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Make Money This Holiday Season Instead of Just Spending It

What if you could make more money than you spend this holiday season? Sounds like a pretty good idea, you say? If you’d like to be on the making money end during the holidays, now is the time to start preparing. Below I’m going to give you several money-making ideas. Pick the one or two that interest you the most and have fun!

SANTA LETTERS

Making a child feel special during the holidays is something I think most adults strive for. And when a child gets a letter from Santa, the guy they look up to and respectthat child is going to feel like a million bucks. Selling to parents, grandparents, daycares and preschools are a great way to get business. And once one child starts telling their friends that THEY got a letter from Santa. News will start to spread. These children will turn into little walking advertisements for you. If you really enjoy this business during the holidays, you can run this type of business all year long with letters from the Easter Bunny, Cupid, the Great Pumpkinjust to name a few.

CRAFTS

It doesn’t matter if you’re into woodworking, sewing, painting, pottery, or creating handmade paper. More than ever, people enjoy giving that one-of-a-kind special gift. You can sell your wares via the Net, at holiday bazaars or craft shows, or even consignment style. Once you become known for your crafts, word-of-mouth will keep you very busy.
A HOLIDAY GRATITUDE SERVICE
Heres a way businesses can say Thank you to the community. Its also a way to help plump up the retailers business in December. Talk with your local business about what theyd like to contribute to your holiday kit that you will be offering to local residents. It could be a free gift, a discount, coupons etc. Its a win win situation for everyone. The community receives some discounts and the businesses get more business. This type of service can also be run all throughout the year by offering newcomer packets to those who have just moved into the neighborhood, new baby and new pet packets etc. You could have a lot of fun with this one.

RUBBER STAMPING

One idea is to create your own line of holiday cards with rubber stamps. Melissa Duquette has found this to be a profitable business. She explains, “The card season is upon us and everyone will soon be searching for the perfect holiday card to send to family and friends. This is your opportunity to break out into business and create unique hand-stamped holiday cards. Or why not offer a class teaching this great hobby? Rubber stamping can be worked into so many different businesses.” I’ve been to a rubber-stamping party where we were able to create our own cards. I had a great time hanging out with my friends and making my own unique cards. If you are into rubber stamping, seriously consider having a rubber stamping card party. You would supply everything needed, and could charge either a flat fee or charge per card made.

T-SHIRTS

Kim Moya runs a T-shirt business and finds this a way to make extra cash during the holidays. She says you can create inexpensive holiday sweatshirts, and long- and short-sleeved T-shirts. And she doesn’t stop at T-shirts, but also includes tote bags, felt and cloth ornaments, advent and traditional calendars, aprons and many other items that you can purchase wholesale and sell at retail prices!

FLEECE BLANKETS

I don’t know about you, but I love fleece blankets. I was really excited when I found out I could make these awesome “Snuggly” blankets without having to sew a stitch. Cinda Louden has been making these types of blankets for a while now and explains, “These blankets are made out of Polar Fleece material. They are soft, warm, cozy, durable, and wonderfully ‘Snuggly.’ There’s no sewing or needlework involved; all you do is cut and tie. Making Snugglies is a great way to start and create a business, make a little extra cash, or just make them for gifts. It’s all up to you!”

ONLINE AUCTIONS

The hype of eBay has not gone away, but has only grown. When among a group of people, I can usually find someone who has either bought or sold something in an online auction. Colleen Wallace has made it her business to sell merchandise online. “The holiday season is the best time of year for me. People are always looking for unique and interesting gifts to give their loved ones. What better place to find something different than the online auctions,” says Colleen. Start thinking about what you might have that you could sell online. Colleen has found that the items that sell well are those that can be used for stocking stuffers, are limited editions, or are signed items.

BAKING

Then there are the people who cannot stop baking during the holidays. Are you the type of person who finds that at the close of the season, all of your neighbors’ and friends refrigerators and cookie jars are bursting at the seams because baking is just your thing? Believe it or not, this is not the favorite activity of everyone.

