Need to make some money - ideas?

[WordCraft]

I find myself in a situation where I need to get a regular income (it does not need to be huge). I have a bad back which makes anything but working from home at my PC difficult.

The problem I have found with the Internet is:

* people expect things for free a lot of times
* much of the so-called "work-from-home" jobs are actually not jobs but opportunities (for which you must pay) and which seldom bring any income
* create-your-own-product ideas, whilst appealing, neglect the reality that I am useless at marketing
* competition from people living in places, such as the Philippines, where the cost of living is far less
* building up a client list (or a body of articles at CC etc.) - this is nice, but it takes too long. I need to pay off some debts and cannot wait a year or more...

Anyone got any ideas?

My interests are history, genealogy, fiction writing, historical research, reading novels, games design/modding, and am fairly good with the Internet, Word and Excel...I'm an analytical/creative type - if any of that helps!

[Antonia]

Affiliate marketing, blogging, article marketing, etc, have good potential but do take a while to get going. There are dozens of ways to make money online, but writing CC articles is actually one of the quickest ways I know. It's definitely not going to take a year to start earning consistent income - where did you hear that?

About how much money do you want to earn per week and how quickly do you want to earn it?

[WordCraft]

At the moment even just £100 per week would be fine. The problem is I have no capital and also little time due to "long term" investments of time in writing, etc. which will not produce an income immediately.

I dislike blogs and do not read them myself. I also dislike the way the software works - and that's true of social networks too (whoever designed Facebook has a mind very different from my own!). I'm not a good marketer because I would really have to believe in something to get the motivation to promote it. My experience of most online marketing is a focus on making money rather than providing a product or service that is founded in a passion and knowledge. I'm a perfectionist and deeply scrupulous - not good traits for many marketers, alas.

Affiliate marketing I have tried many times. Again, finding a product I can believe in is not easy - and now I do not have the money to buy and test them anyway

I really want a small "survival" income, that involves little time on my part (and not too much distraction), so I can focus on my bigger plans of getting my book finished and published, building up articles at CC, and a few other things I am working on (including two non-fiction books).

[Evelyn]

I don't know if DemandStudios.com works with non-U.S. writers? I have many bad feelings about those folks but other writers just love them. You write to their titles, get paid the same week, $15 a pop. If they'll work with you, try that first.

I have a post about passive income (revenue sharing) sites scheduled to come up on my blog. I found that greendoc.net is a good one, and infobarrel.com and infomine.com might be all right, too. You need to sign up with Google AdSense and publish articles on these sites. Again, I don't know about non-U.S. writers but I would assume they'll take you.

Revenue sharing feels like an uphill battle when you start out. You might put up 15 articles and earn only $3 a month off 'em. There's truth in the idea that more=more, though, and since it's passive income it keeps coming to you month after month. So, your time investment would be a couple months depending on how fast you write.

If you're not interested in such a thing (and I can see why you wouldn't be), here's something else I've done for a freelance living: I publish an email newsletter for a local greenhouse. My client pays for the service and pays me to write and get it out each week. If you have a small business owner friend or acquaintance, talk it over with her. If this is interesting to you, PM (author name Evelyn Fielding) and I'll give you a ton of other advice about how to get started and keep going.

I have a writer friend who hires for one-off and continuing projects. I'll message her your contact information and an introduction if you PM me your email addy. I don't know if she's got room on the team right now, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

I really hate to say it to another great writer but you need to sell a little bit of your soul in order to earn money online. Compromise your ideals a bit or write about topics of no interest to you. Work for folks who don't give a rip about you or the work you produce. Stick close to C-C for all those reasons, because this place give your soul back to you.

[Celeste Stewart]

Have you tried writing to public requests here? That's the fastest, most consistent way to get some CC income going in my opinion. You could also write quick Word or Excel tutorials. After all, if you're good with those products, you probably have a few tips up your sleeve. Plus, computer articles are usually popular here.

As far as most other online ventures go, you really need to be passionate about them in order to make them work. If you're not interested in blogging, you'll be a terrible blogger. If you're not interested in affiliate marketing, you'll be a terrible affiliate marketer.

Sounds like you ARE interested in writing though. So, I highly recommend that you re-examine CC's potential. You want to make £100 per week? Break that down. That's just £20 per day. Because of CC's cut, you need to submit and sell £153.85 each week, or £30.77 per day. Will you sell 100% of everything you submit? No. However, you can make some assumptions. Let's say that you think you can sell 30% of everything you submit to public requests. That means that you will need to write roughly three £30 articles for public requests each business day.

