I don’t think I’m doing this making money by blogging thing correctly. If you would have asked me 1.5 years ago how much money I thought I would ever earn through blogging, I would have said zero. Maybe $50 bucks. In the back of my mind, I had quasi-serious goals like earn $100 or $500 somehow. But I never honestly thought I’d earn any type of real money.

Things have definitely turned out way cooler than I ever could have imagined. Since my entry into the blogging universe, I’ve taken something like $2,300 to the bank. Not bad for something I still consider to be a hobby. Once you subtract out all the costs I’ve had, (not many), I’m left with $1,998.

That money is split between separate business checking & savings accounts. At first I tried keeping it all together, but that didn’t turn out to be such a hot idea. Separate accounts make my life soooo much easier. Other than paying for website hosting and buying some business checks (ladies love business checks) though, I haven’t spent a dime of that money on anything. I basically forget it even exists on a day to day basis.

I’ve mentally locked that money away and now I can’t find the key! Other than keeping a bit of it in business checking to pay for website hosting, all that money could really be treated as the same as my normal paycheck. Keyword is “could“. For some reason, I treat this money differently than the rest of my income.

The key issue at hand is that blog income is more unpredictable than what comes out of Charlie Sheen’s mouth. Some months I’ll bring in $800. Other months it’s close to $0 or some random # like $88. Until it stabilizes at a nice big number like $1,000 each and every month (I wish!) there’s no easy way for me to calculate what I should pay myself each month.

So readers…how do I unlock my cash and actually put it to use? I could pay down some student loan debt or start saving up for a new car. Or maybe continuing to act like it’s not really there is the best option?

I’ve been dealing with ridiculous Internet problems lately. I know you’re tired of hearing that, I know I sure am. I finally got a solid connection last night, but just as I was about to punch out one of my usual pieces of literary genius, I hear Osama Bin Laden is dead. With that kind of news, it’s hard to focus on a personal finance post.

Instead, I listened to the President’s speech and wrote this post. AT&T is supposed to reconnect my internet on Thursday, but I should be able to get posts scheduled at school for the rest of this week. Fear not, readers!

This video is completely unrelated to finance in every possible way. But it always makes me laugh at how awesome the satire is and it sums up a lot of Americans’ feelings right now. It’s explicit and probably offensive, so proceed with caution!

Like many bloggers, I make money from…blogging. I place certain advertisements on The Financial Student and I’m compensated by those sponsors. The level of pay varies among source, but at the moment, it’s enough to cover the costs of running the site (hosting, domain registration, miscellaneous costs) plus a little extra “fun/pay down student loan debt” money. A recent comment from a reader prompted me to write this post – explaining my earnings openly.

Yesterday, I wrote about Discover Card’s reward categories. That post, by itself, earns me nothing. No one said “Hey Ryan, write about Discover’s reward program and we’ll toss $20 your way.” However, I did place a few affiliate links in the post. If a reader were to click one of those links, they’d be taken to Discover’s website where they could open an account. If they do, I receive a one-time commission. In InternetLand™, this is called affiliate marketing. I refer someone to a product and if they buy it (or open an account in this case), I get paid.

My post yesterday was the first one of its kind that I’ve ever written. I was trying to come up with a post idea and noticed Discover’s reminder to sign up for a new category. I figured that a lot of other people have Discover cards and would benefit from being reminded to sign up. For those that don’t hold Discover cards, the post may have made them aware of a rewards program they didn’t previously know about. If they found a card that benefits them and I made a few bucks, that’s a win-win in my opinion.

Beyond affiliate marketing, I run Google Adsense on The Financial Student. This is the most widely used advertising on the web. Google gives you a bit of code to insert on your site and they place advertisements for you. The ads are contextual – based on what writing appears on the page. If I write a post about investing, Google might place an ad for E*Trade or Sharebuilder on the page. If a visitor clicks the ad, I’m paid anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars.

Lastly, I run a few text ads. Advertisers will pay variable rates for linking to their site. I’d like to get away from this method for various reasons, but for now it’s a trade off I tolerate. You’ll typically see these under the “Sponsors” or “Partners” section of websites and blogs.

