A while back I wrote an article entitled 26 Ways to Make Extra Money While Keeping Your Day Job. It quickly zoomed to the top of the search engines and I’ve gotten a TON of positive feedback from that post. It seems that people around the world are clamoring for ways to make more money to better their lives and the lives of their families. But there are far more ways to make additional cash than the 26 I listed. In reality, the freedoms we enjoy make the options for making extra money limited only by your willingness and creativity.

When I wrote the original 26 Ways to Make Extra Money, most of the options I listed involved generally involved YOU doing the work alone and in a single task, and though there are still a few of those options listed here, I wanted my new list of money making ideas to focus more on ways to multiply your efforts. Let’s face it: you’re extremely limited when you have to do all the work yourself – there’s only one you! If you can find a way to make extra money that doesn’t involve your own efforts, or multiply your actions by involving more than one task at a time, or work once but get paid again and again, you’ll be freed up to make even more money.

Here are some additional ways to make extra cash that I didn’t list in the original 26 Ways to Make Extra Money:

1. Don’t change a thing

That’s pretty easy, huh? But it isn’t entirely true – you’ll need to make a few minor changes such as:

• Changing your primary checking account to PerkStreet, spending like normal, and getting cash back on your non-pin debit card purchases. Open an account by clicking here and getting the details. You don’t even have to close your account at your old bank!
• Transferring your high interest credit card balance to a Discover More card and using the interest savings to pay down your debt. The last time I checked, they were offering an 18 month ZERO percent balance transfer.
• Quit thinking you can outsmart the investment markets and start using a fee based financial advisor to help you avoid buying high and selling low. You can easily find a financial advisor matched perfectly to your needs and preferences by going to WiserAdvisor (in business over a decade).

By making a few very minor (and easy) lifestyle changes, you’ll free up extra cash on a continual, repetitive basis (read How to Switch Banks in Six Easy Steps).

2. Blogging

Yes, blogging can make some serious cash IF you’re serious about it. It really doesn’t matter what you blog about, if there’s an opportunity to make some advertising revenue from it and you’re halfway decent at writing and web publishing, you can probably make more money that you think. You’ll need a computer, an Internet connection, and a web host (such as HostGator) … and a lot of hours and creativity. But the good thing is that over the course of several years, you can work once, and be paid again and again.

3. Teach others

People love courses that help them expand their horizons. The Food Network makes cooking look easy. It isn’t. But if you’re adept at putting together a great recipe, find a venue in your city that will allow you to teach others to cook and you can make some serious extra money. This might be a kitchen showroom for a building materials supplier or a friend with a large home (and kitchen). By drawing in multiple students, you’ll multiply your efforts. It’s just as easy to teach one student how to make a killer chicken pot pie as it is to teach 8 students. And you make 8 times the money.

The Food Network isn’t the only television show that makes the complex look super easy, HGTV is quite the culprit as well. Building a deck, building a garage, even building a home, is a process and if you’ve been successful at any of these ventures before, you can probably teach others how to do it themselves and they will pay you for it! The venue doesn’t have to be complicated – just a classroom at the YMCA or the local library – and with a field trip or two to show your students what you’re talking about, you’ll establish yourself as an expert AND make some good extra money.

I once took a class like this on building my own home. I was one of thirty people who paid $500 for a 4 week course. You do the math.

4. Nighttime babysitter

Could anything be sweeter than making extra money while you sleep? I know someone back in my home state who “babysits” for parents who work the third shift at a factory (third shift is 11pm to 7am). Yes, she has all the necessary insurance, business licenses, and credentials. Parents drop off their pajama clad kids at 9:00pm, and shortly thereafter, they go to bed. The parents return around 7:30 the next morning to find their children rested, fed, and ready for day-care or school. Since she keeps 7 kids, she makes 7 times the income as keeping one – while she sleeps. Yes, the kids sometimes have bad dreams or wake up in the night, but generally it works out very, very well.

5. Get creative

The possibilities are truly endless. My oldest daughter is quite good at drawing and painting. She buys very inexpensive canvas shoes and paints them in college football team colors. People love them. And they’re very willing to pay for these custom creations.

