Money Saving Mom®

Welcome to October’s series on 31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas. In this series, I’m highlighting simple and legitimate ways you can earn extra cash in the next two months for those of you who could use a little extra cash to help you pay for Christmas — or just for your living expenses if you’re in a tight spot right now.

If you’ve found a great way to make extra cash before Christmas that doesn’t require an outlay of cash upfront, please email me your tip. I’d love to hear it and possibly share it during this series!

Guest post from Davonne of DavonneParks.com

We’ve all seen the classic lemonade stand, but something a little more unique is an Autumn Food Stand, complete with hot chocolate, cider, and freshly baked goodies. My daughters and I have had these together and we’ve learned a lot of ways to make it successful.

1. Use what you have.

There’s no need to spend money on tables, signs, and food. Just look around your house and see what you can “borrow” for the stand.

We put our for-sale items in baskets or on dinner plates, and we’ll cover our table with a party tablecloth that’s left over from a previous event. The items we sell vary depending on what we have on hand.

A brownie mix in the pantry means we’ll sell fresh baked brownies. Frozen or refrigerated cookie dough can be popped into the oven as well.

2. Keep it simple.

We’ve made our own hot chocolate mix and baked brownies from scratch for previous food stands and while our customers loved that, it didn’t increase sales, so the extra prep time involved actually cut our profit-per-hour in half.

3. Make your stand cute.

Having a colored tablecloth and a sign hanging in the front of the stand are good. Balloons or little pumpkins on or around the table are great. Coming up with a cute name for the stand is a fun touch.

4. Clearly list prices on the sign.

People in our area won’t pay more than $1 per item. Items priced at $0.50 or less sell even better.

5. Enlist your children’s help.

My daughters sell much more than I can. When they step away from the table, people drive right by even if I’m holding my daughters’ spots for them.

We attract sales when they’re at the table and ready to sell. I keep my kids in their seats by bringing coloring books and crayons outside, offering complimentary cookies when they start to look tired, and singing songs with them when the sales are slow.

If you don’t have children, borrow a friend’s child, make an afternoon of it, and share the profits!

6. Location, location… location?

We live on a quiet street, and I decided that we could easily double our profits if we had a busier location to sell. I found a spot, received permission, lugged our gear over, and…. watched the cars whiz by (in a 35mph zone).

We ended up making less per hour than we make when we set our stand up in front of our house.

7. Pay attention to the weather.

Hot chocolate and hot tea don’t sell well when it’s 85 degrees outside. Nothing sells when it’s raining.

8. Choose good hours.

On weekdays, we’ve found that we make the most money from 4 to 6 p.m. Sales on Saturdays tend to trickle in all day.

9. Be sanitary.

This probably goes without saying, but keep your kitchen and hands clean while making the food. Wrap everything in advance by placing individual items in plastic wrap or placing two goodies into each snack bag.

Keep a bottle of hand sanitizer on the food stand table, and let the customers see you wash your hands before touching food or drinks.

10. Provide large servings.

We make more sales when we sell large cups of lemonade or hot chocolate for $0.50 than we do when we sell small cups for $0.25. We also sell cookies better when we put two in a baggie for $0.50 than when we wrap them individually for a quarter.

11. Offer a “deal”.

When we offer half priced refills on drinks, most people will drink two cups. We always offer a buy-four-get-one (or two!) free deal. People generally take us up on that offer, and then leave a tip.

Additional information:

We don’t advertise for these sales. We just set up when we’re ready and let the cars stop when they see us.

I can plan on making about $10 per hour when we have a food stand. We spend about an hour of prep time, two hours actually hosting the stand, and just a few minutes putting things away when we’re finished. After we subtract supply costs, we usually end up with $30 or so in profit.

Note from Crystal: Some areas have strict laws concerning selling food. Before setting up a food stand, please check local ordinances to make sure it is allowed in your area.

Have you ever had a food stand before? If so, I’d love to hear your tips, ideas, and suggestions.

Davonne Parks is an author who is passionate about striving to make the most of her time, using her talents for good, and inspiring others to do the same. She blogs at DavonneParks.com and she just released her first eBook, 28 Days to Timeliness: Tips and Confessions from a Semi-Reformed Late Person.

