So, if you’re keen to see a photo of my latest cheque from Google, visit this page:

My Google AdSense Cheque (or Check for Americans)

Hopefully people will be keen to share their success stories as well.

Until next time…

But, things are building up, and I’m starting to focus on things that are important, and profitable.

One of those things is this website.

Believe it or not, this website was actually one of the very first websites I created about 4 years ago.

It was EXTREMELY basic back then, but I like to think it’s grown a little since then. It has a few more readers and a little more information.

On that note, I wanted to write this article to highlight a few things that have changed.

New Making Easy Money Website Look

I’ve completely changed the way the website looks and feels. It IS a little more complicated, BUT, I feel that it shows more information at once.

I’m planning on building this site up a little more, so the better looking the site, and the more information that is readily accessible, the better.

Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and what looks good to me might not look good to you.

So, if you are reading this by email, please do me a favour and pay the site a visit. Let me know what you think, and if you see anything that’s broken or could be improved. I REALLY value your input, because just like comedies and stories, this site is meant to be shared.

In case you don’t have easy access to the site URL, here it is:

http://www.MakingEasyMoney.co.za

Forums added to the New Site

Along with the new look and layout, I’ve added a forum section to the site.

This is where YOU, my VALUED readers, can play a BIG part.

I believe most people want to be heard, and want to learn as well.

The best way to do that is ASK QUESTIONS, and READ RESPONSES.

You can get to the Making Easy Money Forums by visiting the following URL:

http://www.makingeasymoney.co.za/forum/

If anything, PLEASE pay the “Introduction” forum a visit, and let us know who you are, and share anything you think nobody would want to know.

I’ve even got a little more info about me there:

All about Rain Maker

Don’t be too harsh on me

Anyway, I hope you like it, and I hope we can form a good little community here.

There’s just one thing I need to add, and hopefully I can do that this week as well.

But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’m supposed to be on leave, and it’s a hot Spring here in South Africa, so I better spend SOME time outside in the sun…

What if you could get rich doing something you love? Or, TALKING about something you love to talk about?

That’s roughly the idea I’m busy working on that I’m going to be sahring with all the subscribers to this site. My goal will be to help others get R40,000 cheques in the post as well. And yes, there’s something in it for me, but you won’t have to pay a single cent!

So, if you haven’t already, then SUBSCRIBE!

Anyway, here are a few of the other ways to try and earn an income that I don’t believe would work, or at least may not be worth the effort:

Selling Avon Products

Sounds cool. There are people who make money doing this. But read this report and see what it says:

But how much does the average Avon distributor really make? According to its latest 10-Q filed with the SEC , Avon Products had sales of $2.15 billion in the first quarter of 2009. Later in the document, the company notes that “Sales are made to the ultimate consumer principally through direct selling by approximately 5.8 million independent Representatives, who are independent contractors and not employees of Avon.”

To save you some calculator time, that works out to quarterly sales of about $372 per distributor, with actual earnings per distributor making up a fraction of that amount. But even if it were the full amount, it would hardly be a life-changing income stream for most people.

Using eBay to sell 2nd Hand Goods

At the very least, you could use Bid or Buy in South Africa.

But how much profit are you going to make selling your second hand items to someone else?

Are you planning on buying cheap and then selling high? Good luck. Then you could write up about it and make a killing teaching people how to do it.

(Unless you’re doing this with something like “Bank notes“).

Become a Mystery Shopper

“It is so much fun to do this. It is so much fun,” said Anita Robertson of Greer, who has been a mystery shopper for two years.

Robertson is a paralegal by trade, but makes money on the side as a mystery shopper. Last year, she pocketed more than $1,000 “grading” stores and restaurants in the Greenville-area.

Wow, after reading this article I really want to earn a WHOPPING R10,000 a year!

Ok, not really.

It wouldn’t be bad, but is it worth the effort unless you’re a shopaholic?

Using 1 method, I made R100,000 last year. It’s just SO easy!!! And, it’s easy because you can do it from home, at night, when people are sleeping… Or, if you’ve been retrenched, you can do it all day every day! The more you do it, the more you make.

(I do it part time, so I don’t make nearly as much as I could, but I have a decent job that I enjoy).

Conclusion

Anyway… I just had to write this and get it off my chest because it really irritates me how people are telling you to make millions, but they leave out how much effort it takes and how little the returns actually are.

Thanks for reading…

Want to get something off your chest about this, then please leave a comment below.

I mean, everything just seems to go right for them.

