Resources

7 Ways to Make More Money with Fiverr

Written By:
Published On:

Fiverr is a website that allows anyone to buy and sell services, with prices starting at just $5 bucks.

The website covers a wide variety of services, from logo creation to testimonials, translating articles to signing Happy Birthday in a thong, and a lot in between.

From a seller’s point of view, Fiverr allows you to make money from basically micro services which mean low overheads and potentially a large market as the site is very popular.

However, Fiverr also takes a 20% cut of earned fees and also charges for withdrawing earnings.

With that in mind, the most successful sellers on Fiverr need to plan ahead to make sure the maximise sales while reducing potential costs.

To help you do that, here are my top 7 tips to make more money with Fiverr.com.

#1 Keep Your Gigs Quick

This has to be the number one tip out there! If each gig takes you 30 minutes to do, then you’re only going to earn $8 an hour before taxes.

Whatever it is you decide to do should ideally take you less than 5 mins to produce as allows you to earn up to $48 per hour or more.

Anything longer than that and you should consider charging more per gig than just the basic fiver.

#2 Offer Similar Gigs

Expanding your portfolio is something all Fiverr sellers should do. You don’t need to branch out into different topics and niches necessarily; instead you can simply offer different variants of what you already do.

For example this writer offers various services that are basically the same:

Fiverr Portfolo

The benefits of expanding your portfolio are actually really great:

  • More portfolios = more SEO opportunities as people search for different terms
  • More portfolios = more chance of being found on the site
  • More portfolios = more options for your potential customers

Just keep the number sensible otherwise you could be inundated with orders that you can’t possibly keep up with.

#3 Offer Incentives

Another idea to not only get more customers but retain existing ones is to use incentives.

Offering more than your competitors is one way to do it, but that can quickly escalate into a fight to provide the most for the cheapest and that’s not good for anyone.

Instead offer realistic incentives, such as bonuses when multiple gigs are ordered at the same time, or advising people who have purchased a gig that if they buy more you will give something extra.

For example if you offer to write 400 for one gig, you could offer 500 words for repeat customers.

#4 Write a Decent Pitch

Your gig is your advertisement, and you should treat it with as much respect as you would any customer you get.

As such you need to make sure that it’s well written.

Title

The title is the first thing a prospective client looks at, and as such it should sum up what you offer in a concise way.

Instead of writing “I will provide an article”, write I will provide a 500 word article on any subject”.

If your gig has something unique, try to get it into the title.

Blurb

The blurb compromises the bulk of your gig explanation.

It should be written in a way that someone reading it should walk away knowing exactly what they get for their money and anything that they can’t get.

Adding in all the benefits of your gig in a bullet point is recommended.

Having things you won’t do listed clearly is also recommended, as that way the customer knows exactly what they can and can’t get from the gig. Honesty here is the best policy.

Be Professional

Keep your gig professional and make sure that you check spelling and grammar. Coming across as professional will separate you from half the Fiverr crowd in a heartbeat. Poorly worded, badly spelt listings will simply turn people away.

#4 Use Extra Gigs and Packages

Fiverr has allowed extra gigs for a long time and you should be using them to maximize profits.

If possible an extra gig should add value for your customer, but not add too much time to you completing the job.

Packages are newer, but allow you to set much higher prices for your services. This is great news for sellers as you can finally start pricing things at a respectable level, especially if you already have a following and a five star rating.

Fiverr packages

#5 Make Use of Images and Videos

Whatever your service is, you can provide examples. Whether these have been done just for showcasing purposes or are previous works, you need to show people what they are likely to get.

Not only does this help you find the right buyers, it reduces the possibility of cancelled and refunded orders.

Make use of both images and videos as these again allow you to cater to a wider audience.

#6 Market Your Gigs

By listing on Fiverr.com you are already increasing your chances of being found, just like with any marketplace.

That doesn’t mean you should leave it to chance though.

At the very least share your gigs on social media, promote new gigs, and advertise offers and so on.

The more you share the higher the chances of more people finding and purchasing your gigs.

I’ve even heard of some Fiverr sellers promoting their gigs via PPC (paid for advertising) though this is risky as your margins are already small. However if you can get decent rates, there’s opportunity to be had advertising like this.

#7 Keep Your Customers Happy

The final piece of the puzzle is perhaps the most important, even more important than offering quick gigs: keeping your customers happy.

Keeping customers happy is paramount in a service driven business like Fiverr. The reasons for it are:

  • Happy customers become repeat customers
  • Happy customers give you 5 stars
  • Happy customers provide detailed reviews
  • Happy customers don’t cancel or refund their gigs

As you can see, keeping your customers happy is very important. How then can you do that? There’s obviously no magic bullet and some customers will be unhappy no matter what, but there are ways to minimize unhappy customers:

  • Reply to pre-sales messages quickly
  • Keep your customers updated, especially if there will be delays
  • Make sure you ask questions before you start so you have a clear idea of what the customer wants
  • Avoid delivering late!

The Bottom Line

Fiverr.com might not earn you much per gig, but with the right tactics you can turn Fiverr.com into a little goldmine!

How to Become an Online Adjunct Instructor or Professor

Written By:
Published On:

If you have an undergraduate or advanced degree, you should consider putting your subject matter expertise to work as an online adjunct professor or instructor.

Why?

Online adjuncts teach students from remote locations, such as their homes, and are not required to show up at work. This not only saves them on travel costs, but it also permits them greater schedule flexibility. Online adjunct teachers avoid administrative duties such as department meetings and are not subject to publication requirements.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the job growth outlook for adjunct professors and instructors will be at least 19% until 2022. Many large schools make use of adjuncts to keep up with their growing student population- in many cases, these adjuncts are based remotely and teach via the Internet and/or VPN (virtual private network).

How do you get started as an online adjunct instructor?

You can search for and apply to jobs listed through several different online career sites. The best ones for online adjuncts include the following:

HigherEdJobs- This site easily lists several hundred online-only jobs for adjunct teachers. To find these jobs, click on the online/remote option on the site or use the advanced search feature to narrow your search by subject area and location.

HigherEdJobs

Adjunct Professor Online– This site uses an RSS feed to list new online faculty positions. In the right-hand column of the site is a searchable job board. Use keywords such as “online teaching” to narrow the search results.

Adjunct Professor Online

Inside Higher Ed– This resource lists several dozen post-secondary online teaching jobs through its careers area. Just use the advanced search feature to filter your search for online/remote jobs. You can also create job alerts so that you’re notified the moment a new job is posted.

Get Educated– This site has a dedicated online teaching jobs and instructor positions job board that is updated twice a week. You can also create a free ad that lists your qualifications and experience- these ads are routinely scanned by recruiters when new positions become available.

get educated

Major universities such as University of Phoenix, ITT Tech, Western Governors University, and American Public University frequently list open positions for online adjunct faculty on their own job boards. You can find these positions by filtering your search results using keywords like “work at home,” “remote,” and “telecommute.”

Finally, don’t forget to use job search engines such as Indeed, Monster, and SimplyHired when looking for online faculty positions. The paid job board, FlexJobs, also lists online teaching positions.

How much do online teaching positions pay?

The pay scale for adjunct professors that teach online isn’t too shabby. The typical minimum for any semester-long course is $1,250, and some university semesters are defined as only four weeks long. Graduate courses pay more than baccalaureate courses, and highly specialized courses like advertising or nursing pay more than general courses like English.

