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A Little Bit Extra: Income for Stay at Home Parents

by Kathy T.

Working full time from home, but could use a few extra bucks? Or are you a stay-at-home parent who needs a little more income? We’ve all been there- with the economy in its current state, sometimes an extra $100 can make the difference between having electricity or not. Or, maybe you’re just putting away some cash for a vacation. Whatever your reasons, Meagan at Sunshine and Sippy Cups has 10 wonderful solutions for making a little extra cash:

  1. Craigslist- sell your old stuff!
  2. Survey Sites- fill out surveys online for cash
  3. Childcare- if you already have kids, taking in a few more isn’t too much work and can give you a great income boost.
  4. Start a Blog
  5. Digital Earning- there are tons of sites that pay you a little bit every day just for using them.
  6. Make Cool Stuff- got a hobby like knitting or woodworking? Start an etsy shop and turn your hobby into cash.
  7. Shopping Online- some sites pay your for shopping online.
  8. Virtual Assistants
  9. Direct Sales- get started in a company like Avon or Scentsy.
  10. Freelance Writing

These are all great ideas, and I’ve personally had experience with most of them. Survey sites, digital earning, and shopping online are better for earning a few extra dollars here and there ($20 or $40 a month, depending on how active you are), while blogging, freelance writing, and selling products are better for a steadier, more sizable income.

Photo Credit: Images of Money

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Working for Yourself is a LOT Harder

by Kathy T. 2 Comments

When I was self-employed, I worked about 16 hours a day.  Now as a paid worker of two jobs, I find myself at it only about 10 hours every day (although for one job I’m on call 24-7).  Working for yourself means you have to HUSTLE to find that next dollar, as Sarah Leaps vouches,

In the morning, brew up a pot (whatever that means to you), spend hours on craigslist, flexjobs, morning coffee, HARO, facebook (strictly business), crowdspring and whatever other rabbit hole you can find to explore for leads.  Pour your heart and soul into crafting customized cover letters and resumes that reduce grown men to tears and make grownups out of babies.  I know you want to, but do NOT skip this part.  Always customize–unless, of course, you don’t really care whether you get the job.  In that case, just use your boilerplate for everything.

Ha. Her entire post is entertaining, if not uncomfortably true!

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Moments of Truth: Apply it to Work

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

I discovered this interesting web site called Living up to a name, ironically written by an anonymous blogger.  In it, the writer challenges him/herself each month to do different things.  For example,

  • Limit eating out to only once a week, if possible. EPIC FAIL.
  • Keep MOST of my spending on my debit card Win! And, no surprise, I was able to track my spending better.
  • Save more, period. Well, considering I had to take money out of my savings, I’d say  FAIL.
  • Track how much I spend on my pets. With no vet visits this past month, it totaled $37.82!

You can take little goals like these and apply them to your work schedule.  For example, track how much time you spend on social networking sites, texting, or daydreaming while at work.  Assign yourself a certain number of phone numbers to make related to your business.  Do you want to reach 50 people this week?  Make 10 calls each day.  Write down the names, take notes.

By setting goals – whether yearly, monthly, or weekly – and then tracking them, you may find yourself to be more productive.

Photo by lululemon athletica via flickr creative commons.

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Best Work From Home Job

by Kathy T. Leave a Comment

I split half my time at home, half at the office, and half with kids, politics, and other activities.  What?  Yes, I have 150 percent more time than others because I usually only sleep about four to five hours a night.

My best work is done either at the office or late at night when everyone has gone to bed.  At the office, I’m here to focus and get something specific done.  Late at night, I don’t get preoccupied with filling up an iced tea or telling my child over and over to go to bed.  Late night is good.

For anyone who wants to work from home – once the house is quiet and when there is plenty of “thinking” time to get the job done – the best work for a home job seems to be… (drum roll) WRITING.

Writing articles is a passion for some people and it is a hobby for others. Content writing is considered as the best work from home jobs all over the world considering the requirement of writers. There are also people who work part time writing content in various websites and blogs.

There are many blogs and websites in Internet that are looking for good content and so there are many opportunities for article writing jobs. This article provides an overview of how content writing is one of the best work from home jobs and how people earn writing articles.

Some caveats should be considered, though.  You can not earn a living by writing from home.  The only people who would argue that point are the .001% who successfully do this for a living.  Perez Hilton, perhaps. Fingers tapping… who else… there are others.

Companies hire people to write per article so they don’t have to pay for a full-time salaried position.  Remember $30 per article (which is considered extremely good money) with six articles per week will equal $180 per week.  That times 52 weeks per year = $9360 per week.  Consider that reporters make anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000 per year and you’ll understand how much money companies save.

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Freelance Writing Tools to Help Cut Distractions

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

Cold War Clock
Image by ckaiserca via Flickr

One of the hardest things about working from home is the fact that there are so many distractions. And, of course, no matter where you work, your computer is an endless source of distractions. You can help cut down on distractions when working from home if you try to have a set time to work (preferably when the kids are at school or down for a nap), and by having a dedicated space for your home office.

