I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking about ways to earn some extra money right now. I’ve seen a few people working on some side hustles to get them by and pivoting their businesses. In fact, a post by WebinarNinja gave me some inspiration to update my resources page. I recommend favorite tools and services by adding options to my affiliate recommendations on my business site. I’m not willing to turn my site into a wasteland of ad banners like many of the bloggers I know have done in order to monetize their content. Those ad blocks make me twitchy. Times like these call for a little out of the box thinking and creativity. Creativity…
Bring on Adobe’s Design to Print
I got a little bit punchy last week while the stress levels ramped up, and I started to experiment with a new option in Photoshop that integrates with Zazzle. I started up a Zazzle store and turned some of my favorite puppy pictures into t-shirt and mug designs. I don’t expect to get rich, but maybe I’ll earn a buck or two from my family and friends. I learned a new tool, created something that made me smile, and stopped brooding about the economy for a few hours.
Added Service Ideas
Next on my list of out of the box thinking was what I could do to drum up some business or bring on some additional projects. I started thinking about the tools and services that I use for my own business, and how I might employ those on behalf of paying customers. Rather than mope, I wrote and I created. I blogged about my UpDraft Plus cloned website service which is something I do for existing clients, but could do as a standalone service. I also updated my Square Appointments site to make it easier for people to sign up for new services. I now have a way to sign up and pay for a WordPress security review and tuneup. Prevention is really important and there are millions of sites at risk within the past month alone from vulnerabilities.
Selling knowledge/courses/content is a big deal these days. For some people these are side hustles, but for others it is how they’ve built their entire business. You can ask people to become members and pay for access to exclusive content, which is especially important in our current remote world. To easily lock your content behind a membership site with several payment methods, I’ve got a great deal for setting up WishList Member for WordPress sites.
Today, thanks to AppSumo, I have added another tool to my arsenal. One of the biggest complaints I get from my clients (and see for myself when I fill out forms and never hear back from a business), is that website forms end up in a black hole somewhere. Not the spam folder (although a lot of them do end up there), but lost in hosting limbo. This is especially frustrating for people who use WooCommerce on their websites, or have booking plugins and other registration or contact forms. Enter MailPoet, a plugin and delivery service that is designed to solve email form limbo. I’ll be testing this service for how well it delivers, how it prevents bot spam, and what the delivered emails look like. Once I’m sure it delivers on promised inbox rates, I’ll add it as another service offering.
Bit by bit, those “side hustles” can add up. At the very least, I’m DOING something with my stress that could pay off in the long run. Feel free to reach out if you want to learn more or do something like this for yourself. Hope > Giving Up…