It used to be that some people would do anything for a buck, but come on, it's 2010. The price has quintupled. So have the lengths to which people are willing to go.
"I will send you a poem that will help you quit smoking." "I will be your online pen pal for a month." "I will be your fake emergency call during your date."
Fiverr (www.fiverr.com) has created an online marketplace for people to advertise odd jobs -- although there are limits to how odd -- and make $5. But there are plenty of serious jobs, too, including résumé help, editing and social-media marketing.
Ann Doetkott of Minneapolis came up with about a dozen easy, quick jobs to supplement income from her photography and jewelry businesses.
For $5 (actually, $4 after Fiverr takes $1), she will tackle small photo-editing tasks such as covering up blemishes, write wedding vows and haikus, and mail a hand-drawn doodle on a postcard anywhere in the United States. So far, only one taker: a woman who wanted three haikus for an art exhibit. Doetkott hopes sales increase to a dozen a month, or $48.
Other users have had better luck, such as Katie Mortensen, a 15-year-old high school student from Pengilly, Minn. She is among those coming up with unusual and possibly embarrassing ways to make a few bucks.
Mortensen will bake cookies, send a cup of dirt or iron-ore pellets from the Iron Range and suggest 10 names for a band. Her biggest seller? Writing anything appropriate on her forehead and wearing it to school all day. Twelve companies have taken her up on the offer.
"I've made about $65," she said. "I definitely think wearing advertisements on my forehead is worth $5."
