POORSANTA.COM - Christmas Money

If you are short on holiday cash this year, you are not alone. With fewer retailers hiring Christmas help this holiday season, due to the recent economic downturn, Many Poor Santas will have to find creative ways to generate the Christmas money they need.

The first place to consider, when trying to come up with money for Christmas gifts and other holiday needs, is right in your own home.

Poor Santa’s first suggestion is to check your jewelry boxes for any broken or out of style gold (and other precious metal/gemstone) items. With gold at record high prices, you could get a decent payday. Beware of companies which require you mail your items to them for appraisal and payment. It puts you at a significant disadvantage. Reputable precious metal dealers can readily be found in your local yellow pages. You may even get invited to one of the currently popular “gold parties”, where a dealer “weighs & pays”, right at the host’s house.

Don’t overlook using Ebay or Craig’s List, to exchange out of use items for Christmas cash. Generally, items to be picked up by buyers are better sold on Craig’s List. Listing is both free and easy to use, and is especially great for selling your outgrown kid’s stuff, as well as yard equipment, tools and large items. Collectables and antiques that have been collecting dust, can bring a nice price on Ebay. Ebay is one of the few companies, which has not been hit hard by the recession. It has been my recent experience that items are selling better than ever.

If you have many smaller or less expensive items to sell, an indoor yard/tag sale, may be in order. During cold weather, these sales are few and far between. If well advertised, a cold weather tag sale can bring a large turnout of people, netting you a good amount of money for Christmas.

Poor Santa has tried many of the online sites, which promise payment, and while many are just scams, some are legitimate. The legitimate websites, that will actually come through, do not promise huge payouts, in little time. Here are a few of my favorites.

The first is, Gather, a social networking site which gives points for using their site. Points can then be exchanged for gift cards or Paypal cash. Earnings are slow to add up, especially at first, when you have few social contacts on the site, but redemption payments from Gather are generally sent quite quickly (important if you need it in time for buying Christmas gifts). You won’t get rich here, but if you enjoy social networking sites, this might be a great match for you.

I recently started using the search engine swagbucks, and like it so far. This search engine occasionally gives you "swagbucks", which add up pretty quicky and can be redeemed for gift cards and merchandise. Poor Santa decided to use this search engine in addition to regular google searches, since it did not require the download of a search bar (although one is available), and uses google and ask.com search results. You can also get swagbucks by recycling your old cell phone through them, referring friends and shopping through the site. Swagbucks is another quick payer.

Another site, which could be good for earning a little money for Christmas, is Amazon’s Mturk. Mturk is a sort of database of low paying tasks, they call “hits”. These tasks are mostly, writing & editing assignments, transcription, data entry and some simple tasks that are beyond the capabilities of a computer. “Hits” that pay anything resembling a decent sum, are claimed quickly, so occasionally checking the newly listed assignments is helpful. In general, I have found tasks end out only paying an average of around $2 an hour. I am not a very fast typist though, so you may do better. One of the big pluses to this site is the ability to receive payment directly into your checking account ($10 minimum), or in the form of Amazon cash. Setting up your account for direct deposit only takes a few days, after which deposits usually show up in a day or so. I’m sure exchanging for Amazon cash is even faster, as it is within the same system. Either redemption option, could be helpful with holiday gift buying.

Are you a reasonably good writer? If the answer is yes, you may be able to earn some extra holiday cash, with this skill. Try writing some articles for an online publisher, such as Associated Content, Triond or PrintNPost. All share part of the ad revenues earned through you articles with you. They have open membership, what you earn is directly related to the quality of content and popularity of topic. I have not published through these sites, thus I can not comment on speed of payment.

Avid crafters and artists can make Christmas money at etsy.com. Etsy is a sort of Ebay for handmade items. I dabbled in selling here, for a short while, and found the site well run and attractive. Fees are low and the site is packed with hints for prospective sellers. If you enjoy a hobby such as knitting, and have a stockpile of completed projects, Etsy could help you turn them into holiday cash. Like Ebay, Etsy is set up to allow sellers to easily accept payments through Paypal, so you can get your holiday funds in time for gift buying.

Distribute flyers around neighborhoods, or on cars, offering your services to do holiday related odd jobs, like putting up Christmas lights and trees, assisting with kitchen chores for parties or if you have a truck transporting large gift items or Christmas trees. Many times people do not know where to find help for tasks like these. Think about what your talents and available equipment would qualify you to do, and put yourself out there.