But what can you do about distractions on your computer? Freelance Folder offers some insight into freelance writing tools that can help you increase your productivity, many of them by making adjustments to your screen so that you can only see what you are typing, or that limits you to accessing one application at a time.

  1. WriteMonkey (Windows)
  2. WriteRoom (Mac)
  3. Dark Room (Windows)
  4. Think (Mac)

You can also use something called RescueTime that tracks the type of web browsing that you do, logging your visits and helping you pinpoint the biggest time wasters. Then you can focus for a certain amount of time, while RescueTime blocks out the distracting sites.

These are interesting productivity tools, and they can help your reduce distractions and get more done.

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Improving Your Blog Community

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

Habitat for Humanity - 6

When you have a home business, it can be very helpful to have a blog. This can serve as a way to draw traffic, and to help you build a loyal community. Easton at Visionary Blogging offers some helpful hints on improving your blog community:

1. Create something worthy of interest: Have good content, a good product or some other draw. You want your community to be interested in, well, becoming your blog community.

2. Get people to use your blog: Invite people to stop by. This includes asking friends to “fan” your home business blog’s page on Facebook, among other things.

3. Ask people to share: You can ask your followers and current community to share your blog with others.

4. Reward: There needs to be some sort of reward, from praise to freebies to some other sort of kudos, you need to let your blog community know that you appreciate them.

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Happy New Year from WorkShak!

by Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

Its time to begin another year, and I hope that you are set for a more successful 2010. Good luck with your home business resolutions, and may you find a little more prosperity and happiness in the coming year.

onemoneyshow

Image source: onemonkeyshow

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Freelancing: Do Your Clients Value Your Time?

by Miranda Marquit 1 Comment

The Gift album cover

Yesterday was an interesting day for me. I have a client who has a very small regular order, and he is one of my oldest clients, so re-negotiations have been few and far between. But this client also expects quite a lot from me, asking for more and more, even though he is my smallest client. After I got off a 30 minute phone call with someone he wanted me to interview for a longer piece that we didn’t negotiate beyond the usual monthly quota, I asked myself: What am I doing? Does this guy even value my time, or value my work as a professional?

It struck me that those that pay the least often expect the most from you.

Then, a couple hours later, I received an Amazon gift code for a rather substantial sum in my email inbox. This was from a different client (for whom I do a different sort of work) — one of my biggest. These guys have a lot of regular, good-paying work for me. And they sent me a very nice Christmas bonus on top of everything. This company truly values me and my time and wants to establish a very positive working relationship with me.

It made me wonder if I should raise my rate for the other guy. Would he value me more if he had pay more for my services? Or would he dump me? After yesterday, I’m not sure that I would mind.

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Freelancing: Preparing Your Workload for the Holidays

by Miranda Marquit 1 Comment

It’s true: when you work from home or own a home business, you find that you rarely get a true vacation. People in traditional jobs get holidays off, but when you are freelancing, you may not get that same time off. If you do want time off, it requires advance planning. For instance, I have been planning my workload for the holidays for the last month, in the hopes that I can enjoy some time off. Here are some things you can do to help you get ready for the holidays:

* Work a little extra: I normally do not work weekends. However, I have been working a couple of hours on Saturday lately to get some extra work done. Those two hours, added up over a few weeks, are really showing some advantages. I’ll be able to take Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day totally off. And I’ll have shortened days on Black Friday and Christmas Eve.

* Pre-post: Along with working a little extra ahead of time, I find that the magic of technology can be immensely helpful. Yes, some of my blogs will post up on Thursday. But I won’t be doing it. Nope. I’ll be scheduling the posts ahead of time to post automatically, so I don’t have to do it the day of. The same thing will happen on Christmas and New Year’s Day.

* Cut back on projects: I limit the number of new projects I take on during the holiday season. In some cases, I just let people know that my availability starts in January. This can alleviate some of the pressure, especially since I schedule most major projects to end prior to Thanksgiving. This allows me a more relaxed holiday season, and the chance to be more comfortable throughout.

* Prepare your finances: Obviously, if you are going to cut back on projects during the holidays, you have to be prepared. I take advantage of windfall months to set money aside for use during the holidays so that I have the resources to take it a little easier.

What do you do to prepare your freelancing business for the holidays?

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Making Money Online

by Miranda Marquit 1 Comment

Former Olymp...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

In these times of economic turmoil, with concerns of a double-dip recession, it is little surprise that people are looking for ways to work from home. And one of the ways people do this is by making money online. There are a number of home business ideas based around the Internet. Money Ning offers an overview of some of the routes you can take if you are interested in making money online:

* Create web content: You can do this through blogging, creating articles for other sites or doing some other type of web writing. This can also include creating and selling an ebook.

* Build an online storefront: You can do this through other sites, or create your own store. Sell products and services. Some of these can even be homemade, such as creating crafts to sell.

* Affiliate programs: You can join affiliate programs and get a commission when people you refer buy something from a site. There are a number of affiliate programs you can join, and you can put badges up on your web site to increase your revenue.

In the end, there are a number of ways for making money online. But you should be warned: It takes work and dedication to get started.

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