17 Ways Musicians Can Make Money

One of the biggest challenges facing musicians is generating income. Gone are the days when a band could rely solely on music sales and touring to earn a living.

Part of the reality of being a working musician today is the need to diversify your revenue streams. Although sales of recorded music have gone down significantly in recent years, there are new sources of income available to musicians.

A mix of traditional and more modern income streams can help today’s musicians earn a living. Here’s a list of 18 ways to generate revenue for your music career:

18 Ways Musicians Can Make Money

1. CD Sales: If you’re going to be playing live shows, having CDs on hand is still a good idea. They make great takeaway souvenirs that can easily be signed by band members.

2. Vinyl Sales: Vinyl sales surged 30% in 2013. Again, if you’ll be playing live shows, printing a small batch to have at your merch table can help generate extra income.

3. Digital Sales: You should be selling digital music through your own website to make the most money, but also through online retailers. Keep in mind that online retailers take a percentage of sales (ex. iTunes takes 30%, Bandcamp takes 15%). Some digital distributors that place your music in stores like iTunes and Amazon will take a cut on top of that.

4. Streaming: Although per-stream payouts from streaming services tend to be small, they can add up over time. Keep in mind that these services also help new fans discover your music, and shouldn't be seen solely as an income generator.

5. Live Shows: Money made from live shows can vary greatly, but it’s still one of the best ways to earn income. Not only can you make money from selling tickets, but it’s also one of the best ways to sell merch. Be sure to also read 14 Ways Musicians Can Make Money from Live Shows to make sure you’re getting the most out of your gigs.

6. Physical Merch: Income from physical merch can depend heavily on the amount of live shows you play. If you go out on tour, be sure that you have some t-shirts, as well as smaller items like buttons and stickers that you can sell to fans after the show. For tips on selling more merch, check out The Ultimate Guide to Selling Band Merch Online

7. Digital Merch: You can also sell digital merch items like PDFs, videos, and images to your fans. Things like lyric books, live concerts, sheet music, exclusive photos, artwork and more. Check out this post for ideas of digital items you can sell through your website:Using the new File Download feature: 20 Items you can now sell

8. Crowdfunding: Crowdfunding can be a great way to generate income for your music career. A well-executed crowdfunding campaign can help you raise enough money to offset the cost of producing and marketing your album. For tips on crowdfunding, check out: Successful Crowdfunding: A Musician’s Experience of Kickstarter vs. PledgeMusic vs. DIY

9. Publishing Royalties: You should be signed up to a performing rights organization so you can collect royalties on your music. This includes public performance royalties (radio, TV, live venues), mechanical royalties (sales through retailers, streaming, etc.), and sync royalties (commercials, film, TV).

10. Digital Royalties: Whenever your music is played on services like SiriusXM radio, Pandora, and webcasters, they must pay royalties. Sign up for a free SoundExchangeaccount to make sure you’re collecting those royalties.

11. Live Performance Royalties: When performing original material, you can earn royalties from live performances. Whether you perform at a bar, restaurant, club, or other music venue, Performance Rights Organizations (PROs) will pay royalties from those live performances.

12. Licensing: If you get your song placed in a film, commercial, or TV show, chances are they’re going to pay you a licensing fee. These fees vary greatly, depending on the budget for the project, and how badly they want your particular song.

13. YouTube: On YouTube, whenever your music is used in videos that are running ads, YouTube pays a portion of that advertising money to the rights holders of the song. Digital distributors like TuneCore and CD Baby can help you collect that money, as well as Audiam. Be sure to read our post How to make money from your music on YouTube to help develop your YouTube monetization strategy.

14. Sponsorships: If you’ve built up a fan base, some companies are willing to sponsor musicians to reach those fans. Sponsorships can range from cash, to free products, services, and gear. Read this excellent post from Dave Huffman about sponsorships:Musicians: How to Get Sponsored

15. Session Work: Another way to make some extra money is to put yourself out there as a session musician. As a singer or instrumentalist, you could do session work for other musical projects, or even in advertising.  

16. Songwriting/Composing: If you’re a songwriter, you could write songs for other musicians, or compose music specifically for film and television.

17. Cover Gigs: Playing cover gigs at bars, restaurants, weddings, and other private events is frowned upon by some musicians. But those shows can pay really well, and allow you to get paid to play your instrument. There’s no shame in that. And if you're looking to book gigs at parties or private/corporate events, definitely check out GigSalad

Social Investment Networks

The historically hard-to-break world of investing in stock markets and currencies has been cracked wide open. Today there is no need to be a fat cat or fund the yachts of Wolf of Wall Street style stock brokers. You can do it all yourself with the help of online market trading platforms.

Having spent many hours researching this new opportunity, I’ve been experimenting with the two biggest platforms: Plus500 and eToro.com.

Both offer free practice accounts, and Plus500 also give you a free £20(without depositing, terms apply) which is worth taking up. Overall I prefer eToro with over 4 million users worldwide. It was recently featured in the BBC 2 documentary “Traders: Millions by the Minute” and the Financial Times.

One of the best things on eToro is the CopyTrader feature. This lets you literally see, follow and copy the investments of other top performing traders.

Follow George’s complete guide to trading on eToro to learn more. I think $200 is a good amount to get the most out of the learning curve by trying out a few different markets. If nothing else you’ll learn a great deal about various investments and industries.

Warning: trading can be volatile and you can lose money, so don’t throw your life savings into it!

Who to make money from League of Legends

In the gaming world there are two (obvious) types of players: players that put money into the game and players that get money out of the game. I'm assuming that you want to know about the latter.

I've stated in multiple responses that some professional players can make upwards of 7 figure salaries playing games like League of Legends or DotA2. See: What's Faker's annual salary? or How much more does Faker earn as a salary?. In general players only make a decent salary from attracting viewers to watch them and running advertisements or gaining sponsors. Sponsorship is very common in teams and players because they offer a lot more money than advertisements can. To give you an idea, Twitch pays approximately $2 per 1000 ad views, whereas a sponsorship can give you free gear and thousands of dollars (Source needed). Subscribing to a channel is where a decent portion of the money occurs. Streamers earn $2.50 per subscriber, with top streamers having thousands of subscribers. This in turn means that you can make a very good living off of streaming consistently.

However, this does not only apply to League of Legends streamers. The reason why most players tend to go toward League streaming is because the game itself is insanely popular, bringing tens of thousands of viewers for the best streamers (typically professional players). There are some, notably less, popular streamers that play games that you mentioned. For example, Chief Pat is probably the most popular Clash of Clans streamer who can get a couple thousand of viewers every time he broadcasts (ChiefPat). Or Circon, a World of Tanks streamer who has 33k followers, approximately half of Chief Pat's (Circon).

