Ideal Absolutes

This is the beginning of my upcoming e-book — working title: macewan Makes Money. During the next few weeks, I will feature some of content as a blog post. God willing and the creek don’t rise, the book will be complete by the second week in December or sooner.

Introduction

macewan Begins the Blog Revenue Experiment

One evening last June, as my wife Val stood next to me on the brick walkway, she said, “This is so pretty. I can’t believe we did this yard in just the last few years. Everything looks like it’s been here forever. This brick walkway is my favorite, the curve of it.” Then she bent down to pluck a few weeds out from between the bricks. I heard her gasp. “Shit that hurt! … can’t do that anymore … not a good hand-shoulder pull without my brace.” Then she straightened up and kinda’ smiled at me.

It was at that moment I was struck by a bolt of thought lightening. I needed to monetize my blog. I’d never thought of this before, not for me personally, for macewan.org. My blog was for tutorials for Ubuntu Linux, for discussions about tech issues, slamming Microsoft OS, praising Apple, and for occasional family posts with grandson and great-grandma type photos. Monetizing a blog was for ShoeMoney, John Chow and the like. But for me? It was then that I realized there had to be another income source in case anything ever happened to my job. What if I needed to be at home to help out? I could make money writing and selling advertising online! On the same blog

I knew my best bet – a legitimate starting point – would be PayPerPost. As an ad revenue novice, becoming one of PPP’s Posties would provide street cred as well as training.

Before I go any further into the Who, What, When, Why and How of Monetizing a Blog, let me tell you another family-oriented vignette. My mother-in-law lives with us. Ruth is 90, extremely quick witted and one of our best friends.

A few days ago, Ruth said to Val, “I want to buy you a new sewing machine for your birthday. Tell Rob he needs to help me pick one out online.”

Surprised, Val replied, “Wow. Great idea.Shall we strike while the iron is hot? Let’s look at Overstock.com and see what’s available. We’ll check eBay first… other online sources.” Then she pulled up eBay, they looked around a bit and didn’t find what they wanted. Interestingly, finding a new sewing machine was difficult on the auction site. Searches kept bringing up sewing paraphernalia or vintage sewing machines. Ruth grew impatient. Her attention span isn’t what it used to be. Val clicked on Overstock.com and began a search. “Here, Mom. Brother has a bunch of sewing machines on this site. Let’s pick one out.”

They did. Picked out a gem of a deal, a jeweled charm in the artist’s bracelet of necessary tools (Val said the poetic part — when I bought her a new Dremel at Ace Hardware last week.) A Brother sewing machine, factory refurbished, regularly $499 selling for $139 with only $1.00 shipping and due to arrive in four days. It has 60 preprogrammed stitches, automatic buttonhole settings, and truly does thread itself and there are more options I know nothing about out — I have no grasp of the significance of any of that. I’m just quoting from the Overstock.com link Val emailed me.

The three of us sat down to dinner about a couple hours later. Val told Ruth to tell me about “her birthday present.” About “why” she decided to get one.

Ruth said, “I decided Val needed a sewing machine for her birthday. The last one we bought her was a nice Sears model. It must have been… what… 1980? And my Singer weighs a ton, Bob bought it for me right after World War Two.”

“No,” Val told her, “Tell him why you thought about buying me a new sewing machine.”

Ruth always needs prompting said, “Oh about the advertising? Well… Rob. I never would have suggested buying a sewing machine if I hadn’t heard the two of you talking over the last few months. You’ve been so excited about your blog revenue; I knew you could buy Val a sewing machine. I may not understand computers, but I get the gist of online purchases. Monetizing… isn’t that the word you two use when you talk about your website?”

Yes, that’s right. My 90-year-old mother-in-law understands blog-vertising and monetization of blogs. Understands the increase in disposable income. She also knows about my three month long experiment because she and Val dined alone quite a few times over that period of time.

The first concept in monetizing a blog, in earning blog advertising revenue, is to visualize success. Sounds very Tony Robbins, doesn’t it? Or like The Secret perhaps. It’s true. You can’t achieve a goal if you do not see yourself attaining the goal.

I’ll start with that thought. See yourself writing a successful blog. Visualize what you need to buy with the increased revenue you will earn. Or how much money you will put into your savings. The stock market. Maybe you want to take a cruise, a vacation… Get yourself ready mentally. If you’re as excited at the prospect of making money online as I am — the mental prep should take about 5 seconds.

The physical? An ergonomically correct chair, a decent desk with the computer monitor, keyboard, mouse placed in the correct height and position, a good desk lamp, and a giant bag of Skittles. And some Popsicles. Snickers bars. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups… If you already have these necessary components, you’re ready for the first lesson. *Note: other food substances are admissible. Get your infra-structure ready. You’re going to be logging in a lot of computer hours during the first steps of this blog monetization journey. It will be worth it.