Can it be done? Is there a way to profit from all those hours we spend online? It’s not easy to set something up that will allow you to quit your day job, or make a living from home if you are unemployed or need to take care of your kids. There are no miracle solutions, and most who receive checks in the mail as a result of their online activity probably have a long history of hard work behind them.
Whether you are unemployed, trying to build your own home-business, or are willing to spend weekends in earning a little extra cash, there are many options to choose from. Very few of them are effective, though.
One highly advertised option is “data entry” jobs. Beware of these as most of them are scam. The golden rule is: stay away from anything that asks you for money to work for them. YOU are supposed to get paid, not them. Only take assignments from sites that have been recommended to you by people you know, and after you’ve seen that the system works for them.
Another typical alternative is answering online surveys. The rationale is that big companies are willing to pay big bucks for consumers to give them their opinions on what products they buy. A large percentage of companies offering this are scams. First, never use a site that asks for a fee to register, as most of the legit ones are free. A second sort of scam is that, once you do start taking a survey, you are not allowed to finish it (and get paid for it), as you get driven into lateral pages of advertising for innumerable products that end in you needing to insert your credit card information to buy some product. Even with options that are not scams, you may not qualify to take all polls. Some may have special requirements, eg. that you live in a certain state or that you are in a certain age group. Often, the less specific the requirements, the lower they pay. “Focus Groups” often pay higher, but often target a very specific type of consumer or professional qualifications that are very hard to fit into.
If you own a website (which is nowadays pretty easy and inexpensive), you can use Google Adsense to earn money from advertising ads placed on your website, but you will only earn a substantial amount from that if your site has very high traffic. Another option for website owners is to sell other people’s products through your site by joining their affiliate programs. You will usually need to install their advertising and widgets into your webpage, and will get paid when users buy or use the advertised product. Note that for joining many of these programs, you will need to provide US tax information, which means that many of these programs are only an option for US sites. Also note that many of these only pay you after you have driven a certain number of sales, which may take months.
For the website owners, when it comes to using the type of programs mentioned above to earn money through your website, remember that in every case, your earning capacity will be determined by your ability to build traffic into your site. Therefore, your content needs to be attractive. And there are many resources that you can use to build traffic, such as Search Engine Optimization techniques, and creating a blog and posting often.
Virtual world Second Life offers a number of alternatives of its own. You can earn a few Lindens - the local currency- by camping - namely, sitting your avatar on a chair or object designed to the effect. The payout for camping is very low, taking into account the current Linden-Dollar conversion rate, and the SL lag could obstruct your off-site operations. Higher paying in-world alternatives include adding merchant locations to your picks - this takes a few days to process and may result in your groups receiving spam. Taking surveys is another alternative, that has the dangers we have already mentioned.
Whatever alternative you are willing to try, remember to do your research and check the online forums for opinions. Always maintaining a suspicious attitude might save you from a few headaches!
