Online businesses are a great source of side or even full-time income. However, that reality occurs after a period of months, if not years. What if you need some extra money today, not three months from now?
To this end, there are many upon many resources available to you so that you can make some spending cash fast. Here are just 50 ways you can generate a quick $50:
Sell stuff
eBay– The all-time biggest, oldest and favorite place to sell your unwanted clothes, jewelry and other tchotchkes is eBay.
Amazon– The other major online marketplace is Amazon, where selling fees start at 99 cents.
Bonanza– Sell your stuff here and keep 97% of your profits.
Craigslist– This site works well for local sales of items that need to be seen before they are purchased; some examples include motorcycles, furniture and used electronics.
Consignment shops– Your dressy and/or trendy clothing can fetch a good price at local consignment shops, and you’ll keep a portion of the sale.
Half.com– This book selling site will carry your tomes for months or even years until they sell.
Used book shops– If you sell your books at used book stores (e.g., Half Price Books), you get cash on the spot. These places also usually accept your used DVDs and CDs.
Gift card sites– Cardpool and CardCash will accept your gift cards and give you a majority of their value in cash.
Used smartphone sites– Consider selling your used smartphone through a site like Gazelle or NextWorth.
Garage sales– If you have a weekend, you can organize your unwanted stuff and sell it by having a garage sale.
Nextdoor– The neighborhood social media site Nextdoor offers an area for neighbors to post stuff for sale.
TeachersPayTeachers– If you are a teacher, you can make money here by selling your old lesson plans.
CourseHero– Sell your class notes here and earn up to $10 per carefully annotated lesson. Nexus Notes is another marketplace where you can sell your class notes.
Foap– Your vacation and landscape photos could fetch you $5/piece when you list them on Foap.
Your hair– OnlineHairAffair will sell your cut, undyed hair for hundreds of dollars.
Sell your skills
Fourerr and Fiverr– If you can edit a document, create a graphic, or record a voiceover, you’ll quickly make money on microjob sites like Fourerr and Fiverr. You can also package your services and charge $10 or higher for these add-ons.
Tutoring– Sites like WyzAnt and Tutor.com pay you to tutor people either online or in person.
oDesk– This site enables you to sell services like freelance writing, editing, graphic design, etc. on a per project basis.
Amazon Turk– This micro-job site allows you to complete small jobs like testing links or proofreading a document for quick cash payouts.
TaskRabbit– If you are OK with doing small tasks in town like waiting in line for event tickets or picking up dry cleaning, this site is for you.
Microworkers– Test websites, post tweets, and do small tasks for small (but quick) dollars on this site.
Constant-Content– Earn tens or even hundreds of dollars by selling your articles or answering requests for written content.
Textbroker– Earn up to 5 cents per words for your freelance writing- or even higher for personally priced projects.
Internet research–Experts123, Web Answers, Yahoo! Answers will pay you for your carefully researched and posted answers to user questions.
Etsy– If you have a bunch of homemade arts and crafts, you can make money for them here.
Cafe Press– Upload your designs and photographs to this site and make money whenever someone buys a T-shirt or coffee cup containing your work.
RedBubble– This site will transform your photos and drawings into posters, T-shirts and stickers, then sell and ship your sold merchandise.
Society6– This site will also transform your artwork into sellable items like iPhone cases, wall prints, pillows and laptop sleeves.
DeviantArt– This site might be the place to sell your artwork if it’s not exactly “run-of-the-mill” and/or features comic book style design.
Technical support– Sites like AppleCare, ComputerAssistant and PlumChoice are always on the lookout for people who are tech-savvy and can provide technical support to customers.
Craft fairs– Sites like Festivalnet list upcoming craft fairs in your area, where you can sign up to sell your photos, greeting cards, handknit items, etc.
Feastly– Like to cook? Then cook for others right inside your home and earn money while doing so.
Sell professional tasks
SitterCity and Care– Register as a sitter on these sites and get paid to babysit and/or engage with an older adult who requires supervision.
Call center agent– Available as seasonal or full-time work, many customer service jobs can be completed from home. Amazon is looking for seasonal customer service reps and paying $10/hour. There are also sites like LiveOps and Arise.
Survey taker– Various online survey sites such as 20/20 Research, Opinion Outpost, Pinecone Research, Swagbucks, and Toluna will reward you for your opinion about a product or service.
Leapforce– This site hires search engine evaluators to evaluate websites for usability and cohesiveness.
Uber– If you have a car, you can make money by driving people around town as an Uber driver.
Moving stuff– If you have a pickup truck or a large van, you could hire yourself out as a mover.
Presto Insta-Shops– This smartphone app enables you to mystery shop on-the-go. Some tasks are quite simple to complete, such as taking photos of a drive-thru sign board, or applying for a store credit card.
Swagbucks– Get rewarded with Swagbucks for doing tasks like viewing a video, searching a website, or filling out a survey. Redeem your Swagbucks for cash in the form of Paypal payouts or VISA gift cards.
Pet sitting– FetchPetCare is a national pet sitting service site where you can list your availability and preferred pets, then collect money through the site once you’ve completed your pet sitting session.
Rent stuff out
AirBnb– Rent out a portion of, or your entire home, to travelers looking for a place to stay.
HomeAway– Earn money by having others rent your entire vacation or second home.
FlightCar– If you’re flying somewhere, you can park your car at the airport and have it rented out to other people.
Parking space rental– If you live within walking distance of a sporting event or concert, you could rent out your driveway and even entire yard to people who need a place to park.
Loanables– This site lets you rent out almost anything, from your clothes to your boat.
Zipcar– You can list your car on this site and have people pay to rent it out by the day or week.
Spinlister– This site allows you to post your sporting and recreational equipment including your road bikes, kayaks, fishing rods, weight sets, etc.
Desktime– If you have an unused bedroom or office in your house, you can rent it out through this site to telecommuters and contractors that don’t have a stationary office.
Do you have other ideas on how to make some cash fast? Post them in the comments below.
Most folks think about website flipping as the only way to make money from websites. However, website rental is actually a more profitable and stable form of online income generation, enabling you to make money now as well as later on through residual earnings.
Think about it- if you buy and sell a website, you need to shell out a good deal of money upfront and then also improve the website through content, SEO, etc. You then need to find a buyer who will pay you significantly more for the online property than you originally, as well as compensate you for the time and effort you put into improving your website.
With a website rental, you can build your online property from the ground up, which means you can build it cheap. Once you find some renters, just plug in their businesses and charge them a monthly/yearly fee for doing so. What’s left after this point is routine site maintenance and occasional content development, tasks that any kind of website owner would be responsible for. However, you could get around even those responsibilities if you really wanted to, and this is something I’ll explain later in this post.
So, how do you get started in the website rental business?
What you’ll need to get started in website rental
It goes (almost) without saying that you’ll need the following: Clients!
So, who are going to be your clients?
To get into website rental quickly and easily, you should target local business owners. There are several reasons why, namely:
Local keywords
The competition for keywords is fierce, and especially in businesses like retail, hospitality, restaurant/catering or home building/renovation. However, as soon as you enter the local arena, this competition drops off and your keywords enter into niche categories.
Niche keywords can quickly launch your website(s) to the top of the search engine results page (SERP). People all over the world might use a search term like “roofing company,” for example, but only 100 or fewer will use a search term like “roofing company in Des Plaines, Illinois.”
Business needs
Many local businesses don’t have the time or know-how to organize a proper website that generates leads and converts prospects into customers. Some businesses rely on word-of-mouth and/or newspaper/radio ads to generate leads. Other businesses have a website (or a Google business listing), but the website is outdated and/or not optimized for search.
Lack of local competition
After looking through Google and Yahoo search engines while using search terms like “website rental” and “rent a website,” I located only three businesses that engage in this activity. These results tell me that there aren’t many people doing website rental just yet. Even if more people enter this line of business, it’s doubtful they would compete with you directly because their businesses would need to focus on your locality.
How do you find local business prospects?
Pitching to prospects should start with you perusing local business websites and assessing how well they are performing. That of course assumes that these websites exist.
If you find a business that has no website, you can send that business an email or make a call and tell it about your website rental service. That is one approach that may work to win you a client.
An alternative approach is to actually start building a website that would be targeted at this potential client. To not end up wasting your time in case your sales pitch is rejected, you should first locate at least 2-3 other similar local businesses that would also work with your nascent website.
If the business already has a website, go through it to find out how usable and relevant it is. Could you, as a customer of this business, use it to learn about the services offered and their pricing? Could you reach the owner? How?
If you find any faults with this website, make sure to take note of them. You can politely suggest ways to improve this website to the business owners once you contact them.
If you find several clients who are all in the same line of business, you might even consider adding them all into a “master” website that is optimized for a local area. That is how one rental website business grouped a bunch of Colorado-based roofers.
Once you have some interested prospects, what will you need to start renting websites?
