PT Money » Make Money

Finding Affordable Help for Your Business

Yasmeen — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:10:22 +0000

This guest post is for all you small business owners. It should help you learn to find employees for free, find a freelancer, and work with your unemployed friends and family to get affordable help for your small business.

As a budding entrepreneur, I have been challenged to find help for critical roles in my business. My husband and I run a manufacturing business and have had to discover different ways to find additional employees, while our profit catches up to our desired budget so that we can hire permanent new employees.

In the process of being resourceful, we have managed to secure very talented professional help for a variety of needs—from website design and setup, to sales support, to bookkeeping and office administration. Here are a few of our budget-friendly tips for finding talented employees at a fraction of the costs for your temporary and ongoing projects:

Find Employees for Free at Local Universities

Contact the career centers at your local top universities. Every college has a career center and an online job depot, where employers can post jobs and temporary work projects. These are almost always free and are distributed to current students and alumni. Tapping local college students is a fantastic way to find eager and excited young employees ready and willing to get real world experience. Also, with the added benefit of alumni distribution you get the combined benefit of finding someone with professional work experience and the educational background you need.

Some schools are known to have better academic programs or specialties and you should do your homework on which schools offer majors in the field you are recruiting for. For example, I recently needed someone to help with web design and programming and found that USC in the SoCal area seemed to have the best talent in relation to other neighboring schools. Conversely, when I needed some marketing and business consulting, I found the alumni at UCLA’s Anderson School of Business to be quite talented. Every school has its niche, and each career center’s staff will be happy to match their students and alumni with a budding business.

Utilize Family and Friends

With so many people unemployed, or feeling anxious about losing their jobs, I know many people looking for side gigs. Ask your friends and family if they know any reliable people looking for a short term assignment, like helping you get your books in order for taxes or someone to proof your marketing materials for an upcoming business campaign.

Find a Freelance Writer, Designer, or Developer Online

Check out the available freelance websites. There are plenty of people trying to make extra money with freelance writing. If you need writers, web developers, web content, brochures, press release, etc., there are a several websites that can broadcast your job ad to help you hire a freelancer. These sites are very popular and are sure to give you a pool of talent to select from. Also, with the benefits of computer technology, you can find a freelancer to use virtually. Location no longer is a barrier, widening your pool of talent.

Editor’s Note: A site that I’ve recently fallen in love with is oDesk. At oDesk you can get a freelancer from anywhere in the world who will help you with just about anything for extremely reasonable prices.
- I recently hired someone from the Philippines to work on a tweak of my site design. Three hours work cost me an embarrassingly low fee.
- The great thing about oDesk is that you are connecting with a real entrepreneur from across the globe and helping them to make a nice income.
- Do More with Less on oDesk

As an entrepreneur it’s critical to your success to realize that you cannot do everything and be effective. For those tasks that do not require your oversight, delegate them to a freelancer or temporary employee. Finding freelancers, students, and temporary employees gives you the freedom you need to drive business sales, while still getting other needed jobs completed. So stop being a superwomen and man, and start being a smart entrepreneur focused on your core business needs.

This post was contributed by Yasmeen Muqtasid, a fanatic for of all things frugal and fabulous.

Easy Money: Good and Not So Great Ways to Get Money Fast

PT — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:03:34 +0000

Sorry to disappoint you 80’s comedy fans, but I’m not talking about the Rodney Dangerfield flick from 1983, Easy Money. I’m referring to you and your finances. How can you get cash quick if you needed it badly? Let’s say some unfortunate event happened and you needed a large sum of cash immediately (within a day or two). You’ve got no time to actually get a job to earn or make extra money. How could you get some easy money?

Here are a few ways, listed somewhat in order of risk to your finances. I definitely don’t recommend all of these ideas. But, hey, when times are tough and you need money fast, who am I to judge?

Return Things – Made any purchases recently? Gather up your receipts and take some stuff back for a refund.

Sell Some Stuff – Use EBay for small and unique items. Set no reserve, and a one day auction, and let it fly. Use your free local Craigslist for large or generic items. This helps avoid any shipping costs too.

Consignment Shops – Gather up all of your unused clothing and sell them for quick cash as a consignment shop.

Sell Some Gold and Other Metals – Don’t use one of those Cash4Gold places. Just go to a local jeweler and pawn shop to get the value. It may take a bit longer, but you will get a more reasonable price.

