Easy (Kinda) Money

One very important thing bloggers should do is to capture the e-mail addresses of people that read their blog. This is something I have not done yet. I have been putting it off because of what I perceive to be the complexity of doing it. I had searched for widgets and plug-ins and I could not find anything that I could install. Additionally, I wanted something to do more than just capture e-mail addresses. I wanted something that would auto respond, help me manage a mailing list, help me send newsletters and product promotions. continue reading…

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:

 

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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.

 

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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…

One of the projects that I have wanted to do for some time is to create an e-book. While standing in the shower I have virtually written the entire thing in my head. However, as I have mentioned in previous posts, I cannot type worth a darn. So now, with the luxury of Dragon Naturally Speaking I am prepared to embark on this next endeavor. Obviously, it is not going to be a cakewalk, but I believe with this assistance I can definitely pull it off. At this point, I am not ready to talk about the subject, simply because it does interfere with my day job.

 

I have studied many of the passive income streams of other successful people. One of the most successful streams seems to be e-books. My goal is to complete the rough draft be my birthday, August 7. This may be too ambitious a goal; however, I have never been afraid of biting off more than I can chew. Although, it usually bites me back.

 

I believe the subject matter that I am going to write about will be both interesting and beneficial to many people, particularly in this economy. continue reading…

I realize I have been blathering on a bit much about eHow in my last few posts. I promise I will give the eHow subject a rest in the next few posts. However, I thought that it might be of  interest to you to think about your work in a way that you does not cause you to repeat the same effort.

 

A few weeks ago, I was reading one of Pat’s posts  from The Smart Passive Income Blog, and it made me begin to think. Pat said that he was going to try to write 150 eHow articles per month for the next three months. Midstream he decided it may not be as fruitful as he thought. There were several comments on how it might be better to post these articles on his blog because his blog following was larger than the eHow following. I suggested continue reading…

 If you read my posts are regularly, you know that I am a big of fan of eHow. I would say is that the vast majority of my passive income comes from eHow. I would like to take a little time to teach you how to use eHow to increase your passive income.

First of all you need to understand that eHow pays you with a certain percentage of ad revenue. Ads will be placed within your article and you get paid when somebody clicks on the ad. The nice thing is that you do not have to place ads; eHow does this for you. In addition, eHow automatically submits your article to the Google search engine; so, now you do not have to worry about search engines submissions.

 

The first thing you need to do is get in the eHow account. Go to www.eHow.com and sign up for an account. Now that you have an account, make sure that you understand the terms and conditions. eHow is a great way to make extra passive income,  but you must be careful; they are strict about plagiarism, repeat articles, and as spam type articles.

Now that you have an eHow account, it is time to write your articles. You may be worried that you do not have enough ideas to produce in inventory of eHow articles. You would be surprised at the breadth of articles that are written on eHow. You can write an article about anything from the” theory of relativity”… to “how continue reading…

I have received a few emails from people that want to develop passive income streams NOW because their home is being foreclosed, or they have accounts in debt collections. Of course, passive income is not an answer to these problems because it takes to long to develop. However because of the number of emails I received on the subject, I thought I would reprint one of my eHow articles.

 

You cannot pay all your bills… and now the incessant calls from the debt collector start. You do not want to answer the phone, but the calls keep coming. It is not the end of the world. Many debt collectors can actually help you, if you give them a chance.

 

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Answer the phone, or better yet call the debt collections company. Keep calm, collectors have personalities, some can come off as ruthless , while others come off as sweet. If you honestly owe the bill to the collector, try to pay it. continue reading…

Image via CrunchBase

I am finally getting my head wrapped around the things I need to do in order to build my passive income. I think that it was overwhelming at the outset. There were just so many ideas and so much information to sift through. I was hard pressed to prioritize these ideas, but I think I have a better clue now.

The List

• Finish moving this blog to http://www.easykindamoney.com/
• Write at least two articles per day at eHow.com
• Read and comment on an one article from each of my eHow friends every other week.
• Mid-month, begin going through 31 days to building a better blog at Pro Blogger

  Moving the blog
  
  It is simply a matter learning a little more about WordPress. I have chosen the theme, etc. I am just trying to figure out the widgets at this point. Other than that I really do like the simplistic power of WordPress. As I mentioned in my previous post I Need to Move My Blog, I went with Bluehost as suggessted by Pat at The Smart Passive Income Blog .

  Writing more on Ehow

  I know that Ehow will never make me rich, however it is a good source of steady and predictable passive income. I have been slacking a bit with it lately, so I am resolving to write 2 articles per day. This should increase my monthly income by about 70-80 dollars.

  Commenting on eHow articles

  I tried an experiment by religiously commenting on my eHow friends’ articles for two months and then I stopped commenting for two months. I am fairly certain that by commenting, I can increase my eHow income by about 12-15%. I think this is due to three things: First, these friends rate and comment on the articles. Secondly, these comments are posted on their home pages. Lastly, I think that these friends click on some of the ads on my pages as a favor. Although I do not condone this, I think it is just a fact of life.

  31 days to build a better blog
  
  This is a great project that every blogger should try. Each day contains a fairly easy project to improve your blog. I am actually really excited to embark on this.

Image by mohdzakri.com via Flickr

The idea of creating income streams that continue to pay is actually at odds with the mindsets of many people. I have heard the comments of; “If you have that much time on your hands, you could be working some overtime.” Or “Why don’t you get a real job?” (by the way, I do have a “real” job as a debt collector).

I think that much of this attitude comes from the idea of getting something for nothing. It is obvious that if you have tried to get something from creating passive income streams, you realize that you will work many hundreds of hours with very little reward before you start seeing the returns on your investment of time. It may be just as obvious that there are many money-making “scams” and unrewarding wastes of time out there. I think that is the true purpose of this blog; to sift through the river sand and find a small nugget of gold or two.

An ongoing passive income gives the freedom of working when you want and where you want. I also know that by diversifying your income into “streams”, you can beat the “lay-off” reaper. If a website closes or an online experiment you tried goes bust, you still have these other income streams available to pay your bills.

It all makes sense on paper; let’s see how it works in the real world.

I realize that blogging is not exactly passive income. Although, the archives should still produce ad revenue. Blogging reached it theoretical peak last year, so a new blog is not that inticing. However, a properly placed blog with good content and muti-media should still do well. I read a very good report on blogging at http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/06/23/get-your-free-roadmap-to-become-a-blogger/ they are not paying me, nor do I have any affilition with them. But this report really opened my eyes to the thought process to writing a blog. I think I must include this into my online income streams. It seems that it will requre a concerted effort, but with good long term results. With the added cash from the adsense program, and the exposure to my other projects, I think even this blog might be a little profitable.

Blogging may not be the end all and be all of my internet income plan, however, I think it can become an intergal part of the machine. One more cog that fits into my passive income stream