Ramya Abhinand – Me Otherwise

10 Sites to Make Money from Home

Ramya Abhinand — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 07:18:58 +0000

Looking to earn money now, online? Wondering how to get a bit of extra money? If you are looking for ways to earn MONEY you will love how easy it is to earn in cash right now. There are sites that provide money-making opportunities( and these actually work) With the uncertainty in the air, I realized a considerable number of folks around me are in a quest, hunting down side hustles and work from home options. I have until now never really given much thought to this aspect of earning (apart from the income I get from my blog). But my research has thrown some amazing facts. I was surprised to know that, even before the lock down, there has been a thriving freelance industry with stay at home moms and those looking for an extra earning over and above their 9-5 job actually getting substantial income. Here is a bit of snippet of the sites that actually do offer options to make money from home. Do note these are legit sites (I have done my research/ homework) If you love to write Fiverr This is one of the most popular sites for micro jobs and freelance gigs. Registering here is free. All you need to do is create a profile and list out the skills you are offering. If your profile looks interesting to someone, you might just get lucky to be hired for your services. The best part is the platform takes care of the admin- from quoting your price to getting paid. Outsourcely Yet another brilliant platform that connects writers with clients. The platform offers tons of writing assignments. What makes you click here is having an impressive profile that would stand out for clients to hire your services. Freelancer Though really not my favourite, I still mention it here for the simple reason that it has a plethora of options. From IT, programming, designing and writing, the platform has over a 100 different type of skills to offer. However I personally felt the response was a bit slow out here. Nevertheless it is free to get started and should be worth a try for beginners in the freelance market. Up Work Up Work is very similar to freelancer, though I found this better in terms of quality of work. The platform offers a wide range of job options. The pay isn’t high as individuals quote and compete to win the job offer, but it’s a great place to build a freelance writing experience. Pro blogger jobs board And here is my favourite of them all. The jobs here are legit and the seekers for your skills are dead serious to hire. For, clients are charged an amount to register at Problogger hence they do hire once the job is posted. Just that jobs on the ProBlogger Job board go quickly. So be quick to apply for one when you notice it suits your requirement. If you love to read Online Book Club.Org Online Book Club is a legitimate site that offers anywhere around $5 for reading and reviewing books. They expect you to provide honest, good quality reviews- more on the professional side. The expectation is to be able to deliver quality work. The better the review the higher your score and thus a higher potential to make money. Upwork Upwork lets you apply for freelance reviewing opportunities as when when such an opportunity arises. Requirements are case to case basis and one needs to first make a pitch for it. If selected then payments would be made depending on the amount quoted for the task. This site is basically a site for freelancers. Book Browse Book Browse is a sort of online literary magazine. Once you become a member you would get an opportunity to review books depending on the requirements that arise. There is a schedule that keeps changing and following this would help in getting books. Payments again are case to case basis. Any Subject books This site pays for every book you read and review for them. You would initially have to apply to be a book reviewer on the site. Once approves as a reviewer, then book offers are sent and payment depends on each assignment undertaken. Reedsy Discovery This site technically doesn’t pay cash for a review. However when readers enjoy your work, they can send $1, $3 or $5 your way. These small thank you’s can help you earn money from your reading addiction / passion. Proofreading options Proofreaders are those who help websites, authors and those who create any form of content identify mistakes before having them go live. They check for errors such as spelling, grammar or punctuation. If you have good writing skills and an eye that is ready to spot errors, as a freelance proofreader you could just fetch yourself an extra income. A few sites that offer opportunities for freelance proof readers are Scribendi One of the best places to get started on proofreading is here. Clients here look out here for editing and proofreading services and if you are able to deliver high quality work, this is your place. Scribendi routinely performs quality assurance checks on documents to ensure that the editing and proofreading is of a high quality. So you got to match their standards here to be able to earn . Proofreading jobs are also plenty in freelance sites such as Upwork and Fiverr Digital marketing Digital Marketing: Yet again many may argue that companies do not have a great budget to advertise in the online and digital world. On the contrary I personally feel this is the place where one may see options as the rate of online data consumption has gone up. With people spending more time online, communicating and socializing, businesses are realizing the potential in digital marketing. Data Specialist: With more people online and more requirement of information and data, a data specialist is the need of the hour to understand, collate and comprehend data from across different avenues and sectors. For businesses this data is of vital importance as it drives key decision with respect to understanding demand, supply and costs. Both the above have freelance options that are in plenty in Fiverr and Upwork. Are you aware of any sites that offer freelance jobs? Do share in the comments section.

