Where's Zooey? And Cat-Money Tips!

Zooey asked me to monetize her. But she hasn't been too helpful about it...

See, she was a stray who came into my life. I saw her and knew I had a new best friend, but I also knew things wouldn't be all cuddly like with Dane's Mr. MacMuffin. He's a housecat, but Zooey needs her freedom. She's not a swinger, she's just an outside cat.

I got a house for her, and she has a little timeshare on the deck, picture below.


Figure 1. Cat timeshare.

I hear you shouldn't get timeshares in non-cat life, though. They tend not to be good deals. We're all about good deals!

Anyway, I'd like to talk about some of these monetization options with her, but she's been gone all day. That's not unusual-- I won't put out a xeroxed "Have You Seen Me?" sign for a week yet, and she'll be back by night I'm sure. I'll just hang out and wait.

Meanwhile, let me list some tips for frugal cat-living.

1. Get nice things for your cats, but don't spoil them. Mr. MacMuffin I think has had his life shortened by Dane's untrammeled love. The cat weighs 25 pounds. I'm serious! It's like an ottoman with a head and a tail. I think it cuddles up with him because it can't move away.
2. Pick one gift and make it the nicest gift. Mine is Zooey's house, which was custom-built. (The timeshare was on sale for a couple of bucks.) But that means I don't have to worry about getting a lot of other gifts she won't appreciate. (By the way, I don't mean "the nicest gift you can afford.")
   
3. Don't sweat the food. I mean, I'm no gourmet either. Besides, I think the cat has side-streams of food, but I don't want to think about it.
4. Most important gift: LOVE. Best way to express it: take true care of your cat! Which is more important, Love and companionship or a bunch of expensive junk? A gold-leaf collar or a vet checkup to prevent feline diabetes? Seriously, make sure you love your cat for a long time by getting regular health checkups and ensuring it has a healthy, active lifestyle. This is especially important for housecats, because we don't want them to turn in Mr. MacMuffin, all full of stuffin.

CATpitalism Plan, Part I.

As Zooey and I figure out new ways to monetize my cat/her self, I want to take a moment to list some of the ways we're first think of doing it.

This will outline our plans-- broadly-- and give you some ideas if you too want to monetize your cat.

1. First, establish this blog so we can reach fellow cat-n-money-lovers. Done!
2. Set up Google Adwords. Done!
   
3. Build traffic. Get the word out.
4. Set up a separate bank account for these online actions. I want to make some money here, but I want it to be separate from my day job and my other accounts. I don't want to come home and find Zooey hopped up on catnip. So I'm looking into some on-line banking accounts to choose one for my transactions here. That way I can see how much I'm making, and how much I'm spending.
5. Figure out non-ad related ways of making money with Zooey. Not factory work, but working with her marketable skills. We'll do a skills assessment later in the week.
   

After all, most of the Internet now seems based on ad revenue. What else can we do? I think it just takes some creativity to figure out...

(I'll update the CATpitalism Plan now and then so you can see how I'm doing, and how I've adjusted it.)

First Steps to Money Online

Zooey is an outside cat, so I guess that makes me a code monkey. I spent yesterday afternoon setting up the blog while she did whatever it is she does, running around in the woods and having tea with the forest creatures, I guess.

I went ahead and set up a Google Adsense account. I'll let you know how it goes. So far, we have two hits and $0.00 in the bank.

They allow three ads per page. You can use other ad providers, but not if they look like Google's. (Yahoo's out.) And I'm not sure I like the look of the things, but they seem to have figured out our feline focus.

I left some food out for Zooey. I wanted to let her know we were on our way!