January Has Been a Good Month

Well, January has been a pretty good month to me and there are still a few days left.  The month saw the launch of my newest blog which has gotten over 1800 visitors in the last 30 days.  I will probably end up January between 1800 and 2000 which seems like a decent launch considering I am not a professional and only do this part-time.

I also completed the give away for my other blog, Cash Flow Mantra.  I will be announcing the winners tomorrow, but they have all received their money.  Plus I still have enough in the PayPal account to cover February and March blogging expenses.

AdSense revenue is the highest it has been in almost 1 year.  It is a really solid month.  I expect that I might come in close to or just over $50.  A little bit of growth in February would mean that I could get another check after two months.  That would be nice since I am trying to pay off a Discover Card balance with blogging earnings this year.

Finally, I was able to meet my goal with the HubPages Ad Program.  I am just over $26 right now and have been adding a lot of content this month.  I hope to hit it hard in February and get to monthly payouts with HubPages which would require $50 each month.  I figure that $2 per day would do it.  I have had only 2 of those in the past 30 days, but I have had several greater than one dollar which I had only done once in the previous 8 months.  I am definitely headed in the right direction.

Ultimately, I would like to be able to cover my author costs for Grand Per Month with HubPages income so that I could start another blog.  I won't have any additional time to write so I would have to pay to have it done.  At $25 per article and 2 articles per week, I would have to pay $200 per month for content, but I think it would be worth it to be able to expand into other areas and try to multiply revenue even if I can only do this part-time.

How has January been treating you?

Why I Am Sticking With HubPages

As you can see from the title of this post, I am sticking with HubPages.  Now there is a lot of potential meaning in those words, and they could be taken in many different ways so I will be explaining myself.  It could mean that I believe HubPages is a viable method of making money on the internet.  I suppose it might work for some people, but it really doesn't mean that for me.  I have found a much more profitable method of generating income.

Essentially for me those words mean that I won't be deleting all of my Hubs like many others may have done.  In other words, I will retain HubPages as a source of passive income.  I haven't written anything for the site since June 4 of this year and that was really to complete a grand total of 200 Hubs.  Before that, I hadn't published since March.  I only end up going to the site every few days and checking to see if I have any comments to address.
 
Despite that lack of activity, I managed to earn $14 through their Ad Program and a couple bucks in Amazon purchases and AdSense ads.  Clearly, it is not the most lucrative venture but it is entirely passive at this point and pays for my hosting costs at Hostgator.  That is clearly OK in my book.

HubPages got hit big with the Panda update in March of this year.  I saw my traffic nearly disappear and decline through the summer.  But recently, I have seen an uptick.  However, my traffic is still less than half what I received in January 2011.  It would be great to see a return to that level, but I won't necessarily be doing anything to encourage traffic since I feel that my efforts are more useful with other projects.

Nonetheless, I won't be complaining too loudly about income that will pay for my expenses without any effort on my part.  I am pleased that I can continue to earn passive income for work that I have already done.

Amazon Comes Through Again

Well, I am now 9 for 9 this year with Amazon orders and shipments.  Each and every month so far this year, I have had an order from Amazon and some positive earnings.  I thought the streak might come to an end this month.  I did have a couple orders, but I had a return from last month so I was actually at a negative earnings number.  But yesterday, someone ordered 4 books and a flashlight so my negative $1.33 will be positive.  Plus I will be at 6% commission.  Yay!

I can't wait to see what happens as we get closer to the holiday season.  Despite somewhat crappy traffic over at HubPages, I am still making the occasional sale with Amazon, getting a few dollars per month with the HubPages Ad Program, and making a little off AdSense as well.  It turns out those 200 articles are worth a little something.  And now, it is strictly passive.  I only wish that the traffic would grow more.  I would bet by the end of the year, my traffic at Cash Flow Mantra will exceed that of HubPages, and that the earnings might as well.

Speaking of earnings, I should be getting paid from Amazon shortly.  I haven't really figured out their payment schedule so I don't know if it will be toward the end of this month or early next.  I will also be getting a check from Google in the next week or so.  This will be my third for this year and eighth total.  I can't wait until I start getting monthly checks.  I figure that I need to see my traffic increase about 4 times before that happens.  It would be nice to think that I could get that accomplished in 2012.

I am not sure the best way to increase traffic.  I really don't plan on doing anything different than what I am currently doing.  I am considering a contest or something, but I don't know how sustainable that traffic would be so haven't taken the plunge to do that yet.  I will see where things end up by the end of 2011.  I understand that the summer is typically slow.  Now that fall and winter are approaching, I will see what happens.  Many of my records have been set in October so I am curious to see what next month brings.

Congratulate Me on 200 Posts!

