A few weeks back I got a great email from one of my readers who was asking what can I do to make some extra money?  Of all the questions I get this is probably one of the more common ones.

The reality is I don’t know what you can do to earn extra money simply because everybody is different.  What one person would like to do to earn extra income is not going to be the same as the next.

However this article is going to give you a great starting point to help you make that decision. To help you along in this process I’m going to give you some basic questions that will help you make this decision and find the solution that is right for you.

Before you start grab a clean sheet of paper and a pencil.  The goal of this exercise is to write down as many ideas that you can think of.  Don’t worry if they are good or bad just write them down for now.

By the end of this article you should have a pretty clear idea of what you could do to earn extra money.

How Soon Do You Need The Money

To start, the first question you need to ask yourself is how soon do you need to earn this money?  If you need the money right now you will need to pick something that reflects this.

This means starting an online business or a blog just won’t be realistic because these types of business opportunities can take months if not years  to earn a profit from.  Rather you should look for something that could pay immediately.

On the other hand if time is not the problem a blog or online business is a great way to go. In fact this is exactly what I did in the beginning, I started my blog because I had the time and I knew I could survive until it was earning a decent profit.  If this is something you are willing to pursue check out this great resource list I put together.

So start there, do you need to earn income right now or do you have the time?

Ask These 3 Questions

The next thing you need to do is ask yourself these 3 basic questions to help you come up with the different ideas to earn this extra income.

What Skills Do You Have?  What do you already know?  What kind of skill sets to you already have?  This is a great place to find all kinds of things you could do to earn extra income.

For example, I have a brother who is incredibly good and working with computers, doing web design, and programming.  What’s great about this is that he uses these skills to find small jobs on the side of his current job to earn some extra money.

So think about the current skills you have, what can you offer to others to earn some extra income?

What Is A Problem You Can Solve?  The second question you can answer is what problems can you solve for people.  When it comes down to it problems are everywhere, and the great thing about this is that problems equal opportunity.

In a recent interview I did with a freelancer she was providing a great service writing articles for other websites, and over time realized that these website owners had other problems they were dealing with as well.

These issues included managing their websites and social media accounts and keeping them up to date.  What’s great about this is she took action quickly and offered to help them with these issues and as a result earns several thousands of dollars a month by just solving this one problem for other website owners.

However these problems don’t just have to be web related, take time to think outside the box.  I have a personal friend who learned that some local businesses had dirty windows.

So he offered to clean them every month for a fee, in fact he was able get contracts to wash windows for several other small business in the area as well.

What Interest Do You Have? Finally ask yourself is what interest do you have?  This would be things you would like to learn more about.  What’s great about this is that you can use these interest to help others.

For example, maybe you want to learn more about search engine optimization.  You could go to sites like Moz.com, Lynda.com, or Udemy.com, and learn about these things within a short period time.

From there, simply find a few clients and ask to help them out.  They don’t have to be big clients by any means but just someone that is looking for a little help.

So ask yourself right now, what is something you have an interest in that you could help others with?

Narrowing It Down

At this point you should have a fairly big list of potential ideas that you could use to earn extra money from.  If you don’t have this yet or you are struggling to do this you may need to take a break and shelve things for a few days.

I often find that my best ideas come when I least suspect it.  In the end you should have a minimum of 10 or more ideas to work with.

From here you need to make some tough decisions as to what is the best option for you.  To figure out which is the best option for you it should meet each of the 5 qualities below.

• How soon do you need the money?  As I mentioned earlier if you need the money sooner than later you may want to pick something that you can earn money quickly.

• Is it profitable?  Look for others who are making money doing what you want to do.  This at least proves people are earning money from it and you can too.

• Do you have a desire to do it?  If you don’t have the desire to stick to it you’ll more than like give up once things get tough or you just get board of it.  So stick with something that fulfills you.

• Do you have the time for it? Fourth on this list is to pick something that you have the time for.  I use to work in financial services part time however I had to put a lot of long hours in and with a young family I had to eventually give it up.  So make sure you consider the time factor.

• Is their a need for it? Finally, before you even decide on what you want to do consider if their is a need for it.  To do this contact potential prospects and ask them if they would be interested in your potential service.

To wrap up if you find an idea that fits these 5 areas you are on to something.  However if you haven’t found one yet keep looking. Their are tons of potential opportunities out there, you just have to be willing to seek them out.

 My Fast Track Tip To Success

Finally, I want to leave you with my tip to fast tracking your success to earning some extra money on the side, and that is to find someone who is already doing what you want to do.

The reason this is so powerful is because these people know what it takes to be successful at what you want to do and they can lead you down the path of success faster.  Even better is to see if that person can mentor you.

Mentors are very powerful in the world of business because whenever you get stuck you’ll have someone you can fall back on to give you that critical advice that you may need to  get you over that next hump.

Did You Find Your Opportunity

Now that I’ve given you the process you can uses to find your income opportunity to improving your finances your next step is to take action now.  Striking while the iron is hot will keep things moving and your motivation will grow as a result.

Finally, did you find your opportunity, feel free to share it below in the comments.