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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Cruising Right Along

In my last post, I mentioned that I was starting to feel a little burned out, and I was. I can't really explain it, but I felt as if maybe this might all be too much. I was a little down about not being able to get ahead on the Hubs for the Hub Challenge. But, looking back, I was able to accomplish quite a bit. Since Sunday, I have continued to work and publish. In just over 48 hours, I have published 2 more hubs and 2 more eHow articles.

I have also been able to get some traffic in that time frame. I am over 1800 views on all my Hubs which is where I had hoped to be by the end of July. I think I may end up over 2000 views. I am starting to see some traffic at Squidoo getting 38 views in the last 7 days. Now 3 of my 5 lenses are in the top 85,000. Finally, I am also seeing some views over at eHow. Obviously, it just takes patience and persistence.

Waiting on Earnings

I am, however, a little bit disappointed since the huge increase in traffic hasn't led to much in the way of earnings. It is totally understandable since much of the HubPages traffic has been internal traffic and they don't tend to click on ads. I am sure that over time the pages will start to see increasing search engine traffic. Several hubs that I wrote well over a month ago just pick up a view or two here and there but it adds up. I will keep on writing and working. I hope to have another 2 hubs, 2-3 eHow articles, and 1 or 2 lenses done by the start of the weekend. Then I can get another couple hubs done on the weekend. I think it is just a matter of keeping it going. I really don't have much to complain about since I did meet my earnings goal for July already. I will just have to see what August brings. My goal for August is $10. I am not quite sure if that is a stretch or not. I suspect that as I keep publishing, I will find that it is easier to attain than I realize.

I plan on updating this weekend and posting a list of all my eHow articles since I can't get the eHow widget to work. That's frustrating. Until the weekend.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Whew! Nearing Burn Out

The 30 Day Challenge is only barely over 48 hours old for me, and I am feeling it. I suppose it has to do with the fact that I had to spend some time doing research so that I have spent probably 10-12 hours on the 3 hubs that I published. Couple that with the fact that I have also done 3 eHow articles since Thursday and 2 lenses at Squidoo, and I can see why I might be feeling that way. Not to mention the fact that I am trying to become active in the communities and in various groups in order to get my name out there and stimulate traffic. And a few blog posts to boot.

Increasing Traffic

The cool thing is that the all of this hard work seems to be paying off on the traffic front! I have really seen the HubPages traffic taking off. Most of it is fellow Hubbers but some is also Google traffic. The same goes for Squidoo. I have had 21 total visits in the last 7 days and 2 of the 5 lenses are in the top 85,000. I sure hope they stay there because maybe I can earn a few pennies off of all this hard work. Even eHow has had 11 visits to my 3 articles. I didn't think I would ever see traffic off Squidoo or eHow. Now it just becomes a matter of converting that traffic into revenue. I don't have anything to sell so I just have to hope they click on an Amazon capsule and purchase something or an ad.

How You Can Help

You can help by checking out the articles and making positive recommendations. You can also digg and stumble. This will especially be important at Squidoo where ranking matters in sharing the pot of earnings. I have included all the links for my Squidoo lenses here so that you can help with traffic if you would like:

Medicus Driver Training Aid
My Indy 500 Pictures
Budgets Suck
Investing in Gold
Make Extra Money with Your Body

Well, thank you all for reading this post and my articles. I have to go write another hub and keep the pedal to the metal so I can take a break at the end of August.

Friday, July 24, 2009

The Challenge Has Begun

Well, the HubPages 30 hubs in 30 days challenge has begun, and I have published 2 hubs already. Now I had worked on them on Thursday and had them already to go but waited until today. I published one at 10 minutes after midnight in Indiana and the other this morning. I don't have any work done on anything else yet. I have several ideas. Some of my hubs will be keyword oriented and take some work and research. Others will just be some basic information that won't take a lot of effort to put together.

Here are my first two hubs for the challenge (please read them and let me know what you think):

Improve Your Golf Swing with the Medicus Driver
7 Ways to Make Extra Cash with Your Body (this one was fun to research)

Cross-Marketing

Here is a great blog (http://lissowerbutts.com/) by Lissie over at HubPages. One of the things that I have learned recently has been taking the information that I research for my hubs and using it to produce similar content on multiple sites and then linking those sites to each other. I think I saw that information on Lissie's blog but have been reading so much stuff about this on the internet it is hard to keep track of the source.

So, while I am working on the HubChallenge, I will try to be taking some of the information and re-working it at eHow and Squidoo. I decided I would work with Squidoo as well since one of my lenses (with my Indy 500 pictures) has gotten 8 views in the past week plus one Amazon order for which I will get $1.58. Go figure! Just when I had written Squidoo off, this happens.

Goals from Now til August

So, here are my goals for the end of August, after which I will probably need to slow down a bit and get some other things in order, but we will see how busy things are. I want to be at 70 total hubs by the end of August getting about 50 total views across all hubs. That is less than one per hub per day but would put me at 1500 views for the month of September assuming the same pace.

