Easy ways to make money for kids

One of the top ways to save money for your house is to get a second supplemental job either on the weekends or at night, on top of your regular job. I’m not going to lie to you, this is one my more difficult recommendations. Who wants to work even more hours on top of their already stressful job and life, filled with so many commitments? I know I don’t, at least in the conventional sense. That is why I feel it’s so important to find a second job that you really love. Since you are already going to be extremely tired, you need a second job that is flexible and excites you, a lot. If you can make this happen, it is the quickest way to greatly boost your income and save for your house down payment. Who knows, maybe you will like your second job so much that you quit your primary job and take it on full time. For the rest of this article, I will be highlighting some clever second jobs that I think are great candidates for your consideration. Also, at the end, make sure to read on all about my personal experience (and mistake) taking on a second weekend job I did not really want.

Make Some Extra Money By Working For About.com

About.com is a website that provides high value articles to its users. There are staff writers at About.com called guides writing about almost every topic imaginable. About.com is a huge success story and it gets a ton of traffic and is ranked very highly on search engines. Because they get so much traffic, they are able to monetize their site quite well with advertising. It is a great model because they always need more and more articles to keep a competitive edge and therefore are always looking for new guides. Guides are given very flexible hours (you can write your articles whenever you like as long as you meet your monthly quota) and are paid based on performance (how much traffic your articles draw). I really like the About.com paradigm because it satisfies my top requirements for a second job candidate: you set your own hours and you get to write about a fun topic that you’re passionate about. Also, as About.com continues to grow, your articles will naturally get more traffic because the site will keep bringing in more and more visitors (as a guide you will indirectly benefit from the work of all other guides as well). You can read more about becoming an About.com guide here.

Why Not Start Your Own Website?

Ok, I’ve already discussed the benefits of starting your own website in this article but must mention it again here. In starting your own website, you don’t get the infrastructure that About.com provides, but you do get full control and ownership of the website you create. If you are really passionate about a topic and are looking to build a longer term asset, this is definitely the way to go. Starting your own website in the short run will not make you nearly as much money as the other alternatives in this article but it provides the opportunity to make much more money in the long term because you are building an asset that you own that keeps kicking off advertising income. Not to mention you are creating something of value that helps others by spreading your knowledge. That’s an accomplishment more important than money! Personally, I have worked countless hours late and night launching multiple websites (including this one). It has been a long a difficult process, but also extremely rewarding and addicting.

Work As A Remote Contractor On oDesk

oDesk is a site that allows you to work for others remotely. It is a global network of programmers, data miners, freelance writers, and graphic designers that work remotely on their own time schedule for businesses that need their assistance. With the bad economy, more and more companies are looking to outsource projects because it is much cheaper for them. A company that hires an employee on oDesk is not responsible for HR, benefits, and overhead. While this alternative may not be as fun as the above two because you do get to set your own hours but you might not be working on a very exciting project, I definitely recommend it as a great opportunity for a flexible second weekend job.

Which Second Jobs To Avoid

After talking about a few good opportunities, let’s look at what you should not do. First, let me premise this with the fact that it’s easy to burn out these days. Bosses and managers can be extremely demanding. Keeping that in mind, I would urge you to not take a second job that requires face to face contact with your boss and clients. Most likely you are already doing a ton of this during your regular work day. One of the most important things about saving money for your mortgage down payment is longevity. You will not be able to save for the down payment overnight (believe me, I have been saving for a long time now) and will need to be in the saving game for the long term. You do not want to expose yourself to extra pressure. The best way to avoid this is to take second jobs that are Internet based because then you can work remotely. While you may make less (especially after factoring in self employment higher taxes), it is totally worth it for the freedom and mental benefits. Moreover, if you start finding huge success you could quit your day job and make your internet job your focus, what a great thing!

Where Can I Find More Internet Based Jobs?

That being said, I recommend searching Google for such terms as home based business, home job, network marketing, etc. As always, you will want to be very careful because there are a lot of scams out there and you don’t want to get affiliated with the wrong thing. That’s why I like the options presented in this article so much, they are very big and trustworthy companies. Good luck and remember to take some time off for yourself.

The Weekend Job That I Quit Before I Even Started

Mentioned above, my second job is managing my portfolio of websites. I love writing and helping people. The pay per hour of time invested so far is low, but I have very flexible hours and see the long term benefits of building up passive income. Recently, I got approached by a friend to work for him part time. He offered a reasonable amount of money and even stock options in his company. However, this weekend job didn’t work out. I quickly realized I was in over my head and creating too much stress in my already hectic life. It’s a recurring theme on this site – I make a mistake and hope that you learn from it! This is no exception. Please read on all about my personal experience taking on a second job and then quickly backing out.

Ways to Make Extra Money

With unemployment rates high and regular jobs hard to find right now, the ideas below can bring in some extra cash, whether you are unemployed or working and just trying to build up an extra savings cushion.

