Surya said, “I know how to use the browser like Internet Explorer and an email program like Outlook Express. I don’t think I have the talent, skills, knowledge or patience to create a website and then make money. I am not aspiring to become business mogul or rich. Like any other housewife, I have a few hours of free time every day and I would like to earn some pocket money by using the free time. Is there a way for me to make money?”

I was silent for a few moments. Surya said, “I understand your silence. I know my case is a difficult one.” I said, “The real problem is there are hundreds of ways for you and I am thinking about which one to tell you.”

Her eyes widened and she asked, “Really? I hope you are not joking.” I replied, “I have never been more serious. Please follow what I say step by step. You will see light. Developing a website, marketing it and maintaining it involves many repetitive manual tasks. Many American, European and Australian website owners like to outsource such activities to Indian or Chinese home based workers because of the low cost of labor. Have you ever heard about Digg.com?”

“No,” said Surya. “Digg is a website, a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by its users. You won’t find editors at Digg - it provides a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and it is changing the way people consume information online. How does Digg do this? Everything on Digg - from news to videos to images to Podcasts - is submitted by Digg community (that would be you). Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of Digg visitors to see. And it doesn’t stop there. Because Digg is all about sharing and discovery, there’s a conversation that happens around the content. Digg provided tools for its community to discuss the topics that they’re passionate about. By looking at information through the lens of the collective community on Digg, you’ll always find something interesting and unique.”

“How will I make money?” Surya was growing impatient. I replied, “Whenever a webmaster creates a webpage, he would like to submit it to Digg and similar websites. Submitting to such sites is a manual work. If the webmaster runs dozens of blogs and creates dozens of posts every day, he will have to spend hours in submission work. So, he will hire you, and every day you will submit his articles to Digg and other websites so that other visitors can take notice of them. You will be paid for each submission. Each submission will take 5 minutes. If you work for 3 hours a day, you can earn for 36 submissions a day. Rate per submission varies from webmaster to webmaster. This is a pure manual, clerical work that even a school kid can do. It does not require any technical skills. Of course, you must know how to use the Internet and the browser.”

“How will I get work?” asked Surya. “First prepare a list of social bookmarking websites and learn the procedure of submitting new articles. Once you are confident that you can handle the work, go to forums that webmasters visit frequently. Forums digitalPoint.com and WebMasterWorld.com are huge world famous webmaster websites. Join these forums for free. Read the rules and follow them. When you become eligible to make posts, offer your services. You will be surprised to see that you are able to find work in no time,” I told her.

“How will I get paid?” she asked. “Webmasters generally prefer to pay the BPO workers by email. Even if you don’t have a PayPal account, you can open one at any time. Or you can request the webmaster to send a bank draft. But it involves bank charges and takes time to receive the draft,” I said.

“I am going to take up this work. Are there other opportunities suitable to me?” She asked. I replied, “There are hundreds of such opportunities. I will write about each of them in this column. But remember it is better to become a specialist in one type of activity than to try dozens of activities. ”

“I understand. Next month I will email you my success story,” said Surya.