A lot of people already know about this but some of you don't, and because it's one of the only ways I know of for honest quick free cash. So what am I talking about? Donating plasma. Almost anyone can donate plasma and it pays pretty good for how quick it is. The first couple times you do it you will get paid the most, but it also takes longer. You can get about $200 your first month and $100-$150 a month after that. It's pretty painless and worth the time. If you live in Rockford you can go to this location to get started:
Talecris Plasma Resources Center
1052 West Riverside Blvd
Suite 302 Rockford, IL
Tel:(815) 633-7125
As for readers in other cities, do a quick Google search for your city and "donate plasma" The plasma that you donate for money could be used in transfusions to save lives, but will most likely be used in pharmaceutical research for diseases that target the immune system.
Donating plasma can be an extremely important resource for you if you are on hard times, or it can give you some fast extra liquid income. Either way it's something I do, and many people that I know do. Just keep in mind that if you have had a tattoo or piercing in the last year you wont be eligible.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Crafting cash
Almost as long as people have been around, people have been making things. Some people are better at it than others. Crafting can be an incredibly good source of income if you make the right things and sell at the right places. Now obviously I'm not going to tell you what to make but I will offer some helpful information while choosing what to make and who to sell it to.
First things first, come up with something that has a low overhead cost and a high profit margin, because unless there's alot of craft shows in your neighborhood you will probably be selling at a flea market or something similar where not everyone will be interested. Basically make the sales you do get count. One example that is super cheap to make is little pine cone guys around Christmas time. Pick up pine cones from around the neighborhood, paint them green, put some glitter and googly eyes on and sell! This may sound silly but the idea is sound. People like cheap stuff that's a known fact.
I guess in the end crafting is a lot like any other way of making money. The more you do it the better you get. Try making just a couple of all of your ideas and see what sells. If one item is always selling out then branch out off of that idea into different colors and styles. Just remember to use stuff that's either free or very cheap to keep your items low in cost.
First things first, come up with something that has a low overhead cost and a high profit margin, because unless there's alot of craft shows in your neighborhood you will probably be selling at a flea market or something similar where not everyone will be interested. Basically make the sales you do get count. One example that is super cheap to make is little pine cone guys around Christmas time. Pick up pine cones from around the neighborhood, paint them green, put some glitter and googly eyes on and sell! This may sound silly but the idea is sound. People like cheap stuff that's a known fact.
I guess in the end crafting is a lot like any other way of making money. The more you do it the better you get. Try making just a couple of all of your ideas and see what sells. If one item is always selling out then branch out off of that idea into different colors and styles. Just remember to use stuff that's either free or very cheap to keep your items low in cost.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Making scrapping metal more profitable
Scrapping metal has got to be one of the biggest, and most well known ways to make some extra cash on the side. All sorts of stuff can bring in cash by recycling. However anyone who has done it can tell you that what you decide to pick up can give you either a really good day, or a gigantic waste of time, energy, and most importantly gas and money. The trick is to choose wisely what you get, and know where to pick up.
The first part is easy aluminum is better than steel or iron, but brass and copper are better than that. Unless you got something really heavy I wouldn't waste the time picking up scrap iron and steel. Refrigerators, stoves, washers, dryers, air conditioners, and all other large appliances are good picks, bent up shelving units and rail road spikes are not(usually). Try collecting copper by cutting off cords from junk electronics, and by taking apart electric motors. Brass can be found as handles and fittings such as hinges from old dressers and doors. A cast iron sink is also a good find.
Cans are always a standby, but can be hard to find in quantity. As your out there looking around, keep in mind to look for places that always have scrap or frequently throw away stuff. One little known money bringer is cardboard. Companies will often bail it for you and throw it out ready for picking. Avoid getting wet cardboard bails as places will generally pay less if they buy it at all.
As far as scrapping goes I keep it to a minimum and only do it when absolutely necessary. This is because of the sheer numbers of people doing it. Just remember that when money can be made there's bound to be many people doing it. Keep your head up and your eyes sharp to bring in loads worth real money.
The first part is easy aluminum is better than steel or iron, but brass and copper are better than that. Unless you got something really heavy I wouldn't waste the time picking up scrap iron and steel. Refrigerators, stoves, washers, dryers, air conditioners, and all other large appliances are good picks, bent up shelving units and rail road spikes are not(usually). Try collecting copper by cutting off cords from junk electronics, and by taking apart electric motors. Brass can be found as handles and fittings such as hinges from old dressers and doors. A cast iron sink is also a good find.
Cans are always a standby, but can be hard to find in quantity. As your out there looking around, keep in mind to look for places that always have scrap or frequently throw away stuff. One little known money bringer is cardboard. Companies will often bail it for you and throw it out ready for picking. Avoid getting wet cardboard bails as places will generally pay less if they buy it at all.
As far as scrapping goes I keep it to a minimum and only do it when absolutely necessary. This is because of the sheer numbers of people doing it. Just remember that when money can be made there's bound to be many people doing it. Keep your head up and your eyes sharp to bring in loads worth real money.
