Earn money writing articles on parenting, travelling, self-improvement, health and more

Are you a good writer? If you say you are then you might be able to make money online. Click HERE and join a community of writers, all writing to earn extra money. This website publishes everything ranging from parenting tips to the love of cars. If you can write articles with more than 600 words in it then you can write for Vocal.

Sample communities to write for

After joining them, browse their website and peruse through other people's work. It's pretty easy to tell the good writers from the not so good writers. After reading some articles, you can get a feeling of what makes a good article.

I suggest you write your draft using Microsoft Word or Google Sheets. Once you are happy with it, copy and paste into Vocal then add photos to your text. One advantage of writing it outside of Vocal's editor is to count words. You want to make sure you have a minimum of 600 words, otherwise it will be rejected.

Next step is to submit your article for review. This is the time to specify the tags that goes with your article. Choosing your tags will suggest where your article will be published.

At first when you view your stats, you will see how many views your article received. From the number of views, you may earn one or two cents. Don't be alarmed. Go into your settings and setup a payment method which will be Stripe. Once you set this up, a tip box will appear at the end of your article. The tip box will encourage your readers to give you a tip. All tips will be collected and paid out using Stripe.

It is a good idea to ask for a tip at the end of each article. If you are writing about travel, try suggesting your readers should donate to a worthy cause such as funding your next adventure. Or if you are writing about mental health, you can suggest your readers to pay a tip that will be donated to a charity.

Vocal has both a free plan and a paid plan. Start with their free plan and get established. Once you have a few articles, think about upgrading to the paid plan. Having a paid plan will increase your earning power but try to get a following of readers first.

Earn serious money - selling websites outright

If you read our last post about renting websites to businesses who don't have the time to create their own or to hire a company to build one then go back and read it first because this post is for businesses who want to hire you to build them a website and buy it outright from you.

Businesses today are always looking for ways to increase their bottom line. More and more of them are realizing that without a website, they fall behind their competitors. They have to know that a lot of people surf the net and find businesses on the internet rather than rely on the yellow pages.

Another great way for a business to stay in touch with their customers is to run a blog on their website. Creating a blog is really easy and most owners want to maintain it themselves but there are a lot of businesses that hire a social media person to write and keep in touch with customers. I'll cover adding a blog to a website in a future post. Or if you're in a hurry to add one,both Weebly and TipTop has a built-in blog facility. The only caution I have is that the blog is private. Customers have to visit the website before they can access the blog which is different than if you were using Blogger or Wordpress.

In the case when a business wants to hire you outright to build a website for them, I recommend that you use another affiliate of ours instead of Weebly. The reason is because the monthly fee starts at $1.95 and they give you the free domain. Domains usually cost about $25 a year and businesses may turn you down when they start seeing the costs go up.

Be wary of costs when setting up a website for your clients. Weebly has a very good website builder but so does this other web host which I would reveal to you in a moment.

Click HERE to sign up with them. Then go to their website and watch the video on creating a website. Doesn't that look easy? It's far easier than in Weebly and it's cheaper too, but you certainly don't get the same tools as with Weebly.

If you're starting your website business, I think you should have both accounts. This way, you have all your bases covered. You might find renting websites is more profitable than selling them outright. I personally love receiving recurring fees and as long as the money keeps rolling in, you're going to go a long ways.

Earn serious cash - renting websites to businesses

If you're looking for a serious money making strategy online then you're lucky to stumble on this post because in the next 500 words or so, I'm going to explain to you how you can start a profitable business in the world of web design and website maintenance, even without any prior education or programming knowledge.

You would think that every business out there would have a website but guess what? There are a lot of businesses that do not and if you're up to it, you can design something for them and rent them their own website.

Most businesses, especially the small one man shops do not have the time or knowledge to setup a website. They rather spend their time running their shop because it earns money. A lot of owners don't realize that a website can draw customers to them when their shop is closed for the night. People who want to do business with them may not know their store hours or how to get to their store. Store hours, directions to their store and a brief explanation to what kind of store it is are just some of the things that their website can have.

Restaurants can have their menus on the websites. And if they offer delivery with DoorDash or SkiptheDishes, they can have that on the websites.

Here's where you come into the picture. Click HERE to create a website on Weebly. If you have your own business and no website, go ahead and create a website for yourself. Otherwise, pretend you are creating a website for someone else. Use this experience as a learning opportunity to get familiar with website construction and design.

