Second Income | Till Debt Do Us Part

Internet Job versus Internet Business

Aug 112008

This is a continuation of the series of articles about trying to generate a second income part time on the internet and then using this second income to repay your debts.

I have already investigated the possibility of generating a second income through Second Life. In the end I decided that it was not for me. You can read my reasons why here.

In this article I want to investigate the income generating potential of getting a part time Internet job as opposed to starting an internet business.

Internet job versus Internet Business – what’s the difference?

When I first started to investigate the possibility of generating a second income online it didn’t occur to me that I could get a job (i.e. work for someone else) that would allow me to operate from my home and in my spare time.

To me the Internet was all about trying to start your own website and generating an income by selling a product or by selling advertising.

Recently I came across a couple articles about Internet Jobs. These jobs ranged from data entry to completing surveys. To be honest when I started to read about the online jobs on offer my eyes glazed over. There was nothing much that appealed to me in terms of the work that was on offer. Boring and tedious are the two words that I’d used to describe the jobs I came across.

Part of me wanted to stop exploring the idea of getting a second job online and move on to something else. However I realized that if you are in debt and looking to earn extra income the focus should not be on finding ‘interesting’ work or work that you love rather the focus should be on finding a second job online that pays and is not a scam (more on this later).

With this in mind I began researching internet based jobs versus internet businesses. My criteria were that the hours had to be flexible, I could work from my home, the pay was reasonable and I was confident that it was not a scam i.e. the company that I would be working for was legitimate.

So far my results have been mixed with more negative results than positive.

It appears that there are a lot of scams out there – so be careful. Make sure to do your homework and to research fully any offer of an online job. When researching simply type the name of the website that is offering the job along with the word ‘review’ into Google and check the results. I found that a couple of websites that had caught my attention had been scamming people so it was a lucky escape.

I found this on Yahoo! answers. It is short but well worth reading the comments.

Is there a legal legitimate way to work at home and make good money that is not a scam?

On a more positive note I have come across some websites that seem to be genuine. I have not used these websites myself so I cannot confirm whether or not they are genuine but so far from what I’ve read they look good.

This article from msnbc.com provides some useful ideas about websites that you could potentially work for. Again do your research before you commit to anything.

Delete your commute with new internet jobs.

Searching for a legitimate online part time job is proving to be a little more difficult than I thought. In my naivety I simply thought that it would be a case of doing a Google search and I would be spoilt for choice. I thought that I could then simply do hours and hours of tedious form filling and I would be on my way to paying down my debts and financial freedom.

Unfortunately this is not the case and I have received something of a wake up call.

Getting a decent online part time job seems to be a lot more difficult than I first imagined.

Making money in Second life? Not for me.

Aug 082008

My initial enthusiasm for making money through Second Life is starting to wane. The more research I do into making money in Second Life the more I realize that to make serious money there are a whole range of new technical and software skills that I would have to learn before I could add any real value. In turn if I don’t add any real value I can’t realistically expect to earn any serious income.

Each time I think about it I keep coming back to the comments that Second Life entrepreneur Anshe Chung made in relation to people who come to Second Life solely to make money.

“Most people who just come here (Second Life) for money fail miserably”.

This point bears repeating. I think one of the key drivers behind the success of Second Life has been the community spirit that has developed. People are there because they really want to be there. They don’t go there specifically because there is money to be made – those who do “Fail miserably”.

The question you have to ask yourself as someone who is looking to generate income online is whether or not you are prepared to get involved in the community that is Second Life? Is it for you? Can you put community first and profit second? Are you prepared to learn all the necessary technical skills required for you to add value to the Second life community? In the end it is this added value that will allow you to monetize your efforts. If you don’t add value it will be hard to make any significant income.

If I’m 100% honest I can’t see myself doing it. I think too linearly. I just don’t feel I have the creative skills or the desire to learn them that is necessary to make money on Second Life. So for me I think I’ll give trying to make money on Second Life a miss.

In the end it wasn’t a hard decision for me. The combination of the small amount of people earning over $500 per month in Second Life (see statistics here) and the fact that to even get close to that amount of income each month there is a lot of effort and start up costs involved.

That said I will let you decide for yourself. Just because I don’t think its for me doesn’t mean that you won’t enjoy and succeed at it.

