Launched My Newest Blog Project

Last week on April 1st, I launched my newest blog project.  It is a personal finance site that has many personal finance bloggers contributing a few articles per month to offer a wide array of topics and viewpoints.

I have also instituted a fairly unique compensation scheme for the contributors based upon views with a profit sharing component as well.  Ultimately, should the blog ever be sold, the contributors will also share in at least half the proceeds.

I doubt any business typically gives up that much upside, but I am more interested in seeing if the combined efforts of many can build something much greater than the efforts of a single individual.  I am operating on the premise that daily content will prove to be a big asset to the blog even though it would be impossible for me to write on a daily basis.

I suspect it will take a few years to realize the full potential of this arrangement.  My biggest concern is the loss of contributors as the level of interest wanes.  I figure that I will lose some and will have to replace them.  I am hoping not to lose more than half.

Goals

I would have liked to see 2,000 visits this first month as a major stretch goal.  However, the pace will have to pick up quite a bit.  I am thinking that 1,500 will be more realistic and even then, we will have to get some more traffic.  But being only 10 days old means that there is still lots of time left for marketing.

I would then like to see the traffic grow each and every month as daily content is added.  I would like to be able to pay an author for an article based upon views by the end of the second month.

I am pleased to say that the site has already made a little with AdSense.  I figure it will take about 3 months before I can cover the initial costs.  After that, profit sharing should kick in so that at least the authors are making some money.

I have placed the RSS feed on the right margin since for my personal blogs, this blog is a major source of traffic.  I trust that this will prove true as well in these early days.

The URL of my latest project is:  PennyThots.com

Please feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts on the site.

Six Month Goals for Cash Flow Mantra

I have started a new blog that is a little over a month old now called Cash Flow Mantra.  It is a personal finance blog with the primary focus being cash flow.  You can link to my latest posts in the sidebar at the right.  In fact, many of you have been doing so because this blog is responsible for 7.5% of my traffic over the last 30 days according to Google Analytics.  I want to say that I sincerely appreciate your support in helping me build traffic over there.

I have mentioned in previous posts that I would share with you my goals for the remainder of the year with this new blog.  I honestly haven't had much of a chance to sit down and consider them in detail.  I also haven't had the opportunity to put them down on paper so I will actually be developing them on the fly as I write this post.

First, I would like to be able to publish some quality and thought provoking articles.  I am realistic and know that I won't be able to do that for every post.  I simply don't have that many good ideas but at least a couple absolutely knock-out articles each month is possible along with lots of other good articles on personal financial topics.  As part of the Yakezie Challenge, I will need to publish at least twice per week.  I certainly want to be able to maintain that pace at a minimum.  I would like to have a total of 100 posts by the end of the year.  I am currently at 17 and feel that 12 per month is reasonable.

Next, I would like to be able to get my Alexa rank down to 200,000 by the end of the year.  That is one of the primary goals of the Yakezie Challenge.  I think that this is possible but I will need to grow traffic and probably need to increase it 4 or 5-fold.  As the number of posts increases, the amount of search traffic would be expected to increase as well and could actually surpass my current levels of traffic.  I would also retain and hopefully grow my social readers at the same time.

I don't expect to earn a lot in the first six months, but I would like to see the total slowly grow.  I think this might happen as the search engine traffic grows.  I will not be targeting keywords necessarily but plan on writing what I view as quality content letting the chips fall where they may.  I would expect that by after one year, I should at least be able to cover my hosting expenses of $10 per month.  I currently have enough money in my PayPal account to cover one full year's worth of hosting expenses.  Plus I am getting close to payout with the HubPages Ad Program which would provide another $50 or five months of hosting fees.

I would like to also get some advertising on the site which could help.  As the traffic builds and Alexa rank declines, I might be able to get someone to advertise on the site.  Right now I have a special going, so hop on over and check it out.  Now would be a good time to get in on the ground floor as I build up the site.

These are the main goals that I would have for the site for the remainder of 2011.  I think they are reasonable and achievable but will require that I put forth some effort.  I can't simply ignore the site after a few posts.  I am continuing to interact with other financial bloggers by commenting which has helped me enjoy the best initial traffic success that I have ever had.  I will have to keep working hard in order to meet my goals, but plan on having some fun in the process.

I Got My Work Cut Out For Me

Recently, Felicia at No Job For Mom was celebrating a $100 day with AdSense.  Clearly she is deserving as she has spent quite a bit of time building up her residual income and is the consummate online professional in my book.  But she offers a brief glimpse at her humble beginnings in a follow up post where she explains that she earned all of $16.25 for a whole year.  Needless to say, that is quite a journey and one that I would like to achieve if only one-tenth as much.

It got me to thinking.  What does it take to get a $100 day on AdSense?  Felicia has talked about having multiple blogs, but what does it actually mean?  So I asked and found out that she has 16 active blogs of which 4 bring in the majority of her income.  She is batting about 0.250 for all you baseball fans.  Not enough to make it to the Hall of Fame, but certainly respectable to have a decent career in the Show.  I figure if I can just make it to triple A ball, I will be blessed.

Now what will it take to make it to triple A?  A lot of work, that's what.  I figure that I could probably achieve decent success with maybe 10-15% of my blogs.  Decent would be defined as earning $5 per day.  If I could simply put up 3 blogs in each of the next 12 years, I could probably hit my goal of making $10 per day with AdSense or even so sort of affiliate program.  I have a couple ideas that can get me through the rest of this year already.

