The Difference That $8 A Day Makes
My goal with the whole HowToEarnHQ.com project is to show people
how to make a few extra hundred dollars per month. I’m not promising
people that they’ll make ten bazillion dollars in 30 days with no
work – it doesn’t work like that.
Since I don’t charge anything for access to the job lists, work
tips, etc., I often get asked why I do it. One is to share what I
know, since so many other sites that claim to do this type of thing
either suck or charge too much money. I love teaching, I love
writing, and I love helping other people, so I get to do all that.
Of course, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t make any money from doing
this. You know all those Google ads you see on the site? Well, I
make a tiny, tiny amount of money (we’re talking nickels and dimes,
literally) anytime somebody clicks on one of those ads.
Big deal, right? Well, actually, yes, because it adds up! Those
nickels and dimes add up to about $8 per day, on average. That’s not
steady, sometimes it’s double that, sometimes I go days without
anything at all, period. But, it averages out to $8 a day. That
all comes from the folks, just like yourself, that read these emails
and go check the job board for updates, read the blog, etc.
OK, so 8 bucks a day. No biggie. Nothing special. Right??? WRONG!
Think about it. Eight measly dollars a day equals $240 a month.
That’s over $2,800 a year!
So, what does $8 a day REALLY get you? Well, let’s think about some examples. For some of you, $240 a month might make the difference between paying your rent and having to live in your car. For some people, $240 means the difference affording their life-saving prescription medications or not. Now for other people, $8 a day pays for the latte and bagel that they just don’t want to give up every morning. $240 a month is a fairly decent car payment. $2,800 a year can buy a vacation just about anywhere in North America for a small family.
So why am I telling you all this? I promise that it’s not to brag or anything like that. It’s simply to illustrate how you can take something you like to do, and do it, but also monetize it by contributing something to the world. Seriously, this web site started as a hobby, and it’s a decent percentage of my monthly income.
Action Plan
Here’s what I want you to do:
1. Make a list of your favorite hobbies, interests, etc. Your list can include ANYTHING.
For example, here’s my honest to goodness interest list from my Facebook profile:
Humans, extraterrestrials, areology (planetary geology of Mars), geocaching, Australia, Israel, wonderment, real estate, change, hiking, driving, alternate realities.
2. Take your list and start thinking about which of those things you would most enjoy writing about.
For the sake of this example, I’m going to pick Australia, since I’ve recently become fascinated with everything to do with the country, since I’m planning on visiting there this summer.
3. Go set yourself up, either on your own web site with your own domain name, or visit Blogger.com (a free Google blogging service) and create a blog for yourself to write in.
Following my example, check out http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com for a GREAT example of somebody that took there passion and created a great web site about the Australian outback. This is NOT my site, but read through it and notice what they did – it’s a good ol’ travel site, but with Google Adsense ads!
4. Create a Google Adsense account, and then just start writing! The great thing about doing this on a Blogger.com blog is that your entries automatically get indexed by Google.
5. Learn how to do other things to intentionally drive traffic to your web site, and start gathering in those clicks and get paid YOUR nickels and dimes!
Now, this is by no means meant to be a comprehensive guide to creating what is often called an “Adsense site.” This is just a basic example of how to turn an interest or a hobby into a small side income.
Take care!
-_