I was recommended to get a book called “The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Second Life: Making Money in the Metaverse” if I wanted to make a serious go at it. I recommend that you do the same if you are interested in making money in Second Life.

You can read an extract from the book here. ‘The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Second Life’

So where does that leave us?

Making money in Second Life – some facts and figures

Aug 062008

My quest for further information about how to make money on Second Life continues.

This is a whole new area to me so I am threading very carefully as I don’t want to get my facts and figures wrong or indeed make some Second Life newbie mistake.

So here’s what I’ve learnt so far.

You can make a million real US dollars on Second life.

One user who goes by the avatar name of Anshe Chung has made a million real USD from her activities on Second Life. I found an interview with her from a few years back when her Second Life activities were worth a real 250,000 USD. This interview is very interesting as it comes from a person who is actually making serious money on Second Life. You can read the full interview here – Virtual Land, Real money.

There are two things I want to point out that I noticed in the interview.

The first is that back in 2006 when this interview happened, Anshe Chung had a whole team of people working for her. So my advice is not to think that she is making serious money on her own. In the interview she says that at that time she had a team of about seven freelancers working for her but that she had also just created a team of ten full time people in China to manage billing, accounting and development. This is a serious operation and not a one person show.

So straightaway it gives some idea of the effort involved in generating serious income in Second life. That said our aim is create a decent second income in Second Life and not to build an empire.

The second thing that struck me was that she gave an incredibly valuable piece of advice to anyone thinking of joining Second Life to generate an income. Here is the quote directly from the Business week piece.

“To what do you attribute your success?

One reason for my success here, I strongly believe, is that I am not only here for business. I am very deeply rooted in this world, like a real native person. Most people who just come here for money fail miserably. They are foreigners, act like foreigners, and lack deep understanding of this virtual country. Many of them are also lazybones who think you just need money to make more money. The truly successful people I know here all are deeply involved in life and society here too.”

The key thing to take away from her answer is “Most people who just come here for money fail miserably”.

To me this simple sentence speaks volumes. Unless you are prepared to make the effort to fully integrate and become part of the Second Life community and experience, it appears that your chances of successfully generating an income are limited.

The figures speak for themselves.

You can check the earnings statistics on the Second Life website here.

The statistic that we are interested in is about half way down the page with the header ‘Linden™ Dollars’ and the sub header ‘Unique Users with Positive Monthly Linden™ Dollars Flow’.

From what I can gather this statistic basically shows us the number of people who are making positive income in the Second Life and how much they are making.

I’m going to use a well worn cliché – but the figures really do speak for themselves. Of the 57,821 people that generated a positive income on Second Life in June of 2008 – the vast majority earned less than $500 – 55,732 users to be exact. Most of these people earned less than $50 – 47,546 users. That’s $50 for the whole month. Not exactly a decent second income.

This makes for slightly discouraging reading. If you thought that Second Life was a quick route to riches or even a quick route to a decent second income then you need to think again.

If you examine the figures closely they seem to be representative of nearly all businesses and markets – where the top five percent make the most money. This to me illustrates nicely that Second Life is acting just like any other competitive market where there is real money involved. The winners win big while everyone else struggles on.

But Second Life is different.

Er no not really. When it comes down to it the people who succeed are those who put in the effort or as Anshe Chung puts it ‘are deeply involved in life and society’. The same with any other business venture really.

So I’m still not convinced about generating a second income from Second Life. I’m sure it can be done – Anshe Chung as well as the other 2089 users who made over $500 in June have proved that its possible.

The question is what will it cost to get to the level of income that you are happy with? How long and how deeply integrate in Second Life do you have to become in order to start generating a second income?

That’s my next bit of research…

Can you generate a Second Income in Second Life?

Aug 052008

I’m currently investigating a very interesting way of making money online.

Second Life

Second Life according to PCmag.com is defined as

“A virtual world on the Internet from Linden Research, Inc., San Francisco, CA (www.lindenlab.com), in which “residents” create an identity, meet people, buy land and build their own environment or purchase an existing one. It is a “massively multiplayer online role playing game” (MMORPG), but one that offers users total freedom to create and interact as if they were living another life. Playing the game requires a client download for Windows, Mac or Linux.”

The definition goes further and you can read the rest of it here. But I thought the first paragraph was enough to give you a feel for what Second life is about. Second life is effectively a massive virtual world where users interact much in the same way they would interact in the real world.

