Earn Extra Money Archives

Make Money Cleaning Out Your House

January 13, 2020 By Kari Cullen Leave a Comment

MAKE MONEY SELLING YOUR STUFF ONLINE

Are there things around your house you don’t use and have been wanting to declutter but hesitate because you spent money on them?

Are you sick of cleaning and tidying your house? Are you sick of having to spring clean, declutter, and organize OVER & OVER again? When does it end?

Let it end now!

I started living a more simplified life after getting turned onto The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo and The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own written by Joshua Becker.

These books (I highly recommend you read or listen to the audio versions) changed the way I think about “stuff”.

It’s just that, stuff! Why do we store and have to organize things in our homes hundreds of times over our lifetime and why should we spend vacation days and weekends cleaning things we hardly use?

Pile of boxes junk inside a residential garage.

If you’re on a journey of decluttering and want to get rid of whatever you don’t need or use but worry about the money you spent on them or just want or need to make some extra cash, then I have some tips for you!

And no it’s not having a yard sale!

While a yard sale is great for getting rid of large amounts of items fast, you definitely won’t make a ton of money off of one and if you have high-value items you won’t get what they’re worth.

So check out my favorite places to sell your stuff EASILY online!

TIPS ON HOW TO SELL YOUR STUFF ONLINE

SELLING CLOTHING, ACCESSORIES, AND SHOES

It’s super-easy to get rid of clothes, accessories and now even small home items with apps like Poshmark and Mercari.

My favorite and one that I’ve sold a bunch of my own stuff on is Poshmark.

So far I’ve sold 29 items as of writing this blog post and have made a total of $341.80 (see a screenshot from my account below).

I didn’t want to deal with shipping labels or customers etc and Poshmark makes it SUPER EASY to sell my stuff.

You basically just take some pictures, list it in the app and when it sells Poshmark will send you a prepaid pre-addressed label for you to print out, slap on your box and put in the mail!

Best of all you can get free boxes right from USPS so there is no extra cost there.

I share my Poshmark experience and all my POSHMARK TIPS in my article How to Sell on Poshmark so check it out here.

BONUS: Sign Up for Poshmark using my code: ESAVINGSBLOG and get a $5 Credit! Sign up here.

Mercari is similar to Poshmark.

What I like about the Mercari and Poshmark apps is that you have full control over pricing and listing your items. The only downside is you will have to store the items until they are sold.

Want to get rid of boxes of items faster?

Another option is to send a box of your items to places like ThredUp and Swap.com.

ThredUp is another place where you can sell your items online but it’s a little different from selling on PoshMark or selling on Mercari because you’re selling your items to ThredUp and not directly to another person.

If you want to check out ThredUp you can get a $10 Credit using my referral link here.

Swap.com accepts new and preowned clothes as well as toys and games for babies and kids. Check out Swap.com for more information on what they will accept.

These options give you less control over pricing and probably won’t earn you as much money as you would on Poshmark and Mercari but they will help you declutter faster.

Do you have really high-end luxury items you want to sell?

The RealReal is a luxury consignment site where you can find and sell designer pieces from Gucci, Chanel and more.

SAVINGS TIP! Get a $25 credit with my referral link: The RealReal.

SELLING ELECTRONIC’S, CD’s, BOOKS, AND LEGOS?

Do you have drawers full of old electronics? How about shelves of CDs, books, or DVDs?

Decluttr is an app/website that allows you to instantly see what your items are worth.

Have a ton of LEGO’s? Decluttr also buys them! Plus you don’t even need a set of them because they will buy individual bricks.

You can check out Decluttr here.

Gazelle is another site where you can sell your electronics. I would compare each to see which one gives you more money.

You can check out Gazelle here.

SELLING FURNITURE AND OTHER LARGE ITEMS (THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO SHIP)

Furniture or heavy items are great to post on local selling sites like Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, or LetGo.

I’ve purchased many things from these sites myself and they are super easy to use.

As with anything just be cautious and make sure to meet up in public areas and for heavy items make sure you’re not home alone when someone comes to pick the item up. If possible have the item already outside or close to the door.

I also usually check out the person’s profile as well and always communicate through the platform so it’s tracked.

