Wednesday, 20 December 2017

Making Money from Home using the Internet


Alarm clock with title above.
Since the invent of the internet, it has become a lot easier to earn money from home. Whether you want to be a millionaire, or just earn a bit while the children are at school or in bed, there are a variety of ways to make money, using tools you already have, with no outlay or risk. As with all money-making ventures, it will depend how much time you have to spend on it, as you generally get out what you put in, but that's the beauty of it, it fits in around what you can manage, alongside other commitments. Whatever your eventual money-saving aims, this post will give you some ideas to get started increasing your cash-flow from your sofa.

This post contains affiliate links and is produced in association with Logo Joy. 


Swagbucks


This is an online survey site that I use myself, where you can earn points towards gift cards just for completing tasks such as watching videos and taking part in surveys. The surveys vary in length and you can see how long it should take before you start so it doesn't have to be very time consuming and the points really add up. Once you get organised with it, it can fit in really well with whatever else you are doing. It's something I do whilst watching TV in the evening, but I know other people who have managed to complete tasks one handed whilst breastfeeding! One survey can earn you up to 150 Swagbucks and watching videos for a few seconds each will net you 60 Swagbucks a day. With a £5 Amazon gift card costing 640 Swagbucks, you could easily be building up points towards another £5 gift card every couple of days and if you have more time, you can earn more than that. You can even make Swagbucks for searching the internet as you normally would, using the Swagbucks search bar. This is a great way to save for Christmas or birthdays, as the fund is separate to your usual banking and won't be swallowed up by household bills. I highly recommend Jada's Community Facebook group for all the help and advice you could ever need to get you started. 

Surveys


There are various survey sites that offer incentives for completing lifestyle surveys. The rewards vary, but often it only takes a few minutes of your time, so it can add up and make a nice little treat fund for yourself or help towards bigger expenses. I haven't used these myself, the one I use isn't currently recruiting, but I have asked around and these are the ones that were recommended to me by those that do use them.

  1. One Poll. Surveys between 10p and £1 and once you get to £40 as a new user you can cash it out to BACS or PayPal. As a regular user, you only have to reach £25 limit before cashing it out.
  2. Valued Opinions, where you can earn rewards from top brands, or choose to have the points go onto your nectar card.
  3.  Branded Surveys. Cash out at £10 to Paypal or your bank. Branded opinions have a daily poll for 5 points so u wouldn't actually have to do the surveys if u don't mind waiting forever to reach the cash out target

Selling


Social media provides a lot of opportunity for exposure, and with exposure comes advertising. If you have a particular skill, it is relatively easy to market it without an advertising budget. For a physical product that you want to sell, you can set up a Facebook page really easily. I have one for connecting with our readers, sharing blog posts or just interesting stuff I find online. It's a great way to showcase your wares, since you can upload photos, as well as post updates on what's available. There is always a market somewhere for a product and social media is a great way to connect with it. Instagram is another great platform for connecting with potential buyers. You can post photos of products, or even short videos, and add a link to where people can buy them in the bio. If you don't want to set up your own website, there are other selling platforms, such as eBay or Etsy where you can buy and sell safely for a small fee. These sites give you additional protection should anything go wrong with a transaction, which is something to consider.

Wombling


Asda have their “Asda Price Guarantee” ~ they promise to be 10% cheaper than Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Morrisons or Tesco, if not, they will refund the difference, in the form of a voucher to be printed out, to use on a future shop. Certain conditions apply, of course, including having at least 8 different items on the receipt, one of which (or similar) must sold by a Competitor. You can claim a maximum of 10 vouchers per month per household and this is where some people use 'wombling' to their advantage. Like the Wombles of Wimbledon Common, people pick up other people's rubbish and make good use of it, collecting discarded receipts from trollies outside (not bins or in-store as this is classed as theft) and then finding the ones which give them the most money back. You could also do this with receipts that haven't had the loyalty points added e.g. Tesco or collectible stickers that reward you with a freebie. e.g. McDonald's. Stores don't like you doing this and it could put your loyalty card at risk. There are also many apps and websites including CheckoutSmart and Shopmium, giving you various rewards such as cashback and iTunes vouchers. Each site has its own reward system but most require you to upload your receipt of the qualifying item(s) by means of capturing a photo of the receipt





Alarm clock and piles of coins with shoots growing out of the top.


eBooks


ebooks are a great way to make a regular income from one initial effort-outlay but it is something I have always promised myself I would do, but haven't yet got round to. So here is my friend Kate, from The Less Refined Mind with her thoughts: "Writing an ebook is a great string to add to your bow, especially if you happen to be a blogger. It lends credibility to you professionally - which is essential in our industry (and any other where you may not have a qualification but wish to be taken seriously in your field). Writing an ebook is so simple, anyone can do it; writing one well and launching it successfully is a different matter however. Fortunately, if your initial effort is a flop, there's nothing stopping you from repeating the process at any point, when you can dedicate adequate time to planning and executing a slick relaunch. Ultimately, you get out what you put in, but it's worth doing because a successful ebook helps realise the dream: passive income."

