Make Money Online During Hard Times

As you face this current economic cycle of hard times, there are some things you can do with a computer to improve your financial situation. But, the first thing you must do not to panic about your financial situation! The effect of this type of fear is debilitating and counter-productive. Most creative, resourceful ideas and applications come from a clear mind open to possibility and hope. This is sometimes difficult to do, but this is your biggest hurdle. Whatever you can do to get over the mountain of "fear and doubt "and reach the valley of "possibility," do it! It may be a combination of Faith in God's Provision, faith in your own gifts, studying successful people and pulling away from negative people, if necessary. As the Nike ad says... The first place my husband and I turned to online for extra money during hard times was EBay. We bought a book written by a successful EBay businessman. That thirteen dollars was a lot at the time, but we have made it back many times over on EBay. We started out selling things we had, and then we started picking up things at a bargain specifically for EBay. I will not mislead you; there is much to be learned to do EBay even part-time. But, if you are willing to put in the time to learn the ropes, there is still money to be had on EBay. In our case, we are able to sell to people in areas not so badly blighted by economic hard times.
Another area of possibility is online article writing, just like you are reading right now! If you like to write or have any area of particular expertise or knowledge that others could benefit from, you can make money online by writing. There are many options as to the submission of your material, but I will mention the ones I use and know are reputable. The links will be at the end of the article.
Be aware there are MANY other avenues for writing online. The place I started was E-how. I have been receiving small checks from Ehow for over a year now. You are paid monthly on the tenth of the month if your earnings reached over ten dollars. Their formula pays based on a per-hit basis, someway tied to ads and such. There is no up-front payment. All articles must be in a "How to" format. Bukisa is another one that is growing daily. They pay you strictly on the number of people who visit the article. It seems to be a little lower amount than Ehow but it is a straight amount per thousand hits and they have an index number on the site. Their articles do NOT have to be "How to," and that opens up the spectrum of the type of article you can write. They also have a program structure where you earn a small amount on people's articles that you refer on Bukisa. This has the potential of being lucrative.
Associated Content is another I have been using, and I have been very pleased with them. They will pay upfront for articles, often, and also provide a venue for previously published articles at a pay per view rate. I have been trying to get triple mileage out of my material at all sites, being careful to not publish anything I have presented to Associated Content as solely published on their site. All of these accept videos and audios, too. And, Associated Content publishes creative endeavors like poetry, music, etc.
If you are a blogger online, you could make money from your blog! There are a growing number of opportunities for bloggers to cash in on their writings. I am not currently doing this, but I have been reading about the opportunities. You can utilize programs like Google adsense, making money on the ads read on your blog site. Also, you can make money through some other programs that appeal to blog site owners. You can research this online. Most of the programs other than adsense types, require a long-standing blog which can be submitted for application. Wordpress is one blog site people are using who are seeking to profit from their blogs.
Finally, Mechanical Turk is an arm of Amazon.com that allows you to make a little money in small amounts (that can add up quickly!) by accepting "hits" or little jobs to do online. The can range from rating a web site to rewriting an article. The pay varies as does the tasks. You have to pre-qualify for some tasks. I have had to distinguish correct images, hunt for email contacts on websites, rate videos, correct spelling, etc. They are tasks that a computer cannot do. And you sign up for them in little bite-sized hits that can be done while waiting on the kettle to boil. It appears that the people making the most money on this site are taking part in Casting Words.com doing transcription work through Mechanical Turk. You have to take a test and download some software, but I think the money appears substantial. I am just investigating this. But Mechanical Turk is a way to accumulate some cash while you are sitting in front of the TV with your computer. It could help pay that cable bill during hard times!
All of these online endeavors require a PayPal account to receive your money, except Mechanical Turk, which utilizes a similar Amazon program. So you will need a PayPal Account. It is a reliable institution owned by EBay. It is also now the sole way of conducting transactions on EBay . I have found them to be reliable. They also provide a free debit card for your account and you can use it at the store to shop for necessities and get a 1% cash back. For instance, buy 70 dollars worth of groceries on your PayPal and get 70 cents back in your account!
These are just a small slice of opportunities online to improve your situation during economic hard times. Although, sadly, our factories are closing here in the United States, the internet is continuing to grow. There are still economic opportunities out there for the one who will rise above the gloom and doom, have the courage to spread their wings and fly!