
Ask HN: How have you made "quick" money before? - throwaway_broke
I find myself in a unique (not so unique?) situation today: <i>While I am very competent in two valuable areas (web and mobile development), I find myself in a short term and temporary shortage of money</i>, due to the usual hiccups that can happen while providing for a family. While my career is solid, I find myself in deep need for a way to make <i>$1-2k over the next month</i> to pay some bills.<p>I am pursuing doing some client work on the side, as that's the easiest way to make that kind of money, but projects take time to get started/completed/invoiced/paid. So my question to the very inventive audience on HN is this:<p><pre><code>  How have you made 'quick' money, through non-traditional means?
</code></pre>
What I mean is, barring the typical routes like client work, day job, etc, what are some ways you have made a little extra money, in a relatively short time frame. Perfectly fine if it's not glamorous, or even nothing to be proud of, just something that paid rent for you one month. Thanks ahead of time for all the great ideas I know you all probably have. Any help is more than appreciated.
======
nostrademons
If it's really a short-term, temporary shortage (i.e. cash flow crunch), have
you considered loans? This is sorta what credit cards, payday loans, and
HELOCs are for. I'm guessing that HN is very opposed to debt of any sort, but
the interest on even a payday loan is likely to be less than the depreciation
hit you take from selling anything you'll need to replace later.

You could be in for major problems if it becomes a habit, though. Take on debt
only if it is a one-time, nonrecurring expense that you can pay back in a
short time, not if it's a problem of income not meeting expenditures. And work
on building up an emergency fund so you can be your own banker next time.

(FWIW: I served as "banker" when my sister moved out and got her own place,
because she'd never worked before and didn't have money for 1st months rent +
security deposit. She paid me back with interest 3 months later, although the
"interest" was only that she paid for my half of our dad's father's day gift
and bought me some sheet music.)

~~~
mseebach
If you have a solid job, you should be able to get a line of credit with your
bank. It's typically less than half interest of credit cards.

I was in much the same situation as the OP some time ago, when credit card
companies wouldn't touch me because I was new to the country and had no credit
rating. I called my bank and got a £1000 line of credit in 10 minutes,
presumably on the back of them seeing a fairly substantial salary hit the
account every month.

~~~
patio11
This can actually be a little bit tricky in the US, since unsecured lines of
credit are sort of a disappearing product at many banks. (They're strictly
inferior to the bank as opposed to having you do a CC cash advance and their
risk profile is off the charts because anybody whose need is "I can't get a
credit card but..." when American banks hand them out like candy on Halloween
is not generally a great credit risk.)

You can find them (particularly at credit unions) but they're not, to my
understanding, as common in the US as in commonwealth countries.

~~~
joonix
I have $42,000 in credit with a major bank on credit cards, and just received
an $8.5k 0% balance transfer from another (they just put the money in my
account). I've earned basically nothing in the last 6 years (been a student).
Unsecured credit is out there, it's just about establishing a credit history,
which I've been doing since I was 18.

~~~
bruceboughton
$42,000 credit limit or outstanding debt?

~~~
joonix
Credit limit, thankfully

------
buro9
I made a fanzine (Xerox copy produced magazine) covering bands that were due
to play in my town.

I'd print the whole thing except for the cover, and I'd then print the cover
on the day of a gig with the headline band on the front.

I could produce these fanzines at 30p, and sell them for up to £2 (exact price
depends on the people in the queue I was selling to). I could also sell over a
hundred at each gig. Which means £170 profit per night.

Gigs only happened 3 or 4 days a week, so I could only bag around £600 per
week from this.

That said, it was quick and non-traditional. Requiring only A4 paper, a pen,
and snippets from other music magazines (photos).

I did this when I was homeless and had no skills.

Now you have skills in web and mobile development, skills worth way more to
people than me selling fanzines at a gig.

If you want to make some money, get the yellow pages and pick up the phone. Go
find a local business park and knock on some doors. Walk in and tell them what
you can do, what you offer, and explain your situation. Offer to fix their
networking, their printer, their website, to add a feature.

MOST SMALL BUSINESSES HAVE NO TECH PERSON.

They pay over the odds and always have nagging little problems that they will
pay to fix.

More, once you've done your role as an odd-job techie, you'll be on their
books as someone who can fix something. Allowing you to tap into a little
future stream of money too.

But ultimately, how badly do you want the money? Because this money is there,
if you want it bad enough. But it does take some leg work to find those small
companies who don't know how to find you (this is why they pay a premium).

