Working online has some remarkable similarities to traditional employment. Workers often start off small on easy tasks for little pay, develop expertise over time in their chosen field, and some eventually find lucrative employment. Online work, however, is done for several employers on different platforms and often at the same time, instead of a series of individual employers over a period of time. The rules of advancement remain the same.
Find a Niche
The first assignment is to decide what service to provide to the online community of employers. Experience, talent and education are all valued and any combination is a step up the employment scale. Even the ability to speak a second language learned at home as a child is a marketable skill. There is no lower limit to the jobs available online.
Covering the immense variety of simple tasks that (still) require a human are websites that offer micro-jobs such as Clickworker or Mechanical Turk. These jobs take little time or experience and pay little money. However, Clickworker states that they expect the average freelance worker to earn $9 per hour.
Even these websites advertise the need for translators. A global economy has increased the need to move information between languages. This has also fueled a demand for writers, proofreaders and editors. Although available as micro-jobs, these tasks move up a step up the online food chain.
Find a Platform
Just as there is no shortage of online work there is no shortage of online work platforms. A simple Google search for online jobs in a specified field will often return more choices than can be reasonably evaluated. In addition, online platforms like indeed.com and monster.com which began as online job listings for traditional employment now include online freelance work.
Upwork.com and Freelancer.com are two websites that advertise jobs requiring some higher level of experience or education. They span a wide range of fields and skill sets covering virtually any job that can be done remotely. The advanced requirements bring with them a relative commensurate advancement in pay scale.
An important element of any online presence that should be carefully managed is the workers’ online reputation. Sites that evaluate workers based on ratings given by employers, such as iWriter.com, directly reflect reputation in pay scale, but the general relationship exists as well. Diligent work is valued across the online community and can lead to the next step on the ladder.
Create a Platform
At one point in time this meant creating a website to sell a product or service, and that still remains a viable option. However, it is possible to create a viable platform that provides free authoritative advice to visitors and profit from those interested in the traffic. Medium.com offers a remarkable variety of pages run by enthusiasts covering topics ranging from paranormal counseling to outdoor hiking.
Ebooks and audiobooks are also steps up the online ladder for those with the necessary skill set. Kindle Direct Publishing through Amazon provides a complete slate of production and distribution services, including free promotional distribution on their website.
Rising to this level of sophistication may require an ongoing internet marketing presence integrating social media and other channels. A shortcoming in any particular field is not an impediment, since workers with the requisite skill set can be located and hired online. As always, advancing to the point where the worker becomes the employer is the top rung on the ladder.
Simple Rules to Earn Money Online
The expression “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” applies to many things, and at the top of that list is the latest fantastic way to earn money online. These offers sometimes promise work done in spare time will generate enough income to retire early. Invariably the photograph advertising the offer features either cash, a keyboard or both.
Avoid Scams
The internet is not a safe place for children or people desperate to earn some extra money. Savvy Internet Marketers (IMs) have spent years honing the skills needed to lure unsuspecting victims into their schemes. To avoid losing money instead of making it, avoid any opportunity that involves spending significant money. The deal is designed to sound fantastic, but there are ways to earn money online without spending it.
Second, make sure the work offer is for actual money and not points or the opportunity to win money. The promise of greater value in exchange for a small immediate return is a hallmark of a questionable business. Finally, avoid any business that involves recruiting others into the business, a common indication of a pyramid scheme.
Start Small
Immediate wealth comes from winning the lottery, not working on the internet. Like any legitimate business, success comes from small, diligent efforts that build and grow. The activity itself does not matter as much as the attitude underlying the effort. Diligence at the start will contribute to success for two reasons.
First, diligence breeds greater diligence. Delivering on a smaller promise made to an online customer is a training ground for dealing with larger, more complicated promises. Second, diligence builds reputation. In an environment where nothing is ever lost, careful nurturing of a good name is a great long term investment.
Find a Niche
Everyone has a talent, and the internet will pay for it. The goal is to identify activities that are relatively easy due to natural ability and then find the appropriate online platform for selling that talent.
Delivering outstanding value to the first clients encountered in the selected niche is incredibly important. It establishes a precedent that becomes a pattern. It also is the first impression that will last.
Hard Work First
The frequently told tales of overnight success in e-commerce are modern fairy tales. The simple fact is that establishing a reliable presence in an internet niche is hard work for little reward in the beginning. This is no different from any other occupation or business.
However, as a free and open marketplace the internet also rewards authentic value and creativity. Those rewards most likely will not be gained immediately, but the opportunity for meaningful income does exist. Time and diligence will pay off in the long run.
The promise of immediate wealth from online work is like the promise of sticking it rich in the days of the gold rush. While that did happen at times, the wealth was often just as quickly lost. Many of the businesses built with an eye to delivering value to the miners, however, are still in operation today.
Once You Earn Money Online, Hang Onto It
Once a person was asked what the greatest sin was, the answer was that it was the one that person was struggling with at that moment. It’s simple, but the way that answer works is similar to what is the biggest money news for you. It’s what will make the most difference in your life at this moment. But as humans, we share a lot of common traits, so let’s talk about some of the best money information for many and quite likely your issue will be covered.
Keep a Spending Diary
You don’t have to do this forever, but try it for 30-90 days and see what you learn about your spending habits, where your money goes, and what things really are important to you that cost you money. Spending money is not bad as long as you know the purpose and it’s not simply slipping through your fingers. Keeping a spending diary will be especially important to those who get to the end of their pay cycle and can’t imagine how they managed to spend all their money without being sure where it went.
The best spending diary will include the date, time of day, amount spent, where it was spent, and any other pertinent information such as who you were with and what you were feeling. Record every cent that leaves your fingertips, checking account, or otherwise.
After you have kept this information for a few months, review all the information. Look for any patterns. Then decide if there are ways you want to use your money differently. Maybe make fewer stops at a high-end coffee shop so you can get another $50 per month into savings. Maybe you want to buy less trendy clothing and instead get one good classic piece every couple of months instead. It’s all about awareness and conscious choice.
Food and Entertainment
Obviously, you will spend a certain percentage of your budget on food and probably entertainment as well. But many people don’t pay close attention to the amount they spend when they are out on the town. Never realizing they might spend twice as much on dinners and lunches prepared by others every month than their monthly grocery bill. If that’s the case and you don’t want to cut back on the number of times you eat out, then finding less expensive places to eat might be a good alternative.
You might also consider paying cash for all such meals and once the cash you allotted for eating out is gone, then no more of that for the rest of the month. You’ll probably find that you naturally start being more aware of what you spend on food if this is something you decide would be a good choice for you.
Savings and Retirement
You should have a goal of putting at least 10% of your gross income into savings. That may not be possible currently, but decide what you can afford, add a few dollars more and put that in savings as soon as you get paid. If you can have it direct-deposited from your checking to your savings as soon as your check is deposited, even better.
No matter who you are, there will come a time when you need funds to live on, and if you don’t have a savings account, you’ll end up using credit cards. So that when life gets back to normal … way too much debt will follow along. Build savings and retirement accounts consistently every month. I promise you will never regret that decision. It’s probably the biggest bit of money news for you possible.