The best part of Felicia's strategy is that she doesn't do any backlinking to speak of.  That is great news since I really don't like that type of busy work.  I am doing some blog commenting but that is more social and getting to know fellow bloggers.  She does writes great content and let's nature take its course.  My content will probably only be decent, hence the 10% success rate.  But even getting 3 blogs moderately successful at $5 per day would lead to almost $500 per month which is nothing to sneeze at.

That being said, I really have my work cut out for me to get 36 blogs online with a fair amount of decent content for each one.  But breaking it down over the course of a decade really shouldn't be all that difficult.  So my goal is to actually act on the two ideas that I have for the remainder of the year and get something up and running.  I don't think that part will be all that difficult.  The hard part will be maintaining my patience while waiting for traffic to develop and not giving up entirely.  There are times that I wonder why I am putting in so much effort.  But, you know what, it is simply a lot of fun!

Plans and Goals for OptionsDude.com

Well, I am sure that many of you have had a chance to go and visit my new site which was finally put into being as a result of the most recent Google Update.  I felt that it was important to get my own content on my own domain and begin to develop an authority site on a topic which I thoroughly enjoy and for which I have quite a passion.

I have enjoyed working on the site and have published 11 static pages with articles explaining such things as covered calls, puts, and collars.  I have also begun a forum which doesn't have any members other than myself and a blog with 2 posts which will serve as a more active portion of the site allowing me to explain some of my trades and comment on the current state of the market.

I would like to take this post and lay out my plans for the site between now and the end of the year.  This serves two main purposes.  First, it forces me to sit down and write out what I plan to accomplish.  Second, it lays it out there for all to see and provides a measure of accountability that will force me to act in order to avoid embarrassment publicly.  So let's get started:

• I plan on having about 100 pages of static content with articles explaining various aspects of trading options.  I will be able to get several more articles on covered calls and puts.  I will be able to write about the various types of spreads and explain some of the nuances of options pricing.  I could easily come up with about 50 article topics in the next 20 minutes.  My goal is to get these posted by the end of the year.  90 articles in 9 months is 10 per month or about 3 per week.  This would fit with my earlier goal for HubPages of publishing one during the week and one each on Saturday and Sunday.
• I would like to add a section on book reviews.  I will first start through my library and write reviews on the books I have already read.  I will probably re-read several of them and offer some useful tidbits on what I find in the book and make a recommendation on whether to buy, buy cheap, borrow or don't bother.
• I will continue to post to the blog section approximately once per week on average.  I will likely have more to say at certain times than others.  I got commentluv working so when I go to comment on other blogs, the most recent post from my blog at optionsdude.com will appear.  I have also placed the posts at the uppermost part of the sidebar on this blog so if any of you have interest in options, you can link to them here.

Ultimately, as a result of this content generation and developing links, I would like to actually begin to get some search engine traffic and earn my first income from the site in the next few months.  I would like to see the Alexa ranking in the top 500,000 by the end of the year with some steady daily traffic.  I would like to have a vibrant discussion on options and options trading with several members on the forum and through blog comments.

I know that some effort will be required, and I expect that.  I am looking forward to it.  I enjoy taking the topics that seem confusing to others and explaining them in such a way that anyone can understand.  I think options trading can be one of those topics.  I believe I can offer an everyday individual's insight into this aspect of investing and am looking forward to the challenge.

Photo credit: Keith Williamson

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

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 Look Back at 2010

I feel that it is important to make short term and long term goals.  But I also think it is important to look back and see what happened over the course of time and whether or not those goals were met, why they were not, and how they might have been changed and altered.

So before posting goals for 2011, I would like to look back at my post of goals for 2010 and compare those goals to my actual experience over the past year.  If you want to look at the original post from December 2009, you can access my goals for 2010 but I will reproduce them below and then provide commentary in italics:

• 250 total articles on Life123. I plan on writing about 20 per month on average and maintaining a steady pace throughout the year.  Life123 suspended their author compensation program within a week or two of establishing this goal.  As a result, I was only able to publish a limited number of articles on the site.  To Life123's credit, they paid the maximal possible income to each author who had published so I received a one-time payment of $400 for 20 articles.
• 150 Xombytes (articles) on Xomba. That would require about 10 per month. I also want to post links on Xomba almost every day of the year. I plan on posting links to all of my articles that I have written so far plus adding all of the new ones. I currently have a spreadsheet that tracks what links I have added to my writings on Xomba, Shetoldme, and Snipsly. I need to do a better job of linking when I don't feel like writing.  I have done a lousy job of linking this year.  I also did not publish many more articles on Xomba.  I don't feel that Xomba has turned out to be a great source of residual income for articles and so I decided to focus my limited amount of time elsewhere.  I have placed backlinks, but not nearly the number that I should have or could have.
• 150 articles on HubPages. I have 115 so that means I will just sprinkle some here and there during the year. I would like to see my HubPages results improve.  Finally I was able to meet a goal.  It turns out that the majority of my effort has been spent on HubPages this past year.  As a result, I have 172 total Hubs so at least I can point to some positive results for 2010.
• 50 articles on eHow. I have 38 right now. I would like to add some to see if that helps the earnings there. Despite not writing anything for a few months, eHow continues to earn some money. The site has great potential, and I hope that maybe the break will have allowed me to get back into it.  I still have 38 articles since the compensation program changed at this site as well.  My income at eHow seems fairly consistent but that is it.  It really isn't growing and I really don't expect it to grow much either.
• I plan on continuing to write every 2 or 3 days for this blog. That would mean 10-20 posts per month. I will be linking to these posts as well and trying to bring traffic to this blog.  Overall, I have published just over 80 posts this year which is less than 10 posts per month.  I am not too upset since I would only want to publish if I have something to say.  I do think traffic has increased although I would like to have seen it increase a bit more.
• I hope to get up the nerve to create a niche website. I have a few ideas but would like to make a little more writing content first. But now that I am putting it out there, I will be forced to attempt to deliver.  I didn't create a site in 2010.  I know I should, but I didn't and that is all I can say.

