Everyone has plenty of stuff lying around that they do not use or want anymore. Rather than throw it away or let it build up, why not sell it to someone who can use it and make some extra money? The key is to have the sale on a weekend. This will maximize the amount of people who can visit the yard sale and therefore maximize profits.

A year ago my whole neighborhood had a community yard sale. It was such a lovely day out and the community-wide sale not only made everyone money but also provided such a nice and friendly environment. By the end of the day I had not only made over three hundred dollars, but I had gotten rid of two of my old couches, one old desk, and a bunch of other trinkets. In addition to the monetary benefits, I learned a lot of new entrepreneurial techniques including: bartering/negotiating, marketing, advertising and more.

In the end it was a successful event and benefited me in ways I had no idea possible. With three hundred dollars in my pocket and a cleaner house, I was now able to buy what I had been really wanting: a flat screen TV.

Other artists use Etsy to sell at, as it is geared more towards handmade items, and have found that it works well for them. Etsy is more of a storefront with fixed prices, rather than auction sales like eBay is. Others use eBay to get rid of items they no longer need around the house, and can find that profitable, too. I had a friend who lost a lot of weight, and sold her “fat” clothes on eBay, and did very well with that. Children’s clothes also seem to sell well.

Another thing I do to make money online is working on a site sponsored by Amazon, called Mechanical Turk. Workers there are paid for questions they answer, surveys they take, and small projects they complete for various sources–humans doing the work that people think computers are doing, basically. The pay is not great, but if you have spare time and want to earn a bit of spending money, it’s a great way to fill those empty hours and make some money at the same time. You might only be paid 1-3 cents for answering a question, but you can answer many questions in an hour, generally, and if it’s just time you would be sitting around watching television or surfing the net, you might as well get paid for it!

Other options are licensing photographs you take–there are various businesses that will work with you to license your photos with companies and pay you royalties for their use. One of these is Getty Images. You might have the ability to write or design web pages for other people; this is a growing need but some training is needed.

One thing to keep in mind in affiliate marketing is that you don’t have to sell. That’s not your job– it’s the merchant’s job. You just have to pre sell — get the customer interested in the product and be more inclined to buy. Then you send them to the merchant for more information and let the merchant take over from there.

A great way to do this is through article marketing. There are plenty of sites online like squidoo.com or hubpages.com that let you include affiliate links in the articles you post there. Just write an article that addresses a problem that someone might have, and include a link to a product that might help them solve that problem.

You can find products to promote is Clickbank.com. All of their products are digital (like ebooks and software programs) and they allow almost anyone to join, even if you don’t have a website of your own.

Affiliate marketing is the way I got started making money online. I had never even heard about it until I joined an online membership called Wealthy Affiliate which teaches all about affiliate marketing.

And incidentally, I decided to join that program after reading a Wealthy Affiliate review that an affiliate of the program had written about it. Which is a perfect example of affiliate marketing in action!

The first place that everyone should look is their closet. Most people have a ton of clothes that they do not wear. Most of these clothes have only been worn a few times and are still in excellent shape. There are several consignment stores that will buy these clothes and either give you the money when you bring them in or wait until they are sold and then pay you. Either way you can get some of the money back that you paid for the clothes and use the money for the impending need that you now have.

Another great place to look is the garage. For some people the garage is just a big room to store the junk that they used to like but now have no room for in any other room of the house. You can probably find things in there that have been there for a few years and you have forgotten about. Selling these things can bring you some much needed cash in a hurry.

If you are in desperate need of cash for a situation that came up unexpectedly then you may have to sell things. Some of those things may be things that you no longer need, but you may find that you have to sell something that you do need but can live without if the unexpected bill is more important. There are several other ways to get fast cash, but not many of them are faster than selling things around your house.

Many new sellers don’t understand how important pricing is when it comes to eBay auctions. Many don’t even realize that ‘pricing’ needs to be done. eBay is an auction site after all! But eBay auctions are not quite the same as the auctions you attend in the offline world. In fact, quite a bit of work goes into shaping and setting prices.

Essentially, there are only three prices that can be set for an eBay auction: the ‘buy it now’ price, the reserve price, and the starting bid price. Of these three, the starting bid price is the only one that is required for an eBay auction. The reserve price and the ‘buy it now’ price are optional. The starting bid price is fairly simple – never set it higher than $50 or so – no matter what your item is really worth. This low opening price will get bidders to your auction.

Setting low starting bid prices creates the need for a reserve price. A reserve price is the absolute lowest price that you want to get for your item. You may sell the item below the reserve price, but you will not be obligated to. In other words, if you set your reserve price at $100, and your highest bid is only $50, you do not have to sell the item to the highest bidder. You can close the auction without any negative feedback or repercussions. Set your reserve price at the unconditional lowest price you are willing to sell your item for. Keep what the item is worth, as well as what it cost you in mind.

The ‘buy it now’ option will allow you to set a price so buyers can buy the item immediately, without bidding, for that set price. This option can be used for any type of item, and it should be set to match your reserve, give or take a few dollars. This option is good if you have multiple identical items to sell.

Shipping has a price, and potential buyers take this into consideration when they are looking at an auction. If you can offer free shipping, you will find that people are placing more bids. Make sure that your potential buyers realize that you are offering free shipping!

Before setting any prices, you need to determine what the item is really worth. The value of the item in different markets might be quite high. However, you are selling on eBay, and it is a different world altogether! Find out the price that similar items sold for on eBay before setting any prices. If it is a collectible, or a high ticket item, have the item evaluated to make sure that you aren’t going to lose money!