How To Save Money On Food

A typical article on how to save money on food will mention coupon shopping, maybe stocking up during sales, and buying generic brands. The following is about some of the lesser known basic strategies for spending less.

Alternatives To The Usual Food Purchases

Would you like to eat all the same things you currently do throughout the year and even add more variety, while spending less money on your groceries? You can if you're willing to enjoy whatever is on sale at the moment instead of catering to the fleeting demands of your taste buds and temporary desires.

You might enjoy oranges, strawberries, and apples for example, and normally buy whichever sounds good at the moment you are shopping. However, they each go on sale when in season, sometimes for as much as 70% less than they cost off-season. Now suppose that you eat oranges when they are cheap, then buy strawberries when they go on sale, and do the same with apples. You still get all the variety you normally do, don't you?

However, you might pay an average of 50% less for your fruit throughout the year. Now add kiwi fruit or other fruits and vegetables as they become plentiful and cheap. You get even more variety. You get the best products as well, because these foods usually go on sale when they are at the peak of the season and sitting around for the least amount of time.

Apply this strategy in restaurants too. Look at the specials which are offered before you look at anything else on the menu. You certainly get variety in this way, and save money on the food you eat. There is no need to see this as denying your desires, since you'll get to eat everything you like and get more variety. Each meal or grocery purchase just becomes an enjoyable surprise.

Eat First, Then Shop

It's one of the most important tips on how to save money on food. My "research" into this (having tried it both ways myself) shows that we buy as much as 30% more at the grocery store if we are hungry while we shop. And if we have more food in the house we eat more - that's especially true of the snacks we load up on when shopping on an empty stomach. This then is a tip for healthier eating as well as a way to save money on groceries. Always eat before you go.

If you are a bit hungry it helps to have list and stick to it. But make an exception when you find those great sales on foods you would normally buy anyhow.

Eat Less Send Less

No, you don't need to actually go hungry as a way to save money on food, nor eat less over-all. On the other

hand, the things an average person eats vary tremendously in price, right? So why not eat less of those things that cost the most and maybe aren't so healthy, and replace them with more of the healthier cheaper alternatives? You can do this at home and when you eat at restaurants.

I might as well have titled this section "Eat More Spend Less," because one of the easiest ways to cut your consumption of expensive foods is to eat more of the foods that costs less. Fill up on a delicious and healthy cheap dishes like seasoned rice and beans, and you won't have room for expensive and unhealthy deserts or snacks. If you are in a Mexican restaurant, for example, you could fill up on the free chips and salsa and then just order a delicious appetizer in place of a full meal.

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Day Trading

Day Trading

Day Trading
The Ultimate Work-From-Home Job?
by Harvey Walsh

Ever dreamt of giving up the daily grind? Want to strike out on your own and work from home, but don’t know what you could possibly do to make a living? Full time Nasdaq trader Harvey Walsh wondered just that, and now he asks “Is day trading the ultimate work from home job”?

We’ve probably all had the same thought at some time or another, as we trudge off towards another day at work – the same work we’ve been doing day in day out for years – “surely there has to be a better way?” Slaving away to make somebody else rich just doesn’t seem right somehow, but what alternative? Setting up a new business, or buying an established one, are both expensive and risky prospects. So how can the disenchanted employee ever hope to make the switch from wage-slave to total independence?

Those are thoughts I had almost every day, before I quit the safety of full time employment and decided to strike out on my own. I asked myself the same question day in and day out; surely there has to be a better way. What about the internet, I wondered, isn’t that supposed to be bringing new and exciting opportunities to all? I researched a lot of so-called work-from-home opportunities that promised untold riches, apparently mine for the taking just by sitting in front of my PC. Needless to say, in reality those schemes turned out to be about as fulfilling as, well, filling envelopes for a living. No, I knew there had to be another way – something real – something where I could be in control of my own destiny.

And then one morning on the train to work, I read about a couple of Wall Street boys who had struck it rich thanks to some huge bonuses, and were now going it alone setting up their own day trading shop. That was when I discovered day trading, and I realised that this was exactly the opportunity I had been searching for. I decided there and then that I was going to make a full time living from the stock markets, whatever it took to succeed.

The advantages of day trading as a job are numerous to say the least; there is no boss to answer to, no customers to satisfy, no suppliers to let you down, no waiting for invoices to be paid, I could go on. In fact, I will: trading is a location-independent activity – I can work from anywhere with an internet connection, which effectively means anywhere in the world with a telephone line. I regularly trade from my laptop whilst travelling. I can trade when I feel like it, and take time off when I like, which means I can spend quality time with my family.

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Now let’s get this straight, trading can be a risky activity, there is no doubt about that. So is driving a car to work, but the risks of getting from A to B on four wheels are well understood and are managed accordingly, to the point where we don’t think twice about getting behind the wheel. And in the same way, provided a trader is disciplined in their approach to the job at hand, and understands the associated risks of the work, so those risks can be managed.

On the subject of risk, day trading is almost unique in that it can be learnt and practised with absolutely no financial risk at all, by means of paper-trading – that is - trading using freely available simulation software. Thus in the same way a trainee airline pilot won’t be let loose into the skies without having learnt and rehearsed their skills in a simulator, so a new trader can employ the same technique before they start trading real money. I “sim-traded” before I gave up the day-job; it made it easy to leave the safety-net of a monthly pay check knowing from my simulated trading sessions that I could already make money in the markets.

And that brings me to the most satisfying aspect of trading for a living; money. On an average day trading the Nasdaq, it is not unusual to make more money in a couple of hours than I used to make in a whole month working full time as a wage-slave. There are bad days of course, days where things just don’t work out, but they pale into insignificance over the course of a week or a month. It certainly took some intensive studying and a lot of practise before becoming a consistently profitable trader. But the end result of that hard work is an immensely valuable life skill that nobody can take away, and which allows for incredible freedom.

Since I first started trading, the learning curve has become even easier for the aspiring day trader, with a multitude of new websites, training courses, and books all covering the subject. I envy anyone starting out in this business today – they certainly have many more learning aids available to them than I had at the same point in my own career.

So is day trading the ultimate work-from-home job? No. I firmly believe it’s the ultimate work-from ANYWHERE job!

About the Author - Harvey Walsh is a full time Nasdaq day trader, and part time trading tutor. He trades from his home, or indeed wherever he happens to be when travelling.

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Making Money With Real Estate

Making Money With Real Estate

Optioning Hilltops

Making money with real estate isn't unusual, of course, but there are less common ways to do it. There was a man, for example, that went around optioning hilltops. If the owner wanted $30,000 for the land, this investor might offer $300 for an option to buy the property at full price ($30,000) within six months. He didn't have to buy, but the sellers liked the idea of getting full price, or just keeping the $300.

