make money

Should You Get Naked for Quick Cash?

November 14, 2017 By Jackie Cohen Leave a Comment

Has debt made you so desperate you’re considering nude modeling for quick cash? Don’t let desperation drive you to make a career limiting move.

Save your concerns about freedom of expression for another time because the following warning concerns your potential for future earnings — or lack thereof.

The risk that the wrong people will discover your naked photos or videos is skyrocketing due to a confluence of trends.

Background Checks

Among them is the rise of companies that perform background checks for employers to use in evaluating whether to hire job candidates.

It’s almost become a standard practice of human resources departments and recruiters to outsource background checks to companies that do them full time.

While these outfits generally focus on fact-checking the claims people make on their resumes — along with reference checks, and digging up any criminal records — the depth and magnitude of the background checks vary depending on a host of factors.

Although it’s not likely these firms look into whether candidates have sold naked photos online, one might assume that higher-paying jobs might involve more elaborate background checks.

Image Search

The other key phenomenon that would make internet nudity a career limiting move is the increased sophistication of image-based search technology.

Visual search capabilities can match images to their source and vice versa; this functionality is an option in most search engines, along with numerous photo sharing websites and tools.

Wigs Are No Disguise

The facial recognition capabilities in this technology have gotten so sophisticated that wigs and aliases are no longer able to help models and performers evade detection

And unfortunately for these models and performers, image search tools aren’t the only thing that’s making it easier to discover them.

Illegal file sharing of this type of content continues to proliferate in spite of copyrights, watermarks, and even paywalls.

But What Are the Odds?

To be fair, it’s possible that the large volume of content on the internet might slow down or reduce the odds that someone might discover an adult entertainment-type of photo or video from a person’s past.

However, computing power continues to improve so it’s very possible that something that takes too long to find today might be much easier to find in the near future.

The potential lost opportunities resulting from such a discovery far exceeds the amount of debt relief you might achieve today by selling some illicit photos or videos online.

Pure Pressure from Debt

Of course, it’s easy to lose sight of that kind of long-term picture when you’re feeling pressure today from debt that’s gotten out of control.

Household debt has returned to peak levels, only this time around, student loan balances account for a much larger share than they did a decade ago.

This might explain why we’re seeing renewed interest in a blog post we published nine years ago describing anecdotally how someone made $6,000 selling nude photos online.

Since then, the potential for career limitation has gotten much greater for anyone who might contemplate taking that kind of gamble today.

Quick Cash

Before you make a mistake you might live to regret, please check out the wealth of articles we’ve published on all the other ways to make fast cash:

Readers, how desperately have you wanted to solve your own financial problems?

Writing For Money: How to Find Writing Jobs

August 23, 2017 By Mary Newton Leave a Comment

I decided to be a writer when I was in seventh grade. From that moment to this very day, every time I tell someone I write, I steel myself for criticism. I have to because, to the world at large, forging a career in writing is like signing up to never, ever make money. It’s like joining the Starving Artists Club, like choosing the opposite of success. It’s Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge finding out that Ewan McGregor is not a duke after all.

But I am here to tell you a secret: writing is practical. Writing can make you a living. Choosing to write does not mean sacrificing a successful life. If anything, pursuing your love of writing can secure your success and happiness. It’s just a matter of getting started, of finding the way in that is best for you, and building your network from there. That said, here are a few ways you can write for money.

Captioning and Transcription

If you are the type of person who is a spelling and grammar superstar with lighting-fast typing skills, captioning is a great way to put those skills to use. Captioning – and transcribing – through companies such as Rev, Inc. is easy and straightforward. Pay rates tend to go per video minute rather than the hours of work you actually put in, so the faster you are, the more you will get paid. While captioning may not be a creative writing job, it does expose you to media you would not have experienced otherwise, allowing you the opportunity to learn about and experience new things from stand up paddleboarding to the Frank Sinatra Timex show.

Blogging

If you’re the type with ideas to share with the world, blogging is for you. Make sure you settle on your unique perspective before you begin, and also pick up some marketing skills if you can. To make money from your own blog, you will need a high amount of traffic (people clicking through to your site) and possibly some advertisements from other companies on your page. There is no guarantee that starting a blog will immediately begin earning you money, but if you have the right content and the right marketing tactics for your intended audience, you have a fighting chance.

