Progress report
Things have been going OK. My commissions have dropped quite a bit due to my struggle with Craigslist. It is a major hassle trying to get around all of their filters. The biggest one being the need for multiple IP addresses, which is something I don't have access to. I know what you are thinking, and the answer is NO. Proxies do not work.
If you look at the image to the right you'll see how much I've earned in the past month. The $50+ days were when I was actually able to make posts. Usually I'll make 20 posts, then do nothing for a few days and do 20 more. This was fine for a while until my IP got PVA banned.
Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I have found somebody to post ads for me! They charge $.65 per post, which is well below what a single post is worth to me. My only concern with this guy is that he ends up being a scammer. I've done some research about his website. What I've found is that he thusfar has been unsucessful in aquireing business, though he has allways remained under the same company name. Which tells me that he hasn't ripped anybody off and needed to change names.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see. If I get ripped off, I'm out $22. It's an investment like anything else. I'm not worried about the money. What I am worried about though is my time. As things drag on I find myself becoming progressively lazier. The thought of having to do any actual work kills me. It's becoming a major problem, and it's one that I wouldn't have expected. I'm no stranger to hard work. I've done the 9 - 5 grind for many years, working in factories, laying tiles, building countertops, etc. You would think that a couple of hours on the computer sitting on my ass at home wouldn't be an issue for me.
This might be happening because I don't enjoy my niche. This blog is fun, but not profitable. So the motivation is not there for me to update it constantly. My craigslist campaign is highly profitable, but boring. I have absolutely no interest in what I am promoting. I think the lesson here is to stick to what you enjoy. It's possible to make money with anything if you stick with it. I really would like to have a popular blog about something I enjoy, like video games for example. That will be my next goal after I get this CL thing all wrapped up and on auto-pilot (which should be soon, but who knows.)
On a side note, this blog has just cleared the 1.5M rank in Alexa! Which I guess isn't much to be proud of, since to date I've only received about 450 views here. Check the very bottom of the page to see for yourself.