Do that for a solid month and you will make money. Keep track of your sales in a spreadsheet and later look at your ratios. Maybe you'll find that 50% of your articles sell in which case you can change your assumptions and formula. Keep in mind that those articles that did NOT sell will likely find a home in the future, further improving your ratio. As time goes by and as you fine-tune your strategies, you may see what David Kool's research reveals: 70% of CC articles sell!

[jadedragon]

Have you looked at my blog? I'm not a US writer either so everything I write about works in the UK (or elsewhere in the world). Celeste's suggestions are spot on too, and she built a good tracking spreadsheet.

[Celeste Stewart]

Plus, if you follow the strategy I outlined above, you won't have to worry about your larger, more time-consuming goal of building a CC inventory because that will happen as you go. The plan I outlined (3 relatively inexpensive articles per day) would put 60 articles in your inventory in the first month - and the goal isn't so much to have leftovers in that inventory. In fact, the goal is to sell as many of those as possible.

[LaLa]

Solid advice, ladies, thanks! I'm glad I found this thread, as it's given me some ideas and a little extra motivation.

WordCraft, I own a website that focuses on telecommuting jobs. I know what you mean about the frustrations of looking for work, but I want to encourage you that legitimate work at home jobs...not opportunities, but j-o-b-s...are out there. In fact, I list several of them each weekday on my site, and I even include a special section for freelance editing and writing jobs.

You mentioned an interest in geneology. Have you applied for a writing position at GeneologyToday.com yet? If not, give them a try.

[Celeste Stewart]

Compromise your ideals a bit or write about topics of no interest to you.

One way to write about topics of no interest to you is to internalize the topic and make it your own. It's amazing what we can find interesting when we really think about it. For example, what if a client wants an article about a particular type of Indian bedspread? What if you have no knowledge or interest in that particular type of product or the region it came from? Think about different approaches. Unless the customer specifies that he wants the article written a certain way such as "Talk about the history of Indian bedspread making and describe what these bedspreads look like" (I'm drawing from an old request here, aren't I?), you may be able to come up with something truly unique and interesting to YOU. For example, what if you love home decorating? Why not write about "How to Create an Exotic Indian Guest Room" or "Transform Your Master Bedroom into the Taj Mahal"? Now, not only can you write about something you love and are interested in, you can incorporate the client's product, in this case an Indian bedspread, into the article.

I have one client who always wants articles about mold. Believe it or not, I have a lot of fun writing those!

[WordCraft]

Thanks for all the advice.

My problem with being paid for article writing is that I am slow. I do not feel confident enough in my "product" unless I research it thoroughly, usually about 1-2 solid days on the Net. I've been on CC for several months now but have only written about 10 articles. I would struggle to write 3 articles per week, let alone per day!And I really must dedicate more time to my other projects, mainly my current novel which I started on 1st March and am still less than halfway with it...

I did run an online newsletter years ago, but the time it took versus the revenue it made was just not worth it.

Do let me know about the telecommuting site!

I will check out the links!

Best & thanks again,

Darren.

[HGW]

I'm new to CC, and not sure how quickly they sell here, but have you thought about submitting images to CC? If you are handy with a camera, you could try submitting photos and see if any of them sell.

To any veteran CC writers: Does CC ever get requests for specific types of photos? I don't see them listed under Requested Content.

Also, have you tried the free membership option on Elance.com? You can bid on only the projects that interest you, and set your own rates. Might be worth checking out. Good luck to you; hope things work out for you.

[aprilk10]

There was a request a couple of months ago for dog photos, but requests for photos are extremely rare. In looking at the photography section, I don't think photos sell much....but it is worth a shot! You may even consider supplying photos that go along with an article and refer to the photo (that it is available in the photography section) in your short summary....I think this is allowed?

WordCraft: For legitimate writing and content sites, you might check out the blog nojobformom.com. I have found a multitude of info here...in fact, it is where I first learned of CC!

[Celeste Stewart]

Darren,
Sounds like research is bogging you down. Maybe consider writing some articles that don't require extensive research. For example, you say you're good with Microsoft Word, right? Write a 300-400 word article about one of its lesser known features and how to use it. For example, "Managing Sources with Word 2007" or "How to Insert a Citation in Word 2007" or "How to Create a Template in Microsoft Word." Most of the info is already in your head if you use those features. If not, it shouldn't take long to look up Word's help file, try the steps yourself, and then write a short how-to piece.

As far as research goes, here's another tip: Restrict search results only to .edu, .org, or .gov sites using Google Advanced Search. That way, you'll have more credible sources right off the bat and won't have to sort through biased and commercial sites.
Celeste

[jadedragon]

If you are going to research something, write it from 10 different angles one after the next. Saves a ton of time and builds the portfolio faster.

[WordCraft]

I'll think about the technology for my next article, but I must say that teaching people about such features is best done with video tutorials or, at the very least, text backed up with images.

Thank you for the research tips.