Bitcoin Forum

Alright, so I've had my 5770 poolmining at 180-185MH/s overnight for two days now, still only sitting on 0.06BTC but I guess it's a start. The idea is that I'll mine up my first 1.0BTC and then use that to reach my goal of 60 US dollars. It's a modest, fun goal that I'm sure I'm capable of achieving.
The thing is, there's a large gap between getting my first BTC and turning it into 60BTC. How do I invest this BTC? How do I make more BTC in a more efficient manner then mining with an unoptimised rig? As an illustrator I feel I can make a few BTC selling digital portraits to people (Although I'm not sure where exactly the best place to pedal my wares is), but beyond working for my BTC, could anyone suggest a plausible route of investment?
Any advice is appreciated, even if you just share your stories of how you came across your first bitcoin and how you've made more.
Most importantly, I'm doing this for fun. I've got plenty of free time at the moment and feel this is a rewarding use of my time, but it is above all a 'for fun' endeavor.

What I would suggest is check out the Marketplace section read some guides and start a website that sells stuff for Bitcoins. That is if you don't want to play the market or mine.

What do you mean by 'play the market'?
And are there any guides you could recommend? I have read many guides so far, but haven't really found many about standard practices for earning more bitcoins.

The is also of course the path of just offering my services at a BTC fee. Could anyone recommend a good place to, say, offer quick digital portraits and at what price I could reasonably do this?

Another important question I forgot to ask:
Does anyone around here have any experience selling services for BTC? Please share.