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Book Marketing Tips and Tactics for Self Publishing

Ramya Abhinand — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 12:50:20 +0000

You have put your heart and soul into writing your book. As much as you are proud of the final outcome you surely must not fail at marketing this book of yours. Here is the first and vital step you must do. Let’s face it. Readers do go through book reviews before picking up a book. It could be from their favourite blogs or from Good Reads, or they may just search for a review online and hit upon a site. Even if a book is gifted, you probably still do try to gather a review about it online or from Amazon. I often tend to look out for how many stars a title has been given (though I take this with a pinch of salt- with the number of fake reviews that float around these days). I just hope most are legit. Book reviews as marketing strategy Book reviews are vital to any author who would love to create a larger audience for their published title. In fact it is important to include it as part of their book marketing strategy. This obviously makes more sense for self-published authors as they generally do not have a big budget for marketing or, have a big publication backing them. If you are a self-published author, then shy not away from a book review, as it gives your potential buyers an insight into what your writing is all about. Reasons to seek book reviews for self-published authors For a self-published author, a newbie or novice author, word-of mouth marketing is indeed the best form. It can persuade others to pick the book and read. Bloggers reviews too aid in this as readers do catch up on reviews regularly. As a matter of fact, a good review could just spin off a good fortune for your book. It may just persuade readers to buy, read and recommend the same to others- a sort of snow ball effect. Thus it makes sense for very author to focus on reviews from bloggers and readers across platforms and include them as part of their book marketing strategy. Reviews are subjective in nature Also, one must remember a very important fact here. Any sort of review is subjective. Thus if a reader thinks and believes that your book isn’t up to the mark, or the plot fails, or other reasons, remember that it is just their opinion. Probably, another reader may just pen the opposite. On the contrary I believe, authors may use this as a yard stick to improve their game and evaluate constructively, areas that could have been dealt with better. The same also applies when a book receives rave reviews. As much as it feels awesome, do look into your work constructively and check if they are indeed worth it. The bottom line from all this is believe in yourself and try working on your game every single day. Questions to ask before requesting for a review What is the weight of the opinion on you and your book? Do you entirely trust the judgement? Where will the review be posted? What will the audience be for this?

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Retire a Millionaire When You Haven’t Even Started

Ramya Abhinand — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 09:55:05 +0000

