Ways to make money in a recession

From offering your skills for hire online to flogging unwanted items and promoting Me.Incorporated. Ten ways to make money in the recession.

1. Your old tat could be someone else’s treasure. Aunt Jemima’s handknitted tea cosy might not be your bag but someone else could love it. If you don't have time to do a garage sale or a car boot, you could try to sell your unwanted items online. Ebay is the obvious choice if you want to go the online auction route or you could post a classified ad on sites like buyandsell.ie and donedeal.ie which cost around €3 per ad. Alternatively sites like Rollercoaster.ie have a free classified ads section. Now is the perfect time to offload unwanted Christmas presents, baby clothes in good condition, nursery equipment, a designer bag you're tired of, in fact anything you are willing to part with that's in good condition.

2.If you prefer to do things  the old fashioned way, do a car boot. It might be a bit brass monkeys now but get everything catalogued and ready for the milder weather. The only downside with car boots is that people are often unwilling to pay a decent price for a good item. If that's the case  then keep it and try selling it another way. A garage sale is a great way to purge your house of junk but you have to be strong not to give into neighbours who want items for nothing.

3.Set up your own website to sell your wares.  You can build one for very little through sites like webs.com and weebly.com but you will need to look into site optimisation . You can sell a skill, like typing, speech writing, press release writing, or  a product like jewellery or craft items  or baby clothes- either items you have made yourself or bought cheap from a wholesaler. The trick is to undercut the competition.

4. The blogosphere is groaning with witty and informative blogs but not everyone is successful. But if you do manage to create one that captures the public imagination the potential for advertising is good. It's not easy to guage this one but it helps if it's an original idea or angle, with good writing and comes from the heart.

5. Make money by giving yourself a financial overhaul. Investigate your financial outgoings –  look at all your insurance policies, can you get a better deal? Likewise with car insurance, haggle, haggle, haggle.  Are you getting the discounts you are entitled in shops - for example have you got Ikea's family store card which gives customers a 25 per cent discount on items?  or Tesco's clubcard, which issue vouchers to customers who have built up points?.

6. Shares – you can still make money on shares but you have to choose carefully . It all depends on how much risk you want to take on. It's true the greater the risk, the greater the opportunity for reward but many of us are taking the slow steady route now and waiting in the long grass. If you are a more cautious investor, you might be looking at big, blue-chip stocks with strong balance sheets and high dividend yields. But if you are willing to take more risk then you imight want to look at emerging markets, particularly Asia.

7.Gold – if only we’d all listened to Eddie Hobbs when he told us to invest in gold bullion during his Rip off Ireland rants...I mean.... talks . If you decide to sell your gold then be careful how you do it. If you go the postal cash for gold route, do your research on the company. If the offer is too good to be true it probably  is. Watch out for hidden shipping fees, as the more reputable ones offer free shipping and get quotes from several companies so you know the price is fair. Alternatively bring it to a private appraiser or  several local dealers to get an idea of value. 

8.Prize bonds – The beauty of Prize Bonds is that you can cash them in and get your money back. If you've had a considerable stock of prize bonds for ages and have never won anything, have new numbers issued for them to see if that changes your luck.

9. The trick with investing in antiques is anticipating what the next big trend will be. At the moment it's anything Danish and mid century or from the Eames era.  There are better opportunities in a recession when auction rooms are quiet to get furniture cheap if you really look around .If you can afford high end antiques, and get them for a good price, it's probably the way to go.

10.Sell yourself - if you've been hiding your light for some time but have some valuable skills or attributes to offer the world then now is the time to let them shine and make some extra money from them. If your career has been limping along or you are out of work, think how you can make the very most of what you've got and how you are going to acheive this. Choose a role model - someone who has exploited every skill they have to the full and been outrageously successful. Maybe they are less talented than you but have more of a focus on what they want and a brass neck to boot.