Sissy76, welcome to the warrior forum I can appreciate your situation and have the greatest sympathy having been in similar myself.

Having said that... my suggestion to you is this: You need to start trying stuff out. You need to get out of that mindset of "I can only focus on what is going to work." No. Listen to me: You have what it takes. With your credentials that you list on your post you can EASILY start making something online.

But you NEED to start trying stuff. Just trying it. Try anything. See it through to the end, then try something else. And yes, sometimes, in the beginning sometimes, some of the stuff you try is going to fail. That's how it is. You just prepare yourself for that and you keep on going. You just have to let go of that mindset that you have to avoid failure. Embrace failure.

Don't think "I need to focus on what works"... no. That is the road to paralysis. Think "I need to TRY some stuff, SEE what works out of all that stuff that I try, and then focus on what I HAVE SEEN works."

You're a writer. So look at this other thread. http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-research.html Forget about everything else. Do exactly what it says and bring your writer skills to bear. If the first one does nothing? Do another one. Until one of them works. Then come back and give Frank a Thanks

Again. You have what it takes. If you put the experience you mention in your post together with some massive, unabashed, so-what-if-I-fail-I'm-gonna-try-it-anyway good ol' fashioned action, you WILL have results. Only after you have those results can you THEN focus on what has worked. That is the path. Guaranteed.

Hi Sissy (is that your first name? if not, apologies)

Sounds like you have a lot of skills you can use there. I know what it's like to be in your position (I was in the same a few years ago and did end up losing my home, marriage, you name it, I lost it, but enough of that).

Let's get some positive action going.

How about article writing and how about writing articles for others, I will be in need of some articles writing for me soon (I do have a another writer I will be using but I could also try you out too).

So if you were to do me an article (which gives you some practice) then I will install a blog for you, free and host it for you, free, at least say for the first year (if this doesn't work out for you then you can simply walk away) but then at least you will know you have tried.

Then on the blog you can start building yourself a website so that you can advertise your services. If your article is good, I will give you a testimonial as well to go on the site.

You could also offer to do some free articles for other warriors to get some more experience and hopefully testimonials (I would say no more than 5) and then you start charging.

What you will be putting in is the work of course, I will put in the installation and hosting of WP for one year to try and give you a start.

I am not a writer so I outsource, but other warriors can give you tons of advise for that.

So leave a message here if you want me to pm you (don't think you can use PM yet, not enough posts). If that's not the way you want to go then fair enough, not a problem.

Good luck
Sue

If you need immediate cash income and you are good at writing, why not try freelance article writing (side by side with your research)? It will not yield much ( I think about $2-5 per article), but at least it will make your cash register jingle and you can make some new contacts. Besides if you can really churn out unique content fast, this should make you at least $20-$30 per day (I know it may seem peanuts, but you can get started immediately).

Oops, Susan, you beat me to it! I was writing the same thing (about article writing etc) and when I posted and refreshed my page I found that you had written about the same thing......

Try freelancing with sites like Elance.com - it can be bumpy
though because you'll be competing for jobs with non-native
English writers who can work for $2 an hour and be very happy.
Despite this lowball competition factor there is a real market
for lucid communicators, you just need to get out there.

You SHOULD have a blog. Wordpress is good - and write in it
everyday. I recommend having your own domain name and
hosting you control, but if you are flat-busted you can get
a free WP blog on Wordpress.org - be warned that if you
violate their terms of service they will shut you down.

The reason to have the blog is to make people feel empathy
for you. Every day write about your situation and things
you are trying to do to change it. You'll fairly quickly (I'll bet)
get a readership on mom's in the same situation. Then
you promote affiliate "make money from home" offers to
them, you can review them or something - because broke
moms who want to make some money from home are looking
for A) something they believe the can do B) a recommendation
from someone they trust. Provide both and you will make
sales. Weight loss products could be good sellers for you
with this type of blog readership is well.