Weebly has a free plan that allows you to create websites with a subdomain. This means everything you create has a '.weebly.com' appended to it. For example, lets say you are creating a website for joeslawns. With the free plan, the website will be at 'joeslawns.weebly.com' rather than just 'joeslawns.com'.

Are you still with me? Go with a free plan for now. With the free plan, you can get familiar with building a web page and publishing it. When you publish a website, you are putting it out there on the internet for all to see. It is considered 'live' when you publish.

To get your first customers, I recommend you go to Starbucks or to places where people pin up their business cards or ads advertising their services. Call or contact them by email and ask if they have a website. If not, ask them if they would like you to create one for them for free. You can start off by meeting them and finding out what service they offer. Bring a notebook with you so you can take notes or jot down ideas for their website. When you get home, go to your Weebly account and create a new website with their business' name. Remember to suffix it with '.weebly.com' so that it stays free.

When you're done, publish it and show it off. They will probably want to make changes so make notes and go back and put in the changes. To limit the amount of going back and forth, you might want to give away the first 2 change sessions then charge a nominal charge for subsequent changes. At then end, you want to rent the website to them monthly. By renting it out to them, they simply reap the rewards of having a website but they won't have to maintain it.

I would recommend charging a fee that is proportional to their service fee. For example if they charge $25 for a dog sitting service, I would charge them $25 per month to rent their website. Starting the fees low would encourage them to continue renting from you. It may not sound like much but it is a recurring fee. Over 12 months, you will earn more than $250 per year.

To earn more money, encourage your customers to switch to a paid domain. A registered domain will drop the weebly suffix and look more professional. With Weebly, you can switch them to a registered domain without recreating their website.

There are fees associated with registering for a domain. Also, you will be converting your account into a paid account which will make your business more legitimate and professional. With a monthly plan, you can create more websites and get more customers.

Another source for customers is at shopping malls. There are so many businesses that do not have a website. For example, there is a collectibles store at one of the shopping malls in Calgary that do not have a website. When I was talking with the owner, she said she would love to have a website that showed some of her inventory. You could set up an online store for her that allows people to order things from her store, pay for it and pick it up at her store. A website would give her another avenue to earn money.

Landscapers who mow lawns and maintains yards in the summer have a snow removal business in the winter. Did you know a lot of them do not have a website? You can create them a website to promote their services and to attract customers, you can put the weather on their website. New customers finding their website will be reminded to cut their lawns or shovel their driveway when they see the weather flash in front of their eyes.

If you would like to be a website designer, start here by clicking HERE to create your first website. It's easy and anyone can do it. Weebly's website builder is so easy to use. Just drag and drop and type away.

Update: Be sure to read our next post if your client wants to buy a website from you instead of renting it.

Earn Money on Rebates - PayPal or Check

If you're looking to make money on the internet then you're following the right post because this blog is all about making money online. With that said, I hope you're ready for a hot idea that we are working on. It is an idea that will earn you some serious cash and the best thing about it, is that it is a legitimate business with real customers that pay you real cash. Stay tuned for more information.

On the topic of cash, click HERE if you want a rebate on (almost) everything you buy online. It's a great time to join because the shopping season is just ahead of us. With back-to-school, Halloween and Christmas coming up, we will be buying things for ourselves and for our family. And what's better if you get money back?

The good thing about Mr. Rebates is that you get your cash back at over 3000+ stores including Macy's, Walmart and Amazon. I know a lot of you shop on Amazon so it should be a no-brainer when it comes to joining Mr. Rebates. Did you know you can save up to 8% off Amazon? That's outrageous in my opinion. Where can you get such a deep discount?

The threshold is only $10. Once you've reached that amount, you can ask for it in PayPal or for them to send you a check.

Anyways, it's back to work for me. Like I said, I'm working on the post that will teach you how to start a new business that almost anyone with a computer can do. It's easy and fun. And you get to learn a few things new too which is the best part of making money online.

Like they say on tv land, stay tuned!

Earn $5 to $60 - Review books that are given to you for free

If you're looking for a side hustle to earn some extra money, you've come to the right place. In today's post, I am going to show you how to be a book reviewer. You won't get rich with this but you'll get free books and you get paid $5 to $60 for giving them your honest opinion. The good news is that they don't expect you to write a positive review if you hated the book.

The Online Book Club is not a bookstore and therefore, does not sell books. It is more like a community of readers where books are featured and discussed. To join, click HERE and enter your email address. Every day, they will send you a featured book. If it's free and you want to review it then you select it and the book will be placed on your bookshelf.

