LIVING OFF DIVIDENDS & PASSIVE INCOME

The market has been defying gravity this summer, with the S&P500 up 49% since March. But most of the appreciation has been in what I consider lower quality stocks. Many homebuilders with doubtful prospects have doubled from their recent lows, while stocks that are somewhat recession proof like McDonalds, Walmart, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble have bounced a mere 15-20%.

According to Bloomberg, “companies with the worst earnings led the 45 percent gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since it fell to a 12-year low five months ago”. It might be a good time to sell some of your winners that have exceptionally well and either wait for a pull-back, or if you’re trigger happy, buy solid investment-grade companies.  Read more... (614 words, 8 images, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Summer is flying by really quickly. It seems like I just wrote about my $7,353 in Q2 online income and now its time for another update! July has been a stellar month and I managed to pull in just over $3,200 in online income.

As usual, Ebay was my biggest earner with nearly 33% of the online income. I’m glad I’m not dependant on only one source for the majority of my income, especially since I found out that one of my friends got booted from the Ebay Partner Network (EPN). While the real reason is a mystery, I can only guess it was one of the following:  Read more... (539 words, 8 images, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

1. He wasn’t promoting related products on his blog. This tells the EPN that you’re not a serious affiliate marketeer and that you don’t know how to internet traffic conversion works.

Check out the new laptop I got courtesy of Ebay.com! No, I didn’t buy a laptop on ebay, but I did use the money ebay sent me to buy a really nice notebook. You can learn more about the configuration of the 16 inch intel core 2 duo HP laptop here. With the recession going on and unemployment soaring, its nice have someone sending me a few dollars now and then for my discrentionary purchases.  Read more... (475 words, 9 images, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Every month there are 673,000 searches for the term ‘make money online‘ and over a million for various combinations such as ‘earn money online‘ and ‘how to make money online‘.  Apparently there’s a lot of money to be made in this niche and there are tons of people who will sell you ebooks, CDs, DVDs and monthly subscriptions on how to make hundreds of thousands of dollars by pimping stuff online or through secret google-checks. The sad truth is that is difficult to make $100,000 a year but it is not impossible. With a little bit of effort I’ve been pulling in a little over $2,000 a month for almost a year. I wish I could devote more time to it, but with my MBA, job search and some part-time consulting (and now summer internship) I barely get any time to try new things. In fact, I barely get time to post on this blog either.  Read more... (423 words, 9 images, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

At periodic intervals, I post my passive income revenue and other articles about creating passive income. One method I’ve heard about was creating articles on HubPages.com. If you have decent writing skills but no technical expertise it offers a way for you to make some online income.

I was able to ask the CEO of HubPages.com and YieldBuild.com, Paul Edmonson some questions about his entrepreneurial experience and passive income.

How did you begin in online marketing?

I started in online marketing back in 1999 when I first started working on the search engine optimization strategy for MongoMusic. Since then I’ve started numerous sites that range from lead generation to niche content, been an SEO consultant and am now the CEO of HubPages.com and YieldBuild.  Both technologies are geared toward helping publishers optimize their online ad revenues.  Read more... (528 words, 8 images, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

As I’ve mentioned in how to make money on ebay, I’ve set up several Ebay affiliate sites to generate passive income. Typically you make a percentage of the sales price which ends up in the 4-8% range. However, when buying cars, you only get a fixed price which is currently about $100-$130. But if you can sell a few cars through your site every month, it soon adds up.

Well, someone finally bought a whole car (as opposed to spare parts or accessories) through one of my sites. And not just any car – an antique 1972 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow!

Of course, $130 in affiliate commissions isn’t exactly earth-shattering, but it’s the largest sales commission I’ve received from Ebay so far!  And coupled with the sale of an antique seiko watch, a few designer bags and cheap ipods, it almost pays the rent!  Read more... (157 words, 9 images, estimated 38 secs reading time)