4 ways to make cash online

If today's economy has left you in need of more cash, consider this emerging trend: Millions are using the Internet -- and a minimal amount of time -- to bring home extra bacon.
Whether delving into e-commerce or selling ad space on a blog, Internet sellers often benefit from a rock-bottom initial investment, the convenience of working wherever and whenever they please, and the freedom of being their own boss.
However, before you quit your day job, it's important to consider the potential pitfalls of selling on the Internet. These include startup time, extenuating costs and stiff competition.
"There are a lot of people trying to do the same thing," says Robert Spector, author of the book "Amazon.com: Get Big Fast," a book covering the history and development of the Web giant.
"What's going to differentiate the book I get from you versus the book I get from your competitor?"
Following are four ideas for turning the Internet into your own personal cash cow, and suggestions for staying ahead of the competition.

Making cash online

1. Blogging.
2. Selling books, music and other products.
3. Marketing your hobbies.
4. Contributing to a Web site.

1. Blogging

Web logs -- now almost universally know as "blogs" -- were once the sardonic voice of dissent on the Web. Now, everyone seems to have a space on the Internet where they offer opinions or other reflections.If your blog captures the imagination of the public, you could earn money while you entertain.
Eden Kennedy of Santa Barbara, Calif., started Fussy.org when her son was 3 months old. She's been blogging about parenting, marriage and the hilarity of daily life for eight years now.
Kennedy says she built a readership by reading, commenting on and showing interest in the blogs of others.
Eventually, Kennedy had enough of a following to sell advertising space on her blog.
She works with several different advertising networks, each of which compensates her with anywhere from $1 per month to several hundred dollars per month.
One day, Kennedy had another flash of entrepreneurial insight: She decided to sell T-shirts to her readers.
She had shirts printed up with the phrase "Writing well is the best revenge" and watched the orders roll in.
"Just that phrase, it hits people pretty well," Kennedy says. "Actually, a lot of academics buy the T-shirt."
Kennedy now earns roughly $200 a month selling T-shirts. That income is in addition to the advertising dollars she rakes in.

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Kennedy says her online pursuits have been more fruitful and less time-consuming than her former "real world" job working in a bookstore.
"Usually a post, no matter how long it is, takes me about an hour to write, and lately I haven't been updating more than twice a week," says Kennedy, who adds that designing her blog and dealing with advertisers takes an additional five hours per week.

I Need Money: 20 Legitimate Ways to Make Quick Cash Today

If you suddenly found yourself asking “I need money right now, what can I do?”, I would recommend the following methods.
Sure, there are lots of other ways to earn even more, but most won’t fetch you the cash needed as fast as you need it. If you need money today, building a blog and monetizing it isn’t going to do you any good.

Need Extra Cash for Free?

Join EarningStation, a new reward program that pays you for doing things you already do online. You can cash out after every $10 you make.

Join EarningStation (It is free)

Though with the following methods you may not make a lot of money, they don’t take much time either, and in most cases you can get the cash needed faster than many other methods.

1. Sell your blood or plasma through Biolife Plasma

What runs inside of your blood vessel is a convenient source of income, assuming you are healthy. The rate varies across many for-profit blood centers, but in general you can expect about $50 in return for your blood or plasma.
Biolife Plasma is one such place so maybe you want to check if any one of them is in your neighborhood.
As a safety precaution, wait for at least 56 days between consecutive blood donations and 28 days for plasma donations, as recommended by the Red Cross.

2. Use TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit is an app that individuals and companies use to hire people for small gigs in their local area.
I have seen gigs offering $100 for a two-hours social media focus group, $20 for someone to take a load of laundry to the laundromat and bringing it back clean and folded… the longer a gig takes the more it pays.
Another similar service is OddJobNation.

3. Sell your clothes to Plato’s Closet

Take a look at your closet and take out anything you do not use or need anymore. Put them in a bag and take them down to your local Plato’s Closet.
They pay cash right then and there for any kind of brand name clothes from jeans and T-shirts to scarfs, hats and even shoes. And when I say “brand names”, I don’t mean just the high-end stuff, they buy any recognizable brand, Gap, Lee, OldNavy…
You can also rent your clothes for cash on sites like SnapGoods.

4. Pawn Shop

A lot of people seem to overlook this. Sure, in normal circumstances I wouldn’t set foot in their (at least as a seller), but when you need cash and you need it now, its one of the best chances you have got of getting it fast. You can take anything from tools or old jewelry and anything in between.

