This final installment of Creative Ways to Make Money explores more traditional jobs as well as some non-traditional jobs. Please see important information following the job sections. There you will find some tips for making money on your own, a warning about scams, and some good resources!
February 27, 2009
February 23, 2009
February 20, 2009
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 3: Computer Work
With advancing technology, we now have the advantage of computers and the internet.
- Write a book or an eBook. Click the links for more information.
- Become a telecommunications rep. Cloud 10, LiveOps, Alpine Access, Arise, West at Home, and Working Solutions have been featured on tv shows and news articles. The National Telecommunications Institute features work-at-home jobs for Americans with disabilities. You will probably need a dedicated room for business (no screaming kids or loud pets), a headset, high speed internet connection, and possibly a second land line phone specifically for business. Some companies pays for the time you’re on the phone and others pays per hour (whether you’re on the phone or not). Make sure you understand the payment terms before you do work for them.
- Get a membership with a drop shipping company and sell online. Saturation online (ie: eBay) may lead to lower profits. With drop shipping, you order the products and the company sends them to the purchaser so you never have to deal with inventory. Homestead, Dropship Direct, and Doba are a couple known drop shipping companies. There are a lot of drop ship companies out there and they’re all slightly different, so thoroughly research them before you sign up.
- Create personalized items at CafePress or Zazzle. It’s free to join, with the option of a premium account later on if you want.
- Start your own store online. If you have a website, you can add Amazon Marketplace. You pick what items you like from Amazon’s website and post on your site. You then make a commission when someone buys an Amazon item from your website!
- Yuwie is a some peer to peer money making program. Apparently you make money by referring other people but it doesn’t cost you a dime. I DO NOT recommend CashCrate because you have to sign up for “free offers” which will then charge you if you don’t cancel within a certain amount of time and they download files to your computer. If you’re still interested in CashCrate, read Tori’s story.
- Create a website or blog and monetize it. You need a domain and a host. You can then add Google Adsense and affiliates to make money.
- Make a few extra bucks with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The idea behind this is that computers can’t do the jobs, so they post the jobs on a board. Pay is usually very low, but there are a lot of jobs. Jobs are similar to this: “Find the item number for the product in this image.”
- Make skins or applications for social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. If your idea is genius, a large development firm could purchase the rights for a lot of money. You can also pay $99 to develop programs for Apple’s iPhone – you get to keep 70% of the profits.
- Become a freelancer. Elance lists a lot of jobs. A lot of the jobs are technology based (ie: create a website or Java applet) but a search for something in your field could find you something. You apply for jobs by bidding against others who are after the same job. You can also write articles for e-How, Constant Content, or become an About.com expert/guide. Copyeditors and Illustrators are also freelance jobs.
- Another freelancing job is book indexing. As in, you would write the index that is in the back of a non-fiction book. For more information about how to get started in this profession, visit the American Society for Indexing.
- Become a virtual assistant. The International Virtual Assistants Association can give you some ideas on where to find work online in this field. AssistU offers training on honing your VA skills.
- Domain flipping. Purchase a domain through GoDaddy, flip it, and resell it.
- Create websites for businesses who need them.
- Design! This could be creating web logos or WordPress themes and selling them online.
- Rewrite poorly written ads on online auction sites. Contact the seller and offer to fix it for a small commission.
- Write product reviews. Ciao and Epinions.com will pay you to write reviews. The bloggers over at Bible Money Matters have posted their earnings with Ciao on their site.
- Do Freebie Trading. This is still very new to me and warrants it’s own blog article. From what I understand, you make money by completing valid offers and referring people. For more information in the meantime, visit Christian Personal Finance.
- At Crossloop you can get paid to help others with their computer problems by setting up a remote desktop.
The following sites are some additional resources to help you find valid online money making opportunities:
- Friends in Business – Lists online money making opportunities that are scams.
- Rat Race Rebellion – Lists a LOT of online jobs in MANY different categories.
Disclaimer: One one last note – these are all opportunities. I have not tried all of these to see if they work and they are merely ideas to help you out. I will not be held responsible for any money made or lost with any of the above ideas.
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 1: Selling
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 2: Start a Service
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 3: Computer Work
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 4: Miscellaneous Jobs
February 13, 2009
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 2: Start a Service
This week’s installment of Creative Ways to Make Money talks about some services that you can offer with few tools and little money.
Start a Service
- Start a Cleaning Service. This requires very few supplies to get started.
- Start a Consulting Service. What do you know how to do better than most people? Can you teach it or do it for others? For example, if you studied engineering in college, you could be an Engineering Consultant. Some other consultants are for Financial Planning, Business Planning, Computing, Research, Training, and Marketing, and more. Please inquire your state and local laws to see if you need to be registered.
- Start a Day Care. You’ll need to have a license, liability insurance, possibly extra training, and be certified in CPR and First Aid. Similar services to offer would be Babysitting and Nanny.
- Become a House-Sitter. You need to be trustworthy and reliable, have references, and transportation.
- Become a Pet-Sitter. You must be an animal lover. This could be an add-on service to house-sitting.
