Make $75 in 15 Minutes
Well, I’m beginning my “Manifesting A Free Vacation” idea at last! There have been some changes to the plan since I last wrote about this topic.
The $20 offers from credit card companies never came! And, I realized, DOH! I opted us both out of receiving junk mail about six weeks ago! (That number is 1-888-5OPT-OUT. It’s an automated line with an excellent, easy-to-use voice recognition program.) Well, the opting out is working for sure! So, the seed money part of the plan required some modification.
As much as I wanted to demonstrate this idea with seed money everybody can utilize, I decided to use my very first Google Adsense check as the seed money. I figure just about everybody can figure out creative ways to come up with a small amount to start this type of project. The point is to ultimately produce about $1500 for airfare, accomodations, meals, and entertainment for two, using none of my own money. Well, the Adsense check feels like pennies from Heaven to me! All I did was stick some ads on my blogs–and, voila! Money!
The check amount was just over $125. So, I’ll use the rounded $125 amount as my seed money for this experiment.
I took that $125 check and tried to use it at Chase Bank to open a new account. Everywhere I turn is an offer for $125 (received it in mail, online, and in the forwarding address packets from the post office) if you’ll set up a new checking account there with direct deposit. Well, I don’t want to put Michael through the hassle of having to move his direct deposit. And, I don’t get paid as a regular employee (self-employed). But, I thought, Hey! I can start receiving affiliate ad payments directly deposited into that account. Yeah, that should work! But, no. The guy at the bank looked at me like I was crazy. I don’t even think he knew what blogging was. He told me this offer only extends to regular W-2 income recipients. When I asked about a possible incentive for opening a business account, he told me that offer expired some time ago. I snatched my Google check right out of his hand and left. I hate Chase Bank. They’ve always sucked every time I’ve tried to get anywhere with them. Their real estate lending sucks (nothing attractive about any of their loans–high fees and interest rates, and low loan-to-value amounts).
This $125 is just burning a hole in my checking account. I have to “invest” it to get rolling on creating a free vacation.
So, I signed up at Prosper and transferred $50 into that account. Now, obviously, I’m not going to be waiting around for three years waiting for the loan I’ve chosen to be fully paid. Vegas is calling…no, SCREAMING my name right about now. The purpose of signing up as a lender and funding a loan there was to receive the $25 free dollars they’ll give me for doing so! And, they’ll give me an additional $25 for each additional person who signs up. So, how about it? Any non-Prosper members out there? If you’ll sign up by clicking the ad below, you’ll get $25 as a new lender after the funding of your first loan (minimum $50, which comes out to a return of 50% plus interest you’ll make on the loan itself) or $50 if you sign up as a borrower once you make your first monthly payment. Then, you can refer your friends and make money on them, too!
THEN, please consider signing up at Lending Club, which is another peer-to-peer lending network (with 0% defaults, according to their statistics!). They’ll give you $25 for signing up and me $25 for referring you. Then, you can refer your friends and get $25 for each one who signs up. If one of them signs up and lends more than $1,000, you’ll get $50! Please email me if you’d like a referral.
Also, you can sign up for MoneyExchange, which is money transfer site just like Paypal BUT WITH NO FEES like Paypal deducts from your funds! For every dollar I receive through Paypal, $.33 is taken out in fees. Well, MoneyExchange doesn’t do that (I just wish we could find a way to make it work with the “buy me a coffee” plug-in here on my site). By completing the registration, you’ll get $25. I’ll get $10 for referring you. You can get $10 per friend you refer up to $500! Please email me if you’d like a referral.
I know this is part “social experiment” and part “monetary venture”…. But, thanks in advance to everyone who participates!
Trisha's Coffee Fund9 Comments
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OK, someone has to say it. I am willing to (under the blanket of Anonimity)…
Trish, I have enjoyed reading your blog for quite some time. When you went to this new URL I thought it would be great. I would no longer have to link to you through someone else’s page (I could not remember your old URL to save my life). Unfortunately, I have been disappointed.
The request for a cup of coffee at the end of the post really turns me off. Everytime I see it, it degrades the rest of the Trisha Allen experience for me. I understand that you may be blogging for money, but thrusting it in my face like that seems rather boorish.
Just my two cents, from someone who has not made a dime from the Internet…
Anon - You know what? That item has been bugging me, too. I *admit* that there is someone (a very successful blogger) else’s page that I’ve been using for ideas for this one. And, he uses a similar device at the end of every post. Although, I like the way he’s worded his request MUUUUCH better. I always felt like the wording on mine seemed like pandering.
