March 2nd 2009

Hello, I am back online and feeling better, sorry about my last post. I did think about deleting it, but I don't think it would be honest of me.

In the last 2 weeks I have been in Glasgow, Barcelona and am now in London. A tale of three cities! I could not find work in Glasgow and was also turned down for Jobseekers Allowance. A company then got in touch and flew me to Barcelona to meet a client with the intention that, if all went well I would start work the following Monday (23rd Feb). This sounded really great because then we could all stay in Spain as intended. All went well but there is still some paperwork to sort out, which could take days, weeks or months, so I was left high and dry with not a penny in the bank, the only option available was to get the whole family back to the UK and start again.

At the eleventh hour I was offered a freelance contract in London, which starts tomorrow, the company flew me here yesterday and I am looking forward to starting work again.

Anyone who has read this blog from the beginning will know that I am a month behind schedule in earning money, but thanks to the kindness and support of family and friends we have just about made it. We just need to hold the bank off for another month and we will be there.

Ok now for plan B. Again, anyone who has read this blog from the start will know that I also want to generate some kind of income online, try and create several revenue streams as it were. The point being that if I find myself out of work again then I will have built up some means of earning independently.

The first thing I done was create this blog which is free and easy to do. The next thing was to see if I could generate money from this blog.
I added 'Google AdSense' which generated $8 in the first month, which you get by people clicking on the google links. I have now added an 'Amazon' link which can also generate some money, and have also looked at 'WidgetBuck' which is could also generate cash.

In order to make money this way you need visitors to your blog/site and those visitors must click on the Google/Amazon/WidgetBucks links. In the case of Amazon I believe they need to buy something via the link on your blog/site.

How do you get visitors?
I let everyone I know about this blog through social networking. Facebook/MySpace/Bebo etc..

I also looked at some 'Surf Exchange', these are sites where you surf other sites within the community and they surf yours. I got more visitors, but no clicks on the links. I have also been advised that 'Google AdSense' doesn't approve of these, so I have stopped.

I also linked to an ezine called 'Zimbio' which generated visitors. I also received some good advice from Jay who read my blog on Zimbio and who's website http://www.livewyre.net/ also offers useful advice. So I am looking to see if there are other ezines I can link to.

I have also created some lenses on 'Squidoo' which can also generate money, you can also donate any earning to charity.

My next step is to build a website, I have already bought a Domain name from 'GoDaddy' with the money I raised here.

If I sound a complete novice, its because I am. If I have learned anything so far it is, take your time, look around, join forums, don't part with cash until you are really confident, read up on what you can about making money online and choose your strategy.

If you want to try this, just google 'Create a Blog', 'Google Adsense', 'Amazon Associates', 'Widgetbucks', 'Zimbio', 'Squidoo', 'GoDaddy', and anything else you think of, all the info is out there.

Anyway, gotta go now. I will try and update this more regular now and concentrate more on making money online.

If you are looking for work, dont give up and good luck.
John