6 Different Ways to Make a Dollar

6 Different Ways to Make a Dollar

There are tons and tons of articles that “inspire” persons to find ways to make a living. The real deal is that if you look at some of the top searches out there – making money or sales will rank high in there. Apart from the many copy and paste forms of articles, sometimes all it takes to make a dollar is to think creatively, and do some solid research, and common sense.

Let us take a look at some of the ways to make a dollar:

1. Affiliate Method – This is an easy one. Simply put, it means that you tell your audience about a product that you are selling on behalf of a merchant. Based on the relationship with your merchant, you make some commission on sales. In order to make a dollar here, you simply push to your own audience and market the product. There is nothing saying that it just has to be one merchant, in fact if you are creative enough you can create your own store selling four or five products from various merchants, for your affiliate sales. It may be wise that they are non-compete products. Therefore you can sit in the comfort of your kitchen and retail yoga mats right through to watches and rings. Be sure to read the affiliate partner agreement properly.

2. Create A Product – something unique or at least improve on a product!  As easy as this may sound, you may have to think through this one just a little bit more. It is like this; if you have thought of a new product or service, also consider that someone half way around the globe has also thought about the same thing. What makes your creation different? Several things – Firstly: You are the one who created it…that is unique already; secondly – the person who may have also thought about the same product or solution – may do just that. Only think about it. Your effort should be focused on moving from the concept stage to the design stage to production to sales.  If you are creating something and it solves a problem – even better.

Your numbers will show you that of the 2 billion persons browsing the Internet – an estimated 1% may be looking for that solution or product which you have created. A quick calculation would be let us say 20 million persons looking for what you have created, of those looking then you estimate that not everyone will find or hear of you and your product, plus not everyone may not like the color or size which you have created in your product. A further calculation would be – 0.05% of the 20 million persons who may be interested which would give you a market of 10,000 persons who are likely to purchase and be early adopters.

3. Write – Your Own Blog. Many persons have heard this touted before as a way to make another dollar. Usually here’s what happens with majority of persons:

• Gets excited – I’m going to start a blog
• Thinks through a topic – research likely topical subjects
• Tells friends and family and social media about their project
• Creates and Starts to write the content
• Weeks or Months later – gets tired – loses momentum and excitement
• Slows down the reading and research for topics
• More months later – I “used” to have a blog

The minute you create a blog – you have to think like how a magazine or media outlet thinks in terms of business strategy. Content – content – content… There are several ways to say the same thing and you just have to think through your way of saying it, and making it relevant. Great – so now there is content, how do we make a dollar… Some of you reading this already have an answer, and many times there may be no right or wrong answer. However – there are still many brick and mortar shops out there that do not have the vibrant online presence, simply negotiate a space for your readers to see an ad by the brick and mortar shop. It doesn’t have to be expensive…but if you take a dollar from five shop owners you now have five dollars, whether weekly, monthly or quarterly. Heck, you can even do an article “sponsored” by the shop – that’s another dollar right there. Your blog is your own branded magazine.

4. Consult. There are a whole lot of individuals and companies looking for consultants in various expert areas. As in the Caribbean – you are likely to hear a parent say “…I didn’t send yuh to school fuh nuttin…” and what that means is that now that you’ve learnt something – put it to good use. Therefore you have been educated in some field, and you may now be the expert in that area. It is because you are the expert that you can consult via virtual meeting rooms across the globe with companies and help them either save money, or make money – possibly by implementing efficient processes, or strategic direction. This now means that you have provided expert advice to someone(s) for a dollar. Think through this – In what field is your expertise?

5. Connect People – As a continuation of consulting, you can help connect persons for a fee. This in the old market spaces would be known as being the middle-man. Here’s how it works for those who may be unfamiliar. You have a cadre of persons who are expert designers, performers or writers who do not know how to market their services and reach a larger audience. You however, know how to reach the audiences and the 6. wider world. Here’s the formula:

[Experts] + [YOU] = [Reach Global Audiences]

In this case, you can create a “booking fee” for the Global audience to reach the experts. You’ve just made another dollar. There are many struggling experts who do not know the above formula, but you do… Remember contracts and agreements are going to be important. You can take a leaf from those who do artist management.

6. Hustle & Do ALL of the Above. This one may seem a bit tough or like a whole lot of work, and it just may be for some persons, while it may be a bit easier for others. In order to get started on this one, it simply means that you make a dollar from each of the things which you have recommended, but you do not have to do it personally. In this technological space, you can contract out the processes to persons in each sector. Think of this as running a large company with several departments…therefore there is a department for Connecting People, and a department for Affiliate Sales, and a head or contractor for those departments. The secret is to commence with one, then add another and add another until you have reached your perceived optimum. In effect – this means that you would have grown your own “corporation” over time, and may even make more than a dollar in some areas. The benefit of this is that should one area under-perform due to seasonality the others may be able to compensate for the reduced revenue.

Just take a look at a spider; there are several legs on a spider connected to that one central body. If a spider broke its leg – will it still be able to walk? YES, It will walk until the leg heals, then it can function properly again on all of its legs.

What it may really take then is for many of us to get off of our butts and chart our path to making a dollar. Sometimes if it is too easy, then many of us would not appreciate the efforts it will take to actually make that dollar. Let us get out there virtually or otherwise and make a dollar…

Contributing Author: John Carlos
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