5 ways to make money without selling your body

June 20th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

No need to sell your body

Selling your skills can be one of the quickest and lucrative ways of making some more money. Before you say you don’t have any skills to sell, everybody has something they can do that someone is willing to pay for. Now before you go selling your body take a look at your talents.

Your skills

Write down everything you are good at. This includes what you currently do for a living, what your hobbies are, what other people say you are good at, what your mum says you’re good at. Now look at how you could market what you are good at. There will be people out there who say they just don’t have any skills at all. Let’s look at an extreme example: A couch potato (euphemism for someone who lies on the couch watching TV all day and night). What skill does he or she have? TV; they watch TV all day, why not write about it, blog about it, write to the local paper and become their resident TV critic. Everybody has a skill or talent they can market. Even if you don’t you can acquire one in a matter of days.

I was speaking to someone about this a while ago and he said he couldn’t think of anything he was good at. I knew the person quite well and advised him he sold telecommunications equipment for a living! He still didn’t get it. He was the perfect candidate to set up selling telecommunications equipment as a reseller for the company he worked for. He looked at me a little blankly for a bit and suddenly got it. He is now selling broadband, telephones, business telecommunications products and making a tidy sum, he has gone part time at his place of work. Is this ethical? I would say it is as he is still selling and making money for his company.

There are a hundred ways to sell yourself and your skills and get paid for doing it. If you don’t feel confident enough to sell your skills for money start it of by volunteering your skills. When you have acquired enough experience then start selling your skills and marketing yourself.

5 ways to make money

Set up a course. Now chances are if you are reading this blog, then you have a fairly good grasp of how the internet works and how to find information. You could set up a 4 hour course for internet beginners and teach willing learners at community centres and charge $25 per person, which is not a lot of money for someone looking to gain some knowledge. If you get 10 people per week signing up that’s $250 every week or $65 per hour.

Teach your skills. Teach your skill at your local college of university on their evening or weekend courses,this is ideal for a Saturday morning course at your local college or university. Colleges and universities are always looking for tutors and you don’t necessarily have to be a qualified tutor, you just have to know what you are talking about and put forward a proposal. I am about to start teaching blogging at my local university for 5 weeks, 2 hours per week. This may open up other doors. The pay from universities can be good as they are partly funded from the government, it can be as high as $50 per hour.

Write for money. There are pleace like www.elance.com and www.rentacoder.com looking for article writers for their blogs all the time. The money is not fantastic and it may be a little difficult to get a reputation, but once you have a good reputation you can start charging more money. For example someone may be looking for a blogger to write 15 articles for $100, not great but not a bad start if you consider an experienced blogger can write a 500 word article in about 30 – 60 minutes depending on the topic and amount of research required. This equates to nearly $7 per hour to start with and can go up to $14 per hour the quicker you get and more experienced researcher you become.

Cold calling. If you are good on the phone and don’t mind cold calling you could become a reseller for the big telecommunications companies. This can be very lucrative as you get a percentage of repeat business. So if you sold a business a communications package and they kept this package for a few years you are making money every year by making and selling one package. Cold calling is not everyone’s cup of tea but if you consider someone who makes 100 calls per day and the take up rate is 2% for a $5000 telecommincations package you have sales of $10,000 for that day and a commission of between $100 - $500 depending on the company. Work very hard at this for a few months and you have a tidy sum of money in your bank with the option of taking a break for a few months before starting again.

Become an estate agent. I don’t mean work as an agent for an estate agents, I mean become an estate agent yourself. In the uk under the ‘estate agents act 1979’ anyone can become an estate agent unless they have been banned by the office of fair trading or are bankrupt. Undercut your local estate agents and charge 0.75% per sale or even 0.5%. If you are selling a house for $200,000 you are making £1000 on that sale. There will be charges involved like advertising, signage, leaflet printing, lawyers and solicitors, however after a few sales you could be making a fair bit of money. If you wanted to do it part time; 3 sales a month could bring in anywhere between £1500 - £5000 per month.

I am constantly looking at ways of making more money and I constantly find new ways of doing it. I make a little here and there from the blog, I make it teaching basic IT, I make it teaching blogging, I write for other bloggers, I host websites, I occasionally build websites. If you want an easy way of making money there is no easy way. There can be some quick ways with a little effort at the beginning.

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There Are 26 Responses So Far. »

Comment by Sales on 21 June 2007:

Greetings,
Can you give me your opinion of this new site?
Thanks.

Comment by John on 21 June 2007:

Great tips. I also believe that there is a specific job for all of us aside from selling our body. Those who do it just need more time to assess their self and think about what they really want.

Comment by Tyler on 21 June 2007:

This is very interesting, but this website, if everyone participates, will do very well. They are already an INC500 company. You don’t have to pay a dime to get started. It can bring a huge Income for Life! Try it out! http://freedom.ws/tythardy

Comment by karenlim on 21 June 2007:

Great tips.

I found what I am good at and am now writing at blogs and articles teaching people basic principles to make their life better, wealthier.

My own personal life has transformed when I understand my talents and how I can spread abundance doing what I am good at:-
http://secretofunlimitedprosperity.com/66/sharing-an-inspiration-on-britains-got-talent-part-4/

Cheers, Karen

Comment by Marie on 22 June 2007:

I agree. It would be a waste of time if we don’t make use of our talent. There are certainly lots of options for us to choose. And if we still can’t find the area we are good at, there are lots of development programs for us to develop certain skills.

