It’s been a little over three months since I started tracking my alternative income. Last month, I had noted that I went backward a small bit as my blogging income can be volatile. This month, I’ve seen the reverse, a big jump forward. The $71.49 that I earned is enough to pay for my cable television, Internet access, heat, and electricity – and still get a McDonald’s double cheeseburger.
The biggest contributor is Google actually giving Lazy Man and Money a publically viewable PageRank. It’s not really important to understand the details of what that is, other than it means Google has vetted me which is huge in the eyes of potential advertisers. I also had a fair amount of Prosper loans finally get approved while adding more new ones. The result you see is a combination of these two factors.
I’m particularly happy with these results considering that I made a $4000 deposit for my 2006 Roth IRA. I’m not putting every egg in this alternative income basket.
| Date | Alternative Income | Necessary Expenses | To Go |
| 2/1/2006 | $71.49 | $1,689.00 | $1,617.51 |
| 1/2/2006 | $50.00 | $1,689.00 | $1,639.00 |
| 12/3/2006 | $51.00 | $1,689.00 | $1,638.00 |
| 11/20/2006 | $33.00 | $1,689.00 | $1,656.00 |
| 10/31/2006 | $26.00 | $1,689.00 | $1,663.00 |
| 10/15/2006 | $17.00 | $1,699.00 | $1,682.00 |
Congrats on the PageRank and the income.
You need to let me know how you only pay so little for Internet and Cable. Mine is around $96 a month. And how do you pay so little for electricity and gas, do you light and heat your house with candles and own wind-up electronics?
Martin that’s a good question and I need to document that better. I’m engaged to be married later this year, but live with my fiancée now. We split the bills, so these are just my side of the expenses. My goal here is to eventually get to a point where I can replace my income.
Getting my cell phone down to what it is required a bit luck. Sprint wronged me (admitting it) and their retention department has more than made up for it by giving me significant discounts.
As for heating, we moved from Boston (cold, cold, cold) to San Mateo county in California. We found that for most of the year we don’t need heat. The forecast says it’s going to be mid-60’s this weekend.
Rub it in. I am in Indiana, and it is snowing right now.
I think I am going to call the cable company and tell them I want to switch to Satellite and see if they want to give me a discount to stay on. I will also call Verizon (wireless) and see if they can give me a better deal since I am seeing a lot of better deals out there from other mobile companies. Even if I save 10% on my cable, that would be over $100 a year.
Martin, Go fill up your gas tank for $2.00 a gallon and let me know how it feels. I’m paying around 2.65 out here. There are pluses and minuses with everything.
You want to speak to “retention” with your cell phone provider. They have all the power. If you are out of contract you’ll likely get some good deals. I think it’s a little unethical to do unless you’ve been truly wronged or can find a better deal elsewhere, but to each their own.
One last thing: Go Bears! :-).
Hey Lazy Man –
Is there a link or something that you could provide that could estimate what one’s Google PageRank is likely to translate into, in terms of potential revenue stream? I have searched (what I consider to be thoroughly) and cannot find the information. I don’t think that I am asking for anything too proprietary (I am not looking to emulate you – or anyone else, for that matter), but would like to see how to translate Google PageRank into real $$??
Do you every break down your alternative income? I would love to see it broken into broad categories like Prosper, PPC Ads on Blog, other Ads on Blog, etc…
Travelin’ Man: I’m not sure that PageRank translates into real money specifically, but probably gives you a range. If you fully monetize a PageRank 2 website of highly profitable content you might make $150 a month. On average I’d say it’s probably closer to $25 while some people make nothing. If you have PageRank 8, you could probably easily manage $1000 a month and probably a lot more. So there’s a correlation, but it’s inexact due to the huge number of factors that play into monetization.
Kevin: No, I don’t break it out, purposely. The advertisers often have disclosure rules and things like that. I don’t want to discourage any future advertisers.
Congratulations on reaching $70 a month – keep at it and you will find it will start to snowball. The main thing in this game is perseverance. I’m also trying to make a living out of the web and I was close to giving up last September when after 6 months of hard effort I took home that month a grand total of… $8. But I’ve found my groove now and took home close to $500 in January. Stick at it – and best of luck!
Wow. You are really growing your advertising income. I have to commend you that your blog has a lot of ads, but still looks “nice.” I like the color scheme, etc, and do not mind your ads. Not that I will be looking or clicking b/c I hate them, but you do a good job at making money and keeping your blog nice looking—there are definitely atrocities out there.
Just ran into this post, hadn’t read it before – interesting to look back into the past! Wonder how you’re doing now for the side blog income, how much it has improved and what the curve looked like for you? I’ve made it to this mark already, the one you mention in the article, but am wondering how long it’s going to take to jump to the next level, so to speak.