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I was sitting in the car at the traffic lights yesterday, and there was a hand written sign on a piece of cardboard  nailed to a power pole on the side of the road. It said “$100,000 a year, no cold calling, no selling, no MLM”, and had a website to visit for more information. I’ve seen a few such signs around lately, saying much the same thing.

Being the curious type that I am, I did visit their website. It had pictures of beautiful people enjoying themselves, and lots of testimonials from people who have made lots of money using this method.

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It’s been a while since I added anything to this blog, I’ve been reading through some opportunities but none have really inspired me and  convinced me that they’ll earn, so I haven’t written about them.

Since I’ve had a bit of success in the freelance writing sphere of late, I thought I’d chat a bit about how to get the most out of sites such as Elance.

Elance, Rentacoder and other such sites are very useful for linking people who need a job done, and people who can do the job for them. Webmasters post details of their job, and you have the opportunity to bid for the work. The webmaster then chooses the winning bidder.

Obviously most of the jobs are computer based/online tasks so they’re ideal for us as stay at home parents. We can do the jobs when the children are asleep, or when they’re doing some quiet reading.

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Image by foreversouls via Flickr

I recently read the resource directory that was issued by Australia’s Home Education Association. It’s a great little directory, with links to resource vendors, curriculum and support groups. Certainly something worth hanging on to.

One advertisement caught my eye.

We use the maths curriculum Math-U-See and it works fine for our family. The distributors of Math-U-See in Australia were advertising for people to tutor other students using their curriculum . The idea is that you tutor school children to improve their maths, using this curriculum.

This is obviously a good way to get their product noticed by the general community, but is this possibly a good way of earning a few dollars doing what we do every day?

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I think just about everyone has heard the term “multi level marketing”, also known as MLM or network marketing. It tends to raise very strong feelings amongst people – some are convinced it is a scam, others believe it to be a legitimate business opportunity.

I’ve been thinking of this over the last couple of days, having been involved in one or two MLM companies. I was listening to an excellent CD by a very successful network marketer, who spoke glowingly about the opportunities that a MLM home business offers.

Not long after that, I read a post in the Warrior Forum, by a marketer I have quite a bit of regard for, who said essentially there’s no such thing as a good MLM home business.

Who is right?

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Outsourcing is a bit of a buzz word at the moment in the internet marketing arena. It can take your business to new heights if used correctly, and free up your time to be with your children.

What outsourcing basically means is that you subcontract some of your work to others, on a “as needs” basis. You don’t have any employees, and you don’t have to pay someone if there’s no work for them to do. It means that you can delegate tasks that  you may not be as skilled at, to those who can do them more efficiently.

What outsourcing benefits are there to you as a work at home mum?

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Have you ever head the saying “the money is in the list?”  Well, it’s true.

If you can build a list of people passionately interested in your niche, and provide them with good information on a regular basis, and the occasional freebie, you’ll develop a good relationship with them.  This can be turned into a nice little earner.

Your first step, as with any online business, is to check out your niche. Are there enough people interested in it, are there some good affiliate products to match, are there enough searches on related keywords, and what is the competition like? Once you’ve chosen your niche, let’s get started.

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Lots of homeschooling mums have a craft they enjoy as a hobby. It’s often their “downtime”, or relaxation, after spending their day teaching their children.

Many people make money from crafts by taking their creations to a market or fete, and selling them from a stall. That works well, but it does take precious time away from your family. How do you fit a craft business around homeschooling your children?

It’s not too difficult to see that you can make money from crafts such as sewing, scrapbooking, and jewelry making. In fact, many crafts can be turned into a profitable sideline business, that not only can work well around your children, but can also allow them to participate and learn business skills in the process.There is a more convenient way of selling your crafts, and that is selling them online.

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Many people earn a few extra dollars by taking paid surveys online.

This would be very easy to work around your family, and with many surveys don’t take long to complete, it’s possible that this is a good income generating opportunity for homeschooling parents.

Can you earn decent money by taking paid surveys, or is it a bit of a scam?

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If you look back to one of my earlier posts on writing web content for dollars HERE, you’ll notice I’ve mentioned you can write private label rights (or PLR) articles for payment.

In a nutshell, PLR articles, reports and ebooks are those which you have the legal right to modify and call your own. Rights do vary, so you need to check what rights come with each package. Generally speaking, you can usually use them as blog posts or website articles, or sell the ebooks and reports.

Why not look at it from the other side, and think about using PLR products yourself that others have written. PLR is very useful indeed when you’re building or maintaining an online business. It can save you doing all your own research and writing, and allow you more time to take care of your children’s needs.

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Squidoo is a great service which allows you to build a one page website for free – no technical skills required. While you can make money from your Squidoo lens, most people use their lens to direct traffic back to their main site, and to give them a high quality back link. This can really improve your search engine rankings.

It’s just as important to do your keyword research for a Squidoo lens as it is for your main website.

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