Medium articles and getting on with life

 

Life is often easier in theory.

There were grand plans to write regularly in this blog. I was going to muse about life. Insights were going to overflow.

And then life happened. Nothing messy, per se. Just your standard day-in, week-out grind of life.

So things haven't quite gone to plan over the last six months.

But I'm back. At least for now.

One thing I have been doing is developing my writing on Medium. It's not exploding. But it is gradually gaining traction.

So I'll share some of my most recent pieces that can hopefully help you in your life, career and personal finances. 

And stay tuned for the launch of my newsletter. If life doesn't get too in the way...

In the meantime:

Job Hunting? Let ChatGPT and AI Give You a Hand 

Get Real About Your Employer. If You Want Loyalty, Get a Dog

A New Phrase That Showed How Detached I've Become

And an important one in this challenging economic environment:

Why You Must Spend Your Vouchers and Giftcards - Now

Enjoy!

Quality Writing on Medium: Devouring the Brilliance of Others

Greetings!

I thought this time around I'd share a few articles from Medium that I found inspirational for different reasons.

One came from a woman that hadn't been on the platform that long but was clearly doing something right:

Celebrating One Year and $16,000 on Medium: How I Did It, What I Learned, and What’s Next

One came from a runner that puts the Boston Marathon into perspective:

I Won the 1968 Boston Marathon. And Ran Many More. After the Bombs, Everything Changed

And one was about life in general:

How to Stop Giving a Fuck

There's a ton of great stuff on Medium, and it's always worth investing time in reading about others' experiences and their insights. 

If you'd like to write on Medium, one of the best ways to build a following is to become a member. This gives you unlimited access to high-quality writers and tips on how to monetize. 

 You can join through this membership link: 

• Medium Membership

The same link also lets you unlock thousands of excellent articles. Click here for more details.

Also, take a look at this Etsy shop for career/ money/personal development inspiration:

https://www.etsy.com/hk-en/shop/Work4Cash

Income Report: April

It's been another crazy month with all things coronavirus. I've been thinking long and hard about what this will all mean in 6, 12, 24, etc months from now. Things will most certainly change. And I know that I still haven't stepped up to the plate to make sure I will adapt to it properly. This isn't just about me, it's about my family.

So I've taken a bit of time to rethink my goals and approach (again). The more I talk about this, the more I know how pressing it is.

I can look back on these income reports and see similar patterns. Similar excuses. By next month's report, I intend to have in place better systems, accountability, defined goals, energy and so on.

I just know that what's gone before won't work in the future. And I'm kind of scared that I'm sleepwalking right into it - only with my eyes open. And that includes stepping up more for my day job, not just my hustles.

I've run out of excuses. Things need to change.

Anyway, this has been my month.

Resume Writing: $0. I actually have a new client here but I'm not going to book it here until I get confirmation on it and get paid. That will come to about $192.

Additional Writing: $230.  I have my regular writing gig which is ticking over well right now.

Stock Dividends: $176. No passive income approach is foolproof. And thanks to the coronavirus and the fact that some companies have been forced to suspend dividend payments, I've taken a bit of a hit with some payments that would have been due to me in April. Still, I will continue to apply this approach for the long term.

Interest: $15. Lower interest rates have hurt anyone relying on leaving money in the bank. I've taken a bit of a hit here but it's not where my focus is going to be. Still, I can't ignore it as an income element.

Ebooks: $2. Quiet. Amazon isn't working much for me. But I know that going into more trying times these books will help people (Beginner's Guide to Online Side Hustles, Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies, The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile, and Craft a Winning Resume).

Coaching: $0. No sessions.

Other: $75. I redeemed points from a couple of credit cards this month in the form of cashback and a supermarket voucher. Cash is cash. It all counts.

Total: $498. Not bad. I can certainly push on from here. That's my focus going forward. 

Income Report: July

Ok, so it's been a month of reconfiguring things and pushing on. I've given myself a 60-day challenge to try to make $50 from scratch on my revised website. It doesn't sound a lot but it's a lot more than any site I've had.

The blog I had set up on Godaddy wasn't working for me so I've made the jump to WordPress. It's a bit of hassle restarting it but it's a far better platform for me. It's also far better for monetizing.

So now I'm going to build as much momentum as possible on the new blog: Finance Jobs Hunt. I ended up getting a new domain name and changed the hosting platform. We'll see whether this has an impact.

At the end of the day, I need to keep working on different passive income streams to drive my futureproofing strategy.

So, how was the month?

Resume Writing: $229. I did a little bit this month but the next few months will see this go to close to zero. Too many things going on to commit too much time to this. Too much "trading time for money" to commit to at the moment.  

Additional Writing: $0.  Later this year I'll look for a few more gigs here, but it's not something to focus on just now.

Dividends: $83. Still ticking away. As per normal, I've bought some more stocks during the month that should throw off more in the way of dividends over coming years. I recommend The Snowball Effect: Using Dividends; Interest Reinvestment To Help You Retire On Time. It's one of the lower risk ways in which to build passive income.

eBooks: $4.  A quiet month for my books. But it's passive income, so can't complain (Beginner's Guide to Online Side Hustles, Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies, The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume).

Interest: $17.  

Vouchers: $0.  Didn't go hunting for cash this month

Other: $4. It's hardly going to change the trajectory of my finances, but I've signed up for doing surveys on UserCrowd. The company occasionally sends invites to my email inbox while I'm watching a bit of mindless TV. They only take a minute and are about $0.20 a time (so far), so it's no big deal either way.

