The 7 Ways to Make Pocket Money for Teenagers

By: Wei King
Submitted: 2008-12-16 14:11:13
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Find a teen job. There are employment agencies that specialize in this type of arrangement, and you can get paid at the end of the workday. The jobs you find through an agency can vary, but are usually in construction, factories, offices, and manufacturing. An alternative to finding day labor is to go where other day laborers meet (usually street corners or parking lots) and wait for employers (building contractors, landscapers, home owners and small business owners). If you go the non-agency route, you might get paid in cash. You can also check your local newspaper or internet classifieds to find quick labor gigs, like painting, mowing, or moving work. When considering a day labor opportunity, keep in mind that less formal arrangements could result in you not getting paid or worse, you getting injured without any kind of compensation.

Sell something. A method as old as the internet itself, hawking wares through virtual auctions and shops provides a quick income boost for many students, enabling unwanted Christmas to be disposed of with ease. The obvious starting points are eBay and Amazon Marketplace , though classifieds websites such as Ad Trader are proving increasingly popular. Those of you looking to secure revenue on a more long-term basis will need to source in-demand products and be able to sell them at a mark-up on the price that you yourself paid. One example is "vintage" clothing - cheap clothes with retro appeal are available in abundance at charity shops and can easily be sold to other fashionable students online at a higher price.

Blogging. There are two ways to make cash through blogging: either by earning commission from advertising banners placed alongside a blog of your own or by engaging in the (slightly dubious) practice of "sponsored" blogging. An array of third party tools is available in the case of the former option; Google's AdSense remains one of the more popular solutions. Just establish yourself a decent blog, configure the ads and see what happens. Sponsored blogging on the other hand is an altogether more calculated affair, with specialists such as Blogitive and PayPerPost providing a platform through which companies essentially contract bloggers to post favourable content about their products in exchange for cash. Unethical, granted, though nonetheless undoubtedly fruitful for those subtle enough to get away with it.

Surveys online. As inglorious a means of making money online as you're ever likely to find, completing market research surveys for cash is time-consuming, invasive and very, very dull. It also happens to be very effective. Opportunities in this field are virtually endless too, with literally thousands of research groups vying for your time and attention. Perhaps the most well known of these is YouGov, whose methodology involves obtaining responses from an invited group of internet users at prices ranging from á0.50 to á2.00 per survey completed. Registration is free and relatively painless, though if you are planning on going down this route, you would do well to create another email account solely for the purpose of survey completion - your personal details are going to be getting bandied around an awful lot.

Earn an affiliate income. Choosing a program with a multi-level compensation plan can be very profitable especially if it is a forced matrix plan. A forced matrix compensation plan only allows so many on your first level, generally 2 to 5. If you refer more than 2 to 5 then they would spill over to help your first level members. Can you see how you could work as a team with this type of compensation plan? Every member is working as a team for mutual profits. These programs are sometimes called pyramid schemes, so be sure to research the program carefully. Generally a program can be considered a pyramid scheme if sales commissions are split more than 4 levels; in this case, it is difficult to make enough money on each sale to create a substantial income. Another important distinction is whether or not the business is backed by a real, marketable and fairly-priced consumer product. If a product cannot sustain a solid consumer base, then distributors only promote to distributors and the business is doomed to fail. Multi-level marketing got a bad reputation in the '70s, but many valid and legitimate companies exist today.

Invest your money to work for you. Minors will need the help of an adult to invest. Parents (or other adults) can set up custodial accounts for children. Open a savings account and earn 3-5% interest. Minors will need the help of an adult to open an account with a bank. Parents (or other adults) and set up custodial accounts for children. Buy one share of stock and earn 5-10% interest. Minors will need the help of an adult to buy stock. Parents (or other adults) and set up custodial investment accounts for children. If you are trying to save your money for something big, talk to your parents about starting a bank account. Not only will your money earn interest, but your parents will see how responsible you are and they may help out a bit.

Budget your money. Become conscious of what you spend your money on each month. Make a list of "everything" you buy in one month. Some things really sneak up on you, such as vending machine purchases. Let's say you buy fifteen dollars worth of snacks from the machine each month. For about ten dollars less, you can probably buy those snacks from your local grocery store and simply stock them in your locker. Cross out any unnecessary items from the list. Only include things you absolutely need, such as gas money to get to school.

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