The Online Only Income Blog

June is Frugal Month

2009-06-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

June is Frugal Month here at The Online Only Income Blog - with a month of posts of frugal topics including:

Frugal Entertainment
Frugal Parenting
Frugal Shopping
Frugal Eating
Frugal Homeschooling
Frugal Clothing
Frugal Utilities

and more. If there is a frugal topic you'd like to me cover, leave a comment here and I'll attempt to cover it.

Sources of Online Income Part 2

2009-05-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

The hunt for online income continues!

More sources of online income are:

Hyenacart & Etsy - If you have any type of craft or creative thing you do, you can likely sell it on one or both of these websites. Clothing, housewares, kids items - you name it if it's handmade you can sell it. I haven't personally sold on either of these sites, but I do know single mom's to support their family on their earnings.

Focus Groups - I've done several online chat focus groups for a variety of companies. The pay is generally pretty good {10+ per hour & often more} and they are fun to do as well. The bad part is they are not a reliable source of income because you never really know when your next focus group will come up - it might be a week or it might be months.

Ad viewing sites { youdata & hits4pay } - You won't get rich off either of these websites, but every bit helps. I make around $20 a month total from the 2 - enough to cover part of the internet bill. The nice part is - i do them in the morning when I'm getting ready to start the day. I set up to view the ads & then give my desk it's daily cleanup before I get to the real work elsewhere. And it takes maybe 5 minutes a day at most.

Paid to Read Email sites { sendearnings & inboxdollars } - Again - you won't get rich with these. But they don't take up much time and that .20 will eventially add up. You can also do surveys & offers to increase your earnings for a faster payout.

And of course there is ChaCha. Again - not a ton of pay but more than most of the rest, and it is interesting work. Don't count of it to replace a real job though as you'll find yourself burning out quick if you do.

What other ideas for online income do you have?

Sources of Online Income Part 1

2009-05-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

There are a multitude of ways to make money online ranging from fully passive income {such as referral links, e-book sales, etc} to fully active income {such as ebay, selling books, craigslist, etc}. The trick is finding the right niche for you to earn the income you need.

Here are a few of my main sources of income currently:

Craigslist - This is an active income source because you actually have to take the time to list the item, reply to emails, meet with a person, etc which can take a while to accomplish, especially with no-shows and rescheduling. However I've had great success with selling things on craigslist - just this week alone I'd sold $250 of items that were just taking up space in my house. You can also resell items on craigslist as well - buy at auction & then clean up and list. Or my favorite - pick up in the bulk trash pickup, clean up & sell for 100% profit. Remember safety with this though - cash payments only, and always meet in a public place when possible. I use my home, but it's across from a busy high school so it's fairly public.

eBay {and half.com} - I've sold on both these sites in the past, and they are decent to sell on. Lots of fees, but you can turn a real profit, especially selling books on half.com {I bought at thrift shops using a PDA & barcode scanner to identify good sellers}. However, it takes time to package & ship items, and often issues come up. However you can make good money with this - I made around $400 a month with little effort selling on half.com. I'm told selling used car parts & the lick is very profitable on ebay, but I've not tried it myself.

Amazon.com - Very Similar to half.com, but often with better profit margins. Again, use the barcode scanner to evaluate books prior to buying to ensure profit. Same issues with fees, and shipping.

cash4books.com - again selling books. However this site is a bit different - run your books through their database and only ship those they are buying. They don't pay as much as half.com or amazon.com, but there is no wait for a buyer and you can ship in bulk.

And that's it for part 1 for Online Income Sources - Watch for part 2 soon!

Subscriber Contest!

2009-05-24T16:41:00.000-07:00

I promised you a contest, so here it is!

All subscribers who also comment on this post will be entered to win a$10 Starbucks gift card! This contest will only be open until June 1st, 2009 so get those entries in.

You need to comment with your name listed on your account when you sign up to follow the blog,

Bank Bonuses as a Source of Income

2009-05-24T08:02:00.000-07:00

I recently opened a new bank account with Chase bank. Not because I needed a new account - I already have one with Bank Of America, but because they are running a promotion giving $100 bonus to anyone that opens an account & meets the requirements. I don't know about you, but I'll take a free $100! I'll likely close it when the 6 month holding requirement is met {don't worry I get my money before then} so that I can open another account with them next year as they allow one bonus per calendar year. I marked the 6 month date {plus 15 days to ensure no fees} on my big wall calendar that sits over my office desk as a reminder to me to close the account then. Pretty simple overall.