A platform
You’ll start with a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress to launch and build your websites. Within this CMS you’ll need to purchase domain names, website hosting and backup, and malware and virus protection. You’ll also want to cloak your domain name ownership details, which usually costs a few extra dollars.
Website themes
Unless you are adept at website design, you’ll probably be purchasing themes for your websites that are formatted to include specific layouts, graphics and design elements. You could also peruse your CMS for free themes- WordPress offers many decent ones at no cost. However, for a professional-looking website that isn’t a carbon copy of 100 other websites, you will probably need to buy a theme or three.
SEO
You will need to know something about SEO, and especially local SEO, to make good money with website rental. Luckily, locally targeted keywords don’t have a lot of competition and can be used to launch your website to the top of the SERP fast. You can showcase your high ranking websites to clients when you pitch your services to them.
Business services
If your client businesses don’t have their own emails and/or business phone numbers, you’ll want to set those assets up. To this end, most CMS platforms offers an email that goes along with the domain name. To obtain an 800 phone number that redirects to the business phone number, you can use a VoIP vendor like Phone.com. With VoIP, you can also track how many prospects call the business.
When your business websites first start up, their keyword search volume may not be enough to generate steady leads. You could set up online ads through Google AdWords; doing so also gives you an easy way to monitor how well your website is generating inquiries, calls and leads.
Virtual assistance (optional)
As you acquire clients and build additional websites, you’ll find website maintenance and improvement will take up a larger and larger chunk of your time. There will also be the need to perform content creation. To ease your workload, you may wish to invest in a virtual assistant who can do regular site administration for you including updating plug-ins, triaging comments, and completing site backups.
How much do your charge for rent?
You’ll need to consider how much rent to charge your virtual tenants and whether you should also charge any set-up fees. As a start-up business, you could forego charging any rent and instead get paid for each lead you generate.For example, if a roofer values each successful lead at $5,000, you could ask for 5% of that value, or $250.
As you get bigger, you could then ask for X dollars each month; doing so generates a steady residual income for you. The few businesses already doing website rental charge up to $499/month, which is certainly not a bad passive income.
World Profit (WP) is an online marketplace and affiliate marketing platform that offers website hosting and domains, paid advertising, traffic exchanges, email safelists, autoresponder programs, etc., that members can both use and sell. This company has been around since 1994, is based in Edmonton, Alberta, and was founded by George Kosch, Sandi Hunter and Jeffrey Lant.
You can sign up to WP as a free member; however, you can’t take advantage of its products, trainings and affiliate commissions until you purchase a Silver Membership at $99.95/month. Membership run month-to-month and can be cancelled anytime; alternately, memberships can be purchased for a full year.
Once you purchase the Silver Membership, you get access to the following products:
20-100% affiliate commissions
Sales bonuses up to $1,000
Access to affiliate programs, PLR products, web services
12 websites (as part of WP’s FastCash program)
Access to a content management system for building websites
9 sales funnels with 100% commissions
Landing page builder and 500 pre-built sales pages
Sales offer builder
E-book builder and cover creator
Access to an article directory
Ad tracking software
50,000 guaranteed website visitors
Email list builder
As a silver member, you also gain access to weekly trainings through the program’s “home business bootcamp” and over 100 self-paced training modules.
Is World Profit worth its $99.95/month membership fee?
Here’s what we found:
1. There are numerous complaints about this program.
Every online business has some negative reviews. However, the sheer mass of complaints about WP has me worried that this program is not all it claims to be.
Complaints range from members not being able to cash their WP checks due to bad routing numbers to WP not honoring refund requests. Other members note that the products offered by WP aren’t quite as advertised; for example, the “50,000 guaranteed visitors” actually refers to ad impressions and not actual visitors. Also, the promised traffic and subscribers are both derived from current WP members, apparently.
Other individuals complain that WP promises free traffic and other goodies; however, it doesn’t deliver on its promises. For example, this WP complainant says that the company promises free traffic and email credits in exchange for listening to its sales video. However, this isn’t true and you actually need to sign up for Silver Membership before you get those “free” tools.
2. WP uses high-pressure sales tactics.
You can’t peruse WP’s products and sales pages without first signing up as a free member. However, it seems that WP does this so that it can capture your personal information. Once you are a free member, WP has access to your name, email address, and even your phone number (if you provide it in the optional info area).
What does WP do with this information? Apparently, it uses your personal info to track you once you land on its sales pages.
When I went to WP’s checkout page to learn about its membership terms and conditions, I suddenly heard a voice through my computer calling me by my name and asking me to finish the checkout process and to input any questions I might have into the chat box.
When I looked up at my screen, I saw that I had been placed into a chat room. So, I decided to ask my chat room moderator what was WP’s refund policy for canceled memberships.
Unfortunately, despite inputting this question several times into the chat box, I never received a direct response. Instead, I kept hearing how I would get all these free bonuses, traffic, etc. after signing up as a Silver member. My moderator spent a good deal of time telling me and other chat members “how we’d watch the money roll in.”
I persisted with my refund question and was finally told to contact the head office because the moderator didn’t handle customer service matters.
3. The products aren’t quite as advertised.
WP advertises that it offers numerous high quality marketing products, traffic networks, etc. The products sound good, at least in theory. However, when you start digging into them, you uncover a different reality.
As an example, here are some of the affiliate products that WP advertises on its member site:
When I clicked on the first link in this list, I was taken to Living Off the Net, which is an MLM. Another link took me to EProfits Extreme, which is a scam online business opportunity. Another link took me to a page that brought up a malware alert on my computer, so I didn’t open it.
WP also offers numerous marketing products for its members to support their personal businesses with. However, many of these products are built on outdated techniques such as article spinning and traffic networks. Such techniques are likely to get your websites de-indexed by Google.
4. There are additional upsells.
If you think that paying $99/month is sufficient for gaining access to all of the marketing tools and bonuses that World Profit offers, think again. The WP platform is filled with traffic exchanges, Solo ads, etc. that are all available…but for an additional cost.
Instead of teaching you how to generate traffic to your website, for example, WP’s tactic is to sell you a quick fix product that won’t help you achieve your desired result. However, it will help line WP’s pockets with still more of your money.
Is it worth it?
At a steep $99/month, World Profit just isn’t worth the money and hassle- and especially when there are other online programs that are of far better quality, cheaper, and without upsells- such as our top pick here.
What do My AE Success, Online Success Plan, Ultimate Online Success Plan, and MOS (Millionaire Operating System) Success Plan all have in common?
These are all products promoted by someone who goes by the name of Jordan Daniels. These products also offer the same setup:
You are promised a millionaire website- you just pay for the domain name and hosting.
You are guaranteed to make at least $500 in just 4-6 weeks.
You get coached by an expert in the field, who will conduct regular calls with you.
You get free additional products such as “The Wealth Factor, Mindset for Millions.”
There are a limited number (i.e., 50) of spots available.
So, how do these success plans really work? And just what is their angle?
It’s all about “online coaching.”
When you go to a site like My AE Success, you are told that, for just $97, you’ll gain access to actual millionaires who made their money online using My AE Success. These millionaires will coach you on how to also become an online millionaire.
The truth of the matter is that, your $97 purchase of My AE Success, or Online Success Plan, Ultimate Online Success Plan, or the MOS Success Plan, is just a way for Jordan to get your personal details and phone number. Once this information is captured, you’re caught inside his system’s long-term sales funnel.
You’ll know you’re in a sales funnel when you get your first call from your “success coach.” This coach will ask you a few questions about your personal and financial situation to gauge how much money you can spend. Once you’ve answered those questions, your coach will try to convince you to purchase expensive educational and training programs.
As for the actual millionaire coaching, it’s going to be lackluster. You’ll most likely talk to a person who not only isn’t an Internet millionaire, but who will be reading to you from a script. If any money-making techniques are recommended to you, they will be outdated, spammy or just plain illegal.
You get a millionaire website.
The My AE Success, Online Success Plan, Ultimate Online Success Plan, and MOS Success Plan all promise a ‘millionaire website’ that will generate money for you on auto-pilot. All you have to do is pay a small one-time fee for the server that hosts this website. In the case of My AE Success, that fee is also just $97.
The real deal behind these millionaire websites is that Jordan is either an affiliate of a website host, or he owns his own server. So, you’re paying money to support the website host and/or server. As for your ‘millionaire website,” it’s going to be a poorly executed sales page that contains a few affiliate links…and not much more.
You’ll gain access to traffic sources.
Your coach will recommend that you spend money to promote your website by buying traffic, ad packs, etc. Naturally, all those traffic exchanges, ad pack sites, etc., will be Jordan’s own affiliate products. These traffic sources will cost you money so that you can drive traffic to your “guaranteed to make money” website.
Once you get your paid traffic sources to come to your website, your leads will be delivered to Jordan and his coaching team. That coaching will consist of educational and training product upsells. In fact, this is noted in the below descriptor derived from the MOS Success Plan:
You get guaranteed money (and a Mercedez Benz!)
