Are you looking for some extra money or something interesting to do in your spare time?  Are you a person who wants to live and work “outside the box”? Then this book is for you.  Here are some of the more exotic ideas:

Pooper Scooper -  Clean up the poop on pet-owners lawns and earn $7.50 - $15.00 per visit with only a shovel, gloves and plastic bags. If you like animals and do not mind poop, this is a surprisingly growing market. Combine it with dog walking and pet-sitting for a great part-time money maker. See www.pooper-scooper.com  for more info.

Lipstick Reading - This is a form of party entertainment wherein you analyze a woman’s personality from the lipstick kiss you ask her to make on a cocktail napkin.  If you are creative, outgoing, and somewhat intuitive, you can earn $25 to $50 an hour providing this service. See http://face-and-emotion.com to learn more about reading people. 

Knights in Shining Armor - Work as an actor at Renaissance Fairs.  You can earn $7 to $25 an hour depending on your skills if you can juggle with fire, you will be hot. J Parts range from playing the Queen to being a beggar in the lane.  Upside -you get to learn to speak with Olde English. Check out www.renfaire.com

Gustatory Athlete - These are the guys (and gals) who eat 78 hot dogs in 3 minutes.  If this is one of your goals in life, there is such a thing as professional contest entrants. Big time eaters have won up to $30,000!  www.ifoce.com is the International Federation of Competitive Eating. No kidding!

Worm Farmer -  this has been around since the 60’s. You can actually get paid to raise worms for bait shops and organic farmers. Talk about silent partners - these guys just do their thing all day and happily reproduce as long as you provide them with a nice place to live.  A pound of worms can go for $20.  see www.acmewormfarm.com

Shell Picker in Kauai - these are some special shells that are tiny and special, but you can earn $100 a day crawling around on the beach.  With the popularity of shell jewelry and home accessories, I think you could do this anywhere there’s a beach. Find a jewelry maker and go get what they want.  www.niihaushellart.com gives useful information on the Kauai business.

Video Game Tester - If you still secretly want to play games all the time you could be a quality assurance evaluator (sounds much more professional).  You can earn $9 -12 per hour part-time looking for glitches, art errors, and levels that are too hard or too easy.  Check out www.gametester.com for a directory of employers and links to articles. Note: don’t ever fall for the scam where you have to pay them for the privilege of testing their game!

All these ideas came from a new book called Odd Jobs: 101 Ways to Make and Extra Buck by Abigail Gehring.  It’s brand new and available at bookstores now.