Here is where the discrepancy occurs though. Profitable games are those that areinteresting to watch and primarily multiplayer. These are the biggest reasons why there are no "Candy Crush" streams. They are not interesting to watch, and the game itself is not viewer interactive. People want to be involved. This is why when you see yourself on TV you immediately have that "5 seconds of fame" feeling. The same effect occurs in streaming. People want to subscribe to get their favorite professional player to give recognition, or they want to donate large amounts to get a reaction or possibly be ingrained in the "hall of large donations".

To more specifically answer your question, it's all about how much you monetize from the game versus how much you input into the game. Chief Pat would rather spend $5 on gems per hour to keep his viewers entertained and not waiting than queue everything up and wait for his units to complete. This way he can profit from his subscriber and advertisement revenue versus gem consumption. In reference to League of Legends, spending money is entirely optional, but similar to Clash of Clans, it speeds up the process of certain aspects of the game and opens up opportunities. A streamer may want to teach his viewers how to rank from Bronze to Challenger and thus spend RP to get all his desired champions and an IP boost to get his desired runes. Again we would calculate input versus output.

Hope that helps.

Make Easy Money from 20 Android Smartphone Apps

20 Best Android Apps that can Make you Money

Find the details of these android apps that you can install & make money. If you have a iPhone then you can search the name of that app in Apps store.

Here are they-

1. Earn Money

There are number of ways you can earn money after installing ‘Earn Money’ app. You can get paid by visiting a webpage, clicking ads, watching videos, installing other apps, completing short surveys etc.

The app is available in both paid as well as free version. If you want to make more moneythen you can go for paid version.

You can earn $0.25 per referral. You can invite your friends by sending your referral code through WhatsApp, Facebook, Email etc.

Your earnings will be shown in coins & 100 coins equals $1. Your money will be deposited in your PayPal account within 24 hours after making the request.

One of the highest ‘make money’ app in android market (rated almost 4.3 out of 5 from 64,000 members).

2. Mint Coins

One of the best way to earn money from your Android smartphone is from Mint Coins app. You can earn by playing free games, downloading an app, registering on other sites, watching a video ad, doing a small survey etc.

One of the best part of this app is fast earning than other apps. Earning $5 to $10 takes little time. Minimum amount you can withdraw is $1 through PayPal.

You can even get paid inviting your friends.

You earn $0.25 (Rs.15) per friend invited & your friend gets $0.10 for signup. They can also earn money from this app.

3. CashPirate

Its easy to earn money through CashPirate. Like Mint Coins, you can earn money by downloading the apps, trying free products, watching videos & referring your friends.

You can earn 10% of earnings that each of your referral earn & 5% from their referral.

They use the terms ‘Coins’ for the earnings & when you have earned 2500 coins, you can easily withdraw your earnings in your PayPal account.

This app is rated 4.5/5 from 42,000 satisfied users. It means the site is trustworthy.

4. Google Opinion Rewards

Google Opinion Rewards does not pay you any cash. However it does reward you with Google Play Credits where you can redeem for Android apps, Google Music, Books, Magazines and movies in the Play Store.

Here you can earn by completing a small survey giving your opinion about a product to the Google. Google forwards it to the company looking for consumer experience.

Once you sign up they will give you surveys every week and rewards could be from 25 cents to $1 or even more.

5. Earn Talktime

As the name suggest, you will not earn money but you can earn free talk time by using ‘Earn Talktime’ app. There are number of ways you can earn free time-

• Installing other free mobile app
• You can get Loan from ‘Earn Talktime’ in case you don’t have sufficient balance.
• Earn by signup on a website
• Discover Premier offers
• Extra discount on shopping on any site
• Answering polls & doing online surveys
• Watching videos

6. ESPN Streak for the Cash

ESPN Streak for the Cash app could make you rich overnight because it is like a jackpot.

Here you have to make few predictions on one of your favorite match and make money daily, weekly and even yearly. You need to get longest winning streak for the team for at least a month.

You can do for 10 different sports. You can win $50,000 monthly to over $1 Million a year.

7. Rewardable

Rewardable app pays real cash not like Google Opinion Rewards where you get credits. This particular app is only for users living in US.

Your job would be completing a task online or answer few questions in a store. It could pay you from $5 to $20 depending upon the job you choose. They pay you via PayPal.

8. Gigwalk

Just like Rewardable Gigwalk is also available for people in US and some parts of Canada.

You can become a Gigwalker and make money by completing assignments. It could be taking photos of different places, handing out fliers or pamphlets or becoming mystery shopper.

Here the job is laborious as you might have to go out on the streets. You can make between $5 to $20.

9. CheckPoints

Again here you do not make money but earn points for doing things like scanning the items at a grocery store, checking for items in a shopping mall and other errands.

You also get points for playing games and watching videos. Later on you can redeem these points with gadgets, gift cards and other rewards. Really good for shoppers.

10. App Trailers

You can help app trailers improving their apps by giving your honest experience about the app you are using. You need to share a review about the app how good or bad the app is.

If you watch a video then you get half a cent and for trying out a demo you can make from 10 cents to $1. You also make points for referrals.

11. NPolls

The very name suggests that this android app is about free polls. Here you have to complete a survey usually about politics, sports, current affairs, social trends, lifestyle, brands etc.

One survey could pay you anything around 20 cents to 50 cents. Yes the money is not that much but if you are free then you could take few surveys daily.

12. GymPact

Gym Pact is for the people who are fitness freak. You can make money while exercising at a gym. But there is a catch.

Once you have signed up with GymPact you make money for everyday you go to gym and you lose (or pay) money every day you skip.

For a workout that last 30 minutes you can make $.50 to $1.

13. ShopKick

ShopKick is good for people who are heavy shoppers. You can walk into any store and redeem for gift cards or coupon.

You can make money while you are shopping. ShopKick pays you minimum of $2 for a gift card.

Moreover the best part is that the app is absolutely free of cost. For android platform you can get it through Google Play.

14. Juno Wallet

Juno Wallet does not pay you but rewards you with points. You get points for doing things like watching videos, playing games, completing surveys or polls and inviting friends to play with you.

You can redeem points or credit for pizza, coffee, movie tickets, games, books etc. You get gift cards from Juno Wallet. Gift Cards for Amazon, Google iPlay, iTunes etc. You could also earn cash.

15. Cash King

Cash King app is also a great way to make money on your mobile phone. You get gift cards for Amazon and cash through PayPal.

You can earn $5 in 5 minutes and active users can make up to $50 quickly. You make money for watching videos and also sharing with friends. Videos are movie trailers, commercials etc.