I will post my goals for 2011 in the next post.  In the meantime, I am curious to know if anyone else has taken the time to look back to see how 2010 went for online income.  This is always an interesting time of year for reflection as well as planning.

PS--I have published a Hub on "Swimming with Dolphins" in Cozumel from our recent cruise and vacation in case you missed it elsewhere.

Goals for Rest of 2010

I took a look at my online income goals for 2010 recently and realized that they had to be modified quite a bit.  So, I thought I would take the opportunity to review those goals and make some changes based upon new circumstances and directions that I plan on taking for the last four months of the year.

I will list the old goals first, followed by the modification of that goal in bold text.  This will save you having to flip back and forth between posts.

• 250 total articles on Life123.  Life123 had suspended their writers' compensation program early in the year.  They did pay out for all work previously done which was nice and professional.  However, this goal is no longer applicable.
• 150 Xombytes (articles) on Xomba.  I currently have 45 articles.  I am not entirely convinced that Xomba is the greatest source for residual income.  Thus I should focus my goals on sites that will actually make me money until something happens with those sites.  I do think Xomba is a great site for posting links and will continue to do this.  I hope to have every single article at HubPages linked at Xomba by the end of the year.  If you want to join Xomba for linking purposes with the probability of making some extra cash, that would be reasonable.
• 150 articles on HubPages.  I already have 145 Hubs.  HubPages has become my main money making site.  Last month, it was responsible for the majority of my earnings.  This month, it is not quite 60%.  I think I want to go for 180-200 by the end of 2010.  I also want to have a second account and put up 30 sales Hubs by the end of September to get some Amazon sales heading into the Christmas season.  I would also like to have over 300 followers from the current 285.
• 50 articles on eHow.  eHow has changed the format to Demand Studios.  I still have 38 articles.  I looked at some of the titles offered and did not like them.  For me, eHow is no longer applicable.  I simply hope to finish making additional links and make the $10 payout each month.
• As for writing for this blog, I have kept up but at a pace closer to 2 per week instead of 3.  I don't plan on making any changes.  I still think I have a shot of getting in the top 500,000 Alexa rank and will continue to strive for traffic and followers.
• I am putting my own site on the back burner for now.  I bought Michelle Adams' ebook on virtual real estate.  It is good, but it looks like a lot of work.  I would rather write.  I think I might look into having one built for me when I get a little more cushion in the paypal account to pay for a site and some hosting.

As far as earnings are concerned, between Life123, Xomba, HubPages, and eHow, I thought that it might be possible to make $195 monthly by the end of 2010.  Most of that ($100) was going to come from Life123 which no longer exists for me.  If I subtract that out, I still think hitting a $95 month with the other 3 sites is possible but will take some additional effort.  I will need to see Xomba pick up some which could happen if I am busy using the site for links.  I think I might be close to $60 this month so $95 in a month by the end of the year is not outside the realm of possibility.

So, what are your goals for the rest of the year?  Have you even bothered to look at your original plans for 2010 to see your progress?  Feel free to shout out and comment.

Photo Credit: Elliot and GoAvs

Thanks to My Blogging Friends!

Over the past year, I have spent several posts reviewing statistics and goals.  One of those goals for 2010 was to end up in the top 500,000 websites according to Alexa traffic rank.  Well, I am pleased to report that I am getting very close.  Although I am still over 600,000 for the 3 month rank, for the last few days I have been below 500,000 on the 1 month ranking.

I decided to take a look at the Google Analytic statistics and found that there are several sites that have referred traffic to this blog over the last 30 days.  It made me realize the importance of being connected to the blogging community.  Granted, I don't think this helps directly in terms of income.  But it does provide me with a great measure of satisfaction and comfort knowing that there are those who care enough to take time reading this blog and sharing their comments and experiences.

This has been one of the greatest things for me over the past year, enjoying the acceptance and encouragement from other bloggers, many of whom are online professionals.  Being embraced by the blogging community has meant a lot to me as a part-timer.  I want to take this opportunity to thank those who have allowed me to be part of their community, who have referred traffic, and have commented consistently.

Starting in the order of appearance on Google Analytics:

1. Ruth at webcareergirl.com.  I especially want to thank Ruth for sending an average of 1 visitor each day.  She placed a link to my blog on her very aesthetically pleasing site.  Thank you so much for that!  Ruth is working on the web for a living.  She is kind and professional.  I view her as a web friend and a mentor.
2. Brian at blogengage.com.  Brian runs a wonderful site for fellow bloggers to interact and post their articles.  Blogengage has helped to deliver traffic and followers to this blog and is responsible for a fair amount of referral traffic.  I want to thank Brian for developing and running such a wonderful site.
3. Michelle at passiveincomeonlineblog.com.  I just recently ran across Michelle's blog and was so impressed that I placed it on my blog roll the first day I found it.  Michelle is a single mom working hard to make a living online.  Her tenacity and spirit are admirable.  She also provided me the honor of adding me to her blog roll.  She is a frequent commenter on my blog.  If you ever need to look at anyone for inspiration, Michelle is the one.
4. Felicia at nojobformom.com.  Felicia is in a class all by herself.  She made the transition from working at a traditional job to working on the internet.  She is incredibly professional and it shows on her site and in her writing.  Even though she doesn't have a blog roll, I still get a fair amount of traffic simply from commenting on her blog.  She also comments frequently on mine.  I view Felicia as one of my first web friends who has encouraged me many times along the way this past year.  For that I will be forever grateful.
5. Kelly at kjflemming.com.  Kelly is one of my newest friends in the blogging world.  She is trying the internet marketing thing and trying to get to $15,000 per month with her sites.  I wish her the best of luck and am so thankful and pleased that she decided to add me to her blog roll.  I just happened across her site clicking on a comment one day and saw that I was there.  I was honored to be sure!
6. Deanna at Write Moms.  Deanna is a published author and in a class all by herself.  She has been a long time friend of this blog and has included me in her blog roll.  I have gotten lots of traffic from her site over the past year.  In fact, hers is the leading referral site for 2010.  Deanna has been incredibly encouraging when I have been down and not feeling like writing.  Thank you so much, Deanna!

