photo credit: MNgilen

Sometimes a passive income idea is looking at you and asking to make you some extra money. In this case we’ll look at taking ordinary items at your local store and turning them into cash for your family. You might look at your next shopping trip a little differently and you probably will be smiling the entire time you’re out hunting for passive income. Just to be clear, this will require your time to buy the items and also some up front cash. If you don’t have a savings account or emergency account established, I wouldn’t suggest you try this passive income idea. You can start out small until you have amassed a nice little savings account to use for this new source of extra income.

So what is it? It’s not as glamorous as investing in stocks for passive income and it doesn’t require you to spend hours writing an ebook. You will visit the same stores you normally visit during the week, but now you’ll add some items to your shopping list. The Sunday paper or your weekly ads from major retailers will provide all the necessary information you need for this passive income idea. This weekend I found a name brand flash drive that retailed for $19.99 that had a manufacturer rebate check for $19.99. Total cost for the flash drive was $1.70 to cover the 8.5% sales tax here in California. I then fill out the manufacturer rebate to receive my check in the mail for $19.99. At this point the flash drive has only cost $1.70 and I can list the item on ebay. Name brand items sell wonderfully on ebay and look for tech gadgets and software. I have been able to pickup copies of anti virus software and resell it on ebay for a nice $30 profit. Again, make sure you have funds to cover the time it takes to receive the manufacturer rebate check. You don’t want to be paying 19.99% interest on a credit card balance while you are waiting for your item to sell on ebay.

Look for ads in your local newspaper and circle items that have rebate checks from the manufacturer. Best Buy, Radio Shack, Rite Aid, and Walgreens all offer rebate checks. This weekend I even found a blood pressure kit that was free after a rebate at Rite Aid. This could be a great source of extra income to cover some of your household groceries or even a meal out once a week.

You will need to be organized and timely with your rebate check submissions. Don’t forget to read all of the fine print and what is needed for the rebate process. Do you need the UPC code and a copy of your sales receipt for the rebate? Some retailers offer electronic checks so that the process is much more automated. You might want to start with a Walgreeens or Rite Aid and research what they offer first.

How much can you realistically make doing this? We have an electronics retailer called Fry’s that has numerous manufacturer rebate offers during the week. The retail value for this weekend at Fry’s would equal between $100-$200. Rebates were offered on hard drives, anti virus software, books, and flash drives. See if you can find some passive income ideas in your newspaper.

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Looking for sources of passive income can be incredibly difficult at times, but if you enjoy writing or have a blog it can be very lucrative. If you don’t have a blog, consider writing for ehow as you own your own content, is free and you can make money. Have a great family recipe or a shortcut to save time washing a car, or maybe you have some great hack skills. Yes, many people search google for life hacks, money hacks, or computer hacks. People are always looking for shortcuts or ways to increase productivity or just plain make things easier. Here’s your chance to help and make some money too.

I’ve written 30 ehow articles in just 4 days and already have many of them indexed by google and making adsense revenue. I quickly found how much fun and addictive ehow can be for writers. After writing a few articles I wanted to learn from some of the pro’s on ehow and found a few who were making some serious passive income. A lady by the name of WriterGig has an ehow ebook that she wrote that offers some fantastic tips for generating passive income from writing articles on ehow. I’ve purchased the book and already have been able to implement many of her suggestions. WriterGig is one of the top passive income writers on ehow and makes over $1,500 a month on her articles. I love how she’s making money while she sleeps or goes on vacation. This is a great passive income idea and writing by someone who writes on ehow and has had incredible success with it. Her book is not filled with empty ideas or get rich quick ideas. WriterGig has compiled fantastic tips in a detailed book that will motivate and inspire you to write more effective ehow articles and earn more revenue. She even shares some ideas to help market your articles and ways to earn more money through ehow. If you are new to ehow or want to increase your passive income or residual income, check out WriterGig’s ebook.

Here are just a few of my 50 articles found on ehow:

How To Buy Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin
How To Make Extra Money At Home
How To Extend Battery On Nikon D40
How To Find Frugal Weight Loss Tips

If you’re on ehow, please add me as a friend or consider purchasing the ebook. It’s a great investment.

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Madison @ My Dollar Plan found an interesting way to get Free Money From the US Mint. What’s needed is $250-$2,500 in available funds and a rewards credit card. I would not advise you try this if you carry any balance on your cards, as it defeats the purpose. Start here if you need to get out of credit card debt. In fact, I would urge you not to consider this if you also don’t have an emergency account or short term savings account. This is an investment and will take a couple weeks to receive your coins. You might have the CC bill come due before you receive your coins, so be careful! If you want to read further, here’s an interesting way to earn some fun money.

1. Visit the U.S. Mint website and review the details.
2. As of 8/19/08 standard shipping is free.
3. Coins may be purchased as one box for $250 or two boxes for $500.
4. One President per household. It appears you can purchase other Presidents. 5 are currently available.
5. Use a cash back or reward credit card. The U.S. Mint accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express (Amex), and Discover Cards.
6. Once coins arrive, you can use them anywhere you shop. This is U.S. currency and is accepted everywhere. They would make a great gift from the tooth fairy too!
7. If you don’t plan on spending $250 or $2,500 in cash soon, visit your local bank branch and make a deposit. If they give you a hard time, just make several $50 deposits.

