So you want to ditch your corporate cubicle and join the ranks of web workers? But you have a mortgage, maybe a dependent or two, and a taste for Venti Mochas from Starbucks? You can make money in the new economy, though it might not be as easy or cushy as keeping your old economy job.
I’m not talking about advertising or affiliate marketing or selling your junk on eBay. Those are so last millennium! I’m talking about the new new economy.
1. Offer your professional expertise in an online marketplace.These days, you can do more than just sell your old books via Amazon and your old Coach handbags via eBay—now you can sell your professional capabilities in a marketplace. No longer are you limited to looking for a permanent or contract job on Web 1.0 style job sites like Monster or CareerBuilder. The new breed of freelancing and project-oriented sites let companies needing help describe their projects. Then freelancers and small businesses offer bids or ideas or proposals from which those buyers can choose.
Elance covers everything from programming and writing to consulting and design, while RentACoder focuses on software, natch. If you’re a graphic designer, check out options like Design Outpost or LogoWorks–you don’t have to find the customers, they’ll come to you. Wannabe industry analysts might sign up for TechDirt’s Insight Community, a marketplace for ideas about technology marketing.
2. Sell photos on stock photography sites. If people regularly oooo and aaaaah over your Flickr pics, maybe you’re destined for photographic greatness or maybe just for a few extra dollars. It’s easier than ever to get your photos out in front of the public, which of course means a tremendous amount of competition, but also means it might be an convenient way for you to build up a secondary income stream. Where can you upload and market your photos? Try Fotolia, Dreamstime, Shutterstock, and Big Stock Photo.
3. Blog for pay. Despite the explosion of blogs, it’s hard to find good writers who can turn around a solidly-written post on an interesting topic quickly. GigaOM is always looking for bloggers with great content ideas and solid writing skills. How do you get noticed? Comment and link to blogging network sites. Write blog posts that are polished and not overly personal (although showing some personality is a plus).
4. Or start your own blog network. If you like the business side of things–selling advertising, hiring and managing employees, attracting investors–and have the stomach to go up against the likes of Weblogs, Inc., GigaOmniMedia, b5media, maybe you should make an entire business out of blogs. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll get a lot of time to write yourself though.
5. Provide service and support for open source software. Just because the software is free doesn’t mean you can’t make money on it–just ask Red Hat, a well-known distributor of Linux that sports a market cap of more than four billion dollars. As a solo web worker, you might not want to jump in and compete with big companies offering Linux support, but how about offering support for web content management systems like WordPress or Drupal? After getting comfortable with your own installation, you can pretty easily jump into helping other people set them up and configure them.
6. Online life coaching. Who has time to go meet a personal coach at an office? And don’t the new generation of web workers need to be met by their coaches in the same way that they work: via email, IM, and VoIP? You could, of course, go through some life coaching certification program, but on the web, reputation is more important than credentials. I bet Tony Robbins isn’t certified as a life coach–and no one can argue with his success. For an example of someone building up their profile and business online as a coach, check out Pamela Slim of Ganas Consulting and the Escape from Cubicle Nation blog.
7. Virtually assist other web workers. Freelancers and small businesses desperately need help running their businesses, but they’re not about to hire a secretary to come sit in the family room and answer phone calls. As a virtual assistant, you might do anything from making travel reservations to handling expense reimbursements to paying bills to arranging for a dog sitter. And you do it all from your own home office, interacting with your clients online and by phone. You can make $20 and up an hour doing this sort of work, depending on your expertise.
8. Build services atop Amazon Web Services. Elastic computing on AWS is so cool… and so incredibly primitive right now. Did you know that you can’t even count on your virtual hard drive on EC2 to store your data permanently? That’s why people are making money right now by offering services on top of AWS. Make it easier for people to use Amazon’s scalability web infrastructure like Enomaly has with elasticlive, a scalable web hosting platform built on AWS.
9. Write reviews for pay or perks. If you blog for any length of time on a particular topic–parenting, mobile phones, or PCs, for example–you will likely be approached to do book or product reviews. You can get free stuff this way, but are you selling your soul? Is there any such thing as a free laptop? These are decisions you’ll have to make for yourself, because no one agrees upon what ethical rules apply to bloggers. Even less do people agree on services like PayPerPost that pay you to write reviews on your blog. Check out disclosure rules closely and see whether such a gig would meet your own personal standards or not.
10. Become a virtual gold farmer. A half million Chinese now earn income by acquiring and selling World of Warcraft gold to gamers in other countries. If you’re not a young person living in China, this probably isn’t a viable option for you. But what’s intriguing about it is the opportunity to make real money working in a virtual economy. People are making real-world money in Second Life too.
