With that said, here’s the personal part of the post. I have one son. He just turned two, and he is a handful. I can’t work when he’s around (believe me, I’ve tried!), so I have to do it while he sleeps.

The problem is, my boy gets so wound up during the day that he won’t nap anymore. And even without a nap, he won’t go to bed at least until 8pm, but usually more like 9pm or later. I am absolutely frazzled by the end of the day, not to mention sleepy. Let me tell you now: not much work has been happening for me.

To complicate things further, I have dealt with depression on and off my entire life. Right now, it’s more on than off. And when I’m depressed, I don’t have the energy or desire to do anything, including working, and including blogging. This is problematic, because I’m the main wage earner right now, and also the main caregiver for my son. (And that’s probably part of why I’m depressed – I’m pulled in quite a few directions right now). I need to earn money.

A new friend on twitter mentioned that she gets up at 5am to work (she writes, like I do). Now, I’m not sure that waking at 5am would work for me, but it’s something that got me thinking. I need to go to bed earlier. If I got more sleep, I’d be less depressed. I would also feel more able to get work done after my son goes to bed. This is a good thing. The only question is: why do I stay up too late every night when I’m not accomplishing anything?!

Who knows. But I’m changing things as of right now. I’m going to get more sleep. And once I have a handle on that, I’m going to exercise regularly. And in the meantime, I’m going to post regularly here and on my other niche blogs. Because I want to help others work from home. And because passive income is my ultimate goal.

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It’s going to grow in the next few months, though. I have committed to a summer challenge at The Keyword Academy. I will be publishing over 50,000 words on my niche sites and for link-building over the next three months, and that will  translate to increased earnings over time.

The details:

Adsense:      $17.53
Affiliates:     $11.55
eHow:          $24.30
Suite 101:     $1.11

Total:            $54.49

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Adsense     $5.10

Affiliates      $12.25

eHow           $28.30

Suite 101     $2.04

Total           $47.69

Once again, my adsense earnings aren’t stellar, but to me, it’s great. I just about tripled my adsense earnings from last month, and that’s ok for now.

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If you want to earn money from blogging, you have to be willing to learn all you need to know, search out a profitable niche, and then work very hard. Eventually, the income can become pretty passive, but in the beginning you will be working hard for very little return.

If you need to see instant results, then niche blogging probably isn’t for you. But if you’re willing to put in the time now in order to get amazing results later on, then niche websites may be a good fit for you. If you want to earn good money from home, then you have to be sure you choose a niche that advertisers are spending money on and that people are searching online for.

Some sample ideas for your site include health, pets, dating, and weight loss. These niches are of course too broad for you to use. You should actually hone in on a much tighter niche. For example, you could choose weight loss as your main topic, and a niche topic for your site might be a specific weight loss tool or diet. Once you’ve chosen your niche, you can use the google adwords tool to find keywords that will be easy to rank for in the search engines.

You can either choose a free blogging platform like wordpress.com or blogger.com, or you can get serious and buy Internet hosting and buy your domain. Purchasing hosting is an investment, but your earning potential is higher with your own domain. If you buy a domain, I recommend 1&1 domains, and for hosting, I recommend Hostgator. Hostgator is inexpensive, has great customer service, and for about $9 per month, you can host unlimited blogs.

When choosing your domain, pick something with the keyword in the title. For example, if your blog focuses around the keyword “lose bellyfat now,” then you’ll want your domain to be something like youcanlosebellyfatnow.com. Once you have your domain, you need to add quality content and then drive traffic to your site by submitting articles to article directories with links pointing to your site. You can monetize your site using adsense, Amazon, or you can choose among many other affiliate products and services. The possibilities are endless.

If you’ve chosen a profitable niche and stick with it, you will see your earnings grow each month. For help in choosing a niche and getting a website set up, I highly recommend The Keyword Academy. For $1 for the first month, you can learn all you need to know about choosing keywords and setting up niche websites.

If you prefer “blogging” over the niche website plan and you’re looking to monetize your site with anything other than adsense, then you may want to check out The Niche Blogger. She gives tons of helps and resources for learning how to monetize your blog. I’ve tried both Keyword Academy and The Niche Blogger and I have learned a lot from both.

Niche websites and niche blogging is the best way I have found to earn money online and get a passive income set up. I am excited about the income potential and hope you choose to try it as well. If you want to earn money at home, you should give niche websites a try.

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But here are the stats:

Adsense:             $1.80
Affiliate sales:   $0.34
Suite101:            $1.34
eHow:                 $21.42

Total:                 $24.90

First, I have to say that I was so excited to see my first adsense earnings ! I know they are miniscule, but those first few clicks to your niche sites are so exciting. I totally have Keyword Academy to thank for it, and I look forward to my adsense earnings growing and growing.

