Make Money from Home Free: How I Made My First $4,739.27 by Blogging and Writing Online Without Spending a Dime

by Paula Neal Mooney

Many of you liked my post detailing how I made $4,375.75 online.

It’s only two weeks later but my blogging income is increasing, and since it’s the first business day of the month, I thought it was time to get on schedule and start posting my income monthly.

Put your email address here to get free daily updates in your inbox, and find out how much more I’ve made next month, in hopes that you will, too.

Making Money Online for Free
While the fascinating and funny Mitchell Harper from the skyrocketing HarpzOn.com may have 10 grand to drop on promoting his site, others like me find it a fun challenge to make money from scratch.

So here’s the break down of how much I’ve made online -- check my previous post for the backstory.

This time I’ve sorted them into the most and least hopeful online money-making avenues:

Good Online Money Makers:
Online Local Mags like Cleveland/Akron Family
Still sitting at $1,230.00, my next $100 check for my next online and print essay should be in my mailbox soon.

Associated Content
Up to $1,190.04, representing an additional $78.99 earned in just 14 days. I’ve included money for one news story, my pageview bonus bucks for March, and the $39 referral bucks ($3 times 13 people) that I’m sure AC will have in my PayPal account any moment now. To get yours, sign up for Associated Content, get paid 5 bucks for approved news stories, bonuses based on pageviews and $3 for each person you refer in April.

Amazon Associates
Increased to $657.59, up a good $84.12 in a couple of weeks. It’s chugging along at a good pace; do the same by joining Amazon associates and finding a soon-to-be-popular (and preferably expensive) product to promote that you can get a good search-engine optimized jump on.

All in all, readers have purchased $10,666.81 worth of stuff on Amazon via my blog. Amazon doesn't pay you anything to refer others to them, but I’m really excited about increasing this number dramatically, especially after reading Scott Allen’s thorough and detailed and good tips on how to make more money with Amazon.

Ghost Blogging
Up to $400.00, which is $150.00 more than last post. Ironic, it’s my dad’s tax blog that I started a $30 per month Google Adwords campaign on that has yet to see a profit, while my free blog has made the money. But I believe his blog will increase soon, too.

Google Adsense and Referrals
Rising to $330.18, an increase of $27.22 over last time. I removed my wide Google Adsense banner incorporated into my posts to make my blog more readable, so my Adsense earnings dropped.

But I still have hope in making more Google Adsense money thru referrals, which pay as such:

Recommend the free Firefox browser..."Browse the web faster. Get Firefox with Google Toolbar" is their pitch, and it's so true for me. Download this browser if you haven’t already. It’s made my blogging life so much faster and better. And get $1 every time someone downloads it thru your blog, based on their location and if they have Windows.

Pitch Google Adsense to your readers...Generate revenue from your website. Google AdSense. Get paid varying amounts when readers click on your ads. When a publisher who signed up for Google AdSense through your referral first earns $5 within 180 days of sign-up, you will be credited with $5.

Encourage others to download the free Google Pack of products including Google Earth (that controversial decided to show pics of New Orleans before the levees broke, Picasa, and other good products. I love looking for my house and those of my family and friends on Google Earth...Crop, sharpen, make pictures pop. Get the free Google Pack. And make $1 each time someone downloads it via your website!

If your readers are bloggers, urge them to use try Google Adwords...Increase traffic to your website. Get Google AdWords.

Here's the deal:
o When an advertiser you refer first spends $5 within 90 days of sign-up (in addition to the $5 sign-up fee) you will be credited with $5.
o When that same advertiser spends $100 within 90 days of sign-up, you will be credited with an additional $40.
o If in any 180 day period you refer 20 advertisers who each spend more than $100 within 90 days of their respective sign-ups, you will be awarded a $600 bonus (bonus payouts are limited to 1 per year).

Auction Ads
My revenue jumped from $3.42 to $22.40, up $18.98 in a couple of weeks, probably mostly from referrals, ‘cause I moved my Auction Ads way down on my blog. So if you’re running prominent Auction Ads and referring, you have the potential to make lots more.

So Join Auction Ads and start showing eBay ads on your blog and especially referring others. I know ShoeMoney (who runs Auction Ads) has deep pockets, and he sure as heck got that $22.40 in my PayPal account quickly this past weekend!