I only realized it when I went to write this, but this is my 200th post for this blog.  It hardly seems possible to have written that much, but it has been a little over 2 years.  I am encouraged to think that I have been able to stick with it for so long.  Many of the blogs that I followed on Blogger haven't posted in a year or more which just goes to show that persistence plays a huge role in being able to be successful.  Not that I consider myself successful, but I am closer than if I had quit.

My next goal for this blog is to get to 100 followers.  You can see in the sidebar that I am at 84.  I don't know why I like round numbers so much, but I do.  Although if you are a regular reader and don't follow, I would prefer that to following and not reading.  I want to thank everyone who reads regularly and who has supported me through your encouraging words.  I don't think I could have kept at it at times without knowing that someone was out there reading.  Thanks so much and good luck with all your goals for the rest of the year.

eHow, HubPages, and Future Plans

Rest in Peace

Needless to say, there have been a lot of changes in the online income game over the past few months.  The rules of the game have changed.  It is survival of the fittest.  It is time to adapt or die.  I refuse to be a buggy whip manufacturer but will stay as nimble as possible and continue to do what I can to continue this hobby of mine and maybe even make enough on the side to pay for my other hobby, golf.

eHow Cancels WCP

Several of you may have heard that eHow will be shutting down its Writer's Compensation Program.  The choices are to accept a buyout offer for the rights to my articles or watch them get deleted.  Now I could claim them for myself and publish on another site, but I really don't have any place to put them.  So, I plan to accept the buyout offer.  It works out to about 6 months of revenue so I can't complain too much.  I have earned my fair share for the amount of effort that I put into those articles.

HubPages and the Ad Program

My HubPages traffic continues to dwindle.  It seems yet to find a base.  I signed up for the HubPages Ad Program figuring that I might be able to some revenue from the limited number of views that I get daily.  I am not sure how well this is working.  It is really hard to say since my AdSense revenue is now nonexistent.  No revenue at all for the month of May is unsettling to say the least.  It is reminding me of the first few weeks of writing on the internet although at this pace, I will have earned more then.

Is the HubPages Ad Program having a negative effect on my AdSense?  It is hard to tell what I might make with the massive traffic decline.  The Ad Program does replace several of the AdSense blocks.  I will say that the eCPM for the Ad Program is similar to what I was able to get with AdSense so maybe the impact is negligible.

Future Plans

Since my 2 main sources of online revenue have been destroyed, it is time to start over again.  I have learned quite a bit these past 2 years and plan on using that newly acquired knowledge to make a real go at earning online income.  I plan on taking this hobby thing to the next level and officially making it a part time venture with the goal of creating online assets that will supplement my golfing fund in retirement. 

I can think of no better way of spending my time than getting up early and heading to the golf course while letting my wife sleep late.  Then I can come home, blog and work on sites for a few hours after lunch, then have the evening free.  Sounds like a great life to me.  Unfortunately, it is probably about 15 years down the road.  But that gives me plenty of time to develop a few sites, right!

I plan on using the eHow buyout to fund a hosting account and domain.  I figure that would give me about a year to get the site supporting its own hosting costs.  If I can't get it making $7 per month in a year, then I will have to re-evaluate my abilities.  I might have to retire as a starter at a golf course instead.

I should also be able to reach the $50 HubPages payout in another couple months.  I am about halfway there now.  Once I get to that point, I will try a little experiment and discontinue the program to see what the AdSense impact truly is.  That $50 can also pay for some of my hosting expenses and maybe even another domain or two should I come up with a couple good ideas.


Well, that is the approach that I plan to take for the rest of this year.

Readers, what are your thoughts about my plan?  How have you altered your online strategies with all of the recent changes?  Are you defeated or adapting?  I would love to hear from you.

Online Income Earnings Report 1st Quarter 2011

If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you will realize that I don't publish monthly results since the variation can be unsettling.  Instead I prefer to publish quarterly reports and compare to the previous 3 month time frame as well as the results from a year ago.  I think this gives a better sense of true progress and smooths out variations that may occur with various seasons and holidays.

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

February 2011 (Compare to Feb 2010 of $55.97)

• AdSense $42.92
• eHow $21.33
• Total $65.59

March 2011 (Compare to Mar 2010 of $47.49)

• AdSense $44.26
• eHow $26.01
• HP Ad Program $13.25
• Total $84.03

You may notice that the total doesn't add up.  I didn't report very small totals like the amount from ListMyFive or YouData but did include in the totals.  I also do not report Amazon income until I actually receive it.  I did this because it took 18 months to make the first payout.

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.

I'm Still Making Money Online

Even though it is easy to get discouraged with the recent algorithm change at Google and the impact that it has had on my HubPages traffic, I am still making money online.  I really don't think that AdSense has been impacted all that much.  Plus, eHow earnings have been very solid and are even a little bit better since the change.

