• Reap rewards for research and writing. You may have grown up taking the Internet for granted, but there are plenty of people who aren't familiar with it or are too busy to spend time on it. If you're skilled at extracting information through a web search, you can hire yourself out as an Internet researcher for professionals like lawyers and writers. Why not make extra money at something you are already doing?
• Be an undercover consumer. Sign up for a secret-shopper program, where you can eat or drink out for free while rating the restaurant, or shop and rate the retailer. You can often bring a friend as well. Three of the Smart Cookies are secret shoppers and have found it to be a great way to eat and drink at some fabulous restaurants for free! Check out sensusshop.com for more information. There are no membership fees.
• Consider contract work. If it won't conflict with your full-time job, seek out freelance or contract work in the same field. By networking, Katie was able to get additional contract work providing public relations services for clients outside her full-time job, earning an extra $2,500 a month! (Eventually, as we mentioned earlier, she was getting so many referrals and requests for her services that she left her job to open her own PR agency.) Robyn learned about a project seeking registered social workers through the Board of Social Workers newsletter in her area. She was hired on contract for a project in which she made extra money meeting with and interviewing people who wished to adopt children — on her own time, outside her regular job.
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Excerpted from The Smart Cookies' Guide to Making More Dough, copyright 2008 by The Smart Cookies with Jennifer Barrett. Used by permission of Random House Canada.All Rights Reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced except with permission in writing from the publisher.
