyramid Scheme"? - the company focuses more on recruiting new members (usually called "Independent Business Owners") than on selling products to the public, and their compensation plans reward their "Independent Business Owners" more for recruiting other people (recruiting bonuses) than for selling product. Still - if you can find a good product - one you use yourself and would be proud to represent - that does have Multi-level Marketing (aka Network Marketing) offering, and does offer some recruiting bonus for getting others to work under you (known as your down line) it might be possible to recruit one or two people quickly and get a recruiting bonus - as well as some commission from sales these people make as well as commission on sales you make yourself. Good luck - it can be done, and you can do it if you want to bad enough. Dick B. "The Really Small Business Guy"
Many times when looking for "work at home" opportunities we tend to suffer from "information overload." Everyone that has posted here has some really good information. The only thing I might add is that once you find something you want to do and that sounds like will work; give it some time and keep at it. Don't give up shortly after you start or you will never know if it might have been just that certain thing that would have done what you needed.
I too feel your pain! I spent hours and hours surfing the internet and that's why we started our website instead of going in another direction. No one ever says it, but only 2% of the people who try to make money online ever really do! The reason is because all of the systems out there are designed for you to fail so you'll buy another and another! Some of us are working to change that. Do your research and then be cautious before committing to anything is the best advice I can give you!
I had to laugh when I read that, because you are right! That's not to say that everyone who is trying to point you in the right direction is trying to "scam" you. There are legit ways to learn to earn an online income without trying to take advantage of other people. When I first started online it seemed like the only thing I could fine were programs that wanted me to promote "how to make money online." It didn't make sense to me at all. I was supposed to sign up to the program and then make money by getting other people to sign up to the program so they could make money by getting other people to sign up to the program, and so forth. It really did seem nuts! What finally gave me the lightbulb moment was when I read a free Affiliate Masters Course ebook and I understood the concept of building a niche website about something that I already knew about and enjoyed. Basically, I learned to become an "infopreneur." People are constantly going online to look for information. Most of us know something about something that someone else is wanting to know. Sharing that information (and learning how to monetize it) is a delightful way to build an online income. I love it! It's what I've been doing for the past 6 years and I still really get a kick out of it. Don't give up in disgust. Once you discover the real deal, you'll be glad you persevered! Blessings, Angie
There's lots of good advice here, with the best advice (judging from what you said you were looking for) coming from drknlvly6781 and Ina. If all you want to make is $500, then you can definitely make that freelancing. drknlvly6781 and Ina gave some good resources. Check those sites and see what kind of skills are in demand. Build up your own skills because the more that you have to offer the more valuable you are as a freelancer....and the more money you can make. Good luck on your journey! Corrisa
Don't over analyze Find one good program and stick to it You say you have 12 hours a day, you will be able to progress quicker than most people, given your available time. You do have to have a passion for what it is your going to do or you will get burnt out write on paper everything you know about and what interest you and then do a process of elimination and what you have left will be the niche that you want to market. Set up the account at click bank or other affiliate site...look at them all to see what they have available for your niche and that pay well...preferably something that you would buy. Start you blog and get to market your product.
Not sure where you are at this point since your thread was started several months ago, but I thought I would give my 2 cents. If you are familiar with MySQL databases, PHP, or general web design as I you eluded to, I would recommend www.freelancer.com which was formerly known as Scriptlance.com. In my line of work, you have no idea how many people I talk to who either don't know how to use a computer, or do have some basic skills, but have no knowledge of web design. People need help with all kinds of things, from setting up websites, to setting up shopping carts, to setting up download pages for their ebooks. If you have skills to help out these people, there are all kinds of opportunities out there.
I have been trying to find steady online work for some time, mostly as a freelance writer. I knew that it was what I wanted to do, but strayed from it and paid the price. Like you, I was not sure what I was getting into and how to go about it. After losing some money, I finally decided to avoid any site which charged a start up fee. I, also, decided to stick with what I know best which is writing and blogging. Affiliate marketing is a good route, but you must be willing to put in the time and build a site which will earn you money. The best advice I can give you is don't worry about the three months. Take your time and find exactly what you are looking for or you will continue to lose money and time. Make sure whatever you do it is something that you are good at and 'like'. And network just as you are here. Good luck.