Next, he contacted every radio station, police department, and cell phone company in the area that might need a hill to put a radio tower on. It is common practice to lease the properties on ten-year or longer leases, for tax reasons. Once the investor got a lease signed, it was relatively simple to get a bank to lend the money for the purchase. So he might have payments of $200 per month, and the radio station puts up the tower, and rents the hilltop for $350 per month. Total risk? If he doesn't find an interested party, he walks away, losing the $300 option fee.
Making Money With Fixer-Upper Real Estate

It isn't unusual to buy a house, fix it up and sell it for a profit. It is less common to find these opportunities in the $10,000 price range though. We found that there are towns in this country where you can still buy houses as cheap as $6,000! We bought a house in a beautiful little town in Montana for $17,500, paid a plumber and a friend to fix a couple things ($2,000), and after living in the house for a few months, sold it for $28,000. For more of the story you can visit our website on Cheap Homes .

Making Money With Land

Several times I have bought property and then sold it on a "land contract." Also called a "contract for sale," and various other names around the country, this simply means taking payments from a buyer, and delivering the title when the property is paid for in full. This is a great way to make money with real estate if you already have some money to invest.

Here is how my first deal went: 3 acres for sale for $4,100. I offered $3,300 cash, and we agreed to $3,500. This was back when closing costs were lower, so I had maybe $3,660 into it after closing. I spent a few hours raking it, and removing dead branches, etc. Then I put a hand-painted sign on it, offering it for sale for $4750, with only $250 down payment and $100 per month payment, with 11% annual interest.

Within two weeks, I sold it for exactly that price and terms, and closed the deal in a restaurant, with virtually no closing costs. In the end, I sold the land for $1150 more than I paid, but I also collected hundreds per year in interest. The rate of return on a deal like this is somewhere over 20% - certainly better than a bank account, and of course it should be done on a larger scale than this (the next time I did it was on a mobile home on land).

The reason this works is that you are making it convenient for the buyers who don't have the cash to buy the land. At the time, that 3 acres was worth about $4,000, yet the buyer paid 18% more than that for the convenience, and paid 11% interest. With a couple hundred dollars in the bank, his options were limited. I made it possible for him to own that land, and it's worth about $20,000 now.
Other Ways Of Making Money With Real Estate

There are many unusual ways that people have used to make money with real estate. I know a guy who made almost as much money letting a construction company carve gravel out of his property as the property cost in the first place. It didn't even reduce the value of the land. A friend of mine bought a small piece of property and let a company cut half the trees out for $4,500. When they were done, you couldn't even tell they had thinned the trees out, and the land had the same value.

I'll add more unusual ways of making money in real estate in the future, so check back.

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Playing With Money

If you have money, there are options other than complicated businesses or bank C.D.'s. Also, if you have credit cards which you can get cash advances on, there are ways to pay 18% interest and still make money with the cash. Mostly these are ways that aren't quite a business because you can do them once or only when you feel like it.

Loan Sharking

There are people that occasionally need money for a short while. A friend for example, that got a good paying job because I loaned him $300 to get drywall stilts. I never charge less than a $5 / week loan fee (don't call it interest). If you have any qualms about this, check the laws in your area and put it all in writing. Also, if you want total security, take collateral.

Investing In The Expertise Of Others

My buddy John had to show me several car magazines before I understood why an old fiberglass car was a good deal at $2,300, because I know nothing about cars. He eventually convinced me to put up the money, and after a new transmission for $900, he sold the corvette for $4,300, netting us about $1,000. I took half the profit ($500) for putting up the money for the two weeks.

I've done this several times with friends that know cars but don't have cash. By the way, if I had paid 18% interest and a $50 cash advance fee to raise the money with a credit card, my profit would still have been over $400, and John did all the work. I love playing with money. Do you have any friends who know everything about boats?

Buying And Selling Estates

We recently met a couple who buy out estates, sell some of the things at flea markets, then run the rest through auctions. They've made a living doing this for years. They load up a trailer after negotiating to buy a whole house full of stuff. Then, if they don't want to do the flea market thing, they just auction everything on Sunday afternoon for a nice profit.

If you are a good judge of value and have a regular auction nearby, you could do the same with rummage sales. Just offer $100 for everything and then auction it off piece-by-piece. The auction near us lets anyone sell their stuff, with no fee to enter. They just take a 25% commission.

Playing With The Casino's Money

I worked at a casino for years and I saw a lot of people foolishly writing down the numbers that came up on the roulette wheel. Foolishly, I say, because their their theories were nonsense. Casinos will always welcome these players and even hand them the pen and paper.

One guy, however, was actually scientific about it. By finding a bias in the wheel, after "charting" it for 5,000 spins, he made thousands betting on just one or two numbers. When a number comes up, it pays 35 to 1,

but one of the numbers, because of manufacturing imperfections or whatever reason, was coming up 1 in 27 spins, instead of the average 1 in 38 spins.

So all he had to do was bet $10 a spin, and he profited $80 for every 27 spins of the wheel in the long run. That's about $100 per hour. The ups and downs are dramatic though, so this is not for the faint-hearted. In this case, I saw him lose as much as $700 in a night. Also, not all wheels have biases (they eventually replaced that wheel). So have you ever tried "card counting" in blackjack...?

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Making Things To Make Money

Making things to make money doesn't have to mean difficult crafts. Sometimes it can be just simple assembly, not artistry or craftsmanship. Here are some examples:

Make Money Making Jewelry

I have friends who make and sell elaborate, expensive jewelry. We are not as artistic, or our tastes aren't as rich, but my wife and I used to regularly make and sell pendants at flea markets and craft shows. Our jewelry only involved tying a string to a pewter figurine or to a coin with a hole in it. There's probably more money to be made in the well-crafted, fancier jewelry, but there is a market for all types.

Selling Pewter Figurines

You can buy pewter wolfs, dragons, turtles, lighthouses etc., from several companies online. Smaller pieces can be bought for about 20 cents each. My wife puts these on rocks, shells (the mermaids) and glass gems with E-6000 glue. We sell them for 2 to 10 dollars at craft shows and flea markets. The kids in particular love the dragons on glass gems or agates.

Walking Sticks

Find a friend who wants his property cleared of the weedy young poplar trees. Bring a saw and knife. I can make about forty walking sticks in a day with the easy woods, like poplar, for example. I buy old leather coats at thrift stores, cut them into strips and use this to put handgrips on the sticks (after they dry for a few weeks). The addition of wood burning, feathers, inset rocks, etc., makes some pricier, but I've had best luck

with the $14-and-under sticks. I've sold them for up to $22 and wholesaled them for as little as $4 (very basic ones). We sell them at craft shows and flea markets and have wholesaled them to buyers who sell them at pow-wows and gun-and-knife shows.

