Project Derp: Phase 1: The Blog

A lot of people have asked about these projects of mine and I've been scant on information for a reason. See, contrary to popular belief, telling people that you're doing something actually doesn't encourage you to work on it any harder. A lot of people get a rush of satisfaction from sharing that "I am working on X". So much satisfaction that they stop working on X because they got that mental award already.

So I try to not to tell too much so as to better deny myself from that false sense of achievement. However, seeing as I've already succeeded on a significant portion of one of my projects, I think I can safely share the details here.

Also because nothing else amazing has happened in my life and I need to maintain my posting schedule somehow.

I'm so clever!

You hear stories about people making a living off their blogs, and so with a little research I decided to try it myself. See if it was possible or not. Yes, I started this blog as an alternate means to make money. Yes, I'm one of those people, you can crucify me later. But unlike most of those people I actually stuck with it.

I had a set of endpoints, goals, terms of success, etc. etc. and they boil down to the following:

Expected costs: $0

Skills to be learned: Regular posting, understanding how online advertisements work.

Estimated time: 50-100 hours.

Terms of success: 50< Blog posts, $100< Earned.

Bonus skills: Web design, basic coding.

Fairly simply, I didn't expect to spend any money on just a "theory'. For all I knew maybe some idiot got lucky and everyone else failed. But not any amount of money would be acceptable. Who wants to put in 100 hours of work and get $0.25? Not me. But at the same time, if I never posted and didn't make any money, that's my own fault, hence the 50 post minimum requirement.

Internet coupons are also not acceptable.

This would also serve as a chance to get into the groove of posting online in some sort of schedule. I would need to learn all the rules and requirements of having advertisements. If I was really keen, I would also learn how to make my blog look pretty. I didn't succeed. My blog has looked the same since day 1. But it was just a bonus requirement so I can let that slide.

I can safely say that I made well over the $100 requirement. Way over, much more than I expected. I don't feel comfortable revealing the exact amount though. I'm also actually nearing my 200th post so I beat the minimum post requirement as well.

So for these reasons I can safely declare Phase 1 of Project Derp to be a success.

Also, if you're wondering why it's called Project Derp, read the name of my blog.

But, I can hear a lot of you saying "$100 for even 50 hours of work = $2 an hour! That's not even minimum wage!". I'm certain that I've made more than many bloggers but you're right, these aren't the most amazing earnings. In addition, my earnings have been dropping for a long time now. Blogging is not an efficient way to earn money, or at least, not the way I'm doing it.

However, remember, what was phase 1 about? Testing. Testing to see if it was possible to earn money online by writing. And I passed with flying colours. It's not efficient though, but what is?

How can I possibly expand from this point?

Hmm...

 

And that's what phase 2 of Project Derp is about. Testing is over, it's time to kick it up a notch. It's time to try and make things efficient. Using the earnings gained from phase 1, I've been working on the next theory. 

The idea is that (if done right) you invest time into something and it perpetually earns you money. Forever. How awesome is that? It's like working for a month, stopping, but still getting a salary for the rest of your life.

However, I've encountered roadblocks, lack of time and sleep, and progress has not moved as fast as I wanted. I've literally been stuck at this phase since last summer and only since January have I really been putting in a lot of work into this.

But the last two weeks have been excited, I've started to show signs of phase 2 working. I just need to find time to make that (hopefully) final push into meeting the requirements for success. But based on my track record I'm not going to have a chance of finishing before April ends.

Oh well...

Phew! This post went on a bit longer than normal so I hope no one minds the massive blocks of text. I'm hoping that some of my other projects start working out so I can share them. Really handy for days that I have nothing else to talk about.

Comments appreciated. Feel free to call me an idiot if you think I'm wasting my time.