~~~
bravoyankee
I did something similar with a local music zine (a long time ago in a galaxy
far away) and made a bit of cash, but nowhere near as much as you.

So, while I congratulate you on your resourcefulness and success, I think this
advice is very particular to where you live, whether you even like local
music, do you understand page layout design, good writing etc.

It's a good story (my daughters thought it was cool that their dad was in the
local music scene) but lousy advice.

As for going door to door asking businesses for work? Nope. It sounds
perfectly plausible but doesn't pan out so well in reality (I've done it).
Wearing my business blazer, a pocket full of business cards and a really great
deal on a small business website, I went from business to business all. day.
long. I explained who I was, what value I could bring to their company etc but
got nothing.

Why? I think because they had no intent to buy, or even an expressed interest
or need. I was just one of many people walking in through their door trying to
sell them something.

And that's the thing: if you are a local business with a brick and mortar
establishment in a reasonably trafficked area, you are going to have as many
people visit your store to sell you something as to buy something. Most times
they will politely listen to your pitch, take your card, then never speak to
you again.

So again, while the advice sounds plausible, it's not actually a way to make
quick cash or even build a client base. Even if you want to make money "badly
enough".

P.S. Desperation doesn't sell.

~~~
buro9
Don't sell desperation, sell value and service.

I've been doing a day here, a day there, all summer whilst I spend 4 days a
week working on the startup. I simply call people I know with small
businesses, or charities, and after a short chat to see how they are, I ask
them whether they or any of their neighbouring businesses have work that needs
doing.

I bill £500 per day, and have got work every day I've sought it.

Sometimes I build a Wordpress site. Sometimes I fix their wifi and network.
Other times I get their backup systems working and I test them. For some
charities I take my experience with contracts and project management and I
review their request for bids and the offers the receive. One company pays me
a monthly retainer to configure their Google Apps, as they just want a
technical person who is on their side they can call should something go wrong.

I do anything that they need doing, even though my skills whoosh above their
needs.

You might say that this is because of London and a surplus of SMEs needing
help, and perhaps it is.

Though London wasn't the reason the fanzine thing worked, because I was
homeless and hitching from town to town at the time. It worked in Leeds,
Manchester, Birmingham, Portsmouth. You might say that fanzines are just a UK
thing, you might be right. I also think it's because when I didn't put the
headline band on the cover I couldn't shift more than 10 copies... you sell
people something they are interested in, so I put the headline band that
they're seeing on the cover.

Sell value, sell what people want. People always want something, and in this
time people want help with tech stuff.

~~~
bravoyankee
You essentially repeated what I said about value and finding the right market,
so that's cool.

At the time I made the zine I too was in transition, not exactly homeless
because some friends who were renting an apartment let me stay with them, but
I've been homeless before and simply fulfilling basic needs like a next meal
and a place to sleep consumed most of my time and energy.

However, I know your advice needs to be taken with a big ole grain of salt and
some major considerations because I've done it. There are better ways.

Another PS! What is great about your suggestion is that it's outside the box.
It's not the typical "RAISE YOUR RATES" that you are hearing from the Borg.
It's inspirational. So for that, thank you.

------
patio11
"Work a day. Bill a day." will accomplish the goal with very little execution
risk (pair it with "Borrow money from a bank." if you want a bit of an
insurance policy). Better yet, work multiple days, then put away some of the
income in an emergency fund, because usual hiccups do indeed happen when
providing for a family.

There are more complicated answers, but they strike me as a perverse sort of
poverty tourism. You have such astoundingly better options than poor people.
Use them.

~~~
izak30
I regret that I have but one vote to give. It's disappointing that the actual
skills that could be valuable are not listed web and mobile is much too broad
for this audience. List your actionable skills. Your normal job probably gives
you Thursday to Sunday off (if you're in the states) if you're in a bind, find
some work and someone who will pre-pay, or pay on delivery, and make some
deliverables.

