Mother’s Got A Dot Com

I’ve received a cheque. Not a big one – juuust over the payment limit. From the big G. It took me exactly 2 years, but I’ve done it. The ad business resumes though, as one just has to start all over again.

It’s looking as if it won’t take 2 years to accumulate the next cheque – I won’t be resting on my laurels, so to speak.
(What sort of expression is that? Anyone tried to rest on laurels? They’re hard, and the tips of the leaves are prickly… They smell nice, though. Saves on the lavender.)

I thought to take a photo of the thing, (the cheque, not the laurels) but all the moguls have done it – it’s just so… last week…

This is money I’ve earnt while I’ve slept, by the way. If you do the maths, it becomes evident that sleeping is bad business.

In my search for ways to make money blogging, I found a site called Paying Post a while ago. I’d forgotten all about it, and looking over my template’s HTML code today, I found a tracking code I didn’t know. Lo and behold, I’m registered and everything! Surprise – Mum’s forgotten.

Anyway. I’ve obviously decided to give them a whirl at some point, so, now that I’ve relocated them, I thought I might as well follow it up.

First, a thorough look at their website. The layout is pleasing, and fairly new (they updated it in December), and the site is easy to figure out. They have a blog as well, and it’s actually an interesting read. There are great tips on paid and unpaid blogging there, articles on the economy from a blogger/advertiser viewpoint, an extensive “how to” section, and more.

I blog because I enjoy it, and i also enjoy earning a buck or 5 on paid posts. English being my second language, I find it challenging to write product reviews, website reviews and other paid postings in English. It keeps my brain active… The fact that it also lines my Paypal account can only be seen as a bonus.

Blog marketing gets up some people’s noses, I know. It’s never irritated me, and I think it’s here to stay. If a blog post interests me, I’ll read it, whether it promotes and links to a site that sells garden gnomes or not. If it’s interesting enough, I might even click on the garden gnome. We bloggers have our little bits of real estate on the ‘net, and as long as advertisers think they get their money’s worth, they’ll be willing to hire our “spots”. I’m quite willing to promote Paying Post, as a new blog marketing site that may be good to me. I hope it will.

There’s room for more bloggers over there, if you’re interested. There’s room for advertisers too.

Are you looking for new ways to monetize it?

Tradedoubler is a company that lets you display affiliate links and banners for the UK market. They partner with well known brand names. I use it on my Norwegian blog (they cater to the Norwegian market too, go figure), and I’ve done quite well there. They give you real-time stats, and getting started is easy.
Maybe your blog is based in the US, but you get a lot of traffic from the UK? Then Tradedoubler might be for you too…

Yesss! I’ll be getting there. I think. Not for my 2 year blogging anniversary (that was on the 22nd, yay me!), but within the month.

Getting where? To my very first Google Adsense payout, that’s where! Stay tuned for a stunning photo of me and check in… what ‘ll it be.. March?

Two days ago, just about 22 months after I started blogging, I reached $50 on Adsense. Half the minimum payout… Give me another 22 months, and I’ll get my first check in October 2010.

Wonderful prospects. Maybe I’ll save up my other blog income, buy a trip to las vegas nevada, and just go crazy. You know, spend it all at once…

I did get a cheque the other day though. If you’ve noticed the Savvy Source widget/quiz thing in my sidebar – it paid off, and I got my first ever bona fide US dollar cheque for $44,16. The widget has been up for 3 months or so. The campaign is over now, but they’re working on finding a new sponsor, so I’m hopeful…

Do I give up on Adsense? No way. I’ll stick it out – don’t want to lose my 50 bucks. They will turn into 100 bucks – eventually. I hope.

I think I’ve found my niche. Not for this one – no one in their right mind would call this a niche blog. No – for my relatively brand new Norwegian one, that I’ve named the equivalent of Work With A Blog, where I’ve approached the subject of Working At Home.

