Money Makers

Method 1 of 3: Money Makers

Flip a Product

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   Buy underpriced used books. Outfit a phone or PDA (personal data assistant) with a scanner, scan the ISBN numbers of books at used bookstores and thrift shops, and compare the asking prices with what the books are selling for on a site like Amazon. Whenever you get a good hit (which won’t be often but, since the process is fast, won’t take long, either), buy the book and resell it online. Be discrete about this, as the store managers probably won’t like what you’re doing.
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   Bargain-hunt at yard and thrift sales. If you have a bit of knowledge in a particular area (ex. Taxco Mexican silver, action figures, classic National Geographics) or even just a good eye for quality, visit private sales early and often to find unexpected deals.
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   Go to police auctions. You can find incredible deals here, and though may not be able to resell a car that was involved in a serious crime, you can probably find some spectacularly cheap jewelry that someone else would be happy to buy off you.
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   Refinish ratty furniture. If you have lacquer thinner, sandpaper, stain, and some craft sense, you can buy worn-out furniture and fix it up for a great resale price.
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   Rescue battered wood. Pallets and pallet stock are cheap (or free) and easy to come by. Look for untreated specimens at construction sites, community colleges, buildings under renovation, or shipping warehouses and plane them down and/or kiln-dry them in a homemade kiln-dryer to uncover their hidden beauty. You can then resell the wood as is or even turn it into beautiful furniture. (Be sure to advertise that the wood is “reclaimed,” as people are often willing to pay much more for this.)
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   Flip houses or apartments. If you are a handy(wo)man with great design sense, a knowledge of what’s valuable in the construction of a home, and assets you’re willing to play with, consider buying, fixing up, and reselling real estate. This requires quite a bit of up-front cash and elbow grease, but the payoff can be big.

Participate in Studies

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   Sign up with focus groups in your area. Studies that you are eligible to participate in pop up sporadically but pay quite well – often more than $50 for an hour of your time. You can also look for focus groups online but will have to sort through a lot of bogus “opportunities” and sites that ask you to pay up-front for the privilege of participating before you find anything worthwhile.
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   Participate in medical studies. If just the thought of this frightens you, know that the intensity of such studies varies greatly. Some studies ask participants (particularly those with medical conditions) to test treatments or medications that can have adverse side effects, but others ask participants to perform physical tasks with no lasting effects. If you are able-bodied and paranoid about keeping it that way, you can even participate as a control in a study at a nearby medical research facility or medical school.

Find an Artistic Outlet

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   Sell photos. If you have a decent camera and a good sense of light, color, and composition, you can take and sell stock photos – i.e. nondescript images that lend themselves to many applications and are commonly used to illustrate online articles or products – with minimal effort. Stock photos of locations (a fire hydrant, a bare wall near an interesting tree, or anything you might find as a default background image on your computer) are easier to take, but stock photos of people (i.e. people arguing, people kissing, people laughing) usually sell for more, as they have more uses and require the written legal consent of your subjects. Hunt for a reputable stock photo dealer or database that will pay you fairly before signing on with anyone.
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   Design web images. By pairing good aesthetic sense and the use of design or photo-editing software, you can make and sell background graphics for social media pages, web logos, or computer icon packages. If you know or are willing to learn computer programming, seriously consider making web pages; programmers may be easy to come by, but programmers with an eye for beauty are another thing altogether.
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   Make and sell crafts. If you are even a little bit crafty, consider selling your goods on a site like Etsy. Though you can make more money on intricate projects (ex. an exquisitely woodburned gourd), even labor-light projects can bring in good money if you’re willing to produce them in high quantities. Who knows – if you do well, you might even be inspired to start a crafts business.

Participate in Marketing Research

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   Become a mystery shopper. This means doing business with various establishments and rating their products and services without their knowledge. It may sound like cake, but remember that it requires discreteness, a good memory for detail (ex. the name of every individual who helped or served you), and enough cash for you to be able to pay for your shopping experience up-front and then wait to be reimbursed pending the approval of your review.
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   Write product reviews. Many companies will pay a lot more than two cents for your two cents. Product reviews are a great way to get paid for being opinionated that doesn’t require the writing background that many other writing jobs do.
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   Complete online surveys. Though tedious, online surveys are often quick and painless and, for a few bucks at a time, can add up quickly. Read How to Make Money with Free Online Surveys for more details.

Pursue a Passion

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   Start a website or blog. Sure, competition in the online world is steep, but one thing that makes a good site or blog stand apart is the dedication and enthusiasm of its writer. Plenty of sites focus too hard on SEO and keywords, and while SEO-optimization is certainly necessary to help your content make money, delving into something that truly matters to you will set you apart from your fluff-and-stuff competitors.
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   Start a small business. Being passionate usually translates to a superior product and better service, which is especially sought after in the age of the anonymous, 1-minute online review. Worried that there isn’t a market for your interests? The fact is that though you may not personally know many people who want what you have to offer, thanks to the internet, there’s a huge market for niche-products (pigeon diapers, chainmail wedding dresses, you name it)… and you might just end up being a trend-setter. To create an online store, you can either make your own website or, if don’t want to self-host, you can sell on eBay or a similar site.
   • Copywriting. Bloggers and business owners are out there looking for freelance writers to help them with their internet marketing campaigns. If you can write a good video marketing script, sales copy, press release, product reviews, website content and advertising copy, you can make money doing exactly that. You may need basic SEO skills since most of these copywriting jobs require some knowledge on how search engines work. These people are looking for traffic, and they will only hire you if you can deliver that.^[1]