Indispensable Resource for Freelance Photographers
resources | 2 Comments
If you are a Photographer and are trying to get started in selling your images, your first step should be to pick up a copy of 2009 Photographer’s Market
9 Affiliate Links For Passive Income
passive income | 1 Comment
Most people realize at some point or other that affiliate prgrams are a great way to make money on-line. Affiliate programs are a great way to make passive income on-line without having a product of your own to sell. Below is a list of 9 Must Have Affiliate Websites:
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Click Bank
Commission Junction
PepperJam Network
Amazon
Ebay
E-Junkie
Text Link Ads
Shopping.com
Buy Sell Ads
This is just a taste to get you going with Affiliate Marketing.
Free Digital Issue of Layers Magazine
resources | No Comments
Layers Magazine is giving away a free digital copy of their magazine. All you have to do is sign up with your email info, and they will send it to you.
Layers is a tremendously helpful resource, they have great tutorials on photography and most of the Creative Suite programs from Adobe. The nice thing about Layers is that it’s only about $10 dollars an issue if you buy it at the newsstand, and only $29.95 if you subscribe for a year. That’s pretty cheap compared to the other web and graphic mags out there. Most of them are published in the UK, so the prices are a bit steep for us in the US.
Free Beginner Blog Report
resources | No Comments
There is a free report available for download over at BecomeaBlogger.Com.
All you have to do is enter your email and they will send you a confirmation, with a link to the report. While you’re over at their site, check out the free videos they have posted up as well. A quick bit of advice, as you are researching how to make money online, you will be continuously asked to enter your email address for access to reports and information. This is so that the person giving out the free info can add your email to their mailing list. You will get emails from them on a regular basis. Now this isn’t always a bad thing, because some of these emails can contain some great info. But if you’re like me you’ll be signing up left and right for stuff, and this can easily flood your inbox with emails. So what I suggest is setting up a dedicated email using Gmail, or Hotmail, that you use specifically for any of this type of activity, that way your personal email doesn’t get flooded with “business emails. So essentially you are setting yourself up a business email account.
22 Essential Links for Work at Home and Freelancers
resources | 1 Comment
Here’s a list of essential links for anyone who is a freelancer or if you work from home. There is sure to be something here that will strike an interest for most of you. Enjoy:
- Digg Design
a collection of design articles
Woork
a web design and development blog
Smashing Magazine
an online magazine with excellent articles on web design, design, web development, and business
W3 Schools
online learning for web related technologies
Seo Logic
search engine optimization
Design Quote
a tool for getting quotes for your projects
Creattica Daily
daily web news
WordPress Forums
forums for wordpress, very useful and helpful community
Web Worker Daily
blog for web workers
Anywired
a blog for working online
Location Independant
web working blog
PSD Tuts
photoshop tutorial site, high quality
Free Blog Tutorial
a tutorial about setting up a blog from start to finish, very informative
Flip a Website
how to flip websites for profit
Duct Tape Marketing
marketing ideas for being on a budget
Start-Up Nation
resource website for small business owners and start-ups
Scrappy Business
a great business blog
Bootstrapping
useful business tips for running a business
CafePress
upload your designs and sell them on products
Zazzle
upload your designs and sell them on products
Etsy
sell your home made products
Istock Photo
sell your photographs online
Making Money from Day Trading Online from Home
work from home | No Comments
A good way to generate some income from working from the comforts of your home is by day trading stocks on the internet. By using online brokers such as etrade, it makes it a whole lot easier for us to access trading stocks with reasonable commission fees. Signing up with a broker is pretty simple. You go to their website, deposit funds, and then wait for it to clear. Once you are clear you can begin trading stocks. I know that a lot of people are afraid of the market at the current time. But that doesn’t mean that you still can’t turn a profit from the stock market. You can actually get some good stocks dirt cheap right now. However, you should remember to only invest with money that you don’t need for living expenses, and that you don’t need access to for a decent period of time.
A good dollar amount to get started with is $5000. That might seem like a lot of cash, and it is. The reason you want to start off with so much, is so that you can buy some volume. This is where you’re going to make your profits. If you only invest a couple hundred or so, you won’t be able to purchase the necessary amount of shares to make a decent profit.
Ok, the key to making money is to find a stable stock that doesn’t move all that much, you don’t want the stocks that are on the news and in the reports, this causes a lot of trading activity and makes it harder and more unpredictable to trade in the positive.
