Are you thinking of writing a children's book?

Marie Tracy is an active contributor to our side hustle group She wrote a children's book called  Magical Birthday Fairy: A Family Tradition and now is sharing her experience and even created a step by step course. 

Marie shared.... 

I’m a new children’s author of the book Magical Birthday Fairy.  I found the process of self-publishing very difficult. It was frustrating and extremely time consuming.  

Then when the pandemic hit and the world shut down, I lost my full time  job. So I decided to use to the to finally write and publish my first book.  (Yeah!) 

After I published my book, I had so many ask how I did it that I decided to share the steps in an online course. 

I’m new to  course creation and will initially share the course in a  facebook group (sharing info in social learning units).  I share the exact steps I took and a step by step check list to follow.  In addition, I share a list of all the expenses, resources I found and a simple to follow guide to follow.  The course is written text only. 

here is the facebook course 

How to get started with writing a book

 If you have ever thought of writing a book you will want to check out this podcast to see if it for you.  This might be directed as non fiction self help business type of book but if you have romance or childrens book check this out with best selling author Gabby  Bernstein 

Get ready to access behind the scenes tips for book writing success. If you’re considering writing a book - whether it’s through traditional publishing or self-publishing -

How to overcome the dreaded writer’s block

The first is that you must, must, must, must have a core message. You and I have worked on this. We really dialed yours down for your book. And I'm real—I'm a boss b-i-t-you-know-what when it comes to core message, because I won't stand for someone not being grounded in what their book is about. You know when someone asks you, like, you said this, like, when someone says, like, “What's your course about?” And you’re like, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, and you just aren't grounded in it? It’s the same thing with a book because someone says, “What's your book about?” and you’re like, “Well, it's about the esoteric changes in my inner landscape.” And it's like, shut the f up. What are you—? And then it makes the person that's talking uncomfortable, it makes the person that's listening feel uncomfortable because, like, “I have no idea what you just said.” So it's all about boiling it down, boiling it down.  

Are you thinking of writing a children's book?

Ways to think about turning your digital course into a book (it can be done!)

Write a book proposal no matter if you are self-publishing or going down the traditional path

The only thing you need to prioritize to write a bestselling book

The biggest mistake most writers make, and how to avoid it

The #1 reason you’re blocking your bestselling book, and how to fix it

My secret method for marketing your book so it’s widely read

Tips for self publishing 

The self-publishing path is epic. I highly recommend the self-publishing path. What I often say is don't wait to be picked. If you are not getting feedback from an agent, when you're not getting any feedback from a publisher, okay, whatever. Their loss. Go self-publish. The beautiful thing about self-publishing is that once you go sell a bunch of books and your self-published book, you can then sell it to a publisher.  

Meet Gabby  

How to Make Money with Your Own Printable Shop

Do you have a graphic design background and looking to make some extra money. You should consider selling printables   on Etsy as well as on your own website.  

Printables are digital products that customers can download and print at home. Examples include grocery shopping checklists, gift tags, candy bar wrappers, printable quotes for wall art, and patterns.

There are many different ways to create printables, but I find the easiest way is by using software like Canva or PicMonkey. Another popular way is via Microsoft Word if you are good with graphics. 

We believe they are a great side hustle for busy people because you create them once and an unlimited number of customers can download. You don't have to worry about shipping them!


How much should I sell printables on Etsy for?
Pricing is really dependent on each seller. There is no right or wrong answer. Find a price that you’re comfortable with that you think is fair for both you the seller, and your future customers! Pricing low might guarantee more sales, but pricing higher isn’t bad either – if it took a lot of work and is unique, don’t undervalue yourself!

Side Hustlers Income Reports 

3 Important Steps To Sell Printables On Etsy

1. Upload to your shop.
Once you’ve set up your Etsy shop, upload your printable to a listing for the price you’ve chosen. Be sure to use nice, well-lit images and for printables, you may want to look into framing them to make them stand out or have a nice background to make your picture stand out from the rest.


2. Make sure to give accurate, detailed descriptions of your product.
This helps you rank high in searches and generate some sales. Include things like color, size, purpose (is it a planner, invitation, etc.?) so that people can find your product easier.

3. Market, market, market.
Pinterest is a great way to market your products, especially on Etsy. Pinterest is a very visual platform and having beautiful pictures of your product in pins is a great way to get some clicks to your shop and products that will hopefully convert into sales! Word of mouth is great too! Tell friends, family, and it’s a good idea to whip up some business cards for your Etsy shop that you can hand out to people you meet if it comes up in conversation. Your local facebook groups can be a good market as well. 

Non phone work at home option

Check out this video to learn more about how to sell printables on Etsy:

Another option is doing printable budget templetes not only thru etsy but thru other digital download providers like gumroad.  We saw this recent article on msn about Jason a 21 yr college grad that starting creating templates here are some of this tips

I dive deeper into learning the different features in Notion by watching tons of free videos on YouTube.

I created a Notion page to keep track of my personal finances as my first project.

After, I took to Notion communities on Facebook, Reddit and Discord to share a screenshot of my setup.

It felt great to share my setup with the community, and I learn a lot more about Notion building the pages from scratch.