Bob from Christian PF shared good several ideas like the one’s above in a post titled, 15 Ways to Make $200 Quick. Now for a few moves that require a bit of risk.

Raid Your Emergency Fund – This is what you’ve been saving it for. Go to the well. Don’t have one yet? Learn to build an emergency fund.

Cash Out a CD Early – You’ll likely lose any money you’ve earned with the CD, that is unless you have a no penalty CD from Ally Bank. See a current list of the best CDs online.

Peer-to-Peer Lending - Sites like Prosper and Lending Club will allow you to requests bids for your loan. Your loan will take a few days to get funded. But the rates can be better than credit card rates.

Personal Loan – A bank or local credit union sometimes have small personal loans they are willing to do. An income and a balance in your account will help a bit.

Tap Your Home Equity – If you have equity built up in your home, take out a home equity line of credit (HELOC). These rates can be better than other places, and the principle is going right back into your home. But using these funds to afford excess consumer spending is simply moving in the wrong direction with your finances.

Credit Card Cash Advance – These can be costly because of the interest rate, but are a quick method for getting cash in your bank account. Look for a card with a promotional interest rate if possible.

Borrow from Your 401K – Most employers allow this. While it completely goes against your original intentions for that money, taking a loan from your 401K effective way for getting a large sum of money fast. Just make sure you are aware of the rules (i.e. what happens if you’re fired?).

Loans from Friends and Family – I think this is one of the last places you should look for funds. With so many other places to find funds, what risk harming personal relationships.

Payday Loan – And last, and certainly least, the payday loan. Don’t use this method for quick cash unless it is the last place you can find money on earth.

Did I leave anything out? How would you get quick cash?

The Blueprint for How to Make Money with a Blog

PT — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:33:48 +0000

My friend Pete, from Bible Money Matters, just released a new ebook, Blueprint for How to Make Money with a Blog. I’ve had the pleasure of learning this blogging thing along side Pete for the past couple of years. We’ve shared our ideas for better blogging along the way. And we’ve been fortunate enough to make some money. It’s been fun so far. However, he was smart enough to put all this information down into an ebook and offer it up to those looking to do the same thing.

Now, you could honestly learn all of this stuff by yourself over the course of several months. But if you’re looking for a quicker way to get there, this ebook package will do that. It truly is the blueprint. There are even check lists included that will walk you through your daily blogging activities. I find myself even referencing them for stuff I should be doing.

This ebook is packed with real tips for making money from your blog, plus a bunch more that I’ll let Pete tell you about on his information page. I highly recommend this ebook and encourage anyone looking to get into this blogging business to grab a copy. If you’re not satisfied with the product, Pete offers a 30 day money back guarantee.

For a limited time you can get Pete’s ebook for $5 off. Just use the link below and enter “ptmoney” for the coupon code when you get to the checkout screen.

Steps to Get Your Copy

Click here to read more.
Enter ptmoney as the coupon code.

Earn Rewards Without a Credit Card: 2% Cash Back Using a Debit Card

PT — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:09:28 +0000

Scroll down to see details about the cash back rewards checking account from PerkStreet Financial.

I was hanging out with some friends the other night, playing some Texas hold’em, and we started talking about our generation’s feelings towards debt. Even though we know there is a lot of credit card debt out there, we concluded that many of people our age and younger are growing tired of the kind of lifestyle that involves credit. Many of my friends choose not to use credit cards at all. I know Dave Ramsey has been a big player in creating this shift.

While I’m not completely against using credit cards, I do see the benefits of going without one. That’s why I thought pointing this reward debit card out to you guys would prove beneficial.

Aside from the convenience factor, the only reason I currently use a credit card is to get the rewards. For those in the anti-credit card crowd, it can seem like you are being left out of this whole “rewards” system. Well, you don’t have to be anymore. There is a new checking account from PerkStreet Financial that comes with a debit card that pays you 1% cash back on your spending (and for a limited time, 2%). Here are the details:

PerkStreet Financial offers a free online checking account
The checking account has the standard ($250K) FDIC insurance
1% Cash Back Rewards on Non PIN-Based Transactions
No Limits on Cash Back
2% Cash Back for First 6 Months (offer expires April 30th)

What About ATMs? – When you need cash, use one of PerkStreet’s 37,000 ATMs within the STARsf® surcharge-free network. Outside this network you pay $2. To give you an idea of how many free ATMs PerkStreet has, they’ve put together this chart comparing their numbers to other banks. Kudos to them for doing this because with an online bank, there’s a greater need for ATM use.

