8 Easy Ways To Earn Extra Money

Many times people get stuck thinking that the only way that they can improve their financial situation is to cut spending and ignore the possibility of increasing income. Finding a way to earn extra money is a great way to build up an emergency fund, pay for major expenses like a vacation or even to make ends meet without resorting to credit cards. And if you can make some income doing something you enjoy, so much the better!

You might not be able to do all of the 8 things on this list – in fact, it’s not meant to be comprehensive at all, just a jumping off point to get you thinking about opportunities you might be overlooking to turn your skills and interests into money in your pocket.

1. You might think that casual babysitting is just for teenagers, but many parents prefer having an adult watch their children. If you’d like to make yourself for babysitting, there are several ways to get the word out: joining a site like sittercity.com, putting ads on online sites like Craigslist and putting up fliers on bulletin boards in your neighborhood.

2. Are you handy around the house? Many people would love to be able to hire you to do minor household repairs and jobs, like installing ceiling fans, cleaning gutters and painting. Just like babysitting, you can advertise for free online and/or distribute flyers.

3. If you’re good with computers and can do things like set up a wireless network or restore a computer that’s been hit with a virus you could start a part time business. This might have a secondary benefit of getting your friends and family to stop expecting you do fix their machines for free.

4. Are you a reasonably good and fast writer? Places like Demand Studios and Textbroker will pay you to write short articles. These won’t be the most interesting writing jobs, however the pay is regular and guaranteed (unlike with private clients) and you don’t have to have an extensive resume to get started. You can also check out sites like the Problogger job boards and elance to find writing and editing jobs.

5. You can also make an income by starting your own blog; however this requires a lot more work and it will take time before you start seeing results. You’ll be able to make money from ad sales, affiliate marketing and selling your own products and services. Some bloggers are also given free products to review or are invited to visit various destinations from factories to Sea World.

6. Related to 4 and 5, if you have particular skills that other people might be interested in learning, you can make an information product to teach them how and sell it. This could be an eBook, videos, audio or some combination of the three. You can also offer people the opportunity to have a one on one consultation with you over the phone.

7. If you don’t mind doing mindless tasks, Amazon Mechanical Turk is a way to do little jobs for companies, usually for a few cents per task. The jobs are things like drawing a square on the human faces in a picture or clicking on websites to see if they are active or to place them in a category and don’t generally take more than a few seconds each.

8. If you’re looking for an occasional part time job for evenings and weekends, call around to the temp agencies in your city and see if any of them provide staff for events like concerts, sporting events, banquets and other special occasions.

These are just a few of the hundreds of ways that people can make a bit of extra money. Remember to check and be sure that you are complying with any local regulations before you start offering your services and be sure that you have any necessary permits or insurance. Be sure to do research to make sure any companies you are working for are legit – you shouldn’t have to spend money to make money. And finally remember you are responsible for making sure that you pay taxes on any money that you earn.

What ways have you tried to earn extra income? Any tips or warnings?

Tracy O’Connor is the mother of 5 boys and a ghostwriter who also writes a personal humor blog.

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