25 Ideas for Extra Income without a Degree

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25 Ideas for Extra Income without a Degree

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Introduction

Crush The Street is committed to providing information and resources to help you increase your personal wealth. We are happy to say that 99% of our content is free and readily available to the general public.

Our goal with this Extra Income report is to give you realistic ideas on how to increase your monthly income, no matter what motivational force is driving you. You could be looking to pay off debt such as student loans, looking to start your own small business, trying to save or invest for the future, or simply need the money for your day to day life.

We do believe one step to saving is cutting unnecessary expenses, but there is of course much more you can do for yourself. Some things our staff have done and live by include lifestyle choices that save a lot of money in the long run: Paying off a home much sooner than that 30 year mortgage, not buying the most expensive or luxurious car, and shopping around for room deals when business trips are coming up.

We hope you find the following ideas for extra income useful and that they become a part of your strategy for increasing your own personal wealth.

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Please also checkout our other videos, articles and reports at CrushTheStreet.com

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Idea 1: Virtual Call Center

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This idea works perfect for people who are home a lot, however, it can work for anyone. All you need to do is have access to a phone and a quiet area for about 1 hour every 42 days.

Here are the requirements for this month’s idea:

1. You have a dedicated landline
2. A phone with a headset
3. Computer with Internet connection

Making money as an independent contractor for a virtual call center.

This business is super simple – you set your own schedule to accept inbound calls. Don’t worry, you aren’t telemarketing – you will make no phone calls! Everyone who calls you will be responding to a direct response advertisement. Basically, it’s people calling to order something they saw on TV, radio, or in a magazine. The going rate for this line of work is $0.25 a minute… well, a talking minute. Bonuses are available as well, but each job is different. The great news is that work is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

As you show yourself to have successful calls, more calls will come in. So in the beginning, calls will just trickle in. For the largest of the virtual call centers, LiveOps, you have to be active for 1 call every 42 days, which is not too demanding, as you can see, if you just want to make a little extra cash on the side once or twice a month.

Overall, the job is super easy. The scripts are provided to you, and many of the campaigns are for pledge drives, so you are literally just taking down an order for donations. This requires no selling! The sale was already made prior to someone calling you – you just have to process it over the phone.

From the testimonies we have seen, this extra income idea can generate $1,700 to $3,200 a year if you commit 3 hours per week.
The bottom line is this: your call volume depends on how you perform. If you aren’t doing a good job, you’re going to hate it; if you are doing a good job, the calls will flood in.

Here is where you can start:

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Idea 2: Become a Delivery Service Person

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This one is pretty simple – you just need some physical strength and access to a truck. Every day, people buy refrigerators, dryers, and other large items on Craigslist. All you need to do is put an ad in for “delivery services.” Looking at the going rate, for each delivery in your area, you can charge $40 to $50 per trip. It’s easy to see how someone could bring in an extra $200 to $300 a month from very minimal work. U-Haul even has a service where you can become a mover to be utilized by people who rent their hauling equipment. Sign up at MovingHelper.com[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 3: Become a Writer

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Writing is one of the most lucrative income ideas that we all have access to. With computers, grammar programs, spell check, and a million plus blogs looking for good content, the amount of opportunities for writers is plentiful. I personally have horrible grammar. When I was young, I didn’t value my traditional education. Now, that decision I made drives the people who edit my work crazy.

Today, as someone who loves to learn new things, I look back with regret. All that free education was available to me but I was too busy screwing around as a young teenage boy to take advantage of it. Currently, I read for several hours a day and I almost feel like I am wasting time if I’m not doing something that is tied to becoming more educated. Oh, and for a living, I write – this would definitely shock my high school English teachers. One of the constant themes when looking into extra income ideas is writing, blogs, elance.com, e-books, editors, copywriters, and article writers. All of these can become full-time businesses or part-time things you can do where you get paid by the job.

If you can speak, you can write; you just have to sit down and take the time to do it. Article writers, on average, make about $15 to $25 per article. With blogs, you can make thousands. In fact, starting your own blog was our Extra Income idea #1, along with starting your own video blog, called a vlog. But you can also provide content for blogs and get paid by the job. As someone who runs a financial publication, I can tell you that in the “news” space, this is huge. All the big Websites are looking for content. You can directly reach out to them, which is what I would suggest. Send them a sample and try and begin a conversation with their editors about including your write-ups once a week.

Re-write poorly written ads: search Craigslist and eBay.com for items that cost more than a few thousand dollars, and email the seller and offer to re-write their ad for a 1% commission.

