Hardy, who lives in North Carolina and repairs school band musical instruments by day, began selling his personalized messages in cartoon voices on Fiverr.com. The site allows users to buy and sell $5 products (such as an mp3 voice recording) and services (such as finding you 500 new Twitter followers). Some offerings are downright bizarre: "I will write messages on my lips and take photos for $5." Others, such as handmade drawings, seem far too labor-intense to sell for $5.

Hardy, though, has become one of the most successful Fiverr sellers, partly because he also takes advantage of the site's ability to "add on" products or services for more than $5. For an additional $50, he'll record not only his voice, but the sound of entire band, for example. He says he's earned more than $4,000 since opening his shop in September 2010. That cash has helped pay for his wife to go back to school. We asked Hardy to share some of his tips for other aspiring online earners.

Q: How much money have you made?
A: I just cleared the $4,000 mark and I started in September 2010. It seems like a constant stream of money is going into my PayPal account.



Q: Given the time you spend on it, how much do you think you're earning an hour?
A: Recently I've been getting seven or eight gigs a night, and it takes me between two and three hours, but some of those have add-ons, so it might be more than $5. With lyric writing, it takes me half an hour to bang out lyrics, and Fiverr takes $1 for every $5, so I earn about $8 an hour, and I can add music for more money. It's probably closer to $30 an hour—not enough to quit my day job yet.



Q: Do you have plans to expand?
A: If I could make a living off voiceovers, that would be cool. The way Fiverr goes, you don't need to run your own website. Because of the add-ons, you can earn more than $5.