But you don’t have to be creative in just a graphical way. You could write and sell eBooks on the Internet, or write songs, or create online courses on training your dog. The possibilities are only limited by you!

If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose- because it contains all the others- the fact that they were the people who created the phrase “to make money”. No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity- to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. –Ayn Rand

Making extra money isn’t impossible. It’s all up to you, but that’s a good thing. No one cares as much as you!

This article was included in the latest edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance hosted at Financial Success for Young Adults.

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One thing I learned at the first annual Financial Blogger’s Conference this year was to know more about the readers who visit this blog. To do so, I’ve assembled a quick 7 question survey and I would sincerely appreciate any response you feel comfortable giving. All questions are optional.

Thank you and if there are other things you’d like me to know, please don’t hesitate to send a message via the contact page.

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Having written over 1,000 articles in the last four years, I’ve made the decision to bring in additional voices to express their experience and expertise. This isn’t a call for “guest posts.”  Guest posts are one-night-stands and I’m looking for more of a long term relationship! This is a call for writers … those who want to write once or twice per month and get published here.

If you’re a writer and this sounds interesting to you, read on! If you’re a reader and this sounds scary, never fear! I will continue to write but I’d love to incorporate more ideas, more varied content, and more opinions on the key subjects covered.

Why write for The Wisdom Journal?

With 80,000 to 100,000 consistent monthly visitors, contributors can potentially gain access to a larger audience to showcase their work, hone their writing skills, learn, grow, and connect.

This will be a commitment to write one or two articles each month. Writers representing companies, public relations firms or SEO companies will NOT be accepted. I want genuine voices that will connect with readers and provide a valuable service.

Submission Guidelines

• Authors should agree to provide one or two articles per month. I’m a very reasonable person so don’t let this deter you if you’re worried about the commitment. I’ll consider publishing more articles if you want to submit them, but I’d like to be able to count on a small group of select writers to provide additional content. If this is too much for you, tell me what you can contribute and how often.
• Authors MUST subscribe to comments and respond within a reasonable amount of time (preferably within 24 hours or less).
• Authors must commit to promoting all work submitted and subsequently published at The Wisdom Journal on Twitter, Facebook Tip’d, Digg, StumbleUpon and/or other social media. We both benefit when others read your work!
• All articles MUST be original – meaning not previously published elsewhere. Do not submit content written somewhere else that you’ve “re-worded” or otherwise altered.
• After 120 days have elapsed, your article may be republished on another site.
• All articles must be spell checked and grammatically correct. For example, you should know the difference between, and how to use, affect and effect, its and it’s, your and you’re, their, there, and they’re, etc.
• Any article submitted for publication should be related to economics, personal finance, getting out of debt, career issues, personal development, time management, or business topics. If you’re in doubt, drop me an email before you write the article.
• I will use the Author Box Plugin so be certain to include a short bio with a single link back to your website, plus your Twitter account, Facebook and/or RSS feed. I’ll also need you to establish a Gravatar so your photo will appear in the author box. Please provide this information in html code.
• Please do not add affiliate links to the article. I will remove them. If you feel an article would be improved by the addition up to two links (even links back to your site), let me know … and why. Links articles previously published on The Wisdom Journal are acceptable, of course.
• Do not stuff the article full of keywords. Write naturally!
• I will retain all editorial and approval rights, including removing and/or substituting links within the article or altering it as I see fit. If I feel the need to alter it too much, I will contact you first.
• If you want to add a photo or image to the article, make sure it allows for derivatives under the Creative Commons License (if you own the image please indicate so). I will also need the appropriate attribution for the image through a link.
• I will host all images on the site since links to images can mysteriously go bad.
• When you send an article, please send it in straight html or in Word document format. I can easily use either. The best way to send these articles is by writing them in Notepad and attaching them to your email.

How to apply as a writer

Use the contact form below to initiate contact with me. I’ll get back with you as soon as I’m able.

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Who would you rather trust in a battlefield situation? A higher ranking officer who recently graduated in the top of his class and had a really clean uniform, or a tough old grizzled sergeant who had survived multiple battles? My money is on the sergeant.