Total: $337. Pretty low by my standards. That's mainly because I'm investing in passive income streams at the expense of active income areas. This is going to be a long, drawn-out turnaround. But I must stay on this passive income, non-work path. Our lives depend on it!

Income Report: May

The long walk to FIRE continues...

Actually, I was into the idea of multiple streams of income a long time before FIRE became a more mainstream concept.

And as my blog comments have indicated over the last few years, it's a slow and steady process. That's code for: "it's tough".

Tough to execute, tough to stay motivated when you're in a full-time job that easily pays the bill. But I'm convinced that I need to remain on this course. We have no control over the bigger picture world of trade wars, recessions, The Man and job cuts. That's why I need to keep pushing. Control the controllable.

But I won't deny it's tough. When you see these guys online sipping pina coladas and hanging out on private yachts, ignore them. There's so much nonsense online. Liars, jokers and scam artists. And the select few that are making it big but distorting it for the rest of us.

Still, it's worth the effort. We should all be working towards some version of the above. That's my view.

I'm encouraged by the fact my site Finance Job Hunter is getting traction. It needs a bit of a tweak on design. I also need to get into the rhythm of writing blog posts. But I see loads of potential out there.

I'm continuing to work on myself and I know I'm getting into a better place mentally.

So how was last month?

Resume Writing: $145. I did a bit of work there. I don't want to be trading too much time for money here but it's good to have the cash.

Additional Writing: $0.  Nah, I haven't looked into anything here. If I do end up writing, it's got to be financially worth it.

Stock Dividends: $1,000.  This is a strategy that continues to work. With the cash from work and from my side hustles, I've continued to buy dividend stocks. There's never a consistent monthly figure. And I'm probably not doing it as effectively as possible. But this is a long-term approach that I like. This is a time-honored investment strategy that works.

Interest: $17. It ticks along but is never going to move the dial.

Ebooks: $2. Quite quiet at the moment, though I did make a sale on Kobo. Amazon isn't working right now so time to try some other platforms for my portfolio (Beginner's Guide to Online Side Hustles, Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies, The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume).

Coaching: $0. No sessions over the month. However, two people reached out to me on the coaching platform Noomii to find out about my services. I have a profile there but in order for me to connect with potential clients, it'll cost me $397. I'm not sure whether I can justify it just yet, given that I'm not in a position to work on too many clients. I'll have to have a think about how I want to take this forward.

Other: $0. Nothing doing here.

Total: $1164. It was all about the dividends really. It won't be like that every month but it's great to know that passive income is the main driver. Now time to take everything to the next level... 

Income Report: July

July didn't happen. At least not from my business building / financial freedom perspective. Starting a new job has certainly drained a bit of the time / money / energy that I always thought I had in spades. But that's not to say I can't get back on track.

It's all about discipline. It's the kind of thing I've talked about in the past but now it's more important than ever. Focus, application, discipline. 

To be fair, I did take a one week break. Returning to my home city to catch up with friends, family and old work colleagues meant that the push for financial freedom was the last thing on my mind.

Well, that's actually not true. A few short chats with my disgruntled, frustrated and tired crowd simply reinforced the need to take control. To create a life that works for me and my family.

I've thought a lot about "purpose". It's that fuzzy, catchall term that gurus tell us that everyone is meant to have to lead a meaningful and fulfilling life. I thought mine was going to be based purely on financial freedom. That's what this is all about, after all. Isn't it?

As it turns out, I'm finding that for me it's about a broader sense of freedom. Free to make mistakes, free to be happy, free to be sad, free to live a life that works for me at any one time. It's about being comfortable with whatever life throws at me. I've been reading up on spirituality as much as I have on business and finance. So for me, it's about getting more connected with myself. Anyway, I digress.

This financial freedom game is not going to be easy. Hell, I've been playing at this for a few years and am only now finding a bit of direction. But if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

So what did I learn this month? One thing is that we can't do it all by ourselves. I've been a long-term follower of the Side Hustle Nation podcast hosted by Nick Loper and have got plenty of value in his recent book Buy Buttons. Definitely, worth checking out if you're new to this game.

I've also recently discovered the FIRE (Financial Independence / Retire Early) movement. Ironically, I was already in that space I guess, ever since buying into the Robert Kiyosaki world of Rich Dad, Poor Dad many years ago. Anyway, having joined the "Choose FI" Facebook group I realise there are thousands of like-minded people out there. Joining the group has definitely given me a new spring in my step. I wish I'd been engaged with them earlier.

Not that I actually achieved much financially this month but I still have to note down the situation for consistency:

Resume Writing: $0. I've taken a bit of a break from this but will be kick-starting this later in August. I've already got three jobs lined up. I did pitch for a one-off contract with a university that would have been worth a few thousand dollars but I think I priced myself out - I worked for them last year and they clearly found a cheaper alternative.

Additional Writing: $287. My regular blog writing about careers continues. I've also got three articles lined up for this month.

Stock Dividends: $260. My dividend yield strategy is still working out well. I just need to keep on reinvesting my earnings into investments, preferably high dividend yield stocks to benefit from the cash flow. Because of my background in finance I was always going to play this as a key approach, using scrip dividends and compounding to build income slowly but surely. If you're not familiar with the approach, Amazon is stocked up on decent books that can explain the approach, such as Dividends Still Don't Lie.

