In a world where violence, mayhem, political unrest, racial tension, medical unknowns, and economic chaos seem to ensue – I prefer to look at the brighter side of the sky. “2020 has been the worst year ever…” seems to be the general consensus. I see and hear it everywhere. It’s all over social media. I see it on TV. I hear it on the radio. I hear it when I’m out n about, at work or otherwise. Nobody seems to like 2020.
I, for one, thought 2020 was a fantastic year. I’ve had some of the most fun I’ve had in my life and my online business endeavors are going quite well. My day job has remained steady and life with the family has been great.
Sure, there were a few setbacks and annoyances in 2020 that were brought on by a certain worldwide pandemic. But certain things are just out of our control and you can only do what you can do. We, as humans, adapt to the circumstances surrounding us and we move on. My family and I chose to make the best of our situation and we had a phenomenal year!
The Featured Image
The featured image for this post really says it all. Remember early on during the pandemic (late winter / spring of 2020) when the country (U.S.) was basically shut down. Nobody was leaving their homes except for ‘essential workers.’ I was one of those essential workers, as a truck driver. ‘Stay home and stay safe.’ That’s what everybody else was doing.
Because nobody was traveling hardly at all, the demand for gasoline pretty much dried up. There was plenty of supply and no demand, which drove the price of gas down to rates that I haven’t seen probably since I was in high school in the 90’s! Gas for less than a dollar per gallon!! Amazing.
Matt’s Dumb Ass Weekend Update
The weekend I am writing this post happens to be the last weekend before Christmas in 2020. My family and I spent the weekend at our little shack in ‘up north’ Michigan. In fact, we’ve spent the vast majority of our weekends at our shack during all of 2020. There wasn’t much else to do if we stayed at our home in Grand Rapids – so we took advantage and spent a lot of time doing much-needed renovations to our weekend home.
I spent as much time as possible, this weekend, ‘working’ online on my laptop. I’ve had to work forced overtime at the day job for the last few weeks, leaving me less time during the work to ‘work’ online – so I had to play catch up a little bit. What am I doing online you ask?
I’m in the middle of running some really interesting (and cool) A/B tests on sites that some of our AmaLinks Pro customers were nice enough to give me access to. Basically, these particular customers were taught that text links only to promote Amazon products is the best way to earn Amazon affiliate commissions. I’m on a mission to prove that theory wrong. So, I spent several hours setting up some A/B tests on a few different sites.
I do have early results from a few of the tests I started weeks ago – and… let’s just say that I was right! My test variants are absolutely destroying the ‘text link only’ approach to promoting Amazon products as an affiliate! I will have a detailed post all about it on the AmaLinks Pro blog once I finish running the tests (in a month or two).
Well… This is a ‘Passive Income’ Blog
I’ll just leave this comment right here, for you to ponder…
If you want to create passive income online – do not start a software company!
After nearly two years of building and running AmaLinks Pro – I can tell you with certainty that running a WordPress plugin software company is definitely NOT a way to create ‘passive income’.
Yes – it’s a great way to create income online – but not passive income. Even if you outsource almost everything (which we do not) – there is still always stuff that needs to be done in order to maintain and grow a software company. I would not categorize the income I earn from AmaLinks Pro as passive because I am very much active in the everyday operations of the business as well as trying to grow it.
I Can’t Stop Buying Stuff on Amazon
My software business, AmaLinks Pro, recently crossed a major milestone. Unfortunately, I can’t share the exact milestone number – but I will tell you that it was a dollar amount. As a celebration of crossing that milestone – my business partner and I decided to buy ourselves some early Christmas presents. He purchased a really good tablet from Best Buy. I made my purchase on Amazon and I got this really sweet Chromebook.
[amalinkspro type=”showcase” asin=”B07QY4RN79″ apilink=”https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QY4RN79?tag=&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1″ new-window=”true” addtocart=”false” nofollow=”true” sc-id=”8″ imgs=”https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QmBDCqtzL.jpg~~~https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414NM21jH1L.jpg~~~https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QmBDCqtzL.jpg~~~https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/21VwVBs14KL.jpg~~~https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41YjBaMGEcL.jpg~~~https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/5160yv7ZmgL.jpg~~~https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41lplKyNFeL.jpg~~~https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-ByDpq8mL.jpg” link-imgs=”false” btn-color=”#ff9900″ btn-text=”Buy on Amazon” alignment=”aligncenter” hide-prime=”0″ hide-image=”0″ hide-price=”0″ hide-button=”0″ width=”500″ api=”true”]ASUS Chromebook Flip C434 2-In-1 Laptop- 14″ Full HD 4-Way NanoEdge Touchscreen, Intel Core M3-8100Y Processor, 8GB RAM, 64GB eMMC Storage, Backlit KB, Chrome OS- C434TA-DS384T Silver[/amalinkspro]
Yeah, I already have a decent laptop that I use on the weekends when we’re up north at our shack. But my laptop is massive and heavy and I wanted something that I can carry with me during the week at my day job. I only get a 30-minute lunch at my day job… but it sure is convenient to be able to whip out my Chromebook and set it on my truck steering wheel and get a little blogging in!