HubPages – Write original content and post your articles. Ads related to them will be placed all around it. Once your articles earn a minimum amount on Google or HubPages, you can start cashing out your earnings through a PayPal account.

ContentBLVD– This one is HUGE. You will get paid anywhere from $12 to $48 per write-up. This site basically connects blog owners to writers.

Helium – Helium’s clients post writing assignments; simply take on a job and get to work. The minimum pay is $25, and depending on how much writing they need, you could be looking at jobs that offer over $1,000.

Get paid for your opinion – Who would’ve thought… Epinions.com pays for positive and negative reviews about products available for purchase. The program is designed to help other buyers make their decisions on whether or not to purchase a product. You can also check out SponsoredReviews.com. This one is a bit different, though, since you are being paid to create a positive buzz.

The sky is the limit when it comes to writing – you just need to put in the time.

One thought for those of you willing to turn this into a business: think about the benefits of becoming a writer. Your mobility is global. You can live, work, and travel whenever you want; all you need is a laptop and a Wi-Fi signal to help you research and email your jobs to the client.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 4: Sell Your Hair

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Your hair must be at least 10 inches long and uncolored. Hair goes for several hundred dollars to about $3,000, although there are a few listings for a lot more, including one for $60,000, so this is not chump change. If your hair is long and strong, you might even be able to max out your Roth IRA from selling your hair. Here are two Websites you can check out: BuyandSellHair.com Hairsellon.com[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 5: Signup for Medical Tests

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Testing new medications and treatments can get you a few hundred to several thousand dollars. Other studies track you over a long period of time, which can turn into even more cash. The downside, of course, is that you can have a negative reaction to one of these tests. The upside is cash and a free physical. There are a lot of sites and companies offering this; I suggest you Google “medical test volunteers.” However, to start off, you can visit us.testwiththebest.com, CenterWatch.com, or Clinicalcenter.nih.gov. Be sure to check out your local universities as well; I know that UCLAhealth.org also offers paid medical tests.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 6: Car Wraps

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This idea is EASY. However, many of you reading this may not like it. But that’s okay, because our promise was to deliver easy-to-do, realistic, achievable ideas. It may not be pretty or your style, but you can do this and make money. In fact, you can do this even if you don’t have a car!

Go to these friendly sites to start…

Even if you don’t own a car, you can still apply to be a driver. If you live in a highly populated area, many companies will be happy to send you a company car with a full wrap advertisement on the vehicle and pay you $400 a month. That’s right – you not only get a FREE car, but they will pay you $400 a month! For those of you with a vehicle, the going rates for a rear window advertisement are $50-$100 per month. Partial wraps are $100-$200 a month. These are all non-damaging advertisements that can be removed without harm to your vehicle, according to the auto advertisement companies mentioned above.

The big money, though, is the full vehicle wrap for $400 a month. This is the one that will likely make you uncomfortable, since your car will be a mobile billboard. And if you are a married man, this is most certainly going to upset your wife. Unless she’s like mine, totally down to persevere when it comes to building financial wealth. The full vehicle wrap is just like it sounds: an advertisement on your hood, doors, and rear window. Some basic requirements are a good driving record, auto insurance, and you must wash your vehicle at least twice a month.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 7: Paid Focus Groups

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Participate in a focus group… That’s right, there are actually companies out there who will pay us for our opinions. Nothing life changing, but a few hundred extra dollars a month. Considering I love giving my opinion, this is the first of our 6 ideas that has me pretty excited. I love money that feels like it is practically free.

FindFocusGroups.com – Become a member and look for jobs. They have plenty of jobs all over the country looking for your opinion. They range from car studies to social issues.

eJury.com – Top attorneys like to see what the public’s attitude is towards some of their cases, so they spend a lot of money to run it past a mock jury. Right now, thousands of people are being called up for jury duty, usually trying to avoid it, but here we will be pleased to get a call from eJury, since it means we will be making money. You also have OnlineVerdict.com, if you want to double your chances of getting a job as a fake juror.

2020Research.com – This site provides marketing research for companies and allows you to be part of a paid focus group.

Focusgroup.com – Much like 2020Research.com, they pay to get your opinion and they also have special job offers for industry professionals, like healthcare providers.

