With all the doom and gloom news about the economy, there's never been a better time to make an extra paycheck online with a minimal amount of time and effort.

If you have an internet connection, you can get started on the road to having the internet pay for your mortgage, car payment, kids' college tuition, or even that special vacation you've wanted. Now, don't worry that you have to be a tech whiz to start a business online--I'm a complete techno-dunce.

A perfect part-time business would have to be very easy to start, require little time and money and no technical expertise, be easy to maintain with just a few hours a week and have a proven track record with a high probability of success.

There's actually one other important criteria--it has to be perfect for you! Experience has taught me that it's different strokes for different folks, and there is no "one size fits all" perfect business. You're much more likely to be successful if you do something you find fun and interesting.

With that in mind, here are five of the best ways to make extra cash moonlighting on the internet:

1. Information marketing: We're in the information age, and the internet provides you with the ideal medium to exchange know-how for money. Do you know the best fishing holes? How to play guitar? The secrets to a successful marriage? A recipe for moist and delicious brownies? A trick for saving gas?

Think about your career, your hobbies and your interests. Virtually anything you know can be turned into extra cash. And don't worry if you think you're not an expert--as long as you know more than the average person on the topic, that information is valuable.

However, if you don't believe you know anything that others would pay for (highly unlikely), you can take someone else's know-how and make money that way! It could be as easy as interviewing a veterinarian to help you create a dog-training product.

Ninety-two percent of people go online looking for information, and you could be one of the many people cashing in on selling it.

2. eBay: One of the largest online marketplaces makes it a piece of cake to get your own business going. You can open an account and start making money within hours on eBay!

While I dislike that whole "sell your garbage on eBay" thing, there is some validity to it as many people get their start on eBay by selling items from their garage or attic that pre-eBay would have been thrown out. This approach is fine, but where is the business once you run out of those items? If you want to create an eBay business that doesn't require tons of time and effort, you need to leverage products that can be sold over and over again.

This is one of the reasons I'm not a fan of the "eBay seller for hire" kinds of opportunities, where you sell things on eBay for other people. You get access to stuff people want to sell, but because each item is unique you have to work to list each and every one. There's no leverage there!

Take a look at some of the largest eBay PowerSellers and notice how they specialize in very specific products (iPods, cell phones, dog grooming kits, etc.). This allows them to leverage their efforts. A listing is created once, and money is collected over and over again.

Unlike information marketing, this business requires the handling of physical goods, but even that can be automated, so it shouldn't prevent you from considering this idea.

3. Affiliate marketing: This may possibly be the absolute laziest way to make money because it doesn't require you to have a product, make a sale or ever have any interaction with customers.

This is essentially a "referral" business, or as one of my book contributors likes to call it, "passionate recommendations." Basically, you can get paid a referral commission just for sending people to sites (or vendors) that are set up to pay affiliate fees once a sale is made. The vendor does all the selling, fulfills the purchase and handles any customer service issues--and you just collect your check..not bad!

Some people choose affiliates based on who or what is paying the highest commissions, and that certainly is a viable option. Most people opt to choose products or goods they are passionate about so that the process is much more fun and engaging.

Insurance and credit card companies pay high commissions for referrals that convert to customers ($40 to $150 and up), but the competition is fierce. It may pay well, but is this something you'll enjoy doing for the long haul?

Alternatively, you could take a look at your hobbies and other things you enjoy and see which affiliate programs are a good match. As always, do your research to verify the viability of your market. A good place to look for ideas (and downloadable products just waiting for an affiliate) is ClickBank.com.

4. Blogging: This business is best suited for folks who enjoy communicating about a particular subject. Think of blogs as journals of sorts. Although you can have a personal blog, writing about a particular topic will have a higher chance for financial success.

The range of topics is virtually endless--photography, sports cars, parenting, dieting, star gazing, the latest gadgets, Hollywood gossip--you name it, as there are blogs on just about everything you can imagine. Don't worry about competition. Folks who read one blog are apt to read others on a topic they're passionate about, as long as you have something interesting to say.

Once your blog starts getting traffic, you can make money passively with things like AdSense (Google's ad revenue sharing plan) or actively by doing a little bit of affiliate marketing. You can see both types of moneymaking strategies at SparkleCat.com, which is a blog about a person's cat. What makes it interesting is that it's written from the cat's perspective and often refers to her "human." At the top of the page are Google AdSense ads, and sprinkled throughout are suggestions for things like cat furniture and premium cat food, which are tied to an affiliate program. Pretty cool, no?

5. Yahoo! Store: This business is very similar to eBay in the sense that it's a monster-sized marketplace but more similar to a store in the true sense of the word. Think having your own retail outlet but without the hassles of rent, employees, utilities and all the other expenses of a traditional brick-and-mortar store.

The neat thing is that it can be as hands-on or as hands-off as you want it to be because of companies called drop-shippers, which can do most of the work for you. In fact, you don't even pay for the inventory until you make a sale. How cool is that?

Most people think the hard part of this business is creating your virtual store, but nothing could be further from the truth. Yahoo! has made the templates and wizards so easy that, dare I say, even a caveman can do it!

The best way to ensure your success is to do your homework and research what products people most want to buy. You need to find a niche. Once again, start with things you enjoy. Let's say you love fishing. What products do fishing folks want to buy most? (Or get even more specific, like, what are bass fishermen looking to buy?)

