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Rob Merlino Dot Com

Blogger, Entrepreneur, Raconteur

Why this Blog?

July 13, 2010 By Rob

If you’re reading this, you may be asking yourself,  “does the world really need another money making blog?” The world may not need it, but I do! Let me tell you how I came to start this site.

In 2004, after nearly 20 years in the working world, I realized a dream. It was a dream of owning my own business. I owned a successful duct cleaning business in the past, but a messy divorce forced the sale of that company. This was my Dream Business: I bought a Hot Dog Truck! I made the best hot dogs in my area and after about 18 months in business I was doing $300-400 dollars per day. That was pretty good money in my book and, more importantly, I enjoyed my work.

In February of 2007 I started a website to help promote my business. Not a lot of hot dogs get sold in February in New England (I was closed that winter), so I had some time to figure out how to start my own site. I decided on a blog format since it seemed at the time “everyone” had a blog. I also liked the fact that I could set up the site myself and that there were plenty of free hosts out there.

While I was learning about how to get the blog going on my own, I read A LOT about how to do it and stumbled on many sites that told me how I could make money with my blog. I figured I had a few months off, so I might as well try my hardest to make every penny I could from this blog. I decided to try every money making idea I came across on my blog. I didn’t make much at first, but I kept learning and trying new things and, most importantly, I NEVER GAVE UP. The remainder of the winter of 2007 was devoted to my blog.

Once the spring came, I opened up the Hot Dog Truck and went back to selling hot dogs. I told my customers about the site, took pictures of people’s hot dogs, put a lot of silly hot dog related content on the site and encouraged people to visit.  I continued to spend at least an hour per day posting on the site and learning more about how to make some extra money with it. It was a slow process!

If I told you I made $156,392.78 in just one month blogging, I’d be lying! I made next to nothing, but I was determined to keep plugging away. My customers liked the site and it did help promote my primary business in a small way, so I kept going.

As my readership grew, I started to earn more and more money from the site. I worked on it in my spare time and I even started some other blogs. My wife thought I was wasting my time; that made me even more determined to carry on! By the Spring of 2008, I had made enough money with the site to take the family to Las Vegas for a week to see my wife’s folks, pay for an attorney for some business issues, buy a motor scooter and put a few bucks in the bank. All told, I made about $5,000 in my first year of blogging. It wasn’t enough to live on, but it was strictly a part time venture and “found money” as far as I was concerned. I was having fun with it and I still had my Hot Dog Truck. Life was good.

Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend of 2009, my knee swelled up like a cantaloupe. I went to the ER and was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. The knee was swollen and immobile. I was told to stay off it and keep it immobilized while taking antibiotics to control the Lyme. Selling Hot Dogs was out of the question-I had to stay off my feet and, since this was my left knee, I couldn’t even drive the truck (it was a BIG & HEAVY E350 with a 4 speed manual transmission that had a very long throw on the clutch).

Once the swelling went down, nearly a month later I got an MRI and was scheduled to see an orthopedist on July 6. On July 5, I had major chest pain. I thought I had broken a rib. I went to the ER and was found to have a MASSIVE pulmonary embolism. This is a blood clot in the lung caused by a blood clot in the leg breaking loose and traveling to the lung. The admitting doctor said people who have embolisms that big usually show up at the hospital already dead! I was lucky to be alive.

I spent 36 hours in ICU and a total of 8 days in the hospital. I am OK now, but I need to take blood thinning medication for the foreseeable future. I sold no hot dogs that summer and I sold the truck in the fall of 2009.

I also went back to school in the fall of 2009 to get my Master’s degree in Education. I became a full time student and did my student teaching practicum in the spring of 2010. In May of 2010 I was ready and qualified to be a High School English teacher. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of teaching jobs out there this year (there aren’t a lot of ANY kind of jobs for that matter).

So here I sit, with no job and no Hot Dog Truck. I am looking for a teaching job, but I am becoming resigned to the fact that I might have to wait until next year. I will substitute teach to network for 2011 openings and earn some extra cash, but I am left with a lot of time which I plan to spend expanding my “internet empire.” I have tweaked some of my other sites and they are earning income, but I wanted to start this blog to help others who may need or want to earn extra money online.

Over the past three and a half years, I have read a great deal about how to make money online and how to run blogs and websites. This blog will attempt to chronicle how I did it, how I got to where I am today and where I go in the future. I’ll point people interested in making money online to the resources that were helpful to me.

I’m not an expert or a guru and I’m not re-inventing the wheel here. What I want to do is provide a resource reference for people just starting out with blogs and making money online and earn a few bucks for myself in the process!

Filed Under: making money online

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