5. Rent a room with AirBnB

Through websites like AirBnB, you can advertise spare room for rent and you probably can cut a deal in minutes if you are reasonable on rates.

If you like getting paid for surveys, and are going to join only one site, I would recommend you choose Ipsos-iSay. Ipsos is the most fun and well-paying panel. Give it a try to see how you like it. It is free anyway!

Click to Join Ipsos Now!

If you are willing to explore other websites, you will find loads of other items that can go on leasing arrangement, they include your car, parking spot or even gardening tools. But do check with property management before you confirm on anything so as not to run foul on any rules or restrictions.

6. Do odd jobs

You can also offer yourself on doing stuff shunned by most people like cleaning out gutters, raking leaves, pulling weeds, etc…
Granted, they are no glam jobs but they offer quick and easy cash.
The things that people put off because of reluctance in carrying them out can usually command good money. I would say the more gross a job goes, the more you stand to make.

7. Use Fiverr.com

Fiverr.com is a good website to go to if you think you can settle on a $5 assignment. Providers decide what service to offer, but a little bit of promotion about yourself won’t hurt due to the amount of competitions there.
You can propose to help website owners to create donation buttons, do some elementary accounting stuff or whatever you can imagine. I suggest you check out the site for job ideas.

8. Mow someone’s lawn

If there is a mowing machine laying somewhere in the household, you can bring it out to mow someone’s lawn. Subject to negotiation, most homeowners are happy to pay you $30 – $60.
No doubt, it is not going to be a walk in the park, but the physical exertion is good for your health anyway, while making money. As winter comes, snow shoveling work sounds like a fantastic idea.

9. Use Craigslist to sell your junk

If there are items, both used and unused, idling around the house, sell them when you can’t figure out what to do with them. You can list them on Craigslist or eBay, advertise on your community bulletin board, or stick to good old garage sale.
Some other folks may just have some need of your stuff, like old cell phones, ink cartridges, and whatever. To find potential buyers, Google for keywords “we buy [fill in your stuff here that no longer fancy you].”

10. Sell baked goods

Your bakery skills could bring in good money with right exposure. But be sure that your home based food business does not run foul with local rules and regulations. If there is some regulatory restriction that prevents you from selling at home, do it at a market instead.
You could do a bustling business if you are able to cater to the local taste, not to mention ensuring adequate food safety standard. Depending on your luck and skill, this could be a few hundred dollars business, or maybe even thousands of dollars.

11. Street performance

If you enjoy entertaining people with your magic tricks or some oddball antiques, you can start busking where laws permit it.
Try to do it in a area with good crowd traffic. Though this is easy to get attention, you probably have to slog for your money as not many people tip.

12. Sell Blood Marrow or White Blood Cells

This is yet another moneymaking option from the health industry.
In most states, hospitals and large-scale medical research institutions have no qualm about paying you for your bone marrow and/or white blood cells provided you are a healthy individual.
Donation of bone marrow or white blood cells can yield easily a few hundred dollars. If you have no clue on how to find interested buyers, Google “sell bone marrow your location” in your internet browser.

13. Sell your sperm if you’re a male via SpermBankDirectory.com

Granted, sperm banks do extensive screening before they agree to pay for your valued donation. But assuming you make the cut — there could be easily $50 – $250 on offer.
If you must ask, it should not take more than a few minutes of work.
Go to SpermBankDirectory.com to find sperm bank centers near you.

14. Sell your Eggs if you’re a female via TheWorldEggBank.com

Comparatively, the screening process involved for donated eggs is even lengthier than sperm. But the amount of money on offer more than compensates the comprehensive testing.
Seriously, we are looking at thousands to tens of thousands here. If this is beginning to sound interesting to you, then Google for “paid egg donation” without delay.
You can use TheWorldEggBank.com to find centers where you can donate your eggs for cash.

15. Walk dogs

If you are animal friendly or better yet enjoy their company, this is the perfect opportunity.
You can make anywhere between $8 to $30 per walk, per dog.
The easiest way is to get your first few clients is to let your friends, family and neighbors know about your service.

16. Sell your long hair on BuyandSellHair.com

If you have untreated hair of acceptable length, you can sell it for thousands of dollars. Of course, only healthy hair is preferred. Just imagine 12 inches of un-treated hair can fetch payment in the region of a few hundred bucks.
The internet is full of websites trying to link up hair sellers with hair buyers: try BuyandSellHair.com and HairWork.com. Before you start on the business side of thing, be sure to check out what is the current going rate for hair.

