SHOWNOTES
I know many people are looking for ways to supplement (or replace) income lost due to the pandemic.
We're not talking about creating a big course or a membership site here. This is a practical list for quick ways to generate extra cash, right now.
A few of the ideas mentioned in the episode:
💵 Transcription work – Rev and others have real people transcribing audio info.
💵 Micro actions with Appen.
💵 Become a Fiverr expert.
💵 Be a website tester.
💵 Freelancing – what skills do you have that you can market?
💵 Put your skills to work as a virtual assistant.
💵 Take surveys for market research firms.
💵 Add Qmee to your search bar.
💵 Set up a drop-ship business.
💵 Design T shirts based on trending topics or nostalgia.
💵 What can you teach? Become a tutor.
💵 Teach English as a second language classes via Skype.
💵 Share your expertise on Just Answer.
💵 Use your skills to coach others.
Bonus: In addition to this list of ideas, I break down 3 easy ways you can find people who are looking to hire for a variety of tasks and projects. These will help anyone looking for clients and they are really easy to do.
We all know something that others want to learn or outsource to an expert. Use one or two of these ideas to earn what you need to take care of yourself and your family. And remember that these crazy times aren’t going to last forever.
RESOURCES
TRANSCRIPT
00:03 (Gary Vee)Hey guys, it's Gary Vaynerchuk and you're listening to the Front Row Entrepreneur Podcast with our girl, Jen.
00:14 Hey there, Jen here. So a friend and I were having a conversation yesterday about a recent Instagram post by a popular comedian that really rubbed her the wrong way. So the comedian is JP Sears, if you've never seen him before. He's that guy who's always doing those funny satirical videos that mock all of the woo wooo spiritual people. Well actually maybe it's more accurate to say that he calls out the hypocrisy and like a really funny way as it relates to just about everything. So it might be fitness related or business related. He's got this one that you probably have seen this super hilarious that it's where he pretends to be this sort of like want to be Gary Vaynerchuk influencer hustling to cool for school is really funny. Anyway, so he recently posted something on his Instagram that said something like to the effect right now, meaning in this pandemic, you're either getting fitter or fatter, which one do you choose?
Read more...
01:14
And it was kind of like it was a serious post. It wasn't funny. So what annoyed my friend was, aside from the fact that it was just really off-brand for him was that she said to me, she goes, you know, not everybody has the luxury of self-actualizing right now. And I, and you know what? That's so true. That's such a good point. And yeah, it'd be nice if we could all be using this time to learn a second language and get a six pack and finally get the basement organized. That's all great for sure. But the truth of the matter is that there are many people who are just trying to keep their head above water who need to make money like right this very second. And if that's you, this episode is for you. Now, some of these ideas might down the road turn into sustainable revenue for you.
02:02
And some of these really might just be something you need to do right the second to build up some cash in your bank account to help you with the mortgage, whatever. And we're going to get really creative and really scrappy here. Okay. This is not the episode where we're going to talk about creating a course or a membership or an eCommerce site. All that stuff is long game stuff. This is about quick cold cash. So just keep an open mind as we go through this list. Take what you like and you can leave the rest. Okay, so number one, oftentimes here on the podcast we talk about our favorite tools and services, and one of those that always comes up is rev.com R E v.com. It's a transcription service. Well, guess what? Those transcriptions are created by human beings and those human beings get paid for typing out what they hear.
02:55
On average, people get about 5 cents a minute, so that's $30 an hour. Some of the websites where you can apply if this is of any interest to you is rev.com go, uh, got known. I was going to say got transcripts, but it's go transcript.com and speech pad.com and I'll have all of these links in the show notes at jenlehner.com/048, that's jenlehner.com/048 Or you can text CASHIDEAS to 44222 again, that's CASHIDEAS to 44222 and we're going to email you all the links. Number two. There's this website called APPEN, APPEN that pays you small amounts of money for little micro things that you do like click somewhere or filling out a form. This is one of those no brainer things that you could sign up for and just make money throughout the day.
