I promised I would update on Life123 and I try to be true to my word, so here goes.
I have completed 10 articles for Life123. I know that a month means a 30 day period and not a calendar month since I tried to publish an 11th article and was told I had met my limit. So now I have to wait until the 28th or 29th of November to publish again. I think that I will write a few more articles to have them ready to go.
In order to graduate to the next level, I need to have attracted 500 unique visits across all 10 articles. I could easily graduate sometime in December at my current pace. Right now, I have 134 total visits. I added about 20 visits just yesterday. Even if I only add 1 visitor per article per day average, then in 37 days I would be able to move up and contribute up to 40 articles per month. So it would be worthwhile to have some extra ready to go.
I even have 2 articles that are on the verge of paying out at the first $5 level. One has 42 views and one has 38. The next highest are at 15 and 10. I think it would be great to get 4 to payout for the month, but I would still be ecstatic with 2 paying since $10 is the limit, and I could report how well they pay next month.
John of All Trades
I noticed that John of All Trades, one of my followers here, is also writing for Life123. I have included the links to his articles below. I would hope that you would take the time to go and visit his work, since it sounds like he needs the money more than I do. Here are his articles (I found 2 on the site):
The Pros and Cons of buying a Remanufactured Alternator
Make sure your vehicle starts everytime this winter
I told my wife that if I make enough on Life123, she can go on a cruise with one of her friends next fall. So I have a year to come up with about $800. I think I will be able to do it as long as I publish one article per day to the site starting in 2010 and 20 each month earn the $5 for 50 views. So if you want to help my wife achieve a nice little get-away and break from 6 kids, here are the next two in line to potentially earn this month:
Stock Investing Greats and the Lessons They Teach
Make Your Retirement Savings Automatic
That is all I had for the update. I am excited that I will likely earn the $10 this month. It will help add to the total for the month which has seemed slow in the revenue department. This will help provide some stability I suppose. As always, thanks for reading and thanks for all your comments. I do appreciate you.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Back in the Sandbox, Again!
Hey everyone! Just thought I would make a quick mention about the status of the "SEO experiment". To recap for those just joining the blog, I conducted (and am still conducting) an SEO experiment to rank for the keyword phrase "SEO experiment". I did this by creating a link wheel whereby I wrote several articles related to search engine optimization and linked them all to one blog post on this blog as well as to each other.
Then, I watched and waited. Within 16 days, I was on Google page one in the 5th position! I managed to stay there for awhile, but now I am nowhere to be found. I really don't fully understand it, although it was shortly after placing another link to that post and a linking article that I disappeared. I am trying to see if I can get to the number 1 or 2 spot. I guess I will just have to see what transpires over the next month or so.
Anyway, I thought everyone would be interested in an update. I am still paying attention and linking to the blog post where appropriate to see what happens over time. Again, I am learning my way around the internet and trying to educate you at the same time. If I make some sort of mistake along the way, feel free not to repeat it.
Next time, I will have a Life123 update for everyone. Google can bury me in the sand, but they can't keep me from writing. Have a nice day and thanks for reading.
Then, I watched and waited. Within 16 days, I was on Google page one in the 5th position! I managed to stay there for awhile, but now I am nowhere to be found. I really don't fully understand it, although it was shortly after placing another link to that post and a linking article that I disappeared. I am trying to see if I can get to the number 1 or 2 spot. I guess I will just have to see what transpires over the next month or so.
Anyway, I thought everyone would be interested in an update. I am still paying attention and linking to the blog post where appropriate to see what happens over time. Again, I am learning my way around the internet and trying to educate you at the same time. If I make some sort of mistake along the way, feel free not to repeat it.
Next time, I will have a Life123 update for everyone. Google can bury me in the sand, but they can't keep me from writing. Have a nice day and thanks for reading.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Writing At Every Opportunity
Now, I am not suggesting that writing at every opportunity is what you should be doing if you want to make money online. What I am saying is that you should at least consider the most efficient use of your time especially if you are doing the online income gig part time. I have written a couple of articles on finding extra time for writing online which you should check out if you are busy like me.