Welcome to October’s series on 31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash Before Christmas. In this series, I’m highlighting simple and legitimate ways you can earn extra cash in the next three months for those of you who could use a little extra cash to help you pay for Christmas — or just for your living expenses if you’re in a tight spot right now.

If you’ve found a great way to make extra cash before Christmas that doesn’t require an outlay of cash upfront, please email me your tip. I’d love to hear it and possibly share it during this series!

Guest post from Alaina of Telecommuting Mommies

Freelance writing may sound like it’s only for the pros. However, on many writing sites that pay by revenue-sharing, anyone can share their knowledge and get paid for it. Get started now and you may have enough time to earn some cash before the holidays.

What Are Revenue Sharing Writing Sites?

Revenue-sharing sites are websites that pay freelance writers based on page views or page clicks. They are often referred to as revenue-sharing sites because the amount they pay is based on the amount of money they are earning from traffic to your articles. They pay you a portion of that money, thus, sharing their revenue with you.

What Are the Differences Between These Writing Sites Compared to Others?

The internet is full of freelance writing opportunities, but unless you are a recent journalism or English major, most of them are going to want some kind of experience — even if it is just publishing on your own blog.

Almost all regular freelance writing companies will want writing samples submitted showing where you have previously been published. For this reason, inexperienced writers will find these assignments or jobs hard to come by.

Revenue-sharing sites, for the most part, do not require prior experience. Some do not even have an application process, just sign up and start writing.

The pay is obviously another big difference between revenue-sharing sites and others. These companies can afford to take on inexperienced writers because they are not paying up front. This means they can take a chance on writers who will prove their worth by bringing in the traffic.

What Are the Advantages of Working With These Types of Sites?

• No waiting period to getting started, and no long application process. Some sites allow you to sign up and start immediately.

• Flexibility to work as much or as little as you want. No deadlines or minimum number of articles to stay on with the company.

• Earnings of an article over time have the possibility of being greater. For most sites, your article remains there indefinitely. This means that an article could continue to earn money for many years.

• Experience publishing articles on reputable websites that can then be used as writing samples to apply for freelance writing jobs that pay up front. Writing for the revenue sharing sites that offer some sort of editing process before your article is published can also be a great learning experience. Pay close attention to what changes were made and why.

• Ability to use your own affiliate links, meaning that you can earn money by linking to affiliate besides the money you are earning for the article.

What are the Disadvantages of Writing for These Sites?

• No guaranteed income; putting in time and energy without knowing what the outcome will be. Money from your articles may take a while to start coming in.

• Lack of editing process means not having a second pair of eyes on an article — however, most sites do allow you to edit your own articles if you spot an error after hitting that publish button. Brush up on your grammar using sites like Grammar Girl before getting started.

• Quantity of articles that you need to write to start earning a decent income. Depending on expectations for income, you’ll need to write a lot! Those who make a lot of money from revenue sharing sites often make that money from the sheer volume of articles they write.

• Marketing yourself and your articles by learning how to write with SEO and keywords in mind, as well as promoting them on social networks is part of the process that some consider a disadvantage, but this will help immensely in getting traffic.

What are the Best Revenue Sharing Sites to Get Started With?

• Squidoo — Sign up and start writing immediately. Write about any topic, and you can include affiliate links.

• Hubpages — No application process but you need to sign up for your own Google Adsense ID and set it up.  Affiliate links allowed.

• Helium — No experience required. Some articles include a small upfront payment. Participation is required in rating the other articles on the site in order to continue earning on your own articles.

• Yahoo! Contributor’s Network — Offers small upfront payments and performance payments.

• ExpertsColumn — Sign up and get started, low minimum payout of $5.

• Firehow — How-to website, no experience required.

• Suite101 — Includes a proofreading process, but they are currently in the middle of a relaunch, so check back soon. Previously they did require an application process, not sure what the new process will be.

Have you worked for revenue sharing sites before? If so, tell us about your experiences!

Alaina shares her twelve years of work-from-home experience at her blog Telecommuting Mommies. She also opens up her personal life as a homeschooling, blogging, work at home Mom of four at The Maestro Mom.