Day 98

The tall stack of papers that has been sitting on the edge of my desk is finally gone. Today I performed the annual ritual of handing over all my tax records to my accountant in hopes that he can turn a sow's ear into a silk purse and get me a refund. Some years when I do this, I feel pretty good. The past two years have been abysmal though. I still haven't recovered from the 2008 financial meltdown. Apparently, many of my clients haven't either, because production budgets seem to get smaller every year. Many of my designer and photographer friends share the same story. Our new motto has become "Work harder. Earn less."

When I was at my accountant's office this afternoon, I noticed a whole new row of books on his bookshelf with titles like "Search Engine Marketing" and "Profiting from Twitter." Passive income has become the holy grail for just about everyone. Many of my clients ask me about "monetizing" their websites. I've even tried to do it myself. It's definitely not as easy as it looks. First of all, you have to have a really popular website. If you get 100,000 visitors a month you can potentially make real money from online advertising. If you get 1.500 to 2000 visitors a month, like many small business sites, you'd better just use your site to tell people what you do for a living. Don't believe me? Go get yourself a Google AdSense account and see how much you make the first year. I haven't given up though. Maybe when I retire, instead of supplementing my income by picking up aluminum cans by the side of the road, I'll supplement my income with online advertising instead.

Until that day comes, I'll just keep working. I've got a direct mail campaign just about ready to go to the printer and I'm only about five days away from bringing the first of my three new websites online. Too bad life isn't as easy as Entrecard. I've noticed my Entrecard account is looking pretty healthy these days. I have to remind myself that it's only Monopoly money. Jeez, if I could make real money by mindless clicking on things while I'm drinking my morning coffee, I'd be rich.

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