How to Make Money Online With Your Art, Designs, Photos and Writing

Do you need to make some extra cash? Well, you are not alone-most of us out there could use either a second income or just enjoy being creative, and artistic people are always looking for new ways to market themselves.

In today's internet driven world, people are turning more and more to the world wide web for ways to either supplement their income, or even start a new "work from home" business. With so many of these offers to "make money from home" being scams, it is wonderful to find some legitimate sites where an individual can legitimately look forward to making some real money.

Below, I am going to list some great sites that I found for those that are creatively inclined. Whether you work on canvas, paper, sculpt or draw, these are great sites to sell your designs. There are also sites for those who love to write poetry, or have always wanted to sell their own greeting cards with their own original verses and poems inside. If you are a photographer or love to do original digital, computer generated art, there are also sites for you to list your creations. Even if you would just like to have an online portfolio for others to view, you can also use these sites for that purpose. Below are the sites I found, with a brief description of each one. When listing images and verses, make sure you understand all of the copyright laws that are involved with each medium. The best rule to go by is this, IF YOU DIDN'T CREATE IT, DON'T LIST IT!

1.  CafePress.com and Imagekind.com-These two sites are basically an extension of each other. You can go to Imagekind.com to list your images, whether original artwork or photographs, as long as they belong to you, or you have legal permission from the creator to use them. Then people can go to CafePress.com to order different items with your designs on them. You receive a portion of each order that uses your design or verse on it, from lapel buttons and bumper stickers, all the way up to T-shirts, Sweatshirts and coffee mugs. On CafePress you actually open your own online store, and then you can advertise your store where all of the items are ordered and drop shipped with your designs on them. Imagekind even puts your designs on fine quality canvases! The great thing about all of this is I believe that these are all free! You may have to pay a small amount for your store at CafePress.com each month. (Don't quote me on that part though, I have looked at a LOT of stores! If it does cost, it isn't much.)

2.  Redgage.com is a fantastic website, where you can list and link every bit of content that you can generate, and get paid for it! Everything from links to your blogs and hubpages, to listing photographs and artwork, you get paid per unique views. If you should get featured on the front page, the site even kicks in a bonus, and they pay you either by sending you a check or through your Paypal account when your amount owed to you reaches $20.00 or more. The money can run up pretty quickly here, and that is a great thing! I have been obsessed with listing things on this site because the more you list, the faster your money builds up! Other members of the site can comment and rate your items, up to 5 stars. It is basically a social networking site as well as a great place to list your content and make money. It also helps drive traffic to any other sites where you are, which can help drive up your Adsense money, so it's like getting paid twice on the same things!

3.  Shetoldme.com is a social bookmarking site that gives you 100% of the Adsense sharing revenue. You can go here and promote your blog or website. I haven't been able to spend much time here yet, so I am not too sure how fast it builds up, but it sure sounds good-good enough for me to recommend it to others!

4.  Blogger.com is a free place to write your own blog. It is both easy and free to use, and you can link it with your Adsense account, so you can make money off of it. You can use the blog you create to promote all of your other sites you are using, and get your name and other sites out there faster as well as Google placing ads for Adsense money on your blog.

If you are one or more of the things in the title of this section, you can feasibly begin to make some REAL money, if you are willing to actually work at this from home, devoting as much time and effort to it as you would a job outside the home.

With the economy in a shambles, it was wonderful, for me at least, to finally find a way to bring in some extra money. I have always known there had to be a way, even if my health wouldn't let me work outside the home, for me to be able to bring home some extra money. You do have to keep a few things in mind if you decide to tackle a job like this:

1. Be ready to discipline yourself to actually put in the time and effort it takes to get any business off the ground. Don't lose sight of the fact that this IS a business venture. I am a workaholic, so I have been putting in 12-14 hours a day. You need to sit down, look over all of the sites (there are a ton more out there I would Imagine, just waiting to be found...)and figure out a real business plan. You need to decide which sites you are going to use, how you are going to divide your time between them, and set daily or weekly goals for listing or posting your items.

2. Make a "to-do" list the day before you are going to work, and follow it specifically as you work. This will help you get organized in a hurry! I list my "to-do's" by priority, and try to stick to a certain length of times for each project. I have to have this kind of structure, or I will piddle around and never get anything finished.

3. Keep a small notebook handy for all your websites and their user names and passwords. Mine is 5-1/2" x 4", and is a small spiral called the "Fat Lil' Notebook®" and you can find it at just about any office supply chain store. Also keep a large sectioned, spiral notebook or other type of notebook for writing notes, lists, ideas, and any other information. Use small "Postit®" notes to attach to the pages that are the most important to what you are doing at the time. You can move them around as you need to.

4. Remember this one little fact-Don't forget that if everything goes good, and you are doing things right, you will need to report your earnings to the IRS at tax time...Keep track of your expenses, earnings, etc. Go to irs.gov and download any tax forms, as well as find any information you need to know, about running and owning your own business. Their website will tell you what kind of records you need to keep as well as what forms you will need to file.

5. Set up an easy bookkeeping system. You can either do that by hand in a ledger, or get an inexpensive bookkeeping computer software like Quicken® or Turbo Tax®. I have used Quicken and it is very easy to use.

6. Get into a routine around your house with a healthy balance between work and home. It is easy to either work too much (me) or not work enough...If you really want to make this work to make you money, you don't want to burn yourself out or not do enough to make it worthwhile. Try to reach a healthy balance between both, especially if you have a spouse and/or children. You don't want to neglect other areas of your life by being too caught up in work. "Work to live- don't live to work"! By the same token, you don't want to neglect your work or you are basically doing it all for nothing and your business won't grow.

These are some ideas to get you up and running on a real "work from home" project. The great thing about the "work from home" concept is this; you can be on as many or as few sites as you feel like building, so the potential for income is limitless! Just follow all the directions, and be sure to cross-promote and link all of your content to the other sites. I have always been taught to diversify your methods of making money, so i one isn't making all that much, you have a great chance that the others will pick up the slack.

So, get busy with things, and start compiling, loading, and linking content for your sites!