17. Make money driving with RelayRides 

Not so long ago, only those full time licensees could be employed by cab companies as taxi drivers. But today we see services like RelayRides happily employ just about anybody who has a valid driver’s license plus a clean driving record.
Cab drivers have an edge over the 9 to 5 office workers, as you choose the time you want to ferry people around.
Two other companies offering similar service are Lyft and Sidecar.

18. Freelance through Freelancer.com

You can make some quick cash by either offering to write content for clients on sites like Freelancer.com, or better yet hit up a few webmaster related forum and put up an ad on their Classified section.
Offer a lower price than what you see there so you can get a few clients quickly. If you can write the content the same day, you can get paid the same day via PayPal.

19. Participate in clinical trials using ClinicalTrials.gov

The medical field offers quick route for cash. In addition to blood donation, you can make yourself available to clinical trials.
Usually, large universities and research institutions would entice participants with cash so that they can partake in their research, which range from a sleep study to testing out a new drug.
For your participation, you will get paid in the region of hundreds, or even up to thousands of dollars if you are lucky.

20. Babysit

Babysitting offers guaranteed fix income but it would vary depending on your skills and experience in this area.
Generally rates fluctuate from $10 to $20 an hour.
Another factor in the rate is the number of children you are in charge of.

Bonus

If you have a little more time and don’t need the money that fast, here are a few ideas to try:

21. Find local focus groups to participate in using this list

Businesses conduct focus groups to solicit inputs on their new products. By sitting on a mock trial jury, the payoff is definitely decent at $50 to $300 an hour.
Since the objective is to gather frank and honest opinions, they tend to be pretty diligent on the qualification criteria of individual focus group.

22. Sell to stock photo websites like Shutterstock

Established websites such as like Shutterstock and iStockphoto do not mind paying photographer for decent snapshots, they can range from an empty teacup to a wonderful portrait of a kid in the playground.
Good thing here is that they don’t expect you to be a genius artist with camera. They gladly take in routine items that are parts of our daily life.

23. Take paid surveys with SurveySpot

If you have serious opinions about things, you can render your thoughts through paid survey. Research companies such as SurveySpot and SurveySavvy would gladly pay for your contributions.
This represents one of the easiest ways to make money online as there are plenty of them out there. But this also presents the problem of scamming as well.
Thankfully, there are regulatory sort of websites like SurveyPolice and my own paid surveys review site, SurveySatrap, to tell you which ones are legit or not.

Bottom Line

I personally find that the fastest way to make money is to provide some kind of service, be it online or offline, winter or summer.
For example, shoveling snow in winter is a great way to earn a few dollars, while in summer raking leaves and cutting grass is what you can do.
So, next time you find yourself saying “I need money”, think of a product or service you can sell fast.

Want More Money?

Try MintVine, a new survey panel that pays you for participating in their studies. I have heard of people reaching their cash-out limit in 3 days.

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9 Websites to Earn Extra Money Online