~~~
throwaway1979
Thursday to Sunday off??? Which place do you speak of?

~~~
thejteam
This week only... Thanksgiving Thursday+most people take off Friday after
Thanksgiving+normal weekend. The OP mentioned needing money quick.

------
jaggederest
Sell your shit, or pawn it.

Good things to sell are things that hold value - bikes, rolexes, tools, things
like that. Imagine you were burgling your own apartment/house, take the things
they would take and sell them.

It's entirely possible to purchase a used mercedes, take decent care of it for
2-3 years, and turn around and resell it for virtually the same price. Ditto
many luxury goods - a used rolex can sometimes be turned around for a profit.

~~~
MattGrommes
The side benefit of this is that once you "give up" a bunch of stuff you find
you don't really need it around any more. I had a ton of DVDs (this was a few
years ago) that I had to get rid of to make short-term cash and once they were
gone I didn't even think of it. Same for a bunch of books I was keeping
around. The only thing I really miss is the first few seasons of The Simpsons
and now that things are better financially I can always buy them again.

~~~
derefr
On the other hand, you can only really "learn" this lesson once. The second
time around, you look for something to sell, and realize that your possessions
are now worth less than $300 combined. (And yes, this even includes the
computer I would need to do my work! Depreciation is a harsh mistress.)

~~~
drivebyacct2
If I removed my electronics my total possessions would likely be less than
that sum, though I suppose my clothes have more monetary worth than I assign
them value. And then including electronics, it's shocking highly.
Embarrassingly so.

------
jacquesm
By finding someone with a problem and solving it for them on the spot.

Quickest 1,000 euros (2500 guilders at the time) I ever made was in a place
where they ran a distributed message passing system that had broken down on a
busy Monday morning grinding to a halt the shipping brokerages in 50 countries
or so.

From walking in to getting the job to walking out again with a for me at the
time large sum of money was about 15 minutes. Outsider perspective is worth a
lot in times of crisis and if you can spot what the problem is faster than the
team that built the thing it certainly won't hurt your reputation.

Of course you could argue that I charged them too little and that I should
have made them bleed but I don't like ripping people off. And they did turn
into a long term customer after that.

~~~
richardgarand
If the OP doesn't already know someone in that situation, how does he find
them?

~~~
tagabek
It seems like jacquesm's situation was a random encounter, and not as much of
a pre-meditated action.

------
lambtron
One time, me and my friend came across a book that was only sold through a
small publisher in Omaha. The book sold for ~$20 and, since we couldn't find
it on Amazon, we resold it for $300 a pop.

Every time we received an order on Amazon, we would just take that buyer's
information and buy it on the small publisher's website—we essentially took on
zero risk and worked a few minutes every time we got an order.

It was a great example of arbitrage. And just like arbitrage, competitors also
saw this exploit and the market inefficiency disappeared. Margins were
competed away.

Even though it was a temporary window of opportunity, we found an article
saying that some people do this kind of work full time (finding obscure books
and reselling at a huge markup)!

------
ChuckMcM
Clearly the easiest thing (as many have mentioned) has been "sell your stuff."
One of the folks I know who got into trouble post 2009 was selling "PC tuneups
and consulting" for $50 initially, and $75 later, he would spend an hour with
someone and help 'tune up' their PC (get rid of old software, update to a
current AV, etc) and if they were interested he would consult with the client
on what they needed/wanted in a PC and would give them some places where they
could acquire it. After a couple of weeks, and even after raising his price by
50% he had more business than he could handle. I believe he also got an
affiliated marketing deal with one of the AV companies and they would spiff
him something like $10 if the customer bought their AV product.

Basically technology is really confusing to a lot of people, many of whom will
gladly pay for someone to explain to them in small words what they need to do.

------
dave_sullivan
That's a tough one.

If there was a way to make quick money that worked, lots of people would be
doing it. With enough people doing it, some people get very good at it and are
able to consolidate and raise barriers to entry. So now that previously very
attractive thing is slightly less attractive because there's more ramp up
required.

