Money Saving Mom®

Welcome to October’s series on 31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas. In this series, I’m highlighting simple and legitimate ways you can earn extra cash in the next three months for those of you who could use a little extra cash to help you pay for Christmas — or just for your living expenses if you’re in a tight spot right now.

If you’ve found a great way to make extra cash before Christmas that doesn’t require an outlay of cash upfront, please email me your tip. I’d love to hear it and possibly share it during this series!

Guest post from Alaina of Telecommuting Mommies

Freelance writing may sound like it’s only for the pros. However, on many writing sites that pay by revenue-sharing, anyone can share their knowledge and get paid for it. Get started now and you may have enough time to earn some cash before the holidays.

What Are Revenue Sharing Writing Sites?

Revenue-sharing sites are websites that pay freelance writers based on page views or page clicks. They are often referred to as revenue-sharing sites because the amount they pay is based on the amount of money they are earning from traffic to your articles. They pay you a portion of that money, thus, sharing their revenue with you.

What Are the Differences Between These Writing Sites Compared to Others?

The internet is full of freelance writing opportunities, but unless you are a recent journalism or English major, most of them are going to want some kind of experience — even if it is just publishing on your own blog.

Almost all regular freelance writing companies will want writing samples submitted showing where you have previously been published. For this reason, inexperienced writers will find these assignments or jobs hard to come by.

Revenue-sharing sites, for the most part, do not require prior experience. Some do not even have an application process, just sign up and start writing.

The pay is obviously another big difference between revenue-sharing sites and others. These companies can afford to take on inexperienced writers because they are not paying up front. This means they can take a chance on writers who will prove their worth by bringing in the traffic.

What Are the Advantages of Working With These Types of Sites?

• No waiting period to getting started, and no long application process. Some sites allow you to sign up and start immediately.

• Flexibility to work as much or as little as you want. No deadlines or minimum number of articles to stay on with the company.

• Earnings of an article over time have the possibility of being greater. For most sites, your article remains there indefinitely. This means that an article could continue to earn money for many years.

• Experience publishing articles on reputable websites that can then be used as writing samples to apply for freelance writing jobs that pay up front. Writing for the revenue sharing sites that offer some sort of editing process before your article is published can also be a great learning experience. Pay close attention to what changes were made and why.

• Ability to use your own affiliate links, meaning that you can earn money by linking to affiliate besides the money you are earning for the article.

What are the Disadvantages of Writing for These Sites?

• No guaranteed income; putting in time and energy without knowing what the outcome will be. Money from your articles may take a while to start coming in.

• Lack of editing process means not having a second pair of eyes on an article — however, most sites do allow you to edit your own articles if you spot an error after hitting that publish button. Brush up on your grammar using sites like Grammar Girl before getting started.

• Quantity of articles that you need to write to start earning a decent income. Depending on expectations for income, you’ll need to write a lot! Those who make a lot of money from revenue sharing sites often make that money from the sheer volume of articles they write.

• Marketing yourself and your articles by learning how to write with SEO and keywords in mind, as well as promoting them on social networks is part of the process that some consider a disadvantage, but this will help immensely in getting traffic.

What are the Best Revenue Sharing Sites to Get Started With?

• Squidoo — Sign up and start writing immediately. Write about any topic, and you can include affiliate links.

• Hubpages — No application process but you need to sign up for your own Google Adsense ID and set it up.  Affiliate links allowed.

• Helium — No experience required. Some articles include a small upfront payment. Participation is required in rating the other articles on the site in order to continue earning on your own articles.

• Yahoo! Contributor’s Network — Offers small upfront payments and performance payments.

• ExpertsColumn — Sign up and get started, low minimum payout of $5.

• Firehow — How-to website, no experience required.

• Suite101 — Includes a proofreading process, but they are currently in the middle of a relaunch, so check back soon. Previously they did require an application process, not sure what the new process will be.

Have you worked for revenue sharing sites before? If so, tell us about your experiences!

Alaina shares her twelve years of work-from-home experience at her blog Telecommuting Mommies. She also opens up her personal life as a homeschooling, blogging, work at home Mom of four at The Maestro Mom.

