Ahhh the tour van: home, office, bedroom, and more. The one above is mine. I know you musicians can be pretty broke, so here’s 5 legitimate ways to make money while living inside of a 15 passenger van or bus. All you need is a computer and to not be a total moron. Now you can use all of those long drives between shows to be productive and not just sit on your ass listening to music while rereading back issues Alternative Press.
Elance - I’d like to welcome you to the wonderful world of freelance. It turns out there’s people that actually believe you when you say you don’t need to be in the office to be productive. Elance is a central hub that connects those needing freelance services with those offering freelance services. Write some one’s resume for $50 or design their website for $50,000. Elance offers short term and long-term projects in diverse fields like writing and translation, design and multimedia, and web and programming. There are varying levels of membership that range from free to a low monthly payment, but with an average of 25,000 freelance jobs posted every month, the earnings potential is worth the investment.
ChaCha – Ok, some of you have probably heard of this. Cha Cha is a free text messaging service, where questions sent from your phone are forwarded to a Cha Cha “guide” that answers your question and has the response forwarded back to your phone. Guides get paid per question answered and average between $3 and $9 an hour. All that’s required are quality search skills and a high-speed Internet connection. I was actually a guide myself for a few months and was able to make a couple hundred bucks a month while sitting on my couch watching tv and drinking beers. The best part is answering questions late at night when teenagers lament about their love lives.
“How come Danny doesn’t like me?”
“Because you’re ugly.”
BAM! I just got paid.
Affiliate Marketing – This one’s a little trickier, but will make you money if you can develop enough traffic. In this day and age of social media anyone looking to develop and maintain a loyal client base (or in your case fans), should have a blog. Fill it with original content (hey that sounds like the blog you’re reading right now!), and keep it interesting (again, I’m a shining example!). Not only will it keep your fans engaged, but it will provide web traffic that companies are willing to pay for. With Google Adsense you get make money from clicks and impressions. With Amazon Associates you even make commission off the items people buy after clicking through from your site. Use Commission Junction to find a whole host of companies willing to place ads with you.
iStockPhoto - How many of you took photography in high school in an effort to skip out on a harder elective or appear artsy? I know you’re out there! Put those rusty photography skills to use and sell your photos on iStockPhoto. Here the everyday candids from your travels can be sold to advertisers and marketers as stock photography for their ad campaigns. You’re on tour and traveling the country, so take some pictures! Requirements: don’t suck at photography.
Etsy – Can you make anything? Do you have any creative skills at all? Etsy is a craft based website that allows you to sell goods that you’ve created, anything from handmade jewelry to your crappy art. Did you build a birdhouse in shop class? Sell that shit on Etsy. Did your girlfriend secretly teach you to knit? Then knit some slippers and sell that shit on Etsy. If you can make it, you can sell it.
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alexburton posted this
