7 Ways to Make Money from Home While in Lockdown
I have several friends that have been furloughed from their jobs or some that are no longer working since Covid-19 came along. I wanted to share some tips to earn a few dollars or swag during this time period for them.
I will not lie and say you will get rich with any of these. I’ve been blogging almost a decade now and the first several years I didn’t make a dime. Making money was not why I started my blog Inspire To Thrive.
It was to help people learn from me as I journeyed into social media and seo while managing a retail medical scrub website back in the day.
Now today, that blog has become a business I run. The business is in it’s 2nd full year. Most of the business is services I provide but there are other ways I’ve generated money from the blog.
These ways of making some money are the things I will share here with you now.
- Blogging
- Seeding Up
- Webinfluential
- eBooks
- Affiliates
- Services
- Online Store
The Blog Itself
Many people start with Blogger or Wordpress.com — they are the FREE versions of a blog. But my thought on that is always to have your own self-hosted blog. Now, I know it costs some money for hosting and a theme to do it right.
So, if you are short on cash why not write on Medium here? You can get paid to write here. It’s not guaranteed but at least you have the chance to make money writing here.
The first time I was paid by Medium it took me by surprise, as I don’t write often here. It was not a lot of money but it did cover my $5 monthly subscription I have at Medium.
Why do I have the premium version of Medium? So I can comment more on blogs here and read more of the stories here. It’s an investment.
Social Media Postings and More
One of the first programs I registered for was Seeding Up. They pay you based on your followers and social media / blog channels. You log in and connect your social media channels and wait for offers. I have them set up to go to email and then I can pick and choose which I want to use.
Like most of the online income streams you have to hook up your Paypal account or share your Paypal email to get paid. It’s easy!
Another program I like is called Webinfluential. It’s an influencer marketing program, you can purchase influencers for your brand or be an influencer for brands.
To date, this is my favorite of the programs to earn some extra money. I recently was paid over $350 to write a blog post, share on social media and do one tube video for an app that I love and use. How easy was that?
You just have to put a little time into it. It’s always time or money you need to invest to generate an income.
Write and Sell an eBook
This tactic is a little longer but I read from a blogger I’ve known for years, named Donna Merrill who has a shortcut for this tactic! Her method is write one fast and get it published soon. Of course you need a tool for that. I love tools and can’t wait to check it out myself.
I recently just published my revised eBook but am offering it for 99 cents because of the pandemic crisis. It retails for $7.99 and have a paperback version for $12.99 which has sold already!
Now if you really want to ramp up this one you must check out Ryan Biddulph’s eBook collection from Blogging From Paradise.
He has written over 120 of them!
Affiliate Programs for Your Blog and Social Media
Affiliate marketing is hot and it’s a passive stream of income, sort of! What do I mean by passive? That you can earn money after you develop a base and not have to constantly work it.
For example, I am an affiliate for several apps I use. One of them is Agorapulse. It’s a social media tool for scheduling, generating reports and social listening. I love this tool. I write about it, share about it, etc. on the blog and on social media. I make money every month from it.
From time to time I update the old blog post about Agorapulse as they are always coming out with new things :)
I do the same for other tools and app that I use along the way in my business.
Services to Sell
What are you good at? Can you help others? Are you able to consult? This is the backbone of my business. First I manage and help others to use social media as well as content marketing and blogging. Then I can help with SEO and have others in my business that I assign that to for a full SEO program.
Recently, I began to co-host meetings and webinars on Zoom for clients. This new service developed as the need arose. Always be ready to be agile!
Stores Online for Online Shoppers
Why not have a store online? That’s how I started over 15 years ago. It was a stores online website actually. The store was a dropshipping business. The only issue I had at the time was the ability to know what was in stock on time.
It was hard getting orders for things that were on backorder :(
Today, things have changed with shipping and such but there is such a market now for online shopping! You may have to pay a few bucks to get this one started but they are programs like Shopify to simply it for you.
I have a blogging friend Dana who does a fabulous job with creative projects and she sells items online. She has her own Etsy shop right on her website.
She recently created some t-shirts and coffee mugs with my business logo. I can’t wait to receive them. I have 2 other friends with a jewelry etsy shop.
Once you get going you will need to promote, promote and promote!
What will you do now to make money online?
I’d love to know which of the above you will try to make some extra cash now with your extra time. Each of these methods does take time, time to develop and time to grow.
There are no get rich quick methods out there. But these 7 are some ways to spend your time to grow some dollars.
One bonus tip: If you do shop online there is an app called Lolli that pays you with bitcoin along the way. They have over 750 stores now and some pay as much as 7% back in bitcoin.
I hope you remain well and stay safe!