Ebooks: $2. So my three books (Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies, The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume) aren't jumping off the shelves. But I was reminded of the power of social media by a 16-year old on the plane last week. Let's see where I can go with this.

Coaching: $0. No coaching during the month. However, an old client wants to do a session soon so that should make me a few dollars in August.

Amazon Merch: $0. No, this is a slow one...

Amazon Affiliate Income: $0. No, this is a slow one as well...

Total: $547. I'm happy enough with that. I now have a full-time job to navigate so I was never going to get the big numbers.

I have a bit of a pipeline and things are looking ok. August's numbers will be better. My near-term goal is to cover my basic living expenses excluding my rent. I think I should be on course for that.

Income Report: June

So, I'm properly back in the groove of the daily grind of the corporate world.

Re-establishing a form of daily discipline that's relevant to this world has been tough. I've been so used to working when I want, waking when I want. So going back into a full-time role has reflected trade-offs we all make in life.

My work plus commute hours are reasonably long (well, a lot longer than when I was working for myself...). There's also less flexibility for me to do my own stuff while at work.

But it's all about the bigger picture. I can't be distracted from my long-term goal: financial freedom based on multiple streams of income.

Because of my new-found distractions, I've got to be sensible with how I  manage my side hustles. I've had to get approval from the compliance department in my company in order to continue with them so I have to make sure I don't raise any red flags.

The truth is, the hoops I've had to jump through and the layers of bureaucracy I've cut through has taught me a lot. Simply put, it has shown me that the corporate world isn't for me long term anymore and that I really have to work harder on my online efforts!

It's not about earning money, per se. It's about building a business with structures and processes that allow me to step away from the daily grind. It's about building a lifestyle for myself and my family that allows us to live a life that gives us options. Because that's all this is about. Options

It's a dream. It may not happen in the manner I intend. It's something to shoot for.

In terms of June's income:

Resume Writing: $139. This was a big income element for me. But for now at least it's going to have to slip into the background. My world has changed and I can't commit as much time. I have told the company that I did a lot of work for that I would still do the occasional bit of work but at the moment I'm not quite ready for it.

Article Writing: $42. I only wrote one article during the month. Admittedly, this was a very short piece so it was never going to be paying very well. But there's more to come on this front...

Dividend: $170. It's going to be tough to build my dividend income at the moment because I'm limited by what I can buy in terms of shares. Working for a bank can be awkward like that. Regulations and all that. Still, dividend income remains a key part of my strategy so I'm still going to pursue this route.

Coaching: $0. This is the new addition to my monthly breakdowns. I never used to record them here. But given as this now counts as one of my many side hustles, it's time to start monitoring and measuring. That said, I didn't actually do any coaching over the month. I have one long-term client that still wants to meet and one guy that has gone quiet. That's the crux of my coaching practice at the moment and I'm not planning on expanding much beyond three or four clients at any one time.

eBooks: $2. Another quiet month. I keep saying that I'll do some marketing. When I have time, I'll be pushing harder with my three books (Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies) to add to (The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume).

Amazon Merch: $0. The dream of being able to retire on passive income from selling t-shirts hasn't quite happened as yet...I haven't invested that much time in it all to be fair. But I know if I do commit to the venture, there's money to be made. It's about making the time.

Total: $353

All in all, it wasn't so bad all things considered. This is me starting from scratch again so it could take time. But if I can make over $500/month consistently by early next year (or even closer to $1,000 if it's possible) I know I'll be on a good path.  There are a few decent income opportunities for me in coming weeks:

• Resume writing project for a university. I did work for a local university about a year ago, writing resume profiles for MBA students. They asked me to put in a proposal for this year's cohort. In hindsight, I think I might have priced myself out. That's ok if that is the case. Last time it took many more hours than I thought it would and my time is more precious now than it was a year ago. 
• Career site writing. I've been asked whether I can up my writing quota from the occasional one or two a month to two or three a week for the next fortnight. It's pretty easy writing this stuff so I'm taking on the task.
• Coaching client. I met a prospect a couple of days ago. I sent him a proposal and I'll just have to see whether he wants to follow through. 
• Websites. It's way too early to say this is a decent income opportunity but I'm finally going to try to monetize a couple of domain names that I bought a while back. This will be a slow burner but it's all part of the process.

I have no idea how this journey is going to play out. I may love work so much that I simply decide to give up on all these hustles...Nah, that's never going to happen. One read of Nick Loper's Buy Buttons book has shown me that. 

It may not be as spectacular a journey as some blogs you find online, with spectacular numbers and fantastic opportunities in surrounding passive income and financial independence. No, mine's different. 

It's sometimes slow. It's sometimes boring. It's sometimes unfocused. That's fine. Most importantly, it's real. Watch this space.

Income Report: May

This is the last month for this income report in its current format. The reason? I've got myself a job. Back to the grindstone and all that.

But it's not the end of my money making ideals. Now my goal is to work towards replacing my full-time income. Or at least create income streams that allow me to have a sustainable portfolio career that gives me choices. Because that's what my version of financial freedom is about. Choices.

So there will be some changes to how my income streams look. Some elements may fall by the wayside to some extent, including my resume writing. Others, such as my coaching work, will from next month get added. I had originally framed this income report exercise as being about online income, which is why the coaching wasn't really mentioned. But now it's really about me growing my portfolio of hustles in general.

