Making Money with a Sandwich Board Sign

Every now and then a character in a movie is seen walking around wearing with a sandwich board sign, but sandwich board advertising is an unusual way to make money in reality. That's why I loved the following story sent to me by a subscriber to the Unusual Ways newsletter. It is the first entry in my Most Interesting Money Maker Contest.

Mark Peterson
Minneapolis, MN

I graduated from high school in 1979. The job market was weak for high school graduates that spring, and I was having difficulty finding some way to make money for college that fall. My dad had an entrepreneurial bent, and encouraged me to keep looking -but also think of a way to work for myself and generate income.

I'm not sure if the idea came to me from a movie, readings, stories, or maybe even a dream. A possibility that popped in my head (with a light bulb!) was to be a sandwich board man. Even those of us that didn't grow up during the depression can picture a (usually) man walking around with signs in front and back advertising to "Eat at Joes" or some other message. Living in a suburban area, there were enough businesses to be potential clients. I determined there were also several high-traffic areas that would entice someone to try an unusual advertising medium that stuck out over the traditional and typical methods.

I started contacting places I thought would be most interested - pizza parlors, restaurants, video stores (this was the dawn of the video age), and sporting good emporiums. I walked into these businesses and made my pitch - for $10 an hour per side, I would be a human face that would project a positive image of their establishment. I could answer questions, hand out coupons, and uniquely encourage a person to visit their business. Part of their obligation was to provide the artwork for the sign.

The only objection I faced was that their advertising budget was maxed out. Otherwise, everyone I spoke with were at least curious. After contacting potential clients for less than half a day, I had five that wanted to "try me" and try the sandwich board. Since I had two signs/two sides, I could advertise for two businesses each hour - $20! Mind you, at this time the typical wage I could expect was $5-$6 an hour. Although not working 40 hours a week, I could work part-time and do as well walking around with a sandwich board that working for someone else. Plus, I was working for myself and doing something fun.

I spent that summer "pounding the pavement" (and working part-time elsewhere) and enjoyed myself. People would honk or stop by, and most importantly the clients were very pleased at the response. I was off to college and considered doing the sandwich board business there, but was too busy studying and involved with activities. Unfortunately, due to being out of town (for school and later work), and then for physical reasons, I didn't continue through college. Receiving a full-time job out of state ended my career as a sandwich board guy - but not as an entrepreneur.

Great story. If the internet goes down I might just have to get a sandwich board sign and hit the streets.

By the way, if the contest is over by the time you read this subscribe to the newsletter and I'll announce any new competitions. In any case send me any story you have of an odd way you have made money and if I put it on the site I'll send you an e-book (I'll let you choose from several that I publish).

Selling Mortal Kombat Codes

I never was a video game player, but after reading the following true story about selling Mortal Kombat codes, I realize that I missed out on some good money opportunities as a child. This was sent to me by a subscriber to the Unusual Ways newsletter as an entry in my Most Interesting Money Maker Contest. You can see the other entries listed on the page Interesting Ways to Make Money.

Sterling E Jenkins
Texas

When I was in the 7th grade, a new video game had recently been released that started sweeping my generation by storm. Mortal Kombat was the newest, biggest event at my school. The game was even played after lunch and after school (in pretend, of course). Well, if you are at all familiar with the game, you know there are millions of codes and combination button pressing to achieve many things in the game. All sorts of magazines will let you have a code here and a code there, just to keep things interesting; however there were never enough for me.

I was 10 years old at the time and I decided to type all the codes (all properly categorized) into my computer. I used the old style printer (with the holes on the side for the feeder) to print out a little booklet I made for myself. I had friends that like the booklet I'd made so much, that they wanted one as well. So I told my friends that their payment would be to get more magazines for more codes and I would reward their efforts with an updated booklet.

All in all, I had about 12 pages of codes, both public and secret. And the perfect business opportunity came from a speech class I was taking in school that year. We had to give a presentation of something. As it turned out, I had the perfect thing to present to the class. The next day, I stood in front of everyone and presented my cheat code booklet to everyone. Of course they were interested in that I wasn't just making something up to present; I really had something tangible.

After letting a few booklets be passed around class (and subsequently being told to finish my presentation and sit down) I had them hooked. For the rest of the year, I sold my booklets during lunch and after school for $10 a piece. I never thought to tell my dad about all of this at the time, and he got really upset when he found an entire stash of cash in one of my bedroom drawers. I had to give out phone numbers so he could call and confirm I sold the booklets like I said I had.

Great entrepreneurial spirit Sterling!

Those of you reading this after the contest has ended can subscribe to the newsletter, where I'll announce any new competitions - the subscription form should be to the right. You can also send me any story you have of an odd way you've made money anytime. If I use it on the site I'll send you an e-book (I'll let you choose from several I've written).

A Quick Way to Make Cash

If you are ever looking for a quick way to make cash without investing much, you can take inspiration from the following. A subscriber to the Unusual Ways newsletter sent this as an entry in my Most Interesting Money Maker Contest. Other entries are listed on the page Interesting Ways to Make Money. This is a good one...

C.K. Moss
AKA "The Timeshare Whisperer"

Once upon a time (1978 to be exact) we were living in a small town in Northern Utah. We were newly married with a sweet baby girl and like most newlyweds we had very little money. I had numerous business ventures going at the same time just trying to make ends meet. Some of them costing us more than we made, but then that's how you learn isn't it?

Well one day I was at the local country store looking for a part for my old sears lawn mower. If I could find just the right part, then this old relic might hold together long enough to make it around the yard at least one more time. I finally found something that looked to have promise. I studied on it, did some mental calculations and figured that with a little cutting, snipping and bending here and there, I had found the perfect part for the job. Didn't matter that I found it in the ladies undergarment section, this hummer was a gonna work. No doubt about it!

