“The first rule about the low hanging fruit principle is to always watch out for low hanging branches, they’re the ones to take it away from you.”
– Stephen Richards
In the past I’ve complained about how many people pay writers next to nothing. While I still think that this is a massive problem, there are a few gems buried in the world of low paying jobs. With a keen eye you can easily swoop these gigs up and turn them into extra spending money. Without further ado, here are a couple of low hanging fruit that are ripe for the harvest:
- Reviews
While Amazon has gotten a lot better at flagging reviews, there is still money to be made from them. While I have to be a lot more careful now, and can’t move nearly enough orders to make a full time living, I have recently gotten back into the review game. This time I have been using sites like Craigslist and oDesk to find clients. Although I’ve only done a handful of posts, each one has paid me more than I used to get off of Fiverr.
- Articles in the $10-$15 range.
In the past I used to overlook every article that paid less than $40. It turns out that I was missing a lot of easy money. While a lot of employers will try and get writers to produce articles for as low as a dollar, I’ve even seen generous offers of $0.99 for 500 words, there are some companies that want better quality. These places are typically small businesses within the United States and they are willing to pay more for higher quality work. Additionally, these clients are usually great to work with and incredibly friendly.
- Blog comments.
A lot of people actually pay to have comments on their articles. While each comment usually doesn’t pay much, they add up quickly. What makes commenting nice is the fact that you never have to write a lot. Making five 50 word comments about the latest Miley Cyrus scandal is a cakewalk.
- Random one shots.
Lastly, there are a lot of odd jobs floating around the web. I’ve written about pages for random websites, made product summaries, and added hyperlinks to an article. While most people, including myself, fixate on things like passive income, there are a million other ways to turn a profit. Even things like holding a sign and taking a picture of yourself, or writing something on your arm can be monetized.
While eBooks and affiliate sites are great, it’s important to remember that there are other ways to make money too. A lot of the less conventional sources of revenue are even easier and less time consuming to do than making a website or creating a product.