This is a question that crosses almost all minds. Unlike our forefathers, our dependence on our children for our welfare is almost nil or minimal, post retirement. We need to save and plan for ourselves, so that we are able to lead a comfortable life, without financial constraints in the golden years of life. However, the decision on how much to save may seem to be a complex issue to many individuals. Suggested read: Five Reasons to Look Long Term in Investing What’s the Magical Number? There isn’t really a defined or fixed amount that would guarantee a comfortable retirement for everybody. Nevertheless, financial planners and experts advocate simple steps to help you arrive at a rough estimate to provide a financially secure retirement. Various factors are taken into consideration to arrive at this amount. The main factor that governs your retirement corpus is a person’s own individual need. It is your lifestyle, preferences, financial commitments and personal choice that determines how much you need to save for your retirement. Evaluation of individual needs not only helps to arrive at a retirement corpus, it also builds a pathway towards saving for the same. Step 1: When Do You Plan to retire and your Life expectancy? When would you be out of your active professional life? A widespread practice among many is to retire once most financial/social commitments such as children’s education, marriage and home purchase is met. This is to ensure your retirement years are free of any major financial obligations. Also consider an average life expectancy to give you an idea of how many years post retirement your corpus has a role to play. So if you take an average life expectancy of say 85 years, and plan to retire by 60 years of age, you would have 25 years. Suggested read: Ten Habits To Avoid If You Want To Save Money! Step 2: Determine your present expenses under current standard of living You would need to make a realistic estimation of how much you currently require annually for living a comfortable life. Make a note of everything, rent, children’s expenses, medical and holiday costs. Step 3: Calculation of Future Value As a basic thumb rule, your retirement fund should aim to let you maintain the same kind of lifestyle before and after retirement. Bear in mind, your current life style may actually cost you much more 20 to 25 years down the line. This is due to the impact of inflation. Inflation is the general increase in the price of goods and service. With the Indian economy facing an average inflation of around 8% in the last few years, its effects have to be considered, to arrive at a more realistic value. We could mathematically calculate the inflation adjusted amount as below Future value= Today’s value * ((1 + inflation rate) ^ number of years left to retire) For example, if your current annual expenses are $ 3, 00,000, and you have 39 years left for retirement, under the current inflation rate of 8%: = 3, 00,000*((1+8%) ^30) = $ 30, 18,797. This is the amount you would require annually to maintain the same standard of living, 30 years from now. Step 4: How Much Do You Need to Save? Having understood what your annual requirement is, let us look at how much your retirement corpus should be. An easy way to calculate the corpus that generates your actual annual expenses post retirement is by applying this simple mathematical formula. It factors in your annual inflation adjusted future value, along with the real rate of return expected per year. Re-looking at the above example, with an annual rate of return at 7% The corpus needed at the time of retirement = (Annual Expenses)/ (interest expected) = $ 30, 18,797/7% = $ 4, 31, 25,671.43 Saving For Your Retirement Having seen the sizable corpus needed for retirement, it is strongly recommended to have a proper retirement plan in place. For most of us retirement seems too distant hence we fail to give it much importance, or, end up with inadequate savings. First and foremost- Start early in life. As the wise old saying goes, the early bird catches the worm. The same applies here. The earlier you begin prioritizing your money towards retirement, the better it is. The power of compounding works best in the long run. With today’s market flooded with retirement products such as pension plans, annuity and endowment schemes, what you choose must be well in tune with your priorities and temperament. Your retirement portfolio must be a combination of guaranteed income, savings and liquidity for holidays or gifts to children as well as insurance for your unexpected medical emergencies. Last but not the least, review your portfolio periodically. Periodic review ensures you are in tune with your goals and you are generating positive returns out of it.

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5 Books Every Aspiring Blogger Should Read

Ramya Abhinand — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 09:07:12 +0000

When I started my journey into blogging, let me be honest here, I was ignorant about the nuances of it all. I did search for information that I required in the World Wide Web, however, the exodus of content blew my mind off. Thus, to find inspiration and learn to hold ground as a blogger, I took to reading books on blogging that would guide me in the right direction. Here are the five books on blogging that I turned to. The Dummies Guide to Book Blogging If you are sure of your niche and want to take up book blogging, here is a book that teaches you all. It is perfect for novices as well as for the intermediate level blogger who love reading and want to write and blog about it. At the end of the book you would be able to: •Create an aesthetic looking book blog •Be able to write reviews and articles that sell •Garner a steady and high stream of traffic to the blog •Make money from your blog as well as from review sites •Grow your blog into a successful venture that publishers and authors would look out for Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community This authoritative handbook gives creative hopefuls a leg up. Joy Cho, of the award-winning Oh Joy!, offers expert advice on starting and growing a blog, from design and finance to overcoming blogger’s block, attracting readers, and more. The Badass Blog Planner: Your guide to defining your purpose, creating clarity, and building a year of killer content Whether you’re setting goals for the new year or just hoping to step-up your blogging game, The Badass Blog Planner is the must-have workbook to blog with purpose and grow your online presence like a pro. Packed with over 60 worksheets, this one-year planner will help you review the past year and hatch a plan to improve your online presence. Make it Happen: Surrender Your Fear. Take the Leap. Live On Purpose Make It Happen is the story of how to surrender you fears, take a leap and find a greater purpose. Gives you the much needed courage required to jump into a new venture. The Desire Map: A Guide to Creating Goals with Soul Your bucket list. Quarterly objectives. Strategic plans. Big dreams. Goals. Lots of goals and plans to achieve those goals―no matter what. With The Desire Map, Danielle LaPorte brings you a holistic life-planning tool that will revolutionize the way you go after what you want in life. Are there any books that have helped you in your blogging journey? Do share it with me in the comments section of this post Disclaimer: This blog post contains an affiliate link, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission, if you click through and make a purchase.