The following schools offer these pay rates:

  • University of Phoenix: $1,300-$1,600 for a 5-week semester
  • DeVry University: $2,900 for an 8-week semester
  • National American University: $1,400 for a 10-week semester
  • Upper Iowa University: $2,200 for an 8-week semester

The equivalent per hour earning rate is $55-$70, as shown in this example online teaching position listed on Indeed.

esl

Some online schools pay per “head,” so the more students you teach, the more money you’ll make. Other schools pay you depending on how many students actually finish your course.  Conversely, online colleges may pay you a flat fee for your class, and then a bonus if a majority of your students finish it without dropping out.

Obviously, it pays to apply to several institutions in order to strike the best value for your teaching efforts.

What equipment will you need to teach online?

Typically, the schools that you apply to will already have software in place that will help you create your online course material and teach. If you’re camera-shy, you needn’t worry about being “taped” because the majority of your lessons will take place through video screen-sharing of your computer whiteboard, not your face and/or body.

Unless you are generating a completely new course from scratch, most schools will supply you with a course syllabus, lessons, textbook and even student study guides and homework materials. You will not only be encouraged, but even required, to contact fellow faculty for advice and discussion about lesson plans and student exams.

So, your absolute requirement is to have a fast Internet connection at home and a relatively new computer. As for the software, it is typically accessed via a VPN connection to the online university’s network.

Make even more money with online instruction

Once you become adept at teaching an online course, you can create your own personalized version of its subject matter and offer it through several online schools simultaneously. For example, a Spanish 101 course will go through the same fundamentals of language learning in almost every classroom. If you are able to select your own textbook, you might even be able to offer the exact same lessons in the same sequence.

While online universities and colleges offer students the benefits of being accredited by the U.S. Department of Education, there are other online schools that students often go to for basic instruction without accreditation. These places include Coursera, Linda, NimbleMind, and Udemy- all of which offer online courses for sale. Price your course affordably and you could easily make a side income from these sites. This post explains the basics of teaching your own online course.

How to Make Extra Money By Selling Food from Your Garden

Written By:
Last Updated:

If you are thinking about planting, or have already planted, your vegetable garden this year, you can also make a side income by selling your extra produce to others. Several online websites cater to “entrepreneur gardeners” who are interested in selling or bartering off their excess produce.

The Farmer’s Garden

Once you complete your free registration with The Farmer’s Garden, you can use the site to post classified ads of your excess garden produce, homemade goods or gardening tools. Payments occur in person or through off-site third-party sites such as Paypal.

The Farmer’s Garden can also be used to post ads of your unused garden plot. This might be worthwhile if you can no longer garden but would still like to enjoy fresh produce from your own land.

the farmers garden

Zukeeni

On this site, gardeners can register themselves by inputting their names, addresses, and the produce they wish to sell. There are also fields to fill in regarding produce quantity, desired price, and selling time range. Much like Craigslist, you create individual listings for your goods and fill in specified areas with pricing, amount, and other information.

Zukeeni

Payments and transaction locations are set between you and your buyer. Zukeeni does offer Venmo as an online payment option, however. Venmo is kind of like Paypal and can be linked to your bank account.

Zukeeni also offers lots of useful advice and tools to gardeners about what to plant for their geographic region (and when), non-chemical fertilizers and pesticides, watering schedules, planting layouts, and more.

Keep in mind that Zukeeni requires that all sold food be raised organically; i.e., without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Prepared foods like jams and canned sauces need to comply with state and local food selling laws.

Craigslist

Craigslist has definitely gained a reputation for harboring unsavory characters that you would not want showing up to your house. Having said that, if you still wish to use this online marketplace, you can team up with a buddy and meet potential buyers of your garden produce either at your home or elsewhere in town. The benefit of this approach is that you’ll encounter a much larger customer base that will purchase your homegrown and homemade goods. Just be careful.

Nextdoor

This site isn’t a gardening site per se; rather, it’s a neighborhood site that helps neighbors communicate with one another about area events, crime and job opportunities. You can learn if your neighborhood subscribes to Nextdoor by searching here.

If your neighborhood does subscribe to Nextdoor, you can create postings that advertise your ultra local produce and offer it in exchange for money or other services (such as lawn mowing while you’re away on vacation).

What’s great about Nextdoor is that you’re more likely to get trustworthy clientele that pay you on the spot and even advertise your produce to others through word-of-mouth. You also won’t have to travel far to deliver your goods- in fact, your next door neighbor might just come to your doorstep to buy your tomatoes or cucumbers.

Co-op grocery stores

Many cities and towns feature co-op businesses, including grocery stores, that are operated by member shareholders. If you are a member of a co-op grocery, you can probably sell your excess garden produce to the store. For more information on getting started, you may wish to read the following guide.

Keep in mind that, if you do get accepted as a seller in your local co-op, some rules and regulations may apply to what you can sell and in what quantities. Many co-ops require that sold produce is raised organically. Other co-ops require large amounts of produce at set intervals, so you’ll need more than just an extra bag of carrots to get started.

How to make more even money with your garden produce.

Unless you have a sizable garden, you won’t make much cash from your unwanted/extra produce. However, you can make a steady, year-long income if you capitalize on your extra produce and turn it into jams, jellies and sauces first. For example, a bag of heirloom tomatoes may fetch you just $10; however, once those heirlooms are transformed into marinara sauce, you could get $10-$20/jar.

You will need to read up on your state’s cottage laws before you start selling prepared foods. However, most states allow a given amount of home-prepared foods to be sold to the public without the need for health department inspections and/or commercial kitchen use.

If you don’t want to bother with food preparation, you can also earn more money by offering something to the public that’s not seen in most grocery stores. For example, the common Roma tomato is a dime a dozen in August. However, heirloom Black Crim tomatoes are hardly, if ever, available at the grocery store. If you plant just these tomatoes and sell them even in August, you are bound to find many interested parties.

Making money from your garden

In summary, keeping a garden can actually be a profitable venture if you select produce that’s in demand and that’s typically not available at area grocery stores. There are several online sites that enable you to sell your produce and other goods. With some forethought and planning, your garden can actually make you a decent side income during the summer months.

How to Start Your Own Meals-to-Go Business

Written By:
Published On:

If you like to cook and are adept at finding grocery deals (and stocking up on them), starting a meals-to-go business may be the ideal way for you to repurpose excess food and make money.

Families are busy these days and rarely have time to cook healthy and nutritious meals.

As a result, meals-to-go businesses have popped up and offer all kinds of meal offerings complete with home delivery. Many meals-to-go businesses even offer dairy-free, gluten-free, Paleo and other dietary options.

You can cash in on this trend by opening your own meals-to-go business right in your neighborhood, town or city. By doing so, you will access a wide client base without having to spend too much time and effort on shipping and/or delivery.

Starting out locally will also keep you abreast of any customer or other issues, which can be dealt with quickly when your customer happens to be your neighbor.

So, how do you begin?

1. Visit your state/county health department.

Before you begin dreaming of recipes and dishes to prepare, find out where your state or county health department will permit you to prepare your meals at home. Many municipalities will not allow for food made in a home kitchen to be sold to consumers.

In such a case, you’ll need to find a suitable test kitchen, which may be located in a church, a restaurant (when it’s closed to the public), or even a community center. You can negotiate a given rate per hour for the use of the commercial kitchen and add this charge to your food cost.

Many commercial kitchens can be gotten fairly cheaply if they are used during non-operational or off-peak hours. What this means is that you will find yourself cooking and baking in the late hours of the night or on Mondays (when many dining establishments take their day off).

