My article marketing service has been increasing steadily in members and income. Over $4,000 presently in monthly recurring membership income!

Problem is, I still need to manage my spending so that I actually use the surplus to pay off debt. There's currently $50,000 in credit card and home equity line of credit debt.

I purchased

Got Guts last night and will be working my numbers through it soon.

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd give an update.

I'm averaging $3,000-$5,000 per month on the side, which isn't yet enough to go full time -- so I'm still working my day job.

I've invested a lot of the money I've been making back into the business, but I've been wasting a lot of it too. I really need to learn better cashflow. Making more money doesn't help when I spend it as fast as I make it.

I launched a different product two days ago and made a little over $1,000. This was for a membership site, so most of the money will keep coming in each month until people cancel.

This whole Internet marketing thing can get very distracting. Not only distracting me often from what is important in life (NOT money), but also distracting in and of itself.... there are so many ways to make money online that it can be tempting to try a little of everything. But real progress is made in sticking to one thing and following through. I'm still learning that.

My goal had been to quit my job by May 1, but obviously I missed that goal. I keep thinking the next thing is going to take my income up enough to quit my job, but it hasn't happened yet. I'd like to be making at least 10K per month before I quit my day job.

I'll keep you posted.

My total business-related spending has reached $953 so far. $375 of this was related to a home-study course I bought through eBay on how to effectively launch new products.

My total is up almost $600 from when I last reported my business-related spending. Another big expense was a $99 for a merchant account for accepting credit card payments. (Let's hope people are using their debit cards!)

Now that we're living in our own home again (and actually paying for our lodging), I won't have much extra money to spend on business-related purchases.

Let's hope the book sells when I release it next month!

(Incidentally, I've been using a COOL web application called

Basecamp to manage my project. They have a free account available. Check it out if you need to manage any projects.)

A little over a year ago we left NC and rented out of our house to take a job in DC. We moved back 3 months ago and just moved back into our house this past Thursday. Our renter kept the place pretty clean. The only issue we had is she used toothpaste to fill in some nail holes in the walls.

Gone are the days of free rent at my in-laws we have been enjoying these last 3 months. We had been planning to stay there until the summer (and just rent out our house again), but privacy & space is worth $1000 a month. My wife is planning to get a job so we can keep accelerating our debt payoff. (We don't have any kids yet.)

I may be crazy, but I'm trying to develop an "information product" (ebook) to make some extra money to pay off debt. I've been working on it for a couple weeks. Actually, I haven't actually begun writing it -- I've been too busy making a couple related websites and writing/distributing free articles & reports to build up a list of people to market this ebook to. I'll let you all know my progress.

It has eaten a bit into my savings, however -- to the tune of about $400. I am a bit ashamed of this (which is what kept me from posting for a couple weeks) because I had previously determined that I wouldn't try to start up any side business until I was out of debt.

A friend of mine challenged me not to limit myself from developing some side income which could pay off some debt. The wisdom of this advice is yet to be determined. I am having a load of fun, however!

I really think I'm catching the vision about not spending and instead saving & paying off debt. I actually chose not to get fast-food type of things a few times this week and instead save the money. I cancelled some unneeded $14.95 monthly charge and felt GREAT -- like I'm actually making an extra $14.95 every month now!

I was going to use the $300 I made on eBay to buy a piano keyboard that I've always wanted to learn, but instead I am realizing that the purpose of extra money now is to pay off debt. Then later I can buy a few things for myself.

I know there will be many more decision ahead, but it is encouraging to see real progress in my financial decisions.

I ended up adding another $40 to increase distribution potential for my press release regarding my

www.firstbidbonus.com website.

I found a good angle which I'm hoping attracts some press and links to my site.

Here is the release.

I have 2 websites I made last year:

www.desktop-plugins.com
www.firstbidbonus.com

The first I'm auctioning off on eBay (see post below for listing). There are no bids yet . Someone told me they would give me $300 for it if it doesn't sell on eBay. I'm sure I'll get at least one bid -- I hope I get 2 and that it ends up at least at $300.

The second site I was going to just shut down. I've made $50 or so in the past month with it, but it was just consuming so much of my heart that I decided to shut it down. I put up a large red "discontinued until further notice" sign on the top of every page. That same night I had 2 more requests. I thought maybe I should give it another chance.

I wrote a press release about the site yesterday which will be released tomorrow. I'll see how the press release does and if it generates some more revenue. I paid $40 for the press release distribution, so I hope I'm not just back to my old ways.

I went out on a date with my wife last night. We went to

Moe's restaurant for dinner and then rented a movie at blockbuster (transporter 2). The food wasn't bad nor was the movie, but we spent $27. This also includes $3.50 for some girl scout cookes -- they were stationed at the entrance to blockbuster.

I'd like to be able to take my wife out 2-3 times a month, but I don't want to $30-$50 each time. This money actually came from my wife's babysitting -- she made $50 the night before. I need to come up with some dates which don't cost much money but are still fun.

I am excited about the change God is bringing to my life. For the past 9 months or so -- actually the past 2 years -- I have been very interested in "starting a side business." There is nothing wrong with this, the entrepreneurial spirit drives america. But my entrepreneurial spirit was more motivated by a desire to get rich quick and consumed my free time and my heart. I have made about $60 and lost about $1,000. Not that the money was that big a deal -- it stole far more from my heart and love for God and family than $1,000.

I have a couple side websites which have consumed a lot of my time. God is leading me to give them up for now and I'm EXCITED about doing this. I felt I should give them up 4 months ago, but I didn't want to. I'm so happy that God is changing my heart so that I "steady plodding" instead of "get rich quick" excites me. Jesus is capturing my heart.