1. Make ad supported web site or blogs. Here is my personal favorite: make web sites on your favorite topics and put ads or affiliate links on your sites for some extra cash. A great way to get started is to use Google’s blogger site, and then put their Adsense ads on your blog to generate income.

Here is an interesting link on the topic from USAToday: Google’s AdSense a bonanza for some Web sites.

2. Try freelance article writing. If you aren’t comfortable making your own blog, there are existing web sites where you can make money by writing articles that go on established sites. Some of the sites that operate this way are Associated Content, Hubpages and Squidoo. The advantage to putting pages on these sites is that it may be easier to get your pages to rank on an established domain as opposed to starting a new site from scratch, and you personally don’t have to know any of the technology behind setting up a blog or site.

The downside is that you are writing content that is given over to someone else, and in the long run you probably won’t make nearly as much money as you could as with a site of your own. Plus with your own site you have the option of selling the entire site someday.

If you are a college student, you can sell your used text books online. Often you can get a better deal than at the campus book store where they have some what of a captive market.

4. Resell items. Go to other people’s garage sales, look for bargains and then resell the items online through places like eBay. We have a friend that makes a living just from reselling a certain type of exercise equipment on eBay. Another person that was featured in our local paper made a living reselling wedding dresses. It helps to specialize in one area so you get to know the market very well and get a good feel for what will sell online and for how mu ch.

You can easily check the market prices for used books online at Amazon’s Marketplace.

5. Go to library book sales, especially on the last day when they are trying to get rid of the books. You can often get a whole bag of books for $1 or $2. Then resell the books online through Amazon Marketplace or Ebay. The downside with this approach is that in order to turn a tidy profit you have to have a good idea in advance of what types of books sell online and for how much. Plus, library sales often attract many used booksellers so the competition for the best books is often steep. You can get an edge by becoming a library member, or better yet a volunteer, and possibly getting a chance to purchase books before they go on sale to the general public.

6. Sell handmade items. If you have a hobby such as sewing or woodworking, instead of just making items for yourself and your friends, make items to sell either at craft fairs, consignment shops or online. One of my friends is an artist and sells her oil paintings, so it gives her both a relaxing hobby and a second income. Her art supplies are all tax deductible because they are business expenses. To sell your items online, check out www.etsy.com.

Interesting Link: Study Calculates Stay at Home Moms Worth Six Figures – if full time moms were really paid for all of their work.

7. Offer your services to others. Even if you don’t have a craft type hobby, if you have a talent you can often do services for others who either don’t have the skill or the time to do chores themselves. Some of my friends who are otherwise stay at home moms do services such as pet care, child care, sewing and typing for some extra money.

Tax Tip: If you are self employed, health insurance in the U.S. may be a tax deductible business expense, offsetting any business income. This means that if you have regular job and pay $300 in health insurance premiums, and a small business on the side, you may well be able to deduct an extra $3,600 a year from your taxes. Check with your accountant to see if this deduction could apply to your home business.

8. Turn Your Hobby Into a Business. Turning any hobby into a business can often “earn” extra money just from tax savings. This is due to the many tax deductions available to small business owners. Possible deductions for your home business may include deductions for a retirement plan, health and dental insurance. phone expenses, Internet connection costs, equipment such as phones and PCs, a home office, travel expenses and much more. The list is really quite extensive. For more information see the IRS Tax Guide for Small Businesses.

9. Sign up for consumer focus groups. One of our friends makes an extra few hundred dollars a month just by going to consumer focus groups. My husband made $100 a couple of years back on his lunch hour just for watching two commercials for a major software company and telling the marketing people which commercial he liked better.

My husband and I are both on the mailing list for Blarry House research. They email or call me whenever they have a focus group might be a good fit for one of us. Some of the offers are not worth the time, but other’s are pretty lucrative for just an hour or two’s worth of work.

10. Use or Sell Your Gift Cards . Recent news reports claim that there are billions of dollars of unused gift cards going to waste. This is a boon for retailers and a financial set back for millions of U.S. households. So dig up those old gift cards and either use them or sell them on eBay. I had a $50 Linens N Things Card I could not use because they closed their only store in my area, and their online site no longer accepted their own gift cards. Initially I was going to throw the card away but then I thought that maybe I could find a place to sell it online. I ended up putting it up for auction on Ebay where to my amazement it sold for $45 (less listing and selling fees).

At home job stuffing envelope exposed Wouldn’t it be great to get paid to stuff envelopes to make some extra cash? If only it wasn’t one of the biggest scams I’ve ever investigated… By Mr. Work @ Home, Publisher of WorkAtHomeTruth.com

Can you really make money stuffing envelopes at home?

My investigation in the at home job stuffing envelope industry didn’t take long to complete. Making money stuffing envelopes at home is a flat-out scam. In fact, I’ve never met someone making money after trying these “paid to stuff envelope” schemes.