- Become a Professional Organizer. Pretty self-explanatory, you can visit the National Association of Professional Organizers for more information.
- Become a Personal Shopper or Personal Errand runner. You could shop for Christmas gifts for a busy executive or make a grocery run for an elderly person.
- Become a Personal Scrapbooker. Help those who don’t have time to do it themselves.
- Become a Desktop Publisher or Graphic Designer. Create cards, brochures, and fliers for businesses.
- Become a Handy Man or Handy Madam. Depending on your skill level, you could hang pictures for busy people or install new sink fixtures, for example. Perfect add-on to Cleaning Service or Professional Organizer.
- Become a Tutor. Contact local private and public schools and universities to offer your services. Kids as well as adults can use tutoring these days.
- Start a Secretarial Service (Typist, Transcriptionist, and Proofreader). Seek out small businesses that may have a need for very temporary help.
- Become a Planner. Cater to brides with wedding planning services or cater to businesses that need an event planner.
- Become a Landscaper or Landscape Designer. You could offer consulting services for do-it-yourselfers or do the mowing, planting, and trimming for them too.
- Become a Home Stager. This is similar to home decorating. Home Stagers help people getting ready to sell their homes – you go in and straighten things up and move furniture around to give it a more design-y feel. An add-on to this service would be to assist with packing and moving when the customer sells their home.
- Start a Shoe Shining Service. I saw this one on tv recently – the guy is making pretty decent money doing this at airports, malls, and street corners.
- Become a Computer Nerd. Offer troubleshooting and computer repair services. If you have the know-how, you can offer to build customized computers, but think about how you’ll warranty it.
- Paint street numbers on curbs. Just make sure that it’s ok with your city first.
- Become a Cooking Instructor or Personal Chef.
- Start a Framing Service. If you have a mat cutter, you an offer services.
- Start a Genealogical Service. A lot of people want to know their ancestry and are willing to pay for this time consuming task. If you know some tricks of the trade, you can offer to search genealogical centers and websites to help track down a person’s ancestry.
To be successful with these ideas you should start with your friends and family and then network network network! You can get some cheap business cards at VistaPrint or you can design and print your own on your computer.
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 1: Selling
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 2: Start a Service
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 3: Computer Work
Creative Ways to Make Money Part 4: Miscellaneous Jobs
February 11, 2009
Vinegar: natural, practical, cheaper, greener for fresh air
Right now, its the middle of a cold winter at our home in Iowa. We have being shut in the house for nearly 2 months, and the air was starting to get a little bit stale. Adding to the atmosphere are our 5 pets (3 cats and 2 dogs), who are all indoor animals. Most pet owners can attest that although having an animal companion is wonderful, the aroma of cat and dog can often be less than pleasant. in the warmer months, usually opening a window for some fresh air is all it takes, but in the middle of winter, opening a window for fresh air is not a option.
As new homeowners, we were looking for a quick and effective way to help spruce up the aroma of the house. We started our air freshening adventure using Glade Plug-Ins scented oil air fresheners.
PLUGIN air freshener pros and cons
Glade-Plugin, smells nice, but not the most prudent
Pros:
- They do make the house smell nice
- Convenient, just plug it in and let it do the work
- Refillable, once one runs out, just drop in a replacement
Cons:
- Only last about one month
- Don’t eliminate odors, just cover them up with a stronger scent.
- Expensive
- Run on electricity
- Can get hot if left empty and plugged in for a longtime
During the Glade experiment, we decided to start looking for an alternative solution. We wanted something cheap and effective that was also all natural. We were researching online for solutions and after reading, I suggested we try vinegar. Vinegar is a weak form of acetic acid created by fermentation. Often used in cooking, it is also a natural, inexpensive cleaner and deodorizer. The cleaning and deodorizing powers of vinegar is well documented, but could it help deodorize a 5 animal house in the middle of winter?
Our vinegar deodorizing test set up:
- Placed 1 bowl of vinegar in every room of the house
- Used larger amount (volume) for larger rooms
- Left out for 24-48 hours
As the test began the smell of vinegar permeated through the air, but it was not too overwhelming. After a few hours, the aroma of vinegar was no longer noticeable. After day 1 there was a definite freshness in the air. It was apparent the vinegar was cleansing the air. After day 2, the smell of “stale winter” was eliminated. To confirm we were not just becoming acclimated with our surroundings, we invited a group of friends over and had them give the house the “sniff test”. It passed with flying colors!
I had my doubts , but after using the vinegar, the results couldn’t be ignored. Now vinegar has moved into our cleaning products as one of the most popular cleaning products in the house. At $2 for 32oz, its inexpensive and works great.
Natural, effective, affordable. Truly a prudent and practical cleaner.
Vinegar, the prudent and practical air freshener!
There are many resources online that discuss other ways to use vinegar as a household cleaning product. These were some of our favorites:
http://www.thenewhomemaker.com/vinegar
http://www.versatilevinegar.org/usesandtips.html
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/cleaningtipsandrecipes/a/Clean_Vinegar.htm