If this strikes you as mercenary - well, welcome to the world
of marketing! People are gonna buy the stuff anyway, but
they would prefer to buy from somebody they like, trust, or
feel they are helping out in a special way in buying from.

It's called "affinity marketing"

I wrote a ebook called "Recessionary Income" with a lot of other
things that will work for people who have zero marketing skills.
They all require work, but most methods are not "tricky" --
recession income - economic recession guide|how to make money FREE|recession income

The key becomes movement, if you have spent 12 months researching then you do have background knowledge, but like a lot of people in your situation - I am one as well - you get scared of failure.

Don't fear it embrace it, you have great motivation around you - your kids - so do it for and because of them. Harry made some excellent points and I agree with him.

With your talents, there is no reason you can't achieve success, if you start to take action.

Don't let the fear stop you Sissy.

Mark

If you're looking for some immediate income try this:

1. Get a free Clickbank account.

2. Choose some offers in popular niches like, get your ex back - acne - weight loss - 6-pack abs.

3. Register a domain for each niche and redirect the domain (with your unique clickbank ID intact) directly to the Clickbank vendor's sales page.

4. Get an Ezinearticles account

5. Write short, factual, keyword rich, interesting articles and test resource boxes until you're at 20 % CTR or more. Link directly to your domain. EZA will allow top level redirects to vendor. Don't forget to also spend time creating attention grabbing headlines for each article.

If you do this, you will see almost immediate sales. Keep in mind that this is not going to build your business. The only advantage you will have is that you can build a website with that domain after the financial crisis is over. The beauty is that you will already have many inbound links to it.

This is a stop-gap measure I've used in the past to create some emergency cash.

As soon as you can, start writing articles for your own sites and start building a list to take full advantage of each visitor you get.

Given your skills set I would consider setting up a proofreading and copywriting website or blog and start providing helpful tips, advice and information for those wanting to get into the copywriting or proofreading sector. You could includes links to leading training organisations and businesses that would employ such individuals. You could also provide advice about professional copywriting methods or the proofreading symbols used.

Practically this is what I would do;

1. Either buy a domain and create a basic site initially. Focus on excellent content not on stunning graphics. Or alternatively go to blogger.com and get a free blog at first. This has less flexibility but it does mean that you could get started with little technical experience.

2. Create at least 50 high quality articles or at least 1,000 words in length linked to ythe copywriting and proofreading industires. Think up some titles for articles by having a brainstorming session or go to the Google Keyword checker tool here:https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal

I typed in the word copywriting and it returned hundreds of keywords linked to the copywriting niche. Look for keywords with a minimum of 1,000 visits a day on the Global Search Volume Heading.

examples include;

copywriting jobs - 6,600 searches
seo copywriting - 9,900
advertising copy - 6,600 etc....

You can either start posting one article at a time or wait until you have all 50. The reason that 50 is key is because Google likes bigger sites and 50 is a nice number to start getting recognised in search engines.

3. Site Promotion.

You then need to start promoting your site through article submission, do follow blogging and do follow forums and start getting it noticed by other online users.

4. Target a niche. The key is to target your niche and stick with it. Don't pad it out with a variety of articles, just make it really concentrated around copywriting and proofreading and you'll start to get recognised. Once you site is up and running then apply for an Adsense Account and starting making a little extra money.

Here's how I started in IM that generated some quick small cash.

1.Went to Clickbank and pick a product.
2.Submitted the product to Need-An-Article.com
3.Created a domain name
4.Took the Article and put it into a Wordpress
5.Ran a campaign using Google Adwords.

One way in 100.

Alright girl, first thing we need to talk about is your financial situation. Don't take it as a personal thing. Look, if companies such as Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Chrysler, General Motors, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Merrill Lynch, and AIG can't keep their heads above water--it is understandable how individuals, no matter how intelligent, motivated, or clever they may be--can be in troubled waters as well. It's tough out there!

