Another Way to Effortlessly Make Money on the Internet

A way to effortlessly make money on the Internet? Freddy is using the term, "effortlessly" with a few qualifications here. Search all you like, you will probably never find a (legal) way to effortlessly make money on the Internet. Even the illegal ways to make money often require more effort, and are more risky than the legal ways. Still, if you take a certain point of view, some things you may already be doing anyhow could bring in some extra income without requiring you to do any extra work (or very little, at least).

Freddy is talking about Google Adsense. If you are already blogging, it is not that difficult to set up an Adsense account and add a few ads to your page. Just a few on the side, maybe at the bottom (like you see on Freddy's blog, here). Keep adding regular postings to your blogs and if you're lucky, you may start to see to pennies start trickling in. All it took you was a few minutes to set up an Adsense account and adding it to your page.

If you think you're going to start see checks in the mail the first month after setting up Adsense, and starting a blog, you may be disappointed, though. Unless you're blog is very popular, meaning you have a high amount of traffic, those ad clicks will probably be few and far between.
Freddy has been blogging for about a year and a half now. He set up Adsense around February of this year, that's about 10 months ago. Freddy's blogs get steady traffic of around 15 to 20 views a day. Still, only recently has Freddy begun to see an increase in clicks on Adsense ads. It has taken a lot of dedication and patience to get this far.

Freddy would share with you more details about his Adsense statistics, but Google is very strict about following their guidelines, and the slightest infringement can get you banned for life. So Freddy is not allowed to share with you any specifics. Sorry.

At first, Freddy tried to create a blog that would show ads of the type that people are more likely to click on, but he gave up long ago on that. Freddy is not passionate about that kind of thing and did not have the motivation to continue writing posts on issues he wasn't really interested in. That's why it's much better (in Freddy's opinion, at least) to use Adsense as a sort of afterthought to something you're already doing. Creating a website, or a blog just for the purpose of attracting Google Ad clickers is boring, and it might even be against the guidelines set out by Google.

Is Google Adsense effortless? Well, it need not take much effort. One can easily add it to their web page or blog, continue doing what they've been doing all along and there is a good chance you will see some success. On the other hand, you can also put in quite a bit of effort, experimenting with different color schemes, ad formats, ad placement and so on. At any rate, Google Adsense is another legitimate way of making a bit of extra cash on the Internet.

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.

Find out if Freddy really knows how to make money online!

Freddy spends a significant amount of time on the Internet these days. You see, Freddy is trying to take advantage of the various money making opportunities out there on the Internet. There are a lot of companies and sites that will promise you large amounts of money fairly quickly. Just do a google search for "make money online" and see what ads come up. There are ads promising you $300 a day, $3000 a week, $300 just for "Clicking your mouse" (whatever that means), and most of them claim to be "easy" or "idiot proof". In fact, Freddy has recently been seeing a junk email in his spam folder with the subject heading, "Dumb and Poor? We can help." Freddy wonders what kind of idiot would actually open that email... probably someone who is dumb and poor, he guesses. Too bad they'll probably stay that way.

Yes, if you're looking to make money online, there is a lot of junk out there. No, really, a lot, a whole bunch, like one out of every 10,000 "opportunities" is genuine. Freddy is serious, here. The Internet is not a place where you can get rich quick, unless you like gambling, because following up on most of these "incredible money making opportunities" is, more or less, like pulling the lever on a slot machine. And while occasionally someone hits the jackpot, most of the time, people walk away from those machines taking a loss.

A few weeks ago, Freddy found an article that claimed to have the "secret to success online!" It was from a legitimate source, so Freddy went ahead and read it. Do you know what the secret was? Don't give up! Work hard and don't give up! Probably not the type of "secret" that most people who are looking for online success hope to learn. Freddy thinks that when most people see the word, "secret" they are expecting an insider tip on how to make loads of money quickly. They most be disappointed to see that they might have to work. Well, hard work and never giving up is a strategy that Freddy has been aware of since he was wee, so this wasn't necessarily a secret to him either.