Some states and cities have so-called Cottage Food laws. If you live in such a municipality, you’re in luck. Cottage Food laws allow food vendors to prepare food in their own home kitchen for purchase by the public. For example, here is the website that lists California’s Cottage Food laws.

There are limitations on which foods are considered non-hazardous when prepared in a home kitchen, most often, “safe” foods are baked goods like cakes and breads and not meat or vegetables. This could limit your menu severely, and is one more reason why you should at least look up commercials kitchens and their costs.

2. Obtain your licenses.

You will need a business license to get your meals-to-go business started, as well as a sales tax license and probably a food handler’s license.

You should also incorporate your business as an LLC at the very least. Having the LLC designation protects you from personal financial ruin in the event that someone sues you for negligence or harm. The likelihood of a lawsuit is likely if you’re delivering food to customers who may have unknown allergies and/or food sensitivities, or may simply come down with a case of food poisoning and blame it on you.

3. Create a business plan.

When it comes to the food business, you need to generate a business plan. Why? Having a business plan gives you a defined idea of how much you’ll need to spend to get your business off the ground and operational. You’ll know how many clients are needed to make a profit. You’ll better understand your grocery purchases and what price points are feasible for stocking up.

Your planned investments, revenues, expenses and profits should all be outlined in your business plan. At the end of the day, your business plan should provide you with a monthly estimate of investment costs, recurring expenses, and expected sales.

A business plan also helps you secure current and/or future funding. If your business becomes a huge success, you’ll want a business plan for your investors, partners and employees.

4. Analyze your competitors and pick your niche.

To differentiate yourself from the crowd of other meals-to-go businesses, you should first size up your competition. Who is already selling ready-made meals to your area neighbors, coworkers and friends? What do these competing businesses offer and at what price? How do these companies handle complaints, returns and refunds?

Obtaining some counterintelligence will benefit your own business greatly when you start accumulating customers and dealing with various pricing, product and other issues. You’ll be better equipped to understand which refund requests are reasonable and which aren’t, for example.

Having some counterintelligence will also enable you to pick your niche, whether that be gluten-free, Paleo, low sodium, or some other meal niche. By picking a niche, you’ll be able to attract a smaller but more motivated customer base. Such customers have the potential to become very loyal to your business, which means bigger (and recurring)sales in the long run.

5. Start marketing your business.

Admittedly, this step will take a good amount of time to master and benefit from. However, there are many ways in which you can market your meals-to-go business- and many of these methods are absolutely free. Some free or almost free methods include the following:

  • Creating a website.
  • Generating social media pages and announcements.
  • Posting flyers and leaving business cards.
  • Presenting cooking demonstrations at community/senior centers.

More expensive methods for promoting your business include these:

  • Catering small community events/meetings.
  • Obtaining a Google AdWords account and using it to post ads.
  • Listing your business in the local newspaper.
  • Generating sponsored ads on the radio or TV.

6. Track costs versus profits.

Don’t get so wrapped up in business investments and inventory purchases that you overlook how much you’re spending. It’s imperative that you carefully measure your debts and capital investments so you know how much to charge your customers.

While high-end meals-to-go can easily cost $30 for two persons, this money can end up easily spent on groceries, kitchen tabs, marketing collateral, and the like. Thus, you must keep a tight lid on any and all expenditures.

The Bottom Line

It’s exciting to start a meals-to-go home business; many individuals who start such a business end up retiring from their day jobs to pursue it full-time. Whether or not you choose to retire is up to you. However, if you plan your investments and expenditures just right, you will be able to choose many options for your future. Good luck!

How to Start an Online Interior Design Business at Home

Written By:
Published On:

Do you have an eye for interior design and enjoy redecorating and/or rearranging rooms? Are you good with Photoshop or already use it to create new room designs and finishes? Then you may have what it takes to be an e-interior designer and operate your own interior design business from home.

Online interior design is a growing trend because it offers clients an economical approach to redecorating and refurbishing rooms. Instead of committing to someone for a full range of services that can run into tens of thousands of dollars, the client works with an online interior designer who provides a master plan that can be implemented slowly and as finances allow.

E-interior design is also more convenient because the client works with digital files and room suggestions and doesn’t travel to showrooms or supply stores. Many e-interior designers offer online suggestion boards for furniture pieces and color palettes, as well as purchasing lists from recommended suppliers. This enables the client to be actively involved in the selection process right from home- and so be more aware of how the money is being spent.

How to get started as an online interior designer.

Know the difference between interior designer vs. interior decorator.

If you already have a degree in interior design and are certified in the field, you can call yourself an interior designer and set up your business as such. If you do not have an actual degree, you will need to check your state or province licensing regulations. Currently, 27 states (including Puerto Rico and Washington, DC) and 7 provinces require a combination of education, experience and/or NCIDQ exam completion to use the title ‘interior designer.’

However, you can get around this regulation if you call yourself an interior decorator or an interior home staging expert. Interior decorators, as opposed to designers, can only decorate and beautify an interior space. They cannot change the room structure (e.g., by adding/removing a wall) or layout (e.g., drawing a floor plan). While interior designers often work with contractors and architects, interior decorators usually only work with clients and furnishings suppliers.

Incorporate your business and get licensed.

Before you start advertising your services and working with clients, find out whether your city or county requires a business license. If you plan on working with retailers and buying goods at wholesale for resale to clients, you’ll probably need a seller’s permit and a sales tax license.

Interior design and interior decoration are two types of businesses where you are best served by incorporating as an LLC at the very least. Doing so protects you from personal asset liability should you end up in court.

Finally, if you plan to employ people, you’ll need a federal employer identification number (EIN) too.

Obtain a PhotoShop license and set up your website with examples.

Now the fun begins! Purchase a yearly license to use Photoshop® 7 or later for creating design and decorational elements within residential, business, recreational and other spaces. You can learn to use this program by taking online courses through Lynda.com or by reading books like Photoshop for Interior Designers.

The PhotoShop program will take some time to learn and effectively use; however, because this will be your main tool for planning, drawing and showcasing client spaces, it’s a good idea to take the time to master it.

Once you feel somewhat proficient, use PhotoShop to generate some example spaces that you could see designing and/or redecorating. Consider the spaces you already know well or live in- how would you switch them up to be more modern, ergonomic, functional, or just different? All these examples can be uploaded to your website and used to catch the attention of potential clients.

Start small and advertise.

Unless you know someone who really likes your interior design or decorating work, it’s unlikely that you’ll land a contract right away. However, you can start advertising right away with your website, social media accounts, and even flyers posted around town. This way, you can reach just about anyone, from a college freshman moving into a dorm to a small business operating out of a leased building or office.

What can you advertise? How about a package deal complete with a table or board filled with possible furnishings, materials and decor, plus a product source list with items and prices? Add to that a color palette and fabric guide, top it off with a floor plan showing where the furniture and lighting would go, and you have a good start for anyone looking for design and/or decoration ideas.

Be sure to join organizations such as the International Interior Design Association and the American Society of Interior Designers. Having a network of members to converse with will help you find clients and scale up your online business much faster than going it alone.

Team up with area suppliers.

Being an online interior designer or interior decorator enables you to make money not only from your clients but from the suppliers that you will be promoting in your product source lists. Along these lines, you should contact those suppliers and negotiate your commission rates with the owners beforehand. After all, if you’re going to be acting as their salesperson, you should make a salesperson’s commission.

Because this is all happening online and your clients are probably going to order their furnishings online, you may wish to obtain referral codes in addition to standard commission rates for in-store purchases. You can then insert the codes into any product listings you provide.

