Wednesday 6 March 2013

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.

34 comments:

  1. I don't think you're an idiot. I was one of the people who started blogging partly as a hope for making money. I'm glad it kind of went successful and I hope phase two works for you. I get what you mean about not telling anyone what you're going to do as well. Thankfully I'm a huge downer and self deprecating so the mental reward I feel from telling someone I'm doing something doesn't last long enough for me to then not do anything.

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  2. Congratulations on your success! I've always wondered if it was possible to make money with the advertising model and just assumed that it wasn't. I know people do with paid sponsorship, assuming they're big and popular enough to get the attention, but they're usually the one in ten thousand case.

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  3. Err.. if I call you an idiot it feels like calling myself the same term lol. Dunno why but blogging gives me some sort of self satisfaction and it is also a sort of stress buster for me :)

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  4. Congrats! I have made zilch. SIGH. Guess I'll keep my day job

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  5. >not blogging for fun, or at least not mentioning you do
    Dude you're doing it wrong. So, so awfully wrong.

    Good for you though, that you stuck with it. I made about a hundred dollars as well, but soon after went "fuck that shit" and removed ads from my blog because it looks neater, and I don't want to bother people with the extra second of pageload time and everything.
    But eh, you're doing good. Keep it up, I guess? But also enjoy yourself. Don't post because you want to keep the income flowing.

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  6. Holy crap, I just realized your site has ads. I'm rocking ABP so I never see blog ads anymore. The fact that you made something off of blogging is truly an achievement, so congratulations. I say the same thing with my own means of Internet revenue - I've been doing it for a long time, I don't commit that much time to it, and it's never going to make me rich. But having an extra $2-300 each month in spending money doesn't hurt for minimal work effort.

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  7. To be fair, I think anyone that calls you an idiot for doing this is just annoyed that they haven't made any money in the same way. If you want to make money from your blog that's your decision, and hey, who doesn't need a little extra money?

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  8. Nope not a waste of time at all, because you have to put in the 100s of hours at the start for a mere $2 an hour. Then at the back end you make more and do less, that is what many fail to see. I've also made a bit off the blog and not through stupid adwords either, they can suck it. And because of the blog have many other things in the pipeline, it does spurt out in all kinds of directions, just have to put in the work.

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  9. In my experience only the biggest of sites with millions of daily visits earn money from ads. If you're earning above $100 as a small blog than it is good earning. The main problem is that most of the visitors don't click on the ads so we depend solely on the page circulation.

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  10. Hey, when I was a poor university student, I used to sell my plasma. It's illegal in Canada to be paid for blood donations but it's allowed if the lab is doing it to extract the plasma. I suspect that writing a blog to cash in on advertising revenue is less painful. Do what you need to do!

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  11. The requirements to make any project be successful are usually similar. I am sure you will be able to handle any thing.

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  12. Well, good luck! I'm not sure I still fully understand, but I guess that's the point.

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  13. Not really sure how you're getting phase 2 to push, but good luck to you. I personally found that in order to have a successful blog, you need to focus on the blog and forget about the money. But that's just how it's been working for me, everyone's different. Definitely reap the rewards in a future, I'll tell you that.

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  14. I like the sound of this idea man and I'm not going to call you an idiot or say you're wasting your time. I'm not sure if it'll work out too well but I hope that it does and if you put a lot of effort in then I have lots of faith.

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  15. I'm actually pretty interested to see what you're coming up with here - best of luck to you.

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  16. I've been wondering about doing advertising on my blog. It's great to hear about someone being able to make some money at it.

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  17. I too was wondering whether I should add some advertising to my blog, but I have quite a limited readership really and think I'd be one of the people that earn nothing at all.

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  18. Yes, I've tried to do that, I failed!!!!!!!!!!!

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  19. And suddenly everyone on the internet is trying to turn their procrastination into productivity.
    Good luck with the project thingie.
    It flew over my head a little.
    But that may just be because of the Sharpies.

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  20. I thought ads weren't legit for making money. Oh well. I'm too young for 'em anyway.

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  21. Hey, you did pretty darn good. I think the sticking to it paid off, pun intended.

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  22. I've had ads on my blog for about 2 years - I've maybe made $40.
    That's why I am now writing a book, and I did tell my readers I was doing so, not for glory or a feeling of achievement, but so I would be more accountable. It's working for me - I'm about 12 chapters in now, so I'm pretty pleased.
    Blogging has been exciting in some ways, and very disappointing in others.
    Good for you, Derp, making some green!

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  23. Sounds like you at least have a plan of attack. I wouldn't say you're wasting your time, your blog is something you maintain anyways and it wouldn't hurt to try.

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  24. I agree with a previous comment...you have to blog for fun first. If it becomes a chore it will show in the quality of the posts and you will loose reader. But if you enjoy blogging and find a way to make more money..kudos. I get lots of free stuff and the occasional amount of mad cash.

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  25. good luck in this new project lets see what happens

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  26. I actually admire you for having made some money through blogging; if I had $2 an hour for every hour I spent blogging, I'd be rich by now! I think its a good investment!!

    betty

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  27. No time like the present to try. Raise it up a flagpoles and see if anyone salutes.

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  28. yeah the best way to do things is just do em and then once you finish and ppl ask about tell em whats up. and then i gave up on reading. cant you summarize? yo.. make a blog that is like green text summarizations.

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  29. Congrats on Phase 1 working out! Good luck with your next stage.

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  30. good luck with all that

    I haven't had that problem with my projects, I mention things I've finished mostly rather than what I'm doing and it doesn't take me off track.

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  31. Good luck!! You are determined and focused and that's a great start! Take care
    x

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  32. I have no opinion on it. I don't care if people post ads - I don't but I just ignore ads on others' blogs. And the blogs that basically have some posts which are product endorsements - I skip those posts and just comment on the ones that are about the actual blogger.

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