This article is the offspring of boredom and way lots of spare time. In this article, I aim to discuss to my readers different methods by which to conquer boredom, make productive use of it and spend idle times making money online.

Boredom

Philosophically speaking, boredom is a condition characterized by perception of one's environment as dull, tedious, and lacking in stimulation. It is further contended that this can result from leisure and a lack of aesthetic interests. Labor, however, and even art may be alienated and passive, or immersed in tedium in boredom. It is assumed that there is an inherent anxiety in boredom where people will expend considerable effort to prevent or remedy it, yet in many circumstances, it is accepted as suffering to be endured.

Idle Time

In the computing sciences, idle time frequently refers to machines i.e. computers or parts of it i.e. CPU, Monitor etc. Generally, idle time is defined as the inactivity of a machine while awaiting use or while it is processing information. Sometimes, idle time could refer to the inactivity of certain parts of the machine i.e. CPU Idle Time etc. When machines are damaged, dysfunctional and are therefore not usable, it could also mean that it is within its idle time. To simply put it, when times are not productive for machineries, it is their idle time. On the part of the operator or user, it is the period when they are inactive or simply waiting for the machine to function or complete its processing thus can be used.

In business and accounting, this term "idle time" refers to a practically "unproductive" time of the employees. There are certain situations wherein employees don’t generally produce output yet that certain period is definitely paid, most of the time, caused by circumstances beyond control. An employee working on a machine that runs on electricity will not be able to work with it if there is a power failure or if the machine becomes damaged or dysfunctional. Idle time among employees could also be described as the time it takes to wait for materials or further instructions.

For some, idle time can be afternoons after work or weekends without scheduled activities. This type of situation frequently occurs for people like me, expats working in an unfamiliar environment abroad.

Sometimes, I’m thinking that there is too much idle time existing around.

Best of Both Worlds Unleashed

From the looks of it, both terms – boredom and idle time, have negative connotations to business and productivity. For me, however, the best of both can be unleashed to become a productive resource to generate profit online.

Boredom and idle time are very good resources to bank on in order to become self-productive.

Diverting from boredom to excitement might sound impossible for some yet, when added with a little enthusiasm can become profitable especially these times in the age of digitalism and internet connectivity.

Idle time on the other hand is easy to convert into productive and profitable resource. This is because machines i.e. computers especially when connected to the internet are usable and the operator has plenty of time to spare. This is where adequate time management techniques can be put to good use.

Internet and the Worldwide Web

From its inception in the early 50’s, the internet has grown to become the "big" thing of the century and will continue to be in the next years to come.

The internet has tremendously transformed how we live and how we utilize various resources around us i.e. time, effort and money.

The boom in today’s technology not only transformed lives but has also simplified and improved its quality. This is once again thanks to the internet and the worldwide web.

Today, people from all over the globe which used to be divided by vast encroaching seas or oceans and overwhelmingly tall mountains, are now within a click away.

The internet also made possible the daily joys we now experience like emails, chat, blogs, videos, profiles, news, entertainment and many more.

When bored, or idle, I usually log on to my Facebook account and see what’s going on with my friends, sometimes, I just aimlessly surf the internet. Other times, I surf news websites and read articles online.

This is what I and millions of other netizens do when bored. It makes complete good sense as internet is the most convenient tool of today’s world when it comes to connectivity, timeliness of information, and access to tons of valuable contents i.e. news, opinions, entertainment i.e. videos and music, etc.

Affiliate Marketing and Online Business

The internet and worldwide web have done many people a lot of good things. By unravelling the vast potential of the web, some were able to gather remarkable success. They did this through affiliate marketing

Among the ways by which some people made their time profitable and ways how they diverted their boredoms into a business venture through affiliate marketing are:

1. Taking advantage of social networks to promote products and ideas

2. Monetizing blogs through advertisements and quality contents

3. Promoting products, talents, events or ideas via video hosting websites

4. Developing tools and software for personal or other’s use

5. Creating websites and enriching them with relevant and quality contents

6. Harnessing traffic to generate more actual and potential customers

AFFILIATE MARKETING

Affiliate marketing is one among many ways to earn online. It is quite simple and there are numerous product and service market places on the internet. Among some are CLICKBANK, AMAZON, EBAY, and BARNES AND NOBLE and many more. Some of them offer affiliate marketing services by providing a simple link that you can propagate and promote on social networks, video hosting websites, your very own website and blog, the others simply provide you with marketing tools for your own website to take potential customers to their main websites and make a purchases. All of the transactions are tracked on a secure network, after an actual purchase has been recorded, you would get a commission for that.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS

As I’ve mentioned above, certain affiliate market places provide you with special links which you may propagate and distribute to your social networks. This would be very useful if you have many friends, and the probability of a click on you link is higher. Sometimes even your friends’ friends can also check out your links displayed on your page or directly on their’s especially if their pages are public.

Among the many social network pages you can use and some of them may vary on where you could place you product links are FACEBOOK, FRIENDSTER, TUMBLR, LINKEDIN, and many more.

MONETIZING BLOGS

If you happen to have a blog or if you are planning on having one, it is a great idea to monetize it through letting people or websites advertise on your blog. If you are an affiliate marketer, it’s also a great place to display and promote your products as blogs are almost like websites yet are easier to manage, update and now even customize to reflect your personality and style. You can create blogs using BLOGGER, WORDPRESS, LIVE JOURNAL and others.

VIDEO HOSTING PROMOTIONS

Talents, services, products, and a lot more stuff can be promoted using video hosting website. When a video becomes interesting enough that thousands of viewers start accessing, it is termed as a "viral video." YOUTUBE is so far the number video hosting website and others are following suit. Your affiliate links maybe placed on your video page with your video. When somebody views your video, and sees your call-out and link, that’s where you get traffic directed to your promoted product or website.

WEBSITE HOSTING AND EMAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

Another effective strategy online is having your own website with an e-mail hosting. With hosting websites such as HOSTZILLA, BRAINHOST, GODADDY and many more, you can actually have your own domain with your personalized email address. With these, you can start an e-mail campaign to direct your e-mail recipients to your website so that they could see your products and the services that you are promoting. Another amazing thing about this is that you can use your website to collect information from visitors like their email addresses and then you could automate your e-mail server to follow them up and convert your campaign to sales.

TRAFFIC GENERATION AND TARGETED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Other individuals have resorted to developing targeted tools, strategies and software in order for internet users and other marketers to generate targeted traffic thereby increasing conversions to sales, and increasing income via commissions in affiliate marketing. For a reasonable price, you may acquire tools such as FAST TRAFFIC MAGNET, FAST TRAFFIC SNIPER, MOBILE MONOPOLY and the like.

Each of the above items will be discussed in later articles, for now. Try to think which of those ways would you want to make profitable use of your time and divert your boredom to riches.