Alternately, you might consider ordering the furnishings for your clients as part of your services; this not only lessens their workload, but it helps ensure that your suppliers know exactly who is promoting their products.

The Bottom Line

Interior design and interior decoration have gotten a bad rap in some circles due to their high costs and astronomical markups. Perhaps this is part of the reason why e-interior design and decoration have taken off. Because the services are more transparent, and the furnishings listings can be easily checked with what’s offered at area retailers, clients are less likely to experience “sticker shock” and can implement design and decoration changes as their budgets permit.

For the e-interior designer or decorator, this means that there are expanding opportunities to work with clients, including those clients that live in rural locations and/or don’t have large budgets.

By going online, you can reach out to various clients and work within their budget “comfort zones” to design/decorate anything from a studio apartment to a 50-room business building. These clients can slowly but surely become the backbone of your business through referrals to their friends and associates and through increased commission revenue from your vendors.

Animal Magic: 15 Ways to Make Money with Animals

Written By:
Published On:

America’s love of pets is widely known, but maybe you weren’t aware of how awesome this is for marketers.

According to American Pet Products, the estimated amount of money pet and animal owners spent in the US in 2015 was $60.59 billion!

That’s a whole lot of cash!

The rough breakdown of this figure is:

  • Food – $23 billion
  • Supplies – $14 billion
  • Vet care – $15 billion
  • Animal purchases – $2 billion
  • Pet services – $5 billion

Obviously some of those broad niches are hard to get into, veterinary care for instance will take some study, but that still leaves a wide area that anyone can navigate to make money from.

Here are my top 15 ways to make money from pets and animals.

1. Pet Sitting

One of the simplest ways to make money is to look after other people’s pets.

If you have a healthy respect and love for animals of all kinds, and space to host them, then pet sitting is an ideal way to get involved in the animal industry while making money.

This is often an ad hoc way to make cash, but if done right, could turn into a fully-fledged business.

2. Animal Training

Are you awesome at teaching animals to do things? Do you have skills to turn problems pets into well behaved ones?

As there is no state or federal qualifications required to become a dog or animal trainer, pretty much anyone with a love of animals and the will to put in the time and effort for self-training can jump on this idea.

3. Dog Walking

People don’t have much time, and often their pets suffer because of this. Dog walking is an easy way to pocket some extra cash while hanging out with some cool pups and getting them the exercise they need.

There’s no qualifications needed barring a love of dogs and poop! Being in good health and loving the outdoors are also factors that should be considered.

4. Animal Masseuse

The idea of helping pets overcome chronic pain via massages is a pleasant one. The idea of earning $50 to $1,000 an hour might be an even nicer one!

This way to make money with animals is a little harder than the rest because there are, sometimes complicated, state laws about who can practice formal massage therapy on animals and who can’t.

The American Veterinary Medical Association has some advice for you regarding any form of complementary or alternative veterinary medicine, but you should also check your local state veterinary medical board for further advice.

5. Animal Grooming

Even if the idea of giving a dog a hairstyle turns you off, the animal grooming niche is wide enough to cover a variety of animal lifestyle and health choices.

For example, most animals with claws need regular trimmings, and some breeds of dog require haircuts just to be able to see.

You can offer things like:

  • Bathing and hair brushing
  • Haircuts
  • Nail and paw care
  • Face and ear care

You can even offer complementary products that can earn you a nice markup!

The main downside for this style of work is you do really need the space and tools to get started. Sure you could probably start in your garage, but you would need to look at commercial properties, especially if you want to bag the higher end of the market.

6. Animal Antics

The internet loves videos of animals, and if your pet has the tendency to act the fool video it!

Sticking up funny videos on places like YouTube can turn you (well your pet) into a viral star!

Earnings from YouTube adverts can start to rack up quite quickly if you can garner millions of views, and there is also the potential for your pet to be picked up for corporate sponsorship and other work.

Just ask Grumpy Cat…

grumpy cat

… who has made his owner millions (allegedly $99 million…) via pet food deals, two books and even a movie! All this after hitting the limelight on YouTube (19 million views and counting).

7. Pets Shows & Competitions

Perhaps considered a more conventional way to make money with your pets, pet shows and competitions are a fun way to show of your beautiful animal and perhaps make some cash too.

Be aware that you’re not guaranteed to win, or even win money with this method, so as long as participation is fun for you it’s worth a go!

For example the winner of The National Dog Show only walks away with $1,000 bucks.

Not to be sniffed (no pun intended) at but it’s certainly not going to buy you a condo!

There may of course be follow up sponsorship deals after such an eminent win which could increase earnings.

8. Pet Models & Film Stars

If your pet is good natured and can handle a crowd, why not consider pet modelling or film work?

Finding an agent is likely the best way to get started, such as Animal Actors whose website showcases their animal stars.

Your pet obviously needs to be in good health, trained to obey at least basic commands, but don’t worry if you’re pet isn’t the pick of the litter, as pets with unique features can get just as much work as perfect looking examples of the breed.

9. Pet Party Planner

Before researching this article, I never knew pet part planners exist, let alone that the term is searched for about 50,000 times a month!

Pet parties are booming, and like with any other celebration, they take work. Here enters you as the party planner!

Organize an appropriate venue, with facilities. Provide fun and interesting games for the animals. Order (or produce) high quality animal food and treats for the guests to chow down on and make sure you have a videographer grabbing all the antics. Job done, earnings made!

There are a remarkable amount of themes you can offer and there are even opportunities for pet weddings (and bachelor parties!).

The preparation for this can be done at your or the customers home, with you hiring a separate venue. Just make sure to pick up insurance, because who knows what will happen with a room full of dogs, cats or both!

10. Pet Taxi

Become the next Uber but for dogs! Seriously though, often people struggle to get their animals to veterinary or grooming appointments because they are at work, or perhaps don’t even have a car.

You can, for a fee, provide collection of the animal, delivery to the proper place and delivery back.

Easy money but you will need a vehicle suitable for the job with comfortable cages, and insurance.

11. Animal Photography

If you have a knack for taking awesome photos at just the right moment, then animal photography could be up your alley.

Most photos would end up on a stock photo site, but there are opportunities to sell to big media as well.

Another option would be to sell the photos back to the owners of the animals.

The legal area of taking a photo of a pet and using it for commercial use is murky. In theory, the pets have no rights; however as per the American Society of Media Photographers owners “do have rights and could claim that your photo of their property has caused harm”.

As such, try to get a release if you intend to use the photo for public consumption.

12. High Quality Pet Snacks

It used to be that pets got the scraps at the table and that was that. Nowadays though, more and more people want their animals to have the highest quality food possible, even human level quality food.

That’s where you come in. You can produce vegetarian/vegan/organic/nutrient balanced food appropriate to the animal and sell it.

You could sell direct in markets or via local pet stores. Or you could set up online and bake to order!

13. Pet Blog

As a marketer, there’s no way I could leave out the good old blog. Making money from a blog is fairly easy once you get the traffic: use adverts, affiliate marketing, and sell your own products/services or a combination of them all.

Just blogging about your pet and their antics is usually not going to cut it, there are simply too many cat lovers out there!

However, you can put a spin on it to make your content enjoyable or informative.

Take Simon’s cat. The creator turned his cat’s antics into a wonderfully funny comic strip. Or you could discuss how you overcame issues with your pet, such as stopping your dog from barking all the time, or how you kept the cat from spraying everywhere.

This sort of informative content draws other perhaps less experienced pet owners and could net you some sales on the side.

14. Sell Pet Supplies

Most people might think that pet stores have the monopoly of selling pet supplies, but it’s not true.