If creating your own blog is not your style, yet you love the real-world, non-fiction stories and advice in blogs, you can always try writing for another site. This type of freelancing will generally pay per article, but if you are talented and fit well with the site, freelancing could become a steady job. For more on where to go for these freelance blogging opportunities, try articles like this one or even freelance sites like Fiverr.

Copywriting and Advertising

Jobs such as copywriting and ad writing, unlike blogging or captioning, have a higher chance of being office-based as opposed to online. These jobs will employ both refined grammatical skills and higher-level creativity, perfect for the well-rounded writer. While these jobs may be more competitive, their pay and hours will be more consistent than the others, and can lead to even better opportunities within the company.

While the ideal career of New York Times Bestselling Author may be difficult to achieve, that is not the only way to make money writing. If a published novel is your ultimate goal, don’t worry: use your free time to write your own creative work and send it to agents, all the while building your experience, network, and skills with a paid writing position. Writing skills are essential to the function of our society and should never be underestimated. So if you are looking to write, go for it. You can make money writing.

You may also enjoy reading:

Photo: Writer Sanctuary

How to Make Money While You Sleep

January 10, 2017 By Jennifer Clark 3 Comments

We know we have to work hard for the money, but what if we could roll in the dough while we caught some Z’s? It should come as no surprise that in today’s digital world, a passive income is more than possible; it’s do-able. And in today’s article, we are going to discuss how to make money while you sleep.

Most things that sound too good to be true are; however, a passive income is not as long as you know what to expect. You just need to realize before starting that you might be working longer and harder in the beginning before the “passive” part kicks off. This is an initial investment of your time in order to reap the rewards over and over again later.

So, with that in mind, here’s how to make money while you sleep:

Get into the drop shipping industry

Perhaps you’ve tried selling items on eBay before, but it’s not bringing in the income you’d hope to see. Or maybe you’re out of merchandise to sell. Drop shipping is another way to sell physical goods without actually keeping anything in stock. Instead, you purchase items from a warehouse or third party who then directly ship the products to the customer. In this retail model, items are only purchased as needed instead of maintaining an inventory. You can learn more about the process from the eCommerce platform Shopify, which can be used to start your own drop shipping business.

Blogging and Affiliate Marketing

Starting a blog is fairly cheap to get started. You just need to pay for web hosting and your domain name, then you are ready to go. Plus, blogging is one of the best ways to make a passive income online. This is not a “set it up and the money will come” thing though. You do need to spend weekly attention to it for a while before it can really start making you money. The good news is that there are multiple ways to make money through a blog once you have built a following. Here are just a few:

Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is where you promote other people’s products on your site and receive commission if people click the link. You’ll want to choose products or services relevant to your site for best results. See if the company who created a certain product or service you already use for your blog or business has an affiliate program in place. Sites like ClickBank will also provide you with a link to use on your site from a variety of industries. A general rule of thumb is to pick categories you are most familiar with to make the process genuine and simpler for you.
Advertising: When your blog does have enough traffic, you can start selling ad space to potential advertisers that want to reach your audience. Again, using advertisers relevant to your blog’s niche to improve the quality of your site. Advertising revenue will start off small, but it will eventually grow in numbers in time as your visitors grow and clicks to the ads do as well.
Find a Site Sponsor: Another option would be to have someone pay you a set amount to have an embedded banner, sponsored content or their logo permanantly placed somewhere on your site. You’ll have more leverage to do this once you have the following, so focus on growing your blog first.

Put together a membership site

Creating a membership community is a great way to make a little extra cash by providing exclusive information to members. For example, let’s say your blog is up and running. You can develop a membership portion of your site where individuals pay to receive high-quality free materials or information not provided to your general audience.

Have a middle-man or arbitrage services

Basically, this is where you do all the negotiating but hire out the labor to execute. Choose markets or services that people or businesses are willing to pay a lot of money and connect them to the person that performs the work. So, to sum it up, you are paid to be the middle man. You outsource and market the services, making a profit from doing so.

Peer-to-peer lending

Peer-to-peer lending basically makes you a human form of a bank. Certain sites will match you with someone who was have a difficult time receiving a loan. Because this is giving strangers money over the internet, this is much riskier. Despite the fact that you can have high interest rates on the loans you provide, this will be one passive income resource that you will want to do your homework on before signing up.

Before you get started…

Now that you have a few ideas of your options, you need to develop a plan of action. Before you officially start, determine the following:

What skills or services can I offer?
What is my niche?
Who is my audience?
What is my competition?

