Help me brainstorm some flexible income ideas...

[Rel]

So I'm self employed as a legal videographer. I shoot videos of people giving depositions. I really enjoy it and it pays very well while I'm doing it. My problem is that work has been rather slow for the last few weeks and I'm going a bit crazy because I feel like I'm not contributing to the financial success of the family. I can't exactly go get a part time job because I have to retain flexibility to take video jobs whenever they come up and this can sometimes be on very short notice.

What I need is some kind of work that I can pick up and put down as my schedule demands. It doesn't need to pay a lot, just so that I can do SOMETHING and be productive in my off hours. Even when business is doing well, I tend to have a lot of free time that I could put to better use.

Just to head this off at the pass, I am not (for now at least) considering going into the Wedding Video business. This would require some capital expenditures that I'm not capable of making right now.

Any ideas?

 

[reveal]

I've heard your t-shirts were a big hit at Gencon. Perhaps something in that direction. CafePress allows you to sell stuff through them.

Or manwhore.

EDIT: Another option would be to sell stuff on ebay. If you have things around the house you never touch anymore (DVDs/CDs/books/wife) you can get rid of them and make some cash doing it. I do that every now and then, last time to get rid of RPG books I never used. I use Paypal and can accept credit cards, which makes selling things easier.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Believe it or not, you can do On-line surveys and make some cash.

When me & my wife really, really, needed any sort of extra cash, She signed us up with a bunch of those On-Line Survey companies.

We've actually made about 200 bucks total. Two of us, over the course of 18 months. (and 100 of that was me winning a 100 dollar 'random prize'). So, cash flow its not, but I get 5-10 bucks a month out of it.

It's sort of interesting to see how companies are trying to shape their advertising campaigns. Or, seeing what new products a company is considering putting out.

One company sends out tons of Surveys & relies on an occasional monetary award, but lots of 'entered into a prize pool' surveys.

Another just sends a survey every now & again based on what info you've sent them. These usually give you 1-2 dollars, but you can't redeem them until you get at least 5 bucks in your account. Or, they give you Gift Certificates to Amazon or something.

But it beats spending time surfing the net doing nothing.

If you're interested, I'll give you the links of the ones I'm still with (as they pay out regularlly or only send out a survey once in a while).

And, it's something you can start doing right away.

Or you could start filming Amateur Adult Films in your basement. Perhaps a live-action D&D game based on the Book of Erotic Fantasy. Or Local Strippers playing D&D in the Nude interspersed with 'recreations' of the events they just played out (Say the grand Dwarf-Ogre Nude Hot Oil Wrestling Championship of Oerth). Has HIT written all over it.

 

[Rel]

EDIT: Another option would be to sell stuff on ebay. If you have things around the house you never touch anymore (DVDs/CDs/books/wife) you can get rid of them and make some cash doing it. I do that every now and then, last time to get rid of RPG books I never used. I use Paypal and can accept credit cards, which makes selling things easier.

I'm a terrible packrat so this would probably be a good idea even if I didn't need the extra money. I wonder if I could finance a trip to GenCon '06 strictly on the proceeds of selling old gaming materials...

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Another thing that can pay well and be quite flexible is working as a "secret shopper." Depending on what they need, they can be pretty flexible. I had a friend (who now unfortunately lives in Colorado) who used to do these kinds of things all the time.

As a former video freelancer, I feel your pain. Are there other markets in the local video field that might be appropriate for you? I used to do a lot of corporate work, and used the legal depositions as my back-up gig. Perhaps video or DVD duplication (and I'm talking about legit duplication work, not piracy, before anyone gets the wrong impresson). The manager of the video deposition firm I worked for used to have a rack of ten VCR's set up that he could run off copies at $5 a pop. Get a couple of local businesses that need their training tapes copied, etc.

 

[Rel]

So, cash flow its not, but I get 5-10 bucks a month out of it.

Vraille, how much time per month would you say that you spend in order to get that money. I did say that it doesn't need to pay much but if I'm looking at less than minimum wage, I'd probably feel like I was contributing more to the household by doing extra house/yard work around here.

 

[reveal]

Vraille, how much time per month would you say that you spend in order to get that money. I did say that it doesn't need to pay much but if I'm looking at less than minimum wage, I'd probably feel like I was contributing more to the household by doing extra house/yard work around here.

I do surveys every now and then. I usually get ones that are $1, on average, for about 10-20 minutes of my life. I'm "not who we're looking for" on 75% of the surveys I start to fill out. I don't see this as a good source of supplemental income unless you're just looking for some "mad money."

 

[Rel]

Another thing that can pay well and be quite flexible is working as a "secret shopper." Depending on what they need, they can be pretty flexible. I had a friend (who now unfortunately lives in Colorado) who used to do these kinds of things all the time.

As a former video freelancer, I feel your pain. Are there other markets in the local video field that might be appropriate for you? I used to do a lot of corporate work, and used the legal depositions as my back-up gig. Perhaps video or DVD duplication (and I'm talking about legit duplication work, not piracy, before anyone gets the wrong impresson). The manager of the video deposition firm I worked for used to have a rack of ten VCR's set up that he could run off copies at $5 a pop. Get a couple of local businesses that need their training tapes copied, etc.

I'm set up to do video reproduction but I have not advertised heavily. Perhaps I need to step that up a bit. Speaking of which, if anybody here has a library of home videos that they'd like converted to DVD, I'm your man!

So what's the "secret shopper" deal? Is that like going to do errands for people?

 

[reveal]

I'm set up to do video reproduction but I have not advertised heavily. Perhaps I need to step that up a bit. Speaking of which, if anybody here has a library of home videos that they'd like converted to DVD, I'm your man!

So what's the "secret shopper" deal? Is that like going to do errands for people?

Google for "mystery shopper" for a lot of info. Here's a good article on the subject.

http://www.betterbusinessreviews.com/shopping/

It seems you have to pay a fee to join the service though.

 

[Crothian]

I'm a terrible packrat so this would probably be a good idea even if I didn't need the extra money. I wonder if I could finance a trip to GenCon '06 strictly on the proceeds of selling old gaming materials...

It depends on what you have really and what you are willing to get rid of.