Reply to: A genuine Plan B?

[jmo21]

Affiliate income and passive income is a bit of a dream I think.
Have tried it a few years in the past, but was an horrendous drag, with little return.

Permie tester I worked with a couple of contracts back threw together a few affiliate sites in the early days and paid off his mortgage in 6 months before they dried up.

[psychocandy]

Not sure what its like now but in the past made £1000s from matched betting and online casino cashback offers.

Casino stuff is probably dead by now - they've wised up but matched betting is still going well I believe. Made about £1000 or so in a few months a few years ago. It is time consuming though.

[No2politics]

Not sure how feasible this suggestion is but what about learning a trade?

I've got a friend (albeit perm) who works in a fairly senior IT role at a large FTSE100 company. About 10 years ago he did evening classes and trained to become a qualified electrician whilst working in his IT role. His family comes from the building and associated trades so he used to top up his income with some part time work. Another ex-IT colleague of mine also used to do electrical work although this was in the day before the regulations on who can work on domestic electrical installations were tightened.

You're probably not going to make a fortune but people will always need these types of services. I live in the home counties and it is amazing how difficult it can be to even find a reliable handyman for odd jobs at around £25-30 an hour, never mind an electrician or plumber.

Wow that's. bit steep I pay my handy man 12 quid an hour. Have to wait a month or two for him though as he's obviously booked up

[edison]

What about learning a trade?

Not sure how feasible this suggestion is but what about learning a trade?

I've got a friend (albeit perm) who works in a fairly senior IT role at a large FTSE100 company. About 10 years ago he did evening classes and trained to become a qualified electrician whilst working in his IT role. His family comes from the building and associated trades so he used to top up his income with some part time work. Another ex-IT colleague of mine also used to do electrical work although this was in the day before the regulations on who can work on domestic electrical installations were tightened.

You're probably not going to make a fortune but people will always need these types of services. I live in the home counties and it is amazing how difficult it can be to even find a reliable handyman for odd jobs at around £25-30 an hour, never mind an electrician or plumber.

[evilagent]

I teach an evening class at the local uni.

Last spot of bench time I cold emailed a few hundred local businesses and replied to dodgy gumtree/craigslist posts selling web design stuff. Made a few thousand for a whole load of headache.

I have been trying forever to get passive income from adsense, affiliate links, etc but very little joy on that score.

Next bench time I am going to try and build and sell some off the shelf SCORM compliant courses, I think.

For zero hours casual work, I'd quite fancy one off work like a clearing up after a festival or something but it's never come up at a convenient time.

Affiliate income and passive income is a bit of a dream I think.
Have tried it a few years in the past, but was an horrendous drag, with little return.

I think the aspects to consider is how much time this new venture would take.
Could you shelve it if a contract came up, and then run it part-time?
Could you set it up and get someone else to do the dog-work, and manage it during a contract?

Giving training courses, as you have, is a very good bit of utilising your existing skills.
DOH! I just realised, I assumed the course you give is related to your work. You could be teaching flower-arranging for all we know.

[masonryan]

For zero hours casual work, I'd quite fancy one off work like a clearing up after a festival or something but it's never come up at a convenient time.

Yes I wouldn't mind zero hours

[Old Greg]

trick or treat scares me more than you do

Are those pesky kids in the pay of the agents?

[DieScum]

I teach an evening class at the local uni.

Last spot of bench time I cold emailed a few hundred local businesses and replied to dodgy gumtree/craigslist posts selling web design stuff. Made a few thousand for a whole load of headache.

I have been trying forever to get passive income from adsense, affiliate links, etc but very little joy on that score.

Next bench time I am going to try and build and sell some off the shelf SCORM compliant courses, I think.

For zero hours casual work, I'd quite fancy one off work like a clearing up after a festival or something but it's never come up at a convenient time.

[northernladuk]

I always thought the definition of a plan B was something that ran in parallel and continuously to your main work. A plan B isn't really to fill in in between gigs like JSA. That is another job surely. Just minor points of definition I guess.

[Lockhouse]

Hi,
Any ideas about a genuine plan B when a proper well-paid contract is not available?

I'm not talking about any dodgy pyramid sales type thing. Just honest work locally doing something straight-forward in a perhaps completely different field, for a fraction of the contract rates you can achieve usually?

I hear much talk of zero-contract hours and how bad they are... but wouldn't this suit contractors rather well in the downtime?

Having said that, jobseekers allowance is £72/week, so 12 hours at min wage is a waste of time if you get jobseekers.

Take a look at Dalton's Weekly. See if there's any ready made businesses in your area for sale that you could make into a workable Plan B, then perhaps you could offload the management of that when you got "proper" work. It might also give you some ideas. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy though and very little gives you so much return for an eight hour day as contracting. If it did we'd all be at it.

[aoxomoxoa]

How about copywriting for the recruitment agents' PR companies to promote their services and enhance their already burgeoning reputations. I guess that would suit you nicely

[jmo21]

trick or treat scares me more than you do

[masonryan]

Several of the posters here get commission from the agency blacklist by reporting contractors (from work, the Internet, casual conversations) who complain about agents. Worth a go perhaps?

trick or treat scares me more than you do

[Old Greg]

No thanks. No sales or spam work thanks.

Several of the posters here get commission from the agency blacklist by reporting contractors (from work, the Internet, casual conversations) who complain about agents. Worth a go perhaps?

[masonryan]

Ring a couple of agents and see if you can do some sales leads calling for them on a commission basis?

No thanks. No sales or spam work thanks.