Fortunately, you do have valuable skills. Unfortunately, as you point out,
even putting those to optimal use requires significant ramp up--you've got to
build a name for yourself or you've got to start some kind of consulting
company and build a client list. Then suddenly you're in the consulting
business. If you just jump into it and take whatever you can get, you'll make
significantly less.

It's not even a matter of doing something you'd rather not do--there are tons
of people out there that will do things most people don't want to do for very
little money--and they do it for a living.

So of those, you could try hitting odesk or elance or any number of
freelancing websites to pick up a quick gig--but even that requires a sales
pipeline that takes some time to get going. Personally, I'd put it on a credit
card if I were in a similar situation, and lacking that, would probably start
selling stuff.

------
petercooper
Ran a course. Sold a screencast. (Over $10k within 2 months for both.) A
little busy to go into details right now but there have been lots of posts
with similar case studies on HN - one of the better ones was
<http://sachagreif.com/lessons-learned-from-an-ebook-launch/>

~~~
joonix
I'll never understand how people promote these things in the sea of noise that
is the web, assuming they don't already have a solid presence.

~~~
petercooper
That's where I got lucky.

I've always had a passion for publishing and have tended to build up news
sites, blogs, and now e-mail newsletters in the areas I find interesting. So
prior to both the course and my screencast, I already had a five figure
audience on the right topics and a huge home advantage.

I'll note, however, that this is by no means required, and people in my
position frequently become friendly with others with such projects and help
them out.

------
lifeformed
Pick out the parts, build, and setup a powerful gaming desktop, and sell it at
double price. Ideally, you already have a buyer in mind, and you talk to him
beforehand so you can meet his needs specifically.

People who don't know much about computers, but want (and can afford) the very
best, would probably be happy to drop $2-3k on a custom-built computer that
you can put together for $1k off of Newegg and a couple of hours of work. Set
up Windows, drivers, and all of their Steam games, so they can just pick it up
and play. Plus, you get to play with new gadgets, if that's your thing.

------
dangrossman
Build plugins or themes for WordPress. There are 58 million active WP sites
now. There are mature markets for listing and promoting what you create. Bonus
money if you can tie what you build into generating revenue for customers --
affiliate marketing tools/integrations, plugins or themes that play with
existing e-commerce plugins or themes people use, marketing tools, etc. If you
can do that, you can justify a $50-100 price tag, and just one sale a day will
create the revenue you need.

8 years ago or so, I ran a little ecommerce site with a wholesale/drop-ship
product provided by another company. When I needed extra spending money (being
a full-time college student at a private university and no savings), I'd clone
my own site. I'd design a new theme for the shopping cart software and sell
the same product. I'd advertise it on Google AdWords for a few days to get
some orders. Then I'd package that all up and list it on eBay -- a fully
functional site with existing customers, a supplier, a known conversion rate,
and pre-written ad copy and keyword list for the buyer. These days people use
Flippa instead of eBay to sell websites, but it's something you could try as a
web dev.

~~~
eob
Question I've always had for WP Theme businesses: is there any need / common
practice to prevent plugin piracy? Or is the market so big and pirates such a
small portion of it that it isn't really something worth worrying about?

~~~
dangrossman
IMO, it would be counterproductive to employ any kind of obfuscation or
license protection. Having access to the code is part of the reason people
choose to build their sites on WordPress. More installs than not have some
kind of customization done. Plus, you'll have less satisfied customers
(inevitably a significant portion will have issues getting the
loader/licensing setup to work on their shared host, or will have other issues
you can't help them with because they can't debug the code) so less blog
writeups / recommendations driving referral sales.

I was in the WP business for a while, with about a quarter million in sales
before I sold it off, and did nothing to prevent piracy. It wasn't an issue.
Someone pirating the code doesn't hurt me. Anyone that wanted the
plugins/themes and had money was going to pay for it, as that's the only way
they would get support and updates.

------
xoail
When in college I wrote solution manuals of my text books (as part of
assignments) and sold it on eBay. I made over 2k a month for few months. I am
not sure if you can apply this but something to think out of the box. You may
be already doing something, and someone may be willing to pay for it online.
Also, please include your email in the profile. If you are in NYC, I may be
able to hire you and pay you some advance payment for web dev services.

~~~
obstacle1
Out of curiosity, would there be copyright issues to worry about there?

