So I have been considering finding something to fill my spare time. Mainly, I would like to find something that takes 10 hours a week and I can do whenever, ie at home or spare time at work. Anyone do anything like this or know of something like this? There are a few places online that I can do menial work, like Amazon's HIT services but the idea of earning 50 cents an hour is a little rough.
I've looked extensively into Amazon's Mechanical Turk & friends, and I just can't see them making sense if you live anywhere remotely 1st-world-ish. If you become a top worker on there and grind all day, you might just make as much as a Walmart greeter. That's what I can add.
In reply to singleslammer:
Find something you're good at and offer to do said service on the side to people on a case by case basis.
Hell, I work 3mo out of the year on the farm to pay my entire rent/utilities for the year. 
I do computer repair & various IT work on the side, but the problem is that the work comes to me so I can't just decide to do it and make some extra cash. Until I can hire a saboteur anyway 
In reply to GameboyRMH:
Create malware to screw up everyones E36 M3......seems to have worked for NortonAV and McAffee.....
yamaha wrote: In reply to GameboyRMH: Create malware to screw up everyones E36 M3......seems to have worked for NortonAV and McAffee.....
Hahaha no, they don't do that...but cybercriminality is a very nice career. Good pay, flexible hours, work at your own pace, no certification treadmills...you just have to either move to Ramnicu Valcea, Romania, or be good enough to never get caught.
In reply to GameboyRMH:
NortonAV used to lock up windows cpu's back in the day if you refused to pay for it after the "free trial" It killed 2 Windows ME desktops I had......and they were never hooked to the internet. 
yamaha wrote: In reply to GameboyRMH: NortonAV used to lock up windows cpu's back in the day if you refused to pay for it after the "free trial" It killed 2 Windows ME desktops I had......and they were never hooked to the internet.
That could happen based on the date, so you don't need to be online. I'd argue that this was not done intentionally, you might argue that it was and as such it should be called malware, but you should consider that they do the same crap to their paying customers
In reply to GameboyRMH/Yahama:
All virus protection software is pretty much a virus itself.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: In reply to GameboyRMH/Yahama: All virus protection software is pretty much a virus itself.
Depends, most do operate like a benevolent rootkit (same with a lot of anti-cheating software), but a simple scan-only antivirus like ClamAV, rkhunter or MSSE operates more like a file search tool than anything else.
I've built a few roll cages and done some race car prep, exhaust fab, etc for people on the side to pay for my own hobby. It requires a lot of expensive tools (welder, notcher, bender, dies, punches, cutters...) but if you already have some of that stuff you can trade a couple pints of blood for decent cash. I bought most of the tools for what a good roll cage was going to cost me when I decided to build my first one myself... so I considered them free
10hrs is not going to be realistic though... unless you keep the car for a couple weeks.
I recently started buying basket case motorcycles and parting them on ebay. I'm going to go look at 2 tonight. The nice thing about bikes is they don't take up a ton of space and are really easy to work on. I can get a dirt bike down to its component parts in a couple hours.
That is a good idea 2002Maniac. I think I might send you an e-mail.
In reply to 2002maniac:
A friend of mine has been doing this for years in the UK. He specialises in 70s/80s Japanese bikes (mainly Hondas) which he knows very well, and he's making rather nice pocket money doing it. Definitely works as a side business.
I was looking at things like oDesk but that seems like a great way to earn jack crap while giving away a lot of information.
As far as things I am good at.... I am pretty damn solid when it comes to numbers and data analysis, hence budget analyst. I wonder how I would market these skills in a part-time, as needed basis.
I have a big giant truck that I haul stuff around in for people. 20 a hour plus gas, 100 for two yards of mulch delivered and dumped on your driveway that sort of thing.
Maybe only 10 hours a month that i do it and its mainly for neighbors but it keeps me out in the sunlight and lets me work with my hands instead of my brain for a few hours.
I am trying to find something that I can do in the office as I have a fair bit of down time throughout the week. Selling parts on Ebay would certainly do that even though there would be at least as much time at home disassembling and prepping for shipping.
I'm not sure how to make this work but is there any way you could do middle man work?
Something like: I have a stump grinder and the desire to do a 1-2 hour job a couple of nights a week after my regular job. But I don't have a marketing team in place to get me jobs. I'd be happy to pay someone $20 per job they got me.
That is definitely something that I am capable of doing but tracking down those kinds of people might be tough. I will investigate though.
My wife and I discussed selling small items that we make through etsy or similar but concluded that there may be too much saturation for that to make any headway. Is there some where else that does similar things in a different industry?
Side job?
Parting cars, or finding cheap parts that are priced under market value and reselling them.
A cheap car (under $1k) with alloys and good tires can be parted out easily. Pull rims off, sell them, pull interior, sell that, maybe pull engine/transmission if in working order, sell those, and then send the rest of the car for $100-$200 in scrap. Easy $1k profit I bet for a total of 40 hours of work-ish (if you have the tools and space). And the more you "pick at it" for an hour, the more money you make.
If you have a truck and a ladder, you can clean gutters. My idiot nephew does this along with cleaning oil burners. Makes all kinds of extra cash. A guy with a truck and a strong back can make a decent living if he's willing to hustle. Think of the possibilities. Dump runs, scrap, basement cleanouts, get a trailer and move cars. The more ritzy neighborhoods don't have many trucks, so the demand for a guy with a truck is strong, especially if he speaks English, doesn't have a criminal record and looks presentable.
Hmm.... I have a suburban and a trailer. Simple handy man work is well within my skill set.
I've been parting Focus SVTs. Good money, but I deal with the worst car tards on the planet. I spend, rather waste a E36 M3 load of time having people play 50 questions and disappear forever. I Spend a lot of time pulling and boxing parts. It's worth it in the end, but sometimes id rather deliver pizzas.
Car parts take up a tremendous amount of space.
Playing "Middle-Man" works until someone does a crappy job and blames it on you for associating with that crappy work.
Good point. Other than Cars and motorcycles, what are things that are in the "buy and sell" category? I have a fair amount of Government auctions near me and I do have a fairly large place to store stuff (not like lets buy three crown vics large). Seriously, if I can make a few hundred extra a month, I will be happy. I still like the idea of something I can do at work other than surf GRM. If anyone knows a place to be an online mystery shopper or the like I am all ears.
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