It doesn’t take much time to run across someone pitching a “get-rich-quick” scheme online. We’ve all seen them – people who promise to show you how to make thousands at home in your spare time.
Guess what? Like any get-rich-quick scheme, it’s only going to make money for the person running the scheme.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t reputable ways to earn a little bit of money online during your spare time. There are many easy and legal ways to earn a few bucks on the Internet.  Here are nine to try:
Mechanical Turk is a program run by Amazon where anyone can sign up and complete simple tasks – like choosing which of two pictures depicts a bridge – to earn a few cents per task. With some practice, you can earn a few dollars an hour while just sitting on your couch watching television. And with enough focus, you can earn an amount roughly equal to minimum wage.
YouTube allows anyone to post nonexplicit videos on pretty much any topic they desire. Recording a video can be as simple as turning on the camera on your computer and hitting the record button. If you enable advertisements on your videos, you can earn money at a rate of about $1 to $3 per 1,000 video views. The more videos the have, the more views you can accrue, so this option really pays off if you record a lot of videos and build a viewership.
eLance allows people in almost any profession to find freelance work at home in their spare time. While the projects on eLance aren’t going to earn you a ton of money, they do provide a great way to build an independent portfolio to show off your skills while also building a network of clients.
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing allows anyone who has written a book on their own to upload it to Amazon to be sold on Amazon Kindle devices. Let’s say you write a novel and want to sell it. If you upload it here and then promote it online through social media or blogs, you can sell copies of your book and earn as much as a 70 percent return on each sale.
Fotolia allows you to sell photos you’ve taken for stock photography usage. For example, if a publisher is looking for a picture of a beach and you uploaded such a picture, the publisher can use Fotolia to purchase the rights to use that picture in its publication and you receive a cut of that money. For a photography hobbyist, this is a great way to earn a few dollars for some of your best photos.
Swagbucks is perhaps the most popular – and most legitimate – of the online survey sites. Swagbucks pays you a small amount for participating in a consumer survey, which companies then use to figure out what kinds of products to make and sell. You can participate in several surveys a day, and Swagbucks earnings can be redeemed for gift cards from Amazon, Target, iTunes and more.
Fiverr is a website where you can make $5 doing almost anything. On the site, people upload jobs that they’re willing to do for $5, like writing Facebook posts for companies. Many of the jobs require creative skills such as graphic design or audio editing, but tasks are things you can easily do on the couch in your spare time.
Skillshare is a website where you can teach an online class and get paid for it. You record series of videos on a topic that you know about – popular subjects include crafts, film, fashion and cooking – and then participate on the Skillshare forums related to your class. In exchange, you receive a cut of the money from the people who take your class. No teaching degree is necessary to get started, and the site says teachers can earn an average of $3,500 a year.
Zirtual is perhaps the most time-consuming, but most rewarding, option. With Zirtual, you sign up to be a Zirtual Assistant to a busy person. The person will send you things to do such as write emails, research a topic and summarize the findings, or personal tasks such as order flowers, manage a personal calendar or write handwritten notes. The starting base pay is $11 an hour, and Zirtual Assistants work weekdays full time.
All of these websites offer great opportunities for anyone to earn some extra money online. It all depends on what you want to bring to the table in terms of time, money and effort.

5 Ways to Make Money Faster Than Fast

Smart places for novice investors to put their money and watch it grow

Twice a week, Karin Slyker, 40, a married working mother of three in Lubbock, Texas, donates her plasma for extra money. She began in the summer of 2010, receiving a check for her services, and then in March 2011, the plasma center began compensating her with prepaid cards, making it easy for her to track her earnings. Since March 2011, she has made $6,690 – which has gone toward paying off debt accrued from a failed business, says Slyker, who works in the marketing department at a university.
"Even if I was debt-free, I might continue doing it. It's easy money, and I'd love to save it up and invest it perhaps," Slyker says.
Donating plasma is one of those go-to strategies for anyone who needs extra money and especially anyone in a cash crunch. So in honor of those who need to put money in their bank account, pronto, here's more information about Slyker's strategy and others that will help you boost your income quickly.
[Read: 10 Ways to Cut Your Spending This Week.]
1. Donate plasma. For those who barely made it through science class, plasma is the liquid part of the blood that carries the red and white cells. Mostly made up of water and dissolved proteins, plasma is used for a variety of medicines, medical treatments and medical research.
How much will you get paid? It varies, but you can expect to make between $15 and $40, depending on how much you weigh. The heavier you are, the more you make. Every plasma center is different, and there are more than 500 for-profit plasma centers throughout the country.
How fast will you get paid? Pretty fast. On your first visit, you'll be given an examination to make sure you're healthy enough to donate, which will add a little extra time. After that, expect to donate plasma for approximately an hour. And you are donating it; generally, plasma centers state that they pay people not for their plasma, but their time.
In Slyker's case, she says the lab technician scans the label on the bottle of blood, and the amount is immediately credited to her prepaid debit card.
2. Babysit. If you're way past your teenage years, you may not have considered this as a fast money-making option, but it absolutely is.
How much will you get paid? Set your price. But if you want to be competitive, according to UrbanSitter.com, the average babysitting fee per hour generally depends on what area you live in. For example, in San Francisco, babysitters tend to earn $14 per hour for one child, while in Denver, they generally make $10.25 per hour, per child.
How fast will you get paid? As soon as the parents return.
If you want to make this a regular gig, you could join a caregiving site like SitterCity.com or Care.com. Keep in mind that you'll be competing against experienced sitters who likely have first aid training – but in theory, you could land a job fairly quickly.
You could also simply spread the word among friends and family that you're looking to earn a little extra cash. They may just take you up on the offer, especially if you have kids of your own. After all, if you were looking for a sitter, who would you rather hire: an inexperienced teenager or someone like you?
3. Recycle. Take a look around your house and property to see what's recyclable. Some people have had luck recycling old tires to tire retread stores, while others recycle printing cartridges. And there's always tried-and-true aluminum cans.
How much will you get paid? It depends what you're recycling. For aluminum cans, you will generally get 40 cents per pound, and maybe 50 cents a pound if you bring in 100 pounds or more of aluminum to a recycling center.
If you have old computer equipment, you could also recycle that for money – not much, though. It typically works out to a few cents per pound, but it often depends on the age of the electronics. The older the equipment is, the more likely it contains precious metals, like copper, which means you'll make a little more. On the other hand, it also depends on the brand you're recycling. If you have a relatively new iPhone, you might bring in a couple hundred dollars since it can be refurbished and resold.