~~~
xoail
Probably. But I did it anyways for sometime and sold it as a solutions guide.

------
geoffschmidt
One option is for-pay medical studies, especially if you live near the right
kind of clinic or university. Googling "medical research for pay" might give
you some starting points. I have never done it myself but it is a real thing.
(EDIT: <http://brokelyn.com/human-guinea-pig/>)

In particular sleep studies can pay thousands of dollars (in exchange for
living in a lab for a week or two) but the lead time might be too long for
you, eg <https://sleep.med.harvard.edu/research/recruitment>

Also, you might try being a provider on services like Exec, Lyft, or
Taskrabbit.

~~~
weisser
Taskrabbit can be hit or miss. I signed up as a taskrabbit purely because I
was curious about the interface they were using for bidding on and being
assigned tasks. I completed two tasks in the span of three days.

The first was a pick up/drop off job that consisted of me picking up some
rental items and dropping them off about 30 minutes outside Boston ($25). The
second was ordering an iced latte at Starbucks and literally delivering it a
block away ($14!). Both times the mobile app failed (iPhone 4S, iOS 6) in two
different ways. For the first task it failed multiple times when I tried to
mark the task as complete-not such a big deal since the task was done. The
fail during the second task was critical-it would not let me login to view
where the drop-off location was and the email confirmation confusingly showed
the start and end location as the same address (Starbucks). I had to call the
person who submitted the task to verify drop-off location and explain that the
app had failed. They weren't irritated but I could see why me calling might be
disruptive since they made this task to avoid leaving the building and walking
a block.

Those sort of really simple (meaning ~2 steps) tasks seem to be few and far
between. Many tasks such as, "Go shopping for me at IKEA," turn out to be much
more involved when you read the details and find out the task includes
assembling the furniture on-site.

For me it was more about trying out the interface on really basic tasks than
making money but perhaps more complicated tasks would be something you'd be
willing to do. Another important note is that the taskrabbit application is
not too quick of a turnaround. I think it took nearly two weeks before I was
approved.

------
Rinum
Black Friday is coming up. Be the first in line at a popular shop and sell
your spot.

~~~
bsims
Style points if you bring a laptop and work on a project while waiting in line
to sell your spot.

------
artursapek
I don't know if you do mobile _design_ or just development, but the payouts on
99Designs can be pretty good and the contests (from my experience three years
ago) go pretty quick.

If you're capable of cloning the style that their clients seem to choose most
of the time your success rate can be rather high, but it can also be very
frustrating to do a lot of work and by chance not win any contests.

It's pretty shallow work artistically, and can be a gamble. But you could
probably rack up $2000 in a month if you really committed.

<http://99designs.com/mobile-app-design/contests>

------
bdcravens
Having been in that situation from time to time, I've sold stuff. Most of it
fairly current technology: SSD drives, iPads, etc.

I also pickup quick projects: $500-$2000 projects that can be completed on the
side in under a week.

Hit up Craigslist. (assuming you're in an area where this is relevant) Not
always the highest quality work, but you'll find a lot of quick $$ things
there.

------
lousy_sysadmin
Been there...

1) Sell your stuff

2) Odd job. I always do this, from replacement delivery guy to wedding planner
assistant. Ask your network for a short gig and most of the time they have
something for you

3) Borrow some money (family/friend)

4) Loan (CC/bank)

Done that

------
zoltar92
Your on hacker news. You need to break conventional thinking and "hack" the
world to make money. Billing others to program is a dead end. Think of
creative way to generate income!

------
redguava
Find small businesses in your local area that don't have websites and offer to
build them one for $500 (or whatever number you think). You just need a few to
make your money and it shouldn't take you long to build a simple site. Use
wordpress and themes to make it really fast.

Restaurants are particularly good candidates.

