Ideate

Ways to Make Money Without Having a Job

by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg on 19/01/10 at 11:21 am
3 comments

There’s this very interesting article on Business Pundit on ways to make money without actually having a job. They are quite funny but a bit drastic in some ways for me. So, I thought of a few extra ones that might keep you from losing a limp or two.

Here are the seven ways to make money without actually having a job and a few of my own ideas on how to fill your pockets a bit.

1. House Sitting

You sit in someone else’s house while their away on holiday or something. For money. Sure, you have to water their plants every so often and feed the fish, but the rest of the time, you can relax. Just don’t break or steal anything.

2. Medical studies

Can’t sleep? Depressed or anxious? Chances are someone wants to use you as a guinea pig for their latest product. Craigslist is full of opportunities in this field. This is quite drastic and you never know what side effect you might get.

3. Consumer surveys

Filling out customer surveys for marketing research companies could add a few pennies in your cookie jar. But know this, to make it into a profitable job for you, you need to really put in all the time you have.

4. Homestays

Students around the world go to America to study and learn English. Many of these students choose to live with American families to get to know the culture better. Those host families, meanwhile, get paid a stipend to accommodate that student. This could work in SA, don’t you think?

5. Egg/sperm donation

Sperm donation doesn’t get you as much as donating eggs does. Then again, giving sperm doesn’t require hormones, weight gain, and surgical harvesting sessions. Call it hazard pay.

6. Focus groups

Research departments will pay you hundreds of dollars to sit around for a few hours and discuss topics of their choosing. The pay per hour can be good, if you’re selected.

7. Surrogacy

If you’ve successfully carried a child to term once before, why not do it again–for pay? Lots of couples want you to carry their precious bundle, often for close to $10,000.

Now, some of these ideas are quite extreme and some aren’t even safe, but they are creative and set a different tone when it comes to looking to make money. Here are a few of my own suggestions:

• Plant a garden and sell your produce to neighbors.

Go get clued up on exotic plant of some sort and grown them. Surely you’ll be able to get a nice price for a beautiful Orchid?

• Pet sit for neighbors on vacation or walk dogs

Almost the same as House sitting except it’s more active. With walking dogs you might build up a large enough clientele to start a business!

• Babysit

If you’re not crazy about kids this isn’t that fun but if the kids like you, you’re sorted!

• Get paid to tutor math, science or English

Are you good in math, English or any other subject? Why not tutor? You can even tutor a language to children or adults as a third language.

Hope these ideas helped you to either find a solution to your problem or help to get your train of thought going on what you can do to make money without getting a job. If you think of anything that can be added to this list or that you’ve tried and tested successfully please add them in the comment box below.

Yolandi Janse van Rensburg writes about social media, marketing, life and, of course, cars. We say “of course” because Yolandi is nuts about anything on 4 wheels and runs Autofemme, a blog about cars. Our Ideate sub-editor is also the Heavy Chef girl at World Wide Creative. You can follow her on Twitter @Yolandi_JvR View more articles by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg.

Tags: creative ideas

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