The cost to set up the site with Weebly was $40 which included the domain and hosting. Weebly takes a 50-50 split on AdSense impressions so that the cost of hosting is actually supplemented by my future earnings. It turns out to be an easy way to start a site which doesn't involve much technical knowledge at all as well as an inexpensive way to get started. It does come with a cost and that is 50% of your earnings. There also seems to be less flexibility from a design standpoint.
I can see where a Weebly website would have a place. I appreciate the opportunity to work on my site and have found that I am mainly blogging about my options trades and adding in a few other blog posts. I have some articles at the site and will add some more content over time. Initially I thought a more static site would be the way to go, but I have found that I prefer the blogging format to a much greater degree.
That being said, I think I still have a decent future with OptionsDude. I have developed a following among several financial bloggers. I think many are interested in the information that I am publishing and the practical experience that I bring. I am also getting search engine traffic which is slowly increasing. I am excited to see what the remainder of the year has in store. I think that I could double my traffic and maybe even see triple the search traffic that I am seeing now.
Increasing the search engine traffic is vital to being able to increase the earnings since social traffic will not click on any of the AdSense ads. That is OK though. I have always believed that overall traffic has some impact upon search engine results and authority.
As for the earnings, I have earned a total of $3.47. That may not sound like a lot, but I anticipate that it will be gradually increasing so that by the end of the year, I would expect to be earning a solid $5 or more per month. I believe that I am truly on pace to earn the $40 I would need by the end of the first 12 months. Added content is indexed fairly quickly. Plus, I plan on adding a couple blog posts per week which should help add to the visibility of the site.
Posts
Kidgas,
ReplyDeleteI think earning $3.47 in the first three months is a good start. One of my sites took at least 3 months to even begin earning money. It can only get better! :)
Thanks for the encouragement, Deanna. I appreciate your continued support. I think you have a good idea with guest posts at your site. Hope it all works out for you.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome, man. It will only snowball. I wish you'd get off of these revenue share sites and host your own. You can get $5 a month hosting from tons of places, and a domain is only $10 per year, and you can get the first year for about $6 with coupons! Either way, you are a man of action, and that inspires me. Thanks for the update. I hope you'll tell us in three months that OptionsDude has already paid for itself.
ReplyDeleteJared,
ReplyDeleteI did start the site with HostGator and so did make the move you suggest although not for $6. But I do plan on making another blog this year now that I know how easy it was. I have to think about what I want to do plus I want to establish some traffic and regular readers with the ones I already have. I am thinking about 3 months.
Kidgas well done on this. It is good to see you are remaining positive - hopefully this Weebly blog will pay off. I am still unsure whether I should take the plunge so will continue to follow you to see whether I think I could make it pay!
ReplyDeleteBristolboy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. I would like to think that it works out as well, but worst case is that I am out $40 which is even less now since I have made some of it back. That was money that was in my PayPal account from eHow anyway. I have put none of my own money into this venture, only time.
I expected you to be making a lot more then that, I just checked out your website and you have decent placements for your ads. Maybe the CTR is pretty low, or your traffic is too low.
ReplyDeleteIf I were you I would have gone with godaddy and a wordpress site, it's pretty easy to get the hang of and lots of tutorials on how to do it online. Godaddy hosting and a domain would only cost you about $70 a year, but then you can add as many domains as you want. Maybe something to think about down the road
The CTR is pretty low. I am still working on traffic. I have branched out to Hostgator with a WordPress site. I will probably add another before the end of the year. I have limited time so want to develop content on my new site first before adding to my plate. I am getting the hang of it.
ReplyDelete