June Online Revenue Wrap-Up

June 2009 Online Revenue

It's been a while since my last post, and I thought I'd recap on this month's internet revenue (a la Smart Passive Income Blog, though not nearly as impressive...)

Adsense: $1.56

To be honest, I wasn't expecting to make any money from my blogs. I have a pretty good understanding of how competitive the blogosphere is, so I've kept my expectations low. Very low. Believe it or not, $1.56 is encouraging! Considering how neglectful a blogger I've been, I think I'll ramp up my efforts in this sphere.

Adsense earning, for me, is akin to the adorable Ikea basil seedlings we have by the window. Not enough to eat yet, but plenty of room to grow! (Assuming Boston ever gets any tiny bit of sunshine this summer ever)

eHow: $45.26

My eHow earnings have finally caught up with the all the work I've put into them, this has been a wonderfully encouraging month for eHow revenue. My Printable Fake Money article continues to be the star performer, pulling in exactly $9.99 this month! Equally encouraging, though, are a number of articles that have hit the $1 - $3 range of earnings. If I can keep those up, I'll hit my goal of eHow paying for my $69 gym membership in no time.

Amazon Associates: $65.99

Crazy performer, right! Well, I kind of cheated. I've referred my family to several products that I knew they were interested in buying, so the money I've generated on Amazon isn't from random internet traffic, nor has it been "passive." Still, if you know someone who is interested in eBooks - get them on the Kindle! Amazon rewards associates generously with a 10% commission on all books and the Kindle unit itself. Since this is a first-party product of Amazon's (the only product they make themselves, I believe) they can afford to be generous with the commission kickback.

eBay: $54.00

eBay continues to be a sporadic but excellent source of online revenue for me. Rather than recycling old laptops we come across on the job, we refurbish & sell them online. This month saw only one laptop sale, but as I write this, I am in the process of posting 3 more units. I expect this revenue to at least triple for July.

Pinecone Research Surveys: $9.00

That's right, online surveys, the biggest frauds out there. Well, I'm proof that that's not entirely the case. Some of them are legit. Pinecone Research, apparently, is a highly reputable one. It does involve some sacrificing of privacy: you need to give them your mailing address (where they'll send your checks) and name, but that's about it.

So far I haven't noticed any new junk mail from giving them my mailing address. All I get are checks in the mail (already cashed them, they're real). Their surveys take about 10-15 minutes to complete, they'll ask your opinion on certain new products, whether you would buy it, whether you like it's ad campaign, etc. It's actually kind of fun, and each survey rakes in $3. Supposedly they are hard to get into - you have to click on a banner ad to become a member, you can't simply do it through their site - but some clever Googling will give you a page with the banner ad.

For me, at this point in my life, 10 or 15 minutes in the comfort of my home is definitely worth $3.

Total June Earnings: $175.81

Those are my earnings so far, and I feel pretty great about the whole venture. My online revenue story has been one of extremely tempered expectations: no, it won't pay for my rent (yet) or get me a new car (drool).

But, it's more productive than playing video games (not to say I abstain from that entirely), and gives me something to get a little OCD about. Not to mention, thinking about all the monthly expenses we voluntarily take on these days, it's nice to have a hobby that reverses the trend. Expect some exciting things to come from this blog, as I detail the hits and many misses of making money online (the Digital Underclass way).

My eHow Earnings

A pretty encouraging sign so far: my June eHow earnings jumped from around $14 dollars, to $16.26 the next day, then $17.56 the day after that (without writing anything new). So, I've already surpassed my initial goal of $30 a month ($1/day) and it looks like I'll hit closer to the $40 /month mark.

What does this really mean? Well, for now I'll just think of it as a way to take the edge off my monthly $65 gym fee. $25 a month feels a lot more reasonable! If I can double my monthly eHow earnings, I'll be able to have a gym membership covered and do all my laundry every month, all courtesy of eHow's writer compensation program.

My Printable Fake Money article continues to steamroll all of my other articles, hitting $4.28 for the month so far. Sure, it's not quite a $400 monthly article like Writergig somehow managed, but I'll take it. If I can just write ten more articles like that, they'd earn as much as my library of 47 articles is pulling in now.

Time to do a little more SEO research ...

How To Make Printable Fake Money

From My Collection of eHow Articles



Believe it or not, the keyword search "How To Make Printable Fake Money" has a massive search volume on Google. Why?



Well, I remember playing with printable fake money in grade school, so the hopeful part of me assumes that people want to print this stuff out for lesson plans (basic math and fiscal responsibility!) The sad truth is that there are probably some geniuses out there thinking they can make counterfit bills from their HP Deskjet (gotta love recession-era innovation). This might explain the first few zero star ratings my article received (sorry, dudes, it's not an article about counterfitting).

Anyways, as my article notes, this is for educational purposes only! The bills are one-sided, and have the watermark of COPY.

