Are there ways to make money without paying anything first? Many people have bright ideas about ways to make money from home or in their spare time, but often these ways to make money are not ways to make money without paying anything first! They usually include first having to buy some products or materials, or setting oneself up to provide a service, or involve having to first pay a joining fee or membership fee.
Sometimes people need to make money or need to earn extra income but do not have any money to start with! Often the reason these people do not have any money is because they’ve joined business opportunities or income opportunities that were either a scam or the member didn’t do enough planning or marketing to make these business opportunities or income opportunities work.
People who are desperate to earn money or extra income can become depressed, and often do not see that there are ways to make money (without paying anything first) staring them right in the face!
Look at what you already have and look at where you live.
Making use of what you already have doesn’t usually cost you anything, and thinking of services or products that can serve the people or businesses in your area may mean no travelling costs, as you may be able to do your marketing and delivering on foot.
LOOKING AT WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE:
A spare room?
rent it out
A garden with flowers in it?
collect the flower seeds just before they are blown away by the wind, and plant them again – sell the flowers
A garden with shrubs in it?
take cuttings or collect seeds, replant, and sell the shrubs – you can use empty yoghurt cups, empty ice-cream containers, cut-in-half or cut-lengthways plastic bottles, or even small old cardboard boxes with plastic packet lining can be used to put your seedlings in, for selling them
Pips from the fruit you just ate?
let them dry out, plant them, and then sell seedlings or wait a while longer and sell fruit
Scrap wood in the garage or storeroom?
make toy blocks for kiddies, cut and package the scrap wood as fire-starting materials, or stick natural objects like shells, seed pods and small stones onto them to make ornaments
A paid-up electricity account and some baking ingredients in the kitchen?
bake goodies and sell them
A freezer with some extra space?
use empty plastic containers and make and freeze pureed veggies for babies, soups for older people, or chopped and frozen fresh veggies. Sell the frozen foods, of course.
A computer?
digital photo editing, writing and selling your work, or offering freelance writing services
A computer and Internet?
freelance work like the type of work one can apply for on a freelance job site like
oDesk, joining and being active on free online writing sites like the HubPages writing site, or WebAnswers or Bubblews
writing and then selling your articles on a site like Constant Content,
selling your photos on stock photo sites,
or getting a free blog like a Blogger blogspot blog and working at writing and adding lots of articles to the blog, and getting traffic to the blog, and then adding Adsense ads or Amazon ads to the blog, and continuing to add articles and get traffic to the blog
LOOKING AT WHERE YOU LIVE:
People in the area that often go away for weekends or holidays?
feed their pets while they are away, water their plants, bring the post in, turn on some lights at night and turn them off again in the morning
Got a lawnmower and neighbours with lawns?
mow their lawns for them; even do some weeding, and removing doggy poop from their lawns
Stay near a DVD rental store?
return DVD’s for people
Stay near a bank?
stand in queues and deposit people’s cheques for them
Stay near the beach?
make ornaments from shells, pebbles, or pieces of driftwood and dried seaweed
Stay in a neighbourhood that has lots of dogs?
walk the dogs
Stay near a school?
offer an after school care service or a place where children can do their homework
Always have a look at what you already have or look at where you live when thinking about ways to make money without having to pay anything first. Ways to make money without paying anything first do exist!
Amidst all your ideas and plans, do also remember to think about how you are going to market your products or services. There are many free ways to market what you sell or do, but you need to do this marketing work and not just think about this marketing work. Marketing is a huge part of making money. People need to know about you and your products or services for you to make money.
Work hard, market well, and reap the rewards of your efforts.
© Copyright Teresa Schultz 2011, 2012, 2013