There are also several friends who have been around for quite awhile, reading and following this blog and commenting from time to time.  I want to acknowledge these individuals as well since I truly appreciate them.

• bestmommy is a writer on many of the same sites on which I have articles.  She is one of my friends on all of them.  She has several blogs as well including momsonlinemoneymakers.com.  She has been a friend for almost my entire first year of writing.
• bristolboy is a great Hubber on HubPages and follows this blog on a regular basis as well as comments frequently.  He is a great source of advice and encouragement.  Thanks, BB!
• David Guion writes the All-Purpose Guru blog.  David is a part-timer like me and has been following me since the early days.  I appreciate his comments and continued support.
• prerna is a frequent commenter I met at Blogengage.  Thank you so much for all your comments.

Finally, I want to make a special mention of Nelle Hoxie at HubPages.  She is a very busy internet marketer who makes quite a bit of money with the Amazon affiliate program.  She is a big source of support and encouragement at HubPages and follows this blog regularly.  Thanks, Nelle!  I am amazed at your ability to produce product pages and make money in that fashion.  I may try to do this someday but not yet.  Amazon just doesn't work for me yet.

If I never make my goal of $3000 per month online in the next 8 years, that will be OK with me.  I know that I will be farther along than I am now thanks to the support and encouragement of all my current and future blogging friends.  And I will surely be richer for the experience as well.  Here is to another year of developing friendships!

Good News from eHow

I went to my eHow account this past weekend to look it over for the purpose of improving my links to my 38 published articles and found out that every single article had at least earned something.  I found it exciting and encouraging to see those results.

If you read about my goals for my second year online, you know that I am going to try and increase my earnings through continued publishing of content but also through improved efforts at linking and "marketing".  I decided that I should start with eHow since I won't be tempted to write more content.  Besides, the payments come via Paypal which I plan to use for funding the development of any niche sites.

My original goal was to start making money online without investing any of my own money.  I could only invest my time and use whatever money I made to reinvest in the online venture.  So far, I have done this.  I used the money in the Paypal account (from eHow) to purchase Michelle Adams' Virtual Real Estate Development Guide for $57.  (I am almost halfway through reading it.  It is long and detailed, and I at times have to re-read a paragraph several times.  But that is good for me as a novice.)

Anyway, I thought that I should begin with linking and marketing eHow so that I could increase my passive earnings there and use those funds to start making niche websites.  Then I could continue to use AdSense checks for paying down debt.  That is why I was looking over my eHow articles. 

So far, I have created a link to each of my eHow articles on Xomba.  This was done last fall.  I also have about half done on SheToldMe which were again done last fall.  But I have none on Redgage, Folkd, or Snipsly which I plan on completing over the next several weeks.  It will be interesting to see if there will be any impact.  Needless to say, I certainly hope so. 

Once I have completed this task, finished reading the VRED guide, and made a little more for the Paypal account, I plan on starting a niche site.  Don't worry, I will keep everyone posted.  It won't be incredibly quick since I am a part-timer.  But I'm OK with that.  I am still having fun. 




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One Year Online--A Look Back

Well, it is hard to believe that exactly one year ago on May 26, 2009, I published my first online article on HubPages.  I don't exactly remember how it started or why I did it, but what started as a small, little experiment or hobby has developed into a "part-time" quest for developing passive income.

I ended up starting this blog to chronicle my journey and share with those other "part-timers" (or anyone else who might be interested) what I am learning along the way.  I have also shared my goals, frustrations, and the results of my various efforts.

One year ago, I had no idea what a keyword or a backlink was.  I didn't know the difference between "follow" and "no-follow".  Now I can use Google Adwords Keyword Tool to try and enhance my CPC.  I have a rough idea of how to drive traffic and improve my SERPs even though I may not be very good at it.

For those of you who have followed this blog, you know that it has been my goal to ultimately earn $100 daily online by the time my youngest reaches college.  My thoughts are that this will help pay for her college and then ultimately provide a supplemental source of retirement income.  That day was nine and is now eight years away.

I am really only about 1% of the way toward my goal, but I still have 8 years left.  So, let's look back and see what the actual results of the last year have been starting with content and traffic.

HubPages:  I have published 141 Hubs, have 256 followers, and have received 25,000 views during the past year.

eHow:  I published 43 articles of which 38 still exist.  These have been viewed just over 8,900 times.

Xomba:  I have 44 articles and 212 bookmarks.  The total number of reads is 10,795.

My Online Income Blog:  This is post number 117.  I really don't have easy access to the number of views, but there are 35 followers through blogger and 8 Facebook followers.

Real Assets Blog:  I have 14 posts with 3 total followers.