You can easily set up an e-commerce site through WordPress and be going in ´no time.

Product wise you could:

  • Order wholesale and sell those
  • Use drop shipping via the manufacturer
  • Create your own products and sell those

You’re not limited to selling via your own site either; you could use Etsy for hand crafted good or eBay to shift products you bought in bulk.

The Bottom Line

Owning a pet can be a lucrative way to make money, or to at least offset the cost of owning a pet! Even if you don’t have an animal yourself, but simply love them, there are many ways to turn that passion into a profitable job.

How to Make Money by Hacking Websites

Written By:
Published On:

…he is the best guard of a camp who is best able to steal a march upon the enemy…he who is a good keeper of anything is also a good thief.

~Socrates, The Republic

Are you a whiz at cracking into systems and maybe even exploiting social media platforms like Facebook? You don’t have to admit to it here…but if you are a hacker, you can actually make good money while plying your craft.

And just who would be seeking out your services? Well, none other than social media platforms including Facebook, Pinterest and others. Major companies like Dropbox, Western Union and Tesla would also be highly interested in working with you.

Hacking for fun and profit

With crafty hackers constantly inspecting and injecting malicious code in an effort to hack passwords or obtain credit card information, companies have become increasingly alarmed about security breaches. To this end, they have invested in encryption, password verifications, etc. However, even these measures don’t always prevent a security breach.

One need only to think about the recent Ashley Madison reveal of user identities or the Target credit card breach to understand that, no matter how “secure” a site appears to be, there are always ways to get around that security.

This is why many companies have come to the conclusion that the best way to prevent hacking is to make friends with the hackers themselves. To this end, many companies are teaming up with hackers and asking them to deliberately exploit their passwords, platforms and systems. Successful hackers that manage to crack into Facebook, Pinterest, etc. are rewarded with money.

So-called white-hat hackers make anywhere from a few bucks to as much as $33,500 (according to Facebook’s payout to Reginaldo Silva) depending on the type of bug they find and report.

Here are some other companies that pay big bucks for bugs:

BitGo: $100-$1,000

Dropbox: $216-$4,913

Facebook: $500+

FastMail: $100-$5,000

Pinterest: $50-$1,500

Magento: $100-$10,000

Microsoft: $500-$100,000

Paypal: $100-$10,000

Spotify: $250+

Stripe: $500+

Tumblr: $200-$1,000

Western Union: $100-$5,000

Most companies have a security page on their website that describes their incentive program for finding and reporting security risks including the following:

· Cross-site scripting (XSS)
· Cross-site request forgery (CSRF)
· Database injection
· Open redirection
· Mixed-content scripts
· Privacy/authentication
· Server-side code execution bugs
· Open vulnerability

Finding the big payers is hard work, and some companies won’t pay you at all, or will only acknowledge your efforts with a thank-you note and a T-shirt.

So, how do you quickly sift through companies and find those companies that pay the big bucks?

The advent of ‘bug finder’ websites

Recently, several “matchmaker” websites have launched with the goal of pairing white-hat hackers with companies looking to improve their cybersecurity. These websites accumulate hackers, coders and programmers and offer their crowdsourcing services to companies. In exchange, the companies pay the matchmaker website a user fee and a bounty to the hacker who finds and reports a bug in the software or online platform.

Here are four websites where would-be hackers can sign up and earn bug bounties:

Bugcrowd

This website pairs a community of over 22,000 white-hat hackers with major companies including Microsoft, Tumblr, YouTube, etc. Hackers can sign up on Bugcrowd’s website and then apply to work on listed projects. Hackers can also submit independent bug reports to the corporations via Bugcrowd’s secure platform.

HackerOne

This website pairs companies with a community of hacker researchers who send vulnerability reports whenever a bug or security issue is detected. The companies are notified privately, so that any security issues can be addressed and corrected before malicious hackers and other online criminals become aware of them.

Hackers are rewarded for their efforts with monetary bounties. Example companies that work with HackerOne include Twitter, LinkedIn, Adobe and Snapchat.

Cobalt

Clients like Optimizely, LendInvest, Auctionata, Nexmo and Weebly use Cobalt to set up and operate bug bounty programs that expose cybersecurity risks. Security researchers (i.e., hackers) can sign up to this site and work with its roster of clients to find and report bugs.

While this is a newer website and doesn’t have as many clients as Bugcrowd or HackerOne, it does offer decent sized bounties from its current client list, with many bounties ranging from $100-$1,000.

Synack

This recently launched company sets slightly higher IT standards for its “Red Team” members, and you’ll need to submit a resume and cover letter to apply for a position. However, if you have some IT training or experience, you should get some response. This is because Synack works with a team of cybersecurity experts who are paid bounties for discovering and reporting bugs.

The Bottom Line

Bug finder websites are a win-win for both the client companies involved as well as their hackers. The companies draw from a large pool of brainpower rather than one or two in-house IT experts. They also don’t pay by the hour but by the product, which in this case is the bug. The hackers, meanwhile, are paid a large sum of money for finding those security bugs and alerting the respective companies.

Make Money By Teaching Your Passion

Written By:
Published On:

The internet has many uses, but perhaps the most important thing you can do with the internet is watch cat videos, watch videos of people getting hurt, learn something!

That’s right; the internet is a huge resource for anyone wanting to learn practically anything.

How then, can you turn this to your advantage and make money off of the internet? In a word, teach!

You might be thinking, “but I don’t know anything” or “I can’t teach” or even “I don’t have the qualifications”.

Well, you’re wrong on all counts.

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
― William Arthur Ward

Knowing Things

Everyone knows something or is good at something even if you don’t realise it.

You don’t need to teach things like physics or history (unless you’re good at them of course!) as there are many other skills and subjects that not everyone knows.

Here are some examples of things you can teach that fall way outside your school curriculum.

Cleaning

Everyone has a friend who is messy and cluttered, and sometimes it’s not down to laziness. In our modern age some life skills are simply not passed down from parent.

Beer Brewing

With craft beer having a resurgence, if you know how to make your own beer, people would love to learn from you.

Cooking & Baking

If an 8 year old can make $127,00 a month just from YouTube, imagine what you could do with YouTube and a course!

Life Skills

As with cleaning, life skills need to be imparted and often they aren’t. You can teach people a wide variety of tricks and tips that make life easier and better.

Knitting & Crochet

From scarves to jumpers, knitting is not as easy to learn so teaching people is the way to go.

Applying Makeup

There is a huge market for tips, tricks and techniques for applying makeup, from every day wear and party makeup to film standard makeup.

Being Thrifty

It’s amazing how much money people waste! If you are a penny pincher and know a great deal from a bad one, you can teach people how to save money.

Fishing

Yup, fishing. If you know your fly from your worm (I don’t obviously) then people will be willing to learn from you.

Making cloths and costumes

If you have made your own clothes or costumes before, then you have a wide market to target. You could focus on actual everyday wear, or party clothes or costumes for LARP or Cosplay.

Maintaining cars/equipment

If like me you are not engineering minded and want to fix something like a broken tail light without incurring the cost of a mechanic, the only way to do it is to learn from the internet. You could teach this!

The above list is far, far from complete, but it should give you an idea that there are a million and one topics you can teach about.

Your own life skills and experience will obviously push you in a certain direction with these, but as you can see, people want to know things that they can’t find in any academic book, and you can easily profit from teaching people things like this.

No such thing as can’t

Being a teacher on the internet isn’t like being a classroom teacher, and anyone can do it. All you need is a solid understanding of what you are going to teach and the willingness to get on camera to do it (depending on the niche you might get away with just your voice).