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I do. And I’ve just found a huge, virtual department store where I can find everything under the sun, and get cash back for shopping. What’s more, I get cash back from your shopping too, if I refer you to them…

eBay shopping? Get cash back on every purchase. Best Buy? Target? Babies’R Us? Walmart? The same goes for shopping there, and with hundreds of other retailers. Shop, refer others or both, and collect your savings and commissions in your PayPal account every month.

Big Crumbs  makes sense because merchants only pay when they make a sale. There’s no members fee, no hidden costs, which is why merchants like the service too. If you’re selling on eBay, you really should have a look at this site – they’ll help your eBay store or eBay items gain visibility, and they’ll be seen by a targeted audience that’s got the added cash back incentive.

The money merchants pay Big Crumbs for sending you their way when you shop with them is used to pay you and the person who referred you (if applicable).
There are two types of membership: Savers get a very good cash back on their own shopping, as well as referrals commissions on the shopping of their direct referrals. Earners get a smaller, but competitive cash back on their own shopping, but earn commissions on their referrals shopping as well as the shopping of their referrals referrals – for 5 generations. See? The name makes sense too. Enough crumbs, and you’ll soon have a whole bakery…

There’s no spam, no nonsense, and as I see it, everyone wins. The Big Crumbs site looks good too – you’ll easily find all the info you need, whether you’re a shopper, referrer, seller or all three combined.

I’ll be joining today – did I mention that it’s 100% free? It will be another chapter in my “make extra cash online” saga. At the very least, I’ll be getting cash back on my Christmas shopping this year, so I win…

Update: I tried to join. All excited… It turns out they’re only accepting members from Australia, Canada, Ireland,USA and the UK at this point. I’m soooo disappointed! I’ve sent them a ticket, reminding them that Norway is on the map (and on eBay), but we shall see. In the meantime, those of you who are residents of the above mentioned countries: check this out! I hope to be joining you soon.

Multiple Streams Of Passive Income… Doesn’t that sound great? It’s a concept I learned about quite early in my “blogging career” – in fact I read about it before I started blogging. Wherever I looked, these streams were described as not only streams or trickles, but as rivers of cash flowing into the open arms of people doing nothing…

I guess we all know that’s not true. It’s certainly not true in my case. There is a trickle, and a very small part of that is passive (ads, paid links), but most of what I make online is from paid posts. (i.e. work).

Spending time online has connected me with another form of freelance work though – Mystery Shopping. I came across the term on various US sites, and decided to Google it in Norwegian, to see if anything was going over here. It was! I found a couple of companies, sent applications, and was accepted. I’ve done a couple of assignments for one of them, and I’ve got 4 lined up for August so far. It’s fun, it gets me out of the house, and it’s quite well paid for the amount of work you do. Another trickle.

The other day, I got an email from another MS company I’ve been accepted by, but not done any work for yet, and that’s based in Germany. They were looking for proof readers in Norwegian/English, which is just up my alley. I’ve made enquiries, and it looks promising. All I have to do is find time for a 2 – hour training session by phone, which is proving to be quite a challenge… Must ally myself with one of the older kids – the young’uns must be kept out of the way for the duration! Yet another trickle – maybe.

So – I’ve got a few streams of income lined up. None of them passive, but I never expected that.

It’s that time of the month again, and here’s an overview of how my 2 blogs are doing…

For some obscure reason, my blogspot blog, that has become something of a step-child (and I’m using that term metaphorically, people, since I’ve got two step-children…) when it comes to content, rank, updating and traffic, was restored to a PR 2 some time in March. Frankly, I find that quite ridiculous, but it has resulted in more opps from PPP. Not interesting enough to accept, but at least they’re there… I’m not very optimistic (and not too bothered) about how long I’ll be allowed to keep the rank this time.
Mother’s Home! has an Alexa rank of close to 700K, its’ Technorati standing isn’t exactly improving, and it’s not very well visited. To be honest, I mostly do paid posts on it these days. Go figure.

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Some of my posts are sponsored, and so are some of my in-post links. Many blog advertisers these days require that you don’t disclose the posts’ sponsored status within the post, and that may rise some ethical issues.

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