Blogging


Here's something I do know a little bit about, since this blog is now over five years old. When I first started, I had no intention of making any money fromit and it's still not my primary purpose, I write because I like writing. However, I do sometimes get paid for some of the posts I write and, even better, I also get to take part in activities that I wouldn't normally be invited to. Since I started blogging, I've taken my daughter to meet Jaqueline Wilson, been glamping on the Isle of Wight, visited the This Morning studios and met the presenters and had lunch with Sarah Willingham from Dragon's Den. Even if I don't make a lot of money, I love being able to take my children to local attractions and on money-can't-buy adventures. When you blog, the reviews and events aren't free, you have to take lots of photos and notes on the day, write up and publish the post and share on social media, so it does take time, but if you enjoy it and you're at home anyway, I think it's worth it. Setting up a blog is easy. Firstly find your niche, which is basically what you want your blog to be about, then you need to think up a logo to use on Social Media, so that people know it's your blog. For this, you can use a photo, or a drawing, or you can try a website like Logojoy, if you are not especially artsy. It is important to choose the right platform for your blog. The two main hosting platforms are Wordpress and Blogger. I use Blogger, because it's easier to use and everything is done for you, but many people prefer Wordpress, because, although it takes longer to get the hang of, you can do more with it to personalise your blog and make it unique to you, so pick the one that works best for your style and time available. The last thing you need, in my opinion anyway, for a successful blog is good support behind you. There are a lot of really good, supportive, blogging groups on Facebook and it is really worthwhile seeking out the right one for you. There are groups for specific niches; parenting, beauty, fitness, etc, and also for different areas of the country. Try typing 'blogging' and the area or niche you want in the search bar and then clicking groups, there should be a few options to choose from. For more reasons to start blogging, have a look at this post, from Beauty and the Bird

Vlogging


I'm rubbish at this, but if you have the confidence and ideas to make your own videos, there is money to be made. You only have to look at Youtube stars such as DanTDM and Zoella to see that, but it does require a lot of creativity and commitment to be really successful. Here's Mel from Fly, Drive, Explore, who vlogs twice a week, with the lowdown on this relatively new phenomenon: "The main ways of making money vlogging are through sponsored posts, and YouTube adverts. Sponsored posts could be anything from a mention of a product or whole post or series of posts reviewing a product, or destination for example.  With YouTube adverts you get revenue from adverts placed before or during your videos. For every thousand impressions you get paid a certain amount. You need to have hundreds of thousands of views to make it worthwhile but it can all add up. Other ways of making money include affiliate links, and selling merchandise (think of Zoella’s Superdrug collaboration).  Some YouTubers have a subscription only service where viewers pay for exclusive content too. This article from The Guardian offers more information."

Competitions


This isn't a surefire way to make money as such, but a lot of people enter competitions as a way of supplementing their income. You can win things for Christmas or birthdays, or it's another way to gain access to events and treats you wouldn't normally be able to enjoy. It's best to see it as a fun hobby and view the wins as a bonus, since you can't be sure when, or even if, the next one will come along. However, people do win big and, even if they don't, all the small wins really add up. I've been comping for even longer than I've been blogging and I've made some great friends and won some amazing prizes in that time. My first win was £572 in a radio quiz and I got such a buzz from winning, I found some websites that list competitions for free. For ease of use, Competition Database is probably the simplest to navigate, but there is also The Prize Finder, Loquax and the competition section of MSE. Competition Database allows you to choose what type of competitions you want to enter on Social Media. Twitter competitions tend to be the quickest to enter with smaller prizes, whereas Instagram competitions seem to have less entries, giving you a better chance of winning. There is a whole community dedicated to this popular hobby online, and there are various Facebook groups you can join to learn more about it and get support and advice, such as Lucky Learners and Competition Announcements and Friendly Chat

I hope this post shows that there is something for everyone when it comes to making money and it is entirely possible to use the internet to your advantage if you just know where to look. 



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12 comments

  1. Some great advice here. Vlogging is something I really want to get into this year.

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  2. I've never heard of wombling! :) I used to do surveys but stopped. I was with Toluna but I felt like it took ages before you could earn anything. Maybe I should've been more patient? ;)

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  3. Blogging is a great way of making money from home. I also use Swagbucks quite a lot too.

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  4. I have never heard of or considered most of these things. Really useful post for those looking to make a little bit extra in their spare time x

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  5. I have tried swagbucks but I find it very longwinded and got fed up with being booted off surveys half way through. I used to do well entering competitions but I don't have much time these days

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  6. I never once thought I would be able to make money blogging but almost 5 years on I do and its great. Great ideas shared

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  7. I need to work out how to add ads to my blog, I am so NOT technically minded.

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  8. Great tips. There are so many little ways to make money from home. I use to enter competitions a by do it was great fun!

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  9. Thanks for sharing - some great ideas. I signed up to the surveys but never seem to find the time nowadays!

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  10. There are a few things here that I never knew about before. A great post! I need a new revenue stream, I'm definitely going to try one of these out. x

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  11. There are some great ideas there if only there was more time in the day.

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  12. Love your money making ideas here. Need to try swagbucks

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