03:51
It goes straight into your PayPal account. Number three, you can also make money on fiverr.com and upwork.com go and look at all the categories that they have there. There's gotta be something there that you can do and I've added a much longer list of sites just like Fiverr and Upwork in the show notes page and there's, there's a ton of them. There's so many that I didn't even know about tops started researching for this episode. All right. Uh, what number are we on? We are on number four. You could get paid to test websites to test these websites. You'll be asked to visit a site in question and then record your reactions and thoughts as you go through it. So if you want to do this, just go to the more popular services like usertesting.com and Userlytics and all the rest of them. I'm going to put over on the show notes.
04:40
Page number five, freelancing. We just talked about Fiverr andUpwork, but if you have a marketable skill like writing, designing, web development, marketing project, project management, anything really one of the easiest ways to make sustainable extra money or just quick cash is to start freelancing. And let me tell you, there is plenty of work and clients to be found if you know where to look. So to start, you do need to know if there's enough demand for your skill to make it worth the effort to go out looking for work. So you want to start by searching for freelance postings on sites like flex jobs or solid gigs or content or a dozen of the other ones. I'll list them. And how many postings are there for jobs similar to what you do if there's a decent amount and it looks like there's steady demand, put those skills down on a short list and start researching the companies and industries that are hiring.
05:36
Now look, I know you might be thinking and maybe you have like a little bit of a pit in your stomach cause you're thinking I charged 20 times that amount of money per hour and I can't let people see me offering my work on Fiverr or Upwork. That would just be humiliating. First of all, there's no shame and honest work and these are extraordinary times. And lastly, honestly, no one has to know. It's a very easy to have your work listed on these sites more or less anonymously. You can hide behind an avatar if you want to. Uh, number six, you could become a virtual assistant. So if you're pretty savvy with digital stuff or even if you don't consider yourself a super whiz overall with digital, but maybe you're just really good at a few things. Like let's say you're really good with MailChimp, really good with convert kit or Canva, you might have a knack for organization.
06:30
You can make money online as a virtual assistant. Now a virtual assistant, or as we say, VA a VA could do everything from bookkeeping to research, social media management, database entry when we're not in the middle of a pandemic booking, travel, uh, and managing email. And I have to say that if you are a little bit tech savvy or you specialize in one of those areas that I mentioned earlier, this is a really great option for you. And right now there is a huge demand. And that's because so many people with online businesses are actually busier than ever right now. And they need your help. And then there's the people who are trying to move their businesses online right now because they've been shut down out in the quote unquote real world. And they need your help and finding clients, I hate to use this phrase, but there's really not a better metaphor finding clients right now.
07:20
If you're a VA, it's like shooting fish in a barrel if you're smart about it. So if you go into a Facebook group where your potential clients are, and let's just think about that for a second. What a Facebook group is a Facebook group is already like by design is already either your target market or they aren't like they're so specific. There's a fair as a Facebook group for everything. If you are an Instapot enthusiast or a vegan or a pet lover, every group is defined in such a way. So you know right off the bat that when you join that group, that though that your people are in there. So let's say that you want to work with online coaches. You join a Facebook group where it's all about online coaches or online coaches hanging out in there. And what you could do is then go to the magnifying glass or whatever it is, the little search bar, it's on the top right or the top left and search for terms put use quotation marks and type in I'm struggling with or I need help with.
08:24
Okay. Or you get really specific and do I need a VA and watch what happens? I'll tell you what's going to happen. You're going to get dozens of posts that pop up that are things that you can help with, that are begging for you to help with. So someone might be struggling with how they can format a border on a Canva graphic or something, I don't know. Okay. And that's your jam. You know how to do that. So you swoop in, you comment down below. And uh, and by the way, when you do this, these are recent posts that will pop up. You're not looking for posts that were posted a year ago. Like, cause people are constantly going into the group saying I need help with, I'm struggling with et cetera. Okay so you, you jump in there and give some genuine help answer their question and the more that you do this and you don't have to do it for a long time, I mean just do it everyday for a week and like pick six groups and just be really active in there.
09:16
People are gonna start to notice you and then they're going to DMU, they're going to click on your Facebook profile, they're going to want to know more about you, make sure that you've got all that set up so that it is very clear that you are available for hire and have a landing page ready to go. So if they ask you if you can help them, you could share a link with them to your services and they can get started with you really quickly. You want to be ready to go. Okay. The next item on our list is you can make money with surveys and like giving your opinion. So you can join groups like survey junkie and there's several others. But basically they pay you right into your PayPal based on your opinion. So you're, it's market research. Okay, let's see here. So that's just, again, this is a no brainer.
