I've had no success being an Amazon affiliate.
The payout rate is pathetically low - just 4% when you're starting!
In the last year, I've had 3 sales, earning me a dollar and some change. Egad!
At this rate it will be a decade before I earn enough money to even hit the payout threshold!
Then just today I found a post on Darren's ProBlogger page about using Amazon, titled 9 Reasons Why I'm An Amazon Affiliate, which has opened my mind up to the possibilities available as an affiliate.
Basically, his strategy is to seed various posts with Amazon links across his many blogs. After doing this on many posts after many months (or years), the amount of links pointing back to Amazon is huge, and the amount of residual affiliate income he's making slowly builds up. Shockingly, he stated making something like $2,500 a month from Amazon. (Keep in mind he has one of the most heavily trafficked blogs in the world. But still!)
This sounded like a reasonable approach, and I realized I could go back and seed many posts related to books, movies, and other products with Amazon links, on my different blogs. So that's what I've started doing today.
I even decided to just be really straightforward and create a store on my website related to books and movies that my blog discusses.
I will probably cross-post this store to 3 blogs total, all related to the same niche subject. It will be interesting to see how much - if any? - money this brings in.
Further updates to come!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Forums
Today I registered as a user on the Steve Pavlina "Personal Development for Smart People" forums. Seems like a great place to meet others and learn some things about personal development and financial independence.
I've been a reader of Steve Pavlina's blog for a while now, and I truly love his blog.
(Although he did seem to get a bit crazy with a recent post titled "10 Reasons You Should Never Have a Religion" - odd coming from someone who is so spiritually inclined with beliefs in astral travel, psychic powers, and spirits.)
Not to float my own boat, but he and I have some odd things in common- we're both vegan, left-handed, lucid dreamers and we both make "damn good gaucamole".
Unfortunately one thing we don't have in common is he makes around half a million a year from his blogging effors, and I dont. :) (Not yet anyway....whahaha!)
Anyhow, the forums have been up for awhile, but I avoided them because I consider most forums a waste of time. However, I took a peek today and was intrigued by what I saw so I signed up. Lots of good topics, lots of good conversation. I hope to learn some good stuff here.
Check it out.
I've been a reader of Steve Pavlina's blog for a while now, and I truly love his blog.
(Although he did seem to get a bit crazy with a recent post titled "10 Reasons You Should Never Have a Religion" - odd coming from someone who is so spiritually inclined with beliefs in astral travel, psychic powers, and spirits.)
Not to float my own boat, but he and I have some odd things in common- we're both vegan, left-handed, lucid dreamers and we both make "damn good gaucamole".
Unfortunately one thing we don't have in common is he makes around half a million a year from his blogging effors, and I dont. :) (Not yet anyway....whahaha!)
Anyhow, the forums have been up for awhile, but I avoided them because I consider most forums a waste of time. However, I took a peek today and was intrigued by what I saw so I signed up. Lots of good topics, lots of good conversation. I hope to learn some good stuff here.
Check it out.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Your Money or Your Life: Step 1 - How Much Money I've Ever Earned and What Do I Have to Show For It?
The first step in the book Your Money or Your Life
asks you to calculate all the money you've ever earned in your lifetime & then to figure out your current net worth. The authors call this "making peace with your past."
Luckily for me, I had recently gotten a social security slip in the mail, which brilliantly showed my income for my entire working life.
1) The Total $ Earned In My Life From Working
1998 : $965
1999: $5,020
2000: $14,425
2001: $1,501
2002: $3,232
2003: $13,705
2004: $19,063
2005: $13,655
2006: $21, 493
2007: $32, 911
(Projected for 2008: $42,000)
-------------------------------
$126,970
That's $126, 970 earned between 1999-2007, and doesn't include my income in 2008.
2) What Do I Have to Show For It?
This step asks you to take a look at all your assets and all your liabilities, to see where all that money you've earned in your life has left you.
The details of listing all my assets and liabilities would be boring, so I will give you the end result - the numbers!
Liquid Assets: $12, 666 (including my IRA, which isn't exactly liquid at my age)
Fixed Assets: $9,120 (all my belongings, musical instruments, car - but not my condo)
Liabilities: $21,000 (my student loan + my car + some bills)
$21,786 (Total Assets)
- $21,0000 (Total Liabilities)
---------------------------------
+ $786 net worth.
Taking into account some room for error, my net worth is essentially balanced out at zero once you combine my assets and liabilities.