My AE Success Plan makes some outrageous claims about how you are guaranteed to make $500 in just 30 days following the set-up of your millionaire website. In fact, if you don’t make $500, you’ll get $500 from AE. If you do make $500 in your first 30 days, you’ll qualify for a free Mercedes Benz car.
The truth is far less glamorous and can be gleaned from the site’s earnings disclaimer:
So, if you don’t make the additional product purchases (purchases that might cost several thousand dollars), you won’t see that ‘guaranteed’ $500. As for the free car, it might as well be imaginary: Nothing is mentioned about it either on the site or disclaimer area.
You pay only once and get your money refunded.
My AE Success states that you have a 30-day money-back guarantee on its products. However, there are numerous online complaints about this system regarding how it has charged its buyers repeatedly, and how it has not processed refunds as promised. Here are just a few such complaints:
It’s a unique product.
My AE Success claims that it’s a brand new and never before seen or launched program. However, AE has existed under different program names in the past, including MOS Success Plan and Online Success Plan. As of November 2016, this program is now being touted as Ultimate Online Success Plan- complete with the same bogus promises of $500 and a Mercedes Benz.
Why so many iterations of the same BS?
As these past programs were tried out, angry consumers posted multiple complaints about them. So, Jordan merely shut down those sites and re-launched the same product but under a different name.
Apparently, Jordan’s motto must be, “When you can’t escape bad press, rename yourself.”
We don’t recommend Jordan’s coaching products.
If you’re looking for an online business that will help you attain financial independence, My AE Success (and its many other iterations) from Jordan Daniels isn’t it. Also, the other online systems that Jordan has promoted, and which are now defunct, are also not going to make you money. Save yourself the hassle and heartache.
I’ve Tried That has been reviewing products since 2007. In that time, there’s one program that stands above the rest. It’s free to get started, has no ridiculous hidden charges, and will help you build a sustainable income from home.
I love email marketing. It allows you to connect directly with your followers, to segment them up and is not reliant on outside forces like Google shifting the goal posts.
The thing is, I’m not very good at it.
That’s why when I see internet marketing products saying that they can help me to improve my email marketing, I have to pick them up and take a look.
Some are good, some contain content I already know and some are pretty bad.
I recently picked up Instant Profit Funnel by Mark Wightley.
What is Instant Profit Funnel?
The product comprises of two systems to make money via email marketing. This is based on making squeeze pages (sometimes referred to as landing pages), which are designed to make your visitors sign up to your email list.
The Sales Pitch
The pitch for this product is typical marketing blurb: lots of bolded and underlined text, grand promises, and very little in the way of actual information.
There was nothing overly scammy about the sales page which is refreshing, though there was the usual unprovable proof of earnings, and unverifiable statements of how much Mark and his customers have earned.
The testimonials look real, at least more real than most testimonials I see, but there’s still no way to check them.
Purchasing Instant Profit Funnel
The product is an e-book and it’s designed as a loss leader, as the affiliates for the product actually get 100% of the money from it.
This is because it’s designed to get you into a funnel (oddly enough) and that’s where Mark makes his money, if you buy the upsells that is.
The first upsell is a video course of the same eBook you just bought, plus some added extras for $27. After that you’re offered the videos only for $17.
If you decide to buy one of those, then the funnel continues and the cost starts to increase with a monthly recurring fee for updated training for just $47, and finally a done for you funnel at $97.
Do you need any of that? Not really, though some people may get benefit from them, especially the videos.
Inside Instant Profit Funnel
The member’s area is fairly standard: you’re offered a lot of extras mixed in with the purchased products and of course upgrades to the upsells you didn’t buy to begin with.
The e-book comes with some added extras such email swipes, a checklist and a podcast of the course which is a nice bonus.
You get access to both the Instant Profit Funnel course and the Email Cash Funnel courses. On top of those you get a landing page builder plugin which is actually white labelled version a $19 product on Code Canyon. I don’t think you get updates though which isn’t ideal.
Instant Profit Funnel
A solid 56 page eBook, the text is nicely sized, has plenty of useful images and contains very little fluff.
The eBook covers finding a niche, autoresponders, products to promote, offers/bribes, squeeze page creation, high ticket offers, list setup, tracking, follow ups and traffic.
Of course, if you pick up any eBook on email marketing, it will contain most if not all of these.
However, Mark does offer some good information. For example in the niche selection section, he covers points on finding a solid niche specifically for email marketing that most other writers and product creators fail to advise on. It’s still common sense, but it’s nice to see written down.
The focus on the email marketing is very much a hard sell: you are being advised to email people basically daily.
This might well work as a separate website and system, but I wouldn’t advise you to use this tactic on an existing business website, it’s more likely to annoy your customer base than help.
If you’ve ever signed up to a “make money online” product yourself, and then received countless emails, it’s that style that Mark’s product promotes.
The traffic generation section has some interesting tips, but only covers a few methods and then only in brief which is a shame, as traffic generation is usually the biggest hurdle for most people.
It also seems a bit rushed. As an example he gives you 4 rules to follow for niche selection, but then actually only provides 3.
Email Cash Funnel
A longer eBook at 99 pages, Email Cash Funnel has the same formatting and useful images included.
This eBook is very similar to Instant Profit Funnel in that it follows a similar process (select niche, autoresponder etc).
However it goes into much more detail about how to set up a campaign in Aweber. It also promotes things slightly differently. Instead of focusing on 2 or 3 products it pushes 10 or more. The style of promoting also seems a little less hard sell and more focusing on the consumer.
I really liked the fact that Mark included several example emails that look like they would work.
There’s definitely more detail in this e-book, mainly with Aweber but also with creating landing pages.
The traffic generation section is also bigger and more detailed than the other eBook.
The Bottom Line
This products isn’t a scam, in fact you actually get a lot of value for money for the $7 bucks you initially outlay. Sure you have to navigate the upsells and choose wisely but overall the value is there.
The two eBooks you get as part of this purchase are very similar, yet they are also different enough to expand and complement each other.
If you have had success with email marketing before, then you may not get much out of these, but if your fairly new to it or have been struggling to make money with it, then there is a lot of quality advice in these 2 eBooks.
I didn’t like the hard sell aspect of the first book, but it’s been proven to work – if it didn’t you wouldn’t see it in your inbox every day.
Overall I was surprised by the quality of the Instant Profit Funnel & Email Cash Funnel systems, and would actually recommend it for a good grounding in email marketing.
Did you know that you can get paid to drive your own car?
You may have already heard of things like driving people around (e.g., Uber and Lyft), but there are other ways you can turn your car into a cash-generating machine.
Let’s look at all the ways you can earn money from driving!
How to Get Paid to Drive Your Car
Here are 14 ideas for you to consider:
1. Deliver groceries
If you live in an urban area and/or can find lots of customers that live in one location (e.g., assisted living facilities), you can earn $25/hour or more.
Amazon Prime Now and Amazon are both hiring delivery drivers through their Amazon Flex program in major urban centers across the country. To qualify for this job, you’ll need a smartphone so you can download and use Amazon’s delivery app. Positions pay up to $25/hour.
3. Be a mystery shopper
Mystery shopping, sometimes also referred to as shadow shopping or secret shopping, involves being tasked to go into different establishments, giving feedback to the mystery shopping company and eventually to the owners of these establishments.
The aim of this feedback is to improve the establishments’ products, policies and procedures, customer service, and overall customer experience.
Examples of establishments that hire mystery shoppers include restaurants, convenience stores, automotive shops, grocery stores, and many more.
Plenty of these mystery shopping companies give out assignments in multiple stores in multiple locations, so they normally prefer to hire those with their own transportation.
The pay for mystery shopping assignments varies from $3-$80, and you can earn bonus money if you complete deadline-sensitive assignments.
4. Rent out your car
If you aren’t interested in actually driving your car to earn money, sites like Turo offer you the opportunity to rent it out to others.
Yearly earnings from renting your car out vary by the value of your car and how many days it can be used, but some sites estimate yearly earnings up to $13,000. I give more details as well as a list of car-sharing websites in this article.
5. Turn your car into ad space through car wrapping
Believe it or not, there are legitimate car wrap sites that will wrap your car in advertising and pay you good money for it. You essentially get paid to drive a moving billboard for advertisers and businesses.
One such site is MyFreeCar, which offers up to $400/month if you end up wrapping your car with an ad.
You’ll have to be careful with car wrap scams, though. I’ve explained one of them here, and in a nutshell, it involves baiting with promises to give you thousands of dollars in exchange for renting out your car.
Sites like TaskRabbit and Thumbtack need people to pick up dry cleaning, get movie tickets, assemble furniture at someone’s house, etc.
To complete these tasks, you’ll most likely need a car. Payouts from microtasks range from a few dollars to maybe $20; however, if you can schedule a series of tasks at nearby locations, you could earn at least $25/hour.
7. Move large stuff
If you have a larger-sized vehicle like a van or pickup truck, you can offer moving services to people who are moving houses, taking home a large item they just bought from a store, or taking junk and scrap metal to a dump or recycling center.
