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| Yes | 32% | 493 votes | Total: 1540 votes | |
| No | 68% | 1047 votes |
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Add to FavoritesWhen I first read this question to myself, my first response was no. Surveys just earn you measly cents. Other online gigs? Either scams, hard to be successful in, or a few more pennies to add onto your survey total.
Then I started to think about it a bit more closely. I'm making $50 a month right now, and I've only started actively earning online money within the last 6 months. So I'm not paying my bills yet, but I very well could be within the next few years. This is just me too, working on my own. I'm not a web designer, freelance writer (except here on Helium, of course), and I'm no part of an Internet marketing firm. So my final answer is, yes, you can earn a successful income online. Can you quit your job right now to pursue your stay-at-home dream job to pay the bills? No, nobody can do that. In order to earn a decent amount, it takes time and a good understanding of the concepts below.
The Power of Exponential Growth
If you're an avid Helium writer, you can see the power of exponential growth already. Whether you're only making a few cents a day, or ten dollars a day, you can see that as your article count and quality grows, so do your earnings. You've probably also realized that if you keep up at this rate, you could be making an amount that could, in the very least, contribute to your monthly bills.
It is important to understand exponential growth because it applies to most areas of online earning-not just Helium. For example, if you own a blog in your niche, you can view exponential growth in both visitors and advertising programs like Google Adsense.
One thing to consider when planning a valid income online however, is that some methods don't offer exponential growth. Surveys, paid emails, and other things of the like are programs that will not help you long-term. Sure, they can provide a bit of extra income, maybe only a few hundred dollars a year though. In perspective, they only take a few extra seconds of your time a day, so it's up to you whether it's worth the little bit of money for the little bit of time. You can add it to your 'online-earning portfolio', but don't plan to pay your bills with it alone.
It Takes Time
With anyone who makes any sort of income online, it takes time. Most work-online enthusiasts, unless they're very lucky, use multiple websites to earn their income, and in addition have been working at it for several years. With this piece of information, I think its obvious to see that 'get rich quick' schemes just don't work. Growing a website, a portfolio, and a reputation online is what gets you the money.
Freelancing
Wha t do you like to do? Design? Program? Write? Market? There are thousands of freelancing options online, and thousands of people looking for personal services. You can find contract-based online gigs, and depending on what you do and on your skill level, you can earn anywhere from $10 to a few thousand!
Look for needed services on Craigslist, for freelancing forums like TalkFreelance.com.
Ow n Your Own Website or Blog
Start something yourself. Whether it be for a portfolio, or to share information on something you're interested in. If you're good enough at selling your information or work, you can make a lot of money. There is always a learning curve involved, so always improve your writing skills, and the skills in your niche. I love the blogs WakeUpLater.com and ProBlogger.net for creating successful websites that, over time, earn you substantial money.
Blogs are very popular, and you can get blog hosting for free. Try Wordpress.com or Blogger. Creating a website can be free to as little as $30 a year. You can even mix the two and create your own website containing a blog.
Once you establish your own presence online, you can start to take advantage of other programs, such as affiliate marketing and advertising programs. In the end, the only way to make money successfully online, and to make enough to completely pay your bills, is to use a substantial amount of effort and passion, and to keep yourself motivated as time goes along.
Learn more about this author, Brenna Mae.
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No
After several months of tackling the issue of making money on line, from home, I still have to vote on the "No" side of this debate about surveys and on line gigs paying your bills. I don't buy into those get rich quick doing nothing sites, even though their ads are pretty enticing. Even though we'd all like to believe their nicely written testimonies, the only one making any money is the site itself with the ridiculous "membership fees" they charge. I have the good judgment to know that if it's to good to be true, as they say, then it probably is!
There must be a million different survey site just sitting in search engines waiting to be found. I have found what seems to be about half of them. There are a lot of free ones, all you have to do is sign up. Some are paid sites that charge a small sign up fee. I must admit, I have tried one or two of the paid sites that claim to be the best, (yes, I just had to know). Unfortunately, they got my money and all I got was a list of survey sites that I had already joined for free.
Signing up to all the sites is no walk in the park either. Be prepared to spend hours going through page after page of offers you have supposedly qualified for. Realistically, they are just trying to sell you something from their advertisers. You have to go through all of these offers just to get your membership confirmed, some of them won't even let you proceed until you have chosen one or more of the offers. How's that for hard sell tactics? If you have finally gotten signed up to several survey sites, your email inbox will start filling up pretty quickly. Some of them will tell you they are offering anywhere from a dollar and up to complete the survey. The problem is, not to many people ever seems to qualify to totally complete the survey, therefore you get zilch. Some just offer you an entry into a sweepstakes. I've been entered into a bunch of them, but amazingly have not won anything. Others let you accumulate points to exchange for prizes. The point value necessary to redeem for prizes seems extremely high.
Reading emails for pay seems to be a popular gig too. I am a member of three such sites. Again, your inbox fills up and you are being paid to click on these emails. The pay is about 3 cents for the ones you actually click open and read. What you are reading is another advertisement to join, buy or try out something. Snap Dollars, Send Earnings and In Box Dollars are the three I know about, but there are probably more. Snap Dollars and Send Earning seem to send a lot of the same advertisements and their sites have a very similar look, so I am not sure if it's an affiliate thing or what. At three cents a click, I don't plan on getting to many bills paid, that's for sure.
Most of us are sincere about wanting to earn a fair pay for a fair amount of work. And some of us, for various reasons, need to do this from home. It can be very frustrating running into one scam after another, looking for a way to earn an honest dollar. Don't depend on taking surveys or some of the other online schemes to pay your bills, because from my experience with them, I just don't see that happening.
Unless, of course, you take the path I have taken. Instead of trying to make some money doing surveys, I'll give writing about them a shotat least I enjoy that!
Learn more about this author, Donna Thacker.
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