Money on the Net: A Revisit

"Wealth is a persons ability to survive so many number of days forward - or, if I stopped working today, how long could I survive?"
- R. Buckminster Fuller

One night I was glued to the computer with a few drinks and cigarettes, a calculator, and 10 or more internet tabs open with everything from online gigs for pocket change, investopedia and marketwatch for investment knowledge, my bank account for moving cash, and my girlfriend screaming for me to go to bed... No matter how much sleep I may lose on those binges, preparing for the day I leave my job(whether fired, laid off, quitting, retirement, or death) is what makes each start of the work week, and work day more bearable....

 This independent study has turned into a weekly, if not almost daily habit. This month I decided to give up smoking and drinking to see how much money I could save and invest in other areas. I was recently studying the book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki and although I have already been implementing a few of the asset-building activities the author mentions, I welcomed the new perspective on financial literacy concepts. One of the most important is the distinction between an asset and a liability.

Asset = money made whether I work or not

Liability = money spent whether I work or not

So with this new knowledge, we will add on a previous post discussing the opportunities for making money online. Except for number 1, the methods in this list will deal with the idea of generating "passive income" through assets.

1. MTurk

Mturk.com is a website powered by Amazon where workers can search for Human Intelligence Tasks("hits") which are posted by other users. The tasks can be as easy as copying text from a business card and taking surveys, to more advanced hits such as transcribing video and audio recordings. The payment for hits can range depending on how complex or time consuming the HIT is. The hard part is reviewing the gigs that make the most sense to perform, and match your working style and interests. You won't get rich, or even replace your current paycheck, but you can make some extra pocket change.

2. Stocks

When you buy stocks, you own a piece of that company. To raise money, companies will often sell partial ownership of the company as a stock in exchange for money. The company uses this money to grow its current business, or fund new ideas and opportunities.

When dealing with the stock market there are a number of ways to make money. The 2 main methods are sales profits and dividends. How you invest depends on your style and financial goals.

Dividends = Money the company pays you for owning the stock.

Dividends are for long term income and saving money for retirement, children's college funds, and other long term events. Dividends are paid out over time - usually every quarter(3 months). Regardless of what the stock's price is, as long as the company is in business, you get paid.


Gains = Money you make after selling the stock for a profit.

  Trading stocks for gains you get the money as soon as the deal is made. You can either reinvest the money on a different stock, or you can keep the cash. There is also more risk here because the value of the stock can cause you to lose money just as easy as it can make money.

3. CD's and Bonds

Certificates of Deposit(CD's) and Bonds are both like a friend giving you an "IOU", but you invest in them for different reason. A CD is bought through your bank, it's another way of saving your money. The bank holds your CD for anywhere from 3 mo to 5 years, depending on how long you agreed they could hold it. When the time is up, the bank pays you interest on the money you let them borrow. This is giving the bank a short term loan.

 Bonds are similar to CDs and work pretty much the same way. The difference is bonds can be bought through a company or a bank. It is a long term loan, usually for 10 years or more. But bonds also normally have a higher interest rate, so more money is made when the bank or company pays you back. 

4. Mutual Funds

Mutual Funds combine stocks, bonds, and CDs with other form of investment into one package. The money for these investments comes from groups of investors pooling their money together. Mutual funds are managed by a broker, who handles what to invest the money in, how long, and when. As an investor you buy a share(or part) of the mutual fund. Whenever the fund makes money, through dividends, gains, or interest, that money is paid out to the owners of the fund in dividends. As the value of the funds investments grow, the price of shares for that fund grows too. You can also sell your shares in that fund for cash.

If you don't feel comfortable researching individual companies, or watching the market for the best deals on stocks, bonds, and CDs, a mutual fund is a convenient investment opportunity. But they are also riskier. Just because you have a broker handling the funds for you, doesn't mean they can't make mistakes.

For those who have experience in the investment field, it works like a game to them - no different than going to the casino. The same way you can hit it big and make a lot of money, you can lose it just as fast. It doesn't take a lot of money to get started, all you need is a bank account. I had only $50 in my account when I bought my first stock. By doing your research and taking educated risks, you can make investments work for you, and make money, while managing it all from your computer.

