photo credit: Lee Nachtigal

With tough economic times, more and more people are searching for ways to make extra money without any money upfront, if you love pets then pet sitting is an option you might want to consider. We live in a highly mobile society and whether for business or pleasure, people on the average travel a fair amount. It is often difficult to take your pets with you especially if you are flying or taking a cruise, so this leaves the pet owner with the difficult task of what to do with their beloved dog, cat, or bird. Kennels can be very expensive and often can be quite traumatic for the pet; they can even make them sick.

That is where pet sitting comes in, as a pet sitter you will either come to your client’s home, or you will bring their pet to your home depending on your client’s preference. You will feed, water, exercise and love their pet while they are gone. You may also need to provide grooming, and if the pet is ill, or elderly you might be asked to give them medications as well.

To start this business all you will need is time and a lot of love, your clients will supply the rest. As time goes on pet sitters normally will get bonded, so that owners feel comfortable allowing them access to their homes. You might also consider obtaining certifications in pet sitting and animal first aid.

You will want to print up some paper work on your computer for your new business, a contract, a pet information sheet, and a daily log. The pet information sheet will list all the dogs’ vital information including age, any medical conditions, allergies, and most importantly the name and phone number of their vet. A daily log will be for you to fill out while the pet owner is away, this will allow them to see what time you have spent with their pet, and what you did with them while the owner was away.

Once you have all your preparations in place, then it is time to advertise your pet business, start with flyers and business cards as these can be designed on your computer and printed out for no extra money, provided you have the paper and ink. Once you have completed a few jobs consider taking out an ad in your local newspaper.

Pet sitting services are very popular these days and depending on what is available in your area, you may find that soon you are booked up solid for months, and need to hire more people. Suddenly the business you started without money is bringing in more money than you could possibly have imagined.

If you need money now, like I mean in the next hour, try what I did. I am making more money now than in my old business and you can too, read the amazing, true story, in the link below. When I joined I was skeptical for just ten seconds before I realized what this was. I was smiling from ear to ear and you will too.

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photo credit: janiejonesmt

Don’t underestimate the value of advertising your pet sitting business online. Advertising in directories, using pay-per-click and Squidoo and Hubpages can increase your website’s traffic and sales conversion rates.

Advertising in Directories

Look for directories that cater to your business’ location and your target demographic. For example, if your business is located in California and your target demographic is older women dog owners, consider submitting your business into directories that appeal to California residents, dog owners and women. It’s even better if you find a directory devoted to dog-owning women in California.

Some Tips:

* Don’t exchange a directory submission for a link on your pet sitting business website to the directory or another website. This may bring down your website’s search engine rank.
* Be prepared to pay for directory submission. While free directories exist and are capable of delivering results, many require payment.
* Stay away from directories that promise too much. Some directories may claim to boost the status of your website by using sneaky ways to make your pet sitting business website more visible. Your best results will come from real people who find your website on the directory and click on the website out of real interest.
* Directories that look like they spam their contents usually do. Protect your pet sitting business’ credibility and search engine rank by avoiding these types of directories.

Using PPC

Pay-per-click advertising, or sponsored links, can help you see sales conversions. PPC advertising pops up when potential customers enter keywords into search engines while looking for websites. While some of those keywords will yield links to indexed results, other results usually come up next to those results and be separated. These sponsored links can be cost-effective advertising for your pet sitting business because you’re only charged a few cents for every click on the link.

Investing in PPC advertising is easy. Simply register with PPC programs with popular search engines. Google offers two good ones called AdWords and AdSense. When choosing keywords to include in your PPC advertisements, make sure you do some research to ensure that they’re common words that are likely to be entered in search engines. Be sure to set daily spend limits and test and refine your PPC advertising to ensure that you don’t spend too much.