Making my way out of the "ladies section" as quickly and stealthy as possible, moving down the hardware isle towards the check out stand, I stopped briefly to look at something. Sitting on the shelf was a huge box about two feet deep by two feet wide by two feet high. This box didn't match the rest of the items on the shelf that were clean, neat and organized. This box was filthy! It was covered with at least 15 years of dust. All they had done was move this box around from shelf to shelf for a very long time.

I dusted off the label and read "Door Viewers." What the heck is a door viewer? I picked up one of the several hundred mini box's inside the big box, blew off the dust, opened it up and said, Oh! it's a "Peep Site." Those tiny viewers you install in the door of your home. The kind you can peer through to see if you want to open the door or not. Salesperson or best friend? They were brass ones, nickel ones, antique brass, white, black, copper ones, you name it it was in there. Well, I ain't no rocket scientist or nothin' but it didn't take me the entire afternoon to figure out that these things were not exactly flying out the door at this fine establishment.
Suddenly this light bulb went on (no it wasn't the "blue light special") this was one of them idea type lights that goes off in your head.

I walked up to the cashier and asked her if the manager was there? (I knew that what I had to ask was going to have to get approval from someone a couple of rungs up the ladder.) She said that he was and that she would go and get him. When he arrived I pointed to this huge dusty box and said; "I see that you have had these around for a while, (short pause) would you take $25 bucks for the entire box? (Now keep in mind that these little peepers were priced at $7.50 to $10 bucks each depending on the size and color, and there were hundreds of them in this big ol' box.) (long pause, very long pause, uncle D. always said "first one to talk looses.) After what seemed an eternity, The manager says, "sure, why not." Mavis, ring him up for $25 bucks.

Honey I'm home! Honey, looked what I got at the store. What are they and what are you up to now? She said. Honey how many subdivisions are there around here? That's right they're everywhere and I was lookin' at the houses on the way home and none of them have a "Peep site" in the door! A what? One of these! I'm going to put one in every door and I'm gonna start with ours. Do you know what you're doing? Nope! But we're about to learn. It's a good thing I started with our own door because it was there I realized that if you don't have the right drill bit for the right door it can get ugly in a hurry.

Back to the hardware store for some drill bits. Well before long he had my basket full of different types of bits for different type doors and it was adding up to more than this cowboy makes. So I said Whoa! Ain't ya got one drill bit that will do everything? Sure, right over here. (Why I otta...) Well he hands me this bit about two inches long that was cone shaped like a Christmas tree. This one should do the trick, no matter what the depth of the door whether it is insulated, foam core, metal, steel, wood you name it that's yer boy right there. All right then that's better.

Before ya know it I'm out knockin' on doors. "Hello ma'am I'm with "Hometown Security" and I see that you don't have a "security lens" in your door." "For only $9.95 you may have the style and color of your choice and I will have it installed in under five minutes. $9.95 isn't much to pay for a little piece of mind is it?" "Great, let me get started and I'll be outta here in just a few minutes, Oh and by the way ma'am for only $5 dollars more I will put one in your backdoor or the side door of your garage if you like." "Oh yea, and one more thing, this makes a great surprise gift for your parents or grandparents. Just let me know."

Well let me tell ya cousin, business was brisk for "Hometown Security." Almost every house was eager to have this little piece of security in their lives. It took about thirty seconds to mark the height and spot where they wanted it mounted, about another minute to drill the hole, about one minute to take the peep site out of the box, unscrew it, put each piece into opposite sides of the door and screw together. Another 30 seconds to vacuum up my small mess with the mini car vac, another minute to give them a receipt, collect my money and be off to the neighbors door. I was averaging about 8 doors an hour. That's $80 bucks an hour back in the 70's!

Honey sends me back to the store quite often now just to see what I can find.

Great idea. If you read between the lines (or read that last line) you'll understand that this is not just about one quick way to make cash, but about many possibilities. Look for something cheap you can buy and resell. One important lesson here though, is that you can really make the money by adding value. A door peep that cost less than a dollar becomes worth ten times as much when you add installation.

The entrepreneurial spirit continues. I see that C.K. has put together a book on how to buy, sell, and use timeshare properties. It is for sale on Amazon here:

Timeshare Whisperer to the Rescue

The contest will be over by the time some of you you read this. If so, subscribe to the newsletter (the sign-up form should be to the right), where I'll announce new competitions from time to time. Or just send me any story you have of an odd way you've made money and if I use it here I'll send you an e-book of you choice (with at least two or three to choose from always).

Cow Grooming

The following story about a cow grooming job was sent to me by a subscriber to the Unusual Ways newsletter, as an entry in my Most Interesting Money Maker Contest. Others are listed on the page Interesting Ways to Make Money.

Ross Maye
Ontario

I was just out of university and had about eight weeks and no money before I started my full time job. My mother sent me to pick up my younger brother at his friend's farm. When I arrived, after visiting the lovely farmers wife, I was told my brother would not be back for two and a half hours, so instead of driving all the way home and back again I went to the barn to get a tour and check out the new calves.

I wandered into the barn and was watching a newborn calf wobble around the stall when the farmer came up to me and introduced himself. The calf was only about 10 minutes old but the birth had put the farmer behind on his day. Of course, having nothing better to do while I waited, I asked "is there anything I could help you with?"

"Sure," he said, and he directed me to put on some overalls and meet him at the other end of the barn.

