I had a lot of questions via email regarding Just how to go about where to start, and how to gain the experience the big guys have without spending money on classes and everything.
First off, Experience is just that...experience. if you have 1000 hours just drawing your tail off, and you now have the skill to draw almost anything you see in less than 15 minutes, the cost to you was zip, less your time.
You now have the experience and skill to gain any job where you have to draw something.
Same thing goes with programming and web design or SEO specialization or SMS marekting, or even graphic design.
The key is to understand it like this... most tools have a 30 - 90 day trial.
EVERYTHING you can learn in college, you can learn online for free... You just dont get the shiny piece of paper that says you can do it.
Degrees dont mean JACK online. I can say I have my BSIT, and unless I am specifically job searching, it means nothing to the average company that is looking for skill, not a piece of paper.
If you really want to make money at something you like, and you have some kind of desire/short skill in it, then you can increase your skills in that 30 day trial period of those tools just working on it at an hour or two per day.
An example is characters and logo design. Using a bit of learning with illustrator, and a creative mind, one can easily make a LOT of money with this. Logo design is huge in online business, and characters arent just for comics or cartoons. They can be a corporate logo themselves, they can also be a mascot in a promotional video. and much more. People buy these online, becuase they need them for business.
I don't have much time right now to continue, but I really want to drive this home...We do not need vast amounts of experience to make money, we just need some skill, whether its a million hours, or just 100 hours to get our creative minds working.
We also can make money with anything, even if you only know how to style hair, you can borrow a video camera, and within a month be selling a DVD online at $19.99 each that shows how to style and cut hair.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Monday, December 26, 2011
Writing Skills - If you have them, you may just waltz into some cash
You know, a lot of writers had to go through a million hoops before anything ever went right for them. Look at Steven King. That guy wrote a TON of stuff before his first book was actually accepted. And we are talking hours and hours on a typewriter... No Word 2010 for that guy.
Today, writing for an income is WAY different. It's no longer JUST books that can make a writer really known. It's more than that. There are many avenues one can take, whether an awesomely creative writer who can burst out with 10 short stories in 2 days, all no less than 50 pages, or the more serious writer who has to have the facts before the first word, building an online portfolio of SOLD writings (you know, being published and having sold writings and articles for the little guy is like a HUGE step towards being published by the BIG guys) is really simple.
You wouldn't think so at first thought, but there are currently 4 ways to make cash online with writing right now, that anyone can take advantage of. But one just has to know where to go.
Step 1. Understand what kind of writer you are.
Knowing what you really want to write is your first step. Kids books, a series of books, books on how to do something you are an expert at (yep, even making ice cream with just the right amount of chocolate syrup), maybe just a jumble of short stories over the years, poems, whatever you want. The reason behind this is so you know from the start what you want to write your first book (series) about.
Step 2. Identify what kind of writing you want to sell.
Now that you know what kind of writing you want to write, you have to know what kind of writing you want to sell. The main two are books and articles. Why these two? Because having a book published (and SOLD) is awesome, but garnish it in with some articles published (and SOLD), and you have a killer portfolio before you go up against pitching your first novel (if you ever do or even need to).
Why not both?
It's possible to do both, BUT you can really only do one at a time (focus, focus, focus).Publishing books for Kindle (Amazon) is easy as simply creating an account and then publishing.... but that doesn't mean that it will immediately sell. There are a few tricks of the online trade being used that amplifies the chances of Amazon sales by miles.
Publishing articles and selling them is also easy, and provided by Amazon as well (though freelancer is a nice place too), but again, just posting some articles for sale, or writing articles, doesn't always pan out as expected without a little know how.
And finally, as I lightly mentioned before, being hired on freelancer.com can also bank a few bucks as a writer selling articles. But just starting out, one has to really bust out some words to gain some reputation before being able to really bank a good income there. There are some nice tricks to that too of course.
