My Journey From Employee To Entrepreneur: Part 2
How I Earned My First $100 Online.
Earning money online can be a simple or as difficult as you make it. For years, I have pondered if it were possible but never really sat down and tried anything until July 4, 2008. It was Independence Day and I was visiting my brother for the holiday celebration. My husband and I just go back in town after the birthing of our son earlier that year, and I decided to wait in the house till the rest of the family arrived. That’s when I saw it. A desktop commuter with internet access, just sitting in the back room all lonely.
Did I mention I have always had a thing for computers? Well anyway, I asked my brother if I could get on the computer and play around on the internet. When he said yes, my eyes lit up like the stem on fireworks. I rushed to sit in the chair and immediately clicked on the internet explorer icon. The first thing I typed in the search bar was “ways to make money from home”. When I saw the flood of search results, I became filled with excitement. I began thinking to myself that I could try 10 things at once and get rich without people knowing it. Yeah right. If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.
I took notes on every piece of paper I could find. My heart was racing at the fact that I could possibly earn the kind of income that I wanted and needed. I kept clicking on pages and pages of search results, not knowing that I had been sitting gin front of this computer tucked away from the word for hours. It was when my brother came looking for me that he found me still sitting in front of his computer. His reaction was priceless. The first thing he asked was “What the..You been in here the whole time? What are you doing?” I laughed and said trying to find something productive. I didn’t want him to know what I was doing because I didn’t want to go home and he take the idea and start earning money from home before me. Yes, I know, silly thinking.
He told me to get off and go outside to spend the holiday with the family. I was so angry that I stormed past him and went straight to the bathroom. I stood in the mirror for about five minutes looking at myself and thinking how close I could have gotten to earn money from home if he never would have interrupted me. I reached into my pocket a pulled out all the pieces of notebook paper that I had quickly written some ideas on and smiled. “I’ll show him who’s boss. His mouth will drop when he finds out I’m earning money from home. Then he will be wishing he could have done the research just like me. He will come to me begging to teach him what I know.” Those were the thoughts that were flowing through my head.
I placed the wrinkled ink soaked pages back in my pocket and headed out the back door to the rest of the family. They all looked at me like I was a stranger. They all asked me where I was and before I could utter a single reply, my brother said with great sarcasm “in there on the computer, all day. She asked me earlier and I haven’t see her since. Had to drag her out here just to shoot off some fireworks.” Everyone laughed at me. But little did they know, I was on to something. May of the greatest things ever achieved began with research. After being a target for firework pranks, I told everyone I was going in the house for a restroom break.
After coming out of the restroom, I took a step towards the back door and instantly thought to myself “huh, I don’t even want to be out there with all of them. They drain my energy. I could be more productive with my time if I was spending it on the computer. I’ll just be in there for a few minutes and get off before they even notice I’m gone. It’s not like they care if I’m anyway. And besides, they can find someone else to shoot fireworks at.” I silently sprinted towards the computer room. I went in and closed the door behind me. I didn’t turn on the light because I didn’t want anyone to know that I was in there. I giggled at the thought of hiding from my family just to be on the internet.
Hours passed and here comes by brother again. I jumped up and slid in the living room floor as if I was sleeping. My brother squatted down next to me and shook me gently saying “hey, you sleep? You ok? We’re about to eat so if you’re hungry, you better come on.” I told him I’ll eat a little and then I’m going to come back in and chill for the rest of the night. He said ok and went back outside. Whew, that was close. I went outside and began preparing my plate. As I sat on the hood of the car, I could see my family members chatting and laughing about all the damage they caused with the fireworks to the soda cans. All I could think about what getting back on that computer and surfing the internet.
It began to get later and later. It was after midnight when everyone was beginning to leave the holiday celebration. I was still sitting on the hood of my car pondering. My brother came to me as said that my son, my husband and I could spend the night if we wanted to. Without hesitation, I replied with an ok. This was my chance to get as much information as I could while he was sleeping. And that’s what I did. I waited till everyone went to sleep to avoid interruptions when I got back on the computer. It was 5 am in the morning when my brother came and caught me on the computer. The first thing he said to me was, “No. Get off! Turn it off and don’t get back on there again.” I got off without argument and laid down on the couch. My brother went back to bed.
I laid there thinking about the research I had done. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why my brother didn’t want me on the computer. Why was he so furious? It dint matter. I had a paper full of results to try. Now all I needed was access to computer. I began thinking of ways to get to a computer. The Library! Yeah that’s it. I can go to the library every day. It’s productive and close to where I live. So that’s what I did, visited the library every day. I only had access to the internet 30 minutes a day because other people had the right to use it. 30 minutes a day didn’t satisfy my hunger for knowledge. I had to find a way to get my own computer and internet. That required money.