Infobarrel, Triond, Squidoo:  There are 6 articles on IB, 5 on Triond, and 5 lenses.

Life123:  I published over 20 articles on Life123 before the program for authors was discontinued.

All told, I have 390 pieces of original content published on the internet.  These were all completed in one year's time which averages out to just over 1 piece each day.  Personally, I find that pretty amazing considering all the days that I did not write.

For all that effort, however, the earnings will seem rather minuscule.  I have to remember that those articles will be out there with the potential to be earning each and every day.  I have done nothing on eHow since October of 2009, and yet those articles continue to earn month after month.  Not a lot, but something.

With those comments, lets look at the earnings.  As of this evening, my total earnings are as follows:

AdSense:  $325.72  --  I have received 2 checks already and will get the next one in late June.  This took 5 months for the first, 3 months for the second, and 4 for the next one.

eHow:  $157.74 -- There has been only one month that I didn't make payout, and that was when the UK site was started.  I should make it this month, but it could be close.

Life123:  $440 -- I really liked writing for Life123.  Too bad it couldn't continue.  They were honorable and paid the maximal amount of $20 for each article.

My expenses for the year consisted of $1 for advertising and $57 for the Michelle Adams Flipping Guide.  So my net profit for the year amounts to $923.46 - $58 = $865.46.  Divide that by 390 articles, and I got $2.22 per article this past year.  Of course, this is heavily influenced by the Life123 payment but I'll take it.

I hope to improve upon these results in the next year.  My next post will discuss my goals for the next 365 days and what I hope the impact of my activities will be.

So, how has the past year been for you?  Productive?  Profitable?  What will you be doing to improve your results?

Goals for April 2010

I have to say that I have been awfully lax when it comes to the concept of goal setting, putting them in writing, and publishing them in order to provide a measure of accountability. As a result, I really haven't accomplished all that much in the first quarter of 2010. Granted, I could blame the kids' gymnastics season occupying all of my weekends and claim other reasons for being busy. But those would simply be excuses. The bottom line is that I have been LAZY and unfocused!

Well, that is going to change starting now. I am going to resume my habit of posting goals for the month and updating my progress about halfway through the month. This has to occur if I am going to continue to accomplish anything especially when it comes to writing content, building links, and having an impact on earnings.

I especially noticed this last month in regards to earnings at Xomba. I did very little for the month and the results spoke for themselves. That is why for the month of April 2010, my goal will be to post at one link at a minimum each and every day on Xomba. I will also plan on writing more content for some of the other sites as well as content for Xomba itself. Even if I don't manage to accomplish everything, I know that I will get more done than if I hadn't taken the time to establish goals.

To summarize my goals:

• Publish something on Xomba each day of April
• Write 5 articles for Xomba
• Write 5 articles for HubPages
• Write the 2 eHows that I had an idea for this morning
• Post here 3 times per week

I think if I do these things, I can earn the last $25 needed on AdSense to get another payout. This would be another 3 month check. But, I am really going to have to hustle if I plan on getting a 2 month check for May and June. That requires averaging $50 each month, and I have yet to have a $50 AdSense month. Now I certainly think that it is possible, but may require quite a bit of active work to establish a base for additional passive income.

Sounds like I have my work cut out for me this month and next. What are your goals for April? Feel free to share.

Webinar from the Keyword Academy

I just spent the last 2 hours watching a webinar hosted by Court Tuttle from the Keyword Academy. It was entitled Massive Traffic 101. I knew some of the information already and felt good that I was able to follow what he was saying. At the same time, I learned a lot and also received some motivation to get more organized and systematic about my online efforts.


Granted I have known that I need to do a better job of organizing my efforts. It has been difficult for me to do it thus far as this has been a part time effort. However, I want to try and do a better job in the future.


February Goals


As a result of this webinar, I have elected to make my goals for February consistent with the principles that I learned. I would like to get more organized and will seek to do so in the following 3 ways:

1. Spend at least 1 hour each weekend doing keyword research for my residual income articles and get a list of keywords to target in my blog posts and article writing.
2. Spend at least 1 hour each weekend reviewing my existing articles and taking those that have the most traffic and earnings and getting more links to those articles.
3. Take those keywords from step 1 and write a few articles for HubPages, Xomba, and my blogs .

Right now, the biggest issue that I see with achieving my passive income goals is traffic. Actually, it's the lack thereof. To be truly honest, I am getting some traffic and the traffic that I am getting is decent. I just want it to grow faster than it is. I hope that by making a few adjustments, I will be able to increase my traffic. Overall, I would like to see it double by the end of 2010.

Getting back into the swing of things for February will also be a major objective of mine. I think it is doable. Now that I am healthy and refreshed from the time off, I feel like I can go at it pretty hard for several months.

As always, I will let everyone know how it goes. The other thing that I took from the webinar is that it just takes time and effort to build an online income. I have always known that. I just plan on taking it one month at a time.

My Online Income Goals for 2010

I have spent the past several days coming up with a list of things that I would like to accomplish during the upcoming year as well as a list of tasks to accomplish them. To start, I would like to list the tasks that I plan on completing throughout the year and then list what I would hope to see come out of that effort.

During 2010, I plan on making Life123 and Xomba my primary sites for writing online content. I also plan on working with HubPages and eHow (again, maybe) to add to the articles I have on those sites as well. Of course, I will continue to write my blog posts. By the end of 2010 I hope to have:

• 250 total articles on Life123. I plan on writing about 20 per month on average and maintaining a steady pace throughout the year.