SELLING EVERYTHING ELSE

Ebay and Craiglist are great ways to sell almost everything. You can sell the above items already mentioned if you want as well as home decor, fitness, jewelry and more.

eBay is also great for selling old electronics that may not be accepted by the two apps I mentioned earlier. You can also sell power cords and other accessories on this platform.

If you’re intimidated about selling on Ebay or Craiglist there are a whole bunch of youtube videos and articles on how to sell on these platforms so do your research.

I haven’t personally tried eBay or Craigslist myself but I may dip my feet into selling on these platforms at some point so I can report back on my experience.

SELL STUFF AS A SIDE HUSTLE

Sometimes after selling your clutter, you may start to actually like selling things!

I have come to love it and plan to start selling more items on Poshmark as a side hustle. Poshmark has a feature where you can open a boutique which is something I may also try out.

If selling things sounds like something you would love to do as a side hustle I highly recommend checking out out my friends over at Flea Market Flipper.

They host a free webinar that you can check out here where they teach you how to flip items in your home as well as items you pick up at thrift shops, flea markets, and garage sales.

They also go into selling on eBay and craigslist so even if you’re not interested in starting a side hustle, I recommend at least watching the free webinar to help you with selling things around your house.

HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED WHILE DECLUTTERING AND SELLING YOUR STUFF

It’s super easy to get discouraged during the decluttering process. Check out 52 Easy Items to Declutter for some ideas of what to get rid of first.

To start, you will want to get some boxes or bins for things you want to trash, sell, and/or donate.

Put everything you want to trash and donate near the door and get it out of the house asap.

For items you want to sell, bring them to an area you can store them until they sell. You will also want a clean area in which to prep and take pictures for your listings.

Feeling stuck?

If you find yourself stuck and paralyzed at the thought of getting rid of things try listening to free podcasts.

Some of my favorite podcasts about decluttering and organizing are ClutterBug, A Slob Comes Clean, and Organize365. If you’re not familiar with podcasts they are free and can be streamed on your free podcast player on your phone or tablet.

I also highly recommend you consider grabbing Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and Joshua Becker’s book The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own.

Questions? Comments? Leave them below and be sure to share this article with your friends using the share buttons below or above.

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here

Get Paid to Review and Respond to Legal Cases as a Mock Juror!

December 20, 2019 By Kari Cullen Leave a Comment

GET PAID TO BE A MOCK JUROR

If you love criminal justice and helping people then being a mock juror is an awesome way to earn extra money!

Some mock juries can be conducted from home and some require you to spend a few hours or a day in a focus group setting.

While being a mock juror will not make you rich its a good option for some extra income and I think it would be a great experience as well. I just signed up to be one with a few companies and I will be posting a review after I get a few cases completed.

Keep in mind that you may not always have cases and that you may want to sign up for a few companies to get more chances of getting picked.

Most of these companies will only choose people in the area in which the case is being tried so depending on where you live you may have fewer cases.

What is a Mock Jury?

First, let’s go over what a mock jury actually is. The term “mock jury” refers to a type of group research that allows lawyers to evaluate the potential reactions of jurors to their evidence and arguments before a case goes to trial.

Once the case is presented, participants then discuss the evidence and arguments.

Juror’s feedback is used to discover the strengths and weaknesses of their case, the possible settlement value, and general attitudes and opinions about their case facts.

While traditional mock juries are conducted in person, online mock juries and in-person focus groups are a more affordable option for lawyers to get feedback on their cases.

What is required to become a mock juror?

While the criteria for each company may vary, below are the most common requirements to be a mock juror.

Be over the age of 18;
Be a U.S. citizen;
Not a lawyer or an insurance company representative;
Never convicted of a felony or under indictment

If you meet these criteria then check out the companies who hire mock jurors below. I signed up for a few but as with anything else you should do your own research to determine which ones are right for you.

FINDING MOCK JUROR JOBS

There are a number of companies hiring mock jurors but the list below is the ones I found to be the most popular and easiest to sign up for.

OnlineVerdict

Online Verdict is the one I first found out about and signed up for (review coming as soon as I get a few cases completed).

OnlineVerdict provides online case review and juror feedback services to attorneys.

How Does OnlineVerdict Work?

You will review interesting legal cases from the comfort of your home, provide feedback through an online questionnaire, and be paid well for your time.

When an attorney posts an eligible case in your county or federal district, you will receive an email invitation from OnlineVerdict to review the case at your convenience (once enough responses are received, the case will close and no additional participants are needed.)

