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Could You Be Making Money From A Hidden Talent?
by Douglas Titchmarsh

All of us have talents. Everyone is good at something, an expert even. Sometimes these talents are so easy for us we don't even notice them.

My own hidden service revealed itself recently, when I least expected to find a new product to offer my customers. I had struggled to install website scripts in the past, and had gone out of my way to learn about the basics of installing scripts. I also learnt a little about how the programming works so I could spot simple mistakes, and errors. I now had a talent, I could install websites and scripts for myself, and often done it just to try something new, for fun it was something I had stopped noticing, I just did it. Then I installed some scripts for a friend of mine, and he passed my name to someone else who needed help installing a script. After I had installed his site for him, he came back to me to see if I would install others for him as it would make it easier for his customers.

Following that, for the last few months I have been adding to my online revenue by installing some websites and scripts for this small business owner who runs a webhosting service. He sells the sites and hosting, but doesn't have the knowledge to install them himself.

Now I had started using a talent I had learnt, for someone else for payment, he is even referring me to others, giving me the reputation as "THE installer". A knowledge which I had been taking for granted was now making me money. This isn't something I'd considered before, but it has set me off on not just one but two new business products, installing scripts for other people, and also I am caturing videos of the install processes on my PC to create a "how to install website scripts" multimedia manual.

You may be thinking "Yeah but what's that got to do with me?" If you are doing something daily that you have taken time to learn, then you have a skill which others may also need. Some people will learn the skill for themselves, some would rather pay you to do it for them. Whichever group it is, you have something to offer them. Either a product to teach them if they want to learn (you can write a book, adding pictures or video can be another option), or you can charge for doing it for them.

While you are working, playing or just being you, take some time to notice what you can do that others may struggle with. Don't do yourself down, you do have a skill to offer, everyone does. You may be a great cook, maybe you have found an easy way to repair or make something, are you good at drawing, or have you mastered a piece of software you could show others how to use? Whatever your special talent is, someone out there would like to make use of the knowledge you possess, and they will pay you for it. Start looking for those hidden services, and products you can offer to help other people, and help yourself to some more
money.

Douglas Titchmarsh is the webmaster of The Discount Bookstore and writes the DEWDigest e-zine.

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