16. iPoll

Just like iPoll is also a survey based apps. This android app allows you take surveys and make cash.

iPoll will pay you cash as well as credit for the iTunes and Amazon credit. You can choose different surveys, some surveys everyone can take up and some are restricted not everyone can take up.

17. Viggle

The last android app in our list is Viggle you can make money with. You can make money while watching TV and listening to music.

You get reward points for watching tv show or listening to music albums. With Viggle Live you can earn points by completing polls while watching a TV show live.

18. Easy Shift

You complete Shifts (or Assignments) and get paid through PayPal. You get paid for doing various things like taking photos, shopping, eating out and giving your opinion or review about a restaurant.

If you complete a task then you are promoted so you can go for higher paying assignments and other perks. They could pay you within 48 hours.

19. Receipt Hog

Its really easy & fun ways to earn money from your shopping by submitting your cash receipt to Receipt Hot. Just 3 steps-

1. Shop anything at any retailer
2. Print a picture of your cash receipt
3. And get paid!

You can even earn more by referring your contacts & scanning barcodes etc.

Just go here, find more details, install the apps & turn every receipt into cash.

20. Money Machine

This is another app that can earn you some extra income completeting the same offers as in other apps. Here also, you can receive your income in PayPal.

5 Real Ways to Actually Make Money Online

How many articles are there about making money online? Thousands?  Millions? Enough? Probably. But there’s a problem. Too many of them are just sales pitches to convince you to sign up for some seminar, webinar, training session or some other way to become an online millionaire.

They really give online money making a bad name. But it is possible to make money online. I mean, the people selling all of those millionaire pitches are making money, right?

There are legitimate ways to make money online. The problem is that the real ways to make money aren’t “get rich quick” schemes.

Most of them require a lot of work and sometimes a lot of dedication before seeing a return on your time.  But if you really want to make money online, work from home or turn an idea into a business, you can do it. You can even earn money with apps if you don’t want to venture all the way to the computer.

I’m going to tell you about all kinds of legitimate ways to make money online.  Since we are talking about legitimate jobs, you’ve got to be…well, legitimate. Many of these options are real jobs that require you to put in hours if you want to get paid. They also require real work. Here are some tips for actually getting the job:

• Take it seriously. Yes, you’re applying for an online job. Yes, you can do the work in your underwear, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a “real job”. You must treat it as such or they aren’t going to treat you as a serious candidate. You aren’t the only one who wants to work in their underwear. In fact, the competition online is likely higher than it is in your local area.
• Be professional. When you submit a résumé, don’t type it in ALL CAPS and please don’t avoid the caps lock like the plague. Know how to use it without looking incompetent. Write in complete sentences with proper grammar. Of course, there will be exceptions, but even with the exceptions, you must keep it professional. You’re building their view of you.
• Give some, but not all.  Whether you’re providing writing samples, a photography portfolio or links to your work, give them enough examples to get the idea, but not so many that they don’t even know where to start. And while we’re on the topic, give them some of your background information, but don’t tell them your life story.
• Double check yourself, before you double wreck yourself. Make sure everything you send to a company, whether a résumé, an email or a portfolio, is good to go. Double check your grammar and wording, and for God’s sake use spell check! This is especially important when it comes to the company’s name. Don’t spell their name wrong and be sure to type it how they type it (e.g. Problogger, not Pro Blogger).

1. Websites That Pay

Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way. There are all kinds of websites that will pay you for various things, such as shopping, taking surveys or testing products. No, I’m not getting paid to promote any of these and no, these websites won’t make you a millionaire, but they are great for earning some extra cash. I’ll leave out the scams.

Here are some legitimate websites that pay:

1. Swagbucks – Swagbucks is great for earning some extra cash. You can do a variety of things to make money, from taking surveys to using their search engine. You won’t get rich, but you will earn a few bucks. If you have the time to kill, you can spend it earning some extra cash, instead of surfing the web.
2. InboxDollars – InboxDollars is similar to Swagbucks, since you’re going to be taking surveys, shopping, etc., so if you want to maximize your return, sign up with both websites. They also offer a search engine that pays you (like Swagbucks) and you get $5 just for signing up.  I won’t continue to list survey sites one after another down the list, but if you want to get paid to take surveys, also check out GlobalTestMarket, E-Poll Surveys and Survey Club.
3. Project Payday – Project Payday is one of those sites that has testimonials of people who have earned thousands of dollars by getting paid to get trial offers. I’m not saying you’ll earn thousands, but it is legit and you can earn some extra cash. They assume that by paying you to do a free trial, you’ll either like the product and purchase it, or forget to cancel the trial and get charged for it. If you can keep track and cancel before you get charged (if you don’t want the product), then this is a great site for making some money.
4. User Testing – User Testing pays $10 a pop for testing websites. A test usually takes about 15-20 minutes. The purpose is for a website owner to watch someone, who is new to their site, try to navigate it. The value that the site owner gets by watching an actual user experience is worth a ton, but $10 isn’t a bad pay-out.
5. Fiverr – Fiverr is a great place to make a few bucks or spend a few bucks if you need some of the services people offer. Basically, everything is $5. You either pay $5 or charge $5. They call them “gigs.” You can offer your services however you choose. If you sell art and you’re fine selling pieces for $5 each, that’s a gig. If you’re a graphic designer and you want to offer your services for $10/hour, simply offer a 30 minute gig. If they need two hours of graphic design, they pay you $20, or $10/hour by buying four gigs.
6. IZEA – IZEA works in addition to a blog or on its own. You get paid to blog, tweet, take photos and take videos. The pay is mostly based on your following, so if you want to make money with your tweets, you’ll need to grow you Twitter following.  Likewise, if you want to make money with blogs, you’ll need substantial blog traffic (more on blogging below).

2. Freelance Writing

Freelance writing is one of the most popular ways to earn money online. Many successful freelancers can earn an average of 50 cents to a dollar per word. Some are earning twice that!

Of course, it doesn’t start out like that. You’ve got to build your portfolio and your résumé, blah blah blah. If you’re interested in writing, I’m sure you know this. If you’re not interested in writing, I wouldn’t recommend traveling down this road just for the money.

It takes dedication and time, though it can be highly profitable if it’s what you love. Assuming it is what you love, let’s talk about making money with it.

Before you decide to start reaching out to all of these freelance writing companies, you need to have a web presence. You need a blog (in my humble blogger opinion, of course).

Or you could just have an online portfolio. Even a LinkedIn profile works to get started. When you’re ready to start, here are 150 resources to help you write better, faster and more persuasively.

If that’s intimidating, just start with these 50 resources.