PVC Bow And Arrows

Cut a piece of half-inch plastic pipe to about 3 feet long, put a slit in each end and put a piece of nylon twine on it. It is now a bow. I know a man who sells these for $6 at pow-wows and flea markets. He dresses them with colored tape and includes one arrow made from a dowel and pointed pencil eraser.

I'll include more ways to make money making things in the future, so check back.

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Easy Ways To Make Money

Yes there are easy ways to make money, but this means different things to different people. Do you want easy ways to make money right now, or ways to make the most over time with the least effort. These are two very different things.

Easy Ways To Make Money Now

-Get a job. Or work more hours at your present job. Don't believe that starting a business or learning to invest successfully is easy. A job is much easier. Go to work, and get a paycheck every week or two guaranteed - that's easy!

-Sell your things. Another easy way to make money quickly is to sell whatever you don't need. Get rid of the second car, the snowmobile you never use, etc.

-Cut your expenses. Cancel cable TV, and learn how to spend less for all the things you buy. If you can spend $14 less each day on unimportant things, it adds up to over $5,000 annually. That's like making $7,000 more, since you have to earn that much to have $5,000 after taxes.

-Buy a lottery ticket. Hey, it's easy if it works, right?

Easy Ways To Make Money - Eventually

Okay, I said that the job is easier than a business, and that is true in the near-term. On the other hand, if you define easy as "the most money over time for the least effort," you need to invest or start a business. I'll tell you two stories in regards to that idea.

First, I bought my first home when I was in my twenties. It was just a mobile home on real estate, but I discovered that I could easily rent rooms. I lived for free as well as banking some of the money. This was no "get rich quick" scheme, but I made as much as $7,000 per year extra from my investment. I had to work to pay off the mortgage, but in the end I was working much less than my friends were.

The second story has to do with this internet business. I spend a lot of time writing little articles now, and distributing them. People read them, click through to my web sites from the link at the bottom, and maybe they buy a product that I get a commission on, or I get paid for the advertising there. It really is pretty easy now, but that's not how it started.

I worked at this full time from the start, and six months into it, I was making a net profit of about $2 per day. It was a bit discouraging, and I had a lot to learn. However, as it turns out, I was making something closer to $30 per hour for my time. It's just that I wouldn't be paid for the first year. I just kept building the business, and now it is pumping out the money I made from those earlier efforts. Not only that, but I can ignore it for weeks at a time and it keeps making money.

You see, that's the way it is with money. If you want more than a job will provide, you have to start a business or invest and get your money working for you. That might mean you work for free, or for a dollar per hour to start, so that you can easily collect $100 per hour down the road. If that sounds too discouraging, then so will this : Maybe there are no easy ways to make money.

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Ways For Kids To Make Money

There are the usual ways for kids to make money, ranging from lemonade stands to newspaper routes and mowing lawns. Then there are the more interesting ways. The ways listed below are partly from my own childhood, when I was always looking for another way to make a buck.

1. Cooking. When I was about eleven years old, I used to sell meals to my brothers (I had four of them). I think I got 25 cents for scrambled eggs or a sandwich, and more for more complicated meals. They preferred to stay in front of the TV and let me do the work. The food was already provided by my parents, of course, so the income was pure profit.

2. Service menu. If there are a lot of people in the family, a great way for kids to make money is to sell their services. They can make a menu of things they'll do and how much they charge for each. Washing windows for 50 cents each, for example, and maybe $1.50 to walk a dog. If the list can be copied, it could be handed out to all relatives and possibly neighbors too.

3. Computer helper. There are many young kids who know a lot about computers. My own nephew was getting paid for programming by the the time he was fourteen. Even younger kids might show old folks how to use a computer and the internet for a fee. If they know how, they can even set up computers for new owners who are using them for the first time. Telling grandparents to spread the word would be a good marketing ploy.

4. Returnable cans and bottles. We used to collect and return bottles for a deposit as kids. Now that there are more states with return laws, this is an even better way to make a little cash. In fact, during the Cherry Festival, when I lived in Traverse City, Michigan, adults came to town just to collect the cans that people threw all over. Even with a 10 cent deposit, they were collecting more than $100 worth per day according to several of them. Wear gloves, leave the broken cans and bottles alone, and use some hand sanitizer, and this is a safe way to make money.

5. Mini-carnival. As a child, I charged my brothers five cents for a wadded up piece of paper selected from a bucket full of them. Most had a penny or two in them, and a few had a quarter. That was just one of my "carnival" events. Another involved them throwing pennies at a bowl across the room. If one stayed in the bowl they won a dime. I am almost embarrassed to admit how much of their hard-earned paper route money I took from them.

6. Dog washing. If a busy street where people walk their dogs is in front of the house, a fun way for kids to make money is washing dogs. They can set up with shampoo and water and a hose for rinsing, and ask people as they go by if they want their dog washed, perhaps for $3 per dog, or on a sliding scale according to size.

7. Rummage sales. If their parents agree, kids can have rummage sales, and sell not just household things, but arts and crafts and refreshments too. A real cooperative parent might even take their kids to a flea market to set up. I sold (as an adult) over $1,000 worth of hand-made walking sticks one summer, and my wife sold hundreds of dollars worth of pewter figurines glued to pretty rocks and crystals. Kids can sell cookies and drinks too. It is a way to learn about business, and a great way for kids to make money.

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This Is A Money Making Article

A money making article? Watch this one make money. This is an article about writing an article that makes money. I will then give away the article to make money. It may seem like one of the more unusual ways to make money, but it is right in line with the way the internet works.

How To Make A Money Making Article

1. Write a title that catches attention and has the right keywords in it. This one has the keyword phrase "money making article," and apparently caught your attention. Keep it relevant to the article content, of course, or the reader will feel tricked, and may stop reading.

2. Write a description that pulls the reader in. You can also use the first couple sentences of the article for this. You want to tell the reader what they will find in the article, and leave them curious. Okay, you read this far, so that seems to be working.

3. Give useful information or good stories. It is even better if you can do both.

4. Use the keywords in the body of the article, and in sub-headings. This helps search engines find your article. Notice that I used "money making article" in the sub-heading above. Oh, and I just used it again.

5. Have an "authors resource box" that makes the reader want to visit your site. This is where you talk very little about yourself and more about why the reader should go to your web site. We'll see how well mine (below) works in this case. Make sure the link to your web site works.

6. Have a way to make money from visitors to your site. You may be selling your own products, or getting a commission for selling other people's products, or just be getting paid for the advertising there.

7. Submit your articles to the best article directories on the web. These are places where you can give away your articles. Visitors to the directories can read them there, but more importantly, other web site owners can take them and use them. Generally, the rules say they can't change a word in your article, and they have to make that link to your site (in the author's resource box) active.