There are other sources of potential income that have been added to my portfolio as well.  I was able to join the HubPages Ad Program which pays based upon the number of impressions.  So for those Hubs which didn't convert a lot of AdSense ads, this will just simply add to my revenue totals.  I have also started my own website which is slowly growing with additional content and traffic.  I am please with the progress so far this month and will likely report on it in a future post.

I just went back to look at a Hub I wrote about compounding passive income online.  When I look at the table that I posted which would enable me to earn $1000 monthly within 6 years, I find that by July of 2011 I only need to be making $53.87 per month in order to remain on target.  I have exceeded that total for each of the first 3 months of this year.

In fact, I have earned more than I did last month already and could likely surpass January's total.  The HubPages Ad Program has helped in this regard but even without it I would still be on target for making $1000 monthly within 6 years.  I know that it sounds like a long time, but I don't consider it that big a deal for a part-time gig.  The skills that I am learning could easily be used to supplement a retirement income someday.

Anyway, I just wanted to offer some encouragement and hope to those who might be feeling discouraged.  I know that I have felt that way at times this month watching the traffic fall by the wayside.  Even with this minor setback, I don't think it is the end of the world.  I still have the ability to make money online and am doing so.  I can still write Hubs and make some money from the views.  Plus I now have a website that I can grow and earn from as well.  I hope everyone else has been able to bounce back from the rough month.  Here is to a good summer.  Can't wait for the warmer weather.  I plan on doing some golfing soon!

My Best Week Ever at eHow

Following the Google Farmer update, I have been absolutely amazed at the impact on my personal repertoire of articles at the various sites.  The main bulk of my activity has been at HubPages.  You may know from my circling the wagons post that my Google traffic was down 50-60%.  It bounced back a little but still is down about 30-40%.  Despite that and the usual slump of weekend traffic that I constantly see, I had a really good weekend.  This goes to show that it is simply impossible to predict what might happen, and the only thing that I can be doing is writing and publishing.

Furthermore since the Google update, it has been stated that eHow was somehow unaffected.  I have several thoughts about why this might be and published those in my latest Hub on 3 reasons I think eHow might prosper.  I would suggest that you read this and offer some input as well either here or at my Hub.  Evidence that this might be true is the fact that this most recent 7 day stretch has been my best ever at eHow.  If the pace continues, I will surpass my best earnings month for that site.  I can't believe that it is coincidence but am pleased that it is picking up the slack.

Speaking of slack, HubPages has added a new revenue model of which I am pleased to be one of the early invitees.  It seems that they have gone out and secured advertisers on their own and are paying on an impression model.  Just another reason you should be reading all of my Hubs and sending them out to your friends (LOL!).  I think that this new model may help take the sting out of the recent changes.  I will post on my early impressions after I have a few more days under my belt. 

I want to save my next post for introducing my new website which was launched as a direct counter-attack to Google's offensive on content farms.  I am seeking to create a fairly large informational site on trading options which is a passion of mine so it should be easy to get motivated.

So, how is everyone else fairing following the Google Update?  It seems like those with their own sites have seen little negative impact which is a good thing.  That makes me hopeful that building my own is the right path to take.

Circling the Wagons After the Latest Google Update

There has been quite a bit of consternation to say the least about the recent update to Google's algorithm which has been targeted at spam sites and "content farms".  Personally, I am all for an improvement in the search results that get delivered since some results are very poor and lead to many worthless sites.

That being said, I can't help but wonder what implications the Google definition of "content farm" might hold for HubPages.  I have been enjoying my little hobby of making money online and am a little disappointed by the decrease in traffic that I have seen over the last 48 hours.  I would say that my Google traffic is down about 50-60% overall.

As a result, I will probably be writing very little over the next week while I see what transpires.  I may end up having to develop my own website but don't really like the idea of paying for a domain and hosting just to find out that I can't get any visitors.  I have enough difficulty getting traffic as it is; I don't need to pay for the privilege of having difficulty.

It may turn out that this truly remains only a hobby with less effort on my part and that I would just allow the chips to fall where they may.  I was enjoying the challenge of seeing what I could accomplish, but now that there is some questions as to the rules of the game, I think it is best to just wait and see.  I do plan on being able to get some reading done this week so that is a plus.

The general consensus over at the HubPages forum is to wait a week before panicking and seeing what happens.  That certainly seems like good advice so that is what I will be doing.  Apparently, there is the belief that good content will still matter and many reports are that personal websites have not been hit with traffic declines.  Some are optimistic that an entire site won't get harmed as much as individual pages.  I am not quite so sure personally.  Again that might mean that now is the time to develop a personal website.  I will be looking into that option over the next week as well.


