Previously we have talked about how to make a website and consequently, make money from it. These days the internet has a lot of things to offer, especially to college students who want to make extra money from home. After you have got yourself a nice laptop where you can work to your heart’s content, what step should you take next?

Try freelancing. It’s a nice way of earning money without the restrictions of answering to the boss, because YOU ARE THE BOSS. You can set your own time and your own pace, and you can find clients on your own. The flexibility offers you much freedom to be creative and explore your skills, because you can pick projects that interest you. You have the power of choice, because you can select a project based purely on creative merit and not just because you needed the money. With freelancing, you can balance both earning money and having fun while doing it.

What are the skills needed to be a freelancer? These days you can get just about any job if you have any of the skills below:

• writing
• graphic design
• web design
• web programming
• videographer
• photographer
• computer programming
• translator or transcriptionist

Here are a few sites that will help you on how to make extra money from home:

1. oDesk.com – oDesk is a great freelancing site because it offers stability on both the provider’s side and the buyer’s side. The provider (you) and the buyer (client) can agree on either hourly rates or fixed rates per project, and oDesk monitors the collecting of payment very thoroughly. Any payment fees are charged to the buyer, which is great. You can also download a software that tracks your current activity – it takes screen shots of your desktop as you work and sends them to the buyer so he can be assured that you are indeed working. As a provider you can put up a profile where you build your reputation – buyers rate you at the end of each project, and you can also rate the buyer back so other providers will know if he’s a good client or not.oDesk – Changing how the world works:
   
2. eLance.com – Works similar to the one above. As a provider you are charged a fee if you want to be on the site, so it might not be for you if you don’t have the money just yet. But it is one of the universally recognized freelance sites, so a lot of buyers go here to post job openings. Maybe if you are a true professional with your skills you can charge a higher rate than other beginners.How eLance works:
   
3. Guru.com – This site offers a lot of categories not only to web programmers but to others who have different skills as well like business consulting an administrative support.Web credibility of Guru.com:
   
4. GetAFreelancer.com – A lot of graphic designers and computer programmers are here. It is quite popular because once you sign up you are offered a debit MasterCard that you can use for your daily activities. It can be used at stores or ATM or even for online purchases. Providers here are only given a certain number of times when you can bid on projects. That means, if you use up your quota for this month then you won’t be able to apply for any more until the next month. You can remedy this situation by becoming a Gold member, but that means you have to pay. It’s only worth it if you plan on being very active on this site and if you are pursuing freelancing full-time.GetAFreelancer sample:
   
5. ScriptLance.com – A popular place for web designers, web developers and computer programmers. The only downside here is that competition is very fierce. More often than not it becomes a battle of who has the lowest rate, and of course, buyers always go for providers who charge much lower. If you are a beginner and just looking to start somewhere without the demands of a portfolio, you can start here and charge a low rate in exchange for building future content for your resume. However, if you are already established and know how much your work is worth, you might find difficulty in getting projects because buyers will think you are too “expensive.”Make money with ScriptLance:
   
6. Rent-a-Coder.com – Also popular among coders everywhere. This site is known for putting project fees in an escrow account. The money wouldn’t be released until after the project is finished. This gives assurance to programmers that they will be paid for sure, however, if the project is big and the timeline is a duration of weeks or months, you won’t get the money right away, unlike in other sites where the payment can be given in milestones or increments.Outsourcing with Rent-A-Coder:
   
7. Project Spring – A great place where web masters and programmers meet. Web masters need programmers who can code their project, while programmers live and breathe to code beautiful programs. So, it seems to be a match made in geek heaven. Posting projects and bidding on them is free. You can also have a “Service Store” where your previous works are displayed.
8. OnForce – This site is different in the sense that it offers services for computer repair. So if you have the skills to repair the computer, then this might be the site for you. Buyers are looking for providers who know cable and infrastructure, system upgrades, warranty services, hardware fixes and more.Using OnForce:
   
9. WritingBids.com – A site focused solely on freelance providers who are writers, editors, proofreaders and researchers. Buyers post different writing jobs from resume writing to ghost writing to writing for a grant, PR, web content and blogging.
10. DesignQuote.net – If you are a graphic designer then you might enjoy this site. Buyers are invited to post their projects and get free quotes from designers. Common projects are usually logo design, web design and graphic design. If you are a provider you can browse projects, find something you think you might like, then submit your bid. If the buyer chooses you then you get to proceed with the project.

