Survey Site Opinion Outpost Pays Out!

I have been using a survey site called Opinion Outpost for quite awhile now. The site connects users with companies that conduct surveys for clients on a wide range of topics. At the time I had only completed surveys, but I had not actually redeemed any of my monetary rewards.

I have to say I am VERY impressed. I looked back at my account and realized I've been a member of Opinion Outpost for about 7 months. In that time I have earned $67.50. Granted, that's not a ton of money, but a couple of things should be pointed out. First, I'm not sure I'm the target audience for a lot of these surveys. I'm a 30 year old guy. There are a lot of these surveys that just don't apply to me. A typical SAHM, however, would be right in the wheelhouse for a lot of these surveys.

Also, there are times when I'm just too busy to respond to surveys. There are times when I just delete every survey I get for about a week at a time. That is a lot of opportunities passed up. If I could respond to every survey (and there are a lot of surveys) I know I could make more money.

The other thing that impressed me was the turn around time on recieiving my check. The website says to allow 4-8 weeks for delivery. No problem. It's not like I need this money to live on right this second. But surprise, surprise. My check showed up yesterday less than a week after I requested it. That is a really good response time.

So I am officially fully endorsing Opinion Outpost as a survey research panel. The surveys are easy to comprehend. The website is set up very well. And most importantly, they actually pay you for your time. So if you're interested, just click on the banner at the top of this post and sign up. It doesn't cost a dime to sign up and you could be earning money in a matter of minutes. Have fun.

SAHMS Getting Paid For Their Opinions

I know that a lot of stay at home moms are always on the lookout for ways to make a few extra dollars. Because let's be honest, we could all use a few extra dollars at the end of the month.

One of the most common money making ideas I see suggested for SAHMS is online surveys. They make it sound very easy: sign up, share your opinion, rake in the cash. In just a few minutes a day you can help dictate what products companies make & sell and put some cash in your wallet.

The truth is that these survey websites offer a chance to make some pocket money with a very minimal amount of effort. The surveys are delivered right to your inbox and usually take less than 15 minutes to complete. You aren't going to get rich doing this, but you can make some money. Look at it as your Starbucks fund. Or your movie night fund.

My personal favorite of these survey websites is Opinion Outpost. I've been a member for a few months now, and I've made some money for very little work. One of the reasons I like Opinion Outpost is that they actually pay cash instead of prizes. You can actually trade in your "points" for dollars instead of gift certificates, magazine subscribtions, etc.

I'll admit that I haven't actually cashed out yet, but I've done a decent amount of research and haven't come across any red flags. So if you're interested, just click on the link up top, sign up and start making money. Then go out and buy yourself something nice with that "hard" earned cash!

Potential SAHM Money Making Idea: Retail Sales Marketing

So I ran across a new idea to make a little money on the side as a SAHM. Retail sales marketing/merchandising is essentially going to local businesses (think grocery store or Wal-Mart) and filling up displays. It could be anything from magazines to greeting cards to candy displays. Apparently it's a job that really lends itself to SAHMs because it can be done at off hours (like when dad comes home from work).

I even found a website that seems to list a number of these jobs: http://www.narms.com/jobbank.html. Here's a link to an application for a greeting card company:

http://corporate.americangreetings.com/careers/joinourteam_ptm.html.

Pays seems to usually start at about $8/hour, so you're not going to get rich doing this. But it does seem to be a way to make a few extra dollars while still staying home with the kids.

Anybody ever done anything like this? I mentioned it to my SAHM, and she was fairly excited about it.

Crafty SAHMs Should Check Out Etsy.com

If you are into crafts, you should really check out etsy.com. It seems like an Ebay for handmade crafty items. They sell all kinds of homemade products like clothes, art, purses, etc. If it's something you can make at home, they sell it.

More importantly for SAHMs looking to make a little money on the side, you can actually sell your own homemade goods on Etsy. There are 3 categories of goods that can be sold: goods handmade by you, commercial and handmade crafting supplies, and vintage items 20 years or older.

It is free to sign up for an account, but it does cost you $.20 to list an item for 4 months. When the item sells, you pay a 3.5% commission (or "transaction fee") to Etsy.

We're not really a crafty family, so this isn't something we'll be doing any time soon. But I was wondering if anyone has ever sold anything on Etsy.

Making Money on Ebay

One of the easiest ways I know to make money at home is through the power of Ebay. Ebay is an online auction site that allows anyone to sell their stuff to willing buyers all across the country. And it's pretty simple, actually. Find something you're willing to part with, take a couple of pics, put up a simple description and a starting price, and watch the bidding war commence.

Now, I'm not saying you're going to make millions of dollars selling stuff sitting around your house, but you can definitely make some cash and get rid of things you just don't need anymore. My perfect example is old CDs. When we bought an iPod large enough to store all of our old CDs, we listed every CD we had and made a fair amount of money. Now some of them only sold for $2, but a few of them went for $10 or more. It just depends on what you have and what people want.

We have also had very good luck selling lightly used baby clothes. But don't just sell them a piece at a time. If you group them in "lots" you will get a lot more interest. So put 2 or 3 outfits together and sell them as a group. They are very easy and inexpensive to ship as long as you don't use shipping materials you have to buy at the post office. We shipped a ton of stuff wrapped up in clean paper grocery bags.

One other idea is to buy things specifically to sell on Ebay. We actually went to garage sales and picked up things for cheap and resold them on Ebay for big profits. We found our biggest profits on textbooks (of course we live in a college town). But you can turn a profit selling almost anything you can find at garage sales. Again, this isn't a get-rich-quick scheme, but if you already enjoy garage saling this might be right up your alley.

Work At Home Scams

A lot of stay at home moms look for ways to earn a little extra money working from home. And the internet is filled with ideas. If you search "work at home idea" on Google, you get 94 million hits. 94 million! So, is it possible to earn significant money working from home?

Of course it is, but you have to be careful. There are a lot of quick money schemes out there looking to pray on people that want to make a few dollars working at home. Like the sites that talk about making thousands of dollars a month with just a few hours of work a week. Remember what your mom always told you, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." That saying certainly holds true in the work at home world.

Fortunately there are plenty of resources out there that help you spot and avoid work at home scams. My personal favorite is Work At Home No Scams.com. The website is updated about once a week with different scam news. They also have a search function that allows you to search for specific scams.

I also liked this article on the Top 10 Work At Home Scams. This article actually talks about specific types of work at home businesses that are, more times than not, scams. It really comes down to doing your research and being very cautious. Even a simple Google search can uncover significant concerns with work at home ideas that you see every day.