Friday, January 22, 2010

How to Make Extra Money Online

Do you want to make extra money? I believe knowing a few ways to supplement your income won’t hurt. You might not need them now, but when you needed them it’s nice to know the available options.

Extra money onlineThere are many ways to earn extra income, but here I make a few restrictions to prevent this post from being too broad:

  1. I only cover how to make extra moneyonline. This way you can work wherever you are in your spare time.
  2. I only cover ways to make money in relatively short time. I don’t include anything that takes weeks or months to get results. That’s why I don’t cover things like blogging or revenue sharing with article sites (because building the necessary traffic could take a long time). On the flip side, most of the ways I discuss here won’t give you passive income. They require you to actively work to earn.

For each of the ways I’m about to share, I list some relevant web sites you can use. I don’t test all of them, so please read their terms before you decide to use them.

Without further ado, here are 9 ways to make extra money online:

1. Writing

Writing is a popular way to earn side income. The world is always hungry for good content and if you have writing skills you will find many opportunities online. Here are some sites that offer article writing jobs:

You can also write tutorials. Tutorials are more difficult to write than ordinary articles since they contain step-by-step guide on a topic. But they also pay more. The sites below pay between $150 to $300 for each published tutorial:

2. Designing

Graphic design skill has a lot of demand these days. You could design logos, posters, or even entire web sites. Browse the sites below to find design jobs:

3. Programming

Do you know how to program? Then what about taking some programming jobs online? You can find them at:

4. Tutoring

If you liked to teach then online tutoring is perhaps the way to go. The nice thing here is you don’t need to physically go to a certain place to tutor. You can do it in the comfort of your home. Here are some web sites that offer the opportunity:

5. Selling stock photos

Many people like photography. If you happen to be one of them, why don’t you sell your photos for profit? These sites help you sell your photos:

6. Microworking

With microworking, you make money by doing simple tasks that you can usually finish in a few minutes. They pay you a little for each completed task, but because the tasks are simple, you could complete a lot of tasks in a day. Here are two sites for microworking:

7. Selling stuff

Obviously, you can make money by selling stuff. Do you have items in your home you no longer need? Other people may want to buy them from you. Just list them at:

On the other hand, you can also sell your own creations. They could be T-shirts, post cards, bags, and pretty much anything you can imagine. Here are some places to sell them:

8. Website flipping

If you’re good at making web sites, you can sell them for profit. It could make you more than $100 for a few hours of work. Here are two popular places for website flipping:

9. Translating

Do you master foreign languages? If you do then translating is something you might want to consider. There are a lot of translation jobs online. Here are some sites that offer them:

***

In addition to the specialized sites listed above, there are sites that offer opportunities in more than one category. Browse them to find various opportunities:

Do you know other ways to make extra money online? Feel free to share them in the comments.

Photo by Don Hankins

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Friday, January 8, 2010

You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get going”


Why Choosing Happiness Will Dramatically Change All Aspects of Your Life




“Most people are about as happy asthey make up their minds to be.” ~Abraham Lincoln


As humans, we have one very great ability, which is the one thing that sets us apart from the rest of the animals in the animal kingdom: “free will” and the ability to make choices about everything we do.

We have the ability to makes choices every second of every day if our lives. That being said, if I am able to choose to get out of bed in the morning or choose what I would like to eat for lunch then I must also be able to “choose happiness” right?

Here is something that might sound absolutely absurd to some but is 100% true – humans have the choice to be happy or not. Choosing happiness will change everything in your life. You will be filled with joy by choosing to not let negative situations bring you down. If you choose happiness, it will change your relationships, life, health, work, financial, lovers, personal life, and anything else that is an important aspect in your life.

Here is an example:
Someone backed into my vehicle the other day. I could have been really upset, ruminated about it, been frustrated for days, and told other people how much of an idiot this guy was for hitting it.

OR

I could choose to say, “Oh well, glad everything is okay. No one is hurt and it’s not really that bad anyway,” and not make a big deal of it. I chose happiness in that situation, and I am much better off for it. When we choose happiness, everything and anything bad in life seems to roll right off of you and you are completely unaffected by negative situations. This is a very powerful and useful tool.

Here is another example:

I had been dating a girl recently; a girl I really liked. It ended up not working out, for a whole host of reasons. Now, I could “choose” to be bummed out, sulk around, lock myself away at my home crawled up in the fetal position and not go out, OR I could “choose” to not let it bring me down. I “chose” to continue my life as usual, not worrying about it, knowing that everything will continue to be okay. Since I choose to not let it bum me out, I get over it much faster, start attracting other people into my life, have a much better overall experience, and life goes on in a much, much better way.

So why is all this “CHOOSING HAPPINESS” so important to our overall outlook and experience in life?

Have you ever met the person who is flat broke? The type of person that literally has everything going against them yet they are totally happy with life? They don’t have anything, really (in society’s eyes), but their “choice” to be happy affects all aspects of their life. People love to be around these types of people. They are not the energy suckers, but the energy givers. They are the people who have more abundance in their life than they know what to do with. They are the people that just seem to love life – and anything that it throws at them and they genuinely live a fantastic life!

A well-known talk radio show host, Dennis Prager, says that “happiness” is a moral obligation. I believe this to be true, and humans should be obligated to choose happiness. Why? Because happiness is a much better gift to give to yourself and to others rather than being a curmudgeon and/or Negative Nelly.

You cannot always choose what happens in life, but you do have the power to choose what you think about what’s happening. That way, no one or nothing has any power over you. That’s the magic. We choose what we make of any given situation.