• 150 Xombytes (articles) on Xomba. That would require about 10 per month. I also want to post links on Xomba almost every day of the year. I plan on posting links to all of my articles that I have written so far plus adding all of the new ones. I currently have a spreadsheet that tracks what links I have added to my writings on Xomba, Shetoldme, and Snipsly. I need to do a better job of linking when I don't feel like writing.


• 150 articles on HubPages. I have 115 so that means I will just sprinkle some here and there during the year. I would like to see my HubPages results improve.


• 50 articles on eHow. I have 38 right now. I would like to add some to see if that helps the earnings there. Despite not writing anything for a few months, eHow continues to earn some money. The site has great potential, and I hope that maybe the break will have allowed me to get back into it.


• I plan on continuing to write every 2 or 3 days for this blog. That would mean 10-20 posts per month. I will be linking to these posts as well and trying to bring traffic to this blog.


• I hope to get up the nerve to create a niche website. I have a few ideas but would like to make a little more writing content first. But now that I am putting it out there, I will be forced to attempt to deliver.

I also want to organize my time better and begin carrying a notebook with me to jot down ideas that I have.

Now, what do I hope to accomplish with all of this effort. I will again look at each site and how the efforts at each will add to my ultimate online income goal for 2010:

• With 250 articles on Life123, the potential for earning is $5000. I know that is not going to happen. I would hope that by the end of 2010, half of the articles I have written have achieved the $5 payout. I would expect that by the end of the year, I could expect almost 20 articles per month reaching that level for an income of $100 monthly.


• At Xomba, I would like to think that the efforts expended will add up. I would hope that by the end of the year, I could count on $50 monthly if I add articles plus a great number of links.


• I would expect HubPages to continue to maintain steady at least. I have lost traffic over the past several months but that has been internal traffic. The search engine traffic seems to be somewhat steady. Better linking may enhance this somewhat. I would hope to earn $25 monthly through HubPages.


• eHow has been a steady performer last month and this month despite my lack of effort. I think by the end of 2010, I could continue to see about $20 per month.


• My Online Income blog will not be a big money maker. I don't ever think that it will be so I will not even place any expectations on it. However, I want to be able to help people and teach them what I am learning and share my experiences. I would like to increase traffic to the blog and reach 50 total followers with a steady readership averaging about 50 per day. I think that would get me in the top 500,000 Traffic Rank by the end of the year.

I want to thank everyone who has stopped by to read this blog. I sincerely appreciate it. Please let me know if you have any ideas to make this blog better. I am always eager to learn and would appreciate your input. Also, what are your goals for 2010? How do you plan on achieving them? I would love to hear your comments.

On an unrelated note, I am pretty miffed about the pathetic display that was the Colts game yesterday. Maybe we should just forfeit and stay home.

Making Goals for the New Year

If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you know that I like to establish and record my goals on this blog for several reasons.

1. First, it forces me to sit down and figure out what I would like to accomplish within the given time frame.


2. Second, it enables me to go back and look at my goals to see what I have been able to do and what I need to focus on. I usually review what I have written about half way through the month (for monthly goals).


3. Finally, the fact that I have written and published these goals holds me accountable to my readers and offers motivation to complete the task.

My readers will also know that I prefer to set goals and then establish tasks that will ultimately lead to those results. While I have traffic and income goals, I can't make anyone visit or read my blog or articles. Nor can I force anyone to click on any ads.

Instead, I will focus my efforts on content and networking. Keep this in mind when I make my goals for 2010 and publish them in my next post.

How do you make goals? Do you write them down? Do you make them easy or try to stretch yourself?

Passive Income Goals for December 2009

If you have been following this blog, you will realize that I feel it is important to write down goals. It gives you a sense of accountability and forces you to identify those actions which need to be accomplished. Even if you don't get it all done, you still get more done than if you didn't have any goals written down.

So, these are my online passive income goals for December 2009 divided according to the various content sites for which I write:

Hubpages: I really don't have any goals for December. Traffic there has been decreasing for me, and I want to see if I can generate better traffic on other sites as I improve my article count elsewhere. I would like to see the current traffic hold steady and will continue to link where appropriate.

eHow: I won't do anything at eHow either since I want to focus my efforts elsewhere. I have a hard time writing an article only to have it deleted in the future. I suppose I should publish and earn as much as possible and then republish elsewhere after it is deleted. That could be a viable strategy.

InfoBarrel: It is unlikely that I will do anything on this site except check to see if my deleted eHow articles are no longer indexed and then publish on IB. That would give me a little extra content there.

Life123: I will spend some time on this site in December for sure. I hope to be able to earn $15 in December as opposed to the $10 I earned in November. I also plan on being able to move up to the next level and be able to contribute up to 40 articles per month. I hope to be able to contribute 10 rather quickly and an additional 5 articles when I have moved up. That would bring my grand total articles to 25 by the end of the year. Currently I have 268 out of 500 views needed to move to the next level.

Xomba: I plan on spending some more time here as well. I want to start to fully assess the earning power of Xomba. I plan on posting something each and every day during the month. I plan on being able to post 10 articles during the month. Currently I have 26 so that means I need to have 36 by the end of the year.

Triond: I have just recently started writing for Triond. I am mildly encouraged and hope to write five more articles during the month to add to this site.

My Online Income: I plan on posting as I have been. It is nice to be able to write and post on a regular basis. It is unfortunate that this blog doesn't make any more money than it does. But, every little bit helps. Over time it will add up.

My November AdSense impressions will be close to the amount for October. That is pretty good in my opinion considering there was 1 less day and that the last four days saw no traffic due to Thanksgiving and no publishing on my part for the same reason. I hope to see December have similar if not slightly better results such that a foundation for 2010 has been formed.