8. Leave the reader feeling that he has learned something, but not quite everything. This helps get them to your site, to learn more. In this case, for example, I am leaving out the list of the best article directories to submit to, but in the resource box I will mention that it is on the web site. This is how you make it a money making article.

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Get Rich Today

So you want to know how to get rich today? Well, you could try the lottery, or find a casino and try your luck at the roulette wheel. The odds are against you, of course. Is there a better way?

How about thinking about what it means to BE rich. Consider for a moment that you are sitting there with a fantastic machine in front of you. Yes, I mean the computer. It can entertain you, educate you, employ you and more. Now think back two hundred years ago, when the richest people in the world didn't have access to a computer, or a television, or a car, or a refrigerator, or modern medicines.

Consider how many millions of people TODAY would eagerly trade places with you. Even if you consider yourself poor, there are others who would consider you rich by comparison, right? "Rich" is relative, isn't it? And while others imagine how much better their lives would be if they had as much as you, you imagine a life made better by even more wealth.

It is true that life can be improved by money. Anyone who tells you differently is lying or has a real lack of imagination. But long before you get rich according to whatever standard or goal you have, you can get rich by living differently. You can learn how to get rich by enjoying the real wealth that you already have. You may not enjoy future wealth in any case, if you don't learn how to first.

Start appreciating what you have, and you WILL be richer. Who is richer, a man with a lot of money and things who is alternately stressed and bored, or a man who is enjoying all the good things he has, however few they may be? Plan for the future, to make more money, but get rich today by living in a state of gratitude for what you already have.

Get Rich Today - Part Two

Money is a blessing, as well as an incredible and fascinating invention. It is the distilled essence of all the worldly things you might want or need. Why not make more of it? Here are some simple reminders of things you already know about how to get rich.

1. Start planning to make more money. Pick a way (there are many) and work it. Try another way if you fail, but don't stop trying. Fast or slow - you can get rich. Don't just think about getting rich. Start putting your goals in writing, and taking the steps necessary.

2. Learn what is really important to you. I have watched more than one person spend what could have been a wealth-building investment on things that really weren't important to them. Self control doesn't mean self-denial. It means doing what you REALLY want for the long term.

3. Learn how to manage money. Watch those "Where Are They Now" programs, and you'll quickly see that it is easier to lose millions than to make them. How many famous people have blown through their money in just a few years? 1,893. Okay, who knows, but the lesson is clear: You have to understand how to manage money if you want to get rich and stay rich. Start educating yourself.

By the way, you can find a collection of interviews here: People Making Money That's on another website I have, and they are not wealthy people, but people enjoying how they make a living.

Learn to enjoy what you have, and put a plan in place to have more - this is how to get rich today.

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Ways To Make Money Fast

Are there legal and ethical ways to make money fast? Of course there are, but they're primarily short term solutions. Use them for to raise some money quickly, but don't think these are get-rich-quick plans. With that in mind, here are a few ways to make some money fast.

Sell More Of Your Time

I likethis way least, but it is one of the most reliable. Work longer hours at work, or get another job. This way to make money fast has the added benefit of taking away time you might otherwise use spending more money. Get shifts from other employees, stay late at work (if you are paid hourly), volunteer for holidays. If you don't like this plan, keep reading...

Sell Your Time For More

This is a slightly better way. To sell time for more money, do one of three things. Look for a higher-paying job, negotiate a raise (this works best after the first option), or get paid for what you produce, if you are a productive worker. This last one could mean getting paid by the piece in some jobs, or getting paid commissions in a sales job.

Arbitrage Based On Your Expertise

What is arbitrage? Buying low and selling high in markets that have pricing inefficiencies. Suppose a used car of a particular model and year normally sells for $4,500 - and you know this. Watch for an opportunity to buy this car for less, and you can resell it for a quick profit. I know people who regularly make $1,000 to $3,000 per vehicle buying and selling cars out of their front yard.

It's not about cars, though, but about the principle. Where is your expertise - what can you put a price on and find a buyer for? I knew someone who regularly bought used restaurant equipment for half of what others were paying. Even engagement rings and dogs are "turned" for a profit in this way.

If you have no cash saved for this plan, get a credit card advance or cash advance. Paying $100 in fees and interest is unimportant if you make $1000 buying and reselling a coin collection, right? No credit? Get a partner. If my friend who knows boat prices ever tells me he can get a $5,000 boat for $3,000, I'll put up the money for half of the profit. I love making hundreds of dollars in just weeks just by playing with money - and others do too.

Flip A House or a Contract

Essentially, you offer a low price for a home (often a fixer-upper), and put in the offer the right to assign the contract. You also put a clause in there letting you cancel the contract if you can't get financing - your risk-free way out.Then you find an investor who will buy the contract from you for, say $8,000 (he expects to make even more when he fixes and sells the home).

Your risk? Mostly time. I have known people who have done this repeatedly, making as much as $20,000 at a time. Education and experience helps a lot here, because without it you can waste a lot of time - your own and other's.

More Ways To Make Money Fast

Sell your things if you aren't using them, or if you just value more the other things you'll do with the money.

Have a business? Sell accounts receivable. The buyers call the process "factoring." I have a friend who often has $15,000 owed to him by various clients, and is always facing cash-flow problems. He could sell these accounts receivable tomorrow to raise cash, but I don't tell him. They do sell at a discount, after all, and this constant reducing of long-term income to raise short-term cash can be a bad habit to develop. It is a way to raise money fast, though.

Cut your expenses. Cancel the movie channels. Buy a cheap used car for cash and get rid of your car payment. list every single thing you spend money on, and find ways to spend less for half of them. If you are surviving now, and can spend $500 less per month, you can bank that money and effectively make money fast.

Use whatever you've got to make money fast. Have a home? You could rent rooms. If you are single, you could rent a room instead of an apartment, and bank the difference. Extra time? Start a business on the side. If I want to make more money fast, I can mail an offer to my lists. Of course, this is because I put in the time to build my internet business, which brings up an important point.

If you think you'll start a business today and be rich in a few months, you're probably doomed to struggling forever. It's not that it's impossible. Take away a rich man's last penny, and chances are he'll have more money than you three months later. But this is because he has spent years learning about money, and making contacts.

Some of these ways may seem too mundane. Perhaps they are, but then, how much do you want that money? If you were to move to a cheaper apartment, get a raise, work Saturdays, sell your unused things, and buy and sell something for a profit once each month, you could bank a lot of money relatively fast. Enough to start a real business for longer-term wealth building.

Ironically, those looking for ways to make money fast and easy are least likely to make it. Opportunity seekers chase easier ways instead of making strategic plans and commitments. You can use these ways to make money fast, but don't think you'll attain real wealth without some kind of commitment to learn do what is necessary.