I’ve even found myself enjoying a little Chromebook time on the couch in the evenings while watching TV. It’s just so much nicer to do internet things on a larger screen that I previously tried to do on my phone.
Your Book Report is Due
In the opening sentence to this post – I mentioned the phrase, ‘racial tension’. About a month before the presidential election, here in the United States, I purchased the book – Blackout – by Candace Owens. I just wanted to learn more about the topics surrounding race and politics – and boy, did I learn a whole lot! I can’t recommend this book highly enough to anybody of any race or political affiliation. It’s full of historical facts and mind-blowing tidbits that almost nobody is aware of.
[amalinkspro type=”cta-btn-css” ctabtn-id=”0″ asin=”” apilink=”https://www.amazon.com/dp/1982133279?tag=&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1″ addtocart=”false” new-window=”true” nofollow=”true” alignment=”aligncenter”]Buy Now on Amazon[/amalinkspro]
It is just absolutely astounding how things got to how they are today in America. An entire culture was duped and Candace Owens writes about it so well.
Products You Want but Probably Don’t Need
I’ll admit – I spent quite a bit of money at Amazon over the last few months. Especially during this past month in preparation for Christmas. And by “I”, I mean “we.” My wife probably spends WAY more than I do on Amazon. She is keen on finding deals. Luckily for us, Amazon makes it easy with their Lightning Deals section! Check out what’s on sale right now…
[amalinkspro type=”cta-btn-css” ctabtn-id=”0″ asin=”1612680194″ apilink=”https://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=gbps_ftr_s-5_0f49_dlt_LD?gb_f_deals1=dealTypes:LIGHTNING_DEAL,sortOrder:BY_SCORE,dealStates:AVAILABLE%252CWAITLIST%252CWAITLISTFULL%252CEXPIRED%252CSOLDOUT%252CUPCOMING,includedAccessTypes:GIVEAWAY_DEAL&pf_rd_p=56beed47-26cb-401c-95f5-738a157f0f49&pf_rd_s=slot-5&pf_rd_t=701&pf_rd_i=gb_main&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=XMR426QYZSVJTFRTRY3C&ie=UTF8&_encoding=UTF8&tag=&linkCode=ur2&linkId=b70ce3200e54dc5a0c91b2044e4fd322&camp=1789&creative=9325″ addtocart=”false” new-window=”true” nofollow=”true” alignment=”aligncenter”]???? Lightning Deals on Amazon ????[/amalinkspro]
McDonald’s – I’m Lovin’ It!
My favorite (and only) daughter, Elena, loves McDonald’s. So, it was no disappointment to her when our annual dinner date this year was at the McDonald’s drive-thru rather than a nice sit-down restaurant.
Every year, a week or two before Christmas, she and I go out shopping together and have a little fun and find someplace to eat. This year, our wonderful governor in Michigan has all of the dine-in restaurants shut down due to the global pandemic. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Yeah, we could have gotten some better take-out food from a nicer restaurant – but Elena loves McDonald’s so that is what we got. I love McDonald’s too, so it wasn’t a bad deal after all.
I Heard It on a Podcast
I heard myself on a podcast! For the second time this year, I was asked to be interviewed on somebody else’s podcast. This time it was Spencer Haws from Niche Pursuits. He wanted to hear my story about how I started and built AmaLinks Pro – so, we talked about that and much more. Here is the link to the full post on Niche Pursuits which includes the podcast interview…
https://www.nichepursuits.com/matthew-allen-amalinks-pro/
Fortnite, Fortnite – Let’s Go!
Yes – Fortnite is still a thing. The way I see it – Fortnite to today’s generation of youth is kind of like what Super Mario Bros. was to my generation when we were considered youth. I could be wrong… but it sure seems like Fortnite could be a timeless game. My younger son, Eli, is basically a pro at the game now. He is REALLY good. He’s only 10 years old – but I watch him play and his skill level is pretty dang close to some of the pros that he watches on YouTube.
I’m still not great at the game. I have one single Solo’s win in my entire Fortnite ‘career.’ Eli has over 200 1st place ‘wins!’ Regardless, I still like to play when I need time to get my head out of business and life and when it’s time to just chill. It’s kind of like golf for me… it’s really frustrating because I can’t play as well as I wish I could. But it’s still fun for me.
AmaLinks Pro is Cool – Just Trust Me on This ????
All of the links in this post that lead to Amazon were created and inserted using AmaLinks Pro – a premium WordPress plugin for Amazon affiliates. Full disclosure… I am the co-founder of AmaLinks Pro.
If you like the elements on this page that link to Amazon and want to be able to create them super fast and easy on your own WordPress site – check out AmaLinks Pro.
The End
This concludes this weekend edition of the Dumb Ass Weekend Update for Dumb Passive Income. Stay cool. Stay wealthy. See you in the next one.
Good Day!