After accepting the invitation to be an online juror, you will be asked to agree to the confidentiality policy, review the case materials and answer all questions about that case.

There are no right or wrong answers. Attorneys benefit most from your honest reaction to the information that was presented to you.

Jurors are paid between $20-$60 depending on the case. Cases take between 20-60 minutes so the pay, in my opinion, is pretty decent.

Payments are sent out 1-2 weeks after you review the case according to the FAQ’s on their website. Payments are only made by check to the address in which you signed up with so that they can verify you are who you say you are.

You can find out more and sign up for Online Verdict here.

eJury

eJury is another popular option but pays a bit less than Online Verdict at $5 to $10 depending on the case.

How Does eJury Work?

eJury provides an attorney the opportunity to “pre-try” the case before it goes to trial in front of an actual jury at the courthouse. Cases at the courthouse are usually tried to juries of 12 people. At eJury, each case is tried to a minimum of 50 people.

This provides the attorney with a tremendous amount of feedback which he/she will use to establish a settlement value, find strengths and weaknesses in the evidence, learn “public” attitudes, improve jury selection, discover the most effective arguments.

The average case takes about 35 minutes to complete according to their FAQ’s.

You can find out more about eJury and sign up here.

Jury Test

JuryTest is a case evaluation and strategy development tool. It’s a fast and cost-efficient alternative to mock trials and litigation focus groups.

JuryTest was created by Adam Rosen, J.D., Ph.D., a jury consultant trained in both law and clinical psychology and an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

How Does Jury Test Work?

Counsel records a case summary or argument on the telephone through Jury Test. Jury Test will choose mock jurors (you) from geographically selected groups, and you as the juror will listen to the case and review all of the exhibits.

You will then provide feedback securely on the JuryTest website, where the attorney can analyze and sort juror responses and learn the issues that jurors care about.

Jury Test will inform you of the availability of a case for review, as well as the time involved (usually 1-2 hours) and the compensation for the case (usually $20 – $50), depending on the time involved.

You can find out more and sign up for Jury Test here.

Trial Juries

Trial Juries is the juror recruitment tool for Verdict Services Inc. (VSI), a Duluth, GA-based company, which conducts pre-trial Focus Groups and Mock Trials for Attorneys.

How Does Trial Juries Work?

If selected as a Juror for VSI, you will hear the facts in a real court case, involving real people. You will help decide the case by giving your opinion. You will be paid $100 to $150 per day, depending on the length of the session.

These are in-person focus groups so you will have to go to a physical location to participate but they do pay a lot more than online mock juries.

You can find out more about Trial Juries and sign up here.

Have you been on a mock jury before? Let me know in the comments how it was! Have any other questions or comments? Leave them in the comment section below!

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here

Work from Home Editing Court Transcripts as a Scopist

December 6, 2019 By Kari Cullen Leave a Comment

A Scopist: The Work at Home Career You’ve Never Heard of!

Do you want a work at home job that pays well? How does editing court transcripts (also known as scoping) at home sound?

I personally didn’t even know this job existed until a couple years ago and the fact that its something that can be learned and done in the comfort of your own home I thought was great.

One of the reasons you probably never heard of this work at home job is because of the weird name. A person who edits court transcripts is called a scopist and the act of editing the court transcripts is called scoping.

I’m guessing you never Googled for scoping jobs before so this may be your first time hearing of it.

Below I’ll go over what exactly a scopist does, what skills and equipment you need to become a scopist, and where you can get training.

Let’s get right into it!

What is Scoping?

According to NCRA.org (The National Association for Court reporters and Captioners), a scopist is a professional transcript editor for court reporters.

However, unlike an editor or a proofreader, a scopist has the ability to compare a court reporter’s shorthand to the finished transcript. By “scoping” the transcript, mistranslate errors can be identified thereby helping the court reporter preserve an accurate record.

Court reporters write or “takedown” proceedings using steno writers. They then import their steno notes into computer-aided transcription software that translates the steno into English.

Because errors can happen in this process, court reporters then hire scopists to edit their transcripts.

Why Does Someone Hire Scopists?

Like I mentioned above, a court reporter hires scopists to edit their transcripts, but you may be wondering why they don’t just do it themselves?

A court reporter makes money per page, not per hour, so the more pages he or she can take down, the higher their earning potential.