I want to give you two quotes and a possibly course of action. First, here is a quote I used in one of my books (with permission from Lifetime Books). It comes from OgMandino's The Greatest Salesman In The World. For a few bucks you can pick up the paperback in any bookstore--highly recommended. Look yourself in the mirror every morning and read the following quote to yourself until you have it down to memory.



"I will persist until I succeed.
I was not delivered unto this world in defeat, nor does failure course my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep. I will hear not those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious. Let them join the sheep. The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny."

Next, it seems to me you have tools and skills of great value. Here is a simple thought. It's not a revelation, but maybe you could go with something like this.

Pick any niche and start Googling around for sales pages for various products in that niche. Read through the sales pages and take notes. I don't care what niche or page you look at, you can likely find mistakes--some major, some not so. But use your skills and experience and to find those dangling participles, comma faults, problems with subject-verb agreement and parallel constructions--even punctuation and word usage.

Send an email to the product vendor explaining the errors and that you would be interested in editing future sales pages or ebooks to make them top notch. I'll bet you would get some replies. If a contact email is not on their sales page, opt in for their newsletter or mini-course. It is likely contact info will be at the bottom of the emails they send you. You could, I believe, build a business around this concept.

And don't forget the Warrior Forum here. There are lot's of people asking for critiques of their sales pages or e-books. Help them out. Get some testimonials. Build, build, build.

A lot of people here disagree with me about the value of using proper grammar, punctuation, etc in their materials. To me it is vital. Just a thought.

Finally, here's my last quote. It's from Amy Lee (Evanescence) singing Bring Me To Life.

"Now that I know what I'm without . . .
You can't just leave.
Breathe into me, make me real. Breathe. Breathe.
Bring me to life."

Listen to your ideas Sissy; they will talk to you; they will share their secrets with you; they will call your name and ask you to bring them to life.

Breathe into your ideas and those of others and bring them to life. You can do this babe. Get serious. Be a lion--not a sheep. I will add this: To be ultra successful in any endeavor, you must step out of your comfort zone. You must do what your competitors are unwilling or unable to do. You must walk from the "safe" to the edge of chaos, to the wobbling fluxes that separate what has been done to what could be done. That's where the excitement, the potential, and yes--the money lies.

The Danish existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once wrote, "I stuck my finger into existence--It smelled of nothing!" Unfortunately, for many people that is true. But honey, that's not good enough for you. When you stick your finger into existence and pull it out, it needs to smell of excitement, of yearning to accomplish, of the thrill of doing.

Breathe into your ideas. Make them real. Bring them to life!

You have a lot of skills to offer. You need to stop reading ebooks and start implementing. Get some sites up ... even if they're crap to start out with. You'll improve. You need practical experience. In addition to launching your own blog or site, the very skills you say you have are valuable skills and can be offered on elance.com. Sign up for the categories that will allow you to sell children's books and your writing services. Bid on projects. Until you get feedback, bid lower than you would normally. You will need to get some feedback going, but once you do, you can bid higher. There are a lot of other freelance sites, but Elance is the biggest of them and has the most projects.

Sissy, I've sent you a pm

[DELETED]

Sissy,

As someone who has spent the past twenty years working with tens of thousands of people specifically with resolving debt I have some advice.

If you qualify for Bankruptcy go ahead and file. It is not the end of the world and always keep in mind that your family comes first. Not the banks. Not the collectors.

It is very difficult to build a business or make sound decisions from the standpoint of desperation. In many many cases, people that file for bankruptcy have great success immediately after filing. And there is a good reason. They feel like a huge weight has been lifted and they are finally able to have clear thoughts.

I am not an advocate of bankruptcy, but I am an advocate of doing right for you and your family. Take care of your needs first putting aside guilt, worry, and fear.

If I can be of any assistance to you by providing no cost, unbiased advice, please PM me and I will gladly talk you through this.

Good luck.