I still see plenty of value in this exercise - possibly even more than before. It's all about being able to make money without having to rely on a boss, company, government, etc. So if I ever get the "Thank you for all your efforts, but..." conversation, I'll be suitably in control of my future.

And that's the irony of getting back onto the hamster wheel of work. I'm more focused on using my free time wisely and know it's time to revisit the ton of income-generating resources I have collected.

As I've mentioned before I'm a massive fan of the Side Hustle Nation podcast hosted by Nick Loper and found great value in his recent book Buy Buttons. Definitely, worth checking out if you're new to this game - or even if you're not new but have got a little stale (like me). Going forward, I'm certainly going to be anchoring some of my approach to ideas from here.

Anyway, how have things stacked up?

Resume Writing: $2,346. This has been my best month income-wise for resume writing, which is ironic given that I'm going to have to drop a lot of it. This has been a major income provider for me in recent years, both in terms of directly consulting for one specific firm but also the spin-off work that I've benefited from (see below). It has served me well and I'm keen to keep this as part of my income arsenal.

Conference Project: $3,500. I mentioned before that one-off projects count if they are related to my online businesses. Well, this one related to my resume writing again. It involved working for three-and-a-half days at a finance industry conference and paid pretty well. Actually, very well as far as I'm concerned. Unless it takes place on a weekend, this type of gig will disappear now that I'm going full time. But at least I know my capabilities and can use it in the future.

Additional Writing: $130. My regular blog writing about careers continues. It doesn't especially pay that well ($0.07/word - and I miscalculated on my invoice so undercharged) but it's great branding for me and my career-related services.

Stock Dividends: $108. One strategy I will continue to build upon is my dividend yield strategy. This is about buying high dividend yield stocks to benefit from the cash flow. I'm not being as diligent as I should be. That is, I could be screening the stocks far better than I am. But so far it's worked out fine and I keep reinvesting the cash so as to buy more stocks.

Ebooks: $6. I started the month pretty strongly in that I sold three books in the first week ("pretty strongly" in my world anyway...). It was only the first proper month of my third book (Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies) to add to (The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume). I know that I need to market them but I simply haven't made the time. My hope is that seasonally the summer months are a good time for job hunting books, with all those graduates looking for roles all at the same time.

Amazon Merch: $0. It's not really happening at the moment. I'll still keep plugging away.

Amazon Affiliate Income: $0.04. I've finally made some affiliate income! I know this is an area I must build upon. This is the classic passive income stream. It's not really anything to write home about but I've brought some pennies in. If I can do that then I'm pretty sure I can do a lot more.

Total: $6,090. (my best month and well ahead of my $2,000 monthly target. Even if I stripped out my one-off gig, it still came to $2,590 so I'm happy).

Looking ahead

Before I look ahead, I think I should at least celebrate how far I've come to achieve my best income month. A lot of my efforts came out of necessity as I tried to find my footing "between jobs". But I've always put it in the bigger picture context of financial freedom.

My very first income report was for May 2016. So I've had two years to look at my progress.

I achieved the princely sum of $974.50 that month, of which $800 was resume-related. In May 2017, I made $1,489, with $1,353 from resumes. Yet my resume income alone for May 2018 almost matched my entire income for May 2016 and May 2017 combined.

The bottom line is, I've tried to consistently work towards building income streams. It hasn't been easy or straightforward. But I've seen some progress. And if I can do it, anyway can do it.

And so to now. It may take a week a two to sort out the new rhythm of work, but I'm going to push ahead with my portfolio career efforts.

One of my first tasks is to do a proper inventory of all my hustle interests to see whether they are worth the effort. I need to look at my ROE (return on energy, in this case) and make some hard choices. It also means putting in more efficient processes.

The goal is to still build passive income streams. They tend to require more effort and/or money upfront than the traditional "selling your time for money" approach, with the expectation that they'll pay in the long run and you'll be sipping pina coladas on a beach before you know it...The good thing about having the job in the background is that it gives me the money buffer to help with this, even if it takes away the time.

So I think I'll take a piecemeal approach this month and target a couple of websites I own to see whether I can properly monetize through Google Adsense.  That will probably require some blogging and such. I may also market the ebooks - but I've got to work out whether the effort is worth the return.

Regardless, I'm certainly going to see what I can get out of Buy Buttons - so much to learn from this book.

It's all change but fundamentally it will all stay the same...a portfolio career.

Income Report: March

One of the positives of working for yourself is that you don't have someone standing over you hurrying you along.

But one of the negatives of working for yourself is that you don't have someone standing over you hurrying you along...

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day. I realized he didn't actually appreciate the ins and outs of my portfolio career approach to life, aside from the observation, "you must have a lot of time on your hands". The fact that I work every day in one shape or form is almost irrelevant. My world isn't as easily translatable to his corporate world.

That said, he did say something that really struck me. "If you had done ABC (fill in with whatever action) during all that time you've been away from your corporate role, you could have been XYZ (fill in with whatever blue sky result)."

Obviously, the world doesn't operate in such linear terms and 20/20 hindsight is beautiful. But I must admit he did have a point. Because I was operating in my easy-going, "let's see what happens world", I haven't actually pushed on where obstacles and pain were there in front of me. It's very easy to hide when you're working for yourself. In other words, the lack of accountability has hurt.

