I have collected my first Google AdSense payment!

At the end of this post is a guide on how I received AdSense payment via Western Union at Pos Malaysia.

The payout amount was USD 240.63, which converted to RM772.

I always feel a bit ashamed to reveal my blog earnings, because it took me 3 years to get USD 240, and it’s probably going to take three more years to get the same amount.

I altered my screen shot somewhat to show the peanuts I’m earning.

I suspect some of you can get this amount in a week.

But how do I feel? My hands were trembling as I took the cash. It is finally in my hands. All those numbers on the screen finally turned into physical money in my pockets!

I feel happy and very satisfied.

What will I do with the money? Most of it will go to BlueHost. Web hosting will cost me around USD 160 for the next two years.

The remaining will help to buy some diapers and milk powder. Not so glamorous eh?

Some of you might ask me how you could also get AdSense income?

My answer is, don’t ask me because obviously I haven’t got it right yet. Ask me again if I earn thousands.

The only things that worked for me are: targeting keywords, strategically placing ads for specific post (instead of display for every post), and generally trying to get search engine referrals.

Some will also ask me if it is easy to earn money blogging. My answer is no. It’s not easy thinking about things to write, and finding the time to do the writing. It’s extremely difficult to get visitors and readers.

And there’s a fine line between writing for your regular readers and writing for search engine visitors. Hard to please both.

I have to thank Vedis for sharing with me the steps to receive Western Union payment.

While she usually does it at her bank, I chose to receive my payment at the post office.

Here are the steps to receive AdSense payment via Western Union at any Pos Malaysia branch:

1. Go to your AdSense – My Account – Account Settings
2. Make sure your payee information (name and address) matches your IC.
3. Under Payment Details, choose Western Union Quick Cash. Make sure the Payee Name matches your IC. You may want to play around with the first name/last name until you get it to look the same.
4. Once you cross the payment threshold, Google will release payment after 30 days.
5. Go to My Account – Payment History.
6. Go to the line where it says Payment Issued, and click the ‘Details’ link.
7. Note down the MTCN number, payment amount in USD, and Google’s address.
   Google Inc.
   1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
   Mountain View CA 94043
   USA
8. Remember to bring your original and photocopy of your IC to the post office
9. Take a Pos Malaysia – Western Union Receipt of Money (Penerimaan Wang) form from the counter. It has a yellow header and the Western Union logo.
10. Get a number for Kaunter Pelbagai (at my post office, it was button B)
11. Fill in your name, address and phone number. The form didn’t have enough boxes to fit my address so I just wrote over the boxes.
12. Then fill in Google’s name and address
13. Fill in the amount in USD, sender country (USA) and the MTCN.
14. Finally, sign the form.
15. Give it to the counter, and if everything is ok you will be paid in cash.

P/S: Outside the post office I was interviewed by a Sin Chew reporter regarding the postage rate increase. See if anything appears in paper tomorrow. Just hope I won’t get flamed for my remarks hehe.

I just got my second Nuffnang cheque in the mailbox!

My earnings this time was RM210.58, which took longer to accumulate compared to my first cheque.

I will use the money to extend my domain adinochang.com for another 5 years.

Thanks Nuffnang, and keep those wonderful campaigns coming!

I’ve finally made the decision to live without Astro TV.

This is a rather major decision, having lived with Astro for almost 8 years.

Some of you may even wonder why I’m taking such a ‘drastic’ move. What would we watch on TV if we didn’t have Astro?

WHY!?!?!?

First of all, why did I come to such a decision?

1. To save money. If I cancel my Astro subscription, I get to save RM600 a year. The money may not be a lot, but it helps to feed another mouth.
2. Rachel is starting to get addicted to TV cartoons. I don’t want her to start learning bad things from the TV.
3. TV programs don’t add much value to my life.
4. The Internet has become a viable alternative.
5. I’ve had several bad experiences with the company. First they allowed complete strangers to re-open an account under my name (and charge me for it), and they send me an SMS each month reminding me to pay my bill, even before the due date!

My Expectations

I’m willing to give this a try because I expect the following improvements:

1. We will have better quality time. Nowadays our evenings and weekends are spent staring at the TV. Not much talking to each other.
2. More time for other activities such as exercise, going for outdoor activities, or just playing board games.
3. Less likely to gain weight from those tempting food commercials
4. Rachel and Daryl to grow up reading books, rather than watch TV
5. No more temptations to upgrade to a HD TV.
6. Fewer late nights staying up to watch TV

Do take a few minutes to check out a blog post by Celestine Chua on 10 reasons to stop watching TV.

I agree with many of the reasons.

I do expect a rather difficult transition period, removing Astro TV from my house.

There are some potential difficulties:

1. Rachel will be bored
2. We will miss live TV events and sports events
3. Poey Chin will miss her evening news
4. Poey Chin will miss her TVB series
5. Visitors will be bored at our home

But the TV won’t be totally gone. We will still have the free channels. We will still have a DVD player and the Nintendo Wii for entertainment purposes.

I just know that this will be for the best.

Action Plan

Here is my plan.

For the month of June, I will start to look for entertainment alternatives, and solutions to address the difficulties I foresee.

In July, we will do a trial run. I will hide the Astro smart card somewhere, and we will see how things are.

If we can live without Astro, I will then cancel my subscription shortly thereafter.

Some of you may be wondering what Poey Chin thinks about my idea. She said okay, but gives me the resigned look she gives me whenever I want to try something crazy.

Help

Do you have any resources for watching TV programs online? Do you have any tips to share?

So is life possible without Astro TV? Stay tuned for updates on my experiment!

Photo By: Thane Works / CC

Last Friday the water heater in my second bathroom failed to work. The power was on, but the heater just didn’t work.

This water heater was inherited from the previous condo owner, so I guess it has to be more than 5 or 6 years old.

It is an Ariston brand water heater, and I assume it lasted so long because it is an imported brand.

My parents adviced me to get a new one because the water heater was so old.

This morning I checked out the prices in the store and a new Panasonic water heater with installation comes up to RM400.

Having recently spent so much money on baby Daryl, I decided to try getting an electrician to come take a look first.

I came home, studied the water heater and I noticed a little Reset button at the top of the heater. I pressed the button, and voila, the heater worked again!

So happy that I managed to delay replacing my water heater, and saving so much money!

Photo By: renaissancechambara