Currently, I have been online for about six months, since around October of 2009. I monetize my online living three ways: freelance writing on Elance as a freelance writer, Google AdSense, and also a couple of CPA networks, mostly Commission Junction at the moment. Just to illustrate that I’m not exactly a guru — don’t want to be, I’d rather be a dad and husband, a guru of the dinner conversation — but I’m no schmuck, either, I’ve included screen shots of most of what I made my first 6 months, working part-time online.

Here is my teeny AdSense income:

AdSense Earnings Up To April 2010

Not much to brag about yet - need to grow the empire a bit more

You’ll notice there isn’t much there, I get a check every other month. Not the best thing for me to brag about. I do have domains coming out of my earlobes, and I can’t monetize them fast enough. Meaning: I have outsourced writers to write the content, but I’m really not entirely happy with what I got in return. Especially with the current rumblings in the AdSense, IM’er circles with major blog empires getting de-indexed for who-knows-what, and the fact that I try to put quality into every syllable…just can’t throw a site out there with slim to no real content.

Besides all of that, I keep making money on Elance, with the little bit of time I have left over after my full-time job. I haven’t been building my residual income as much as I need to — this active income is honestly burying my future empire of passive income in what is turning out to be a decent active income right now.

Here’s a screen shot that looks a bit more promising, from Commission Junction:

Earnings Screen Shot From Commission Junction

You’ll notice the totals are roughly $1000 or so. The bottom total has been paid, I’ll post a picture of the check when I get around to it, maybe. What isn’t on this screen shot is the first check I received, back in February: $322.44. That check and the $767 were both the direct result of Unique Article Wizard runs. More on that in another post.

This is the sort of thing I want to do more of: I love to sell, and I only sell products I would want my mother or wife to own. I don’t sell like some used car salesman, or like the thousands of “Internet Marketers” who give this game a bad name. More on that in a later post as well.

This is where most of my money’s at currently, though I really want this to be pared down so I can work my own business:

Elance Screen Shot - How Much I've Earned

Elance Screen Capture of Totals So Far, Since Fall 2009 - Spring 2010

Elance. Once I figured out how to close a bid, and I do that pretty regularly when I’m accepting new work, I’ve got it made. If I did no other online monetization, I’d be fine with Elance. What does that mean to me? It means I can tell the economy to kick rocks. I’m not afraid of “the economic downturn,” in fact, I haven’t really felt it.

Meanwhile, my neighbor lost his job of 20 years and is now driving a truck across 5 states, leaving his family for 3 weeks out of 4. Other neighbors have lost their homes on my street…you know the story. It’s probably happening where you live as well, and this is the reason my online enterprises aren’t some fad.

Nor are they “get rich quick” or “set and forget” type of scenarios. I can also guarantee they aren’t “one click” easy – there’s work involved. Getting those checks is an inspiration to me to do more of this, less on Elance and more on my own residual income sites.

I want to leave you with this thought. Before I started this, I didn’t know or care what a keyword was. I had no clue. I had no idea what SERP’s were, no clue what SEO or SEM or CPA or even AdSense was. All I knew was that I have a big family, my wife stays home with our kids, and we weren’t looking too well last fall. Those were hard, slim times we fell on — and I’m done being broke.

All that to say, if I can do this stuff, I know anyone can. I’m not the exceptional genius: I’m the average genius. Emphasis on “average.” I only threw in “genius” because I love irony (and who doesn’t, at some level, think they’re a genius? OK. Maybe it’s just me…)

Stick with me for reviews of my process, the “how-to’s” that have worked for me, and the tools of my trade.