Melanie

  De Jong

Melanie

  De Jong

Hey There, I’m Melanie! I am a former CPA turned personal finance blogger and mom of three. When you ‘Budget With Mel’, you’ll develop monthly budgets, cost-cutting tactics, and learn new behaviors and beliefs about money. It’s time you took the stress and confusion out of your personal finances.

Hey There, I’m Melanie! I am a former CPA turned personal finance blogger and mom of three. When you ‘Budget With Mel’, you’ll develop monthly budgets, cost-cutting tactics, and learn new behaviors and beliefs about money. It’s time you took the stress and confusion out of your personal finances.

10 Ways to Make Money From Home

melaniedj • Mar 10, 2019

Gone are the days of working 9-5 with an hour long commute.

You can often times make more money online than you could working 9-5 in the corporate world, and the best part is that you work less hours!

Whether you want to make extra money, quit your job, pay off debt, or simply have the ability to live life on your terms, it is easier than every to do so.

It is so freeing when you don't NEED to work overtime to be comfortable financially. I know of many people who started some of the jobs listed below and after six months of pouring their heart into it were able to quit their job.

The possibilities are endless! No matter what your reason is, these are all great ways to work from home!

10 WAYS TO MAKE MONEY FROM HOME

1. Tutor Online

There are so many opportunities that don't require anything more than a college degree, and tutoring is often one of them.

Use VIP Kid to make up to $22/hour from home!

Requirements include experience with kids, high speed internet, computer and a webcam/microphone!

Tutoring is completely on your terms, you can work as little or as much as you'd like. You have complete time freedom!

2. Start a Blog

You don't have to be a good writer, you just have to have perseverance and be willing to get through the blogging overwhelm in order to have success blogging.

If you have ever thought about blogging, my advice is to go for it.

Blogging is extremely cheap to start, all you need is a domain name, website hosting and a blogging platform. You can get both as a package deal through Bluehost web hosting.

By signing up here , you can get website hosting through my link for $3.95 per month , and you'll get a FREE domain name (the URL of your website).

Subscribe to my blogging crash course below and learn how I started a successful blog and increased my pageviews by 525% in just 1 month! These are the tips I WISH I knew when I started.

Blogging Resources:

WHY BLOG?

Here are some reasons that blogging is a great option to allow you to work from home:

  • Share your opinions and knowledge with the world. I know that you have something amazing to bring to the table! There are literally thousands of topics/niches to choose from for a blog.
  • You don't have to put in hundreds of hours a month to make money. Once you learn to stop connecting time to value (which we've been taught for soooo long), you'll begin to see your work in a different way. Suddenly you will realize that you can make a lot of money only working 20 hours a week.
  • The future is online. Our economy is shifting from traditional 9-5 jobs to online and technical jobs. The possibilities are endless!

If you're anything like me, you have knowledge, experiences, and ideas that you are dying to share with the world.

I honestly can't wait to hop out of bed in the morning and work on my blog!

 

You can start a blog in under 15 minutes, here is a step-by-step tutorial.

 

Sign up for web hosting through my link and get a free domain name and a year of hosting for $3.95 a month!

Stop telling yourself you'll do it tomorrow, when you have more time, or next week. Go through the tutorial and start today.

The only thing I regret on my blogging journey is not starting earlier!

3. Virtual Assistant

There is a growing demand for virtual business assistants, including Pinterest assistants.

A virtual assistant provides support to businesses, entrepreneurs, and different brands from home.

Virtual assistants make anywhere from $20-$45 per hour!

Here are some different fields you can get into as a virtual assistant:

  • Social media manager- these assistants are in really high demand right now. Social media is only growing, and many businesses don't have the time to do content creation, engage on posts, social media analytics, etc.
  • Blogging - main tasks include proofreading and editing posts, managing emails, responding to reader comments, etc.
  • eCommerce - managing inventory, responding to inquiries, tracking orders, and handling returns.
  • Admin - managing emails, managing calendar and schedule, managing files, appointments, etc.
  • Content - research and analyze content ideas, schedule posts, create videos and graphics for posts, etc.
  • Bookkeeping/Payroll - if you have any accounting/finance experience, this is a great niche for you. This area includes bookkeeping, invoice creation, payroll, and payment processing.

The great thing about being a virtual assistant is that you are working from a remote location, so you can do your assigned tasks from a beach in Hawaii if you wanted to!

Becoming a virtual assistant gives you complete time freedom and the ability to manage and create your own schedule.

4. Proofreading

Wherever there is content, there is need for a proofreader.

As a beginner proofreader, your hourly rate will probably start around $10/hr.

As you gain knowledge and expertise, you can charge anywhere from $30-$50 per hour.

You need to have good reading skills, grammar skills, and an excellent eye for detail to become a great proofreader.

A degree isn't necessary, but it is an added bonus and will likely be a variable in your pay.

One of the most common websites to sell your proofreading services is Fiverr. They have thousands of writers looking for someone with your editing skills!

5. Open an Etsy Shop

Y'all. I know you have a talent. Share it with the world... open an Etsy shop!

Etsy is a great place for you to sell your skills!

The great thing about Etsy is that it is free to set up and start selling (as long as you keep the basics and don't add any bells and whistles).

