Midnight Money Maker » Ways to earn extra money online

What’s in your closet?

debserv — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 19:34:47 +0000

If you live in the Northeast as I do, you know what a long, cold, precipitous winter we’ve had. Today, it’s sunny and cold, and the spring flowers are starting to pop up through the ground. Which means that spring is just around the corner- yippee!

So now that Mother Nature has given us a hint that warmer weather is coming soon, it’s time to go through that closet you’ve been ignoring all winter and clean it out. Find the clothes and items that you didn’t wear or use last season. Dust them off and sell them! C’mon, be honest and ruthless in your assessments and just let them go. You know that you are not going to wear them, so give somebody else a chance. It will free up your storage space and help increase your positive cash flow too.

As a proponent of online selling platforms, I encourage you to set up a free account with e-bay. They have listing sales going on all of the time to encourage sellers to put up listings at no cost. The only time you will pay fees is when your item sells. Just take a picture or two of your items, enter your description and selling details and your sale begins! Make sure your shipping is fair and accurate, it will encourage more bids. And don’t be greedy, your items are bringing in nothing while hiding out in your closet, so take what you can get! IPHONE alert- check out the free app for selling on ebay. Simply snap a pic with your smart-phone and you are well on your way to your first listing!

What’s that- you don’t want to sell online? That’s ok!

Just look in your local papers for consignment shops. They are popping up all over around my area and it’s a great way to unload extra clothing or household items for a profit. Simply bring in your items in pristine condition, (ahem, would you buy dirty clothes? Yuk!). The shop will give you a receipt and then will put your items on their racks. Each shop is a little different, but most have a “going rate” for like-items such as jeans, shorts, blouses, shoes, etc. They will tell you how and when to check in with them to see how much you made. And you can tell them to donate what doesn’t sell, or you can pick it up again.

Speaking of donations, if all of this is too much work, then consider packing up your unwanted items in green bags and take them to your local charitable storefronts such as St Vincent De Paul, Salvation Army or Goodwill. You get a tax deduction and they get to make some money by reselling your items. Still too much work? Then call your local chapter of Big Brothers, Big Sisters or Veteran’s Association- they will come to your house!

May your spring cleaning projects bring you extra room in your closet and extra dollars in your wallet!

10 Cyber Monday Selling Tips

debserv — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:05:42 +0000

1- Make your sale a value-added proposition by throwing in something extra for “free”. Gift wrap, gift cards, a gift box, you name it! The perception of getting something for free can loosen the purse strings!
2- Speaking of free, follow the leaders and offer free or discounted shipping options just for today. If it lifts sales, consider free shipping every day.
3- Since a picture is worth a thousand words, include as many pictures as you can in your listings. This will give shoppers the best views of the item and minimize questions about your listing.
4- Take advantage of the deals that online websites are offering, including eBay’s 100 free insertion fees. You only pay if your item sells.
5- Consider offering what matters most to consumers who shop late in the season… expedited shipping options.
6- Vary the shipping option choices so that the buyer can select the method that is best for them. Appeal to everyone who might want it fast, vs those who want it shipped cheaply.
7- Know your audience. If the item you are selling would appeal more to women, use buzz-words that fit your target market. Selling a pre-owned DS Lite would appeal to a lot more mothers if you talk about how it will give them quiet time in the household to fix dinner or put the groceries away since their child will be engrossed in the game and sitting quietly instead of being underfoot.
8- Why not make it a progressive sale, “the more you buy the more you save!” Simply purchase 2 items to save 5%, or save 10% if you purchase 3 items on the same day. The trick here is to stipulate that the items have to be purchased and paid for on the same day.
9- Offer combined shipping discounts. By shipping several items in one box both you and the consumer can save money. Plus, you will save time by having fewer shipments to pack and label.
10- If you haven’t taken advantage of the USPS package pickup option yet, check it out! Simply go online to book a pick-up and your postal worker will come to the house to get your shipment. This will keep you at home and online instead of waiting in line at the post office. And the best thing is: this is a free service!