Finally: some tips to help you out as you plan to embark on a career of freelancing:

How to Bid for Jobs Online

How to Set Up and Use PayPal to Get Paid for Freelance Jobs

Time Management Tips for Freelancers

We hope you find all of these useful. And when you have finally established yourself as a great designer, writer or programmer, do try to market yourself online so you can get more jobs in future!

If you are a photographer, or are interested in photography, and have a decent camera to take pictures with, then you might consider selling your work as a way to earn some extra money. With the accessibility of the internet and social media, it’s much easier now to find avenues where you can make profit off something that you are good at.

There are several ways on how you can make money selling photographs:

1. Offering your services to other businesses. There are a lot of businesses out there who are in need of a photographer but don’t know where to find one. Your skill can be greatly appreciated by store owners who need to have photos of their products so they can sell them better.
   • eBay – Try scouting around eBay for sellers or stores that are quite successful but whose photos of products need a bit of work. You can contact them directly and introduce yourself, then offer to take photos of their products for free.
   • Craigslist – You can post an ad selling your services. A great of getting potential clients is to find a niche, like concentrate on offering photography for those who are selling their used cars, or houses, etc.
2. Market yourself online. There are many ways of connecting with a lot of people online. Create an effective online presence so that people will get to know you and what you have to offer.
3. Sell stock photography. Take photos of objects, portraits of people, situations in different subjects, or even come up with a theme and photograph objects related to that. For example, birthday theme: you would have to take individual photos of a cake, candles, balloons, paper hats, etc. Then you can sell these individually to stock photography websites. There are a lot of websites and company out there who use stock photography in their everyday activities, especially if they need photos for documents, blogs, online articles. Even CNN and popular magazines make use of stock photography. You just have to make sure that you take photos of subjects that are quite common and popular. Here are some places where you can make money selling your photographs:
   • iStockphoto – You would need to sign up for an account first, then submit 3 original samples of your work. After you are accepted as a contributor, then you are now ready to sell your stock. Files are licensed two ways: pay-as-you-go, where you earn your royalty based on the net value of the credits used to download your image, and by subscriptions, where iStockphoto pays you based on how much of the subscriber’s daily limit was used to download your file. The price also depends on what size your image is available in (bigger resolution, bigger pay). You can earn royalty from $0.30-$7.50 per image.
   • Dreamstime – You will need to sign up for an account, upload samples, and wait to be approved. You will start at the first level. The more your photos get downloaded, the higher your level is going to be. Each level increase also amounts to your photo being sold at a higher price. Dreamstime boasts of being the company to award the highest royalty to photographers in the industry, so you might want to check this site out. You can earn at a range of $0.38-$10.63 per image. If you provide more formats for the photo, the royalty for the largest size available will be doubled, and if you provide it in TIFF format they will give you 150%.
   • Shutterstock – You can earn $0.25 per image download of your photo. If you can refer stock buyers, you will get 20% of their subscription price. If you can refer other photographers to submit their work, you can earn $.03 per image download of their photo.
   • 123 Royalty Free – You will earn 50% of the price of the photo downloaded. (For example, an image in ultra high resolution is priced around $3.) If the person who downloaded your image has a standing subscription, you will earn $0.36 per download.
   • Imagekind – Imagekind buys and sells high-end framed artwork. So you can sell not only your photography but your art as well. If you sign up for a free account you get to have 3 galleries where you can showcase your work. You are going to be the one to set the price to how much you want to sell your work, and Imagekind gets 5% framing commission.
   • Bigstock – You earn $0.50-$3.00 per download of your image. If you sign up for their special licensing program you can increase your profits to a range of $2.50-$60 per download.
   • Photostock Plus – You can set your own prices, and you will earn 85% commission on all sales minus a 3.25% processing fee.
   • Can Stock Photo – You get 50% commission for guest & member purchases (price range of photos sold is $2-$10), and $0.25 for subscription sales. Also, if you refer another photographer, you have a chance of earning $5 for every 50 photos he/she sells.
   • Cluster Shot – You decide how much to price your photos. Any sale you make, the money is yours. However, at the end of the month, Cluster Shot will bill you 12% of all your sales.
   • Crestock – You will be paid a commission every time your image is sold, however, they didn’t mention for how much. Once you make 100 sales, you automatically get 30% commission.

If you plan on being a full-time stock photographer, this may be a profitable gig for you. One stock photographer, Yuri Arcus, makes as much as $300/day selling his images alone! Just remember that you not only need good equipment, but talent as well. You need to take good photos and have a great concept for each shot. Browse different websites and see what kind of images sell, and what topics are hot in discussions and need lots of images of.

Good luck!

