Making Money Online: Don’t Settle
There are a lot of ways to earn money online, but unfortunately, many women who want to be work at home moms end up settling for “jobs” that are simply not worth their time. The reason I address this today is because I have been coming across a number of personal blogs recently that journal moms’ journeys to “make money online”. And it is sad what they are doing.
I understand that times are tough and that some people are absolutely desperate, but that doesn’t mean you should settle. In fact, it means you should be striving to find a more profitable option. You may or may not agree with me, but here are a few things that I see these moms working on that are simply NOT a good idea.
Content sites that pay per view. Yes, they abound and yes, you can earn some money. Some being the key word here. Most people earn PENNIES at these sites because you need to write super popular articles in order to get enough page views to qualify. Since you aren’t actually being paid by the page view in most cases but for every 1,000 views, you need to have a very popular article to get . . . well, it depends on the site, but I’ve seen the amounts range from 10 cents to $5. None of which you get if only 999 people look at your article.
Content sites that pay a pittance. I used to write for Associated Content back when they paid $6-10 an article and even that was low . . . I wouldn’t work for that nowadays. However, at the time, I was still building my writing business and didn’t know better. Now, they pay far less, I hear they offer a dollar per article in many cases!! That is ridiculous. If you are going to put time into writing an article, you should be paid a decent amount.
Reading emails. Hits4Pay and other similar websites that pay you to open emails and click on ads might be legit but are they really worth your time? You might think that if you are a stay at home mom you might as well earn a few dollars this way since you are home anyway. That, to me, is just plain laziness. Take the time you would spend to earn that $5-10 a week and use it to start your own business, learn affiliate marketing or do something that will give you higher returns.
Getting people to join crappy sites so you can earn. This one abounds!! It’s a nasty catch-22 that won’t let anyone go. You sign up for a company that offers to pay you a certain amount, say $10 for joining, but you need $50 to cash out. Oh, BUT, if you just invite a bunch of friends to join, they’ll pay you a buck per person. Yes, you can earn this way, but really, is it worth not being able to sleep at night? These sites often have those “trial” offers where you can earn hundreds by signing up for a bunch of free trials that require your credit card number and are not a good idea since you then can’t cancel them.
Falling for Work at Home Mom scams. These are also everywhere, probably because they figure moms are going to be more naive and desperate. And they might be right, because a lot of women fall for these. The scam varies, but almost always involves paying a fee for a “kit” or access to a website that will give you the means to earn thousands in just a few weeks. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. My best advice here is A) don’t pay to work and B) do your due diligence and research the company before you even consider paying a cent. Some companies are legit, but they are far and few between, sadly, so look for online reviews to get a better idea of whether or not it is worth your time.
So, now you are probably thinking “Where do I earn online then?” Good question. There are plenty of REAL ways to earn actual cash, not just pennies for hours of your time. I’ll be discussing some of the best ways to earn online on Monday. You might want to go sign up to my RSS feed in the upper left corner there and make sure you don’t miss it.
There are legit ways to earn money and it really saddens me to see moms thinking that the only thing they can do is read emails and get a few dollars each week to put toward the family coffers.
There are tons of different ways to earn a living online. You are right though, you need to do a lot of quality research before jumping in.
The internet is still in its infancy, but trust me, there will be many more millionaires made online than almost any business venue in history.
I outsoucre articles for $2 sell for 6-10 on the warrior forum?
The big money is in building sites and flipping them?
I like affiliate marketing also and have found that LinkConnector does a very good job (and no, this is not a plug for them – they are just very supportive)
I’ve been swindled by the work at-home make money scheme. It’s totally annoying and bogus that we’re prayed upon like this, but it’s because the economy is tanking and so many people need jobs. We’re all just looking around for that one at-home business that will actually pay the bills and not take up a lot of our time. Something real. I hope it’s out there. I’m still looking for a legit at-home business that doesn’t involve selling to my family and friends though.
That’s why I prefer to advise people to start their own business wherever possible. You can still get a bad client, but overall, it makes things a lot safer.
Another great way of earning an income online is to find the affiliate programs that have a proven record of conversion and sales. You can easily check an affiliate program strength by looking at the gravity score (in Clickbank).
The gravity is score might be to complicated to explain in detail here, but it basically states the number of individual affiliates who have made a sale (and therefore earned a commission) in the most current week.
In other words, if you find a program that has a gravity score of 35, it means that within the last week 35 independent and seperate people made a sale promoting that given product.
In my experience, a program that has a gravity score of 30 to 70 is a program you might want to try promoting yourself. The programs with gravity scores of 100 or more are very competitive and not worth the hassle.
Hope this helps.
The above quick explanation was meant for those who want to enter the affiliate marketing arena. There are ofcourse several other ways to make a living online…which, come Monday, you’ll learn more about.
I agree with you. I have been there too doing things online that took so much of my time and paid very little. I have decided to settle with affiliate marketing in niches that have less competition.
Thanks for the post, at home dads need to read your Monday follow up too.
Hi; Again, I am not a mom, but I am a dad with a family. I am doing what ever I can to make a business for my self and a life for my family. You have a great post here, do think that I will be back to read more, I really like the ideas you are putting on your blog. Thanks again.