When my husband took me window shopping, I began going straight to the electronic section of every store I went to. Seeing the computers sitting there on the shelves got my heart beating crazy fast. Touching the keyboards and imagining myself using it to do more research filled my heart with job. I had to have one. It was when I looked at the price tag that I got discouraged. $800 and up. I don’t have that kind of money. Where will I get that kind of money? I knew then, that I needed to get a traditional job to buy the computer I needed to work from home. I went to the library and started applying for jobs.
My husband told me to apply at the place he was working at. I did and I got the job a few weeks later. My goal was to earn as much as I can as quickly as I can to get me a brand new computer. Since we were living with my in-laws, I couldn’t get a desktop because I had nowhere to put it. A laptop would have been the best option. I could take it everywhere I went and do research anywhere. I saw a late night shopping show that featured what they called a netbook. It was a really small laptop. I thought it was the cutest thing I had ever see. I began to think about how convenient it would be to carry around a smaller laptop rather than a huge heavy one. I’m 4 foot 10 inches tall. A full sized laptop would be carrying me. I looked at the price and it was $300. It came in 3 colors and It can be stored anywhere a regular sized note book can.
I wanted the blue one. I made up my mind that I was going to take my first paycheck and get that computer. I was bringing home a little over $600 bi-weekly so the price of this laptop was just right. After I got off work, I told my husband to take me to the store to get the laptop. It was late because I was working the night shift and stores were closed. I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I told my husband to go to Sam’s club. We pulled in the parking lot and they were still open. I hopped out, went in and asked where their computers were. They pointed me in the right direction and said they only have two colors, pink (yuk) and white. I was sad about it not being blue but I was not leaving without that laptop.
So I took the white one and went to the counter to pay for it. The cashier said that I had to by a membership before I could purchase anything. What? What they hell. I thought to myself. “Are you serious?” I asked the cashier. “Yes” she replied. I paid for the membership and got my computer. I went to the car and couldn’t believe my eyes. I had my very own computer. The first place I went was to my brother’s house. I sat down in his living room and opened the box. He was in the bed room and when he came out, he was curios. “What’s that?” he asked. “Oh this? This is my new computer. It does everything that a desktop computer can do at a fraction of the cost and can fit anywhere a notebook can!” His eyes lit up. He looked at me and said “well you said you were going to get you one and you really did. That’s cool.” I felt so liberated, I couldn’t top smiling the whole night.
I had to buy internet of course because there was no Wi-Fi internet where we were living. Years passed and I researched everything I could on ways to earn money online and from home. My biggest issue was becoming overwhelmed from all the articles on the topic. I suffered from information overload. There were times where I had become frustrated because there were so many ways to earn money online, that I couldn’t tell the difference between true methods and scams. This thought set me back and I begin to spend less time searching for ways to earn money and more time searching for an actual job. Bills had to be paid right?
More time passed. I was working in a call center when I realized that all I could think about was how could start earning money online. Employment issues began to rise. It became harder and harder for me to find and keep a job. I became irritated with the process of getting a job. But it was when my mother passed away that I began to think more about my life and how I wanted to live it. I reminded myself that time was precious. I didn’t want just any job. I wanted to do work that was fun, fulfilling and financially rewarding.
I told myself that in order for me to recognize the real ways of earning money online from the scams, I had to try them out. Then I could share my experience with others, making the process easier. I knew that in order for me to do this, I needed an updated computer. So in 2014, I bought my very first Dell Inspiron 2330 All In One Desktop Computer. How did I do it? I used my income tax return. See, I knew that if I was going to be serious about this journey to financial freedom, I needed serious tools to make it happen. I already had an HP all in one printer that my brother gave me so I was set and ready.
I was curious if it was really possible to earn money online. So I set myself a goal. I challenged myself to earn $30 in 30 days, online. You are not going to believe what happened next. I chose 3 sites and worked on them every day for 30 days. On the 28th day, I had earned $100 online. Now I had to prove it really was my money. So I cashed out and waited for the money to show up in my PayPal account and for the check to come in the mail. When I saw the check in the mail and the money in my PayPal account, I got weak in the knees. I couldn’t believe it worked.
I was surprised and excited all at the same time. When my husband came home from work, I could wait to tell him. The first thing I said to him when he walked through the front door was “I need to go to Walmart.” He looked at me and asked why. His face changed when I had shown him the check with my name on it. He couldn’t believe it. Then I showed him my PayPal account. He had to sit down. He could believe I did it. He couldn’t believe it was really possible to earn money online. So I am proud to say, it was in 2014 that I earned my first $100 online taking surveys, reviewing music and answering questions. Now I am excited to share the sites with you. Feel free to use these sites. Just click on the main image or links.
