Making that Video Game Money

I got a nice surprise in the mail this week. A small postcard sized piece of paper arrived. I almost mistook it for junk mail. I ripped the folding tab, and opened it up to see a check printed on the inside. My settlement with EA Sports had arrived.

Give me some of that video game monies

It was at least back in 2011 that I filled out an online form for some crazy sounding class action lawsuit against EA sports. I really didn't think an anti-monopoly suit against EA Sports would actually be successful, Even if they did have a monopoly, I'm sure their were too lawyered up for anyone to do much about it. But since I had bought NCAA Football every year since 2002 and a few Madden games in there too, I figured I might as well take 5 minutes to fill out the form.

And boy did it pay off. The check came for $99.02. That's way more than I've made in any other class action suit, which usually end up being checks for less than $10. It was a happy day, and it looks like the unemployed lifestyle can continue on for another few days. Or I can finally buy NCAA '14.

You guys are awesome

It looks like my readership has been supporting the cause because I just received word that The Google is sending me another check in the mail for $100! This is great, because I really like money. I use it all the time. Last time this happened I asked my fledgling readership what I should do with it. So again, here are some options for what I should do with this money I really didn't do anything to earn.

1) Put it towards a new laptop for mobile blogging.
2) Bet it all on college football until I've turned the $100 into $1,000 dollars and then divide it among my readership. I think you each get $50.
3) Buy a gun.
4) Get really drunk and tell chicks that I'm an internet sensation. I'm not entirely sure how I use the $100 in this scenario.
5) Give it to charity. Ha!
6) Spend it on my novelty Michigan outfit, and take a picture of it and post it on this blog.

My last payment was October 2008. It took me 12 months to get my first payment but it took me 23 months after that to get my second payment. I'm guessing with my small but loyal following and an uptick in posting I will get my next payment in March of 2012. So in a mere 18 months expect me to ask this question again.

One year of real life

Today marks the one year anniversary of me starting my professional career. One down 33 to go. It's been an interesting past year. I went from being a poor college student to a young professional. I've made twice the amount of money this year than I have in all the jobs I've ever held combined. It has allowed me to buy a bunch of stuff that I could never have living in slums of college housing. It still surprises me how much money I make and subsequently spend now.

Working has it's other benefits than the paychecks as well. I get to travel and sometimes go places I would pay to go anyways. Next weekend I'm going to DC and getting to visit some friends. Plus, every year so far I've gotten to take a free trip back to Ann Arbor to recruit. I find recruiting trips to be mucho fun-o.

One of the hardest things about beginning the life of work is that you have to go every day. In college I might have had to wake up early a couple of times a week. If I really didn't feel like getting up I didn't have to and there were absolutely no consequences. When I worked during the summers driving buses I usually only had to get up early one or two days a week which I could always muster up for. I got a taste of it when I had my internships, but this is really it. A change in the past year is that I now drink excessive amounts of coffee.

After the 20 roommates I had in college, I finally got my own place. Having complete control of my living space was awesome. Paying bills and rent by myself really wasn't. After a year of that I moved into a townhouse and I finally now have a decent roommate, a house with real furniture, hardwood floors and two big TV's. I've lived in the suburbs, a medium sized city and a huge city. I now live in really small town, which I really like. I've always been attracted to the charm of small towns with lots going on and living where I could walk downtown. It's nice, because there is the small town feel with the big city just a ferry ride away, I see it as the best of both worlds. Also, for the first time I live in a place with views of mountains and water.

I've gotten used to life in the Pacific Northwest. The people, the rain and the time difference. If you think about the country the Pacific Northwest is really isolated from the rest of the country. It makes for long flights but a cool uniqueness about it.

All in all, I think this whole 'working' thing has really worked out well. It seems better than most of the alternatives. I think I'll keep doing it. That is until I find some other way to get really rich. I don't think I'd be one of those people who become billionaires and still show up for work every day. But no complaints here.

Post College Plan 2

In about 6 months I will graduate college and supposedly become a productive member of the work force. This scares me. I really don't want to wake up everyday at 7 AM and go to a job for 8 hours. To avoid this I have be thinking of ways that I can still do whatever I want but not be forced to work 48 weeks a year.

I am already planning a trip to Alaska to prospect gold. So my second post college plan involves me striking it rich in the gold fields. Lets say I stumble upon the motherlode (that's a golden pun (ohh that's rich)) I then can really do nothing all year. My work would involved going camping for a few weeks a year and just collecting more money from the ground. I figure that I would only need to gather 7 or 8 pounds of gold a year to make just as much or more money than I would working a full time job. Sounds pretty easy to me.