What About Deposits? – Like every online only account, the downside is the ability to make quick deposits. However, PerkStreet seems to have made the best of the situation. You can deposit funds using any of these 4 methods: direct deposit, transfer from another bank, regular mail (PerkStreet provides postage paid envelopes for you), and free overnight deposit via UPS Store or Mail Boxes, etc.

What About Safety? – “Every PerkStreetSM account is FDIC insured up to $250,000 and all PerkStreet FinancialSM Visa® Debit Cards are protected by The Visa Zero Liability policy.”

Who Is PerkStreet Financial?

I encourage you to check out PerkStreet’s “Our Company” section. You’ll be impressed with their mission and see that it aligns with your own goals of financial responsibility and security. Click on the image of the video and then head to the “Our Company” section of the PerkStreet website to view the video of CEO, Dan O’Malley.

How PerkStreet Compares with Other Online Checking Accounts

Bank	Rate	Review	ATMs	Rewards
FNBO Direct Online BillPay Account	1.25%	FNBO Direct Review	840,000 PLUS locations - 4 Free Withdrawals Per Month	None
PerkStreet Financial	0%	PerkStreet Review	37,000+ free ATMs through STARsf®	2% Cash Back
ING DIRECT Electric Orange	0.24%	Electric Orange Review	35,000+ free ATMs through Allpoint™	None
Ally Interest Checking	View	Ally Bank Review	All Fees Refunded	None
EverBank FreeNet Checking	2.25%	EverBank Review	All Fees Refunded if Balance >$5,000	None
E*Trade Checking	0.15%	Pending	All Fees Refunded	None

If you are currently using PerkStreet’s checking account, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the product. Leave your comments below…

Make Extra Money Blogging

PT — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:18:57 +0000

This post is the final in my series of interviews with real people making extra money online. Instead of an actual interview with someone else today, I thought I’d share a bit of my own knowledge about making money from blogging.

How Do You Make Money from Blogging?

There are many different ways to make money from a blog. Today I’m going to share with you what I’ve been doing and how it works for me. I warn you though, I’m not an expert on this subject. I’m still learning and tweaking things every day. And while I’m disclaiming here, let me say that “blogging” and “social media” are ever-evolving, hard-to-define things. So my definition of blogging and making money online is formed by looking through my own lens. Others see it differently.

At a high level, I make money with my blog by producing content that gets consistent, relevant traffic to this blog from the search engines. Then I convert that traffic to a sale. At an even higher level, I make money by providing an answer to people’s questions. This is basically a form of content marketing.

There are many ways to convert the traffic that I get. I use 2 main methods here at PT Money: Google Adsense and affiliate sales. I also get a smaller amount of income from impression based advertising. However, I really don’t have enough traffic for this to be worth my time, I think.

The common denominator in all of those methods is quality traffic. If you can get the traffic then you can figure out how to monetize it. There are a million different ways to monetize a blog. The trouble is getting the traffic in the first place. To build high quality, consistent, relevant traffic from the search engines you need to do two primary things: provide valuable content (e.g. solve problems, answer questions) and be seen as somewhat of an authority on the subject matter (i.e. you’ve been around a while and other people refer to you on the subject). I could go on and on about content and authority, but I’ll save that for another blogger to explain. Or you can email me and I’ll elaborate.

Why and How Did You Get Started Blogging?

I started blogging about personal finance after a year or so of reading other personal finance blogs and feeling like I also had something to contribute. I wasn’t that great of a blogger initially (I’m a grammatically-challenged writer), and I definitely didn’t know how to monetize the little traffic I did have. But I think know it was my passion for personal finance that kept me going and allowed me to eventually have some success. I started making real money after meeting other bloggers online who were doing just that. They were kind enough to share their methods with me and I’ve been optimizing different monetization techniques ever since. As for the technical aspects, I started on Blogger, but moved to WordPress hosted on BlueHost in early 2008.

How Much Do You Make from Blogging?

Right now this blog brings in anywhere from 25% to 40% of my full-time job monthly income. Enough to pay my mortgage and then some. It’s been a great side hustle. My numbers are definitely not typical when compared to all bloggers (most bloggers don’t make much money). But if you compare me to my peers in the personal finance realms, I’ve still got a ways to go before I maximize my earning from this blog. I’m excited at the potential.