Outsourcing the tedious editing allows them to make more money. That’s reason #1 why scopists are valuable and in-demand: court reporters want to make more money. So they hire scopists.

Not to be confused with a proofreader (who goes to work post-editing), a scopist uses the same software along with audio to edit the translated steno. He or she ensures all the steno language and punctuation is translated properly to make the verbatim record as accurate as humanly possible.

SIDE NOTE: If you’re interested in learning more about becoming a Proofreader, check out this free workshop.

What Equipment is Needed to be a Scopist?

All that’s needed to edit court transcripts or scope is a good reliable laptop or desktop computer, some scoping software, and an internet connection.

You may also want some good headphones and a good office chair since you’ll be sitting at the computer for long periods of time.

That’s it! No complicated setup or fancy equipment needed. Plus anything you buy could potentially be a tax writeoff (consult your tax accountant on this as I am not one).

How Much Does a Scopist Make?

According to Internet Scoping School, a well-trained scopist can earn $30,000 to $50,000 or more.

It’s a work at home job where you can decide how much you want to work so there is always the potential to grow.

What Skills are Needed to Become a Scopist?

The good thing is that scoping does not require a college degree, certification or test but it does require some training to do it well and to be able to know where to find the best scoping jobs.

SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A SUCCESSFUL SCOPIST:

Be good with grammar and punctuation
Be ok with deadlines
Be able to handle reading and hearing sometimes horrible and sensitive stories (remember you’re editing court transcripts)
Be able to work alone
Be self-motivated

Scoping is not usually something you can start today (unless you have experience scoping or doing a similar job) but it’s something that can be learned rather quickly and cheaply compared to other similar paying jobs.

Where do I Find Training to Become a Scopist?

As far as training, I recommend definitely getting some even if you think you have most of the skills I mentioned above.

There’s a school called Internet Scoping School and they offer a FREE INTRO TO SCOPING MINI COURSE where you can learn all about scoping as a career.

FREE INTRO TO SCOPING MINI-COURSE

Internet Scoping School also offers a full in-depth course on scoping you can check out here.

What I like about this training is that it teaches everything you need to know about becoming a successful professional scopist. It’s basically like a degree in scoping but at a fraction of the cost of a traditional degree.

Think about all the degrees that earn you just as much money ($30-$50K) and cost thousands more! Take the free intro course first and see if it’s for you.

Want more work at home job ideas? Check out my Money Making Ideas page.

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here

How to Start a Blog on the Cheap!

March 7, 2019 By Kari Cullen Leave a Comment

Have you been dreaming of starting a blog but you’re worried about the cost? Wondering what the cheapest way to start a blog is?

Do you have a blog but you’re finding it hard to build it up because your budget is tight?

I’m going to go over how to start, build and run a blog on the cheap!

CHEAPEST WAY TO START A BLOG

I’m sure you’ve heard or seen other bloggers say start a blog for next to nothing only to find out that there are expenses involved especially if you want to monetize your blog and turn it into a part or full-time business.

Related: Best Free Courses for Bloggers

Now don’t get me wrong you definitely can start a blog for next to nothing especially compared to any other business.

As a blogger myself who blogs about personal finance, frugal living and money saving tips I don’t want you to spend money you don’t have or that you don’t need to when just starting out.

Once you start to make money with your blog you can then reinvest that money into courses, tools, and resources to help you scale your blog into a business and save yourself a lot of time.

But right now if money is tight there are MANY ways to get everything you need very cheaply or even free!

The point of this article is to help you find super affordable (including lots of freebies) tools, resources, and courses that will help you start a money making blog with very little investment.

I also briefly go over how to actually get your blog up and running and show you how easy and cheap it can be if you do it yourself.

I will also mention some items I think you may want to spend a little money on but those are optional and up to you.

START A BLOG ON A BUDGET

The one thing you need to pay for if you want a money making blog is your website hosting. If you’re starting a blog and plan to monetize it then I suggest a self-hosted blog on WordPress (WordPress.org).

If you have no clue what that even means don’t worry its pretty easy and very affordable, you can start for under $4 a month! Plus I’ll go over how in just a bit.

There are many website hosting platforms out there but the ones I have personally used are Bluehost, Hostgator and Siteground. I am now with Siteground just because I wanted to see if I noticed a difference in site speed with a new host. I was with Bluehost for many years though previously.

