One of my favorite stories is about a fellow who was a Program Director for one of the radio stations I worked at in the ’90′s who made money in his teens simply being a broker.

I guess a broker’s job is easier than digging ditches, but many brokers would probably tell you that it depends on the market that you’re in.  For examply, having to broker automobiles in todays’ market might be harder than digging ditches.

But what David did was put a small ad (not like Don Dupree, ha) in the local paper advertising sod.  That’s right – grass, for your yard.  And people would call asking for prices, and David would convince them that his grass was good and would be delivered to their home.

When David got the order, he simply made another phone call from his bedroom to the local sod farm and had those pallets delivered.  Pretty easy money, I’d say.

And what about me?  What was the easiest way I made money?  Well, it had to do with arbitrage and contextual ads on websites.  There was a day when you could buy ads on Google’s network for 5 cents a click.  Then what you did was point these ads to websites with information AND ads about similar things – but these ads paid you when people clicked – to the tune of $2 a click.

You do the math.  Sending 5 cent clicks to $2 clicks, if your conversion was half-way decent, you could be making a lot of money with a little bit of traffic.

And I did.  Pretty nice.

Another way is simply helping other people with what they’re trying to do.  A consultant.  They pay good for knowledge you have.

One site you might want to check out where you can get paid for offering your services is Guru.com.  There, you can write articles, design, proofread, among other things.  And get paid for it.  Some people make a good living just for doing things they are normally good at.

Let me know how you do or if you’ve found another great way to make money and want to share.