Cash in on Your Abilities

If you are looking for a way to make a little extra money, first take a look at your abilities. What is it that you enjoy doing and are good at? Maybe you like to make crafts or jewelry and are pretty good at it. Perhaps you bake the best breads, muffins and cookies in your neighborhood. Or, maybe you love to write, draw or paint. Are you a photography enthusiast?

Whatever it is that you like to do and can do well, consider turning it into a business opportunity for yourself.

• If you like to craft, get involved in local craft fairs where you can sell your items, or organize workshops at a community center or church where you can teach others how to make crafts. If you do well and can produce a steady source of product, you may even consider selling your items online.


• If you are a baker, you may be able to sell your goods at a local farmers market or even to family and friends in your community.


• If you enjoy writing, consider submitting articles to newspapers or article directories. (There are many of these directories, I recommend doing a search and checking some out, I don't have a specific recommendation of one) Many businesses will pay to have articles written for them. You can start your own blog and potentially make some income through advertisements on your blog or by writing product reviews.


• For the artist, there are many opportunities to promote your artwork, including web services which will put your designs on t-shirts, hats, mugs, etc. for you to sell. (www.zazzle.com is one example)


• Many individuals and businesses are looking for fresh photos for their websites. Take quality photos and submit them to photo services; depending on their terms you will get paid various amounts when your photos are downloaded. (Again, a search will bring you numerous options, just be sure to read the terms so you know exactly how you will be paid and how your photos can be used.)

These are just a few ideas, if you have any suggestions or success stories, please share!

Blessings,

Smart Mom

Time Savers for Tweeters!

I have to confess that up until about 2 months ago I was quite blissfully ignorant of Twitter. I didn't "get it", you know -what is the purpose?

Then I took a look at it because I wanted to increase my business contacts, so I set up an account .. or two, then I showed my hubby how to set up an account and we began to see the possibilities. It's possible to make contact with people you would have never otherwise encountered in your life. Have to say though, it's not all good. Not everyone shares the same values which is quite evident by the variety of tweets. I recommend discernment!

Anyway, the reason for my talk about Twitter is for those of you who do use it for business, as I'm sure you know it's quite easy to spend too much time posting tweets and search relevant keywords. Before you know it, your day has flown by and you haven't accomplished the other things you needed to do. It is advantageous to post tweets at at various times throughout the day in order to reach more people and become familiar to your followers, but it's hard to schedule the time for this.

That's when I came across http://www.tweetlater.com/ , you can set up a free account and link all your Twitter accounts to it. Then you can decide if you want to auto-follow those who follow you, it will check your status for you every 8 hours, auto-follow and send a direct message to your new followers for you. You can also write your tweets and schedule them to post at a time you set. I do this for a series of tips that I post on one of my Twitter accounts, it allows me to offer tips to my readers 4 or 5 times a day but I can write them all within a few minutes in the morning then I don't have to worry about forgetting to post them later.

TweetLater also offers a Professional subscription with more features, it looks good and you can get a free 7-day trial but then if you want to use it there's a monthly fee. I am still using the free one because I like to save! However, check it out and see what you think. There's a TweetLater banner in my sidebar!

Just be sure that if you use TweetLater, you still go to Twitter and read the tweets of those you are following otherwise you'll lose touch with them and then.....what's the point?