At the other end of the barn he handed me what looked like a fine rake that a toddler would play with. "If you could comb the cows on this side I would greatly appreciate it," He said. I started combing the nose of the first cow when the farmer stopped me. "No, no, back here where I have shaved them... try to get the spots to look good." Ok, some farmer like their cows to look good when they are milking them.

So after the row of cow behinds got combed, the farmer said to me, "You can either fill up your car at the tank over there or come back tomorrow to comb the other side and I will give you cash." Driving my mother's car and knowing my brother would want to come back the next day, I took the cash. I made $90 dollars for two afternoons of combing cows.

The second day I did ask why are we combing and shaving the cows? Apparently cows get graded on their look, Hip size, utter shape and size, and their milk production. These all factor into their breeding potential and ultimately the cow price or value. The farmer I helped was getting only some of his cows inspected, but wanted the whole barn to look good for the inspector.

Two real lessons I learned from combing cows: One; you really can be get what you want (cash in my case ) when you help someone else get what they want or need. Two; always be ready for an opportunity even if it smells funny.

Great story Ross. Cow grooming or combing is something I have never done in my eighty or so ways of making money.

Note: The contest is over, but I'll announce any new competitions in the newsletter (the form should be to the right.) You can also send stories of odd ways you've made money any time you like. If I put one on the site I'll send you an e-book (I'll let you choose from a couple).

Unusual Jobs

Although unusual jobs can be a way to get out of a rut and make some money, they can also be fun. In the past I've worked as a repo-man (very fun) a investigative process-server (fun), and even handed out free samples in grocery stores (not so fun), among many other jobs I've had. Some examples of other odd jobs follow.

Wrinkle Chaser

A wrinkle chaser is the person that irons wrinkles from shoes as they are being made to ensure they are perfectly smooth when you buy them. he or she also inspects shoes or parts for inside or outside for wrinkles and other flaws.

Chicken Sexer

This is a real job title. A chicken sexer sorts through baby chicks to determine if they are male or female, and then segregate them. You may have seen Mike Rowe doing this on his "Dirty Jobs" television program (and it really is a dirty, stinky and disgusting job).

Citrus Fruit Colorer

A citrus fruit colorer, with the help of steam and chemicals, gives citrus fruit a more natural-looking coloring, because fruit is usually picked before it is fully ripe.
Celluloid Trimmer

A celluloid trimmer shaves down a golf club and then adds celluloid bands onto the golf clubs to make the leather grip stay in place.
 
Odor Judgers

Odor judgers get to smell armpits all day to help make deodorants that will work well. I'm not sure why somebody other than some strange fetishist would want this job, but we all have to pay the bills somehow.

Furniture Tester
Now here's a good one. The La-z-Boy Company (and probably others) employs furniture testers to check out their recliners. Want to relax for a living? Good luck getting one of these jobs though - I suspect there are less than a dozen such positions.

Cowpuncher
Cowpunchers herd, castrate and brand cattle. When you get bored castrating cattle, you get to repair fences, watering troughs and do other maintenance work on the ranch.

Alligator Wrangler
This is one of the more dangerous jobs, and probably not worth the pay, unless you get a T.V. show like the The Crocodile Hunter. There are two ways to get into the field. One is to wrestle and otherwise annoy alligators as entertainment at a tourist-based alligator farm. The other is to remove alligators from people's property when they become a nuisance.

More Unusual Ways To Make Money

I am continually seeing unusual ways to make money. The more I look, the more I find. Somebody in our town just started a business cleaning up the dog poop in people's yards. Who would have guessed? After this page, you may want to also check out; Unusual Businesses. It covers odd enterprises ranging from making palm leaves into scorpions to collecting dead deer for local governments.

Selling Stuffed Animals

At a campfire in the desert last winter, my wife and I met a man who sells stuffed animals on the side of the highway. When we saw him again, in his van full of stuffed animals, I pressed him for details. He buys used stuffed animals at thrift stores in bulk and then sells them alongside the highway. Early on, he even got the stores to give him the animals, with the agreement that he would return with the money or the animals the next week.

In some small towns he can get a vendor's permit cheaply ($18/year, for example). Otherwise he just sells until they chase him out of the county. He says he hasn't been fined yet, and he claims he sold $4,000 worth his first month. I think he was exaggerating, but because of him we include used stuffed animals in our flea market stands with some success.

Trade Payments for Cash?

One way to raise cash that many people overlook is to sell a structured settlement for cash. Essentially you trade payments you are receiving from a monthly annuity, settlement payments from an injury, or even lottery payments, for a lump sum payment. It can be a workable solution if you need a down payment for a new home or want to start a new business, or for unexpected medical costs.

Unusual Ways To Make Money On EBay

Last month we met a man who bought a pair of jeans for 25 cents at a yard sale and sold them for $400 on Ebay. I was skeptical until I searched on Ebay that night and saw several pairs of jeans with the bids over $100 and even $200. I also found an old army pick for sale which was identical to the one I sold that same day for $7. The bidding was up to $14. Live and learn.

Selling things on Ebay isn't an unusual way to make money any longer, but you can sell such unusual things! A friend of mine buys things on Ebay to resell for a profit on Ebay (by changing categories to reach a better market, for example). Unfortunately for the people that were making a living doing it, Ebay no longer allows you to auction used unwashed women's underwear to fetishists.

Selling Celebrity Magnets

There is a guy who sell thousands of these on Ebay. Basically, you use a Xyron laminating machine to attach photos of celebrities to magnets. The photos are just clipped from magazines.