You could list your moving services privately, such as through sites like Craigslist and Nextdoor. You could also sign up with websites and apps like Dolly, BuddyTruk, Lugg, and GoShare.
Check out our list of jobs for pickup trucks to learn more about earning from your large vehicle.
8. Host sightseeing tours
If you live in an interesting urban or natural locale, you can create custom sightseeing tours and charge tourists to take them to places they want to see: both the usual tourist spots and the off-the-beaten-path ones.
To advertise such services, consider teaming up with other local businesses and offering them a “pit stop” on your tour in exchange for advertising the tour and maybe even helping to sell tickets.
To make your tours a success, you’ll need a larger vehicle with big windows, such as a van. Also, consider jazzing up your tour with custom brochures, maps, and even souvenirs.
I’ve written about being a local tour guide here, including which companies employ local tour guides.
9. Chauffer for a wedding
If you have a custom, vintage, or sports vehicle on your hands, you could offer rides in it for wedding parties and guests. Being at the beck and call of a wedding party for rides to and from the church or courthouse, reception area, hotel, and/or airport could fetch you an easy $500 or more for the entire day.
Bonus: you might even get to eat some cake!
To get started as a chauffeur, it’s best to set up a website and post plenty of gorgeous photos of your vehicle(s) and offered services. You may also wish to take out liability insurance for your business.
10. Deliver newspapers or even the mail
These days, the old neighborhood paperboy route has been mostly taken over by drivers who cover larger territories and deliver newspapers, magazines, and USPS mail.
Some of these jobs can be found by perusing standard job sites like Monster and Indeed. You should also check with your local USPS office to find out if there is a need for a driver to cover a (usually rural) geographic location. Local distributors can also give you some routes to cover.
The pay varies based on your employer, but if you cover the same territories for multiple employers, you could easily make an extra $1,000/month.
11. Drive children around
Childcare for school-age kids doesn’t just mean caring for children in their homes anymore.
It now involves picking kids up and driving them to and from school, doctor’s appointments, sports practices and events, other afterschool programs and extracurricular activities, and of course, their homes.
HopSkipDrive is an app where you can sign up as a driver and be connected with families who need rides. The requirements are a bit stringent: you need to be at least 23 years old, have at least 5 years of caregiving experience, an excellent driving record, a clean background check, and a four-door vehicle no more than 10 years old.
But the pay is greater than what you can make through the usual ridesharing apps; you can make up to $60 per hour driving kids around.
12. Drive safely
Yes, we now live in a world where you can get paid to drive safely.
Auto insurance companies are gathering information about drivers’ habits through smart devices in the covered cars or through smartphone apps.
The payment comes in either cashback or discounts on your premiums. For instance, Allstate’s Drivewise gets you up to 10% cashback just for signing up, and up to 25% cashback every six months for safe driving.
13. Deliver cars from one point to another
If you love long drives, there are companies who would pay for you to scratch your itch, as long as you’re okay not driving your own car.
Driving for hours on end can be lonely, but if you have a great sense of adventure, you might find this gig quite enjoyable.
The number of elderly people in the US is steadily growing, so if you live in an area with plenty of retirement communities, getting paid to drive elders to various appointments and errands can be a lucrative gig for you.
You can look for driving errands and gigs on websites such as SilverRide (San Francisco and Kansas City areas only), ElderCare.com, and Care.com.
Other ways to make money from your car (besides selling it)
There are numerous other ways you can profit from your vehicle, including the following:
Posting car repair/detail videos to YouTube and then marketing those videos.
Taking pets to and from vet appointments.
Driving people to attractions that have limited/expensive parking.
Final Thoughts
Generally speaking, if you own a car, you’re in a great position to get side hustles for a few hours a week.
Cars are one of those properties that always depreciate in value over time. But getting one or more of these side gigs can at least offset that depreciation and put a little more change in your pocket.
Have you tried any of the above ways to get paid to drive? Can you think of other options for making money with your car, truck, van, SUV? Share these with us in the comments!
If you are a newbie affiliate marketer or website owner, you know how hard it is to get traffic to your site(s). It can be disheartening when you write a brilliant blog post, publish it, and get no comments or even views.
That’s why High Traffic Academy initially caught my interest. High Traffic Academy is the creation of Vick Strizheus, the “King of Online Traffic,” who also offers group and one-on-one coaching/consulting sessions ranging from $5,000 to $100,000.
A guy who charges such hefty fees for his time and expertise must really know what he’s talking about, right?
So, Vick is now offering an online version of his coaching sessions, called High Traffic Academy.
What is High Traffic Academy?
High Traffic Academy (HTA) is a membership site, created and operated by Vick, that teaches its members how to get quality traffic to their websites. To this end, Vick offers video tutorials, webinars, e-books, traffic campaign examples, and select products.
The HTA operates on three basic pillars:
Website development
Here you learn to purchase a domain and hosting, create your landing page, and link your landing page to an email autoresponder. To this end, Vick gives you access to his landing page builder.
Traffic Generation
This is the meat of the program and Vick tells you of several paid methods that can help you generate traffic to your landing pages. The PPC methods are provided through his software programs and traffic exchanges including Offline Goldmine Traffic, The Penny Traffic, The Underground PPC Traffic.
There is also software that teaches you how to work with Google image ads (i.e., Secret GIA Traffic), software that tells you about buying email lists (i.e., Email Media Traffic), and software that teaches you about using banner ads (i.e., Banner Media Traffic). You are also introduced to CPA networks and ad swaps.
List control
In this section, Vick instructs you on what you need to do after you have paid traffic coming to your landing pages. For example, how do you get a customer to become a repeat customer? Vick also shows you a secret method for following your competitors’ traffic online and building your email list off of this traffic.
You get the following items with your paid subscription:
Email autoresponder
Click tracker
URL scarper
Sales page templates
Video/YouTube marketing tutorials
Social media traffic generation techniques
Lead capture techniques
Is HTA worth its hefty $997 price?
HTA isn’t cheap, and a full membership plan costs $997. Even at its occasional promotional rate, HTA still costs $197/month to get started. So, is HTA worth the money?
I say no, and here are my reasons why.
1. Vick focuses on traffic, not content.
The HTA training is focused almost exclusively on generating traffic with PPC ads, banner ads, image ads, etc. There is very little time devoted to creating a quality website and filling it with valuable content. In fact, Vick makes it appear that you don’t even need a website, just a bunch of sales pages.
Google won’t even index your site if it contains nothing but a sales page. You’ll get no organic traffic whatsoever if you don’t have content for your viewers to peruse. And therein lies to key to Vick’s methods…
2. The recommended methods aren’t free.
Vick tells you next to nothing about generating free, organic traffic by creating a quality website, publishing tutorials and videos, etc. He also says nothing about content SEO and how you can get your web pages to rank well on search engines like Google. The only SEO that’s mentioned is ad SEO (e.g., how to match headline and ad keywords).
However, Vick tells you quite a bit about how you should buy traffic and email lists. Most of the recommended exchanges and marketplaces just happen to be his own products, which he generates a profit from when you make your purchases.
3. You’ll be spending more than $997.
The full year membership to HTA costs $997. However, you’ll be spending much more than that after you shell out the $997.
Vick’s trainings and webinars are nothing more than dressed-up sales presentations where he attempts to have you buy paid traffic, paid email lists, paid ads, etc. Even though Vick claims that you’ll get really cheap traffic (“as low as $0.05/click!”), you’ll still need to spend money to generate that traffic.
Vick also proposes that you test out his traffic-generating scenarios within your PPC and ad campaigns. To complete many of these scenarios, you’ll need some really deep pockets. Furthermore, without an optimized website to back up your sale pages, you’ll be paying high fees to Google due to your low Quality Score.
4. Getting a refund can be tricky.
Current HTA members are complaining about their difficulties with getting refunds. For example, here is a complaint posted by Geoffrey:
5. The online reviews might be biased.
Several HTA members report being offered monetary compensation in exchange for a positive review of HTA just days after first joining HTA. It’s one thing to ask for an unbiased review and offer some kind of compensation, but quite another to pay for biased reviews.
6. Some of the material is outdated.
HTA members have made online comments such as the following regarding the outdated nature of HTA trainings:
7. Vick isn’t exactly innocent.
We found this YouTube news video showing his 90-day sentencing on a charge of grand theft in South Dakota.
We’re passing on High Traffic Academy
Affiliate marketers and website/product owners who don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on paid traffic, email lists and advertising won’t find HTA of much use to them. Also, HTA spends little if any time teaching about building quality websites that are indexed well by search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Almost every recommended method has to be paid for, and the commissions from those payments invariably go to Vick.
If you are interested in generating traffic and sales in ways that won’t kill your wallet, there are plenty of other quality affiliate marketing platforms out there, including Wealthy Affiliate.
Content marketing is huge right now, but does it work for you?
