The first quarter of 2011 saw some interesting changes for the prospect of earning passive income online. The Google update caused my HubPages traffic to drop. According to Google Analytics, I am looking at a 25-30% drop in overall traffic. I think that this will have some impact on AdSense earnings going forward. I am hoping that some of the other sites will make up the difference.
HubPages also added an Ad Program that did make up the difference during the month of March. It is based upon impressions and traffic so if you want to read a few of my articles, feel free to check them out through the widget in the sidebar. I will be including the revenue from this program in the results below.
I did benefit from the Google change through my eHow articles. In fact, March was my highest month ever at eHow. I am curious to see if this trend will continue and I will see improved earnings or if this is a new plateau. Either way, I will take it.
So here are my online earnings for the first 3 months of 2011:
January 2011 (Compare to Jan 2010 of $58.40)
- AdSense $54.06
- eHow $20.83
- Total $75.50
- AdSense $42.92
- eHow $21.33
- Total $65.59
- AdSense $44.26
- eHow $26.01
- HP Ad Program $13.25
- Total $84.03
In the fourth quarter of 2010, I made $231.93. This quarter I made $225.12 so I have seen a quarter to quarter decrease in income (although counting the roughly $18 I made on Amazon in Feb and March would have helped). I will, however, remain optimistic that compared to one year ago I improved my earnings by $63.26 or almost 40%. Last year, the summer was a slow time for me so I plan on busting my butt over the next 3 months. I will post those goals and plans next time. I hope everyone will make it through all the interesting changes and continue to build larger and more varied income streams.
Posts
Well done on increasing the earnings on last year - I have also seen a decrease since 4Q2010 so maybe it is due to seasonal variations? It is interesting that you are looking to build more varied income streams - I think that is pretty much key for earning a reliable income. No-one knows when even the best webpages may be affected by external factors (eg the Google algorithm change which affected Hubpages negatively but possibly impacted Infobarrel and eHow positively) and so the best way to insulate yourself from these changes is with a diverse portfolio. It is good to see you are attempting this with Adsense (presumably through a number of sources?), Hubpages ad program, eHow and Amazon (presumably again on a number of sources). Also I am sure your new website will help you.
ReplyDeleteI think having diverse streams of income is always important, and I'm also really excited to see that you are now building your own self-hosted site as well. Given the hit you (and many others) took with your hubpages and similar programs, it looks like you actually came out of it pretty well. The seasonal stuff is really important to keep in mind too. I had a huge surge in earnings for many of my physical product sites in November and December. Those sales almost completely dried up in January, but other programs started doing better at the same time. So just don't get discouraged, learn from your experience, and continue building and ranking your new sites. :)
ReplyDeleteDude! You are rocking it! Thanks for sharing. It keeps me inspired. As a thanks, I just ordered three computer monitors through your Amazon link. I hope that helps. Please consider it a bribe to keep working hard and sharing your results with your readers so we can stay pumped too!
ReplyDeleteBB,
ReplyDeleteI am sure there are some seasonal variations. I saw a big decline last summer. I thought part of it was lack of effort on my part, but I also suspect that there is some decline in US web traffic when the nice weather is here.
Michelle,
I will continue to build and rank. Been busy the past week so progress is slower than I would like but at least I am getting a little something done.
Jared,
I saw those orders come through late last night when I checked Amazon and just saw your comment. Thanks so much. It will definitely help and means that I will have had an order from Amazon each month so far this year. I will take your bribe and continue to work hard and share my results.