Earnings are down in November as well primarily to the decreased number of clicks. That's OK. I am hoping that a baseline exists that can be built upon going into the new year. I would suspect I will see similar results for December.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out those Life123 articles so I can move up to the next level.

Goals, Goals, and More Goals

I think you can figure out from the title that this post will be amount goals. First, I want to look at my longer term goals.

I would like to be persistent enough so that by the end of June 2018, I will be making $3000 per month online. Why this amount at this time? That is the time that my youngest will be 18 and leaving for college. I figure that $3000 per month should about cover college costs for her in 9 years. After that, I can add that figure to supplement my retirement income which will help out a lot in sure. At least it won't hurt.

Breaking It Down

Now to get there I figure that if I can get to $1000 per month in three years, and if nothing else, repeat the process two more times, I am set. So, the question becomes how to get to $1000 per month in 3 years. There are 12 quarters in 3 years meaning that I need to get just over $80 monthly in each quarter.

Obviously, it will be more difficult and move more slowly at the beginning since I am starting from zero. I will do my best to shoot for that goal, however. That means that ideally I would be at $80 monthly here at the end of September. I won't be there. I can just make sure that I close the gap and keep track of progress.

Amount of Content

If I can average $1 per article per month, then I would need to publish 80 articles per quarter. Realistically, I should aim for 80-100 in case I don't quite make that much. Also, I need to do whatever I can to boost traffic.

Ultimately, it is certainly feasible as long as I keep publishing something each and every day. Whether it is an article or a blog post is probably not as important as much as whether or not it is consistent. This leads me to the October content, traffic, and earnings goals.

October Goals

HubPages: This has become my primary site. The earnings per article are not as good as eHow, but I started here and some of my early stuff wasn't all that great. I think I am getting better. I have 90 Hubs. I want to have at least 100 by the end of October. I would also like to get to 10,000 total views. I am just over 6500. I think it is possible.

eHow: This is a great site for earnings. Per article, it is better for me than HubPages. The articles have become harder for me to write and motivation is tough. I am at 39 eHows. I would like to get one done tomorrow and add 10 more to finish at 50 by the end of October. I would ultimately like to have a minimum of 100 articles at each site by the end of the first year of writing. My goal for traffic has been met for September. I would like to get close to 4500 total views by the end of October. That will take some effort (feel free to stop by and send all your friends to my eHow articles. LOL)

Xomba: What a great site with a ton of potential. I have not utilized this site as effectively as I could. I will be posting more articles here in October. I have primarily thought of this site as a place for links. I think I am underestimating earnings potential. I will be writing a lot of stuff here over the next few months to see what I can accomplish.

InfoBarrel: I did finally get my first earnings for this site. I think there is also potential here as well. After hitting 100 Hubs, I will probably start working more and more on the other 3 sites to build up my article count. I don't have any particular goals in October but hope to add some more material.

My Online Income: I will continue to post 2-3 times per week at least. I am having a good time sharing my experiences and documenting my journey. Plus, this site is actually earning some money. More than I thought it would. Cool!

Real Assets: I will continue to develop this blog as well posting 2-3 times per week also. I can see that there is probably earnings potential here as well.

Adsense: I don't know that I can give out exact numbers, but I would like to increase my ad impressions by almost 50%. This may not be as difficult as I think if I work more on Xomba and InfoBarrel.

Overall, I am rather optimistic that I can achieve the majority of my writing goals. I will also be working on traffic and trying my hand at some SEO. I will see what happens. The bottom line is that I just need to keep plugging away, learning as I go. I think I can handle that.

Finally, I just want to say thanks to everyone who takes the time to come by and read what I have to say. I appreciate it and hope you are learning something. I want to make the time you spend here useful and productive. Thanks for reading.

Until next time--I can't wait 'cause it will be my first quarterly earnings report. Yippee!

An August Goals Review and Setting Goals for September

Ok, so in this post I would like to look back at my August goals and summarize my accomplishments and then set the goals for September. I think it is very important to do this so that you can get more done by trying to stay focused. I think I may write a hub on this as well since I still have to get 3 done today to make it to 70 total (yeah right!). It may be possible, but I'm not gonna stress over it. I would like to thank everyone who is coming by to read this blog. I hope that it can help someone who might be trying to make money online.

August Recap

HubPages: The goal was to have 70 Hubs done by the end of the month. Currently, I have 67 with about 19 hours left to go. It could be done but depends on how much time I have later in the day. I had hoped to have total views of 1500 for the month and actually ended at over 1600. I had also hoped to earn $10 this month and exceeded that amount by quite a bit. Overall, a good showing with HubPages.

eHow: The goal was to get 30 eHows done, and I did this. I haven't written there in about a week since I was done (had pushed this one) and have been playing catch-up with the Hubs. I wasn't sure what to expect on views but will end the month with over 1000 total views. I had hoped to earn $2 but made it over $10 and will be getting paid in September. Yippee!!

Squidoo: This site is pointless for me. I only have one lens in the top 85,000 and have yet to see any revenue other than from an Amazon sale. I haven't really worked on this site and will spend my time focusing elsewhere. I will likely drop this from the goals and focus elsewhere.

My Online Income Blog: My goals were to get 5-10 views per day average although in another post, I had hoped for 15. The first is what ended up happening. I have been getting a slight amount of increased traffic since the blog carnival. Plus, I did get one click so this blog actually earned something in the month of August.

September Goals

September is going to add a little something new to the goals and essentially become a month of link building experimentation to see how much I can drive traffic. I still want to produce content and will actually be writing a lot but will also link build as much as possible.

