A Student Asks "How Can I Make Money?"

I was trying to answer a question online and the site went down in the middle of me trying to submit my reply so I thought that I would post it here:

How can a student make money?

I'm 15 a guy and a student.How can I make money without getting a job as such?

Because of your age your options are somewhat limited. If you want to receive money you are going to have to give something back in return.

Lots of people have been making money online but because of your age the way that you can receive payments is limited even if you do have a bank account.

There have been lots of suggestions as to how teenagers can earn extra money and one way is to start a dog-walking service. You'd be surprise at the number of people who want this service so that they won't have to walk their dogs theirselves.

You can also do yard work and another popular suggestion has been to start an errand service.

And since I am a Dream Job Consultant I should ask you what is it that you love to do? What is your Dream Job?

I even had one guy send me an email asking me how he could make $5K a month basically without doing anything. Well some work is going to be required but it is possible to make $5K a month online.

You should also do some searching online because there are lots of sites that have ways, suggestions and advice about how one can make money - both online and off.

How I Made A Quick $20 Online In A Matter Of Hours!

My main work is that of being an Adsense Consultant plus I have some other titles and services as well!

Just cruising online one day, I decided to try a little experiment just to see if I could get my hands on some money quickly!

Since I do have a Paypal account that means that any money sent to my Paypal account can be spent almost immediately!

So I did some checking online and found someone who was looking for someone to help crack a computer-graphic-related code! They said that they would deposit $20 in to a person's Paypal account if they were able to crack the code! Since I wasn't familiar with this kind of code I had to do some online checking to find out more about it - but guess what? I was the first person to crack the code and it took the person all of 30 minutes to deposit the money to my Paypal account (and it took me only an hour to spend it right away - LOL!)

If you would like to know the exact details of how I found this person who was offering this free money, then just send a $10 payment to my Paypal address which is:

Sister2brother@juno.com

and I will email you the details on exactly how I found the person!

However I should warn you that even though this worked for me on the first try, subsequent efforts haven't been as successful! But getting that $20 surely did feel good!

I guess this does prove the point - to a degree - that if you look hard enough you may find a way to be able to make some quick money online!

"The Top Ways To Make Money in 2009!"

Here is a link to an online article that lists over 10 ways to make (more) money in 2009.

Some of the suggestions might seem obvious - but maybe only obvious to some. I won't give away all the details of the article but I will mention that one of the suggestions stood out (to me) because its something I hadn't even thought about.

Did you know that there will be another census taken by our government to count the population (again)? And of course they are going to need census takers.........

Of course this wouldn't be a "work at home if there wasn't some mention of being able to do something that you can do working from home and this online article does mention a couple of ways.

So I hope you enjoy the article and I hope it gives you some ideas!

Comments Received

Yes, camming for money is the hip thing for models in California. I would recommend that you visit a site like www.xxxx.com to set you up with webcams if you are a woman looking to safely CyberDate men. It's safer than a strip club or a blind date!

"I Want To Work From Home!"

I have been looking to work from home for a long time. I don't have money to put up front and finding something legitimate seems impossible. There are so many scams out there. Right now I just need to make money but I would eventually like to start my own mommy/twin business. Being a mother of twins childcare is outrageous and returning to the work world is going to cost me more than staying at home making nothing. Any ideas?

My email is...........................

Actually from reading your comment I have a few ideas yes!

Well if your first concern is being able to make money now then the best piece of advice that I have posted on my Consultation Page is to find a need and fill it. That simply means that if you can find a pressing need that needs to be filled then you may be able to make money sooner rather than later. What is a pressing need? Since one of your objectives is to stay at home have YOU considered opening up a childcare business? Goodness knows that there are a lot of grant and funding programs out there for child and daycare which I have posted about on both my Grant Basics 101 Blog and my Daycare Grants Related page! And you would be providing a very much needed need!

If this doesn't appeal to you then you might want to try Google's Adsense Program. I have talked about that many times when suggesting legitimate work at home opportunities! With Google's Adsense program you can put ads on your website or blog and you earn money when visitors to your site click on those ads!

Here is a link to a blog post about just how much money people have been making with the Adsense program

courtesty of The Adsense Consultant's Blog!

This also brings up the related idea of you maybe starting a blog and / or a website that talks about your experiences of being a mother of twins. You can think of it as having your own little newsletter and / or magazine and with that in mind you could solicit (and more better having potential advertisers come to YOU for more direct advertising - which pays much better!

You are right in that a lot of work from home "opportunities" are scams but people are looking for the fastest way to make money and this is not the way - simply because you WILL get scammed!

Are there places where you can work for someone else from your home? The answer is yes but you will have to do some searching to find the legitimate ones. But they are out there! I do in fact know of one program (that I have mentioned many times before) where a company hires those who are disabled and/or those that want to work from home and the people work as customer service representatives! I provide this information to those clients of mine who are looking for legitimate work at home opportunities working for a company.