It occurred to me from reading over at FatWallet finance forums that bank bonuses could be used as a source of online income. With all the banks out there that do both sign-up bonuses & referral bonuses, you could easily make $300 a month in just bank bonuses if you stayed on top of it {at $100 a bonus that is only 3 accounts opened a month}. Maybe even $500 a month if you have the income to invest {currently I don't - I'm a single mom and money is always tight} in it.

So I'm going to keep watching for bank bonuses and keep track of how much I earn. http://www.bloggingbanks.com/ is a good blog about bank bonuses & a spot I now check daily to see about any new bonuses available. I'll keep you updated on my progress with it as well.

Don't Worry! Be Happy!

2009-05-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't abandoned the blog!

I'm a single mom, and sometimes life gets hectic. My daughter who is 2 and a half years old had the flu for a week, and things are just now getting back to normal in our house.

During my absence though I got a lot done including:

~Earned more Amazon Gift Cards through Swagbucks
~Held a 2 day Garage sale and made $1450 even with poor turnout on day 2!
~Worked on upcoming posts for the blog, including a series on how to home school for less than $200 a year, and how to properly run a Garage Sale.
~Worked on my Debt Snowball and made a decision about which to pay off first.

So look for several interesting upcoming posts on frugal living and frugal parenting, in addition to our very first contest!

April Income Wrap Up

2009-05-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

Since it's May now, I though it would be a good idea to post my online income from April here.

ChaCha: $270.07 {Didn't work much for them this month}
Google Adsense: $4.27 {Banked towards $100 Payout Level}
YouData: $38.50
Hits4Pay: $13.23 {Banked Towards $25 Payout Level}
Swagbucks: $15 in Amazon Gift Cards
SendEarnings: $9.10 {Banked towards $30 Payout Level}
InboxDollars: $7.23 {Banked towards $30 Payout Level}

So in total I made $342.40 plus an extra $15 in Amazon Gift Cards. I didn't work much for ChaCha this month either as I've not felt well and my daughter was sick.

I also had 558 page views for this blog as well during the month of April.

My May goals are as follows:

$1000 income total from all sources
1000 page views on this blog
at least one subscriber {I currently have no subscribers right now}

Watch for an upcoming subscriber contest to be coming soon!

How I learned to Manage Money & stay on a Budget

2009-04-26T06:05:00.001-07:00

If you've read my older posts, you may have noticed I only have a goal of $2000 take-home income a month. I know for many, that's no where near enough money, even just for two people. However, with the budgeting skills I've learned thanks to Dave Ramsey, it's actually more than enough for us to live on comfortably.

The best purchase I ever made, was a copy of Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover, where he teaches you sound financial practices and how to get out of debt and be financially free. In the book, one of the main items he stresses is the use of a written budget & sticking to it. This is what has made it possible for us to live on so little - even with my massive student loan payments of nearly $1000 a month. He has a way of teaching that is common sense and down to earth that works for just about anyone.

Selling Books Online

2009-04-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

There are a variety of places & ways to sell books online, and I've sold both on half.com and Amazon. Due to a number of reasons I decided to look for a new place to sell my books.

I discovered cash4books.com, which buys used books in good condition. They don't pay as well as selling on Amazon or Half.com, but they do pay quickly via paypal or check, meaning you don't have to wait for a buyer to decide to purchase your book.

I make a pretty decent amount scouting used book stores & thrift shops for books to sell to them, aided by my book scanner.

Friday Payout from Youdata Plus Swagbucks!

2009-04-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

Got paid $3.84 from Youdata today, $3 of which was all from referrals. Not too bad considering there weren't many ads posted this week.

And I got another $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks as well for doing searches online! That makes $15 this month in Amazon Gift Cards from Swagbucks - which is a HUGE help to the homeschooling costs!

Google Adsense

2009-04-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

Google Adsense is another good source of online income, but it's a little different than surveys & GPT sites.

The nice thing about google adsense is that is is true PASSIVE income - meaning that for the most part, once you set it up and get traffic to your site, you can just sit back and watch the money come in.

For Goodle adsense to work, you must either have a blog, website, or some type of webpage to place advertising on. You get paid based on both page impressions {how many times your page was viewed} AND clicks on ads.

Examples of adsense advertising are at the top, bottom, and side of my blog. It's done very tastefully, and you can also screen ad content if desired for your site.

