Many women over 60 would love to earn some extra money on the side – whether we’re winding down our careers or looking to make our retirement savings last longer, extra cash is always welcome. But how can women over 60 make money, especially while working a flexible schedule and doing interesting work?

Fortunately, the Internet makes it more possible than ever before for women to make money working from home.

Whether you want to start your own business as an independent contractor/consultant with clients of your own, or have a regular working relationship with a larger company, chances are that there are some good options for you to make money while working from home in your spare time.

Here are a few home based business ideas for women over 60:

Working Online on Elance.com

Elance.com is an online talent platform where companies post projects that they need help to get completed, and independent freelance workers bid on the jobs.

Elance is kind of like “eBay for freelance work” – you set up an online profile and gradually build up a reputation as a trustworthy and reliable worker. You can set your own prices, either on an hourly basis or on a fixed-fee basis per project.

Elance is ideal for people who have some sort of existing professional online skills, such as freelance writing, graphic design or web development.

Teaching

If you have a Master’s degree, you can teach college classes online from the comfort of your own home. Check with your local college or university or community college and see if they need adjunct faculty to teach any classes next semester. Or if you have a 4-year degree, you can often teach high school classes online or be a tutor for high school students in your area.

Another option for teaching if you want to work online is to teach English as a Second Language (ESL). There are a few companies online such as Open English that pay around $10 per hour for native English speakers to teach ESL learners from around the world.

Or if you don’t want to deal with the uncertainty or impersonal nature of working online, try to hang out a shingle as a private tutor working with local clients in your city or neighborhood. There are often many parents who need to hire extra teaching help for their sons and daughters, and they often pay more than $10 per hour.

Customer Service

Another way to earn extra money while working from home is to be an online customer service agent. There are many big companies that hire people to work from home answering phone calls and providing customer service.

This site, Rat Race Rebellion, has a list of companies that are hiring online customer service reps, along with some information on pay and job duties. If you love talking to people, solving problems for customers or making sales, and you want to earn some extra money in retirement, working online as a customer service rep or sales agent might be right for you.

Consulting

Whatever you’ve done in your career, chances are good that you could make much more money per hour by taking your professional career skills directly to the clients by working as an independent consultant.

Alan Weiss, founder of Summit Consulting, is a well-respected author and consultant, offering training, seminars and mentoring to consultants of all ages and industries. He has a wide variety of free advice and resources on his website that are useful to anyone who’s interested in making money as a professional solo practitioner consultant. Another site with great resources for independent professional consultants is MBO Partners, which offers a billing rate calculator and other tools and tips.

Women over 60 are very fortunate, because we can have the best of both worlds – the security of retirement income, while also having the fun and freedom that comes from earning some extra cash on the side. Whether you want your side business to just provide “fun money” or potentially be the start of a whole new “Second Act” career, women over 60 have plenty of options to make money while working from home.

Have you tried any sites to find work online? Which ones worked best for you?

Watch my interview with professional writer, Ben Gran, to hear his perspective on how to become a successful freelance writer.