Don’t ask me I’m a newbie.

If I’m honest I am completely new to Second life. I had read a few articles about it a few months back but didn’t look into it any further. However as I was researching ways to generate a second income online Second Life kept coming up so I decided that it warranted further investigation.

I’m still in the process of investigating Second Life and from what I’ve gathered so far there is a lot to learn and understand. That said I have also read that there is potential to make some real money by having a presence and interacting on Second Life.

I’m now focusing on learning more about Second Life. The key thing I am concerned about is whether or not it is feasible and realistic to generate a second income via Second Life.

As with any other method of generating a second income before I commit any serious time and resources to it I want to understand more.

For those of you who are interested in doing the same here are some very useful links to articles about Second Life.

A Second Income on Second Life

The truth about earning money in Second Life

How to earn Linden Dollars in Second Life

Economy of Second Life

From my reading and understanding of these articles my initial reaction is that it is possible to generate income in Second Life but not necessarily a huge amount of it. However I would imagine that you could have a great deal fun doing it and this could compensate for the low income. I will continue my research and keep you posted.

I now have an interesting way of possibly generating a second income to focus on. After yesterday’s trawl through the internet looking at dodgy “earn thousands using our plug in profits system” websites I was becoming a bit disillusioned. I was beginning to think that the web contained nothing but scams…anyway enough of my babbling. I’ve got a Second Life to consider.

Second Income? Of course I’m bitter it didn’t work out.

Aug 012008

You know what really annoys me? Those cheezy websites that offer you a once in a lifetime opportunity to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars. Supposedly you can do this in your spare time at home. You will earn fantastic sums of money if only you would just buy their automated system and follow their instructions. It’s really simple just plug and play their system and you will be on the road to riches.

What makes me even madder is the images these so called second income ‘Gurus’ use on their websites. Images of bundles of cash, fast cars and beaches make me want to vomit. How naïve do these ‘Gurus’ think we are? Do they think that those pictures and some slick sales letter will dupe us into buying their automated system?

There’s one born every day.

You can probably guess by my tone that I have been seduced by these websites more than once. I’ll admit the reason those cheezy websites annoy me so much is because I was foolish enough to part with my money in the past. It embarrasses me now when I think about it but I have spent a lot of money pursuing these so called ‘Internet businesses’. What sickens me even more is that I’m sure these internet businesses did make a lot of money…for the person selling them!

If you’re in debt then spending your money on business concepts that do not work or depend on unsustainable methods can knock the wind out of you. The last thing you need is to incur more debt in the pursuit of opportunities that simply don’t exist.

The question I should have asked was ‘If the system was so good then why were they selling it and creating potential competitors instead of just keeping all the money for themselves?’

Learn from experience.

To truly learn it is said that we need to experience things first hand and make mistakes. You don’t learn how to drive or swim by reading a book about it. You get stuck in and start making mistakes – the more the better. This is how we learn.

The same can be said for generating a second income.

I have to admit that I am far from an expert but I am willing to learn. Up to this point I have spent a lot of money learning about what does not work. Often I have wondered if the problem lies more with me and not these so called ‘automated cash machines’. I don’t think so. I could be wrong but in the past I have invested a lot of time, money and energy into these business ventures with very little to show for them.

Could I be getting it wrong every time?

Maybe but I would like to further explore the idea that a sustainable second income can be generated online. Is it really possible to take advantage of all the internet has to offer in terms of leverage and access to a 24 hour a day market?

Over the next articles posts I am going to research and write about online business opportunities to see if it can be done.

I’m toying with the idea of subscribing to one of the more respectable internet business opportunities and really making a go of it to see if it can be done and if it is possible to generate a reasonable second income.

What type of Second Income person are you?

May 162008

The headline screams at you “Make $5000 a month in your spare time”. Curious to find out how this is possible you read on. It appears that it is a Multi Level Marketing (MLM) scheme. You read a little further and then you lose interest thinking to yourself that it is a scam. How on earth can someone make $5000 per month in their spare time? I tend to agree with your first reaction – initially at least. It does seem like a bold claim.