I had the chance to take my own advice this past weekend. We went to visit relatives in Ohio for my niece's birthday party. It is a two-and-a-half hour drive each way, so I had my wife drive on the way there while I worked on my computer writing an article for Life123. We have a little device that converts the cigarette lighter power source into a wall plug. I was able to use my laptop which only lasts one hour on battery power and recharge while riding.
I managed to get 2 articles done on the way to Ohio and 1 on the way home. It was a good use of the time and may end up paying off down the road. That night, I was able to post all three articles to Life123. Because I didn't have internet access, I needed to write on topics with which I was fairly familar. It turned out to be very productive since I was motivated to get something done. You just have to go with it when you feel motivated because there will be plenty of times when you aren't.
Comments on November Progress
Things are going OK so far. I am making some links. Mainly, I am doing a better job of incorporating links into my articles and posts. I have had some chance to work on Xomba and post links there.
Right now, I am trying to finish getting my quota of 10 articles done for Life123 so they have a few weeks to gather views. It would be absolutely awesome if I could get to the 50 views for payout on 4 of them, but I don't know if that will happen. I will accept whatever happens and know that December is another month.
I am more pleased with traffic this month, but earnings are pitiful. I hope this just means that the pattern of being slow at the beginning of the month and picking up at the end has returned. At this pace, I won't earn what I did last month. But, I would expect to see some ups and downs with higher peaks and an increasing baseline.
Finally, I think that I will submit again to the usual blog carnival that I have been using. I am not sure if that does anything for traffic or not, but it sure makes me feel as if I am doing something.
Thanks for coming by and reading again.
PS--If anyone wants me to be a guest blogger, just let me know and send an email. I would be honored and would only ask for a link in return. Thanks.
- Make Money Faster Through Productivity in Research...If you need to research a topic, why not get several articles out of it instead of just one.
- Tips for Finding Time when writing online
- I have a similar article on InfoBarrel.
I had the chance to take my own advice this past weekend. We went to visit relatives in Ohio for my niece's birthday party. It is a two-and-a-half hour drive each way, so I had my wife drive on the way there while I worked on my computer writing an article for Life123. We have a little device that converts the cigarette lighter power source into a wall plug. I was able to use my laptop which only lasts one hour on battery power and recharge while riding.
I managed to get 2 articles done on the way to Ohio and 1 on the way home. It was a good use of the time and may end up paying off down the road. That night, I was able to post all three articles to Life123. Because I didn't have internet access, I needed to write on topics with which I was fairly familar. It turned out to be very productive since I was motivated to get something done. You just have to go with it when you feel motivated because there will be plenty of times when you aren't.
Comments on November Progress
Things are going OK so far. I am making some links. Mainly, I am doing a better job of incorporating links into my articles and posts. I have had some chance to work on Xomba and post links there.
Right now, I am trying to finish getting my quota of 10 articles done for Life123 so they have a few weeks to gather views. It would be absolutely awesome if I could get to the 50 views for payout on 4 of them, but I don't know if that will happen. I will accept whatever happens and know that December is another month.
I am more pleased with traffic this month, but earnings are pitiful. I hope this just means that the pattern of being slow at the beginning of the month and picking up at the end has returned. At this pace, I won't earn what I did last month. But, I would expect to see some ups and downs with higher peaks and an increasing baseline.
Finally, I think that I will submit again to the usual blog carnival that I have been using. I am not sure if that does anything for traffic or not, but it sure makes me feel as if I am doing something.
Thanks for coming by and reading again.
PS--If anyone wants me to be a guest blogger, just let me know and send an email. I would be honored and would only ask for a link in return. Thanks.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Online Income Inspiration
It can, at times, be discouraging to do several hours of research for an article only to have few visitors and no earnings. Multiply that times tens of articles, and it is easy to see why many people quit writing for online income within a month or two of starting out. I also get discouraged at times when I look back and realize that no one is clicking on any of my ads for several days in a row. So, what do I do during those times?
