Today is the second in my series of posts written by some of the brilliant UK Money Bloggers that you can find on my list of UK Thrifty and Frugal Bloggers. I thought of the idea when I updated the post but it’s taken me until now to get myself organised and ask some of my favourite bloggers to share their own money stories with you.
Today is turn of the brilliant Jon from The Money Shed whose forum has inspired so many people….
How It All Started
I began looking for more efficient ways of upping that income, I was determined to find work that paid at the very least minimum wage for what I was actually doing. I stumbled upon text based question answering companies that paid me to reply to questions and I could blast out replies in no time meaning I was, at peak times, earning double if not triple the minimum wage per hour. This was work I could do before leaving for my day job and for an hour or so on an evening while watching TV. I was topping up my income by £600-£1000 a month easily doing this which was the real start to my earning online journey.
Unfortunately with the invention of the smart phone and data plans, the work soon slowed down and I again found myself on the lookout for something that could match, if not surpass, this new found money boost. Smartphone mystery shopping and paid tasks came my way. These would pay me to spend five minutes taking photos of cucumbers, flowers and street names – best of all, I could do them on my journey to work.
The Life Changing Amounts
The Money Shed blog and forum came along (almost) three years ago, as a way of helping others connect in their quest to earn online. Through this I have both given and received so much advice about earning money. Obviously these both became another form of income for me through affiliates and sponsored post work. Then the game changer came – matched betting. This is what took me from earning a decent amount online to life changing amounts.
Through my matched betting, TAX-FREE profits I’ve managed to take those extra holidays to Florida, buy a new car, make home improvements such as adding a conservatory to the house and I’m now about to drop a day at work so I can devote even more time to my online work.
As well as these new perks I also have more time on a morning and evening as I’ve dropped the lower paid work such as the surveys, so now I enjoy hitting the gym and spending more time with the family.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not easy and I have put many, many additional hours into taking my blog from a few hundred users to over 3,200 and a staggering 85,000 posts across the forum. The last three years have been a tidal wave of self-promotion and getting me and The Money Shed out there so people know they don’t have to settle for 50p surveys that screen them out after 10 minutes.
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