Make sure to then research the passive income route you plan to take prior to diving in. If none of the above sound like they fit you, you can also invest in the stock market and become a stakeholder.

If you’ve been wondering how to make money while you sleep, hopefully we’ve answered that for you here today. Do you plan on trying any of the above or have you seen success already? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

Diet Bet: Lose Weight and Save Money in the New Year

December 27, 2016 By Amanda Blankenship Leave a Comment

The new year is right around the corner and most people are resolving to lose weight, make more money or save more in 2017. Whatever your resolutions may be, Diet Bet could help you achieve more than one of your goals.

What is Diet Bet?

Most simply put, Diet Bet is a way to get paid to lose weight. You can visit their website and begin your own diet bet or join someone else’s betting group.

According to The Penny Hoarder, diet betting sites have been gaining in popularity over the past few years. There are two great diet betting sites out there (Diet Bet and Healthy Wage). So far DietBet.com has had over 440,000 players, more than 5.5 million pounds lost and over $28 million paid out through diet bet games.

How Does Diet Bet Work?

Generally you start with joining a “game.” The company calls each diet bet a game because you put money out and bet on yourself being able to lose a certain amount of weight within the length of the game. Most last anywhere from a week to a few months (some even last a year).

You can join a game by joining one of the weekly kickstarter’s or create your own diet bet. Each game has a buy-in price and once the game is over everyone who met their goal will split the pot. The largest pot on the site currently sits at $130,000 with under 1,000 people to split it.

Losing Weight and Making Money With Diet Bet

Diet Bet is a great way to find motivation with your weight loss. Not only do you lose weight you can make money doing it.

The amount of money you’ll make varies from bet-to-bet. If you don’t lose the weight you bet that you would, you lose your buy-in (ranging from $10 to $100). One woman, for instance, lost 56 pounds and won over $1,100, while another lost 84 pounds and earned $660.

You can set your weight loss goal by percentage for most bets. For instance, if you’d like to lose 4% of your body weight, you can join the weekly kickstarter (a four-week plan). Lose 10% of your weight betting in a six-week program. You can also join more than one bet if you’re confident in your ability to lose the weight and earn even more cash.

Additionally, you don’t need to go to the website to have access to your Diet Bet account. There’s an app for that.

Diet Bet App

Don’t want to get on your computer to track your weight loss journey? You can have Diet Bet in your pocket. The Diet Bet app is extremely user friendly and allows you to keep track of your current bets, track your weight loss and win cash when you succeed.

Either way you look at it Diet Bet can help you make some extra cash and motivate you to lose weight. The best part is you can take the cash you earn from Diet Bet and stash it in savings, pay off debt or plan a great vacation.

Will you try Diet Bet this year?

Photos: Practical Cures and Twitter

Best Jobs for Teens

October 18, 2016 By Amanda Blankenship 1 Comment

First jobs are typically great learning experiences for teenagers. Usually parents want their kids to seek a part-time job on the weekends or after school to provide a sense of responsibility for their child as well as bring in some extra money. So, what are the best jobs for teens?

Below are some great part-time jobs and small business opportunities for high school students.

Participate in a Study

This idea isn’t one that you would normally think of as a job for your high school student. However, you can get your child signed up for a study and sometimes they pay $500 or more. This is fast and easy money for your teenager.

Babysitting

Babysitting is a common job for many teenagers. Many teens make a substantial amount of money babysitting. Once you have references you can charge more money per hour for babysitting as well.

Walk dogs

Dog walking, like babysitting, is a common job for teenagers to hold. If you live in a neighborhood or close-knit community dog walking may be a great option for your teen’s first job.

Tutor

If your child is bright and able to help others understand topics in school you may want to consider urging them to tutor. Tutoring is a great thing to put on their resume for college and it can also pay pretty handsomely.

You can tutor both in person and online. If your child is interested in tutoring online there are companies that accept tutor applicants as young as 15 years old.

Start a small business

Some teenagers already have an entrepreneurial spirit. If that is the case with your child you may want to urge them to start a small business. If your teen plays an instrument they may be able to teach piano (or another skill). They can also sell things like candy or chocolate, shovel sidewalks during the winter, cut grass and do landscaping during the summer. Once you’ve gained a name for your small business, your child could make a significant amount of money from their small business.