In the meantime, I am glad that I am not reliant upon Google for my livelihood.  I am able to just walk away at any time.  That is not the case for everyone.  I feel really sorry for those who had lost jobs and were writing to help supplement income.  In that respect, the unemployment picture may have just gotten worse.  I also feel sorry for those who may have quit employment to work more on the internet only to have this happen to them.  Double whammy!

As for me, I can certainly find plenty to keep me busy so that I don't end up watching too much television.  Besides, summer is coming along with golf and softball so my writing time would have been more difficult to come by as it is.  The bottom line for me is to just watch and see what happens in the next week or two, do a little reading, a little thinking, and come back with a plan for the future.

I wish everyone luck with these monumental changes especially those supporting themselves or family members.  I would appreciate any comments on how these changes are affecting your traffic and business, what your plans might be, etc.  Thanks for reading and sharing.

Slight Struggle to Keep the Pace on Publishing

Based upon my desire to publish one Hub during the week and two on weekends, I am struggling just a bit to keep the pace.  By this point in February, I should have had 7 Hubs published.  Instead, I have only five.  I guess I shouldn't say only since that is still a decent number. 

Plus I have to consider the fact that the past week I felt like I was fighting a virus and required a lot of extra sleep.  I was incredibly tired and slept about 3-4 extra hours each day compared to my usual.  Now I feel like I am 100% so I would anticipate being able to get some more work done this weekend despite all of the home responsibilities as well.  I am feeling energized and motivated!

I haven't been as diligent at publishing backlinks either.  I am seriously wondering about their effectiveness with Google going after content mills if some of the linking sites will be on the radar.  I would hate to think that any effort at SheToldMe or Redgage would be all for naught.  That is why I am thinking I should continue to focus more heavily on content creation than anything else.

I may even consider writing some product Hubs at HubPages in the near future as well.  I am starting to see some results from Amazon and am seriously thinking that might be a valuable method to diversify a little of my writing.  I still feel awkward recommending any products that I have personally not tried.  Nor do I feel that I could write a Hub on "the best" such-and-such since how do I know it is the best?!  To me that seems like opinion only unless there is some data supporting such an assertion.

Anyway, I am still debating the product angle.  I will continue to work hard and write at HubPages until I can consistently earn $100 per month.  Then I will diversify some more since it is impossible to know when a particular site might fall by the wayside.  Can't have all my eggs in one basket.  In the meantime, I better get working so that I can get 3 or 4 Hubs done this weekend and get back on track.

Photo credit: Bo Nash

A Record Month for Traffic

It is always a good feeling when you get to experience positive results from your efforts.  Whether it is lifting weights, shedding pounds or making money online, seeing results from your efforts offers plenty of positive reinforcement.

As many know, I have undertaken the task of tripling my AdSense income in 2011 and am seeking to do this by increasing traffic with a combination of additional publishing of Hubs at HubPages and increased backlinking efforts at sites that provide AdSense revenue sharing.  I figure that I need to triple traffic at a minimum if I hope to triple my income.

As it turns out, January 2011 was a record traffic month for me.  I bested my previous record by about 4 percent and my worst month in 2010 by about 150%!  It was also the best month for me in total revenue opportunities (ad clicks) but alas the CPC average was lower than I have seen.  That is OK because my AdSense revenue was still greater than double my worst month in 2010 but less than triple. 

So while I am behind the pace to triple AdSense earnings, I am still very pleased with my progress.  I also have a target for February 2011 that is not too much greater than January's target so maintaining the same level of effort should lead to additional traffic and additional revenue opportunities.

I would also like to mention that a side benefit has been 4 shipped Amazon orders for the month of January.  I am putting Amazon boxes on all of my Hubs which occasionally lead to a sale.  I also got more clicks for Amazon in January 2011 than in the entire first quarter of 2010.  This is only going to get better with more traffic.

I must confess that it has been somewhat difficult to keep up with the publishing although I did manage to do that.  I did fail on the backlinking effort and did not get 3 links out per day.  But each day is a new day, and I refuse to feel defeated.  If I miss a day, I miss.  I will simply strive to set 3 links daily as an ongoing goal and even if I get it done on half the days, I will be a lot farther than when I started.  I am seeing Hub traffic from SheToldMe so I know that it is working.

So if you want to sign up and make money writing Hubs, you can join HubPages.  It is a great way to start making money on the internet without spending any of your own cash.

My Online Income Goals for 2011

This is the time of year that many put together New Year's Resolutions, and I am no different.  I certainly have plans for 2011 but want to keep them reasonable.  I have a tendency to over commit and then find myself unable to accomplish what I had originally envisioned.  So this year, I plan on keeping it somewhat simple.  That means simply focusing on the task at hand and allowing the chips to fall where they may.  I do have the expectation that I will be able to get it done, however.