At home job stuffing opportunities easily tops my list of work at home scams of all time. If you want the proof, just visit any work at home discussion forums — you get one sad story after another.

Here’s how the at home job stuffing envelope scam works

Promoters usually advertise that, for a “small” fee, they will tell you how to earn money stuffing envelopes at home. Later – when it’s too late – you find out that the promoter never had any employment to offer.

Instead, for your fee, you’re likely to get a letter telling you to place the same “envelope-stuffing” ad in newspapers or magazines, or to send the ad to friends and relatives.

The only way you’ll earn money is if people respond to your at home job stuffing envelope ad — and my investigation finds most people lose money stuffing envelopes at home.

The truth about “guaranteed success” doing an at home job stuffing envelopes

Although many promoters of envelope stuffing schemes claim that their program is “guaranteed to work”, often when consumers try to get refunds after realizing they’ve been scammed, they are rarely able to do so.

A better way to earn income from home…

I think the question you have to ask yourself is why did “envelope stuffing” appeal to you? Was it the promise that you can work at home? If so, then you may want to check out the detailed review of HomeJobStop, one of the Internet’s leading legitimate home jobs databases.

Or maybe you’re swamped with bills and need to bring in some extra cash. Then you may want to check out my unusual review of James Jones’ Emergency Cash Generators.

Whatever you do, be sure to check my list of scams before parting with your hard-earned money.

Did you like this investigation?

If so, you might be interested in my 100% FREE work at home alert revealing legit programs… if you’re looking for ways to make some extra cash and work from home, my free alert might be for you.

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February 3, 2009

• More Scam Alerts …

The Better Business Bureau is warning job hunters to beware of opportunities to work from home processing rebates.

While the job offer may claim that people can earn up to a thousand dollars a day without leaving the comfort of their home, BBB has received hundreds of complaints from victims nationwide who never earned a dime and were, in fact, ripped off for hundreds of dollars in upfront fees.

With the nation’s unemployment rate expected to hit a 25-year high in early 2009, work-at-home Web sites which promise big money for little or no experience are extremely tempting in the best of times. But now, with so many cash strapped families, they’re especially appealing.

In 2008 alone, more than one million people checked with their BBB about the legitimacy of companies that offer work-at-home jobs. Unfortunately, BBB warns that most work-at-home opportunities, such as supposed “rebate processing†jobs, are ultimately scams.

“With the nation’s unemployment rate hitting double digits in some states, more families are desperately searching for ways to bring in income and these rebate processing scams lure them in with promises of big money for little work or no experience,†said Steve Cox, BBB spokesperson. “No one ever wants to lose money, but in these hard times, job hunters are getting scammed when they can least afford it.â€

According to complaints on file and research conducted by the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau and the BBB serving Central, Coastal and Southwest Texas, the larger offenders — which have racked up hundreds of complaints from consumers nationwide — operate under such names as Angel Stevens and Cindy Dalton with Web addresses including www.processathome.com and www.rebateprocessorjobs.com. While the names might be different, the scam remains the same.

Victims stated that they paid an upfront fee anywhere from $40 to over $500 for a trial program earning money by processing rebates from home. By representing that the opportunity is affiliated with 11,000 companies including some household names like Hewlett Packard and Home Depot, complainants are deceived into thinking that the offer is legitimate.

Instead of guidance and a starter kit on processing rebates, victims report that they actually received instructions on how to make money by sending e-mails, posting blogs and paying for ads on the Internet in order to sell various products.

The products being sold are marketed with a rebate and the victim allegedly makes money by receiving a percentage of sales for any products sold as a result of the ads they placed.

“Adding insult to injury, recent complainants state that after paying the initial fee of $359, they find that their credit card or checking account is charged each month thereafter for $59. The charges continue even though the victims cancel and demand refunds,†said Gary Almond, Vice President of the Los Angeles BBB.

Complainants allege that they are victims of misleading advertising and demand their money back. A few complainants who decided to try placing Internet ads to earn money became dissatisfied after spending even more money on ads and additional training, but still failed to make the amount advertised.

The marketing language on “rebate processing†Web sites makes the offer sound risk-free and usually advertises a “90 day money back guarantee” or “100% Satisfaction Guarantee,†but complainants state that the companies failed to honor the guarantee. If they respond to requests for refunds at all, it’s usually with an excuse for not making the refund.

BBB offers the following advice to help job hunters avoid being taken by a work-at-home scam:

• Beware of offers that sound too good to be true including the promise of big bucks for little work or no experience.

• Always check out the company’s BBB Reliability Report for free at www.bbb.org to see if the company has received a passing grade from BBB.

• Never give your credit card or checking account information to an individual or business that promises employment. Legitimate employers never charge fees to prospective employees. Period.

More Scam Alerts …

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