The burning question that is on every blogger’s mind; ‘Is making money with Google a scam?‘  Good question.  the answer would depend on whom you ask.  If you ask a successful blogger that has put in some work and time and is using Google’s products to the fullest than the answer is no it’s not a scam.  If you ask a part time blogger that hasn’t really put any effort into making money then they might erroneously yes, it is a scam.

I think Google is a great way to make money if you know how to use it effectively. There are lots of people who are making money with google and you could be one of them. There are even people who are making thousands of dollars a month or millions per year from Google. An example of this is the guy (Markus Frind) who owns PlentyOfFish.Com dating site who makes about $10,00 per month or over a million dollars a year from Google Adsense. He’s been very open about showing other people that making money with google is not a scam. About himself Markus says: “I’m also the largest individual adsense publisher, the only site in the top 100 run by one person etc. Plentyoffish is the 3rd largest dating site in north america after yahoo and match.”

But Markus is not alone and there are plenty of other people who are making money with Google like this guy who went from $8 a day with Google to $800 a day.

Google does a good job at turning something that you would do for free into a paid platform for you. For example, Google has several products to help you get paid like Google Adsense and Adwords.  The easiest of the two to get into for newbies is Adsense and is fairly simple to do. You would first begin by signing up for an Adsense account and then place ads in different locations on your site or blog.  Google will then pay  you each time someone  clicks on those ads or per set number of impressions. Impressions are basically the rotation of the ads, see after a certain amount of views of a particular ad (e.g. people viewing your website) Google will automatically switch the ad that is displayed to a different relevant ad.  Now with Adwords, there’s enourmous money to be made. However, it’s a lot more complicated than Adsense and is not recommended for newbies because you could actually lose money if you don’t really know what you’re doing. If you’re really interested in knowing, you can read more here.

Some people I know think that making money with Google is a scam because it takes so long to get paid.  Which I can understand as a gripe. In order for a payout, your account has to be at least $100 and then you get a check a month after your account reaches that amount.  To get to that $100 alone may take a long time especially if you don’t get a lot of traffic to your website. Patience is key. Also, there are lots of  inside tricks to getting  people to click on your ads that you need to know as well which will help to increase how much you make from Google each month.

As  you build your fan base and post more articles, the ads placed on your site will be more and more relevant to your content and theme thus making people more likely to click on your ads as opposed to some random ad that has nothing to do with what your blog is about.  Google also allows you to customize and filter out what ads appear on your site. You have control over what you choose to sell to your audience and what you choose not to.

For sure, Google is not a scam and can be a worthwhile source of income if you work with it and remember that patience is key.

So you have ideas and you want the world to know? You want to make a little money just expressing your ideas?  You’re in luck. I’ll show you how to make a free website and make money from it.  When thinking of starting your own website or blog the first thing you need to do is think about what you want to talk about.  You should pick something that you know about or are interested in.  If you pick a topic that you’re into then you’re more likely to talk about it.  It’s hard to continue to update your blog or site with things that your aren’t familiar with.  makes sense right?

Once you’ve figured out what you want to write about then its time to find a platform for your site/blog.  Owning a website and hosting is not expensive but when you are in school and low on funds, every penny counts.  The other option is to use a free service to host your site.  Some free sites are blogger.com, worpress.com, and tumblr.com.  each of these sites have their own pros and cons.

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages to some of the popular free hosting sites;

Blogger.com -Blogger or blogspot.com is the blog hosting arm of google.  If you have a google account then you can enter your google (e.g. gmail) username and password, then click sign in.  Once you agree to the terms and services, the next step is to create a name and address (url).  There are custom templates available from blogger or you can go to sites like btemplates.com for a large range of free templates customized for blogger.  You choose the one that best fits your style.  Once you’ve picked your name, address and template it’s time to start writing.

Wordpress.com – Wordpress is not as big as some of the others such as blogger or typepad but they are still a great blogging platform.  When the time comes for you to move to your own self hosted blog you can easily transition to wordpress.org.  Wordpress offers better spam support, and they are constant updates to improve the system. The sign up process is simple and easy. You simply create a username and password and you are good to go. Be careful when creating a username because that will be the name of your blog.  The main advantage that wordpress has is in it’s mobile apps.  with so many of us on the go all the time our cell phones have become our base for everything.  They have an Iphone and blackberry app so that you can blog on the go as well as wordpress.tv for vlogging (video blogging).

Tumblr.com – Tumblr is one of the easiest ways to run a blog. If you are into photos or just short notes instead of longer articles then this is for you.  There are hundreds of themes to choose from so you blog can be totally custom to you. If you don’t see one that you like, you can create your own theme in a step by step process.  You can even call a number to that will transcibe your call and transform that into a post for you.  This site offers the cleanest look out of the free hosting sites.

