Individuals – Register your premium rate telephone number with insurance companies, banks, credit card companies and all those other annoying people who call you up on the telephone and try to sell you something. You keep them on the phone as long as possible!*

For charities and communities, organize a free-ad web site or a news letter where the vendor’s telephone number is replaced by a premium rate telephone number which is linked to the vendor’s phone. This not only help to protect the identity of the vendor (who still deals with the incoming call and any transaction), but also raises valuable income for your organization.

Individually or collectively you could offer helpline facilities, host a recorded message service (for the weather, today’s horoscope, recent lottery winning numbers etc.) or simply form a community amongst yourselves where the proceeds generated from talking on the phone to each other are donated to a charity chosen between the participants of the group.

*Under current legislation, the maximum amount you can charge per minute is $5.50 with a ceiling of $38.50 per call. You will not get to keep all the $5.50 per minute for yourself, as income is shared with the service provider.

Details of premium rate services can be found by contacting companies such as www.mediatel.com, www.doatec.com or www.promotel.net or from your local service provider.

This is a guest article contributed by Melissa Tamura, who writes about online accounting degrees on the Zen College Life blog. She would love to hear from you at melissatamura@gmail.com

Article directories are websites that house free articles. These articles are usually put there by whoever owns the copyright to them as a promotion method. Each article has the owners byline placed under it so that those who eventually read the article will know who wrote it (or at least who owns it) and will be able to get in contact with or visit their website for further information.

How to make money from posting articles on article directory sites?

 Articles directories are a great place to put your articles so that they will make you money. By using this method, people who are interested in your product or service will see your article, view you as an expert in the subject, and will visit your website. Even if you cannot write or do not have any knowledge on the subject on which you are promoting (for example for you run an affiliate website), you can always hire a writer to do the work for you. Getting quality articles written will be expensive up front, but they will pay for themselves in no time, either through affiliate sales or selling your own services, and everything from then on is pure profit. Let’s take a real life example. Imagine that you are an accountant working from home. You write an article on an accounting topic and place it on various article directories. Those who are looking for the subject you wrote about will read your article, see that you have the knowledge and skill that is needed to do a job for them, and visit your website or contact you via e-mail. Your article just gained you a new client who may use your services regularly, but will definitely give you a nice profit at least once. Furthermore, since you have posted it on a free article directory, others who have affiliate websites about accounting will inevitably use your article for their website. Since they must attach your byline to it, this will bring you even more exposure for every website that re-posts your article. This because you will be benefiting of off the traffic that they get to their website. There are numerous article directories out there for you to utilize. Your best bet is to put a copy of each of your articles on every one for maximum exposure. It will eventually help to bring more traffic and customers to your website, which will lead to new orders and more profit.

Another way to make money from posting articles to article directory sites is to put affiliate links into the article. For example you might be a clickbank affilaite and write an article relating to a particular product on there. When people click on the link, they will be taken to a sales page and if they buy the product, you make money. It’s just that simple. Anyone can sign up to be an affiliate at Clickbank for free. There are also hundreds of other affilate programs to choose from such as Ebay, Amazon, Commision Junction, as so on. Making money by posting articles to article directories does not mean that you need a website.

I have always participated in a hobby in my spare time, and have always ended up turning my spare time into cash.  I always find myself earning money from not only my regular jobs, but also anything else I seem to be doing at the time. For example when I was young my husband and I didn’t have much money, we scrounged the local tip for furniture and household goods.  Sometimes we would pick up a couch, or maybe even a timber coffee table.  We would often hit the “ jackpot “, as we called it, when we actually found something that worked or was useful to us.

This sparked, not only an addiction to the hunt for treasures, but it also ended up being a great little money spinner. We ended up with an overload of stuff and started having garage sales to earn extra money.  People would look at us strangely when I told them what we were doing and my answer to that was “If you saw a five dollar note on the ground would you pick it up?” They always answered yes to this.  Then I would ask them, “well why wouldn’t you pick up an item that will be worth $5 in the long run?”

This is just one example of how to make money from a hobby.  I really don’t think they let you remove stuff from the tip now days, but there is still the curbside pickup and I am sure there are other ways to collect free stuff.  When someone says they are throwing something out, grab it.  Appreciate things that can be turned into even one dollar.  One day I picked up a steering wheel bar lock but it had no key. My husband told me to forget it because it was useless without the key. Well I took it home anyway and put it in the next garage sale.  A guy came along and looked at the steering wheel lock and asked where the key was.  When I told him there wasn’t one he offered my $2 for it. Ah two dollars for free.  He thought he was getting a bargain and I just wanted to rub it in to my husband.

We also used to make small timber boxes from scrap wood. That was fun. We would make boxes with hidden drawers and locks. They just got better each time we made them.  However one day when we were selling our boxes at a local market, a customer asked if we made bedside tables.  I turned to my husband and asked him if we made bedside tables and he said yes… Well that was the start of something big.  We started making bedside tables, which led to TV cabinets, kitchen hutches, coffee tables, CD towers, and more… We had a Sales rep on the road and 4 people working to try and get the orders out each week.  What once was fun turned into a factory of mass production. We were supplying shops and retailing as well. We did this for about 10 years, until we finally got into other businesses that we wanted to try.

