Does Time = Money?

The old belief is that time equals money: the more time and effort you put into something the more successful and profitable it will be.

When I first started to compose this blog post I instantly started to thing about "passive income", which is when you do little (or even nothing) but earn automatically.  I've discussed a few passive income options available to internet earners, and if you click here you'll see those posts.  But the majority of passive income streams are built on the hard work and time you put into a project beforehand.  For example, a passive income stream generated through the work your referrals might be doing on a site meant you had to spend a great amount of time building that referral base.  Alternatively you might have to spend time updating a website, writing a blog, sending out newsletters or posting urls to direct traffic to your site.

So it might seem that I agree with "time = money", but I don't!

There are sites out there which require you to spend ages completing tasks and clicking links for very small amounts.  Often these sites workout to be paying only $1.00-$0.50 per hour!  However, there is no skill involved.  Some sites can be paying you $4.00-$6.00 per hour, but these require good quality reviews to be completed, so a level of skill is required.

Clearly time does not equal money, but time plus skill equals money.  Therefore, when looking to earn on the internet you should use the skills you have.  If you can write well then writing reviews will be much more profitable you than clicking advertisements.

If you want to go down the passive income route, don't be disheartened if you don't see much money in the early stages as it will take time to build up your stream (and eventually river).  Have a strategy and stick to it.  Set targets and work on improving what you do, analysing both what did right and what you did wrong.

If you are not going down the passive income route the ultimate trick is to work out the quickest way you can earn money online - it's different for everyone so don't go wasting time where you won't make money.

My Average Day

I have an email asking me what my average day was like - how much time I spend earning on the web and what my income was.  I've decided the best way to answer that is by recording my day and tallying up at the end, so here goes...

9.00am-9.30am - Time for a coffee!  I turn on the computer and head straight over to Inbox Dollars.  My first 5 searched of the day will be found through this site, which will earn me $0.06.  The site I search for is  Slice the Pie!  And over the next 30 minutes I drink my coffee and listen to music - posting reviews as I listen.  I posted 8 reviews and made $1.89.

9.30am-10.00am - I look at my Adf.ly account and my AdSense, noting that I made $0.21 and $0.89, respectively, before turning my attention to the boring part of the morning... my Paid To Click sites.  I have 6 of these on the go at the moment (2 because of the PTC Experiment) and the rest being tested for a review on the blog. NeoBux made me about $0.50 with referrals (in the last 24 hours) and the rest which includes the likes of ClixSense, PTCBox and BuxP have probably made only $0.25, with varying numbers of personal and referral clicks. It takes 30 minutes to get through this lot, partly because I have an increasing number of referrals to manage.

10.00am-4.00pm - It's time to do what I get paid for and go to work.  I'll complete this post later!  Still to do: forums, more music reviews, and surveys.

4.00pm-4.45pm - I decide to check out e-rewards, Valued Opinions and NPolls find a couple of surveys.  Surveys are one of the most profitable ways to make money on the internet and in 1 hour I have made £1.50 on Valued Opinions, $0.20 on NPolls  and the equivalent of $2 on e-rewards.  Usually if I can't find surveys on these sites there are others I will check out.

4.45pm-5.30pm - This is the last stint on me earning on the internet for the day and I spend it on Slice the Pie, earning a further $2.51, but also seeing that my referrals have been busy and added a further $0.38 to that sum.

In total today:

• Adverts = $1.10
• PTCs = $0.75
• Surveys = $4.20
• Music reviewing = $4.40

Grand total = $10.45 for 2.5 hours work, though there are other days when this can be higher this seems average, bringing in $70-75 per week (quite a nice 2nd income earned for the time most people send on Facebook).

Make Your River Flow

So, a few days into this blog and I've recommended a few sites (don't worry I'll be pointing out ones to avoid too), but I've avoided pointing people to one single BIG MONEY MAKING SITE.

Why?

Well the simple answer is, because there isn't one.  Well there isn't one for everyone.  Each and every person has to find the site, affiliate program or referral system that suits them, their lifestyle and how much they want to earn.  Some people might claim to be made rich from one or two sites, but be aware these claims might not be 100% reliable, so check things out and feel free to ask me too.  Additionally, you shouldn't have to pay to join a money making scheme (read: SCAM) and I'll blog more on these another day.

I was prompted into writing this post because I was worried that people are looking to make money off "passive income" and the Internet without having a sensible strategy in mind, or even knowing where to start.

What I do want to point out is that any site I do recommend has been tried and is still be used by myself, to generate income.  Each site will stream a small amount of money in your direction.  Survey sites (like Valued Opinions and Survey4Profit) for example, often pay quite well but can only offer a couple of surveys per day.  But by having a few survey sites on the go and also trying out other sites like ClixSense or Snap Dollars can mean you have many streams of income.

Here's the thing... whilst no stream by itself earns much, they can all feed down to make one might river!

It does take time to start seeing results, but if you stick with it, put the time in and look at different strategies (which I will be blogging on in not too distant future) you can make a nice income from the internet.

I'm going to continue introducing trusted sites that will make you money.  I'll be honest about the income streams, posting my results and experiences.