How to Make a Little Extra $$ @ Home

There are so many MLM sales pitches out here it is crazy.

What types of craft things do you do? I have a friend who makes jewelry, nice stuff, and she enters the local festivals and craft fairs. She takes a lot of things with her and she also takes special orders for people.

I have participated in focus groups which are fun. You can't rely on them for $$ because you can only do 1-2 a year. I pick my group carefully according to the $$ and time. Granted it is just spending money but the last one i did I got $250 cash for a 2 hr focus group.

Hope you find something and you don't get too bombarded with the pitches.

Be careful selling crafts or anything meant for children as new laws went into effect last year that really affected the crafters I know...now you have to test your products for lead and it isn't cheap. :|

If you make stuff you can list them on Etsy! Everything on the site is handmade and not store bought unless its been modified after purchase or if its vintage. ALOTof women I know list stuff on there! Everything is a set price and not auction style like Ebay. I don't know how crafty you are or what your niche is but its a start of WHERE to sell items! :-)

www.etsy.com :-)

There's always babysitting!

Selling crafts is tough- people need to buy them and you need to sell alot. I know u said not sales.
Data entry is impossible to fidn- sorry. Even med billing etc. is hard once you have the certificate. Doing those make crafts and send them in for money do not work. Many are scams- trust I tried them.
Good luck!

M.

http://www.WorkingGreenMoms.com

Someone mentioned selling craft items on Etsy. How do you get on this?

Here's what I do from home- Mystery Shopping- it isn't a huge money maker, however it is a little to help on bills. I do it on my own time, when I want to, there's always work available. Tonight I am doing insurance compnaies and applying for insurance over the internet. Let me know if you are interested, I can tell the company I work for and get you the contact info. There's no money required to start working for them.

There's also eating out-mystery shopping, most of this is you pay for your meal and then you get reimbursed for it, along with your compensation.

Medical Transcriptionist is something you can do from home. We have schools here in Texas (not sure about Ohio) that can train you on this. It does require training, however you can do it from home. This maybe something to look into. I've heard some of them can make pretty good income.

I also work with Easter Seals as a Job Coach. I've dealt with some kids who have had disabilities. As a Job Coach, I go into the work field of my client and assist them in making their job easier, helping them understand their job, keeping them on task,etc.. It helps the employer as far as being efficient and I communicate with the Managers about my client and his needs. If you have experience with people with disabilities, you could work as a Job Coach. The paperwork and phone calls can be done from home, however the actual job coaching is done at the worksite of the client. You can choose your hours and what you want to work as far as days/weekends.

Sorry, I only know about Sales.

I hope you find what you are looking for.

= )

My only concern about something crafty is that you have to really work to find people to buy them. Once you find a customer and sell one thing, what will make that customer buy again next month?

You can go to craft shows but these are heavily stacked in the fall for pre-holiday sales, and you will have expenses for a table rental space and sometimes entry fees. Many shows require you to donate one item for a raffle so you might get an appreciative recipient but then they don't need to purchase anything else from you. With the economy the way it is, people are cutting back on these extra and unnecessary purchases.

I don't do sales either. I teach and do customer service, which is great for me. I do it as little or as much as I want. There are honorable MLM companies and some have better compensation plans than others. There are scams of course but there are some simple and great ways to sort them out. Some companies (the best ones) have products that people keep buying even in tough economic times. They don't need kitchen gadgets or jewelry or candles but they do need quality products that they can't buy in a supermarket. The 2 most recession-proof areas are nutrition/wellness and beauty products, with beauty being a little less reliable. I would not get into anything that requires you to have parties - it's tough to get people to host parties these days, and guests don't want to attend when they are expected to purchase something.

You should look into something that is consumable, that a person will need month after month. Otherwise you will be looking a lot for customers to buy your crafts - if that's not sales, I don't know what is.

Be careful of data entry jobs too - there are many scams out there. Same thing with things like envelope stuffing and preparing mailings. I don't know how much work these days is given to people to work at home, with so many people out of work and looking for temp jobs. Companies can pick and choose because there are so many highly qualified people willing to take almost anything. Your best bet in this area is to find someone you know at a company and see if they have work they can delegate out - accounting, maybe. You're going to need to network among people you know in order to find someone to trust you to do work whenever you want to - as little or as much as you want, as you said.

Babysitting and dog walking are possible, but those are still going to be on schedules and not necessarily in your home, which is what you want.

Good luck and let me know if I can help.

1. Sell those items that you received as gifts, items that you don't really like or need or do not fit on www.Ebay.com.

2. Clear out those old toys that your kids will no longer play with since they have new toys by listing them on www.craigslist.org.

3. Sell clothes and toys your children have outgrown at a local consignment sale or to a children's consignment store such as Children's Orchard, Kid to Kid or Once Upon a Child. Find sales near you at www.kidsconsignmentsales.com.

4. Sell used books that you have lying around the house to the online book buyback site, www.BookJingle.com. They even pay for you to ship the books to them.

5. Volunteer for a clinical trial. Search for paid clinical trials near you at http://paidclinicaltrials.org/.

6. On that same note, volunteer for a research study at a local University and get reimbursed for your time and travel. Search www.google.com for "university research studies".

7. Sell your jewelry to www.cash4gold.com or Gold Buyers of America. Or you can host a gold party.

8. Upload great photos you have taken to www.shutterstock.com. You earn twenty-five cents every time your photo is downloaded. The website collects stock photographs and pays for every download.

9. Use your skills and talents to make items to sell on www.etsy.com. As long as it is handmade, you can sell it.

10. Get paid to participate in a focus group. Find a focus group near you at www.findfocusgroups.com.

11. Sign up to be a mystery shopper at a legitimate company, I use www.mysteryshops.com.

I am taking medical billing course online through my local college. You could also do medical transcription. You could do both of these from home.

To sell stuff on etsy, you have to have a credit card which I don't so I dont' sell my crafts there. ebay lets you sell so may items without a charging a listing fee if the price starts at less than 99 cents but then they charge you based on the sales price if it sells. You can try craigslist. I see baby bows for sell on there all the time. I work at home doing data entry but I don't know if the company is in your area or not. acs-inc.com I think that's the web address. There was training at their location and now I work at home. You have to check everyday because the work at home jobs disappear quickly-once within a few hours. Use your network. At the time I got this job, my sister was the boss. She called and said, do you want the job? Of course I said yes! good luck in your search!

I wish I could help you... I've been wondering the same thing actually so I'll be watching to see the responses! :o) I love to make stuff and make bows and paint custom picture frames and stuff like that but have NO idea how to get anything started as far as selling them! Good luck and I hope you find something!

www.ratracerebellion.com free website that post legit work at home jobs. Lots of CS jobs that you could do at night or weekends. Most are taking orders from TV sales etc.