How to Make Money Blogging by Doing NOTHING but using AdSense #BlogTrends

Make money blogging note on corkboard

It’s true.

I am earning passive income with this website.

I promised you in another post that I was going to tell you how I earn money by doing absolutely NOTHING, and today’s the day I reveal how I’m doing this.

I’ll provide some steps for you to follow so that you can earn passive income, too, using AdSense, and I’ll also tell you of some other ways you can make money blogging, using other methods.

Of course, you’ll have to do some initial work before you can reap the rewards.

– “Aye, there’s the rub” –

This is an image that contains a quote from Hamlet: "Aye, there's the rub."

How I’m Earning Money

In July 2014, I installed some AdSense code on about a dozen of my Wording Well blog posts. I chose the posts that are high-ranking in Google Search, as I get hundreds of referrals from Google every day. (I pay attention to my blog stats!)

Sure, I had to write some fantastic posts first.

And then learn how to install some code on my posts.

For a non-techie such as myself, it wasn’t as difficult as I had thought it would be.

Now I’m earning money by doing absolutely NOTHING. It’s great!

Here’s how I’m doing it.

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This is a photo of Kerry Kijewski.

Interview With A Blind Woman

This is a photo of Kerry Kijewski.

Blind people should not be avoided, shunned, or ignored.

This past year, I have encountered two blind people online.

You probably already know Maxwell Ivey, whom I interviewed and who is now a blogging coach and author of Leading You Out of the Darkness Into the Light (which I edited for him). If you have already visited Max’s blog or had any type of interaction with him, you know that he is a sweet man with a heart of gold. He’s also inspirational in many ways: he lost over two hundred pounds in two years, he owns two businesses (one which involves buying and selling carnival rides), he is a blogger, he’s on social media, and he’s now proud of the fact he’s blind and has accomplished so much in his life.

However, you might not yet know Kerry.

This is a photo of Kerry Kijewski, by the water on one of her trips.

Kerry. Kerry. Who the Heck is Kerry?

Kerry Kijewski is a blind woman. But she is so much more than just that.

She’s a great writer, an insightful person, and a pleasure to talk to, both through emails and Skype. (Aah, I love technology!)

Kerry agreed to let me interview her, too. It seemed only fitting that I should have a post about an interview with a blind woman on my site, as I already have An Interview With a Blind Man on Wording Well.

Kerry is a blogger, a writer, and insightful traveller. Her writing site is a free blog called Her Headache, and her travel site is her new, hosted site called The Insightful Wanderer.

I first met Kerry through LinkedIn, after being told about her by Max, and then through a comment I left for her on her blog.

This is a screenshot of my intro comment to Kerry.

 

This is a photo of Kerry Kijewski, by a castle, on one of her trips.

A Blind Woman Who Wants to Travel?

Kerry’s goals include pursuing a career in writing and travelling the world.

Before you jump to any conclusions about that last statement, know that I initially had a hard time believing it, too. But when you think about it, she has every right to do the same things sighted people do. Her experience, however, will be a bit different from yours or mine. She’ll utilize her other senses to enjoy the locations she visits.

In fact, before we get to the in-depth interview, here is a super-brief introduction to Kerry, using what Kerry has to say about herself and her desire to travel:

I just want to say that I’m no different from anyone else. I’m really not. I’m not scary. I like music, movies, books, autumn, chocolate, and pizza.

I love to laugh and have a wicked sense of humour, if I do say so myself.

I like symmetry.

I love to go to concerts, on day trips/road trips, and theme parks. Even blind girls wanna have fun!

I like to sing, but I am not great.

I love history, psychology, literature, and pop culture.

I love the scent immediately after a spring rain, the fragrance of freshly cut grass in summer,, the crispness of the fall air, or the fresh and still silent snowfall that I smell in the night.

Think what life would be like if you only stayed inside your own little bubble, if you didn’t get out and discovered the world around you. that’s all I want to do. I stand at a place like Niagara Falls and, although I am not taking in its majesty with my eyes, my remaining senses step in and take over. I feel the spray of the mist on my face, I grip the cold railing, smelling the cool windy air, listening to the roar and feeling its vibration through the stone at my feet.

That is what travel can be for me. Just because I can’t see it (which must be really hard for people to wrap their heads around), does that mean I deserve to experience such things for myself any less?

I get something out of going somewhere new and meeting the people who live there. I eat the food and listen to the accents and the differences in speech, but I still see the same humanity that I see everywhere.