When making a blog it is important to think of what you are going to do with it.  Do you plan on selling things, posting pictures, writing short stories, talking about general things in life? Pick a topic that is near and dear to you.  Once you’ve picked the theme, the next is to come up with a good title or name for your blog.  Pick something that is easy to remember so that when someone is recommending your site to a friend they can easily remember what it is.  Try to avoid things like hyphens or numbers because if someone is searching for your site without the hyphen they may get your competition instead and getting people to come to your blog is what will make you money.  If your site name has crazy spelling or a slang term ( which can become outdated) then it may be hard for people to remember you.  No matter how great your site is if people can’t remember how to spell it then they won’t come back or recommend it to others.

Now that you’ve made your site it’s time to make some money from it.  These sites are easy to monetize. Things like

Google ads

contextual advertising – Yahoo Publisher, Adsonar

Targeted advertising if you have a blog that talks about specific things then this may be for you. You just need to create a media kit, a page or section on your blog that explains that you will do advertising and how to get in touch with you if someone is interested, and use an ad server like RMX Direct.

Donations – PayPal has an ingenious way of setting up a link on your page that people can click on to send you money directly to your PayPal account.

None of these things will matter if you can’t get people to come to your site.  Traffic is very important and I can’t stress that enough!  It’s horrible to have a great site but no one knows about it.  If a website has a great design and lots of ads to make you money but no one knows about it does it really exist?

When it comes to how to build a money making website, it’s really not as hard as you might think.  It does take time and it is not a get rich quick type of gig.  One of the ways to make money online is to build your own website.  Having your own website, over time, can eventually make you money without you even actually doing anything.  Now I don’t suggest that you just build a website, throw some ads on it and leave it alone but after a while the money will begin to roll in if you work at it.

Before you even think about money you need to know how to build a money making website. Right? Right.  Okay so here’s the deal on that.  When it comes to building a website you can pay someone to do it for you or you can make it yourself.  You don’t have to have an advanced degree in Information Technology with a concentration in  web design to get your own website up and running.

The first thing you want to do is to choose a subject for your website.  In choosing a subject, there are lots of people out there who will tell you to build a website around high paying keywords. They tell you to do this so that later on, you can throw up some Google adsense ads that  people can click on and make you a lot of money. This all sounds good in theory. But often when people do this it’s on a subject they know nothing about or have an interest in. Eventually they lose interest and the website goes down the tubes. Another reason people fail at this strategy is that there are so many people who have the same idea, the competition is extremely fierce.

A better strategy of how to build a money making website is to build one on a subject that you like and know a lot about. Figuring this out is just as easy as sitting down with a paper and pen and making a long list of all the things you’re passionate about and then narrowing that list down to just 1 topic.

Next, you need to think about the platform you’ll use to build your website. If you want to go the free route, you can use free services like blogger.com and wordpress.com to make a blog about your interests.  However, there are much better options out there that can help you  to make money much faster than those.  One such site is SiteBuildit. I love this site because they take you step by step through the entire process.

They give you everything you need from brainstorming to hosting to  building to traffic generation to propelling your website to the top 1% of all websites on the web.  Webmasters LOVE SBI. There are plenty of other options out there other than SBI that you can check out, however, SBI is one of my favorites.

Once it’s built, there are many different ways to make money from your website.
1) Google Adsense – You can place ads in different spots on your website and get paid when people click on them or by the amount of impressions. When a different ad is placed it is called an impression, Google changes the impressions after a certain amount of visits to the site.  This is a great way to make money if you have the  traffic to support it. More on traffic importance later.

2) Text Links – This is when someone offers to pay you a set fee ( weekly, monthly, or yearly) for you to prominently display their text link on your page.  Unlike Google Adsense, this would be a fixed link that would stay in place on your page. A few websites that faciliate that whole process is BuySellAds.Com, LinkWorth.Com, TextLinkAds.Com and LinkAdage.Com.

3) Writing paid reviews – Similar to writing paid Movie or Restaurant reviews,  sometimes you may run across the opportunity to review products or services for a price.  sometimes you can get cash and other times it may only be goods or services. This is usually reserved for the older more established blogs.  You would need to build a following and be a trusted site before you can expect the companies to pay you for this, however, here a few sites that actually hook you up with people who are willing to pay you to write a review of them on your blog: PayPerPost.Com, ReviewMe.Com, Blogitive.Com, LoudLaunch.Com and BloggerWave.Com.

