7 Ways to Make Extra Money

Candace Crockett, a 24-year-old stay at home mom in Seattle, started writing about parenting, health, beauty, and other topics for eHow.com after her daughter was born. She made $4 the first month and is learning how to earn more by writing articles that are more easily found through search engines. This month, she's made over $200, which covers her student loan and credit card payments. She estimates she spends about an hour a day working on the articles.

For O'Brien, who has been supporting her family more as her husband's construction business has suffered with the economy, it's been what she calls "a blessing for our family."

Design t-shirts. Companies such as CafePress.com allow people to design and sell their T-shirts for a cut of the profits. According to the company's website, some users earn over $100,000 a year. But it's not always easy: Jen Goode, who earns enough through CafePress to pay her mortgage each month, found success after a year and a half of long, sometimes 16-hour days. Her time is spent creating designs and then uploading them. She has uploaded about 2,500 designs, many of which are cartoon oriented, including the popular penguin-series. For her, she says, the secret has been to make many different images that are steady sellers, as opposed to creating one or two megahits. Now, she says she doesn't need to put as much time into her shop because she has such a large inventory of designs.

Make films. Glenn Pieper, 45, teamed up with DemandStudios.com (owned by Demand Media, along with eHow.com), to produce Spanish language videos. He earns $3,000 to $4,000 a month working around 40 hours a week. He says he didn't have a film background, but learned by practicing. "It's always a different subject, and I enjoy the freedom and creativity," he says. Plus, Piper adds, "There are no deadlines, no stress, and the pressure just comes from myself. You can't get laid off."

Sell other people's products. Make-up companies such as Avon and Mary Kay are always looking for new sales representatives, as are other companies such as kitchen products seller Pampered Chef. "If you don't have to make a big investment to get into it, it's probably not a bad idea," says Marcia Brixey, author of The Money Therapist. But she warns people to stay away from businesses that require sellers to make significant up-front purchases that they might not be able to unload.