For many more ideas, see the following collection of pages on our blog

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Ways To Make Money Fast

Are there legal and ethical ways to make money fast? Of course there are, but they're primarily short term solutions. Use them for to raise some money quickly, but don't think these are get-rich-quick plans. With that in mind, here are a few ways to make some money fast.

Sell More Of Your Time

I likethis way least, but it is one of the most reliable. Work longer hours at work, or get another job. This way to make money fast has the added benefit of taking away time you might otherwise use spending more money. Get shifts from other employees, stay late at work (if you are paid hourly), volunteer for holidays. If you don't like this plan, keep reading...

Sell Your Time For More

This is a slightly better way. To sell time for more money, do one of three things. Look for a higher-paying job, negotiate a raise (this works best after the first option), or get paid for what you produce, if you are a productive worker. This last one could mean getting paid by the piece in some jobs, or getting paid commissions in a sales job.

Arbitrage Based On Your Expertise

What is arbitrage? Buying low and selling high in markets that have pricing inefficiencies. Suppose a used car of a particular model and year normally sells for $4,500 - and you know this. Watch for an opportunity to buy this car for less, and you can resell it for a quick profit. I know people who regularly make $1,000 to $3,000 per vehicle buying and selling cars out of their front yard.

It's not about cars, though, but about the principle. Where is your expertise - what can you put a price on and find a buyer for? I knew someone who regularly bought used restaurant equipment for half of what others were paying. Even engagement rings and dogs are "turned" for a profit in this way.

If you have no cash saved for this plan, get a credit card advance or cash advance. Paying $100 in fees and interest is unimportant if you make $1000 buying and reselling a coin collection, right? No credit? Get a partner. If my friend who knows boat prices ever tells me he can get a $5,000 boat for $3,000, I'll put up the money for half of the profit. I love making hundreds of dollars in just weeks just by playing with money - and others do too.

Flip A House or a Contract

Essentially, you offer a low price for a home (often a fixer-upper), and put in the offer the right to assign the contract. You also put a clause in there letting you cancel the contract if you can't get financing - your risk-free way out.Then you find an investor who will buy the contract from you for, say $8,000 (he expects to make even more when he fixes and sells the home).

Your risk? Mostly time. I have known people who have done this repeatedly, making as much as $20,000 at a time. Education and experience helps a lot here, because without it you can waste a lot of time - your own and other's.

More Ways To Make Money Fast

Sell your things if you aren't using them, or if you just value more the other things you'll do with the money.

Have a business? Sell accounts receivable. The buyers call the process "factoring." I have a friend who often has $15,000 owed to him by various clients, and is always facing cash-flow problems. He could sell these accounts receivable tomorrow to raise cash, but I don't tell him. They do sell at a discount, after all, and this constant reducing of long-term income to raise short-term cash can be a bad habit to develop. It is a way to raise money fast, though.

Cut your expenses. Cancel the movie channels. Buy a cheap used car for cash and get rid of your car payment. list every single thing you spend money on, and find ways to spend less for half of them. If you are surviving now, and can spend $500 less per month, you can bank that money and effectively make money fast.

Use whatever you've got to make money fast. Have a home? You could rent rooms. If you are single, you could rent a room instead of an apartment, and bank the difference. Extra time? Start a business on the side. If I want to make more money fast, I can mail an offer to my lists. Of course, this is because I put in the time to build my internet business, which brings up an important point.

If you think you'll start a business today and be rich in a few months, you're probably doomed to struggling forever. It's not that it's impossible. Take away a rich man's last penny, and chances are he'll have more money than you three months later. But this is because he has spent years learning about money, and making contacts.

Some of these ways may seem too mundane. Perhaps they are, but then, how much do you want that money? If you were to move to a cheaper apartment, get a raise, work Saturdays, sell your unused things, and buy and sell something for a profit once each month, you could bank a lot of money relatively fast. Enough to start a real business for longer-term wealth building.

Ironically, those looking for ways to make money fast and easy are least likely to make it. Opportunity seekers chase easier ways instead of making strategic plans and commitments. You can use these ways to make money fast, but don't think you'll attain real wealth without some kind of commitment to learn do what is necessary.

For many more ideas, see the following collection of pages on our blog

Read more...

Making Money On The Internet

At some point a few years ago, I decided that I liked the idea of making money on the internet. Now that I haven't needed a job in years, I like it even better. I make money online several different ways, all of them carefully considered, so I don't have to be home to operate the business.

There are so many ways of making money on the internet. For example, I know someone who sells laminating machines from a web site, another who sells surveillance cameras and equipment online, and several people who sell ebooks. Below are some of the other possibilities:

1. Paid-subscription sites. These sites have limited public content. To get the good stuff, a visitor has to subscribe. For example, an internet business site might offer unlimited access to its resources, including web site templates, sales letters, and the latest news and techniques, for $10 per month. Build up to a thousand subscribers and you'll be making some money.

2. Sell expertise. Many use a website to sell their offline expertise. Whether a business consultant or a wilderness guide, you can make more money with an online presence.

3. Sell a book. It easier than ever to sell your book without a publisher. Set up a sales site and you can either promote it free using articles, or pay for search traffic.

4. Sell downloadable ebooks and reports. No printing expense, and no shipping. Buyers pay with credit cards and download their purchases - even while you sleep.

5. Sell links. If you have good web sites, people will pay to have links placed there. There are companies online that will arrange the selling of these too.

6. Pay-per-click advertising revenue. This is one of the easiest ways of making money on the internet. Paste that code into your pages and start collecting for clicks. I liked this idea long before I passed the $100 per day mark on my click revenue.

7. Sell handicrafts. Many people sell the things they make online - everything from walking sticks to dog clothing.

8. Make affiliate sales without a web site. Although it has become more difficult, you can still make commissions without a website, by posting links for free in forums, articles, and online classifieds.

9. Sell pixels. Remember the man who sold a million pixels on a web page, at a dollar each, to pay for college (and much more)? Buyers advertised how they wanted with their 100 or 200-pixel space. Then came the buy-a-word sites. Pay for a word to be linked to wherever you like. What's next?

10. Sell affiliate products. When visitors to my backpacking site click on the links there and buy a tent or a sleeping bag, I get paid a 7% commission. This is affiliate marketing, but it works in many other ways, and the commissions range as high as 75%.
1. Sell downloadable CDs you make. For $100, you can get the software to make "brainwave entrainment" Cds, and then sell them online.

12. Sell simple reports. Know how to get a job at a casino, or how to train a cat? Create a ten-page report and sell it online.

13. Design websites. Make your own look good if you want to do this for money, of course.

14. Sell phone consultation. Know how to buy and sell real estate, or make a profitable website? Sell consulting time online.