First, I remember what my college football weight coach would tell us. The times that you don't feel like doing something is the time that you get the most out of it. Why? Because lesser people won't do it (in our case it was lifting weights), and that's when you will start to close the gap on your goals. So when I don't feel like writing because I am discouraged, I write anyway.
Second, I remind myself that everybody has to start somewhere. We all start with that first article or that first blog post when we have absolutely no readers. I try to look at sites and posts that show me the possibilities and remind myself to keep going. Some examples:
Odds and Ends
First, I want to thank DeAnna at WriteMoms for linking to my last post on an online income strategy for WAHM. You can see the link to her blog on the right. Be sure to visit her blog. I do several times each week. I am sure she is responsible for my 2 new followers. Welcome to you both.
Second, I would like everyone to notice the new RSS feed to my articles at Life123. You can read about my becoming a contributor at Life123.
Finally, I would like to feature several of my eHow articles which have not yet earned anything. There are 6 of them out of 42 total articles. Maybe the links will help them out in the search engines:
First, I remember what my college football weight coach would tell us. The times that you don't feel like doing something is the time that you get the most out of it. Why? Because lesser people won't do it (in our case it was lifting weights), and that's when you will start to close the gap on your goals. So when I don't feel like writing because I am discouraged, I write anyway.
Second, I remind myself that everybody has to start somewhere. We all start with that first article or that first blog post when we have absolutely no readers. I try to look at sites and posts that show me the possibilities and remind myself to keep going. Some examples:
- Felicia at nojobformom is closing in on $2000 per month passive income.
- Lissie, whom I met at HubPages, recently made $2000 in one month and is striving to make that consistently.
- Maria makes well over $1000 per month on eHow.
- Of course, Griz makes thousands per month with an ugly blogger blog.
- Livingoffdividends is one of my most favorite passive income sites. In fact, it was the inspiration for me to try my hand at internet income.
- Pat, from smartpassiveincome.com gives this annual report after being laid off. Granted, he was at it full time and wrote an ebook, but he pulled in over $200,000.
- Bob at ChristianPF.com writes this post on making money from a blog. He also got laid off, but pay attention to the graph of earnings and how it takes off after the first year. Gotta stick with it.
- Finally, this is my favorite post for inspiration. I have it bookmarked and have read it 4 times now. If you link to nothing else, link to this one. $100,000 from AdSense in a year is huge, but you have to stick with it.
Odds and Ends
First, I want to thank DeAnna at WriteMoms for linking to my last post on an online income strategy for WAHM. You can see the link to her blog on the right. Be sure to visit her blog. I do several times each week. I am sure she is responsible for my 2 new followers. Welcome to you both.
Second, I would like everyone to notice the new RSS feed to my articles at Life123. You can read about my becoming a contributor at Life123.
Finally, I would like to feature several of my eHow articles which have not yet earned anything. There are 6 of them out of 42 total articles. Maybe the links will help them out in the search engines:
- How to Define Medical Malpractice
- How to Find Cash for Investing in Gold
- How to Buy Stocks at a Discount
- How to Take Advantage of Gold Price Seasonality
- How to Make Money When Stocks Fall by Owning Puts
- How to Figure Cap Rate on Your Real Estate Investment
That is all for today. Thanks for reading.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Strategy for Work at Home Moms
As mentioned, I wanted to point out a strategy for WAHM to use for making some extra money during those years you wish to stay at home with the kids. We have 6 kids and homeschool until they get into high school so I have a sense of the busy lives that parents lead.
First, as part of the strategy, you need to find some time for writing online. I am going to use 3 hours per day. You must think I am crazy to think you can find 3 hours per day when raising children. Let me suggest that you consider an hour before the children wake up. Now if they wake up very early, this may not be practical and you might have to find time elsewhere. Little ones usually take a nap, so that should provide another hour or so. Lastly, there should be an hour of time after the children go to bed.