My goal for this next quarter is to really smack a few things into place. I'm a massive fan of the Side Hustle Nation podcast hosted by Nick Loper and I bought his recent book Buy Buttons. It was a revelation! I've been dipping my toe into side hustles and the gig economy for some time but I honestly had no clue about how many ways you could make money. It's inspired me to have a look at what else I can build. I'd recommend having a read of his book if you're looking at developing side income streams.

One thing that most definitely will define my world in the near term is the possibility of a corporate role. Just because I have this portfolio career approach, it doesn't mean I won't dip in and out of the corporate world. If I get the role, things will have to change. If I don't get the role, I'll push on with several initiatives I've been holding back on and things will have to change...

Resume Writing: $1,318. Steady as she goes. But my goal is to become far less reliant on contracting via one firm so I'm not too disappointed as this figure starts to dip.

Additional Writing: $468: Not bad. I managed to do follow-up work for two recent gigs, plus I've also done some resume work separate to the contracted work I do. The reason I group it here is because it's from a separate source and the overall goal is to diversify my sources of income.

Amazon Merch: $0.09. Yes, I'm off the mark! Ok, I only sold one but it's a start. I've got some pretty cool, professionally designed T-shirts ready for purchase (Dog T-Shirt; Cool Dog; Pitbull). Time to push on more.

eBook: $6.50. This is still ticking over and I made a similar amount to last month, split between a sale on Kobo and the rest on Amazon. I don't really do any marketing but it's good that it's still working (The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume). I've also now signed up to E-Junkie as well. My next book will launch in April (I had hoped for March but life happened and that has changed) and I have high hopes that it is a topical angle on the job-hunting space.

Total: $1,792.59

This is ok, and it's not my only income stream thankfully, but it's a bit below what I now want to be the minimum here ($1,800 - $2,000) and below three of the last four months.

Looking ahead

The corporate job dynamic has been hanging around for a long time and it should be resolved within weeks. That will shape my next moves.

In the meantime, I've got to get my book out, start writing my course and see what I can get out of Buy Buttons. There are so many ways to make money out there.

Income Report: October

You can only fool yourself so much.

Over the last month or so I've been detoxing. It's an exercise I started about 10 years ago - twice a year, three to four weeks at a time. Initially, it was all about the food, the drink, the cigarettes, the really not very lifestyle I was living. It was about cutting out dairy, meat, alcohol, certain sugars and so on. It was about getting in tune with fruit and veg. Every time I've done it, my body has felt better for it.

In more recent years, I've expanded my interpretation of detox to include cutting back on Facebook, doing more meditation and focusing on my mental/emotional/spiritual health. It's never meant to be perfect or about living a life as a monk. I probably could have done a bit more exercise this time as well. But one thing's certain, it sure as hell gave me a bit more clarity this time around.

You see, I'm very good at "playing" at stuff. It's all about tinkering at the edges rather than getting stuck in. The trouble with that is, I've kind of been fooling myself. I haven't pushed on with much of what I've talked about in previous blog posts and have kept on spinning the plates, hoping that some great masterplan would fall into place.

Well, this month has given me more headspace to observe what I've been doing. And some of it needs to change - and some of it has already started to change.

Firstly, I've been talking about finishing an ebook since August. Well, not only did I finish it, I got it edited, formatted and got myself a brand spanking cover (check out my ebook on how to write a LinkedIn profile). I realised that I've talked about passive income for a long time and yet I haven't committed time to building the assets. My goal is to make sure that changes. 

For one thing, I am now juggling the creation of two more ebooks, one of which I want to convert into an Udemy course by the beginning of next year.  I also noticed that my Zazzle account hasn't brought me any joy but I'm going to promote my wares in the run up to Christmas, simply using designs that I didn't market last year. 

I also thought it was time to have a look at my Google Adsense account. I've got a few websites but I never found the time or energy to see whether I could make any money out of them. I finally sorted out linking an account this week and earned a grand total of about $0.15 in a week. That may not sound like much but given that the account had been close to dormant for a couple of years, that's progress!

And I've also pitched for two writing gigs - one would be great for branding, the other pretty good on the cash flow front. We'll see what happens but it's time to focus (again) on diversifying my writing income.

On a separate tact, I also accepted an offer for at least one speaking engagement, maybe two. It's unpaid but it will get me great exposure. I keep telling myself how much I hate public speaking (though probably don't) but it's exactly the thing I need to do to get me out of my inertia and stupor.

Completely detached from this, but still in the passive income space, is something that has been lingering for a while - "scrip dividends". These are essentially where you reinvest the proceeds of a dividend back into the stock that you are holding. The rationale behind this is that research has shown that your returns based on dividends being reinvested tend to far outstrip the returns you make when you take the dividend in cash. Even though I've known this principle for years, it was always "too much hassle" or "I don't know where to go to find out" type of thinking by me. But with the clarity that a financial freedom goal should inspire, I got it sorted. 

Will this momentum last? Probably not. But a ball in motion stays in motion. So my hope is that I keep genuinely and honestly chipping away in a way that I can actually see tangible advancement when I  look back in six months time.

Resume Writing: $2,080. Not a bad month in terms of the numbers. I also switched from PayPal to request getting paid into my international bank account. I had thought that my original approach made sense, but having done the sums I noticed that PayPal really does take a fair bite out of my income. That and the currency conversion. The new approach will hopefully save me a little bit here and there.

eBooks: $4. A fairly quiet month and probably reflective of the fact that I haven't marketed my earlier book on resume writing or my new book on LinkedIn profiles. I want to put the marketing on autopilot, but for now the books are out there and time to write some more.