How about when it comes to building a business? Would you trust a newly minted double Master’s degree in Business and Accounting with a PhD in Entrepreneurship or a seasoned veteran who had made a fortune starting and selling multiple successful companies? Easy answer.

Do not confuse credentials with accomplishments

Plenty of people have been educated beyond their intelligence. You’re probably thinking of one or two right now. We’ve all seen degreed baboons elevated to positions of authority or interviewed on television (as “experts”) because of nothing more than the letters that follow their name.

Recently one blogger lashed out at members of the personal finance blogging community claiming that without proper credentials, readers may be listening to someone who barely graduated high school. Needless to say, no one will be linking to his site (the backlash apparently caused him to back down and delete the post). What’s funny is HE doesn’t even have the credentials he blasts others for not having. Pot and kettle metaphor anyone?

The fact is, credentials and accomplishments are very different, and given the choice, I’d much rather listen to someone who had been there and successfully done that, than someone who read about it and passed a government test. With information literally at your fingertips, we can find out much the same information that credentialed “experts” have anyway. The Internet is the great equalizer to a certain degree. Besides, in my personal opinion, credentials are less important when compared to what someone has actually accomplished.

Would you rather listen to the endless droning of a certified, chartered, CPA, MBA, PhD, ABCDEFG or to someone who has been in your shoes and can recount to you their struggles with debt, with their free-spending spouse, with living by a budget, with losing a job, with trying to decide which insurance plan is best?

I know what I’d choose and the MBA loses out. Shoot, I have an MBA but it’s not nearly worth as much as life experiences and my personal accomplishments.

Accomplishments trump credentials

When you’re dealing with important financial matters, DO seek out someone with credentials, but make sure their accomplishments match what you’d like to achieve. Everyone has a track record and while it may be difficult and seem a bit odd to ask, always take a moment and find out what your advisor has accomplished.

Accomplishments trump credentials but when you find someone with both, you might ought to stick with them.

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Can you imagine what your life would be like if no one taught you anything – if you had to learn everything by yourself? Assuming our basic needs for food, water, shelter, and companionship were met, I doubt any of us would have made much of our lives at all.

Teaching others is innate in all of us to a degree. We long to communicate easier ways to get across town, to share our secret for a perfect cheesecake, to clue someone else in about how to deal with a cranky bookkeeper, to tell a co-worker about a speed trap on the highway, or to discuss what we learned from reading a finance book. Those lessons are then passed on to others, who benefit from our experiences and advice.

Sometimes, though, we withhold information. We live and learn ourselves, but we don’t want to teach those lessons to others. Why?

Pride

We don’t want to appear stupid so we don’t tell others about mistakes we made and help them learn from them.

Selfishness

We want all the glory for knowing something and we want to appear more “in the know” than someone else.

Impatience

We aren’t willing to explain the lessons we learned to someone because we’re in too big of a hurry and our time is too valuable.

Ignorance

We don’t realize that we learned a valuable lesson and others could potentially benefit from our experiences.

Revenge

We don’t like the person we’re speaking with and we certainly don’t want them to benefit from anything we worked for.

All negative traits for sure.

The benefits of sharing our life lessons

There are some real benefits you accumulate when you share information with others.

It creates an instant bond

When you share your experiences with others, they get to know you better and you’re better able to connect with them on a deeper level. Friends share beneficial information with each other.

You cement the lesson in your own life

Nothing helps you learn a subject better than teaching it and if you learned a powerful life lesson, teaching it to others will help make it rock solid in your own life.

You become more “real”

If you’ve ever had the privilege of knowing someone famous, you know what their hang-ups are, you know their weaknesses. It makes that person more real to you because you know them on the inside. Sharing painful life lessons that you learned with someone else breaks down any barriers they had in their mind and makes you more real and believable to them.

So, take a few moments and teach someone else what you’ve learned, but do so without condescension, with a spirit of humility and reap the benefits in your own life. That’s one of the driving motives behind The Wisdom Journal!

Photo by foxypar4

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