Earning Income as a Stay-at-Home Parent..(part 2)

           Finally after days of procrastinating and rethinking the subject, here's an update on earning from home; mostly as a parent. Micro business options and ideas were discussed in the first part of this topic. Most of the types of financial sources mentioned there revolved around more physical and actual work. In this post, we'll take a look on the types of work or source of income you can find online.

WORKING AND/OR EARNING ONLINE
           You'll be surprised how many opportunities there are online; if you know where to look, how to ask and how to compromise. Online jobs are the most convenient for any stay-at-home parent. In fact, it's convenient for anyone who would risk the absence of phil.health, sss contributions and medical cards. The only challenge in working at home are the Temptations, also known as Distractions. There's the temptation of procrastinating, sleeping it off, social networking instead and for parents; keeping the tots away from the computer. They are definitely a lot of distractions. But as it has been said before, there's no profitable work that is effortless and within the online world there is no exception.

ONLINE MARKETING/ ADVERTISING
            Online, the most useful and profitable skill you can have or ever make use of is being sociable. It's true, being a "people-person" is a skill; either you were born with it or you develop and enhance it. Either way, in the virtual world it's the skill that could make you filthy rich. Online marketing and advertising is apparent nowadays, especially that many micro and macro businesses are taking advantage of the internet and social media. Most opportunities involving this comes from networking businesses where you will have to invest first before you earn. You can think of it as a micro business where you are buying and reselling products; the difference being is that online you will be advertising more and enticing people to join to earn more (which is how networking helps its members earn more). I found an ideal package with 1BRO, which offers a very affordable investment as opposed to most business investments (which cost thousand and hundred thousands). My friend is earning well from this company and I currently saving up to try and join it too, for any interested viewers, you can find more info about 1BRO here or contact my friend via Facebook.

ONLINE WRITER
             For those who love to write or are confident with their English grammar and ability to comprehend, writing is a great way to earn. That's how I get my income, but the amount of money to earn as an online writer will depend on the amount of time you can give. If you are a parent though (or soon to be), freelancing instead would be more ideal instead of getting a full-time online writing job. If I may recommend, you can find an ideal freelance writing job at ESSAYS.PH. That's where I work :) the good thing about this company is that you control your work time and salary amount. If you want to earn more you will have to use up more of your time, it's true. However, you also have the liberty to cancel an assignment on emergencies, extend them using grace credits (you are given 3 as a starter) and can even join special teams to earn more. Another company offering writing jobs online is WRITERS.PH; they are a little more strict on the content, grammar, deadline, etc. and just generally have higher standards.

BLOGGING
            So here we end up to: blogging. In all honesty, yes there is money in blogging and undeniably it is difficult to achieve that much. If you have the time, the effort, the ideas and the spark in attracting people.. yes, blogging can make you rich enough to pay your bills and spend a day at the spa. Personally, I haven't gotten there but I do believe it's possible; I haven't matched up to the correct formulation yet. Blogging gets you money how? Viewers, readers, audience. People passing by, looking, reading and following you are people that are highly valuable to advertisers. A blog is like a TV series that people get hooked to and the stuff they feature in it or endorse could become popular among the viewers and catch on to others through sharing. Your blog will be the bulletin board in the highway of web surfing. The amount of money you can earn through setting up advertisements depends on the offer of the advertiser, usually you will get paid for each click. Usually, it has to be unique (something that comes from the same country or type of target viewers). For fellow active bloggers with a solid theme or niche, here are some really top sites that can help you gain advertisers and earn through pay per clicks:

Nuffnang - It's a really friendly site and quite easy to understand and move around in. Nuffnang also provides a lot of news and additional income for unique members. They also showcase blog contests where you can actually win a variety of things like Premiere tickets to blockbuster movies or brand new electronics.
GoogleAdsense - It's not very easy to qualify for acquiring Google Adsense banners for your site especially if your blog is new. The payout is significantly higher than most, though which makes it desirable.
BlogsVertise - I only just tried this site, it's basically the same as most sites of its kind. You will need a Paypal account for this, though since the payout is in dollars and not pesos.

There are more similar sites with free registrations and no money investment involved. If you are ever going to enter the world of blogging and hoping to earn for real, you will have to dedicate yourself to it. Here are some of the key aspects that attract advertisers to blogs which you might want to improve:

• Consistency - advertisers need consistent blogs; ones that actually have active posts. It doesn't have to be a daily basis but if advertisers know and are sure that there will be a new post every week they can be sure that there will be constant visitors who will see their ads.
• Quality Content - this is all about originality and non-plagiarism. If there's anything worse than a blog with crappy grammar or irrelevant content, it's copying someone else's work and passing it off as yours. You could get sued, it is possible and you are not exempted regardless of where you live.
• Theme/ Genre/ Niche - this is the core of every blog, the very thing that determines the type of advertisers who will approach your site and convince them to buy a spot. Based on your blog's genre, advertisers can determine whether or not their product or service will be relevant and noticed. It is imperative to have a stable genre or two as long as people know what your  Trade or Topic is.
• Writing Style - this is easy, just be yourself but you have to be consistent about it too. You can be the witty writer, the informative one or simply a happy go lucky blogger who just wants to share.
• Appearance - a crowded, cluttered blog hardly draws in readers. Remember, readers like easy to read posts and blogs so don't overdo it and try to make your pages bright and simply attractive.
• Age - sadly though, the age of a blog matters to advertisers. If it's new or old but not very active it might not be very desirable for them. A blog that has been running for over 6 months with regular posts is most likely to hit it off than a daily updates week-old blog. The chances could improve though once a daily updated blog turns 3 months old or more.

FINANCIAL SERVICES
             By this I mean offering to do someone's accounting, tax preparations, payroll processing and bookkeeping. You will have to be trained or experienced enough with this although a diploma on a relevant course isn't necessary. There won't be much needed in jobs like this since there are specialized software for performing these tasks. If you plan to make a micro business out of this you will have to hire other people to hands some of the tasks, but since we are focused on personally earning as a stay-at-home parent, finding a consultant from time to time will have to suffice. You'll have to make sure about being legal on this type of service especially with accounting issues. You might have to research more on licensure if you are not well aware of some things, but this source of income is only really advisable for those who are experienced and have a high knowledge or education on financial services. Otherwise, try not to experiment on these grounds carelessly.

PRIVATE REWARD CLUBS
            It is much like posting advertisements on your website or blog, except you post links/information on your social site like Facebook and Twitter. This is a great way to earn and works just like cost per unique click. This is how it works, once you register for an account at a reward club online you are set to share their Specials or ads on your Facebook (and any social account). These things you share has links that will send viewers to a page with more info about the product, promo, contest or service. When a person who is in the same country as you clicks on the post you shared (and its the first one of many ads of the special they clicked) you will earn from 50 cents to 2 pesos; depending on the club or site you joined. Nobody will turn millionaire from this kind of income but it does provide fair payouts all depending on your determination and zest to share specials. Here are two of my trusted sites that you will find easy to join and get the hang of:
(they don't cost anything to register, so feel free to try! Nothing to lose people!)

8Share - It's a spinoff from the website 8Says; a media sharing network but since they earned a lot of members because of their rewards feature they made a separate domain. The specials to share are very interesting and attractive so it's not difficult at all to find friends who could be interested in them. It is easy to share and earn through your social accounts especially Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn.
Churp Churp - It's much like 8share but has been present much longer. There's a wide variety of things to share and ways to earn. I haven't gotten the hang of it as easily as 8Share but it is one of the most trusted and recommended sites by my advisers and certain online role models.