Just like examining your spending, you need to look at your time to find out when you can manage about 3 hours each day. Personally, I think it can be done for almost anyone. I am managing to find some time for my writing and will often write in spurts on the weekend. I have written a few articles on tips for finding writing time.
Utilizing Time Wisely
Once you find the time, the next part becomes utilizing your time wisely. I would suggest a combination of writing for upfront and residual income. The upfront income provides the prospect of a short term payout which is probably an important motivator and would demonstrate the viability of writing for online income. The rest of the time is used to develop residual income, create backlinks (article on the importance of backlinks), do keyword research (article on finding high CPC keywords), and network online.
Writing articles for upfront payment can be done at such sites as Life123, constantcontent, and others that you can find reviewed at nojobformom or writemoms. These sites will also review the residual income sites so that you can find an appropriate fit for writing style. Personally, I enjoy using HubPages, Xomba, and eHow for residual income. I just started at Life123 for a combination of quick upfront income of $5 for the first 50 views. I would also write on a free blog to get links and readership.
Hour 1: Write upfront article from prior day's keyword and article research and post. Write quick blog post and include a few links to your articles.
Hour 2: Write a residual article from prior day's keyword and article research and post to site. Start a second article.
Hour 3: Finish second article and post to residual income site. Spend time doing keyword and article research for next day, learning about making income online, networking, and posting links on social bookmarking sites like Xomba to your articles that day (my referral link to Xomba).
The above assumes that you can write an article in 45 minutes. That may not happen right away. It will take some time. But once you get more experience, I think it is certainly reasonable to be able to write 500 words in 45 minutes.
Online Income Possibilities
Let's assume that for the first 6 months, you only get one upfront article done each day and one residual article each day and that you only write Monday through Friday, taking weekends off. I will also assume that you only write at Life123 for the upfront site. I will assume that in year 1, you make $0.30 per article on average residual income, year 2 you make $0.40 per article and year 3 and on $0.50 per article. This should low ball the opportunities since I am averaging $0.50 per article residual on eHow and about $0.40 per article on HubPages only 5 months into the program.
In the first month, you can only contribute 10 articles per month to Life123 and the same is true for the second month. At the end of those months, you are up to the 40 article per month level, but you only write 25. You can still contribute the extra 15 from months one and two over time so that you are writing one each day. Be sure to save all your work on your own computer prior to publication. I write everything except these blog posts on Microsoft Word and then copy/paste. I created an eHow template for myself as well.
After one year, you will have written and posted 260 articles on Life123, each earning $5. Some of the more recent posts will not have earned that, but several should have made the next $5 payout. You will have posted 260 residual articles for 12 months plus another 130 for the second 6 months when your writing speed improved.
Total income for the year: 260 Life123 * $5 = $1300 plus residual income of $0.30 per month for the first month's articles for 12 months, plus $0.30 per month for the next month's articles for 11 months, etc. comes to a total of $641.40. So the total income for the year is $1941.40 or an average of $161.78 per month. The hourly wage then becomes $2.48. But watch what happens in years 2, 3, and 4!
Year 2: Upfront income = $1300 which still assumes you are only making a $5 payout on each article. Some of them will actually make $20. Remember that our assumptions are trying to low ball all figures. Residual income includes all the articles from year one earning $0.40 per month for 12 months plus 2 articles per day for 260 days, some earning for 12 months, some for 11 months, etc. Residual income = $3216.80. Total income for year 2 = $4516.8 an average of $376.4 per month and hourly wage of $5.79. Now we can start thinking car payment. Let's look at year 3 (I will save a lot of the typing and get straight to the figures).
Year 3: Upfront income = $1300. Residual income = $7141. Total income = $8441. Monthly = $703.41. Hourly wage = $10.82.
Year 4: Upfront income = $1300. Residual income = $10261. Total income = $11561. Monthly = $963.41. Hourly wage = $14.82
Now we are talking house payment. Remember this is just a low ball figure. If you can really publish 3 articles per day for 260 days out of the year and make that many links along the way, I suspect you will be making even more. Felicia is almost to $2000 monthly within 2 years of starting residual income.