Here are some tips from Will Leitch, a full-time focus group junkie who has managed to turn it into a full-time career:

  • Let the recruiters lead you. Before you answer a question you’re not sure about, pause for a couple of seconds. They’ll tip their hand every time.
  • Once you’re actually in the group, it’s vital to be as invisible as possible. If you’re tagged as an “outlier” who has opinions that don’t jibe with an advertiser’s research, it’s less likely you’ll be invited back.
  • You are not a human – you are a demographic stereotype. So act like it.
  • The cardinal rule: They don’t want your opinion; they want you to confirm what they already think.
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Idea 8: Stock Photo Business

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Here is my easy-to-do, realistic, actionable idea. Being in the newsletter business, I learned of the importance of copyright-free photos – photos for news articles, special reports, and videos.  Right now, there are plenty of average people making $10,654 a year doing something many of us do for free, which is just taking pictures.

The idea is simple: take pictures of scenery, buildings, areas that you have traveled to, family, and other people, upload them to a Microstock site, and wait for a sale. The most popular pictures by far are pictures of people. However, you will need a simple “release form” for every single picture taken of a person. I know this sounds like a headache, but to make the big bucks, it is something you will need to do. You can choose to just focus on nature or nice scenery, however, these are not in as high of a demand and as you can imagine, since they are the easy ones, there is plenty of competition.

Where can you upload and how much can you make? Here are some numbers from Royce Bair. These are the 4 most popular sites for selling images:

Other sites are Fotolia, 123RF, and BigStockPhoto, however, I don’t have any average pricing for them. Now, you will need to check each site for the camera quality. My wife was able to find a used camera for $330 on Craigslist. Sorry, but you can’t upload images from your iPhone (on most sites) – these need to be high-quality pictures.

A few important things to note include one being that you will have to consult with your CPA. Doing this means you have a business, so you potentially have some serious tax deductions, like, for instance, the camera, certain types of travel, and most expenses tied directly to your camera business. A computer, for instance, will be needed to upload photos. You will also need the Internet, so one huge bonus for this extra income idea is that it is very tax-friendly.

The math for selling stock photos is simple. For example, say you upload 20 photos a week to the 4 most popular sites mentioned above. That is 320 new images per month. However, you won’t sell them all. Let’s bring your average sale down to $1 per image then.

320 images per month at a $1 average is $320 per month, or $3,840 for the year. This is very little work for a hobby. The sky is the limit with this, too. Say you spend a day at the zoo, or hiking, and you upload 600 images. With a lot more pictures, lets up your average to $2, which is still 50% below the average of what our 4 big players are willing to pay. That’s $1,200 per month and $14,400 for the year. Now, this can be significant for part-time scenarios, but obviously someone who wanted to commit 8 hours per day could take upwards of 100 photos per day and upload around 50 a day, or 1,500 per month. Even at $2, this would give them a $36,000 a year income, or if they made the lowest average from the list above, they would make $72,000 per year.

This is an industry that is in high demand. Today, there are more media companies than ever, and all of them are looking for original images. Future Money Trends ourselves are buying original images from some of these sites. Computer programs make it very easy for big Hollywood studios to search through the Internet and find any copyright-infringing uses of their works. I remember an experience a while ago on YouTube when I posted a 10-second video clip from the movie, The Dark Knight, and within 20 minutes, Warner Brothers had YouTube pull the video. In a lot of cases, companies like YouTube have already agreed and have a function that checks your content immediately to see if it violates any copyrights, and sometimes without even verifying the asking company has the copyright and are acting within the law.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 9: Renting Rooms

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This idea is something many of us won’t feel comfortable with, but it is easy to do.

Renting out an extra bedroom or part of your house by the night. This means utilizing a guest room or offering up an air mattress to a guest for the night in your living room or bedroom. You will possibly include breakfast, Wi-Fi, etc. Doing this task can make you $30 to $150 a day in extra income just for allowing someone to sleep over at your house.

You can do this. You can make money offering up a piece of your real estate, even if you’re renting the house yourself. If you want to make a few hundred extra dollars a month, you will have no excuses after reading this easy-to-do extra income idea.

Starting your cash flow today!

Thanks to the technology of the digital revolution, it is incredibly easy to bring a “room for rent” advertisement to a big and worldwide customer base. In fact, there are multiple sites that provide this ability for you. The first site I will recommend is the AffordableTravelClub.net. This is great for any people who feel uneasy about this idea, because the site is a group that helps you find the right hotel guests for your house. The downside is you are only allowed to receive about $20 to $30 per night, which is about 1/4th of what you will receive from a major site like Airbnb.com for an average house away from a major city. Now, remember, you don’t have to offer up a room. Just let people know that you have a couch or an air mattress in your living room if that’s all you can spare.

