Easy (Kinda) Money

Today is the last day to register for the eHow writing challenge contest. If you are not familiar with this contest, take a look at the eHow writing challenge.

I was actually quite pleased with the number of people that decided to register for the contest. At this point, there are six people registered. That may not sound like much, but for a new blog, I am really happy with the results. Think of it this way, 6 people times 300 articles each; with an average of $1 per article per month… this means combined we will be generating an additional $1800 per month! I also think it will be a great exercise in trying to come up with new ideas for topics. I believe that most of us can agree that this is the most daunting part of writing articles for eHow.

I certainly hope that in this last day more of you will register for this challenge. I know that the more of you register the harder I am going to work to try to keep my 50 bucks!

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• Why I Love Publishing On Ehow (realfreelancelife.com)

Firstly, I would like to apologize for not updating the blog for the past few days. I had a family emergency I needed to take care of. So, please forgive me if I was away from my computer for the past five days.

Here are the things that I want to do for the rest of August and into September:

1.

There are two blogs that I regularly read, and I want to begin to comment on them at least twice a week. These blogs are well worthwhile in reading, and commenting. I just need to make in my priority. This will do two things; first, it will stimulate discussion on passive income and blogging. Secondly, I hope it will bring more traffic to my site, as well as entice you to read their sites. These two blogs are pro-blogger and smart passive income.

2.

It is obvious said I must hone my website. At times my blog looks clumsy. So I will spend some time streamlining things. I have gotten some great suggestions by e-mail on how to do this. I do not agree with all of the suggestions, but there were several that I plan to implement. I also want to thank those of you that sent continue reading…

From time to time, I would like to talk about other ways to create passive income. Granted, this blog will mostly focus on Internet passive income. However, there are many other things in my life that could be adjusted to create passive income.

Currently, I am searching for a roommate. This has turned into a frustrating experience. I have a two-bedroom apartment, but I live her alone. I thought it might be wise to rent out the other bedroom. My rent is $875 per month and I want to rent them a room out for $425 per month. The frustrating part is that many of these applicants are people that I do not think I could get along with in this apartment. I think I need to keep trying.

(WARNING!!!!! This video is hilarious, but contains ADULT LANGUAGE)

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This experience, however, has made me think. If I am wasting an entire bedroom that could be producing passive income, how many other things am I wasting? I think we all do things, or have things that other people want. Why not rent these things to those people? Or combine efforts to save money, such as carpooling. I have started to think about things that I am wasting that other people might want.

Some numbers. If a roommate pays me $425 per month, continue reading…

You must register by 31AUG09… you can do this by email to cory@easykindamoney.com . Simply email your Ehow profile name, and a valid return email address.

You cannot pay others to write articles for you. This may be difficult to discern, but if your articles are written in several different “voices” you may be disqualified… ( this will be decided by the subjective judgment of the host of this contest, me.)

As much  as I abhor it, to qualify for the prize must provide the login information to your account. This is to prove that it is YOUR account that I am reading. Your information will not be used for any other purpose, and will be destroyed after verification.

 By registering, you agree to all of the rules.

Main Ehow contest post

I have been reading some of my friend’s blogs, and I have noticed a number of eHow article writing challenges. These challenges range anywhere from writing 100 to 150 articles per month. I think I would like to raise the stakes.

  The truth be told, I need motivation to write these articles also. I thought I might spice things up a bit. Instead of the one-month challenge, I will propose a sustained challenge. 100 articles per month, for three months. 

One difference between the challenges that have been offered, and my challenge, is that I am offering a couple of small prizes. 

Here are the rules.  continue reading…

If you have been reading my blog for some time you know that I have been searching for referral sites and affiliates. One thing I was certain of is that I did not want to push an affiliate site that I did not believe in. In keeping with this philosophy, I have chosen my first affiliate as Bluehost.com. This is the hosting company that I use. I, in turn, learned about it from Pat, at the smart passive income blog.

I have now been using Blue Host for three months. And, I’m not only satisfied, I am impressed. To begin with, the price is unbeatable. I am currently being hosted for $6.95 per month. This includes unlimited domain names, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited Pop e-mail accounts. Okay, many hosting services offer similar programs, however, I was highly impressed with the amount of one click install software that blue host provides. This, of course, includes WordPress. In addition, there is Perl support, Ruby  continue reading…

As I try to develop my passive income strategy, I think it will be best to use a hub and spoke approach. In a nutshell, my blog will be the hub, with my other projects being the spokes. I think it is important to organize your thoughts in such a manner. Otherwise, you might spend too much time flitting from project to project.
 

 At a basic level this blog will be the platform to guide you, the reader, to my other projects. I will be honest, of course I want you to see and read my other projects. I hope that they enlighten you or stimulate your thoughts. I also hope that you will return the favor, and post your ideas in the comment sections of this blog.

Think of it this way, this blog will be the center of my projects. If you want any information, come here first. Each of my projects will branch out from this blog.

Now, let’s talk about the spokes:

  continue reading…

It has become clear to me that most of my visitors come from a direct links and bookmarks. As wonderful as this is, I want to optimize my search engine ranking. However, this can be difficult with a dynamic front page. As you know, every time I update this blog, the new information is at the top of the page. Then, I read a great post at pro-blogger.com. I am going to begin to use my sidebar header and footer as static search engine anchors.

I will explain it to you this way. Because my blog is dynamic, in other words, each time I post to my blog it is at the top of the page. Therefore, every day my search engine keywords change. Granted, it is true that each individual post page has its own search engine ranking. However, I want to be sure that I can rank the main index page as high as possible.

  continue reading…

I guess I must have  become a “big boy”

This blog has been attacked and spammed…. To be honest, I did not know I was that popular.

I should have these issues resolved by tomorrow, and unfortunately, I will need to moderate the comments. Trust me, if you disagree with me I will not supress you distaste… I welcome your criticism.

Please continue to comment.

Well, here it is my first income report. In the end, the numbers will seem quite insignificant. However, even though I have some disappointments, there are some things in this income report that give me great enthusiasm. I will try to break these things down as best I can.

Referral programs…. I had been using two referral programs. Survey Savvy, and Cash Crate. I decided to abandon Survey Savvy because I have had no income from this program for the past two months. I still think it could be a good program, however, it is not for me. Now, let’s talk about Cash crate. Cash crate is an enigma. In the first part of this month I had a flurry of Cash crate activity. I thought I would easily earn $200. However, this was not the case. After the first flurry, Cash crate died out completely. I do not know why this occurred. Maybe, it is the ”summer doldrums theory”. According to many Internet experts, during the warm summer months people do not search blogs or read articles as much as they do when they are cooped up in their home in the cold months. I am beginning to believe this theory, because my eHow income is also down.

Adsense revenue… you will probably laugh at my Adsense revenue. However, the current format seems to be attracting some attention. I tried four different formats, a skyscraper, a text box, etc. The current configuration seems to be working for this blog.

Next month’s goals: increase my eHow inventory to 100 articles, add one more referral site, add one affiliate link, increase my daily visits to 100 per day.

Okay here are the numbers:

Advertising:

   Adsense: 4.68

Referral Programs:

   CashCrate: 10.63

eHow: 39.60

TTL:54.91

My income goal for August is to double my July income. I do not think this will be a problem. If I write one or two eHow articles per day, and be sure to update my blog daily, I think this will be an easy goal. We will all know how it worked out with my August report.