Legit but Quick Way to Earn Money Online While Helping Others?

If this question is not allowed here, please send it to /dev/null and accept my apologies. But I think others might find the discussion helpful.

I suddenly find myself without a job. I'm actively searching for new opportunities, but got wondering about ways to generate some income in the meantime.

I'm NOT looking for a "get rich quick" scheme, but rather for ways to legitimately, legally, morally, and ethically turn skills and knowledge I have into money. And I need to do it quickly since the bills are coming due.

I can design and build web sites, for example, but that's not something with a quick turnaround. I also need to spend the bulk of my time on a "real" job search, so I only have a few hours a day to work on generating supplemental (well, primary for now) income.

I'm interested in hearing ideas on how to do stuff online that would...

> Generate income for me > Be quick and easy to set up > Involve minimal risk (of failure or money) > Actually be helpful to people > Scale well in case I'm able to get some serious traction > Be repeatable / multipliable so I can grow income fast

If, with the help of contributors here, I can come up with some workable ideas that prove successful, I'd like to write a free ebook so that others who find themselves in my situation can avoid some of the worry and panic I'm feeling.

Thanks!

You may not be looking for a get-rich-quick scheme, but what want actually is one. Anything that had the properties you describe (generates substantial amounts of income, quick, easy, low-risk, scalable) would be a scheme that quickly makes the practitioner rich.

You are going to have to sacrifice on one or more of those axes in order to get something remotely realistic. For example, you can make somewhat disappointing sums of money with a two-week turnaround by doing crappy freelance jobs on oDesk. (On the other end of things, if you had a strong network, you could probably land a good job quickly, but building a network that can support you that well obviously takes time.)