Every Little Helps*

I'm always up for trying to earn a bit of extra money whilst still 'working' from home and a couple of weeks ago this post from the ever-inspirational Apron Thrift Girl really caught my attention.   I Googled market research groups for the UK and signed up with MRFGR, I haven't heard anything back from them as yet but who knows, it might just prove to be lucrative in the future.  And it got me thinking about the other ways I manage to earn a bob or two whilst being at home.

I signed up with Valued Opinions (an online survey site) just under 18 months ago and have so far earned over £60.00.  I always take my rewards in online Amazon vouchers and use them to help buy birthday and Christmas presents (Amazon being tres popular one way or another with all members of my family.)  I used rewards to buy P some DVD box sets for his birthday - 'Life on Mars' and 'Spaced' - and we are both really enjoying working our way through the DVDs, especially given how dire a lot of the TV ourput is at the moment.

I'm also signed up with You Gov.  They only pay out (by cheque) once your account reaches £50.00. At the moment my account is somewhere around £35.00 so I don't have too far to go until I get a cheque but better than that is my chance to air my opinions on the state of the nation and the government (whoever that really is at the moment!!)  I do so enjoy saying what I think about David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, George Osborne et al, although I'm not so sure my opinions are quite what the pollsters are hoping for!

Then there is my Amazon book selling activities - or rather lack of them at the moment.  This used to be such a great way of earing a few bob but over the past 20 months or so the market has just dried up.  It's near on impossible to find useful books to re-sell and even if I do find them, they just don't sell very quickly.  At one time I had over 800 books listed for re-sale, these days the number is less than 300 and falling fast (I go through them every week or so and at least three or four are taken off each time.)  I suspect my days of selling on Amazon are numbered and eventually I'll have so few books listed it won't be worth carrying on.  Ah well, it was very good whilst it lasted.

I gave up selling books on Greenmetropolis a while ago but have recently restarted again.  I don't have too many listed and only list if I'm the only person selling a particular title but, oddly enough, it's proving quite useful at the moment.  I guess it's because the books for sale are all priced at £3.00 (plus extra for postage if they are larger books) and people are happy to pay that sort of price.   As they only have to be posted second-class, it's surprising how the £3.00's mount up.

By far my biggest source of income is listing on ebay.  Sometimes I get really bored with photographing, describing and listing the items (not to mention the tedium of queueing in the post office to post them) but always have items listed and always force myself to list more each week.  Without ebay I would be in a pickle.

I wish I could find an outlet for selling some of my handmade items but so far this has eluded me.  I do sell one or two tote bags or knitted items on ebay but as I put them up as buy-it-nows and it costs 40p each time to list them, there comes a point where it's not worth doing this.  Besides, I don't really think ebay is the right place to sell handmade items.  I've tried both Etsy and Misi in the past but didn't sell anything on either site.  What would be lovely would be to have a stall at something like the Vintage and Handmade Fair but I don't think there is much chance of that happening as it is a sell-out every time it's on.   Of course, I could always try organising a similar sort of fair myself for crafts people in the Essex / Suffolk / Kent area and this is an idea I've been mulling over for a while.  Typically for me, mulling it over is probably as far as I will get.

Anybody got any good ideas for earning money online, I'd love to hear what else is out there.

*Before Tesco took over the saying 'Every little helps,' it was a phrase my Father often uttered - but his version was followed by the line 'Said the old lady as she peed in the sea!'

Comments

[Amy]

I've read the trick to etsy is to relist at least one of your items each day (I know...20 cents a time...but this apparently makes sure they don't get lost in the million items listed EACH MONTH!)

Set up a craft fair! Sounds brilliant!

[French Knots]

I did a market research evening through a friend of a friend, we discussed milkshakes and got paid £40. When I sell on ebay things never seem to go for much, I listed some brownie uniform and it went for 99p, I was gutted!
I've been wishing there was a Vinatge and Handmade type fair near me in the North West but don't know if I could get something like that off the ground.

[Nadine]

Blogshops seem to be quite popular?

[claire Mackaness]

I sell my handmade items on Folksy it's very good and much the same as Etsy. As for a vintage and handmade fair in Essex, YES PLEASE

[lovelygrey]

I reckon Folksy might be a better bet than Etsy too. When I've got enough homemade stuff I'm planning to use it. However I've had experience already of buying things from it and it's far less overwhelming than Etsy and UK based.

[Bookwhirl]

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