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

I Sold an Amazon Kindle!

I have been somewhat disappointed by the month of February so far.  I have been working diligently to increase my AdSense income by publishing more than I did last year and creating more backlinks as well in order to drive traffic to my Hubs and blog.  The traffic has been good but the earnings haven't.

However, I have noticed a pleasant surprise as a result of the added traffic.  My Amazon clicks have increased, and I am actually getting a few sales now and again.  I even sold an Amazon Kindle this past week along with a leather case and a two year warranty.  I was excited!  This is the biggest order that I have had.  I don't even write sales Hubs but simply put the Amazon capsule on each article.

With just that one order, I now have enough to get paid by Amazon in the next month or two.  What a great side effect of the additional traffic that I am getting.  I guess that it is important to diversify potential income sources when dealing with online efforts.  This doesn't only apply to sites but also to methods of getting revenue whether selling products, relying on ad clicks, or getting other affiliate income.

For now, I will keep doing what I am doing but will be considering Amazon as a source of income more seriously in the future.  And by the way, if you want to buy a Kindle....

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.

January Efforts on Target...

...at least for the most part.  Too bad I can't say the same for the results.  Since it is getting close to the end of the month and I took some time away from publishing Hubs during my golf trip, I decided to look and see how the publishing efforts looked against my goal of one Hub during the week and two on the weekends.  I took the calendar and counted out the number that I should have published and came up with a total of 14.

Then I compared it to reality and found that I have published 11 Hubs so far this month.  I also have the rest of today to publish another as well as this weekend to do two more so I am officially on track.  I haven't been as lucky with my linking efforts.  I know for a fact that I didn't get 3 done each and every day.  I would estimate that I got it done on about half the days, but I still have done more linking than any month previously.  I plan on finishing out the month strong with 3 more Hubs and doing my links each day.

Unfortunately, it looks like I am only on pace to double the income of my lowest AdSense month in 2010.  That is OK since I couldn't expect a flurry of activity to have immediate results.  This is by far a record traffic month so that can only mean that better results are on the way.  The biggest problem is that my CPC is down compared to other months.  I guess that having more traffic with more clicks probably averages them out to a lower overall value.  I just haven't quite made up for it in volume yet.

In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a solid start to the year.  I will say that eHow income has been solid, much better than last January.  I will also say that I am impressed with my Amazon clicks this month.  Looking over the stats for 2010 showed that my clicks increased each and every quarter of the year.  That is probably due to increasing traffic levels.  At the current pace, they will increase again this quarter so that is good considering it is not a big shopping time of the year.  I can't wait to see if I can get another payout sometime in the next few months.

Photo credit: Casito

Celebrating Small Victories

I just got back from my South Carolina golfing trip about 48 hours ago and am getting back into the swing of things here in Indiana.  I got to come back from some short sleeve weather to 6 inches of snow and single digits temperatures.  What a shock!

But just like on the golf trip where I have to compete in the "A" bracket against guys shooting about 15 strokes better than me for skins and pins, so it is on the internet.  I have to celebrate the small victories.  It is a major accomplishment on the course when I get a few skins (meaning I got a better score on a hole than all of the other "A" golfers which for me meant a par).  Likewise, I have a few major accomplishments to celebrate for 2011 even if I don't quite match up with some of the other internet gurus.

So, I would like to list my accomplishments to encourage myself and others:

• Before leaving for golf, I was able to maintain my publishing schedule and publish 9 Hubs (I even published one while in South Carolina but it is difficult to keep up when physically tired from 27 holes each day).
• Even though it doesn't look like I will meet the earnings target this month, I am already ahead of my worst AdSense month from 2010 with several more days to go.  I am also getting some earnings virtually every day.
• Traffic is more than double compared to January 2010.  In fact, my worst day this month was better than every day except one in January 2010.
• I had 58 Amazon clicks in the first quarter of 2010 with no orders.  In January 2011, I have had 85 clicks with 7 orders.
• Linking at SheToldMe is paying off since it now shows up as a traffic source for my articles at HubPages.
• I have added followers on this blog and HubPages.  I am almost at 600 followers on HubPages.
• My Alexa rank on this blog has been steadily declining and is under 400,000 for the 1 month ranking.
• EHow earnings have almost doubled compared to January 2010.

 Even though I am missing the earnings target tripling goal, I am seeing plenty of positive response to my efforts and will have to keep up the intensity.  The earnings will be a lagging indicator but from what I am seeing above, they should be improving in the next several months.  I am really excited about Amazon since that is something on which I am not focusing and I am still seeing positive results.  I also have to remind myself that the effort I am putting in now will benefit me next January and the January after that and on and on as well.

I hope this has been uplifting for someone.  I know it can get discouraging to feel that you are making no progress but looking back at a year ago will reveal otherwise.  That is why it is helpful for me to keep the data that I do.  I hope everyone has a solid remainder of the month.

Yakezie Challenge Seems to Be Working

If you happen to read this blog, you will know that on New Year's Day I joined the Yakezie Challenge.  Yakezie,com is a site that as best I can tell is a confederation of personal finance and lifestyle bloggers seeking to help others through their blog as well as giving back.  They even have a scholarship fund that allows them to give out scholarships to prospective college students.  Be sure to check out the site.

The challenge calls for several steps with the ultimate goal of improving the Alexa ranking of your blog.  For example, this blog had an Alexa ranking of over 600,000 when I started.  The goal is to improve that ranking to less than 200,000 by July 1st.  Obviously to do this, I will need to increase traffic.  This is where fellow challengers can help.  It is asked that you help your fellow challengers by mentioning their blogs and so through combined efforts we all increase in our rankings together.

It sure makes sense.  There are so many blogs out there on the internet that it is hard to get noticed.  I am constantly finding new blogs and writers some of which I like and others which I don't like as well.  And that is OK.  It is nice just to be able to sample some new sites from time to time.

So, I would like to recognize those fellow Yakezie challengers who have sent some traffic to this blog according to Google Analytics.  I am sure this list will ultimately get bigger, and I will share more links with future updates but for now I would at least like to mention:

debtfreedivas.org -- I love the name by the way!  This is a pretty neat blog.  And the divas have even taken time to come here and comment.  I appreciate that immensely.

faithandfinance.org -- Another nice site with great content and great design.  I wish I had as good looking a blog.  Oh well, Thou shalt not covet!

frugalzeitgeist.com -- Being frugal is always important.  Gotta get back there to read the Dogs of the Dow post from yesterday.

investitwisely.com -- Another blog with great design and an awesome name.  Not to mention, it is one of my favorite topics.

So, how have I been doing with the challenge so far?  I had started to notice an increase in traffic toward the end of December and heading into the new year.  I have noticed an additional increase since starting the challenge also.  In fact over the past month, my traffic is up about 50%.  Even better is that my total search engine traffic is now 20% of the total.  I would like to see that increase to about 30% by the end of the challenge.

So far, my Alexa rank is now under 600,000 but under 400,000 for the one month report.  This is definitely a good trend and a positive sign that getting to under 200,000 by July is possible.  Of course, it will take additional work but I can certainly handle that.  I will be sure to keep you updated as time goes on.  I will be curious to see the overall impact in the months ahead.

That is all that I had for this post.  On a side note, I am getting ready to go on a golf trip to South Carolina.  Hopefully the snow will melt in time.  I plan on a post or two from down south.