4) Affiliate Marketing – Similar to paid reviews, affiliate marketing is when you review or suggest a product but instead of getting paid  a flat fee in the beginning, you receive a “referral fee” when someone goes to that site based on your recommendation.  Usually you provide a link that directs them and also lets the sponsor know that they came from you. Websites like www.cj.com (Commission Junction) specialize in this type of programs. Affiliate marketing is what some people refer to as a “high reward/low risk” Web site monetization option”.

5) Sell Products directly – This strategy is just like marketing except your are cutting out the middle man per say.  If you use this method then you recommend the products just like marketing except instead of sending them to the main site to buy they can simply click on a link right there within your article that can either do a popup or a separate window that allows them to buy the product.

The most important link to all this is traffic. Traffic! Traffic! Traffic!  If you don’t have the traffic then you won’t make money.  making money with your website is dependent almost entirely on people coming to your site and either clicking those ads or buying those products.  If they don’t know about your site then they can’t visit. Right? Right.

Now You’re probably asking ” If traffic is so important how do I get it”? Simple, well not really. One of the most important keys is to write about what you feel passionate and comfortable about.  The more passionate you are about something then the more you will be willing to write about it.  The more you update your website with content on a unique enough niche, the  more your website will rank well in the search engines which will then send a lot of free traffic your way.

Another way to drive more traffic is to advertise.  Yes you can pay for advertising but you can also do some advertising on your own.  For example, you can network with people in forums while at the same time advertising your website in the signature of your posts. Networking can help you out a whole lot by driving more traffic to your site while at the same time you’re sharing and receiving ideas to help make your site even better.

If you seriously want to know how to build a money making website then there are options available to help you build it and once it’s built to help you make money from it.  Remember the most important things are writing about something that you are passionate about and do your best to drive traffic to the great new website you built.  The more traffic the more opportunity to make money.  If you build your site correctly and get some steady traffic coming though then before you know it you’ll be rolling in the dough!!!

If you are anything like me then you go out to eat a whole lot!  Even though I’m in college and money is a major issue at times, I still find a little extra to have a nice meal every now and again.

Since I’m always the one that tries all types of different places and foods I have somehow become the resident restaurant guru amongst my friends.  If they want to know a good place for a steak, they ask me.  If they want to know where they should take some chick on a first date, they ask me.  If they want to know who has the best service or is the fastest out of two places, they ask me.  You get the idea, I am sort of a foodie.  I then realized that I’m spending a bunch of money at these places as well as giving free advice to my friends.  Hmmm…  There has to be a way to cash in on this right? Right. I can write a restaurant review.

Since I know I’m not the first person to come up with this idea I did a little research to see if this is something that I can actually do.  And guess what? yep, you guessed right, it is something that I , or any college student for that matter, can do. Now there are a few things you need to know about how to write a restaurant review;

1. You need to be descriptive – don’t just say ‘the food is good.’ or ‘the service is horrible’.  You need to describe it as if you are telling a story, you want the reader to feel your love or pain for the place. Talk about everything possible, from the exterior to the reservation and wait time, to the ambiance inside, to the waitstaff, to the food, and even what type of people frequent the place (e.g. great for kids, not good for kids)

2. You can’t be afraid to try different things or places – Everyone is already familiar with the bigger chains, but if you really want to stick out and get noticed, do reviews on the local delicacies or local merchants in  your area.  If you do this then you’ll have a leg up on the competition.

3. Write the review as soon as possible – You want to get those thoughts down as soon as possible so that you won’t forget anything. I wouldn’t suggest taking notes while eating because this may draw attention to what you’re doing and the whole idea is to discreetly write about them not announce it to the world.  If you can somehow take notes while eating then go ahead but don’t get caught.

4. Once you’ve written your review and have it ready then you can try submitting it to your local newspaper or online publication like zagat.com, restaurantica.com, or yelp.com. I’ll talk more on submitting your review online later.

To submit them to your local newpaper I suggest that you send a copy of your review along with an info letter decribing who you are and what you are doing to the editor.  These editors are often looking for local stories to run and if they really like what they are reading, could offer your a position as a staff writer or keep you on as a freelance reviewer.  That is one option.  Another option which seems to be the most popular is to submit them to companies online.  Now, I must warn you that some of these companies do not pay you for your reviews, while some do. The ones I mentioned earlier are Zagat.com, Restaurantica.com and Yelp.com are all free services that you can use to get started or get ideas on how to write a restaurant review.

