Ebook Review: 101 Ways to Make Extra Money in Your Spare Time by Jackie Beck

By Melissa Batai

Often, work at home moms can find plenty of advice about how to BE a work at home mom. Books like Mandi Ehman's Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too explain to women how to manage their time and juggle their responsibilities as work at home moms, and Prerna Malik's How to Be a Work at Home Mom takes women step by step through the process of becoming a work at home mom. While both of these books are valuable, what they lack are multiple suggestions about jobs to do from home.

As such, Beck's eBook, 101 Ways toMake Extra Money in Your Spare Time is an excellent supplement.

Book Features

101 Ways to Make Extra Money in Your Spare Time doesn't discuss how to be a work at home mom; instead, it offers a wide range of possible work at home jobs, just as the title suggests.

Practical Advice for Getting Started

Often, people are too worried about all the details of their business such as whether they should file to be an LLC or if they'll need to hire an accountant. These worries can stop them from actually trying to work and make some money. Beck warns people not to fall for this trap. Her advice, plain and simple, just start working. Don't let worries and concerns stop you from making progress.

Jobs for Everyone

One of the strengths of this book is that it offers possible jobs for almost everyone, from all walks of life and with all ranges of experience. For instance, there are white collar job suggestions such as tutor, virtual assistant and blog writer, which many of us are familiar with.

However, there are also jobs that are suited for an ingenuous go getter such as selling refreshments at children's sporting events or selling muffins at a busy office building.  There are many ideas in this book, so at least one (if not several) should appeal to you. If you try one and don't think it's the right fit, there are plenty more ideas to choose from.

Weakness of the Book

While Beck does an excellent job coming up with many different job ideas, quite a few of them unique, there is not enough detail about what to do after you settle on a job idea. For instance, one job suggested is detailing cars. This is a potentially lucrative job for someone who has the right skill set. Still, once the person has the idea, how do they go about finding clients? What legalities do they have to worry about?

If each job had a bit more detail about the next step someone should take, this book would be even more valuable.

The Cost

This eBook is available on Kindle (or a mobile device or desktop with the Kindle free app) for $4.99.

Is This Book Right for You?

If you're a more seasoned work at home mom, this likely isn't the book for you.  However, if you're just beginning to contemplate working from home and you need ideas for possible jobs you can do, this eBook is an excellent place to start. This book is a quick read, but it will give you many possible ideas to explore.

Melissa, a mom to three little ones (ages 7, 3 and 1) blogs at Mom's Plans where she writes about living a fulfilling life on less and focuses on cutting expenses, budgeting, paying down debt, saving money and once a month cooking.