With the steady downward trend in the economy, it is becoming insanely hard to find work of any kind. “Looking for a job” leaves you, ultimately, at the mercy of others. The best solutions for many of us is to find ways to freelance at jobs that pay cash. Each one of us has something special to offer others; exchange value is the basis of a free market economy. The trick is to take an honest, hard look at our experiences and skill sets and make a list of things which we are highly knowledgeable about, and then find the best way to deliver these skills in the form of goods or services to others. Again, the economic model here usually is a cash exchange, but it needn’t be limited to that, as even barter works.

One of the best ways to deliver your skills to others is to write. This could be in the form of leaflets, publications, self-published Kindle e-books, reports, abstracts, technical manuals, novels, etc, etc. The options here are only limited by our imagination. What follows is a list of ways to generate a quick cash income by using different venues for you to write about things you are passionate and knowledgeable about.

The more that government and industrialized society tries to transform society to its own benefit, the more need they inadvertently create new human needs — this is your market. For example, a trend in the food industry: the large multinational industrialized food producers are buying up all the mom and pop organic brands, and, at the same time, lobbying the government for lowered organic food standards. Its easy to see how this is fueling a growing urban gardening culture. Say you have some sound knowledge of gardening and agriculture, you could write how-to guides and sell them — meeting a new need that wasn’t on anyone’s radar screen 20 years ago. By thinking like this, you will discover methods of making a cash income, simply by writing about things you know, that you had never dreamed of. You could realistically make $1-2000 dollars a month at this. Even better if you can live on something like $12,000 a year!

Ways To Generate A Quick Cash Income Writing

• Technical Manual Writing. Its a pretty known fact that most programmers absolutely hate writing help files and technical manuals. This could be a very lucrative proposition for you if software is your thing. You could write a manual for some software that is vital to the enterprise market, for e.g.., “business intelligence software”, such as CRM or ERP software. Then, if you are savvy with screen casting software, compose some how-to screen casts on the finer points of using a particular program. The bigger money is being able to address very specific needs, such as how to use a given software to solve an invoicing problem. Technical writers can earn close to 100k a year creating this type of documentation. There are companies that will pay you to do this, especially if you have an already established audience.
• Writing Essays for Students. Ok, I am not exactly endorsing plagiarism here, but, you could offer your services as an academic writing tutor. Students could submit you a rough copy and you could outline grammatical and mechanical changes to their writing. There do seem to be no shortage of people online offering to write whole essays on any topic, starting at around $10 a page and up, depending on the urgency/notice given. Not only could you re-write all or part of essays and term papers, you could also include fees for special assignments and research.
• Write T-Shirt Slogans. By now, we’ve all heard of this concept known as a “meme”. The Internet is, among other things, a meme garden. There is no way to stop an idea. If you have a passion for any sort of social, ecological, or political issues, then creating a small sideline cash t-shirt business could be for you. It doesn’t necessarily have to be anything profound either, you could capitalize on a rivalry between two college football teams and, with the right slogan, make large money. I have heard on one person at a Canadian university who printed the slogan “Wuck Festern” to mock their rival, University of Western Ontario’s football team. This kid apparently made 10k for selling these shirts at his school for $20 a pop over the fall semester — until the officials at the university shut him down. Again, the only limits here are your creativity and imagination.
• Bumper Stickers. Same as with t-shirts, bumper stickers could be either a huge nationwide success, or limited to local issues. You could very well create a niche crafting stickers for various non-profits and political causes. Depending on the goal, the more provocative the message, the better. It only takes a few simple, clear words to provoke any one of a number of emotions in the reader. Mind you, they needn’t necessarily be provocative, you could also create a bumper sticker to promote your organization, church, team, or local business.
• Write E-Books. The easiest way for you to write your own book is to self-publish an e-book. It is the simplest book there is and usually sells for anywhere of upwards of $15. Tim Ferris is one example of someone who has created several successful ebooks and has likely made a lucrative sum doing this. These days, its easy for anyone learn how to make your own Amazon Kindle ebook in just hours. A best practice for writing ebooks is to write in a clear concise, conversational manner and if you must include any unusual or technical terms, be sure to include a glossary and the proper annotations and endnotes. As mentioned in the beginning, a good topic is usually some kind of do-it-yourself theme, such as off-grid living or growing one’s own food. Anything that gives the reader practical information on how to save money provides valuable information to people.
• Paid Forum Posting. There are established Internet forums for every topic imaginable. With new ones being created daily, there is fierce competition for traffic and subscribers. There are “middleman” companies out there that will pay you, the expert, for strategic posts on behalf of their clients. In other cases, the forum owners and/or administrators will pay per post to start discussions, or influence them. Accordingly, in this age of propaganda, there are specialized companies that pay for political posts to influence people’s perception. Or, another idea - why don’t you start such a service? Like all of the other suggestions, this is something you can do on your own terms, from home - or - fly under the radar.

*Disclaimer: working and intentionally not declaring income is, in most cases, a federal offense. Livesafely.org in no way endorses tax evasion. In any event, I thought it might be useful to post a list of such positions in hope that it might give some ideas on how to get some extra revenue flowing in these extraordinarily difficult times as a stop gap towards legitimate self-employment. It is highly probable that some of these ideas can lead to you establishing your own, legitimate business. f you do manage to come up with a job that pays cash, “under the table”, it allows you access to 100% of your earnings up front, as long as you pay the taxes in the next tax season, when they are due–essentially allowing you some more money up front. This information is for information and entertainment purposes only.