Now for what you’ve all been waiting for; once you’re ready to actually start making money, here are 10 websites you can start with:

1. Listverse – Listverse pays $100 for each accepted post. The article must be a list, it must be at least 1,500 words and you must include at least 10 things. Other than that, you can get pretty creative with it.
2. TopTenz – TopTenz pays $50 for each accepted post. Again, the article has to be in a list format and it must be at least 1,500 words, with few exceptions. They post often so your chances of getting accepted are fairly high.
3. A List Apart – A List Apart pays $200 for each accepted post. They’re not first on the list, because they tend to publish less articles, which means you have a smaller chance of getting accepted. Same guidelines as above, 1,500 word minimum.
4. International Living – International Living pays $75 for each accepted post. They are mostly looking for travel experiences from countries you have visited. For this site, it’s more about your experience than your writing ability.
5. FundsforWriters – FundsforWriters pays $50 for each accepted post. They are looking for articles about writing and making money with it. They only accept articles between 500-600 words, but they want you to make each word count.
6. Uxbooth – Uxbooth pays $100 for each accepted post. They do tend to take four to eight weeks to accept and post articles, so don’t count on this being a quick money maker. They take so long, because they pair with editors to only publish amazing content.
7. iWriter – iWriter pays up to $15 for each accepted post. That may seem small, but they aren’t as strict as many of the others above and they also allow you to pick exactly what you write. You can write as many or as few articles as you want.
8. Textbroker – Textbroker pays up to five cents per word, if you’re a 5-star writer. You’ll start by submitting a short sample article and you will most likely start as a 3-star writer, but you can work your way up by writing more and writing great content.
9. Matador Network – Matador Network pays up to $60 for each accepted post, but standard pay is around $20-$25. They don’t really focus on a minimum word count, but they have a maximum count of 1,500 words.
10. The Penny Hoarder – The Penny Hoarder pays up to $800 (rarely), depending upon the number of page views you receive. The pay starts at $100 for 50,000 page views, so this isn’t a guaranteed paid article, but it can potentially be highly rewarding.

There’s no doubt that you can make money with freelance writing, but it’s a process. Once you start building your portfolio and your writing skills, you can start making some serious money. If you’re not an experienced writer, expect to put some time in before you really start to see some dough.

3. Sell Your Stuff

Ever since the idea of online auctions came into existence, the online selling market has been on the rise. Many are interested, but don’t know how to get started. There are still all kinds of ways to make money by selling online, whether you’re selling what you already have or buying and selling like a store. Before we get started, here are a few general tips when selling anything online:

• Get a PayPal account. If you don’t have a PayPal account, you’ll want to get one if you’re doing business online. It’s the standard in online business for receiving payment and paying others.
• Take good pictures. Some of the options below don’t require you to actually take the picture and sell the product, but for the ones that do, make sure you take a clear picture that makes your product stand out from the others.  If you’re going to be taking a lot of pictures, set up a small “studio-like” area in your home with a backdrop and proper lighting to really make your pictures come across as professional. And of course, you’ll want a good camera too.
• Be honest.  If you’re selling used items, be honest about every dent, scratch, blemish, etc.. This will reduce many issues you could run into and keep your reviews positive.
• Do good business. Plain and simple. Whether you’re selling on a small site or opening an online store, your customer service matters. You’ll want to get those positive reviews and make a good name for yourself. Respond to questions, concerns and complaints. Offer a guarantee if available.

Follow those guidelines and you will do well in online sales. When you’re ready to start selling, here’s where you go:

1. Amazon – Have you heard of FBA? It stands for “Fulfilled by Amazon” and it’s getting pretty popular. Basically, you buy products (in bulk is best) and ship them to Amazon for them to store. When your products sell, Amazon packs them up, ships them out and sends you the money (after taking their cut). There are people making a full-time living from FBA, while others just do it for some extra money.
2. CraigsList – Some things don’t ship very well. Other things may make you feel uncomfortable to sell to someone across the country. Anytime you’re selling a large item or something you just don’t want to ship, Craigslist is a great place to go. It’s simple to list your item (again, take good pictures!). If you don’t like the idea of putting your phone number out there, the interested individual can send you a message to your inbox without even getting your email address.
3. eBay – Of course you can’t read an article about making money online that doesn’t mention eBay. You can start an eBay store and get serious about it or you can just sell some stuff to declutter your home. Either way, I’ve made my fair share from selling on eBay and it’s still a popular way to earn money. If you decide to start an actual eBay store, you’ll want to find a drop-ship business like Doba that will store and ship items straight to your customers so you don’t have to deal with an inventory.
4. Etsy – If you like to create arts and crafts, you can sell them on Etsy.It’scompletely free to open an Etsy store. You simply sign up, post pictures of your creations and starting selling. You can choose your payment option, but PayPal is generally the easiest. Etsy makes it easy to sell and keep track of your inventory. There is a small listing fee and they take 3.5% of every sale you make.
5. Facebook – Facebook swap shops are great for selling things locally. It’s like CraigsList, but a little easier. You simply search for swap shops in your area and ask to join the group. Once you’re in, take a picture of the item, write a quick description with the price and post it. It doesn’t get much easier than that. You can generally expect to get about what you would get at a yard sale, maybe a little more.

4. Blogging

Hey look, an article about making money online that doesn’t mention blogging. . . oh wait, here it is.

First off, I’m a blogger so it seems wrong not to mention it, but more importantly, it’s a legitimate way to make money. It’s quite possibly the least straight-forward way on this list, but it’s very doable and it’s also quite possibly the funnest way on this list. I love blogging and I know hundreds of bloggers who feel the same. So let’s talk about making money blogging and what it really means.

Blogging is something that requires patience, persistence and discipline. It may mean writing everyday for over a year before you really start to see any money from it. There are exceptions to the rule, but from my dealings with other bloggers, it seems to be pretty common to spend one or even two years building your blog, your brand and your authority, before making any serious amount of money.

