With the number of people that have experienced cutbacks at work, or been laid off altogether, many people are looking for additional sources of income. The majority of those that have lost their jobs are receiving unemployment, but that only covers a percentage of their living expenses. For the people who operated small businesses, there may not be any unemployment compensation coming in at all.
This is leaving many with unpaid debt at the end of each month, but others are learning how to make extra money at home so that they can pay those bills.
This article will discuss three ways you can make some extra money working from home: direct sales, online surveys/focus groups, and babysitting services.
Direct Sales
Direct sales jobs are a great option to earn some extra income. Most direct sales companies will even provide their representatives with a website platform on which to sell the product.
This can help eliminate some of the home parties and open houses that used to be a necessity in the direct selling market. There are direct sales companies that feature books, cookware, makeup, candles, jewelry, and even food.
These companies require the rep to do the selling and order submitting, but everything beyond that is handled by the company. Products are even shipped right to the customer in many circumstances.
Online Paid Surveys
Online surveys and focus groups are another way to make extra money at home. There is typically not enough profit to pay all of the bills, but a person could certainly make some spending money by working this market.
There are hundreds of online survey companies that pay people to fill out questionnaires based on their experience with a product or service.
These surveys can last from five minutes up to an hour or more. Some will be based on your experiences with well-known brands, while others may ask you to evaluate an advertisement, commercial or video and then give your honest feedback. See our recommendation of paid surveys sites.
Focus Groups
Focus groups will often gather a variety of people for an online or offline meeting to talk about the different aspects of a product and how the product has an effect on the lives of people.
These types of companies will ask for information on demographics, such as nationality, income, and the level on which a person helps in the decision making process of their family unit.
This information helps the marketing company make decisions on who the product or service should ultimately target. The pay for short surveys could be as little as fifty cents, while the pay for a focus group is typically fifty dollars or more. The frequency of availability of surveys and focus groups will vary and depends on many factors that only the marketing companies can determine.
Babysitting Services
Offering babysitting services out of the home is an additional option for those who enjoy the presence of smiling faces, especially stay at home moms. Babysitting other people’s children can be very fun and rewarding.
If you have children, this will give them some extra socialization while it allows you to make extra money at home. However, there are state regulations regarding full daycare scenarios so make sure you are familiar with the rules in your area.
Blogging
Blogging is for more ambitious people. If you have passion for writing then you can become a blogger.
For example, if you love travelling then you can turn your hobby into a blog.
You need to create great content weekly and upload onto your blog.
You also have to do some SEO for your blog.
After working for few months your blog will start receiving traffic from Google.
You can convert this traffic into dollars by incorporating ads into your blog.
Blogging is highly profitable!
Freelance Writing
Blogging can be difficult for many of you.
Blogging requires certain kind of skills that everyone can’t acquire.
So the other option is freelance writing.
There are tons of freelance writing options that you can choose from.
Ghost writing is one of the most popular forms of freelance writing.
You can also write articles for independent website owners.
However if you are a more serious writer then you can write screenplay, film scripts and other short stories.
There is no dearth of freelance writing jobs in this world.
You can go to website like Up work or Fiverr to find freelancing gigs every day.
Writers from across the world trust these sites because they get paid on time.
Data Entry Jobs
Data entry jobs are very common, online as well as offline.
Data entry jobs have their advantages as well as disadvantages.
Talking of advantages, data entry jobs are readily available as I mentioned in the first line.
However the main anomaly with data entry jobs is authenticity.
It is very difficult to find a genuine data entry job that pays month after month.
But if you find one then you can work from home and make a decent living with it.
Each of these methods has their pros and cons and may not be suitable for everyone depending on your situation. But hopefully one or two may suit you even just temporarily. By utilizing a combination of this money making opportunities, a person will be better able to pay the bills and keep groceries on the table especially when times are tough financially.