Qualifications are (mostly) meaningless

Unless you’re planning on teaching something like law or medicine, qualifications are really not needed.

I mean, who has a qualification in knitting? You might have 15 years’ experience with fixing cars but no qualifications: that’s fine!

As long as your teachings show that you have the experience and knowledge no one is going to care whether or not you have a slip of paper.

Teaching Methods

As with any form of making money online there are a few ways to actually teach, such as in written form, audio and video.

Honestly though if you’re going to focus on teaching as a method of making money then you will need to mainly use video.

By all means back this up with written articles where necessary, but for most topics and most students a visual way of learning is better: they see and then do.

The most straightforward way of earning from learning is to use a service like YouTube and offer out interesting and useful short videos, and link back to your website where people can gain access to your full course on whatever it is you are teaching.

For example, if you are a costumer you could post videos on creating small pieces or how to correctly hide a seam or a review/study on a material type. In your actual course you could walk people through creating a full costume from scratch and add in even more tips and tricks.

WordPress Makes it Easy

Actually selling courses might sound like a difficult procedure, but if you’re a WordPress user then there are numerous plugins you could be using to make it simple to sell your teachings:

Course Specific plugins

Obviously a plugin that is purely for selling courses is usually the best option. There are several options, but Sensei by Woothemes is very popular. Other than that there is the excellent WPCourseware, and the free CoursePress.

E-commerce plugins

This type of plugin isn’t the best for selling courses but you can do it. I recommend either Woocommerce or Easy Digital Downloads. Both offer free core plugins.

Membership plugins

Membership plugins are probably better for selling courses than e-commerce plugins, but their setup up can be more complicated especially if you want to sell more than one course separately. S2Member and Members by Justin Tadlock are both solid membership plugins for WordPress.

Training Marketplaces

Depending on your niche, you don’t even need your own website or marketing (though both are still recommended). Instead you could leverage the power of existing sites that sell course.

There are dozens of places you can sell your training:

This is not an exhaustive list so be sure to do your research.

As with anything, make sure you read through the site’s terms and payment options.

Make sure that your niche is a good fit for their audience, you can do this by seeing if anything in your niche or similar is already listed or not.

The Bottom Line

We all have skills and knowledge that we can leverage to make a buck online, and selling your skills in a training course is a very profitable way to do it.

Remember that in order to sell a course you need to give away enough value to prove that you and your course are worthy!

Why Does Every Writer Need a Tribe?

Written By:
Published On:

Are you an aspiring author who has always wanted to publish a novel or non-fiction book but are scared about receiving negative reviews? Maybe you’ve already written and published a book…only to be disappointed by its lackluster sales and lack of interest on sites like Amazon.

You’ve perchance wondered why a certain someone earned $95 million for fan-based fiction riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes, not to mention a ludicrous storyline concerning 50 shades of a certain color. You may have even asked yourself how this person has so many followers when her writing isn’t even that good?

Whether it’s fear of criticism, lack of popular interest, or just a lack of understanding about how to create the right platform for your book, something  has been amiss in your campaign to become a published author. As a result, that great American novel gets put on the backburner for tomorrow, or next week, or next year. Never today or right now.

Meet Jeff Goins of Tribe Writers 2.0

Jeff Goins is a self-published and traditionally published author who believes that every writer needs a tribe if that writer is to be successful and actually sell his books. In fact, Jeff believes so strongly that every writer needs a tribe that he developed a multi-lesson course on building one; this course is called Tribe Writers.

The Tribe Writers course was so successful that it is now undergoing a re-vamp and is about to be released in 2.0 format.

What is this ‘tribe’ stuff all about?

So, what is a tribe, at least according to how Jeff views it?

“A tribe is a small group of people that share a common interest,” he says. However, “a tribe is not everybody.”

In his book Tribes, Seth Godin defined a tribe as a small group that has a leader, a message and a way for members to connect to one another.

As a writer, you need to establish yourself as the leader of your own tribe, hone your message to that tribe, and empower your members so that they have ‘social currency.’ In case you’re wondering, social currency is a kind of psychological parameter that’s measured in how smart or popular or interesting your members look to those people they are influencing.

However, the idea of having a tribe isn’t just so you have some online fans. Publishers work with authors based not so much on their content but on the following that they have. Literary agents also look at how much marketing they will need to do after taking you on as a client. If you’re not well-known in the social media and blogging world, and you have no followers, who exactly is your book audience going to be?

The measure of a tribe isn’t what you think.

Your tribe isn’t defined by the number of Facebook friends or Twitter followers you have. It isn’t even defined by the number of comments on your blog posts.

Your tribe members are actually defined by your email list.

Why?

Because email is personal, and thus it’s still the best way (outside of postal mail) to reach people directly.

As marketers say over and over again “The money is in the list.” Likewise, the people who are most likely to support you, to recommend you, and to inevitably buy your book, are your email subscribers.

Jeff notes that one of the first questions he was asked when discussing marketing strategies for his upcoming book was, how big was his email list?

In other words, how many tribe members actually subscribe to regular messages from the tribe leader? How many tribe members are available to recommend the tribe leader’s published book, or even the leader herself? Without referrals and recommendations from loyal tribe members, it’s unlikely that people unfamiliar with a book are just going to buy it.

How do you find and grow your tribe?

Jeff talks about how writers need platforms in order to legitimize and to amplify their message. In today’s age, that platform is a blog.

Jeff Goins describes how he reluctantly quit his 4-year-old blog, a blog that had maybe 100 subscribers. He then started a completely new blog.

Within 18 months, Jeff’s new blog had amassed over 100,000 subscribers and several book publishing offers.

How did he do it?

In a nutshell, this process involved the following:

  • Targeting a small, defined community of readers with a similar mindset.
  • Not just operating a blog, but operating a blog that provided value for its readers.
  • Pursuing passion, not profit or popularity.
  • Creating and offering an incentive for readers to sign up to the blog’s email newsletter.
  • Offering readers a sense of involvement and ownership in the blog and its content.
  • Establishing personal expertise by selectively interviewing other experts.

Jeff describes the process he followed in Tribe Writers 2.0, which is launching this week; he also outlines the principles in his free e-book called Every Writer Needs a Tribe.

Take your next step today.

If you have always wanted to publish your novel, short story or non-fiction book, what’s holding you back? Time waits for no one. If you have doubts about being “good enough” or finding an audience that shares your passion, then Jeff’s e-book Every Writer Needs a Tribe is for you.

Download it today.
Read it.
Find your tribe.
Write your passion.
Publish your work.

How to Earn Extra Cash as a Senior Move Manager

Written By:
Published On:

If you’re good at household organization and like to socialize, becoming a Senior Move Manager (SMM) might be for you.

What is an SMM?

An SMM helps older individuals relocate and (usually) downsize their belongings. Oftentimes, this involves helping a senior citizen move into an assisted care facility or other senior residence. The issue faced with such an undertaking is that there are a number of logistics involved, including the following:

  • Consolidating/reducing current belongings
  • Packing and transporting current belongings
  • Cleaning, repairing and staging the current residence
  • Finding a realtor and selling current residence
  • Finding a suitable new residence
  • Organizing movers and moving remaining belongings
  • Unpacking belongings and organizing belongings in new residence

Oftentimes, the family of the senior citizen undertakes such tasks; however, that is an ideal situation where family members live nearby and don’t have extremely tight schedules. When such a situation is lacking, the senior citizen may delay moving, or not move at all. This is not always ideal, especially if that senior has physical and/or memory issues that progress with time.