Hi sissy, being an Ausse makes no difference (me too) so don't be put off registering at elance because of the cheap writers, there are lots of people that are happy to pay good money for articles there.
It's one of the quickest ways to make fast cash if you need money in a hurry. but you have the skills to take it much further than that, just use it to get started.

I did some writing at elance once when I needed some quick cash,(charged $8-$10 an article) and then got offered more jobs pretty quickly from that work, I do other things now but it is a great way to make fast money to meet an urgent deadline.
all the best!

My Suggestion....

Go with your Strenghs!

There is a market are childrens books and you've already been down this road. So you are familiar with the crowd.

How about turning your children books/stories into ipod format. Or...even an audio ebook as well. It may require that you hire a voice, if your not comfortable with doing it yourself.

But, you would have quick access to sell your product(s) on itunes and through Amazon.

A lot of us have been in that spiral, including me. It seems like everything is closing in and decisions become very difficult to make. In my case, I was afraid that one more mistake would be the final straw and cause a lot of harm for my family.

You have to start trying something. Once you get moving, it's amazing how fast things start to change. Begin by leveraging your current very impressive skill set. Offer to write articles for an existing web site (or blog) owner for a fee. Create a portfolio a well written articles on topics you know about and offer the package for sale here in the forum. Try technical writing. Company IT staffs (programmers) hate writing documentation and will only do it under force. I know because I used to work in corporate data processing departments. Most will gladly hire you to write the docs for them.

Get determined and get moving. Look at it this way - what do you have to lose? Best of luck!

Well, I hate to say it but there's one mistake. Even on a limited schedule you could have gotten things started a year ago.

Everyone has a different formula but here's mine laid out for you: Earn Online Cash with a Niche Adsense Blog. I'm a big proponent of the niche content blog/site SEO model because it's very low cost and the time investment is whatever speed you want to go. The downside is that results are slower.

Sissy, I just sent you a PM.

Jeremy

Sissy, there are many opportunties to get started as a writer online.

The biggest problem you will face is that the majority of advice in this thread has come from non-writers and is totally false.

They are saying what happens in their niche, and not all niches are equal.

You could jump into writing articles for at least $15 an article, but to get those rates, you have to put certain things in place.

I know people who have completed writing programs here, and they still haven't made a dime, because the information given has been inaccurate.

Giving free articles isn't the way to start, because if you put a thread here offering them, then you will get freebie seekers who will have no interest in giving you a testimonial or buying from you as well.

Also, some of the people who give testimonials say, "Great article" and they have no idea that the article is full of errors. That doesn't help anyone.

Just be very careful who you accept advice from.

If you want to get into writing online, then take advice from writers only.

Sissy, I have PM'd you.

Good luck!

Sissy,

Others have been in your shoes as well, including me. I would suggest you look up the story of Amy Bass - she was drowning in debt as well and through hard work and determination she's become a success - and you can too!

here's a link on the forum that talks about her:
http://www.warriorforum.com/internet...e-blogger.html

and here's a link that provides some information on her story.
My Debt Free Goal | My Debt Free Goal

If there's anything I can do to help please let me know.

best,
--Jack

You could post on Odesk as a writer. I don't believe they charge unless you win a bid. There are a lot of foreigners on there, but in the writing category, it's a lot easier for Americans to compete.

You can still give the freelancing sites a try. You don't have to price yourself as low as those who can work for $2 per article.

Anyway, I'm sure you have a portfolio. Put it up on your blog as well as samples of your work. Clients will recognize talent. And not all clients go for cheap article writers.

Good luck.

Bev, I am most certain you are a dear, dear person. However, I have to take exception with your post above. It seems a bit rude, condescending, and intolerant of the views of others who are only trying to help the OP out! You are ripping forum members who you judge to be "non-writers". We are all human and all subject to the foibles to which flesh is heir.