Selling Things In National Parks

In the Grand Canyon National Park we bought a beautiful necklace for my wife. It was on a blanket with other beautiful jewelry, for sale by a Native American woman. Her daughter stood watch to warn of any officials coming, whereupon the blanket and its contents would certainly disappear. Illegal, I'm sure, but the several people we saw buying her jewelry were happy they were there.

Selling Firewood

If you live near camping areas you can cut firewood and sell it in your front yard. It's not such an unusual way to make money around here. However, I liked the way a man in Florida was doing it. As campground host, he had free rent, power, water, and phone service, and he was allowed to order firewood. He had it delivered by the truckload, and he then sold it for $5 per bundle to the campers there.

Selling Pop On The River

Halfway down a local river on inner tubes one day, we traded a riverside resident our air pump for three beers. That got me thinking. I've watched hundreds of thirsty people float by in canoes and tubes on hot days. I haven't tried it yet, but I think there is some money to be made sitting on a sunny sandbar someday selling soda.

Picking Apples

Several times I have picked apples in October to make some extra cash. You can bring your radio, stop when you want to eat, start early or late - it doesn't matter. The owners don't mind because they typically pay by the box, not by the hour. I made about $13 per hour when I was moving fast.

Flea Markets

It's hard to find many people making a living selling things at flea markets. Most are retired or just want some extra cash. Flea market sales is a very low risk business, however. You can buy 80 dollars worth of used toys and stuffed animals, gather things from around the house, and for $10 or less rent a spot for the day at a flea market. Re-invest any money you make into new products and you'll probably sell more the second time around. I buy walking canes at the dollar store ($1.06 with tax), put a feather or two on them (4 cents and 4 minutes), and kids buy them up for $3 to $4 each. It is difficult to make much money, but it is also difficult to lose much.

Fixer Uppers

It isn't unusual to buy a house, fix it up and sell it for a profit. It is less common to find these opportunities in the $10,000 price range though. We found that there are towns in this country where you can still find houses as cheap as $6,000! We bought a house in a beautiful little town in Montana for $17,500, paid a plumber and a friend to fix a couple things ($2,000), and after living in the house for a few months, sold it for $28,000. For more of the story you can visit our website: www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com .

Making Money With Real Estate

Optioning Hilltops
Making money with real estate isn't unusual, of course, but there are less common ways to do it. There was a man, for example, that went around optioning hilltops. If the owner wanted $30,000 for the land, this investor might offer $300 for an option to buy the property at full price ($30,000) within six months. He didn't have to buy, but the sellers liked the idea of getting full price, or just keeping the $300.

Next, he contacted every radio station, police department, and cell phone company in the area that might need a hill to put a radio tower on. It is common practice to lease the properties on ten-year or longer leases, for tax reasons. Once the investor got a lease signed, it was relatively simple to get a bank to lend the money for the purchase. So he might have payments of $200 per month, and the radio station puts up the tower, and rents the hilltop for $350 per month. Total risk? If he doesn't find an interested party, he walks away, losing the $300 option fee.

Making Money With Fixer-Upper Real Estate

It isn't unusual to buy a house, fix it up and sell it for a profit. It is less common to find these opportunities in the $10,000 price range though. We found that there are towns in this country where you can still buy houses as cheap as $6,000! We bought a house in a beautiful little town in Montana for $17,500, paid a plumber and a friend to fix a couple things ($2,000), and after living in the house for a few months, sold it for $28,000. For more of the story you can visit our website on Cheap Homes .

Making Money With Land

Several times I have bought property and then sold it on a "land contract." Also called a "contract for sale," and various other names around the country, this simply means taking payments from a buyer, and delivering the title when the property is paid for in full. This is a great way to make money with real estate if you already have some money to invest.

Here is how my first deal went: 3 acres for sale for $4,100. I offered $3,300 cash, and we agreed to $3,500. This was back when closing costs were lower, so I had maybe $3,660 into it after closing. I spent a few hours raking it, and removing dead branches, etc. Then I put a hand-painted sign on it, offering it for sale for $4750, with only $250 down payment and $100 per month payment, with 11% annual interest.

Within two weeks, I sold it for exactly that price and terms, and closed the deal in a restaurant, with virtually no closing costs. In the end, I sold the land for $1150 more than I paid, but I also collected hundreds per year in interest. The rate of return on a deal like this is somewhere over 20% - certainly better than a bank account, and of course it should be done on a larger scale than this (the next time I did it was on a mobile home on land).

The reason this works is that you are making it convenient for the buyers who don't have the cash to buy the land. At the time, that 3 acres was worth about $4,000, yet the buyer paid 18% more than that for the convenience, and paid 11% interest. With a couple hundred dollars in the bank, his options were limited. I made it possible for him to own that land, and it's worth about $20,000 now.

Other Ways Of Making Money With Real Estate
There are many unusual ways that people have used to make money with real estate. I know a guy who made almost as much money letting a construction company carve gravel out of his property as the property cost in the first place. It didn't even reduce the value of the land. A friend of mine bought a small piece of property and let a company cut half the trees out for $4,500. When they were done, you couldn't even tell they had thinned the trees out, and the land had the same value.

I'll add more unusual ways of making money in real estate in the future, so check back.

Playing With Money

If you have some cash saved, there are options for what I call "playing with money," and which do not involve complicated businesses or boring bank accounts. Even if you do not have cash, if you have credit cards which allow cash advances, you can pay 18% interest and still make money with the money raised in that way. These are ways which mostly aren't quite a business because you can do them once or only when you feel like - they have a beginning and an end.

