Update on List My Five

It has been awhile since I wrote an update on listmyfive.com.  For those who don't know, I started writing some at the site having joined the writers compensation program.  If you want, you can read more about why I signed up for ListMyFive.  I have also written a few other updates in this blog as well which you can find in the archive along the right side of this page.

The site seems to be picking up more and more traffic.  As I write this, the site's Alexa ranking for 3 months is 121,543 and for 1 month is 61,007.  Compare these to the rankings on October 5th of 245,519 and 86,673 respectively.  So, the trend is definitely positive.  There are a lot of former writers from eHow who seem to be working to market the site and add content.  I think there is a lot of potential with the site.

Personally, I have written 10 lists so far.  I published 7 in September and only 3 in October.  But, I was out of the country for 10 days and was sick for almost a full week following that trip.  I am only now just starting to feel back to 100% of normal.  I had hoped to have more lists published by now but it is what it is.

I do seem to be getting a reasonable number of views, but it is hard to assess what it actually means since the number of views increases rapidly when tweeting.  I am excited since my most recent list was indexed in Google within 48 hours without any help from me.  That means that the site is getting more internet respect which is also promising longer-term.

I am somewhat disappointed with my earnings this month.  I had hoped to make payout by the end of the year.  I still think that is possible but I would have been more encouraged had I earned more than $1.21 so far in October.  That puts me at a total of $3.50 meaning I will have to earn $6.50 during the next two months. 

It is possible but I will have to publish quite a bit more I believe especially in the month of November.  I don't think I will make it unless I get to 20 or 25 lists by the end of next month.  On a positive note, I do have about 10 different ideas already written down, and it doesn't take all that long to write and publish once I get going.  Now that I feel better, I suspect I will be able to get some more done.  Well, that is all I had to report.  Things seem to be going according to plan and about the way I would expect.  Now I just need to get it in gear and publish a little more so that I can realize the potential of the site.

Indecent Proposal?

I recently received an inbox message from an individual who was willing to help market my eHow articles.  The essence of the proposal was that I would send him links to my 5 highest earning articles on eHow, and he would market them through his social networks.  If my monthly earnings increased over 2.5 times what they typically run, then I would keep 60% of the total earnings and he would get 40%.  If my earnings failed to increase by that much, then I would keep everything.

On the surface it doesn't sound like all that bad an idea, but I have a few reservations.  As the father of 6 kids, I am always looking to the longer term risks and worst case scenarios for any request that I get.  So, here are my thoughts.  First, why would I want anyone to know which articles are my best earners.  Granted I don't earn a whole lot on eHow, but sending out the URLs to my best work simply asks for competition.  Even if that isn't the intent, the other scenario that I can envision is a lot more sinister.

There would obviously be an incentive to increase my earnings so that this individual can benefit directly.  How can I possibly verify that the means of increasing my earnings by 2.5 times normal occurs through legitimate means?  Can you say "click fraud" anyone?  If anyone is at risk, then I am the one would could lose the eHow account.  Even my AdSense account could be at risk if this "scheme" were to be traced back to me.  Why on earth would I want to even take that chance?  It makes no sense at all.

I am not saying that either of these scenarios is what this individual has in mind.  He could be perfectly honest and genuinely looking for a win-win business proposition.  But I have no idea who this person is.  This was an unsolicited message.  Besides, if something sounds too good to be true....I think you know the rest.  So, does anyone else have any thoughts on this proposal?  Indecent or not?  What would you do?  Feel free to comment.  I am interested in knowing if anyone else has been approached with something similar as well.

PS--Don't know if you ever saw the movie with this title, but it was interesting.  Photo credit: Koshy Koshy

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.

A Great Week of Passive Income

Well, I just got back from Honduras and had limited access to the internet.  As a result, I did absolutely nothing for developing my online income.  You may have noticed that it has been a while since I last wrote a post.  I left last Thursday early in the morning and got back late last night which was actually 9 days total.  I am still tired and am gradually trying to get back into the swing of things.  I figure it will take about a week to catch up with everything.

There were several great things that happened while I was away in terms of the work that I am doing online.  My articles and blogs continued to earn money.  While I was gone, I earned a total of $29.55 with AdSense.  One of those days was even in the double digits!  My first one ever!

Traffic is also at record levels.  I am amazed by the amount of traffic that I am seeing.  It seemed to run consistently above my typical average.  Not only is traffic high, but I added followers on both HubPages and this blog.  I am now over 400 followers on HubPages and over 50 on this blog.  These are numbers that I didn't expect to hit until the end of the year.

I think the key to my improved traffic and earnings is the level of effort that I put into passive income development during the 6 weeks prior to my leaving.  By publishing at a rate that was higher than I had been publishing this year, I was able to enhance my visibility during the time that I was away.  This visibility led to increased traffic and ultimately, increased earnings including my first ever double-digit AdSense day.

I am encouraged that as I get back into the swing of things and begin publishing again, I can maintain traffic levels at a higher plateau than I had enjoyed previously and will begin earning more on a consistent basis.  I suspect that I could even achieve another double-digit earning day by the end of the year.  It won't be long and I will be making enough with Google AdSense to receive monthly checks.

So if you feel discouraged about your online income, remember that hard work will eventually pay off.  You may not know when it will happen but give it time.  Ultimately good content will rise to the top.

