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Possible money-makers for chronics

PWB

Messages
22
Thanks so much for your help on internet affiliate marketing.
It makes me wonder if we should have a special group for internet income for peoples with CFS,like a website or special forum section on this website.
 

JT1024

Senior Member
Messages
582
Location
Massachusetts
I don't get it. All you do is plug in the iPod to the computer. It's not programming. You use iTunes and click on stuff.

No kidding! I agree with you totally!

However...THE FACT IS... there are people who are that computer illiterate that they actually have someone else do it for them. I think there is money available for those who to whom this stuff comes easy. One thing I've learned in life.. what is easy and "nothing" for you is not easy and "VALUABLE" to those who cannot "DO".

I'm continually amazed at those without what I consider "basic" computer skills but for those who it is second nature... there is an opportunity!

For those who are able... JUMP ON IT!
 

Kati

Patient in training
Messages
5,497
A long time ago my boss actually told me that I needed to put my talents to work while being ill so I did. I am a jewlery designer. I started it 6 years ago. Have a website, sell in stores and Facebook is the way to go! I sell something a month due to FB. I work from home on my time and I am my own boss. It can be a lot of work and a lot of responsibility. I can make good money during certain months. Enough so to not have to worry about the next month.

A lot of people make things knitted but you have to be really good at it and use different yarns. There is so much knitting and from shows I do, people want something new, someone who is daring with colors and not just something or anything knit.

Hone in on what you are good at. Baking? Start baking organic foods and pastries without wheat! I would buy wheat free foods. THAT IS IN DEMAND. Also, foods of any kind for those who are ill or can't find the time to cook. Only if you are a good cook of course. Put an add in the paper or phonebook. Why not! Try it. I could probably cook if I wasn't already doing this.

And, I am pretty sick folks. I still have a small income. Not enough, but when the economy was good...I had some $$$ to burn.

Thank you so much Spitfire for your suggestions- I enjoyed seeing your jewellry, and good jewellry is good to find!!! How did you get started? How do you get inspired? I find it's good to have things you can do in your own time at home, while watching tv- and it can also be broken in little periods of time- say 20 minutes or so-

I find all the crafty things can be time consuming and can also be little rewards for the time you spend- unless you really enjoy what you do. Some people manage to succeed and some others, no. That is because you need a business flair and skills.
 
Messages
54
I think that making any money with Google ads is very difficult. I had a website for a few years that got about 500 to 600 visitors a day, and the revenue I made from Google ads was less than the $5 a month hosting fee for the website. Plus they only pay once you have accumulated $100 of revenue.

I actually will be making some (?) money with another, much older website that I had, but it's such a fluke that I'm not sure if anyone can benefit from the idea, but I guess it can be a reason to put something out there and have some hope. Together with a friend, we wrote a "book" about the experiences we had working with some political organizing groups, and we put our writing up on a website. Several years later, a publisher emailed us to ask if we wanted to do some more work on the book and they would publish it. This is a small, independent, but very reputable publisher. We revised the book (if it had not been a collaborative effort I'm not sure I could have done the work on my own) and it was published a few months ago. It's now available on Amazon and even on some international booksellers' websites. I still haven't received any royalty checks and I have no idea how much I will get. I know it's not going to be any great amount, but everything counts in my low-budget life. (My worry right now is that it will put me over the limit for my health insurance.)
 

helen41

Senior Member
Messages
567
Location
Sleepy Hollow Canada
contests

Since going off sick from work last year I have been entering online contests. I truly think it is what has kept me from getting depressed during this miserable journey. My worst month was $170 and my best was $3110. It has averaged out to just over $800 per month, most of it in product ( ie 10 camcorders, an Ipad, and quite a few gift cards). The magic for me is it's in small increments and there is no obligation to enter if I don't feel well. I enter for other people if it's a trip or something I couldn't use and I know they'd like- my brother in law was beside himself when he out of the blue he won a VIP concert pass.
It's not direct wages you can count on, but it works for me!
 