When Do You Have Time to Do This?

I don’t. I have made time. Since I’ve had a full-time job these past 3 years, I’ve primarily been writing and working on the blog from 8pm to midnight (sometimes 3am). This allows me time to spend with the family each evening, but still spend a significant amount of time each night on the blog. This explains why I can’t tell you what happened on any TV shows last night, or meet you out at the movies. I also spend at least 8 hours on the weekends writing or tweaking the blog. It’s been tough at times to balance a job and a side-business. But I’m proof that you can do both, at least for a little while.

Can You See This Being a Full-Time Gig?

Yes. I didn’t at first. But as things have progressed, I’ve been encouraged to see that it can be done. My goal is to be a full-time blogger very soon. I’ve grown tired of trying to find time for blogging. I want it to be my main gig. Can everyone make a full time income from blogging? Yes, I think so. It takes a lot of hard work for most people, but it can be done. Do most bloggers make full time income? No, because they are either not trying to, or because they’re not there yet. I’m convinced that if you want it, and you put in the time, it will come.

How Do You Maximize Your Earnings from Blogging?

I consider the baseline for blogging to be writing consistently and interacting with the community. If you’re doing that, then you are going to eventually see some income, if only enough to buy you a coffee once a week. To maximize my earnings I’ve done the following:

Write to answer questions and solve problems.
Produce a large amount of content.
Interact with others doing the same thing as much as possible.
Constantly try different monetizing methods.

The thing about those first 3 items above is that they come naturally to those with a passion.

One specific tip I can give here is to focus heavily on converting search engine traffic. I try not to “sell” to my subscribers and daily readers. I love you guys, but you don’t pay my bills. The folks coming from Google, Bing, and Yahoo every day are the paying customers. They are visiting my site for the first time and I’m providing an answer that is highly relevant to what they need right then and there. They are therefore the easiest to convert. Not to say you can’t develop a nice niche following and make sales. It’s just not something I have experience with. I’m getting there though.

What Mistakes Do People Make When Trying to Make Money Blogging?

I’m sure I made a ton of mistakes along the way. Heck, I’m probably still making a few. I think overall people make a mistake when they try to blog just for money. They underestimate how much effort it takes to create income from free content. As I stressed earlier, it takes a long time and a lot of hard work. If you’re passionate about your subject matter then it’s easier to press on when success comes slow.

My friend Pete, from Bible Money Matters, just released an ebook package where he shares his advice on making money with a blog. If you’re going to give this blogging thing a go, I couldn’t recommend a better guide. It would take you months to learn all that’s been included in this e-book and bonus material. Save yourself some time and get the Blueprint for Making Money with a Blog.

If you’re an experienced blogger I’d love to hear your thoughts on maximizing your earnings, or any other blogging monetization tips you might have. Share them below…

You can read more about how to make extra money in my post 5 Tips for Making Extra Money. Blogging not your thing? Check out 52 Ways to Make Extra Money.

Photo by Jacob Bøtter

Make Extra Money with Freebie Trading

PT — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:19:45 +0000

This post is the third in my series of interviews with real people making extra money online. Leslie is a Blogger/Entrepreneur who teaches people how to make money online with Freebie Trading.

His blog at TheFreebieGuy.net teaches people how to get started with Freebie Trading and his Community at CaliStyle101 is one of the premiere Freebie Trading Communities on the Internet today.

1. What is freebie trading?

Freebie Trading is a relatively new industry that’s built on the concept of Affiliate Marketing, in a way that makes it much easier to get started. It involves Freebie Sites that provide users with incentives for trying out different services/products in the form of cash or physical prizes. These services can be free or very inexpensive products and ranges from things like a Free Blockbuster Online trial to getting your credit report. In other words, many of these things are things that you would do, but with Freebie Trading, you get paid to do it.

These Freebie sites pay anywhere between $40 (for easy sites) and $120 (for much harder sites) for each referral that you get that meets the very basic offer requirements and you can get paid over and over for each referral you send, without having to complete any more offers.

There are two features that make freebie trading very appealing to beginners. The first one would be the Freebie Trading forums. There are a few good ones out there like CaliStyle101 where you can find mentors to walk you through the process, people interested in completing offers and being your referral and training to make sure you are on the right path.

The second would be the concept that with freebie trading, the person getting the referral usually splits the money they get paid with the referral. In other words, if you sign up as someone’s referral and complete the offer requirements, the person that referred you usually gives you 50% of their profit.