To be honest, you don't need any of the bells and whistles that you pay for on Etsy to be successful. There any many, many people who make thousands of dollars on Etsy every single month!

Additionally, you don't actually have any expenses until you sell your first item, then Etsy takes a commission.

Etsy is a great place for selling things like fonts, printables, handmade goods, eBooks, and anything that takes some creativity to make!

6. Start a YouTube Channel

If you prefer videos over writing and you express yourself better in person than through writing, start a YouTube channel!

YouTubers make money off of sponsored products, ads, their own products, and affiliate links.

If you want to start a YouTube channel, you need to take the following steps:

YOUTUBE STEP BY STEP
  • Decide what your niche is going to be. Successful YouTubers say that when you "niche down", you have a greater chance of success. Don't try and talk about everything under the sun- you'll lose subscribers. Really focus on ONE area.
  • Research your niche. What are other people in the same area talking about? Are they successful? How are they gaining subscribers?
  • Create a list of 100 different video ideas. Is the topic you chose something you are passionate about? You'll have to film hundreds of different videos, so make sure it's something you are passionate about.
  • Choose your equipment. When you are first starting, a smartphone is honestly all you need to get started. Start out by filming in natural light (especially if you are on a budget), and as you continue purchase high quality lighting equipment.
  • Set up your channel. Set up your channel and start filming! Research how other YouTuber's do their filming!

I'm not going to go super in depth on the YouTube startup process, but with a google search bar you can pretty much find everything you need to know to get started!

7. Sell an Ebook

Anyone can write and sell an eBook and make money. Ebooks have extremely low overhead- the only cost is your time and whatever platform you'd like to use to sell your book.

Some of the best and most popular platforms for selling your eBook include:

  • SendOwl - This is by far one of the most popular platforms amongst bloggers to sell products. The nice thing about SendOwl is they make it really easy to add people to your affiliate program , and any products you are an affiliate for will also be on your affiliate dashboard. All your affiliate links are in ONE place. Anothe benefit that makes them stand out over the rest is you can sell memberships and subscriptions through SendOwl. Super slick. Click here to get a free 14-day trial of SendOwl!
  • Gumroad - One of the greatest benefits of Gumroad is that they have a very basic selling option that is completely free. One downside to Gumroad is they only offer Paypal for payment options.
  • E-Commerce - You can also self-host on your website for free using E-Commerce. This is a great option when you are just starting out selling digital products! You can offer discount codes, connect/integrate your email service to collect emails, and it's completely free besides fees for payment options. The major downside is that you have to create your own sales pages, and you can't offer an affiliate program for your product.

All you have to do to create your first eBook is type it up in a program like Word, and then export it to a pdf!

You can create cover pages for your eBook using a service like PicMonkey or Canva.

8. Create an Online Course

Take your knowledge, talents, and expertise, and teach it to others through an online course!

There are people out there looking to learn more about something that you have knowledge about.

I'm working on my first course, and since my niche is personal finance, some things I could create a course about include paying off student loans, how to budget, how to live on one income, etc.

I have already taken a few online courses about blogging and making money blogging, and they have all been on the platform Teachable.

TEACHABLE

Teachable is the platform that I am using to create my course.

Here are the reasons that Teachable is better than the rest:

  • Allows you to have an affiliate program for your course.
  • Easy customization of every single step of your course.
  • Customizable sales pages to promote.
  • Advanced pricing options and coupons/discount codes, accepts international payments.
  • You can create quizzes and discussion forums.
  • Course wide student insights and analytics.

Teachable is amazing. I honestly have NO technological skills and I have been able to use the Teachable platform without a problem.

If you create an online course or multiple courses, you have the ability to make money while you sleep , completely on your terms.

Get it out of your head that you have to go to an office and work 9-5 and work harder (not smarter) in order to make more money.

If you're willing to give something else a try, the future is in your hands.

One of the most dangerous addictions is a weekly salary!

9. Freelance Write

Become a freelance writer, joining others who make thousands of dollars every month while writing from home.

Freelance writers typically charge a per word fee, and the more experience you have the more you can charge.

The benefit of freelance writing as opposed to jobs like proofreading is that you are essentially starting your own business and everything is on your terms.

You have to have perseverance if you freelance write because chances are you will get turned down often.

However, as you get your first few gigs, you build a freelance writing portfolio that will help you market your services to others in your niche!

10. Take Online Surveys

If your finances are tight or you are just looking to make some extra money, taking surveys is a great way to make extra money fast.

Signing up and taking surveys is extremely easy.

Get started with sites like SwagBucks or American Consumer Opinion.

Taking surveys doesn't require any expert skills and you can make money on your own time, as fast or as slow as you'd like!

Futhermore, you can take surveys from anywhere. You can take them while you're waiting in the checkout line, at the dentist, etc.

CHANGE YOUR MINDSET

Once I started changing my mindset about making money, I saw a huge increase in my monthly income.

You MUST stop connecting time to money.

For instance, when I blog and I promote a product that I truly believe in, all I need to do is write one post about that product, then I have the ability to make money on autopilot.

I can make money while I sleep, and that my friend is the KEY!

Learn to make money on your terms, or make money while you sleep.

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