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Making money ideas for kids is a popular topic right now. With the economy being down for well over a year now and the unemployment rate is still rising, available work is hard to find in some markets. Jobs that kids may been able to secure in years past are being filled by the recently dismissed from other jobs.

Frankly, if you’re under 16 years of age there isn’t much of a job market out there anyway. Lack of experience, workplace laws and insurance barriers all stand in the way of a good paying employment. It also doesn’t help that the school year will only allow night and weekend work, while the summer is over in 90 days.

Traditionally low-paying work like mowing lawns, paper deliveries or chores in the neighborhood were all a kid could find to make a little extra money. Menial work like this usually only brings the equivalent of minimum wages, which doesn’t go very far these days. And the work can get pretty physical too. Not a top choice among most young adults.

Let’s see if we can come up with some money making ideas that a kid might even enjoy while making better money. Surely there’s something we can dream up to match today’s kind of kid. We spent some time thinking about this and came up with two possibilities.

Taking and uploading digital photos to a stock photography website might be a making money for kids opportunity. You might even get the whole family in on it as well. As it is, the websites require the person who opens the account must be at a minimum of 18 years of age. or, Mom or Dad could just open it and give their kid the user name and password.

What a person should do is get on the Web and search for stock photo sites like istockphoto.com and read not only their Terms of Use, but also the kind of images they’re looking for. Once you pass their entrance inspection of samples of your work, you’re free to upload photos. And if a graphic designer or ad agency peruses your photos and decides they want to use them for a project, they pay a fee for downloading and you get a commission check. This is a making money idea for kids idea and fun at the same time.

Kids seem to have an innate ability to operate electronic equipment so operating a digital camera will be a snap for them. So turning this into a making money for kids project won’t include much of a learning curve at all. Young people also possess a fresh and uncluttered mind that may well lead them to take photos you or I would never think of. They may post to the website content that is unlike what others are doing. They may get noticed for this by the potential buyers and start getting paid for the downloads.

Working with pets might be another making money idea for kids. I’m talking vertically integrating here. From dog walking to pet sitting to grooming and even poop scooping if possible. There are over 60 million dog owners in this country and most dote on their pets, especially dogs. Take advantage of this phenomenon by getting your kid involved. Dog owners will spend on their pet’s well being before their own sometimes.

The pet walking and sitting aspects are pretty straight forward. You contract with neighbors or coworkers to care for their pets while they’re away or if they can’t do it themselves. No special training needed, just teach them to be responsible and respectful.

Dog grooming can also be offered as an additional making money for kids service. Beyond just bathing, drying and comb-outs will require additional training, but it’s not that difficult. Grooming is an acquired skill like carpentry or plumbing, you just need instruction and practice. People get tired of the grooming shop routine of making appointments and schlepping the animal to and from the shop. Offering an in-home service could prove very successful.

Groomers earn pretty good money these days and it could be another facet of your niche of pet care as a making money idea for kids. Currently pet owners are saddled with the routine of making appointments, then the hassle of delivering and picking up the animal from the shop (usually in rush hour traffic). Offering an in-home grooming service could prove very attractive to many pet owners. You could pick simple and advanced grooming skills from websites, books or videos and add to your list of services.

And if you really want to add to your ultimate list of pet offerings as a making money ideas for kids, you could perform poop scooping too. It’s really a simple process provided you get over the “ugh” factor. Buy a scoop, a hotel-style dust pan and some plastic bags and you’re in business. Schedule regular weekly stops and you’ll likely have many people scrambling to get on your list. It’s a valued service in many parts of the country.

That’s two making money ideas for kids, have any more come to mind while reading this?

Selling merchandise on eBay has been recognized as one of the top ways to sell products and establish a lucrative online home based business. A few years ago it was fairly easy to make money this way, however, over the years eBay has become over populated with sellers, making it even more challenging to find products that are not saturated on eBay and inexpensive enough to make a decent profit from. When you use an online supplier, you have a disadvantage compared to other eBayer’s, because many receive volume discounted pricing on merchandise that you would have to compete against.

Here is a way you can have a competitive advantage and make much higher profit margins then long time eBayers. The government collects millions of items through many diverse sources such as bankruptcies, unpaid taxes, repossessed items, unclaimed items or government surplus that they simply want to quickly get rid of. These items are sold either live at a local US or Canada government auction or online from a government web site. Since these items don’t bare a cost to the government, they aren’t concerned about selling at high markups like a wholesaler is, so you can buy merchandise for far less then what they are worth.

Purchasing products at government auctions means you are buying goods that are not only unique but are deeply discounted as well. These auctions have a extensive range of items that are great for selling on eBay including items such as jewelry, electronics, office equipment, etc. There are also numerous new or near new items existing in sizeable quantities which means less time adding items in eBay. To give an example, at a government auction I recently attended someone bought 11 ATM machines for $45 each which they sold for $467 each and another person bought 43 digital cameras for $600 which they auctioned off on eBay for a 700 percent profit.

So if you’ve never sold an item on eBay then I would suggest going to eBay and taking 10 minutes to set-up a free eBay membership (see link below) and entering in a fake item for sale (it’s easy, follow eBay’s guidance). You can do this without physically offering the item for sale. This quick implementation will show you now painless it is to sell items on eBay.

Then go to the Government Auction Review Site below and check which government auction site(s) are the best options to locate government auctions and items listed at each (online and live auctions). Once you learn of the government auction site that will offer access to virtually unlimited merchandise for you to resale, then join that site.

All you have to do now is search for government auction sale items online and/or visit a local live government auction. Then buy items amongst the countless great deals and list them on eBay for a nice profit. Viola, eBay’s complete audience has access to your items and can now bid on them.

My congrats because you have just started what will be a very profitable online business.