1. Sell your hair
Banbury Postiche (also known as purelywigs.co.uk) is the main UK buyer of real hair for wigs, extensions and so on. It buys hair by the ounce but it needs to be at least six inches long. You're not going to get rich – it pays £3 to £5 per ounce depending on length.
Your hair needs to be clean and must have had no chemical treatments – no colouring, perming or tinting. It asks that it is tied into a pony tail at the nape of the neck prior to cutting, to keep the root ends together.
2. Be a life model
If you don't mind a bunch of strangers staring at your naked body for hours, then life modelling is one way of making money by sitting still.
Pay varies depending on where you work, but averages at between £8 an hour (outside London) to £12 (inside London). Life-modelling sessions usually last about three hours, with rest breaks.
Art colleges and adult education centres are always looking for life models. Contact your local ones for an application form. Also the website modelreg.co.uk has jobs around the country.
3. Work as an extra
Anyone can be an extra in films, ads or TV programmes. Film companies look for people of all ages, sizes, shapes and looks.
Extras agencies work like temping agencies, and you can join as many as you like. Find a list of agencies for the UK at www.ukscreen.com. But be careful – there are a lot of charlatans in this sector.
If you get a good agency, though, you can make money. The day rate for a "supporting artiste" is £79.59 plus travel money. You make extra for overtime, using your own costume, night work and all sorts. Most of the time you will get free meals on set, and they're often very good.
4. Be a lookalike
Earn upwards of £350 per session just for attending corporate events, parties or launches, pretending to be a celeb. The celebs needed by lookalike agencies keep changing, so there are always new possibilities. Currently, for example, fakefaces.co.uk is "urgently looking for a David Cameron lookalike" for an upcoming corporate event. It is also badly in need of a Gordon Brown, a Lewis Hamilton, a Lily Allen and any of the Dragons from the Den.
You can make extra money if you are good at doing your character's voice or have other skills. Impressionist Caroline Bernstein (carolinebernstein.com) gets more work as Anne Robinson, Cherie Blair, Sharon Osbourne and Cilla Black because she can do their voices too. Susan Scott Lookalikes (lookalikes.info) has a David Beckham who has honed his football skills so that he can be photographed actually kicking a ball.
A lot of corporate work happens in the run-up to Christmas and New Year, so get your photograph into the lookalike agencies now to be considered for these parties.
5. Earn cash by winking
Yes, seriously. Feelunique.com, an online beauty retailer, says it will pay you 10p per wink if you will sport its logo on your eyelid.
Apply through its website and if you're successful it will send you tiny temporary transfers of the logo to put on your eyelids. It wants photographic evidence of your winks and then it will pay on a Pay-Per-Wink (PPW) basis for a maximum of 1,000 winks (so £100 per model).
Yes, it's just a PR stunt, but they're prepared to pay.