The problem that I see in those that want to work from home is that it seems that they want to be able to make money right away - like yesterday! This is where fulfilling a need comes in! If you can find a need that has to be filled then you have the potential to earn money sooner rather than later. That is why doing work like child/day care, yard work or even running an errand service have been suggested as good starting businesses for someone that wants to work from home. Another popular business-starting idea is starting a dog-walking business - another need that people seem to need!

As I have always said: the fastest way to make money is to find a need and fulfill it. But the BEST way to make money is to start doing something that you love and turn that into a business!

Your Mommy/twin business sounds like a very good idea to me but like with all new businesses it will take you some time to build it up and build its reputation up! You may want to consider looking into grants to help provide you with some start-up money for your business idea.

I realize that this may be something that you may not want to hear but it really does take time before you start to earn money regardless of whether you want to work for someone else or start your own business. Hopefully I have given you some food for thought to help you decide what you want to do.

I Really Do Pity The Poor Graphic Designers - Including Myself As Well!

One of my very first paid work was designing a website for a neighbor of mine. He did pay me and that was the start of my working at home! (I have since moved on to include research on such things as grants and unclaimed money and other things as well.)

But I have seen yet another post from someone who would like to have a logo designed for them and not once did they mention that they would be willing to pay for it. It wasn't until other graphic designers brought up the fact about actually paying for the service did the original poster of the message say that he would be willing to pay $100 for the logo.

I'm sure that there are a lot of graphic designers out there who get this kind of thing where people want them to provide free or a reduced cost service - which is something that is not really fair to ask for in the first place. I mean you expect to get paid for the work you do - right? Why wouldn't the same be true for graphic designers.

I have read many stories from graphic designers about the terrible clients (and wannabe clients) that they have had!

The bottom line is that you should be paid for your services no matter what it is you do!

Do You Have A Paypal Account?

I got excited when my brother told me that he signed up for Paypal! I got excited for him because that meant that he now has another way to get income. But he doesn't see it that way. When he told me that he was signing up for paypal my thoughts thought of him getting "big-time" money. How? Well he is very knowledgeable about computers. He doesn't just know about computer programs but he also has a whole lot of experience at fixing them.

He said to me that the reason that he was signing up for paypal was for his ebay transactions and that was the only reason for him.

He explained to me that since he does fix computers his customers / clients would have to be of a "local" nature. Now I do agree that it would be quite cumbersome to have clients hundreds of miles away who want their computer fixed but he is not seeing it like I'm seeing it.

He could set himself up as a consultant and / or expert and answer people's questions about computers and be paid a fee for it - hence having the paypal account. There are so many consultants and experts who are doing exactly this very thing! Again - he doesn't see it that way.

I won't give up on trying to convince him though because this is a very great opportunity for him! He just can't see it yet!

If you have a paypal account you should seriously consider using it to get paid yourself. Almost everyone has an area of expertise and you should let that work for you. If you're having doubts about being able to accomplish this kind of thing then you should take a look at some of the websites that are doing this very same thing!

You Never Know Where More Money-Making Opportunities Will Come From

and I can use myself as an example of this.

As my profession I do a lot of grant research. I have participated in a lot of forums and message boards that have to do with grants, grant programs and just people seeking more information about grants and the grant process in general. This started me starting a blog called Grant Basics 101 - just because there were so many questions being asked about grant programs.

As I stated before I participate in a lot of forums and message boards that relate to people asking questions about grants. One such forum I have been particpating in for a few years now. Out of the blue I decided to visit this forum and there was a message in my inbox from one of the moderators of the forum who wanted to introduce a concept to some of the people that were actively participating and providing valuable and good advice (I'm flattered that they thought that I was doing so).

It is another potential good income source for me.

But I wanted to make the point that I never thought of this forum as a possible income or money-making source. Just goes to show you that you never know where an income or money opportunity will be coming from.

Do You Still Want To Be Able To Work From Home?

When I first started this blog about working from home there were not a lot of legitimate companies that were hiring people to work from home. I only knew of 2 such companies and I recommended them to my clients all the time!

However there is now an increasing number of companies (legitimate companies) that are looking for and hiring people who will work from their own home.

Some of these work at home opportunities consist of:

• you providing customer service for a company that is representing a number of legitimate businesses
  
  
• working as agents in sales, technical support and customer service
  
  
• working as virtual assistants who perform a variety of administrative and other business tasks from your home for clients

Please be aware that if you are seriously considering working from home, you should prepare yourself! You should research a company before you apply for a position to ensure it's legitimate. A little homework can help you avoid the many scams out there.