PayPerPost
Some claim PPP is in trouble and tight on cash ‘cause they’re offering advertisers $5 post sales, but I’m up to $177.00 earnings with them without having posted for pay in a while.

Most of that money represents referrals, so sign up to make $15 for every person you refer to PayPerPost and make $7.50 to blog about this post -- click this image, sign up with PayPerPost and check out their Review My Post program:


They even have a new referral box you can plop on your blog, but it confused me by listing my logon ID defaulted in the box, so I took it off so as not to confuse my readers. I’m waiting for PPP to fix their site and recognize our Technorati rankings to get serious about blogging for them again to make it worthwhile.

Online money-makers I’m watching to see how much they make
Swag
I’m always on the lookout for free stuff, and the $164.64 worth of free stuff I’ve gotten thus far has been updated to include the 3 lbs. DVD pilot I forgot that Associated Content sent me.

SponsoredReviews
Still at 65 bucks earned and paid, I like sites that pay fast. No referral program yet, and a few of my bids have been rejected or are still pending. I don’t see any other interesting advertisers out there I want to blog about as of today…

Text Link Ads
They’ve paid me the $25.00 promised, but my referrals have not grown as much as I expected. JohnTp.com has a great explanation as to why this is happening.

So sign up for Text-Link Ads, and encourage the people you refer to install those scripts for at least 7 days or more!

AdBrite
AdBrite is my only revenue that somehow dropped from $5.45 to $0.16 without me doing anything. I’d better check again, but I don’t think they paid me and I’m misinterpreting it. Feel free to sign up to try and make some cash by referring people to AdBrite, but as my friend Bonnie reminded me, be warned that if you run their ads, they will redirected your blog at least once per day to advertisements.

SlashMySearch
Just joined and somehow I’ve already made a penny! But I don’t necessarily hold out much hope for this one, because not only do people have to sign up for SlashMySearch thru your blog, (if the dad-blasted referral link is working!) they’ve also gotta search in order for you to make money. I’ll keep my eye on this one...

PayPal
I haven’t made any money yet by referring folks to PayPal, only because I didn’t realize they had a referral program! So, for the 1% of the North American population who doesn’t have PayPal.com account, sign up here and get one already!

I love my PayPal account. I even got the PayPal debit card (though admittedly it doesn’t work everywhere, but ALWAYS works at the ATM!) that I use quite a bit to grab cash from all these places that pay me thru my PayPal account. It’s the bank of the future...

Earnings for Blogging About Swag
Still need to email HarperCollins about my 20 bucks owed.

AGLOCO
I’ve got one referral listed, but no cash yet. Sign up to see how much you can make, then tell me!

Clickbank
Still nada, but once I actually take the time to research some of their products, especially the ones Rosalind Gardner describes pay out handsomely with good pay out rates, could be a winner.

Chitika eMiniMalls
Nothing yet, but seemingly good for those with product blogs, so sign up and refer folks and get 10% of their earnings.

LinkShare
Zilch. Need more time to find good products and services.

Performics
Zip. Just found my password again last night.

AdVolcano
No sales yet; no referral program.

So-called money-makers that I’ve lost hope in:
ReviewMe
Though I’ve made 225 good and promptly-paying dollars with ReviewMe, no more offers have come down the pipeline. But sign up with ReviewMe anyway and submit your blog for approval. It can’t hurt...

CreamAID
Only $16.00 because I refuse to blog about online gambling and such...

Blogsvertise
Made $35.00 with them, but nothing more. I just rejected an ad with them.

Blogitive
A mere $15.00 ‘cause no interesting offers and no revenue sharing and no referral programs.

LoudLaunch
Filled with plastic surgery advertisers, no referral program to speak of and only $10 made.

Orble
Zero. Can’t even find the money stats they claim you’ll make…

Blogging Ads
Nothing from what I remember. Is this a scam?

Sites that rejected me, but I will try again with my new dot com:
AzooleAds
Yahoo Publishers Network
Burst Media

Writers, try these places, too:
Writer's Digest Contests – I’ve made $156.25 when my “Looking for Mr. Byline” won their Chronicle competition and then got published in their print mag. (Check my older post for the links to these places if you'd like to know more.

And sign up for updates about free ways to make money at home and other miscellaneous ramblings from me. I'll investigate the shams, scams and real money makers -- and save you the time and trouble!