Dividends: $103. Even though I've signed up for the dividend reinvestment process for one stock, a couple of dividends slipped through the net and went straight into my account. That's fine by me, and a sure sign that my passive income strategy actually exists.

Google Adsense: $0.15. Yes, it's as good as nothing but it's the first money I've earned this way so I'm going to shout it from the rooftop!

Prolific Academic: $0. I haven't touched it for a while but no doubt there are still a few dollars here or there to take advantage of.

Total: $2,187.15

Not bad. One of my best months for these hustles I think. December is definitely going to suck so I better get my head down and make November look good!

Income Report: May

It's been a pretty busy month for me. I seem to have fallen upon a few offline gigs that I never would have  fathomed a month ago. Freelance resume writing (on my writing terms), for example.

The eBook revolution hasn't quite happened but the goal is still to write them. I've sold some of my resume writing book so long may that continue.

In fact my goal is to overwhelm my niche of resume writing with 10 in total. Ok, "overwhelm" is a bit of a stretch but the idea is to have different books providing different angles and different cross selling opportunities for me in the same space. It will take a while because fundamentally it would mean writing 100,000 - 150,0000 words in total, but it's the direction I want and need to go for. If I can finish the year with two more, I think that should be my minimum hope.

In the meantime, my broad resume writing has continued on apace and remains a cornerstone of my online-related income. In fact, I should really simply call it 'freelance' rather than 'online' because that's what it ultimately is. But my goal is to do a lot more online. That's the focus.

I had a bit of a problem with a PayPal payment - I couldn't access some money so I phoned the help desk. Who knew that they give you money for the inconvenience? They added $30 without me even asking! It won't be a regular payment, and probably won't happen again, but I'm going to record it here as a reminder that if there are any customer services issues that deserve compensation there's no harm in asking...

Also, I noticed that I had received a dividend payment for some investments I have. $100 I hadn't realised I had coming. It's a reminder that I need to get to grips with knowing what and where all my random assets are. And given that this is the passive world that I am looking for, long may it continue.

Anyway, for May:

Resume Writing: $1,353 - Not as good as I thought it would be. I think I'm being "busy" and not "effective". So I need to reappraise (again) how much time I take on getting the resumes done.
Dividends: $100
PayPal: $30

eBook sales: $4 - Get Craft a Winning Resume to improve your job hunting opportunities.
Prolific Academic: $2

Total: $1,489

Not as good as recent months but in an odd way encouraging in its own way. It's the most diverse my income streams have been...

Income Report: August

Well, it's all very piecemeal at the moment. I've talked in the past about passive income streams and they haven't quite gathered pace.

I've talked about diversification and I'm yet to get the balance here. But this was never going to be an overnight story and by writing it down (hopefully) I'll be able to look back in a year's time and laugh at how far I've progressed. That's the goal anyway.

So let's get this party started:

Writing
Resume Writing: So having wrote this article a few days ago, I've had to re-write much of it after properly calculating my resume writing income.

My original estimate was $1,050. The figure actually came to $1,815... Clearly mathematics isn't my strong point and the early part of the month was more active than I had remembered.

It's still my income anchor, though I'm very aware that I need to build out other areas to this level.

The local resume business hasn't gained traction, though that's more down to my low level marketing. I tried to sign up some students to earn commission as introducers, but they all seem to be too busy chasing down Pokemons

Article Writing: $50. I didn't write at all for my regular gig but I've another regular one starting now. I think September could be a good earnings figure for article writing. Famous last words.

Surveys
Prolific Academic: $1. Yeah, this one's not doing a lot to build out the retirement fund. To be fair, I haven't really thought much about it lately but it is easy money.

Other
Postloop: $5. It's still a comfort blanket of a site for me. You while away a bit of time on, connect with a few people on it, earn a few dollars on it and move on. I don't default onto the site as much as I used to and it's not going to make me a king's ransom.But it's always there in the background if I need it.

So there you go it: $1,871 compared with $1,587. That's about 17% up on the previous month so I do know I'm moving in the right direction.

I'll give myself a score of B+. The $1,000 is my very least level these day for a 'pass' and I'm easily beating that at the moment. But I do need a lot more diversification and a lot of work on the passive income world.

I know that I've got a few writing gigs already sorted out for September, have already beaten the combined Prolific Academic / Postloop return in one survey this month (though that was never going to be hard) and I've signed up for an online writing course as well. All pointing in the right direction.

September will be awesome.  

Income Report: July

So the quest to develop more stable earnings streams continues. One of the big issues (still) for me is that I haven't yet shifted to the passive income approach that I've been gunning for long term. It's still not balanced and as a result it's aways active income - i.e. I need to be trading time for money. The long-term goal is to shift away from this. But for now it's all about stabilizing the income.

So for now, let's see how this month went.

Writing
Resume Writing: $1,450. This was a pretty busy month for me and about +90% higher than May. Despite people heading to the beaches for the summer, there's always someone job hunting and in need of a resume.

The fact that I haven't gone away this summer means that I've been overloaded a bit because others have gone away.

I still haven't sorted out a resume business locally, which would allow me to charge more for the same service. But I've been too busy...And I don't want to be purely a full-time resume writer for someone else.

Article Writing: $130. I had one of my usual articles to write and also managed to get a new contract elsewhere, which should be a consistent gig as well.