Freddy has been working hard and not giving up at online success for, what, nearly three years now. The progress is slow, but the progress is there and Freddy has gone from making $0 a month, to sometimes as much as $150 a month online. (and nearly all of this income comes from sites that are free for anyone to set up) It's not paying the rent, but it's $150 Freddy didn't have before. And if Freddy keeps working hard and never giving up, maybe someday it will pay the rent.

So, although Freddy started this blog with the hopes of selling more t-shirts, he is going to take a short break from that and share with any readers, who happen to stumble upon this page with Freddy's insights on getting started making money online.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com

Failblog is sooo much better than Engrish.com

Once again Freddy finds himself in a position where he needs to apologize for a long absence. Freddy is just trying to wear too many hats right now. One hat he is wearing is that of a squidoo lensmaker. Freddy just published his second squidoo lens, this time on flying on Japanese airlines. That brings Freddy's Squidoo lens total to two:

Everything you never wanted to know about Sumo Wrestling
and
Why you should pay more to fly on a Japanese airline

Freddy would just be ecstatic if you would stop by his lenses, give them a rating, participate in the surveys and leave him a comment. Please have a look.

In any case, he's back today with a new blog entry to help you pass a little time and put a smile on your face (especially if you're the type that enjoys Schadenfreude). Freddy also sometimes is looking for ways to "pass" the time at work and one of his favorite reading sites is slate.com. Yesterday, Freddy read this article from slate on FAIL.

Freddy was most recently exposed to the "FAIL" phenomenon when he came across this excellent Halloween costume:But it was only through the slate article that Freddy learned of the existence of failblog.org. Failblog is a blog filled with pictures and videos of people failing. Failing in sports, fashion, academics ... life in general. So, as Freddy said earlier, if you enjoy Schadenfreude, this is definitely a site for you. In many ways, failblog reminds Freddy of engrish.com, in that it is making fun of the inability of others (hence the Schadenfreude). After reading the Slate article, Freddy learned that the term/phrase "FAIL" actually has it's roots in engrish. So far, Freddy is much more impressed with failblog than Engrish.com. What's more, Failblog seems to have it's own Engrish branch engrishfunny.com Why is this better than engrish.com (the original Engrish site?) Mainly because of the comments. Of course, this is Freddy's personal preference. Whoever is running the Engrish.com site feels a need to post his own (mostly unfunny) commentary to all the pictures submitted. He claims that his visitors prefer that his comments stay, yet Freddy thinks he is living in his own little dream world. If you write to him suggesting that he post pictures without the comments (most of the pictures are more than funny on their own), he responds by pointing you to one of his FAQ addressing this issue. If so many people are suggesting that you remove your comments that you need to post a FAQ about it, maybe there aren't so many people who enjoy them as you think. (Mr. Engrish.com - Objectivity FAIL) Freddy is pleased that the Failblog engrish site is satisfied to post the pictures without their own comments. Of course, they allow users to post comments, but that is not the same as posting your own comments.

Enough ranting by Freddy. Here are some failblog posts Freddy has enjoyed in the last 24 hours:

Mens Accessories FAIL:

see more Funny and Weird T-shirts

Archie FAIL:

see more Funny and Weird T-shirts

Three-handed FAIL:

see more Funny and Weird T-shirts

Packaging FAIL:

see more Funny and Weird T-shirts

and there are many more.

There are thousands of pictures and videos posted on failblog. Freddy, of course, has some of his own favorites. He wonders if they have been submitted or not. Maybe he will get around to submitting them someday, but for now, instead of making you search around for them, Freddy will post his own favorite FAIL vids right here.

Freddy thought he posted this clip in an earlier post, but he can't find it, so here it is.

Aerobics class FAIL:


Kelsey Grammar FAIL:


Modeling FAIL: (talk about Schadenfreude, these newscaster have it down)


Foreign Policy FAIL:


Foreign Policy FAIL (2):


There are just too many Sarah Palin FAILs to post here. Freddy doesn't have time.

