I’m no fan of many of Delph’s political views but I have to say that on this point, I back him 100%. Durham, via his company Fair Finance, is accused of creating a Ponzi scheme and ripping off investors to support a lavish lifestyle. The Indianapolis Business Journal has done an amazing job of reporting this whole sordid affair.

In turn, the attorney representing these ripped-off investors has asked some very well-heeled politicians who have plenty of money in their campaign coffers to return the political contributions so the money can be part of the bankruptcy payout to investors. So far, Delph is pretty lonely in heeding that call.

Which, drum roll please, inspired my latest CafePress creation: the “I returned Durham’s contribution” T-shirt. I plan to order one and ship it anonymously to Delph.

When bidding, I thought I’d be able to send the payment, which must be sent via wire transfer very quickly after the close of bidding, at Walmart. Little did I realize that Walmart’s $4.75 money orders only allow you to send money to a person, not a business or as in this case, the county’s bank account.

In the end, I went to my personal bank and spent $25 to send the $100 money order. If the deliquent taxpayer is terrified because I’ve bought the lient and repays the county in the first six months, I’d get $110 back, meaning I lost $15. If the deliquent taxpayer pays later than six months but before a year is up, I’d get $125 back and break even. If the deliquent doesn’t pay, I could go through a bunch of paperwork I don’t understand and eventually come to own this commercial property. The lien I bought is on a commercial building on leased land, which currently houses a Big Lots.

In summary, my first foray into the purchase of tax lien certificates has taught me these points:

-I wouldn’t bother buying one unless you can go in person to pay for the certificate, or

-If the bid is such a high amount that the $25 wire transfer fee is immaterial, and

-I get way to excited about new ideas and need to slow down (deep breath, yoga pose) and really research what I’m doing (boring!) with the calming knowledge that these opportunities are nothing new and will be there even after I take the time to fully understand them.

One small follow up, I got a letter from a Clark County attorney yesterday that I’ve yet to read. But the jist was something like I only have a certain amount of time to do some sort of full title research if I wanted to guarantee the lien and that I should hire him for hundreds of dollars to do it. Instead, I’m hoping the landlord of said Big Lots (if it really still a Big Lots as google maps says it is) just quakes in his boots and pays up at six months and one day. And I’ll break even except for the opportunity cost of what that $125 could have been doing otherwise.

I’ve added some T-shirts to my cafepress site. I’ve also selected a new visual framework that frankly looks ugly. I need to work on that.

I’ve also pondered branching off into T-shirts emphasizing Indiana politics but so far, my first attempt at that (Deport Delph) hasn’t sold a thing. That shirt is in response to SB590 and State Sen. Mike Delph’s (R-Carmel) love of all hot-button (but not really state-level) issues. And for those of you with no sense of humor who might accidentally stumble across this site, I don’t really want to deport Sen. Delph. I just want him to get some empathy. In fact, I think it’d make a fascinating article to sit down with him and trace his geneology to see how his ancestors came to the United States. (You! Hey, you, in the back! I can hear you snoring – stop it! Ok, fascinating to me.)

On the whole immigration debate, I know I’m a radical and all but I can emphathize with immigrants, legal or illegal. If I lived in a city with rampant violence (think of Mexico’s drug-related violence) or even where I just couldn’t earn a wage to support my family, I’d illegally cross whatever boundary if it meant a better life for my children. So should I villianize other people who do that?

Let’s just say the entire stock of one wreath has more than met the existing world demand for dog memorial wreaths. Or maybe it’s overpriced but I need to recoup some of the money I spent to make it. Mostly the pewter charms cost a little. But the main culprit is that once I travel a bit down the “I love to do crafts” path, I realize that more than anything, I like to buy supplies for crafts I’ll never get around to making.

Therefore my as-yet unsuccesful venture into Etsy fame has bred an addiction to browsing craft supplies, buying, and bidding on supplies on ebay. On a positive note, my fiver-year-old daughter and I did bond over a fun-filled crafting day.

This Etsy experiment has also made me venture into the world of advertising via Google AdWords. I set up a campaign to link to my Etsy wreath and another campaign to direct people to my Cafepress Web site.

It cost a one-time fee of $5 to set up the account. So far 5 people have clicked through my ads, costing me another $2.82. You get to choose your daily ad budget and through some convulted formula, they figure out what type of placement your ad gets and each click-through costs you a different amount, up to your limit, based on how high the link was placed (cofused yet?).