The cost savings is why people are going to be calling you. The Affordable Travel Club offers low-cost travel to its members, who must be at least 40 years old. Remember what I said about being comfortable? It’s important to me, because I am one of those people who would immediately reject this extra income idea. However, when I saw that this group went out of its way to target a crowd that is less volatile than, say, renting to a 19 year old, I felt this would be a good way to test the waters for those of you who decided to try this.

Why would people rent from you?

Hotels in many cities are over $150. On a convention week, they may be over $300 for a single night. However, most hotel guests are just looking for a place to sleep. Think about it: when you travel, how often do you use your room for anything other than sleeping and cleaning up?

I am not talking about an all-inclusive resort vacation – I am talking about a 1- to 3-night stay in an area you are traveling to for business or sight-seeing.
The people who are going to rent from you are looking to save money, have a place to sleep, and have that place be somewhere they feel safe. Provide those 3 things and you will have extra income.

Maximize your cash flow by going to the open market.

Airbnb.com is the most diverse site for this type of business. They cover 33,000 cities and 192 countries. The reason it is called Airbnb.com is because it stands for air mattress, bed, and breakfast. I really want to stress the point that you don’t even need an extra bedroom to make money from this type of business venture; all you need to do is make sleeping quarters available. Looking at my own area, which is about 90 minutes outside of Los Angeles, rooms that include breakfast (can be cereal) go for about $80 to $100 a night. Obviously, the closer you live to a major city, the more you will make.

My advice: If you are nervous about this idea, try the Affordable Travel Network first. You will get the chance to meet some interesting travelers, have a certain amount of safety due to the network, and make a little extra cash for allowing someone to sleep in your house for a night. For those looking to make some real money, go to Airbnb and become a member, set up a profile, and wait for the cash to start coming in. There is a 7-minute video of a young man discussing how to use the room rental idea with this service to its maximum profit. Please be advised we are not affiliated in any way:

“How To Get Free Rent in a Fancy Apartment or House

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Idea 10: Become a Tutor

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]From children to young adults in college, if you have a skill or study that you are an expert at, sell it. You can tutor children on math, help out a high school student with their SAT prep, or assist a young college student in your expertise of study. There are many good places to advertise this: Craigslist.com, your local library, or college bulletin boards. You can also sign up at Tutor.com to apply to become one of their approved tutors. Income ranges from $25 -$75 per hour, depending on what the age of the person is and skill set you have. The top money goes to people who can help teach a second language.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 11: Start a Service Business

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]When I think of simple businesses to start, one of the first that comes to mind are some of the same businesses that I utilize on a daily or weekly basis. These are easy to do and require a minimum skill set. They’re just things that most people don’t want to do or are too busy to do. Most of these ideas are highly lucrative, and if done properly, can generate a 6-figure income annually.

Some of these ideas are:

  • Window Cleaning
  • Home Decorating
  • Event Planning
  • Lawn care
  • Handy Work
  • Plumbing
  • Grocery Pick Up
  • Pool Maintenance
  • Painting
  • Carpet Cleaning
  • Yard Clean Up
  • Building Home Playgrounds
  • Baby Proofing Homes
  • House Cleaning

If any of these ideas work for you, the first thing to consider is whether or not you can service the rich, because high-end clients are more likely to hire you, pay a fair price for quality work, and also care about specialty services that are easy to do and inconvenient for them, like baby-proofing a home or building a home playground.

One idea that I thought of while writing this was offering an organic maid service in wealthy communities. Our maids come about twice a month. They charge $80 for about 1 hour to 90 minutes of work. One thing that bothers me, though, is that they use regular chemicals that have strong odors. I’ve often looked at their cleaning box and thought about buying my own for them to use when they clean our house. This leads me to the idea of starting a business where the maids clean with organic and natural cleaning solutions. This is a rising trend that could be very popular in upper-class neighborhoods and you wouldn’t have to do any of the work if you don’t want to. Hiring a few quality maids for $10 to $15 an hour would be easy. In fact, the way this economy is going, they may even have a college degree. Your job would be to build the business and customer base. Building a customer base in a household service business:

