100 Useful and Free Open Courseware Classes for Webworkers

If you work from home, you’re often in charge of your own training and development. You need to develop and polish your skills as well as help them evolve with technology and whatever industry you’re in.

Check out this useful post on helpful courses for web workers. This is a great resource for anyone who wants to work at home!

3 Types of Freelance Writing Gigs and How to Find Them

Most freelance writers have several sources of writing work where they can get paid to write articles. Some are ongoing, some are one-off, and some are gap-fillers. All can be good. Read on for a bit about each of the above categories and how to go about getting those types of writing jobs.

Ongoing
Finding regular writing clients can be a good thing. Do a good job and you might get ongoing writing work.

One-Off Jobs
By marketing yourself, you can find writing jobs that are one-off scenarios. Someone might need a press release written, might decide that they want to write a new sales letter, want help re-vamping their website content, or want another freelance writing service. Marketing can help these clients find you.

Gap fillers.
There are content companies and busy clients that may offer you an all-you-can-write buffet. Having a few of these eggs can be a good thing because you can make fast money writing when you need to up your earnings or when you have a gap in your schedule. You an also spend some of your gaps working at upping your passive income streams through writing for revenue sharing sites, such as InfoBarrel and HubPages, or through developing content for your own sites and blogs.

How to find Writing Gigs:

Find ongoing and one-off clients by marketing on an ongoing basis. Freelance writers who market can get found by clients and some of those clients could provide you with regular work.

In terms of gap fillers, sign up with a writing agency, start a profile on a freelance bidding site such as Elance, sign up with content companies such as Textbroker, Internet Brands, and Demand Studios so you can dive into one of these options as and when you need to.

Getting paid to write articles can be a business of feasts and famines. By diversifying your incoming writing work sources and by continually marketing yourself you can have a wide array of options available.

Internet Marketing Without Money

The book No Money Marketing was written by me and Matthew Bredel. If you’d like to read it, you can get a free copy (value $97) through joining Tru-Guru, Matt’s subscription-based program that teaches people to become true online marketing gurus. (He’s offering a special now for $4.95 for a 30 day membership)
Those who buy a membership to Tru-Guru get several free bonuses and one of them is this book that’s filled with ideas of how to make money on the internet without an initial investment. Of course you’ll have paid the small subscription fee to get the free book but I do assure you, there are a lot of great ideas in there and the Tru-Guru subscription can be cancelled at any time (plus offers a money back guarantee).

Learning to make money online

Some people look for work at home jobs to make extra money. But many of them soon realize that there is a huge potential for a home-based business that you’re the boss of instead. Instead of working for someone else, you could start several different types of online businesses such as: affiliate marketing biz, creating an online dropshipping store, to create and market your own products, and more.

The most important aspect of searching for income opportunities on the web is research and Matthew Bredel has bundled several years of trial, error, research, and great results into his informative products.

Check out his free SEO Exciter Series to get a free sampling of his helpful teaching style when he shows you more than the basics of how he uses organic search engine optimization techniques to dominate the search engines in his niche (bringing him traffic and profit!).

I’d love your feedback on what you think of the book and the Tru-Guru program.

Cheers to your online success!

Dana

Work at Home Payments: Setting Up PayPal

When you earn money online, PayPal is one of the easiest ways to get paid. It is the defacto standard for those who make money online in terms of getting paid quickly and easily.

Setting it up is easy and getting paid is as easy as someone using your designated PayPal e-mail address. When someone pays you, the system walks them through a process and there isn’t a PayPal account number to be concerned with. They simply allocate the payment to the address you provided PayPal with when you set up your account. When someone pays you, you’ll get an e-mail notification at the same address.

There are things you should know about a PayPal account and here are some basic tips and PayPal FAQ’s for beginners:
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Personal PayPal Accounts

Basic / personal accounts are free. You don’t have to pay any fees from amounts you are paid. As soon as you exceed a dollar value received per month and / or someone attempts to pay you with a credit card, your account needs to be upgraded to a Premier account. When that happens, you’ll pay a % of every payment.

Everyone is allowed (per PayPal Terms of Service) to have two accounts so it is advantageous to keep a basic account and sign up for a premium account as well. A lot of people start off with a Personal account and upgrade (or start a second account) later on.

