Does anyone earn a living without having a job?

PasturesNew

PassedAtFailing wrote: »

Can I ask the subjects of your websites?

In my experience websites are very hit and miss, with a very fine formula that is ever changing for them to be popular. Naturally you have to make your website easily found and interesting. I guess I am basically asking: what is working for you?

1] No

2] Yes they are. I have a couple that make about £30/year. In my experience, article writing's the easiest to do to build an income without the hassle/cost of ever running a website and keeping on top of it.

I don't do it properly ... I don't research trends then hit trends. I don't promote my sites either. My sites are really just for me to play around with things and ideas ... and they happen to make money, which is handy because it means I can spend more time f4nnying about with them instead of getting a 'proper job'. Because I don't treat them seriously and don't promote them, I'm missing out on a huge opportunity.

I just dunno why I don't take it seriously really. I think I enjoy the research and experimentation and checking stats. I'm more of a geek than a capitalist.

PassedAtFailing

PasturesNew wrote: »

1] No

2] Yes they are. I have a couple that make about £30/year. In my experience, article writing's the easiest to do to build an income without the hassle/cost of ever running a website and keeping on top of it.

I don't do it properly ... I don't research trends then hit trends. I don't promote my sites either. My sites are really just for me to play around with things and ideas ... and they happen to make money, which is handy because it means I can spend more time f4nnying about with them instead of getting a 'proper job'. Because I don't treat them seriously and don't promote them, I'm missing out on a huge opportunity.

I just dunno why I don't take it seriously really. I think I enjoy the research and experimentation and checking stats. I'm more of a geek than a capitalist.

I actually find you quite caustic.

I also find your relaxed attitude to financial record keeping dangerous.

Still... thanks for trying to answer my question.

PasturesNew

PassedAtFailing wrote: »

I actually find you quite caustic.

I also find your relaxed attitude to financial record keeping dangerous.

Still... thanks for trying to answer my question.

Oh well. That'll probably be the Aspergers; that happens.

As for a relaxed attitude to record keeping, it's just that to log onto every website where I might have earnt £0.10 today (or not) would take up more than a day each time .... some things pay out straight away, some email you if there's money in the pot, some pay direct into my bank, some by paypal, some by cheque. It'd be a complete waste of time to check them all, then 'worry' which day each of them would be paying out, and by which method, then checking if it did. It's better to just randomly receive money and then look up who it was from and log on to see what for.

I have gathered together my main passwords/usernames recently and found over 350 active accounts. It took me 7 days to get these all together and checked.

There is money to be made in any subject, if you're interested enough in it to do the work, or lucky enough to pick something that's a winner.

My advice to people is: just do something... and then just keep doing it. You have to play long games, not short games.

I'd rather have £100/month from 20 sources, than £2000 from one. Right now I seem to have about 3-4 sources that pay £50-100/month and one that pays me 80% of my earnings. It worries me to have so much tied into one source... which is why I always look around. And the web is changing. Web 2.0 now, soon Web 3.0. That'll need a lot of research in itself and, I fear, will mean I might get "left behind" so to speak.

petethesteam

How, what systems do you use?

JennyJewell

Hi I absolutely do not mean this in a disrespectful way whatsoever but if you genuinely do live with Aspergers I totally understand the bluntness that may come across and I know that isn't a rudeness at all it's completely part and parcel of Aspergers - everything is as it is and in black and white, no inbetween (Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).
Whatever is legally working for you and anyone else - great
Jen
P.s. I agree with having lots of eggs in the basket each earning a little than one lump sum - that lump sum doesn't work out means no money at all, it's the coke machine situation

PasturesNew wrote: »

Oh well. that'll probably be the Aspergers; that happens.

As for a relaxed attitude to record keeping, it's just that to log onto every website where I might have earnt £0.10 today (or not) would take up more than a day each time .... some things pay out straight away, some email you if there's money in the pot, some pay direct into my bank, some by paypal, some by cheque. It'd be a complete waste of time to check them all, then 'worry' which day each of them would be paying out, and by which method, then checking if it did. It's better to just randomly receive money and then look up who it was from and log on to see what for.