  1. Door-to-door – Knock on doors and let people know that you are in business. Make a 1-page flyer with a few bullet points, and meet your future customers.
  2. Craigslist – No excuses. You can literally start your business within the hour. Simply put an ad up on Craigslist, displaying your services to the entire public.
  3. Realtors – Realtors work with homeowners every day. Go to their offices, bring everyone some donuts or Starbucks coffee, and make some new friends, and pass out your business cards and maybe some flyers for the services you offer.
  4. Parking lot flyers – target your customers. For example, if you are selling handy work, swing by Home Depot to do a few flyer drops.
  5. Referrals – This will always be your best customer – a customer who is referred by someone else. A great idea is to generate your own referral. Simply go to the neighborhood or business block that your current customer is in and introduce yourself to all of their neighbors. Let them know that you are here to service their neighborhood and would love to help them out with any of their own needs.
  6. Build a Website – Okay, I am going to give you SEO gold. Forget about your last name or some catchy business name. What you want to do is buy a domain that has your city and the service you provide. For example, if you are going to start a tree trimming business in Houston, buy the domain “HoustonTreeTrimming.com.” Even if you have no Website skills, if someone runs a Google search for “Houston tree trimming,” Google will have your exact domain right at the top. And when it comes to Web searches, you are either near the top on the first page or you might as well be on page 76. Almost no one goes past the first page.
  7. Partner with your competitors – Introduce yourself to your competitors. Let them know you can offer a wholesale rate to them if they are too busy. Rather than telling someone they are booked, they can simply flip the business over to you, as an independent agent who works for them.
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Idea 12: Launching Your Own Wholesale Business

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Here are some tips for finding wholesalers, and best practices for entering into agreements with them.

  1. The Wholesale Business

The wholesale industry is large and highly fragmented, with 50 of the largest distributors generating 25 percent of industry revenue. Wholesalers serve retailers and other service businesses through a variety of distribution channels and supply chains. At the top of the chain are manufacturers (including importers or exclusive distributors – who also sell to wholesalers). Next are wholesalers or regional distributors (who distribute the goods locally) and brokers/jobbers (who deliver goods to local small businesses, such as independent produce stores).

  1. It’s All About Volume

The wholesale business is volume-centric. The more you can buy, the lower wholesale prices become and the higher your profits are as a result. So as a new small business, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to negotiate relationships from a high-volume wholesaler, simply because your sales volume won’t yet support buying in any kind of bulk.

Smaller wholesalers will sell and ship to small businesses, and as you move forward and your sales increase, you’ll be able to graduate up the supply chain to negotiate higher volumes and lower rates.

  1. Researching and Finding Wholesalers

Finding wholesalers takes time, but there are a number of best practices you can use to help your research efforts:

  • Search the Internet – Search for wholesalers by product to help you pinpoint local suppliers (this will bring up nationwide suppliers), then add your zip code to the search so that your results are localized. You can also search YellowPages.com and online associations, trade directories, or wholesale directories, such as Wholesale Central or Wholesale Network.
  • Trade shows – Trade shows are great venues for finding wholesalers if you’ve got the budget and the time. Trade show directories such as TSNN and 10times can help you pinpoint events by industry and location.
  • Trade magazines – Check out the ads and classifieds for wholesalers in your industry.
  • Ask around – It might not be appropriate to ask your competitors where they source their inventory from, but ask around if you are out of town, attending a local business networking event (Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Development Center, etc.).
  • Talk to brand manufacturers – Brand manufacturers sometimes sell wholesale, but usually only in high volume. However, they might be able to refer you to wholesalers or distributors that will sell to small businesses.

Here are the most popular sites to find cheap goods made in China.

  • DHGate.com
  • AliExpress.com
  • Hktdc.com
  • Tinydeal.com
  • Chinavasion.com

Now, here is the key in this entire business: you are going to have to pick up the phone and negotiate a better deal – an even lower price than was advertised. To do this, you will need to pick out the top 3 products you are comfortable in selling – ones that you know very well. Keep it simple; don’t try and run a Best Buy electronic store from your house. Just find 1 to 3 products and focus on getting the best deal. It’s possible to just use Amazon to make your sales, however, I would encourage you to go to physical retail store locations to meet with managers and owners to discuss the products and pricing you can deliver to them. This is a very lucrative business. You can literally find items 70% off on some of the sites above and flip them on Amazon or to a local store for, say, 50% off, giving you a nice profit and the store plenty of room for a markup[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 13: Selling or Re-Selling items Online

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]1st Option: Currently-owned items

You may not have enough stuff to sell for a real garage sale, but I bet you have at least 1 item you can get rid of for some easy cash on eBay or Craigslist (eBay usually is more competitive, but Craigslist would be faster and get you cash). First off, you can go through your garage, attic, or basement, and look for things that have some value or use, but that you’re just not taking advantage of. Items with dust on them are prime candidates. If you really need cash, you can include your closet and bookshelf as well. Unless you plan to re-read a book, consider getting rid of it on eBay or Amazon. On eBay, there is a simple way to see how much items have sold for – just search for it, and click “sold listings” under “show only,” towards the bottom of the left navigation.