I currently have 3 eHow articles that I published yesterday and today. They are taking about 20-25 minutes on average since I already have much of the knowledge. I would like to take the hubs I have and the ones I will create and adapt for eHow while providing links. I don't expect to earn anything with eHow until September but would like to have about 30 eHow articles by the end of August getting about 15 total views each day.

Finally, I would like to create another 12 lenses with the information I gather for hubs as well. Again, I don't think the traffic is as easily attainable for the lenses. Maybe I could get 10 views per day on average for the month of September. Apparently, Adsense earnings are more difficult with Squidoo, but Amazon's are better. I will try to gear Squidoo toward specific products as much as possible.

To summarize:
  • 70 hubs with 50 daily views going into September
  • 30 eHows with 15 daily views going into September
  • 30 lenses with 10 daily views going into September
  • This blog with 20 daily views by September

That would give me a combined traffic of 95 daily visits. I might even be able to top that but I want to keep my expectations modest. I would expect that I could earn about $1 per day by then meaning I could earn $30 online for the month of September. I will certainly keep a record of this and plan on reporting quarterly on this blog. The first report will show earnings for June, July, August, and September since I started with my first activity on May 26, 2009 on Squidoo.

Til next time. I have a lot of publishing to do. Yikes! This passive income is hard work.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

HubPages 30 Hubs in 30 Day Challenge

I am excited about participating in an upcoming 30 hub in 30 day challenge. When I first heard about HubPages, there was a challenge underway already. It was a 100 hub in 30 day challenge that was started by an internet marketing type who wanted to create some buzz and links. I am presuming that he succeeded.

Increased Traffic Leads to Increased Earnings

One of the easiest concepts to grasp when it comes to earning money online is that without any traffic, it is impossible to earn anything. I think it goes without saying that once your content is up and available to the world, driving traffic should become job number one. The best traffic is search engine traffic which means that someone is actually looking for something with a specific reason in mind. That reason could be that the person is looking for information for a report or project, is looking for a review on a product they are considering purchasing, or looking to be entertained. If you are able to meet that need, then you might have a chance of earning some money.

Many of the people on HubPages reported an increase in traffic as well as an increase in earnings associated with the challenge. That is why I am looking forward to it. I have already published 40 hubs. Another 30 hubs will almost double my number, so I am possibly looking at a 50-100% increase in traffic. Assuming the same relative amount of search engine traffic and other variables, I could expect that my online earnings should increase by roughly the same amount. Not that they are huge, but that would still be cool. Furthermore, should this blog serve its purpose, I might even be able to get even more traffic. I plan on keeping this blog updated on my progress for the challenge which begins in 2 days on July 24, 2009. I have already been working on some ideas and doing a little bit of research. It will take some effort to keep up with the challenge as well as work, but I think I can get close to the final goal. In the meantime, feel free to stop by HubPages and checkout my current work.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Getting Started

I am creating this blog to follow my journey of creating online income. I plan on making updates approximately each week, posting my progress regarding what I am learning and earning. I also plan on posting useful links and examples of the possibilities regarding online income. Right now this is just starting out as a hobby, but who knows what could develop. I also plan on doing everything without putting in any of my own money and just using my time.

Getting Started

I ended up finding a site called Squidoo.com (if you click on the link, search for Kidgas and read my lenses) while searching for online money making opportunities. It is a site where you create lenses (which are essentially webpages) and place modules from Adsense and EBay on each lens. When people click on the ads or purchase something through your link at EBay, you can earn money. It is up to you to create the content. I created 3 lenses but haven't gotten enough traffic to do anything. While searching thefastlanetomillions.com forum for Squidoo to gather more information (many on the forum have online experience), I ran across a place called HubPages.

HubPages and Kidgas

I looked at HubPages and decided to give it a try as well. It is a site with essentially the same model as Squidoo. You create original content and can place ads from Adsense on your site, along with capsules from Amazon or EBay. Unfortunately, EBay is eliminating secondary affiliate sites effective August 1, 2009 so this avenue of earnings will not be available. One important difference between the sites is that Squidoo requires you to be in the top 85,000 lenses before you earn anything. Because it has allowed pornographic lenses in the past, it was not indexed well by Google and so search engine traffic was difficult to obtain. HubPages, on the other hand, is actually well indexed by Google and I have seen some of my pages on the second page of Google already in just 7 weeks online.

HubPages Results and Plan

So far, in just 7 weeks, I have published 39 hubs and have garnered over 1300 views. I have also earned just over $8 from Adsense. I am getting some Amazon clicks but so far nobody has ordered anything. This compares to less than 20 total views on Squidoo. Needless to say, if you don't get traffic, it is impossible to earn anything online.

I plan to continue working with HubPages producing hubs and working to increase traffic with what I learn. I plan on sharing that information here. My goal is to finish 200 hubs by the end of 2009. From what I can learn from the HubPages community, it takes about 7 months to earn enough for the first Adsense payout which is $100. That certainly seems achievable at my current rate but will take some work.

Please feel free to stop by HubPages and check out my profile or read some of these or any of my other articles. Thanks for reading.

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