Marketing Me! Second income

With all of the economic news going around, many of us are feeling the pinch in our pocketbooks.

So-called experts advise all of us to tighten our belts and cut back on spending. Generally, they throw out that "cut the Starbucks daily habit" or "take your lunch to work" suggestion as ways to increase your monthly bottom line.

Nonsense. Most of the people I know bring their lunch or skip eating out altogether. And during my morning commute, I am seeing fewer and fewer people clutching their Starbuck's styrofoams in the car these days.

The real answer to dealing with financial burdens is MAKE MORE MONEY. But how you say?

First, eliminate this 1950's 9-5, time clock work mindset you may feel entitled to. That reality has gone the way of the phone booth and airline meals.

Next, put together a few ideas you know you can accomplish for increasing your company's (YOU) income.

Here are some suggestions:

Task - start a blog, include advertising on the site, build readership, sell a few affiliate products, make some extra dollars. Don't plan on big bucks, but it can grow your name and lead to other outlets.

Task - start a storefront website and sell a few key, niche items. Amazon and affiliate programs make this sort of work a cinch. In a later post I can show you ways to do this.

Task - Write an e-book. Pick a topic or two and research them. Is there a need for what you have to offer? Self help, recipes, how-to and health related titles are all big. And most titles sell in the US$7.00 range with certain websites. Expect 50-100 pages in PDF format.

Task - Write a book. Same as above, perhaps mixed with your blogging efforts. This happens frequently but requires long term commitment and dedication.

Task - Contract. Have you ever had a friend talk about the problems at their company? Perhaps how hard it is to keep their office LAN running, how bad their website looks or simply how disorganized their office is? Offer your night and weekend expertise.

Task - Consult. A step up from contracting. Offer to help a fledgling company get off the ground with sales, marketing or operational help. Remember, they need not provide you with health care, with holding or unemployment. Only a 1099 contract check when work is completed.

Task - Actually take a second, part time job. What did you do in a previous life? Telemarketing? IT work? Tech support? All jobs which have after hours employment available.

The nice thing about nearly all of these suggestions is they take very little out of pocket expense on your part. Just time. Which you might have been wasting in front of the television anyway, right?

Happy hunting,