A look at ebay, and craigslist
eBay and Craigslist are like the holy grail of supplemental income. Whenever you have something to sell, or you have cash and need something to sell, eBay and Craigslist are the places to look. They both also have their inherent dangers. Let's take a look at some of the biggest pro's and con's of these two indispensable outlets.
eBay, as we discussed earlier, is known for not keeping the best eye on what comes over from china, so this can be a huge profit breaker when ordering in quantity. I always order 5 pieces first and check them for quality before making a sizable order. While you can end up with a bunch of useless mp3 players or burned out SD cards, the rock bottom prices that are now on eBay as more factories use eBay to sell directly to Americans are well worth the risk. eBay can also be a hassle when selling. The most important number one rule is: always get delivery confirmation! This will stop 90% of the would be scams on eBay. They just love newbie sellers who don't get delivery confirmation because they claim the item never arrived and eBay almost always sides with the buyer. Leaving you to refund their money and never see your item again.
Craigslist, on the other hand, has a completely different, however still just as annoying, set of dangers. A few of the most common are people selling flat out stolen goods, and email spam. As far as stolen goods are concerned, there's not much you can do except stay vigilant, ask questions, and check out the people your buying from. You don't want to get caught up selling stolen stuff so don't buy stuff that's "too cheap." The email spam is a different story. You can easily stave off most of this by not replying to emails that look fishy(i.e. bad grammar, bad spelling, unrelated messages, messages with links to websites or videos or pictures and many more signs) when you reply they sell your email to other people who will spam you to no end.
Now that we know some of the con's what are the pro's? eBay and Craigslist together are a perfect scenario when combined with a real world outlet like a flea market or mall kiosk. Even if people know where you got your stuff they are willing to pay a few extra bucks to avoid shipping or traveling to pick it up. The item is right in front of them and available to test and look at. One great way to make these two sites, and your outlet of choice work together is to buy big ticket items from Craigslist, and wholesale $5 and under stuff from eBay. Remember Craigslist is basically like an online flea market so don't forget to offer low! After you have gotten a comfortable rotation going profits are going to soar!
eBay, as we discussed earlier, is known for not keeping the best eye on what comes over from china, so this can be a huge profit breaker when ordering in quantity. I always order 5 pieces first and check them for quality before making a sizable order. While you can end up with a bunch of useless mp3 players or burned out SD cards, the rock bottom prices that are now on eBay as more factories use eBay to sell directly to Americans are well worth the risk. eBay can also be a hassle when selling. The most important number one rule is: always get delivery confirmation! This will stop 90% of the would be scams on eBay. They just love newbie sellers who don't get delivery confirmation because they claim the item never arrived and eBay almost always sides with the buyer. Leaving you to refund their money and never see your item again.
Craigslist, on the other hand, has a completely different, however still just as annoying, set of dangers. A few of the most common are people selling flat out stolen goods, and email spam. As far as stolen goods are concerned, there's not much you can do except stay vigilant, ask questions, and check out the people your buying from. You don't want to get caught up selling stolen stuff so don't buy stuff that's "too cheap." The email spam is a different story. You can easily stave off most of this by not replying to emails that look fishy(i.e. bad grammar, bad spelling, unrelated messages, messages with links to websites or videos or pictures and many more signs) when you reply they sell your email to other people who will spam you to no end.
Now that we know some of the con's what are the pro's? eBay and Craigslist together are a perfect scenario when combined with a real world outlet like a flea market or mall kiosk. Even if people know where you got your stuff they are willing to pay a few extra bucks to avoid shipping or traveling to pick it up. The item is right in front of them and available to test and look at. One great way to make these two sites, and your outlet of choice work together is to buy big ticket items from Craigslist, and wholesale $5 and under stuff from eBay. Remember Craigslist is basically like an online flea market so don't forget to offer low! After you have gotten a comfortable rotation going profits are going to soar!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Hacked mp4 players and you
One quick eBay search of "mp4" is bound to bring up a myriad of results like the ones above... What do all of these mp4 players have in common? They are all hacked. When most people think of hacking it conjures up a dark basement with some fat guy with glasses typing away in a fury to steal your personal data. This is actually a lot closer to that idea of a hacker than the real deal. These mp4's are coming from china by the thousands, and not a single one of them over 4GB, for the nice models, and 2GB, for the regular cheap ones, are real.
These hackers trick the controller chip into reporting massive amounts of storage to your operating system. In other words the mp4 says 16GB, but there's actually only 2GB of storage available. What's the big deal? After you go past the real data storage everything gets a little crazy. Files duplicate and disappear, change filenames, move around in folders, and worst of all your mp4 will report the oh so infamous disk error. Lucky for most of us there's a couple of fixes freely available here - http://mympx.org - and my own personally perfected fix here - http://mympx.org/forum/support-how/45003-chkflsh-method-revised.html - feel free to contact me via email or via MyMpx.org under the name frozensoda.
Successfully Unemployed
Successfully Unemployed... What exactly does this mean? It means that people like me don't have a career, we don't need a career, and sometimes, we don't want a career. Basically we make a living doing whatever it is that needs to be done. One week there would be factory work the next it's selling stuff. One day it might be maintenance, the next it's scraping metal. there's flea markets, mall booths, hard labor, secretarial work, and every thing in between. We simply do what is available because that's what we know. Living in a city with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, I decided I could follow what everyone else is doing, or adapt to the changing market of jobs. I will share with you, through this blog, some of the ways that I have made extra money, or people that I know have had success with. I won't tell you exactly what to do, but you will have the general idea.
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