When I told my husband last summer that I wanted to throw a big weekend yard sale, he took in the news with his usual stoic resolve. He's seen my cockamamy moneymaking schemes before: the eBay store that quickly fizzled, the "resellable" cupcake stands from our wedding that are still moldering in the garage, previous yard sales where I mostly chatted with neighbors before lugging our stuff back inside. Expectations were not high. So this time, I really worked it. I advertised ahead of time on Craigslist and in local papers, put a sign in my yard days ahead, and prepriced everything so people wouldn't have to ask. We made $700 in two days.
"Done right, yard sales can bring in good money," says Chris Heiska, founder of the website yardsalequeen.com, where I gleaned many of my tips. Another yard-saler, Carrie Grindle, a mom in Oregon, OH, regularly clears $500 a day at her sales. Her strategy: Any time one of her kids outgrows a piece of clothing or tires of a toy, she prices it before tossing it in a box to await the next sale.
"Everyone needs a side hustle," says Jason White, who started the personal finance blog frugaldad.com as a hobby that now brings in cash from ads. "In this economy, it's risky to depend on one source of income. And for most of us, it's the best way to pay down debt." The secret, White says, "is to cultivate a business around something you're already good at." Learn from these five smart-cookie readers, who found ways to make bank without a lot of extra time.

More From Redbook

Tonya Bice, 38, Geneva, IL
BIGGEST WEEKEND HAUL: $1,831
When Tonya, a former stock trader turned stay-at-home mom of four, saw a glorious wreath at Pottery Barn eight years ago, she was bummed that it was out of her price range. "I decided if I couldn't buy it, I'd learn how to make it " she says. Now the craft project is her full-fledged business, Twoinspireyou, which she started two years ago when she joined etsy.com, the online marketplace for handmade goods. "I had done craft shows before, but I wasn't great at pitching the products in person," she says. "Etsy really catapulted me to the next level. Thousands of people saw my work, and it spoke for itself." During one of her biggest weekends, Tonya made $1,831 after offering repeat customers free shipping. For newbies looking to cash in, Danielle Maveal, Etsy's manager of seller education, suggests joining one of the site's "sale teams," where like-minded crafters can connect online to get advice from successful designers. "They'll offer tips, such as how to tag your product so it pops up more often when people search on the site. It's all about making it easier for shoppers to find you. Once they do, it's like sparks flying."
Susan Jumonville, 42, Syracuse, UT
BIGGEST WEEKEND HAUL: $1,400
When Susan heard from a neighbor that Once Upon a Child, a child-oriented consignment chain, was opening up in her town, she decided it was time to sell all her daughter's outgrown but carefully stored clothing and toys. Over three days, she dropped off five SUV-filling loads. Susan credits her success to the state of her goods. "Take the time to wash and iron old clothes," she suggests. "They should look like things you'd buy yourself." Susan was surprised when the store rejected brand-name items by Ralph Lauren and Laura Ashley, only to accept stuff from Target But according to longtime consignment-shop owner Kate Holmes, whose site, howtoconsign.com, offers tips for resalers, "Store owners know their customers and what sells." So before you lug bags and bags of stuff to your neighborhood thrift shop, stop in to see what the place usually stocks, and edit your giveaways to meet their needs.
Related: Crumbs Cupcakes are Selling on eBay for Hundreds of Dollars
Nanette Torres-De León, 33, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico
BIGGEST WEEKEND HAUL: $1,300
Nanette first heard about Pure Romance when a friend invited her to one of the company's Tupperware-style sex-toy parties at the end of 2009. "I immediately knew this was something I wanted to do. As a rep, you have to be confident in yourself and manage people's inhibitions toward sex. When I talk to a customer, I try to figure out what this person needs but is too mortified to admit," says Nanette, who works as an actuarial analyst during the week. Her initial box of supplies arrived in January 2010, and over the course of several parties she hosted the weekend before Valentine's Day, she pocketed $1,300. (Pure Romance spokesperson Genine Fallon says reps usually take home between 30 and 60 percent of their sales.) "It's never just about making a sale," says Nanette, who keeps meticulous notes on her customers, including their birthdays and anniversaries. "I call them up and say, 'Congratulations!' and they always end up asking, 'Got anything new?'" If you're turning red just reading this, visit the Direct Selling Association at directselling411.com for loads of much tamer goods — from cosmetics to kitchenware — that you can sell simply by having a party.
Crystal Senter Brown, 36, Chicopee, MA
BIGGEST WEEKEND HAUL: $600
Crystal, who works for the American Cancer Society during the week, decided to become the marrying kind 10 years ago, when, as a Baptist marrying a Jehovah's Witness, she had trouble finding a justice of the peace, or JP, to perform her own wedding. "It was harder than I expected to find someone who would honor both of our beliefs," she says. So afterward she applied for a JP license, which cost $75 and required six letters of recommendation. States need only so many JPs, but Crystal lucked out because a JP in her town was retiring, and local officials accepted her application to take his spot. To date, she's officiated at nearly 300 weddings, at roughly $150 a pop, including one couple who asked her to climb a mountain with them so they could get hitched at its peak. Brown's best weekend of back-to-back weddings brought in $600. She's also built a relationship with a wedding venue in her town, and now, she says, "I'm booked solid for the next five months."
Christina Auer, 47, Lake Worth, FL
BIGGEST WEEKEND HAUL: $1,500
It's the mother of all big-fish stories: In 2008, a friend of Christina's told her about a new and different fantasy sports league, FLW Fantasy Fishing, in which participants guess the winners of 10 weekend fishing tournaments over a season. It's free to enter, and the prizes, paid by sponsors, are big and plentiful: from $100,000 for winning the whole thing down to a $10 Walmart gift card for 50th place. Christina and her husband, leisure-time anglers who often took their then-13-year-old twin boys fishing, decided to try it. "My husband got into studying the players and looking up their stats. He was online for hours," says Christina, a makeup artist by day. "I came in third in a tournament without doing any real research! One guy was competing on his home lake and had come in third the year before. I figured he'd really want to win this time, so I picked him to come in first." The lucky guess netted her $1,500. Christina admits it was a fluke, but adds, "Anybody can do this, so just have fun with it."