To this end, there are SMMs who step in and take care of house staging and selling, estate sales, moving, etc. They are paid by the hour and can specialize in a very discrete area of the move, such as consolidating belongings, or they can get involved in all aspects of senior moving.

Your actual SMM tasks may not be what you imagined…

You might be assuming that, as an SMM, you’ll be involved in a lot of back-breaking labor like moving couches or cleaning behind refrigerators. You may also be assuming that, as an SMM, you’ll be spending long weekends away from your home organizing knick knacks and pricing items for an estate sale.

In actuality, the role of the SMM is more of a manager of movers, cleaning crews, realtors, etc. Your primary goal as an SMM is oftentimes to simply convince the senior citizen that it’s in her best interest to move. Alternately, the client you are working with may be ready to go, but simply can’t decide how he will part with his extensive collection of art prints or trains or antique teapots.

To this end, your best work will often be performed by simply listening to your client and offering helpful suggestions. Remember that, as an SMM, you are not the POA or the family of the client. Thus, the hard task of consolidating precious heirlooms or keepsakes will not be for you to complete. However, in coordination with the family or the client, you can offer suggestions such as donating some items to charity, placing them into storage, or taking photos of the heirloom collections and displaying those photos instead of the actual items.

For many SMMs, the work is more a calling than just another job. You will be called upon to be not only a manager but a listener and even a counselor. You might form close friendships with some of your clients or their families. As with caregiving, the clients you work with will depend on you for guidance and assurance as they transition from homes they may have been in for over half a century. Thus, it pays to have a caring heart and a sympathetic ear.

How much money do SMMs make?

In some states, SMMs are able to charge from $40-$125 per hour. If you choose to work with an established franchise, the basic starting rate is $9/hour but quickly increases with training and experience. Overall, you’re better off starting your own franchise and hiring people as you advance in experience and number of clients.

Where can you learn more about being an SMM?

Just like with most work-at-home professions, SMMs can undergo training from a variety of organizations on the nuances of getting started, networking, marketing their services and pricing services accordingly. There are at least four well-known online resources:

NASMM– The National Association of Senior Move Managers is a trade association that offers not only education and training on becoming a SMM, but even a yearly conference. The NASMM also operates an accreditation program that reviews other SMM companies and accredits them accordingly.

Caring Transitions– This outfit operates in 35 states and has 116 franchise locations in the USA and Canada. With CT, you can launch your SMM business in just six weeks and start marketing to area nursing homes, hospitals and senior centers. Best of all, the training and work can be conducted from home.

Smooth Transitions– The ST organization operates offices in 26 states as well as Canada and New Zealand and is both a training center and license provider for people who are starting their own SMM businesses. With Smooth Transitions, you can get a head start with your SMM business, download workbooks, learn about setting your rates, and lots more. In exchange for this know-how, you’ll pay a start-up and licensee fee to ST. You can also purchase your NASMM membership at a discounted price on their website.

eSMMART– This organization conducts training of new SMMs, as well as certification of SMMs who have been in the business and conducted at least 40 invoiced moves. eSMMART offers lots of useful courses on topics like dementia, hoarding, aging in place, and the senior living industry in both the USA and Canada.

How much does it cost to get trained?

The training sites that specifically state how much training and licensing will cost estimate around $5,000 total. While this is a pricey sum, keep in mind that the senior population is booming, and there is a very real need for people to help seniors.

Summary: Should you consider being an SMM?

If you like working with seniors and consider yourself to be a good negotiator, you will likely thrive in this arena and make a decent living too. In time, you might even outsource your tasks to employees and function in a more business lead generator role. While being an SMM does take some training as well as patience, the rewards (monetary and otherwise) can be worth it.

How to Create and Make Money From Your Own Online Course

Written By:
Last Updated:

I’ll bet you $50 that you probably have enough material in your head to generate at least one online course. That course could be about a traditional topic like physics or chemistry or it could be something less academic, like how to refinish a hardwood floor or make quality moonshine. The bottom line is that any skill that took you time to learn can be marketable; i.e., your knowledge and experience can make you money. The trick is, how do you make your knowledge and experience marketable?

Using an online academy or online university

Nowadays, you can publish online courses via online academies (or online universities) that offer you an easy platform through which you can showcase your talents. Here are just a few such online academies:

Udemy

This online academy has recently gotten some good press from NBC Today and Forbes, among other high caliber places. At Udemy, anyone can create, publish and promote an online course, regardless of credentials. About 75% of the offered courses are free; the remaining 25% run anywhere from $9 for an Affiliate Marketing for Noobs course to $500 for Jack Welch’s Welch Way Management training course. Udemy keeps 30% of your revenue; if you directly refer a customer to your course (such as through a coupon), Udemy’s cut drops to 15%.

Odijoo

This site, much like Udemy, runs on an open platform and allows anyone to create and publish a free or paid online course. Even better, Odijoo takes only a 10% cut of your revenue. Odijoo also allows you to create your own “campus” from which your courses are displayed and taught, allowing you to create a veritable online education business. Another Odijoo perk is that you can syndicate your content, allowing other instructors to purchase that content and use it in their classes.

Litmos

Litmos prides itself on being a learning management system (LMS) geared towards business professionals. In tune with that philosophy, Litmos makes it extremely easy to create and add to your own online course and have it distributed on mobile devices. With Litmos, you get a lot of entrepreneurial perks like your own domain name, branding and landing page. There is no cut taken from your revenue; however, you do pay a minimum monthly charge to the site; the Starter membership runs $49/month. As you grab additional perks and students, your monthly fee can become quite high…so this platform may not be for everyone.

Using your own website

If you have a large enough following online, you can use your website or email newsletter to advertise your online course and get people to sign up privately. This allows you to keep all the profits and make additional money through back-end product sales. Additionally, you can offer your students a premium-priced version of your course by including something extra like one-on-one phone/email support. Alternately, you can send your students extra materials like ebooks or give them access to an online forum.

You don’t need a fancy-shmancy platform or software to generate an effective and informative online course. Your lessons can be sent out as weekly emails to your students followed by an assignment that is emailed back to you. Additional course information could be posted on internal website pages that only your students have access to. I know this because I’ve seen it done on several online courses including Linda Formichelli’s Write for Magazines e-course.

There are a number of free online tools available if you need to record your voice or provide a presentation. If you really want to go all out and give a webinar, AnyMeeting offers free web conferencing (up to 200 attendees).

But I’m not an expert on anything!

You might be wondering how you can teach anything when you’ve never received a qualifying degree or wrote a book about the topic. Well, I have a solution for you:

Tim Ferriss of The 4-Hour Workweek fame wrote the following “back-door” formula on becoming an expert in almost anything in 4 weeks*:

1. Join 2-3 trade organizations [in the field that you intend to teach].

2. Read 3 top-selling books on your topic and summarize each one.

3. Give one free 1-3 hour seminar at your closest university and company branches.

4. Offer to write 1-2 articles for trade magazines related to your topic, using steps 1 and 3 as your credibility points.

5. Join ProfNet, a site that journalists use to find subject matter experts and quote them. Then, get quoted.

Tim also makes the following statement: “”Expert” is nebulous media-speak and so overused as to be indefinable. In modern PR terms, proof of expertise in most fields is shown with group affiliations, client lists, writing credentials and media mentions, not IQ points or Ph.D.s.”