I don't work hard for my money

This is the week I get some of that internet money. Yes my friends, by the end of this week I should be holding a check from The Google for 102.06 dollars. When I got AdSense almost a year ago my goal was to have enough money in a year to buy a forty of Colt45. I underestimated my earning potential (you guys) by about 330%. The question is what should I do with my new found wealth. Since I really don't feel I have done anything to earn this money, I figure that I should spend it on something cool. I am open to idea's, but I have a few in mind.

Blogging party
This could be one of two things; a party for myself and fellow blog readers paid for by my blogging earnings, or it could be just a party that I liveblog during. Either way it would be a celebration of my blogging prowess, in which everyone would be required to read some of my posts aloud and discuss my pure blogging genius. But I really want to make use this money for more than a keg of Keystone Light.

Low risk long term retirement savings account
Um, yeah you know in like a long time this money will be worth more and then I can like, do things with the money I got from when I blogged during college. This sounds lame.

Fight Ann Arbor's unfair chicken ordinance
I don't know how much money it takes to fight city hall. Especially when my lawyer fee's are covered in my tuition. If I have any money left over though I can use it to file a permit, build, and care for Elwood Blues.

Rent a midget
I wonder how long you can get a midget for $102.

Put it into the AR-15 fund
I still haven't bought my assault rifle, mostly because they cost more monies than the intertubes provides. This could start the fund. The other reason I haven't bought one is that if I move to Chicago next year, I would have to get rid of it because of their Assault Weapons Ban.

Give it to charity
ha.

Build the zipline
I have always wanted to make a zipline from the third story of our house up the street to Bell's pizza. That way I wouldn't have to walk all the way downstairs to go to Bell's.

Become a day trader
I could get an E-Trade account, and become a day trader. Then I could get enough money to do everything listed above. Except give it to charity of course. I really don't know much about the stock market or investing, but I do have a Stocks application on my iPhone. If I make money then wooo! or else I can enjoy the financial crises like all other Americans.

The money keeps rolling in slowly

After I setup Google Adsense, I predicted that I would get my first 100$ check in January 2009. Well as of right now I have earned exactly 50$. So I'm nearly on pace. Unfortunately, the money flow has come to a trickle. Refer to the following graphs.

Despite the increase in hits, I am seeing a decrease in clicks per hit. I didn't even get a click in the month of June. So here is a chart of my earnings per day.


It seems that I when I blog about AdSense more people click the ads. I still have to decide what I am going to do with all of these "Internet Monies" Either way, I am making money to write about taking poops at work (which I get paid to do anyways). I'll leave you with a quote from a 9 year old.

We thought we could make money on the Internet. But while the Internet is new and exciting for creative people, it hasn't matured as a distribution mechanism to the extent that one should trade real and immediate opportunities for income for the promise of future online revenue. It will be a few years before digital distribution of media on the Internet can be monetized to an extent that necessitates content producers to forgo their fair value in more traditional media.

Brian Loses IIE Elections in a Landslide

I went to the IIE meeting tonight for the free pizza. It was election night and I decided that after 7 semesters at Michigan it was time to get involved. I ran for the treasurer position against one other kid. I gave my speech about how I wanted to show future employers that I was involved with activities, and told them I knew how to use excel. I knew most of the people there and I thought I had it locked up. While we were waiting out in the hall my esteemed opponent even told me that "I don't really know any of those kids too well." You could understand that I was a little shocked when I found out that I had lost. The one kid who had promised to vote for me described it as "Not even close". Still, free pizza!

I even knew both the kids counting votes, and still lost. BTW, Brian can you comment the official tally?

Brian gets his Money for Nothing, Chicks for Free

Well I just capped off one of my most productive months of blogging. I even wrote a post about the Michigan Stadium renovations that was deleted right as I was about to publish it. (I'm too lazy to re-write it.)

If you can remember it was a month ago that I announced that I was selling out to Google with Google Adsense. I guess that one of the advantages of the site is that it tracks the number of people that have visited my blog. It turns out that more people read it than I thought. In the one month span there have been 450 views of my blog. That equates to about 15 views a day. It also turns out that people have been clicking my ads too. Check out this chart for more details:




The really good news is that the 19 clicks have netted me exactly 7$ on the month. I know, I know, I can't wait to spend it all. But Google wont pay me until I have garnered 100$, so for right now, I'll just have to wait for more clicks. I anticipate that I should have a 100$ check in my hand around January of 2009. Isn't that exciting? No?

But you can see that views are much higher right around or after new posts. This means the more I blog the more views I get but right now there isn't any statistical correlation between the number of views and the number of ad clicks. Maybe if I had more friends in the blogosphere I would be more of an internet sensation.