Just writing and writing and writing can work, eventually. However, it’s much better to apply tested and proven methods to your writing.
In other words don’t just write instead write copy!
I was at a conference recently and I attended a talk by Joost de Valk of Yoast SEO fame.
His talk was all about tuning your content with some very easy tips, to make the writing stand out.
Of course, his aim was to make you use his Yoast SEO plugin which now offers a feature that point out your errors.
I want to teach you these ideas today, with little bit more of an in depth explanation to each, as well as some extra tips for taking your writing to the next level.
The basics of copywriting
What Joost was proposing isn’t rocket science, neither is it anything new. That being said, they are easy to implement and will improve your writing.
Have a structure
The absolute first thing you need to do is have a structure in place. Having a basic outline, just a list of subheadings for example can help you focus your article.
You could also use a list of ideas or topics you want to talk about, so you can see how they flow together.
Use clear paragraphs
Paragraphs should be short, 2 or 3 sentences is a great paragraph length. Any longer and they become a wall of text.
As well, each paragraph should start with an idea. The following sentences should expand upon that idea.
Have clear headings
As an internet marketer you should know that clear headings are important. When done correctly just reading the clear headings can tell some the story, if in brief.
Examine your sentence structure
Wordy sentences that go on and on, without really coming to an end that just keep going and don’t really get to the point, all the while going from idea to idea and maybe even changing topic to dogs and how cool they are becomes really annoying to any reader.
See what I did there?
Keep your sentences short and to the point. If you don’t your readers will quickly become tired of your writing and redo their Google search. Ideally sentences should be 20 words or less.
Use simple words
I am terrible at this as I love using a wide vocabulary.
If you’re writing prose, using interesting and underused words is great. Using those sort of words for copywriting is a bad idea.
Keep your words simple, and ideally with a short syllable count: 3-4 max.
I’m not saying you should dumb down content, that’s possible the worst thing you can do. Instead just use words that convey the point clearly and simply.
Remove fluffy and filler content and words. Examine the sentence and think, do I really need this word? Can the sentence work without it?
The Passive Voice is terrible
This is the hardest thing to remove from your writing, as not everyone even understands what it is.
The passive voice is a grammatical construction (specifically, a “voice”). The noun or noun phrase that would be the object of an active sentence (such as Our troops defeated the enemy) appears as the subject of a sentence with passive voice (e.g. The enemy was defeated by our troops).
Still confused? Yes, me too. It’s difficult to understand let alone realize you are writing in that “voice”.
The best way to understand it is if there is an action then the person (organization, etc.) must do the action.
Passive: the website was created by the web developer
Active: the web developer created the website.
While Joost’s plugin can identify the passive voice, it can’t fix it for you, so you need to have a good understanding of it and that will take a little time to learn.
More than the basics
Joost’s talk was really just an advertisement for the new feature with some basic advice to help provide value.
That basic advice however is important and a great stepping stone to improving your writing.
There are some more tips you can use to create writing that is effective copywriting.
#1 Write to the reader, not the audience
Forget that thousands of people can be reading your content. Instead remember that people read your content one at a time. Don’t talk to the audience, talk to that person.
This comes across as much more intimate and personal.
#2 Write a story
I started this article with a story about visiting a conference and seeing a talk by Joost. Perhaps it’s not a great story, but it’s still better than nothing.
Humanity has used story telling since we could string words together, and it is integral in our psyche.
Using a story to get a point across helps to tap into this and makes your content more memorable, because when a story is remembered, so is the moral or point of the story.
#3 Don’t use Weasel words
A weasel word is basically a vague word or turn of phrase. Avoiding Weasel words is essential for sales copy, though in content marketing it can be more of a relaxed.
Here’re some examples, clearly stolen from WikiPedia:
“A growing body of evidence…” (Where is the raw data for your review?)
“People say…” (Which people? How do they know?)
“It has been claimed that…” (By whom, where, when?)
“Critics claim…” (Which critics?)
“Clearly…” (As if the premise is undeniably true)
“It stands to reason that…” (Again, as if the premise is undeniably true—see “Clearly” above)
“Questions have been raised…” (Implies a fatal flaw has been discovered)
How well did I score?
You might be wondering how well I’ve done with this article. The answer, not too bad:
This is before editing, and as you can see, my Passive Voice score is a bit high (it’s a curse!) but everything else seems good.
Remember that the scores are a guideline, nothing more. If the article or content reads well and more importantly converts, then having 11% of sentences containing the passive voice is just fine.
The Bottom Line
As a content marketer you might be writing pure sales copy or you might be writing a 5,000 word tutorial. Most likely, you will be somewhere in the middle.
These Joost and myself have provided these copy writing tips to help you make whatever you write that much more readable, enjoyable and actionable.
Cash Finder System starts out by stating that it offers work from home opportunities for people interested in becoming “Professional Finders.” As a finder, you can be paid big fees of $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000. One example mentions making $5,420.58 for just “a couple hours of work.”
The usual eyebrow-raising claims are made, including the following:
There’s very little work required.
You don’t need any kind of training or education.
The checks are delivered right to your door.
You can work from home.
You don’t need to create a new product.
You don’t need to sell anything.
What are professional finders?
The first clue you get is the following:
The second clue states that all you’ll need are “a telephone and access to the Internet.”
Finally, about a third of the way down the sales page, the professional finder is defined as follows:
Lee Gilmore is introduced as one such finder.
Apparently, in the case of Cash Finder System, you’ll become a real estate finder.
Here’s Lee, by the way, who gives you a summary of the vast amounts of money you stand to earn by finding real estate for buyers. The video cuts off midstream, but you hear enough of his message to know that being a real estate finder is the ticket to big bucks and little work.
Lee then encourages you to purchase his Cash Finder System so that you can get trained to become a real estate finder.
The Cash Finder System offers the following items:
Self-paced training videos and their transcripts.
Resource center with tools to help you find real estate in your own geographic area.
Pre-generated scripts, postcards, and an amazing “one page letter” that generates leads.
Information on when to present investors-buyers with your real estate finds.
Lee assures you that you need no specialized training to become a real estate finder. You don’t even need a realtor’s license.
Sounds good so far…
How much does Cash Finder System cost?
It costs $99 to purchase Cash Finder System; however, if you are one of the first 50 persons to purchase the system, you get your membership fee back. How do you get your money back?
Lee says that once you close on your first real estate assignment, you need to take a picture of yourself holding your finder’s check and send that photo to him. He’ll then reimburse your membership costs.
Does Cash Finder System work as advertised?
Real estate finders, also often called property locators, do exist. It’s also possible to make money as a real estate finder/property locator. However, it’s not quite as easy as advertised. Here are some reasons why.
You’ll face competition.
At least 75% of realtors are also in the business of being real estate finders. In fact, it’s their job. If a realtor beats you to the punch and finds a good property to sell to his buyer, you won’t be seeing your finder’s fee.
Realtors have more experience and more training than a “regular” person at finding and assessing properties. They also have access to a wide network of other realtors and realty companies that you don’t.
You will be travelling.
Many real estate finders scope out foreclosed properties or properties about to be foreclosed upon and approach the current owners about selling beforehand. If you have a thick skin and don’t mind being viewed as a vulcher, then being a real estate finder could be a good fit for you.
However, you better not mind hearing ‘no’ again and again. Also, unlike what Lee promises in his sales videos and page, you will indeed be getting in your car and traveling to real estate locations. You will also be selling- as in, you’ll be selling the idea of selling to various homeowners who are behind on their mortgages.
You need rehab expertise.
If you are a building contractor or builder, you have much of the needed expertise already in place to quickly assess how much a property will cost to fix up and sell at profit. If you don’t have much experience as a contractor and/or have never rehabbed a property, you’re going to be in for a sharp learning curve.
Can you spot an undervalued home that would make a 50% or higher return on investment following a few inexpensive updates? This is, in essence, what many of your investors-buyers will want to know from you.
This isn’t for newbies.
Don’t expect to get investors-buyers lining up to work with you by simply sending out a few postcards and sales letters, like Lee claims.
You’ll need to get on the ground floor and rub shoulders with contractors, auction agents, and real estate brokers. You’ll need to physically attend real estate auctions because, by the time a property is listed online, it’s already spoken for by another realtor or property finder.
You’ll need to learn the legal ramifications of finding a house that is behind on tax payments, or has expensive update clauses (e.g., connection to city water) as conditions of its sale.
Should you pass on Cash Finder System?
While the Cash Finder System proposes a legitimate career opportunity, it vastly underestimates the amount of time and effort you’ll need to invest in order to make this career pay off for you.
Unless you’re prepared to go “all in” with becoming a real estate finder and traveling to various properties and investment possibilities, you won’t discover many hidden gems by just working from home. Likewise, you’ll need to sell your realty proposals to both your investors-buyers and to current homeowners.