helen41

Senior Member
Messages
567
Location
Sleepy Hollow Canada
I use a free webite called contestgirl at http://www.contestgirl.com/ plus a free formfiller called roboform
I spend 3-4 hours daily entering contests, depending on how many snoozes I take. I find that these days I'm too stiff to move, and my concentration is terrible. If I try to do the things I used to I get frustrated, but contests take a moment each and don't require much of me. If I feel lousy I don't enter, and when I feel better I enter more. It's thrilling to win stuff, even if it's not something I want. ( I once won a consolation prize of $250 worth of coupons for bacon- those went to the food bank and I was a hero!)
If you do start entering, there are tips on the contestgirl site, but what you really should do is set up a seperate email just for contests. I'm getting better at recognizing which contests are phishing, but there are some sites that will send you spam or updates about their products that would be very irritating on your personal email.
Good luck!
 

Frank

Senior Member
Messages
850
Location
Europe
I'm not a fan of click and survey programs, because a lot of junk out there, but Quickrewards, as suggested by Carrigon, is good enough to make a few bucks a day.
 
Messages
18
Location
Leeds, UK
I joined an online survey website that pays you per survey into an 'account' and then you can redeem the credits as vouchers for various places such as amazon, argos, tesco etc (this is in the UK though and im not sure if there are similar websites in other countries?). I also sell on ebay now and then and currently that money is being saved up to start my own online art/craft business (which i have been dying to do for ages and ages - this illnes is actually giving me a push to do it out of necessity!!!)

Other ideas could be catalogue-based things such as Avon, Betterware, Lakeland Plastics etc etc as long as you could find someone to distribute the catalogues for you!!!

I also recommend loyalty and discount cards for various stores etc (as long as there is no catch to signing up!)
 

Carrigon

Senior Member
Messages
808
Location
PA, USA
I'm making the fastest money off Cashle right now. Just do the daily surveys. They credit me within less than an hour, sometimes within ten minutes. Then I do Quick Rewards I do the daily surveys and the daily clicks there. And then if I have time and energy, I do dollarsurveys.net I also do Opinion Outpost when they send me surveys and I've done Pinecone Research, but both Opinion and Pinecone barely send anything to do in a month.

You can make a good week's worth of groceries doing surveys. It will add up at the end of the month. I made about a hundred and twenty dollars in four weeks time, and I did it just sitting on my couch or laying in my bed. Just do the daily surveys. If you don't qualify, keep trying till you do.

I have a blog about this http://carrigon.blogspot.com/
 

Carrigon

Senior Member
Messages
808
Location
PA, USA
Here's a paid to click that I like. ParadiseClicks This site will take you a month to be able to cash out, but they give you alot of ads to click to where you can make a dollar a day, maybe even more. The payout is at twenty dollars, that's why it takes you time to see it. Each ad is usually worth a penny. So if you run out of your surveys to do or get bored, you can just sit there and work up to that dollar a day. By the end of the month, you should have your twenty dollars. They payout to Paypal. I just like this site because they give alot of ads and they credit you instantly. You can make a dollar probably within two hours of doing it. It doesn't seem like alot, but at the end of the month, you should have that twenty dollars and it will be a great addition to doing your regular surveys.
 

Carrigon

Senior Member
Messages
808
Location
PA, USA
Cash4Free
Like Cashle and QuickRewards, but pays higher on the surveys. Worth doing them, you can make a good fifteen dollars a week off this site or more.

They took a full 24 hours to credit me, but they did credit me. The payout is at fifteen dollars to Paypal. Each survey is worth .80 cents and you can do five in a day. So, if you manage to qualify for most of them, you can make four dollars a day and in less than a week, you can have fifteen dollars from this site. They also have the usual round of offers, but I try to stay away from them since most are designed to get you to spend that money you just made. Just stick to the surveys and you can make money. If all you do is surveys from this site, you should be able to make a good sixty dollars a month. So if you combine this site with QuickRewards and Cashle, you can do pretty good. I'm averaging between a hundred and a hundred and twenty dollars or so a month, it's a good week's worth of groceries or nearly my entire cable bill.
 
