Set it and forget it? I was chuckling at this a bit as I haven’t been paying too much attention to this in awhile. To brush off the cobwebs a bit, I have been trying to find different ways to generate an income as an example of how there are so many things to do out there where the main error that people do is just not doing anything at all I say. Web publishing was obviously one method I have been using and Google Adsense was a program I used.

I haven’t been really paying too much attention to it and low and behold the account generated over one thousand dollars. More specifically, $1031.27 as you can see here:

That isn’t exactly a rags to riches type of thing at all as I know you can make more if you actually dedicated yourself to it. But that sure gives you a clear example on how just doing something can generate the return in the long run. In this case it was pretty nice too as I didn’t really need to do anything different as I found a way to adapt it into what I enjoy doing.

Looking back at what I have accumulated so far, it just dawned on me that I still haven’t thought of what to do with these funds yet. Again, the purpose is to explore other ways to generate an income as well that can fit various lifestyles.

Here is the tally so far:

Stock Investment: $800
Web Publishing: $2130.13
Million Dollar Term: $100
Affiliate Sales: $91.01
Free Money and Credits: $100
Loose Change Savings: $209.23
Selling Items: $55.64

Total: $3486.01

I was talking to a friend today and he was fascinated about how people make money online with various affiliate programs and how it works. I think the most common reaction on what people think the barrier is when it comes to this is that it must be expensive to do. As you all may know, it’s more about a time investment than anything.

He was telling me about this book that he bought that was on sale before an how it mentions that it will probably take him two weeks or so to learn it. This is very basic stuff too such as signing up with programs. I was just saying too how I could guide him through that in like two hours as the logistics itself is pretty straight forward.

I often found that learning from real people can be a real time saver and I always try to explore that option before investing money in materials like a book to learn a new trade or skill. Especially for things like this, it’s often the follow up help in practicing things hands on where you really get to learn stuff.

The only thing was that in this case I was willing to do it for free since it is a friend. So in other situations of course factoring in how much a person charges should be a factor on whether or not the time saving aspect is worth it financially.

I received another cheque payment today from Google for $125.55 as you can see here:

Looking at the total too thus far, I still consider this as the lazy/safe way of earning money. Not too much risk as I don’t go out of my way to really try to earn more and as a result the return is not exactly mind shattering. Though, I know there are a lot of people that struggle to even generate say $10.

Someone was telling me that for the heck of it since I never really do anything crazy with money that I should just use this Adsense cheque and put it towards like a bunch of lottery tickets and see what happens. In some ways I thought it would be kind of interesting since a lot of people normally do gamble away their money with small things like the lottery that add up over time.

I was even joking that since watching this recent season of celebrity apprentice I thought it would be interesting just to see how much money people lose and win in playing online poker and maybe I should use some of the funds from this cheque to see that first hand.

Basically though, looking for something new while at the same time being a good and educational thing to document that others will find useful.

Stock Investment: $800
Web Publishing: $886.55
Million Dollar Term: $100
Affiliate Sales: $91.01
Free Money and Credits: $100
Loose Change Savings: $209.23
Selling Items: $55.64

Total: $2242.43

I was reading a couple of articles today about people who do blogging for a living and get paid for it. It started with this article on the Wall Street Journal at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124026415808636575.html that talked about bloggers for hire as a new profession.

I then read other articles such as from the Business Insider at http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-us-now-has-more-paid-bloggers-than-lawyers-2009-4 which implied there are now almost as much paid bloggers as lawyers in the use.

The statistics seemed so questionable to me. For example, what exactly did they define as a paid blogger? It sounded like the figures included anyone and everyone even if they made only say $1. As well, implying that a blogger needs about 100,000 unique visitors to earn about $75K seems extremely skewed around people who specifically focus on getting paid to blog and are very successful at it.

It is kind of interesting though if a blogger is being hired for companies in a more mainstream fashion. While again I emphasize that those numbers should be taken with a huge grain of salt, if you really want to do something on the side to possibly earn an income then blogging can be a great thing to get into.

Especially if you are someone who is out of work, I suppose if it is becoming more mainstream in a professional sense then it can be a great skill to obtain as well. Great way to possibly diversify yourself.

I saw something very interesting today as there was this E-Book that dealt with how to make money online with various affiliate programs out there. It wasn’t too expensive as it was about $25 and so in that sense it is along the same price of other books you would buy at a store.

Now the interesting thing was that for this E-Book, in an effort to hype it up to make people buy it, the site had all these external links to news sources about people making millions online, how people create a work at home business with the Internet and so fourth. Some of these 3rd party news site, which are definitely well known sources, had commenter boxes and people were leaving comments such as “Does this really work?” or “I can’t afford risking to lose money. Can anyone tell me if this is real?”.

I never read that particular E-Book myself, but despite that I thought it was just kind of interesting how people don’t have that same high level of skepticism when it comes to say a finance book on how to save money. When you think about it, the situation is almost the same thing. Basically, that book is pitching you that it has answers/solutions for your needs/questions and hence you should buy it. However, in these cases though the majority of people would tend to be more lenient and don’t really see it as a risk as oppose to the other scenario.

I usually don’t prefer to spend money to simply learn things through say a book. Instead, I would rather spend the money to do something pro-active and get hands on experience to learn if possible. Example, if that book costs $25 and the sole intent was to teach me about marketing programs online, I would instead research ways on how I can simply spend $25 or less to say create a site and start testing out various programs (And don’t tell me there is no way cause you could technically do it for free these days).

Or like with a book to save money, if it costs $25 I would probably rather see if there is say a place I could join that would allow me to meet more people that are successful in managing their money too to try and get some new knowledge. In either case I guess you can consider both of them a risk as the book could possibly not teach me anything new or the event could have been a bomb.

I usually prefer the word “Invest” rather than “Risk” too as it gives you a better perspective on whether or not something is worth it for you. So for myself, when it comes to investing money to gain knowledge, for reference and learning different ways of doing things I don’t mind buying say a book for it. But for things that are completely new to me I would rather get hands on experience when spending money to aid me in acquiring that new knowledge.