HubPages: My writing goal will to be at 80 Hubs by the end of September. Originally, I had thought that I wanted to be at 200 Hubs by the end of the year, but that was before writing for eHow. Now, I am just planning on having 200 articles total between the two sites. I am not sure as to the distribution but will be pleased to achieve this as I will have a project or two at work to get done which will cut into my online money making time. I also hope to add 2000 views of my Hubs which would put total views at 5650 since starting. My earnings expectations for HubPages for September is a bit of a stretch at $30.

eHow: My writing goal will be to produce 20 eHows by the end of September bringing the total to 50. Coupled with HubPages that is 30 articles for the month or 1 per day which is still a lot of writing. I am at just over 1000 views total. I hope to add just under 1500 for the month to bring my total to 2500 views. I also hope to earn in the neighborhood of $20.

Xomba: I just started on Xomba in the last 3 days. It is a social bookmarking site that displays your Adsense code. I have actually earned a little bit already. My goal for September is to add links to my articles on HubPages and eHow at a rate of 2 per day. I also plan on adding another couple links and writing a small article (150 words is their minimum) each day for a total of 5 posts per day during the month. This should take 20-25 minutes and is really mindless activity that I can do anytime during the day. With this, I hope to average about 10 Adsense impressions daily and hope to make somewhere between $5-$10.

Shetoldme: This site is similar to Xomba but without the article aspect. I will be using it for my article links. I have no other expectations for the site since it seems relatively new. Any Adsense earnings would be a bonus.

My Online Income Blog: I simply plan on posting 2-3 times per week and just hoping that traffic increases slowly over time. I have no expectations for earnings but will be thankful for anything I get. I think I will submit to one blog carnival again this month.

Well, there you have it. A lot of work will be in store for the month of September. I hope I stretched myself a little bit. Earning $60 in the month is a stretch in my opinion but is realistically achievable as well. I have been watching traffic slowly increase across all sites and earnings also. Just have to see what September brings.

eHow:

An Inspiring E-Mail

I signed up for a free e-book about making money online and have been getting some emails as well. Yesterday's email was actually quite good and inspiring. They are all pretty good especially if you are just starting out. But yesterday's was about the amount of time it takes to make money online. The answer was interesting to say the least and boils down to the fundamental heart of the issue. Basically, it takes longer than the vast majority of people are willing to spend and stay focused, but less time than you might suspect.

They also provide an interesting scenario assuming that you can get to $1,000 per month online after 1 year of hard work. Then, by increasing your monthly income by 5% monthly, at the end of three more years, you will be making $6,000 per month. That is truly inspiring.

Getting to $1,000 per month

Now for me, the trick becomes getting to $1,000 per month first. I have been doing this for almost 3 full months now and am starting to see results but even $1,000 per month seems like a daunting task. Writing for HubPages and eHow, I might be able to pull down $1 per article per month which means that I would have to have 1,000 articles between the two sites. Granted I am almost to 100, but 900 more seems impossible at this point. Earnings are picking up, and I can see the potential there. It will certainly be tough to get to that first stepping stone in the next 9 months, but it is worth a try.

I suspect that writing for content will not be the only way to go. However, I don't feel as if I am ready to move on to the next level until I get a little more experience. Since I am doing this part time, it may take a little longer for me to get going. I will just have to see. The next step for me is to get to $100 per month and go from there. That certainly seems feasible and breaking up the larger goals into smaller ones can keep one moving forward instead of giving up.

So, take your larger longer term goals and break them up into smaller chunks that seem feasible. You will ultimately get where you want to go.

Staying Motivated

I just finished two articles on things I do to stay motivated while trying to make income online. Generating online income can be a very daunting task and take quite a bit of effort. I have been spending quite a bit of time over the past 2 1/2 months and can see where people would start to give up after this time. But, if you can get through the first 6 months or so, I suspect it will be well worth it and that the earnings will eventually follow. I would like to summarize my points in the articles (one is at HubPages and one at eHow). If you would like to read them, I have included the links:

How to Stay Motivated When Making Money Online

Making Money Online: How to Stay Motivated

To summarize my points:
1. Set goals that I can control like number of articles. I can't click on ads or generate revenue but I can put out content on a regular basis.
2. Don't set unreasonable goals. Setting yourself up for failure is not a good idea.
3. Use some of your time for less mentally taxing tasks like forum posts. This keeps you in public view but is not as demanding as researching and writing articles.
4. Take a vacation from the computer entirely just like you would offline.
5. Look at others making money online and look at how they started out. Many of the people making thousands per month started out small like me making only a few dollars. It just takes time.

I hope this post has been helpful. Please feel free to comment or check out the full articles.

AUGUST GOALS UPDATE:

I just wanted to also take some time to provide a quick update on my activities at the various article sites.

I have completed my 56th hub at HubPages and seem to be on target for getting done with 70 by the end of the month. Traffic is good although earnings are somewhat anemic. I am still pleased with the progress here.

I have completed 19 articles at eHow. Traffic is doing very well vs HubPages and the earnings there are picking up the slack that is happening at HubPages. I am inspired to keep going at eHow since things are starting off so well there. My goal was to get 30 articles by the end of the month, and I feel like I am on target. eHow seems to be the best use of my time giving me the most "bang for my buck".

Squidoo seems like a waste of time to me. Having to compete to get into the top tiers is just too difficult for me at this point. I have not made any more lenses and Squidoo is very low on my priority list due to its business model. I will be focusing my attention on HubPages and eHow for now. If I do have extra time, I would probably look at other sites before returning to Squidoo.

Until next time.