Ideas for earning a living from home

Earning extra money.

[Andrea]

Hi,

This website has been helpful in giving advice and I appreciate it. Therefore, I hope I can continue to ask questions. I am really stuck about what to do. I want to work from home and have considered all types of options, such as Web design, programming and copywriting. Can you tell me what you think the opportunities online would be like if I trained in proofreading? I am really trying to find something realistic that I can start achieving from home. Any recommendations other than web design, since I think there is a lot of competition in this area. Is there anyone that is earning a good wage from doing something online that I haven't yet come across? I am looking at all type of opportunities. Can you give some advice?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

[mack]

Hi andrea,

Good to hear from you again.

To my way of thinging there are two main ways to make money online. One is to provide a service to other people, be it design or programing etc the other is to actualy build something for yourself. Instead of designing and programing for others, why not put some of it it into practice for yourself.

To start off with don't think "what makes money online?" think more along the lines of "what do you like" them spend some think deciding how you could make money from it.

Lets say for example you want to build a content site related to your hobby, if the site is somethign you like then the chances are you will be able to write some great origional content for it. Keep going, build a site on something you are interested on. Right away you have a building block. Content=traffic. (eventualy)

Try to make money through your site. Lets assume your hobby requires you to but equiptment, you can add links from your content to places where you can buy this equiptment, affiliate links. Of you have good traffic why not use ads on your site.

This is just an idea, but to be honest no one can really point out a magic formula for being sucessful online. It's all about your experience and what you can do.

Hope this is of some help.

Mack.

[reuben101]

What many in your situation have done (including me) is to start out in an area that is intersting to you and see where that leads. There are few self-employed "web designers" that are not asked for SEO, SEM, print layout,digital photography etc... services from time to time. This will help you find your niche. Just take a hard look at your local market and fill needs. There are plenty of niche areas out there. It seems the most common route to self employment is to create a site for yourself, donate your time on a couple of sites to use as reference and solicit local business. From there new opportunities open up. Your local Chamber of Commerce can be useful as will joining local associations like the Lion's Club. Kinda sounds like a real job doesn't it?

Alternatively, you can build a site or sites based on something you enjoy, find paying affiliate opportunities or sell ad space once traffic picks up and earn that way. Both take time and commitment to succeed. There are ways to make a great living working from home, but it is a trial and error process and what works for one may not work for you. I would not recommend limiting your self to just one aspect of the internet world until you are in demand for that service.

[dvduval]

Write articles. There are lots of sites out there that neeed content. Offer to research and write articles for them.

[Andrea]

Hi,

Thanks to everyone for replying. Can you let me know what you think of the following ideas for creating an online business?

I have recently written an ebook on Shyness and Careers, which I haven't yet started advertising. I am going to hopefully sell that on someone else's website while I build my own.

Anyway, I am interested in the book publishing business. I am not an established writer but would like to start some type of website that advertised my ebooks along with other people's books. I am very interested in career related books, and ones that concentrate on building online careers. Do you think I should stick to this niche area or develop a website that includes all forms of non-fiction and fiction ebooks. I am not sure what to do. I don't want to concentrate on the subject of shyness though, even though I actually wrote an ebook about it. Perhaps, a few ebooks or books related to the subject would be a good idea to include as well. Do you think that I should start a website along these lines? Since I am not a published writer as yet, I can't really advertise any writing courses.

I look forward to hearing from you.

[houseofsecrets]

To follow up on dvduval's suggestion. Write articles and sell them yourself as PDF's. They are easy to market and easy to figure out where to market them at (forums, blogs).

[123amyd]

I am very new...in fact I bought a website and don't even know how to sign on to it. My reply to your question would be ...why don't you have a website to sell your ebooks as well as others. You could give other people who are knowlwedgable in just one field a place to sell what they know. Maybe then you could see what is the hot seller and research related topics and write about that stuff. Hey, Maybe you could write a book about what to do after you buy a website! I really want to make this successful and will do anything to accomplish my goals......I guess I have to read this whole website.

[Andrea]

Hi,

Thanks for replying. Yes, I think I should start a website to sell ebooks. What do you think of the idea of selling different career ebooks and books?

Regards

Andrea