A lot of people, especially in this economy, are looking for ways to create or supplement their income with little to no investment on their part. This post is for you if for any reason you have now decided you need to bring in extra cash, these are actual sites that require no money on your part to start a small business. And if you are counting pennies and trying to squeeze every dollar til' it hurts in your budget, there is no way to realistically use money that is precious at this time, to start a business anyway.
There are a lot and I mean, A LOT, of scams on the Internet. Luckily there are just as many blogs and articles dedicated to bringing these scams to light, so please do your due diligence and research any and all opportunities you are considering as a way to make money online.
Through personal experience and through friends that have tried different methods, here is a short list of websites where you can start to make money with no financial investment. Sweat equity is another story. Yes, there are sites you can build a business with for free, but you have to put the time in to realize any success. If you are willing to do this then please read on.
Freelance Writing Business
Associated Content is a site I have used on and off for the past two years. I've recently submitted a few more articles that are awaiting review and payment offers, I am fattening up my Christmas account so I will be submitting more articles as I find the time.
You set up a free account and submit articles on any subject you want to write about, they in turn review it and offer you payment for the right to publish your article, you can accept or deny the offer which is usually in the $3-$20 range. You can submit it as exclusive (selling your rights) or non-exclusive (They will publish it and you may also re-sell to other sites if you wish). Not every article gets an offer but most do.
If you aren't being offered a payment for a submitted article or you have pieces you have previously written for a now defunct blog perhaps or just articles you may have written and never sent off to anyone, you can use these to still make money on Associated Content. They can be posted as "Display Only". You won't get any up front payment but you will be paid for your page views. Why?
Becuase another way you make money with them is through page views. Not much, but hey, every little bit counts. Unless you are a top level contributor you will get $1.50 for every 1,000 page views, so in essence you get paid every time someone reads one of your articles.
How you make money
Let's say in the first month you write 50 articles. And pessimistically, only 35 of the articles come back after review with an offer. And again on the low side of the spectrum, the offers are $3.00 each. That is an extra $150 plus whatever else you make for the life of those articles (plus the other 15 articles should you decide to publish them as Display Only), through page view payments. Payments go to your paypal account.
Now, if you'd like to help me add to my Christmas Gift Account by reading some of my articles (pretty please:) you can find them here!
Retail online
Cafe Press is a site that allows you to create a shop for free and upload graphics, paintings, or rants that you have created and attach them to the pre-existing merchandise they have listed, you can sell t-shirts, hats, baby clothes and even frocks for Fido.
How you make money
They have each item listed at a base price, say $9.99 for a white t-shirt. You then upload your design and price the t-shirt. If you price it at $16.99, then every time a t-shirt is sold they keep $9.99 and you get $7.00. Once an item is ordered they will create it using your uploads, they will handle payment and they will also pack and ship the item as well. How sweet is that!?
There are thousands of shops on the Cafe Press website, so in order to make any money you have to stand out. You can create a blog and while you are entertaining people about the cutest things the kids in your family have said over the last 20 years you can direct them to your shop to buy a shirt or a bib with one of those sayings. You can also list it on your face book, but no matter what topic you choose, remember to: promote, promote, promote. There are hundreds of articles online for how to promote your online retail shops for free, the key is to get the word out there.
Sell other people's products
Click Bank
I am usually not one for affiliate programs but my friend Theresa who was the owner of Duffie Books used clickbank to help her sell her authors ebooks, the author or publisher designates how much of a commission the affiliate gets up to 75%, I believe she used 20%, So I know that you really do get a commission on each sale.. Either way I would suggest you read through the site carefully, then Google and see how much other people, real people, have made with them. Another suggestion is that you only promote books that are relevant to your website or blog. And if you don't yet have a blog? Then write down at least five things you love to talk about and research, then look and see if there are enough ebooks on clickbank for you to promote on your new blog and decide if its something you can see yourself doing.
I hope I've helped offer you and your family a few ways to earn the extra money you are seeking. Thanks for stopping by!
Update I have signed up for Click Bank and am promoting a few ebooks that look interesting, see upper right. I will let you know what happens!