I also looked at my dismal earnings at Suite 101 and decided that the time and effort spent writing articles for them just isn’t worth it to me. I’d rather spend the time writing for my own niche sites. So those earnings probably won’t change.

I am hoping for good things in April because I’ve been working very hard at my niche sites. I’ll give you an update on that soon.

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Adsense:    none yet
Suite101:   $1.53
eHow:         $23.17

Total:          $24.70

My eHow earnings will probably not increase much, since I don’t write there anymore. The jury is still out on whether Suite 101 will end up being worth my time. Niche sites with Adsense is my main focus right now, but it may take a few months to see significant earnings. We’ll see…

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Amy Bass is the creator of the Niche Blogger program, which teaches you how to make money blogging. She has opened up a scholarship program for those with a financial need. If you get awarded a scholarship, you get a 3-month membership to her program.

To qualify, you must be a parent with a desire to stay at home with your children, you must have financial need, and you must be willing to work hard. If you meet the criteria and want to learn about niche blogging, I would encourage you to apply for the scholarship.

I just started with Niche Blogger, and it looks interesting so far. I will be updating with my thoughts on the program once I get further into the program. From the looks of it, though, there are many people who make extra money online using her program.

If you apply for the scholarship, I wish you the best!

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My basic understanding is that you would rate different urls in order to provide quality control for google’s search engine. I also hear that they pay around $13 per hour, which isn’t bad for this type of work. You can read their company requirements or see their available jobs for more information.

If you have worked for Leapforce or have further information, do let me know. It looks like a legitimate way to make extra money online, and could be a significant money earner for those who need it. Please research thoroughly before working with this company, because as I said, I don’t work for them myself and can’t vouch for them. I have read of other people vouching for them, however, which is why I’m passing the info on to you.

As a work at home mom, I know that it can be difficult to find legitimate, real ideas for making money online. As I find online job opportunities, I’ll pass them along to you. If you apply to Leapforce, leave me a comment and let me know what your experience is. Good luck!

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How do I make money online if I’m not actually working? Simple. I plan to get most of my income from setting up a passive income stream – also known as residual income. I call it my passive income empire, and I am working hard now at it so that I don’t have to work later.

What is passive income? Basically, it’s money that comes in on a regular basis that you don’t have to put in a bunch of work for. One example is a rental property. You rent your apartment out to somebody, and they pay rent month after month, with very little effort on your part. Awesome!

I plan to do that, only online. How am I accomplishing that? Right now, my main plan is to create niche sites, otherwise known as niche blogging, which I learned how to do through Keyword Academy. Hands down they are the most awesome internet marketing tool I have ever found. I have learned more there than anywhere else. You can even check out their services for  for just $1. I tried it in October and I’m hooked! I’ll update on my progress periodically.

For a while I was writing for eHow (Not linking to them because I don’t recommend them anymore, but you can google). Basically, you write articles there, and they earn adsense money. eHow gives you part of the revenue the article earns, so each month I get a small check for them, even though the last article I wrote for them was almost a year ago. I’ve heard bad things about them lately, though, so I haven’t written there in a while.

I’m also currently writing for Suite101, which is decent so far. I’m learning the ropes there, though, so my earnings are lower than I’d like them to be. I’m also considering writing hubpages. I’ve heard good things about them, but I haven’t given it a try. Infobarrel is another one that may have potential. I’m going to give them a shot one of these days. And as always, I’ll let you know what I find out there.

In my sidebar I’ve got my first target income goal and my monthly progress. I know it doesn’t look like much, but I expect my earnings to start climbing as the months go on. Come back often to check out the stats!

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There are MANY ways to find jobs, and where you look depends on what kind of jobs you want and where you are in your career. I’m going to do a series of posts on getting freelance writing jobs. Today let’s focus on some of the content companies you can write for.

Benefits of Writing for Content Companies

Content companies usually have a ton of available work, so you can write all you want. Plus, because these companies hire a lot of writers, they don’t usually expect you to write a certain amount per day or per week. You’re free to work from home, choose your hours, and the amount of writing you do.

The Drawbacks of Content Companies

There are drawbacks, of course. The pay is usually much lower than if you were to write for a private client. Notoriously low. And some content companies are known for their crabby editors or other ridiculous rules to follow. Content companies are not for everyone. But they can be a great way to get your foot in the door and start your freelance writing career. And if you write fast, it can be pretty decent pay.

Content Companies to Check Out

Demand Studios

Those who write for Demand Studios (DS) have multiple article topics and types to choose from. Article length is generally around 300-400 words, and the pay goes from $7.50 – $20 per article. Most articles pay about $15 a piece. The work there is fairly easy once you get the hang of their style guides, and they pay by PayPal twice a week (which is nice!). A word of caution with DS – this is one of the companies with interesting editors, so working there can be frustrating at times.