Surveys
Prolific Academic: $7. Not a big month at all for me here. Not many surveys, simply because I've been too busy elsewhere.

Other
Zero - not great for me and my goals to improve the mix of income...

So that's it: $1,587 compared with $873 the previous month and $1,127.50 for May. So it's heading in the right direction! It just needs to be more balanced in terms of trading time for money.

I'll give myself a score of B-. It's good in terms of an improvement on the last two months but I still need a lot more diversification and a lot more impact in ths passive income world. My goal is to to make time to diverfy more.

The journey continues. 

Income Report: May

So, this is the first one I've done and I haven't got a great deal to report as such. I want to use this as my baseline and reference point going forward so that I really can measure how successful (or not) I am being.

For the moment, I'm purely going to focus on my online-related income. That's the real long-term story as far as I'm concerned, even if I could do with significantly picking up my offline endeavors.

My approach to this will evolve over time as I find the right metrics and put aside some proper time to record this information. It's probably not the right accounting approach (but who cares) but I'll record all the income earned during the month rather than received and paid. It's easy for now because my income isn't that diverse or sophisticated. And for the future, there's my finance jobs site. 

So here it goes....

Writing

Resume writing: $800. I'm yet to have the data confirmed but by my estimates it should be around $800 for the month of May. This has become a significant story for me and will continue to be for now. Essentially, I work freelance for a company abroad and they line up the clients etc for me to work on.

Ideally, I want to be able to replicate the same approach where I live in Asia because I won't need to give a big chunk of cash to HQ every time I do the work. That's the plan in coming weeks/months. But I've only been doing it for a few months and they are doing all the hard work in terms of getting clients, so I've no complaints.

Article writing: $160. I write articles for a website in Singapore a few times a month and since the beginning of the year it's been quite consistent. It's great that it's $80 a time but my trouble is finding the time and inclination to finish the work. The owner is quite rightly incredibly thorough and every time I write a piece I "look forward to" the revisions he asks for and added information. 

With both of these writing gigs I need to put my ego by the door and just suck up the revisions that are invariably requested. It's not something I'm used to but it's good for me.

Surveys

Prolific Academic: $5.50. This is the only survey I bother with - the others seem to be boring / hard to monetize / repetitive / confusing and the list goes on. As the name suggests, Prolific Academic is all about academic research and actually pretty interesting. I didn't remember to check for many surveys this month but I had a few. Easy. 

Other

Fiverr: $4 (after Fiverr's $1 costs). Not a great return really but I have a few fairly passive income gigs on the site so I was happy to get this one without really having to work any more for it. 

Postloop: $5. Things have gone fairly quiet for me on Postloop - i.e. I've been busy with other writing aspects so I haven't really focused much on it. But it's always there and it's a useful default when I've nothing better to do (which wasn't that often in May).

So that's it. $974.50. It won't set the world on fire but it's better than a slap in the face. For now I'll give myself a score of C. It's a base line and I hope to be able to improve on it. Importantly, only Fiverr out of the amount was effectively "passive". So less than 1%, which is not great.

Hopefully, in coming months I'll be able to build that out.

Building Online Income Momentum

Making money online is actually quite easy....if you have something to offer. And package it in the right way.

That's my current interpretation anyway. Over the last month I've been focusing exactly on that - having something to offer and making it looking appealing enough for someone to be willing enough to pay for it. Well, I've spent a lot time fine-tuning my profiles on PeoplePerHour and Upwork, in addition to looking at the skills I've got to offer and tried to improve them. And it's started to pay off.

I've managed to snag myself a regular resume / CV writing gig with a company out of London, while another company contacted me to help re-write the content of their website. I've also had requests for two one-off projects. So there's clearly been some traction.

Yes, it is still trading time for money. The slower I do a task, the less of a return I'm getting on a per hourly basis. It's not perfect and it doesn't represent my long-term focus of building passive income streams.

But for now, at least, it's a regular income stream that can build into something bigger if I play my cards right. It also helps me to improve my career capital.

So I will still default to Prolific Academic and Postloop for easy and consistent earnings opportunities. They do that very well. But for building my long-term opportunities I will continue to look to build the future.

Fiverr Review: Buy and Sell Marketplace

I kind of have a love-hate relationship with Fiverr. That's why I wanted to provide a review. 

For those that aren’t familiar with the site, Fiverr is a marketplace that links buyers looking for specific services with those willing to provide those same services. Graphics and design, online marketing, video and animation, business services and so on are all part of the mix. And all of these services are provided for $5.

Strictly speaking, you are charged a bit more than $5 (something like $5.50, I think), but the very essence of it is that if you are a buyer you can get something very cheap.

From a money-making perspective, anyone can look to sell their services on the site. If you have a talent of some sort you might have found your marketplace. You could offer to write blog comments, create a logo, do a voice over and so on.

So what do I love?

Well, as someone that has their own business interests there are a lot of things I either don’t want to do or simply can’t do. So if I want to outsource something really basic (like the design of my business cards) it’s actually pretty cheap to use someone like Fiverr.

From an income-generating perspective, you can stick some “gigs” on the site and earn money when a client wants your services. It’s that simple. You can also offer supplementary services and increase your revenue. For example, you could offer to review someone’s resume and your supplementary service could be to review their cover letter as well. You get a rating from the buyer based on the quality of your offering and speed of response. A good rating can enhance your reputation and allow you to sell more products.  