Some people argue that you can make money without a lot of traffic and while that is true in some circumstances, you will generally need a lot of website traffic to start earning from a blog and that takes a while. Once you’ve reached that point, here are the primary ways to monetize your blog and start earning:

1. Advertising – This is definitely the most old-school way of earning money with a blog. It’s also starting to become the least common way. You can sell advertising spots directly on your site or you can sign up with a company like Google AdSense or Media.net. Either way, you won’t see a whole lot of money from ads until your views are well into the thousands each day.
2. Affiliates – There are many affiliate networks, such as FlexOffers and CJ Affiliate that allow you to promote other people’s products and services. You simply put a link or a banner on your page and then you get a percentage if someone clicks through and buys the product/service. You’ll want to select products that are specifically within your blog’scategory.This is an effective way to earn money once you have the traffic coming to your blog.
3. Membership – Many people have created a paid membership area on their blog. This is typically for exclusive content that you can only access in the “member’s area.” If you have a really great idea on what to include, this can be a great idea.  You’ll have to create something that can’t easily be accessed around the web.
4. Products – You can create your own product, such as an ebook or computer software. You would then use your blog as a promotion tool to get people to buy your product. As long as you create a legitimate product with a whole lot of value, you should be able to get some buyers, but like everything else with a blog, you’ll need the traffic to get the sells.
5. Services – You can offer a paid service, such as life coaching, blog coaching, goal setting or financial planning. Just be sure to investigate all the legal implications and make sure you’re not claiming to be a professional if you’re not one. With a service like this, you’re basically using your blog to sell yourself. You’ll need to convince people that you’re worth buying and then be able to back up your claims once they purchase your service.
6. Sponsored/paid posts – Many blogs publish sponsored and paid posts. Sponsored posts are basically just posts about a specific brand, product or service. A company will pay you to publish an article about it. It’s similar with other paid posts as well. Your basically selling the spot for the article on your site. If you decide to take this route, you’ll want to build your traffic before you will get many offers.
7. Subscription – If you think of something valuable (newsletter, online magazine, etc.) that you can consistently offer on a certain basis (weekly, monthly, etc.), you may want to offer a subscription service. This could be a fee charged each time your product is sent out or on a monthly basis. Either way, this has to be something that your customers can only get by subscribing to your website.
8. Videos – This could be an entire section on it’s own. Many people have made money by creating YouTube videos. Evan of EvanTube is a kid andhe has made millions by creating reviews of products that other kids his age would use. It’s not easy to get views into the millions, but once you do, you’ll start seeing some cash come in. Many bloggers have completely turned to videos to get their point across by starting a video blog.

If you’re truly interested in becoming a blogger, start by looking through the archives of ProBlogger, Copyblogger and Boost Blog Traffic. Then go read through all the free guides over at Quick Sprout. It may take you a year to complete those tasks alone, but it will be worth it. You’ll practically have a MBA in blogging.

5. Work-at-Home Companies

Finally, there are some companies that will hire you to work from the comfort of your own home. If you’re interested in working for someone else, while still making your own schedule and deciding where to work from, here are a few companies that will let you do just that:

1. CrowdSource – CrowdSource offers many types of jobs from “microtask” jobs to larger writing and editing jobs. You decide how much you work and you can do most of it right at your computer.
2. Demand Studios – Demand Studios is hiring all kinds of creative professionals, from writer to filmmakers. The pay isn’t amazing, but it’s competitive for a work-at-home job.
3. Fast Chart – Fast Chart allows you to work from home as a medical transcriptionist. There are some requirments and qualifications listed on the page, but if you meet them, you’ll make competitive pay for the industry. You’ll also be able to set your own schedule since you’ll be working from home.
4. Leap Force – Leap Force is one way that Google rates websites for search engine ranking. If you’re hired, you make decent money (usually over $11/hour), you set your own schedule and it can be pretty fun to view and rank websites.
5. Liveops – Liveops is a call center that allows you to work from home. Once your set up to take the calls, you can begin making a weekly schedule and working from home. The pay is generally close to $10/hour, but you can earn more with commissions.
6. SpeakWrite – SpeakWrite will pay you up to $15/hour to transcribe information. You set your own schedule and work from home.

Now you’ve got many different options to start earning online. If you saw something that really interests you, try it out and learn more about it. If you’re really wanting to make a full-time income online, you need to be dedicated to learning how to do what you want to do. There are tons of free resources out there. You just have to search for them!

How to Make Profit in Team Fortress 2

ave you ever wondered how some people have pages and pages of unusuals and promotional items in their backpacks? Everyone had to start somewhere, and for some of you, that is right here! This guide will show you the basics of how to make profit both in-game and financially (that's right, real money!) Team Fortress 2 requires dedication and persistence to be successful, but the rewards can be totally worth it! I have received many Steam games in exchange for TF2 items and other services. I was able to sell hats for gift cards and even cash via Paypal! Making quick profit is easier than you think!

If you like this article, I invite you to join us on Facebook. You can join the Facebook Group to keep in touch with me and discuss your tactics with other readers. In addition, due to popular demand, I have created a Steam group where readers can get together to post comments, share stories, and ask questions about making profit. Plus, you'll be able to join in on exclusive events and giveaways. Don't miss out on this great opportunity to join the Steam group and talk to me and other readers through Steam. Alright, enough chit-chat, let's make some profit!

Price Checking

So you have a bunch of items in your backpack, and you don’t know what to do with them. Where do you begin? First of all, you should figure out what your items are actually worth. To do this, you can conduct a search online. There are several resources at your disposal when price checking, so let’s take a look at what we’ve got.

The Spreadsheet: http://backpack.tf/ is the leading resource for price-checking common items in the market at this time. In my experience, this site has been somewhat inaccurate in the Unusual market, but it can serve as a rough estimate in many cases. Do not use any spreadsheet to get a set-in-stone value for any item. All spreadsheets that exist, including Backpack.tf, should be used as a reference.

Outpost Search: Tf2 Outpost[www.tf2outpost.com] is, in my opinion, the most valuable tool for price checking. Not only can this site help you with prices, but you can find trades on the spot, too! If you head over to their site, you can search for any item in the game, and you can see what other traders want for their identical items (and what they’re actually being traded for.) I find this method the most effective way to price check Unusual hats. When price checking Unusual hats, keep in mind owners often overprice their buyouts. You should take note of the current offers, both quality and quantity. The more people interested in an item, the more profit a trader can milk out of it. If there are ten Blizzardy Storm Nanobalaclavas on Outpost, and all of the owners are asking for 2 Buds, you can estimate the actual price you’re going to get for that item is lower than their asking price. If 2 Buds was a good price for that hat, there wouldn’t still be ten of them on the market at that price. Of course, this is merely an example with made-up circumstances, but you get the picture.

Asking People: One of the most common ways people price check their items (especially unusuals hats) is to go on a trade server and ask the approximate value of an item. For the spreadsheet items, you can usually get a quick and accurate answer (but you could also look it up yourself just as quick.) For Unusual hats, level-specific items, and craft number items, you will get mixed answers. In my trading experience, this is the least accurate method of price checking, as many people don’t understand how to properly price check a non-spreadsheet item and they resort to other less accurate resources (such as a friend asks a friend who has an unusual…) I owned an Eerie Fire Larrikin Robin, and several people on a trade server claimed I could get no more than 2 Buds for it no matter how hard I tried. However, I received several offers greater than 2 Buds almost immediately after I began advertising it. If you want the most accurate price check, conduct the first two methods and you will be good to go.