So, to recap, you have to know what you are interested in writing, you have to know what medium you want to write in (books being larger, worth more money, and articles short and though worth less money, much faster to dish out), and you have to identify what role you will be playing (writer for yourself, or freelance for other companies).
So, if you want to write books for kindle, simply start out by creating an account
http://kdp.amazon.com/mn/signin?ld=AZEbooksMakeM
Then writing your first short stories
If you want to write articles, simply sign up to voices.yahoo.com, which gets you into the Associated content network. You can use your regular yahoo ID, and just link the two.
You can also sign up to Freelancer.com and then choose any writing as your preferred jobs.
And of course, if you want to sell your written content (instead of working for others), you can sign up to the constant content network http://www.constant-content.com/
That is it in a nutshell, however, I am writing a nice set of techniques for this if anyone wants to email me and get a copy just use my UOP email in the comments of the first post in this blog.
Laters, and will write up a bit more maybe tomorrow.
Today, writing for an income is WAY different. It's no longer JUST books that can make a writer really known. It's more than that. There are many avenues one can take, whether an awesomely creative writer who can burst out with 10 short stories in 2 days, all no less than 50 pages, or the more serious writer who has to have the facts before the first word, building an online portfolio of SOLD writings (you know, being published and having sold writings and articles for the little guy is like a HUGE step towards being published by the BIG guys) is really simple.
You wouldn't think so at first thought, but there are currently 4 ways to make cash online with writing right now, that anyone can take advantage of. But one just has to know where to go.
Step 1. Understand what kind of writer you are.
Knowing what you really want to write is your first step. Kids books, a series of books, books on how to do something you are an expert at (yep, even making ice cream with just the right amount of chocolate syrup), maybe just a jumble of short stories over the years, poems, whatever you want. The reason behind this is so you know from the start what you want to write your first book (series) about.
Step 2. Identify what kind of writing you want to sell.
Now that you know what kind of writing you want to write, you have to know what kind of writing you want to sell. The main two are books and articles. Why these two? Because having a book published (and SOLD) is awesome, but garnish it in with some articles published (and SOLD), and you have a killer portfolio before you go up against pitching your first novel (if you ever do or even need to).
Why not both?
It's possible to do both, BUT you can really only do one at a time (focus, focus, focus).Publishing books for Kindle (Amazon) is easy as simply creating an account and then publishing.... but that doesn't mean that it will immediately sell. There are a few tricks of the online trade being used that amplifies the chances of Amazon sales by miles.
Publishing articles and selling them is also easy, and provided by Amazon as well (though freelancer is a nice place too), but again, just posting some articles for sale, or writing articles, doesn't always pan out as expected without a little know how.
And finally, as I lightly mentioned before, being hired on freelancer.com can also bank a few bucks as a writer selling articles. But just starting out, one has to really bust out some words to gain some reputation before being able to really bank a good income there. There are some nice tricks to that too of course.
So, to recap, you have to know what you are interested in writing, you have to know what medium you want to write in (books being larger, worth more money, and articles short and though worth less money, much faster to dish out), and you have to identify what role you will be playing (writer for yourself, or freelance for other companies).
So, if you want to write books for kindle, simply start out by creating an account
http://kdp.amazon.com/mn/signin?ld=AZEbooksMakeM
Then writing your first short stories
If you want to write articles, simply sign up to voices.yahoo.com, which gets you into the Associated content network. You can use your regular yahoo ID, and just link the two.
You can also sign up to Freelancer.com and then choose any writing as your preferred jobs.
And of course, if you want to sell your written content (instead of working for others), you can sign up to the constant content network http://www.constant-content.com/
That is it in a nutshell, however, I am writing a nice set of techniques for this if anyone wants to email me and get a copy just use my UOP email in the comments of the first post in this blog.
Laters, and will write up a bit more maybe tomorrow.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Using your skills to create an online income pretty easily
Because I live in an online world I see some pretty interesting ways to make a buck or two.