I hope to continue to develop my passive income over the next year and triple my AdSense income.  Of course I have no direct control over the amount of income that I make with AdSense but I do have control over my publishing and linking efforts.  My general sense is that I will need to triple my traffic to triple my income since CTR and CPC have been within a range over the last several months.  As a result, here are my main goals for 2011:

1. I plan on publishing 3 Hubs at HubPages per week.  I figure that if I can write one during the week in bits and pieces and one each on Saturday and Sunday, by the end of the year I will have an additional 156 Hubs to add to my 173.  That is almost double the number of articles.
2. I plan on submitting 3 backlinks per day each and every day during 2011.  This will provide me with over 1,000 backlinks to my Hubs.  I would think that this should at least increase my traffic by about 50% or so.  

When taken together, these two activities would be expected to triple my traffic.  I have been practicing over the past several days submitting 3 daily links.  I have been using Xomba and SheToldMe.  Once I finish down the list of Hubs with these 2 sites, then I will move on to Snipsly since it also offers AdSense revenue sharing.  I am hoping that using revenue sharing sites will help with the ultimate goal of tripling my AdSense income.

As a result of the above 2 efforts, I would like to see the following happen.  I don't have direct control over these results but would hope for:

1. Tripling of my AdSense income--I simply need to triple each and every month of the year and will be able to track my progress by taking the lowest AdSense total for 2010 and multiplying by 3.  My three worst months for 2010 were April, May, and June with $22.86, $24.54, and $28.10 respectively.  Therefore for the month of January 2011 I simply need to earn $68.58 to remain on target.
2. I would like to increase my followers on HubPages to 750 by the end of the year.  I am at 520 currently.  I would also like to see the number of followers on this blog increase to 80.  This will be more difficult since I seem to be adding followers more slowly here.
3. I would also like to see the amount of traffic at this blog increase by a factor of 2 and hopefully see the Alexa rank decrease below 500,000.  I am starting to see an increase in the amount of search engine traffic appearing at this blog.  It is up over 15% now so that is encouraging to think that I might be getting some increased visibility.
4. As a result of increased traffic at HubPages, I would like to see my Amazon results improve as well.  It took 18 months to get to my first $10 payout.  I am now at about $7 on my way to the next.  I think it would be wonderful to get 3 payouts in 2011.  I will just have to see what happens since I won't be writing very many product Hubs.  But who knows?

These are my main goals for 2011.  I plan on hitting HubPages and linking in a consistent fashion in 2011 and letting the results speak for themselves.  In doing so, I would expect by the end of the year to be getting monthly checks from Google AdSense.


There has been a lot of talk and suggestions from others that I get my own site.  I would like to address that in the next post so be sure to read that one if you are a regular.  Also, be sure to comment and briefly list some of your own goals for 2011.  I will be looking out for the posts as well.  I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year and a productive 2011.

A Traffic Surprise

I am not sure how I feel about surprises.  Usually if someone says they have a surprise for you, it is good.  Otherwise they say they have bad news or ask you to sit down first.  In keeping with that tradition, my traffic surprise is a good one.  At least as far as my online writing goes, the only surprises that can occur when it comes to traffic are good ones!

At HubPages, there are little red arrows next to your articles in the stats section that mean your traffic is going up.  Two little arrows mean that it is going way up.  Well, I have two articles there today which had two little arrows by them.  I was totally shocked and wanted to figure out where all the traffic was coming from.  I went to the articles and clicked on the stats section that reveals details about that particular article.  (I think it is wonderful to have this information available at the click of a mouse courtesy of HubPages.)

The first one that I looked at had essentially doubled its views over the past 24 hours.  It turns out that someone had posted a link at Reddit.com so a lot of the additional traffic had come from that site.  The article is about Lasik surgery and getting a free TV.  Obviously, someone found that somewhat interesting.  Here is the link to the actual article:

Have Lasik Eye Surgery and Get a Free TV!

The other one has been published for quite some time (since July 2009) and was something I wrote as part of the weekly HubNugget topics.  I hadn't noticed but 20% of the views have come in the last 30 days with a significant portion in the last 24 hours.  Mind you significant to me means double digits.  Nonetheless, I went to the stats page and noticed that the traffic was coming from Google.  There is also a tab that allows you to see the search terms that are leading to the article.  I did this and found that people were searching the phrase "golf as a hobby".  I did this myself and found that I was in the first position.  How exciting!

Needless to say, I am pretty pumped and hoping that the mini-spike in traffic will persist.  I am hoping to get another article written today.  I already made a few links and just plan to keep working since you never really know what can happen when you have content out on the internet.  Here's to many pleasant surprises to all who read this blog! 