The Steam Market: The Steam Market allows players to sell their items for Steam Wallet funds. This is the safest way to make real money on your items, but the money will be limited to Steam purchases. Additionally, the Steam Market can be used to price check items for real-money trades. Even if you opt for the less safe Paypal transaction, you can at least find a monetary value on some of your items before trading. The Steam Market is a work in progress, so not all items are able to be sold just yet, but we can expect Valve to change that in the near future.

Buying in Bulk

You can buy items in bulk from established players who are looking to clear their inventories. Try to find items with a fairly consistent price, and buy them in bulk at a discount price. If an item can easily be sold for 1 refined, try to buy 3 of that item for 2 refined + 2 reclaimed, and sell them on your own, making yourself 1 reclaimed profit. This is a very easy and low-risk method of making profit. If you see an item that is at a low and has reason to increase in the future, make an investment! It could pay off big! Remember, every little bit adds up!

Trade Servers

There is a time to trade on specified trade servers, and there is a time to stray from them. For example, if you are trying to sell Bill’s Hat for several Keys, you will want to head to a trade server. Not many non-traders just horde Keys in their backpack. However, competitive servers are great for small-scale trades. Many players who are searching for a specific weapon will offer to pay a scrap or more for convenience. You can also pick up tools cheap from competitive players who couldn't care less about the trading aspect of the game. Decal tools and Name Tags can often be bought at a low price, then resold for their value to someone on a trade server.

Exchanging Craftable Hats

This is one of my favorite methods of making profit. Enter a trade server with two craftable hats. Tell people on the server that you are going to craft the hats and you would be willing to trade each one for any craftable hat plus something extra (often called a sweetener). Take any deal that doesn’t include crates. There are many instances in which you can get an extra reclaimed metal from a person who prefers your class-specified hat over theirs.

Trade Example: Handyman’s Handle for Master’s Yellow Belt + 1 reclaimed

Someone who has a Yellow Belt might dislike playing as a Sniper. If that player prefers Pyro, he will likely be willing to include at least a weapon or two extra. Just be sure the person trades you a craftable hat in return for yours. You can find out whether a hat is craftable by hovering the mouse over the item. If the description shows “This item cannot be used in crafting,” ask politely for a craftable hat in its place.

Hold Off on Crafting Metal

One of the easiest ways to obtain more metal is to craft the item drops you receive. However, as a trader, you should hold off on crafting metal until you can make a worthwhile amount. Many people request specific weapons during gameplay, and those players are often willing to trade a scrap for the sake of convenience. You could potentially double your profit by trading rather than crafting. This trading method actually works quite well in combination with the Exchanging Craftable Hats trading method. Something as simple as saying “Trading a bunch of weapons, just ask!” on a competitive server is a great way to sell a weapon for a scrap or more.

Provide an Alternate Service

I was able to make a lot of profit by providing a Steam Avatar service. Using Photoshop, I completed avatar requests in return for donations. I received as little as Dalokohs Bar for one of my avatars, but I also received as much as two hats for a set of six avatars. Runescape, Pokemon, and other online games could score you huge profit. With more and more games coming with Steam Inventory capabilities (Counter Strike GO, Battleblock Theater, etc.), you could leverage those items as well. Keep in mind what your strengths are and which game is more important to you. Be very cautious when using this method. Scamming is common, and you should find a trusted middle-man if you feel it is necessary.

Use of Forums

Forums are an easy and free way to advertise items you have for sale. While you play the game, keep posts on multiple forums with items you are trading, what you are expecting in return, and how they can contact you. I recommend leaving your Steam ID on each post. Steam can alert you when a new player adds you to his/her Friends List and you can discuss terms of trade. Forums are also useful in finding a middle man. Keep an eye on the thread rating and how others react to his/her service. Sometimes middle men require a small fee. Other times you can complete trades for free. Once again, be cautious about who you choose for this job.

I recommend you use the same username on all forums. Many people jump from one forum to another, and it is surprising how quickly you can become well-known by the quality of your trades. This strategy helps traders prove their reliability because it is easy to post a link to alternate forums. As long as you still have the same username, people will generally trust you.

Make Friends

I noticed a lot of my friends no longer play Team Fortress 2. From asking around my friends list, I was able to get Earbuds, two Bill’s Hats, two cans of white paint, and a bunch of other random paints as well as rare vintage weapons for free. It is a wise idea to make friends on other games, especially those with old promotional items. You never know when you can pick up a rare item for no cost. Make the most of the items that are only collecting dust in your friends’ backpacks. You can view your friend’s backpack by visiting his/her profile and clicking “View Inventory.” Keep an eye out, and remember to always ask nicely.

Unusual Hats

Possibly the biggest source of monetary profit from Team Fortress 2 comes from the rare Unusual hats. These hats are obtained only by opening Mann Co. Crates using Keys. You have a 1% chance of uncrating an Unusual hat, so I don’t recommend buying a bunch of Keys. People generally want Earbuds and Bill’s Hat offers for their Unusual hats. Most Unusuals cost at least one Earbud, though there are a few exceptions. Unusual hats can be valued anywhere from $15 to well over $1000. You can sell Unusual hats over the Steam Marketplace for Steam Wallet Funds, or you could take a chance by selling for money on Paypal. The latter method is a bit more risky unless both parties are well-known for completed trades of this nature. I personally prefer to sell for Steam Wallet funds because it is safe, and I find myself buying most of my games from Steam, anyway. This is just a more convenient way for me to add funds into my Wallet without digging into my checking account.

As far as trading Unusuals go, be aware that Unusual hats are a slowly declining market. You can’t buy much of anything for the long run, and it’s usually best to sell out for promotional items (such as Earbuds) and restart whenever it is profitable. There are general tiers of effects and classes that you should be aware of when trading, and you must be able to recognize the current trends in order to make profit (some effects are “in,” while others are “out,” much like fashion styles.)

Some class-hats are generally more well-liked than others. Though nothing is set in stone, Soldier and Demo hats seem to be the most valuable while Heavy and Engineer Unusuals are the least valuable.

Some Unusual hats have themes, but before I go any further, let me explain something very clearly. Traders can make up a theme out of ANYTHING. If you have any doubt, it’s probably not a themed hat. What do I mean by themed? A Dead Cone with Bubbles can be seen as a Wet Floor symbol. However, if someone tries to pass off an Unusual Batter’s Helm with Purple Energy as a “Purple Flurp” theme from Jimmy Neutron, you can see why not everyone would make the connection. Nuts & Bolts is one of the lowest-tier effects, but that effect is highly valuable on Engineer hats. The Nuts & Bolts effect is a theme for the Engi, as is Hearts with Medic, and Burning Flames with Pyro. You should only consider a hat themed when the theme is very obvious. Remember, not everyone has your imagination!