I recently came across an opportunity to design a website with a diet solutions company and during that time, they offered to commission me to create a promotional video for them (sales video pretty much) using their script and basic ideas of what they want to do. The rate was $120 per minute, which is pretty good. Unfortunately, I personally did not have the experience to take the job.
After this I decided to do some research... I mean, come on... you see a mechanic making a ton of money, you want to be a mechanic right?
In 25 days, I learned how to use and adobe after affects, and adobe illustrator to create videos for companies like this (WITH A TRIAL VERSION OF BOTH).
I learned to obtain clients, create a storyboard, develop the elements in illustrator with no drawing skills, commission a cheap voice over, and animate the video in after effects.
When I thought I was ready, I gained two clients from freelancer.com, and then the money they paid me upfront I used to pay for my Adobe suite with a student discount. And I paid for the two voice overs using fiverr.com.
I developed both videos and made just a little bit of profit.
Then I immediately gained another 2 clients and made $650 profit, and it took me two weeks to develop the videos.
It took me another week to gain another client, where I made another $450 profit from. Since then, I have created about 25 videos.
It really doesnt take much to learn, simply use google, or youtube. I have had a few people ask me to teach them already, and how much per hour I would charge. But I dont want to do that. So I thought of something better, I will just create an entire course myself. Should take me about a week or so, so watch the blog.
In any case, there are many many things online that one can do for an extra income. My next blog post will be on using writing skills to develop a really fantastic online income.
For now, peace out, and be proactive, GO AGAINST SOPA.
I recently came across an opportunity to design a website with a diet solutions company and during that time, they offered to commission me to create a promotional video for them (sales video pretty much) using their script and basic ideas of what they want to do. The rate was $120 per minute, which is pretty good. Unfortunately, I personally did not have the experience to take the job.
After this I decided to do some research... I mean, come on... you see a mechanic making a ton of money, you want to be a mechanic right?
In 25 days, I learned how to use and adobe after affects, and adobe illustrator to create videos for companies like this (WITH A TRIAL VERSION OF BOTH).
I learned to obtain clients, create a storyboard, develop the elements in illustrator with no drawing skills, commission a cheap voice over, and animate the video in after effects.
When I thought I was ready, I gained two clients from freelancer.com, and then the money they paid me upfront I used to pay for my Adobe suite with a student discount. And I paid for the two voice overs using fiverr.com.
I developed both videos and made just a little bit of profit.
Then I immediately gained another 2 clients and made $650 profit, and it took me two weeks to develop the videos.
It took me another week to gain another client, where I made another $450 profit from. Since then, I have created about 25 videos.
It really doesnt take much to learn, simply use google, or youtube. I have had a few people ask me to teach them already, and how much per hour I would charge. But I dont want to do that. So I thought of something better, I will just create an entire course myself. Should take me about a week or so, so watch the blog.
In any case, there are many many things online that one can do for an extra income. My next blog post will be on using writing skills to develop a really fantastic online income.
For now, peace out, and be proactive, GO AGAINST SOPA.
Simple At Home eBay Trick That Works For Everyone
Now, this may seem dumb, but thousands of people are doing this, and BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I learned it from my grandma.
If you haven't ever used eBay to sell something, or even buy something, you are totally missing out. I sell my PS3 games on there all the time to buy new ones.
Now my grandma is pretty old, so she doesn't usually get out on her own much, but she and my aunt go out to yard sales every Thursday (supposedly the best day).
What she does is looks for yard sales around expensive homes, buys used clothes and used things like hair straighteners and things that I can't even name (I am a guy you know). And she has lately started looking for Playstation and Xbox consoles and games (due to my insistence). After a long morning of buying things, her and my aunt (and sometimes myself) go out for lunch. At home later that day, she lays everything out on a table, does a little bit of research on eBay figuring out how much others are selling the products for, and how much each one would cost to ship.
