The Picture
Shoemoney photoshopped this picture of himself holding a check from Google paying $132,994.97 for a month's payment for ad royalties.

According to his site, Shoemoney.com, the check was in reality a payment for a magazine ad he did for a different comany. He used the PhotoShop program to manipulate the information on the check to post for readers as a hoax.


Genius or Con?
When I read other bloggers talking about Shoemoney's great accomplishment, I was filled with awe and thought "How can I do that too?" I did not even think to look the author up or to view his pages, I just took it as fact.

Many experts openly agreed that the check was a fake and posted their own articles about their findings, even though Shoemoney said he explained the hoax on his website.

I had clicked on every story I came across that wrote of Shoemoney's accomplishment. More traffic for those writers. I suppose the hoax is a stroke of genius. He has become the most popular freelancer on the internet because everyone wants to know how to make a wealthy living off of Google AdSense.

A part of me feels a bit slighted. I was really hoping for a great AdSense future and maybe that will still be so. Hard work and dedication are the ingredients of a successful blogger and freelancer in the game to make money.



For Love Or Money
Are you in the freelancing game for the love of it? For the Money? I am in it for both. I tend to be an activism and reference writer because these are the topics I care most about. The great amounts of time I spend daily at these efforts are probably stemmed from my wanting to earn a decent side income from this venture.

In the end, we would all like to make money for our hobbies. The great content writers will persevere.


The Greats and the REAL LIFE Moneymakers
Online etiquette includes not asking any blogger or writer how much they are making from freelancing. It is my educated guess, however, that the following writers are raking in some good cash. They are great content writers, publish on popular topics, publish frequently and seem to have all of their ducks in a row. Check these writers out and learn from their examples:

Athlyn Green (AKA Melody Rhodes): Published on Triond, HubPages, Blogger, Helium and Suite 101.

Nelson Doyle: Published on Triond

Isabella Snow: Published on HubPages

Chan Lee Peng: Published on Triond


We Can Do It!

Even though a $132 K check from Google is not realistically in our grasp, we can still make good money from the program. Let us persevere and keep on publishing. Find your passion and a niche. Make friends when you can and learn from their efforts too. To be a convincing writer, you need to know what you are writing about. Many writers try too hard to write on a popular or "hot" topic and wind up hurting their credibility due to misinformation or lacking research.

I made a list of topics I would love to read about, but know hardly anything about. Use as a brainstorm list. Are you an expert on one of these topics and feel you can write a great article about it? Please let me know if you do, I would love to read it: