Howdy all, I’m Geoff. I run a little blog entitled Can’t Get Rich, where I record my daily laments regarding the fact that I can’t seem to get rich online because all of the good ideas are taken. Anyway, Jason is busy with life and such, so he’s put me in charge of entertaining you all for a day. Why did he pick me as a guest poster? Beats me, but we do have at least one thing in common: We’re both university kids.
Well, he’s a kid. At 21, I don’t like to consider myself a kid, but in any case, we’re both university students. That’s something I’ve noticed a lot online recently: Lots of people in the 16-24 age bracket are trying to make money online. Of course, this makes perfect sense to me, but for those out there who are out of touch with my generation, let me sum up our reasoning for you in two words: We’re poor. Last semester, I worked 32 hours per week just so I could pay my bills, and that seriously cut into my time for studying. I knew something had to change, so I started researching how to make money online.
Blogging
My first thought was what everybody else seems to be thinking: Blogging for bucks. After discovering that I have no interesting hobbies and mediocre writing skills, I threw that idea out the window, but not before creating Can’t Get Rich. I haven’t monetized that blog at all, but it’s a nice daily distraction so I keep updating it. Occasionally, I’ll have a reader ask me when I’m going to start monetizing and I always tell them the same thing: When I hit 1,000 readers per day. Why 1,000? It seems like a nice round number. Tell someone that you get 963 readers per day and they’ll shrug, but 1,000? That’s respectable. Speaking of traffic, here’s a bit of advice to all the other bloggers in my age bracket: Stop trying to monetize your blog when you have 10 hits per day and 3 RSS readers. When your blog is that small, I want to see content, not Adsense blocks. Besides, Adsense is ugly.
Affiliate Marketing
Anyway, with blogging for cash out of the picture, I had to explore other options. I’d heard about some crazy magical goldmine known as affiliate marketing, but that all seemed way too complicated for me. Then I found the website of another (former) university kid, Uberaffiliate. Paul, a 19 year old affiliate marketing god makes more money in one week than I do all year. After reading his affiliate marketing guide, it didn’t seem so complicated anymore. With my newfound knowledge, I set out with small budget and high hopes to make thousands with little or no effort. After falling flat on my face due to inexperience, I finally found a technique that made me $100 overnight. The best part was I had coded that specific landing page and forgotten about it. Imagine my surprise when I saw my earnings the next evening.
Nifty, huh? Of course I haven’t done anything with that account in awhile, so that $100 was a one-hit wonder, not a daily occurrence. Still, it was a good lesson to learn, and now I’m hooked on affiliate marketing.
The bottom line
The real goal for all of us University kids should be to find what works best for us individually. Jason writes ebooks, Paul does affiliate marketing while drinking lemonade on his private island, etc. We’re young, we aren’t tied down with the 9-5 grind, and we have a lot of years stretching out before us. Find what works best for you and run with it, and don’t be afraid to screw up. Just be sure to learn from the pros and you’ll be driving a corvette around campus in no time.
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January 4th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Try something different. That is my favorite phrase. I am 15, little below your age bracket and yet I am making more money in a day than kids my age make in two weeks! Amazing post, by the way. Love the different examples you put it.
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January 4th, 2008 at 6:42 am
They sure know to earn money.
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January 4th, 2008 at 6:44 am
For a person blog that reach so many readers, that is a lot and my blog doesn’t have that much yet.
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January 4th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Hello,
I agree with you on trying out different methods and finding out what works for you. You don’t know, unless you try.
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January 4th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Affiliate marketing if done correctly and if you promote the right products can lead to a lot of money. I am currently discussing an affiliate marketing opportunity with Jason. I invite you to contact me Geoff to discuss it with you too. You can ask Jason about me if you want.
I have checked you blog and I really like the honesty in your posts. I haven’t seen something similar of your blog. I have seen a lot of blogs saying how to make money and mention all the possibilities of how you can make money without mentioning the success rate. Your blog takes another approach. It eliminates the time wasting ideas and describe why they are not successful. That will be very helpful for new comers.
Good job Geoff. Good choice Jason you chose Geoff as a guest poster.
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January 4th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I always preach to people to find their own formula. You can “borrow” other ideas and tweak them into your own, but copying another might not allows lead to the same results.
Everyone tries, but unfortunately only a few succeed.
Great guest post.
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January 4th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
[...] I wrote a guest post for the University Kid. Go [...]
January 4th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Online freelance writing is also a good way to earn some bucks.
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January 4th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Agreed, that is an excellent post. Haven’t really bothered with affiliate marketing, but my goal is to make $100.00 off it this month. Start small and work your way up, eh.
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January 4th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
That’s a great post there Geoff.
Nice to see some new faces popping up here on TUK lately with good posts
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January 4th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Yeah, nice post Geoff. I myself have wanted to get into affiliate marketing, thanks for the uberaffiliate lead!
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January 4th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Nice post
Interesting
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January 5th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
No website flipping ? ah too bad that how i made my first 100$
. Wish the guest post would have been more cynical 
. I love Geoff’s grumpiness
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January 5th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Geoff’s post was funny but interesting at the same time, in my opinion.
Shoemoney made tons out of affiliate marketing and adsense.
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January 5th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Lol..
“At 21, I don’t like to consider myself a kid, but in any case, we’re both university students.”
Eh Geoff??
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August 16th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I’m 14 and I just can’t seem to get rich even after spending 3 hours online every day…Maybe one day I’ll make some bucks.
Ganesh’s last blog post..Do you want a Free Domain Name?
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