I have gathered together my main passwords/usernames recently and found over 350 active accounts. It took me 7 days to get these all together and checked.

There is money to be made in any subject, if you're interested enough in it to do the work, or lucky enough to pick something that's a winner.

My advice to people is: just do something... and then just keep doing it. You have to play long games, not short games.

I'd rather have £100/month from 20 sources, than £2000 from one. Right now I seem to have about 3-4 sources that pay £50-100/month and one that pays me 80% of my earnings. It worries me to have so much tied into one source... which is why I always look around. And the web is changing. Web 2.0 now, soon Web 3.0. That'll need a lot of research in itself and, I fear, will mean I might get "left behind" so to speak.

SEASHELL

I'm one of those people who earn a living without a job. It's definitely not the easy option. I work phones and cam, mystery shop, copywrite, surveys, work the cashback sites, ebay, amazon and do tele-sales from home. I'm sure theres more but just can't think:p
My dd is ill and this means I can't hold a full time job down due to the amount of time she spends in hospital. The work I do depends on how well she is.
When she's well I mystery shop and do phones and cam. When shes unwell I can do all the other stuff while she sleeps.

At the moment I'm earning a wage and keeping our heads just above water.But I know when she gets better I can do a lot more work and earn a very decent wage.

And no I don't claim any benefits besides child benefit

boostii

You might get a few ideas from Auther Daley or Del Boy if you watch old episodes of Minder/Only Fools And Horses.

PasturesNew

In reference to my slack accounting, mentioned earlier, just yesterday I received:
- £10 cheque in the post, from an affiliate programme I've just started promoting
- payslip for one day's employment through an agency
- an email from a firm that had paid me $67 into my Paypal for introducing somebody to them back in April 2010
- an email from a firm that had paid me $16 into my Paypal 1for .. .er, whatever it is I do for them (it'd take time to dig that out/log on/check and look)
- logging online I can see I earnt £2 as an ebay affiliate
- logging online I can see I got £17 from Adsense (bad day)
- logging online I can see I earnt $2 from another affiliate programme

Ultimately, all of that money will come in through my bank account... where's the bad record keeping if I simply take my bank statements and go through with a highlighter pen where I've been paid. I don't care who by, or what for. But there'll be 2-4 entries per month. Much easier to devote one solid day per year getting everything into one pile and going through and doing all the accounting/calculating then. It's not like I "do work for somebody, who is a client, who needs an invoice, who should pay, I need to check if they paid". It's all just random money coming from any one of 350 companies, who might pay by various means, at any amount of delayed timescale. No point making a meal out of it!

inspirespirit

SEASHELL wrote: »

I'm one of those people who earn a living without a job. It's definitely not the easy option. I work phones and cam, mystery shop, copywrite, surveys, work the cashback sites, ebay, amazon and do tele-sales from home. I'm sure theres more but just can't think:p
My dd is ill and this means I can't hold a full time job down due to the amount of time she spends in hospital. The work I do depends on how well she is.
When she's well I mystery shop and do phones and cam. When shes unwell I can do all the other stuff while she sleeps.

At the moment I'm earning a wage and keeping our heads just above water.But I know when she gets better I can do a lot more work and earn a very decent wage.

And no I don't claim any benefits besides child benefit

omg Well done. I wish I could do the same. I have a son who is ill and has regular hospital admissions and needs a lot of care. I am desperately trying to find something I can do to make money at home. I have no chance of holding down a 'proper' job. At the moment, I depend on Benefits, unfortunately. I'm also not sure how to go from Benefits to earning enough to keep us. I've joined survey sites but not getting much from them and haven't earned a solitary penny. I am thinking of trying to make things to sell but still can't see how I would make enough to cover rent/bills etc.
Any ideas would be appreciated.

soontobemum

SammyS,

I know what you mean! I have been looking to do something that brings in an income without actually going out and getting a job. This allows me to spend more time with my family and have something to live on. I need to start this now before my baby is born so that it is established and requires a little less effort during that time.

PasturesNew, I have considered what you are doing and it seems really interesting. Thank you for the info.