Then the task is to find the right source of those products so you can carry them in your Yahoo! Store. In most cases, you'll be able to pull pictures and product descriptions directly from your sources and plug them right into your store.

As you can see, this business requires a little bit more upfront work, but once it's done it can be maintained with very little regular input on your part.

There you have it--five perfect part-time businesses. Are you ready to start moonlighting on the internet now?

Read more on original URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/194524

Author: Yanik Silver, a serial entrepreneur based in Potomac, Md., is the author of Maverick Startup

Wall Street Uneasy in Face of Government Shutdown

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press Clouds over the Capitol, where members of Congress were at odds over a bill to avert a shutdown.

Wall Street has wearily grown accustomed in recent years to periodic market flare-ups caused by fiscal fights in Washington.

But the current battle — and the looming threat of a government shutdown on Tuesday — is beginning to cause greater unease than past political disputes and are rattling markets on Monday. Stocks in Japan closed down 2.06 percent on Monday. In the United States, stocks were lower in early trading on Monday.

For investors, the chief fear is that a government shutdown would set the stage for a more momentous battle over the so-called debt ceiling. If there is no agreement to raise the borrowing limit by mid-October, the government will not be able to issue more bonds and could default on its outstanding borrowing.

Markets Slide on U.S. Budget Moves While Congress in the past has waited until the last minute to raise the debt ceiling, a growing number of analysts say that the political disagreements appear to be more intractable this time around.

“The threat of a default, however remote, seems to be on the table now,” said Gregory R. Valliere, the chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group.

Still, there have been government shutdowns in the past and the markets have quickly recovered. At the end of last year, Congress approved legislation that averted a series of tax increases and budget cuts known as the fiscal cliff. Stocks fell sharply in the days leading up to that agreement, but they rebounded quickly.

And in past debates over budget issues, investors were faced with other big crises that heightened the sense of risk, including the European debt crisis and a potential double-dip recession in the United States.

Since the beginning of this year, most other serious threats to the global economy have faded and Wall Street has habituated to relatively smooth sailing. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is up over 18 percent this year.

A Park Service police officer at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington during a shutdown in 1995. Charles Tasnadi/Associated Press A Park Service police officer at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington during a shutdown in 1995. In recent weeks, the primary concern among market participants has been the Federal Reserve and its decision about whether to slow down, or taper, the bond-buying programs that have been used to stimulate the economy.

The Fed’s decision to hold off on tapering was still the main topic of conversation on trading desks at the beginning of last week. But as the week went on, more and more investors began to tune in to the standoff between House Republicans and Senate Democrats. Stocks fell on Friday to close out the first down week in a month.

The main focus on Wall Street is the possibility that the government will stop making payment on its outstanding bonds when the current borrowing limit is reached, which is expected to happen on Oct. 17.

Treasury bonds are viewed as the bedrock of financial markets, thanks largely to the assumption that the United States will always pay its debts. Most analysts say that if that were thrown into question, the consequences would be catastrophic, and largely unpredictable.

“Even if it’s a brief failure, it would forever be a signal to the market that you can’t trust the United States government to make its payment when it’s due,” said Millan Mulraine, the director of United States research and strategy at TD Securities. “That would shake the foundations of the global financial system.”

Before Congress can turn its full attention to the debt ceiling, it will first have to deal with a resolution to keep the government open when the new fiscal year begins on Tuesday.

House Republicans passed legislation over the weekend that would keep the government operating only if funding for President Obama’s health care bill is delayed for a year and a tax on medical devices is permanently repealed. The Democrats who control the Senate have said they will not agree to those conditions.

Most Wall Street economists have said that the consequences of a temporary government shutdown would be relatively insignificant, particularly because spending on essential services — a large portion of the budget — would continue. Citigroup economists estimated on Friday that a one-week shutdown would probably cause a 0.1 percent hit to the national economy.

But many strategists say that the outcome of the debate over the shutdown is important because it will set the backdrop for the battle over the debt ceiling. Mr. Mulraine said that a disagreement this week would most likely mean that “both sides are so entrenched that making progress on the debt ceiling would be much harder.”

In contrast, Alec Phillips, a Goldman Sachs economist, said Friday that a shutdown could “ease passage of a debt-limit increase” because House Republicans could lose their bargaining leverage.

Led by Speaker John A. Boehner, House Republicans have already said that they would demand even more concessions in order to agree to a lifting of the debt ceiling, including changes to environmental and financial regulations.

Economists at Bank of America and Capital Economics wrote on Friday that the focus on President Obama’s health care legislation makes the positions of both sides more intractable now than they have been during other budget fights.

“We have no idea exactly how this standoff will be resolved, and even less of an idea exactly when any agreement might be reached,” the Capital Economics team said in a note to clients on Friday. “At this stage, we would be lying if we said we were confident of a positive outcome.”

If the disagreements persist, the reaction in the markets is likely to become much more pronounced as Oct. 17 draws closer. Mr. Valliere said that in the past, sharp swings in the markets helped to eventually push politicians toward a compromise.

“You have to worry that the one thing that could motivate Congress to step away from the precipice would be an angry reaction from the stock market,” he said.

Original article here: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/wall-street-uneasy-in-face-of-government-shutdown/?_r=0