That’s basically the whole story. I always try to be ethical in my posts and I think I’ve balanced my desire to write about a topic that interests me with my desire to earn extra cash pretty well. That said, I can’t always see things from the perspective of a reader. If you ever see an ad that you can’t stand or crosses the line of appropriateness, contact me and I’ll investigate.

I hope this clears things up!

On this incredibly snowy and cold Monday (for me anyway), I’m gonna provide a bunch of updates about The Financial Student. First though, some history. I started blogging last December (2009) after years of reading blogs like The Simple Dollar and Get Rich Slowly. I actually thought about starting a blog in the beginning of 2009, but I created reasons not to. “I’m only 17. I’m in high school. I don’t even have a part-time job right now.” I finally told myself that those reasons were stupid – The Financial Student was born!

For the first few months, I had a ton of fun. Blogging was new and exciting. I had tons of ideas for posts and even thought I might be able to make some money doing this someday. But after a while, writing everyday become boring and completely tedious. So I switched to writing just 3 days a week. This helped, sort of. It was nice to have a few days a week “off”, but it also sucked because this schedule interrupted my write-something-everyday routine. I also thought a lot of my posts (all?) were boring. In the past month or so and especially during my break from school, I’ve become more motivated. So here are the changes I’ve got planned:

Content:

I won’t be changing the main focus of my posts: money! I still enjoy writing about finance and I even enjoyed my finance class at school this quarter. However, finance isn’t always interesting. One of my main goals when I started blogging was to be interesting so young people (like myself) would actually be interested! I don’t think I’ve been too successful on that front, so I’m aiming to add more of my own feelings and opinions when I write.

Post Frequency

I’m going to attempt posting 5 days a week again, M-F. Posting every other day just makes me unfocused and lazy. I spend too much time watching tv and stalking on Facebook deworming orphans in Somalia anyway.

Advertising/Chasing That Paper

Blogging has opened up a few doors, windows really at this point, that allow me to make money by writing. College isn’t cheap kids! I’m going to continue to explore these opportunities so you might see some different ads and ad placement locations over the next few months. We’ll see what happens. Regardless, I’m aiming to keep things cool and not scammy.

Yakezie Challenge

I’ve joined the Yakezie Challenge. Yakezie is a personal finance/lifestyle blog network. All the members help each other reach blogging goals. The challenge part is based on a blog’s Alexa rating. Alexa.com is a website that ranks the world’s websites. Google is currently the number 1 site. Right now, The Financial Student is ranked 3.1 million. My goal is to break 200,000. Which leads me to my next point:

How You Can Help

If you enjoy reading The Financial Student: tell your friends, family, whoever! Follow me on Twitter: @studentfinances. Subscribe to my feed. Comment. I really want my post comment counts to go up, so feel free to share your opinions, even if you disagree with what I say.

If you don’t enjoy this blog…I don’t know what to tell you. Some people aren’t cut out for being awesome.

For those who didn’t get the title of this post: check out this clip from Jurassic Park.

Here’s the deal: This week I’m working 20 hours, have a test that 100% has to be taken by Friday or I’ll fail the course, need to complete a project due Monday that I have approximately 0% done, and a million other small things that need to get done.

One of those things is a blog post for today and Friday. Unfortunately, that’s just not going to happen. There’s really no time and if I attempt to squeeze another thing in, my head will explode. And then where would we be?

So I apologize. I know I’ve skipped posts since I started school. I hate doing it. I want to write, I swear. The good news is that next week is exam week and I should have plenty of time to work on the blog. Then I’m done with school until January. During that time, the blog will be my main priority.

Hoboken NJ July 4th on Flickr! by Bob Jagendorf

To my fellow Americans, Happy Independence Day! Remember to be safe out there when celebrating. I wish you and all those from another nations a happy and safe weekend. I’ll be hanging out with friends and family all weekend (and Monday!), so no posts until Wednesday.

Thanks readers, subscribers, and commenters. You’re all kickass!

The Financial Student has been in existence for five months now. During that time, I’ve written five posts every week and genuinely had a good time doing it. I’ve made some good connections with both other bloggers and readers.

