The online income is nice but if I doing more work on my blogs the income is not going to last. I have not been good about getting things done this month. Part of that is because I’ve been spending more time on our real world business. The main reason though is that I just haven’t been making working on my websites a priority. My goals for this month were to run/hike 100 miles and write 100 posts and I didn’t even come close to achieving those. I didn’t even try. Rather than set a monthly goal for November I’m going to get in the habit of doing my work first and making daily goals of what I need to be done.

A goal I’ve had for a long time is to write a book but I keep putting it off. Next month is NaNoWriMo. I have wanted to participate the last couple of years but I put it off. This year needs to be the year that I get it done. I am in a great position to do this because I don’t have to work a full-time job and make enough money to pay my bills in just a few hours a week. I may not always be this lucky so I should take advantage of this opportunity while I have it. Is anybody else participating in National Novel Writing Month? It would be great if we could have a group of bloggers doing it to support each other and keep each other accountable.

I’ve been meaning to post about some giveaways that my fellow Yakezie members are having but I haven’t had a links post for a while so I’m adding them to this post. These giveaways have some nice prizes and your odds of winning are pretty good. My wife and I were lucky enough to win a Kindle wi-fi earlier this month in a local giveaway but I’m still desiring a Kindle Fire.

The Penny Hoarder is hosting a Hallo(Wii)n Giveaway until October 30th.
The Frugal Toad is hosting a $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway until October 30th.
Retire by 40 and Buck Inspire are having a big giveaway of a Kindle Fire and lots more until November 7th.

The process of doing this medical study started last Wednesday. First, I called a clinical research facility I had done a study with before to find out if they were offering any current studies. To find a clinical research facility in your area look at websites such as GPGP.net(guinea pig get paid) or JALR.org (just another lab rat)which have lists of facilities. If you live near a major metropolitan area there is probably a clinic research facility near you. These facilities use advertise in the local media as well.

Once you find a clinical research study you call them and see what studies are available that you qualify for. The studies qualifications are usually based on age, gender, BMI, or some combination of these. My over 30 BMI disqualifies me from many studies and the fact that I don’t have a gall bladder disqualifies me from many studies too. There are usually still some studies I can qualify for though.

Once you have qualified for a study the recruiter will set up a screening appointment for you. These appointment usually last for 2-3 hours. During the appointment you usually will have blood drawn, give a urine sample, have your vital signs taken, and ECG taken, complete a medical history, have your height and weight recorded, and receive a physical from a doctor. Depending on the study you may have some more medical procedures. If everything is ok the facility will contact you and let you know when to report for the study.

The time frame between screening for a study and starting a study varies but it is usually a week or two. In my case I called last Wednesday, had my screening on Thursday and started on Friday. The process is normally more spread out then that but the facility was having trouble finding enough volunteers for this somewhat large medical trial and I just happened to have the good timing to take advantage of their shortage.

If you don’t qualify for the study then you have wasted some time because you don’t get paid for screening only for participating in the actual study. Depending on what disqualified you it is possible to set up a screening for another study.

Before you report for the study the facility will give you instructions on what you need to do before starting. This is usually stuff like avoiding caffeine, strenuous exercise, and prescription and non-prescription medicine for a certain period of time before entering the study. They should also give you information on the house rules and what you need to bring.

Once you arrive at the study you should get a schedule of what you are going to do. In my most recent study I arrived on a Friday afternoon and there were no procedures that day just a couple of meals. On Saturday I had to get up at 3am to start the medical testing. They took vital signs and a baseline blood draw. A couple of hours later I was dosed with the study drug and had blood drawn every two hours for the next 30 hours. I wasn’t wild about this since it made it difficult to sleep but it wasn’t too bad. Every study is different but generally there will be lots of blood draws.

This study allowed everyone to leave the facility 36 hours after dosing with the drug although I did have to be back for a follow up visit 12 hours after leaving the facility. The duration of your visit will vary but usually the longer you are required to stay the more money you will make.

Upon completing the study you will receive a check to compensate you for participating in the medical study. Depending on the facility the check will either be given to you at the facility or mailed to you at a later date.

The facility I just was at does clinical trials of generic versions of already approved prescription medicines which seems pretty safe to me. I usually don’t feel any effects at all from taking the medication and there has only been one study where I experienced unpleasant side effects.

Doing a paid medical study is pretty easy. Basically all you have to do is call to set up a screening appointment and then show up. I consider it fairly easy money although others would disagree with me. If you are interested in doing a paid medical study all you need to get started is find a facility near you and give them a call. This post is getting long so I’m going to wrap it up. If you want to do a medical study his is enough information to get you started, all you need to do is actually take action.

If you have any questions about participating in a medical trail leave me a comment and I’ll answer as best I can.

I’ve only done a couple of things.  The first was to purchase a domain name.  This is my only expense so far. The cost was $7.46 if I remember correctly.  I should have done some keyword research but instead I just used a phrase that TFM frequently gets traffic for and made it my domain name.  I’ve made at least one Amazon sale from this traffic so I figure if I set up a site just for this niche I should make quite a bit more.  If I’m wrong I won’t be out much money or time.

