Monday, January 07, 2008

Non-Salary Income: $145.35

I'm going to continue running the Prosper referral ad, at $150 per quarter. I've received the first payment via PayPal: $142.35 ($150, after PayPal fees; in future I will request payment by check). If I could get this kind of money on a monthly basis, I'd have no problem meeting the goal; as it is, I'm going to do a little more research on blog advertising options, which may be my best bet, and also call the coffee shop woman back.

I also got a Pinecone Research check: $3.

That's a total of $145.35 of non-salary income, or 9.7% of my goal for the year. The timing is good, too: I just registered for the GRE in Literature in English, which cost me $130. (Only $130 for a brutal standardized test that will consume my life, send my anxiety levels skyrocketing, make me feel bad about my education, and require me to get up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday--what a great deal!) The extra $15.35 will be shuttled into the Electric Orange checking account I maintain just for grad school stuff (I used it on Friday, to buy a big fat pack of 4x6 index cards to begin studying for aforementioned brutal standardized test).

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey -

Is that $150/quarter something you worked out with Prosper?

English Major said...

Yup. Am I a moron drastically undervaluing my traffic?

Anonymous said...

yay extra money!!!!!!

PiggyBankBlues said...

yikes, good luck on that exam!

ryan said...

Check out quizlet.com. There's a lot of GRE vocab questions online.

English Major said...

Ryan, thanks, but glory be, this isn't the GRE General. It's a subject test on the literary canon required by graduate English departments, and alas, vocab won't help me here. I'm hitting the Norton Anthology and the Oxford Companion.

Anonymous said...

how did you get involved with the pinecone research? i am at their site right now and am wondering if everybody gets compensated? any tips?

Anonymous said...

I took the GRE and it wasn't that bad. Are you going for an MFA?

English Major said...

writer's coin--I took the GRE too. Now I'm taking the GRE in Literature in English. It's harder. I'm applying to English PhD programs, or I certainly would not be taking this godforsaken test. Do MFAs even require the GRE? I thought it was all about the portfolio.

SavingDiva said...

I recently took the subject GRE (science, not English) and I'm just glad it's over! Good luck with yours!

English Major said...

anonymous, I think you have to wait until Pinecone is accepting new "panelists." I found the referral ad on Sitemeter, actually, and clicked it to sign up. Best of luck finding one!

A. Marigold said...

Blech. I never took that test since I decided to go the teaching route instead, and I don't envy you. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Good luck, English major! I took the GRE in English Lit way back in 2004, and it was beyond brutal. It was all about being able to recognize a particular author's style and straight up memorization of text names and characters. It's painful, but I got in to several schools and am happy I went through that. And just FYI -- from what I gather from various sources, most PhD programs take the results of that test with a HUGE grain of salt!!

Anonymous said...

Oy, I'm going to be taking the GRE Literature test this year, too. I'm dreading it and I haven't even picked a date to take the test!

Michelle said...

Good luck with the GRE Lit test! Here's a guide you might find helpful--
http://www.duke.edu/~tmw15/

I found it very helpful last year to study this along with my Nortons!

Jerry said...

Hey, it's a start. Freelancing is terrific but it has its drawbacks. No insurance, not always regular income. At least you're not selling socks at Macy's, right?

Jerry
www.leads4insurance.com