December Off to Mediocre Start

So far, December has just seemed kind of "blah", like I am stuck in the snow.  Not only is that the way that I have felt, but that is the way the results seem to have gone as well.  I had wanted to get to 200 Hubs by the end of the year, but that is not going to happen.  I am currently at 166 and just don't have enough ideas or motivation to get the job done.  I will keep striving for the 200 total and will make some goals for 2011 that I will share toward the end of this month.

I had also hoped to make payout at Listmyfive.com but that doesn't look like it will happen either.  I needed to get several more lists published if I wanted to have a chance at making it to the $10 mark.  I didn't get those done either.  Obviously, I have done less writing than I would have liked.  I currently have 13 lists and am lucky to earn a few pennies each day.  Right now it seems that my effort is better spent at HubPages since the majority of my AdSense income comes from that source.  I want to build to the level of monthly payments from Google before I go out and try to diversify.

Speaking of Google AdSense, the results there are mediocre as well.  I am getting respectable amounts of traffic comparable to last month.  Traffic overall is down from October but that was a record month.  Earnings seem somewhat slow to start.  It only takes one or two good days, however, to make for a decent month.  I am simply hoping to get to payout so that I can start counting on a check every other month.  I did get to make a Google AdSense check deposit yesterday which was cool.  That was my fourth one for this year!  I did make it more than halfway during the month of November so it should be close provided things don't continue to decline.

With my busy life and the holidays coming, I think that I will abandon all goals this month and just do what I can when I have the time.  I will make some goals for 2011 and for the month of January and post those so that I can try to establish a little intensity after the first of the year.  Last January, I got ill and it took several weeks to get back to 100% so hopefully that won't happen again. 

I hope everyone else's December is off to a better start.  I know that several have Amazon sites and have been focusing on those for the holidays.  That is a strategy that I haven't utilized but often consider.  I don't feel that I have the knack for selling so it would be a lot of learning and a big stretch to accomplish something like that.  Maybe someday.  I still need to work on getting traffic to my current stuff first.

Set Several Records in October 2010

October has turned out to be a very good month for me in terms of AdSense and traffic.  I have set several personal bests for the month that I would like to share with you without getting too specific.  I wouldn't want to violate any terms of service.

First of all, I enjoyed record levels of traffic (and thus ad impressions) at this blog and at HubPages.  I am really excited by this since it is only through increasing levels of traffic that I can really expect earnings to consistently increase.  I don't know that I can repeat this level of traffic since I had one really good article at HubPages which contributed quite a bit.  But, it continues to get residual views and my lowest traffic levels of the month were higher than the lowest levels in any of my previous months.  That demonstrates that at least a positive trend exists and that I have possibly reached a new plateau.

Along with the record traffic came a record number of ad clicks.  Again, I don't expect to earn too much more in the next two months, but I am hoping that as things level out, it will be at a higher level.  I do plan on continuing to write more.  I would like to get to a total of 200 Hubs by the end of the year.  To do this would require that I publish about 20 Hubs per month in November and December.  It is certainly possible but will take some work since I only published 3 in October.  If I am able to do it, then the levels of traffic may very well stay close to my current record.

The last thing that I would like to mention is that even though I still have days without any ad clicks, they are getting to be fewer each month.  I long for the day when I can earn some ad revenue each and every day.  Personally, I think that by July of 2011 I will be able to say that I have enough traffic that I am earning something each and every day.  I would also hope to be able to see a monthly check by that time as well.  I have been getting closer each month and will get another check for 2010 based upon my results in September and October.

Well, I just wanted to share that things have been going well.  October of 2009 was the best month of the fall last year and turned out to be good to me in 2010 as well with a big boost in traffic and earnings not to mention my first double-digit AdSense day!  I plan on working hard the next few months and seeing what happens.  I can't wait til October 2011 to see what it has in store.

First HubPages Sign-Up

You may have read that I had a great week of passive income while I was gone.  I had written an article about List My Five which has generated lots of traffic and has led to increased followers both at HubPages and at this blog.  The increase in traffic has also been responsible for an increase in AdSense earnings as well as my first double-digit earning day.

What I didn't know at the time that I wrote my first post is that during the same week I had my first two HubPages referral sign-ups.  That is such wonderful news.  One hasn't done anything on the site, but the other individual has written 11 Hubs already.  I am hoping that he will end up like Ryan Kett and get lots of traffic which can only enhance my passive online income.

HubPages will place your AdSense code on 60% of the page impressions that people read and their code on 40% of the impressions.  If anyone signs up under your referral code, then 10% of the time your ad code will appear next to their work.  This comes out of HubPages cut so the split becomes new Hubber 60%, HubPages 30% and referrer 10%.  Ideally, you will refer lots of people to write for HubPages, they will work hard and that 10% will end up making you a lot of extra money.

