Day 2: Vagrant-esque

As summertime draws to a close, its most notable feature, heat, often follows – at least in the northern United States. However, if you live in a year-round warm region, I have bear news (northerners, come back next summer). While it may appear overly simple, lowly, or desperate, the sale of water is a particularly easy way to earn some additional income for our day 2 strategy.

We've all seen them as we stop at an intersection – seemingly homeless people beckoning for passersby to purchase a cold drink on a hot day. But the business is not just for vagrants. Here's how it works (you might have heard of the water experiment, which is closely related to this method):

Buy bulk bottles of water, generic brand if possible. For a 24-pack it $3- $4 dollars is reasonable. Assuming a conservative estimate of a $5 cost, selling the water bottles individually for a fair $1 will yield a quick $19 profit.

Not so fast – we need to get hounded with expenses, first. Most most of us have a cooler lying about somewhere, so let's utilize it. Unfortunately, that means we need some ice to go with it. Either we can salvage some from our freezer (as many refrigerators offer easy access to their ice chunks), or we can pay $.99 for a bag of ice. Let's shave off another buck or so, and we're left with $17 - $18 per 24-pack.

But how long will it take to sell? In my experience, on days >90 F, 24 sales should take roughly ten minutes on a rather large street. >80 F, and it may take an hour. It all depends on numerous factors like the humidity, the day (weekends vs weekdays), and the time of day. If possible, vie for a busy traffic time like rush hour to trap as many customers as possible.

There's one more factor: advertising. This can be a sign on the shirt or a sharpie to the shirt, but either way, make it crude or lose some money.

Logistics: On hot days, carry three bottles in one hand to optimize carrying capacity. Alternatively, fashion some sort of fanny-pack or perhaps mobilize your cooler. This will help insure no potential buyer leave empty handed.

Now then, the profits aren't great, but if it's a scorcher, you can make quite a bit with the proper materials. Here's to earnings!

Day 1: Make Money at Home from Local Classifieds

With the advent of the internet, the availability of knowledge is virtually infinite. Fortunately for us, so is the availability of earnings. For today's earning strategy, we will examine the art of the online business – something that requires NO initial investment.

Now you must be wondering: how can I create an online business without access to funds; that is, how might I acquire the widgets to sell? If you live in a large metropolitan area, this is easy. Surely you've heard of Craigslist, a neighborhood classifieds website. Users often post to the local Craigslist's “Free” section, and often you find a LOT of crap. Sort through the myriad baby toys, broken TVs, and old couches, though, and you might find book lots, computer components, or antique goods. But even better for the freebie-seeker is his local Freecycle, a community of recycling-oriented individuals. I find that Freecyclers generally do not want to get someone to pick up something because it is inconvenient for them to throw away. Rather, Freecyclers often wish to help others and prevent items from a journey to the landfill. Other sites like Oodle and Kijiji (local eBay classifieds) also offer “Free sections,” but be careful – many of their offerings are animals or odd items. Regardless, perusing a few of these sites regularly should yield viable goods for reselling.

This brings us to our first issue: what to sell? A seller often finds his or her niche based upon the easily shippable, in demand, and valuable items he finds most regularly. For instance, college textbooks (and books in general) are very easily shipped, expensive, and moderately easy to find on my local classifieds for free. I had my very first $500/week with a few textbooks. I made a few hundred, invested $100 for the purchase of three books (via Craigslist), sold them for $300, and collected my first paycheck. You see, in a market like textbooks, there will always be students too lazy to sell (via Amazon) because of the reputed difficulty of shipping. Consequently, resellers like us can reap the rewards.

Where should one sell? I suggest large online marketplaces (depending on the good in particular). For books, it is often easiest to list with Amazon, although their commission rate is 15%. Creating a seller account is simple, and listing items is even easier. Sites like eBay generally require more work per listing, but typically have lower rates and can serve as a medium for more obscure items.

There still remains the problem of shipping. I prefer the book industry for this reason. USPS Media Mail is a cheap (often $2 - $4), flat rate (depending on weight) method of shipping printed, non-advertised material like books. It allows any package – whether your old snack's box or the well-known Amazon's “smile-mailer” - which allows you, the seller, to stock up on cheap shipping supplies. Often Freecycle or Craigslist is the best place again. Boxes and shipping material is very readily available, as many users wish to purge their homes of the remnants of a recent move. Thus shipping is simple: make the sale, print the postage label (at the post office or at home using Paypal, if you have it), seal the box, bring the package to the post office, get a receipt for tracking, and voila. Done. If this sounds complicated, I assure you it gets easier with practice. I spent 30 minutes preparing my first shipment, but now it usually takes around five minutes.

Thus the lesson of the day is to look around! Free items are out there, waiting to be resold. And if the idea of opening an online store sounds too intimidating for you, just try it. I think you'll find it to be a comfortable way to make an extra few hundred dollars each month (or week if you're dedicated).

If you're still not convinced, though, don't worry, as the next post will offer an entirely unrelated method of earning the money you want.