Dig a little further into something like MLM and you are confronted with even bolder claims of wild earnings. The same sort of thing applies to “Internet Marketing”. Stories abound of people who claim to have made lots of money in their spare time. The thing is you only ever hear about the success stories. I doubt that you will ever see a headline like “I lost $2,000 trying to make it in MLM”. The truth is thousands of people try and fail at MLM and Internet Marketing – myself included. In the quest for that elusive second income people spend thousands and make very little in return.

It always made me curious as to what separates the winners from the losers in the game of trying to generate a second income. Now my focus isn’t just on MLM or Internet marketing. You can take any part time endeavour such as a second job or trading on eBay and you will see that long term success is limited to a select few. The turnover of staff in part time jobs tends to be large. The long term success of your average eBayer is not guaranteed.

What makes the difference? Well to be honest I struggled with this myself for a long time. If you want to generate a second income you have a number of factors to consider. The key one is how badly you need the money. If you need it bad enough you will do anything. However this attitude will only work in the short term. To really generate a significant second income you need to be thinking long term.

Your focus needs to switch from short term activities to something that you can maintain in the long term. Ok this is best explained with an example. Say you are in debt and you need money fast. You have a day job but you get a part time job as a security guard to make extra money. You personally find the work boring but you need the money so you stick with it. You took the job to improve your situation and clear your debt but in the long run if you don’t like it then it will become a burden. My advice is to do it as long as it takes to make the money you need to pay your debts. Then look for something more suitable for you for the long term.

What suits you long term?

When you are considering the best method for you to generate a second income you need to examine your personality very closely. How well do you know yourself? Just because a MLM advert promises riches does this mean that the work involved is suited to everyone? Could it be that the people who really make it in MLM are pushy extroverted people who are extremely driven? How comfortable would you be hard selling products to your friends and family? I know I wouldn’t be comfortable with it but I know people who would have no problem with doing it.

The way I see it is if you want to successfully generate a second income in the long term you need to play to your strengths. You need to do something that matches your personality. This seems pretty obvious but I don’t know how many people I have heard about or met that go into something just because there seems to be a lot of people making a lot of money at it. I think it is easier to pick an income generating activity that matches your personality rather than trying to force your personality to match the requirements of an income generating activity.

So if you know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses then you can begin by drawing up a list of activities that you think would suit you. The secret is if you are well suited to an income generating activity and you genuinely enjoy it and put the effort in you will make money at it. It’s as simple as that. It may not happen overnight and you may not make a million but it will give you the satisfaction of knowing you are controlling your financial destiny.

Generate a Second Income? – You can't be serious?

May 132008

You have a job and you have a lot of debt. There is only so much budgeting and belt tightening that you can do. Your focus has now shifted from reducing outgoings to increasing incomings i.e. you want to generate a second income. You can take all the second income and ring fence it so that it goes directly against your debts. You will have your debt problem solved in no time. Unfortunately the reality is a lot different.

To gain an appreciation of how realistic you need to be in order to generate a second income there are a number of key factors that you need to consider. Generating a second income is not as easy and as straightforward as some people would have you believe.

The options

Here is a quick list of ideas off the top of my head and in no particular order that could generate a second income for you. Take a moment to think about each and how they would fit in with your current lifestyle.

1. Get a part time job.

2. Rent out a room in your house.

3. Buy a rental property and rent it out.

4. Trade shares online.

5. Build a website and sell a product.

6. Start trading on eBay

7. Start selling a Mutli-Level Marketing (MLM) product.

8. If you have a trade or skill start doing them on your own account in your spare time.

There are dozens of ways of generating a second income. I just wanted to throw these ones out there to get you thinking.

All fired up yet?

When I look at the list above I say to myself that I could do any one of the items on the list. A nice warm feeling fills up inside of me as I think about how I am going to pay off my debt in double quick time. Oh this is going to be great!.

Then reality hits me square on the chin.

If you have ever tried to generate a second income you will know exactly how difficult it is. Each method of generating a second income has its own drawbacks and limitations. In theory they all seem so simple yet the only person who seems to be making any money is the person who is selling the latest ‘Get rich in your spare time’ course.

Over the next few articles I’m going to be examining what are the best and most effective ways of generating a second income. Is it really possible from a long term perspective to generate a second income? Why it can be hard to generate a second income and finally what are the key factors you need to consider before you can generate a second income effectively.

Till Debt Do Us Part – Pay off debt fast