All are pretty reasonable price wise but what I actually like about Siteground is that they will transfer your site for you for free (I had mine transferred from Bluehost) and that you can get the new customer discount for a longer period of time (up to 3 years) if you pay up front for the number of years you choose.

You can pick 1 to 3 years upfront and pay the discounted rate for the period you choose so if you know you are in it for the long haul you can pick a longer term and save money.

I’m going to use Siteground in my example but they are all similar in the setup process as far as signing up and installing WordPress.

SETTING UP YOUR BLOG ON SITEGROUND

Step 1. Choose your hosting plan

SiteGround has three plans and one can sign for any of them with a discount through my affiliate link here.

The StartUp plan is perfect for people with one website that are just starting out allowing for up to 10,000 visits monthly.

The GrowBig plan is a great value for the money, including the option for multiple websites and the SuperCacher that greatly improves website speed and allows up to 25,000 visits monthly. ( I started with this plan)

The GoGeek plan is perfect for people with e-commerce and larger sites, or more geeky development needs like staging and GIT integration.

Step 2. Choose a Domain

If you have’nt already bought a domain you can buy one when you sign up or you can sign up with an existing domain. They do free website transfers for the GrowBig and GoGeek plans.

Registering a new domain starts at only $15.95/year with SiteGround.

TIP: If you want to get an even cheaper domain name you can purchase it first on GoDaddy.com where they usually have sales as low as $2.99 for a domain.

Step 3. Review & Complete. Install WordPress (or have Siteground do it for you free)

That’s it! You’re done with signing up for hosting and now you can move on to installing WordPress which is super easy and if you go with the GrowBig Plan you can have customer service do it for you!

IMPORTANT NOTE: There may be other options already selected for you as you’re completing the transaction but you can uncheck those as they may cost more and you don’t need them yet as a new blogger.

BUDGET CHECK-IN:
Hosting (Grow Big Plan for the year)	$71.40
Domain (year)	$15.95
TOTAL SPENT (year):	$87.35

*Prices can change and different promotion may run on hosting and domains but these are the prices at the time of writing this article.

What other business can you start for that price?

If you’re on a super tight budget and don’t need the transfer/install service you can always start with the startup plan at $3.95 a month bringing your yearly total to $63.35 and you can grab your domain at GoDaddy on sale to cut costs even more. Keep in mind that the startup plan only supports up to 10,000 visits monthly so that’s why I recommend the Grow Big Plan.

So let’s continue………..

INSTALLING WORDPRESS

Once you login to your Customer Area for the first time, you will see a pop-up asking you if you want to start a new website on your account. Select that option and click on the WordPress button.

After installing WordPress you need to select a theme. You don’t have to buy a Premium WordPress Theme at this point, you can start with a free theme (I’ll be going over how to add pretty graphics for free) and you can always switch themes when you’re ready. Switching themes is not that difficult so don’t worry.

As a new blogger, the Free “Astra” theme is pretty nice. Don’t go for anything too flashy, simple designs with lots of white space work best.

To check out more free themes just go to Appearance- Themes in your WordPress Dashboard.

Keep in mind the theme previews will show the theme how it will look when it’s all set up and configured using all its features. You don’t need all the features right away and may never need them.

You basically want easy menu navigation, a place for your logo at the top and easy to read fonts, especially when starting out.

NOTE: Don’t get stuck on aesthetics! Lots of bloggers do. I am going to go over how to make your blog look great for no money or super cheap so don’t spend days focusing on themes because you can always change it later.

If you’re overwhelmed with WordPress itself I recommend you grab this free course: Understanding WordPress.

Once you have your domain and host setup and you installed WordPress you’re ready to make a few design tweaks (more info below) and start writing! Remember don’t get stuck on the design.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR BLOG PRETTY ON THE CHEAP

With a free theme, you can still make your blog look nice. I highly recommend using Canva to create a logo and also images for your blog posts.

If you’re new to Canva and have no clue how to use it or want to use it better then I recommend taking this FREE Canva 101 Workshop.

This course is designed to give you an overview of some of the things you can do to get started in Canva. It includes a walkthrough of Canva, how to create lines and charts, how to design text for your digital projects, setting up templates for yourself, and using design elements to step up your designs. Sign up here.