15. Sell articles. There are places online where you can post your articles for sale, either with complete rights (for a higher price), or sell them repeatedly for one-time non-exclusive use.

16. Write and distribute articles to promote a specific web site, for a fee.

17. Create a free newsletter, and sell your own or affiliate products in each issue.

18. Create and sell graphics. You can sell non-exclusive rights to use them if you want repeat income.

19. Take your MLM business online. Multi-level marketing is alive and well in the internet world.

20. Build mini-sites to promote one affiliate product. A one-to-five page site to on fishing to sell a PDF fishing book that makes you a $8 commission, for example. Put up ten such sites, and make just three sales per day on each, and you'll have a gross income of $7,200 per month.

Sell and ship products. Sell products that don't need to be shipped. Sell advertising. Sell your expertise online. Sell your offline services online. Sell other people's products. Sell your own products. These are just some of the basic categories of online business. Within each of these categories there are dozens of ways of making money on the internet. Why not get started?

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I Was A Repo Man

"It's just the repo man," the father told his son.

"But daddy, why is he taking our car?" the little boy asked, while his mother was digging out the last of the clothing that was frozen to the floor of the trunk.

"Son, we didn't make the payments, and when you can't pay for it, you don't get to keep it," he explained, and he handed me the keys. I would drive the car instead of hooking it up, and my brother, Jason (who owned the towing business) drove his tow truck, so it would be ready for the next repossession. The little boy watched from the yard as the repo man drove away in the family car.

I don't recall exactly, but they probably owed less than a thousand dollars on the car, and it was worth even less than that. I stopped occasionally to use snow to clean the windshield - the wipers were broken. If only all our repossessions went this smoothly.

A Different Repo Man Story

We were in a small town to take some Pontiac. We cruised behind the bars in town - generally a good place to look. At the second one, we found the car, and checked the VIN (vehicle identification number) to be sure. No keys for this one, so we would have to tow it.

The wheels were turned slightly, and Jason decided it would likely hit the brick wall if we tried to pull it out. We would have to go inside and ask the owner for the keys. He was at the bar, and he pretended not to hear a word we said. He just continued to stare at his drink. Everyone else in the place heard us, though, and they were all his friends.

The crowd began to form as Jason hooked up the car. There was nothing more than rude comments, but then, as the car was pulled out, it bounced off the wall. The turn-signal light cover was broken, and the pieces of red plastic drove the crowd wild. They began yelling and threatening us, and unfortunately, we had to stop right there to hook the car up properly.

I took my baseball bat and ran in the back door and through the bar to the phone, where I quickly called the police. I ran back out, waving the bat around, and found Jason standing on top of the tow truck, with the angry mob circling below him. Someone threw a beer bottle, and we later discovered that in the chaos my brother lost a toolbox full of expensive tools.

The police arrived quickly, adding their own insults (nobody likes a repo man), but they kept the mob at bay while we hooked up. At least there was no fist fight, and no gun pulled on us, nor any shots fired over our heads. These things would happen on later jobs.

Jason never was paid enough for the work, in my opinion, and he gave me just $15 per car retrieved (this was almost 20 years ago). On our best night we probably repossessed four cars. The moral of the story is clear - there are better ways to make a living than being a repo man.

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Make More Money

Make More Money

Want to make more money? Certainly a strategic long-term business or investment plan is a good idea, but maybe you also want to make more money in the coming weeks or months. Below are some ways you can do this, using what you already have.

There are two essential ways to accomplish what you want - which isn't really to make more money. Money is a means. If you want a million dollars you want it for something, like perhaps a secure retirement, travel, a boat, home, freedom, or whatever. If you can get all this with half of a million dollars, you would accomplish the same thing, right?

The point is that the two ways to accomplish your financial goals are to make more money and/or spend less. Find car insurance for $500 less per year than your current policy, and you have effectively made $500 more, right? Keeping that in mind, here are four areas to look at, and some ideas on how to make more or save more money in each of them.
Make More Money With Jobs

- Work better-paying hours. Volunteer for Sundays, holidays, or any hours you are paid more for.

- Get a higher paying job. Why not look?

- Get a second job. This makes you money AND takes time away from spending.

- Get a raise. Asking for one is a good place to start.

- Work more hours - if you're paid hourly. Stay later, volunteer to take shifts, punch in earlier.

- Get paid for performance. Commissions or piecework are great if you are productive.

- Get a promotion. Just be sure it comes with higher pay.
Make More Money In Business

- Find ways to reduce half of your expenses, at least a little. Savings go straight to the bottom line.

- Upsell more. If even a small percentage of customers buy the expensive option, it can add up fast.

- Better advertising. Find the cheapest way you get new customers and put your money there.

- Better back-end sales. Sell something else to customer after the initial sale.

- Find small improvements for each part of your business process. Small changes can add up.

- Use the suggestions at our blog: How to Make More Money With Your Business

- Find and try low-risk ways to increase sales. An idle employee could call past customers with an offer.

- Test prices. You can make more money selling less if the profits are higher. Do the math.

- Sell your customer list. Or mail a non-competing offer to it for a fee.

- Find customers who didn't return, and find out why. Learn and make corrections.

- Sell any unused assets. Convert an old copy machine into money for advertising.

Make More Money - Investments

- Divert some of your "fun-money" into investments. Take it from activities that aren't really that fun.

- Make more active investments. Real estate takes time and effort, but the return can be higher.

- Use discount brokers. If you are making your own decisions, don't pay for full service brokers.

- Check interest rates at different banks. An hour doing this may yield $100 more - every year.

- Stop paying commissions. Mutual funds with commissions do not outperform no-load funds.

- Loan money to trustworthy friends at a higher rate of interest than your bank pays.

- Loan money to a friend who can make a profit on a deal and pay a percentage instead of interest.

Make More Money - Home

- Reduce the cost of half of the things you buy and do. Done right, you lose nothing in comfort or lifestyle.

- Make hobby income. Sell ad space on your web site, handicrafts, or start a consulting business.

- Reward the kids with cash for each usable money-saving idea they come up with.

- Use your home to make money. Create a duplex, rent rooms, rent the yard for RV storage, etc.

- Sell stuff. Not a way to make more money, but you can convert unused stuff into usable cash.

- Have the kids get jobs in the summer and pay for their own entertainment.

- Sell your home for a profit and move into a cheaper one.

Of all the hundreds of ways to make more money, you can find several that will work for you.

The ones listed here may seem mundane, and they are. However, suppose you did the following five things:

Work a Sunday or holiday each month at time-and-a-half pay. Spend $20 less each week on groceries. Negotiate a fifty-cent per-hour raise. Start a web site that makes just $160 per month. Move your investments to make $50 more per month.