Then she takes pictures (we are talking an old lady here) and puts them in her computer, uses a nice little template for eBay I made for her and taught her how to use, and then puts each item on eBay as an auction.
Sometimes she makes about $10 off of each item, and sometimes she finds really good ones and makes $60 + off of the items.
She buys and sells no less than 50 items a week, and her normal take home each week isn't that much, sometimes its only $200, and sometimes its more around $350 per week. But it only takes one day of yard sale shopping, and a night of putting them on eBay for her to bring in $800 to $1200 a month, just one day per week.
Now, the only things needed here are the following:
An eBay account
A PayPal account to get the money from buyers
A word of caution: ONLY deal with US buyers, ONLY ship to PayPal or Credit Card addresses, and ALWAYS make sure the buyers have good ratings, otherwise, they could be dangerous to your account.
This is a really easy work at home trick, and if you have tons of stuff that could have any value, you can make good money..
VIDEO GAME PLAYERS
It is very easy to do this with video games for the latest consoles, especially games that can be bought at local pawn shops for cheap prices. And CONSOLES, they still sell really well.
A trick my aunt uses to get cheap PS2 and XBOX consoles that STILL sell on eBay:
Use craigslist to post that you buy old PS2 and XBOX consoles/games. People will push these things at you like crazy, and try to get the lowest price you can. I bought a PS2 for $40 and resold it on eBay for $120 with 5 games I bought for $6 each from pawn shops.
eBay is a fantastic spot to make money if you learn a bit, and try to STAY THE BEST SELLER YOU CAN. Bend over backwards for the buyers, and you will get more reputation, and you can sell 100 items a week with atleast $10 profit from each. Which again, may not seem like a lot, but add it up and you make anywhere from $3000-$5000 a month.
Take advantage of this.
If you haven't ever used eBay to sell something, or even buy something, you are totally missing out. I sell my PS3 games on there all the time to buy new ones.
Now my grandma is pretty old, so she doesn't usually get out on her own much, but she and my aunt go out to yard sales every Thursday (supposedly the best day).
What she does is looks for yard sales around expensive homes, buys used clothes and used things like hair straighteners and things that I can't even name (I am a guy you know). And she has lately started looking for Playstation and Xbox consoles and games (due to my insistence). After a long morning of buying things, her and my aunt (and sometimes myself) go out for lunch. At home later that day, she lays everything out on a table, does a little bit of research on eBay figuring out how much others are selling the products for, and how much each one would cost to ship.
Then she takes pictures (we are talking an old lady here) and puts them in her computer, uses a nice little template for eBay I made for her and taught her how to use, and then puts each item on eBay as an auction.
Sometimes she makes about $10 off of each item, and sometimes she finds really good ones and makes $60 + off of the items.
She buys and sells no less than 50 items a week, and her normal take home each week isn't that much, sometimes its only $200, and sometimes its more around $350 per week. But it only takes one day of yard sale shopping, and a night of putting them on eBay for her to bring in $800 to $1200 a month, just one day per week.
Now, the only things needed here are the following:
An eBay account
A PayPal account to get the money from buyers
A word of caution: ONLY deal with US buyers, ONLY ship to PayPal or Credit Card addresses, and ALWAYS make sure the buyers have good ratings, otherwise, they could be dangerous to your account.
This is a really easy work at home trick, and if you have tons of stuff that could have any value, you can make good money..
VIDEO GAME PLAYERS
It is very easy to do this with video games for the latest consoles, especially games that can be bought at local pawn shops for cheap prices. And CONSOLES, they still sell really well.