We are all trying to help each other out. That is the purpose of this forum and the above posters are performing that function in fine fashion. Your own post contains more grammatical/writing errors than those of most other posters in this thread. I was tempted to point all of them out, but opted to take the high road on that one.
Now, I'm not attacking you Bev, but when you make blanket statements about no one in this thread being a writer, and all of the advice being totally false--I do take exception to that. Good people have made valuable posts here. They are trying to help Sissy out of a serious situation. They have taken valuable time away from other projects to do this. You have tried to make every poster in this thread feel like sh*t and inferior to you; they are not!

Sissy, all of the posters have made generous and valuable comments trying to help you (I am including Bev). There are many, many very sharp, clever, and capable people here who know a lot about making money online. They all do it in different ways. Read their advice. Pick a path and give it your best shot. Good luck!!!

Sissy, I want to thank you for your candid post. I too have become a victim of the economic downturn and find myself in financial straits and looking for a new career at the tender age of 58. And like you I have been spending WAY TOO MUCH time learning and not enough time doing. Your predicament has prompted many valuable responses that compel me (and I suspect a bunch of other readers) to start falling on my face and making mistakes. It's going to happen and I (we) might as well get it over with. Best of luck to all of us; Sissy, I'll be following your posts and your progress.

What an incredibly great thread. There are a lot of days when I'm a little embarrassed to be called an Internet Marketer ... today isn't one of them.

Sissy,





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ignore everything else.

YOU NEED TO FOCUS AND DO THIS DAILY.

[DELETED]

Stablize yourself first. Being an entrepreneur is anything but stability. Desperation will drive you to poor business decisions.

Despite what creditors will try to tell you to sway you emotionally, don't be afraid to file bankruptcy. It's simply a management tool for business, as well as it should be for individuals.

But if you file, use it as the opportunity to get back on track the right way.... with safety nets, frugal all cash budgets... etc...

Wow great help here. I am also very close to bankruptcy, and posted here looking for help, got some tips and pointers, and then the thread was suddenly locked, no idea why.

We've had a website up selling jewelry and designer handbags for 6 months now and no matter what we do, nobody is buying anything. It's really depressing to logon every day and see no sales again and again and again. /sigh

Everyone keeps saying to persist, but very soon we will be offline, as we are out of money, with zero income and no prospects at this point in time.

Ummm, MOST people's financial situation is not pretty dire. It may help you feel better to think so, but it's not true.

Hi Sissy,

I want to thank you for being humble enough to share with us your plight as it has brought out so many great responses!!

I might suggest that since you are a writer and you have stated your interest in Steve's plan, check out this thread started by Tim Gorman here in the forum: here

It's like a mini crash course in article marketing at ezinearticles.com TONS of practical advice that most guys would charge for.

I can relate to the sick toddler situation (I've had 9 even though my youngest is now 6). It is tough to be a full time mom and full time earner. But you can do it!

Another idea: Tiffany Dow is another full time mom and full time marketer. Check out her site: Tiffany Dow’s Internet Marketing Blog because she is doing some affiliate marketing but is being totally transparent with how she is doing it.

[DELETED]

There are a lot of people here looking for a writer. Create a sample pack and post it to show others what you can do. Many do something like this to 'increase interest' in their product or service.

Many Warriors look for writers here and do not expect to pay 'bottom dollar' for quality work. Your sample pack will show your work quality and increase offers.

Article writing or small report writing fits in the 'up and down' time schedule of a Mom and still brings in money. Also I've seen blog comment writing as a possible project, even shorter and faster to do.

But get started with something.
One way --
1. Create a blog with samples of your writing and testimonials. (Build a list of those who ask for your samples). In my opinion blogs are easier to understand and to without having to learn website creation and design. Lots of great blog templates, called themes, to start with.
2. Post at Warriors for work. Lots of info exist on WSO's. Two places to list your writing service.)
3. (optional) Look here and at ClickBank, etc. for products you can recommend in a niche you concentrate in for a few extra bucks coming in passively.

I've pm'd an idea to you.

Good luck