------
nabraham
i) Write a scraper that compares electronic prices on Craigslist with what the
fair value is on ebay/priceonomics. Auto send emails to craigslist sellers who
are selling below market value, purchase, and then sell on ebay/craigslist.
You can do similar live negotiations at moving sales.

ii) Airbnb your home, especially if you live in or near a big city. Or rent a
home to Airbnb.

~~~
ajju
Rent a home to airbnb? AirBnB pays you fixed rent to rent your home from you
and then rents it out to guests?

~~~
nabraham
I should have been more clear: rent a secondary home for the sole purpose of
generating revenue on Airbnb.

~~~
ajju
Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.

------
mbesto
I'm looking for a part-time web developer for a budget of around $1k/month
actually. Check my profile out for my contact details.

------
technotony
Put up a profile on Elance or ODesk, explain your situation clearly that you
are willing to work for lower rates than your normal market rates for a short
period and ask for people to help you.

~~~
flyinRyan
Lower than market rates on Elance/ODesk? People are working so cheaply already
that it would take ages to make $2k. You can make big money on those sites but
you have to build up a profile and that's not done quickly.

------
derdesign
You could try selling web related stuff, specially Wordpress & Magento themes.
I have made a living on Themeforest (<http://themeforest.net>) selling WP
themes since 2009 up until a few months back.

Serious money can be made there. Sales reached the $16K mark in my last month.
I had to retire to dedicate full time to other things.

They pay monthly, on the 15th. Check it out, maybe this isn't exactly what
you're asking for, but I think it's worth a look...

~~~
voorloopnul
You retired from a "job" that gives you 16k ? Right...

Ok, since I'm a good guy, gimme your account and I will keep selling your
stuff and only will get a cut of 50%

------
itsprofitbaron
You have two main assets in your hands to generate $2000+ quickly – web &
mobile development.

Seriously, I started making money online at 14 with $0 and I remember thinking
then if I could make $100 online that would be amazing – I made it within 3
days of my decision to start making money online through forum boosting
(there’s a load of forum posts where you can see me winning “forum boosting
contracts” etc).

Since you need $2000 now there are loads of options available to you to do it,
taking advantage of your Web & Mobile development skills and I’ll suggest a
couple of the methods I have used over the years to make money online in a
short period of time.

\- Create FREE Wordpress Themes & sell the “sponsored” links in the footer =
$75 – 150/theme.

Sell 3 slots on each design for: $20-25/each

Sell the “designer” slot by for: $30-50/each

Offer the whole theme for: $100-150

Then submit the theme to 100-150 free theme places (you could even pay someone
on fiverr to do it)

\- Sell Wordpress Themes on ThemesForest

$30 – 50/each

\- Sell Wordpress Plugins

\- Code PSD/HTML etc

Offer your services for $30-100/page & charge $50-100 extra to code to
Wordpress etc.

\- Write an eBook report

Write a report on some aspect to making money online etc & sell it for $7-10
on Webmaster Forums.

\- Write a Larger eBook. Sell it on Warrior Forum.

Write a 10-20 page eBook then sell it on Warrior Forum as a WSO.

\- Write Articles

500/word articles at $6-8/each.

\- Bid for Web Development/Mobile Development on Freelance Sites

Take small tasks which are easy to do & take a short period of time - $100-200
projects.

\- Create Mobile Sites

Charge $100-500 for making existing website owners a simple mobile version of
their site.

\----

There are a load more methods which I have done and what you can do too but,
there are some methods you implement to make money online quickly with no
capital outlay. I know because these are some of the methods I have used over
the years to make money online.

------
benzor
Just because everyone's already mentioned the easy (and probably best) answer
of just selling stuff you don't need, let me add something a little different:

Enter programming competitions, app hackathons, that sort of thing. The kind
that are typically one whole 24h day, or perhaps an entire weekend, and offer
decent prizes to the top few teams.

Now, I'll grant you that this might not be suitable for a number of reasons.
The main one being that you sound like you need this money ASAP and perhaps
there simply aren't any good contests this weekend. However, they certainly
meet your criteria for being earned "in a relatively short time frame" since
you're not working more than a few days and potentially collecting a 4+ figure
check. You also (obviously) need some solid chops, but you mentioned that
you're "very competent" at web and mobile development, and those are the
hottest areas so that's a good start.

Some random examples of contests and competitions that I've been involved with
recently include Mozilla Ignite [1], The Great Canadian Appathon [2], and a
bunch of other low-key contests with smaller payoffs, often aimed at students.
I'm linking to the prize pages just to show you that it can be very lucrative
:).

So get out there and give it a shot. At worst you make no money but meet a
bunch of awesome people, and they usually present opportunities of their own.

[1] <https://blog.mozillaignite.org/2012/09/ideation-winners/>

[2] <http://greatcanadianappathon.com/prizes.php>

------
mistercow
Depends on the definition of "quick" but sites like vWorker aren't bad if
you're willing to work for less (assuming you haven't already built up a
reputation) initially. On the one hand, it can sting to work for much less
than your normal rate. If you're looking to pay the rent this way, you're
going to need to take on a lot of small projects, and it's going to be a lot
of work.

But on the other hand, it has some advantages, like potentially growing your
client base and building a reputation so you can make more on those sites when
you need to in the future. And sometimes time is all you have.

And it can make more economic sense than selling hardware, even if the
hardware seems nonessential. Selling an oldish iPad now and buying a new one
in six months is much more expensive than holding onto the old one for another
year and a half. Hardware depreciates rapidly, so in theory, you could do well
by selling an old iPad and then buying the same model used, later on if you
need it. In practice, people usually don't do that.