This will immediately reload the page, and prices will show in green denoting them being successfully sold. You can then sort through by how recent they’ve been sold. Remember, some prices vary by season, such as books used in college or any other school. Getting rid of unused personal items requires brutal honesty with yourself. Stop hoarding stuff and ask yourself if you have used the items with dust on them in the past 1 to 5 years. If you haven’t used them and don’t realistically need them for future use, get rid of them.

2nd Option: Help family or friends do the same

To start, you can reach out to family and friends to see if anyone needs help selling some items online. I was reminded today how many people are still completely computer illiterate, when my dad called me to ask if Amazon was a good company to do business with… if they accepted credit cards. Think of people you can help. I am sure they won’t mind you taking a 20% cut if you can help them clear out their garage and closets.

3rd Option: Go extreme, flip undervalued items for a profit

If you want to turn this into a business, one option is to also seek out home sellers who may need to clear out their house in a hurry. Get your local paper and look for estate sales or large garage sales. It takes some research or knack to know what items are worth more than what they’re up for sale for. The best items to sell on eBay are rare items, of course, but you should honestly stick with what you know.

This way, you can always make a quick profit from visiting someone else’s garage sale in order to flip it on eBay or Craigslist. Many people at garage sales, especially towards the end of the day, are just looking to unload! They don’t want to put their stuff back onto the shelf or hole it came out of, so arriving late in the afternoon might help you find some good items for fire-sale prices. Shopping for items you know the value for is the only way you can truly turn this into extra income, otherwise, you risk losing money.

One Future Money Trends staff member knows someone that consistently sells items from garage sales or thrift stores on eBay for supplemental income. Setting up an account on eBay or Craigslist is super easy, which means anyone can do it, so you will want to set yourself apart by marketing your items correctly. The benefit to eBay is you get a countrywide — or even global — market of “demand” (potential buyers) who are looking specifically for your product, in most cases! If only fees and taxes were lower, then it would be much easier to make a profit, but there’s still plenty to be made.

Always start off with key words and phrases for how you would search for that item. One way to cheat is to start a Google search and allow Google to fill in the blank… Google will show you exactly how people are searching for the specific item you want to sell. Take clear pictures from multiple angles and be as descriptive as possible when writing up the details for the item. If you can, put the item on a white background and light it. Think of an Apple commercial’s ominous whiteness, as these tend to stand out. Always deliver the product to your clients in a timely manner, and exactly as it was advertised. Having a good seller’s rating is important to getting your products sold quickly. We would recommend always having an expedited shipping option.

Some real-world examples from a FutureMoneyTrends.com subscriber:

Abercrombie & Fitch dress bought at a garage sale for $3 and later sold for $30. Baby swing from a church sale for $5 and sold for $35. Dolly found off the freeway (free) and sold for $75.

How do you know if your item is worth something?

With ever-advancing technology, this question is becoming easier to answer. Did you know you can show an image to Google and they can find out where else that image has been used online? Just go to http://images.google.com and click the camera button to search by image, then upload your image or enter a Web URL. The eBay mobile app can do something similar, though we’re not sure how well it will work. If the item has a barcode, finding the value will definitely be much simpler. Go here for the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ebay.mobile

The “old fashioned” way is to just bring your smartphone into a thrift store, cruise around, and when you see something that could be a collector’s item, hopefully it has a name or designer on it that you can look up and see if it’s worth more than it’s being sold for.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 14: Elderly Assistant

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]For this, you would probably want to market yourself to the wealthy. Keep it minimal: grocery shopping, cleaning, and running errands. Don’t do diapers… leave that to the professionals – you won’t regret it. Like with any business, it is all about how you present yourself in your initial introduction. Then just maintain the quality of service. These jobs range from $10 to $35 an hour. Like I said, stick with helping the wealthy, and charge $35 for hanging out with a new friend. You never know, if they are an elderly wealthy person, they may even become your new mentor.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 15: clickNwork

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Use your knowledge to get paid. clickNwork.com will have you start off with a test to see where your expertise is. Once completed, you will have the opportunity to get paid $5 to $150 per hour for doing freelance work on a per-assignment basis. No obligation, just log in when you want to make some extra money. Examples of work are Web searchers, phone interviewers, writers, trend spotters, data entry, translators, and sector specialists like MBAs, CPAs, and CFAs. Go to http://clickNwork.com[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 16: Host a Foreign Exchange Student