Photo credit:  *Micky*

Update on List My Five, LM5 Taking on eHow

I thought I would provide an update on my efforts and results at List My Five before I have about ten days with limited internet access.  For those who don't know, List My Five is a new writing site that is reminiscent of the early days of eHow.  I wasn't around for those early days, but I can definitely see the similarities.

Since I have articles at eHow and am writing for List My Five as well, I thought it would be fun to compare the sites as well as providing an update on my LM5 activities.  My first list at LM5 was published on 9/17/2010 and by the end of September had published a total of 7 lists.  I have published another in October and hope to get several more done by the end of the month.  With those 7 lists, I earned a total of $2.29 by the end of September.

I started writing at eHow on July 23, 2009 and by the end of the month had published 8 articles.  I had not earned anything by the end of the month but did manage to earn a total of $13.76 by the end of August so I made the payout.   I did publish an additional 18 articles bringing the total to 26 for that first full month.  Currently I have a total of 38 articles at eHow and that is all I will ever have.  I will typically make payout earning between $10 and $20 each month in totally passive income.

So far this month, I have earned $0.78 with eHow and $0.11 with LM5.  It will be fun to watch what happens with earnings as I get more and more lists published.  It would be cool to make payout by the end of this month, but I certainly don't expect to get to that level until the end of the year.  I am happy to say that each list except the most recently published has earned something.  I suspect that is because it hasn't been indexed yet.  Here are the two lists that I know haven't been indexed yet:



Top Five Online Stock Brokers I Have Used

Top Five Activities When Suffering from Writers Block

I am not sure how long it takes for lists to be indexed since apparently it helps to post one link to those lists.  I think that it won't be long (by the end of the year) and LM5 will be recognized as a decent, legitimate content site.  It is growing by leaps and bounds.  When I checked today, its Alexa rank for 3 months was 245,519 and 1 month was 86,673.  Also each time I look at the site, new people are signing up daily.  I wouldn't be surprised to see it have a 1 month Alexa rank under 50,000 by the end of the year.

Overall, I have had 820 views of my lists.  I am adding about 15-20 views per day.  I even had one of my lists make the front page.  That is exciting.  I am really pleased with the progress at LM5 and feel that it will provide decent residual income to add to my Paypal account each month.  I just want to make sure that I get more published than I have at eHow.  I would like to get it done by the end of the year.  Getting 50 lists published seems like a decent goal to me. 

Well, I will continue to make periodic updates.  Has any of you joined List My Five and published any lists?

Photo credit: Nanami Kamimura

Online Earnings Report for Third Quarter 2010

I enjoy reading about the earnings of others since it can help to motivate and encourage.  I think knowing about the struggles that others face can also be encouraging knowing that we all go through similar experiences.  I also think that it is good to see the progress that is made despite the struggles.  I think that is why the earnings reports are my favorite posts.  It allows me to look back and when I feel like I am not making any progress, realize that I actually have.

I choose to do quarterly reports since there can be a little more variation in the monthly reports.  It allows me to look at larger trends in my earnings.  Of course, I am constantly keeping the data so that I know when one month is bad and work to improve the next month.  But comparing this quarter to the last and to the quarter one year ago allows me to see where I have been and to see the results of my hard work.  Even though I am not working on online income as a full time venture, it is a lot of hard work when I do have the time to spend on it.  So, here are my earnings for the third quarter of 2010:

July 2010 - AdSense earnings: $34.86  +  You Tube: $4.51 + eHow: $19.16 = $58.53

August 2010 - AdSense earnings: $44.34 + You Tube: $1.41 + eHow: $13.01 = $58.76

September 2010 - AdSense earnings: $56.37 + You Tube: $2.76 + eHow: $11.17 = $70.30

When I look at the earnings above, I clearly see a markedly positive AdSense trend.  I believe that this is a result of increased publishing of Hubs at HubPages.  I have seen an increase in both traffic and earnings as I have been more active recently so I think it would be wise to continue to put forth a decent amount of effort without burning out.  I also have noticed a decline in the earnings for eHow.  I am not sure what I can do about this since the format changed and I haven't added any additional material.  My plan is to just allow it to fluctuate and remain totally passive income.

Compared to the second quarter, my earnings are also up.  In the second quarter I earned $123.56 whereas in this quarter the total is $187.59.  That is a very substantial increase in my opinion.  Furthermore, compared to the third quarter of 2009 when I earned $101.01, it is up over 80%.  Obviously I am making progress.  My goal is to continue to earn more each and every quarter.  If I can simply increase my earnings by 5% on average each and every month, I will be making a substantial amount within a few years.

If you look at my Hub on compounding passive income, you will see that I am almost a year ahead of schedule.  I want to keep up that intensity and be making over $100 monthly by next summer so that I can be getting monthly checks from Google.  With September's results, I am more than halfway to that goal.  The other cool thing about the third quarter is that for each of the 3 months, I averaged more than $1.50 per day with AdSense.  Of course there were days when I only earned a few pennies, but others when I earned significantly more.  Overall, it seems like I am having more consistently better days, and I like that.

I am still waiting for that double digit AdSense day, but I feel that it will be coming up before the end of the year, especially if I can continue to publish at a decent pace.  I have had some really solid days over the past month so I think I am on the verge of a breakout.  It will just require a little more traffic.  I am looking forward to the day when I have so much traffic that I am routinely seeing double digit days.  That will be phenomenal, and I will be sure to let you all know when it happens.

I know that several have had good earnings in September.  Here is to a great October and rest of the fourth quarter of 2010.  I offer everyone the best of luck and my best wishes.