Work at a Movie theater

Many movie theaters will hire younger employees to clean up the theaters after shows. This position will only be a few hours a week usually, however, your child is likely to receive some perks like free movie tickets.

Become a Referee

As a teenager you can become a referee. Usually pay is about $20 per game, depending on the sport. Once you’ve had a bit of experience you can get $35 or more per game that you referee. If your child is younger than 16 years old, however, the sports may be limited. Soccer and baseball are two sports that you can start before the age of 16.

Become a dishwasher at a local restaurant

Being a dishwasher or busboy is always a great first job for your teenager. Depending on what state you live in, your child can become employed for a position like this as early as 14 years old. It is a job that does not require a lot of skill and restaurants are almost always looking for someone to wash dishes.

Listen and Review Music Online

Most teenagers love listening to new music. What many don’t know is that you can get paid to listen and review new artists. No special skills are needed for the job and you can be younger than 18 and apply. Generally the pay is between $0.05 and $0.20 per track.

Become a Reservation Agent

Uhaul hires employees as young as 16 years old to be Customer Service Representatives. All you need in order to perform the job is a good quality USB headset and high speed internet. Pay starts at $7.50 to $8.50 an hour and there are opportunities for bonuses.

Take Surveys Online

If your teenager is interested in taking surveys online to earn some cash, these companies accept teen applicants: My Survey, VIP Voices, Harris Poll, E-Poll and Paid Viewpoint.

Write Articles

If the teenager looking for a job enjoys writing they will likely be able to find a freelance position online. If you (or your child) enjoys writing freelancing is a great way to make money. Hubpages and Helium both accept teenage applicants.

Become A Proofreader

This may be a better job for the older teenagers (16 and up). If they are good with writing and grammar they may be able to find a proofreading or editing job. Textmaster, Upwork, and Amazon Mturk are all looking for beginner-level proofreaders.

Each of these jobs are great for teenagers. While it is important for teens to learn responsibility through holding a part-time or beginner-level position, they still have to finish school and participate in extracurricular activities. Each of the aforementioned jobs are flexible enough for high school students and teenagers and provide a great way for teens to make money.

Do you have any jobs that are great for teenagers? Let us know in the comments.

Photo: bigbirdz

7 Things You Can Sell From Around Your Home to Make Money

September 9, 2016 By Alexa Mason Leave a Comment

Making money nowadays can be quite a challenge. However, your home is likely to have items you’re no longer using and some of them could be worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

A lot of people underestimate the value of their possessions hidden in the attic or are gathering dust in storage and buyers are willing to pay top dollar for rare gems or any items that are limited supply. Even everyday items can bring in some cash if you want to. As the saying goes, “ One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

When things get tight financially, here are 7 things you can sell to make money right off from the comfort of your own home:

Clothes. There is a big chance that you have clothes that either don’t fit you anymore or you have only worn it a few times and decided to put it in the back closet. Why not make money from it? If these items are in good condition, you can cash in and sell them.
Designer bags and shoes. Original designer bags and shoes are quite expensive when bought brand new. If you rarely use them anymore and feel that you can part with it, you can reclaim some of your money by selling these items online.
Jewelry. If you have inherited a piece of jewelry that’s not your style or a ring you’re no longer using since you’re divorced or just old jewelry you want to get rid of, you might consider selling jewelry for cash. Fine jewelry can be worth a lot of money.
Cellphones. Old, used and even damaged cell phone units can be sold for cash. Most devices still have some value even if they are broken or damaged, as long as they are fully functional and are also worth more if the item is in good condition with just the normal wear and tear.
Gift Cards. There are millions of dollars worth of gift cards that go unused. If you think that you won’t be able to use those gift cards yourself, why not sell them too? There are also places that exchange gift cards for cash at grocery stores.
Books. If you have books that you know you’ll never read again – instead of them taking up space and collecting dust in your book cabinet, you can easily turn them into cash when you sell them online. If you have first edition books and books signed by the author, it could be worth some cash.
Furniture. If you’re moving into a smaller place and the furniture you presently got needs to go, or you got unwanted furniture in your home, this is also a good source of hidden cash. You can sell them locally on several social media platforms – just be sure you post pictures and show the dimensions of the furniture on the items you want to sell.

These are just a few ideas you can start with. Make some extra cash right in your own home with the items listed here and you just might be surprised how much you can come up with.

Photo: Flickr: Emily Carlin