A trick my aunt uses to get cheap PS2 and XBOX consoles that STILL sell on eBay:
Use craigslist to post that you buy old PS2 and XBOX consoles/games. People will push these things at you like crazy, and try to get the lowest price you can. I bought a PS2 for $40 and resold it on eBay for $120 with 5 games I bought for $6 each from pawn shops.
eBay is a fantastic spot to make money if you learn a bit, and try to STAY THE BEST SELLER YOU CAN. Bend over backwards for the buyers, and you will get more reputation, and you can sell 100 items a week with atleast $10 profit from each. Which again, may not seem like a lot, but add it up and you make anywhere from $3000-$5000 a month.
Take advantage of this.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Online/Offline
Online/Offline business is a regular business and can come in many forms. The only difference is that your office/store (yes, real stuff, even laundry detergent)/place of business is online, whether a free website, or a measly $9.95 a month website. This saves money (especially at $10 a month) on electricity, rent, tons of taxes, and all the other trimmings that comes with having a store on the corner or in a mall. Lets just call it no less than $900 a month.
So that said, you can start a computer repair business that is mobile, and have your office totally online and cell phone. Or a cosmetic business, or whatever.
The example I am going to use is SMS marketing, a type of marketing that is really getting big, but not every business even knows about it (though you have seen it before, even a year ago).
So I start my SMS (text) marketing company, get a website, and have a designer create my logo, and also a tag line. That cost me $9.95 for the website, $5 for the logo, and $5 for the tag line.
I invest a week in developing all my information:
How do I obtain SMS shortcodes
How much will it cost me as a company monthly
What statistics and advertising is used
What do I need to sell it
Where do I look for clients
What is the average retail value
Then I build on that information:
I sign my company up to obtain a shortcode or I put extra money into it to obtain a reseller license (shortcode is $20, reseller is $250 a year, but worth the license)
I build my website (my office) with the information and a few media hypes, as well as a training backend provided all by the information I obtain (more copy and paste with a twist) and the training material from the company I purchase shortcodes from
I create all my materials for advertising, selling, and closing
I develop my marketing plan
I set my fees
So I have already accomplished the above myself, and it took me a whole week and a half.
I purchased a license for $250
I set up everything on the website (well, almost, since I still have a few things to do)
I created everything
I developed the method of marketing that would work best
And my fees are broken down like this:
Cost of SMS for me Cost of SMS for my clients
$250 + $17 monthly for each client $150 sign up (with promo materials) + $50 monthly (base)
So WHAT IF I DIDN'T WANT TO PAY $250 upfront out of my pocket?
Well, I didn't want to do that, so what I would have done instead is set up everything except the reseller account, and then start my marketing plan. MY ONLY GOAL is to sell two packages, that is it. That not only pays for the upfront $250 ($300 - $250) but also puts $50 in my pocket, not to mention each month I automatically get paid $66 to my bank account.
Okay, so the business of SMS, once you sell it, is all in their control, you just collect a monthly payment, and support every once in a while (or if they want to upgrade, you gain a higher monthly payment).
The total investment, if you look at it from two angles:
Pay up front: two weeks time, $9.95 for the website, $10 for the logo and tagline, and $250 for the license = $269.95
Not paying the license upfront: two weeks time, 9.95 for the website, $10 for the logo and tagline = $19.95
Then there is the issue of the actual work involved (NEXT BAT BLOG POST)
So that said, you can start a computer repair business that is mobile, and have your office totally online and cell phone. Or a cosmetic business, or whatever.
The example I am going to use is SMS marketing, a type of marketing that is really getting big, but not every business even knows about it (though you have seen it before, even a year ago).
So I start my SMS (text) marketing company, get a website, and have a designer create my logo, and also a tag line. That cost me $9.95 for the website, $5 for the logo, and $5 for the tag line.
I invest a week in developing all my information:
How do I obtain SMS shortcodes
How much will it cost me as a company monthly
What statistics and advertising is used
What do I need to sell it
Where do I look for clients
What is the average retail value
Then I build on that information:
I sign my company up to obtain a shortcode or I put extra money into it to obtain a reseller license (shortcode is $20, reseller is $250 a year, but worth the license)
I build my website (my office) with the information and a few media hypes, as well as a training backend provided all by the information I obtain (more copy and paste with a twist) and the training material from the company I purchase shortcodes from
I create all my materials for advertising, selling, and closing
I develop my marketing plan
I set my fees
So I have already accomplished the above myself, and it took me a whole week and a half.
