I’d love to have my site pay for its own hosting. Failing that, a free lunch would be nice. But if I can’t do that, at least I could get a free Dr. Pepper.
So here’s how I got a free Dr. Pepper:
- Run DreamHost referral ads. This took me a few minutes to set up. It has earned me about $8 over the last few years. It would have earned me more, but I’m a secondary referral to someone who doesn’t have an account anymore. ((Thanks a lot, Tim.)) Anyway, this would buy me about 16 cans of Dr. Pepper, except that it was applied to my Dreamhost bill automatically. That’s just as well — 16 cans? I’d probably go into a diabetic shock. ((Ahem. Proudly hosted by Dreamhost. Host your dreams today!))
- Run AdSense ads. This took me a few hours to set up. So far, I’ve earned about $0.54. I could buy a Dr. Pepper with that money, except that I need to reach $100 before I can cash out. I figure that will be some time in 2036.
- Tell stories for quarters. So far, I’ve only done this once. “Buy me a Dr. Pepper, and I will tell you a tale of government beauracratic incompetence and disorganization that spans three years.” He nodded, waved me at his horde of change, and I bought my Dr. Pepper. It took about 3.5 minutes to tell the story. ((To be honest, this reminded me a bit of Smaug.))
So far, telling stories has got me the best ROI ((That’s return on investment for you non-technical people.)). So I’m officially announcing ((As in, announcing but not doing.)) that I will from this time forward earn my Dr. Pepper money by telling tales of woe at bus stops. Wish me luck!
Update: mx informs me that Google sends out cheques once a year. If true, that’d mean I’m probably a few months away from another free Dr. Pepper. Oh, the sweet, carbonated rapture!