Premier PayPal Accounts

The premier account will require you to pay a fee. This ranges depending on several factors including:

  • What type of payment is made to you (cash payment or credit card)
  • The amount of the transaction
  • Where the payment is coming from (Some countries have surcharges on payments)

When you receive your payment, you’ll get a notice via email either that:

  1. You have new funds
  2. Funds are on the way

When you have new funds, the money is in your account (minus any fees) and you can use it to spend online, transfer to your bank account, or you can request that a cheque be sent to you.

How long does it take for PayPal payments to transfer to your bank?

When you transfer it to your bank account, the transaction typically takes 2-3 days (although PayPal stipulates up to 10 business days). You’ll probably notice a pattern after a few transfers that tell you how long your bank takes to receive the money and what time the funds usually arrive.

If you receive a notice that tells you funds are on the way, someone has sent you an e-check. E-checks can take up to a few weeks to clear and all you can do is wait for a notification from PayPal that says the funds cleared.

Setting up your bank account on PayPal
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You can set up a bank account easily. You provide PayPal with your bank information and then wait a few days. You’ll see two amounts (below $1.00 each) deposited into your bank account. When those amounts arrive, you simply log in to PayPal and confirm the amounts received. PayPal does this so they can determine they have your correct banking information for future deposits.

PayPal Bank Withdrawals
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If you attempt to pay an invoice that you don’t have the funds for, it will initiate an e-check from your primary bank account in the PayPal system so it’s important to be careful when making payments. If you live in Canada or the UK and you have an available balance in your US funds account, you’ll need to move money between currencies to purchase something online or make a payment in another currency otherwise, it will initiate an e-check.

If you live in the U.S, PayPal will give you a debit card that allows you to make purchases or withdrawals from an ATM bank machine. You can also make withdrawals to your own bank account.

Beyond the fees you pay when you receive your money, if you transfer a small amount of money to your bank account (under $150.00) you’ll also be charged a transaction fee of $0.50. This is removed from your transfer fee.

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PayPal Payments

If you try to make a payment in a currency for which you have a zero balance, an e-check can be initiated and this can take weeks to clear and your bank may have service charges if the e-check cannot be processed due to insufficient funds.

While PayPal does have fees, this service is definitely a must-have for anyone who wants to work at home and make money with their computer. It’s a fast and safe way to make and receive payments.

You can run plenty of reports from PayPal to help you with your records and they have other tools such as invoicing tools as well. Once you do get a lot of money happening in your account, they also offer PayPal merchant services and you can benefit from a lot of tools to help your online business run smoothly.

Finding Freelance Writing Jobs

How do you find freelance writing jobs? This post will give you several job lead sources:

  1. Freelance Writing Job Blogs. There are a lot of blogs that offer daily job leads
  2. Craigslist. In all major cities is a writing job category
  3. Google Alerts. Set up a Google Alert for freelance writing jobs and you can even set on up for your specific niche.
  4. Google. Search on the type of writing job you want
  5. Writing Forums. There are internet forums dedicated to writers and these often have job listings in them.

Writers: Use The Web To Your Advantage!

If you want to become a writing wahm or just a freelance writer, the internet provides a wealth of opportunities for finding writing jobs. You can research how much a freelance writer gets paid, look at other writer’s sample resumes, set up your own writing website, and more.

Beyond the resources listed here, why not consider creating your own website to show your talents? Bring writing clients to you!

I’m a freelance writer, editor, and consultant and I support my family with my online income. I won’t say it’s easy but it’s very doable if you are motivated!

Budgeting Your WAH Income

Living on a budget is necessary whether you work outside the home or work at home. Some wah jobs pay regular pay cheques just like any other job but many are freelance jobs and you could have feasts and you could have famines. You can also find yourself waiting for what seems like forever to get paid.

You’ve got to pay your bills like everyone else and you’ve got taxes to pay for WAH money as well so budgeting is vital.

Visit The Money Jar Budgeting site for tips on living on less and putting more cash back in your pocket. Work at home jobs can pay well but sometimes payments are erratic. Learning to live on a budget and putting away money for a rainy day can make it easier when you don’t have a regular weekly paycheque.

Setting up PayPal for Your Work at Home Income

PayPal is a company owned by eBay that allows you to buy online without a credit card. This service can also be used to get paid for your online income. The way it works is quite simple and best of all, it’s secure.

Why Use PayPal?