Anyway, I am hoping that is how it works out for me.  It hasn't worked out all that well yet since I have had over 2000 clicks on my referral code and only 2 sign-ups.  I had begun to think it wasn't working, but obviously it is.  If you look over my blog you can see what kind of money I am able to make at HubPages writing part-time.  If you really want to be aggressive in writing like Ryan Kett, you can make serious money.

So, if you are interested in writing for HubPages, be sure to sign up for HubPages using my referral link.

In the meantime, be sure to visit the profile of my most prolific referee, Romian1, and read several of his Hubs and make a comment or two.

Creating Links for eHow

I am busy creating links for all of my articles since I believe that improving my traffic will do a lot to improve my passive income.  I decided to start with eHow since on a per article basis, it is my most profitable article site.  HubPages makes more but has 4 times the number of articles and only makes about 2 times the income.  Now not every one of my Hubs are evergreen so I can't expect all of them to be making money.

All of my eHow articles have links on Xomba, and I am getting close to being done with Shetoldme.  From there I plan on moving to Redgage, Snipsly, Folkd, and StumbleUpon.  I am trying not to do too much at one time since I would like it to seem somewhat natural.  The Xomba links were done last year so any new links will be fresh.

It will take some time to get all of them completed but I am hoping that I will be done with all of the eHow links by mid-August.  That would give me 9 months before my second anniversary to see if there is an impact upon earnings.  I believe there will be and that I might be able to see my average earnings up 1.5-2 times.  At least all I can do is try.

Then I plan on moving on to my HubPages articles.  I will probably mainly link the evergreen articles.  It will take quite some time (probably to the end of the year) since I have 143 Hubs.  Again, I think it will be very useful for increasing traffic and building up the income at the same time.  My HubPages traffic has been increasing naturally throughout 2010 so I think the links will give it an added boost.

What do you find helps you with traffic?  Are there other sites than the ones I mentioned that you would recommend for link building?  Thanks for reading and commenting.

Photo credit: Petritap 

It Is Important to Get Backlinks

I have always suspected that it is important to get backlinks, but I suspect that I really didn't fully comprehend their true power. The second part of the 60 Day HubPages Challenge is to promote the articles that were written during the first part.

Content may be king, but backlinks and promotion will determine the size of your kingdom. That concept really hit home while brousing the HubPages forums last night. One of the Hubbers posted a thread stating that he was on track to make $100 in AdSense that day. $100 in a day! The key thing was that he has only written 19 Hubs.

Someone asked how this was possible with only 19 Hubs. He stressed that it took good keyword research and lots and lots of backlinks. I think that I have done a decent job with the keyword research, but a terrible job with the backlinks.

I think that is why I am excited to participate in the 60 Day Challenge as I will be forcing myself to focus on obtaining links to my articles. Then I will be able to assess the true impact on the traffic that is generated. I did spend time doing some keyword research and trying to pick decent topics based upon the results of the research and my spheres of interest and experience.

I think the overall success of my writing is going to depend upon my ability to generate traffic through the use of good promotion techniques. I have never been a salesman and have a difficult time with self promotion so it will take quite a bit of effort.

My plan is to start today taking those articles that I have written for the challenge and start with Xomba. Then I will move to Redgage and SheToldMe. I will also search to see if there are any other good social bookmarking sites that offer revenue share. I might as well see if I can earn additional money while trying to get traffic. Then I will move on to other sites. I do have a Snipsly account also that offers revenue share.

Just working with these four sites will likely take me the better part of the rest of May, but it will be interesting to see the results. Of course, I will be sure to let you know what happens. I am encouraged that my traffic had been slowly rising without my doing much during the past few months. Maybe expending some effort will be fruitful. I did notice that I would get much more traffic to this blog when posting a few links here and there, so maybe the impact will be positive.

eHow vs HubPages: A Comparison of Passive Income

I just got paid by eHow this week for the month of April; $22.94 was deposited in my Paypal account. For me, eHow has been totally passive since last October. I haven't written anything, nor do I promote in any fashion. 100% passive income.

Contrast that to HubPages. I have been writing Hubs in April as part of a challenge. Granted I didn't get the 30 Hubs completed, but it was still a lot of work and a substantial amount of effort taking up many, many hours of research and writing. Furthermore, this month I will be doing some promoting of the Hubs that I have written trying to stimulate traffic. For the month of April, I earned $22.59 from HubPages.

I am actually surprised that the totals are as close as they are. Considering the amount of effort devoted to HubPages and the number of articles (141 vs 38), I would have thought that I could have earned more than eHow.

And look at what has happened so far this month. eHow is at $4.50 so far and HubPages is at $1.97. I am incredibly disappointed and surprised that I am not earning more considering the effort. Traffic seems reasonable. It is certainly not decreasing. It is actually slowly improving. The amount of search engine traffic seems to be reasonable as well. HubPages is showing over 75% search engine traffic according to Google Analytics.