Loan Sharking

There are people that occasionally need money for a short while. A friend for example, that got a good paying job because I loaned him $300 to get drywall stilts. I never charged less than a $5 / week loan fee (don't call it interest). I haven't done this for many years now, and the legality is a question in some places. If you have any qualms, check the laws in your area and put it all in writing. Also, if you want total security, take collateral.

Investing In The Expertise Of Others
My buddy John had to show me several car magazines before I understood why an old fiberglass car was a good deal at $2,300, because I know nothing about cars. He eventually convinced me to put up the money, and after a new transmission for $900, he sold the corvette for $4,300, netting us about $1,000. I took half the profit ($500) for putting up the money for the two weeks.

I've done this several times with friends that know cars but don't have cash. By the way, if I had paid 18% interest and a $50 cash advance fee to raise the money with a credit card, my profit would still have been over $400, and John did all the work. I love playing with money. Do you have any friends who know everything about boats?

Buying And Selling Estates

We recently met a couple who buy out estates, sell some of the things at flea markets, then run the rest through auctions. They've made a living doing this for years. They load up a trailer after negotiating to buy a whole house full of stuff. Then, if they don't want to do the flea market thing, they just auction everything on Sunday afternoon for a nice profit.

If you are a good judge of value and have a regular auction nearby, you could do the same with rummage sales. Just offer $100 for everything and then auction it off piece-by-piece. The auction near us lets anyone sell their stuff, with no fee to enter. They just take a 25% commission.
Playing With The Casino's Money

I worked at a casino for years and I saw a lot of people foolishly writing down the numbers that came up on the roulette wheel. Foolishly, I say, because their their theories were nonsense. Casinos will always welcome these players and even hand them the pen and paper.

One guy, however, was actually scientific about it. By finding a bias in the wheel, after "charting" it for 5,000 spins, he made thousands betting on just one or two numbers. When a number comes up, it pays 35 to 1, but one of the numbers, because of manufacturing imperfections or whatever reason, was coming up 1 in 27 spins, instead of the average 1 in 38 spins.

So all he had to do was bet $10 a spin, and he profited $80 for every 27 spins of the wheel in the long run. That's about $100 per hour. The ups and downs are dramatic though, so this is not for the faint-hearted. In this case, I saw him lose as much as $700 in a night. Also, not all wheels have biases (they eventually replaced that wheel). So have you ever tried "card counting" in blackjack...?

By the way, the rest of that story and the exact formula used to beat the roulette wheel is in my ebook, You Aren't Supposed To Know - A Book Of Secrets.

Money Making Hobbies

You never really know which ones could be the money making hobbies. A friend of mine made a life-sized cow out of plywood once. After painting it up and putting it out in the yard, he started to get people stopping by to see if he would sell it. He loved working with wood, and soon had a waiting list of customers for his plywood cows. At about a fifty-dollar profit each, he wasn't going to get rich, but isn't making money with your hobby more fun than a job?

More Money Making Hobbies

There are two basic ways to approach this. The first is the obvious: Look for a way to make money with your hobby or hobbies. What does your hobby produce or involve that other people might want? If the only hobby you have is watching and talking about auto racing, you could start a website about the topic. I'm just sitting here talking about unusual ways to make money, and every time someone clicks on one of the ads here, I might make money.

The second way to money-making with hobbies is to think of all the hobbies you might take up that can generate a second income for you. I found that I really enjoyed making walking sticks as a hobby, and I sold more than a thousand dollars worth on summer. Are there things you might enjoy doing that can make some money as well? Probably.

Time to get creative. Scan the list of activities or hobbies below, and see if you can think of a way they can be used to make money. If you like to travel, you might become a tour guide, for example.

Painting

Crafts of all sorts

Sewing

Caring for animals

Talking

Playing with computers

Traveling

Rock Climbing

Stamp Collecting
I'll report on other hobbies that can be profitable in my Unusual Ways Newsletter, so be sure to sign up if you haven't yet. Also, remember that almost all hobbies can be money making hobbies now, simply by writing all about them on a website, and collecting for the advertising clicks. I'll cover that in the future too.

Making Things To Make Money

Making things to make money doesn't have to mean difficult crafts. Sometimes it can be just simple assembly, not artistry or craftsmanship. Here are some examples:

Make Money Making Jewelry
I have friends who make and sell elaborate, expensive jewelry. We are not as artistic, or our tastes aren't as rich, but my wife and I used to regularly make and sell pendants at flea markets and craft shows. Our jewelry only involved tying a string to a pewter figurine or to a coin with a hole in it. There's probably more money to be made in the well-crafted, fancier jewelry, but there is a market for all types.

Selling Pewter Figurines

You can buy pewter wolves, dragons, turtles, lighthouses etc., from several companies online. Smaller pieces can be bought for about 20 cents each. My wife puts these on rocks, shells (the mermaids) and glass gems with E-6000 glue. We sell them for 2 to 10 dollars at craft shows and flea markets. The kids in particular love the dragons on glass gems or agates.

Walking Sticks

Find a friend who wants his property cleared of the weedy young poplar trees. Bring a saw and knife. I can make about forty walking sticks in a day with the easy woods, like poplar, for example. I buy old leather coats at thrift stores, cut them into strips and use this to put handgrips on the sticks (after they dry for a few weeks). The addition of wood burning, feathers, inset rocks, etc., makes some pricier, but I've had best luck with the $14-and-under sticks. I've sold them for up to $22 and wholesaled them for as little as $4 (very basic ones). We sell them at craft shows and flea markets and have wholesaled them to buyers who sell them at pow-wows and gun-and-knife shows.