The key is just being persistent and publishing every day. It will seem slow at first, but over time, the efforts will add up and the results were start multiplying upon themselves. I think in my next post, I will provide a list of places I go to feel inspired when I feel discouraged.
I know this was a long post, but I want it to be encouraging to those who are just getting started making money online. I wanted everyone to see the possibilities that can be realized by just managing time well and using a few hours each day creating a part-time business that will ultimately be paying over $14 per hour for your time and could provide a significant amount of household income while you stay at home and care for a child prior to going to kindergarten. At that point, there may not even be a need to re-enter the workforce but simply continue to develop your online income streams.
Thanks for reading. I really appreciate it.
First, as part of the strategy, you need to find some time for writing online. I am going to use 3 hours per day. You must think I am crazy to think you can find 3 hours per day when raising children. Let me suggest that you consider an hour before the children wake up. Now if they wake up very early, this may not be practical and you might have to find time elsewhere. Little ones usually take a nap, so that should provide another hour or so. Lastly, there should be an hour of time after the children go to bed.
Just like examining your spending, you need to look at your time to find out when you can manage about 3 hours each day. Personally, I think it can be done for almost anyone. I am managing to find some time for my writing and will often write in spurts on the weekend. I have written a few articles on tips for finding writing time.
Utilizing Time Wisely
Once you find the time, the next part becomes utilizing your time wisely. I would suggest a combination of writing for upfront and residual income. The upfront income provides the prospect of a short term payout which is probably an important motivator and would demonstrate the viability of writing for online income. The rest of the time is used to develop residual income, create backlinks (article on the importance of backlinks), do keyword research (article on finding high CPC keywords), and network online.
Writing articles for upfront payment can be done at such sites as Life123, constantcontent, and others that you can find reviewed at nojobformom or writemoms. These sites will also review the residual income sites so that you can find an appropriate fit for writing style. Personally, I enjoy using HubPages, Xomba, and eHow for residual income. I just started at Life123 for a combination of quick upfront income of $5 for the first 50 views. I would also write on a free blog to get links and readership.
Hour 1: Write upfront article from prior day's keyword and article research and post. Write quick blog post and include a few links to your articles.
Hour 2: Write a residual article from prior day's keyword and article research and post to site. Start a second article.
Hour 3: Finish second article and post to residual income site. Spend time doing keyword and article research for next day, learning about making income online, networking, and posting links on social bookmarking sites like Xomba to your articles that day (my referral link to Xomba).
The above assumes that you can write an article in 45 minutes. That may not happen right away. It will take some time. But once you get more experience, I think it is certainly reasonable to be able to write 500 words in 45 minutes.
Online Income Possibilities
Let's assume that for the first 6 months, you only get one upfront article done each day and one residual article each day and that you only write Monday through Friday, taking weekends off. I will also assume that you only write at Life123 for the upfront site. I will assume that in year 1, you make $0.30 per article on average residual income, year 2 you make $0.40 per article and year 3 and on $0.50 per article. This should low ball the opportunities since I am averaging $0.50 per article residual on eHow and about $0.40 per article on HubPages only 5 months into the program.
In the first month, you can only contribute 10 articles per month to Life123 and the same is true for the second month. At the end of those months, you are up to the 40 article per month level, but you only write 25. You can still contribute the extra 15 from months one and two over time so that you are writing one each day. Be sure to save all your work on your own computer prior to publication. I write everything except these blog posts on Microsoft Word and then copy/paste. I created an eHow template for myself as well.
After one year, you will have written and posted 260 articles on Life123, each earning $5. Some of the more recent posts will not have earned that, but several should have made the next $5 payout. You will have posted 260 residual articles for 12 months plus another 130 for the second 6 months when your writing speed improved.