Showing posts with label Make money online. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Make money online. Show all posts
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Make money from online surveys Posted by Jasmine Birtles
If you want to make a few quid here and there while you’re on the computer, genuine online surveys can be an easy way to rake in a little bit of cash.
Don’t expect to make your fortune this way though. Payments tend to be around 50p-£5 a time so it’s not exactly going to make your fortune.
Not only that but there are a LOT of sharks out there on the net, particularly when it comes to online surveys. Some companies even have the cheek to try to get you to pay to join. Ignore these survey companies. They’re liars.
Watch your own greed level too, though. As a rule of thumb, the more lucrative or tempting the survey sounds, the more likely it is to be bogus. Lots of people get caught out because they want something to be true so they’re easy prey to the fraudsters.
How do online surveys work?
These surveys are done on behalf of other companies that offer different types of products and services. They want to know if there’s a market for their products, if a new type of service would have a market, what people think of their competitors and so on. It’s all valuable marketing information and that’s why they are interested in your opinion.
Usually survey companies want specific types of people, depending on what their clients want. If their client is a computer games company, for example, they’re going to be targeting teenagers who like playing them. If they are a vitamin supplements company they are likely to want women over 30. You get the picture?
This is why they ask lots of questions about you and why they often reject people who apply for certain surveys. There’s nothing wrong with you, you just don’t fit their ‘profile’.
How can you make money from surveys
Firstly, make sure that you only apply to genuine survey companies. There’s a list of proper ones here but, generally, just make sure that you don’t touch any that ask you to pay to join and check the name of the survey on forums and survey blogs like this one (sadly, it’s American like the majority of them but it’s a start). Definitely avoid any that say you could earn thousands a month. Ha! If you work at it you could be earning £50 or so a month but that’s with effort.
Also, quite a few genuine surveys offer points rather than money, that you can collect up to gain some money later or a gift instead. Some of these are real, but others aren’t. Again, check elsewhere if you find one. The same goes for those that offer the chance to enter a competition. Some of them are genuine and some people actually have won prizes but you have to be careful.
How to take part in online surveys
- Register with several companies. You can sign up to as many survey companies as you like. If you have the time, the more you do the more money you will make (and the more products you could get to test). I suggest, though, that you set up a separate email account to do it (perhaps an extra Hotmail account), which you only use for surveys. This is because quite a few of these companies will try to bombard you with marketing emails and they might sell their list on to other bulk emailers so you could be getting far too many emails each day. By setting up a separate account you can let that take the strain.
- Check your inbox regularly Most surveys are sent to you via email at random times. If you have surveys waiting for you keep in mind that some will close by a specified date or when enough people have taken part so get your skates on or you’ll miss out.
Surveys can take anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes to complete.
Here's a list of the good companies:
Toluna
With Toluna you can earn between 1,000 and 20,000 points for each survey, depending on its length, and these are sent to your inbox. You earn a bonus 2,000 points by completing your profile, which will tell the company what surveys will suit you. You need 60,000 points to convert into the lowest £10 voucher from places like Amazon. It can take two or three months to gather these points depending on the survey screenings and how active you are on the website.
Surveyhead
Surveyhead will pay $5 just for signing up (probably about £3 in today's conversion rate). They send you invitations every time a survey comes up so you know to go and sign up. Cash rewards are paid using Paypal. It's for over 18s only – or 14-17-year-olds with parental permission (so a handy one for teenagers). Surveyhead offers all kinds of surveys including movie, travel and gaming surveys.
Panelbase
I rather like the way Panelbase approaches its surveys. For example, all respondents who are screened out of a survey are put into a monthly prize draw to win £50 cash. This is good because one of the big complaints I hear about surveys is that you go through the laborious process of filling in details about yourself only to be rejected at the end. Each survey that you actually get to do pays between 50p-£3. Some surveys include entry into special prize draws where you can win a box of wine or a flashy new wide-screen TV.
Lightspeed Panel
With this one you get points rather than cash. However, these points convert into vouchers which are worth having. You can earn between 50 and 150 points for each Lightspeed survey and these are sent to your inbox. You need a minimum of 1,100 points to convert your points into vouchers. Also, if you go in for mini polls on the website you get entered into cash prize draws of up to £2,000.
Valued Opinions
You can earn between £1 and £5 to complete surveys that are sent to you from Valued Opinions. You can also earn up to £50 for specialist surveys. Once your account reaches £10 you can redeem your points for vouchers or you can choose to donate your rewards to charities like the World Wildlife Fund and World Vision so it could be your bit for charity each month.
Onepoll
Onepoll is another one you can go for now as they will pay you £2.50 just for joining and then you can make between 10p and £1 for any surveys you complete. You also have the chance of winning £500 in a cash prize every now and then. Onepoll also pays for real-life stories you might have for the papers, so worth considering for that (although make sure you get at least a few hundred quid for your story - if they don't offer that then go direct to the magazines).