Comment by Jonathan Bankert on 22 June 2007:

Excellent post Steve! You have a great blog here-
blessings of prosperity to you and your work.
-Jonathan

Pingback by Saturday roundup 23rd June 2007 on 23 June 2007:

[...] I think the best post this week has to be 5 ways to make money without selling your body. The posts shows a few ways to market yourself and I enjoyed writing it and doing the research for it and it got me fired up again to look at new ways of earning money. [...]

Comment by Matthew Cornell on 23 June 2007:

Thanks for the great tips. I’m reading the “Four hour workweek,” and it’s got me thinking along the lines you describe.

P.S. The multiple pop-ups (mouse overs) on your site are killing me! I’m not a Snap fan, as you can guess

Comment by Steven Aitchison on 23 June 2007:

Hi sales, as you can appreciate i ma really busy with work and blogging. However you can order a review at:
http://www.reviewme.com/Blogs-C235/Change-your-thoughts-19643.html?ref=14890

hi john, thanks for your comments

Hi marie, Thanks for leaving a comment.

Hi Karen, Thanks for the link.

hi Jonathan

thanks for your comments, much appreciated.

Hi Matthew

Your wish is my command. I was in the middle of taking of snap links and kontera ads as i was re-evaluating the blog again.

I have only made about $30 from Kontera ads and snap links just do not appeal to me any more and I have had about 10 people write to me to tell me how muh it bugs them.

I heard an interview with Tim Ferris at:

http://www.webmasterradio.fm/

Thanks for your comments.

thanks for your comments.

Comment by Irene on 25 June 2007:

Great Article. This should be a good realization for those people who fail and refuse to identify their skills and would rather do things the other way.

Pingback by Make more money | Alex Shalman . com on 26 June 2007:

[...] Ask yourself everyday how you could make more money. I wrote a post a few days ago 5 ways to make money without selling your body giving tips on how you can market yourself. There are a million ways to make extra money. If you make an extra £100 per month then you can double it to make an extra £200 per month and you can double it again. The more money you make the easier it gets to make more money. You might have heard the saying ‘money goes to money’ this is because people who are in the habit of making money expect more money to come in and think of more ways to make it and they naturally attract it. [...]

Comment by buzz on 9 July 2007:

in up, its a comment very long I ever seen hehe.

Comment by div on 9 August 2007:

Great Blog.People go online just about everyday to do activities such as checking their email, researching information, to get their news and surf the web. At some point in time, you may have wondered whether you can put your computer to work and earn some extra dollars in the process. So what are the best online home based businesses that you can start? Get more info here http://www.squidoo.com/best-online-home-based-business-101/

Comment by nisha on 11 August 2007:

Great blog , I have also created a lens in a same niche hope u like it ….. ..Are you fed up with work? Maybe your boss is a grade-A pain in the behind. Well, don’t fret about your current situation; it’s time to look for an alternative route to income. That company office cubicle isn’t the only way to earn a living. These days there are opportunities opening up all the time. With the World-Wide-Web in full swing, many individuals are turning to the Internet in search of a money making business. Have you ever considered this new-age road of opportunity?

put name nisha

Comment by Rose on 11 September 2007:

The title of this article was so great! And then I read it and then I posted a link to it from my own “Working From Home” blog.

I truly believe that each and every one of us has our own unique talents even if the person doesn’t believe it themselves - but we all do!

Comment by Alan on 25 September 2007:

I’ll suggest start a free blog using blogger.com to write about the topics you like and monetize the blog with AdSense and other advertising programs to make money online.

Comment by Steven Aitchison on 3 November 2007:

Hi Rose, Thanks for your comments and thanks for the link.

Hi Alan, that’s a great strategy to begin with however I would always advocate going the extra mile and getting your own domain and setting up wordpress.

Comment by blorrityprope on 5 December 2007:

Hi,

get cheaper Amazon Deals and Shake the Price!

Read more on:

http://bargains-hunter.blogspot.com/2007/12/get-cheaper-amazon-deals-with-apnoti.html

Comment by Albert | UrbanMonk.Net on 18 December 2007:

This is a very helpful article - truly everyone has a talent, they just don’t know about it!

Comment by Peter on 4 February 2008:

Hey man, nice info.. now just to make a course people can attend.. hehe
http://www.richquickreviews.com

Comment by fel on 7 February 2008:

Nice article, I will blog about this as well. Thanks

Comment by quielifluig on 15 February 2008:

Just discovered a complete list of all marked down products at Amazon, sorted by category
and % off, ranging from 50% off to 90% off (thanks Sonja for the effort).

Actually I never thought Amazon would have articles with 90% off, but only in the category
Electronics there are more than 3000 of them - look for yourself, the list is on
Bargain Hunter (which is a blog of a woman who specializes in finding good deals at
Amazon, like Britain’s “Jeanie”).

Comment by Make Money Online on 8 March 2008:

I truly truly love Amazon, it’s been a great relationship, have made some decent amount of cash with it. Neat.

Comment by Making Money Online on 14 March 2008:

As for “writing for money,” It depends on how fast you can whip out articles. If you’re fast enough, it’s not a stretch to be able to make a living at it. If you’re slow though, article writing for a living might not be your calling.

Comment by Sales Training on 14 March 2008:

Hello There,

Excellent and informative suggestions. Enjoyed.

Because you asked for opinions, do you mind if I bring a typo to your attention? Under #3, “Write for money” you have a typo. You wrote “pleace”, instead of “places”.

Cheers,

James.

Comment by Work from Home Guru on 17 March 2008:

Great post. There are tons of ways to make money, personally I make money online with websites, both buying and selling. But in the past have done the same with domains, affiliate marketing and all of the usual suspects. I think the biggest factor to being successful is your creativity, if you can come up with fresh ideas you can make money.