You also should make sure that you have the right computer equipment. Some of the things that you should consider adding to your home office include having a high-speed Internet connection, mobile phone, printer and other related items.

If you would like a listing of these "Work At Home" companies you can submit a $20 payment via the "Buy Now" button on the side of this blog.

Please specify that you want to pay for the "Working From Home" company list!

Other Sources Of Money?

I have just posted to my Unclaimed Money Blog about how the state of Louisiana has over $300 million in unclaimed money! They are working hard to process as many claims as possible because they want as many people to have the additional money for the holiday season. It's not just the fact that they would like as much people that are eligible to claim this money be able to claim the money but more money spent in the state means more money that is paid in state taxes - so everybody benefits!

Louisiana isn't the only state that has unclaimed money. My own state of Pennsylvania publishes a listing of people that are due unclaimed money. The last time this list was over 10 pages long!

What is unclaimed money? It is simply that - money that hasn't been claimed. For example forgotten bank accounts, insurance payments and payments to heirs are just a few of the different types of unclaimed money out there.

If you think that you may not be eligible to claim any of this "free" money then you should know that in Louisiana for example every 1 in 6 people have unclaimed money waiting for them to claim!

A Very Scary Thing!

It may be a very scary thing to think that one could actually be able to work from home and earn a living from it. Yet people are doing it everyday!

What makes it even more "scary" is that one can be able to work from home legitimately!

If you have a product or service to sell and you set up a website or blog then that is the start of your business!

The next hurdle is being able to find a way to be able to receive your payments. One of the most easiest ways is to use Paypal. However be advised that you have to have a bank account in order to be able receive payments via Paypal. There is also a limit on how much money you can receive if you use the "personal" Paypal option. When you upgrade your Paypal account you will then be able to access your full payments. Paypal does charge additional fees when you upgrade to this option.

Now what if you don't have a bank account (or you don't want to give your bank information) then there is still the option of being able to receive your payments by regular check. The one thing that I would suggest though is that you get a professional address for your business so that you don't have to give out your home address.

There are some auctions on Ebay where the option to pay is in check form and there are still people that receive their payments using only this option.

Of course there are "third-party" payment options that are also available but you have to check out these options very carefully. Make sure that they are legitimate and if you have your doubts about them then don't use them!

Yes, being able to work from home can seem to be a very scary thing to someone who has not done it before but you have to realize that people are doing it everyday!

Clients - Let's Face It! Some Of Them Are Cheap!

I could tell you a lot of stories from personal experience about so-called clients that wanted me to do work for them for less than what I charge! But I'm going to use that experience to warn you!

I once heard Suze Orman say "Don't Put Yourself On Sale!" She was talking about this in a seminar where she talked about how women would be so accomodating by providing free work. Now this isn't just limited to women - it is for anyone thinking about starting a business of their own - whether you want to work from home or start your own business period!

Number 1 - whether you are providing a service or a product do some research online and find out what similar people are charging. That way you will know that the amount that you are charging for your product or services is a fair amount to charge - no matter what a potential client tries to say to convince you otherwise.

There is the question of when one is just starting out that shouldn't they do some work on a volunteer or reduced-price kind of thing. To get your foot in the door you may want to start off doing it this way because it does provide you with publicity and good practice skills but don't do it to the point of being taken advantage of.

It just comes down to stating your price and remaining firm!

"My Area Has More People Than Jobs......"

"My area has more people than jobs...."

I have seen this posted many, many times and as someone that is a Dream Job Consultant, the first thing that crosses my mind is that there is a job opportunity even in that!

The first thing I think about when I see someone who has posted this kind of message is that this person either has access to their own computer or they have access to another person's computer. Now there are limitations when you have to work with someone else's computer but if you are using your own computer then you have a LOT that you can work with!

Number 1 you could start a free blog on Blogger.com and use your blog to talk about the issue of there being no jobs in your area. Once you have added a few entries to your blog then you can apply for adsense and then you can start to earn money and get paid for having advertisements that people click on on your blog!

But there is an even bigger picture here. Since this will be YOUR blog that means that you have control over it. You can post / blog about the issues that affect your area. You can think of this as your blog being your own newspaper or even publishing company! You are the reporter. You are the owner of your blog and you are the editor of your blog!

Where does the money come from? Well adsense is a great option to start out with first because they already have advertisers ready for your blog. This is much more easier than going out and soliciting your own direct advertisers. But once you have adsense ads on your blog you can also now start to solicit your own advertisers!

Visit The Adsense Consultant's Blog to find out more about the adsense program and to take a look at what some others had made using adsense.

But even with the above that doesn't stop your opportunities. You can also visit The Celebrity Blog List and read about Perez Hilton - a man who started his own blog and now has his own tv show!

There is lots that you can do with a blog to help it make money for you!

