There are quite a few different ways to make money with blogs. The most popular is Google Adsense. I’m sure you already have an account, but if not, make a few posts to your blog and apply for one. It takes time and effort, but many people make quite a bit of money with adsense, myself included. A word of warning-do not depend on this as your only source of income. If something happens, you don’t want to lose all of your income at once!
Another simple way to cash in on unused blog space in your sidebar or at the top of your blog: Text Link Ads. (aff) Text Link helps potential advertisers connect with bloggers and splits the ad earnings 50/50. You can probably earn enough to pay for dinner out at a low budget restaurant each month, but don’t expect to pay your mortgage! Text Link says you can use their service and services like Adsense on the same page with no problems because advertising is not contextual.
Chitika (aff) is also popular with a lot of bloggers. Some say the ads are ugly. I do use Chitika on several sites, but use smaller ads, which look pretty attractive. I don’t put the ads in high converting spots, so my results aren’t terrific, but you can earn some pocket change.
If you enjoy sewing and you don’t mind working on projects that don’t fuel your creativity, a sewing business may be the perfect home business for you.
“What are you talking about? Sewing is very creative!” you object.
To me, removing an inch and a half of fabric from the bottom of a skirt and re-hemming it so that I can then rip out the waistband and replace it with a longer waistband made from the piece of fabric I cut off the bottom of the skirt isn’t creative. Neither is sewing up a dress in a cotton suitable for quilting, knowing the whole time I’m sewing that the customer is going to be disappointed by the finished product because the fabric she picked is all wrong and she wouldn’t listen to any suggestions for other fabrics. Yes, I’ve done plenty of sewing jobs that made me want to hurl the sewing machine out the sewing room window. However, sewing can be an enjoyable way to make some money from home if you aren’t planning to feed your soul with your work.
Things to keep in mind:
* Use a heavy duty machine. You’re going to put hours of wear and tear on it.
* Sergers, hams and other equipment can really help you make your work more professional.
* Patterns are copyrighted. Don’t sew up ten or fifteen dresses from a pattern and then try to sell them. However, you can use the pattern a customer provides to sew up a dress for his or her use.
* Make sure you have a clean space with good light for your work area.
* Set rates that will allow you to actually make a profit if you need to do alterations to the finished piece.
* If you purchase the material and notions for a project, make sure you let the customer know that there will be an additional fee for your time in the fabric store and for the materials themselves.
Don’t forget:
To set up a sewing business, you will need to check with your state and local governments for permit and licensing requirements. If you have a lot of customers coming by your house, you may need to talk to your zoning board, as well.
Quick tip:
Check your local fabric store to see if there is a place to leave your business card. Many stores have a bulletin board for customers to leave business cards or post photos of finished projects.
If you’ve been using Blogitive, you will want to take a look at PayPerPost, a new way for bloggers and advertisers to find each other. PayPerPost is all about creating “buzz” for a product or service.
Blogging purists object that blogging about a product for money is unethical and somewhat evil, since you are being paid to be positive. A simple solution - set up an affiliate and advertising disclaimer page, explaining that you do earn money with affiliate and advertising links. Some bloggers go as far as identifying each link with [aff] or [ad] notations after the url. Also, many of the opportunities I’ve seen on PayPerPost allow you to post neutral or even negative opinions.
For more on PayPerPost, visit the site at http://www.payperpost.com.
