Creative Ways to Make Money Part 3: Computer Work

With advancing technology, we now have the advantage of computers and the internet.

• Write a book or an eBook.  Click the links for more information.
• Become a telecommunications rep. Cloud 10, LiveOps, Alpine Access, Arise, West at Home, and Working Solutions have been featured on tv shows and news articles. The National Telecommunications Institute features work-at-home jobs for Americans with disabilities. You will probably need a dedicated room for business (no screaming kids or loud pets), a headset, high speed internet connection, and possibly a second land line phone specifically for business. Some companies pays for the time you’re on the phone and others pays per hour (whether you’re on the phone or not).  Make sure you understand the payment terms before you do work for them.
• Get a membership with a drop shipping company and sell online. Saturation online (ie: eBay) may lead to lower profits. With drop shipping, you order the products and the company sends them to the purchaser so you never have to deal with inventory. Homestead, Dropship Direct, and Doba are a couple known drop shipping companies. There are a lot of drop ship companies out there and they’re all slightly different, so thoroughly research them before you sign up.
• Create personalized items at CafePress or Zazzle. It’s free to join, with the option of a premium account later on if you want.
• Start your own store online. If you have a website, you can add Amazon Marketplace. You pick what items you like from Amazon’s website and post on your site. You then make a commission when someone buys an Amazon item from your website!
• Yuwie is a some peer to peer money making program. Apparently you make money by referring other people but it doesn’t cost you a dime. I DO NOT recommend CashCrate because you have to sign up for “free offers” which will then charge you if you don’t cancel within a certain amount of time and they download files to your computer. If you’re still interested in CashCrate, read Tori’s story.
• Create a website or blog and monetize it. You need a domain and a host. You can then add Google Adsense and affiliates to make money.
• Make a few extra bucks with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The idea behind this is that computers can’t do the jobs, so they post the jobs on a board. Pay is usually very low, but there are a lot of jobs. Jobs are similar to this: “Find the item number for the product in this image.”
• Make skins or applications for social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. If your idea is genius, a large development firm could purchase the rights for a lot of money. You can also pay $99 to develop programs for Apple’s iPhone – you get to keep 70% of the profits.
• Become a freelancer. Elance lists a lot of jobs. A lot of the jobs are technology based (ie: create a website or Java applet) but a search for something in your field could find you something. You apply for jobs by bidding against others who are after the same job. You can also write articles for e-How, Constant Content, or become an About.com expert/guide. Copyeditors and Illustrators are also freelance jobs.
• Another freelancing job is book indexing. As in, you would write the index that is in the back of a non-fiction book. For more information about how to get started in this profession, visit the American Society for Indexing.
• Become a virtual assistant. The International Virtual Assistants Association can give you some ideas on where to find work online in this field.  AssistU offers training on honing your VA skills.
• Domain flipping. Purchase a domain through GoDaddy, flip it, and resell it.
• Create websites for businesses who need them.
• Design! This could be creating web logos or Wordpress themes and selling them online.
• Rewrite poorly written ads on online auction sites. Contact the seller and offer to fix it for a small commission.
• Write product reviews. Ciao and Epinions.com will pay you to write reviews. The bloggers over at Bible Money Matters have posted their earnings with Ciao on their site.
• Do Freebie Trading. This is still very new to me and warrants it’s own blog article. From what I understand, you make money by completing valid offers and referring people. For more information in the meantime, visit Christian Personal Finance.
• At Crossloop you can get paid to help others with their computer problems by setting up a remote desktop.

The following sites are some additional resources to help you find valid online money making opportunities:

• Friends in Business – Lists online money making opportunities that are scams.
• Rat Race Rebellion – Lists a LOT of online jobs in MANY different categories.

Disclaimer: One one last note – these are all opportunities.  I have not tried all of these to see if they work and they are merely ideas to help you out.  I will not be held responsible for any money made or lost with any of the above ideas.

Creative Ways to Make Money Part 1: Selling
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 2: Start a Service
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 3: Computer Work
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 4: Miscellaneous Jobs