Making Money Online With What You Already Have

Have you ever heard of the "30 Day Challenge"? Freddy thinks he heard of it sometime in the last year. He doesn't know much more about it than what it says on their home page, which is that "The Thirty Day Challenge is about making your first $10 online." The other thing Freddy knows about it is that he didn't discover it until after he had made much more than his first $10 online. Freddy does not intend to endorse the "30 Day Challenge". He has not been past their home page and has no idea about the quality of their program and training (it is free, though, so if you're curious...) But he is in agreement with the idea that you no not need to spend or invest anything in order to start earning money on the Internet. This is assuming, of course, that you have your own computer, some basic software and access to the Internet. These days it is safe to assume that most people already have these things, and therefore, probably do not need to spend any extra money.

Today, Freddy is going to tell you how he completed the 30 Day Challenge, without even knowing it. Meaning, he was neither aware of the existence of the 30 Day Challenge, nor did he know that he was earning money until a check came in the mail. Freddy used to do a little bit of photography, and he occasionally sold greeting cards, prints and calendars to his friends and colleagues. Having some success at this, he decided to try to sell some of his work online, but having limited website designing experience, he could not design a site which could handle taking orders and processing credit cards and so on. Furthermore, he was not aware of all the work it takes to promote your site and get traffic. At any rate, the photography stuff never panned out much for Freddy. A couple years later, though, Freddy had an idea for a silly t-shirt. Several friends were interested in ordering it, but not enough to make it worthwhile to have a large amount screen printed. It was then that Freddy discovered the on-demand printing world of Cafepress! Upload your designs, create your own "store", mark up your designs if you want to earn money, and they take care of the rest. Freddy uploaded his design and after his friends had a chance to order it, he marked up the price a little bit (what the heck!), uploaded a couple more designs that he had thought of and then forgot about them. ... Until a few months later when he got a check for $22! He saw that the check was from Cafepress, and logged back into his account to find that people were actually buying his quirky designs. Oh the joy!

With the $22 Freddy had completed two 30 day challenges without even trying. All he needed was a little creativity, a simple image editing program (there are free ones available out there if you search for them) and a computer with an Internet connection. Voila, Freddy was in business and EntropicTees was born! Now Freddy gives himself a 30 Day Challenge every month.

If you'd like to see how EntropicTees has grown since then, please visit the shop at CafePress to see the full line up of funny and weird t-shirt designs.

This is Just So Weird! (2 things)

Freddy's good friend, HallaMeat used to have a blog called "the Magistrate" where on occasion he would post interesting dreams he had. He called it "The M's Dream TV". Freddy was even able to contribute one time with one of his own strange dreams. Since Freddy's dreams were a bit strange last night, he would like to continue in the magistrate's tradition and post his own "Dream TV".

Why was Arnold Schwarzenegger in Japan? Freddy has no idea, but in his dream, he was. (perhaps he was working on more commercials) Anyhow, for some reason, Freddy and Arnold were also friends, so Arnold invited Freddy to fly back to his house in CA on his private jet. Freddy was glad to get away for a weekend, and he also thought he would have a chance to practice some German with Arnold. Although Freddy's family was not on Arnold's jet with him, when they arrived (and pulled into the driveway, in a private jet) suddenly, Freddy's wife and children were by his side. Upon getting out of the "plane", Freddy noticed that it was nothing more than a Jeep Wrangler with turbine engines attached to the sides and a wing fastened to the roof. (It was literally a Jeep Wrangler, a red one) Weird. It seemed bigger inside. Anyhow, Arnold showed Freddy and his family inside and introduced his wife, Maria and his two children (does he have children?) who turned out to be around the same ages as Freddy's own. The house was nice, but fairly messy and the back yard was actually a horse pasture. The Schwarzeneggers had about 20 horses, it looked like. The whole time Freddy wanted to ask questions about politics, (especially their opinion on Sarah Palin) but thought it was unwise. After all, we'd only just met. So instead of asking about politics, Freddy started talking to Arnold about world economics, in German. He asked Arnold if he realized that Austria (Arnold is from Austria) had the 4th largest economy in the world, after the US, Japan and Germany. Arnold said, "really?" and that was the end of that conversation. A phone rings, Maria answers it, sudden scene change. Now everyone is on a couch and for some reason, Freddy's parents have joined in out of the blue. Freddy only recalls two things from this scene: First, someone was saying, "You should never discuss politics, religion or sex when you're with friends." Secondly, Arnold was talking to his children in Japanese! Where did he learn that? and why is he talking to his children in Japanese? Finally, fast-foward 10 years or so. For some reason the part of Freddy is now being played by Tom Arnold. Freddy's and Arnold's (Schwarzenegger) families have become good friends over the years and visit each other every so often. But Freddy has a slight competitive tendency and feels a need to prove something to Arnold. So on this occasion, Freddy has brought along a small, remote control platform, about two feet by one foot, which rests on wheels. It is meant for carrying luggage, but is rather unstable. Freddy is using the remote to guide it up the walk to the front door, carrying more luggage than it probably should and several bags tumble onto the sidewalk in the process. Still, Freddy (which is now being played by Tom Arnold, don't forget) is hoping to impress the Schwarzeneggers.

And that is as much as Freddy remembers at this point.

The other weird thing that Freddy experienced yesterday might as well have been a dream. It all started with the YouTube video "Charlie Bit My Finger". Actually, that's where it ended. Freddy hadn't seen the original before. He admits, it's pretty cute. Anyway, Freddy found this video first, where a couple of strange TV show hosts interview the family of the "Charlie Bit My Finger" video fame. Here it is:

Now tell Freddy that this isn't extremely weird. What is going on here? Honestly, it is like a screen test out of a Christopher Guest movie or something. Don't you think so? Self absorbed hosts, disinterested guests, awkward moments. What do you do when one of the hosts starts biting the other host's finger? Just sit there and smile perhaps?

There you go. Freddy hopes you have enjoyed a dose of strangeness for the day. If you haven't gotten quite enough, Freddy invites you to stop by his Cafepress store, Entropic Tees, where you can peruse through numerous styles of apparel with Japanese, German, random, weird and even Christopher Guest inspired designs. And don't forget to come back to check for updates soon. (Freddy will soon be doing his best to trash an online company for deceitful business practices. Don't miss it, it should be fun)

Love Freddy.