Book Review: Make Money Online: How I Make $1700 (Plus 40 Ways to Make Money Online) by Stacey Davidson

(Looking to grow your social reach with tools like Archie? Be sure you don't miss out on the Ultimate Blogger's Toolkit, featuring resources for every social influencer at 98% off!) 

By Melissa Batai

There are plenty of books available that give ideas for side jobs that will help you make extra money, so honestly, when I picked up Make Money Online: How I Make $1700(Plus 40 Ways to Make Money Online) by Stacey Davidson, I was expecting more of the same old, same old.

Boy, was I in for a surprise!

I've been making money online for three years now, and I thought I was familiar with most of the ways. However, this book helped me come up with even more ways I could be making money online.

This book is a very short read; I got through it in about an hour. However, don't let the size fool you. This book is jam packed with profitable ideas, especially if you're a skilled writer or website designer.

Book Contents

The book isn't divided into traditional chapters. Instead, it's separated into short sections that detail each job. When applicable, Davidson also includes her own experience with the job she is suggesting. She actually made quite a bit of money with eHow and then HubPages. However, in both cases, all of her hard work (and income) evaporated when the sites changed. She had no control, which is common with these sites. You can put in months and years of work only to watch it evaporate.

Davidson then explores quick jobs that don't require as much skill such as Fiverr and Amazon's Mechanical Turk.

But she then moves into jobs that are a bit more secure and require more skill. This is the gold mine of the book and where I culled several more ideas for my own business. She also suggests that you look for online work within your own city. There are plenty of local businesses that could use online assistance.

Another benefit of this book is that Davidson is realistic. There are many people that suggest people should start a blog to make extra money, but the path to making money from your blog can be a long one that may take years. Davidson acknowledges this and actually discourages people from starting blogs for just this reason.

The only downside I found with this book is that I wish she would have explained some jobs further. For instance, she mentions transcribing audio files, but there is only a short paragraph written about the job. Delve into this job further would have been helpful. Selling audio is another topic I would have liked to have seen Davidson further explain. However, most topics given are more developed than these two, so this is a minor complaint.

Is This Book for You?

If you're looking for ways to start an at home business or if you need ideas to help you get more business, this book will likely help you. While it is a quick read, there are plenty of suggestions for either quick ways to make money or more long term ways to grow your business and create a successful online presence.

This book is currently available as an ebook from Amazon for $2.99.*

Melissa, a mom to three little ones (ages 7, 3 and 1) blogs at Mom's Plans where she writes about living a fulfilling life on less and focuses on cutting expenses, budgeting, paying down debt, saving money and once a month cooking.

*Affiliate links may be used to retail sites.