I’m just not terribly awesome at asking for donations–that much is obvious. It makes me uncomfortable! But, I’ve studied problogging a lot lately while gearing up to write a different blog–and, several of the highest paid bloggers out there list donations as one of the largest sources of their income. So, I decided to try it.
I figure, if it doesn’t work out after a month or two, I can chalk it up to experience! I will, though, change the wording right away. I hope that’ll help you feel better about it in the meantime.
Blogging is a lot about experimentation…. Every blogger has to figure out what works best for his or her own blog through trial and error. I’m sorry to have turned you off! That was completely unintentional. And, I’m glad you spoke up about it so I had the chance to explain!
Wow. I have to agree with Anon. The whole “buy me a cup of coffee” thing is a real turn off….begging for money on a “building an empire” blog.
And I have to say that if you have the time to try to turn your $125 of adsense money into $1500 using tricks like a broke college student, then you have surely fallen on hard times….not to mention begging people to sign up for Prosper to make yourself more money.
I’m pretty close to removing this site from my favorite list…it has strayed far off topic.
Joey - Well, I’m sorry you feel that way. This blog is about me, my real estate investing, but also anything else money or business-related I’d like to discover. Think about it–how many interesting posts would there be strictly about REI while I’m waiting on a closing and waiting on a refi? They’d go like this….
Waiting, Day 1
Still Waiting, Day 2
Yep, Still Here Waiting, Day 3
…ad infinitum.
It’d be that, or no posting at all. Not to mention, writing about real estate investing only attracts a VERY SMALL CROWD. That’s why there are so fewer REI blogs in existance now than one year ago. It’s not the “hot” area of investing anymore. In fact, my readership had dwindled to almost nothing on the old blog. Yes, I’m sure it had something to do with not feeling inspired by the blogging thing anymore over there on Blogger, hence the new blog here. I’m feeling inspired again to write! In fact, I’ve written just about every day since building this new blog.
More than anything, I write this blog for myself. But, I believe the readership does have a role to play in encouraging me to keep going. I’d tried to write a diary before–and, did for a while before getting bored and quittng. Blogging is different because it’s more like a conversation. Try it sometime! You could write about the things that happen in a legal office.
Hey Trisha,
I think it’s great that you are trying different things with your blog. Some will work, some won’t…. You’ll never know, though if you don’t try.
Steph
Steph - Well, thank you very much! Yeah, variety is the spice of life, is it not? The very reason I cited on my old blog for moving to the new format was that I was sick of the “same old, same old”. Oh, I knew I’d get some adverse reactions to the changes, sure. It was to be expected. But, my blog is growing as I am. It is an extension of myself, which is exactly why it’s sometimes difficult to deal with criticism. Non-bloggers probably have no idea what it’s like!
But, then, if I simply couldn’t deal with criticism, I would not still be blogging, would I?
One thing that is absolutely true is that I will not be placed in a box and told to stay there. Thanks for your support!
Well, Joey came back and commented something… But, in the Wordpress email, I accidentally hit “Delete” thinking it was “Approve” (which for some reason didn’t exist as an option, so Wordpress must’ve automatically approved the comment). I so wanted to dissect his statements.
Oh, well, seeing as how I’m not writing what he deems “worthy” of being in his favorites list, he won’t be back. At least, I hope not. Here’s the thing with obnoxious people like that–they don’t realize I didn’t invite them here? I didn’t go to his legal office at Dickie McCamey in Pittsburg to knock on his door, and say, “Oh, Mr. D., won’t you pretty please come look at my blog today? Wait! Where are you going? Please come back!!!!”
I wonder if the partners know he’s blogging during billable hours.
Anyway, good riddance to bad rubbish!
Hiya Trisha, I’ve been a long time avid reader of your blog and rei life in general. I thought I would give back on the wealth of information I’ve gained from your blog hopefully you aren’t too upset with Chase that you can’t work the system a little. You don’t have to have direct deposit to get that $125, open the account, if they ask you will set up DD later, they usually give you a couple months to start the direct deposit anyway but it doesn’t matter all you have to do is deposit $1 dollar each month via a paypal transfer (uses ACH same as DD) for a minmum of 6 months transfer and you can keep the money. In addition they don’t care about you address because I then signed up my wife for the $125 account also and used the refer a friends/family referral printout they give you when created your first account. So essentially a couple will get the $125 each = $250 plus the referral credit $25 each X 2 = $50 for total of $300 easy money. So add that to your vacation fund and enjoy :).
Oh my gosh, Theo, you are the BOMB! Thanks so much for the information! The bank guy at Chase didn’t quite grasp what I was saying. So, the chances of his information being correct weren’t great, either. I believe what you’re saying. I thought that could work! Once again, thank you!!! I’m gonna do it!