Welcome to October’s series on 31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas. In this series, I’m highlighting simple and legitimate ways you can earn extra cash in the next three months for those of you who could use a little extra cash to help you pay for Christmas — or just for your living expenses if you’re in a tight spot right now.

If you’ve found a great way to make extra cash before Christmas that doesn’t require an outlay of cash upfront, please email me your tip. I’d love to hear it and possibly share it during this series!

Guest post from Lisa of The Frugal Batavian

Back in March, I found myself working at a job that I was not happy doing. I barely made enough income to cover my monthly bills.

What I really wanted to do was to go to college and receive an Associate’s Degree with the idea of achieving two goals: 1) to finally have a college degree and 2) to find a decent-paying job once I had my degree.

So I quit my job and decided I’d do everything in my power to reach my two goals. I knew it was a big risk to quit my job without an immediate replacement, but I was determined and believed that I could somehow find a way to make extra income online so I could go to college full-time.

Since I am a Veteran, I knew I could make a little amount of money each month from my Post 9/11 G.I. Bill (as a full-time student), but I still needed a job that could cover my expenses until I started college in May, as well as a way I could continue to make extra money part-time while in school.

Then suddenly, I remembered watching a news report about how people have been making a decent part-time or full-time income using a website called Fiverr. The basic idea behind Fiverr is that buyers pay $5 for services that a seller is providing.

Services can be anything from writing short blog posts for 300 words, posting a video review, or even drawing a picture. The possibilities on what services you can offer are endless. I figured it was the best place to start.

After about a week of experimenting with a few services to offer, I had made my first $100!

What is Fiverr?

Fiverr is a place for people to share things they’re willing to do for $5. Want to pay $5 to have a video recorded of a puppet singing “Happy Birthday” on your child’s birthday? They have that and more!

How does Fiverr work?

Fiverr is very easy to use. After signing up for an account with Fiverr, you will have the option to “create a gig” on what you’ll do to make $5. You can include instructions to the buyer, as well as a maximum number of days they should expect you to be completed with their work.

What’s great is that you have your own seller dashboard where you can review your revenues, sales, and view your due dates for gigs. And if at anytime you feel that you need a break, you can pause your gig so that you don’t receive any more orders until you activate it again. This helps give you time to catch up on your orders when you need to.

How much can you make from Fiverr?

How much you can make with Fiverr really depends on what your are offering, as well as how much time you put into it. It is totally possible to earn an extra $500 or more a month, and I say this from personal experience. Sellers earn a flat $4 commission when a buyer purchases their services, and payments are made through Paypal with a minimum payout of $4.

After some trial and error, here are a few of my tips to get started selling services on Fiverr:

Find Out What’s Selling or Offer Something Unique

One of the first things you should look at when considering to sell your services on Fiverr is to find out what services are selling and what is popular.

When I first looked started into using Fiverr, I noticed that writing articles was a popular trend that buyers were looking for. That is where I made most of my money at first.

If you also have a service you feel is unique and valuable, you can offer this as a service, too!

Make It Simple

You have to remember that you are paid less than $4 once Paypal takes their fee. With this in mind, you want to provide a service that does not take much of your time.

When I first offered my article-writing services, I decided to stand a part by offering article writing for 500 words since no one else was offering that service. I later realized I should have used a lower word count, since 500 words can take a while to write depending on the topic.

You want to realistically spend as little time on a task so you can take on more orders.

Give a Little More

If you’re offering a service that allows you to give them something extra, do it! This will create repeat customers, and a positive review.

Offer More Services

At a certain point, you can unlock more options on Fiverr where you can offer customers added “Extras” which help make you more money. So if you are offering to write a 300-word article for $5, an extra option you can choose to include is to have an article written up to 600 words an extra $5.

Connect with Clients Offline

After working with regular clients, they started contacting me to write for them off of Fiverr. For a seller, this means you make more money since Fiverr takes a commission.

Note: As a seller, you are not allowed to offer your offline information to the client.

Currently, I am in my second college semester aiming towards a degree in Polysomnographic Technology. I don’t need to use Fiverr to make money as much as I used to since it has helped me find clients to work with regularly offline. But I definitely recommend it as a great place to earn additional income when you need it.

Lisa is a 27-year-old Army Veteran turned freelance writer, blogger, and full-time college student. She writes about living frugally, budgeting, and more over at The Frugal Batavian.