Our readers have shared with us that it is possible to earn maximum dollars (ie. $60) per review by writing great reviews. This doesn't mean you have to lie about it but you can't be providing too shabby of a review either. You can write about the plot but leave out the spoilers. You can write about how it was written and whether or not, you like the author.

When submitting a review, your written work with be judged by a panel of reviewers who will assign you a review score. The higher the score, the more money you will earn so read the book with a critical eye and write an outstanding review for the book. It's that simple.

If you do join the Book Club, you will be rewarded with free books and be entered in their monthly draws for Amazon gift cards.

I hope you join and learn something new.

Earn Gift Cards - by playing games, watching videos, shopping, etc.

If you want to earn gift cards from Tim Horton's, Starbucks, Indigo, iTunes, Cineplex, Old Navy, Hudson Bay or Amazon.ca then read on because this post is for you.

The company I am promoting in this post is Swagbucks and these guys have been around for a long, long time. I believe it was founded in 2008 which makes it 11 years. Since then, Swagbucks have paid out more than $3 million dollars to loyal members including me,

As a loyal member, I have a routine every day to go into the Daily Poll to answer a question. It's always a multiple choice and you learn something about the members. The other day the daily poll asked 'how many times have I used a face mask?'. As a guy, my answer was 'never'. Either way, I earned one swagbuck for my answer.

I've been a member for at least 5 years and believe it is the best rewards program around. It lets you earn points by doing things on the web such as searching, shopping, watching videos, playing games and more.

I used to use Google to search for things, now I use Swagbucks to find things on the web. By doing so, I have the opportunity to earn bonus swagbucks (SB) because if I entered a search term that jiggles their algorithm, I get bonus SB's.

Another way to earn SB's is to install the SwagButton which will automatically monitor your tasks on the web. If you do anything that is Swagbucks related, you get a reminder. For example, if you went to eBay. Swagbucks would prompt you to activate their cash back meaning that they will give you SB's for anything you buy on eBay. This can be substantial because you can get 1% cash back on everything you buy from eBay.

If not eBay, there are other stores you can shop at such as Lowes, Indigo, Amazon, Groupon, Walmart, Canadian Tire, Rona and more.

Click HERE and register your Swagbucks account to earn swagbucks (SB). When you have collected a fair number of SB's, you can either redeem your SB's for gift cards or for money. If for money, you will get your money via PayPal.

Earning gift cards is easy with Swagbucks because they often have sales. For example, I redeemed my SB's for a Ultimate Dining Card and treated my wife to a dinner at Kelsey's. The Ultimate Dining Card can also be used at Montana's, East Mario's, Swiss Chalet or Harvey's.

If you click the link above, you could earn an additional 300 SB's when you total 300 SB's in the next 30 days. That's my way to say 'thanks' for reading our blog xocash.blogspot.com and joining Swagbucks.

If you live in Canada, I urge you to join Swagbucks and start collecting SB's for gift cards or for money.

Earn Amazon Gift Cards - posting jobs

If you're looking to buy things from Amazon or better yet, get them for free then I have something exciting for you to do. Here's an idea on how you can earn Amazon dollars with your smartphone.

Search and download the Job Spotter app from Indeed onto your smartphone. Here is the logo for the app.

Job Spotter app available from iOS or Android store

Who is Indeed?

Since 2004, this American company has provided worldwide employment-related search engine for job listings.

What to do?

Next time when you're out, keep your eye open for hiring signs. You've seen these signs before. Restaurants wanting to hire servers, cooks or dishwashers will post a sign on their window or doors. Big department stores may post hiring signs on their bulletin boards in their Customer Service departments.

Take your smartphone out and launch the Job Spotter app. Go to Submit photos and take a picture of the sign then take a picture of the merchant. Submit both photos and wait for Indeed to review your submission.

Submission of a hiring sign from Winners

From the above photo, you can see that I received 25 points for submitting a job from Winners. Because other people had submitted the same job, I received lesser points.

Submission that earned 117 points

In this submission, I received 117 points because fewer people had submitted the same job. Also, you get more points for submitting a job from a smaller establishment.

When you've accumulated enough points, go to your wallet and see how much Amazon dollars you have. Each point is worth 1 US cent.

Wallet shows Amazon dollars

This is a very easy and fun way to score some Amazon gift cards. I hope you will download this app and start collecting points.