My Collection of Alternate Income Sources

I’ll be the first to admit that on most Fridays, I’m not all that useful. I love the weekend, and I spend much of my day wishing I was out and about doing what I’d like to be doing instead of stuck at the office. Today however, I’m going to try and remain productive! As such I’ll be bringing you a compilation of potential income sources for you on the side.

I’ve found that many blog posts on passive/alternate income are often rather nebulous. What I mean is that they’ll say “Start your own business by doing something you like!” That’s all well and good but.. this often doesn’t translate very well, and there are big steps that need to be taken! Instead what I’m aiming for here is something that anyone can do, that doesn’t have a huge amount of setup time or money/effort that needs to be invested. If I cover a topic here that does take extensive planning, I’ll provide resources in that direction.

DISCLAIMER: I’m not necessarily endorsing each one of these sources, use your best judgment in deciding what works for you. I will mention if I have made money from these or not, however, so that should give you an idea of what I’m comfortable with.

Some will be better than others, and what I’ve discovered so far is hardly exhaustive, but it’s a springboard for those of you interested in generating income on the side without having to  go digging through the myriad of posts! Some of these are rather unorthodox, but I’ve used them to varying degrees of success. So, Without further ado:

1. Surveys

Surveys are probably the easiest source of income for the average person to pick up. They cost nothing to sign up for, and take up about 20-30 minutes per week, depending on the number of surveys you choose to do, and can provide a comfortable amount of spending money. My tally for the month of January was $51.00, and I’m sure you can do better! Here are my top 3 payers (NOTE: Survey savvy is an affiliate link, the rest are not).

1. Surveyspot
2. Your2Cents
3. Surveysavvy

2. Freelance Writing

Freelance writing has been a great source of income since the dawn of the internet (for me!). From blogging for others, to being a columnist, to writing on sites that pay you for great content, there are a wide array of opportunities out there for anyone who likes to write. It’s not my strongest point, I’ll admit (I hate editing stuff) but I still get pleasure of spreading information on topics I’m interested in. Here’s what I have!

1. Helium: Pays you a portion of earnings that each article makes, anyone can write. Note that your articles are rated by your users, so make sure to write quality content!  If you’d like to give me some credit, drop me an e-mail and I’ll send you an official invite!
2. Squidoo: Another site that pays you based on a portion of the revenue your content generates. Each topic is considered a “lense” where you can share information and (hopefully) get paid for it as well!
3. Problogger: Problogger has a great job board for writers looking for some side work. I got my gig over at Nesteggr.com by checking out these boards everyday!
4. Rentacoder: Don’t be fooled by the name, RAC has a listing of all sorts of jobs that you can do from the comfort of your own home. There’s a substantial listing of freelance writing gigs there as well.

3. Second Life Camping

In the hayday of the game, Second Life, I used to make an absolute killing doing almost nothing. The popularity of landmarks in game would be based upon how many people visited a location over a specified period of time, which would also earn the place of business a bonus (called “dwell”). Owners would pay out this bonus to people who came to hang out, just for visiting (through devices called camp chairs, which would pay you to sit your character down in game for as long as you wanted and would payout once you stood up). So what I did was bought up a a bunch of cheap used computers that could barely meet the specs, and setup characters assigned to a PC.

In my prime, I’d make about 300$/month doing this. The “grid” of PCs (as I called it) ran by itself, and would only have to be setup once every 2-3 weeks. It would literally sit in my closet and generate money. Unfortunately for us, the dwell bonus was removed, and many camping spots dried up shortly after.

However, there are still spots in game! They do usually have 2-6 hour time limits, though. What I did to alleviate this problem was this:

1. Download Second Life to the dedicated PC.
2. Grab an anti-afk script (do a search in-game) or use anything that moves your mouse every so often. If your character doesn’t look around in 30 minutes he’ll be logged out, so you just need to move the cursor.
3. Do a search for camp or camping, and check out various locations for the best rate.
4. If you want to access your PC remotely to sit your character back down every so often, you can use logmein (free!).

4. “Pay to” Sites

I’ll be the first to admit that these are not my favorite source of money, as you have to always be careful when giving out information. However I have been paid on average about 5-10$/month (I’m selective when picking offers). These sites will pay you to perform a specific action, usually clicking through some ads or signing up for a free service. I’ve heard that signing up for free trials (which require you to sign up with a credit/debit card) pay more, but I’ve never ventured into them myself. Just some tips:

1. If they ask for an address use a P.O Box
2. NEVER give your cell phone number
3. Sometimes I’ll purposely make a “typo” in my name

Due to the nature of these sites, I can only recommend one which has paid me consistently in the past, and that’s Cash Crate (NOTE: This is a referral link).

5. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing works by advertising for a company, who pays you a commission when someone buys a product that you directed them to. It’s the online equivalent of a sales position. There are affiliates for just about any industry you can think of! Google pays you for clicks, sites like helium will give you a percentage of people you invite, etc. etc. etc.

There are hundreds of thousands of ways to do proper affiliate marketing. As such I can’t possibly recommend a specific method to you. I can give you my favorite resources, however:

1. Self Made Minds
2. Genius Types
3. Nerdy Nomad

6. Using Digg and StumbleUpon

Again, I don’t necessarily endorse the use of Subert and Profit(Note: Affiliate Link),which pays you just to digg or stumble stories that they give you. Takes about 5 minutes, and pays you 1$ per assignment. Love it, hate it, it can make you money, so I’ll mention it.

Whew, that was quite a list! I’m sure I can come up with some others, but that should be enough to chew on for now.

Good luck!

NOTE: This is against Digg’s and Stumbled’s terms of service, it is is possible to get banned. If you care, that is