How I became a crowdfunding expert

I somehow became an expert on equity crowdfunding even though I’ve never crowdfunded a thing in my life. It all started when I wrote an article on equity crowdfunding for I’ve Tried That and then another one for a small business site. A few months later, the local SCORE Madison chapter contacted me to find out if I’d give a talk about the subject.

I happily agreed and started compiling my Powerpoint slides, learning a lot about exciting SEC regulations in the process. Fortuitously, my Evansville Area Inventors & Entrepreneurs Club hosted a venture capitalist who gave a talk about equity crowdfunding just days before my own talk. As a result, I got the scoop from a “real” expert on what pertinent issues I should discuss. And voilà! An equity crowdfunding expert was born. I now pitch crowdfunding to my clients.

What if I can’t answer a question?

Another major concern for budding online course instructors is that their students will ask questions that they cannot answer on the spot. There are several ways around this uncomfortable possibility, including telling the student that you will get back to him/her with an answer at a later time, asking the class to answer the question, or simply admitting that you just don’t know- but will return with an answer.

The best preventative measure by far is to initially not do live sessions with your students until you can safely anticipate a majority of their questions. And remember that, according to the Pareto principle, about 80% of your students’ questions will cover only 20% of your material, so make sure you learn that portion well. As for the other 20% of your students’ questions- well, while they will come up, it will be less common.

Also, you don’t have to know everything there is to know about your subject matter- you simply have to be one step ahead of your students. In light of this, try to stay informed about your topic and any news that are relevant to it. Set up a Google Alerts on your topic’s keywords and have those alerts go to your email account. In this way, if any new developments are at play in your field of expertise, you’ll be the first to know- and impress your students.

How much money can you make from your own online course?

A well-known name like Jack Welch, who has now sold his Udemy course to 109 students at $500 per student, has grossed $54.5K. No bad.

However, lesser-known Miguel Hernandez, who sells a $297 Udemy course titled How to Create an Awesome Demo Video for Your Business, has outgrossed Welch by one entire figure and come in at over $483K. Your results will probably differ, but even this one example illustrates how creating a course that offers something relevant to your audience, especially a business/technical audience, can earn you some big bucks. And this can happen even if you don’t have a big name.

Fortunately, Miguel also offers another Udemy course titled How to Create an Awesome Online Course for those who are curious.

Much like with teaching courses in the “real world”, it takes time and persistence to create a highly popular (i.e., lucrative) course. But if you’re passionate about your subject matter and (more importantly) about teaching it, creating an online course is a great way to go.

 

*excluding neurology, automatic transmissions and school boards.

How I Used LinkedIn to Win 3 Freelance Clients in Just 1 Month

Written By:
Last Updated:

Recently, I was shocked to discover the following seminar on EventBrite:

Madison LinkedIn Extravaganza

For whatever reason, the organizer of this event is charging participants almost $200 to learn about LinkedIn and how they can win sales prospects by using this business networking platform. Seriously?! Well, for just the price of a few minutes of your time, I can tell you how LinkedIn can help you find your own sales prospects- and win them. At least, I can tell you how I have used LinkedIn to land clients; recently, after making a concerted effort on LinkedIn, I gained three clients in just one month!

LinkedIn works like a big virtual Rolodex, keeping track of all your business contacts and their information. However, unlike a standard Rolodex, LinkedIn also immediately informs you whom your contacts are connected with. These connections-to-connections are invaluable when you are trying to reach a potential client or hiring manager and need someone to help you out. Remember that, in the world of business, it’s not just what you know; it’s also who knows you. However, that’s just the start of why LinkedIn is so useful for doing business. Here are three additional reasons:

  1. Credibility. On LinkedIn, you can post your resume, website(s), work history/projects and even your personal “mission statement”. You can also solicit and receive recommendations from your coworkers, bosses, employees and clients. Having this information out there improves your credibility and chance of being approached for work. You also save yourself a lot of time and effort when sending out job query “teasers” by referring potential hiring managers/clients to your LinkedIn profile.
  2. Information. LinkedIn is a great sales prospect research tool if you know what you are looking for (more on that later). For example, you can track down and locate the name and information of the company hiring manager to whom you are about to send your resume. This sure beats addressing your cover letter with “Dear Sir/Mam” or the God-awful “To Whom It May Concern”. It also helps you better focus your job inquiry; for instance, if you discover that a hiring manager has posted several discussions about the importance of SEO, you can highlight your own SEO accomplishments in your resume. Finally, you can “spy” on people and find out who has recently viewed your profile; this is useful if you’re sending out a lot of resumes and trying to gauge who might be contacting you soon.
  3. Networks. Many companies have an established presence on LinkedIn and use it to post corporate news including job opportunities. Many of these announcements are fed in from social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Such announcements give you some really golden opportunities to post comments (that are strategically linked to your work) and make yourself known to these companies. Likewise, by joining LinkedIn groups that are within your area of expertise, you have the opportunity to lead and/or contribute to discussions where hiring managers/potential clients may be hanging out.

My personal experience with LinkedIn

I’ve had a LinkedIn account for years but never really utilized it until I became a full-time freelance writer about a year ago. Since then, I’ve used LinkedIn almost obsessively. Aside from updating my work profile, I now use LinkedIn to find potential clients.

When I was trying to win additional corporate/business clients last October, I used a scouting technique where I’d locate companies that were making at least $5-$10 million in annual revenue and thus could afford to hire me. However, I would steer clear of companies that made over $10 million because these places usually had their own hired team of writers. I would then find one or more of that company’s marketing personnel (writing typically falls into the marketing category) and pitch them directly through LinkedIn’s InMail function (a valuable and limited resource that allows you to email someone on LinkedIn regardless of whether you are connected to that person or not).

To make the pitch meaningful, I would research the company’s objectives and study its website. If something was lacking on the company’s website or amiss in the business, I made sure to mention that problem and suggest a way that I could solve it. Taking this approach with just three companies, I immediately landed one as a client last October.

I also found corporate clients by following companies on LinkedIn. This way, I received notice of any job openings and how much interest they were generating. If a potential job caught my eye, I tried to track down the person who would most likely be receiving my resume. Again, due to my profession, this involved scoping out the marketing department. Although I wasn’t always right on target, I knew I was making a fairly accurate estimate that my selected individual would at least peruse my file during the hiring process.

Because my query was always directed at a real live person, I did usually see him/her checking out my profile on LinkedIn. In the month of October, I sent out 6-7 official cover letters with resumes to potential clients. I later noticed that three of the queried companies had been checking out my LinkedIn profile; of those three, I won one as a long-term client.

My last client “win” in October was actually one of my LinkedIn contacts whom I occasionally see at another in-town networking event. I didn’t directly market my services to this person because I didn’t want to create any sales pressure (for this reason alone, I never make cold calls). What I did do, however, was make sure that this person knew what I did for a living and that my LinkedIn account showed several work examples in her niche field. I also checked my LinkedIn account from time to time to see if this individual was perchance looking at my profile. Indeed, she was. One day, this person approached me and asked what I would charge per hour for some website/proofreading work. After some negotiating, I won my third client.

Getting started with LinkedIn

You don’t have to be a tech-savvy geek to know your way around LinkedIn; the platform offers helpful tips on how to get started and will even help you “flesh-out” your profile by prompting you to fill in provided sections. Every time you return to your account, you can add one more detail or job description. Even if you have only 10 minutes, you can do a lot to tailor your profile. Once you’re comfortable with how you appear on “paper”, it’s time to start networking and asking your newfound contacts to recommend you. If you get stumped or want to take the next step, check out some community centers or colleges; many groups offer free tutorials on using this platform. Or just ask me. Good luck!