I think this could be a good way to drive traffic to your product but as of yet, I don’t seem to have  products people are clamoring for. The five who clicked through didn’t buy. Maybe I should go back to scouring used books instead.

By the way, I’m still open to any money-making schemes you want me to try out to see how much effort they take and profit they produce. Just send me suggestions via the comment section.

Happy entrepreneuring!

Since reselling used books was my 2009 profit driver, I’ve decided to hand out a few awards. The award for the book buyer who gave me the best price of the year goes to: SellBackYourBook.com.

They paid me $68.54 for a small medical pocket guide I bought for 30 cents at Salvation Army. They paid the shipping, processed the order quickly, and sent me the full offer amount. Thank you, Sellbackyourbook.com.

Our award for tomorrow: The book buyer who bought the most titles from me.

This month/quarter/season (I haven’t quite decided my pace), I’m going to try out selling a handmade craft on www.etsy.com. Click here for my shop (which I haven’t customized yet). I’m still in the craft-making phase but I’ll let you know when I get something listed. And of course, if I make any money.

I’m starting out with some wreaths made of recycled T shirts. Wish me luck.

On another note, I got a notice in the mail the other day that I could open an M&I bank account and get a $100 bonus. I’ve been thinking about getting a separate account for my business experiments. So I went in and an hour and $50 later (that’s the minimum opening deposit), I have a new checking account and if I use my debit card via signing 5 times in the first 45 days (say at Salvation Army when I’m buying used books), then I get the $100. If it pans out, this may be my most successful money-making venture of 2010.

Selling Books Online – I made $252.49 in the 4.5 months I did it, which breaks down to $56 a month. I’ll keep doing that.

Shoes on ebay – I made $17.43 in 4 months of doing this, or about $4 a month. My new plan is to browse the shoes when I’m in buying books. I’ll buy any good ones and pass them on to my friend, D, (see her ebay page via the link on the left) who can really present things well. Then we’ll split the profit.

Associated Content – I made $12.87 for 2009, which is a little more than $1 a month. (Yes, Virginia, she can do simple math.) I put almost no effort into this but even so, this is pretty much a waste of time.

Inbox Dollars – Though I’ve religiously clicked all the paid emails that have rolled into my account, I saw no payday in 2009. I may actually have to stop doing this.

Flatware on ebay – I lost $2.53 on this venture, mainly because I bought a bottle of silver polish. Toothpaste works better. I did this for about 3 months, for an average loss of 84 cents per month.

Cafepress – The verdict is still out on this one. I paid the $59.95 annual fee to have a store as a Christmas present to myself. So far, I’ve made $15.50 but all those sales were before Christmas. It’s been deadly quiet since and if that’s my holiday retail rush, this might be a loser too.

Have you ever seen a money-making venture and wondered, could I actually make any dough doing that? Well, email me and I’ll try it out. The only parameters are that the start up costs must be under $100 and it can’t take too much time, ie, it has to be a side business that can squeeze in between the cracks of a full-time job, raising two  girls, and ignoring my dog who desperately needs more walks.

Anybody out there read A.J. Jacobs, author of Guinea Pig Diaries, The Year of Living Biblically, and The Know-It-All? He’s freaking hilarious. I’ve only read Guinea Pig Diaries so far (I’ve got the other two on hold at the library) and it made me laugh and laugh. He’s brilliant.

He takes some idea or philosophy and then lives it, making his whole life the experiment. One of his best essays is on this philosophy called “Radical Honesty” where you not only stop censoring yourself, you must also say whatever pops into mind. The essay on that experiment is in Guinea Pig Diaries and I found myself reading entire sections aloud to my hubby.

My point being: I forced a friend to read sections of it and she said she could see me doing that kind of writing if I ever got back into journalism. So this is my stab at imitation being the highest form of flattery but with my only on the side, money-making slant. Send me suggestions, I’ll try them out and write about it.

What I’m still trying to decide is whether to do 12 experiments over 2010 or move to one every 2 months. Here’s a list of ideas I’ve come up with so far:

-Making wreaths by hand and selling them on http://www.etsy.com/.

-Setting up a Web site that offers to research a subject via a set of references and produce a reading/briefing packet, which could be electronic or printed.

-Writing a romance for eHarlequin (not that they’d necessarily accept it but that would be part of the fun).

-Dog walking.

What do you think – which ideas do you want to see me try? Any other ideas? I’m willing to give it a try no matter how outrageous as long as it takes less than $100 to set up and not that much time. Email or send suggestions via the comment section.