TechoCrunch

 Working from home and still earning enough to sustain a living is something everyone would like to do. Well being able to work from home and still earning good is liberating yet scary.

Liberating it is simply because you are the boss, the employee, you have the full authority and responsibility to the decisions you take, yet its scary, if you have quit your permanent job and end up bankrupt in 2 months then its only you who is to blame. For last 1 year I myself have done quite well with my flagship blog. I’m just a college goer trying to pay up my student loan and helping out my family. If a dumb like me can do it, I’m sure there are lots of talented individuals that only need a little courage and motivation to break free.

With advancement in computers and high-speed Internet access mean, people have more choices that are flexible, pay better that don’t require you to travel 20miles every day. Working from home you get more time for your kids, husband, wife, family etc you get great pleasure and self accomplishment when you do things for your family which you couldn’t have been able to do with a permanent office job. Enough of these mind tricks lets get to the point, below are few wonderful ways of becoming independent.

Web business

Web business is possibly the most talked about way to earn a living. Web 2.0 has given lots of opportunities to web entrepreneurs. Just see at social networking sites like Digg, Facebook, even the old school dudes like Google, Yahoo they were just college geeks pet projects. If you have the courage to take the risk, web business is a way better option then any other real jobs out their. Only thing you need is something which is very useful to users. Web business doesn’t means just social media, search, etc you can also start online stores, auction sites, online magazines etc.

Blogging

Blogging has been quite a buzz since couple of years, but most big boys out there never blogged for money, instead it was more of a hobby. Just look at top blogs like Johnchow, Shoemoney, most of them earn more then a half a million a year, maybe even more. Making your blog a hit requires a bit of patience, great content and a good amount of marketing. But i would rather suggest blogging alongside your real job, you shouldn’t replace your real job if you have it. If you blog starts making a decent amount of money which you think can sustain your living, then only you should think of quitting you real job.

Ebaying or Auctioning

Auctioning is a great way to earn a living. I have seen people making nearly $10,000 to $20,000 auctioning. How much you will earn depends on the hotness of the product, in India iPhones sell like hot cakes. Even the used unlocked ones sometimes hit prices like $650 to $750 a piece. A friend of mine last month made around $7500 selling iphones here in India via Ebay( around $250 a piece).

Antique items, rare items are great sellers, but most of the time a hot gadget will out perform any of the above. Ebay isn’t the only auction site, there are many out in the web. But because Ebay has a huge amount of user base its much easier to get your product sold.

Freelancing

Freelancing is something I have done for quite a while. Bear in mind it may not be the best money makers as opportunities are limited and competition is very high. But various freelancing sites like elance, etc has made it easier for freelancers to get decent rates for their work. Apart from that a reputed freelancer will get the high flying clients and great payouts. Freelancing can range from anything, from writing, coding, programing, designing etc.

Share Trading

 Dealing with equity trading is another great way to earn a living. But be wary dealing in stocks isn’t for the weak hearted. It has its ups and downs, besides that no matter how favorable the market is for investing, it just takes a bad news for the whole market to tumble down. It is unsafe yet still its the most easiest way to earn a decent living. Dealing with stocks require you knowledge yourself on a set of strategies or methodologies such as technical analysis, trend analysis, relative strength ranking, fractals and volumes, chart formations, and algorithms. If you manage to get hold of all this things trading in stocks is fairly easy.

There are lots of ways to earn a living these days, only you are limited to your imagination.

Pranjal