Blog

This was indeed orginally meant to be a script for the second/third episode of the YouTube Channel Growth series, but so much happened around the death of my laptop that I decided to make a fresh start. I ultimately had to format my hard-drive and re-install a fresh copy of Windows, finally managing to get it right on about the fifth or sixth attempt. That implies having lost EVERYTHING I had on my machine, including all the footage from my 15-month stay in Thailand, a whole lot of which I was still planning to make videos with...

Such is life though, and as painful as it is to think about all the golden footage I still had to get through, I guess things have been expedited to that part of the YouTube Channel Growth journey where I put out content focussed on the technical details of exactly what it is I get up to on my quest to find and deploy real ways of making real money online.

So I guess I will indeed go ahead and record the voiceover audio for this would-have-been transitional vid to be released much later on, editing under a new format I'll effectively be introducing. The ultimate goal is to re-start a life on the road as a Digital Nomad, making money online while travelling.

As if they weren't real before, or continued to be real ever since they got real about six years ago now, THINGS JUST GOT REAL!

I'm talking about having no other option, apart from turning to a doomed life of crime, but to use the internet to generate at the very least a decent income...

I won't get into detail about the exact dire circumstances that brought this critical need to make money online into the joint-brightest and most revealing light it's ever been in, because that won't help either you or I. Being acquainted with or knowing of someone who is in a similarly dire situation you're in, or worse, can only be of any help if you put your head together with that of the other person and do something effectual about it.

The more people putting their heads together the better, but self-organisation among modern, consumerist-centric human beings is justifiably complex and almost totaly unfathomable. So the next best thing is following an individual who has decided to take the crucial step to start something, in this instance demarcating an assembly-point for as many other individuals with whom they share the emergent goal to better their financial circumstances, using the internet.

So, in this third instalmanet of the series titled "Growing a YouTube channel about running a biz. with my SASSA 350 grant," I'm going to start documenting the details about exactly what it is I do on my personal quest to generate the money I need to online, for two reasons:

#1

If you visit www.gwapsa.co.za and follow all the instructions listed there, then following my documented journey and perhaps trying out some of the online income opps I explore without getting results will still have contributed to you benefitting from what I mentioned about following an individual who has started something that can benefit us all who put our heads together! You'll know exactly what I mean if you visit gwapsa.co.za

Reason #2

The other time I absolutely had to find new ways to generate money online, was when I was in the overstay situation described in the video titled "7 Things That Went Wrong on THIS Thailand trip." The little success I amassed simply wasn't enough to have me in a position to realistically claim to be some kind of expert or guru with all the answers to the questions people seeking to make money online have. Those who do make such claims in any case, ultimately seeking some kind of monetary investment in return for that information, are almost guaranteed to be full of shit!

If the methods to earn money online they share ever worked in the first place, then by the time they're sharing them via platforms such as those on which you watch these videos, they've long been saturated and don't work anymore.

So the second reason is that I believe more tangible value will be attained out of a more explorative and practical approach to reporting on the pursuit of realistic online income opps, plus making videos is part of the longer-term hustle, en route to YouTube monetization.

Right. So, before we get right into it, by way of proceedings for the day, I'm gonna take stock of where we are...

The rhythmic drum beat you hear in the background perfectly sets the mood for the current environment and situation I'm in, both literally and as a representation of where I am in my quest to live out my life as a Digital Nomad, or hackpacker.

It's a Sunday, which means it's church-day here by my late grandparents' place, and since I'm a non-religious brother, the daily grind continues for me, on my laptop, in what used to be my grandparents' bedroom.

Connected via the uncapped Hypa Fibre internet I'm paying two-thirds of the monthly R299 fee for, on my Samsung Galaxy A32 is a tense final session of a cricket test match between South Africa and Pakistan.

Both the laptop and smartphone were given to me by my dear friend and BucketUnlist.com partner, Elvis, who simply wanted me to be able to continue working on our joint venture following my five-month stint in hospital and loss of income source(s).

My eldest mam'cane's walking into the room, amidst all of this, epitomises the situation I'm in, and look -- she's perfectly fine, but she's not the only one who comes and goes into what is the main bedroom, which is my bedroom for now. She in actual fact respects my privacy, along with all the other immediate family members who have just as much of a right to shelter under my late grandparents' roof.

But spare a thought for the otherwise very private and chill person I am, who is so private and chill that my preferred mode of travel is as a solo backpacker...

Anyway, where we're at is in the miserable position of having R166.10 in cash to my name, plus R308.54 in the money left over from my monthly SASSA grant, across my FNB accounts. So the total amount of money I have is R474.64.

From this, my monthly banking fees still have to be deducted, a chunky R89 of which is for my Business Account, and I still have to pay for January's Fibre and for the R200 Reseller Hosting service I run my Web Hosting business with as well.

Needless to say, this definitey won't be enough, so you can see why it's critical for me to find real ways of making money online.

Since the guys I rent the Reseller Web Server from only suspend the service for non-payment at around the 15th of the month, I can maybe try to strategically direct the bulk of this money to more pressing issues, while I make sure to grind out some results from my endeavours to find real ways to generate an income online.

I'll certainly have to make sure to pay to keep the Fibre line connected, while I'm not even sure I'm actually going to be able to GET the remaining 33.3% of the fee I get from the guy who's renting the container out in the backyard to operate an internet cafe.

As far as my Web Hosting clients go, based on the communicaton I've had with two of the other clients who are supposed to pay their R39 month-to-month, I'm only going to get one R39.

So anyway, getting on with the literal proceedings of the day -- I'm going to deposit R10 into my Betway account and bet it all on my beloved Orlando Pirates. I've decided that since I ensure to refuel my spirit by watching Pirates games when they come around, occasionally catching a range of other mainly local, but international games too, when I do indeed spend that 90 minutes to two hours watching a game, I should have put some money on it. However little that money will be.

That game is about 90 minutes away, and I'll probably HDMI-connect it to the TV in the living room so that one of the madala church members who sometimes even sleeps over, in the same bed of my late grandparents' I sleep in (imagine), can also watch on the big screen as opposed to over my shoulder or next to me in the bed, Netflix-and-Chill style!

You see just what I have to deal with?!!