And now it's time for Freddy to go. Don't forget to come back to check for more fun updates from Freddy. And don't forget to visit Freddy's T-shirt shop for lots of humorous, funny, weird, strange and cool t-shirts. Entropic Tees

Breasts, Butts and Controversy

Freddy enjoys watching Sumo Wrestling (hence the "breasts" and "butts" in the title. Not what you were expecting?) and has spent some time over the past year or so enjoying the tournaments and writing articles about the various controversies that have popped up this year. Not to break tradition, the the sumo world came up with a fresh controversy for the fall tournament when three Russian sumo wrestlers were banned (that means fired) from sumo wrestling for life. That is something that has never happened before in the history of sumo wrestling. Why, you ask? They were either in possession of, or tested positive for marijuana use. Not only did this result in the banning of these three wrestlers, but also the demotion of their stable master, and the resignation of the Sumo Association Chairman, Kitanoumi.

If you are wondering what a "stable master" is, then you should check out the project Freddy worked on this summer. Being a growing sumo fan, Freddy has been trying to learn more about the sport. In fact, he has written several articles on the Sumo world in the last year or so

The Sumo Problem and Japanese Sportsmanship
Kotoshu - Sumo's first European Champion
Asashoryu and Hakuho Vent Their Frustrations on One Another

In the process of attempting to learn about sumo and writing these articles, he found that there is very little good info on the sport written in English, so he decided to write up his own Sumo primer and put it up at a site called Squidoo. Freddy is just starting to learn about Squidoo and it's kind of interesting.

Whether you're interested in sumo or not, Freddy invites you to stop by his Sumo Wrestling page at Squidoo and give it a rating, leave a comment, broaden your horizons, etc.

Freddy's Sumo Wrestling Primer

Don't forget to check back in a week or so for another update and visit Freddy's store
Entropic Tees - The Internet's most puzzling t-shirt designs

What If Napoleon Dynamite Sketched Pictures of John McCain and Sarah Palin?

Freddy is not usually very political, but like the rest of the country, he is fairly intrigued by Republican, John McCain's VP pick, Sarah Palin. Intrigued and confused. Personally, Freddy thinks that McCain is taking a big gamble with Sarah Palin, but so far the gamble has worked pretty well. Freddy wonders how long it will last. At any rate, not only is Sarah Palin the first female on a Republican presidential ticket, but she is probably also the most attractive VP nominee ever. And the fact that she seems to be slightly "bitchy" just makes her even more so, for some reason. For the record, Freddy was not at all impressed how she ruthlessly acted Obama after he showed restraint and respect by not commenting on her knocked up daughter. Granted, opposing political parties are going to attack each other, but Ms. Palin did so without any acknowledgement whatsoever of Obama's respect for her family's privacy.
Anyhow, as Freddy mentioned, he is not very political and doesn't want to make this a political blog. Still, Freddy could not resist taking up pencil and paper and drawing pictures of John McCain and Sarah Palin. And then proceed to place them on T-shirts. Be warned that Freddy is not much of an artist, so he new his drawing would be of a low quality when he set out to make them. His drawing of Sarah Palin reminded him of the drawing Napoleon Dynamite makes for his crush. Don't you remember? "I spent like 45 minutes on the shading on your upper lip." Or something like that. Anyway, Freddy humbly offers you his 2008 McCain - Palin presidential campaign series t-shirt designs. Are these pro-Republican, pro-McCain, pro-Palin t-shirts? Or are they anti-Republican, anti-McCain, anti-Palin t-shirts? Freddy thinks it's up to you to decide.

Please feel free to visit Freddy's store for many more t-shirts (mostly non-political, but certainly entertaining). Visit the Entropictees Website, or Freddy's online t-shirt store for a lot more fun!
And don't forget to visit again soon to get more EntropicTees updates. And oh yes, please stop by t-shirt countdown to vote for EntropicTees, "Deers is Mammals" t-shirt design!

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.