We are all the same, despite our differences. That’s the lesson I get from travel and of which I want to impart, whether it’s people from another country, who speak a different language, observe a different religion, or whatever it may be. This translates to living with any difference or “disability” like blindness, that people can’t imagine for themselves, but we all need to try and put ourselves in one another’s shoes to truly find our common ground.

I miss looking at pictures every day. I still like to hear descriptions of something. I can imagine how a certain light hits something. I can imagine a look, but yet I can’t. I try. I don’t just retreat into my own experience of the world.

I have an imagination and I saw more at one time. I have the ability to envision my surroundings.

Travel is also, in huge part, who you are with. It’s the people you experience the world with that make the experience so special.

If the conditions are just right, if the light hits the face of my niece or nephew in just the right way, I catch a glimpse of sweetness in their faces.

Just because blind people can’t see doesn’t mean we don’t wonder what someone of the opposite sex might look like. The inability to see it doesn’t take away the instinct to want to know anyway.

As you can clearly see, Kerry is a woman of substance. Most people, however, can’t seem to look past her blindness, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to showcase her today and do an in-depth interview with her.

This is a photo of Kerry Kijewski, when she did a CN Tower Edge Walk, on one of her trips.

An Interview With A Blind Woman, Kerry Kijewski

Some of the questions have several parts, and some of Kerry’s answers are fairly long. However, I hope you read through each question and response carefully, as Kerry reveals certain things about herself that you don’t want to miss!

Without further ado, please get to know Kerry a bit! I’m sure you’ll come to like her as much as I do! At the very least, you’ll learn a bit about this blind woman and realize that not all blind folk should be clumped together in a stereotypical category, or be treated so differently that they are made to feel like freaks.

Enjoy the interview!

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I’m Going Into Hiding (sort of) + I’m seeking Beta Readers, too!

This is a digital business card for Lorraine Reguly.

Guess what? I have a few announcements to make today.

This post is kind of like a True Tales Tuesday post crossed with a social media status update, but I figured that I owed it to you to tell you about what’s going on in my life, and what I have been doing for the last month or so… because I’ve been a bit ill, tired, and neglectful of some of my blogger friends.

In keeping with my own suggestions of what to do when you’re a blogger who is sick, I wanted to be transparent with you and tell you what’s happening, what’s been happening, and what’s going to happen in the next little while in my life.

I’ll give you the bad news first, just to get it out of the way, then I’ll move onto the good stuff.

First of all, I’ve been tired lately. A lot. I’m so tired that I’m even thinking of going into hiding… and am… sort of.

In the last month or so, I’ve been helping with renovations to one of the bedrooms at my mom’s house, editing an ebook for Max Ivey (the blind guy whom I interviewed, who is also the man behind The Blind Blogger), writing a series for Dear Blogger (on how to put yourself out there on the internet and how to be seen as an authority), Wording Well, Laying It Out There, and… I’ve been under the weather with a cold that just won’t seem to go away.

But that’s not all.

Wording Well is becoming licensed!

I’ve also been trying to get things in order business-wise, as I’m going through the end-of-year review process with ODSP (the Ontario Disability Support Program), whom I have to report my earnings to (well, if I want them to continue helping me pay my rent and stuff, which I do). They’re great, and are helping me get set up in another program, for women entrepreneurs. I’ve been to three meetings/appointments already, and I have more to go to. On the upside, I am putting together a business plan and will soon be registered as a licensed business!

Yes, I’m getting exhausted! Running a business by yourself is hard. Most people have support, but I’m a one-woman show, folks, and I’m tired. It doesn’t help that my leg has been giving me problems, either, but I think it’s my fault — I shouldn’t have been painting and standing on it for so long. However, I’m happy I have my leg and didn’t lose it in my accident. Of course, attending all these meetings is not helping my leg much, either. 🙁

What also doesn’t help is having technical problems like testing out a new plugin and running into problems that aren’t even connected to the plugin. That added stress is something I surely could have done without!

I also am supposed to have a new book coming out in December, but I’m not even close to completion. Ugh. The good news is that my Media Kit for Risky Issues is pretty much finished.

I Am Seeking Beta Readers

What I’m going to do, in honour of November being National Novel Writing Month (#NaNoWriMo), is go into hiding, to work. That means I’m not going to be too active on social media, I’m going to be commenting less on others’ blogs, and I’m going to try to focus on finishing my book.

I’m going to be looking for a few beta readers for Letters to Julian, too.

If you want to be one, please let me know.