If you want to learn a new skill, start building projects.

You would create journal pages, goal trackers, meal planners,  habit trackers or even budgeting spreadsheet.  Most of the ideas are under $20 

How to get Started with Upwork

Upwork is one of the largest global freelancing platforms where businesses and independent professionals come together for online work services. It has 12 million registered freelancers and 5 million registered clients.

Upwork use to be free to apply for jobs this no longer the case. They charge $0.15 charge per Connect. Connects are what you use to apply for jobs each job requires at least 2 connects

Also they have fees these fees are taken straight out of your check. This is not taxes so you still have to pay taxes consider this when you create your hourly rate. **
20% for the first $500 billed with the client
10% for lifetime billings with the client between $500.01 and $10,000
5% for lifetime billings with the client that exceed $10,000

How It Works: You create a profile on Upwork you choose your own hourly rate (companies can decide if they want to pay you your hourly rate of not). Once your profile is approved you can start applying for jobs. You use the search feature to find these jobs (advance search to narrow it down). You submit your cover letter to the job you would like. If the employer is interested they will contact you for an interview.

If your hired on a hourly contract you must use the Upwork time tracker to submit your hours. If you don't payment is not guaranteed. If you do payment is guaranteed.

Fixed price contracts are short projects that pay a flat rate (you have no guarantee with these)

Here are 7 tips how you can get work using Upwork even when you have no experience at all.

1. Have  a Good Profile Picture

One of the very first things that your clients will see from your profile is your picture. When you want to request work from someone, people will want to know your face and who you are. So upload and use a more professional picture of yourself. Unsmiling, grainy and poor quality picture will only show that you are unprofessional and nobody likes to work with people who are not professional.

Get a high-resolution head shot picture with a pleasant smile. And please, no naked shoulders, and try to wear professionally. Never be too shy to show your face when you are out there looking for jobs.



2. Your Language Skills are Important

In the online world, you will contact your clients through the power of words most of the time. And it has no exception when it comes to Upwork. Even if you have no experience, you should mind your language skills because they can win you the contract or worst, fail you.

Small things such as misspellings, texting lingo, and poor grammar are red flags to clients, and this is especially true when you are bidding for professional writing work. You should always check your spelling and read through what you have typed before you send out to your client. Use tools such as Grammarly to help you in this.

3. Create Samples

When you are totally new, you have no experience, no credibility, and no testimonials, but there is one very powerful tool you can create for yourself, and that is the sample of your work.

For example, if you want to be a writer, create a blog and publish some of your own articles there. When you request for jobs, you can use the articles on your blog as your samples. Better yet, you can contribute guest posts on other blogs and then use them as your samples. This will immediately increase your credibility, especially if the guest blogs are popular.

Well, this can apply to many services and not only to writing-related works. If you are into logo design, just design a few and publish them on your websites. You can showcase them to your clients to get them interested in your work.

Side Hustlers Income Reports 

4. Low-Paying Jobs Can be a Great Start

This is one of the mistakes that most beginners will do. They thought that low-paying jobs are not worthy because they have to spend a lot of time to get the work done, yet, the payment cannot justify their effort.

Never underestimate the low-paying jobs. In fact, most big businesses and long-term clients come from low-paying jobs. No one will award a $10,000 job to someone that they do not know or have no past experience with. This means that low-paying jobs are your best bet to connect with clients with a bigger budget. Start small and grow, so never mind the low-paying jobs, just do them.

5. Don’t Be Too Desperate

It is absolutely fine if nobody wants to hire you. The beginning is the toughest. And sometimes, you just do not want to show that you are desperate to get the job. Your desperation will scare your clients away.

Your clients will want to see you as in hot demand and successful. People will want to hire someone good and someone who can deliver a great work, not someone who is desperate.

6. Stay Active

If you are serious to make some money from Upwork, you need to take action and submit your proposals. Do not think that once you have created a nice and great profile, clients will come to you automatically. It does not work that way. You need to go and put your name out there to win the contracts.

Winning a contract in Upwork is a numbers game. The more prospective clients you contact and propose, the more likely you are going to get the work. Somehow, somewhere and someone will want what you have to offer. By the way, never forget to improve as you progress. Learn to create a better proposal and customize it to fit your client’s requirements.

7. Build Your Portfolio

One of the most important keys to success in the world of freelancing is to create your own portfolio. For example, if you want to get jobs on optimizing the search engine for a website, and if you have the Google search engine optimization certification, people will want to give you work.

Credibility and a strong portfolio count. Yes, it may be difficult when you have zero experience, but that does not mean that you cannot build your portfolio from scratch. When you successfully completed a job, request a testimonial from your client. Many freelancers start by picking smaller jobs so that once completed successfully, they can add a testimonial to their victory list. And you should do the same.

Start with one service, make sure it’s something you’re really good at. Fill out your FAQ’s so buyers understand the limitations around your service.

Take every project that you feel you can actually deliver on and get 5 stars.