2. How and why did you get started?

I was browsing the internet one day and I just stumbled onto the process. After doing a lot of research, I saw that many people were doing it successfully and that it wasn’t a “high risk” venture (in terms of how much it costs to get started) so I decided to give it a go, just for fun. I wasn’t really looking for a way to make money online, but it seemed like the risk was so low,that it made sense to give it a try. I started in January of 2008 and have not regretted the decision one bit.

3. How much money do you make from just freebie trading each year?

In my first year (2008), I made approximately $28,000 Gross. However, my net profits were approximately 50% of that, because I paid my referrals half of what I made, following the standard model. I also was able to get a free iPod touch and 42″ flatscreen TV, which was really exciting, because I always wanted one of those TVs, but couldn’t convince myself to spend that kind of money on it. Getting it free was the best of both worlds. I also want to mention that I did this part time, because I also have a full time job and couldn’t invest as much time as I wanted to.

In 2009, I made the shift to owning a Freebie Trading forum and providing resources for other people to be more successful. I really enjoyed trading but realized that there was a lack of simple video tutorials to help people do well. People were coming into the industry, misunderstanding the terms, making simple mistakes and deciding that it wasn’t for them. So I took up the task and made the switch to providing a great community. So, I’m no longer an active Freebie Trader, but still very active in the Freebie Industry.

4. I know you have another job. When do you do this freebie trading?

Yes, I’m a full time Science and Math teacher at a boarding academy, which does demand a significant amount of time. However, because of the nature of Freebie Trading, there are no real time restrictions. You can do it whenever you have free moment. When I was heavy into Freebie trading, I would log into the forums early in the morning, whenever I had a break during the day and again in the evening. In other words, I did it whenever I felt like it. This is another attractive aspect of Freebie Trading.

Freebie Trading is literally the kind of thing where you can do some work for maybe 20 minutes, and then decide that you don’t want to touch it again for a month or so. That’s not what I would recommend, but it does illustrate that you are 100% free to choose to do it however you would want to do it.

5. Can you see yourself doing this full-time?

Most people expect me to say yes in response to that question. However, the answer is a resounding no, and here’s why. Freebie Trading is a great way to start making money online and supplement your income. However, it’s not something I would recommend for full time income. It takes a lot of work to make a lot of money with it, but is easy to get started and in order to continue making money with Freebie Trading, you have to continue working hard.

For long term (full-time) income, I prefer to set up a full online business. One that you can leverage so that over time, you can establish multiple streams of income, resulting in you working less and making more. I recommend Freebie Trading for anyone looking to get started making money online. Then I recommend investing in your online business education and taking steps to build a business that can have a tremendous impact on your life and the life of those around you.

6. What skills have made you successful at freebie trading?

The first skill is the most important one and is applicable to whatever you are doing to make money online. That’s patience. It takes patience to make money online. Although you can literally make money on your first day with Freebie Trading, in order to really build on it, it will take work, reading, educating yourself and following crucial steps. Many people try to rush into it, unaware of some of the steps that need to be taken, and then they aren’t as successful.

The second skill is attention to detail. There are a lot of details to keep track of with Freebie Trading (as with any business). You need to keep track of your referrals, the offers you complete, the payments you receive and have to send to your referrals, contact information and the list goes on and on. You need to be organized and pay attention to the details.

The last skill I would like to mention is that of perseverance. I’m not going to tell you that once you start Trading, it will be a bed of roses. It’s easy to start, but in order to make a significant amount of money, it will take a lot of work. In the months where I’ve made the most money trading ($6,878.54), I basically lived attached to my computer and was extremely burnt out to the extent that I almost wanted to forget it all and move on. I know I probably shouldn’t say that, but it’s the truth. Since then, certain aspects of the industry have continued to make it challenging, but when it’s all said and done, the experience you gain plays a significant part of shaping your success.

7. How do you maximize your earning from freebie trading?

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is trying to get a ton of referrals. I know, that sounds like the logical thing to do, but there’s a smarter way of doing it. On average, you will make $25 profit from each trade. If you want to make $1,000 in a month, you can do it the “normal” way of getting 40 referrals in a month. Now, that’s just A LOT of referrals to get and it would take A LOT of time dealing with those people, answering questions, getting your questions answered and just being helpful.