Once you get an idea of what you’re doing and what is expected you can try sites like reviewstream.com, Bukisa.com, and even some major cities such as Phoenix Arizona, San Francisco California, or Philadelphia Pennsylvania have their own website dedicated to reviewing restaurants for pay.  If you live in some of these cities or other major cities I suggest checking them out. I will discuss Phoenixrestaurants.com for this example.

Review stream is a good website to get started writing for. You don’t have to be local and can write on any restaurant that you would like. I would suggest like I said earlier to try and stay away from the bigger franchices because with this service you are paid per click. Well, rather per vote. The readers vote on whether your review is good and you get a cetrain amount per vote.  If you write on the bigger chains people may skip over it as opposed to the smaller local places.

Bukisa is an excellent website that you can not only write your restaurant reviews on but you can also record audio and /or video as well.  This may be better for people who live doing video blogs more the traditional typing.  with this site you have to build a network of sorts. Friends, family etc… and as they view your content you get paid. The more views the more you get paid.  You invite people to read your reviews on the site and get paid when they join, then as they invite others you get paid when they join as well and so on and so forth.  So instead of just telling your friends about this great restaurant or giving them advice when they ask, simply refer them to the website and while they are reading it there you’re getting paid.

Phoenix Restaurants is one of many restaurant guides by major tourist heavy cities.  Once you sign up for this site they will give you an assignment or place to review.  The assignments can range from $5 to $40.  Now, with this service there are three different levels of assignments, as you progress and do more writing the higher you go and the more money you can make. Standard assignments can make up to $50, while the highest level of Premium can yield $100 to $200 per assignment.  Even if you are not in major city you can still sign up and write for restaurants in the surrounding area.

If you are a foodie like me, then learning how to write a restaurant review and getting paid for it can be something for you.  At the very least you are getting paid to do something you would have been doing anyway.

When You’re in college it’s not always easy to find a full time job.  Even when you do find one it’s hard to juggle working a steady 80 hrs a week with a full course load.  I’ve tried this myself and I know how difficult it can be.  After trying this for a semester I decided that it was too much and since I didn’t want to cut down on my classes I chose to cut down on working as much. I tried to do the part time job thing but I knew there had to be an easier way.  That’s when I discovered how to make money from writing. Writing was something that I would do all the time anyway so I might as well figure out a way to get paid doing it right? Right.

There are lots of different ways and resources on how to make money from writing.  Lots of times people will hire someone to assist with their website,write their papers , and things of that nature.  There are a good number of websites out that can assist you with finding these jobs. A few favorites and biggest are Scriptlance, , Odesk, and Elance. I have been able to secure a number of writing jobs through these outlets.

You can also make money on campus by writing papers for your fellow students. While this practice of writing papers for someone is considered by some to be immoral it is legal and if you’re good at writing it can be a lucrative opportunity.

The more you write the better you will become, remember the old saying ‘practice makes perfect’.  I would suggest writing as much as possible so that you can build a portfolio to show to potential clients.  If you are good at writing about certain topics that could help as well.  For example if you like movies, there are ways to make money writing movie reviews. You were going to see that movie anyway right?  Why not write about it and get paid?  That’s a win-win.  That is just one example of turning something that you love to do into a money making job.  If you start by finding jobs that allow you to write about what you know well first then you will have better luck and gain more experience.

Not only can you write for companies online but lots of magazines look for freelance writers to contribute to their monthly publications.  Once you have found that niche category, look into some of the magazines that cater to that group and you may find success there.  You can also write and publish your own books as well.  There are a number of options when it comes to writing it’s just a matter of finding the right one for you.  If you are serious about writing then this could be a way of making some extra money that you can explore.

Some other sites to try if you want know how to make money from writing is lulu.com – a self publishing website

When I was in college, I was a movie fanatic. I would go to theaters and watch a movie everyday – sometimes even twice a day. I was such a movie addict that I would keep a list of the movies I had watched. There was even a year when I actually watched 350 movies in 365 days. I may not have watched every movie that was shown that year but geez, that was more than any of my friends could watch.

Because of my extensive knowledge in modern movies, I became a good film critique in my own right. I had a professor who would always ask us to write reviews of the movies shown in our university theater, which was always free by the way, or the tickets were sold at big discounts. I became a prominent figure in my class because he always appreciated my writing style and the way I critiqued movies, which makes me realize now that my professor could have been a big influence why I pursued a writing career now.

I never had any problems in thinking how to write a movie review because I was always an opinionated person. I was – and still am – a quiet person, but I never felt shy to write my own views of my experience. I was always an open book – literally.

