This computer stuff is child's play ...
I checked my savings account the other day and I had far less in there that I thought. It’s always a bummer when you think you have more than you do. It’s like the opposite of finding twenty bucks in your pocket (I checked all my pockets, nothing there). I still have a way to go to get back on track again (the no spend month really helped though). But things are getting better.
While the stock market is still rocky (although it has been fairly stable over the past month or so) and unemployment is at an all-time high: saving money should be critical on everyone’s plan to get wealthy. Most people think that getting rich is simply a matter of earning more, but while that is part of it, it isn’t the whole story.
Getting rich isn’t rocket science. In fact it can be simplified to:
Spend less than you earn.
Of course most people don’t do this; they spend right up to the last cent (and often beyond that) which is where all the trouble begins. That’s why I think everyone needs to be so careful with their money. Once you start taking care of it, it will take care of you.
I’m a huge advocate of building wealth since I never want another J.O.B. in my life if I can help it. It’s probably why I was attracted to the stock market at first and writing books second. I’ve always been good at budgeting and taking care of my finances (although earlier this year things did get out of control, like I talk about in Spending Detox).
But what if you are at your max, not spending much at all and still struggling to make ends meet. What can you do in that situation?
Are there any ways that you can increase your income, even if it’s just by a little bit?
Well I’m glad you asked, because yes there is. There are actually MANY ways to make a little extra money on the side.
Now I’m not promising that it’s going to replace your salary or anything, but if you need an extra $20 or $50 here or there then keep on reading …
The tip I’m going to share with you involves some writing, so I hope that you are cool with that. If you don’t like writing then I’ve got plenty of other ways to make some extra cash in Chapter 5 of my book 30 Day Spending Detox.
There are lots of different revenue sharing websites online that will pay you a share of the advertising revenue in return for writing content on their sites. You can even add your own links and promote your own products from these sites all for free. It’s actually a great concept because the site gets to build up its content from users like you and me, and if your pages are good enough to get people looking at them, you’ll likely earn some money from them.
You can also write about anything you like. Christmas Decorations, Cat Toys, Your Favourite Pasta Recipe, Who Is Going To Win Dancing With the Stars. Anything really. Of course they do have some restrictions in that you can’t write about anything illegal, defamatory or too spammy, but generally it’s free reign.
Some of the better known revenue sharing sites include:
HubPages.com
InfoBarrel.com
Squidoo.com
Personally my favourite is Squidoo because it’s super fun and you get points and trophies to share on your pages. Hey you might as well have some fun while you are trying to earn some extra cash right?
So what are some of the ways to make money with Squidoo?
First choose a topic. Something that you know a bit about that other people would find interesting. You can be seasonal too if you like (Christmas is coming up so toy recommendations could be a good earner) or you can be informative: how to cook the perfect potato, how to get red wine out of a white shirt and so on.
Write around five or six hundred words on that topic. If you can’t manage that much then at least try for 300 words. But longer articles do tend to do better.
On Squidoo they use ‘modules’ to break up their pages. For a five hundred word article I’d use around three text modules (with about 125 – 150 words in each module) so that it flows well. You can also add in things like eBay modules and Amazon modules so that if someone buys something from your site you get a commission.
Once you’ve finished your ‘lens’ (that’s what they call the page you’ve just created) then publish it. Now one lens on its own isn’t going to make you much (if anything) so here is what I want you to do next. Write four more articles. Yes seriously. Ideally you want at least five lenses all linking between each other (so they’ll need to be on related topics) for the best results.
The way Google ranks webpages is based on your content and how many links you have pointing to your webpages, so if you interlink your lenses with each other, that’s potentially four links each lens has which will give it a small boost.
Another way to help get traffic to your lenses is to participate in the Squidoo community. Go and ‘like’ other people’s lenses, leave comments on their pages and even do a quest or two if you want to.
And write more.
Now it might sound like a lot of work, but you really can earn some decent extra income this way for just sharing what you know.
Oh and they pay you directly into your PayPal account on a monthly basis. Sweet.
Like I said, this isn’t going to make you rich overnight, but it can be a good way to earn some extra cash to help boost your income.
WHAT TO DO NOW:
- Write your first article.
- Go and sign up for Squidoo (or any of the other revenue sharing websites)
- Start your first lens by clicking on the Build a Lens button.
- Break up your article into three sections and put each section in a separate text module. You can add more modules by clicking on the + button on the right hand side of your lens and then Add. You can also move around the order of the modules by dragging and dropping the order in the right hand sidebar.
- Add some pictures to make it look pretty.
- If it makes sense to do so, add an Amazon or eBay modules (I have better luck with the Amazon modules than eBay but different niches will do better with either).
- Try and make it look authoritative and informative (which it will be of course).
- Hit Publish.
- You are done! Your first lens.
- Now go write some more.
There. Some tips on how to earn extra cash. That should help out the bank balance a bit.
P.S. Want more ideas for earning extra money? Want to save lots of money in a short space of time? Check out my e-book!
