Easy (Kinda) Money

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…

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…

I have decided to remove Survey Savvy from my repertoire of passive income streams. It seemed that a Better Business Bureau accredited site would attract more referrals. However, in my instance it has not been up to the task.

I will leave the link up on this blog for another month. I would appreciate any feedback that you can give me as to why this particular passive income stream failed. On its face, Survey Savvy seems to have all the credentials. The Survey Savvy site was  Better Business Bureau accredited and recommended by the radio talk show host Kim Kommando. I have a feeling about what the problem might be… I do know that the surveys are slow in coming, and most people prefer instant gratification. However, I also noted that while my Cash Crate referrals are increasing my SurveySavvy referrals have reached a plateau.

I would like to ask a favor of you, the readers, click on the Survey Savvy link in the upper right-hand corner of this blog, and tell me what you think of the site. Initially I thought this site would be a winner. However,  continue reading…

Image via Wikipedia

As I have become more excited about this idea of passive income, I am exploring many of the the blogs out there relating to the subject. I ran across something that gave me a new paradigm for some of my thoughts. Saving money can be considered passive income.

Look at it this way, If I reduced my expenses to zero dollars, then all of my income would be disposable income. Therefore every dollar I save is one more dollar of disposable income. Perhaps ol‘ Ben Franklin had it right; “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

I do not believe it would be helpful to include money saved in my passive income statistics. In addition the one drawback to this income stream is that it is finite. Once I reach zero expenses (yeah, that will happen), The stream is capped.

However, I can certainly do some things in my life to save in this manner. I am terrible at paying things on time, I could easily save fifty dollars a month in late fees. I also should consider getting a roommate. I live alone in a two bedroom apartment, and saving half of my rent could sure help. Just these two changes would increase my monthly disposable income by $450.

I know this is not some revelation in income generation, but some food for thought.

I have been using CashCrate for about a month now. From everything I hear it is a good source of passive income. However, for me I have not seen the revenue and referral generation that I would like to see.

CashCrate is a free referral site. You can generate direct income by responding to offers such as surveys, or trial offers. but the intriguing part is the referral system. This should be able to create a good stream of passive income. The payout plan is fairly generous, and the program is simple enough. I have received my first check from Cash Crate (yes, the only payout option at this point is by check), so I know they are legit.

Image via CrunchBase

My problem seems to be getting the referral. I have 4 articles published on ehow. These articles are also cross-posted on Associated Content. I just cant seem to build the referral base that I want. I may be too impatient, so I will keep pushing the program and see where it leads. I may just need to be patient and mix up my advertising a bit.

From time to time I will post one of my ehow articles in full for you to read, this may give you ideas, and will show you a type of ehow article format.

Make Money Online by Answering Surveys  This is not a get rich quick scheme. Most likely not a get rich scheme, period. However, you can make extra income from home if you know how to make money online by answering surveys. I have tried many different survey sites over the past few years, and I found what seems to be the best method for me to make extra money with online surveys.
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There are basically two steps in to make money online by answering surveys. The first is the actual act of going through the surveys and offers. The second step is to refer others to the survey site. Completing the online surveys is a good way of voicing your opinion on a number of issues, while being paid at the same time. However, to increase your income, you need to refer people to the website.
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Fine a good site. The key is to discover a website that pays well enough so that you can make money online by answering surveys. I have discovered two of them that seem to be worthwhile. SurveySavvy and CashCrate seem to have a good payout, and a good referral system.
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The first, SurveySavvy, is a Better Business Bureau accredited site that was recommended on the “Kim Kommando” radio show. The surveys are a little slow to begin, but the payouts are reasonable. CashCrate is not actually a survey site, but refers you to other survey sites and free online offers. The payouts are good and again, so is the referral system.
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I suggest using an alternate email address when signing up for these sites to reduce spam. Also, turn off the spam filter on the alternate email, as the filter will often mistake your survey offers as spam.
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Now it is time to boost your online income. Begin referring people to the website using your referral ID. You can do this in several ways. The most obvious is referring your friends and family. This is a good start but obviously limited. To expand your referrals, you need to advertise a little. Write about these online survey sites in your blog. Try writing an eHow article about your experience with online surveys, including your referral link. You can also advertise on Craigslist and other online classifieds. In either case, be honest about what you are doing. If either SurveySavvy or CashCrate receives complaints about spamming, your account may be terminated.
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Really, it is just a matter of persistence if you want to make money online by answering surveys. Simply answer all the survey offers that you can, and regularly advertise the sites. You may not get rich, but you can certainly increase your online income.

You can get the links to these sites at the tpo of the page in my “links” section

If you can write a how-to article, you can make some cash on ehow.com. It is a fairly steady and predictable passive income stream.

You can write just about any type of how-to article there. From “How to sharpen a knife” to ” How to make extra income from Cash Crate”. The articles needn’t be long. An average length would be 300-500 words. I will not go over all of the submission rules because they are well covered on the site.

You are are paid as a percentage of the ad revenue your article generates. Nobody seems to know this formula, but there is a consensus that each article will generate an average of $1 per month. Of late I am beating that average with $1.36 per per article per month. The payout is through paypal, and occurs around the 5th of each month.

I beleive that my higher than average per article payout is due to two things . First I stuff the first two paragraphs with as many relevant keywords as possible. Secondly, from time to time I look at which are my highest paying articles and then writh another article in the same vein. I have even gone to the extent of re-writing some of my top articles and then just changing a word or two in the title.

While Ehow is not going to make you rich, I do know some people that are making over $1000 per month. It is just a matter of builing your article inventory.

You can check it out at www.ehow.com