One main hobby that I have had all my life is computers. Building, repairing, ripping apart, and more…This hobby turned into a huge website http://www.tips4pc.com which can almost earn enough money for us to live off.

We did not always just snap our fingers together and make money from all of our hobbies. We tried others and failed. But the thing is we realized that they were not going to work and moved on… Get over it quickly so you can concentrate on the next venture.

Maybe you have an old fashioned hobby that you can bring to life again by making it trendy or in vogue again. For example knitting was outdated but now is very fashionable because people adapted to the market and supplied something that people can use rather than look at.  They make cool scarves out of weird furry wool, mobile phone pouches, and way out beanies or hats.  No more kettle warmers or toaster covers please!!!

Quick tips to turning a hobby into a money making idea:

• If you are making craft, make sure it has a use. People have cut down on buying things that just look good. It needs to be useful.
• When turning a hobby into a money making adventure don’t expect to be paid for every hour that it takes to create your masterpiece.
• Be realistic when pricing your item. Being handmade and quality crafted does not give you the big bucks unless your name is Picasso.
• Find a niche and go with it.  Do not copy people’s ideas because you think they are making money.  They usually are not making much at all.  It’s the unique items that sell the best.
• Try and source the material you need to make your items from a wholesaler or even free.  I know people that used to make wallets and tobacco pouches from scrap leather and suede from out of factory bins. They made a great profit because they didn’t have to pay for materials.  Also you can make lead light glass charms from scrap colored glass.. There is so much you can do.
• If you do not know how to do something ask for advice when buying your materials.  One day we decided to put a lead light window into a bedside table and didn’t know the first thing about it.  So I went to the lead lighting supplies shop, and while buying what I needed, I drained the guys brains on how to do it… I was there for ages. He wanted a sale and I wanted to buy the stuff but get lessons along the way…  Free lessons 101.  Then I went home and made a lead light piece to go into the bedside table.

You can also watch this video to see how one person turned their hobby into a money making project.

Let me know what hobbies you have and if you think you can make money from them.

If you try some of these tips you will be sure to make a sale and maybe even make more money than you expected:

• First appearances count: Concentrate on the front of the house and how it looks.  People will simply drive by if they see something they do not like.  Of course you cannot help it if you have the front door in the wrong place, but there is alot you can do.
• Paint: Tidy the place up with a fresh coat of paint. This is one of the cheapest improvements you can do and it can make you the most money.
• Correct lighting: Make sure the interior is light and spacious – airy.  Turn lights on if you have a dark room.
• Clean and tidy: This is an obvious one but people still do not do it.. Especially if you have tenants in a house that is for sale.
• Nice smelling: If you have a bread maker, have it going, when there is an inspection on…Hmmm Yum..Who can resist fresh bread. .Maybe you could brew a coffee, cook a cake, or whatever suits you.  Think about what makes your house smell nice.  Maybe you have some flowers in the garden – transfer these into the house, especially the bathroom, there is nothing nicer than a nice smelling bathroom!
• DE-clutter: Get rid of excess furniture and junk. Declutter your house to make it look bigger.  This is a big one.. Do not stuff everything in the cupboards either.  Store the excess items somewhere else (like your mum’s house!!)
• Animals: Do not have any signs of animals living in your house.  This will put off 50% of you buyers straight away.  I personally couldn’t stand living in a house where dogs and cats have been. Especially if the house had carpet!!!!! I would be dreaming about fleas and cat hair everywhere (not to mention the underneath of the carpet where the pets may have urinated)
• Garden and fences: If you have a back yard, do not think that is doesn’t count. The backyard is just as important as the front.  Especially if the buyer has children or animals.  Secure fencing is a big plus for most people so make sure you fix any wholes or gaps.  Fences can be repaired easily with a bit of hard work.  Also make sure the lawns are mowed and tidy.  I found that everyone loves a garden – it can be small, in a large pot.  We all love the idea of growing our own herbs, vegies, etc it gives a peaceful, healthy feeling.
• Get an honest opinion: Get someone else to come into your house and give you an honest opinion.  Not the real-estate salesperson- get a close relative to give you the brutal truth from an outsider’s point of view.
• Give more information: Give the real-estate agent a brochure from the local council to give to any potential buyers. They usually show what facilities are available in the area… This can make a sale.  If they see there is a bus that picks you up on the corner, a school in the next block, a shopping center, or other attractions available this can be very helpful.  If you have a house in the middle of nowhere this can be valuable information.  If there are no books or brochures available, make your own list up (the local library is a great place to get these from as they usually have all the local papers, etc).

I would love to hear any tips you have on how to sell a house to make more money…I know there are loads out there..