With the drop-shipping, how long did you work on doing that? I think where a lot of people go wrong when trying to make extra income at home is that they get discouraged quickly and don't stick with anything they start. Find something you can get passionate about and find ways to make money with it. No matter what you do, success isn't going to happen over night. But if you keep working at it, eventually you'll hit a breakthrough. Good luck!

If you know that you want to work from home but you don't know what you want to do, it might help to start by doing a personal inventory. This is where you basically come up with a list of all your skills, interests, qualities and so on. Then you work through it and see what might actually help you pick out a business you'd like. (For example, if you HATE waking up at 4 am, you probably don't want to be a virtual assistant who specializes in helping West Coast online traders!) If you pick something you like, you're more likely to have energy to go the extra mile with it. (Disclaimer: I wrote a book on doing a personal inventory to figure out what business you could start. But that's because I didn't see anything else like that out there.)

You can also go through lists of business ideas and see if anything jumps out at you. Asking what would pay the best is tricky, because, in business, things can totally range. Nobody thought hamburgers was a way to get rich till Ray Kroc revamped McDonald's. Nobody thought selling coupon packs would go anywhere till Groupon came along. Nobody thought self publishing had much money in it till JD sold this blog!

Well there are two things you could do: 1) make more money or 2) reduce your costs. I'll respond to the first item in this post.

I. Make more money:

1. Mow lawns. The summer months are here (assuming you live in the U.S.?). Lots of opportunities with lawns out there. My uncle does this during the end of spring and summer. It’s a nice side business.
2. Freelance Writing. People will pay for writing articles. A blog is a good place to start.
3. Become a Dog Walker. Lots of people have pets. Yet they work too much or just prefer for someone else to handle certain aspects of pets training.
4. Get a newspaper route. Early risers could do this. This can generate an extra $1000-$2000 a month easily.
5. Sell stuff online on EBay or Amazon. Find a niche and start making a profit!
6. Become a mystery shopper. Mystery shoppers can work flexible hours. Sometimes you even get to keep your purchases! Note: Avoid companies that want you to pay a fee up front.
7. Babysit some kids. Know kids? Baby sit them for cash! Sometimes even voluntary babysitting can turn into money.
8. Write a Book or an eBook. Are you an expert at something? Are you a good story teller or good at poetry? My wife published a book of poems in 2010. Her first book and we broke about even. eBooks are really cheap and becoming more popular as well!
9. Tutor students. If you speak any other language (Spanish or French?) tutoring kids or even adults can be profitable. My sister does this and charges $15 an hour. She’s not even 20 years old yet!
10. Run errands for the elderly. Get to know people in your community or church (if applicable) who may need to go to the bank or for you to get their groceries.
11. Fix people’s PC’s. Start out with family/friends. Computers are always breaking down or having viruses. I have a friend
12. Do consulting. Web design is always a good place to start. Businesses are always needing their sites updated, promos with graphics, etc. I have a cousin who makes about $1200-$2000 a month depending on the business on this.
13. Deliver pizzas at night. Tips, Tips, Tips! Even if it’s just for the summer it’s a great way to generate some cash.
14. Clean homes. People don’t always want or (supposedly) have time to clean their homes. Not the most luxurious job but a great opportunity to make some extra money. My wife did this while in high school and even college.
15. Go back to school. Sometimes going back to school for a BA in Business or other field can open up new opportunities. Getting a masters or a MBA could be a useful tool in making oneself more marketable. I did this and after hard work in almost 6 years of school landed a job making double what I used to make.

For more see this article by John Frainee. A lot of these ideas are John's and I just personalized them and added a few.

If you have some storage space, and saturday mornings free, pick up stuff for free or cheap on craigslist and then garage sale on the weekends.

Just keep a spreadsheet so you never sell for less than you paid plus the gas to pick stuff up.

I have made about $1500 this year doing this - I pick up old dressers and tables people are pitching. Sometimes they are just crap, but sometimes just need to be cleaned up a bit. I spend about 3-4 hours cleaning up and sometimes if it's a higher end piece I'll go whole hog and refinish (about a 10 hour investment + $15 worth of materials). The nicer stuff I usually get about a $50 profit off of - the other stuff usually about $20. It's not alot of money, but when you have free time and need money....

I had a housemate once who kept a map on the kitchen wall showing the trash pickup days in every town within a 50-mile radius of our house. He'd go out with his truck each morning and drive up and down the streets on trash pickup day looking for good stuff that people were chucking out. A lot of people throw out perfectly good things because they no longer need it and don't know what to do with it. He made about half of his living this way each year -- picking up stuff for free (well, there was the price of the gasoline and wear-and-tear on his truck) and selling it. Televisions, stereos, tools (including a perfectly functioning bandsaw and a radial arm saw), furniture, computers, you name it.

This was before eBay, but I still see a lot of stuff on the sidewalk here on trash days, some of it perfectly usable.

@Eagle: I think the second step of your process should be reduce the time for doing those works by outsourcing. What do you think about my idea

There are different legitimate websites that provide opportunities to work online depending on your skills. you can work as a freelance writer or virtual assistant.

Some decent paying work-at-home gigs are:

Phone/remote PC support - A lot of computers can be repaired remotely or walking them through it over the phone. Setup a PayPal account and charge $30 a phone call or per hour. You may not get a lot of business, but it sure is easy work with decent pay.

Resume writing services: Lots of people are looking for jobs and can't write their own resume or afford a professional.

Consulting: Depending on what your strengths are, this may be done over the phone, or by meeting with clients and discussing in person what they can do.

Debt Tracking/Goal Progress: Lots of people are in debt, don't have the means to stay focused, etc. Setup a program for them, check up on them on a monthly basis, and provide feedback and moral support for a small fee. If you can get a dozen people paying you $5/mo, that's a nice extra income for such little work.

Web Hosting: Most hosting companies charge $10/mo or less for web hosting and allow you to resell or have multiple domains/users per account. Resell your hosting for $5-$10/mo and after one or two customers, you are profiting.

Referals: Maybe you can refer or partner up with agents with people who you know want to buy a house or such, you can get $100-300 per referal if they close. Or if you have a blog or web site, post ads up with a referal partner that earns you money when someone buys something off that ad. I didn't think it worked, but I had a few people buy stuff from barnes and nobles and staples when I had my web site up, and earned a little over $20 bucks. Now they require a $50 min for payout so it may take a while.

The list goes on, but there are quite a few things you can do from the comfort of your own home. If you can find something that'll net you over 30k a year at home, that's pretty good.

One of my relatives works full-time from home as a medical transcriptionist. She did some EMT training years ago but other than that, has no medical background. Not sure what the requirements are but she has been making a living at this for years now. I believe she can also increase her hours when she needs extra money (she's a single mom with two kids and a mortgage).