This sounds odd, but I will accept ZERO as a decent place to start with at age 27. It's better than a negative net worth, right?
asks you to calculate all the money you've ever earned in your lifetime & then to figure out your current net worth. The authors call this "making peace with your past."Luckily for me, I had recently gotten a social security slip in the mail, which brilliantly showed my income for my entire working life.
1) The Total $ Earned In My Life From Working
1998 : $965
1999: $5,020
2000: $14,425
2001: $1,501
2002: $3,232
2003: $13,705
2004: $19,063
2005: $13,655
2006: $21, 493
2007: $32, 911
(Projected for 2008: $42,000)
-------------------------------
$126,970
That's $126, 970 earned between 1999-2007, and doesn't include my income in 2008.
2) What Do I Have to Show For It?
This step asks you to take a look at all your assets and all your liabilities, to see where all that money you've earned in your life has left you.
The details of listing all my assets and liabilities would be boring, so I will give you the end result - the numbers!
Liquid Assets: $12, 666 (including my IRA, which isn't exactly liquid at my age)
Fixed Assets: $9,120 (all my belongings, musical instruments, car - but not my condo)
Liabilities: $21,000 (my student loan + my car + some bills)
$21,786 (Total Assets)
- $21,0000 (Total Liabilities)
---------------------------------
+ $786 net worth.
Taking into account some room for error, my net worth is essentially balanced out at zero once you combine my assets and liabilities.
This sounds odd, but I will accept ZERO as a decent place to start with at age 27. It's better than a negative net worth, right?
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Some Background on My Earnings History & Where I Hope To Go Soon
I am 27.
I think I was 19 when I got my first job at the library, earning $5.93 an hour, shelving and checking in books. It was fun, but, not much of a wage.
Soon enough I got a job at an office making $10 an hour. This lasted on and off, interchanging with other odd jobs at the same company, with a pay range between $10-11 the whole time.
Then, in 2004, I went to a technical school, got an IT degree, got a PT job for $10 an hour (less than the $11 I was making as an office clerk) in an an entry level IT position. I quickly jumped into a salaried position at $32,000 in a few months at this company, and working the weekends, I actually got paid a bit more, making my salary $36,000 a year.
A year and half of doing that, and you're up to February 2008, where I got promoted and my salary jumped $8,000 dollars to $44,000 a year.
Let's look at those numbers again:
I Look At How Much Money I've Made From Jobs
1999-2006 : $5.93 - $11.00 an hour
2006-2007: $36,000 a year or $17.30 an hour
2008-now: $44,000 a year or $21.15 an hour
The trend here is pretty sweet: getting a degree in the IT field and kicking some ass at work, focusing on my job and trying to do good, is paying off nicely, raising my income about 50% in 17 months.
If I stay focused in this field, I could be at the $60k level in 2010 if I try hard enough.
And that's where I get into a bind. It's hard to put so much into your job and also retain the time and energy outside of those 40+ hours dedicated to the job to coming up with alternative systems for income, such as blogging and selling insurance (I may get my life insurance license - more on that in another post).
Either way the future is interesting:
I am hoping to restructure my life by the end of the year so that I can save about $1,000 a month for my immediate future, and additionally $150 a month into a combination of my IRA plan and an income producing Life Insurance plan (both which kick in at age 65).
If I stay at my current income level, $1,000 a month will become $60,000+ saved up in 5 years.
If my earnings go up, I'm hoping to save $1,500-$2,000 a month, and will be getting close to hitting that $100,000 savings mark in 5 years.
Now, 5 years isn't terribly close, but it's not that far off either. (Time flies! I've already worked at my current job for almost 2 years now.)
So I like to think in terms of 5 year increments, and imagine what I can do in 5 years with the money saved up.
$60,000 saved up in a mutual fund - the kind that allow you to invest a bulk sum and then live off some of the interest while getting your money back at the end- could draw me a few hundred dollars a month to live on. Not much but if it's supplemented with an income from various web-based ventures I've set up, then the 60k savings point could be a realistic target for quitting my day job and focusing on optimizing other income generating strategies, full time.
$100,000 saved up and invested in a mutual fund could provide a bit more money to live on, more than $500 a month for a 10 year period, the end of which I would I would get back my original investment and then some (unless the market is horrendous for a 10 year period - unlikely).
Now I realize $500 isn't a ton of money - but to have it automatically coming in whether or not I worked is a very meaningful amount of money to have. It means I could work part-time doing IT work and work part-time setting up a side business such as insurance sales, or something online. It also means I could travel the world indefinitely off that $500 a month income. That is a hell of an exciting idea to me.
So, when I feel down going to my job, I just try to think of things in terms of 5 years.