Total income for the year: 260 Life123 * $5 = $1300 plus residual income of $0.30 per month for the first month's articles for 12 months, plus $0.30 per month for the next month's articles for 11 months, etc. comes to a total of $641.40. So the total income for the year is $1941.40 or an average of $161.78 per month. The hourly wage then becomes $2.48. But watch what happens in years 2, 3, and 4!
Year 2: Upfront income = $1300 which still assumes you are only making a $5 payout on each article. Some of them will actually make $20. Remember that our assumptions are trying to low ball all figures. Residual income includes all the articles from year one earning $0.40 per month for 12 months plus 2 articles per day for 260 days, some earning for 12 months, some for 11 months, etc. Residual income = $3216.80. Total income for year 2 = $4516.8 an average of $376.4 per month and hourly wage of $5.79. Now we can start thinking car payment. Let's look at year 3 (I will save a lot of the typing and get straight to the figures).
Year 3: Upfront income = $1300. Residual income = $7141. Total income = $8441. Monthly = $703.41. Hourly wage = $10.82.
Year 4: Upfront income = $1300. Residual income = $10261. Total income = $11561. Monthly = $963.41. Hourly wage = $14.82
Now we are talking house payment. Remember this is just a low ball figure. If you can really publish 3 articles per day for 260 days out of the year and make that many links along the way, I suspect you will be making even more. Felicia is almost to $2000 monthly within 2 years of starting residual income.
The key is just being persistent and publishing every day. It will seem slow at first, but over time, the efforts will add up and the results were start multiplying upon themselves. I think in my next post, I will provide a list of places I go to feel inspired when I feel discouraged.
I know this was a long post, but I want it to be encouraging to those who are just getting started making money online. I wanted everyone to see the possibilities that can be realized by just managing time well and using a few hours each day creating a part-time business that will ultimately be paying over $14 per hour for your time and could provide a significant amount of household income while you stay at home and care for a child prior to going to kindergarten. At that point, there may not even be a need to re-enter the workforce but simply continue to develop your online income streams.
Thanks for reading. I really appreciate it.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Contributor At Life123
Hey, here is that interesting news! I am a contributor for the site Life123.com. After reading DeAnna's review of Life123, I decided to try it out. If you haven't guessed by now, I tend to do things and discover for myself how they work. Not only that, I think I was somewhat bummed by the fact that the residual earnings in the second half of October weren't all that great after an awesome start.
As she states in her review, it was easy to sign up. I supplied a small amount of information including my pen name, "Kidgas" and my paypal address. I submitted my first article for publication after reading their requirements (a few special things with writing format). It was accepted after editorial review which took about 16 hours. Now I am considered a contributor and can submit up to 10 articles a month. I don't know if that is a calendar month or a thirty day period.
Anyway, I have submitted 5 total articles that are currently live on the site. It has taken about 20 minutes on average for them to appear and get out of the pending stage. Three were done in October and 2 in November so far. You may wonder why I am doing this so allow me to explain my thoughts. In all honesty, I am going after some low hanging fruit. It only takes 50 views to earn $5. That's $0.10 each view. Then you are paid an additional $5 for the next 500 views and $10 for the final 500 views. After that, you can earn no more money for that article.
For me, this represents a way of diversifying my income stream while not giving up on the prospect of residual income. Plus, it is very simple to put together 300 or 400 words without a picture or any links. It has taken me about 30-40 minutes to put together each article. One of them already has 8 views. Comparing that to my experience on InfoBarrel, I have 6 articles there with differing amounts of views. The bottom line is that 4 of them have exceeded the 50 view minimum meaning that I could have earned $20 so far versus the actual $1.48 that I have earned.
On the other hand, I am 3 months into eHow and have 42 articles there. I have earned on average $1.48 per article in that time frame and could surpass the $20 mark on several of my articles in the span of one year. HubPages has 108 articles and I have earned $80.57 or almost $0.75 per article over 5 months. Of course several of those represent my earliest worst efforts at writing online with poor keyword choices. For someone just starting out, I think both approaches is perfectly acceptable. It is nice to have the prospect of seeing a paypal deposit within about 6 weeks of starting out. I plan on using my money from Life123 for domain and hosting expenses eventually.
