Introducing the $100k Challenge

Readers of the blogosphere who have stumbled upon this blog, allow me to introduce you to my 2010 New Year’s Resolution.

I promise to earn over $100k this year.

There it is. It is now in digital publication. I’m stuck to it now (assuming I don’t come back to this post and delete it later).

So lets kick this blog off with the goal of following my progress of making over $100,000 in 2010. I will count my current work income and plan to supplement it with additional work doing IT services as well as affiliate marketing. I hope to gain some followers who might willingly contribute their thoughts and encouragement.

The State of the Finances:

I have an amazing job that I am very enthusiastic about that earns me a decent salary. I will be including this into the weekly totals. Because of various performance bonuses that may or may not be a factor we will estimate my salary ranging from $40,000-$60,000 over the year. Following the law of averages here we will narrow it down and say $50k. This leaves 50,000 dollars to be made up of additional work done on the side.

I’m sure many of the affiliates out there will be saying ‘well you can do affiliate work while you are at work,’ and while this is true, I want to make it quite clear that my current ambition is to progress more as an IT professional at my organization as my main income and affiliate marketing/independent consulting is supplemental work. Chances are most of the people that read this blog will be interested in marketing topics so I will probably focus on that. However I have more than a full workload of innovative ideas to progress on at my 8-5 job that those hours are completely blocked off for that job, with the exception of maybe checking emails during lunch, etc.

The Supplemental Plan:

$50,000 is a lot of money to come up with on the side for pretty much anyone. I have two basic plans to achieve this:

1. Affiliate Marketing – I have been following the affiliate marketing trend for a few years ago. When I was 12 years old I had my first experiences with it and its now time to dive back into it. There is a ton of money to be made online by promoting other people’s offers on various websites, however this is a VERY competitive industry so it will be pretty hard to squeeze my way in as a newbie. I have been following the blogs of Jeremy Schoemaker (ShoeMoney) and Jonathan Volk as my primary source of inspiration. These two have a wealth of information that they are willing to share and hopefully I can take advantage of some of it.
2. Computer Repair Services – Being an IT professional it is pretty easy for me to leverage my skills to earn a bit of side income. It has ALWAYS been my position to not charge friends and family for any services done to their PCs but the more people I meet the more I think I should start doing this on the side to earn money. So I have made it a goal in 2010 to start up a quick little website and see what business I can drum up in my local town for on house pc repair. Of course 99% of all PC problems are Virus/Spyware problems that simply need a deep cleansing. So it’s pretty simple stuff that could earn some serious cash if I stick to it.

The Obstacles:

Well in addition to doing this additional work in my spare time this year is a very busy year for me. To start off with, I am going to be getting married in February of 2011. So my fiance and I are going to be doing a whole bunch of wedding planning at random times that will be distracting from these other goals. Secondly I am still actively pursuing my Masters degree in Applied Communication. This puts a sever crunch on my time as I am always trying to finish homework or crank out a paper. This is in addition to the normal activities, gym, friends, sports, etc. So ultimately time is going to be the biggest constraint here.

What To Do With The Money:

Well as you can see, $100k would be a night/day change for me. In the event I was able to earn that on the side I might have to compare that lifestyle with my current career mindset and determine if it would be worth exploring it as a full time career. Although I have some lavish dreams of massive houses and exotic cars, I would utilize the extra money to focus on down paying my slightly uncomfortable amounts of student loans and credit card debt ($45k+-) as well as help with the wedding and other daily expenditures. I don’t plan on this test of time to be an excuse to jump into anything, ie: I made $100k I need a new car, etc. That can’t wait for the $300k years >=)

Do I Think This Is Possible?

ABSOLUTELY. I have never in my life met a challenge that I couldn’t beat if I stuck my mind to it. I have already made some prompt changes in my lifestyle to accommodate for the future.

So let’s do it. Keep following the blog and feel free to share your thoughts and comments!