How to Make Money Online – Just a Few Ideas

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I used to use survey sites like Opinion Outpost, Inbox Dollars, InboxPays etc. I even did the National Consumer Panel for a while but to be honest as a blogger I just don’t have time for them anymore! (If you’re NOT a full time blogger they are great programs and the extra cash can add up!) I suggest signing up for a few of these – trying them out for a week or two, then deciding whether or not you want to continue with that program. Come back and try a few more – different types of programs work best for different people in different age groups so find a few that you like and focus on those!
 

 

I definitely still use Swagbucks which is like a search engine where you download their toolbar, and just search online like normal! They reward you with “swagbucks” in different increments, and once you get to 450 swagbucks you can cash out for a $5 Amazon gift card. (you can also shop online thru their site for even more easy swagbucks!) 🙂 When I started out I was making $115 in Amazon gift certificates in less than a year. They also have restaraunt gift cards, kids clothes shops like CookiesKids.com, FragranceNet.com gift cards, Travelocity & Southwest gift cards, Disney, Paypal, Target, iTunes gift cards and SO much more! Lately I’ve been saving up and buying iTunes gift cards as Christmas gifts with my Swagbucks points! I love it because I don’t have to take any special time out of my day to accrue swagbucks and they can add up pretty quickly!

 

 

Another way my husband and I make money online is by creating our own material to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. Any original material that you’ve created that can be used in the classroom can be put up for sale on TPT and it is really simple to set up! I wish we had more time to continue on this venture as my husband has sold a nice amount of FCAT Stem tests on this site. We spent one weekend putting some materials together which have made us over $200 in the past 12 months and honestly that’s all we’ve had time to do! Imagine if you put together materials several times a month you really could make a large amount of income this way!! You can make as little as a few bucks or over a million dollars (I wish!) – it all depends on the quality of your material and the time you put into it as well as what people are looking for!

 Another way is to consider selling things like Young Living Essential oils, if of course it’s something you and your family uses. (Want to sign up with Young Living? Please contact me for more details & promos!) Find something you love, that you can use the perks of selling, and make some money on the side! Some brands do have a nominal “join” fee which is pretty typical – just make sure you trust the company you are signing up for!

 Most of my income has now turned from surveys and online opportunities to blogging and affiliate/sponsored income.

A few of my Favorite Affiliates and Ways to make $$ on my Blog for Newbies:

1.) Escalate Media Network– they are VERY easy to work with and probably my favorite just for that reason. They pay twice a month once you hit $25.

2.) Commission Junction – you have to apply for specific companies within this company but there are a LOT of options here.

3.) Amazon – this is by far my highest income but is only available in select states.  Look for “Become an Affiliate” at the bottom of the page for more info.

4.) Google Ads – For the first 2 years I started blogging I refused to put ads on my site. They were only making me about a penny a day and I didn’t want the clutter. Now that I’ve grown a bit bigger I have realized that some clutter is expected and to be honest the little bit of income that I make is extremely necessary for our family! I put countless hours of work into this site and it would be silly of me to put in all these hours with nothing back. Google Ads do pretty decent for me and I have to do virtually nothing for them!

5.) IZEA / Social Spark – I LOVE this company. Sign up, set your desired price for sponsored articles, and they will e-mail you when something is available. Shabam! You can easily turn down offers (which I do a lot because sometimes it doesn’t fit my blog) or accept them and them create your post in their dashboard.

6.) Linqia – Although I only get 1 or 2 campaigns a year it’s certainly worth signing up for! They will e-mail you when they have a campaign available.

Advice of Warning:

If you can think outside of the box there are many ways to make money online and many more ways that are not listed here. Everything from selling products from home, reselling used items from flea markets and yard sales, taking surveys, blogging, etc. I caution you to evaluate how much time it takes you to do something as opposed to how much you make. If you’re only making a few pennies for an enormous amount of hours you’re probably just wasting your time!! You should NOT have to pay someone in order to join their group so that you can make money (aside from those few legit well-established companies like Young Living, Pampered Chef, etc. to start up your business)!! Don’t pay for mystery shopping, envelope stuffing, or even sales programs just to join their groups. There are plenty of other ways to learn how to make money without wasting your money or getting involved in a scam! Don’t give out personal information unless you are 100% confident in the program! Sometimes rewards and perks are just as good (or almost as good!) as getting cash. Being able to trade out for gift cards or products still helps to offset the budget or birthday/holiday gifts and still helps us to save our pennies!

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4 Comments

  1. Hello! I'm new oyour lovely blog!! Just wondering how the Escalate Media & Logical Media site work? How do you makemoney with them? Also, with Swagbucks, can you just cash out all at once, or do you have to do itin increments?? Thanks so much! Stop by and say hello sometime at Sarafan2.

    http://www.sarafan2.blogspot.com

  2. Laura Shifrin says:

    Love your blog, love your website, think you are brilliant. I wrote ton you on FB today and then when I saw you had a blog, I popped in. I co-founded a national fundraising website, called http://www.ShopForStudents.com and we have been in existence for almost 5 years.Simply we give each school, classroom, youth team, music or fine arts group, charity or special needs family their own online store (just like ours on our website). Each fundraiser receives its very own domain name, so its easy to market, then we donate a huge 15% based on every order your supporters place. We send out donation checks once a month and I am personally inviting you to join. More details to come. The store is quite amazing. It is not a shopping mall and we have lots of moms products and gifts.Quite a few items we offer you free shipping plus our prices are very fair. Some as low as 80% off, which will keep your supporters coming back often. 15% is triple of what most affiliate/fundraisers payout. My email is [email protected]. Thank your for your time. Laura Shifrin

  3. Hi
    I just wanted to thank you so much for this post! It was exactly what I needed! I am a first grade teacher but have needed to take a leave this year to be home with my 3 little ones ( a 3 year old son and twin newborns). I love to blog and was looking for ways to make some money to help out expenses at home! While my teacher salary wasn’t much, it is definitely hard not working. I’m hopefully going to be able to start some of your suggestions today.

    I’m interested in starting TPT but I’m not sure if I’m computer-savvy enough to create documents. What program do you and your husband use to create lessons? Thanks for your time.

    1. Hi Mandy! For TPT we use Microsoft Word to create the lesson and when I save it (since I want to upload one file not many pages)I click “File”, “Save As”, and then save it as a TYPE – PDF. Then you just upload that file into TPT! If you need more help just click on the green apple above and shoot me an email and we can help you walk through it if you get stuck!!
      ~Crystal

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