In my next blog post, I want to lay out a plan for anyone to get started making money online which incorporates both upfront and residual income opportunities to show how it might work and what the possibilities are. In the meantime, please feel free to visit any or all of my 5 current articles on Life123. I have conveniently included the links:
Stock Investing Greats and the Lessons They Teach
Make Your Retirement Savings Automatic
Transient Global Amnesia (already has 8 views)
12 Tips to Save Gas, Save Money, Save the Planet
Taking Pain and Making Pearls
As you can see, I am getting a good start on building links for the month of November. Thus, I am able to accomplish several things with this one post, namely build links for potential income at Life123 and provide useful information to everyone reading this blog.
My plan is to publish several more articles in the 300-400 word range up to my quota on Life123 for this month and add those earnings in November and December. I am thinking that I should be able to get $15-20 for November and up to $30 in December added to my residual amounts. Whether or not I continue may simply depend upon what I am doing with the residual online income. I am still finding my way through all of this, and you are simply along for the ride. Feel free to learn from my mistakes and improve upon what I do.
As mentioned, for the next post I would like to put together a little system for anyone wanting to start out or organize their work flow better. And if anyone else is writing for Life123 or is considering it, just comment or shoot me an email at pleben.com@gmail.com.
As always, thanks so much for reading my blog.
As she states in her review, it was easy to sign up. I supplied a small amount of information including my pen name, "Kidgas" and my paypal address. I submitted my first article for publication after reading their requirements (a few special things with writing format). It was accepted after editorial review which took about 16 hours. Now I am considered a contributor and can submit up to 10 articles a month. I don't know if that is a calendar month or a thirty day period.
Anyway, I have submitted 5 total articles that are currently live on the site. It has taken about 20 minutes on average for them to appear and get out of the pending stage. Three were done in October and 2 in November so far. You may wonder why I am doing this so allow me to explain my thoughts. In all honesty, I am going after some low hanging fruit. It only takes 50 views to earn $5. That's $0.10 each view. Then you are paid an additional $5 for the next 500 views and $10 for the final 500 views. After that, you can earn no more money for that article.
For me, this represents a way of diversifying my income stream while not giving up on the prospect of residual income. Plus, it is very simple to put together 300 or 400 words without a picture or any links. It has taken me about 30-40 minutes to put together each article. One of them already has 8 views. Comparing that to my experience on InfoBarrel, I have 6 articles there with differing amounts of views. The bottom line is that 4 of them have exceeded the 50 view minimum meaning that I could have earned $20 so far versus the actual $1.48 that I have earned.
On the other hand, I am 3 months into eHow and have 42 articles there. I have earned on average $1.48 per article in that time frame and could surpass the $20 mark on several of my articles in the span of one year. HubPages has 108 articles and I have earned $80.57 or almost $0.75 per article over 5 months. Of course several of those represent my earliest worst efforts at writing online with poor keyword choices. For someone just starting out, I think both approaches is perfectly acceptable. It is nice to have the prospect of seeing a paypal deposit within about 6 weeks of starting out. I plan on using my money from Life123 for domain and hosting expenses eventually.
In my next blog post, I want to lay out a plan for anyone to get started making money online which incorporates both upfront and residual income opportunities to show how it might work and what the possibilities are. In the meantime, please feel free to visit any or all of my 5 current articles on Life123. I have conveniently included the links:
Stock Investing Greats and the Lessons They Teach
Make Your Retirement Savings Automatic
Transient Global Amnesia (already has 8 views)
12 Tips to Save Gas, Save Money, Save the Planet
Taking Pain and Making Pearls
As you can see, I am getting a good start on building links for the month of November. Thus, I am able to accomplish several things with this one post, namely build links for potential income at Life123 and provide useful information to everyone reading this blog.
