Can't Afford To Get Healthy, No Money!

TheMagicOneMikeD
TheMagicOneMikeD Posts: 94 Member
edited November 28 in Motivation and Support
I've noticed a lot of folks talk about how they can't afford this or that. I've been there and it's a hard road. People ask for advice on how to stretch what little they have just a bit further. Many of you offer up plenty of good sound advice based on experience and/or research and that's great. One of the awesome things about being human is our capacity to improve the situation of those around us.

I'm asking for advice from those same ppl who are always willing to be of help others in this community. I don't want to know how to stretch what you have any further, that has been done to death. Don't get me wrong, I hope that kind of guidance is always available when it's needed, however...

You can only buy so many things with a buck. At some point the ability of that dollar to purchase the necessities is exhausted. Most of the time people just shut down until the next paycheck comes in, because what choice do they have? They're stuck and don't know how to get around it.

I'm asking for people to help them get around it. There are SOOOO many ways to get money legally, but we only know what we have been exposed to. I'm asking for people who have overcome this hurdle to share advice on how to increase one's financial resources so that they don't get caught in the trap of being broke. It doesn't have to be million dollar advice, maybe it just brings in an extra $50 a week but that could make all the difference to those facing hard times.

Some think there is only so much money to go around and it has to be split among an ever growing pool of people. That's not true. You don't have to take a smaller slice of the pie, bake some new pies! New industries and services and products and companies that didn't exist 5 years ago are becoming multi billion dollar assets to economies around the world.

Don't get locked in the mindset that there's only the one bus and you missed it. You don't have to be a multi billion dollar company to add maybe 2 or 3 zero's to your monthly income. The point is there is almost always some way for you to have more pie for yourself.

What are some ways that people could earn extra money, without having to invest money? It has to be legal, and for the business people out there, like myself, please don't try and sell anything to anyone. Just advice within the TOS of this site on how to break out of this sick cycle so many experience of being forced to hold your breath till the next check rolls in...

Replies

  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
    The whole e-publishing thing has made any kind of book writing much more profitable than it used to be, so writing is an amazing option for anyone with the talent for it. And I think with youtube and some blog sites there is the potential for income due to advertising space on your page/site, right?

    Waiting tables is a good way for easy cash. Or bathroom attendant. Anything where you are getting tips not only is quick money, but also a good way to stretch money because tax reporting is honor system so you can evade that and keep more of what you earn, if you choose.

    Handyman or cleaning or gardening/lawn care - if you have these skills. You can have the homeowner provide materials if you price appropriately so no startup costs and if you live in an area where there are older people, or disabled people you don't need super specific skills to be useful to your community and earn a few extra dollars. If you have a truck and can haul trash away this can be super handy for people who don't have access to public trash pickup or who need items removed that the trash service won't take.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    it may only be pennies, but IF you have access to a stable internet connection, then Amazon Mturk is interesting - companies list jobs, most only take a couple minutes to maybe find a couple links; or identify numbers in race photos - i've made some pretty decent money on and off

    there are also apps (if you have a phone) where you can do audits in stores of certain products - they net $3-$10 a trip - the most pay, the longer they take
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    edited August 2018
    Look for a side job, walk dogs, babysit, deliver pizza's etc. Uber. instacart shopper. Mow lawns. Wait tables.

    Go around your house and sell everything you don't need (that's worth anything) unused furniture, high end clothes, purses, coats etc, baby items. Tools. Decor. Just walk through your house and look at everything. Have a garage sale.

    Sell plasma.

    This isn't short-term but start a small business/side hustle. Lots of different options but it would probably best to do something related to what you're already good at/interested in. Are you crafty? Can you sell stuff on etsy? Start a bookkeeping business?

  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    Look for a side job, walk dogs, babysit, deliver pizza's etc. Uber. instacart shopper. Mow lawns. Wait tables.

    Go around your house and sell everything you don't need (that's worth anything) unused furniture, high end clothes, purses, coats etc, baby items. Have a garage sale.

    Sell plasma.

    This isn't short-term but start a small business/side hustle. Lots of different options but it would probably best to do something related to what you're already good at/interested in. Are you crafty? Can you sell stuff on etsy? Start a bookkeeping business?

    i'll admit i've made some pretty decent money with lyft/uber - especially if you live in a population dense area (i'm not far from DC - so i can easily make $2-300 over a weekend if i'm willing to drive at like midnight)
  • TheMagicOneMikeD
    TheMagicOneMikeD Posts: 94 Member
    edited August 2018
    OK I had to run and do a few things, but here is my contribution to this topic...

    For folks who are having this problem I would suggest something like internet marketing/advertising. You get paid at least 1k a month per client per platform and depending on your accounts should be able to comfortably handle between 5 and 10 people a month by yourself within 6 months and as soon as you are a bit seasoned you could handle as many as maybe 20 per month by yourself. Right now I have 8 averaging 1250 a piece/month.

    Learn to cold call, learn FB Advertising, Google Adwords, Twitter and Copywriting and that time you spend learning it will be the best thing you ever did for yourself. You don't have to get a fancy college degree to do this and you don't really have to spend forever picking it up.

    You're in the information age, you have all of this great stuff at your fingertips. You can use it to improve your standard of living. And there are plenty of other options besides what I'm doing, but this is the one is pretty much $0 to get up and running and it's just what worked for me. You can pretty much get a free YouTube education in what you need to know. You can also buy used books on Amazon or other places. That's what I did. After that it becomes a thing of experience.

    The biggest hurdle people face is getting out of their comfort zone and getting over the fear. And there WILL be fear, but it is not a reasonable fear. Like with cold calling, you fear the rejection that may come with a lot of negative words flying at you. With a lot of the people you try calling you will either never reach or you will catch some level of flack or they won't be interested. That is most people. But it's worth sifting through maybe hundreds to get one customer.