PVC Bow And Arrows
Cut a piece of half-inch plastic pipe to about 3 feet long, put a slit in each end and put a piece of nylon twine on it. It is now a bow. I know a man who sells these for $6 at pow-wows and flea markets. He dresses them with colored tape and includes one arrow made from a dowel and pointed pencil eraser.

Sandstone Coasters

I don't bother to make things to sell any longer (other than my ebooks), but I do still like to create things from natural resources from time to time. Recently I found that I could collect sandstone pieces while out hiking, and grinding them down to flat coasters for setting drinks on. I glue cheap felt to the bottom. I'm not sure what they would sell for, but I imagine that if someone used the right tools (I just grind them manually on a cement block), and lived near a good supply of sandstone like I do, these could be made quickly and easily. They're attractive, and the stone soaks up perspiration from the glass, so it doesn't run over the edge and onto the table.

I'll include more ways to make money making things in the Unusual Ways newsletter, so sign up now if you haven't already.

Making Money Using What You Have

Sometimes you don't have to look very far to find new ways to make money. You can start making money using what you have. Consider carefully what you can do to profitably use the things you own, the situations you are in, and the skills you have. How can you make some money from these?

Some Money Making Possibilities

Renting Rooms

We've made tens of thousands of dollars over the years renting out bedrooms, even when we were living in a mobile home at the time. We charged a weekly rate that included all utilities, making it very convenient for students and single people. I've also known of people renting a spot in the yard to somebody to park their R.V. and live in it. I once converted a shed into a bedroom and rented that out too.

Rummage Sales

Find everything you don't need (maybe half of your possessions) and have a sale. We find it better to simply take it to a flea market. The fee for a spot is usually cheaper than an ad in the paper and you are guaranteed some customers if it's a good flea market. If you enjoy the process, you can start accumulating more stuff to do it all over again.

Closet Grocery Store

I used to make a little money running a "grocery store" out of two shelves in a living room closet. My room renters paid regular retail for cereal, soup, etc., which I would buy during half-price sales. Also, selling cold pop out of the refrigerator for 50 cents was a regular source of income for years.

Neighborhood Taxi Service

I used to pick up three or four fellow employees on the way to work at a charge of one dollar each way. Recently a neighbor paid us $30 to take her 12 miles because the cabbies here don't speak Spanish (I speak a little and my wife is from Ecuador). It may not be legal without a taxi license, but go ahead - I won't tell. There are regular newspaper ads in some areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania offering rides to the Amish residents, because most Amish will ride in cars but will not own or drive them.

Selling Your Knowledge
Do you know a lot about something? I regularly pay acquaintances who know cars to help me find a good deal. It saves me money and makes them money. Do you know how to fix computers, or shingle a roof? Let people know.

Dog Walking

Do you like to walk?... Take along some dogs at a few dollars each. This isn't all that unusual, but people in some towns still don't have this service available.

Using What You Have - This is a whole site full of ideas on using things you already have in new and creative ways -- and many of the suggestions or ideas are about making money.

How To Get Rich Online

I have read many articles about how to get rich online. I'm not quite there yet myself, although my wife and I are making far more money from the internet than any of my dozens of jobs ever provided. Here are some of my thoughts on making money online.

First of all, there is no one sure recipe for success. I know people who make good money buying and selling domain names, something I not only have no idea how to do, but also don't have the right mind set for. I know another businessman who sells a million dollars annually in products online. I think I could do that, but I have always hated the idea of having to ship things and - in his case - hire employees.

My wife and I have a simpler formula. We create websites full of great information, mostly about things that are of some interest to us (fortunately I have a lot of interests). We have websites about money, real estate, backpacking, brainpower, meditation, Spanish lessons and more.

To make money with these sites we simply have pay-per-click advertising and links to affiliate products that we make a commission on. No products to ship, no retail customers to deal with, and we make money while we are sleeping or on vacation. We like that. I have also been selling ebooks for a few years now, so I do have to check my email when I can to resolve any customer issues with downloads.

Of course to make big money with this design, you need big traffic. For us, the single best way to get that has been by promoting the sites with articles that we distribute through article directories. It worked better when we started doing it in 2005, but it is still an important part of our marketing. The process is detailed in my ebook You Can Make Money Writing.

How to get rich online? Although we are not yet rich, our own experience is that you get there by consistent work. We have managed to keep growing despite the current recession. How? Here's a simple plan:

1. Keep learning.

2. Keep trying new things.

3. Keep repeating the things that work.

Some Bad News?

I don't want to discourage anyone from trying to get rich online, but I do want to tell you what you can expect. First of all, although it's getting easier to get started online, it's also more difficult to make money. There is just a lot more competition. I'm glad we started when we did (late 2004). There are still great opportunities, but be prepared to plan long-term and be patient.

You'll see a lot of simple explanation of how to make big money online. For example, once you have a website, you'll open emails that say something like this: "Just link to my product on your site or introduce it to the people on your mailing list and you can make thousands of dollars per month." That will be followed by some simple math: You make a commission of $30 on a $50 product, for example, and "all you have to do make $55,000 annually is sell just five each day.

The truth is that there are plenty of good products that offer commissions like that (ebooks and other download-able products offer the highest-percentage commissions). And yes, if you sell just five each day you'll make $55,000 each year on that one product. Find a dozen more products like that and do the same and... well, getting rich online sounds simple, doesn't it?

Reality check: It will be rare to find products that convert more than 1% of the traffic you send to them into buyers, despite the hype. You also will be lucky to have more than two of every hundred visitors to your site click on any given link. So if you have 750,000 visitors to your site this month, 15,000 of them are likely to click that link and of those 150 are likely to buy the product - 5 per day on average.