Finally, I would like to conclude with some small trading tips that you may already know. When you advertise and leave your Steam ID, people will add you. Nine times out of ten, they will be lowballing you. Your best option is to hear their offer, but be patient and check with a friend if you have any doubts. If the person gets mad and says he’s giving you a good deal but can’t wait, your mental red flag should raise because 99 times out of 100, he’s lowballing you. People that make these low offers opt to add you rather than offer wherever you’re advertising because they don’t want to be seen lowballing in the public eye. Adding people to discuss trade terms is more personal and is usually more successful than just throwing out an offer onto their post.

Also, be cautious of the old switcheroo. I know it’s a lame trick and you feel invulnerable to it, but hear me out. One trader offered his Hearts Private Eye plus a bunch of lesser items for my Bubbling Crown. Knowing this was a fantastic deal even without his sweets, I accepted his trade. Before we traded, he asked for 2 or 3 crates to unbox. As I occupied myself searching for the crates, he switched out his Unusual Private Eye for a regular Private Eye. I very nearly accepted the trade, but one last glance over the terms and I had caught him. It was very sneaky, and I reported him to Steam. I’m guessing I’m not the only person he tried this trick on, as his trade status was listed as “Probation.” Check every user’s profile page before you trade with him. If the person is under trade probation, proceed with caution. ALWAYS check over the trade terms one last time before accepting an offer.

Promotional Items

There are a few hats in the game that can only be obtained via promotion, such as Genuine items, Bill’s Hat, the Monday Night Combat set, and Earbuds. The value of Genuine items seems to be decreasing as the yellow-text versions are released and multiply. I advise you to sell Genuine items before the yellow-text versions are released. Items such as Bill’s Hat, Earbuds, Lumbricus Lid, and Essential Accessories are valuable and can be stored until the value increases even more. All of these items have doubled their original value. I do not doubt that as long as Team Fortress 2 is popular, these hats will continue to increase in value.

As I’ve told many of my readers, investing in promotional items is like investing in the stock market. Prices rise and fall very often. If you can buy when they’re cheap and sell when the price rises, you will be in good shape. During one of Valve’s Christmas updates, the BMOC and Ebenezer hats were released, and they were difficult to obtain. The BMOC was relatively expensive, but I noticed the Ebenezer’s value was dropping like a rock about halfway through the update. The price averaged as low as 2 keys for this promotional item that was going to be cut off, so I bought in before it was no longer obtainable by means other than trading. I was able to double my investment on the Ebenezers within a week or two. Keep up with the start and end dates of promotional items, and take notice whether the price is increasing or decreasing in value.

Crafting Quickly

Certain craftable weapons can sell for a high price, that is, if you’re lucky enough to get them on an early attempt. For example, The Maul still has no blueprint. That means the only way to get it is to smelt 3 weapons into a melee token, 3 more weapons into a class token, then combine the tokens and add an additional scrap for a small chance at crafting The Maul. Naturally, this weapon is much more valuable than common drop items, especially when it was crafted early in its release.

After the discontinuation of Vintage weapons, Valve introduced a “craft number” for the first 100 of each hat and weapon randomly crafted. For example, the first ever Original (rocket launcher) crafted by a player received the permanent name “The Original #1.” This item was dubbed ‘the original Original’ and is on the market for a fortune. The craft number item market is very unstable and can be a good source of profit if you can buy cheap. For instance, I bought Sultan’s Ceremonial #49 with my Outback Intellectual + Ornament Armament (at that time my items were worth up to 9 refined, but I knew they would decrease over time.) Within a few weeks, I turned Sultan #49 around for 5 keys.

You can also group craft numbered items to support some theme. I bought the All-Father #25 for 1 Bud, and came across the owner of the Kringle Collection #25 about a year later. I was able to buy that for about 7 keys, and I resold the set for 4 Earbuds!

The Oddly-Leveled Items Market

Back when Team Fortress 2 was a new game, weapons and hats were found at random levels. Some people are very intent on getting specific levels on their items, whether it be their birthday, favorite number, or something vaguely significant to them. Ironically enough, a lot of people trade oddly-leveled weapons without realizing/caring. There are many people who will trade good items to get a specific leveled item. The price on these oddly-leveled items varies greatly between traders, but Level 0 and Level 100 seem to be the most significant. Trade these for a duplicate item of a regular level plus a nice sweetener.

Vintage Hats and Weapons that are level 0 or 100 can go for very high prices. They are among the rarest items in Team Fortress 2 and should not be sold for anything short of a fortune. If you see an opportunity to trade someone for these items, capitalize on this quick, then sell it for more!

Advertising Online

There are many forums and other websites that promote trading in Team Fortress 2. However, two sites that I have found really stick out from the rest. These resources will have you log in through Steam. From there, you will be able to display up to 8 items from your backpack and choose from a list of possible items that you want in return. Real people can view these trades and usually respond fairly quick.

The first and probably oldest resource is the TF2 Trade Post[www.tf2tp.com]. This resource is very helpful but often overlooked in favor of the now-popular TF2 Outpost[www.tf2outpost.com]. When Outpost released, it was much faster than the Trade Post. As people converted to Outpost, traffic decreased on Trade Post. Both resources are, in my opinion, almost required for serious traders. While Outpost has higher traffic, Trade Post gives your items a little more time on the front page and offers a more privacy from others selling the same item as you.

Strategically, you should approach trading on these two resources in two ways. First, propose a trade naming EXACTLY what you want. You’d be surprised to know how often someone just happens to have the specific items you are looking for. If you don’t know exactly what you want, sometimes it’s best to leave your items “open to offers.” It is not uncommon to make more profit by doing just that. Leaving an item open to offers requires some persistence, as you will likely be rejecting most offers.

Don’t just propose your trade and run away! Make sure you check out the recent offers on the same item you're selling on other players' posts. If you see a good deal, you can quickly add the person making the offer and get the deal for yourself.

Events

Those wishing to make profit may benefit greatly from the wonders of gift-hording. I’m talking about the Halloween event, featuring infinite gifts over an extended period of time. Here’s a marketing tip. Horde all the Halloween items you can, and sell them before the event ends. Then, when Halloween is over, the community suddenly doesn’t care about the Halloween-restricted items, and you can buy them back much cheaper than what you sold them for. Give it a try! Sometimes, you have to skip looking wealthy in one update to make profit for the future!

