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Ask HN: Fastest way to make $300-400 a month online?

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Ask HN: Fastest way to make $300-400 a month online?

#1
This is approximately my cost of living (I'm from a cheap country). I need to pay for food and rent. I can program well and relatively quickly. I'm not looking to build a monster business, I'm looking to cover my costs of living as efficiently as possible.

Suggestions?

Re: Ask HN: Fastest way to make $300-400 a month online?

#3
post #2

try some freelance boards, like elance.com, create a blog(no fast money here) , try meacanical turk...what language do you programm? offer your services for free to build some referals, and set a portfolio with those referals.

Python, ruby, php, scheme, c, c++, java.

Any ideas how quickly I could make the money off of something like elance (or how quickly you could, since we don't know our relative coding speeds)? Likewise for Mechanical Turk?

Re: Ask HN: Fastest way to make $300-400 a month online?

#4
- Build a product worth $97 in value (I like teaching, so information products works best for me), then sell 3-4 a month.

- Find other people who want to know what you know, then charge $97-497 a month to coach them.

- Do NOT start a blog for advertising dollars or do mechanical turk - your ROI will be extremely low vs. the time and energy you spend. Instead, use a website to sell your products or services, whatever they may be.

Re: Ask HN: Fastest way to make $300-400 a month online?

#5
post #2

try some freelance boards, like elance.com, create a blog(no fast money here) , try meacanical turk...what language do you programm? offer your services for free to build some referals, and set a portfolio with those referals.

Python, ruby, php, scheme, c, c++, java. Any ideas how quickly I could make the money off of something like elance (or how quickly you could, since we don't know our relative coding speeds)? Likewise for Mechanical Turk?

hmm, it depends, I really can't tell you as it depends, the problem with the freelance boards is the reputation, you need to build a reputation to have good projects there. On mecanical Turk, you can start rright away, but you will not earn the world there, and I doubt you will earn 400 $ from it. Just drop me a mail at: djachao (at) yahoo.de , I may have something for you.

Re: Ask HN: Fastest way to make $300-400 a month online?

#6

- Build a product worth $97 in value (I like teaching, so information products works best for me), then sell 3-4 a month. - Find other people who want to know what you know, then charge $97-497 a month to coach them. - Do NOT start a blog for advertising dollars or do mechanical turk - your ROI will be extremely low vs. the time and energy you spend. Instead, use a website to sell your products or services, whatever…

I like this route. I can write well and I'm well-educated, so I feel like I have information that MUST be valuable. I just don't know how to identify / sell it. I know it's probably hard to give specifics without knowing what I want to sell, but can you give me any advice on how long generating such a product might take (how long it took you in the beginning, perhaps?) and how you might pick such a product?

Re: Ask HN: Fastest way to make $300-400 a month online?

#7
How legit does the money have to be? An easy way of making money is following on trends and outbuilding products.

You can basically shadow interesting/scalable projects for sale on sites like Flippa. Occasionally, something good will popup, for example, a twitter spamming system that autotweets and adds followers.

Then you simply clone what works, add better features, do better SEO or whatever, and VOILA!

Re: Ask HN: Fastest way to make $300-400 a month online?

#8
post #7

How legit does the money have to be? An easy way of making money is following on trends and outbuilding products. You can basically shadow interesting/scalable projects for sale on sites like Flippa. Occasionally, something good will popup, for example, a twitter spamming system that autotweets and adds followers. Then you simply clone what works, add better features, do better SEO or whatever, and VOILA!

So is the idea that I clone it and then sell in on Flippa? Or make money from the built product itself?

Re: Ask HN: Fastest way to make $300-400 a month online?

#9
post #7

How legit does the money have to be? An easy way of making money is following on trends and outbuilding products. You can basically shadow interesting/scalable projects for sale on sites like Flippa. Occasionally, something good will popup, for example, a twitter spamming system that autotweets and adds followers. Then you simply clone what works, add better features, do better SEO or whatever, and VOILA!

So is the idea that I clone it and then sell in on Flippa? Or make money from the built product itself?

Well obviously if the product has recurring income, keep it. Or flip and sell it early, depending on the space/risk for long term viability.

Re: Ask HN: Fastest way to make $300-400 a month online?

#10
Build a comparison site or two: look for a market where affiliate programs are ubiquitous, structure the data and write a small application that helps customers decide. Get traffic using some basic SEO. Then pocket the commission from sales.

I did this for the personal savings market and "sim-only" mobile telephony subscriptions market in the Netherlands. It brings in a couple of hundred euros a month with only 1-2 hours of maintenance.

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