Bank the money you make or save, and it would add up to at least $12,000 in two years. With this, you could look at small real estate investments, or business opportunities that could eventually lead to real wealth. All of these are also low-risk ways to make more money. What have you got to lose?

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Treasure Hunting

What is treasure hunting all about? It can mean different things to different treasure hunters, but the bottom line is always the search for something of value that is hidden from the general public. With that in mind, here are four of the more unusual secrets of successful treasure hunters.

Treasure Hunting In Snow Dumps

Shopping malls in the north often have an area where they dump all of the snow that is removed from the parking lot. The snow contains all the things dropped in it, ranging from coins to rings and sometimes dollar bills. All of these things are concentrated into a small area in the spring, once the snow dump melts.

A lot of part-time treasure hunters have known this secret for years. I stumbled on the idea when I walked past a melting snow pile in a Walmart parking lot and saw a necklace and five coins on the pavement at the edge of the snow pile. County snow dumps are another possible place to look into, at least the ones where snow from parking areas is dumped.

Estate Auction Treasures

Watch an estate auction sometime. Some of the people may not be bidding for the items you see, but for what is inside these items. In the past people commonly stashed currency in their books. When such a person dies, their secret likely dies with them - nobody is aware that there is money in those books. In fact, a relative of mine found thousands of dollars in the books of a departed uncle.

Now, if a treasure hunter gets to peruse the auction items beforehand, he can check a few books, and possibly other items that might contain hidden money or valuable things. If there are a few bills or jewelry inside of books and other items, he can then bid on the lots that contain these. The book collection, for example, is often sold as a whole. Who can say many more bills will be discovered once he goes through all the books he bought.

Storage Unit Auctions

If the storage fee isn't paid, the contents of storage units are auctioned off. Individual items might be auctioned, but it is more common to auction off the entire contents of a unit at once, or split it into several "lots" and auction each group of things. Bidders are normally allowed to check out the items before the auction.

I met a man who did just that and found that an old milk can in one lot was full of coins. At $10, his was the winning bid for the lot that included the milk can. He found a few salable items, as well as $75 in coins! He said he regularly found "treasure" at these auctions.

Treasure Hunting In Hotels

Treasure hunters, as well as hotel owners and room cleaners, report that money is sometimes stashed in the bibles in the dresser drawers. The cash is presumably then forgotten by the customer. Next time you check into your room, check out those bibles - and any other books that are there.

Many hotel owners also report finding men's wedding rings hidden in the rooms. This is more common in hotels that cater to business travelers. Maybe the men who are taking off their rings and hiding them before going out for the evening deserve to lose them. In any case, it makes for another interesting way to go treasure hunting - just look in anyplace a ring might be hidden.

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The Juggling Street Performer

We were in Boulder, Colorado, and a juggling street performer was about to start his show downtown. I overheard someone say that his first show was amazing. Apparently, the juggler did several shows a day at least. It does make this unusual way to make money seem more practical as an income producer.

He was excellent, as a juggler and a comedian. He involved the audience throughout the show, while balancing on his unicycle, juggling various things including flaming bowling pins (or something that looked like bowling pins anyhow), and telling jokes the whole while.

"When you grow up you can do this too," he told the ten-year-old bot who volunteered to help him. "Then you can live in a van just like me." The audience laughed, but he pointed to his colorful van parked nearby.

My wife and I were impressed, both with the juggling of things on fire while riding a unicycle that was six-feet high, and with the jokes. It was a great performance, and when he was done we threw a dollar or two in his hat. He did a hard sell to get people to open their wallets, but at least he had real show. Up and down the street there were others begging for money and offering nothing, or a song accompanied by poorly played guitar.

I am always curious about the money questions, of course, so I looked in the hat when my wife dropped our own contribution in. I saw mostly one-dollar bills, but there was at least one five in there as well. I watched as people came forward, and as near as I can tell, there was at least $50 to $60 in the hat before the performer made room for the next act (this was a well-used corner).

Three twenty-minute performances a day was probably his minimum, and this apparently could make him as much as $150 to $180. Not bad for living in a van.

It certainly buys the groceries. Weekdays probably aren't worth the effort, of course, so it is likely a weekend-only routine. That still might mean a weekly total of $400 to $500 for a few hours work Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Hmm... Juggling isn't just an unusual way to make money. It might be a decent second income for someone with a low-paying job. Pay the bills with the job, perform 20 weekends each year, and you would have $10,000 extra to invest each year. But do juggling street performers living in vans think about investing and planning for the future?

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How To Make Money - Three Principles

How To Make Money - Three Principles

When you think about how to make money, do you think about jobs, businesses or investments? There's nothing wrong with that, but all these ways have their examples of success and failure. In other words, some people fail at the same thing which other succeed at, and we have to ask why? That leads to a deeper understanding of how to make money, as suggested in the following three principles.

1. Value Trading

Late-night television "get rich quick" infomercials usually cater to people who think there is an "angle" or "secret" which makes it easy. There are tricks, tips, techniques and tools that will help, and this is why these products usually can help the right person. But in the end, making money is about trading value, meaning you need to provide something of value to others to consistently succeed.

Those who think the first question is how to separate people from their money are tempted to use any means, resulting in dissatisfied customers, less repeat business, and eventual failure in most cases. A better first question is how to provide real value. It is serving people well that makes them happy to pay you well, and this is true whether you're an employee (with the employer as your customer) or the owner of a business.

2. Do What's Necessary

Having something of value to offer isn't enough by itself, however. Doing what needs to be done is another often-ignored principle. Commit to a plan and take action, and "do" instead of "try." When we "give it a try" we often quit at the first sign of trouble or unpleasant work. See mistakes as opportunities to learn and move on. The idea isn't to keep repeating what doesn't work, but to learn as you go and keep doing something towards the goal.

Those looking for "easy money" are usually not willing to learn what is necessary. A man hears that there's good money in building, for example, which is something he knows nothing about. Instead of learning what he needs to know he hopes that taking the test for his contractors license is all he needs. A wiser (or less lazy) man might have could have worked in the field for a while to learn the basics, or asked for help to learn how to run a business, or bought a book on how to market his services.

Instead, the easy-money guy he takes the easy route - which leads to failure. Maybe you've seen this scenario played out with friends who think they want to be an actor, start a business, invest in the stock market. We need to do what needs to be done to make money, and learn what we need to learn.

3. Know Yourself

Naturally, it's tough to do what is necessary if you hate every aspect of it, so think carefully about yourself when making decisions about jobs, business and investing. A business you aren't suited to or ready for won't just make you grumpy. When you ignore your interests, skills and abilities it is easy to choose the wrong way to make money - a recipe for failure.

This is an important key to how to make money. There will always be parts of a job or business that you aren't thrilled about, but you need to have at least some interest (and ability) to sustain your commitment.

