Ten creative ways to earn extra money

Rachel Zupek

CareerBuilder.com writer

Editor's note: CNN.com has a businesspartnership with CareerBuilder.com, whichserves as the exclusive provider of joblistings and services to CNN.com.

You can sell your skills, your time or yourused stuff to make some extra money.

With an abundance of job losses, salary cuts, eliminated bonuses and diminished 401(K) matchingcontributions, your income is shrinking -- but the bills aren't.

If your regular job isn't earning you enough cash or you've lost your job altogether, these simple sidegigs can help put some padding in your pockets until -- maybe even after -- you get back on yourfeet.

Here are 10 ways real people are creatively taking home some extra dough:

1. Do freelance work

Felice Premeau Devine left her lucrative, full-time job two years ago to raise her son. In the interim,she's picked up writing and editing freelance work and started a blog, where she is able to earn alittle cash from advertising.

Nowadays, almost any job can be done on a contract or freelance basis. Check out sites like Sologig,which lead job seekers to contract, consulting, freelance, temp-to-hire and part-time projectopportunities in your field.

2. Sell your books

If you're a college student or you hung on to your college textbooks thinking you might want to readthem again somewhere down the line, select retailers like Barnes & Noble allow you to sell yourtextbooks for some quick cash. Or, take some classics from your personal library and sell them at alocal second-hand bookstore.

3. Search circulating coinage

Susan Headley, the "guide to coins" on About.com, is a lifetime coin collector who has been boostingher income by searching through circulating coinage for the past six years. In 2008, she made about$2,500 and so far in 2009, she has earned approximately $500 from coins she's found.

People who search circulating coinage successfully for a side income do so in very large numbers,she says. They buy rolls of coins from banks, typically in whole boxes, and sort through it to findstuff that just doesn't belong, Headley says. Half dollars, for example, were no longer made from 90percent silver after 1965, but they still had 40 percent silver in them until 1970; either of these turna nice profit. Presidential dollar errors can be worth $50 to $5,000 each; uncirculated state quarterscan sell from $10 to $50 per roll; and rare error coins can value up to $35,000.

4. Start a "business"

Turn your hobby, skills or expertise into a part-time business. Sites like Jobvana can help you do soby providing you with free tools to market your services and offer specialized skills to those lookingfor help.

Peter Olson says he built a profile in September 2008 offering to teach guitar lessons. He has sincegained two students, earning about $240 extra dollars per month and grossing around $1,000 sincehe started teaching.

5. Enter local and online sweepstakes

Wendy Limauge has been entering sweepstakes since 1993 and teaching others to win through herWeb site, Sweeties Sweeps, since 2002. Though winning sweepstakes rarely provides actual cash,her winnings have consistently provided her and her family with 200 to 300 prizes a year, many ofthem large items she and her husband couldn't afford on their incomes alone.

Prizes she has won include three TVs, two of which are flat-screens; a home theatre system; threedishwashers, each won on separate occasions; at least $1,500 in grocery gift certificates; an $18,000voucher for the vehicle of her choice; a trip to France valued at $25,000; and, in March 2009, shewon $5,000 in an instant-win game.

"The Internet has so many options for saving money, getting something for free, winning a prize orearning money from home," Limauge says. "You just need to find those resources that offer helpfulinformation and point you in the right direction to get you started and keep you motivated."

6. Give your opinion -- and get paid

Linda Childers, a California-based freelance writer, says many of her friends participate in focusgroups. Contributing an hour of your time can earn you up to $100, sometimes more. Online surveys,phone surveys and product trials can also earn you anywhere from $5 to $150. Check out Free PaidSurveys or FindFocusGroups.

7. Sell your junk

Terri Jay earns $2,000 - $3,000 per month just by selling junk. On eBay, Jay not only sells stuff sheisn't using; she hits up local thrift stores on 99-cent days, garage sales and tack sales, looking forthings of which she knows the value. She says her best sale was for a drink tray from the 70s: Shepaid 25 cents for it and it sold for $87.

"The trick is to [sell] what you know," she advises. "Therefore you can list them [at correct prices] sothey will get picked up in searches [on eBay]."

8. Join a direct selling company

Direct selling is one of the easiest ways to earn some extra cash, especially if you sell products youlove. Avon, for example, allows you start your own business for $10 -- your take home depends onyour efforts. Some full-time representatives earn six-figure salaries, others own licensed AvonBeauty Centers and many just sell Avon part time around their family's schedules.

Haizel MacIntyre started her Avon business in June of 2008 to earn supplemental income to her full-time job when her husband was laid off. Since joining Avon, MacIntyre averages $1,800 a month insales and her husband is helping her run the business. Her Avon earnings help pay the bills, provideextras for her three kids and she is hoping to earn enough to put towards her college tuition whenshe goes back to school to get her Masters in Social Work.

9. Be a secret shopper

Keen eyes for detail as well as a good memory are really all that it takes to succeed as a secretshopper, says Zippy Sandler, who has been mystery shopping for about 13 years. After registeringwith a secret shopping company, you are paid to basically go undercover and report on a company'soperation from the customer point of view.

Sandler decided to start secret shopping not only to earn money eating, traveling and shopping, butalso to learn customer service skills to pass along to the employees she managed at a retail store.Depending on the clients she is shopping for, Sandler says she has earned everywhere from $100 to$2,000 per month.

10. Sell your photos to stock agencies

It doesn't matter if you're a hobbyist, an amateur or a seasoned photographer - anyone can submittheir photos to stock photo agencies like Shutterstock.com. If your images are accepted, they will beavailable for download by subscribers. Each time someone downloads your photos, you get 25 cents.

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