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.

Progress with Online Income

Making money online is a marathon and not a sprint.  This is what I had planned when I first started with $30 monthly income in July 2010 and figured that I would try to grow that figure by 5% monthly.  In so doing, I figured that I could get to $1000 per month by 2016.

Little did I realize that I would surpass that figure for 3 months in a row.  However, there has been some fluctuations and income for February and March will be down but well above the $96 figure that I would need to earn by July.  In fact, it appears that simply the HubPages Ad Program and AdSense alone could almost account for that total in this month.

Even with some set backs, it seems that I am on track for meeting the online income growth targets for the first two years.  The biggest driver of that success has been the development of 2 personal finance blogs.  Now I am not sure what the future will hold, but it seems that developing a few more blogs would seem like a reasonable thing to do.

In fact, I will be coming out with a collaborative project in the next few days and will announce it here sometime during the month of April.  It has turned out to be a bit more work than I anticipated, but it is coming together.  I will be spending some more time working on it this weekend in preparation for the April 1st launch.

I am fully expecting the new blog to add to the AdSense income although I will have to pay for some content once certain goals have been met.  I do think that the costs should be covered, but only time will tell.  I have set aside a couple hundred dollars from my other earnings to cover the initial costs of author payments.

I hope you have been keeping up with my income reports at Grand Per Month.  In case you missed it, here is the income report for February.  The March report will be coming out shortly.  It will be down, but will have some AdSense income and HubPages income to help out.  I am suspecting that April will be even worse, but we will just have to see.

Still Chugging Along

It has been a busy month.  I am working hard to bring another blog to life and will share more details once it is up and running.  The other two blogs are doing well at this point.  I have been able to make some money and get some debt paid off.

I had hoped to add more Hubs to my arsenal and get to 400 by the end of the year.  I really don't think that will be happening since life is so busy.  However, I am publishing more content and have some goals for the HubPages Ad Program.  I would like to at least get to monthly payments to help offset the fact that I am paying for content for Grand Per Month.

AdSense really did well last month.  It was a record month for me.  But of course, this month has to fall back to earth.  That is the nature of the beast and what would drive me absolutely nuts if I had to depend upon the internet to make my living.  But since I am just working to pay off debt, it is all good.

Amazon also did well last month.  I was pleased.  It is nice to see some consistent orders coming through.  This month is slow, but see the paragraph above.  Roller coaster on the earnings can just drive you batty.

Well, I don't have a lot.  I am wanting to work on another post so I can spend the weekend working on a non-internet related project.  That way I will be somewhat ahead of the game.  I have usually been writing my posts at the last minute and it is no fun.

Until next time.

Best Month for AdSense

I am actually somewhat surprised, but February 2012 has been the best month for AdSense for me yet in the almost 3 years that I have been writing online.  I really hadn't been thinking about it or was expecting it.  It has just been a consistent month.  There have been a few great days and one really awesome day, but the thing that I noticed was consistent traffic and activity.

Now the total is still not enough to get monthly payments from Google, but it does mean that I am closer than I have ever been with about 48 hours left to go.  It really doesn't matter if I earn anything else, I am still happy with the month.

I would dare say that by summer (thinking July), I will be getting monthly checks in the mail.  Then I will feel like I have hit a major milestone in my online income.  From there I can work on growing the daily average into the double digits.  I will be at the point of being able to begin reinvesting profits into my online activities and hire out some more tasks.

One of the biggest reasons that I have been able to do so well has been the addition of my newest blog, Grand Per Month.  By itself, it is not yet a huge money maker, but it has been just enough to increase AdSense to record levels. 

I am now putting together a blog where I will be responsible for day to day editing and publishing but will have little obligation for creating content.  The contributing authors will be getting paid per views and will be able to participate in a profit sharing arrangement, but once I get it set up, it should only take me about 3 hours per week on average and yet I will be publishing at least once per weekday with quality content.

I will share the name of the blog when it is closer to the launch date in April.  In the meantime, I want to be able to set aside some of the profits from my other online ventures to have available to pay for costs.  Hopefully, I will be able to earn a little more than what it costs me.  The model is a little different from Grand Per Month.

At Grand Per Month, I am paying for 4 articles per month and writing the rest myself.  It takes a lot of work and cost me money in January.  I have covered my costs in February, but could easily lose again in March.  I will just have to see how it goes.  The potential is good, but there are some upfront costs for the content.

For the new blog, I think the potential is even better and the upfront costs should be minimal.  Other than putting in some time, it should be profitable from day 1 since the articles will not be paid for until a certain number of views have occurred.  I already pay for hosting, and the theme is free.  I am hoping that earnings can stay ahead of the costs.

All of these projects have been keeping me busy so I don't write here as often.  Nevertheless, I think it is important to share what I am doing.  I have been following others who have been working on their online income and derive much encouragement so wanted to help add my encouragement to others.  Just keep with it and gradually growth will continue to happen.

Announcing the New Blog

I have been dying all weekend to put out this post because I am so excited about the new blog that I will be starting in January.  I managed to work hard on the site and actually had it pretty much ready to go last Thursday.  It turned out to be a good thing because the cat was out of the bag on Friday since one of the writers who will be working with me let his readers know.  Actually, it was a good thing since I could let the information trickle out and see who might be interested from different sets of readers.