Stacy Robinson has found that A Holiday Home Boutique is a fun way to network with others who provide a holiday-related product or service. Each vendor displays her product or information about her service, and friends and neighbors are invited to come to shop and share fellowship.

“As a cake decorator, I sell gingerbread houses, as well as display and serve a holiday-themed decorated cake – which the hostesses love because this becomes part of the refreshments! Visitors to the boutique get a chance to taste and see my cakes, and I take orders for holiday party cakes. I also display a few ‘dummy cakes’ to showcase my designs for birthdays, weddings, etc.”

The niche market that has been Stacy’s holiday bread and butter since 1991 is selling gingerbread houses to real estate agents. She leaves a gingerbread house with order information in large real estate offices for a few days. She also offers free delivery to the real estate office, or delivery for a fee to their home-buying customers and other colleagues, such as mortgage brokers, closing attorneys, etc.

PLAN IT RIGHT

These are just a few ideas you can use to make a little extra cash this holiday season. Use your imagination. Remember, people are more than willing to spend money for that special gift and holiday service. Why can’t you be the one who pockets that money? This is such a great time of year to make your business work. Being your own boss has never sounded better, now has it? Start thinking now if you want this to be seasonal work, or if you want to continue your business into the new year. All of the business ideas I listed above can be run throughout the year. This could be the start of something very profitable!

For additional resources on how to start the above business ideas visit: http://www.bizymoms.com

How Does One Provide Content And Make Money With Free IQ?

Free IQ, also known as the Marketplace for Ideas, is a service where people with education, consulting, advice, information, and other products and services can offer those services and products for sale to the people around the globe. The sales of those products and services are driven by an army of highly motivated affiliates.

This is an entirely new concept for many folks. For example, let’s say you know a lot about skateboard or snowboard tricks and you know there are other people who will gladly pay to acquire your knowledge. But, you have no idea where to start with how to sell an ebook or a video where you impart your knowledge to others.

This is where Free IQ comes into the picture. They host your product on their site, they do the payment processing, and their affiliates promote and sell your product.

The same goes for practically any other category of saleable knowledge.

Whether you know a lot about gardening, sewing, house cleaning, engineering, elderly care, troubled teenagers, parenting, application development, fruit tree pruning, video games, fixing motorcycles, interior design, sports massage, dieting, weight loss, etc., you can profit from your knowledge with Free IQ. The list just goes on and on and on. You can even sell consulting services, and physical products that must be sent by mail.

So, how can you sell and make money with Free IQ?

The first step is to register and open a free account on Free IQ. This enables you to utilize the interactive facilities of the site. For example, you can rate as well as review any of the multitude of paid and free products that are available on the site.

When you’ve opened your basic free account, you then upgrade the account to a “content provider / affiliate account.” It’s as simple as filling out an online form where you provide more information about yourself and tell Free IQ where they must send the money you make from the sales of your product. It does not cost a dime to upgrade your account.

When you have your Free IQ Content Provider account, you are all set to upload the products that you want to offer for sale. As before, it’s a simple web form that you complete to upload your product. If your product is not yet in a format ready for upload, you can mail the product to Free IQ and they will convert it to the correct format. Doing this costs you nothing.

You can upload as many new products as you like as often as you like.

Paid products are only one part of the story. You can also upload products that you want to give away for free.

For instance, if you’re selling an ebook on the martial arts or dyi home renovation. You may then want to put a free 5 minute video on Free IQ where you give a brief summary of your ebook and demonstrate your knowledge on that particular topic. Free IQ affiliates will make full use of your free video to generate increased sales of your paid ebook product, because it is much easier to convince people to look at something that’s free than it is to get them to pay without knowing much about the product.

So, when you offer paid products on Free IQ, you need to think about two things. The first is your paid product. The second is one or more free products that build confidence and comfort and take the viewer back to your saleable product.

Making money with Free IQ is a very simple process given that you do not have to sell the product yourself; that is done by the affiliates. Your focus must be on creating a worthwhile product that other people want to buy.