Meet some Mainers who know how to sell themselves for profit. Is there money in you too?

LEWISTON – Sometimes Jackie Poole needs more money than she makes at her job, usually for things like clothes and shampoo.

At 21 and without a college degree, she doesn’t earn a fortune. Her last job as a cashier paid $6.75 an hour. As a newly certified phlebotomist she now has the potential to make more, but right now she’s still earning just $7 an hour.

So once or twice a week, Poole rolls up her sleeve, turns away from the needle, and pumps her fist for 40 minutes while a machine siphons off her blood.

At her peak – twice a week, every week – selling plasma netted Poole $150 a month.

Never mind the fact she passed out the first time she did it. Never mind the phobia-inspiring needles.

“It was easy money,” she said.

Easy is debatable. What’s not debatable: There’s a market out there for almost everything. Eggs. Sperm. Hair. Plasma.

Don’t give up your day job, but these gigs can pay some serious money. If you can handle what’s for sale.

You.

Interested? There are options out there, even in rural Maine.

Plasma

Donating plasma is similar to donating blood, except the liquid part of the blood is separated out. That liquid part – plasma – goes into a container. The rest is cycled back into the donor’s body.

Donating plasma takes a little longer. But while blood donors only get a cookie and a cup of juice for their trouble, plasma donors get cash – $15 to $20 a visit.

At Portland Biologicals in Lewiston, the plasma goes to pharmaceutical companies that use it for research and to make blood-clotting drugs and other medications.

“It helps burn victims. It helps premature kids. It helps me out with money,” said Dave, 52, of Sabattus, who asked that his last name be withheld because he’s concerned about the IRS.

Portland Biologicals gives cash. It doesn’t take out taxes.

Dave learned about the place from a friend soon after it opened a decade ago. Except for occasional vacations and an eight-month stint living out of state, Dave has sold plasma twice a week, every week, ever since. He earns $170 a month.

“It’s a good thing to help people,” he said. “And everyone needs money.”

To help ensure the plasma is disease-free and to make sure the donor doesn’t get hurt, Portland Biologicals makes would-be donors adhere to strict guidelines – no illnesses, no drugs (including some legal medications), no recent piercings, tattoos or stays in prison. Donors must weigh at least 110 pounds. They have to fill out extensive paperwork and pass a physical. (The plasma also goes through a host of federally required tests to assure its purity.)

“We don’t want someone coming in with even a cold,” said Bonnie Gallop, manager.

Even though she fainted that first time – donating can cause dehydration, which can lead to fainting – Poole didn’t hesitate to go back.

“Next time I drank a lot of water,” she said.

She also didn’t hesitate to tell her friends about the place. Donors earn $25 for each successful referral.

“Once I got $75 in one day,” she said.

Poole donated plasma every week for two years, dropping in after her day job. Now Portland Biologicals is her day job. She’s responsible for setting up the machines, running IVs and monitoring donors.

Poole still donates, only now she gets an extra $5 as an employee bonus. She still can’t watch the needle go into her own arm.

“If you don’t like needles, that’s the worst part,” she said.

Sperm

Tom Fredericks, a former electrical engineer who lives in Lewiston, used to donate plasma, too. He loved helping people. And the money helped him.

But something else proved even more lucrative: sperm.

It was 1984, Fredericks said, when he saw an ad from a Twin Cities obstetrician who needed sperm donors to help his patients have children. Fredericks had seen similar ads before in big city papers, but he never responded. This local one intrigued him enough to call.

The doctor’s receptionist was surprised by the serious inquiry.

“She said ‘Are you a wise guy?'” Fredericks recalled.

He went in for an interview, a health screening and tests. At 39, he discovered he had a high sperm count.

“That made me feel good,” he said.

The doctor accepted Fredericks as a donor, just one of two from the newspaper ad. He made $25 per donation, he said, with two donations each week.

For four years.

“So a lot of money,” he said.

Fredericks, then married with a son, liked the extra cash. He also liked the thought of giving life, helping families.

But for whatever reason, Fredericks didn’t tell his own family what he was doing. Not his son. Not his wife.

“It just never came up,” he said matter-of-factly.

The obstetrician has since moved out of state. Fertility specialists say Boston is currently the closest place to donate either sperm or eggs.

Fredericks is now divorced, his son grown. Fredericks once asked the doctor’s assistant whether his donations were successful.

“Very,” she said. And gave the number 12.

Still living in the area, Fredericks wonders whether the girl he saw at Staples is his daughter, whether the young man he passed on the street is his son.

“Sometimes I wish I knew,” he said. “I see someone and I think ‘You have the same freckles I do.'”

That four-year period has occupied his thoughts more than any long-gone, part-time job ever could.

He would like to hear from the children he helped produce.

“Just to know that everybody’s OK,” he said.

Hair

At TheHairTrader.com, Jacalyn Elise helps the follicly gifted cash in.

Her Web site lists hair for sale.

“Not everybody can grow a nice head of hair,” said Elise, who started the site. “Extensions are a big, big market.”