So what do I not like so much?

As you can imagine, if you’ve got a great service to offer, you may end up really underpricing yourself. Some of the services on there really don’t make sense to me. Offering to write 500-word articles for $5, for example, really does seem cheap – and particularly as you actually get closer to $4 once Fiverr takes its cut.

Admittedly, some sellers use it as a way to attract clients to other higher-price services. A "bait and switch" approach, if you will. But a lot of people on there don’t. Some are willing to work really hard for not a lot of money.

You’ve got to remember that you’re only earning (less than) $5. So if you’re putting a lot of time and energy in to complete a job, you've got to justify it to yourself somehow. If you are in a low-cost economy maybe it makes sense. For a lot of people it doesn't. In many ways the pricing structure is a race to the bottom. 

Those that do best on this site either manage to get buyers to buy plenty of supplementary gigs or have gigs that don’t require much additional work at all (e.g. I have a “white paper” on there which I simply sell to people for five bucks without doing any extra work).

Another problem as a buyer of the services is that the quality isn’t always the best. The business cards that I mentioned earlier weren’t great. The seller took ages to respond and kept on delaying. I guess he was doing dozens of others at that low price so probably wasn’t that bothered.

How have I done?

It took me a few months to see any traction at all on my two gigs. One service is related to career guidance, the other to do with personal finance coaching. To date I've made about $30. It's not a great sum but this income generator sits in the background as far as I'm concerned, particularly if I can sell more of my white paper for no extra effort. 

Admittedly, I haven’t been as active as I should in marketing the services on social media either. Still, in recent months I have seen some take up on the offerings and I look forward to this idea being a sleeper for me.

Daily Two Cents Review: Earn from Writing

We’re all budding writers. Or at least we think we are. But not everyone realizes that there are good avenues in which to express ourselves. Avenues that pay, that is.

Content mills are one area worth considering, and once I’ve dipped my toe into this space I’ll be happy to report back. One site I have spent a lot of time on though is Daily Two Cents. In fact, it was my first proper dabble with trying to make some money online.

DTC, as it likes to term itself, is essentially all about giving you the opportunity to give your “two cents” to the world on an array of subject matters in as little as 100 words. It’s like an online magazine with you, the man or woman on the street, being the author of the articles. I’m also grouping its sister site, Writedge, into this explanation – essentially, it’s the same kind of site only the articles are intended to be longer and the subject matters are less tabloid.

How do you make money? Essentially, the more views that your articles receive the more you can earn. As long as you have a PayPal account you’ll be able to get paid.

So how does it stack up?

Good bits:

• You can earn money from writing. Maybe you’re not a budding Shakespeare but once you’ve had a few articles accepted you can start making money. Those with a decent niche (e.g. entertainment news) and a good social media following seem to do reasonably well out of the site. You can also make money by putting affiliate links into your articles and hoping people will buy products that way.
• Passive income opportunity. One of the things that appealed most to me was the fact that once my articles were on the site they could continue to earn money long after I’d posted them. Passive income is very important as a concept to me, and having written more than 200 articles on the site I hope to continue to make money from these “assets”, simply by promoting some of the more “evergreen” articles (e.g. "How to Boil an Egg") through my social media accounts.
• The administrators are helpful. You don’t always get site administrators that are transparent and happy to engage in conversation. Some can be openly hostile. But I’ve found the administrators here to be very keen on creating a community and are generally happy to engage in conversation.

Challenges:

• Became tougher to monetize in the last six months. I must admit  that when I first tried it out a year ago I was putting in a lot of time, writing a few articles each day and making a few dollars hear and there. My very best month came to about $30. Unfortunately, those were the good old days. My passive income is currently down to a trickle (apologies, no payment proof screen available at the moment but it is quite small), though admittedly I haven’t written on there in a long while and don’t promote my articles that often. The site works on a revenue sharing model, whereby their ability to pay you is fundamentally driven by advertising fees brought in. It seems that they were paying out too much last year and had to revise their payout ratios.  You can still make money on the sites, but it’s not going to be as easy as last year. Still, there are writers on there that are doing reasonably well out of the site, making more than my $30 high watermark on a monthly basis.

Take a look at the site. If nothing else, it will add something to your portfolio of earning options. And this may well be exactly what you’re looking for to start that writing career. 

Postloop: Share Your Views and Make Money

We all need to take control of our financial future in a way that doesn't rely on your employer, the government or Lady Luck.

So I've been looking around at various ways to make money online, many of which I'll share over time on this blog.

One site that I've recently joined is Postloop. Essentially, it calls itself a "content marketplace" and it allows you to earn money by posting comments on forums and blogs. It's as simple as that. I didn't even realise this kind of industry existed. Clearly it does.

From my initial outings, it seems to be one of the more straightforward ways to make money in the online space. You write a bit, you get paid. You write a lot, you get paid more.

Yes, you've got to qualify before you can start to build up points to convert into dollars. But that's pretty easy. Once that's out of the way, I reckon it’s actually quite easy to make a few dollars here and there. As with everything, you get out what you put in.

It's not a get rich quick scheme. I don't even think it's a get rich slow scheme either. It's simply a useful supplement to other income generators you may have. And if you're going to be online anyway it seems to make sense to pop into the site. 

Does it pay out? Yes. At least it has for me a few times. Make sure you have a PayPal account to take your payments.

That's it.

If it intrigues you enough, take a look at Postloop - what's it about?.