This particular article immediately skyrocketed to my number one most viewed and most money-generating eHow article (beating articles already 2 months old), bringing in $3.33 in just 1/2 a month - well on its way to the $4/month per article target of Writergig's eBook How To Earn Passive Income On eHow.

By bostontech, eHow Member

How to Make Printable Fake Money

Printable fake money is a great engaging way to teach kids about commerce, responsibility, and even math! Free money templates are available online, where you can print play money for your children or students.

Difficulty: Easy

Things You'll Need:

* A color printer

* Thick, "resume" paper

* Paper-cutter

Step 1

There are many websites offering free printable fake money, but we'll stick with the most popular and easy one: www.moneyinstructor.com. You can get the direct link from the "Resources" section of this article. From there, you'll find .pdf templates for $1, $5, $20 and $100 bills. Save all of these templates somewhere easy on your computer (My Documents or the Desktop).

Step 2

Next, load your printer with the thick, white or grey resume paper. Print off one sheet of each currency per child (each sheet will have four pictures of the bill on it).

Step 3

Next, using either scissors or a paper-cutter, cut out the money pictures from each sheet. For a more authentic look, use a gluestick to paste two bills back to back (so they're double-sided).

Step 4

Once you have all of the bills ready, you can play different games to teach about math and spending. Set up "shop," with pricetags on various things (box of pencils, a stereo, food). Ask your child or student: if you wanted X, Y and Z, could you afford it?

Tips & Warnings

* For an even more in-depth lesson, print out enough money for you (the "shopkeeper"), so when your child pays for something you can give back change

* There are also templates for coins on this website, but you could always just use your change jar for that

* Consider holding a "sale" at the shop with 50% off to teach about percentages

* This article is for those seeking to print play money to educate; these money templates are obvious fakes (watermarked with the words COPY) and attempting to actually spend them is a crime

Resources
Raising Money Smart Kids: What They Need to Know about Money and How to Tell Them
Money Mammals DVD
How to Live Off Passive Income

Photo Credit

http://www.sxc.hu/

Making Money While I Sleep (Or Don't Sleep)

It's been a pretty hectic week, with my girlfriend and I moving into our new place and me having the stitches taken out of my hand. Unfortunately I still have a splint and am forced to type at 50% speed. Once I found out I could get by without the painkillers, I forced myself to stop cold turkey. Maybe it was a harsh choice (you're apparently supposed to taper down), but to be honest I just really wanted a cold beer - I'd gone four weeks without a drop and was craving some ice cold, delicious Dead Guy Ale (I got a Growler of this stuff for my birthday - and haven't been able to drink it yet). We spent the sunny Saturday afternoon putting together an Edward Hopper puzzle by the windowside and sipping on yummy cold beers. No regrets!

Still, after only taking Percocet for three weeks, would you believe that I am actually going through some withdrawal?

The first day of no Percocet meant, basically, a dark black depression. I recognized this chemical imbalance as a side effect of withdrawal, and did my best to simply sleep it off.

Then came stage two of withdrawal: insomnia! I have had four action-packed days of unpacking into our new apartment, constructing huge piles of Ikea furniture, and wandering about Boston for hours on end - and yet I can't really sleep a wink. Hopefully this will subside soon...

The good news: my side projects continue to bring in revenue. The top reason I know I can live off passive income is because I'm a miserly pro at keeping my overhead costs low, real low. From the look of it, I stand to make anywhere between $20 and $30 this month in eHow earnings, with an additional $10 - $15 from affiliate marketing programs. And that's if I stopped writing new eHow articles and stayed at my current post count - 44.

My goal is to get my eHow earnings, and other passive online revenue, to pay for my overpriced gym membership - $69 a month. Yes, I know it's highway robbery (and I'm supposed to be an expert on saving money on gym fees). But the gym is one block away from me and is just a great, huge facility.

That's all for now, check back soon!

Less Revenue But More Profit?

After an exhausting six month job search during the worst economic crisis since the great depression, I had yet to get an offer from any of the crappy office jobs I was applying to. Even the temp agencies in Boston, which assured me there was work, found me nothing.

I was scraping by on rent, eating away at my already small savings, and racking up a huge credit card balance. I even had to cash out my 401k from my job in LA. After aboutsix months of this, my attitude had shifted from humbled, to humiliated, to basically indifferent about the whole job hunt process. It wasn't until then that my brother approached me about going into business with him.

He was running a successful IT company (think GeekSquad but local - and better priced :D) and had more clients than he had time. I have a computer background, so it was a perfect fit.

I've actually been able to work only part time, but keep my overhead so low that I'm making more profit and saving up more money than ever before. My credit card is paid, and I've started (modestly) rebuilding my emergency fund.

I also have a few goals for making some digital passive income. Not only can technology help us trim the fat from our expenses (like the Roku box), it can actually MAKE us all consistent passive income.

Right now I'm making about $50 a month online. To get a full breakdown on where that's coming from, and how I plan on expanding it, check out my new series of posts, called Digital Passive Income.