Now, more realistically, if you have 15,000 visitors monthly after building your site presence up for months, perhaps 300 will click that link and 3 will buy, netting you $75 for the month or $900 for the year from that product.

I don't mean to discourage, but to prevent discouragement when you look and wonder why with thousands of visitors you're not making money. In most niches you'll need at least tens of thousands of visits monthly to make a decent living, and hundreds of thousands to get rich. That is possible. We have hundreds of thousands of people visit our sites every month. But it took a few years to build to that level.

How do you get rich online? Start right now and keep working at it. Difficult or not, it sure beats having a job.

Make Money With a Camera

 I love the following story. It shows us one of the many ways to make money with a camera. It was sent in by a subscriber to the newsletter, as an entry in my Most Interesting Money Maker Contest. Others are listed on the page Interesting Ways to Make Money.

Steve Everly
Alabama

I had just bought a new camera and was looking for ways to make money with it. I read a few online stories about how to have a career using your camera. One of the tips said to have business cards made that simply stated your name, how to contact you and the words "Photographer." So I set out with my new photographer business cards.

After a few days of getting used to the new camera, I saw an ad that said the "basketball team that trotted around the globe" was coming to the town that was close to me. I could remember as a kid watching them on TV that they pulled people out of the stands and performed lots of tricks and antics with them. I knew right away that this would be a great opportunity to take pictures and sell them to people as they posed with the team.

I went to the basketball game that night and set up under the goal. The team pulled people out of the stands and danced with them. They did all of their usual tricks to please the crowd. The crowd ranged from young kids to adults. Every time the team did an antic with someone from the crowd, I took all the pictures that I could. Just after that I would walk over and give the person or adult one of my photographer cards. I told them that I had a great picture of them dancing with one of the players or whatever. I also told them that I would be at the library in a couple of days with their proofs (because I did not have a studio to meet them).

People showed up at the library with money in hand. Who wouldn't want a once in a lifetime picture with the team and a purse full of confetti? I sold around $500 worth of pictures that day that I already had orders for. Some people ordered more pictures for another $250. I really couldn't believe how much money I made while watching a basketball game!

This is a perfect example of the entrepreneurial spirit, which Steve clearly has. He also sent me the story found here: Football Memorabilia.

Note: The contest has ended, but I'll announce new competitions in the newsletter (the form should be to the right.) You can also send stories of odd ways you've made money any time, and if I put one on the site I'll send you an e-book (I'll let you choose from a few titles).

Make Money Finding Things

Treasure Hunting Begins At Home
Yes, you can make money finding things - if you know where to look and what to look for. There are many things you can find that can be sold. Gold and precious stones come to mind, but it doesn't end there. Get up into that attic to see what treasures you find, and then check out some of the more unusual ways to go treasure hunting below.

Hunting Diamonds In Parking Lots

The temperature changes your jewelry experiences getting in and out of cars and buildings cause diamonds to come loose from their settings. This makes parking lots one of the most common places that diamonds are lost. One older couple I read about become so good at telling the difference (from a distance!) between the sparkle of a diamond and bits of glass that they regularly take early morning walks in mall parking lots for a second income.

Treasure Hunting in The Desert

An older Native American we met at a hot spring in Arizona showed us how to find arrowheads and metates (using for grinding corn or mesquite beans) laying out in the desert. They are hundreds of years old. He has sold at least one of his metates for $200 during a yard sale. For non-Native Americans this may be illegal, so check with authorities on this one.

Hunting For Natural Treasures

We have sold sea shells that we collected from beaches in Florida, and giant pine cones from California. We've also sold a lot of rocks that we collected all over the country. We sell them at flea markets and craft shows, as is, or made into something crafty.

Treasure Hunting In The Garbage
In our town the city collects all large junk for free during a week in April or May. You'll see perfectly good bicycles, furniture, games, toys, chairs, etc., in piles in front of almost every house. At least several people come by with trucks and trailers to pick out good things to sell at flea markets or auctions. It is a regular source of income each spring for some of them. I'm sure this happens in other cities.

Treasure In Vacuum Cleaner Dust

A man in California offered to take the shag carpet when a large old theater was being remodeled, saving the new owners the cost of disposal. The theater had been closed for years, but during the thirties it was a place where the wealthy went for entertainment. The wealthy, like all of us, lose things, but more valuable things perhaps.

When the old carpet was cut up and carefully shook out, it was found to contain over $2,000 worth of precious stones, rings, and coins. Wondering what may be caught by vacuum cleaners, the man then arranged to take the full cleaner bags from several cleaning companies each week. It saves them disposal costs, and he regularly finds coins and small jewelry when he digs through the dirt.

Hunting Treasure With A Metal Detector

For less than $200 you can buy a metal detector and begin looking for buried treasure. I've only found about 200 coins myself (mostly at the beach), and none of them have been valuable ones. A woman in our town, however, used her detector to find coins when the city tore up the old sidewalks. She sold one of them to a local coin shop for $700. A woman I worked with tells me that her husband and her have found many pieces of gold jewelry at the beach with their detector. It is also common now to use metal detectors to find gold nuggets in the southwest.

Panning For Gold
For less than $10 you can buy a gold pan, and become a prospector. I like the dark-green plastic ones best, as it is easier to see the gold. Most federal lands are open to prospecting without a permit. The only place I've seen gold in my pan is in Canada (there isn't much gold in Michigan), but people have better luck panning for gold in the mountain streams of the southeast and southwest, and it is always a nice way to spend an afternoon in any case.

