I think most everyone around the globe has felt the pinch from this crappy recession and if you haven’t I am sure you know some who are. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise as it’s been a turning point in so many lives, for the better that is.

You maybe scratching your head about now wondering if I am on drugs but I’m not and what I am talking about is how people are starting online businesses to earn a little extra income. That’s all it takes to get started but it takes a little more to be successful, so read on.

Do As I Say, NOT As I Did

I jumped in with both feet and no budget because of problems at my day job. My bosses were married to each other and went through a divorce while we went through hell at work. I quit my day job and started working online.

My advice is to NOT do what I did. Plan things a bit and keep that job. You can do this on just a few dedicated hours a week as it’s mostly the time spent and not just money spent to make marketing online work.

FOOLS RUSH IN – DO NOT RUSH IN

I really only started making money once I started blogging and sharing the experience I have from my interests and hobbies. That triggered like minded people to visit me and start asking questions. Eventually I started adding affiliate links to sites that I make money through.

Once I realized I could make money from my hobbies, something I had always want to do, just didn’t expect it to be online, I went nuts with blogging about everything I loved to do. I’ll admit I went way overboard and had to pull back once I found I was working myself to death, literally and it wasn’t needed at all.

Start A List Of Loves And Interests

I’m not talking about guys and girls here, I am referring to hobbies and interest. They can be gold.

So start a list of what you like to do and what you know that others would like to know. Don’t sell yourself short like so many people I have talked to that think they have nothing to offer. That just leads to being broke and frustrated at the same time.

I personally drew a blank for days just because I didn’t feel I had anything anyone would want to know. I look back and just shake my head, but I do understand when others say the same things. I just smile and help them get the ball rolling with a list of questions that help to open their mind.

You May Have To Spend A Little To Make A Lot

I tried to make it with a zero budget after I quit my day job and it was a tough go, really tough. Once I invested a little here and there things started turning around. It started to make sense that you need to spend a little to make money faster.

I was penny pinching because I no longer had an income. I wasn’t broke but thought it best to keep what I had for other things. Wrong move on my part. I could have been making so much more, so much faster. So really it cost me more NOT to spend a little.

Like I said, I started my online business without spending a penny, other than to buy a domain and pay for hosting. I didn’t make much at all, just hit and miss.

Then I started a site and invested about $100 to get articles written for my niche and published them on EzineArticles.com. Once they were published there I changed them up a little and published them on a bunch of other article directories. That’s when my traffic picked up and I started getting some sales.

Instead of waiting for months to see if a site was going to work I saw things happening in just a few days, once those articles started getting indexed in the major search engines.

Using a bit of money to get started was the brightest move I had made since quitting my job.

I didn’t rely solely on the articles I had paid to be written. I also wrote content on my own and did it on a regular basis, about 3 posts a week seemed to work. It keeps the search engines coming back and I keep getting more keywords in Google which sends me even more traffic.

Now I use a few places to get articles written and start new sites based on my interests and I’m making more money every month.

Note: The articles that I have written work as a method for getting relevant backlinks to my sites. Bonus

One of the sites I use to get articles written for me is ArticlesZ. They are inexpensive and do the job in a good time frame. I have no complaints about these guys.

Tweet This Post

There are lots of work at home moms (WAHM) but there are also a lot of work at home dads out there having a blast online and I am one of them. Soon my wife will be working from home as well.

That’s when our travel blog really begins.

There are many work at home ideas that will get one started making money online. You can start part time like a lot of people do and build up your online income to the point you could actually quit your day job.

I was a computer instructor for many years and left my day job to work from home as a web designer. That eventually gave way to internet marketing although I still do some web design for friends and family that want a web presence.

If you have absolutely zero hobbies and interests you can still make money online but in my opinion marketing online is much more enjoyable when you are doing something love or at least really enjoy.

What Do You Love To Do Most?

My experience has taught me that people who do things they love are happier and get far more done. I know I do.

When I am doing something that involves fishing I am happy and usually have a big smile on my face. Or when I am out in my backyard vegetable garden I will most likely be whistling. Doing things I love just makes me happier than doing things I don’t love to do.

So you are not likely to be surprised when I tell you I make my living online talking about fishing and gardening. Of course I didn’t stop there I have other hobbies and interest that make me money as well.

When you can share info that others want to know you may just have a winner on your hands.

Even though we don’t get to travel as much as we like to I decided to start a travel web site. We do plan to do a lot of traveling after my wife retires from her job and I thought I would be good to start a site now.

I make hundreds of dollars a month just from my travel site and have never written a single post of my own yet, and it’s been more than 3 years now.

I use all free, private label rights articles that I don’t even modify and I earn money.

I open a web site I belong to and click a button to post a link to my travel site every few days. I like to put up at least 3 articles a week and all that hard work takes no more than 3 minutes to do.

Affiliate Marketing / affiliate programs

I make most of my money online through affiliate programs or affiliate marketing.

When you decide to work from home make a list of all your hobbies and interests and see if there is something there you can earn doing. I like to find affiliate programs that will pay me to promote products and services

I would have to say the best part of working from home for me personally is the flexibility I have to come and go as I please. I just don’t abuse the privilige.

NOTE: Don’t just jump into internet marketing, do a little research on the niche or market you choose so that you know there is money to be made and there is room for you in that market.

Tweet This Post

I have people tell me all the time that blogging isn’t a hobby but I tend to disagree a little. After all isn’t a hobby something you enjoy doing, like fishing, hunting, or guitar playing? Well I enjoy blogging enough to share it with others and can’t seem to get enough of it, just like my fishing hobby.

I know, it’s still not a hobby, so maybe it’s just an addiction now.

Anyways there are millions of blogs these days and only a portion are actually focusing on blogging for profit while the others blog for the sake of talking and sharing their thoughts and ideas.

The friends that I have who blog only blog to share their experiences. When I talk to them about monetizing their sites they aren’t really interested. They just want to share their lives with their friends. Especially my fishing buddies.

I quit my day job to work from home and love it. So I blog for profit and make my living completely online.

You can also learn how to make some good online income while you are blogging, you just need to learn more about the world of internet marketing. Using a winning marketing strategy, you may even be able to make your living off online earnings as well.

So you keep blogging and find that you are getting a few hundred unique visitors every day and they keep growing then you can start thinking about monetization. Ask yourself the following:

• Do you have any advertisement running on your blog?
• Do you provide quality links to to enrich your readers experience?
• Do you have relevant streaming audio and video from places like YouTube?
• Do you have your RSS feed visible and easy to access?

If you answered ‘NO’ to these question but have the traffic then it is time did some of those things and start to make money blogging? Of course using a professional blogging guide is the way to get the job done faster and with less trial and error.

Blogging guides do more than just teach you how to write blog content. They are designed to teach you how to market your blog through various methods. A good guide will show you how to target your ads to your audience, giving them exactly what they want while you earn a living online.

If your blog is about solar energy your reader be searching for more information on how they can build a solar power car. Then you job is to point them to the best sources for info but the trick is to use affiliate links so you feed them the info they want and they follow through using your affiliate link and you start earning. This is a great way to make money from home.

Tweet This Post