Since I made it my mission to help college students in making profits  to help them get through occasional financial issues, I have thought of putting down tips on how to write a movie review. Let me tell you first though that I may not be a professional movie reviewer, but I was trained for it.

The first thing you have to keep in mind before writing a movie review is to have an initial knowledge of the movie you are planning to see. If the movie features famous Hollywood actors, it is not just enough to recognize their name. Research about their previous works. Know why they were cast into the movie. Also, make a lot of research about the director. Learn what genre he is used to and if he had received awards prior to his latest project. Do not also forget to search for the background of the film. If the movie is based on an event or a real person, then study their history. You might get left out by the movie itself.

When you really want to know how to write a movie review, look at how professional film reviewers do it. They usually use one-liners (sometimes it could just be a word) to describe their overall conclusion. Know what these phrases are because you can use these in making your own movie review.

In order to grab the attention of your reader, you need to create a catchy first paragraph. Use a phrase used in the movie you think it would be known for. Describe how it impacts you or how it can appeal to other people. Since you are writing a movie review, you do not need to always use positive phrases. You can also quote lousy scripts that you thought brought down the movie. Knowing how to write a movie review is just like the film itself. It’s not just in the first paragraph. You want your reader to continue reading until the very last word.

Provide a little recap for your reader, but never disclose a big spoiler. You can do this, however, if you want to create a different style of writing, but warn your reader first. Limit the spoiler you will be disclosing to just about five to ten minutes of a scene. Most moviegoers do not like to be told of what they want to see. I bet you don’t like it either.

Lastly, you are writing a movie review so be honest. Unless you have been paid by the producers to advertise the movie, do not sell the movie by giving all the good facts and ignoring the bad scenes. You can encourage your reader to watch the film if it is really worth watching, but be neutral as much as possible. If you are writing about an X-rated film, I don’t think it is a bad idea to be frank of what you saw but just be professional about it. Being emotional about it is already creepy.

To be able to maximize your earning opportunity and have more readers, be the first on the scene. If there is a premiere night in your area, purchase a ticket right away. You do not want to make a review about “Titanic” because I’m sure that by now, more than half of the world has seen it.

There are several websites on line where you can  make money writing movie reviews. One site is SharedReviews.Com where you can write about movies that are out on dvd’s. Just check out this link to see all the movie reviews that people have submitted and are earning money from. SharedReviews are not very clear about how much you earn for writing reviews but say they “allocate a certain amount of real cash for our community in order to reward contributors. This can vary from one or two thousand to much, much more depending on the programs, incentives, and sponsors we have in a given month. We always announce at the beginning of a given month how much will be given to the community and what the incentives are so you know what you’re working towards before you even start.”  Just browsing through some of the user profiles, I notice that some contributors have earnings of well over $1000.  That’s not a bad amount and can at least help you with paying for your books if you’re a college student.

Another site that you can make money by writing a movie review is AssociatedContent.Com where they accept all sorts of written content including movie reviews. To maximize the amount of money you make, you should try to write your  review of the movie as soon as it comes out otherwise not too many people will be searching for reviews after that. AssociatedContent not only pays you anywhere from $2-$25 per piece but they also pay per the number of views that your review gets.

Lastly, another site where you can make money writing movie reviews is with Squidoo.Com. They make it easy with Squidflix an online tool that makes it dead simple to write a review and get it published. And similar in a way to AssociatedContent, they pay according to the number of views your review generates. Write a really great review and you can make a lot of money!

College money making ideas may not be as hard as you might think. If you know how to write a movie review you can make money money from it and we’ve just showed you how.

Studying is one of the hardest jobs around, with the worst pay. You are constantly being asked to tax your mental abilities, but you still have to pay for all of life’s necessities and little luxuries and the money has to come from somewhere. The Internet is a fantastic resource for college students looking to earn themselves some extra cash, if you know where to start.

Looking for and online legit way for college students to make money? Follow the money.

Health products and dietary supplements were a $22.5 billion dollar industry in 2006, and that number grows every year as people become increasingly protective of their physical well-being. The general public eats more processed and manufactured foods now than ever, often buying foods with less nutritional content because they are cheap and involve little or no preparation.

College students in particular want fast, inexpensive foods – like noodles or takeaway – and as a result their health often suffers. This nutritional shortfall is bad for their bodies and for their minds, it may even affect their academic performance!

As an online legit way for college students to make money, selling health products is a smart idea because you have around you a ready-made client base in other students who can benefit vastly from your products.

So where do you go from here?

