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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

How I Make Extra Cash Working from Home (part-time)

First Person: I'm on Unemployment but I'm Still Working
Earning up to $58 a week by self-employment or part-time work is allowed without any reduction in unemployment aid in my state, Florida. This is how I've earned extra pocket cash during unemployment.

In Florida, an extra $58 per week can be earned without any reduction in unemployment benefits. Who knew? I certainly didn't during my first two months of unemployment last year! Read More



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Backstory

I was only on Unemployment for 3 months and only earned extra cash for a couple of weeks before I returned to work (part-time) and Unemployment comp ended. The point of the article was that I could have earned extra cash for the whole frickin 3 months if I'd only known! 

The article mentions 3 ways that I've earned extra cash (other than writing): odd jobs, paid surveys, and mystery shopping. There were some snidely comments, mysteriously gone now, noting that the article should have included links to the legitimate paid survey & such sites.

I agree, they shoulda, but the Yahoo! article format stuff has limits on how many links (3-ish) in an article and where the links are going to & such. So the below links are to legitimate sites that I have earned cash from and know first-hand are legit and are not affiliate links (just because I haven't yet figured out the how-to for that yet).

Also, scroll down on the right side to my Blog Roll to find several great "Work from Home" blogs that have done a lot of research of the many options available - site links included. For those asking, these are my favorites:

Paid Surveys:
Tip: Recommend Survey Police for checking up on the latest Paid Surveys scoop, reviews, & they have a very active discussion forum. 

Mystery Shopping:
Tip: Mystery shopping isn't as easy as it might seem, so try the above sites first if you're new to it. They provide easy & free online shopper training and you can try several types of shops before getting credentials. 

Tip: For love-it mystery shoppers, graduate to the Volition site and Job Board which is popular industry-wide with companies and shoppers actively looking for shopper gigs as well as useful tools and tips. 

TipProfessional certification is not required for most mystery shops, but can be helpful in some cases to get preferred assignments. If you decide mystery shopping is for you, professional (paid) industry association membership and certification options are found at the National Association of Mystery Shoppers web site.    

1 comment:

  1. This was interesting. I had no idea that there were so many "mystery shopping" opportunities out there.

    In the area of paid surveys, my husband and I once signed up to give feedback to film companies about their movies. You had to pay a fee up front and they demanded a stupid amount of information that was nearly impossible to get (the exact spelling of the name of the hair and makeup crew and other obscure credits that required a tape recorder in the theater with Brad and I dividing up the credit lines and spelling as fast as we could into the recorders -- this was in the days before the Internet Movie Database). The whole idea was to find ways to disallow your survey so they didn't have to pay you anything. Sometimes they would disallow the survey and give you no reason at all.

    In the end, it turned out to be a scam. People just gave up, which is exactly what they were hoping for.

    If any of these mystery shopping deals turn out to be scams, will you please tell us. It is an intriguing idea.

    Warmest aloha,
    Kay in Hawaii

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