    I was in this broke situation before I started doing this and my life has changed like night and day. If I can do it anyone can, you just gotta have the drive, you'll need it. Not the easiest thing in the world, but worth every minute and every frustration that comes along.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    These are small things but might add a little over time from activities you might already be doing.
    Swagbucks- if you use their search engine or take surveys you get points and can get gift cards and things.
    National Consumer Panel- you scan what you buy, get points, get rewards. They send you a scanner or there is an app.
    Some stores have rewards or fuel saver cards. The grocery store I shop at it was free to get a card and things are added automatically as you make purchases.
  • emhorn625
    emhorn625 Posts: 35 Member
    Sell stuff on ebay, utilize a foodbank
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    I would personally write a diet book :naughty:

    About Woo-laid.
  • TheMagicOneMikeD
    TheMagicOneMikeD Posts: 94 Member
    Here's another idea for you. It's not exactly free to do, but it's cheap. (I'm not making any $ or selling anything nor am I selling anything for anyone else!) Here's what you do:

    1- If you don't have a FB page start one and add a lot of people. Maybe a couple thousand or so, add ppl who have a
    good sized friend list, at least a couple hundred. Also start a fan page (But wait a second, read on)

    2 - start a website. This isn't complicated and you can get em started for dirt cheap. You can get a hosting package
    from some web hosting company. Get a free WP plugin so you won't have to worry about coding the site.

    3 - Get a Google Adsense account and maybe an amazon affiliate account.

    4 - write some content that you know is popular with people. It doesn't have to be lot, you can write short 500 word
    blog posts. It would be better to write maybe a how to or tell about something where you would need a specific
    type of product. Within that post you would include two things... 1 you want adsense on all your pages but you
    also want amazon links to whatever the product is needed or recommended to achieve whatever you were
    guiding your audience on. Whatever you write you want people to really want whatever it is your affiliate link is
    for.

    5 - Buy a few gift cards from somewhere. Between 3 and 5 would probably be good and have them valued at
    anywhere from maybe 20 to 50. In order for people to win them, all they have to do is share a post and tag 1 or
    2 friends who would be interested. The post you will share that you will have your friends share will be from
    that fan page you create. (Make sure not to use any copyrighted or trademarked material, logo's etc.) Also tell
    em it's for the first x number of people that respond. Like the first 2000 people that share will be eligible.

    6 - After they share and tag ppl tell them they have to go check out your site. But not right up front. After the post
    has been shared/tagged by like 3000 or more people add the link to your original post that is to be shared and
    tell em they have to click on it after they share/tag. Obviously you don't want to tell em to check your link out
    before you reach the number and add the link.

    7 - When people go to the site they will have both adsense and amazon links on the page. When anyone clicks on
    the links and makes a purchase you will get a commission. By doing the FB thing you are essentially getting a
    lot of free(ish) traffic to your site.

    I would plan out what the site will be about, what specific demographics you want to target for the offer. Maybe you make a website about makeup tips or whatever and in that case you would want to add a whole lot of females from FB that are clearly wearing makeup in their pics. That way you know they'd be interested because it's something they use. Maybe you make a post about how to get longer lashes or whatever that target audience would want and then include a link to amazon for that product, like some powder or cream or whatever ladies use.

    To avoid legal issues you MUST have a disclaimer on EVERY page that has an amazon affiliate link telling the people that it is an affiliate link and you will make a small commission for sending them there, but they will not be charged a penny more, so they don't have to worry. It doesn't have to be a huge disclaimer, it just has to be easily visible on EVERY page with the affiliate links. This is the same no matter what company you are an affiliate for, it's a legal requirement.

    I believe as long as your Amazon affiliate link is linked to that person who clicked on it via a browser cookie anything you can make a commission on with Amazon you will get a commission for as long as it is purchased within like 24 hours or so. Also your affiliate link has to be the last one they clicked before going. Like if they go to your page but then go to another site and click an affiliate link after yours then that person will get the commissions.

    You'll have to look to be sure what the exact rules are for Amazon. You want to do everything on the up and up and be very transparent about what is going on. If they click on an adsense banner and buy you make money with that too. These are some advanced techniques, but they work and they're legal (provided you include the disclaimer I told you about for the amazon links on EVERY page that has one).

    You can do this more than once and if you decide on this I would advise that you do. And there is one more way that you can make money on these FB fan pages you create.. Once you have enough fans you can actually transfer ownership of the fan page to someone else for a nice little chunk of change.

    Make sure you read all of the rules for each of the companies or websites you are making use of, like FB, amazon, adsense, etc. That's a modified version of something I learned from someone else who is good at what they do. In the spirit of this topic I'm giving this info for free because I really want to help some ppl here, but believe me I could sell this info in a course and slap a price tag with at least 2 zero's on it. You will be VERY hard-pressed to find this level of info for free anywhere.

    This can be modified to meet any new TOS the sites/companies might have. This is something I will be starting myself, because honestly it is quite brilliant and even more so with the modifications I have made to it. If any other internet marketers see this and notice any holes in this or anything I left out, please feel free to comment and point it out. I want this to be as effective as possible for ppl.
  • TheMagicOneMikeD
    TheMagicOneMikeD Posts: 94 Member
    One more thing related to step 2... make sure you check the license for the free WordPress plugin to see whether or not you are allowed to use it for commercial purposes. A lot of the free ones don't allow that and make you pay if your site is going to make money. Others still only charge if you are charging your audience for viewing the content on your site.
  • RetiredAndLovingIt
    RetiredAndLovingIt Posts: 1,395 Member
    Set up a budget. See where you can cut back a little. If you have credit card debt, put anything extra toward it. The interest you save can sometimes amount to quite a bit!
This discussion has been closed.