5 ways to turn clutter into cash

debserv — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:08:19 +0000

Need extra cash around the holidays? Take a look around your house as if you are attending a tag sale! Viewing your possessions as if they belong to somebody else will give you the objectivity you need to determine what is most likely to sell. (And you will be minimizing the clutter that accumulates so easily the longer you have lived in your current home.)

Here are five starting points for you:

1- Open your kitchen cabinets to survey exactly how many of your “good” dishes, glasses, pots and pans you actually use on a regular basis. Most of us gravitate toward using the same things over and over because they are up front after emptying the dishwasher. So clean out those cabinets! There is a terrific online market for utensils, plates and other kitchen items. And if you have antique glasses or serve ware from Aunt Sally or Grandma Mary, you could be sitting on a nice chunk of change! (Note to the gentleman of the house: make sure to get your woman’s buy-in on this one, or you may be getting coal in the stocking this year!)

2- Anyone with kids old enough to hold a spoon has electronic games lying around the house. Take a good look at what your kids are ignoring and sell it online or go to the local Game Stop-type store to sell them. We buy pre-owned DS games all of the time because our little guys are in elementary school and still rough on toys and games. There is a huge market in selling pre-owned games to parents like us who want our kids to have the experience without losing an arm or a leg to purchase games.

3- Speaking of huge pre-owned markets, you can also sell your old Gameboys, DS, PS, Wii, Leapfrog, etc. The manufacturers are shrewd with making improvements and upgrades every year so that our kids are now programmed to want the latest and greatest version. Instead of having an electronics graveyard in your home, sell the old to help pay for the new!

4- Did you ever attend an auction at sea? You know, the one where they fill your glass with “free” champagne so many times that you wave your sign around and suddenly you own artwork from a “new, exciting” artist? Well, it’s time to sell that art! We saw a beautiful Thomas Kinkade cottage scene on a cruise but did not want to cough up over $500 to purchase it. So instead of buying the print at the auction we did an online search when we got home. We bought it on ebay for a quarter of what it was auctioned off for at sea. It came with the same authentication papers that are provided at the cruise auctions. So take a look at your pictures. Maybe there’s something worth selling.

5- Do you own any pets? We have several, including a golden retriever, a cockerpoo and a tabby cat. Our family goes a little overboard at Christmas and sends us gifts for our pets. We are so lucky to receive such generous gifts, but our dogs literally chew through plastic chew toys and de-stuff soft toys in a matter of minutes. So rather than insult our family who so thoughtfully shopped for, wrapped and gave our pets such nice gifts, we sell the brand new, unused toys online. We’ve received several grooming kits, electronic nail files, and laser mouse toys over the years and have sold all of them successfully on ebay. Never underestimate the pet market! (Note to pet lovers: we give our pets other toys and bones that last; they are not sitting around with nothing to chew- lol!)

So there you have it: five potentially lucrative spots in your home to find extra cash for the holidays. May today’s clutter bring you tomorrow’s ka-ching!

Amazon Mechanical Turk

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 01:51:06 +0000

Alright, my brother Eric told me about a new site that he is using to make a few extra dollars a month. Now let me preface this post by saying you are not going to get rich on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk site, however, you can make some extra cash. My plan is to make about $50 a month and then use that to make extra payments on my home mortgage.

So what is this funny sounding Mechanical Turk website? The actual site is http://www.mturk.com and it is run by Amazon. Mechanical turk allows you to sign up as a worker and perform HITS – “Human Intelligence Tasks.” These tasks range from answering surveys to classifying job descriptions to writing short product reviews. I would recommend signing up for a free email account at yahoo or google to avoid being spammed. Many of the surveys want you email address and I always prefer to use one other than my primary email address.

So you basically sign up for a Mechanical Turk account and then look for “HITS” to perform. You must first Accept a HIT then you can complete it. The HIT owner will then review your work and either accept or reject it. If it is accepted your will receive payment in your Amazon payments account. (You can setup an Amazon payments account as part of the sign up process to Mechanical Turk and then link it to your personal checking account to transfer monies.)

I like to hook up my ipod and just zone and perform some HITS at night for relaxation. So try out Amazon’s http://www.mturk.com and let me know what you think!