2010: Working My Butt Off to Become Debt Free and Financially Independent...

img credit: doug88888

2009 has been one of my hardest years on a personal and financial level. In 2010, I want it to be different. Rather than focusing on problems, I want to focus on solutions. This is a whole new way of thinking for me 'cos I'm used to zoning in on problems ...almost with mathematical precision. Sometimes I'll go the other way: complete denial. To the extreme.

Either way, it's a disabling habit.


I was in the bath the other day and I got to thinking: focusing on the problem doesn't make the problem go away. Nah-ah, it feeds it. Makes its eyes bigger, its teeth sharper.


My no.1 priority is to be in a healthier financial position by the end of 2010. Maybe I'll have to put some of my dreams on hold until then, and maybe to some extent I'll have to knuckle down and do things that aren't a particular passion of mine, but I so want the peace of mind and empowerment that comes with knowing that I don't owe anyone a single penny and that I can pay my bills not just some times, but all the time.

I'd love to have some savings aside and live comfortably, but if paying off all my debt by the end of 2010 is the only thing I get to do, then it'd be a job well done and I'd be soooo proud of myself.


My homework over the next couple of days is to take stock of all that I owe. Believe me, I need a few days because there are some bills that have grown little paper legs and hidden somewhere in the flat. But I'll find them.


I have dreams. Grand dreams. But this particular dream - becoming 100% debt-free – will be a thread that runs through 2010 until it's achieved. It's not going to be easy. I know myself better than anyone - I can be my worst enemy. But somehow, I'm just gonna have to learn (how) to be a better friend to myself.


Ebele.

October Earnings: Now That's a Bit Better...

I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't too pleased with my September earnings ($134.42). My ears did droop a bit. Told myself "ah well, it could have been worse - could have made a big fat zero", but hell, was still a tad disappointed.

Glad I've made more in October - $262.92. That's almost $130 more than Sept. Now if you'd like to step this way, earnings were as follows:

- Freelance Writing: $192.60 (I'm easing myself back into writing, but it'll remain a part-time gig as anything more than that will drive me round the bend)

- IM Report Card: $68.63 (read more about IM Report Card here)

- QuickRewards Network: $1.69 (read more about QuickRewards Network here)


Plans for November...

- carry on with freelance writing, IM Report Card & QuickRewards

- stay focused on Xomba

- do more paid surveys. Didn't do a lot of those last month.

- might dabble in one or two other things


Ultimately, I'd like to make more this month than I did last month, so fingers, toes and ears crossed.


Hope everyone had a good October - wishing y'all a super duper November.


I'm out...

Ebele.

My Xomba Experiment…

For anyone who hasn't heard of a site called Xomba before, it's a revenue-sharing article-writing/bookmarking site. I joined it about 7 months ago, but like a few sites I'm with, I joined but was never that active on it. I don't usually give revenue-sharing sites much thought as I'm more into money I can get upfront. But lately, I've been having a think about the residual element of revenue-sharing sites. Writing for money upfront certainly has its rewards, no doubt about that. There's a certain self-assuredness that comes with knowing that once I write two articles for my client, I'm gonna get $100 in my account. However, I've also been thinking that it would be cool if something I wrote earned me money over a longer period of time. Initially, I might not make as much as I do for upfront pay, but over time I might end up making more.

I'm not giving up one method for another, neither am I putting one above the other. Both techniques – upfront pay and residual pay - have their pros and cons. However, I'm becoming more open to trying out the latter way of earning to see what it can do for me. Hence, Xomba. I've chosen Xomba because I've heard good things about it. Some people have had various levels of success with it and they seem to have a supportive admin team and member base.


Articles = Xombytes. Bookmarks = Xomblurbs.

In keeping with the Xomba theme, any articles you post up are known as Xombytes and bookmarks are called Xomblurbs. Xombytes have to be no less then 150 words. Xomblurbs are basically links to things you find on the web that you think other people might find interesting. You accompany your link with a short review (minimum 50 words) describing what you're linking people out to.

The content you write in your Xombytes and Xomblurbs have to be unique.

I'm still learning the ropes, but here's an example of a Xombyte and Xomblurb I wrote.


The Revenue-sharing Part of Xomba...

...is via Adsense on a 50/50 basis (you get 50%; Xomba gets 50%). You can also earn 10% of the ad revenue your referrals earn.

From what I've read, there are a number of factors that contribute towards you earning. It's a matter of experimenting to find out what works for you. However, the following factors play a role in some way:

- the keywords you use
- how well you write
- how regularly you write
- how well you promote your writing/ how much (relevant) traffic you attract
- how much you enjoy what you're doing

It also helps to mingle within the Xomba community. I don't think this affects earnings, but it's not a bad thing to do.



My Plan is...

- to post more Xomblurbs than Xombytes. I've read that this can be a good strategy. Besides, I'm not overly enthused about writing articles anyway, so bookmarking is right up my alley.

- to recreate the bookmarks I have on StumbleUpon as Xomblurbs

- to post all the blogs I frequently visit as Xomblurbs

- to visit sites like Google Trends and Yahoo News to find out what's popular and create blurbs/bytes around them.

- to create blurbs/bytes around what interests me. For example, I like photography so I've started creating Xomblurbs that point to pics I like.

- to comment on other members' bytes/blurbs that I find interesting


I plan on creating 12-15 Xomblurbs and 1 Xombyte a week (possibly 2 – we'll see).


I'm just gonna play around and see how it goes.

Wish me luck.



Too-doo-loo...

Ebele.

Clixsense Update: Over $5 and Counting…

img credit

(read previous post here)


First things first, when I upgraded my membership on Clixsense last month ($10), I later found out my bank levied a 'debit card service charge' of £1.50 on top of that. I'm not sure if it was because of currency conversions or something (I'm in the UK). It's not much money in the grand scheme of things but I wasn't expecting it. When you add the $3 processing fee Clixsense charges per payout, it's just as well I upped my minimum payout on there to $20 rather than the default $10.

Anyway, so far I've made a total of $5.12 since I reactivated my Clixsense account early last month. I clicked through the initial mountain of around 270 ads I received when I first upgraded – took me about a week. Since I've gotten through those, I've been making b/w $0.00-$0.18 a day depending on whether I log on and how many times a day I log on. I've been getting a couple of 2 cent ads, I think I got a 3 or 4 cent one once, but most are worth 1 cent each.



For some reason, I'm not finding Clixsense as tiresome to use as I did with Neobux. But hey, that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. You can't tell a cookie not to crumble in whichever messy configuration it chooses to crumble into. That would be cookie abuse. That would be wrong. You could go to jail for that. For a long time.

They don't serve cookies in prison, you know. Uh uh.


My Clixsense upgrade doesn't expire 'til September next year, but at some point I might actually forgo receiving a cheque from across the pond and just use anything I earn on there to buy advertising.

We'll see.


See ya,

Ebele, the Fart Fairy.