Several years ago I made a website for someone who started our dealings with the immortal phrase "I want a website, but I don't want to pay for it."

To cut a long story short, I did the website, registered a domain and still host the website to this day, all for free. It was for someone I now consider a friend, so this doesn't bother me too much - but still, I'm now out of pocket for 6 years of domain renewals. Sure, they're not that bad, but it does add up.

He contacted me a few years ago saying that he now wanted to sell CDs through the site. Ok, I said, but not wanting to set up an e-commerce site for free I suggested we link to Amazon. I then opened an Amazon Associates account, and any referral fees come back to me in an attempt to recoup my lost renewal fees.

After a few months of no activity, I stopped checking the Amazon account. For over three years. I remembered about it today, and checked it a few minutes ago.

I was expecting there to be no sales, no earnings, nothing. But boy, was I in for a surprise.

Woo hoo! 1/60th of the way to breaking even!