I have tried to keep a decent attitude and haven't had near the number of emotional ups and downs as when I first started. But, I must admit that 3 months of declining revenue after a decent February is starting to take its toll. I suppose this could all be related to my lack of effort during the early months of this year. Maybe all of the effort now will be paying off this fall.

But I am really getting down and having some difficulty getting motivated to keep plugging away considering we are almost halfway through the month and I don't even have $2 of earnings at HubPages. That is quite depressing to think about considering how much I earned last month. I would think that increasing traffic with a decent proportion of search engine traffic should at least allow my earnings to hold steady.

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. I will start promoting several of the Hubs that were written as part of the challenge and report the results. So far, I think writing and publishing has helped generate a little more traffic but, as you just read, no improvement in earnings.

Writing on the Road

So I am here at the Men’s Junior Olympic National Gymnastics Championships in Knoxville, TN trying to squeeze in enough extra time to get 15 Hubs finished as part of the 60 Day Challenge before the promotion phase begins sometime in the near future and likely within the next 24 hours. Let me tell you, it isn’t going to happen. There is no way that I can get 15 Hubs written in 24 hours. I suspect that I can get 5 or 6 done. In fact as I write this, I have 3 in various levels of outline and can get those done. Staying up late tonight will enable to write a few more, but not 15.

Be that as it may, I am still pleased with my progress even if somewhat embarrassed at not being able to carry my weight as part of the challenge team. It didn’t help not having my laptop for the first week of the challenge, nor not having any day off during the week for 3 straight weeks during the main writing component. Each weekend was also filled to capacity with gymnastics and soccer. Considering all the impediments to time, I am quite impressed with what I have accomplished.

That being said, I still want to work hard and finish the 30 Hubs as quickly as possible while maintaining their usefulness and quality so I can move on to the promotion phase. I am really looking forward to that aspect since getting traffic has been one of the most difficult tasks of making money online. I think that my writing is respectable and useful, but I have never been a salesman. I have a very difficult time selling and promoting let alone promoting myself.

I will be curious to see what kind of traffic can be gained during the promotion phase and the long term impact on the search results. I have already been noticing an increase in traffic simply from publishing a lot of material. In fact according to Google Analytics, my HubPages traffic is up 25% over the last 30 days. And I haven’t done anything except tweet each article and post some of them to Facebook after writing them. I can’t wait to see what happens and hope that the results are sustainable.

Well, I shouldn’t waste much more time writing here. I need to get back to the articles but wanted to take a mental break. My son is going through an early morning practice on the equipment. He doesn’t compete for another 48 hours so we are going to try and find something fun to do while here. The weather is nice with blue skies and the grass and trees are green. I am enjoying the experience and won’t spend all my time writing.

Didn't Quite Make It--But I Will

Well, I didn't quite make my goal of getting another AdSense check within 3 months. February started out so strong that I thought it would not be a problem at all. But then March and April just fell apart. The CTR in April was simply pitiful.

Actually, it turned out to be closer than I thought it would considering the poor start in April. I was actually under $3 away. That just means that I will get a bigger check in June which is OK by me.

eHow Surprise--Good

Surprisingly, my eHow income was better by a few cents than my AdSense income. And the best part is that eHow has been totally passive. eHow earnings have been increasing steadily since January when I didn't even make payout. Needless to say, I hope that this trends continues. It may just mean that I am climbing in the search engines and getting more revenue as a result. I really don't spend my time tracking views so it is hard to know if I am getting more traffic. For me, eHow has been truly passive. I simply log on every 2 or 3 days to see if the earnings have gone up and that's it.

Xomba Surprise--Bad

Xomba, on the other hand, was absolutely terrible. I actually had slightly more traffic than last month but only earned 6 cents. SIX CENTS!! I found more than that on the ground last week (I found a quarter). Fortunately, I did not spend a lot of time at the site since I have been working on the 60 Day Challenge at HubPages so at least I don't feel that bad. But it sure makes me wonder about residual income at Xomba.

Speaking of HubPages, I am still plugging away trying to get articles done. I have published 11 articles (out of 30), have another one written but not published, and have several more ideas. I am hoping to write 3 tonight before going to sleep but have some household duties first. It is already 7:15 pm. Maybe I can sit and write from 10-midnight. I will have to see how it goes. Tomorrow will be busy, but I might be able to get one done.

Well, I would love to write more here, but I really should get going and work on the household chores so I can get writing some more. All in all, this Challenge has been good for me since it has forced me to actually get some work done. Otherwise, I would have wasted time. Plus the impact on HubPages traffic has been positive although earnings have yet to see an impact that I can tell. I am sure that in time the benefits will be positive.

Until next time. As always, thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to read. I certainly appreciate it and hope that I have been helpful or motivational to some of you.