So are wigs. So are clutches of hair for antique doll restoration.

On TheHairTrader.com, hair bundles have sold for as little as $75 or as much as $2,000. The price depends on the hair’s length, texture and color – although different colors are popular at different times, depending on what buyers happen to want and what inventory happens to be out there.

“I’ve seen a lot of red or brunette hair selling and the blond hair sitting there,” said Sean Ali, the site’s chief technical officer. “This is not like a mass production market.”

To attract buyers, sellers use words like “flowing” and “silky” and “virgin” (never chemically treated). Some sellers offer to send a video of their hair being cut. Others let buyers cut the hair themselves.

Just a few months old, the California-based site has grown so quickly that it’s already had to upgrade its servers to handle the traffic. Thousands of people have listed hair for sale using the site’s free ads. Most have been women, ranging from college-age to middle-age.

At least a few have been from Maine. None could be reached to speak about it.

Elise said people sell their hair for many different reasons. Some want money for college. Some want to donate cash to charity. Some want to buy a car or pay off bills or go shopping.

“They say ‘Hey, I was going to cut my hair anyway,” Elise said.

Surveys and experiments

For people who don’t want to sell themselves, there’s always another option.

Rental.

Surrogate mothers can make thousands of dollars for a nine-month commitment and help an infertile couple in the process.

Survey takers can make $10 to $20 an hour and help sociologists, psychologists and businesses gather information.

Participants in experiments can earn a wide range of benefits, from a free medical exam to cash, depending on the extent of the experiment. Participants typically help advance science.

John Lonsdale, a doctor at Central Maine Eye Care in Lewiston, has been involved with 14 or 15 national studies over the last 12 years, with dozens of his patients participating in drug trials for allergies, glaucoma and dry eye. Although they can earn a decent amount of money – the current study offered up to $450, plus a $100 referral bonus – patients rarely do it for the paycheck, Lonsdale said.

“These patients don’t ask me about that. They want to know if they can help somebody,” he said.

For a typical study, Lonsdale gets 60 to 70 applicants. He accepts 30 to 40.

Fredericks, who earned extra money selling plasma and sperm when he was younger, likes helping people, too. But his medications prevent him from donating blood or selling plasma, and his age prevents him from donating sperm. So Fredericks now participates in a medical study looking at cholesterol drugs. The findings could help heart patients.

Plus the six-month study pays him a dollar a day, he said.

“Just for taking two pills and punching in some numbers,” he said. “It all helps out.”

Colleges and hospitals are usually the best places to find legitimate opportunities for participating in surveys and experiments. The University of Southern Maine has an entire department dedicated to it: The Office of Research Compliance.

The office oversees all research involving human subjects. Following national guidelines, it ensures that ethical standards are met, including those governing informed consent and payments.

At USM, according to the office’s director, Lliam Harrison, most of those money-making opportunities are surveys. Participants can earn about $15 each.

“Here, one would be really hard-pressed to make a living off of filling out surveys,” Harrison said.

USM rarely does larger research or medical experiments, but those are sometimes available at bigger colleges or hospitals. At one institution, Harrison said, participants earned $450 for a medical experiment that required taking drugs, regular blood draws and a day in the hospital.

Guidelines allow institutions to pay for participants’ time and travel expenses. The more invasive the research is, the higher the compensation is likely to be. But researchers aren’t allowed to entice people with so much cash that it overrides their judgment.

For example, college students would probably feel free to say “no” to a risky experiment that paid $30. But say no to $30,000?

“It has to be compensation rather than bribery,” Harrison said.

Don’t sell yourself short

For people who want to earn a little extra cash using what nature gave them, experts say there are some things to know.

• You can’t sell everything in Maine. Plasma, yes. Hair, yes. But Boston is the closest place for sperm and eggs.

• Federal law bans the sale of human organs and tissue. Someone can donate bone marrow to a sick friend or give away various organs after death, but the donor can’t profit. For egg, sperm and embryo donors, guidelines allow compensation for time and inconvenience. Egg donors can get $4,000 to $10,000 because they spend weeks in the process, enduring daily hormone shots and undergoing a surgical procedure. Sperm donors get about $100 because their process is simple and takes less time.

• Ethics should guide all legitimate clinics, institutions and researchers. While sperm donation will differ from plasma donation, there are basic rules that fall across all areas. For example, participants must be told about any risks. They must agree in advance to all conditions. They can be paid for their time and trouble, but that paycheck can’t be so large that it turns into bribery.

• Health matters. Because volunteers really are selling – or renting – themselves, they can usually expect to be asked detailed questions about their health. Hair buyers want to know whether their new locks have been harshly permed. Medical researchers want to know if a candidate is too sick for a drug trial. Fertility centers want to know whether donors have a family history of genetic diseases.

• If something doesn’t seem right, back out.

“Know your rights,” said Lliam Harrison, director of USM’s Office of Research Compliance. “If there’s anything you don’t understand, ask. If you don’t like the answer, walk away.”