Take the fact that there are more people than jobs in your area and turn that into an opportunity for you - and hopefully for the rest of your community!

"Can I Sit In Front Of My Computer And Make Money Online?"

"Can I Sit In Front Of My Computer And Earn Money Online?"

This is a very interesting (and it is becoming a more frequent) question! In a word the answer is Yes - however there are many, many variables here!

Answering this question quite literally you could sit in front of your computer, have a webcam and charge people for being able to view you - of course that is not everyone's "cup of tea" Webcam models are making a LOT of money online and I will leave a "tag" link at the bottom of this blog entry so that you can see some of the past posts that I have made concerning webcam models. But then complications arise because how are you going to accept payment? Paypal is very popular but Paypal will not accept transactions of a "sexual" nature. But there are other ways to accept payment simply because there are so many webcam models online who are accepting payments electronically. And like I mentioned before, webcam models are making a lot of money simply by having a webcam and a way to accept payments.

You can take something that interests you and start either a webpage or a blog. However it will take some time before you can raise interest in your site and the sooner you raise interest will depend on how much work you put into building up your site. You can sell a product, sell a service or accept advertising on your site. With the later you site has to have a good reputation before you even start to approach possible advertisers or sponsors. If you have a pagerank "widget" on your site and your pagerank is high you may get advertisers coming to you! (This has happened to some of those that have sites with a high page ranking). If you sign up for and use Google's Adsense program you won't have to go seeking advertisers because they will already be there for you. Here is a link to a blog post about how much some people have been earning with adsense:

Just How Much Money Are People Making With Adsense?

However even being a part of adsense requires work and effort on your part. You have to earn at least $100 during the month before you will be issued a payment. If you don't make $100 during one month then your earnings will be rolled over into the next month and so on until you have earned a total of at least $100 - then you will be issued a payment by the end of the next month.

So basically the answer to the question "Can I Sit In Front Of My Computer And Make Money Online?" is Yes - BUT it will require work on your part!

Getting Paid For Answering Surveys Online - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly!

Here is an interesting website that someone told me about. You get paid for answering surveys. They give you $6 to signup. But you should be aware of some things. First off they have 2 payment options - you can either get paid via a check in the mail though it takes 4-6 weeks to get it or you can get paid via your Paypal account. That's why I thought of this forum because so many people that post here have a Paypal account. First let me tell you that you have to accumulate $75 before you can cash out and be forewarned that if you option to take the paypal option $25 will be deducted. So if you cash out at $75 and use the Paypal option then the company will take out a $25 fee and you will only get $50.

Now I did some research online and I found that the opinions of this program are about half and half. Some people complain about the program saying that they don't offer enough surves and there is are an equal number of people who have said that they have gotten their money.

So you can visit the site and decide for yourself. I joined it yesterday and managed to rake up $25 so far in my account so that means that I have another $50 dollars to go before I can cash out.

If any of you have a website or blog this program also has an affiliate program where you can add their banner to your site and you will get paid for those that sign up.

Now the reason I posted this here is because so many people have computers so taking a few minutes to make some money answering surveys does not seem like a bad thing. Also a lot of people here have posted that they have paypal accounts so why not make them work for you.

"It Takes Money To Make Money"

It may "take money to make money" but it doesn't necessarily have to be a lot of money!

Many people start their businesses small and then gradually expand their business.

I once helped someone with their upholstery business by putting flyers on parked cars and he actually got some calls and subsequent business from these flyers.

How much would it take for you to make some flyers? You can design them on your computer (and use some of the software that came with your computer)and either make your own copies or go to a copy story and have them do it for a nominal fee.

There are still a lot of people out there that think that they can't get a free website - which is absolutely untrue! There are quite a few free webhosting sites online where you can have your own website for free! You can also get a free blog as well because there are also a lot of free blog hosting sites out there as well.

Don't think that you can have a "professional" site if your site is on one of the free web hosting sites? Then tell that to the people that have their business websites on free hosting websites!

A Question Of Money!

A lot of people want to work from home but the big question is the question of money.

How soon you make money is going to depend on you!

If you are going to quit your job then hopefully you will have some money saved to help support you for at least a year - but I know that a lot of people don't plan for that.

How about continuing to work, saving money while you start your business on a part time basis?

People seem to be looking for ways to work at home but they want to make money as soon as possible. Now I have mentioned Google's Adsense program as a great way to make money but you are not going to make any adsense money for at least 30 days and that is going to depend on how well your website or blog is doing.

I'm beginning to think that this is one of the reasons why so many people want to be able to work for a company while they work at home because they feel that the company will pay them first. I only know of 2 such companies that I would recommend as good work from home companies and I recommend them to all of my clients that want to know about them. But other than that I haven't found any other legitimate work at home companies. If you know of any and you think it would benefit people to know about them then you can post your comments about them.