Ask yourself what you can do, what skills and abilities and work habits you have, and what activities you enjoy. Are you good working with others, and with clients? Do you have a lot of energy? Are you known to quit too easily, and what did you do that contributed to previous failures? Can this business or job or investing path keep you motivated and ready to start each day? What will you need to do, and what are you willing to learn? Are there personal changes you'll need to make? Answering questions like these as honestly as possible may be one of the surest ways to learn how to make money.

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Make Money Working From Home

Two generations ago - for that matter, just one generation ago - there were few alternatives to conventional employment. If you wanted to make money from home 20 years ago, you could do transcription, for example, but you had to deliver it when it was finished. Or you could do telephone soliciting, if you didn't mind people hanging up on you or saying rude things to you over the phone. They really weren't many alternate ways to make a buck at home.

Since the mid-1990s, however, all that has changed. The possibilities for making money from home have grown exponentially and are still growing, with no end in sight.

Let's go back to transcription as an example. There were two ways you could go about doing transcription 10-20 years ago. You could pick up dictation tapes from a client, let's say a doctor, or an insurance adjuster. You then took the tapes back to your home office, transcribed them and returned the transcription to the client. Two trips out of the house were required.

The second method wasn't in the home at all, but in an office. For example, hospitals had central location in the bulding to which they could send their dictation. This was also a virtually impossible field to get into.

Now, with digital recording technology, transcription can be sent to you via the internet. The transcribed material sent back to the client in the same way, and you never need to leave your house. But this is just one way to make money working from home.

The field of Internet marketing is a huge growth industry whether it is in affiliate marketing or direct marketing, where you are selling goods from a website, for example. Let's say that you are a small company with a niche product, or a niche service. This could be anything from custom made zippers to dog booties. Well how are you going to market your products? The least expensive way to market, and market worldwide, is the Internet.

You can make your custom zippers or your dog booties in your home, market them aggressively on the Internet, by contracting to a company that writes copy for ads online, to name just one example.

You have extended the exposure of your company well beyond the boundaries of your state or your country - you are now a global concern. And you have succeeded in showing how to make money working from home. Not only that but you are now self-supporting, and you didn't have to go to work in an office to do it!

Notes from Steve: Want to make money from home? Sign up for my Free Online Writing Course. I write short articles about things that interest me--and make money doing it. You can do the same with these lessons.

On everywaytomakemoney.com you can also found a collection of pages on how to work from your home.

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Home Based Business Opportunities - Two Types

You may be looking for home based business opportunities, but are you clear about what type you want? There are businesses that can be run from home, but still require you to go out to make a sale. These include services like office cleaning and dog walking. You don’t need a separate office or storefront location, but you do have to work outside of the home.

Then there are the home based business opportunities that are not only based at home, but can actually be run without leaving the house. Let’s take a quick look at both.

Home Based Businesses

It is nice to work from home for a variety of reasons. Even if you have to go "out in the field" to provide the products or services you sell, you still get to be home more than if you had a separate storefront or office. That means more time with family, and also means lower overhead costs. Some of the businesses that are (or can be) home based include:

Window cleaning services

Carpet cleaning

Small baked-good businesses

Delivery services

Handyman services

Though there are some product sales businesses that can be run from the house, it service-based ones that are the most common.

Home Based and in the Home

The other type of home based businesses are those that can be run from home and allow you to actually stay in the house every day. The advantages of this type are obvious. Lower costs are common, time with family is a given, and even those who have physical disabilities can operate a business from the house. This type can be further divided into internet-based and offline business. The latter includes:

Daycare

Writing for magazines

Renting rooms in your house

Telephone consulting

Customer service contracting

There are many other possibilities in that category as well. But the home based business opportunities that are most exciting to myself (and many others) are those that involve the internet. The advantages are many, including no direct contact with customers, the ability to run the business from anywhere in the country (and possibly the world), and the fact that you can often choose your hours. Some examples:

Selling e-books online

Running informational websites and getting paid for the advertising

Recommending the products and services of others for a commission

Writing articles and ages for webmasters

Selling products online (there are hundreds of businesses in this category alone)

Blogging and selling advertising on your blog

The list goes on, and most of these types of home based business opportunities give you the ultimate in flexibility and freedom. This page could have been written whenever I felt like it, for example, and from an internet café in France if I wished. And yes, I do make a good living at this.

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Your Website - A Residual Income Opportunity

A classic residual income opportunity could be an investment in dividend paying stocks, or a licensing fee that you get for decades for something you invented, or royalties for a novel that you wrote. But what if you don’t have that much money to invest, you don’t have an invention to license and you are not a writer? In that case, you might want to look to the opportunities available online. Of the many out there, we will cover one here: A basic review website. But first, let’s look at a basic definition.

Residual income is essentially income that continues to come in long after the initial efforts that created it have stopped (or at least have become minimal). You work as hard as you need to in order to develop the income stream, and then it flows on its own. This is more than a nice idea - it is a real possibility more than ever thanks to the internet.

For example, my wife and I have websites that we essentially stopped any serious work on years ago, yet they still produce hundreds of dollars of income monthly. Granted, we try to update them occasionally, but the work is minimal (and optional if we want to risk a slow decline of the income stream). I might have spent five hours in the last year on one site, for example, and yet it generated at least a thousand dollars for each of those hours.

The basic idea here is to target a niche with decent search traffic. That might be anything from how to train a dog to making money with crafts. Build a site that has a dozen or more pages of high-quality information, each targeting one particular keyword or keyword phrase. For example, if there are a thousand people monthly searching "make money with crafts," you would have a page about just that. It would be optimized by mentioning the search term "make money with crafts," several times on the page, including in the title, the first paragraph and near the end of the page.

Then you would get links to your site. You can start by asking owners of other related sites to exchange links. There are dozens of other ways to get incoming links. You can learn some of them from the e-book Fifty Ways To get Traffic, a bonus that comes with You Can Make Money Writing. The process of properly optimizing a site and marketing it is beyond the scope of this page, but you can learn that as you go and some of it is covered on other pages of this site as well.

To truly automate the site, making future work as minimal as possible, you’ll want a simple affiliate product or program to promote, so you won’t have any need to directly deal with visitors or customers.

You’ll just get a commission whenever you visitors click over to the site you promote and buy something. Even simpler is using any of the pay-per-click programs that pay you for each click on an advertisement.

Finally, it helps to update a site from time to time, but this too can be very minimal in terms of time - if you prepare everything from the start. For example, you can have other write pages for you for less than $10 each, and have a file of them ready to be loaded over the years one at a time every month or two. You also can have the "Tip of the Month" change each month - again from a file that you prepare in advance. Done right, your continuing work can be as little as a few minutes per month, making this residual income opportunity one of the best.

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