Online Income Stream #1:
Have you earned money online answering questions? Well if not, I have a website that comes with an android app where you can get paid to answer questions. The website/ android app I am referring to is called 1Q.com (referral link) . I really like this site because IT PAYS!!! What happens is, you click here to go to the site and sign up or you can sign up on your smartphone when you download the app, it’s free. They require you to sign up using your PayPal email so that you can receive your earnings.
When you sign up, you can choose to receive 25 cents per question or 50 cents per question. 1Q suggest you choose to earn 25 cents per question because in increases you chances of getting more questions to answer. Once you complete your profile, you can now enable the location services on your phone, for demographic purposes. When they have a question to ask that fits your profile, you will get a notification on your phone. They even do text messages. I have not tried it via text messages but I have received the notifications.
I will say that the moment you receive a question to answer, answer it as soon as you can so that you can receive payment. If you don’t, the question will expire and you won’t be able to answer it. This also means that you won’t get paid for it. Just keep that in mind. Another thing that I like about this app is there are no minimum payout limits. This means you don’t have to reach a certain amount before you can cash out and receive the payment. No sir. The payment is fast. The moment you answer the question, you will see a notification and email that your payment has been processed.
One other good thing that I just found out was that they offer a referral bonus where they pay you for getting people to sign up to answer questions. I earned $30 with just referrals alone. I have noticed that the amount of questions I receive is 2 per month. But it may be different with others. There is a possibility that it may change. There have been updates like the beta stage, the extra credit and more. Here is a screen shot of my earnings:
I apologize for the blurry photo. I couldn’t screen shot all of my earnings from my phone. If you want to get paid from your phone to answer 1 question at a time for 25 – 50 cents each, I recommend registering at 1Q by clicking HERE (referral link). Think about it, survey sites give you 25 cents for answering 30 questions or more. This seems like a better deal to me. Although you can make a living from answering questions on 1Q, can however, add some pocket change to your papal account. Remember, your goal is to simple start earning money. I wrote this review because IT PAYS!
Online Income Stream #2:
When I first heard about well-known companies hiring people to work from home, I got excited. I wanted to do some research and find out how I could do the same. I found several companies that were offering different work from home opportunities. Since I have a background in customer service, I decided to find customer service positions that I can do from home. Many customer service opportunities I found required some basics tools like a landline phone, high speed Internet, and a noise canceling headset with microphone. Some companies also required a land line phone.
Since I only had a cell phone, and was low on funds, I really didn’t have the money to get a land line phone which was gonna to be another monthly bill. The only Internet that I can afford the time was the tethering from my cell phone. So I decided to look for other work at home opportunities. That’s when I found some audio transcription opportunities. The job descriptions stated that I didn’t even need any experience. That was a plus in my book. It also stated that I only needed a headset and an Internet connection so I applied for the job using the tethering from my cell phone. I did that for a while. It became inconvenient because I had to have my cell phone plugged into my computer in order to access the Internet. I needed a different solution.
I began surfing the net looking for other ways to make money from home. That’s when I saw so many articles talking about making money online. So I decided to make money by completing surveys. That’s when I found inboxdollars.com (referral link). With this site, I was able to make money completing surveys, watching videos, listening to music, completing tasks and confirming emails. This site says that you can cash out once you have reached a minimum of $30 in your account. The payment methods were via a paper check or an inboxdollars debit card. I heard a lot about sites that scam you, so I decided to really work my way through this one to see if I was really going to be paid. I set a goal to reach my $30.00 limit and 30 days. I would log in every day and on the 28th day, I exceeded my $30.00 limit and cashed out via check. This is what my account looked like before I cashed out:
The check came in the mail. I was excited because I was paid, which means the site was not a scam. They even give you the option to get paid via debit card instead of a check. Now, I want to let you all know the pros and cons of this survey site:
Pros:
· They pay you for doing many things
· You can choose to be paid by check
· You can choose to be paid by debit card.
Cons:
· It is time consuming and it can get boring.
· You have to reach $30 to cash out.
· You may not qualify for many surveys, which makes it harder to reach your cash out goal. Persistence in Key.
But the point is, IT PAYS. So if you are going to do surveys, I suggest you sign up for more than one site to increase your earnings. Inbox dollars takes a $3.00 processing fee. So if you cash out at $30, you will only receive $27.00. Just thought you should know that. So Remember to cash out at $33.00 or more. They will also pay you for other things as well so I say go for it. You can click HERE (referral link) to receive your first $5 just for signing up with inboxdollars today.
