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Easy Ways to Make Cash at Home

by Ryan Ledendecker

Overview

Making extra cash at home has become a realistic possibility in the last decade or so, thanks to the advent of the modern day Internet. Whether you're a stay-at-home mom or dad who needs to add a little extra to their bank account each month, or even if you're a single twenty-something who needs to raise money for college or other expenses, there are several methods that you can implement to accomplish this goal.

There are several ways to make extra cash while you're at home.
Sell Your Stuff

Nothing puts cash in your pocket faster than selling items of value that you have in your possession. Whether you have jewelry, electronics, or various other valuable items to sell, thanks to websites like eBay and Craigslist, you no longer are at the mercy of your local pawn shop. Craigslist is a free online classifieds website that will allow you to list all of the items you wish to sell, in their appropriate categories, for free. Luckily, Craigslist is one of the most popular and visited websites in the world, so as long as you live somewhat close to a major city, chances are good that you'll have a healthy market of people that will be interested in buying your stuff. Another extremely popular website to sell your items is eBay. This auction style website has been around for more than a decade, and has tens of millions of buyers and sellers worldwide. One of the main differences is that eBay charges fees to sell items, but the trade-off (putting your item in front of millions of buyers) can be worth it.

Most households contain several sellable items, such as this retro tea set.

Babysitting

Babysitting services will be necessary until the end of time, and if you have a clean and safe home environment, as well as experience in supervising small children, then babysitting for extra cash may be a viable option to make extra money at home. Many modern couples lead busy lives and are always struggling to find babysitting services, especially on weekend nights when they want to unwind and have a night on the town. Gather some references, get a stack of plain paper and create signs that advertise your services. You can have flyers made for relatively cheap, and you can post them all around town. Taking and ad out in the newspaper and advertising yourself on websites like Craigslist can also help attract new customers. To gain the confidence of prospective clients, invest in yourself and get certified by the Red Cross for babysitting, CPR and any other childcare and safety courses that you can get involved in. If you're a little rusty in the art of caring for a child, the Internet contains a plethora of babysitting guides and DVDs to help you brush up on your technique.

Babysitting can be a lucrative home business. Use social networking sites to announce your new babysitting business.
Freelancing

If you possess a skill such as graphic design, administrative assistance, web development, programming, or anything similar, then checking into freelancing sites such as oDesk, Elance, and Guru might be worth your while. At any given time, on these types of sites, there are literally thousands of jobs that you can "bid" on and try to win over. Rates of pay vary from client to client, but as long as you're willing to spend the time bidding on available jobs in your area of expertise, freelancing can provide an excellent supplemental or even full-time income stream. More than likely you'll have plenty of competition, but as you establish your reputation on your freelancing website of choice, you'll find that winning jobs becomes easier.

A typical freelancer's home office. Multiple computers aren't necesary, but it does increase productivity.
Sell Crafts Online

Perhaps you're skilled at making some sort of craft product like jewelry, soap, candles, or special items that make great gifts? If this is the case, there are opportunities to sell your crafts online, and pocket some extra cash. Websites such as Etsy.com are massive marketplaces where artisans come to sell their creations. Anyone with an Internet connection can set up their own virtual Etsy store, upload pictures, information and pricing of their items, and sell them. Thanks to the popularity of the site, it attracts thousands of potential customers each month, and if your creation appeals to a visitor, they order it (which is handled through Etsy) and then you ship it out. There are many success stories on the Etsy blog, and within those stories, many of the spotlighted sellers have been able to quit full-time jobs to concentrate on selling their product.

Homemade organic soaps are just one of the popular items that crafters sell online.