However, since I try to be true to my word and said Monday would be the announcement, I waited til Monday.  But before I reveal the URL, I would like to offer a little background.  I wrote a post at Cash Flow Mantra wondering aloud if there were part-time bloggers who could make $1000 per month.  I figured that it was quite possible for a full-time blogger to do this.  After all, writing for 40-50 hours per week should be able to generate about $2 per hour.  A free-lancing article or two per day plus work on other sites should add up.

But how possible was it for someone who was working 50 hours per week with 6 kids and getting up at 4:30 every morning to write and comment for 1.5 hours before work to actually make the activity worthwhile financially?  I had been following other blogs and commenting in order to develop a following.  This was actually quite motivating, knowing that people were reading what I had to say.  I started noticing that several of these bloggers had jobs and were actually reporting very good earnings.

I saw a pattern begin to emerge and so was able to learn and adapt techniques.  And so I began to make a little bit of money.  Finally, in November of 2011, I was able to make just over $1000 through all of my online activities.  I was shocked and figured that if I could do it, I could help others do the same.  How would that level of added income change the lives of others?  It could provide a decent place to stay and even transportation for a young married couple.  It could be used to pay off debt.  It could be used for college or retirement savings.

Thus was the inspiration for Grand Per Month, my new blog.  It is about figuring out what it takes to make an extra $1000 per month which could help change someone's life.  Each Monday will be a new idea for making an extra $1000 in a month's time on a part-time basis.  Not all of the ideas will involve online activities.  Some of them will be offline.  The purpose is to help people get their creative juices flowing and think about how they might make some side income in these tough economic times.  Thursday's posts will be inspirational and practical in nature.  As the blog grows, we might be able to add other days for links around the web or reader stories.

I am excited to begin working on this project so be sure to stop by the site and check it out.  We will begin on January 2nd with a post on making $1000 per month as a blogger.  It is written by one of those from whom I was able to glean the necessary clues which enabled me to make a Grand Per Month.  Won't you join us on this journey in 2012?

Work Coming Along On New Blog

I couldn't really work on the new blog at all last week.  I was sick in bed all day on the one day I had off to go Christmas shopping so I don't even have that started yet.  This week has been a lot more productive.

Sunday night I was able to get WordPress loaded onto the new domain with only a little help from the online live chat at HostGator.  It simply gets a little bit easier each time.  I then found a theme that I will be starting with and spent the last few days working with it.  I now have a Welcome post and the Policies page complete.

I have also placed my own picture across the top.  I am not exactly computer savvy when it comes to CSS and HTML coding, but I managed to piece together enough information to figure out what I needed to do.  It only took me about 1.5 hours last night to do that.

I have also created a list of all the articles that I want to post for the month of January.  The plan is to post every Monday and Thursday with some Saturdays available for odds and ends.  I had previously sent my list of potential topics to the two writers that will be working with me.  It is simply impossible for me to write that much content with my busy schedule so I am planning on partnering with these individuals for 2 articles each initially.

The cost will be $20 per article meaning $80 in expenses for the month.  I will be on the hook for 5 articles myself which will be doable.  I have already received back from the authors which topics about which they want to write so I can start writing my articles when I get a chance.  I want to try to plan and stay about a month ahead for when times tend to get busy or illness occurs.  I have enough money in the Paypal account for six months worth of articles.  I am hoping that by that time, the site will at least be covering its costs.

One of the authors has already returned his articles and I will be submitting payment to him in January.  So, it looks like the blog is beginning to take shape.  I added Google AdSense and Analytics code this morning.  I should be ready to announce the domain name by Monday and will likely do that.

The two authors are also bloggers so I am hoping to generate a little more buzz and have a ready made audience from my own blog.  This would be a lot better than when I had to start from zero at Cash Flow Mantra.  I plan on announcing the domain on Monday there as well.  Hopefully, I can get everything finalized this weekend.  Wish me luck.  I hope to be back here on Monday morning!

Starting Another New Blog

Over the next few weeks, I will be starting another new blog.  The plan is to launch at the beginning of January.  I don't quite plan on revealing the topic yet, but I think that it will be a great topic and incredibly useful to lots of individuals.

The best part is that I am now making enough with my blog, Cash Flow Mantra, that I can afford to partner with a few fellow bloggers and pay for 4 articles per month with some of the money that I have been making.  Right now, I have enough money in my PayPal account to pay for about 4 months worth of articles.

My plan all along has been to spend my time to develop an online income stream rather than any money.  I have successfully done that and haven't spent one dime of my own money.  Rather by starting with HubPages and eHow, I was able to earn on a platform with no upfront costs.

Then, once I got affected by the first Panda Update, I finally got the guts to start my own WordPress blog.  Of course, I have to repeatedly ask myself why I didn't do so sooner.  I would be much farther down the road had I done this 18 months ago.  I might be making double or triple what I am making now.

If this new blog is anything like CFM, it should take about 6 months for me to be making enough to pay for the costs of paying for content and begin making a profit.  Then, I could start another blog with the additional proceeds and pay for more content.  The goal would be to keep my writing load the same while increasing my internet exposure and earning possibilities.  It would be a lot like reinvesting dividends and compound interest.

Of course, having cross-marketing opportunities across the different blogs will help.  I suspect that this new blog will grow much faster than CFM because I have some experience getting traffic but also some writing partners who will help in that realm and benefit themselves from the traffic.

It is going to be a busy December getting ready, but I am looking forward to it.  Wish me luck.  I will be sure to let everyone here know the name and topic in a week or two.