If you’re interested in making cash in the health products industry, but not at the expense of your grades – or your social life!, then what you need is an online, legit way for college students to make money that allows you to work when you want but gives you the freedom to take time out for yourself. You need business that doesn’t demand too much from you in the way of start up, that understands you don’t own a warehouse for stock, and that has an interest in supporting you to make the most that you can. What you need is a home-based business where someone else takes care of the administrative side and lets you get on with making the money. A great example of this type of business structure is found at Health Biz.

They run one of the top online affiliate programs selling high quality health and beauty products. Under their system you get a huge 50% commission on your sales of most items. All the stock and contact with the customers is handled for you by the company. They also help you get started marketing advice, flyers, business cards and web banners. You can even get your own dedicated domain with a call center that takes orders from your site by phone!

Ready to get going?

You’ve picked a field, picked a company, and you’re all set to go! That’s great! Start with people you know. Be enthusiastic and tell them what you’re doing, they might be able to help you out or be interested in your products. Everyone can benefit from improved health. Then go local. Stick up flyers on noticeboards around your campus, especially near dorms. Attach several of your business cards so people know who to call. As mentioned above, Health Biz helps you get started by providing templates for these.

Don’t forget places like the library and the gym as places to market your new business. They often have noticeboards or an area for flyers. For more activities you can do online, try joining and participating in health forums and link to your business in your signature.

The more you spread the word, the faster your profits will add up and the faster your online legit way for college students to make money will increase!

A lot of people prefer Yahoo to start a profitable online business with Yahoo. As a college student, you too can start your own online business that could be very profitable by using their service.

After deciding what kind of business you will run, you will first need to register a domain name. From time to time, Yahoo offers a $1.99 deal to buy a domain. This, of course, is an excellent deal for a college student with little money.

Also, if you’re lucky enough to sign up with them when they are running this special promotion, you’ll be able to get a FREE DOMAIN, unlimited disk space, unlimited data transfer and 25% off with Yahoo! Web Hosting.Otherwise, Yahoo Small Business offers web hosting services for reasonable rates and prices. You could choose from their available plans or packages, something that will suit your budget. You could even save money because they won’t charge you for the set up.

When registering your domain, if it is unavailable, their service will give you a list of similar names that are available that you can choose from.

There are lots of tools and applications when you host your business with Yahoo that will help you in creating a good design for your site. You will also be given some guideline on how to design your site like a professional. You have the power to make the choices to add a more personal touch to your design. When signing up to start your online business with Yahoo, you will be taken through a step-by-step process for creating the site. This is a reassuring feature for college students who may not have the skills to do it themselves or the funds to hire a professional web developer.

Yahoo’s ecommerce/merchant solution is also useful for including all the information about your products and payment or billing options on your page.

Of course, the control panel for any hosting service is probably one of their most important features. If you’re trying to run a profitable business, you will need a usable control panel interface so that uploading, changing and deleting files is easy and does not require you to be computer genius to complete. And as mentioned before, Yahoo offers this with their step-by-step wizard because in under 20 minutes, you can be up and running just by following Yahoo’s on screen prompts from start to finish.

Overall, if you’re looking for a quick and cost-efficient way to start a profitable online business, Yahoo has many features that any small business needs, including unlimited disk space, multiple email addresses, and unlimited data transfer.

Also, Geocities which is offered by Yahoo is completely free. They offer FREE web hosting service for those who need a maximum need 15MB of space or less. It is an easy service to sign up for, with just a few simple questions before you have access to all its features.

Like any other businesses, your online business also needs advertising to drive more visitors and customers to your site. Since Yahoo is one of the top search engines, placing an advertisement on Yahoo could increase traffic in your site and could also increase your sales. Don’t worry about paying too much for the advertisements because you can set a budget for these. You only have to pay when someone clicks on your ad and you can also set how much you can pay per click.

If you think that your business needs more people, Yahoo could also make the search easy for you. You can post a job for a reasonable fee and lots of qualified candidates for the job would send their applications and resumes. Yahoo will send them directly to your email address. This way, you can be sure that you can get the most qualified person for the job.

Yahoo Small Business is a one-stop shop for many of your online business needs. You will not have any major troubles or problems in setting up a website and promoting your business if you will use their services. The prices and rates are competitive even if you would compare it with others. And they offer support and assistance in case you will encounter any kind of problems regarding your site or advertisements.

Yahoo! Sponsored Search lists your business on top sites like Yahoo!, AltaVista and CNN. Sign up and get a $25 credit.

When you’re in college trying to start up your own business, some of the most important issues you face are not enough time and money. So before making a final decision, always shop around to make sure you get exactly what you need. Also, be sure to read some reviews about their service before you sign on the dotted line.