work at home
How Many Eggs are in Your Work at Home Egg Basket?
How many eggs are in your online income basket?
Getting to work from home can be great. One of the things many people do is find more than one source of income, to protect their lifestyle. By having several sources of income, or income eggs in your basket, you protect your ability to earn, should something go awry.
Some, who are telecommuters, don’t worry as much because their job is considered as safe as any other full-time job but if you are a freelancer or have your own business, this isn’t always the case because you’re regularly searching for ways to earn. Several sources of income could mean safety and it could also mean that you’re making decent money.
Tips for Having Multiple Income Eggs
- Find some quick paying go-to options. That way, if you’re in a pinch, you can get grocery money fast or money to take care of an unforeseen expense quickly. Wherever possible online entrepreneurs should have a few make money fast options.
- Network. Talk to other entrepreneurs and freelancers. That way you can share leads and potentially share overflow work.
- Work on developing some passive income streams. If you build websites with affiliate marketing, network marketing, or contextual advertising, for instance, the initial work could be time consuming but those sites could become passive for you, creating income that generates itself and presents you with monthly payments. Learn more about affiliate marketing and passive online income opportunities.
Strive for a delicate balance when adding income eggs. Too many could feel overwhelming and result in lack of balance but some regular ones, some passive income-building options, and some strategic fast-earners could be the ticket to reaching your financial and career goals.
3 Types of Freelance Writing Gigs and How to Find Them
Most freelance writers have several sources of writing work where they can get paid to write articles. Some are ongoing, some are one-off, and some are gap-fillers. All can be good. Read on for a bit about each of the above categories and how to go about getting those types of writing jobs.
- Ongoing
Finding regular writing clients can be a good thing. Do a good job and you might get ongoing writing work.
- One-Off Jobs
By marketing yourself, you can find writing jobs that are one-off scenarios. Someone might need a press release written, might decide that they want to write a new sales letter, want help re-vamping their website content, or want another freelance writing service. Marketing can help these clients find you.
- Gap fillers.
There are content companies and busy clients that may offer you an all-you-can-write buffet. Having a few of these eggs can be a good thing because you can make fast money writing when you need to up your earnings or when you have a gap in your schedule. You an also spend some of your gaps working at upping your passive income streams through writing for revenue sharing sites, such as InfoBarrel and HubPages, or through developing content for your own sites and blogs.
How to find Writing Gigs:
Find ongoing and one-off clients by marketing on an ongoing basis. Freelance writers who market can get found by clients and some of those clients could provide you with regular work.
In terms of gap fillers, sign up with a writing agency, start a profile on a freelance bidding site such as Elance, sign up with content companies such as Textbroker, Internet Brands, and Demand Studios so you can dive into one of these options as and when you need to.
Getting paid to write articles can be a business of feasts and famines. By diversifying your incoming writing work sources and by continually marketing yourself you can have a wide array of options available.
Get Paid to Blog – 3 Tips for Getting Started
I get paid to blog. In fact, blogging is what started me on my work at home journey. I get paid on my own sites and clients pay me as a ghostblogger or contributing blogger for them as well. I started my first blog in 2003. I didn’t stick with it and didn’t monetise it but in 2006 I launched my first monetised blog and have learned a lot in the last 4 years.
Where have I earned money blogging?
Blogging has paid me in many ways, such as:
- paid blog ads
- Google Adsense
- Amazon
- Kontera
- Blogging Networks
- Client links
- Ghostblogging
- and more
Today’s post is a kick-off for a new series about getting paid to blog. Some bloggers are earning 6 figures a year at it. I’m not at six figures yet but know I can provide helpful information to newbies who want to learn how to get paid to blog anyway.
Here are some small but important tips to help you get started on your blogging journey:
- Pick a topic you can write endlessly about.
- Learn about search engine optimisation (SEO, search engine optimization)
- Start your own blog
Blog Topics – Your Blog Niche
The topic you write about is something you need to be willing to write endlessly about. Don’t make the mistake of picking a ‘stuff’ topic where you plan to just talk about anything and everything. You can do this, of course, but it isn’t likely to make you money. No one, beyond your immediate friends and family are likely to care about your random musings. Random musings blogs are fine for your soapbox and online diary but really, in 99.9% of cases are not going to be earning an income. Choose something that you know you know something about, that you’re willing to keep learning about, and that people want to read about. Be willing to become an authority on a subject so that you can get subscribers.
Learn SEO
SEO writing is an imperative aspect of blogging. By optimising for search engines (search engine optimisation) you can get found. Again, unless you’re just writing for you…a blog is going to be pointless and penniless if no one finds it. First and foremost, your blog has to be interesting and valuable to others and second…it needs to be indexed by search engines according to categories and keyword phrases that people surf/search for so that those interested in what you’re talking about will be able to find you. By choosing a niche, you make it glaringly obvious to search engines how they should categorise your site. Then, you start getting traffic.
Start Your Own Blog
There are many free blogging platforms. They’re great. I love them. But they aren’t likely to make you nearly as much money as your own blog on your own domain. I use them but not for my primary monetised blogs. Don’t cheap out and try to make money from a Blogspot or WordPress blog. Do use them, especially for link-building but if you’re serious about making money blogging, start your own blog. While they can build traffic and a following, your best bet is to pay for your own blog on a domain you own. Why?
- You have full control over your content and decide what ads you want on the blog
- Search engines pay more attention to your own domain rather than a shared domain
- It’s easier to do your own domain from the beginning rather than wait until you’re ‘ready’ and then deal with link re-directs, lost traffic, and duplicate content if you plan to run a second blog. It’s worth the money.
How much does it cost to have your own blog? Under $10 a year for your domain name and $10 or less per month. If you go with Hostgator, you can have a $10 a month account and add unlimited domains to that account (provided you stay within a certain bandwidth. You’d have to have MANY many successful blogs to go over the limit of what your Baby Croc account would get and if you really needed more bandwidth, chances are your blogs would be successful and profitable enough that you wouldn’t mind paying a little more than $10 a month for hosting.
It can take a while to get your blog making money so take your time, learn as much as you can, be patient, and persevere. More from me on this topic soon! If you want posts delivered to your mailbox or feed reader, subscribe to The Work at Home Blog.