Messages
2,565
Location
US
I came across a job posting that is 15 hrs a week, you take incoming calls from your home, and you try to sell them something. They want people who are good on the phone obviously. They train and claim you can make a lot every week. If anyone here wants the contact name & number for them, I will pass it on. I get nothing for it and have no idea about them other than seeing what they posted. But if it's half as good as it sounds, it could help at least one person here? Please don't shoot me if it's not a decent legit opportunity. Found it on Craigslist but it sounds like it might be real. I don't think I can manage it myself.

On another note, I am trying to find little opportunities for myself to use skills/knowledge I have. Perhaps I can help if you have a small product line or want to start one...?
 
Messages
2,565
Location
US
Also if someone here was willing to pay a little bit for advice or coaching or help in terms of starting their own business, I am interested in helping. I would like to help for free but my energy is so limited. I would not need much however because I would like to help.
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
I used to sketch & paint many years ago (extremely well so all my friends & family thought). Last year, in a fit of inspiration, I thought about doing some sort of hand painted chest/cabinet/stool things (ie. creating my own home business of some kind - all at a pace I could manage). I managed to draw a (Tibetan) inspired folk design design on a light freestanding cabinet in my kitchen. But then discovered I could not keep my hand steady enough to paint the design. I felt shattered, since I was reknown for my creativity & ability to turn my hand to beautiful tapestry, art & making homewares many years ago.
I also discovered my eyesight was too poor to make out the fine details.
Victoria

Victoria. I found myself in a similar situation. I used to do leather carving and one day I felt well enough to do it again so kind of was all excited and got the gear out to do it. Make the design up and indented it into the leather, then went to carve it only to then find out it was real hard and made my wrist hurt. My hand also starts shaking so its so hard to get nice smooth lines. I had to keep stopping due to the pain it gave me too. I couldnt get the item how i wanted due to all this.
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
I had a job in which I got paid to sleep by someone ( :p not what some may think at that comment).

This job was almost perfect (except i had to travel to his house) for someone with CFS/ME.. as all i had to basically do is feed his fish, and sleep near him on another bed and give him a drink before he went to sleep and hook on a urinary bag onto his tube which hung from bed (to which he taught me). The guy was a quadruplegic so it was just a matter of just being there for him during the night in case he woke up and needed something. (he thou slept all night once he went to sleep... so doing this job at night was great as it involved doing nothing at all).

I always opted for night/sleep shift. (all his other carers had families.. so hated doing night shift)

Unfortunately thou i had to leave there as the guy had a very bad attitute and was verbally abusive (very bitter due to his state). But anyway.. i worked there full time for 6 weeks.. just sleeping. Interestingly while i was working for him.. I saw another quadraplegic advertising for someone to do the same kind of job. They often have a hard time getting night carers for overnight.
 
Messages
2,565
Location
US
Tania, Very interesting. I would like to find the right ill person to care for part time. I couldn't handle it unless it was mostly sitting around or sleeping. LOL. Unfortunately as you said, most situations will have some downside, or they would not be hiring, because the people wouldn't quit. Sadly another problem is I would be sensitive to their cleaning supplies, perfumes, dogs, etc. I had the idea to find a renter who has CFIDS/ME and can afford to pay a little extra for a little help.

Oh and I hate that about wanting to do a project and then your body won't allow it. Better not to push.
 

Carrigon

Senior Member
Messages
808
Location
PA, USA
I just won the fifty dollar instant win on Opinion Outpost. All this time, I wasn't sure that instant win was real. They give you the option of clicking on it if you fail a survey. Well, today, I won. I can't believe it. I had heard they tend to let people win around Xmas. It definitely pays to be a member of that site. :D