"I am a mother of two teen-aged girls. A few years ago I worked in a private school as an English teacher. I don't have any technical skills. But, I am in need of money. Is there a way to make a few thousand rupees a month working from home? I have thought about it for months and I have come to the conclusion that I would never be able to make money as I don't see any income opportunity around me. My husband and parents-in-law think I am not fit to do anything other than cooking and housekeeping." Kamala said.
"Do you have any opinion about builders and automobile mechanics?" I asked her apparently an irrelevant question. "Well, I don't have personal grudges against any builder or mechanic. However, people believe that they cannot be trusted and you must always be very careful when you deal with them," she replied.
I said, "People in developed countries too have similar negative opinions against them. A builder and a mechanic have converted this weakness into excellent income opportunity. First I will tell you about the builder. Tim Carter is a licensed plumber and carpenter. He founded his website AsktheBuilder.com a few years ago. His primary focus has been catering to an avid following of fellow builders on the site. He spends a tremendous amount of time writing articles, answering people's emails, and creating quality content for his site. Today people seeking authoritative advice on everything from sealing asphalt to installing crown molding often turn to his website for the information they need. His visitors don't believe their own engineers and architects! He answers their questions by email and publishes them on his website. Tens of thousands of visitors read his web pages every day and he has monetized the traffic by running contextual advertisements. He earns more than $50,000, that is Rs.20 lakhs, a month from online Ads alone. He earns much less from his profession. There are thousands of engineers and technicians in this country. How many of them are willing to become self-employed?"
"That's an interesting story. But he is not like me. He has acquired professional knowledge through his education," said Kamala.
I said, "Austin Davis, webmaster of MyHonestMechanic.com, is not a hands on "mechanic" or professionally educated mechanical or automobile engineer. He grew up in the auto repair business and had spent a part of his life at his grandfather's shop. He started out doing everything from cleaning up the huge mess auto mechanics make to driving one of the parts delivery trucks around town. His passion for cars made him very knowledgeable in cars. He started his own website, a content site focusing on auto repair. He gives auto repair advice to readers and supplies auto repair and maintenance information. He was inspired by the success of Tim Carter with Ads and this made him work hard on his website. Today he earns $400, that is Rs.16,000, a day. Both Tim and Austin have converted the knowledge they had in their head into web pages and have been making money."
"I feel good after hearing these success stories. What can a housewife like me possibly do about online projects?" Kamala asked me that question which troubles millions of housewives.
I replied, "How about starting AsktheMother.com, AsktheHousewife.com or MyEnglishTeacher.com? You can answer questions about managing teenage children, cooking, household management and give advice to other housewives. If you don't want to spend a couple of thousand rupees on web hosting, you can turn to free blogger or WordPress and launch your website in a matter of 15 minutes. If you can help your visitors with great advice in simple language, you can start making money in a matter of 3 months. You must aim to make money through ads only, if you are going to use free blogging sites."
"Is it that simple?" she asked. I said, "Making money through online activities is as difficult as earning through offline. However, in any online self-employment project you can work at your convenience and have access to wider market. Besides, initial financial investment is almost zero. Can you think of any such offline projects?"
"But you have to compensate that zero investment with significant investment of time and energy," she said and I said, "Yes, what you say is fully true."
"I'll learn from my daughters how to use the computer. Then I'll teach middle class Indian housewives how to speak in English fluently through the Internet," she said and I responded enthusiastically, "It's an ever expanding market. Go ahead and teach through multimedia. We are all waiting to hear to your success story. "