The second thing was to setup WordPress and installed plugins and a theme.  I just copied Pat of SmartPassiveIncome on setting up the plugins and theme.  Since he has already laid out a good plan for me there wasn’t any need to come up with one of my own.  Copying his niche or content would be wrong but everything else is fair game.

The next thing I need to do is get a logo and tweak the site theme a little.  After that I need to add some content.  Those should both be done by next Friday unless I’m incredibly lazy again next week.

So far I have earned $74.71.  I also earned about that much in affiliate income but I don’t have any links now.  That might not sound too impressive but considering I spent maybe three hours writing the articles it is a pretty good hourly rate.  I’m on pace to make slightly more than $35 from them this year and that should continue in the future.  It is now a steady passive income source.

Ehow has changed the way their site works so I can’t submit any more articles and make passive income.  There are other similar sites out there but I’m not sure if any of them are worth writing for.  I wish I would have wrote more articles for eHow but I won’t complain about making $35 this year for doing nothing.

Here are the 6 that earned more than me.

SmartPassiveIncome.com -  $20,683.09.

This is one of my favorite blogs and the only one on the list I was familiar with. I have been following this blog since it was new. I can remember when he had a goal of 100 subscribers and now he has over 10,000. This is a great site for learning about making online. I need to start implementing more of what I have learned.

Helloko.com- $7400

Shoutmeloud.com – $3880

Blogtotravel.com -  $3227

Deneilmerret.com – $1942

Passiveonlineincomeblog.com – $1159.38

Looking at the earnings reports of all the sites above me was informative.  All of them but one made a significant portion of their income from selling a product or service.  The one that didn’t made most of its money from affiliate sales.  That might be an indication that relying on advertising for most of my income isn’t the best way to go.  I’m going to work on developing a product and increasing my affiliate income before the end of the year.

I think that getting the workers at the mystery shopping companies on your side is one of the keys to making decent money mystery shopping. When you first start out the companies are unlikely to call you for any assignments. When they do call try to do the shop they are requesting if at all possible. If you can’t do the shop make sure to let them know that although you can’t do that shop you are interested in doing last minute shops if they come up in the future. I suppose it is somewhat like being nice to the dispatcher when you are a taxi driver. They have lots of power to affect your income so you better be nice to them.

That is my mystery shopping tip for today. Hope that all of you that are mystery shopping are able to use it.

For medical trials try the websites JALR.org (Just Another Lab Rat) and GPGP.net (Guinea Pig, Get Paid). These should provide you with all the information you need to get started and of course you can search this site for my previous posts on the subject as well.

For mystery shopping check out Volition.com. They have a ton of information about mystery shopping although it isn’t always easy to find exactly the information you need. You might also check out MyFrugalMiser.com. This isn’t a “how-to” site but he is successfully making a living as a mystery shopper and you can pick up a few tips.

For blogging there are a ton of resources. I really like the “How to Make Money with a Blog” post at Christian Personal Finance. It provides a nice overview of what is involved in making money with a blog and provides additional resources as well.

If anybody has more resources covering the money making areas above please feel free to share them in the comments.

The other problem was that a report checker invalidated one of my reports because she said I didn’t purchase gas. This wasn’t correct and I had submitted a receipt for the gas so I don’t know why the checker said I hadn’t. I resubmitted the receipt and the checker asked me to send it yet again because the edge of the receipt didn’t scan. This was a little ridiculous since everything on the receipt was still readable and the important information was intact. Since I wanted to get paid though I had to send the scan in yet again. I have heard that you will occasionally run into checkers that are a PITA and I guess this was my first experience with one.

There are some good things about mystery shopping. It is nice to get to get paid to buy gas although there is quite a bit of work besides just buying the gas. It is also nice that most of my mystery shopping income will be tax-free. Since I can legally write off my mileage at $0.50 per mile most of my income is eliminated. For example, one of the fast food shops I did this month was 16 miles round trip from my home giving me an expense of $8. Since my pay was only $7.50 I technically didn’t make any money doing this shop. This would be bad if I thought my true expenses were anywhere close to $0.50 but since I estimate my true expenses to be less than half that these shops are worthwhile.

I probably would have made $500 but I did hardly any shops last week and I don’t have any scheduled for the rest of this week. I have decided I am only going to do shops if they are either especially lucrative or shops that I enjoy doing. It seems that a large percentage of the shops are petroleum shops and I don’t care for those. They take me too long and there is too much stuff to remember and too many pictures to take.

My conclusion after doing lots of shops this month is that it is possible to become a full time mystery shopper. It would require several things to be able to achieve this though. It would take some time to become more efficient at doing the shops so that you are returned a decent wage for your time. You also need to be highly organized to schedule the shops and report them in the most efficient manner. You would also likely need to persevere through some lower earning months because the mystery shopping companies do not show you all the opportunities when you first work for them. After you have worked for them for a while they will give you access to more and better shops. Although, I do believe it is possible to make a living as a mystery shopper it would be a lot of work. Since I don’t enjoy most of the mystery shopping jobs it wouldn’t be worthwhile for me. My plan for now is to continue making online income and look for a regular j-o-b, possibly in the legal industry.

****Don’t forget to enter my giveaway this week if you haven’t already.