5 years is not long.
And if I play my cards right, I will have tens of thousands in the bank and a small automatic monthly income to my name, without having to work at all, in just 5 years.
I think I was 19 when I got my first job at the library, earning $5.93 an hour, shelving and checking in books. It was fun, but, not much of a wage.
Soon enough I got a job at an office making $10 an hour. This lasted on and off, interchanging with other odd jobs at the same company, with a pay range between $10-11 the whole time.
Then, in 2004, I went to a technical school, got an IT degree, got a PT job for $10 an hour (less than the $11 I was making as an office clerk) in an an entry level IT position. I quickly jumped into a salaried position at $32,000 in a few months at this company, and working the weekends, I actually got paid a bit more, making my salary $36,000 a year.
A year and half of doing that, and you're up to February 2008, where I got promoted and my salary jumped $8,000 dollars to $44,000 a year.
Let's look at those numbers again:
I Look At How Much Money I've Made From Jobs
1999-2006 : $5.93 - $11.00 an hour
2006-2007: $36,000 a year or $17.30 an hour
2008-now: $44,000 a year or $21.15 an hour
The trend here is pretty sweet: getting a degree in the IT field and kicking some ass at work, focusing on my job and trying to do good, is paying off nicely, raising my income about 50% in 17 months.
If I stay focused in this field, I could be at the $60k level in 2010 if I try hard enough.
And that's where I get into a bind. It's hard to put so much into your job and also retain the time and energy outside of those 40+ hours dedicated to the job to coming up with alternative systems for income, such as blogging and selling insurance (I may get my life insurance license - more on that in another post).
Either way the future is interesting:
I am hoping to restructure my life by the end of the year so that I can save about $1,000 a month for my immediate future, and additionally $150 a month into a combination of my IRA plan and an income producing Life Insurance plan (both which kick in at age 65).
If I stay at my current income level, $1,000 a month will become $60,000+ saved up in 5 years.
If my earnings go up, I'm hoping to save $1,500-$2,000 a month, and will be getting close to hitting that $100,000 savings mark in 5 years.
Now, 5 years isn't terribly close, but it's not that far off either. (Time flies! I've already worked at my current job for almost 2 years now.)
So I like to think in terms of 5 year increments, and imagine what I can do in 5 years with the money saved up.
$60,000 saved up in a mutual fund - the kind that allow you to invest a bulk sum and then live off some of the interest while getting your money back at the end- could draw me a few hundred dollars a month to live on. Not much but if it's supplemented with an income from various web-based ventures I've set up, then the 60k savings point could be a realistic target for quitting my day job and focusing on optimizing other income generating strategies, full time.
$100,000 saved up and invested in a mutual fund could provide a bit more money to live on, more than $500 a month for a 10 year period, the end of which I would I would get back my original investment and then some (unless the market is horrendous for a 10 year period - unlikely).
Now I realize $500 isn't a ton of money - but to have it automatically coming in whether or not I worked is a very meaningful amount of money to have. It means I could work part-time doing IT work and work part-time setting up a side business such as insurance sales, or something online. It also means I could travel the world indefinitely off that $500 a month income. That is a hell of an exciting idea to me.
So, when I feel down going to my job, I just try to think of things in terms of 5 years.
5 years is not long.
And if I play my cards right, I will have tens of thousands in the bank and a small automatic monthly income to my name, without having to work at all, in just 5 years.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Your Money or Your Life
One of the best books I've ever read on finances and living is called Your Money or Your Life
I only recently read it, salivating with the turn at every page, screaming in my head oh my god this is like the book on money I would like to write.
It's the best of all worlds: it's about taking control of your life, not being a mindless consumer, and making a plan to have an automatic income that meets your expenses so that you no longer have to work for a living, unless you want to.
These three ideas basically sum up all my goals related to money and what I personally mean by the term financial independence - it's not about a big-ass house and a sports car, it's about severing the tie between work and survival and making life what you want it. What makes that possible? Not having to spend 40+ hours a week in an office to survive!
The book is broken down into 9 specific steps on the path to Financial Independence.
These 9 steps are fun to do, and can be quite an eye-opener.
You can view a great summary of the book, for free, including all the steps, at this website:
Your Money or Your Life: Detailed Summary
I am personally doing all the steps, and I will document some of this online on this blog.
Since May 1st, I started tracking ALL my expenses, which is actually fun once you get in the habit of it!
Now that the month has passed, I was able to sit down and add up everything into little categories, and then, rate it based on the whole + / - / zero scale described in the book. (I still need to calculate the "life energy" consumed for each category though.)
