The Ugly Truth about Affiliate Marketing

To hear some people say it, affiliate marketing is the way to get rich. The reality is much harsher than that.

Let's talk about the greatest affiliate marketing program ever created: Amazon. But first if you haven't read my article on "economies of scale" you should. Amazon is the perfect, classic, textbook example of how a startup leveraged free labor from hundreds of thousands of people to become the world's most successful online retailer. And Amazon's story has been played out again and again across the Internet. The ugly truth about affiliate marketing is this: you will never make as much money as they do.

Investing In the Age of No-fee Trading Apps

No-fee investing puts the stock market in everyone's reach. But it's easier to make costly mistakes.

If you have not tried Robinhood yet, you should. Their no-fee trading model is very appealing to people with little money to invest. How do they make money? They earn interest on float and upsell other services. The downside to using Robinhood is that the trades are not executed immediately. You probably want to use their stop-loss orders unless you don't care about market price fluctuations.

Economies of Scale are Crushing the Gig Economy Workers

The gig economy is a new type of economic peonage. How will you escape this trap?

There are thousands of Websites and apps where you can join a community of people who contribute to a common goal. We call this "crowd sourcing" in today's parlance. It's why so many small startups are able to make the leap into full production mode in markets that were once dominated by near-monopolies. I have a friend who refuses to contribute to crowd-sourcing projects. After arguing with him about this for a week I asked why he was so adamant against being part of a crowd. He told me an interesting story.

Investing In Bitcoin is Not a Good Way to Make Money

If it sounds too good to be true it is. Only invest in value and income. Don't invest in speculation.

I casually know someone who bought $100 worth of Bitcoin when they were real cheap. Before you think he must be rich now, know that he sold his position when the price had gone up 10 times. He made a tidy profit but he didn't get rich. And then last year several of my friends jumped onto the Bitcoin bandwagon. One pal I've had for 11 years invested $3000 in Bitcoin in December. I don't know how much he really lost but he never talks about Bitcoin any more.

How Much Money Should You Spend on Your Freelance Computer?

Unless you really need a computer now, wait until you can get a great deal on super discount.

Freelancing from home requires three things: a quiet place to work, a good smartphone, and a computer. I work from a laptop so that I can take my work everywhere I go. When my wife and I travel that computer comes with us. Should I admit that in public? But I can't live without the computer. It's my main source of income. I might get an order on a weekend when we're staying at her parents. A good computer should take you a long way. But how much should you spend on a computer?

Writing for Money Or How to Keep Feeding the Ego

When you want to write for money you should also write for yourself. Better writers do that.

Everyday a thousand new people read something I wrote. I'm a freelance writer. I sell my words to people through a site called TextBroker. There are a few rival services I haven't tried yet. I have a friend who swears by Upwork. We both signed up with low expectations. We've brought in a few regular clients who order copy from us every month. We no longer write for minimum cost-per-word articles. How do you get to where people demand your copy?