Are you sure it's only money? Don't you have to be a turbogenius to think up things as wildly complex as "books, but online," "auctions, but online," "campus social centers, but online," and so on?
Is a friend of a friend who knows an editor nepotism? I thought nepotism meant hiring people you're related to, or whose career you similarly have a vested interest in. Can your friend's friend commit nepotism by recommending you to someone at a company they don't work for?
Edit: Or, can the hiring manager commit nepotism by hiring someone they've never heard of before based on a tip from a coworker who heard about a potential hire from their friend? I didn't originally mention this one because I felt like it was obviously no, but I guess it is more likely than the other question I asked since it's actually about hiring.
No it isn't. The conclusion was to use networking. Nepotism is favoring your family members or favoring someone you are close to purely because of the closeness, not because of their skills. Networking is asking your friends if they know anyone hiring and then reaching out to them to apply. There might be a slight hint of nepotism in them listening to you at first, but networking is about building a relationship based on the work you have done in the past and using that to get new work.