“If you've got an area of excellence…rich can be arranged.”

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That’s part of a quote from a great Martin Scorcese movie – The Color Of Money. Certainly not in my top 10, it has Tom Cruise in it after all, but it had some sparkling dialogue from the fabulous Paul Newman. And as I was watching it recently, I really gravitated to the idea that “rich can be arranged.”

The full quote from the movie comes from Newman’s character, “Fast” Eddie Felson, and it goes like this:

“If you've got an area of excellence - you're good at something; you're the best at something; Anything; Then, rich can be arranged. I mean rich can come fairly easy.”

 

 

 

The Color of Money

When that movie was made back in 1986 I don’t think I realized just how applicable that profound statement would be over 20 years later. Because now, with the vast resource that is the Internet, rich can be very easily arranged if you’re an expert on anything…and I mean anything.

Let’s start with a site like About.com. They’re always looking for freelance writers, called ‘guides,’ who are experts in some of the most unusual fields. Here’s a sampling of just a few positions available right now:

What can you earn? Well, About.com guarantees a starting income of $725 a month. Not bad, but it gets better. If you work hard on your expert site and write some good, informative articles, your page views can dramatically increase. And that can lead to an income of over $100,000 per year. Not bad for less than 20 hours per week, usually working from home. Here’s a link to the compensation package.

Where else can be profitable? Try Metacafe.

As some of you know, Kipkay is one of my favorite producers over at Metacafe. He’s turned his passion for inventions and life hacks into a very lucrative business. In fact, since he started submitting videos in the middle of 2006, he has earned over $91,000. When was the last time a hobby got you that kind of green?

Just think, is there anything you do that people would be interested in knowing more about? Take a video of it, you could start earning some serious revenue. Start here .

ExpertVillage is another great resource for, well, experts.

You can be an expert on anything from Kung Fu and bellydancing to cooking and car maintenance. I haven’t yet found out just how much money you can make being an expert, but the site suggests that contributors get great financial rewards. Read more about it here :

Blogging, as I’m sure you know, is also a way to turn your thoughts and ideas into cold, hard cash. If you blog as a hobby, you can make a little extra money from Google Adsense. But serious bloggers can easily make upwards of $100,000 a year from a combination of Adsense, affiliate programs, subscriptions, merchandising and more.

If you want an outlet for your writing, try ProBlogger as a source to learn more about this lucrative and vastly growing industry.

Those are just a few ideas that can help you turn your area of expertise, whatever that may be, into fast-flowing streams of revenue. And if you haven't already done so, check out Kate Luther's excellent article about online diversification for more tips. Whatever you do, just remember those golden words – “If you've got an area of excellence…rich can be arranged.”

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Kate Luther's picture

Excellent ideas, Paul. These are some great resources to help us start "arranging our rich"... Actually, the more I say it, the more I like it - we should all make it our catch phrase :)

So, then the question becomes: how can I arrange my rich today?

p.s. thanks for the link!

Guest's picture
Barbara

Thanks Paul! These are some terrific links that could have otherwise been hard to find!