Or maybe you need some extra money for a project you’re working on, or you’ve got an unexpected bill.
Here’s a method I sometimes suggest for earning a quick $500 or $1,000, and what people seem to like about it is how simple it is.
Ask yourself what skills and knowledge you possess right now. Maybe you can write well, or you’re good at building WordPress sites. Perhaps you’re a graphic artist, a photographer, or a videographer. Maybe you have excellent people skills and can act as an affiliate manager or set up joint ventures. Perhaps you can coach people on how to do something specific or how to find the perfect virtual assistant. I guarantee you have at least one skill or piece of knowledge that others are willing to pay for.
“But I don’t have a skill!” Really? Then it would be best to find dynamite outsourcers with skills you can market. It would be best to find something others are willing to pay for, which is usually a skill and sometimes simply a piece of precious knowledge.
Once you’ve identified your skill, set up a web page offering that skill for hire. A simple blog site will do, preferably on your domain. Check out other similar websites to get ideas on how to set yours up.
Find blogs that are relevant to your skill and allow guest bloggers. For example, if you’re good at writing engaging blog posts, find blogs about blogging. If you can troubleshoot antique engines over the phone, find blogs about old cars. These blogs should have a bare minimum of 5,000 readers a month, and be sure they already allow guest posting.
Now write articles that provide great content for these blogs. Study each blog and write an essay just for them that solves a problem or tells how to do something relevant to your skill. For example, if your skill is article writing, you will tell them how to write the perfect article. If your skill is photographing products, then that’s what you’ll teach. Don’t worry about giving away all your secrets – some people would much instead hire a professional than do the work themselves. Link back to your website in the author’s box.
I don’t know if you spotted it, but there is a flaw in the steps above, and here it is…
It can sometimes take WEEKS to get your guest blog post published. How do you speed up the process? One way is to link whatever you write about with something in the news, preferably in the last 12 to 48 hours. You might need to get creative here, but blog owners will be racing to publish your post if you can pull it off. For example, you’re golden if you’re a sales letter copywriter and the FTC just handed down new rules for what you can and cannot say in your sales copy.
Another trick for getting published quickly is providing dynamite graphics, pictures, or infographics to accompany your article. Your infographic could even BE your article. And don’t forget to politely make a good case to the blog owners on why they should consider publishing your report as quickly as possible.
Continue writing articles and getting them published until the orders start coming in or your phone starts ringing.
The entire process could take as little as 48 hours or as long as ten days, depending on how fast you get those first blog posts published.
Added benefit – you’ll make more business connections that can continue to benefit you.