Can you really buy into a world-class marketing funnel for just $7? That’s what Lead Lightning promises you when you click on its sales page, including ready-to-go lead pages and emails, a contact management platform, and impressive 85% commissions on product sales. You also get swipe copy, sales banners, commission tracking, and free training.
This nearly $850 starter package is priced at just $7:
So, does Lead Lightning live up to its claims?
What is Lead Lightning?
Lead Lightning is a marketing automation platform that automates several marketing activities for you, including sending emails, tracking clicks, prospects and conversions, and following up converted customers with additional products (often called upsells and cross-sells).
You also get access to a Facebook support group, tutorials, and training. The sales page showcases the program’s many benefits:
Supposedly, you get access to all these goodies just by paying $7 for a regular membership in the program.
That’s the front-end sell of this system. However, Lead Lightning also claims that it’s “a lead attraction machine” that “spits out daily commissions.”
Commissions from what, you ask?
From the sale of Lead Lightning memberships to others (ahem, your downline).
The following upgraded membership plans are presented by Lead Lightning, each with a higher and better commission payout:
Regular membership: $7
Payout: $6 commissions on new memberships.
Silver membership: $29.97/month
Payout: $15 monthly commissions on new memberships.
Gold membership: $53.97/month
Payout: $20 monthly commissions on new memberships.
Diamond membership: $147
Payout: $100 commissions on new memberships.
Platinum membership: $497
Payout: $400 commissions on new memberships.
If you haven’t guessed it by now, Lead Lightning is focused on selling one major product through its funnel: Itself. In all fairness, the program does tell you this up-front in its sales page:
Naturally, you won’t make $100 commissions unless you first purchase the Gold membership yourself. Likewise, you won’t make $400 commissions unless you first purchase the $497 Platinum membership for yourself.
So, the system technically costs $7 to start…but you won’t achieve its promises of big money unless you pay a lot more money later on, and also pay money for monthly memberships.
Is this investment worthwhile? I’m a bit skeptical, and here are some reasons why:
1. The “testimonials” are highly suspect.
Lead Lightning lists three testimonials from Richard Dwyer, Dotti Berry and Jeff Gardner as proof that this system is a great way to make money online.
There’s just one issue with these testimonials- the same individuals also provided glowing testimony in an email processing (aka, envelope-stuffing) scheme called Email Processing System.
2. Where’s the support?
When you go to Lead Lightning’s Facebook group page, you encounter five posts for Udimi (an ad platform), probably posted by an affiliate of the system…and that’s it. There’s no group discussion here amongst the 105 members. Any questions posed by fellow members get zip for an actual response.
3. Lead Lightning is a rebooted Power Lead System.
The Power Lead System, which was introduced in 2013 by Michael Price and Neil Guess, offered a similar marketing product and affiliate payout structure before it was dismantled in 2014 due to affiliate recruitment issues. Interestingly, the domain of that site was plsfunnel.com.
I’m not sure if Michael and Neil parted ways since that time, but Neil is now the creator of Lead Lightning. As for Todd Gross, the guy who introduces himself in the Lead Lightning sales videos, we’re not sure how he fits in.
4. A system with no product except itself is a pyramid scheme.
The creator of Lead Lightning props up the system as a way to market “your business” and the Lead Lightning product if you don’t have your own product. That’s a clever way to avoid litigation, I guess.
In truth, very little is discussed about how you can use the Lead Lightning tools to promote your own product, and there is much more emphasis placed on affiliate recruitment.
In other words, you’re not going to be researching niche markets to promote or studying SEO. No, your goal will be to email as many prospects as possible with spam emails and sales banners promoting membership in Lead Lightning. Although you might get a signup here or there, you’re far more likely to get in trouble for violating the CAN-SPAM Act.
5. Many of Lead Lightning’s marketing tools are free.
The customer management system that Lead Lightning touts as one of its benefits is nothing special- SuiteCRM and Insightly, for example, offer such a system for free. If you’re looking at an email system that can become an autoresponder, there’s MadMimi.
Sure, you’ll be stuck writing your own emails and ads…or for $5, you can hire someone through Fiverr to do that task.
In short, Lead Lightning offers nothing so extraordinary and powerful that it warrants paying nearly $850.
Having said that, you might find sufficient value for your money if you only pay $7 for Lead Lightning and resist investing any more dollars into this system.
Lead Lightning is a big ‘nope.’
If you are a marketing newbie and want to learn about sales pages, email autoresponders, etc., then Lead Lightning might fit the bill. However, as a long-term system, Lead Lightning is tenuous and may disappear at any moment, much like its Power Lead System predecessor. Furthermore, most of this system’s energy is focused on self-promotion and affiliate recruitment. You’re better off looking elsewhere for a long-term marketing software platform.
Recently, I came across an online income opportunity called EZ Money Team. Jeffery Hart is the name you first hear when you go to the EZ Money Team sales page and start watching its nearly 30-minute long video. Here’s a picture (taken from the sales video) that is attributed to Jeffery Hart:
Jeff claims that he developed an online money-making system that is the following:
Easy to use: You don’t need to know how to use a computer to get started with EZ Money Team.
Step-by-step: Jeff teaches you everything you need to do to start generating an online income.
Inexpensive: EZ Money Team training costs just $49. When you try to leave the sales page, your final cost drops to just $9.
Foolproof: Jeff claims that anyone can use this system to get rich.
Automated: Jeff portrays EZ Money as being capable of making money through different “set and forget” software platforms.
As an example, Jeff describes a down-on-her-luck single mother of three named Sarah. She became enrolled in the EZ Money Team and, within no time at all, paid off all her debt and is now buying a new house.
Incidentally, this is “Sarah,” who Jeffery claims used to live on food stamps. Now, however, Sarah has over $120K in just one of her bank accounts.
The EZ Money Team sales video doesn’t reveal too much about exactly how you’ll be making money online. Instead, you’re encouraged to purchase the system for its low price of just $49$37 $9.
However, if you go to YouTube, which is the host for this sales video, you’ll notice that the video’s creator, who goes by ortease121 and oortizIII, has several EZ Money Team videos posted here. One of his videos discusses the training modules for EZ Money Team, which are noted as being part of the program’s paid training. Whoops!
So, what do you get to learn from the EZ Money Team after paying for membership in this program?
EZ Money Team training
The EZ Money Team training program is divided into several modules, and each module has you complete a different task.
Module 1: Affiliate account and website
You are instructed to create a Clicksure affiliate account and a CoolHandle-hosted website. Clicksure is free, but CoolHandle ranges from $3.95 to $8.95/month.
Module 2: Email marketing and managing clicks
Jeff recommends using Clickdrop to generate online leads, and ClickMagick to track emails click and to mask your affiliate links
Clickdrop is an email list and traffic exchange platform where you’ll pay anywhere from a few cents per click (via PPC) to even thousands of dollars for large email lists. ClickMagick costs between $12-$66/month.
Module 3: Traffic generation
Jeff recommends WebFire as an automated lead-generation system, and Video Firestorm as a video creator. Money-generating campaigns are introduced as a method for getting traffic to and conversions on your website(s).
Module 4: Tips and tricks
Interestingly, in this module, Jeff tells you how you can avoid online scams. He also goes through a FAQs section where he answers common questions about the program.
Module 5: Platinum and Gold membership bonus programs
The Platinum membership offers you the opportunity to create your own “product” by giving you your own EZ Money Team platform, so that you can create your own lessons.
With the Gold membership, you get 50 VIP swipe emails (prewritten email copy), plus access to WebFire.
From the videos, I’m suspecting that Platinum membership costs $99, and Gold membership runs about $199.
The problems with EZ Money Team
While all this training and software sound good in theory, there are several red flags that made me reassess the inherent worth of EZ Money:
1. Fake testimonials.
Remember “Sarah,” the single mother of three who uses EZ Money? I found her photo through iStock:
If this photo of Sarah is fake, I’m betting her bank account shots and recorded phone call testimony are also fake.
2. There is no Jeffery Hart.
Oscar T. Ortiz is the actual creator of EZ Money Team, and that also explains his chosen YouTube names. Why is the name Oscar Ortiz important, and why would he use a fake name to begin with?
Because Oscar is promoting several other online scam systems, as shown by his own EZ Money Team platform:
Million Biz Pro, My Internet Success Coach, and Steal My System are all online scams- and these are the products that you’ll end up also promoting if you start using EZ Money Team. Do you really want to promote online scams?
3. Upsells and cross-sells galore.
At an point in the training videos, when Jeffery/Oscar discusses using WebFire or Click Magick or some other software, he always asks that you click the link below his video to get signed up. Why?
Because every software platform he talks about is also his own affiliate product. So, even if you end up making no money through EZ Money Team, Jeff/Oscar will certainly make a handsome commission from you.
My verdict: EZ Money Team is a no-go.
At first glance, EZ Money Team sounds like a decent system to get into, along with its useful tools and training. Problems start appearing the minute you take a closer look at just how this system operates and who is really making a profit from its promoted products. Furthermore, the EZ Money Team creator has you promoting online scams.