My plan is to publish several more articles in the 300-400 word range up to my quota on Life123 for this month and add those earnings in November and December. I am thinking that I should be able to get $15-20 for November and up to $30 in December added to my residual amounts. Whether or not I continue may simply depend upon what I am doing with the residual online income. I am still finding my way through all of this, and you are simply along for the ride. Feel free to learn from my mistakes and improve upon what I do.
As mentioned, for the next post I would like to put together a little system for anyone wanting to start out or organize their work flow better. And if anyone else is writing for Life123 or is considering it, just comment or shoot me an email at pleben.com@gmail.com.
As always, thanks so much for reading my blog.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thanks to Felicia
Here is a great post from Felicia. I'm pretty sure I have heard this type of story before, but it was nice to hear it yesterday. I know that it will help me gear up going into November, and I think it will help motivate you as well.
Making money online can seem like a long and arduous task. OK, not seem like it, it IS, without a doubt, an arduous task. It requires a lot of effort and a lot more commitment. I suspect it is not uncommon to get discouraged and burned out. That is why I find it so refreshing to read other blogs from people trying to make money online. At times, they can offer a much needed word of encouragement.
Some writers and marketers depend upon it for their sole source of income. As I have mentioned before, that would drive me nuts. I have a hard enough time watching traffic fluctuate, let alone worry about being able to pay my bills. The one downside to reading all these other blogs is that they are the successful ones. They have stuck with it and show up in the internet searches. They are the professionals making $1000, $2000, $5000 per month in online income. You really don't get a complete sense of everything they had to go through to get where they are. You don't realize the time involved or the uncertainty or struggles with the emotions that inevitably occur.
That is why I want to write this blog and maintain it so regularly. I want to share that sense of starting out and record it for all the world to see. I want to learn and teach along the way. It is actually turning out to be fairly therapeutic as well. There is a lot of uncertainty. Can I really do this? Can I make money online? Can I meet my goal of $3000 per month in 8 years and 7 months? Will I be able to stick it out for that long? Will I just simply go nuts? Am I nuts now?
Again, thanks Felicia. I think I now have the drive to continue for one more month. Even though I still don't feel as if I have a complete plan or direction and seem to still be searching for what is right for me, I think I can go on. I think I can. I think I can! Alright, enough of this, I am going to write some more and do some more links to get started early on the November linking extravaganza. I will likely have some interesting news in the next post in a few days, so be sure to look out for it. Until then, keep your head up.
Making money online can seem like a long and arduous task. OK, not seem like it, it IS, without a doubt, an arduous task. It requires a lot of effort and a lot more commitment. I suspect it is not uncommon to get discouraged and burned out. That is why I find it so refreshing to read other blogs from people trying to make money online. At times, they can offer a much needed word of encouragement.
Some writers and marketers depend upon it for their sole source of income. As I have mentioned before, that would drive me nuts. I have a hard enough time watching traffic fluctuate, let alone worry about being able to pay my bills. The one downside to reading all these other blogs is that they are the successful ones. They have stuck with it and show up in the internet searches. They are the professionals making $1000, $2000, $5000 per month in online income. You really don't get a complete sense of everything they had to go through to get where they are. You don't realize the time involved or the uncertainty or struggles with the emotions that inevitably occur.
That is why I want to write this blog and maintain it so regularly. I want to share that sense of starting out and record it for all the world to see. I want to learn and teach along the way. It is actually turning out to be fairly therapeutic as well. There is a lot of uncertainty. Can I really do this? Can I make money online? Can I meet my goal of $3000 per month in 8 years and 7 months? Will I be able to stick it out for that long? Will I just simply go nuts? Am I nuts now?
Again, thanks Felicia. I think I now have the drive to continue for one more month. Even though I still don't feel as if I have a complete plan or direction and seem to still be searching for what is right for me, I think I can go on. I think I can. I think I can! Alright, enough of this, I am going to write some more and do some more links to get started early on the November linking extravaganza. I will likely have some interesting news in the next post in a few days, so be sure to look out for it. Until then, keep your head up.
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