Alternatively, you can do it the smart way and get 8 referrals to do 5 trades with you. Less referrals, meaning less people to keep track of, less time spent and just as much money. This is the model I’ve tried to use for maximizing my Freebie Trading success.

8. What are some of the common mistakes people make when they try to make money from freebie trading?

Not watching the tutorials and following the instructions. There are a few details that are essential to freebie trading success. Some people find out about Freebie Trading, dive in, complete offers, don’t get credit and then write it off as a “scam”. However, if they only watched the video tutorials, they would see that in order to get credited, they have to set their browser the right way. If you don’t know those settings, it’s very likely that you won’t get credited for the offers you complete, and won’t get paid.

9. Do you see yourself doing this for a while? What’s next for you?

Most definitely. I believe that there is a lot of growth potential in this industry. It’s such a young industry that it’s not really well known. With the internet growing at alarming rates, it’s only a matter of time before Freebie Trading is a common term.

In terms of what’s next for me, we are constantly expanding CaliStyle101. In fact, we just purchased a Freebie Network called Prizefast and are working on building that to be one of the best Freebie Networks in the industry. We’re excited about the possibilities, because they are endless. If anyone is interested in learning more about Freebie Trading, I would invite them to watch our Free Video Tutorials at CaliStyle101. It’s a community with over 27,000 members and is growing on a daily basis. So check it out and see if Freebie Trading is right for you.

Thanks for your great responses, Leslie. If you have a question for Leslie, fire away in the comments below…

You can read more about how to make extra money in my post 5 Tips for Making Extra Money. Freebie trading not your thing? Check out 52 Ways to Make Extra Money.

Make Extra Money with an Online Store

PT — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:15:24 +0000

This post is part of my series of interviews with real people making extra money online. Today’s interview is with Steve from MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

What exactly is an online store?

An online store is simply a website that allows you to sell goods online in an automated fashion. For a store that carries many products and manages inventory, there are many complete shopping cart solutions available that allow you list and organize unlimited products, accept various forms of payment, manage shipping and allow for a multitude of sale and discount options. These days, many of these shopping carts are open source and free which makes it easy for anyone to get started.

How and why did you get started?

My wife and I strongly believe in having a parent stay at home with the children especially during the early stages of childhood. So when my wife became pregnant with our first child, we both knew that she was going to quit her job. The problem was that we couldn’t really stand to lose 50% of our household income. Either we had to drastically cut back on our expenses or we had to find another source of income within 9 months. Ultimately, we decided to start an online business and haven’t looked back since.

Do you do this full-time?

The term “full-time” is somewhat of a misnomer when it comes to the internet. Because a computer server is running the business for you 24 hrs a day, when and where you decide to work is entirely up to you. In the case with our online store, my wife runs the store during the day and I help out at night. I would say that she puts in maybe 3-4 hours a day.

I work full time still while managing all of the technical aspects of our online store and my blog at MyWifeQuitHerJob.com. I really love my job as a computer processor designer and my company is extremely flexible so I plan to continue working for the foreseeable future even though I could probably quit my job and still get by. In addition, having my job allows me to provide health care insurance for my family.

How much do you actually make doing this?

Although I won’t divulge exactly how much our online store actually makes, we did make a little over 100K during our first year of business. If you follow the blog, we’ve had significant increases every year and have been in business for 3 years. If you really want to know, you can check the blog and do the math.

What skills make you most successful at running the online store?

I wouldn’t necessarily call this a skill, but I think our motivation is what has made us successful. Most people start a business and start coasting once things get going. But my and I are always constantly finding new ways to improve the business and drive traffic to our store. Our kids provide us with inspiration because our online business allows us to spend more time together as a family.

How do you maximize your efforts?

My wife and I get questions all the time about how we manage to run a business, a blog, a full time job and two kids at the same time. The key is that we break up tasks into small pieces and do a little work whenever we have a free moment. If you look at your typical day, you can always find a small chunk of time to get something done. My wife and I used to waste a ton of time so it helps to analyze your day and prioritize. It’s all about making constant progress no matter how small.

What mistakes do people make when trying to make money with an online store?

The biggest mistake that most people make is that they think they can simply throw up a store and the customers will come automatically. The bulk of the work isn’t in getting your website up and your products ready to sell. It’s a constant process that involves marketing and promoting your store.

