Having neurological Lyme disease has been devastating financially as well as emotionally and physically.
Throughout the ups and downs of the disease, the internet has been my salvation – allowing me to get support from other sufferers and eventually allowing me to extend a helping hand too.
The beautiful silver lining of this horrible disease is the wonderful friendships that are forged through the shared experience of Lyme.
Some people are still able to work with their disease, but I have been forced by circumstance to find ways to earn money on the internet. The best method for people who either can’t work full time or don’t want to is through affiliate sales. Simply put, companies pay affiliate commissions on their products.
For me, I never recommend a product that I have not tried or been given very high recommendations, and I try to find the best values to pass on which makes it a win/win situation.
Cultivate Focus
As you know, Lyme disease is a life changing disease, and if you were disorganized before, it is so, so much harder to be organized now. Check it out:
http://zenhabits.net/archives/
which doesn’t cost a penny, but has wonderful and practical tip, encouragement and advice. Give it a go when you feel like your brain fog is getting the best of you.
Another life changing program based on “The Secret” or “The Law of Attraction” which I absolutely love and still use is called:
“The Science of Getting Rich”.
It is not some phoney baloney hyped up scam, it is a thoughtful, spiritual and practical program designed to help anyone overcome obstacles of any kind in their life. Perfect for Lymies – to help build up our self confidence and help us get our hope in our future stimulated. We are not victims!
There is a program I use to try to earn extra money on the internet called:
that isn’t very expensive and helps pay for supplements. It is fairly sophisticated, but you can go very slow (as I do) and the training is all done by video so you can watch them over and over again if you need to (which I still need to). But it is a huge and new market that should be very helpful for those of us who have been so devastated financially.
Be careful when looking for opportunities on the internet. There are some very unscrupulous people out there! They will sell you a product that is free somewhere else, in fact Google has almost every tool you need to succeed with internet marketing for free.
Set Realistic Goals
First, be realistic about your expectations. You are sick, and it takes a lot of hard work to make money even when you are in the best of health.
If you focus on quality and honesty, you will succeed eventually. For me, the most important thing is quality information, but for some it might be a genuine passion for a particular product or hobby.
What skills do you have?
There are many opportunities to manage projects from home at your own speed.
There are many freelance websites that allows you to bid on projects – both price and time – giving you flexibility to earn money without the usual pressures. Elance.com, employmentspot.com and freelance.org are just a few of hundreds. Whatever you did before your crash, you may be able to use those skills to make money at home.
Tell your story to your prospect to explain why you need more time. You’d be surprised at how much people enjoy helping others when they are given the opportunity.
Some of the categories are:
* design and multi-media
* web and programming
* writing and translation
* sales and marketing
* finance and mgt.
* legal
* data entry
Just because you are in your jamies and you haven’t showered or shaved in days doesn’t mean that you can’t pitch a job. Nobody will see you. As far as they know you are in a high rise office building. Picture yourself there and have confidence that you can still do something. It will help enormously with your self-worth if nothing else.
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Now if you are really ambitious, perhaps you would be interested in building a website.
It used to be that you would need a webmaster or lots of money to hire someone, but times have completely changed now.
You can have a website up and running for under $75. WordPress is free as are most all themes and plug-ins – you just need a domain which is under $10, hosting which is under $10 and some guidance:
It’s a funny name for a very systematic course taught by Colleen Slater, who has been broke with nowhere to go…not sick with Lyme disease but she designed the course with loads of videos and I am embarrassed to tell you that the course is a fraction of the cost I paid when I started this blog!
What is nice about blogging is that you can write about a passion you can’t enjoy now due to your illness and still feel connected, or blog about Lyme like I do. And you just keep blogging away…no deadlines or stress about anything technical – it’s easy!
We are sick, some of us very close to death, but we are not dead yet! So while we are alive and fighting the horrible symptoms this disease brings, perhaps we can turn our tears to smiles when we can finally afford that special protocol we’ve been dreaming of – or help a friend who is even worse shape.
Have Fun
We don’t need any more darkness or stress in our lives so it is critical to be sure that there is a clear understanding before taking on any project that it is OK to sleep 3 days in a row if you need to, or resent the obligation one day while being thrilled the next day.
For me it has taken years of spending money to build this blog – money I should probably have spent on other things. But all of you who have become my extended family are sometimes the reason I get my feet on the floor (or my eyes open) so…
