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| Summer Desk(top) Jobs | | By Gareth Branwyn for Screenager Central |
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It used to be that summer jobs were a chore -- literally -- like cleaning bathrooms at K-Mart or changing the fryer grease at McDonald's. If your parents are bugging you to get a job to pay for your voracious video game habit or your insatiable Hello Kitty collecting, you might talk to them about opening up shop on your desktop. |
There's a source of summer income available to you without even having to leave the house! So before you start trolling the streets of town looking for "Help Wanted" signs, see if any of these Internet-based job ideas strike your fancy.
Virtual Yard Sales
Real-world yard sales are a tried n' true means of making some quick cash. You go through the house, find all of the junk...er... great stuff you don't want anymore, slap a price tag on it, stick it all out in the front yard, and hope for the best. This is still a fine way to make money over a weekend, but the Internet offers a way of doing basically the same thing, but on your own time -- and your wares are available for the whole world to wander through, not just your nosey neighbors.
Obviously you'll need to get your parent's permission to do an online yard sale (or any other online jobs detailed here) and the whole family can get involved in deciding what's okay to part with. It can actually be kind of therapeutic to let go of stuff that you don't really need/use anymore, but still have hanging around gathering dust: old video and computer games, books, CDs and DVDs, stuffed animals, electronics devices that you don't use anymore, clothes that grandma bought that you never even tried on. You can make money on all of it. Once you get bit by the "for sale" bug, you'll find all sorts of items lying around just begging for you to unload.
So where do you sell it all? Ebay is your best bet. There are other online auction and sales sites, but nothing gets more traffic and sales volume than eBay. If your family doesn't already have an account, an adult will have to set one up for you. Read all of the rules and community standards carefully and be a good online citizen. Ebay runs on reputation (buyers rate you after each sale), so you want to be on your best behavior to build a positive feedback page (which will help future sales). Putting your items online involves little more than filling out a Web form and describing what you're selling. Posting pictures is a MUST. If you don't have a digital camera, take regular photos, get them processed, and scan them into your computer for posting on eBay.
A few more eBay tips:
- Don't forget that you have to ship the items. Really heavy things can cost more to ship than the amount of money you'll actually get for it. If it's heavy, list the weight and specify that the buyer must pay the exact shipping cost.
- Don't set a hidden minimum price (called a "Reserve") unless you really won't part with an item for anything less than a specific amount. Most items sell for at least close to their market value.
- Be honest. Describe problems with items, point out dings, rips, wrinkles and other blemishes or shortcomings. It's okay to "talk up" your item, but be up front about where it's lacking (otherwise, you risk getting negative feedback after the sale).
- After the sale, do a good job of wrapping items for shipping so that they arrive safely.
- The great thing about the online yard sale is that you can post items for sale all at once, or do them one at a time. You can run your sale all summer long if you want to.
Several years ago, I did a virtual yard sale when we were about to move. I went through the house and collected all of the stuff that I knew we didn't care to lug to the new house but that I thought had re-sale value. I made nearly $2,000! What a win-win situation! I made enough money to pay for our moving costs and got rid of all sorts of junk that we would have just shoved into the attic of the new house anyway.
Online Storefronts
Do you have a special talent? Maybe you're a fine artist or you like to do pottery or maybe you make your own clothes or are an expert at putting together plastic scale models. Believe it or not, there are teens making money doing all of these things, and selling their wares online. Again, eBay is the best place to set up shop.
Think about what your hobbies are and if there's a way you can make money at them. Let's say you're an excellent artist and you like to do portraits. There's a decent market (believe it or not) in painting pet portraits. So what you would do is post one of your best pet paintings as an eBay item, set a price for painting a picture of the buyer's pet, and then use the "Buy it Now" feature on eBay (where you set a fixed price for the item, so it's more of a direct sale, not an auction). Then anyone can see your previous work, decide to use your services, and click the Buy it Now button to hire you to paint their dog, cat, pet parakeet, or whatever. They would send you pictures of their pet and you work your magic on creating a portrait. This is obviously just one idea. It really is a question of using your imagination and creativity to come up with a marketable product (or service).
If you don't have marketable arts, crafts, or building skills, there are still plenty of things you can sell. Got a passion for collectables? There is a huge market on eBay for action figures, TV and movie memorabilia, sports merchandise and stuffed animals. You name it! If you look on Ebay, you can find out what's hot and how much it sells for. Then try to find it cheaper elsewhere (such as a flea market or an online store) and auction it off for a profit. Here's an example of this: I collect sci-fi games and miniatures. I noticed that some of the older Games Workshop books on collecting and painting miniatures were selling on eBay for $100 or more. I popped on over to bookfinder, a giant database of used bookstore inventories from all over the world. I found one of these books for $28 in a store in Australia. I bought it. It ended up costing $38 with shipping. I put it on eBay and it sold for $114! The entire process was fun, exciting, and I made $76!
T-Shirts and Mouse Pads and Aprons, Oh My!
Another place where you can easily set up a virtual storefront is cafepress. This is an amazing Web site where, after creating a storefront (free of charge!), you upload artwork that you've created on your desktop and you put the art on T-shirts, mugs, mousepads, lunchboxes, blank journal covers, and lots of other merchandise. When someone orders from your store, the items are printed onto the products on demand and shipped out the same day. You set the prices for things (above a base price) and you keep the profits. It's amazingly easy and fun to create a store and to add merchandise to it.
Making "real" money on Cafe Press takes some effort. Besides you ordering up a few items for yourself, you won't make money unless people know you have a store. The first thing you want to do is to email all of your family and friends, send them the link to your storefront, and tell them to not only support your "summer job" by buying stuff, but for them to tell all of their friends to visit as well.
The real key to making Caf Press profitable is to come up with really clever ideas for products that will appeal to strangers, not just friends and family members. Think about things that are happening in the news, in pop culture or at your school that could be used somehow on a T-shirt or mug or apron. You don't even have to be much of an artist. If you come up with a really funny or poignant saying, you need little more than type in a handsome style and color. The great thing about coming up with a slogan, cartoon, or joke that has widespread appeal is that Caf Press puts recommended products on their front page. Get a plug there, and you could make some big bucks in sales. And don't forget to put the Web address of your store on your products too. This'll serve as free advertising as owners of your merchandise (hello mom, dad, and little brother!) traipse around town in your cool Tees and baseball hats.
Put on your Thinking Cap
These are a just a few of the moneymaking opportunities available in cyberspace. It really is a question of "thinking outside the box" and coming up with some clever ways of turning your interests and expertise into summer income. You obviously have to be highly motivated to do this kind of a job (you're basically starting your own mini-business), but for those up to the challenge, it sure beats cleaning up after the breakfast rush at Denny's, don't you think?
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