Over this past week we’ve looked at a variety of ways that you can create extra income for your family. Here’s a link recap of the posts in the series thus far:
- Ways To Make Extra Money Series: Guide To Diversifying Your Sources Of Income
- Ways To Make Extra Money Series: 5 More Great Ideas For Creating Extra Income
- Ways To Make Extra Money Series: 5 Simple Ways to Create Income
- Ways To Make Extra Money Series: 5 More Ideas To Create Extra Income
Today I thought I would wrap things up with a few more ideas brought to us by our readers in the comments, as well as suggestions given on Twitter.
If you want to add your own – as always – add your suggestions to the comments!
Reader Ideas for Creating More Income
Money Making Ideas from Twitter:
- Make Money by starting a local community website and selling advertising locally. @mattjabs
- Sell old movies, CDs, books on Amazon. Everyone has at least 10 items they’ll never use again that they can sell. @foreignersfinan
- If you have a skill like another language, you can try tutoring for local schools or universities (I’m fluent in German). @lafoxey86
- Mechanical Turk will pay at least a few bucks an hour. Was just playing around with it last night, it’s interesting! @ericabiz
- Think about stuff you don’t like to do and would pay somebody for, then offer that as a side hustle. Dog Poop anyone? @fiscalgeek
- Depending on how much soda your family drinks, there’s always recycling. Money’s low but it’s a good lesson for the kids. @ipickuppennies
- Tutor students in courses you did well in. People want to get high grades/pass and they are willing to pay for it. @studenomics
- Sell homemade food. I used to sell homemade bread. @domesticcents
- Start a business. A blog, a cake business, something u are passionate about & will pour time/patience in to develop. @nodebtplan
- Submit to a site that pays for articles. @budgetpulse
- Can you guess my favorite way to make extra money? @deliverawaydebt (as in delivering pizzas!)
Money Making Ideas from the comments:
- English as second language is huge right now with the migrations from various parts of the world. There are certificate programs you can take or you can do it informally. That’s a niche you can enter for no other reason than being able to speak the native tongue! Kevin at Out Of Your Rut
- My wife has begun keeping kids in our home. I am starting part-time census work this month. Ken at moneymakingsense.com
- If you happened to have a plow for your truck in the southeast this year you could have made a killing as much snow as we have gotten. Supply and demand was in effect and the demand for snow clearing far outweighed the supply of plows. Kyle at SuburbanDollar.com
- I am commissioned as a notary here in WA, and when I was laid off in 2008 I took a gamble and started a full-time mobile notary service. It keeps me busy and is great income. I got additional training on how to close real estate transactions (I wouldn’t advise anyone to try to do it without that training) but if you’re already a commissioned notary or can become commissioned easily in your state, the “odd job” general notary work is great extra income. Jessica at thepennywisefamily.com
- Last summer garbage collectors in Toronto went on a very long strike, my brother (a entrepreneur by nature) took quick advantage of the situation by setting up his own private temporary garbage collection services. Start up cost was about $700 and they made over $25,000 in about 3 months. Paid tuition for 3 years. Ray at Financial Highway.
- A friend of my was able to make some extra money writing short scripts for a production agency. They ranged from 10-30 pages, and it was basically creative story telling. They gave him the premise, he made up the rest. Easy money considering all you have to do is come up with some stories! myfinancialobjectives.com
- I used to have a thing for designer shoes (in my carefree days of high living off of credit cards). There were many pairs that I sold on eBay for about $800, but they were mostly unworn Jimmy Choos. I had a few other pairs that were equally lovely but I couldn’t get any interest on eBay, so I took them to a local consignment shop that only deals in high end merchandise. Out of the 8 items I’ve taken in, so far, I’ve made $250. Danielle at thefrugallawyer.com
- My husband and I have turned my hobby of making hair bows for girls into a business. bowsoprecious.com
- Amazon’s great for selling books, movies, etc. The amount of people on Amazon is ridiculous and when I sold textbooks in college I was shocked by how many books old and new I could sell. Austin at foreignersfinances.com
Conclusion
One of my main reasons for doing this series this week, was not necessarily to give specific ideas and methods for making money, but rather to get the creative juices flowing and to help you to find your own best method(s) for making money.
So often on personal finance blogs we focus only on the frugality aspect of personal finance. But in reality, you can only cut back so much and you can only be so frugal. My opinion is that you ignore the other side of the coin – generating income – at your own peril.
There are a million and one ways that you can find to generate income, you just have to find where your skill sets lie, what you’re passionate about, and where there is a need. So go out there and start earning!
Have more ideas for generating income? Have a sure fire way to make money? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!
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Great tips…I think I’m gonna look into Ebay sales….thanks for the mention as well.
Ken´s last post ..Weekend Roundup
Another way to make some extra money is to become an affiliate to a company such as amazon. By displaying links (with your account id) to their products on your blog, you can make a commission for each product purchased by someone using your link.
Thanks for the article, good ideas!
Nice series… It really forces one to realize that there is always a way to achieve your financial goals.
LeanLifeCoach´s last post ..5 Ways People Waste Money
All of these ideas are based on getting paid for your time. If you don’t work it now, you don’t get paid. When my wife and I looked for another source of income, we decided to work towards something that could not only add to our income today, but also replace our jobs in the future. That is why we became distributors of a online greeting card and gift company that markets it’s products and services through the MLM marketing plan. We became customers first and loved what they do so much that we decided to join and see if we could possibly replace our jobs with income from own business and the true residual income it can provide. Besides, our products bring great joy to the people who recieve them, and our closest competition can’t come close to providing the quality, price, and the service that I can provide for my customers. I really have no competition.
Don’t know if I saw this one or not, but how about taking out your own garbage??
I have never paid for garbage pick up and never will.
I take mine to work with me and use their dumpster.
It is not gross or disgusting at all, and I don’t have a huge can of garbage piling up in my backyard every week.
I save about $50 every three months.
David/Yourfinances101´s last post ..Five Reasons to do Your Taxes Online
Nice work on this series, Pete and staff. Obviously you’ve engaged the readers and are “getting the juices flowing”. Once thing I struggle with is picking an idea and sticking to it. I guess you can use a combination of things, but I struggle with prioritizing my efforts. It would be good to explore methods for helping you prioritize and be consistent.
PT´s last post ..Question of the Week: Who Does Your Car Service?
Glad I found this resource. It’s been such a blessing to me already.
Thanks for the time you put into this ministry for the rest of us!
Randy <
These are some really great tips and a few things I had not even thought of before. I have never even heard of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk before either. I will have to check that out.
Hank´s last post ..Consider Boosting Your Income Instead of Cutting Costs When Times Are Tough
Great article as always. I will try mechanical turk. Thanks for this great series.
This has been a great series. I love finding new ways to earn a bit of extra income. I’ve said it a couple times before, but even and extra $50 a month could pay a phone or cable bill, so why not earn it?
Tom @ Canadian Finance Blog´s last post ..Tax Software Review – StudioTax 2009
Looks like a lot of great ideas. It’s great to make some extra money, with a little creativity it can be done. We live in the country and go for walks a lot when the weather is nice. It is amazing how many people drive down our country roads and throw away beer cans. We make extra money while getting exercise on walks.
O´s last post ..Mar 11, Practical Money Saving Tips For The Family When Dining Out