Canva also has free images for you to use in your blog posts. I use it in all of my blog posts. If you hate design or maybe your just not good at it , I highly recommend purchasing ready-made templates. They are super affordable and save you a TON OF TIME and frustration.

Kara Fidd has Canva template packages for as low as $35 for 82 templates! You basically just import them into your own Canva account, make a copy and edit with your own colors, changes, photos or however you like.

She also has The Complete Blogger Template Toolkit which pretty much has everything you will ever need as far as graphics for your blog. It’s currently at $97 which may seem like a lot but the hours you will save creating graphics or paying someone to do it is priceless honestly.

If you can spend $97 I would definitely grab those!

BUDGET CHECK-IN:	#1	#2	#3
DOMAIN & HOSTING (for the year)	$87.35
CANVA TEMPLATES (optional but recommended)		$35
COMPLETE CANVA TEMPLATES (everything you will ever need pretty much)			$97
TOTAL:	$87.35	$122.35	$184.35

For more free design graphics for your blog, you can check out Creative Market. Creative Market is a great place to get free fonts, graphics, videos and all kinds of design goodies. You definitely want to sign up to get free goodies each week emailed to you.

There are also a lot of free image sites but just be aware that anyone can upload graphics to these sites and then turn around and say you stole them. Copyright infringement is no joke so if you do grab free images from any of these free image sites always get a screenshot of it on the website as proof.

To be the safest I suggest either using the photos in Canva (free and paid options), your own photos or buying them cheaply from sites like 123RF.com and Depositphotos.

I was able to snatch a deal on Despositphotos for 100 credits for $49 through AppSumo. That’s just $0.50 a photo which is AMAZING! Get on their list to be notified of upcoming sales.

I also recommend you grab this free guide for Branding Your Blog.

BUDGET CHECK-IN: If you have grabbed credits from a stock photo site add that to your total or take your own photos and the cost will be just your time.

Now that you have a blog up and running and looking good you can start to set it up for success without spending a bunch of money (or very little money).

You will need to start building up your content! Decide what you want to write about and stick to only a few topics that are closely related.

For example, I am in the personal finance niche so I blog about budgeting, saving money and making money.

To get you some ideas of what to write about, check out this free resource from Elite Blog Academy called 120 Blog Post Ideas.

START AN EMAIL LIST

If you haven’t heard the saying, money is in the list then I am letting you know that now. Email is not dead and is the most important thing to get started if you want to make money with your blog even if you don’t have anything to sell or make money off of yet (we will get to that later).

First, you need an email service provider. I love and highly suggest Convertkit but it’s NOT cheap (starts at $29/month) so if you’re just starting out you can go with a free service like MailChimp which is FREE for up to 2000 subscribers.

You signed up for an email service provider, now what?

If you’re just starting out you may not know what to send to your subscribers or even how to get them to subscribe??

I recommend using these free welcome email swipe files as a guide. They will help you create emails that you can send to your new subscribers.

As far as how to get people to sign up, I recommend creating a beautiful opt-in freebie for signing up (also called a lead magnet). Something as simple as a checklist or PDF guide that can be created right in Canva.

If you have $37 in your budget you can grab Optins ABCs which shows you step by step how to create optin freebies to grow your list to thousands.

If you grabbed the Complete Blogger Templates I mentioned above they also include templates for Optins to make it even easier.

MANAGE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA FOR FREE

Scheduling tools are not that expensive each but the more you use the more your costs go up so I suggest starting out with free plans at least for now and then upgrading once you figure out which one you love.

To start out you could use:

Buffer is one option. I currently use it for Twitter but you can use the free version for Twitter, Facebook, IG, and Linkedin. The free version is limited to 3 social accounts and 10 posts each in the queue at one time so you do have to keep filling it up after they run out.

For Pinterest, you can manually Pin for now and use Tailwind Tribes for sharing your pins and finding other pins to share on your boards. Tribes on Tailwind are free!

For Facebook, you can also use Facebook’s “schedule” feature and just spend 30 minutes scheduling a couple of weeks worth of posts manually for now.

For Instagram you can also use the free version of Later for scheduling as you can schedule a lot more than you would be able to with Buffer.

MONETIZE YOUR BLOG

In order to start making money with your blog so that you can reinvest money into paid courses and tools, you will need to implement a monetization strategy or two.

