There are a thousand ways to make extra money. Of course you may not have the knowledge, training or experience to succeed with some of them. Or you may not have enough money to take advantage of some opportunities. That's why the following methods are all about using what you already have.

Use Your Knowledge of Values

All of us have some idea of what some things should cost, but we are all most familiar with prices in one area or another. Identify those areas where you are best at determining the value of things. This is where the profit opportunity is.

For example, a neighbor of mine could say what a car would sell for within a few hundred dollars. So when he saw a used car for sale and knew it would bring $3,000 after a bit of cleaning, he would offer $1,500 for it. If the answer was no, he quickly moved on until he found a seller ready to get rid of a vehicle cheap. Then he spent an hour or two cleaning up the car and selling it for decent profit.

The principle is what matters here. You Don’t need to know about cars. Ask yourself what can you put a price on and find a buyer for, and you have a potential source of extra money. One man I knew regularly bought used restaurant equipment for half of what it could be sold for. Engagement rings, dogs, and other things are "turned" for a profit in this way as well.

If you have no cash to invest, you can use credit card advances to do this. If you can make $1000 buying and reselling a coin collection, does $100 in fees and interest matter? Or you can find a partner to finance the deals at first. I have a friend who knows pickup trucks but rarely has cash saved. If he finds a truck for $2,000 that will sell for $4,500, he comes to me. I put up the money for half of the profit and we both do well.

Rent Rooms in Your Home

When I was younger I had a mobile home on a small lot. I paid off the mortgage, so my expenses were low, but I wanted to make some extra money as well, so I rented the spare bedrooms. The two rooms provided over $7,000 extra income annually, and I had decent renters. Having another person in the house adds little to the utilities, so the rent collected is almost all profit.

Make More Money In Your Business

If you have a business, why not mine your customer list for treasure. For example, if you run a window-cleaning business, you can call all previous customers in a certain area and offer a discount if they would like their windows cleaned the following week. Keeping it to one area makes it efficient so you can still make a decent profit while offering a lower price.

If you have a mailing list of your customers you can offer to present them with an offer from a non-competing business, for a fee or commission. Even customers that you have lost can be a profit source. Just introduce them to a competitor who can better serve their needs, again for a fee.

Sell Affiliate Products

When people visit my backpacking web site they sometimes click on the links I have put there and buy a tent or a sleeping bag. When that happens I get paid commission of about 7%. I just write about a subject that interests me, people come to read my pages, and they sometimes buy products that I link to. It is an example of basic affiliate marketing. Commissions range as high as 75% on some products, by the way, and you can start with a free blog on any topic of interest to you, and so make extra money without investing a dime.