In summary, there are better online trainings out there that don’t ask you to compromise your principles.
Feeling like you’re cooped up in an urban, cement-walled prison? Looking for a career where you get to touch plants, cuddle animals, breathe fresh air, and even all of the above? Look no further because today, we list nature jobs that you can apply for!
So much has been written about the healing properties of nature. Studies have found that one’s mental health improves when one is exposed to nature (Source).
This has become even more important in the last couple of years as the pandemic forced people to stay inside their homes. Now that life is slowly getting back to normal, people are understandably excited to go outside.
So why not find a job that lets you experience nature and help save the planet while getting paid for it?
Go through the list below and find the nature career that fits you!
15 Unique Nature Jobs To Apply For
Whether you’re just starting your career or you’re looking for a change of scenery, here are some unique nature jobs so you can work while being surrounded by nature and showing your love for the environment.
Note: Salary information is from PayScale.com unless otherwise indicated.
1. Horticulturist
Horticulturists are basically garden scientists who are knowledgeable about different plant species and use that knowledge to cultivate and propagate plants.
They make sure that the right plants are planted in the right soil in the right place.
They focus on improving plants toward a certain goal, such as increasing a certain plant’s yield, developing disease-resistant plants, cultivating drought-resistant plants, or simply maximizing a plant’s health.
Landscape architects may work with horticulturists to decide what type of plant is best suited to their design.
Farmers, vineyard owners, orchard owners, and other similar owners work with horticulturists to increase yields and breed new plant varieties that can resist drought, pests, and extreme temperatures.
Other horticulturists inspect fruits and vegetables for government and private agencies.
Average annual salary: $42,991 Education Level: Bachelor’s degree in plant science or botany
2. Forester
Foresters play a significant role in land management, conservation, and rehabilitation.
They are responsible for forest management and such tasks as choosing locations for tree plots, inspecting and marking trees that are ready to be harvested, applying sustainable timber harvesting, assisting in wildfire prevention, implementing forest regulations, and other technical duties.
Foresters can be hired by local, state, and federal government agencies to manage forests in national and state parks, as well as unprotected forests to reduce wildfires, prevent illegal logging and burning, and ensure wildlife habitat is protected.
Logging companies hire foresters to make sure they are practicing sustainable harvests.
Urban planners hire foresters as well to maintain plots of trees in the middle of urban areas to ensure the safety of both the humans who spend time there and the wildlife population that live in the trees.
Note that certain states require foresters to be licensed, and getting a certification from a professional organization such as the Society of American Foresters is advantageous as well.
Average annual salary: $53,637 Education Level: Bachelor’s degree in forestry or forest management; also agricultural engineering, environmental science, conservation
3. Conservation Scientist
A conversation scientist, in a nutshell, studies the quality of various natural resources and plans how to use them without causing severe, permanent damage to the environment.
As you can imagine, as there are many natural resources with so many entities, both private and public, that want to tap into those natural resources, there are many ways to be a conservation scientist.
For instance, you can work as a conservation ecologist and consult with the government or private companies planning to develop some land or water. You’ll be surveying the planned site for the possible impact on habitats and protected species in the area, letting clients know about the potential issues, and providing advice and recommendations to minimize their impact.
You can also work as a conservation biologist, where you study different plant and animal species in the field with the aim of protecting their lives from human-made obstacles and dangers.
Or you can become a conservation geoscientist and help prevent soil and groundwater contamination by determining safe locations for disposing of waste such as landfills, nuclear power plants, industrial wastewater, and many others.
The salary range is a bit higher than other nature jobs in this list because the education and research experience required are also higher.
Average annual salary: $69,020 (Source) Education Level: At least a master’s degree, preferably a Ph.D., in your chosen specialty
4. Meteorologist
If it wasn’t for meteorologists and their work, we wouldn’t have known about climate change and its effects on all organisms on Earth.
Meteorologists collect, analyze, and interpret atmospheric data and study various weather conditions for various
Government agencies (such as the National Weather Agency) are the largest employers of meteorologists. Even the military hire meteorologists to help them plan military operations around weather conditions.
Media companies also hire meteorologists for their forecast reports, although this may be mainly a desk job.
Law firms and insurance companies can also hire forensic meteorologists to recreate the weather conditions on a particular date, time, and location.
Average annual salary: $55,129 Education Level: Bachelor’s degree in meteorology or atmospheric science; training in weather analysis, dynamic meteorology, forecasting advantageous; certification from professional organizations a must for some employers
5. Oceanographer
Around 71% of the Earth’s surface is all ocean, and we haven’t even explored over 80% of it.
Oceanographers aim to change this by studying the ocean and its different aspects. Physical oceanographers study the currents, tides, waves, and erosion, while chemical oceanographers study the chemical composition of ocean water and geological oceanographers focus on the ocean floor.
Duties of oceanographers can vary greatly, but most oceanographers spend a lot of time on a boat to collect data and perform experiments. Plenty of oceanographers also spend time teaching and training aspiring oceanographers when they aren’t on boats and doing their research.
The insights from their research impact marine wildlife conservation and the proper extraction of fuels (oil and natural gas) from the ocean.
Government agencies and research agencies are the biggest employers of oceanographers, but private companies, especially energy companies, can pay more.
Average annual salary: $67,232 Education Level: Master’s degree in oceanography or specialized field; Ph.D. is preferred and can command higher pay
6. Limnologist
If oceanographers study the oceans, limnologists study freshwater bodies, both natural (e.g., lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, springs) and manmade (e.g., dams, reservoirs, canals).
They study the physical, chemical, biological, and ecological properties of these freshwater bodies and analyze the data they collect to be able to make recommendations to clients.
Specific duties of limnologists may vary depending on who they’re working for and their specialties.
The ultimate goal is to protect the freshwater ecosystems and minimize the impact of human development and activities such as manufacturing, farming, or recreational activities on these ecosystems.
If you like working near water but freak out over a wide expanse of nothingness, being a limnologist may just be the nature job for you.
Average annual salary: $51,826 (Source) Education Level: Master’s degree in limnology, aquatic biology, or other related courses
7. Naturalist
If you’ve always admired Sir David Attenborough, being a naturalist might come naturally (!) to you.
Naturalists, also called “park and wildlife naturalists,” observe living species in nature and study their impact on one another and on the environments where they live.
They look for evolutionary indicators that explain why a certain attribute is beneficial or detrimental to a specific organism.
Government agencies that oversee national parks, state parks, fish and wildlife, and outdoor recreation are the usual employers of naturalists.
Private companies and organizations that oversee an outdoor space where wildlife live also hire naturalists to ensure that any development on their property doesn’t disrupt the ecological balance in the area.
Average annual salary: $39,217 Education Level: Bachelor’s degree in wildlife ecology, environmental science, botany, and similar fields
8. Outdoor Guide
Imagine waking up every day, putting on your hiking gear and shoes, and going outside into the wild.
If that sounds like a great life to you, well you might want to turn that into a career.
Outdoor guides lead individuals or groups through outdoor recreation activities and educate them about the flora, fauna, and history of a certain area.
They can lead hiking, wildlife watching, birdwatching, hunting, or fishing trips with enthusiasts, tourists, or park guests.
The more active ones can be adventure guides for activities like backpacking, mountain climbing, biking, kayaking, rafting, and other much more strenuous activities.
Aside from the educational requirements, you’ll need additional certifications for skills such as first aid, life guard, water rescue, wilderness first responder, and outdoor leadership training.
You can find jobs with guided tour companies or you can offer your services yourself on a freelance basis.
Of course, there are educational and experience requirements to be an outdoor guide, but the best ones are those who truly love nature and are able to express this by sharing their enthusiasm with other people.
Average annual salary: $39,732 Education Level: Bachelor’s degree is an advantage but not required; certifications depend on activities you want to lead
9. Park Ranger
As far as nature jobs go, park rangers definitely have the most beautiful workplaces you can hope for.
Park rangers are responsible for a park and the safety of its guests. Duties of park rangers may include patrolling campgrounds, trails, and surrounding areas, enforcing park rules and regulations, and ensuring wildlife and forest conservation guidelines are met.
Law enforcement park rangers have more responsibility and authority, as they can enforce state and federal laws within their designated area, as well as act as first responders and assist in search and rescue or retrieval efforts.
Rangers in visitor services welcome guests, give tours, answer visitor questions, present educational materials, and patrol the park to check on visitors and the park grounds.
National parks, state parks, and municipal parks are the most frequent employers of park rangers. Private parks may also employ park rangers as well.
Average annual salary: $39,466 Education Level: Bachelor’s degree in park and recreation management, environmental science, forestry, and other related courses; law enforcement rangers require certification as law enforcement and peace officers
10. Fish and Game Warden
If you love hunting and fishing and you want to make sure that it remains fun for everyone, being a fish and game warden may be a good fit for you.
Fish and game wardens enforce fish and game regulations and laws in their assigned territory.