So the million dollar question is “How do you choose happiness?”

1. Decide. AKA-choose.

2. Stick with your choice.

3. Watch the dramatic difference that choice will make.

Letting go of the past and living in the present moment while consciously choosing happiness will take deliberate practice, but the rewards will be worth it.

How do you apply “choosing happiness” in your life?

When you wake up in the morning, choose to be grateful for everything in your life. Choose to smile, choose to relax and take time, as you get ready for your day. When something “bad” arises – choose to not let it get to you because everything will always work out just the way that it was supposed to.

Remember that as with anything new in life, you must start with small steps. These incremental changes will turn into big changes over time. Getting up in the morning, having breakfast, and being thankful you have food. Getting to work and being thankful you have a job, and trying to smile at at least one person when you enter. Any small opportunity you have to choose happiness, no matter how trivial you may think it is, make the conscious decision in that moment to seize the opportunity.

My life changed dramatically when I decided to choose happiness, and I wish to pass this gift on to you.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side



It always looks better. The other side, the grass on the other side. Not just the grass, also the neighbor's wife, your friend's sports car, your boss's apartment, your colleague's job and how ever many examples you want to hear.

So many people are not entirely satisfied with what they have. They think that all the above examples would be a better way to live their lives. What they don't realize, is that often they already have so many perfect things in their lives (their friends, partner or spouse, job). The sad part is that is usually takes losing or nearly losing what they have in order for them to realize how much it means to them (and how happy they were with what they had).

We All Take Things For Granted
Freedom, health, food in the fridge, love and friendships - these are all among the things that we take for granted simply because they have been in our lives every day. The more frequent they appear in our lives, the more we grow a certain expectation for them to stick around forever.

We all take so much for granted. It takes a lot of emotional stability to be content with what you have. To be able to resist the temptation of thinking that other people have it better. When that perfect woman comes along who gives you butterflies in your stomach and makes your world swirl, that you can say "No thanks, I'm married".

It's not just us people who have this issue. I see it with cows all the time. They have a perfectly big field full of green grass, yet the always venture to the end of their field and stick their head through the barb-wire fence just to be able to get a bite of that forbidden grass on the other side (that may just look so much tastier).

You Don’t Realize What You Have Until It’s [Nearly] Gone
A personal example is the fact that I hated going to the gym when I was younger. I wanted to do it because I liked being in shape, but I really, really disliked lifting weights. It was just so much effort. Then, a few months before I would turn 18 and get a car to drive around in, I crashed my motor bike head-on into some dumb tourist who u-turned in front of me. The bike was a total write-off. I hit him on the bonnet of his car and flew over my handlebars at 80km/h (55 mph). I landed with my entire weight perfectly on my shoulder and this cause the bone to shatter and the tendons to tear off. (It sounds gross and painful but I didn't feel a thing, I just could not move my shoulder at all, zero control over it).

Initially doctors actually told me I may never be able to use my arm again and will never be able to lift it with my own strength. Luckily I had one of the best shoulder surgeons in the country who was in my town, and with an operation and 6 weeks of wearing a brace, I slowly got the use back of my arm and shoulder. A year later it was as good as new. Now I am so thankful that I can lift things, pick up weights, go to the gym.

“Sometimes the dream and the desire for something are much more appealing than actually getting the thing that you think you want.”


A sports car, bank balance or supermodel girlfriend may be what you think will make you happy, but when you get it, you may feel empty and unsatisfied. The deception with seeing things that you think will make you happy is the fact that you only see the good side of those things. Once you have them, you will see it without the rose-colored glasses and experience the lesser or bad side of it as well and this may leave you thinking that it was better when it was just a dream.

The Key to A Happy Life
I think the key to a happy life is being content with who you are and where you are right now. Life is an awesome journey. That is not to say that you should settle for average or a life you are not happy with. You can and should work hard to where you want to be, to achieve your goals and dreams, but don't wish away the present moment for some future happiness that you think you will achieve by copying someone else's lifestyle. That is the recipe for waking up one day when you are 40 years old and realizing that you spent your life chasing happiness, while you had the means to be happy all along.

Everyone always wishes for something they don't have. Maybe you want to be like someone else in certain ways, maybe you want to live someone else's life because you think yours sucks. Truth is, you may not have an easy life, but it is yourlife. You are not in control of the cards you were dealt when you were born (your parents, your city, your country, your skin color, your religion and so forth). What you are in control of is what you do with those cards that you were dealt. The rest of your life is what you make of it. If things are hard and you take a victim mentality (moaning and complaining about how hard you have it), then chances are pretty good that your life will not magically get better and you will live a very mediocre life at best.

"It's not an easy life, but it's MY LIFE"


It is your life, your adventure. It is a gift. If you are lucky enough to have your freedom and your health, then I believe that anything is possible. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Conclusion
Just remember that what you dream of may not give you what you want from it (happiness, pleasure or love). If you are lucky, then what you dream of will give you exactly what you want. Just think about the real reason of your dreams and desires. Do you want something because your neighbor has it and it seems as if that thing is responsible for his happiness? Or do you want it because you're really crazy and passionate about it? Choose the latter.

You don't want to be that person who slaves away for years to make millions of dollars (so you can have a mansion, fast sports cars and jets to travel the world) while all you really want is someone who loves you and friends that care about you. That same someone and those same friends that you gave up because you were chasing the dollar signs because you thought that it would make you happy.

So next time you think someone has it better than you, just stop and think about how others may think you have it better than them. The grass on your side may just be greener.