Image from Roy Shaff's blog

During tough financial times, it’s not enough to have a solid, well-paying job that you can at least tolerate, if not enjoy. More and more people are turning to the Internet for low-cost start-up business

ideas that will help them augment their family’s finances and earn their way to financial independence.

The online marketplace has indeed paved the way for all sorts of small enterprises to be put up and operated by just about anyone with common sense and good business skills. Now more than ever, it’s important to choose just what kind of business you should get into because you don’t want to waste what little start-up cash you’ve scraped together.

The 2008 recession is still profoundly felt in many parts of the world, and as an entrepreneur-to-be, it’s your job to ensure that your money is invested into the right money-making machinery that will provide you with good profits in the shortest time possible. Here are five of the most in-demand and most convenient ways for you to earn more in this time of great financial setbacks:

1. eBay trading assistant

eBay, one of the world’s first online marketplaces, has grown to become not just a source of great bargain buys but also as a good source of extra income. Some individuals resort to auctioning off unused or unwanted items on eBay just to make ends meet.

If you’ve ever tried selling something on eBay, you know how hard it is to capture the attention and imagination of your target market and convince them to purchase the item you’re auctioning. You can capitalize on your photography and copywriting skills and turn yourself into a professional trading assistant to help other people sell their items on eBay.

2. Freelance jobs

From software development to article writing to graphic design to website development, freelancing has become one of the most in-demand online jobs today. Put your creativity and technical proficiency to good use and sign up with any of the online freelance marketplaces today like elance.com, odesk.com or guru.com.

If you feel that you can pull off the job on your own without having to go through a middleman, you can also set up your own online agency and offer your services straight to potential customers. There are a lot of webmasters who own more than two websites, so they need other people to take care of the day-to-day content management and upkeep of their websites. As a freelancer, you get flexible work hours and pay terms and can even choose the things you want to work on.

3. Virtual assistant

A virtual assistant or VA is similar to that of a freelancer, but your creativity is not the number one thing that employers will look for. To streamline operations and cut down on labor costs, some companies simply outsource administrative tasks to VAs that they can hire online. This way, they can focus on their core business activities and still be assured that miscellaneous tasks like collating mailing lists or telemarketing are being done properly.

A VA needs good grounding in simple office tasks because you are an all-around assistant for whatever business needs your client may have. It may not be a very glamorous job but you are being trained in several different fields like accountancy, web marketing and advertising at the same time.

4. Internet marketing services

As a tech-savvy Internet marketer, it is your job to help other webmasters and bloggers to build site traffic and drive online sales despite the bad economy. This is akin to working as a business consultant, only now you are focused exclusively on Internet-based businesses that are in need of a serious boost in readership and sales.

Your first priority is to teach fellow online entrepreneurs how to make their content relevant, fresh and exciting so that site visitors will flock by the thousands and eventually end up purchasing their products or services. Not all online businessmen know the ins and outs of Internet technology, so you have to take them through the basics and teach them the tools of the trade in order to increase their profits.

5. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is yet another popular money-making enterprise that a lot of people are going into. If you run a few websites with high and consistent readership, you may want to consider signing up for an affiliate program so you can earn money from advertisements placed strategically on your web pages.

As an affiliate marketer, you don’t have to do much beyond choosing the products or services you want to advertise and putting the links on your website so that people can see them. With every click that goes from your website to the affiliate company’s website, you earn a handsome commission that can tide you over the hard times.

This is a guest post from Ally Tobias. Ally is part of the team that manages Australian Credit Cards, a personal finance blog that covers business credit card tips. You can follow ACC on Twitter if you like to stay updated on their latest contents. Before joining ACC, Ally was a Media Planner with McCann Worldgroup Philippines, Inc., with award-winning executions, including the Levi’s 501 “Live Unbuttoned” global campaign.

With the holiday season here and almost past us, it is nice to see that spending has not decreased a whole lot from last year. It was also nice to see that spending on Black Friday increased by 3% from last year.

With that being said, who is spending the money? Over the last couple weeks I have been out shopping, at the movies, at the hot spots (Starbucks, bars, etc), and just enjoying life while I have the chance. And who else do I see out? The Generation Y’ers that everyone is complaining about (read The Trophy Kids Go To Work). More and more I’ve noticed the young professionals and college students are the ones spending money, buying things, going to restaurants, and having a good time.

Now this could either be stupid or a good thing. It could be a bad move on our side because we are spending money like we are not in a recession and not worrying about anything. However, I hope that is not true. I imagine that the majority of young working professionals are mindful of the economy and the current situation, and realize that they could be the next to go from their job. So, they may be cutting back, but they are not stopping.

Yet, all of us (Generation Y peeeps) going out and spending money is helping to keep people in business, keeping people employeed, and putting food on someone elses table to keep their families together.

Just a quick rant today, I’m interested in hearing some thoughts on this. Is the Generation Y keeping parts of the economy afloat? What industry is next to plead for a bailout? The restaurant industry? Entertainment? Anything could go at any time if everyone just stopped spending money, which would be an absolutely horrible thing.

So, I encourage you to continue spending, enjoying your life, but just be mindful of the situation, and maybe stuff a little extra into the ‘rainy day fund’ or the ‘when the economy gets worse’ fund; whichever way you want to look at it.

If you’re reading this through RSS, come by the site and leave your comments! I try to always respond and engage in the conversation, so I’d love to hear what you think!

Marketing
Most businesses cut back on marketing when times are tough, in an attempt to cut costs and stay afloat. Study after study has proven, however, that the businesses that succeed and grow the most after a recession is over are those who kept on marketing during the bad times. I’m not telling you to spend all your cash on marketing and hope for the best, but don’t cut back on your marketing just because there’s a recession. If anything, use the recession as an excuse to make every dollar count and negotiate better rates with Magazines, Printers and other sources.

Upselling
If you already have existing customers, a great way to bring in extra cash and hone your sales skills is to try and upsell them to a higher level of service, a more expensive product, or a  value added service.
For example, if you do landscaping during the summer, you could upsell a yearlong gardening service or your snow plowing service for the coming winter.  Call past customers up and offer them a member’s only deal or coupon to get them to purchase a new service or product. Try and develop services or products that require a repeat/monthly investment as well.

Efficiency
Making every penny count can be a good thing.  Take the time now to create processes, train employees and systemize your business so that runs like clockwork. The time spent in creating efficiency now will result in the ability to take on more customers and clients with the same system you already have, increasing your profits while not increasing your costs.

Lower Costs
Finally, use the downturn as an excuse to play hardball. Tighten the screws on your vendors and suppliers. For example, call your cell phone provider up and threaten to leave unless they give you a better deal. Tell your suppliers that they need to lower their prices or you will find someone else to deal with.  When they complain, simply explain to them that times are tight and everyone is making cuts in spending. They’ll understand and you’ll have more money to spend on marketing.

This guest post comes from Maya Richard, who writes reviews about cell phones. She can be reached at mayarichard [at] gmail with feedback.

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