Still Waiting for My Ship to Come In

Whenever I stand out on the dock waiting for that
proverbial "ship" to come in, with her decks trimmed in
gold, more often than not, it's a rubber inner tube held
together with chewing gum and duct tape. But this once,
that was not the case.

Truthfully. Just how difficult is it to make a living in
online marketing?

I have my own line of greeting cards, a business which
tends to suck money rather than generate it. When I'm not
writing witticisms about growing older or congratulating
some poor unsuspecting soul for breeding and adding to the
surplus population, I play the viola in a dimly lit
orchestra pit for the local ballet. If I ever see another
Sugar Plum Faery, it'll be too soon.

I have many varied interests which take me from writing
poetry to photography but for some bizarre reason, I am
NEVER drawn to anything that makes real money. If it has
anything at all to do with the liberal arts, I'm all over
it. But these interests rarely pay the bills. So, I've come
to terms with the fact that something in my life has got to
change drastically and quickly.

What I need is to see lots of green Benjamin Franklins. I
admire the man but I admire him even more when he is on the
front of a one hundred dollar banknote. What a wonderful
feeling it will be to walk around with several likenesses
of him lining my pockets!

One evening, after much coaxing, a friend dragged me to a
viewing of "The Secret." Granted, this is not usually the
type of thing I would normally go out of my way to see. But
the "new and improved me" said that on some deep and
meaningful level, this theory made sense and I would be a
fool not to at least give it a try. When they talked about
how people inadvertantly push money away from them, I was
riveted. Who knew that all this time I'd been shooting
myself in both feet over and over while at the same time
wondering why I walked with a limp? Whenever I said, "I
can't possibly afford that!", I was literally digging a
hole for myself that I would have a devil of a time getting
out of!

I now have a dollar bill upon which I've added several
zeros after the number 1 with black marking pen. I've taped
it to the ceiling directly above my bed so it's the last
thing I see before I go to sleep and the first thing I see
upon waking. I carry a lovely smooth stone in my pocket to
remind me of just how grateful I am for all the wonderful
things I already have. I'm reminded everytime I touch it.
It's been one month and neither of these excercises have
made me into a millionaire. Yet.

Then, after doing more research on the internet about just
how the whole "multiple streams of income" worked, I
checked out several websites which promised the moon, the
stars and huge bags of money. These sites were so, for lack
of a better word, slimy! Lots of flashing banner ads with
pictures of luxury cars parked in front of vulgar
McMansions with the obligatory smiling couple holding
enormous wads of cash in their white knuckled fists. There
must be literally millions of these sites out there, all
promising the same thing.

Since I am one of those people who are in posession of a
finely honed skeptical nature, when I first saw this
outlandish claim that went something like, "get thousands
of dollars in special promotional pay-per-clicks FREE!", I
naturally clicked 'delete' and continued to wade through
the rest of my email. Then I saw the same ad again the
next day. But this time for some reason, due to some sort
of paradigm shift, I figured I had nothing to lose, went
ahead and clicked the link. So far, I've made a whopping
$1,087.00 in one month. Okay, so maybe it really isn't that
big a deal for an attorney, a doctor or a politician. But
for a lowly musician, it's pretty cool.

So, as of today, my new mission is to try out as many of
these Internet Marketing sites as my schedule and patience
will allow in an attempt to separate the Get Rich Quick
scam artists from the ones that truly have something
worthwhile to offer.

You're more than welcome to join me on my quest.

Here's hoping that when your ship come in, it's a freakin'
yacht!

Cheers, Alicia Warrington

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Alicia Warrington is amoungst other things the owner and
creator of a line of greeting cards called Bloodshot Press.
To see some of her work, visit
http://www.bloodshotpress.com . Her newest interests
include a soon to be released rather ecclectic line of
eBooks. More information about those can be found at
http://www.copiousriches.googlepages.com .