Lately, I've been thinking about the idea of making one million dollars in one year using just a smartphone. Its based on a fantasy I have of living on a beautiful beach and earning a living from my iPhone. This fantasy tends to rear its ugly head every winter when the temperature drops to unacceptable levels....currently 19 degrees as I write this.
This list below contains 3 potential money-making careers that require nothing more than a good smartphone and a reliable internet connection. In fact, you could probably get a way with even using an ipod touch and free wifi from your local starbucks.
1. Write a blog - Yes, you can write a blog from your smartphone. Its not the easiest way to type, but its certainly doable. I use blogger, which has its own iphone app for publishing your blog. The same type of app exists for wordpress. Most bloggers make money via advertising. Its easy to put google adsense ads on your page. These are contextual ads that pay you each time someone clicks on an add. Other options include the amazon affiliate program, which pays you a commission each time someone purchases from Amazon.
Writing a blog is one thing, making a million dollars writing a blog is a totally different task. Its very difficult. For some advice on boosting your blogs traffic, seomoz.org is a great source. There is a lot to learn, but persistence is key. Many bloggers give up too early because it can be frustrating to pour your effort into an article that only 3 people on the Internet will ever read.
2. Make a Youtube viral hit video - Anybody can make a video and upload it to youtube via a Smartphone. The challenge is making a video that everybody wants to watch. A viral youtube video can generation millions of visits. But rather than trying to hit the viral video lottery, you may find more success recording videos regularly and attracting subscribers to your content. Are you funny? Do you have a skill that you can teach people? Regular how-to videos on youtube can attract subscribers who will be notified every time you post new content. If you are successful, you can eventually build up a regular audience.
Enable your youtube account for monetization - All those youtube visits are great, but if you monetize your videos, they will be even better. If you already have a google Adsense account, you can enable monetization on youtube and link it with your adsense account. That way you can track all of your ads within adsense and get paid via adsense.
3. Write a book and self publish to Amazon's Kindle Store - Self-publishing is becoming a legitimate business. Writers can now publish directly to Amazon's kindle store and earn money directly from sales. There are some great writing apps out there on the apple and android app stores that turn your smartphone into a pretty good writing platform. Check out iA Writer or apples pages app.
Technically, you will need to use a pc to turn your text into a kindle formatted book, but there is no reason why you couldn't theoretically write an entire book on your smartphone. This guy does it and makes six figures a month.