Online Income Stream #3:
With all the ways to make money online floating around the web, it can be difficult to choose your first opportunity. That’s why I wrote this explaining my experiences with the opportunities I chose. Now, I am going to tell you about my personal experience with slicethepie.com (referral link). Slicethepie.com is a site that pays you for listing to music tracks and, writing a review about the construction of it and providing a rating.
One of the things that I don’t like about the site is that the pay is very low. I make anywhere from 6 cents to 12 cents per song. Breaking into the reviewing can be challenging because the system will not allow you to submit a review if it is written in the same format as the previous review. This can take some time to master. Its time consuming having to edit your review numerous times just so the site can approve the submission. Then you will get an error message saying that your review don’t match the rating that you gave the track. If you keep the rating and review, you receive a low payment.
You basically have to describe how the track made you feel, what you liked or didn’t like about the instruments, tempo, base and so on. I thought since I write music and am very opinionated about the music that I listen to by other artist, I would be great for this site. Well after running into the review submission issues, I decided to take some time off from this site. But not before I cashed out. Again, my goal was to see if the site was a scam of if it was legit on the payout. Slicethepie.com has a minimum payout of $10. They also pay you for referrals too.
One other thing that I didn’t like about the site is that they will not allow you to write a short review. If you do, they will prompt you to write more. This was a problem for me at some point. Most tracts that I listened to, I simply liked or didn’t like. I didn’t have much to say about it. Sometimes I would have to review a full song with the artists, while other tracks were simply music without lyrics. Let’s not forget about what happens when you comment so much. You run out of energy and have to wait a while for them to load again. This can be time consuming and take a bit longer for you to reach your cash out goal. Here is what my account looked like:
The one thing I can say that I love about this site is that IT REALLY DOES PAY. I requested payout when I reached $30 and the money went straight to my PayPal account. It’s great if I wanted to use it for shopping online. If you are a music lover and have a lot to say about critiquing other peoples’ music and want to try slicethepie.com, click HERE (referral link) to join today. You just might like it.
UPDATE: January 2015
I know this update is long overdue but I finally found some time to write it. So here it is.
Review Options:
Now, you have the option to review clothing which increase your chances of earning more.
I have also been able to review more tracks and clothing too so my earing grow pretty quickly. The payout is still $10 but I have no problem with that because it can be earned in a short amount of time.
Now, I’m not going to get all technical about the earnings. Instead, I’d rather show you proof of my most recent earnings. I signed in just to show you what my account looks like today so I have not done any reviews yet:
As you can see, I have not cashed out yet because I saw some really cool wallet cases on amazon that I plan to purchase for my new Samsung Galaxy Note 5. I can’t just buy one case. That’s insane. I also want to buy a few other things as well like some new curtains and a Halloween costume.
One other note that I wanted add was the fact that the site does not allow you to copy and paste your review in the box. It has to be manual. But there is a neat trick if you use your smart phone. I’m going to let you think about that.
Anyway, I recommend everyone who loves music and fashion to sign up for slice the pie. You can sign up HERE (referral link). The sooner you sign up, the sooner you can be earning some income online. Sign up today and I’ll see you there.
Update April 2016:
I just visited the site and wanted to let you all know a few things about the site. They have changed their site yet again. The new colors are orange, grey and black. It looks nice. Now about some other changes that I have noticed on the site.
Referral Code:
Apparently, my referral code has changed and I was unaware and uninformed of it. This kind of rubbed me the wrong way but I have made the necessary changes and all is well.
The Star Rating:
For a 2 star rating, I’ve seen earnings between $0.05 and $0.06 per review. I encourage you to review as much as you can as often as you can to get and keep your star rating up. If you are just starting, a low rating will it take longer to accumulate $10.00 to qualify for a cash out into your Paypal account.
Review Options:
Of course you already know that aside from reviewing music, the site also allows you to review clothing items. Now, you are also presented with the option “Lucky Dip” where you can review a random selection of things. But the only things I have been able to review with that is still only music. Hope I get some clothing items too.
I hope you all like my continuous updating of this site. I encourage you to sign up and start reviewing so that you can earn money online. You can sign up HERE (referral link)!
Update August 25, 2016:
Star Rating:
I don’t like the new rating system. Each star represents the number of pennies you will earn per review. Now, it takes too much effort to get up to $10 dollars to qualify for a payout.
Android App:
They have an app now that you can download from the play store. Use code UF8F6ED9