But before you can start monetizing your blog you will need to have built up some content and driven some traffic to it. To help with that check out these two FREE resources: 120 Blog Post Ideas and The 12 Month Blog Plan.

I would also recommend learning SEO so that you can start ranking your blog articles on Google and getting found. And also Pinterest since lots of bloggers get tons of traffic from Pinterest.

Check out these two free resources to learn both:

FREE SEO COURSE: SEO FOR BEGINNERS

This is a free course from Yoast! Whatever your expertise is, whether you’re new to SEO or have been working on it already, this training touches on both the content part and technical part of SEO so there could be something new in there for everyone

FREE PINTEREST PRIMER COURSE

This course is great to learn how to master Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog and it’s free!

Bloggers make money in a bunch of ways but I want to go over the most common ways and share with you free courses to help you understand them in-depth.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is when you make money by recommending other people’s products.

Learn everything you need to know to get started with affiliate marketing in this free Quick-Start Guide to Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers

Your Own Product

Many bloggers make money with their own products like courses, ebooks, and other digital products. If you’re going to invest this is where I say you should!

If you want to create a digital product I highly recommend you take this training: Create and Launch a Profitable Product Free Training.

If you’re looking for a course to learn how to create courses you definitely should check out Course by Number (not free but a great course) if you have money in the budget.

If you want a free option for now you can check out How to Use Teachable. It goes over how to create a course in teachable which is the platform many bloggers use for their courses.

The free Teachable course doesn’t cover deciding on a topic or getting customers to buy or how to sell your course so again if you can swing the money for Course by Number than grab it.

MANAGE YOUR BLOG ON A BUDGET

One of the tools I absolutely love and use daily to manage ALL THE THINGS is Asana. Asana is FREE! It’s a project management software that is awesome.

They have a paid version but if you don’t have a team of people I think the free version does pretty much everything you need it to do.

You can use it to:

Keep track of affiliate programs
Keep a calendar of projects
Organize sponsored content
Set reminders and more

Another option is Trello. I am just learning about Trello and may give it a try as well.

When to Invest Money and Where to Invest It

If you have no money or simply do not want to invest right now I think what I shared above should be sufficient to get you started with your blog.

Once you start to make a little money with your blog I recommend you reinvest some of it into tools and courses that will help you grow your blog faster so that you can make more money.

I suggest finding one complete course that can walk you through starting and monetizing a blog step by step.

It’s great to be able to learn from many free courses but it can also be harder because you may be missing pieces here and there.

One of my favorite budget-friendly blogging courses is Blog by Number from Suzi Whitford of Start a Mom Blog (it’s not just for mom bloggers, I am a personal finance blogger). It’s under $100 and worth so much more!

What I like about Blog By Number is it takes you from step one of creating and designing your blog all the way to monetizing your blog and more and Suzi is awesome and gives so much value to her students in the course and on her Facebook Lives.

TIP: You can also just grab the eBook if you don’t need the video instruction, it’s just $18!!! Grab the Blog by Number eBook.

It’s probably one of the best blogging courses out there in my opinion, especially for beginners. I loved it so much I’ve purchased other courses from Suzi as well (as you see I mentioned Course by Number earlier).

Another course I love is Elite Blog Academy but it is a large investment and only available once a year but if you want to get on the waitlist you can do that here. UPDATE: EBA IS OPEN NOW FOR 2 MORE DAYS!

Another place you really need to invest is in your email marketing platform. I mentioned earlier I love ConvertKit but it starts at around $29 a month so I know that can be a big expense if you’re on a budget.

The reason I love Convertkit is that you can tag a segment your list very strategically according to what they like so that you’re not emailing them things that don’t interest them. I can go into a whole other post on that alone but I won’t.

When you’re ready for that you can go ahead and get a FREE TRIAL OF CONVERTKIT to check it out.

I really hope this article helped you, if you have questions on how to save money on your blog that I haven’t covered feel free to leave a comment and I will be sure to respond!

I will also be updating this article often as questions come in or I find new things.

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This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here

MAKE MONEY SELLING YOUR STUFF ONLINE

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INSTALLING WORDPRESS

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START AN EMAIL LIST

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MONETIZE YOUR BLOG

Affiliate Marketing

Sponsored Content

Your Own Product

MANAGE YOUR BLOG ON A BUDGET

When to Invest Money and Where to Invest It

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