That said, if you like to write “how to” type articles and can write fast, DS is an easy way to earn cash. I know writers who earn the bulk of their income from DS – earning $2,000 – $3,000 a month. It is possible to make a living doing this. I used to write for DS occasionally, but the strict style guides just don’t work for me, so I stopped writing for them.

Tips for getting hired with Demand Studios. Be sure you let them know in your application any web writing experience you may have. If you’ve written a good “how to” article at eHow.com (or elsewhere), use that as a writing sample. They want to know that you can get their writing style and have a little web experience. If you don’t, sign up for eHow.com right now and write a couple of articles there (make sure they’re well-written) and use them as samples. If DS rejects you at first, prepare a couple more articles and apply with a different email address.

Textbroker

The pay at Textbroker is more dismal than some, but they are less picky about who they hire, so if you’re just getting started and need some experience before trying out other, more lucrative gigs, you may want to give Textbroker a try. Writers who apply here must write a sample, which is then judged by the editors and given a rating. Your rating determines your rate of pay, though each writing job your complete there can help your rating go up (or down.) Textbroker pays on the 10th and the 25th of every month, though your account must have at least $10 and you must request a pay-out.

A rating of “2″ will get you 0.7 cents per word (not 7 cents per word, 0.7. See what I mean about dismal?), and a “5″ rating garners 25 cents per word, though most articles aren’t in that price range. Most of the articles there go for about 1 cent per word. Not a way to get rich, but it can be a starting point. Plus, you can work with clients for “Direct Order” and can ask for a better per word rate once you’re established. There is almost always plenty of work there, and some people report great success there.

How to get hired with Textbroker. All you have to do with Textbroker is go to their author registration page and sign up. After you activate the account, sign in and complete a short writing sample assignment. They rate that sample and then let you know where you stand.

eCopywriters

I’ve noticed that eCopywriters works a lot like Textbroker. The pay is a little better, but it doesn’t seem to have as many available assignments. Pay for articles starts at 2 cents per word. It goes up the better your rating gets, but I don’t know for sure how high the pay goes. They pay on the 1st and the 15th, but some people have reported a more haphazard pay cycle.

I have not personally written for eCopywriters, but it seems to be an ok company that actually does pay its writers. They hardly ever seem to have any open jobs available, but it still may be worth getting hired on with them, in case another company doesn’t work out.

How to get hired with eCopywriters. Getting hired here is about the same as with Textbroker. You sign up on their registration page. Then after activating your account, sign in and complete a writing assignment. If a week goes by and you don’t hear back from them, go ahead and send an email to them. They are sometimes slow with getting back to their new writers.

Bright Hub

I signed up with Bright Hub but never worked for them, so my knowledge is limited. They pay $10 per article (300-750 words), and article topics are technology oriented. The pay isn’t a lot, but they also do revenue sharing, which means if your article is popular, it will earn you more money. You are also paid for backlinks. They pay once a month, once you reach the minimum payout of $20.

How to get hired with Bright Hub. Fill out the writer registration page. They ask for your writing experience and credentials as well as an optional (but recommended) writing sample.

wiseGeek

I’m not as familiar with wiseGeek, so I’m going to share a little info I found on a fellow writer’s site, The Freelance Homewriter. She is another good resource for finding jobs. Anyway, she says that the articles pay $10 each, and she mentioned that the editors are very helpful and nice, which is always a plus!

How to get hired with wiseGeek. From the FAQ page on their site: From time to time, wiseGEEK seeks out additional freelance writers to regularly contribute to wiseGEEK. If you’re interested, you can send some writing samples (in the body of your email, not as an attachment) to catherine [at] wisegeek -dot- com. Writing samples don’t have to be similar in format and style as wiseGEEK articles, although they are preferred. If the samples are something we’re looking for we’ll get back to you with more details about the job and let you know your next steps.

LoveToKnow

I don’t have any personal experience with LoveToKnow, but I know that it’s a legit site. Here’s what they say on their website:

“Talented, experienced writers with a strong expertise and interest in any of our channel topics may apply to write for LoveToKnow. Pay for approved writers starts at $20 per 650-word article, with a minimum of 20 articles required each month, pending acceptance.

Writer requirements:

Extensive experience with the chosen topics

At least one year of professional writing experience; editing experience a plus

Minimum of six months writing Internet content, including work with a web-based content management system

Access to computer, stable high-speed Internet, telephone service and Yahoo! Instant Messenger”

For me, the minimum 20 articles per month would be too much of a commitment. But others might be happy with that. It looks like payment starts at 3 cents per word, which isn’t bad at all.

How to get hired with LoveToKnow. Looks like you need to fill out their application page, which includes a resume, two writing samples and other information about you.

There are many more companies I could write about, and I definitely will if there’s interest. I love to help people find ideas to make money and find a way to make money online from home. Please feel free to leave a comment or drop a line if you have any questions or if there’s something you need help with.

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