10:04
That's not, you're not going to focus solely on that, but you add that to three or four of these other things and, and make a little cash that way. All right? Number eight, another way to make money right away is to add the site QMEE to your browser. It's QMEE. And if you click on a search result, you'll earn money. That's how you'll have to go and check them out. You can also earn cash for taking their surveys and sharing your opinions on brands. And uh, and then there's a whole bunch of other survey sites, like I said. And then there's this new app called current where you listen to music and they pay you money, but they're saying that they'll offer you up to $600 a year. When I check the site a little earlier today, it looks like they also pay you in points that you can use towards your favorite brands.
10:52
So again, you know, you're not going to get rich off of this, but just something to take a look at. Alright, number 10, let's talk about drop shipping. Have you ever heard of drop shipping? This is a method of retail where the seller doesn't actually have a physical inventory. Instead, when a customer makes an order, you purchase the item from a third party and then they ship it directly to the customer. This means you never have to spend any money on maintaining an inventory and you never have to buy products in bulk. And you can do this also on platforms like eBay or Amazon. And I'm going to put a link to the, uh, in the show notes to a really great article by Shopify. Uh, if you want to explore, drop shipping some more, but I do want to stop here and just and share a little story with you.
11:41
And that is about, I guess it's 19 years ago because my son is 19. So I know this was like the year that my son was born or he was a baby anyway and we were living in Seattle and I, E-bay, I was curious about eBay. So I started, I wanted to see, I looked around my office to see what I could sell and there were these slippers hotel slippers that were still in the plastic, you know, they give you free hotel slippers and they were from the Ritz Carlton and then there was this clock and it was like a lineup clock and I remember I had accidentally purchased two and I got them from target or maybe I bought two cause I was at one time and one of our houses, I was going to have one on my nightstand and one of my husband's but whatever.
12:22
I remember thinking, Oh just get rid of that. Nothing fancy again, target. It was like probably paid 12 or $14 for it. I took pictures, I listed them, I went through the steps and I was completely blown away. Those free hotel slippers from the Ritz Carlton sold for $25 and the clock sold for 80 something dollars. I had paid like 12 or $14 for tart from target. Come to find out. I got really lucky with the clock because it was a West clocks brand and I guess people collect those. Maybe it had been discontinued, I don't know. But it was because of the brand that that sold to this day. I have no idea why somebody would pay $25 for a pair of free hotel slippers. But they did. And so then I was like, wow, this is really amazing. You know, and think about this as 19 years ago.
13:09
And I'm like in my guest bedroom, like breastfeeding my child making money. I was like, Oh my God. So I got really excited. We lived in Seattle, like I said, and they had a great, wonderful Goodwill there. So I went to the Goodwill and I remember thinking, you know, like they had this whole section that was BlueJeans and in that section there were just gobs of vintage Levi's and vintage Levi's are like a thing. Okay. There's a lot of things on eBay and out there on the marketplace that are a thing. Okay. And so I remember thinking, and I never really took it seriously, I never did it as any kind of real revenue stream. It was more of a hobby for me. And, and I remember thinking if I had to, like if my life depended on it, if I had to make the mortgage, I could just focus on these jeans and I could turn this into a business out of this guest bedroom.
13:58
And that's still true today. Same thing goes for like Starbucks mugs, crazy ties, what you know, what to look for. It's very easy to do this. You could ship straight from your home. The mailman picks it up from your front door. So I'm completely fascinated by this. And um, it's something to think about. All right, number 11, you can design t-shirts on a website like cafe press or Teespring. And the secret to this is to keep an eye out for trending topics, catchphrases, stuff that's really hot right now, and then create a tee shirt out of it. And the, these platforms make it super easy. They give you the tools to do this. You don't have to be a designer to do it. And here's a funny example. Our governor and our head of, Oh, what's it called? The health department, I guess the state health department.
14:46
Amy actin. She's a doctor. So they go live every day, two o'clock to give us an update on Corona and the S they really become sort of like, I don't know, at least in the beginning people were just really a namerd with them because they were really transparent and they were, they just did a really good job giving us information and making us feel not so freaked out I guess. And so very quickly dr Acton especially like started it, well both of them, they started just getting really popular and people were tweeting about it and, and then they started saying hashtag DeWine time, cause it's governor DeWine. And then they would, they would put up like a picture of a wineglass hashtag to time. So some smart person caught onto that trend, created t-shirts, didn't have to actually create them. Right? Like, just design them in this app and then started tweeting it out.