However, things are incredibly busy for me right now. I graduate in just three weeks and am in the middle of sending out invites and preparing for graduation. I’m now working 30-40 hours a week. Add in the time I want to spend hanging out with my friends and family and it’s hard to find time to write quality blog posts.

Because of this, I’ve decided to scale back my posting schedule. This will be my last post of the week. Starting Monday the 10th of May, I’ll start posting three times a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A Saturday round-up type post is also likely.

I’m aiming to resume my usual five posts per week schedule sometime in June when things settle down a bit and I can start to relax and give The Financial Student the attention it needs.

Thanks for sticking with me!

When I first started this blog, I spent some time writing posts a week or two in advance. This was helpful in case there was a day when I just didn’t feel like writing or something came up like an illness. But, as the excitement of starting a blog has worn off, it’s been hard to maintain an article reserve.

I’ve been trying to find a way to increase my motivation and get back to the days of having multiple posts saved up. Also, I’ve wanted to buckle down and finish up scholarship applications and other college paperwork.

Then, a few weeks ago I came across this post from the Smart Passive Income blog. Basically, the author bought a new laptop to use only for personal and non-work related tasks. He uses his desktop computer for work – blogging, his online business, etc. I couldn’t afford a new computer, but I did come up with a solution that’s been working really well for me.

Specific locations for specific tasks.

My family computer is an HP laptop. Almost exclusively, I would only use it in the living room because it’s just so comfortable to lie on the couch. I was doing every task in this same location – Facebook, online banking, blogging, blog email, personal email, financial aid papers. This was not good for productivity.

Now, what I’ve been doing for past few weeks is simple: When I need to get stuff done, like writing a blog post, I head upstairs to my desk and plug my laptop into a desktop monitor and regular sized keyboard and mouse. When I’m ready to just relax and want to browse Facebook or watch a YouTube clip, I go downstairs to the living room.

I’ve been doing this for about 2-4 weeks now and it’s been a huge help. I have about 5 blog posts plus a huge list of ideas already in reserve to use in case I’m sick or otherwise can’t write. Since starting this “system” I’ve been managing due dates for school forms and scholarships much better using Google Calendar. I also don’t feel any sense of guilt when I’m downstairs browsing YouTube because I know I’ve already accomplished the important tasks for my day.

If you’ve been having trouble getting everything done, try picking one location (preferably not your couch or bed) where you can focus on one task at a time and really accomplish whatever it is you need done.

I’ve been blogging now for 3 months. I started The Financial Student back in the last week of December 2009, but didn’t officially “launch” until January. I honestly can’t believe the time has gone by so fast. Writing 5 days a week isn’t always fun, but I have no plans to stop. Here’s to another 3 months!

And here are some of my favorite articles from the past week or so.

Are You In a Dead End Job? asks some good questions to help you realize if your job isn’t going to take you where you want it to. For me, the biggest factor is passion. I can’t imagine working a typical 9-5 job at a company that I don’t love.

The Rip: Overpriced HDMI Cables is a sigh of relief for anybody considering purchasing a high definition telvevision. Please, for the love of God, do not let anybody you know buy HDMI cables at Bestbuy or even Walmart. You can get one here for only $2.85.

7 Lessons I’ve Learned Post Bankruptcy shows how bankruptcy has affected one individual. Obviously, it’s best to never get in a situation where bankruptcy is necessary, but this post does show that even bleak financial pictures can improve.

The Elegance Of Failure reminds us that our failures don’t define who we are as individuals.

Who Killed BlockBuster – Netflix or RedBox? reminds me that I literally have not stepped foot into a BlockBuster store in years. To be fair, I’ve never used Netflix or RedBox, but I would most likely turn to those services before Blockbuster. In my opinion, pay-per-view played a large role in the demise of Blockbuster. Why would I drive to a store to pick up a movie when I can just order it for the same price right from my satellite (or cable) box?

Welcome to The Financial Student!

In this blog, I’ll discuss the financial matters that affect teens and young adults the most. From saving for college to understanding how to file taxes for the first time, The Financial Student is here to guide and explain everything.

I hope you’ll stick around to see what I have to offer.

Check back tomorrow for the launch!