Ideas to Sell your Services

Another way to develop an extra income is to sell services you already do for a hobby. Mine was photography and I have been fairly successful in earning side income so far by shooting events and profile photos for company websites.

Here are some general ideas for adding a little extra income to your life.

Photography

I can speak from experience photography is very competitive. Everyone and their dog considers themselves a photographer and so it becomes difficult not just competing with people, but making clients understand why they should pay you when they own a 16mp camera on their phone or just bought a Nikon D800E just to take photos of their cat. But if you can show a restaurant how you can make their food look amazing for their website, or the lighting you can develop for someone’s head shot for the company profile page, you can do well. Business like to talk and it can be interesting to see how fast your reputation can snowball around to other places if you do good work.

Website design and coding

Webdesign and coding is probably as competitive as photography but I have done a few websites for local companies. If you do your research and market yourself right, you can earn a good second or even primary income. Every time you go to a local business check out their website before hand, if you are buying from them mention that you noticed their website. I have obtained a few contracts just by mentioning that I had looked on their site. Sometimes the client will start to engage about how badly their current site needs updating and you will be right there to mention that just by chance, you know how to code or design.

Doing online surveys

Yes you can earn a little extra money doing this. I have only ever done surveys for Angus Reid. It was a pretty decent, giving you about $.50 to $2 per survey. Some of the surveys were actually kind of interesting. It takes a while to hit the $50 payout level so it is not going to put the kids through college, but you do get entered into lots of prize draws you could potentially benefit from. Keep in mind the more surveys you do the more they will send you so I highly recommend creating a separate email account so you will not be overwhelmed with emails in your personal account. I have not done a lot of the surveys with other companies and here is where you need to be careful. There are many scams out there so you need to do investigative work before signing on to them.  Another consideration is some of these sites require personal information, if you are not comfortable with that, steer clear. But if you have investigated the survey company, have patience and a laptop beside your chair while you relax in the evening online surveys may be for you.

Freelance writing

There are several websites that offer money to freelance writers. I am not very familiar with them but will add links when I investigate further. I do know some people make a nice second income helping write or copy-write for clients.