Very easy to do! The payout minimum is $100, so the more people you have visiting the site & clicking on ads the better. It does ad up very quickly though - I estimated to about .15 a day for my blog, which doesn't have a lot of traffic yet.

Monster Pays Cash

2009-04-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

Discovered a new site recently that is pretty good for surveys, shopping, and offers. Payment is via paypal, check, target or amazon gift cards, and they pay monthly.

I was credited promptly for the offers I'd done, and they have several other survey sites among their offers.

Points.com

2009-04-19T06:19:00.001-07:00

While we don't use credit anymore {Thanks to Dave Ramsey}, we did have a few old credit card accounts still open that we're in the process of paying off.

While searching around online a while back, I discovered points.com, where you can trade in those credit card points & airline miles for actual items & gift cards!

I was able to trade in some old US Airways miles from my credit card for a $14 Amazon gift card. They have a variety of gift cards available, depending on the program you are using. The site also lets you swap miles between programs, allowing you to consolidate points for a single reward as well.

So while it's not 100% an income source, you can always use that gift card in place of cash and put the cash towards debt or something else.

Youdata Payment Today

2009-04-17T13:28:00.000-07:00

Just got my Youdata payment to my paypal account for this week - $7.68. Can't beat that for about 30 minutes work total for the week!

Now it's transferred to the Bank Account to cover half the water bill!

Cash Crate

2009-04-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

I have dabbled with CashCrate on and off since they were new - and gotten paid out twice now. Not a bad return on your time, especially if you use roboform to fill out the forms. DO WATCH for everything in the survey sites to be checked NO - sometimes they are tricky.

They pay via check, with a $20 payout level.

Two New Paid Email Sites

2009-04-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

I have been making a goal of finding at least one new source of income daily, and yesterday I found 2 new ones with good reviews.

The First is SendEarnings, which is a site that pays you to read emails. So far I'm making around .10 a day, which isn't a lot but it does add up. You can also do surveys to increase your earnings - Most surveys are worth around .25-.50, but some are more. The lowest Payout is $30, and they do give a $5 signup bonus. It takes me around 5 minutes tops to read their paid emails {5 per day average for me} & click the confirmation link to confirm reading. Payment is via a check, which is nice because of no fees to get your money.

The second site is InboxDollars, which is really almost a clone of SendEarnings. They both are confirmed to pay out though. Same exact deal - paid emails averaging around .10 per day {5 emails}, surveys if you choose to, $30 payout via check and a $5 signup bonus.

So not a lot of money, but I'll gladly take .20 a day for reading emails in my spare time. That's a $73 per year snowflake in my spare time!

Current Online Income Sources

2009-04-07T16:53:00.000-07:00

Since I'm just starting out, I thought a good place to start would be with my current online income sources.

My main income earner is working for ChaCha. I try to get $10 of earnings daily at the very least - I often earn $20+ daily with ChaCha. This typically takes me a while - I do it in the evenings when it is busiest, making for it taking the least amount of time. So there is $300 a month currently.

I use youdata to get paid for viewing ads. I make around $10 a week with them, and they pay weekly into my paypal account. I spend at most 30 minutes a week viewing the ads - not a bad pay in my opinion. So there is $40 a week.

I also do hits4pay to view ads & get paid for these. Not a quick as youdata, and there is a payout level of $25 for each check, which they pay via paypal. They give a $10 signup bonus, and then pay .02 per ad you view. You must stay on each ad until the top banner says credited. I generally do these while doing my morning cleanup to start the day - click an ad, clean a bit on the desk, click another ad, etc rinse and repeat. I have not yet hit the payout level as I have only been with them about a week, and will update this when I do.

I also do Mypoints for online earnings. I don't earn money with them, but I do cash in for some lovely giftcards that I use to cover things I would typically spend cash on. I average $15 in gift cards about every 3 months, sometimes more. Please email me if you'd like a referral to mypoints.

And I also use Swagbucks to do my online searches. Since I search a lot, I do pretty good with them - $10 a month or so of giftcards. They have many options for gift cards, but I typically redeem for $5 amazon gift cards, and use them to purchase books on my wish list for future homeschooling.

So right now I'm earning around $340 a month, plus another $10-25 in gift cards. Not too bad, but it needs improvement.

Welcome!

2009-04-07T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I'm Darla, writer of The Online Only Income Blog. This is my story about supporting myself and my daughter 100% with online earnings, both from regular type jobs performed online, and from surveys & ad earnings.

My goals currently are to make total of $2000 a month in online based income, to support myself & my daughter and pay off my student loan debts.