PayPal is like a go-between service between the Internet and your bank account. If you receive money in PayPal, you can transfer it to your account without revealing personal financial details and if you want to buy something online, you can transfer the money to someone else. In the WAH world, getting paid is the whole point to it all and by having PayPal you can earn money without waiting for cheques to arrive in the mail.

Setting up Your Account

Setting up an account is simple. Sign up at: www.PayPal.com and enter your details. Be sure that you have your bank account information handy as you’ll need to input it. Information needed is avaialble on your personal checks and if you need specific information about bank transit numbers, etc. you can contact your bank or visit their website.

PayPal Transfers

Once your details are in, you’ll need to watch your account. PayPal will send you two small deposits (generally below $1.00 each) and to confirm your bank account, you’ll need to input those exact amounts into the PayPal system which happens within a few business days. Then you’re ready to start using your account. Someone can pay you by having your e-mail address associated with your PayPal account and once you’ve received a payment, you’ll get an e-mail notifying you the payment is either live or pending clearance of an e-check.

Lead Time for Payment Clearance Through PayPal

Generally, e-checks take 5-10 days to clear and for most people, PayPal transfers into your bank account take 2-3 business days.

Getting Paid To Blog

There’s a lot that can be said about paid blogging. Some people blog as a hobby and others make full time incomes blogging and ghostblogging. If you’re a good writer and find a great subject, you can make money blogging. Even if you just want an online home, you can use your blog as a wee soapbox about something you enjoy or are passionate about and can make some income while you’re at it.

There are paid to blog companies that will pay you to put posts on your blog with a link to their client’s website. Blogging helps companies get search engine rankings which can bring them more traffic so they might be willing to pay from $5 to $25 just for a paragraph.

There are also blogging networks that will give you profit sharing or pay per post to blog for them.

And, you can start your own blog by blogging with Blogger or WordPress and make money that way as well as the best way which is to buy your own domain and create your own blog.

Here are some great resources to help you get started:

http://www.problogger.net Free advice about blogging

http://blogger.com free blogs

Review Me – Write Reviews for Cash!

Blogging To The Bank

Blogsvertise Write blog entries and get paid monthly

Today.com Join the VIP program and make money per post plus profit sharing
Once you have a blog there are many ways to monetize it through affiliate marketing and through Google Adsense. You can join Adsense and capitalize by earning from your blog or website.

As the owner of many blogs and several that are making me regular money, I can tell you that the best way to ensure you make money blogging is to create multiple ways your blog can earn money. I’ll be writing more on this subject in the future so feel free to subscribe to this blog so you can get money making information delivered to your inbox.

Can I Really Get Paid To Read Emails?

There are programs out there that will pay you to read e-mails. The WAH Blog is happy to tell you the pros and cons of this type of program. It’s also known as being paid to surf or called PTC (pay to click) programs.

Get Paid To Read Emails / Get Paid To Surf The Web

The first thing you have to ask yourself when reviewing a work at home job is ‘Why’? Why would someone pay me to do this? Understanding the motives of an employer can help you understand if the job might be right for you and if you’d be good at it. In the case of paid e-mail reading, the person paying for this is part of an affiliate networking system and they get paid to generate traffic. They get paid a fee for every bit of traffic that visits a site based on their affiliate code.

How It Works

If you sign up with a program, you will get links each day with URLs in them. You’re given directions such as visiting the site and then staying on it for a specified amount of time. Most often, you have to view a number and click it into the box to proceed and your account is credited. Most of these paid e-mails don’t pay very much money and you need to hit a certain payout level to get paid.

How Much Can I Make?

On paid email reading, pay ranges from .0025 to .02 an e-mail. That’s a quarter of a penny to two cents an e-mail. The average wait time is about thirty seconds and you do need to input keystrokes to show you’re a human. Most companies pay by PayPal and have a $10-$25-$50 minimum payout level and reaching payout depends on your waiting for them to send you e-mails with links in them.

The Downside of Get Paid to Surf

While you can make a bit of pocket money from being paid to surf, the downside is that this isn’t considered an ethical practice. Advertisers are paying for advertising and if people are paid to read the message, this is called incentivized traffic and can be considered cheating the advertiser since you’re surfing with no real interest in their product or intent to buy. In many cases, this is prohibited by by the company and the person paying you is cheating the system.

Because of that, there are no guarantees the person running the program will pay you your money. There are many paid email reading offers out there: Ultimately, it’s your decision.

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