Don’t expect to make your fortune this way though. Payments tend to be around 50p-£5 a time so it’s not exactly going to make your fortune.
Not only that but there are a LOT of sharks out there on the net, particularly when it comes to online surveys. Some companies even have the cheek to try to get you to pay to join. Ignore these survey companies. They’re liars.
Watch your own greed level too, though. As a rule of thumb, the more lucrative or tempting the survey sounds, the more likely it is to be bogus. Lots of people get caught out because they want something to be true so they’re easy prey to the fraudsters.
How do online surveys work?
These surveys are done on behalf of other companies that offer different types of products and services. They want to know if there’s a market for their products, if a new type of service would have a market, what people think of their competitors and so on. It’s all valuable marketing information and that’s why they are interested in your opinion.
Usually survey companies want specific types of people, depending on what their clients want. If their client is a computer games company, for example, they’re going to be targeting teenagers who like playing them. If they are a vitamin supplements company they are likely to want women over 30. You get the picture?
This is why they ask lots of questions about you and why they often reject people who apply for certain surveys. There’s nothing wrong with you, you just don’t fit their ‘profile’.
How can you make money from surveys
Firstly, make sure that you only apply to genuine survey companies. There’s a list of proper ones here but, generally, just make sure that you don’t touch any that ask you to pay to join and check the name of the survey on forums and survey blogs like this one (sadly, it’s American like the majority of them but it’s a start). Definitely avoid any that say you could earn thousands a month. Ha! If you work at it you could be earning £50 or so a month but that’s with effort.
Also, quite a few genuine surveys offer points rather than money, that you can collect up to gain some money later or a gift instead. Some of these are real, but others aren’t. Again, check elsewhere if you find one. The same goes for those that offer the chance to enter a competition. Some of them are genuine and some people actually have won prizes but you have to be careful.
How to take part in online surveys
- Register with several companies. You can sign up to as many survey companies as you like. If you have the time, the more you do the more money you will make (and the more products you could get to test). I suggest, though, that you set up a separate email account to do it (perhaps an extra Hotmail account), which you only use for surveys. This is because quite a few of these companies will try to bombard you with marketing emails and they might sell their list on to other bulk emailers so you could be getting far too many emails each day. By setting up a separate account you can let that take the strain.
- Check your inbox regularly Most surveys are sent to you via email at random times. If you have surveys waiting for you keep in mind that some will close by a specified date or when enough people have taken part so get your skates on or you’ll miss out.
Surveys can take anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes to complete.
Here's a list of the good companies:
Toluna
With Toluna you can earn between 1,000 and 20,000 points for each survey, depending on its length, and these are sent to your inbox. You earn a bonus 2,000 points by completing your profile, which will tell the company what surveys will suit you. You need 60,000 points to convert into the lowest £10 voucher from places like Amazon. It can take two or three months to gather these points depending on the survey screenings and how active you are on the website.
Surveyhead
Surveyhead will pay $5 just for signing up (probably about £3 in today's conversion rate). They send you invitations every time a survey comes up so you know to go and sign up. Cash rewards are paid using Paypal. It's for over 18s only – or 14-17-year-olds with parental permission (so a handy one for teenagers). Surveyhead offers all kinds of surveys including movie, travel and gaming surveys.
Panelbase
I rather like the way Panelbase approaches its surveys. For example, all respondents who are screened out of a survey are put into a monthly prize draw to win £50 cash. This is good because one of the big complaints I hear about surveys is that you go through the laborious process of filling in details about yourself only to be rejected at the end. Each survey that you actually get to do pays between 50p-£3. Some surveys include entry into special prize draws where you can win a box of wine or a flashy new wide-screen TV.
Lightspeed Panel
With this one you get points rather than cash. However, these points convert into vouchers which are worth having. You can earn between 50 and 150 points for each Lightspeed survey and these are sent to your inbox. You need a minimum of 1,100 points to convert your points into vouchers. Also, if you go in for mini polls on the website you get entered into cash prize draws of up to £2,000.
Valued Opinions
You can earn between £1 and £5 to complete surveys that are sent to you from Valued Opinions. You can also earn up to £50 for specialist surveys. Once your account reaches £10 you can redeem your points for vouchers or you can choose to donate your rewards to charities like the World Wildlife Fund and World Vision so it could be your bit for charity each month.
Onepoll
Onepoll is another one you can go for now as they will pay you £2.50 just for joining and then you can make between 10p and £1 for any surveys you complete. You also have the chance of winning £500 in a cash prize every now and then. Onepoll also pays for real-life stories you might have for the papers, so worth considering for that (although make sure you get at least a few hundred quid for your story - if they don't offer that then go direct to the magazines).
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