Want to make a little extra money in the new year?

There are a few sites I’m on where I make a little bit of money from watching videos, taking surveys, or writing posts.  Most of these sites give you a referral bonus for bringing in new members.  So if you’re looking to earn some money – and don’t mind helping me out – check these out.  And be sure to read through the rules and such before signing up for any of these.  You don’t want to waste your time, and many of these referrals only kick in for me when you reach certain milestones. 

Swagbucks – Swagbucks is a site where you earn “swagbucks” for watching videos, taking surveys, even playing stupid games.  These swagbucks can then be redeemed for gift cards, sweepstake entries, or even cashed out.  I have received multiple payouts from them.

Myreferral link.

InstaGC – InstaGC is another site where you earn points from watching videos, taking surveys, and even just visiting websites.  The points can be redeemed for gift cards, or cashed out.  I have received multiple payouts from them.

Myreferral link.

Bing – Yes, I know, everyone uses Google.  But if you sign up for Bing, you can earn points for searches, which you can then trade in for gift cards and such.  You can still find what you’re searching for, and get a little extra from it.

Myreferral link.

Persona Paper – This is a site where you write short articles and earn “coins” for views and for interacting with the rest of the community.  At the time of this posting, I have yet to reach the payout threshold. 

Myreferral link.

myLot – This is another site where you write short articles and earn for views and interactions.  Also, at the time of this posting, I haven’t hit the payout threshold yet.  But what’s different about this site is that it doesn’t have a referral program.  I’m including this site here because the more successful the site is, the better for everyone on it.

The projects I’m working on

There are ten Kindle ebook projects I’d love to publish in 2016.  Here is a quick overview of them:

Short Stories

“Relics”

This is the story of a guy who had a natural immunity to a plague that killed men.  So not counting the few thousand men in quarantine, he is the last man on a world filled with women.  I finished writing this story over a year ago, and I’ve started giving it a “final” polish a few times, but other things have kept coming up.  If I can get a week to focus on it, I’ll get it out.  So this will be the first of these projects that goes up.

“Rediscovery”

This is a story about a YA fantasy writer who lost her memory in a terrorist bombing and her “rediscovery” of the world and her novels.  Will she be able to write the last book in the series?

Short Story Collections

The Uncapped Pen

This is a collection of 40-50 short stories dealing with writers and writing.  The original idea was to have a paperback version, but I’m not sure if I’ll do that or not. 

“Amongst Us and other stories”

This is a collection of ten short stories dealing with aliens among us. 

Untitled scifi collection

This is a collection of thirty short stories (many of them rather short) of various scifi themes.

Untitled scifi collection 2

This is a collection of ten short stories all set on the moon, similar to “A Cabin Under a Cloudy Sea and other stories.”

Untitled story collection

This is a collection of my non-scifi stories.  Okay, there will probably be a few scifi stories mixed in, but this will be a collection for all the various kinds of writing I do.

Other Stuff

“140 Twitter Length Stories”

The title pretty much tells it all.  I just need about 100 more, and I’ll be good to go.

“Stephen L. Thompson / A collection of haiku / Two hundred total”

Again, the title pretty much says it all.  I just need about 150 more, and I’ll be good to go.

“Possible Futures”

This is a collection of short stories, essays, and my random thoughts on what the world will be like in the next few centuries.  How will 3D printing, automation, mining the asteroids, etc. change life on Earth?  I guess you could call this an extended version of “The Future is Coming.”

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I’m slowly working on all of these projects, and when I – hopefully in 2016 – get ready to publish them, I’ll put up more detailed descriptions for them.  So I need to get to work.

Where I’ve been

I haven’t posted much here for some time.  I’m trying to change that.  I’ve set the goal of trying to put up at least one post a week, just to let people know I’m still here.

So I figured the best place to start is by talking about where I’ve been.  It was probably about a year ago that I stopped posting stuff.  I was on a site Bubblews that paid you for views and comments on your posts.  I was making some money there, but then they imploded.  I tried other sites, most of which also imploded.  I had been doing two or three posts a day, but with sites that died before I reached payout, or sites where you earned very slowly, I lost the drive to write posts.  There just didn’t seem to be much point to it, which I think led me to think there wasn’t anything worth writing about. 

Now I didn’t stop posting entirely.  I still post on Persona Paper and I recently joined myLot.  In fact, it’s my goal of increasing my posts on those sites that makes me figure I should increase my posts here as well.  The whole point of posting on these sites – other than making a little bit of money – is to increase the number of people who know I exist and who may check out my books.  And this year the annoying fact that you really need to go out and sell yourself to actually sell your books has been beaten into me. 

And on that happy note, you can look forward to weekly posts here.  I guess it’s an early New Year’s Resolution, although hopefully it lasts longer.