We're coming to the end of the Thirty Day Challenge. I have to say - the challenge has been by far one of the most informative lessons I've learned about making money online.

This blog has been in existence for a little over 2 months now. It started out on a whim - a challenge to myself to see if I could do something (i.e. make money online) - without any real experience. Could I use the internet as a resource to educate myself on how to make money online (without investing any), while at the same time making money online? It's sort of been like going to school and trying to get paid to do it.

Of course the need for this experiment was based on a real life need of providing for my family. Not that I don't provide for them - but I have a non-traditional occupation (i.e. poker player) in which there are no benefits, no retirement plan, and no real security. I've done that for four years and have always done well - but there's always the what if? I was o.k. with the what if? before Harper, because it's always just been me, but now I feel the need to create something that will always be there in case of a what if? That's where the idea of the internet and creating a passive income for my family that we'll always be able to count on came in.

I love to look at how things evolve, how learning different things will change your course, how one action will lead to one result while another action will lead to a different one.

When I started this project - I really had no idea how to get where I was going. I was starting as a clean slate. Since I've started I've seen a lot of other blogs done by people much more knowledgeable than myself - trying to go from not having an online income to creating one. But these guys have done there homework. They have relative experience and they have a plan - I had nothing more than a goal when I started.

I knew that you could make money online - but I wasn't exactly sure how. I knew there were bloggers that made money - but I really had no idea to go about that. I have another blog that I've had for about 2 years - and I had put some AdSense ads on it which I think made me about 10 bucks over a year. I had no idea about ad placement or how to really monetize that blog - but that wasn't my goal with that blog. It was more like "Oh wow, you can make money with ads on your blog? Ok, here's an ad." And then I forgot about it.

So when I decided to do this - I started with the 'Get Paid To' programs. All the ones in my sidebar. Do a search for "making money online" and you'll quickly be guided towards those programs. I didn't even start with this blog. The blog came about 2 weeks into the project when I thought it would be nice to have a central place to review and handle traffic for my 'Get Paid To' programs. This blog was started as a hub for that - but has since evolved into a little more than that - I hope. Yes - I still am using the GPT programs now, but they've kind of taken a back seat to Internet Marketing.

Internet Marketing - I don't even know how I came across it. I just began to see more examples of it as I tried to continue my self-education. I would stumble across a blog where somebody was talking about niches and read an article about that - not really understanding it. Then I would come across a 'niche' site, and suddenly recognize it for what it was. Before - I never really realized that I might be on some site talking about and selling 'herbal remedies' or anything for that matter, and the owner of that site might not be the 'expert' that I thought they were. Wow. You could do that?

So I'd look for more information which eventually led me to the 30 Day Challenge. What an experience. I now know how to research, build, and get traffic for a niche site. I've even made a sale on a product that I really knew nothing about until I started researching that market. How exciting is that? It's like I can put on a different hat everyday. One day I could work in my little shop selling barbecue equipment and the next day be a fitness expert talking about weight training (no, those are not the niches I'm working right now).

So where do I see this going? Well, I see myself trying to build some niche sites in the near future to work towards my goal. I love internet marketing - I was telling my mother about it because I was thinking it was almost a perfect combination of all of the different skills that I've acquired throughout my life. It's tough because I have this strange skill set, but it seems to work in this field.

I've never had a real career - being a poker pro is the closest thing I've had that could be called a career - and I don't think there are many people that would call it that. But here's the problem - I didn't go to business school or medical school - I went to graduate school and studied poetry. Poetry. When I was doing it I was telling myself that this was a life choice - that I wasn't interested in creating a career for myself, I just wanted to study the art. Of course - when I decided that I wasn't going to continue teaching (which is all you can really do as a poet - because I don't think there's a single poet that makes a living solely on their writing of poetry), I entered the work force without a degree for any type of 'regular' career. I have plenty of degrees, yes, but nothing that really gave me many options besides staying in school and working in academia (which is where most of my friends from grad school are). I had just decided that that wasn't for me.

Since I've left that world I've worked for a couple of graphic design firms (not as a designer - some copy writing, but mostly production and account management). I've sold cars - new and used. I've waited tables. I worked briefly as a financial planner (but grew tired of it as I learned it was so sales heavy (by this time I was burned out on sales)). And than I figured out I was better than most people at a game called poker and before I knew it - had been using poker as my sole income for more than four years. Plus, over the years I've tinkered with websites and stuff to know just enough to get by if I wanted to create a website.

So like I said - I was telling my mother how my skill set fits internet marketing. I love reading and research, I've done all sorts of sales, I was trained as a writer, I've done better in situations where I'm working for myself as opposed to somebody else, and I know enough about computers and the internet to know what a tech guy is talking about, or at least enough to be able to find out the information for myself and understand it even if they use silly words like 'javascript' or 'rss' or 'ftp.'

So that's why I love the 30 Day Challenge. It's given me an opportunity to really believe that I might be able to create what I set out to create - a little stability in Harper's life. It's made me realize that I can be a 'jack of all trades / master of none' and still find success. Have I found that success? No, but I can taste it. I realize this is the beginning of a new journey. My quest that started with 'gpt' sites and not knowing a whole lot about making money online, is going to take a turn into Internet Marketing for the time being. And I'm excited to see where I go from here.

Because with internet marketing, I'm no expert. Yet.


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