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]From 6 weeks to 6 months, you can rent a room out in your home to help someone who is visiting the States to learn English or study abroad. This requires a little work, since you will have to go down to your local university to see how you can apply to become a host home. Depending on your geographic location, you are looking at about $200 a week or more. You can get paid more if you offer meals or your guest has his or her own restroom. Charging laundry, Internet access, and transportation fees is also an option. The best part: you will probably make some new friends from around the world. You can host students and professors, so this may be a real option for those of you who live in more populated areas and have a spare room.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 17: Become a Freelance Sales Representative

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The reality is sales jobs are probably the easiest to find and the hardest to succeed at. The payoff for sales jobs are usually significant, because your income is usually a direct result of value added to whatever company you are working for. If you ever wanted to get a job as a realtor, guess what. You could probably walk into any office across America and likely get hired. Some of the more successful offices might have some higher standards, but for the most part, it’s wide open. This is the same for car sales, insurance, and more.

But think outside the box for a minute. I’m not suggesting you go out and find yourself a full-time job working for someone else if you don’t want to. Consider how you can help companies from afar. Maybe you can refer people to different businesses. If you know a landscaper, you might be able to work an agreement out with them that anytime you refer a client over to him, you will be cut into the deal. This can be true of any business, including real estate, insurance, car sales, home repair, and more. If you establish a few key relationships with different business people, your extra yearly income could increase from as little as a few hundred dollars a year to thousands. Be creative and establish those relationships.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 18: Sell Your Blood

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]I know this is disgusting, but I had to include it since I am always looking to present ideas ANYONE can do! There are more than 400 for-profit plasma collection centers in the U.S. You can receive about $35, however, you can do this up to twice a week! Want to almost double your side gig? Clients who have been vaccinated for Hepatitis B can earn up to $60 for each plasma collection. To start cashing in, simply visit BloodBanker.com/plasma to find the nearest center near you.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 19: Become a Secret Shopper

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This is totally a win-win because you’ll likely get to eat for free if you are servicing a restaurant, and you’ll receive about $20 extra as compensation. Look for any major company that will likely have quality control standards and that audits their retail locations. This is a job you will likely have a lot of fun doing.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 20: Complete Surveys

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Complete surveys for different survey companies. One of them in particular that you can sign up with is CashCrate.com. You not only get about $1-$3 per survey, but if you have nothing else going on, it is an easy way to make some extra cash. This takes virtually no brain power and can be done while watching TV.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 21: Pet Hotel

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]According to the BLS,

“Pet owners are expected to increasingly take advantage of daily and overnight boarding services. Their demand for luxury animal services and willingness to spend greater amounts of money on their pet will continue to grow.”

For those quite serious, I suggest buying an e-Book on Fabjob.com/pethotel.asp. This will help you cover everything you need to know about starting your own luxury hotel for others’ pets. As with anything, the more professional you make it, the more you can charge. If you, for instance, have a nice-looking Website with plenty of pictures, you are much more likely to get customers.

Expected Income

In my area of southern California, I checked the rates and found out that most individual homes are charging between $20 to $30 per night. When I checked rates in Los Angeles, the per-night visit rose to $27 to $45 per night. Rover.com can help you add your home and profile to the marketplace, where you can advertise your services. I suggest you read through a few, as many people treat their pets like children, so a happy smile, an offer to walk the pets, and, of course, as many pictures as you can offer will help you close deals.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 22: Private Lending

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This Extra Income Idea really is something that will structure win-win-win scenarios for local businesses, their customers, and you. It’s actually very simple and something that anyone can do that has some motivation. I’m saying that you will need some motivation, because it’s going to require you getting out beyond the four walls of your house, and developing some relationships with businesses in your area. What you are going to want to do is contact local businesses that sell products that cost enough that their customers might benefit from the access to some financing. You then offer your financial capital as an option for them to be able to sell to more people who otherwise would not have been able to afford without financing. This gives the company a way to sell more of their product, helps the customers obtain access to extra capital to purchase what they need, and ultimately gives the lender (you and I) a way to collect interest on the money that was loaned.

I am currently doing this with a company that sells storage sheds, carports, and play sets. Ultimately, it could be done with many more types of companies that would benefit from the access to your money. ome ideas to get you started would be private lending to investors who are flipping homes and/or purchasing homes to rent out. Companies that sell solar panels are usually looking for people who will finance their customers and give them some liquidity to purchase these energy-producing panels that usually cost somewhere between $20,000-$40,000. You could also approach used car lots and other types of businesses that sell and would benefit from access to additional capital. Be creative, because the possibilities are endless out there.