Treasure Hunting In The Streets

Maybe you've seen homeless people collecting cans to sell as aluminum scrap - tough way to make a living. In Michigan (and other states), however, there is a 10 cent deposit on every beverage can. During festivals I have seen people with bags full of hundreds of cans and bottles they collected in the parks and garbage containers. Some of them travel here every year during the Cherry Festival, just to collect returnable bottles and cans that week.

I also once spoke to a man who went to the big concerts in the area to collect all the beer and pop cans in the parking areas. He told me he can make over $100 in a few hours (plus the time to take them to the store). Collecting "returnables" can be a dirty, even embarrassing way to make money, but an old guy in town here tells me he pays the rent doing this.

Treasures In The River

Criminals and kids throw things off of bridges routinely (a quick way to get rid of evidence). Several times as a child I saw bicycles in rivers. One man I read about makes a living using magnets and other tools to retrieve guns, money, and other things of value from the bottom of murky rivers (near bridges).

Would you like more information on how to make money finding things? Perhaps you would you like to participate in an actual treasure hunt with real prizes (and for free)?

Top 5 Ways To Make Money Online

Do you want to make money online? Are you worried about all the scams? Sick and tired of all the hype-filled “make money online” programs that are out there?

Are you ready to bypass all that and find out what really works and what doesn’t?

It’s not always easy to spot the good from the bad, but we’re here to give a helping hand. Let’s quickly analyze the top 5 most popular ways to make money online. Who knows maybe next week you’ll have some extra cash in pocket.


Make Money Taking Paid Online Surveys

Are you looking for a legitimate way to make money online? Maybe you want some extra spending money. Or perhaps you need the money to pay bills. Either way, getting paid for filling out simple surveys can be a fun and lucrative way to earn that extra cash. In fact, there’s quite a lot of money to be had — and the cool thing is that you can earn it in your spare time. Any time you can spare a few minutes — or a few hours, you can make money.


Make Money Selling Stuff On e-Bay

Do you have anything that’s sitting (or hiding) in your room that you could possibly sell on the most popular auction site? eBay made lots of mom and pop a small fortune. You can turn your trash into cash. Who wouldn’t like to clean their house and make some money at the same time, right? You never know when it might be your luck day.


Make Money On Facebook

If you always wanted to earn online income but didn’t know where to start, why not jump on the most popular social network site and take advantage of their ad serving platform? Some stories report how some college guys were making a killing online with Facebook. Shouldn’t you check what this is all about? Maybe it’s the option you’ve been looking for.



Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

This blog you’re reading now is generating money day in day out through affiliate programs. We carefully review, select and present you with the top affiliate marketing products, work from home opportunities and lucrative make money online deals. You can do the same since there are hundreds of reliable affiliate networks and individual affiliate programs paying their affiliates in almost any niche you can imagine.


Make Money with Your Own Website

I have yet to see someone who is making (Full-Time) money online who doesn’t have their own website in some form. Nowadays it is really easy for anyone to get a website up and running since there are so many site building tools out there, even a 7-year old could play with. I am positive anybody can setup a simple site and start raking in the cash. It really is just a matter of getting started and making it happen.



Whether you decide to go with online surveys, eBay, Facebook, affiliate programs, or creating your website, one thing is for sure – making money online is not as hard as it once was; although today’s marketplace is more competitive than it was  back in the day, there is still plenty of opportunity for anyone who wants it to stake their claim in the online world.

The decision is all yours – Make it happen…. Or Don’t.

How To Make Easy Money Online?

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE?

To Make money at home while you work from home is the hot topic being discussed every where on the internet. In this post i will look into different ways from which you can make money while you stay at home with your family. In this era of recession it seems very comfortable to earn an income from your home. But you should know about the ways from which you can make money at home, otherwise there are a lot of scams out there which can rob you of your precious money and it return provide you with fake information.

There are a numbers of ways available now a days from which you can make money at home. we will have a look at each step by step.

Internet Marketing

The first of all on which i would like to write a little is internet marketing. Internet marketing deals with the marketing of digital as well as physical goods. You have to sell them on internet. The biggest success which one can state here is amazon. Amazon has been a pioneer in internet marketing and the most successful online business model. For a startup you can use affiliate products to market. One can make money at home by simply selling affiliate products available at different sites such as clickbank, shareasale etc. If you are interested in marketing physical products as an affiliate you can look at commission junction for such products.

Online Jobs

Another way of making money from home is to do online jobs. There are a number of jobs available at different broker sites ranging from simple data entry to advanced web programming. If you have any skills related to computer, i am very confident that you will find an online job to do. And in return you will make money from your home. In this blog i have covered a lot of such websites with a post named as online work.

Surveys

Surveys have been surfing around as a scam on internet for making money from home a lot. But if you find with caution, you can find a lot of legitimate sites where you can put honest reviews and surveys and in return earn money from them. Different companies cater a lot for human reviews, as this helps them a lot in shaping there products. One of the well known sites which look for human reviews is Google. You can go to google and signup for there human review system and make a good amount of money in return.

Adsense

A well known way to make money from home is Google Adsense Program. If done correctly you can earn upto $10,000 from the comfort of your home. But be sure that you do not cheat upon Google during the process, as Google is very good at catching the culprits and then it bans the user from the program for all of there life. For earning from Adsense you have to get a site approved from Google, once approved you can place small chunk of code on your site which displays ads to your visitors depending upon the mode of your content. Do not go for the highly payed keywords if you can not produce genuine content related to that topic, as you will run out of good content soon and no visitors will be landing on your pages, in return your earnings will suffer a lot.I hope that all of the above information related to making money from home will be help full to you.

Please feel free to post comments if you need any kind of help to make money at home, it will be a great pleasure for me if i can be of any help to you.