Have you tried selling stock photography on iStockPhoto? Collis from Envato said he made something like $6k a year without even touching it. Why not upload all your photos there?
He also has a site called CodeDen or something, where you can sell PHP scripts. Why not do some work and upload your stuff there?
There are lots of large communities specialising in the stuff you list there!
With the AdSense non-sense, pennies from the appstore and what have you, I am starting to wonder: are people really that averse to going outside and getting a non-laptop job? I used to make $500/day washing windows, man. It was me, a bucket of sprays and a bunch of rags. Should I have blogged about it and tweeted around?
Passive income is the holy grail. $6k in 3 years sounds low, but that was without touching it. That's like a $2k/yr raise just being given to you. And the more of those you can get the more of your time can be financed to do what you want.
Where was that $500/day washing windows job? If i don't get funding, I might need something like that when I would quit my job and start working on my start up full time
Would hate to drain up my resources by not having any cash flow.
Northern Virginia, D.C. area. It's a seasonal job but you will do just fine if you do everything yourself.
I started doing individual private homes, then moved on to working with realtors and community organizations. Best bang for the buck is just going to few apartment buildings and dropping 200 pamphlets saying "Window cleaning on Saturday: Call 1-800-xxx-xxxx to schedule. $100 Cash/Check". If you're doing move outs, take cash up front. Don't ever ever have credit card on file; they will give you the card, then go shopping online. Don't be lazy and hire someone off the street: some homeowners are social parasites praying on these types of businesses, if they sense you're an amateur they will claim theft or broken property to get a free service, or worse, hustle you for money! The worst ones are middle-aged single men. If you see a lawyer don't bother serving them; scum of the earth, $0.10 is the price of their letterhead, and it's how much it costs them to ruin you. If you suspect someone is fussy, walk away, not worth the trouble. Be firm and do good job.
Don't use a squeegee by itself, squeegee then wipe. Thin roll paper is best, the kind that don't feel spongy like a toilet paper (but more like newspaper.) If you use cloth rags get the thinest hardest ones you can get; the padded ones with sponge or cotton inside wear and tear after wash and the cotton comes out, sticking to staticy glass.
No poles or extensions. Period. If you use a ladder watch where you lean it against, and watch where it stands (I had it sink into soft ground slowly throwing me 12 feet down.)
Try not to break anything. Repair will ruin you.
Lock all the doors and windows when you're done and instruct the homeowner to do a check around. Tell them it's their responsibility.
Ask me if you need further help.
Good luck!
[Edit:
I must add this. No intellectual conversations with clients. People don't like "well read, well traveled" types, and if you appear upwardly mobile at all, people will feel uneasy; they get self-conscious and they don't want to be seen by someone who might be critical of them intellectually or professionally. When you see a shelf of Dan Browns, the ever pretentious Hegel for Dummies, or those "Prague for Bachelors" books, keep a straight face.]
Thanks for the great advice - gives me one more very good option to consider (used to drive taxis, before and after getting jobs).
Without implying that the advice before the edit was any less useful - because that was definitely very good advice - the one you addded in the edit is a gem of a practical advice, especially for me.
I think I was susceptable to getting distracted by "interesting" stuff and it might have helped me get tagged (albeit, unwillingly) as an asshole in the past.
I am probably generalizing when I say this, but to some extent, you will find in that business that a good chunk of your clients will be using your services for the sense of luxury it gives them. It's often decided on a whim, as an indulgence. So chatting up clients as "class peers" often ruins this fantasy for them. For many of them it's their chance to get spoiled and catered to, so "yes sir, yes ma'am" is all you should say to them.
Another thing is that people, specially the well off and people in sensitive positions are weary of having someone with a clue in their house. It's not unusual to overhear sensitive conversations. So, try to be dumb and folksy.
So chatting up clients as "class peers" often ruins this fantasy for them.
I hadn't thought of it that way till now, but now when I think back, it does make a chunk of sense. I might even have unwilling intimidated some, by talking about stuff they didn't know (they, as in customers)
The point about "sensitive positions are weary..." thats another good one.
Who knows, may be HN (and the contributors on it) would be the perfect educators for me to get out my social awkwardness!!
You will not hesitate to charge that much, and more, when you find your wet finger tips freezing in the cold, or the first time a 30 pound glass panel falls shut on your wrist.
I got just as much business from cleaning companies as direct clients.
You can spend half your time unhinging ancient sliding glass windows, melting 50 year old pain that has sealed them shut, removing storm-windows and screens, tip-toeing on white new carpet while carrying a desk-sized piece of dust and cobweb infested panel. And oh, the fun you will have scrapping plant matter, dead insects and scum off of garden-facing windows. How about the demented old lady who forgets who you are and dials 9/11 at your "sight", right after she calls you a nigger several times and sicks a dog on you?
It's not all get in and get out, but it taught me how to run a business, and my subsequent ventures after that were all a breeze compared. However, it is the most lucrative business with little upfront investment.
Not difficult at all - I remember paying £25 for someone to clean the 4 windows of a flat I was living in, which was on the 1st floor of a house.
How long do you think it takes to do 4 windows, exterior only, with a mop on an extended handle? (the answer is: not very long at all)
He was cleaning next door's windows, so I spoke to him as I walked past, and he dropped an invoice through the letterbox. And then 4 weeks later, he cleaned the windows again, as if I'd signed up to a subscription... So I paid £25 again, for not much.
If you can schedule a route of cleaning, you can do 12 houses in just a couple of hours.
12 x £25 = £300 (which isn't far off $500; $475 at today's exchange rate).
You'd need to deduct your van costs and cleaning equipment out of that though.
We pay £3 a fortnight to have about 6m^2 of window (ground floor) cleaned to retail spec including wiping down the paintwork afterwards and a free internal clean every 6 months or so.
It takes probably as long for them to take the money as it does to actually clean (about 5mins I reckon).
I think you are misunderstanding. It didn't cost his customers $500/day, it cost 5 of them $100 how ever often they needed it (probably once when they moved out of their apartment). Would you seriously spend so much of your own time doing such boring work if you could just pay a profession a measly $100 to do it for you (probably faster and better than you would do).
>Would you seriously spend so much of your own time doing such boring work if you could just pay a profession a measly $100 to do it for you (probably faster and better than you would do).
Working off $100 as near enough £60 then it would have to take at least half a day for it to be worth doing IMO. Sure if you're on £60 an hour then it's probably worth paying someone that for the 15mins they take to clean all your windows.
Seems a bit steep to me though - I could buy the ladder, squeegee and sponge and do the windows and still not be down and of course next time I'd have the ladder, etc., already.
If you had to buy the Ladder etc then it ends up not being $100 saved right? Besides, the setup time plus actual window cleaning would take considerably longer than 15 minutes.
Tried iStockPhoto. Applied twice with different images both times, and was rejected both times. The problem with iStockPhoto is that now all but the most obscure niches are filled, so it is difficult to even get in the door with them.
Never heard of CodeDen. Can't even find them in a quick Google search. Have a link?
He also has a site called CodeDen or something, where you can sell PHP scripts. Why not do some work and upload your stuff there?
There are lots of large communities specialising in the stuff you list there!