So you managed to find a good looking stock that isn’t moving much, the goal is to make a limit order on the bid price. And then immediately put in a limit sell order at the ask price. Example: bid-6.00 ask 6.05. So if you bought 4000 shares at 6.00 and then sold for 6.05, you would have a profit of $190 after commission charges. If you managed to do this a few times a day, you can end up making some pretty decent cash. You have to be careful though that you are only taking smart trades, because those commission charges can add up pretty quick.
So basically what you are trying to do is purchase big volume in stock and then sell immediately squeezing out a tiny percentage increase, the secret is in the volume and the bid ask spread.
Do some google research on bid ask spreads to learn more on how that works.
Again, make sure you are not trading with funds that you need access to for rent, bills, ect.
If you really want to learn this stuff, and it seems like something you might seriously want to get into, I recommend 1 book, “Day Trade Online (Wiley Trading)
Here’s the link:
Day Trade Online (Wiley Trading) Online by Christopher A. Farrell
This book will walk you through it step by step and explain it way better than I ever could.
Learn Photoshop for Free
freelance, work from home | No Comments
If you use Photoshop for any design work or photo work, then you would definitely be interested in this article from Speckboy. It is a list of 11 completely free Photoshop ebooks. They are all available for free download. I check it out today and snagged a couple for myself. There is also a link to a Free Photography magazine download. Here’s the link:
Free Photoshop Ebooks
How to make a simple website layout
freelance, work from home | No Comments
At some point in your freelance web career, you will need to design or have a website designed for you. If you are a bit into using programs like Dreamweaver and Photoshop, then you can more than likely get your own basic Website up and running without too much trouble.
There is a wealth of information and tutorials across the web teaching you how to design a website. One of the best tutorials that I have come across is from PSDTUTS. I have been following their blog for a little over a year now, and am so impressed by the quality and usefulness of their tutorials. I have followed and utilized many tips from some of their tutorials. The link to the particular tutorial on designing a simple layout is here.
How to monetize your website besides Adsense
freelance, work from home | No Comments
There are other ways to bring in revenue from your website besides just using Google Adsense. Adsense is great way to fill ad space without having to do too much work for it. You sign up and then insert the code where you want the ads to appear, and then targeted ads are placed in the chosen spot.
Another great way to bring in money from your site is Affiliate Revenue. This is where you sell another companies product as an affiliate and take a commission from the sales. My advice to you is to choose a product that you stand behind and are familiar with. Most companies have some sort of affiliate program.
- Amazon is one of the biggest
Commission Junction is a good place to start
ClickBank is also a good place to check out for affiliate products
Some people who run websites, set up a Donation system. This can be done using Paypal. Think this option through, before you do, it might not do as well on some sites. Sometimes readers take it as a type of begging. But some people feel like donating when there is quality content. It’s your call.
Then there is always the Direct Ad Sales. You can contact specific companies to your niche and ask if they want to advertise on your site. Make sure you have good traffic built up before you do. A lot of advertisers will want to know what the stats for your site are to determine if it would be beneficial to advertise with your site. You can also be creative in this area as well, and come up with some sort of alternative payment plans.
There are many more ways to monetize your site. These are just the beginning steps that you should set in motion on your path to passive income.
Take advantage of work situations
freelance | 1 Comment
In my last post I talked about turning your current employer into your client. Well I’ve been pulled back into my employers grips. However I have turned the situation to benefit myself. I am still freelancing for them, but for this assignment they sent me out of state. All my airfare, hotel, and meals are paid for while I’m on this assignment. The way I’ve turned this into an even better situation is by taking advantage of the alone time. I have been very productive this week without having all the distractions from home. I am secluded in my hotel room, and therefore can work on projects that have been getting pushed to the back burner.
This week I’ve spent time editing photos and uploading them to istockphoto. I’ve also been racking my brain trying to get my new photography portfolio site up and running. I’m doing it in Adobe Flash, and have reached a stubborn part in some of the actionscript code. So I’m taking a break to write in this blog. Usually when you hit a spot that just stumps you, it helps to do something different for a bit to get your mind off the problem, so you can go back to it more focused.
So basically the company is providing me with a nice quiet place to get caught up on some back burner projects. It’s not exactly working from home, or passive income (besides the istockphotos), but it is a pretty good freelance gig.
So when you get tossed into a situation, always look for ways in which you can make it pay off even more.