In addition, many people give up shortly after their store launches because they don’t have patience. It takes time for a business to develop. In fact, our online business made very few sales during our first months of business and we wanted to give up as well. But if you stick with it, good things always happen.

What other advice could you share about building an online store?

The best advice that I can give is to get started now. The sooner you start, the sooner you can become entrenched in the search engines and the sooner you can build a business reputation. These days, it is extremely cheap to start any business online. In fact, my wife and I only invested around 600 dollars to launch our store and it only cost us about $30 a month to maintain. It’s easy and cheap to start so why not give it a shot?

Launch your own ecommerce store with BigCommerce. All-in-one, easy to use, SEO, marketing tools and more. Try it free!

Thanks for your great responses, Steve. If you have a question for Steve, fire away in the comments below…

You can read more about how to make extra money in my post 5 Tips for Making Extra Money. Online store not your thing? Check out 52 Ways to Make Extra Money.

Photo by Señor Codo

Make Extra Money with Freelance Writing

PT — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:00:09 +0000

This post is the first of my series of interviews with real people making extra money online. Today’s interview is with Debbie Dragon, a Freelance Writer and Entrepreneur. Debbie explains how to make money writing.

Debbie, what is freelance writing?

Freelance writing is when someone writes for payment – but are not employed by a specific company. For me, freelance writing falls into two major categories – offline freelance writing, which is writing for magazines, newspapers, journals, and businesses; and online freelance writing, which is writing for websites and a variety of other online sources.

How and why did you get started?

I got started as a freelance writer right out of college, 7 years ago. I was expecting my first son, and really didn’t want to put him in daycare. So I started looking for ways to earn money from home. I had a bachelor of science degree in computer information systems – so I figured I’d be able to find employment at home using my degree, but that proved to be impossible. Any company that would even consider a telecommuting arrangement wanted someone with 10+ years experience.

So I stumbled upon sites like Rentacoder.com and Getafreelancer.com – and started bidding for jobs. I tried transcription, basic web design work, data entry and article writing. I had always enjoyed writing but was told there was no money in it, which is what lead me to study computers in college.

At first – I relied on the freelance bidding sites to find work. Over time, I realized there were other ways to find clients and started establishing my own database of clients who would hire me for repeat work.

Editor’s note: Debbie mentioned using job bidding sites. Three other sites I’ve used to find freelancers are oDesk, Elance.com, and GoFreelance.com.

Do you do freelance writing full-time?

Very full time! Writing is the only thing I do to earn income.

How much do you actually make doing this?

In 2009, I joined forces with 2 other freelance writers because the demand for my work was too much for one person to handle. Together in our first year, we brought in about $100,000. We’re on track to triple that for 2010.

What skills make you most successful at freelance writing?

For online freelance writing, I honestly believe all that is required is basic writing ability. You need to be able to string sentences together in a way that everyone can read and understand. You need to know how to research information. Beyond that though, I think the most important skills for becoming successful as a freelance writer are on the business side of things. You can be the world’s best writer but if you don’t know how to find people willing to pay you to write it will never advance beyond a hobby.

How do you maximize your efforts?

As I mentioned, I’m no longer a single-person freelance writer. I wasn’t able to continue to grow my business and increase my income with my own limited time and resources. So expanding to a 3-person, full time business venture has allowed us to take on more work and start increasing our income.

Also in 2009, we realized that there are many web developers and technical companies online who have a need for online content but don’t necessarily have the time or desire to requests quotes from writers. We created ReliableWriters.com as a way to let people request their writing projects, see exactly how much it’s going to cost, and when to expect the finish work all without having to talk to a person.

We now have a team of several freelance writers available who help us fulfill large assignments as they come in; and editors who review each article before sending it on to the client.

What mistakes do people make when trying to make money with freelance writing?

I think it’s common for people to want to start out as a freelance writer making hundreds of dollars for every article they write. Many people turn their noses up at the lower paying assignments,and don’t realize that if the goal is to earn consistent income as a freelance writer you’ll make more by writing $30 and $50 articles all week long than writing one $500 article every other week. Does that make sense? If the goal is to become a part time or full time freelance writer, it will pay you more to accept assignments that offer repeat work, and fair payment than it will to spend a week marketing and looking for the handful of higher paying assignments out there.

What other advice could you share about freelance writing?

If your goal with writing is to earn income with it, I think it’s necessary to be willing to write about topics you may not have much interest in personally. If you’re too picky about what you write about, you’re going to severely limit the amount of potential work you find.