The Game-Trading Market

Steam games can make you tons of profit, but only if you’re smart about what you trade for the games and when you trade for them. I did some experimenting of my own during the 2012 Steam Summer Sale, and it really paid off! By the time the sale was over, I was a more wealthy TF2er and had five games to spare (not counting the two that I kept for myself.) So what’s my strategy?

First of all, I found that the Game-trading market is easiest to enter and exit during Steam sales, and I recommend waiting for a big sale to do the bulk of your trading in this area. I started the sale with about 20 keys to spend on whatever I wanted, so I got a few people to buy me some $2.49 flash deals. In return for these games, I traded one Key and one Refined Metal for each game. This was very easy because Keys are in the Mann Co. Store for $2.49. When I offered the extra Refined, some traders were quick to collect the reward. I was able to turn most of these games around for 2-3 keys. This method is a bit more difficult with the Steam Market now in place, but you can make the same kinds of trades using the lowest market price for keys as your base like I used the store price in the past. As a trader, you should try to capitalize on the people that have no intention of reselling the game. The players that want to keep the games are usually the ones that are willing to let you make your profit.

I advise you to sell all the unwanted games in your inventory by the end of the Steam Sale. Once the sale is over, demand for Game-trades takes a nosedive for a few reasons. Most people, by the end of the sale, have a new game or two installed and are ready to play. Players don’t need games piling up in their libraries, so demand for games declines. Traders also like to bump up the price of games after a sale, so fewer people are willing to buy at that time.

I prefer sticking to the cheap games when I go for profit. It’s low-risk, and even if you fail to resell, you got a new game out of the deal! Advertising on TF2 Outpost worked well for me, but I sold most of my games on Trade Servers. Because I was dealing in cheap games, I didn’t have to bother finding an Unusual Trade Server. My asking price for each game was affordable by the majority of all TF2 players, and by making a key or two profit from each game, Steam Sales will be a resource for me in the years to come.

Avoiding Scams

Throughout the history of trading, not just in TF2, man has devised methods to target the ignorant and unwary. You’d like to think trading started honest and fair, but simple human nature would prove you wrong. I would like to give you some tips to keep you on the cutting edge of trading. Everyone will get scammed at some point, but a good trader will learn how to counter the loss and make up for it in profit.

First off, keep up with the TF2 Spreadsheets. Not just one, but take a look at several of them (especially when trading Unusuals.) If you have any doubts about the value of your item, conduct a search on TF2 Outpost and see what other people are doing. Between spreadsheets and your own research, you will get a pretty good idea what your item is worth.

I’m not going to list every type of scam; that would lead to people submitting new method after new method, and suddenly this article would be “How to Scam on TF2.” I don’t want that. I strongly encourage honest trading because the purpose of this article is to help you make honest profit. You may wonder how it’s possible to make ANY good profit without ripping a person off to some degree. Here’s the kicker. If you make an honest trade with a fellow TF2er, and both parties are satisfied, you can make legitimate profit. There is a catch though, and I would like to introduce you to a term that may or may not be new to you: Sharks.

Whether you’ve experienced these people first-hand or not, you’re probably familiar with the concept of sharking. This is a scam method in which players search for others with one or two valuable items in their inventory and try to fake a good deal for them. A common practice is to find players with one Earbud and nothing else of value. That player probably got the Buds when they released, and stopped playing the game since. Therefore, the player does not know the value of Buds, and would trade them for just about anything that looks nicer. Sharking IS scamming, and you can get banned for doing it. I’ve seen it happen.

You have the item(s) of value, and you need to guard them from dishonest traders. If you feel uncertain about a trade, you should always think twice about pressing the big green trade button. Take a moment to talk it over with a friend, or even post here. Chances are, if the person is “in a hurry” to trade, he’s trying to prevent you from discussing with another player that may advise you against accepting it. You should also take a moment to check the person’s Steam profile. If the player is listed on Probation or has a private backpack, you should proceed with caution.

Be smart, avoid scammers, and don’t scam. You can get banned for scamming. I’ve seen this happen to a guy with tons of unusuals. He lost EVERYTHING. Valve locked his account and those items have gone to waste. The best way to avoid being scammed is to keep up with the values by conducting your own research. Always be honest, and nothing will ever come back to haunt you.

Predicting Market Trends

There are an infinite number of methods people use to make profit in their own ways. My goal is to help readers like you get the edge by understanding the market; that is, which items increase over time, and which will decrease.

Let us begin with an example. Vintage Hats, the once-coveted blue-texted apparel have become drastically less valuable over time. As new hats are released, players begin to realize the blue text doesn’t mean as much as the extra refined metal or two they can get from downgrading to non-vintage or “unique.” This extra metal is in turn gathered and traded for new items. Hats are all about showing off your wealth. What’s more frustrating than getting owned by some jerk who taunts using the newest weapons and apparel? Face it, Vintage Hats are old school, and taunting at your dead opponent doesn’t show them your hat is Vintage. The lesson here: most hats decrease in value over time.

Now, let me contradict everything I just said. There are hats and miscellaneous items that are increasing as time goes on. These hats include Earbuds and Bills. Earbuds were a promotional item first introduced to Mac users simply by logging in to Steam from a Mac. Earbuds were once as worthless as Alien Swarms. What happened? Valve, without any prior indication, cut off the promotion. Suddenly, Earbuds were worth a fortune! Since the termination of the Mac promo, Earbuds have remained the main trading unit of “big sales.” As Earbuds increase in value, everything else drops in comparison. For example, Max’s Severed Head was once valued at five Earbuds. At this point, people are growing tired of Max Heads, and their value is decreasing (Another possible source of this decreased value is a duplication scam in November 2011 where Max Heads and other items were somehow cloned and resold into the market.) But the question remains: why hasn’t anyone grown tired of Earbuds? One update to the game allowed players to equip two miscellaneous items at the same time. Suddenly, players could show off their Buds and their License to Maim. These twists in gameplay promote the use of certain items, in this case miscellaneous items, and we see an exponential increase in their values.

Now that we have some kind of understanding of the past, how do we predict for the future? Think of items that people want that are suddenly hard to obtain. Observe the items that are increasing in value, and try to understand why. Name and Description Tags have increased dramatically because they were primarily obtained by unboxing a crate that doesn’t drop anymore. Don’t be fooled by this increase and invest heavily in these items! Because they are available in the Mann. Co store, they will hit a price ceiling and will probably increase and decrease with the value of metal and keys. Try to predict which items will be demanded in the future that no longer have a stable means of supply. If you invest in such items, you could cash in big!