~~~
mistercow
Well, I said that, and today vWorker coincidentally emailed me to tell me it
had been acquired by freelancer.com . Paying for the privilege of bidding
sounds like a losing model, and I don't know if the free 10 bid plan is
sufficient to do anything; on vWorker you always had to place a lot of bids
before you could expect to win.

------
simonebrunozzi
Since you need money quickly, this is what I suggest: 1) Sell your stuff on
Ebay or Craigslist or similar. 2) Find temporary work for a company that pays
decent money (Lyft, Uber, TaskRabbit, Mechanical Turk, etc). 3) My favorite:
call a good friend, tell them that you need 2k within a few weeks, and offer a
written payback promise. This way your friend will not feel in a too awkward
situation, and you'll be able to give him his money back. Ask for a 4-month
deadline payment, and offer interest (let's say 60 dollars?). If he's a
friend, he'll help. If your friend is able/willing to give you only 1k, accept
it. And find another friend who will lend the other 1k. It's doable, and
there's nothing to be ashamed of. Then find some meaningful ways to repay that
debt.

Good luck. Hope it goes well.

------
joelmbell
This is probably not the answer that your looking for but honestly if you
absolutely need 1-2k over the next month find some stuff to sell.

You might have to get a little bit more crazy with it than you want to, but I
think most people would be suprised how much stuff they don't actually "need".

------
riams
Arbitrage on virtual goods from different countries/regions. Got lucky and got
15k in a week.

------
bsims
You could go donate plasma. [http://www.ehow.com/how_2195131_earn-month-
donating-plasma.h...](http://www.ehow.com/how_2195131_earn-month-donating-
plasma.html)

------
swastik
I would create a (maybe more than one, if I have that kind of time) wordpress
plugin/theme (or any other app that has some value) if I have those skills and
sell the entire plugin on a site like, say, Flippa. It would be easier and
quicker than selling the plugin itself, and you will get the extra $1000-2000
within that time.

That's the simplest way to go about. You can create anything that has a high
perceived value—web apps, iOS apps, etc. all count—and sell it. The key is the
high perceived value.

------
beatpanda
Do small-scale client work and ask for half up front. I've done this plenty of
times succesfully.

I also paid my rent for several months while unemployed by offering to do work
on my landlord's other properties. In fact, me _and_ one of my other
housemates were "employed" this way until we found more lucrative work.

Tutoring other people in web development has also paid my bills at times.

------
iuguy
If you need to make $1-$2k in a short period the best way to do this is to
sell your things. You should have enough things to make that in enough time
and you can always buy replacement things when you have the money later.

Once you've sold enough stuff, work out how much you need that's left. Can you
get that doing a couple of evenings or weekends of part time work?

