Alternative Income for May 2007

As I have posted on previously, I am working on supplementing my traditional employment income with "alternative income" through a variety of methods on the internet. I have been very successful in generating alternative income this past month, mainly through writing product review articles and how-to articles for Associated Content. I have been continuing to sell my unneeded books through the Amazon.com marketplace also, which is generating some cash although at a loss compared to the price I originally paid for the books on evil credit cards. Here is a quick summary of the income I have generated for myself via the internet during the month of May 2007:

Associated Content Articles: $225.19
Amazon.com Marketplace Sales: $140.56

Grand Total: $365.75

So what is my analysis of my efforts of the past month? One observation I immediately have is that writing articles for Associated Content is the most reliable means of making money online that I have tried thus far. The drawback is that it is time consuming to write article after article only to be paid a few dollars apiece. But this time consumption is offset by the extremely low mental effort it takes to write a 400-600 word product review when compared to the mental energy I expend working on my doctoral dissertation in philosophy. I am able to crank out a few Associated Content articles while I kick back on the couch and watch Star Trek, which I will be doing anyways whether I write articles or not. So I figure I might as well get paid for my down time!

The next observation I have is that I need to be much more consistent in terms of the number of articles I write for Associated Content per day. I would like to get to the point where I bring in $1000/month through Associated content as alternative income. With an average so far of $4.65 per article, it would take approximately 215 articles per month to get $1000 of extra income. 215 articles per month over 30 days is approximately seven to eight articles per day. I find this to be an incredibly realistic goal considering how little time and mental effort it takes for me to write each Associated Content article, even after having been working all day at my regular jobs.

If you yourself would like to give Associated Content a try, just click on the banner inside this post to sign up for a free account and to get started writing articles. As long as you can find new products or restaurants to be reviewing, or as long as you have some how-to articles you can write, I have found that Associated Content is a great way to supplement one's traditional income, as long as you are a relatively quick writer and typist. If you need a template to look at, here is a sample of my own articles so you can see the level of depth (or lack thereof) that Associated Content is looking for in their articles: Associated Content articles by Zachary Fruhling.