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Flexible Jobs Even During Uncertain Times

Ramya Abhinand — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 11:36:55 +0000

If there’s one thing that globally people are worried during these unstable and uncertain times, thanks to the pandemic, it is the sustainability of their jobs. A young man around the corner of my street, had a discussion with me that all is not lost and some jobs would still survive despite all the chaos prevalent. I quite didn’t agree, for the economy globally seem be taking a down turn. Suggested read: For The Mom At Home There Are Options Galore I asked him to elaborate and give me three options that one could pursue at such times. What he said was quite interesting and after reading up more on it I was quite convinced. Here are the three jobs we discussed about. So if you are one of those affected by the turmoil and uncertainty all around us, and find your job under a threat, have a look at these options and let me know if it could work for you. Freelancing Jobs Despite the slowdown, these jobs haven’t been impacted in a drastic way, though a few sections of freelancing has borne the brunt. With a considerable portion of people across the globe working from home, employers are more open now to the idea of remote working and couple of skills are being thrown open to freelancers. Have a look, read and search around a bit and you may just land yourself a job from the comforts of your home. There are some legit sites where freelance options are available. Digital Marketing Yet again many may argue that companies do not have a great budget to advertise in the online and digital world. On the contrary I personally feel this is the place where one may see options as the rate of online data consumption has gone up. With people spending more time online, communicating and socialising, businesses are realising the potential in digital marketing. Data Specialist With more people online and more requirement of information and data, a data specialist is the need of the hour to understand, collate and comprehend data from across different avenues and sectors. For businesses this data is of vital importance as it drives key decision with respect to understanding. demand, supply and costs. Are you aware of any more sectors and opportunities that would sustain in the future and would not face a grave impact due to the crisis? Do share in the comments section.

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For The Mom At Home There Are Options Galore

Ramya Abhinand — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 11:36:12 +0000

For a stay at home mom, life need not be revolving just around the kids. Of course her requirement and presence at home cannot be undermined. Yet, if she desires she could still work on being employable from the comforts of her home. There are plenty of options available these days to suit various skills and expertise. So do your bit of home work and you may just land yourself the most rewarding and motivating jobs ever, plus get to be with your family. Freelance content writing Much as getting started on freelancing may seem as easy as possible, in reality sustaining oneself as a freelancer is difficult. For, freelancing does not guarantee you a consistency in your job. You may get tons of articles to work on in one month and the next month you may not have even a single gig. But patience is the key and working on your individual plus points help you have an edge to land yourself decent projects. I found the following freelance writing websites that may help one with new writing projects. Digital Marketing Yet again many may argue that companies do not have a great budget to advertise in the online and digital world. On the contrary I personally feel this is the place where one may see options as the rate of online data consumption has gone up. With people spending more time online, communicating and socializing, businesses are realizing the potential in digital marketing. Data Specialist With more people online and more requirement of information and data, a data specialist is the need of the hour to understand, collate and comprehend data from across different avenues and sectors. For businesses this data is of vital importance as it drives key decision with respect to understanding demand, supply and costs. Blogging Traditional form of blogging isn’t still dead. For content is still searched online and sites still throw up on search engines. If you love to write, and have the patience to build a site with niche content then blogging truly is rewarding. Start a site from scratch and work towards writing quality content that adds value to readers. You could earn in a multiple of ways from affiliate marketing, sponsored posts and running ads on the site. Remember, blogging requires time, patience and oh yeah some love too. Review books You love reading. That pile of books by your side is your treasure and nothing is more pleasurable in this world to you than tucking your nose deep into a book. For all those book lovers, how would you love to get paid for reading? Here are five sites that offer you a certain fee for reading, reviewing and blogging about a book- 5 Sites That Will Pay You To Read Proofreading Another interesting option that I am slowly venturing into and trying to discover is proofreading. Proofreading is when you review the final draft of writing. It could be a manuscript or a research document. You would have to check on the accuracy, grammar, punctuation and spelling. Proofreading gigs are in plenty in the freelance market. Aware of any more options? Do leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

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