Personal Profitability

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How I Make Money Online: Successes and Failures (Part 2)

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This is part two in my look back at my various efforts to make money online.

Amazon Associates Affiliate Program

While this could have been a subset of blogging, I put it on its own.  It was a miserable failure for me.  I didn't make one affiliate sale despite a handful of positive book reviews. If you do like this site and want to support it, you can always use my link to get started on an Amazon shopping trip.

Past Web Sites

I started my first website in high school.  I will admit, it was a professional wrestling fan site.  I just deleted it from Yahoo! GeoCities a few months ago actually.  While a webmaster about ten years ago, I signed up for Yahoo's pay per click advertising.  I made about $5 from that one.

Selling Rap CDs

I am a professional Jewish rapper.  I don't mention that much on this site.  Maybe if I did, I would sell more CDs.  I have sold enough HWChet albums to pay for the costs, but those were all sold in person.  I have never made an online sale, but I do have PayPal on the site if you are interested.  A CD is just $5 plus shipping.

Paid Surveys

I used to try to fill out a lot of surveys online at Survey Savvy.  Over several years and many, many rejections from the screening process, I have earned about $60 on Survey Savvy.  If you are interested in signing up, please do so through my referral link.  Or, contact me for a referral e-mail.  I have referred two friends who have also been paid out for their surveys.

Here are some other good options for paid survey sites: i-Say, Springboard America, and Opinion Outpost.

Honorable Mention – Swag Bucks

I have earned enough from Swagbucks to buy a season of one of my favorite shows on DVD for free.  Swagbucks is a hybrid Google search engine that rewards you in Swagbucks for searching.  For doing nothing more than I normally would, I have earned seven $5 gift cards for Amazon.com.  There are thousands of prizes.  You can also cash your bucks in for cash through PayPal.  If you want to take advantage of this one, sign up through my link to give matching Swagbucks for your first 1000 bucks earned from search.  I have had a friend sign up and she was thrilled with the site too.

Honorable Mentions – Free Stuff

I have earned lots of free stuff from e-Rewards.  To join the site, you need a referral from one of the sponsoring companies.  I got my invite through the Priority Club rewards program (Holiday Inn), though I have seen friends join up through the book store Borders as well.  You can cash out for miles, hotel reward points, free magazines, and gift cards.

Ideas – Freelancing and eBook

In the future, I am planning to do a little online freelancing.  I plan to do a combination of finance and writing projects.  Sites like Elance show opportunity.  I have also completed an eBook and I am in the final stages of editing and production.  Expect to see it on the site in the near future.

How I Make Money Online: Successes and Failures (Part 1)

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Like many of you, I have tried my best at finding opportunities to make money online.  I have tried a handful of methods.  Some have worked out really well.  Some have not quite paid off.  I hope to continue to expand my online income streams, so please give your best ideas in the comments below.  The list is roughly in order from best to worst, but I did not use a scientific method to pick the order.

eHow Writer's Compensation Program

eHow has been my biggest paying online money maker since I joined at the end of 2007.  Over the roughly two years I have been a member, I have earned well over $1,000.  Not a living by any means, but not too shabby either.  After being accepted for the program, I wrote a total of about 35 articles over my two years.  The best thing about eHow is that you make residual earnings on your articles.  I make about $30 a month these days for not doing anything.  For some reason, the earnings have fallen over time.  You can see my articles under my user page: Eric1985 at eHow.

Demand Studios

Demand Studios is a subsidiary of Demand Media.  Demand Media is the owner of eHow, so this overlaps a little bit.  At Demand Studios, I am paid a fixed rate (I only take $15) or a residual for writing articles for eHow or a list of other affiliated sites.  Something nice about Demand Studios, which requires a professional application, resume, and writing samples, is that the work is always there.  I could potentially earn a full time income from the site if I put in the time.  If has been my best success lately.

Blogging

Blogging is not something I do for big profits by any means, but it does produce a small income stream.  I have made the $100 AdSense cutoff one time before, but it takes a long time to earn anything there.  I have also earned income from sponsored posts and direct advertising sales.  However, hosting and domain registration across my several domains makes blogging just a bit more than a wash.  The hourly rate is dismal.  I do it because I enjoy doing it.  If you want to “pay me” for what I do here, the best way today is to sign up for one of my affiliate sites.  I only choose affiliates that I really use in real life.  You can sign up for Lending Club right now to get started.

Like this article? Check out part 2!