Starting to do this, I can see how the steps really do have a profound effect on peoples relationship to money. It makes all our purchased to money seem so much more relevant to what we do 40 hours a week at our jobs.
I've also got the Expenses/Income/Capital chart up on my closet door (hand made too - took me forever!). I'm all psyched up to map out June's numbers so I can connect the dots from May to June... heh.. :)
The line at the bottom, the "how much money my capital (savings) will make invested in a bond at current rates" is a whopping $7 or $8 dollars.
Now just to multiple that by a 1,000 and I'll be in pretty good shape.
Anyhow, this is the first post of many that will document my steps in the Your Money or Your Life book.
I would love to hear of any elses experiences with this book, and especially so if you are doing the steps described - we can support each other. Get in touch or leave a comment.
I only recently read it, salivating with the turn at every page, screaming in my head oh my god this is like the book on money I would like to write.
It's the best of all worlds: it's about taking control of your life, not being a mindless consumer, and making a plan to have an automatic income that meets your expenses so that you no longer have to work for a living, unless you want to.
These three ideas basically sum up all my goals related to money and what I personally mean by the term financial independence - it's not about a big-ass house and a sports car, it's about severing the tie between work and survival and making life what you want it. What makes that possible? Not having to spend 40+ hours a week in an office to survive!
The book is broken down into 9 specific steps on the path to Financial Independence.
These 9 steps are fun to do, and can be quite an eye-opener.
You can view a great summary of the book, for free, including all the steps, at this website:
Your Money or Your Life: Detailed Summary
I am personally doing all the steps, and I will document some of this online on this blog.
Since May 1st, I started tracking ALL my expenses, which is actually fun once you get in the habit of it!
Now that the month has passed, I was able to sit down and add up everything into little categories, and then, rate it based on the whole + / - / zero scale described in the book. (I still need to calculate the "life energy" consumed for each category though.)
Starting to do this, I can see how the steps really do have a profound effect on peoples relationship to money. It makes all our purchased to money seem so much more relevant to what we do 40 hours a week at our jobs.
I've also got the Expenses/Income/Capital chart up on my closet door (hand made too - took me forever!). I'm all psyched up to map out June's numbers so I can connect the dots from May to June... heh.. :)
The line at the bottom, the "how much money my capital (savings) will make invested in a bond at current rates" is a whopping $7 or $8 dollars.
Now just to multiple that by a 1,000 and I'll be in pretty good shape.
Anyhow, this is the first post of many that will document my steps in the Your Money or Your Life book.
I would love to hear of any elses experiences with this book, and especially so if you are doing the steps described - we can support each other. Get in touch or leave a comment.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
I Guess You Could Call This My Introductory Post!
For a long time I've thought about putting together a site focused on financial independence, blogging, online marketing, and the relationship between finances, (anti)consumerism, and self-improvement, and basically living a FREE life where you don't have to slave away for someone else to earn a living.
And now, finally, I decided to take the plunge & put my ideas and experience out there! So far, it's fun. :)
I love thinking about money, planning finances and playing with financial figures, studying financial independence and how to get there... and I love to write about all these things, so it's only natural to extend this to the blogging world.
And hopefully along the way you and me both get to learn a few things or two. ;)
I started blogging online over a year ago. Shortly after that, I decided to monetize that first blog with ads related to the content. At first the results were extremely promising - over $100 in the second month from my one and only affiliate partner - but then, after that, the site didn't earn any more than this figure in any single month (until now), and the results were all over the map every month after. (Average income was about $40 a month from May 2007 to April 2008.)
I've learned a lot since then but one thing I haven't learned (yet) is still how to predict how much money will be generated month to month. It's pretty tricky!
But the most important thing I've learned is to diversify - for the last year all my online income has been generated from a single blog.
I've taken much time and work to change that, and currently, including this site, I now have 5 different websites that can all generate streams of income. (Which isn't that many - I see other bloggers making money online who state they have over 50 websites, all pimped out with Google Adsense, making them hundreds or thousands a month. Nice.)
Just last month I launched 3 additional sites (this one would be the 4rth site.) I have 1 additional site I am working on with a launch date of August 27, 2008. (I leave for a 2 week trip out west that day, so I figure it's a good deadline, eh? :) )
With these new sites, I'm changing my focus from content intensive blogs that must be updated continually to niche websites that target a specific topic related to my blog, and which lend themselves to targeted affiliate partner advertising. My belief is that having several "resource sites" versus blogs will be a better way to make money online for the following reasons:
1) These sites target a specific need in a niche topic or community. The information present on them has not been presented in this form before. Therefore, it's fulfilling a need that's not been met.
