Tips to Make Extra Money When You Don't Have a Job

"Getting money is like digging with a needle;
spending it is like water soaking into sand."

Japanese Proverb

Ways to Make Extra Money

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.

Clean out your closets and have a garage sale, take your goods to a consignment store or sell your unwanted goods online. You know the old saying, one man's trash is another man's treasure. If you can't find a buyer for your unneeded goods, at least you can donate them to a local charity like the Salvation Army or Goodwill. Then you aren't cluttering up you house with stuff you don't use, you might be helping out someone else who needs what you are not using, and depending on your income, you may be able to take a tax deduction at tax time for the fair market value of the goods.

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.

Go to other people's garage sales, look for bargains and then resell the items online through place 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 much. I know other people who go to library book sales and then resell the books online at a profit.

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.

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

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. My mom friends do services such as pet care, child care, sewing and typing for some extra money.

Turning any hobby into a business can often "earn" extra money just from tax savings, if you have income from other sources such as a working spouse or a part-time job. 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, 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

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.