Out of the Rat Race – Day 1

I’m out of the rat race!

Kinda.

Today is the first day of my 4 month leave of absence from my job as a systems analyst.

It’s been a few months now that passive income has been greater than expenses, but I was really enjoying having a double salary, as it gave me a good bit of money to invest every month. But due to worsening conditions at work and dramatically improved conditions in the weather I decided to exit. At the last moment I had a brainwave and asked for, and was granted, a leave of absence. So I’m out and I have a four month safety net. All benefits in tact and the job there if I need it at the beginning of October.

I’ve got a lot of pent up blogging inside of me, as I have been focused on building the niche sites that now account for all of my income, but now that I have more time, I have big plans for this site. Hopefully they aren’t a passing fancy, but I intend on putting considerable energy into Art of Money and using it as a journal for my journey towards my financial goals.

The first order of business on that front is to diversify my income streams. Currently about 97% of my revenue comes from Adsense. This was okay while I had the nice government paycheck in my back pocket, but now that I’m paying my own bills, I’ll need to change that if I want to sleep well at night.

That’s where James Martell comes into the picture. I’ve grabbed a copy of his affiliate marketing guidebook and I am going to do a few affiliate sites to try and get myself off of the Crack-Sense habit. You can watch for my reviews of his material and as a special rat race coming out party I’ve managed to line up an email interview with James that I’ll be presenting in the next week or two [I want to get a good grasp on his material before I begin...and his book is almost 400 pages!].

Last night when I went to bed I had “It’s great to be out of the rat race” revelation number 1: I didn’t have to set my alarm clock for 7:00 am! How sweet was that. Okay, yes I still got up at 6:30 but I slept better knowing I didn’t have to.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not exactly complete euphoria charging through my veins. The last couple days, AdSense has taken a pretty dramatic dip and while it’s nothing too serious, it was enough to leave me feeling a bit like a baby dear…yes I’m walking, but the legs are still a little bit shaky.

Other things to look forward to on Art of Money:

• I’ll be launching a newsletter…I’ve been wanting to learn this important marketing skill for a while now, so it’s time to get started.
• A new look…time to get a real template designed, if you’re a designer or know someone who you think is a good fit, then drop me a line please.
• More regular posting…my goal is once a day for now.
• Figuring out how to monetize this site WITHOUT SLAPPING ADSENSE all over it…please feel free to flame me if you ever see them “Ads by Goooogle” thangs decorating this site!

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