The concept can be applied to a host businesses and merchandise. The best items to lend money for are products that can be repossessed and resold if the borrower defaults. Those of you out there that have any family or friends that are small business owners that you can approach will have the easiest in for being able to structure something like this. It will need to be a relationship built over time and through trust. Regardless of who you are working with, you need to build a relationship with the salesperson so that they can do the digging for you on the front end on whether or not the customer will be likely to repay their debts to you, and give you a confident assessment on if they think you will be able to profit on a specific contract. You will need each other for overall success, so it’s important that the interests of both parties are protected and cared for.

What if you don’t have money to lend? If you don’t personally have the money yourself to invest, you can always structure the deals and borrow money from others at a lower interest rate to make money on the difference. This could be done with money from family and friends who are looking for a solid 5-10% return on their money, giving you an opportunity to reinvest that money on your end. Even credit cards and capital through companies can be pretty reasonable at times. The beauty of this is that since you are investing someone else’s money, the returns become infinite, since you aren’t using any of your own personal savings. Making 20% on your own money is really exciting, but being able to make 20% on someone else’s money… Well, that’s just a thrill!

Of course, this could be risky, since you are responsible for the return of the money and if the money is lost you are then responsible for the repayment of the money out of your own product. It is very important that you review the deal and invest in contracts that you are most confident about in terms of likelihood of repayment.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 23: Bitcoin Mining

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Traditionally, this practice is a bit complicated for your average person. Fortunately, it has only gotten easier with time. Basically, there’s two simple options: 1. buy mining hardware and set up your own mining rig (difficulty: intermediate to expert) and 2. invest in a mining company/revenue-sharing operation (difficulty: easy to intermediate). Take the time to watch some DIY YouTube videos on Bitcoin mining and you can be up and running in no time. There are some hardware and Internet connection requirements to accomplish this task, but it’s doable and profitable. Bitcoin alternatives may be a better place to start though.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 24: Start a Blog

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]A blog can be set up through WordPress. You can have your own domain, and they can help you out with the rest. If you think a blog needs a special editor, go look at the most popular blogs in our realm: SGTreport.com, ZeroHedge.com, SHTFplan.com, and LibertyBlitzKrieg.com. Now, if you want to fast track your blog, you will need to get your posts posted by other bloggers in your genre. So after you make a post, send an email or use the “contact us” page to let others know you are out there. Believe me, everyone is looking for good content. It just isn’t realistic to post original commentary daily, so all the big sites are looking for people like you that can bring them original content.

You can post something original once a week, and the other days you can find other articles to post on your blog. You can even set it up to post articles automatically, in case you don’t have the 10 minutes to make a post yourself. For those who want to make this a serious business, I would recommend you spend a few thousand dollars advertising on Google and YouTube to deliver more traffic to your blog. You don’t have to do this, though… you can build a blog or business organically, but if you want to start earning money sooner, then spend a little on introducing people to your site. Again, this is easy… a Google rep will walk you through the entire thing. To earn money, this is probably the easiest part: you simply create a Google/AdSense account, and from there you will have a special code for your blog to start advertising.

Depending on the traffic you are generating to your blog, your advertising revenue could be anything from a few dollars a month to thousands. If your site gets big enough, you could start advertising your own products or manage advertising campaigns for clients who would like to advertise on your Website and bypass Google altogether. This will likely be your most lucrative way to monetize your blog. This revenue model will go for Extra Income Idea 25 as well. Read on to learn more about it.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Idea 25: Start a Vlog

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Similar to a blog, vlogs are video blogs. For a vlog, you just set up a YouTube account and do like I did: purchase a $20 webcam from Walmart or any electronics store and start talking. Most recent laptops even have built-in webcams. You could also just as easily use a camcorder or digital camera, and just upload the video file. If there is a step that’s hard for you, someone in your family probably knows how to fix your problem. To make your account, just go to YouTube.com, click “Sign In” on the top right, and then click “Create an Account” (also on the top right of the next page) to make an account. Most people, I assume, already have a YouTube account that you use to make[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Final Thoughts

With all said, the ideas above may help you make an extra hundred or even thousands of dollars per month if you dedicated yourself to them. Please, always treat each business with professionalism. Get a business license, checking account, Website, and be passionate about making your customers happy. The Golden Rule applies to your business, as well, “Treat others how you would want to be treated.” Go the extra mile for your customers and keep the cash flow flowing![/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Prosperous Regards,
Kenneth Ameduri
Chief Editor, CrushTheStreet.com

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