15:40
He got picked up by the, by the governor's office and a lot of other places. They decided to donate the proceeds to, to the efforts for coven 19. But, but it was just so smart. It was just, they saw the trend and they did these hashtag DeWine time t-shirts with like a glass of wine. Another example of this and this, this, this is great if you ha if you know how to do Facebook ads, which by the way those people could target anybody who lives in Ohio with these ads and really see great results. Here's another thing you've probably seen in your Facebook feed and that is, I remember seeing something that said like Hawk proud Ohio. I don't know, it was something, it was something, it was something that like [inaudible] is my, is my um, high school mascot and that, and that's from Myrtle beach, South Carolina.
16:30
So it's like, you know, from Seahawk to Buckeye. Let's say that. Okay. Because Buckeye is sort of like the state thing here in Ohio and the Seahawk is my high school mascot and it was in my feed. Well obviously what they did and they, and they, and they do this for lots of people cause it's just so easy to do on Facebook is they can easily target people who went to Myrtle beach high school and who now live in Ohio and they're going to capitalize on that. They're counting on that nostalgia factor, but it looked really, it was very effective. It got my attention. I certainly didn't buy it. It was very corny. But um, it just goes to show you the power of matching something like a Teespring or a cafe press project with a smart Facebook ad. All right, moving on. Number 12 what about tutoring?
17:16
Well, right now parents are pulling their hair out with homeschooling, right? So check out tutors.com and they have a list of all the best online tutoring jobs and you can also apply@tutorme.com but you know, you really could just go over into your local community Facebook group and let them know that you're offering math tutoring or whatever your fancy and you're sure to get a few clients from that. Number 13 teaching and tutoring English as a second language is a great way to make money online. Now having a full ESL English as a second language language accreditation is ideal as long as you're a native speaker and have the ability to teach. There are people in countries like Hong Kong or the United Arab Emirates who are willing to pay up to $25 an hour or more for you to tutor them in English via Skype. And I've listed a bunch of websites where you can get started on the show notes page and let's see, number 14 you can make money by answering questions on just answer.
18:21
So there's people who are looking for expertise online and just answer in several sites like that, allow professionals, like doctors, lawyers and engineers and other people with enhanced knowledge to earn a small income by merely answering questions from people who would otherwise have to pay a hefty sum for those answers. And this platform really is a great resource for people. It's lucrative if you are looking to earn a bit of cash in a hurry. All right? Number 15 if you've never thought of coaching or consulting, now is the time to consider it. So similar to selling your freelance services, you can also start selling your knowledge and advice in an area that you specialize in as a coach or a consultant. If you can build yourself as an expert, there are tons of people out there willing to pay for your time and it's a great way to make money online.
19:17
Your expertise becomes the product that you are selling. And even better, if you could find ways to package your experience and coaching skills into an easily digestible program, you have the potential to significantly scale this business model. Not that we care about scale right now. I'm just saying it's also one of the quickest ways you can get set up and start generating revenue. There are some communities that are already set up to match you with clients like clarity.fm and coach.me. But honestly, you don't even need those sites. So here's the thing. In order to be a coach or a consultant, you really only need to be one step ahead of the client. For example, early on in my business, I started as a consultant. A client called me and wanted to hire me for an hour to teach her how to use Twitter. Now, I was not the world's leading expert on Twitter.
20:08
I am now. I mean, I'm at least one of the experts. I love Twitter, but I knew enough to help her with what she needed. And prior to our, to our meeting, I read two Twitter books and really brushed up on the topic. If you have knowledge that can help somebody, you could charge for it, period. So that's it. Those are my 14 ways to make money, right? This very second. And remember this, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. And taking a temporary pivot to create some much needed extra cash does not mean you are abandoning your dream. You know, things will eventually get back to normal. Do what you have to do to take care of yourself and your family, and just really feel great about how resilient you are and how resourceful you are to even attempt any of these unit unique ideas that we talked about today. And don't forget to visit the show notes at jenlehner.com/048 or text CASHIDEAS to 44222 so you could get all the links and resources that we mentioned. Have a great day and I'll see you next week.