6 Easy Ways to Make $1,000 This Weekend

When I told my husband last summer that I wanted to throw a big weekend yard sale, he took in the news with his usual stoic resolve. He's seen my cockamamy moneymaking schemes before: the eBay store that quickly fizzled, the "resellable" cupcake stands from our wedding that are still moldering in the garage, previous yard sales where I mostly chatted with neighbors before lugging our stuff back inside. Expectations were not high. So this time, I really worked it. I advertised ahead of time on Craigslist and in local papers, put a sign in my yard days ahead, and prepriced everything so people wouldn't have to ask. We made $700 in two days.
"Done right, yard sales can bring in good money," says Chris Heiska, founder of the website yardsalequeen.com, where I gleaned many of my tips. Another yard-saler, Carrie Grindle, a mom in Oregon, OH, regularly clears $500 a day at her sales. Her strategy: Any time one of her kids outgrows a piece of clothing or tires of a toy, she prices it before tossing it in a box to await the next sale.
"Everyone needs a side hustle," says Jason White, who started the personal finance blog frugaldad.com as a hobby that now brings in cash from ads. "In this economy, it's risky to depend on one source of income. And for most of us, it's the best way to pay down debt." The secret, White says, "is to cultivate a business around something you're already good at." Learn from these five smart-cookie readers, who found ways to make bank without a lot of extra time.

25 Unusual Ways To Make Quick Money

 

Offer To Watch Children, Pets, or House-sit

You're out of cash. What do you do? Hit up Moms and Dads.
No, not your mom and dad, silly. Moms and Dads; those worn-out individuals with small children under five who barely remember what it's like to go to a restaurant and not spend the evening quelling tantrums and wiping up spilled water.

There are a lot of part-time jobs you can get in order to turn a quick buck, but exercising the babysitting option is one of the most immediately lucrative. Reliable babysitters are in high demand. You can almost name your price.

Babysitters earn upwards of $15 an hour these days. Offer to sit for friends' kids Friday or Saturday night. The parents will be only too happy to hand you cash when they return.

Other quick cash options? House-sit for friends of friends (friends by definition, will expect you to feed their cat and take in their mail for free. People you only know by association won't).