Ok, by them, I mean us. Since I bought my new car (Mercedes Benz sports car), traffic lights are always green, traffic just seems to flow smoother, and parking spaces always seem to free up at the front when I arrive.

So, how do you afford the good life?

There are a couple of things you can do to make money in this day and age.

Finding somebody else who does it and imitating them is a good way to start. Or, asking them how they do it, and it hoping they’ll share the information…

(As a side note, subscribe to this website to find out how I do it soon).

As I read somewhere recently:

If you want to know how to make chocolate chip cookies like your grandmother, it’s as simple as finding out exactly how much of each of the ingredients she uses, and then mirroring her actions in the same amount.

Another way to make money

So, if you’re not already mirroring somebody successful, (or subscribed to this site), then you just need to figure out what you’re good at, and find out how to charge for it.

Are you a great gardener? Can you fix a plug with your eyes closed? Do you have a great skill in teaching somebody?

The list could go on and on and on…

In a few weeks time, I’m going to start sharing how you can use your skills and knowledge to help others, and make a fortune doing so. Well, it won’t necessarily be a fortune, but it will definitely add sugar to the bitterness of this economic recession.

Everybody would like extra cash at the end of the month.

In South Africa, EVERYTHING is going up in price!!!

<-> Electricity is going up 60%

<-> Petrol went up today by 61c

<-> Diesel went up today by over R1.30 (and everybody used to think they could save money by buying diesel cars or diesel bakkies).

Anyway, with all these increases, people need to earn extra money on the side.

A colleague has written an article on his site about “how to make extra money“.

He gives a few tips on how you can make money online which makes it easy enough to earn extra cash, and for almost no extra work at all…

Subscribe to this site for an EASY way to make money

In a few weeks time, I’m going to start sharing with subscribers an easy way you can use your skills and knowledge to help others, and make a fortune doing so.

Well, it won’t necessarily be a fortune, but it will definitely add sugar to the bitterness of this economic recession.

Best of all, it will be FREE!

So, subscribe to this site, free of charge, by entering your email address in the box on the top right hand side of this website!

Energy Saving Globes

These cfl light bulbs cost a little extra to buy, but pay themselves off in the energy they save, and therefore, the money they save.

You can buy one bulb which will use 6 times less electricity than a normal light bulb, and it will last longer as well.

I fully recommend you go out and buy Money and Energy Saving Globes…

That article spoke about how you could cut down on electricity usage by changing a couple of the things you do/use at home.

One of those tips was to use “energy saving bulbs“. These bulbs tend to be a tad more expensive to buy than normal light bulbs, but they’re better in the long run because they last longer, and use about 20% of the electricity to produce the same amount of light.

The CFL bulbs even look quite stylish, but either way, I fully recommend you go out and buy a few. I recommend getting the day/night cfl lightbulbs which can really come in handy for lights coming on automatically in your garden…

In my first post about Virgin Money entitled “Virgin Money in South Africa” I gave a list of the features of the Credit Card as found on their website, and it’s proved to be exactly what I like about this credit card.

No Annual Credit Card Fee

To me, this is one of the best features. I have a Discovery Credit Card, and even if the interest were the same, it’s ALREADY R300 a year cheaper because of this.

Look of the Credit Card

I know it’s corny, but the credit cards themselves look quite cool.

My wife has the Black “BLING” Credit Card, and sometimes I like to confuse the people behind the counter and tell them it’s the Black Amex Card, you know, the one made out of Platinum and where you need to spend a minimum of $100,000 a MONTH!

No Hassles So Far

I don’t want to jinx it, but we live in a modern world where we ALWAYS have complaints. And so far, with the Virgin Money Credit Card, my wife hasn’t had a single complain.

So so far, so good.

Titled “7 easiest money and energy saving tips at home“, it shows a few things you can do to save money at home.

And, not only save money, but save energy!

Here’s an example:

- Geyser

The geyser uses a LOT of power to heat up your water. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a “holiday” button like your fridge. Though it should. So, when going away for more than a couple of days, I turn the geyser off at the house’s main power board (the electrical mains). It might be a coincidence, but when I turned the geyser off for a week, my electricity bill was almost 30% cheaper.

So go read it, and tell me if it helps YOU save money at home!

Shame, poor chap. He’s only the second richest man on the planet now. What is a man to do?

So, who’s the richest?

Forbes magazine has ranked Carlos Slim Helu as being richer than Bill Gates, making him number 1.

Bill Gates apparently has around 56 Billion dollars, which is a little more than I earn in a year. About 20 million times.

THAT is depressing.