2) Once these resource sites are set up, they require infrequent updates. Whereas blogging, on the other hand, requires constant attention. Since time is a finite resource, this is a biggie for me.
3) I believe that if you put high quality content out there for a niche subject in which people want the information for, for a subject that lends itself to affiliate partner advertising, then you will make money. I guess that is the bottom line to all this and this is what I'm hedging my bets on.
Time will tell.
In the meantime, I am feeling more dedicated than ever to figuring out how to make a living without a "normal job", and by that, I mean a job where you have a boss, co-workers, cubicles, a commute, and a 40 hour work week.
Fuck that! I want my life to be mine, ya know?
And now, finally, I decided to take the plunge & put my ideas and experience out there! So far, it's fun. :)
I love thinking about money, planning finances and playing with financial figures, studying financial independence and how to get there... and I love to write about all these things, so it's only natural to extend this to the blogging world.
And hopefully along the way you and me both get to learn a few things or two. ;)
I started blogging online over a year ago. Shortly after that, I decided to monetize that first blog with ads related to the content. At first the results were extremely promising - over $100 in the second month from my one and only affiliate partner - but then, after that, the site didn't earn any more than this figure in any single month (until now), and the results were all over the map every month after. (Average income was about $40 a month from May 2007 to April 2008.)
I've learned a lot since then but one thing I haven't learned (yet) is still how to predict how much money will be generated month to month. It's pretty tricky!
But the most important thing I've learned is to diversify - for the last year all my online income has been generated from a single blog.
I've taken much time and work to change that, and currently, including this site, I now have 5 different websites that can all generate streams of income. (Which isn't that many - I see other bloggers making money online who state they have over 50 websites, all pimped out with Google Adsense, making them hundreds or thousands a month. Nice.)
Just last month I launched 3 additional sites (this one would be the 4rth site.) I have 1 additional site I am working on with a launch date of August 27, 2008. (I leave for a 2 week trip out west that day, so I figure it's a good deadline, eh? :) )
With these new sites, I'm changing my focus from content intensive blogs that must be updated continually to niche websites that target a specific topic related to my blog, and which lend themselves to targeted affiliate partner advertising. My belief is that having several "resource sites" versus blogs will be a better way to make money online for the following reasons:
1) These sites target a specific need in a niche topic or community. The information present on them has not been presented in this form before. Therefore, it's fulfilling a need that's not been met.
2) Once these resource sites are set up, they require infrequent updates. Whereas blogging, on the other hand, requires constant attention. Since time is a finite resource, this is a biggie for me.
3) I believe that if you put high quality content out there for a niche subject in which people want the information for, for a subject that lends itself to affiliate partner advertising, then you will make money. I guess that is the bottom line to all this and this is what I'm hedging my bets on.
Time will tell.
In the meantime, I am feeling more dedicated than ever to figuring out how to make a living without a "normal job", and by that, I mean a job where you have a boss, co-workers, cubicles, a commute, and a 40 hour work week.
Fuck that! I want my life to be mine, ya know?
Online Earnings for May 2008: How Much Money I Made
Total Earnings for May 2008: $126.96
Here's how it breaks down:
Affiliate Partners - $65.48
Text Link Ads - $9.00
Adsense - $7.48
Total: $81.96
Also:
Revolution Money Exchange : $45
($25 sign on bonus + 2 $10 referal bonuses)
For a total of $126.96 - which isn't the most, but it's a nice start....
Some notes:
Here's how it breaks down:
Affiliate Partners - $65.48
Text Link Ads - $9.00
Adsense - $7.48
Total: $81.96
Also:
Revolution Money Exchange : $45
($25 sign on bonus + 2 $10 referal bonuses)
For a total of $126.96 - which isn't the most, but it's a nice start....
Some notes:
- Including the money for Revolution Money Exchange, this is the highest earning month I've had since I started making money online in May of 2007
- Near the end of May, I launched 3 niche websites, optimized with affiliate partner links. I expect these sites to bring in more sales. Monitoring the results of these new sites could radically change my business plan towards the way I make money online. (Formerly all sales were generated through a single blog.)
- I've almost reached that magical $100 earnings target for Google Adsense to send me a check... once they do, I might consider replacing the ads with something more financial fruitful. Google Adsense does not generate the amount of money I wish it did - more on this later in a future post.
- I am super excited about what the future holds for making money online. I've been tweaking and learning for over 12 months now and I think I'm at a point where things are about to go to the next level. This blog will document the way! :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)