Money On the Net: Tips for Surviving the Recession

    Since the internet became a common platform for communication, it has given many the opportunity to take control of their finances that may not have existed otherwise. Whether it is through online stores, blogs, advertising, or performing jobs remotely, if you are willing to put in the time and effort you can find a method to make money, and a website to do the job. There is opportunity to make any amount from small change, to a regular paycheck, to setting yourself on a road to riches. As long as you have access to a computer and the internet, you are capable of making money.

   The down side to doing business on the internet is that there are millions, if not billions of people providing the same services, writing, developing web sites, and applying for the same job/contract that it usually takes a large effort of scraping and scratching to make a decent paycheck online. But still, in order to make money, you have to get in where you fit in and draw the traffic/business with your own style of getting things done.

   Some of the sites that I would suggest to make money online (aside from blogging) include fiverr and craigslist. oDesk is another option, but for those working in the West, it is hard to compete with some of the rates that workers in the east are willing to perform a job for. Getting a job on either oDesk, or fiverr takes a lot of work, but once you build up a reputation in these online working communities, you will be well on your way to making money on your own. You will not get rich right away, but you can definitely earn some gas/lunch money while you work your way up to a decent pay check.

   Learning to make money online is one of the ways that the Black community and others in the working class will be able to bridge the "digital divide". It is important that we take advantage of opportunities and create opportunities for ourselves, especially in these times. It would do us a lot of justice if we focused more on becoming producers in the internet/technology arena more than consumers. We create the trends that the world over follows, yet we don't profit from any of it.

If I Were Black On the Internet

The Jerk

Since I've started learning more about money and the Internet, I've come to see how certain habits we as humans have translated from the real world to cyberspace. One specific example is our tendency to herd towards things that could potentially harm us, or have no affect on us at all, all in search of the thrill of seeing and discussing shocking, sometimes distasteful, and almost always taboo subjects and events.

Recently, a Forbes Magazine author posted an article called "If I Were a Poor Black Kid". News feeds all over the net had something to say about the article. Black publications on, and possibly even off, the net are publishing their own articles, essays, and Facebook comments in response to the buzz that this man's article has created. Of course within the Black community this has created another fighting ground between the political and social camps of those who agree with the author’s statements and those who disagree. Of course, everyone is a critic, and entitled to their opinion. Regardless of what the author’s true intentions behind writing the article, or what anyone may think about him or the article itself, one thing everyone seems to have forgotten is that someone (Forbes) is making money from the attention we’re giving it. It doesn’t matter whether he had good intentions or bad intentions behind writing the article. We’ve made it too easy for people outside of the Black community to make money from putting their 2 cents in about our community, its condition, or the reasons for its condition. When someone says something insulting or degrading about the Black community, we flock to their doors just to see/hear them say it again. It speaks volumes about how little many of us understand about how money is made on the internet.

This situation with this article and others like it – even in other forms of media - is the same. Online, businesses get paid based off the number of viewers coming to their site, as well as any products or services they may sell. So all the people who went to that page to read it just so they could disagree and post comments on the page, or posted the link for others to go back and read it are STILL PUTTING MONEY IN THE AUTHOR AS WELL AS FORBES’ POCKET. Kind of like when Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre made The Chronic dissing Eazy E. Eazy still got paid royalties for every song Dr. Dre made on that album.

If you hear gunshots or see smoke, you don’t run in that direction to see who/what/when/where/why. We run the OTHER way. It’s a survival tactic, right? Well the same way we apply that tactic to preserve our physical wellbeing, we should start applying it to our financial and mental well being as well. If someone says that an article, or other form of media is disrespectful to us and it goes viral, then as a people instead of leading others to go see/read it, we should ignore it. It can be viral in every other community all it wants to be, it should stop when it gets to us. Which would have some type of impact, given that studies show we have the highest online presence - especially in social media. Now of course, people will still read the article. The thing is, we shouldn't continue to include ourselves in those publicizing and discussing it. Now once the smoke clears, of course let's go in picking it apart to see (being honest with ourselves) what we can take from it to preserve or improve our condition – and leave the rest where it is.

The attention and money that companies get for publishing this kind of content takes away from the web hosts, writers, artists, and businesspersons who have something worthwhile to offer their communities, their respective social group, and the world. That’s not to say that we should only take in moral, uptight, or politically correct media and content ALL the time. But let’s make sure that we’re not helping the trapper by flocking to it.