I purchased a license for $250
I set up everything on the website (well, almost, since I still have a few things to do)
I created everything
I developed the method of marketing that would work best
And my fees are broken down like this:
Cost of SMS for me Cost of SMS for my clients
$250 + $17 monthly for each client $150 sign up (with promo materials) + $50 monthly (base)
So WHAT IF I DIDN'T WANT TO PAY $250 upfront out of my pocket?
Well, I didn't want to do that, so what I would have done instead is set up everything except the reseller account, and then start my marketing plan. MY ONLY GOAL is to sell two packages, that is it. That not only pays for the upfront $250 ($300 - $250) but also puts $50 in my pocket, not to mention each month I automatically get paid $66 to my bank account.
Okay, so the business of SMS, once you sell it, is all in their control, you just collect a monthly payment, and support every once in a while (or if they want to upgrade, you gain a higher monthly payment).
The total investment, if you look at it from two angles:
Pay up front: two weeks time, $9.95 for the website, $10 for the logo and tagline, and $250 for the license = $269.95
Not paying the license upfront: two weeks time, 9.95 for the website, $10 for the logo and tagline = $19.95
Then there is the issue of the actual work involved (NEXT BAT BLOG POST)
This is an open comment blog
A simple first post here to let you know that I am starting this for everyone and the comments and blog will be open.
I will go ahead and tell you my experience with everything, as well as do some research for you if you are interested in something you see. I can probably find out immediately (for myself or from others in the industry) if it is a scam, entails a bunch of money, entails a butt load of work, or its legit through and through.
I personally make a nice income from home and I am starting a new venture soon, and maybe I can bring in a few like minded individuals.
But I can say this one big giant true thing about working from home. Just like any job, the first 6 months to a year is work, and sometimes it is hard work to learn. But there is a pay off. After that first 6 months to a year, you will probably take a nice day at the lake and just have to come home, check your email, and manage your business a few hours a day, or a few hours a week, depending on how you develop it.
I currently could take a week off and just manage it every Saturday, but I like to be more involved. And my main business brings in enough income and gives me enough time to start a new venture.
By the by, ending this quick note, the new venture has cost about $17 to start, but I have the option of keeping it that way, or being a bit more lazy and dumping some money into it so I don't have to do some of the work.
That is where most of us actually spend our money at all, we spend it on not doing less work. More work = more profit, less work = less profit as well.
So anyway, let me get to the real blog here, and again, I want to leave this blog wide open for comments.
I will go ahead and tell you my experience with everything, as well as do some research for you if you are interested in something you see. I can probably find out immediately (for myself or from others in the industry) if it is a scam, entails a bunch of money, entails a butt load of work, or its legit through and through.
I personally make a nice income from home and I am starting a new venture soon, and maybe I can bring in a few like minded individuals.
But I can say this one big giant true thing about working from home. Just like any job, the first 6 months to a year is work, and sometimes it is hard work to learn. But there is a pay off. After that first 6 months to a year, you will probably take a nice day at the lake and just have to come home, check your email, and manage your business a few hours a day, or a few hours a week, depending on how you develop it.
I currently could take a week off and just manage it every Saturday, but I like to be more involved. And my main business brings in enough income and gives me enough time to start a new venture.
By the by, ending this quick note, the new venture has cost about $17 to start, but I have the option of keeping it that way, or being a bit more lazy and dumping some money into it so I don't have to do some of the work.
That is where most of us actually spend our money at all, we spend it on not doing less work. More work = more profit, less work = less profit as well.
So anyway, let me get to the real blog here, and again, I want to leave this blog wide open for comments.
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