Made First Amazon Affiliate Payment

As part of HubPages, it is possible to make money with Amazon as part of the Amazon affiliate program.  Simply add an Amazon capsule to your Hubs.  Now I am not a salesman so I have very few product Hubs.  Most of my Hubs are informational.  I will place many books next to my Hubs related to the topic I am discussing.  I certainly don't push any products.

Despite this, I have managed to get the occasional sale through Amazon.  It has taken 18 months to get to the point of receiving payout even with the low $10 minimum.  Nevertheless, a few days ago I received a direct deposit into my checking account for $11.47.  Not a large amount but totally passive in nature.  I didn't really do much to earn this money.  I simply took the time to place the capsule next to most of my Hubs.

This month has been my best month for Amazon yet.  I have shipped out 6 products and am just over half way to the next payout.  I would be thrilled if it took less than 18 months to get the next payment and eventually was able to generate enough traffic and interest to make over $10 monthly through the Amazon affiliate program. 

Like anything online (especially for me), it is a gradual process that starts out slow and picks up.  I will just have to see what happens.  Again, I am not a salesman.  I can't write for the purpose of selling.  I can only advocate those products I use myself and enjoy.  Anyway, just thought I would share that I finally got paid through Amazon.

Doing More Linking At Xomba

I have been doing more linking at Xomba over the past week.  I haven't felt much like writing so I haven't done much.  I have some ideas but am fairly busy and just haven't taken the time to sit down and put them on the internet.  Sometimes getting the motivation to write is difficult for me even if I have significant goals.

So instead, I have been doing more backlinking at Xomba.  I decided that if I couldn't write, at least I could be doing something.  As a result, my traffic at Xomba this month is already double what it was last month.  Unfortunately, this confirms for me that which I had already figured out.

Xomba has not turned out to be the best place for residual income.  I really tried to use the site for that purpose.  I have 47 articles published on the site which represents the second highest number of articles following HubPages (of course I am excluding this blog).  And yet last month, I didn't even earn a dime from Xomba despite a decent number of views.

I have earned some money this month but that is only because I have been so active over the past week.  I have placed 7 bookmarks on the site.  It is only when I have actually done something that I saw the traffic spike along with a little bit of revenue.  I had hoped that the site would turn out to be a decent site for residual income.  I do get a few views each day.  In 2010, there was never a day when I haven't had any ad impressions.  And I have made $42.85 so far this year.  But I would liked to have seen in the neighborhood of $10-20 per month which hasn't happened.

So, I will continue to simply post my links on the site and make what money I can.  The site may help a little with traffic at my other sites, and I may get a little payment for doing it.  But I won't be writing any more articles since I think that writing elsewhere will turn out to be a more productive and lucrative use of my time.

Photo credit: Toni Lozano

Hot or Cold

The weather in central Indiana has been very interesting so far this November.  Last week during dinner, we saw a few snowflakes drifting down out of the sky.  There was no accumulation, but it was interesting to see.  This week, the temperature has been in the upper 60's and mid 70's.  In fact, I have a 9 am tee time tomorrow with a forecast of sunny and 74 degrees.

The weather shifting from cold to hot on a dime is the perfect allegory for my online earnings this month as well.  It is either ice cold or fiery hot.  So far in the eleven days of the month, over half my earnings has come from 2 days.  Last month seemed incredibly consistent with what seemed to be a steady stream of traffic and earnings.  This month, traffic has remained steady but great swings in the earnings department.  Needless to say, I would rather have consistency like in October.  It is a lot more encouraging to see consistent results from my efforts whether than wondering if I am wasting my time or not.

I guess that is just the way that it will be.  I will continue to keep writing and accept what happens.  I am pleased to say that I have published 5 Hubs so far this month as opposed to 3 in October.  I think this momentum will help maintain traffic levels and provide some encouragement to keep up the efforts through the end of the year.  As mentioned in previous posts, my goal is to get to 200 Hubs total by the end of the year.  It will tough to get done and I might need to pick up the pace a bit, but it is still entirely possible at this time.  I have 36 left to go.

Well, I hope your month hasn't been as hot and cold as mine (unless of course we're talking about the weather and you plan on playing golf).  Here is to hoping that the rest of November will be HOT!

Photo credit: Guaoguao 

You Know Revenue is Slow When....

eHow income is ahead of HubPages income during the first 5 days of November.  After a record month in October, I would have expected a slow down in earnings considering there are lots of ups and downs in revenue from month to month.  But I didn't expect to hit a brick wall. 

It isn't even that traffic has disappeared either.  Sure it is down somewhat compared to the mid-October spike, but daily traffic is higher than it was in September.  The big problem is just what you might suspect.  I don't have any of my own sites and don't offer any products or major affiliate links.  I do have some Amazon capsules on many of my Hubs, but don't get many sells since my Hubs are usually educational or informative.

Oh well, I am sure that things will pick up.  I have to remember to look at the bigger picture and keep writing and publishing.  It is just that every so often I need to give myself a little pep talk.  It has seemed for the most part that the beginning of the month can be especially slow with things picking up later on.  And I am still at the point where it only takes a few solid days to make the month decent.  I have yet to get enough traffic to see consistent daily revenue which is one of the things that I would like to achieve.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my mini-rant.  I am just going to keep going.  I have 39 more Hubs to complete by the end of the year and 9 lists at Listmyfive.com to get finished by the end of the month.  I should be able to get this done and will see what the effort brings.  I really want to just be sure that I surpass November 2009 earnings.  I am not quite on pace to do that yet, but it is still early.

Set Several Records in October 2010

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

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

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

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

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