How to Use Squidoo and Hub Pages

Squidoo and Hubpages are great advertising tools if you know how to work them. These sites let you set up mini sites about specific topics and make the site set up very easy. They’re search-engine friendly and can result in more traffic, backlinks and publicity for your pet sitting business – and that’s just for starters. Register accounts with both these websites and establish yourself as an “expert” in the areas of pet care and pet sitting. Provide information to readers that they can’t get anywhere else. Give them insight into the business of pet sitting, issues that customers may have to deal with when looking for a pet sitter and leaving their animals in the care of someone else. Give links that lead back to your pet sitting business website and watch the new customer inquiries stream in!

Danielle Chonody is The Pet Business Success Coach. For more marketing tips get her free 5 part e-course that exposes the secrets to attracting a consistent stream of new customers and reducing your marketing expenses at http://www.marketingyourpetsittingbusiness.com

One of the more unusual money making ideas that’s a great deal of fun is mystery shopping. While you may have seen a lot of ads on the Internet about this unusual business opportunity, it’s a safe bet that there aren’t a lot of people performing this service in your area—which means you don’t have a lot of competition to deal with.

For a nominal fee, you can sign up with an online service that supplies you with contact information for companies that are looking for people to become mystery shoppers. You not only make money at this, you get great deals on eating out, movie tickets, and of course, shopping. Might be something to check out if this interests you.

Maybe shopping isn’t your thing. Have you considered selling books? Many of today’s book publishers have decided to boycott the huge bookstores by hiring people to market and sell their books directly to buyers. This is especially true of publishers who predominately publish Christian and children’s books.

By doing this, they generate more sales without what amounts to having to pay the major bookstores to carry their books (although many of these publishers will also have their books on the shelves of your nearest Borders which makes them all the more credible).

This is one of the truly great unusual business opportunities if you love books, and it can net you a hefty profit. This is becoming a hot trend for people searching for money making opportunities online, so the time to get in on it is now.

Another one of the unusual money making opportunities that you’ve probably heard about is pet sitting. For this to be an unusual money making opportunity to you, you have to think outside the box. For instance, when people hear about pet sitting, they automatically think of dogs and cats. But there is big money to be made in this area if you work for farmers or breeders. Think about it.

What does a farmer, or a horse, dog, or cat breeder do if they want to take a vacation or have to have surgery? Call you! Seriously, if you have experience with farm animal care or are willing to take on a large number of animals to care for, you can make a tremendous amount of money at this. You can also hire people to help you and make more money by just taking a small percentage of their regular charge.

These are just a few of the many unusual money making ideas out there today. You can literally find thousands more when you look at money making opportunities online. You’ll find information on how you can have your own successful glass replacement business, carpet cleaning business, lawn care business, typing or proofreading business, credit counseling business, even your own rent-a-clown business. These are unusual businesses because people don’t realize they can be run from your home, with minimal to no start-up costs.

You can also look at franchises for unusual business ideas. New ones are popping up every day, especially in the fitness area. The costs to having your own franchise range from nominal to huge. It all depends on how much you’re willing to or have the funds to invest, but it’s likely you can find a franchise that fits your budget.

And franchises are a particularly good idea if you live in a bedroom community or small town—or there’s one close to you. You can make huge profits there with one of the hot deli or sub franchises.

People don’t always want to drive to the largest city near your location to grab a sub and a cup of coffee, so that makes these great unusual business opportunities for your area. And once you have them set up, you can usually manage them from your home!

Before you sign up for or invest in anything, whether it’s one of the unusual business opportunities or a franchise get the facts. If you decide you want to be a rent-a-clown, make sure there’s a market for that in your area.

If you’re signing up with a mystery shopping service online, make sure it’s the real deal. And have a plan on how you’re going to turn your unusual money making opportunity into a successful business. Planning makes all the difference when it comes to starting, owning, and running any business. So do your homework. You won’t regret it!

© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

Randy has dozens of home based business articles such as Best Home Based Internet Business, Ebay Money Making Tips and Medical Billing Service.