------
egmalek
Code repurposing

You've probably worked on some interesting projects that are similar to some
of the call-for-bids on oDesk or Elance.

Just look for the intersection between what code you already have and ongoing
call-for-bids.

While bidding, send a screenshot and say that you already got the solution
working.

Clients love avoiding the risk of paying someone to try and reinvent the
wheel.

------
centdev
I've been down that road a number of times. And I've been lucky to find myself
in situations that allowed me to pull through with out selling my stuff. If
you're good at iOS and Android development, I may have some short terms (few
days) projects.

------
sharemywin
Sell Twinkies on ebay!!!!

[http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&...](http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=twinkies&_sacat=0&_from=R40)

------
dripton
This time of year, the package delivery companies are hiring lots of temporary
help. There was a sticker looking for temporary delivery guys covering up the
local paper's lead story last week.

------
jvrossb
Set up a profile on Elance.com and bid on some dev projects. It's not a
particularly non-traditional mean but I mention it because you say you're
competent in web and mobile development.

~~~
jaybong
Definitely this. It's very low risk, and you have the skills to make quick
money on smallish jobs. You won't be earning what you are worth but that's not
really the point if you need the cash fast. People posting ads on these sites
are primarily looking for an indication that you fully understand the
requirements, so when responding lay out in detail what the job entails then
pitch why you can do it and the timeframe/cost.

These sites are crowded with non-native English speakers that often pitch for
a job with something like "yes i can do", so putting in a little work up front
will get you good hit rate.

I haven't really looked at this stuff for a while (and I'm no expert save from
hiring a few people) but last time I checked odesk.com and freelancer.com were
the main ones.

Not good money and yeah it's traditional, but fast and fairly
reliable/predictable.

------
ra
Do you write iphone apps? If so ping me, I may have a gig.

------
FiloSottile
There's a good market ($50+) in console modding and (i)gadget fixing.

You only need forums, tutorials, some screwdrivers and iFixit. Personally, I
also find it really fun.

------
marshray
You could attempt to find a vulnerability in a major system for a vendor that
pays bug bounties.

------
zbruhnke
Ping me I may be able to help

------
sharemywin
borrow it. <http://www.prosper.com/>

------
eddie_the_head
Side trades at the family food cart I ran during summers, like selling drugs.

------
dbyrd
consulting

------
notdrunkatall
Two weeks ago, I wandered into an Office Depot that was having a moving sale,
and just about everything in the store was 50% off. The computers and most of
the electronics were only 10-20% off, with one major exception: graphing
calculators. They had about 30 Texas Instruments graphing calculators of all
kinds from 40-50% off.

I bought them all, 30 in total, and started selling them on Amazon and Ebay,
undercutting everyone by a few dollars.

I just shipped the last two off yesterday, and after shipping costs and
selling fees, I made just over $1,000.

It's not something that you can do any time, but going-out-of-business sales
aren't that uncommon, and suffice to say that I will be on the look out for
them from now on.

------
frozenport
1K is credit card money. Get one.

~~~
jheriko
some people have no credit score - in particular it is hard to get one if you
have never had any previous debt or credit cards...

------
helloamar
i sold a .com domain at a high price

~~~
JohnHaugeland
How?

Someone approached me about one of my domains the other day at a price I found
adequate, but then they disappeared, and I don't really know how to fix it.

------
monochromatic
Gamble. Just don't lose.

~~~
nicholas73
If I was down to my last 1000 and lost my job, I'd play poker for a living. I
am pretty confident I can consistently make ~200 in a half day in low level
tables. But, that is with years of paying tuition. Besides the numbers, it's
about psychology (your own, mostly). Gotta be able to keep discipline.

~~~
encoderer
100 BB downturns are not uncommon even among winning players.

Poker is a game of skill but it doesn't mean you can't have bad luck.

I play poker when I have $1000 to lose without risk. That's when I can play my
best, with detachment from the money and the freedom that provides.

My last $1000 with no job? It's time to think about food and shelter and a new
job -- any old job will do. I made a decision in my mid-20s that I would never
again sponge off my parents or friends, that for me, I'd outgrown that. So no
way would I risk my last $1k.

But, of course, YMMV.