I’m not sure when it’ll be finished, or how long it’ll be. What it will be is a collection of letters I’ve written to my son over the years. I’m a single mom, and I’m not perfect. I’ve been a crappy mother to him on many occasions, and I carry a lot of guilt about that. Of course, there have been a lot of good times, too, and these days my son assures me he’s over the bad parts. I’ll give you more information as I progress with this project.

For now, I’m going to post some “fun” posts while I’m “gone” but will begin with an installment of the FITS series, next Tuesday. I am committed to continuing to serve my faithful readers, even though interactions online may be somewhat limited.

Knowing me, I’ll end up getting so into things that I’ll probably be active regardless, but if I’m not, I want you to know beforehand WHY I’m not around.

So there you have it. I’m going into hiding… to work.

I’m expanding my services, too!

Because I don’t think I do enough (yeah, that’s sarcasm!), I am also going to be expanding the services I offer. I’m going to be offering consulting services for struggling and/or newbie bloggers, as well as different purchase packages for blog posts. (I’m sure Greg will like that!)

I’m also going to be blogging more about my life on my other site, Lorraine Reguly: Laying It Out There, where True Tales Tuesdays and Featured Fridays are moving to (they used to be found on this site, and some are still found in the archives here), so if you like those kinds of posts, please follow that blog instead of this one — or in addition to this one! 😉

I also wanted to wish my American friends a Happy Thanksgiving (Canadians celebrated theirs earlier this month) and a Happy Halloween, to everyone. I am not too sure of what I should be saying to my readers from other parts of the world, as I don’t know a lot about your cultures, but you can educated me in the comments section, if you want.

I’m still going to be giving away some free editing to one lucky winner, so please don’t forget about the opportunity to win free editing!

I also wanted to mention that I need a hug. I do. I could probably use something else, too… but I had better not say what THAT is… LOL

I’ll leave it to your imaginations. 😉

See you on a limited basis in Novemeber, over here, but hopefully more on my other site, Laying It Out There.

Don’t forget to let me know (either in the comments or privately through my Contact page form) if you want to be a beta reader for Letters to Julian. Thanks!

Help Me Determine if We Can Eliminate Spam Forever!

This is a picture of a stick man I created who I like to call Gimpy. He's frustrated because he doesn't know what is going on! He's trying to comment on my blog, but can't.

Are you sick of spam? I know I am, and want to eliminate it once and for all.

Akismet just isn’t cutting it, so I’ve switched to Anti-Spam. It might have to do with the current commenting system I’m using (as Connor Rickett points out in the last half of his video), but I’m just not sure.

Anyways, these are both FREE WordPress plugins, but one seems to be better than the other!

So far, Anti-Spam is doing the trick, and there is NO spam in my spam folder, but I’m not sure how it is going to affect people who want to comment on my posts, so I need your help!

My Commenting Plugin Experiment

I experimented with this in the past, but for only a few days. I wasn’t sure if I lost commenters. I know that Akismet sometimes classified a couple of my commenters as spam (a couple of times Adrienne Smith was considered spam, and I know for a fact that she is a real person), but, I’m tired of hunting for such commenters in my spam folder. Wading through spam comments is a time-waster, and my time is better spent elsewhere. I’m willing to bet yours is, too.

A New Commenting Problem

The problem that I’m facing now is wondering whether or not my commenters are going to make it through the filtering process. I’m afraid I’m going to lose commenters. I actually activated this plugin about 10 days ago, and so far have had no problems (that I know of) with peoples’ abilities to comment on my last post… so this post might be a waste of time on my part… but I don’t think it is.

At the very least, it will teach you about the Anti-Spam plugin!

What to do if you cannot comment on Wording Well

It’s no secret that I moderate comments on this site. I do this for three reasons: Read More

Important Announcement

 

Announcement image

Last week, I mentioned that this site is changing. Did you hear about my important announcement?

I sure hope so!

If not, please take a moment to read about it here. Just ignore the first part of the post, and skip to the second.

Thanks!

It’s tough trying to make this switchover… so if True Tales Tuesdays and Featured Fridays are what you have come to love about my blog, then I’d suggest following my other site, Lorraine Reguly: Laying It Out There, instead. Or should I say, “TOO”? 😉

 

See you there!

FYI, another important announcement is that I was featured yesterday on Chris Graham’s blog, to help promote my ebook. Thanks, Chris! 🙂

It’s tough trying to change the scope of this blog. I think I should have just named it Lorraine Reguly’s Life to begin with…

Ugh.