What kind of passive income or alternative income will I expect from this transaction? I’m going to use my Blue Cash Rewards from American Express as an example. I have two reward tiers with this Amex card. I earn .05% on purchases up to $6,500 and then 1.5% on everything over that. Two examples show earning potential at .05% and 1.5% below. Be sure to read your credit card reward information carefully and call your company if you have any questions.

1. Purchase $250 in coins @ .05% earns $1.25
2. Purchase $250 in coins @ 1.5% earns $3.75
3. Purchase $500 in coins @ .05% earns $2.50
4. Purchase $500 in coins @ 1.5% earns $3.75
5. Purchase the max $2,500 in coins @ .05% earns $12.50
6. Purchase the max $2,500 in coins @ 1.5% earns $37.50

My conclusion: It may not be worth your time or effort if you are only going to purchase $250 in coins with a 1% reward card. You’ll only be earning $2.50 and may not be worth your time and cover your gas expense to your local bank. It could still be fun and if you were looking to purchase $1 Presidential coins anyway, you still might want to consider it. I do think it would be worth your time and money if you have a higher reward credit card and you can invest $500 or more. It takes just a few minutes to purchase the coins and as long as your bank will take your deposit, you’ll be making $1.25-$37.50 for your efforts. Your credit card reward program may earn you more! Just to be sure you should probably ask your bank manager if you could deposit these coins. I don’t see it being an issue, but they might have a limit to how many $1 coins they like to have on hand. You could probably get around this by making several $50 deposits.

Do you have a reward card that would yield more than 5% in this U.S. Mint example? Please share it with us. Have you ever purchased coins through the U.S. Mint before?

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photo credit: Bryan Kemp

Can a home remodel be a passive income idea? My friends purchased a fixer upper in a great neighborhood and spent several thousand on remodeling and upgrades. He replaced the roof, carpeting, tore out wood paneling, replaced a cracked driveway, and put in a new lawn. They also decided to repaint the entire house and put in new crown and base molding. This made the house look fresh, updated, and transformed the look almost overnight.

A couple of months later, my wife and I purchased our home and needed to put in some new lighting fixtures. This required an electrician and someone to repair the drywall holes. The electrician did a fantastic job and only needed a few access holes in the sheet rock. I made call to my friend and he recommended his drywall guy from his home remodel project. He also mentioned that he would give me a friend discount and give my buddy a 10% referral bonus. Just to make sure his bid was competitive, I called two other drywall companies and received bids from them as well. He actually beat the lowest bid as he did the work himself and had very little overhead costs. What a great opportunity to save some money and make a little for my friend.

My project cost $700 and included patching 6 holes and painting two rooms, hallway, and entry. My friend received $70 as a referral bonus and I received a professional paint and patch job. Do you have a contractor that you would love to recommend to friends? Do they offer a referral bonus like this? You might want to find out next time you have home project. I really think $700 was a small job compared to many home remodels. Imagine if you had a friend doing a $2500 or $10,000 project. Yep, it could happen. Imagine if someone was building a new house! Do you know if your favorite contractors are a source of passive income? You should always ask, you would never want to lose out on a passive income opportunity.

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Are you looking for some easy Passive income ideas that you can utilize immediately? Passive income is the ability to create income from non-active or passive investments. One thing to keep in mind is that you will probably not become wealthy overnight, but you will create a profitable stream of passive income that can grow each month. I am having a ton of fun trying new passive income ideas and have decided to write about those that are profitable for three consecutive months. Many blogs and websites will tell you about opportunities, but not give you a realistic or fair account of actual earnings. I don’t want to find myself making these same claims, and if I do, please call me on it. I also think this can be utilized as an affiliate marketing idea as well. Why? Many affiliate programs I have reviewed, will only pay commission on a member activity for 30-90 days. If someone makes a purchase on ebay in 30 days, you get paid only once. Through this site you will get paid for all ebay activity.

Many bloggers don’t want to spend lot’s of time researching affiliate marketing programs or setting up websites to build traffic to affiliate sties. What options exist for them? What if you are an individual and you are interested in affiliate marketing, but don’t want to create a blog? How about a way to just save some money on purchases and get paid when others shop as well? This passive income idea is fun and I have earned over $117 in commissions and personal cash back. I’ll be sharing some ideas for building referrals and easy marketing strategies for Big Crumbs. O.k, here’s the typical hype you always hear: It’s free to join and you will start saving money at over 200 online merchants. Well, it’s actually true. Many merchants allow you to shop online and pickup the merchandise in the store. Very cool! Gaining referrals is easy as you already know shoppers, and you are not selling a product. Family, parents, friends, college kids all shop and can save money now. I enjoy helping friends and family save money online and the reward is a share of the affiliate commission. If you already sell on ebay, this will give you an added source of income. You simply access Big Crumbs and make all your purchases through the site, the savings and commissions add up quickly. Each month I have been paid between $3-15, and that amount has been consistent for 6 months. Each payment is made monthly through paypal, and it has never been late. Some members on Big Crumbs have reported earning $100-200 and more a month.

Here are 3 quick ideas to help you make more money utilizing Big Crumbs

1. Purchase domain names on godaddy for your niche site or blog.

2. Purchase magnets and business cards through Vista Print to market your website.

3. Purchase any item on ebay.

This has been a fun passive income idea for myself and family, and see the earnings potential growth each month. If you are looking to save money on purchases at ebay, Buy.com, or Overstock, this could be a wonderful opportunity for you. If you want to start creating a passive income opportunity for your family, this could be a nice start.

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