They make sure that hunters and fishers have the proper permits, inspect their catch or their harvests to make sure they are within legal limits, and observe hunters’ and fishers’ conduct to make sure they are not a danger to themselves or to others.
They also sometimes conduct safety training seminars, collect data for wildlife research efforts, and assist in search and rescue operations.
Fish and game wardens can usually be found patrolling fishing docks and waterways, as well as backroads and roadways during hunting season.
They are authorized to cite people who are behaving recklessly, obviously inebriated, or breaking other hunting or fishing laws.
Aside from the educational requirements, fish and game wardens are required to be physically fit and mentally sound.
Another requirement is having a permit to carry firearms and being comfortable enough to use them when necessary. Remember, this is essentially a law enforcement position, and those you encounter are likely to be armed.
The government is the largest employer of fish and game wardens, which they place in wildlife areas, nature preserves, and public fishing and hunting areas. State game wardens are employed through the state’s fish and wildlife department, while federal game wardens are employed through the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Average annual salary: $49,000 Education Level: Associate’s degree in environmental science, biology, criminal science, or other related courses
11. Wildlife Veterinarian
If you’re studying to become a veterinarian, or you’re already a veterinarian and want to change your focus, it’s worth considering being a wildlife veterinarian.
Wildlife veterinarians, also known as conservation veterinarians, treat wildlife in game reserves or wildlife refuges.
They tend to work with wildlife biologists to conserve and manage existing fish and wildlife populations and to recover species that are considered dangerous.
Wildlife veterinarians also aim to protect wildlife from diseases carried by domesticated animals, and vice versa.
Being a wildlife veterinarian can be very fulfilling but may be challenging as well, as wild animals aren’t the best patients; wild animals get stressed when humans interact with them.
Wildlife veterinarians most often work for federal or state fish and wildlife agencies and departments.
The salary is a great deal higher than the average salaries of the other jobs on this list, but the educational and experience requirements are much higher as well.
Average annual salary: $98,829 (Source) Education Level: Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine (or equivalent) from an accredited college; license to practice veterinary medicine
12. Wildlife Refuge Manager
Management jobs don’t always have to be behind a desk.
If you’re leaning more toward management but also want a nature job, managing a wildlife refuge may be a good fit.
Wildlife refuge managers oversee land, water, and all wildlife contained within in national wildlife refuges and sanctuaries.
Aside from the management duties, wildlife refuge managers have extensive knowledge of laws, regulations, and policies related to wildlife management and environmental management.
As with wildlife veterinarians, the government is the biggest employer of wildlife refuge managers through the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Being a wildlife refuge manager is a huge responsibility. You’re not just responsible for the employees on the refuge, but you’re also responsible for the animals, plants, and all other wildlife on your turf.
Average annual salary: $97,683.39 (Source) Education Level: Bachelor’s degree in wildlife management, zoology, animal ecology, botany or any other related biological sciences
13. Fish and Wildlife Technician
If you like interacting with animals but are not a veterinarian and have no plans of being one, being a fish and wildlife technician is your best bet.
Fish and wildlife technicians are hands-on with fish and wildlife, collecting biological samples, trapping, tagging, and tracking them, and compiling the data collected.
Other duties include caring for trapped animals in the lab, calibrating scientific and technical equipment, and writing detailed reports.
Fish and wildlife technicians typically work with wildlife or marine biologists to know what data is needed when.
As with many other nature jobs on this list, the federal government is the most frequent employer of fish and wildlife technicians, usually through the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Average annual salary: $62,399 (Source) Education Level: Associate’s degree in wildlife biology, zoology, ecology, animal science, or other closely related fields; certification is an advantage to get higher salaries
14. Nature Photographer
It seems like every other nature job on this list is science-y.
But there are nature jobs for artists and creatives, too.
Nature photographers capture the world’s natural beauty. From vast oceans and majestic mountains to magnificent eagles and the tiniest insects, nature photographers have plenty of subjects to choose from.
It’s not as simple as going on a hike and snapping away, though. The best nature photographers have mastered working with natural light, composing the photo, and using the proper exposure settings to capture that beauty and produce a compelling photo.
Working as a nature photographer usually means being self-employed and selling your photos to various clients. That said, media companies, nature conservation groups, and niche stock photography websites may look for regular or semi-regular nature photographers.
Average annual salary: $41,000 Education Level: No degree required; associate’s degree and photography training preferred but not required
15. Nature Blogger
Being truly passionate about nature and preserving it for future generations is a great thing. Why not become a nature blogger so you can share your enthusiasm and raise awareness for nature issues that everyone should know and get involved with?
With a very low barrier to entry, anyone can build their own website and start a blog in minutes.
Topics to write about include local plants, birds, and animals, travels to state or national parks and the species found within, conservation topics, or nature therapy.
Technically, you don’t have to be outdoorsy to write a nature blog. But if you hardly go out of your house and your knowledge is limited to what you can find on the internet, your blog suffers in terms of credibility.
Being a nature blogger is a largely self-employed endeavor, and most of the time, especially when you’re just starting out, you might not earn a livable income from it.
The good news is that if you already work in one of the other nature jobs above, you can start a nature blog on the side.
Also, there are various ways to make money from your blog. You can display ads on your blog, go into affiliate marketing, or accept sponsored posts.
Average annual salary: Varies widely depending on income streams Education Level: No degree required
Other Ways to Make Money From Nature
Aside from the nature jobs we’ve listed, there are other ways to make money from nature that doesn’t involve exploiting it. Take a look at these ideas and you might be able to start today.
Collect and sell natural dead stuff
Yup, selling natural dead stuff can be quite lucrative.
For instance, if your area is rich in rocks and you have time to look around, finding unusual stones and geodes can earn you some side cash from artists, jewelers, and tourists if you’re in a tourist town.
Fossils are also a hit, though. Best to stick to small invertebrate fossils and plant impressions. If you find a vertebrate fossil, better call a paleontologist instead.
Feathers (ones that have been shed, don’t torment birds!) are also worth collecting and selling.
Driftwood can be found where there’s water, such as in beaches, along rivers, and along lakes. They don’t look like much, but they can be used to create natural art and thus can be a hit in marketplaces like Etsy.
Some beaches are also perfect for beachcombing for seashells, dead corals, sea glass, stones, and other random dead but pretty things.
Different shaped twigs and odd-colored dried leaves also have buyers, so if you leave near some trees, take a walk and find some interesting leaves and twigs to sell.
Create and sell art from natural dead stuff
Instead of (or in addition to!) supplying artists and craftspeople with nature-themed media, consider making your own and then selling that artwork.
For instance, unique driftwood frames and benches are in demand.
Feathers can be crafted into pens, dreamcatchers, jewelry, hair clips, shoes, and other accessories.
Dried leaves can be used in wreaths, pressed into bookmarks, or used to create leaf prints (especially those “veiny” ones).
Seashells can be incorporated into gel candles, jewelry, and home décor.
There are so many possibilities, and simply browsing through Etsy can give you plenty of inspiration.
Go into urban farming
We can’t all live in the woods or near the ocean, but there are nature jobs for us city folk.
We just have to create them.
Many city dwellers have already gone into urban farming, which means growing or producing food in a heavily populated city or town.
It increases access to locally grown food, which is important especially in so-called food deserts, where there is a lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
Some even increase profits by setting up a compost pit and making it into fertilizer to use back in the farm and sell the excess.
Urban farming is different from community gardening in that urban farmers grow and produce food to sell while community gardens have an agreement to share whatever is grown there. So please don’t steal produce from your community garden and sell them; don’t be that guy or gal.
Groups of people within the neighborhood can definitely set up an urban farm, though, sharing both the labor and the profits from the sold produce.
The first place to look for a location is in your own home. Many have set up urban farms right in their backyard, or if they live in a building, right on their rooftops. Others have utilized landfills, brownfields, sometimes even demolished houses or commercial buildings.
Always consult your local laws and homeowners’ associations to know how you can go about this legally before you even start. Once you get the green (hah!) light to proceed, you can start studying and training on the basics of food production, developing a business plan, and growing your crops.
Become a beekeeper
If you have the space, consider taking care of bees and selling bee products while helping to pollinate and propagate flowers and increasing the bee population.
As I’ve mentioned, the main source of income from beekeeping is the proceeds from selling bee products (e.g., honey, beeswax, pollen, bee venom), but you can also tangentially make money from blogging about the experience or training other wannabe beekeepers.
I’ve previously featured making money from beekeeping in detail, so you can go over the guide and decide whether it’s for you.
Apply to one of these nature jobs today!
Don’t these jobs just make you want to get up and save the planet?
Working in the midst of nature can both be personally fulfilling and lucrative. You can work in a job that’s environment-friendly and give you the chance to help protect the natural world while earning a suitable income.
There are many other outdoor jobs you can do, not all of which are environment-related, though.
Are you interested in any of these nature-related jobs? Which ones of these are you most interested in? Sound out in the comments!