Make your prices competitive with the competition. The goal is to move up the levels as quickly as possible. Then you can increase your prices. It can happen very fast so don’t over think having your prices low in the beginning

Now that you know what you should do to get work from Upwork even when you have no experience. The best advice is to just take action and do it. It is absolutely fine if you fail to win any contract, but never give up and keep learning until you landed your first job. And things will just get better from there.

I've been using upwork for years now and for you to not be scammed, you have to make sure that all your communications are inside upwork. The contract must also be inside upwork, and don't start any work without contract

How to Make Smart & Good Money with Fiverr

Learn how to make smart movie with Fiverr Fiverr is a marketplace that allows anyone to buy or sell services, or "gigs" as they call them, for $5. Launched in 2010, Fiverr has been a smash hit and is one of the most popular classified boards in the world.

Here are some of the gigs that you work on Fiverr
 Video
 Graphic Design
Copy writing
 Online Tutors
 Social Media marketing tasks
 Blog posts Translation
 Music
 Wordpress Script installation

Here is what works for one fiverr doing writing which is a very common freelance gig. 

.
I created a gig to write 400 words of a buyer/s choice of topic for $5. Fiverr takes $1 for every $5 someone spends. So, I made very very little for each article to start. That was my choice to do that to bring in more buyers. You can set your gig for whatever you like. You do not have to be a writer, you can create any job you like for the $5. I personally enjoy writing, so that is what I chose. Content writing is very valuable, so it is a hot commodity on Fiverr. Not all jobs on Fiverr will bring in a lot of orders. I have had a lot of success on the site because I have been willing to write a lot of well researched material for a very low price. Since I stuck it out there for so long, I was able to raise my prices, and people still hired me at the higher price. I am not currently on Fiverr right now, and that is because I’m working so much for Lifetricks. com and I blog for 5 people every week. I also have a few other clients that I write website content for every so often. 

How to get Started with Upwork

A few things I wish I had known before I created my first gig on Fiverr.

-I wish I had set my gig for a longer period of time. I started it at 3 days, but eventually set my turn around time on a project for 7 days.
-If I had known how valuable content writing is, I would have started the gig at 350 words for $5, since that would encourage a buyer to purchase the gig twice for a more lengthy article.
-If I had known there would have been no shortage of orders, I wouldn’t have accepted every single article request asked of me. It took me three months to feel comfortable telling a buyer that I couldn’t do the article they were asking, for different reasons. It is ok to tell a buyer you don’t want to take on a project. There will be other buyers.
-It is time consuming and you should expect to put in a lot more time then what you are being paid for at least for the first month or two. You’ll develop regular people who come to you all the time. After a month, you can add on a tip to your gig. If you are good at what you do, people will give you the tip. I received many tips. 🙂

It is a learning process, and your experience may not be like mine. Not everyone has success on Fiverr but a lot of people do. I had the ability to hone in on my writing skills with little expectations. People do not expect to get good quality articles at $5, so I was given a lot of grace for writing that may not have been that well put together. Fiverr made a gateway for me to find opportunities to work for other websites, and also to realize that I can in fact blog on a regular basis.

If I had any real wisdom to share it would be, stay patient and flexible. With internet businesses, you do not know which ones will be successful and which ones will fold. There is no guarantee in any of this. So, build up a good clientele with whatever your freelance work should happen to be, so that if one of their sites doesn’t work out, the you still have other projects to fall back on.


I hope this helps anyone who is feeling hesitant about creating a gig on Fiverr. At the end of the day, what is the worse thing that can happen? You open a gig, it doesn’t bring in any money, and you do something instead. 🙂


Sign up for Fiverr here 

Scoopshot Take photos earn money with your smart phone

Scoopshot is a new  crowdsourcing service that allows you to sell you photos and videos to the media and other companies via their smartphone app for both iphone and android devices. All you have to do is upload  images and videos or respond to a task by providing a picture of a specific image. A stunning news photo or video captures an event or phenomenon that interests the media and the general public, something you would immediately share with your friends.  Take photos, earn money   You earn money with every photo and video the media buys. Send in fresh and newsworthy shots so the media and journalists can purchase them from Scoopshot Store. The better the photos and videos you take, the more you can sell and the more you will earn.  Sign up for Scoopshot


How can I earn money with Scoopshot?
How can I cash out my earnings?

You earn money with every photo and video the media buys. Send in fresh and newsworthy shots so the media and journalists can purchase them from Scoopshot Store. The media can buy the publishing rights for photos or videos and Scoopshot will ensure that you are properly compensated.

In the case of news photos and videos, you name the price of each shot. Task photos, instead, have a pre-defined, task-specific reward for each sold shot.

Whenever someone buys your photo or video, you receive a notification directly on your phone. Some, even many, photos or videos will not be sold. By sending your news photos quickly while they are still fresh and by trying to capture shots of as high quality as possible, you can increase the chances of your stuff being sold.

The compensation for photos sold will be paid to your Scoopshot account, visible in the Scoopshot mobile app. You can transfer the money to your account by tapping Cash Out. Fill in the required details and follow the on-screen instructions.

Note that you are not in a rush to cash out your earnings. You can accumulate a larger sum in your Scoopshot account and cash it all out at the same time.

Depending on the payment method, the transfer may take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Supported payment methods include for example bank transfers and PayPal.