You can read more about how to make extra money in my post 5 Tips for Making Extra Money. Not a writer? Check out 52 Ways to Make Extra Money.

Photo by dbdbrobot

5 Tips for Making Extra Money

PT — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:09:54 +0000

We could all use to make just a little extra money, right?

So how do you go about making this extra money? You could work more at your regular job. Odds are though, you’re a salaried employee. Working more will only mean more time away from your family, not more money. And even if you have a hourly job, extra hours are probably hard to come by right now.

You could ask for a raise. Not a bad idea in normal times. But we’re not exactly living in normal times. Many of us are worried about just keeping our jobs. So what’s the solution?

How I Make Extra Money

For me, it’s been having my own blog and writing about personal finance. I’m able to make a quality secondary income from my efforts here at PT Money. So, is blogging about finance the answer? For me it was. But it isn’t necessarily what’s going to bring you extra income. Here’s why:

I’m passionate about personal finance. It’s something I liked talking about prior to even blogging about the subject. Also, because I’m passionate about the subject, I meet other people who also like to talk and write about it. I learned from their successes and have since been able to find my own success to share.

Lastly, because of my passion, I was able to develop a plan for a successful blog, as well as, put in the time to actually make it successful without it feeling like a huge hardship.

Want to start making your own extra money? Here are my 5 tips for making extra money. Remember: It starts with passion.

Turn a Hobby into a Paying Gig

What are you hobbies? What are the things you like to do with your free time? That’s likely the thing that you should focus on to create some extra income. You’re already passionate and knowledgeable about your hobby. Find a way to turn it into extra money.

Need specific ideas for hobbies that can bring in extra income? Download my ebook, 52 Ways to Make Extra Money…Revisited.

Just Start, Perfect Later

You’ve heard it before, “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” This is so true when it comes to making extra money. A lot of time and money is wasted on putting together the perfect business plan. Some planning is good, but you’ll learn far more about your side business if you just start. You don’t need business cards or a website to get started. Just go make sales. Then get those other things going once you figure out how to make money with your side business.

Find Someone Already Having Success

Finding success with any business rarely happen to those who try to go it alone. Besides, most worthwhile money making ideas aren’t novel. Someone has already done it and is doing it better than you could ever imagine. Find those people, make friends, provide value to them, and then study how they do what they do. This is the quickest way to turning your struggling side income into a successful money maker.

In each of Chris Guillebeau’s Unconventional Guides he works with people who are already having success with their online ventures. Who do you know that’s already paved the way?

Set Goals and Create a Plan

At some point, maybe after you’ve got some sales under your belt and have a feel for the business, you need to establish some goals. This goal plan will then become the guide for how you go about your side business over the next few weeks, months, and years. Revisit these goals on a routine basis and make adjustments as you learn more about the business and your expectations become more realistic.

Put in the Time and Discipline

My last tip is one you might not want to hear. It takes a lot of time and effort to produce something valuable enough to bring in a consistent extra income. I spend a lot of late nights and early mornings working on my side business. But because it’s a passion of mine, I can stick with it, even when it seems like success is a bit further down the road.

Over the next few months I’d like to feature interviews / spotlights with other people who are having success making some extra money online. I’ll speak with freelancers, bloggers, artists, affiliate marketers, and more in hopes to give you some good ideas for making your own extra income online.

52 Ways to Make Extra Money …Revisited

PT — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:00:22 +0000

I’ve created a download-able version of my most popular post, 52 Ways to Make Extra Money. This book is available for download right now.

But this isn’t just a rehash of the old post. With the help of some friends I was able to provide much more detail for selected ideas (around 15). The guide also includes 2 bonus ideas, extra money tips, and quotes. Plus, it was beautifully designed by my friend Ryan, of HillThread.com.

Thanks to these friends for their expert contributions to the expanded sections:

J. Money from Budgets are Sexy
Bob from Christian Personal Finance
FFB from Free From Broke
Pete from Bible Money Matters
Baker from Man Vs. Debt
Madison from My Dollar Plan
Jason from One Money Design
Studenomist from Studenomics

Update on the Saving to Give e-book: A week or two ago I mentioned I was writing an e-book focused around the idea of saving more to be able to give more. That e-book is still in the works. I’ve written it. I just need to determine the best way to format it and present it to you. Those that originally signed up with the PT Money Newsletter in hopes for a preview copy will get one soon.