Getting Ahead of the Curve

Well, it has been a fairly productive weekend and I managed to get 2 posts written for my blog at CFM for the upcoming week.  That means the next post will be for Friday so I am 4 days ahead on my posting schedule.  It has been quite some time since I have been in this position.  My goal was to get 3 done, but I will take what I can get.

I also wrote a link post this morning and got it published so I guess you could say that I really did get 3 posts written.

It seems that having a regular posting schedule is an asset for a blog so that readers can know what to expect.  I also think that more publishing leads to more traffic since the regular readers need to read more and there is more material for the search engines to search and find some longer tail keywords.

My plan is to keep a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule for the rest of the year at least in order to keep up the intensity and make it through the Yakezie Challenge.  I also have someone submitting to Carnivals for me which I am also hoping will help drive some traffic as well.  These are my two major strategies for increasing traffic over the next 2 months.

1. Regular posting schedule
2. Carnival submissions

I am hoping to almost double my traffic over that time to 2,000 visits per month from 1,200.  I think it is possible.  The most positive aspect has been search engine traffic increases over the past few months.  I would think that I might be able to get up to 600 search visitors per month by the end of December.

For now, though, I will be taking the rest of the evening off and try to write some more tomorrow.  I hope everyone has a good week.

I Think My New Posting Schedule Will Work

I have been inspired to post 3 times per week at my blog, Cash Flow Mantra.  Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday a new post will appear.  I may even occasionally be able to post a review with links on the weekend.

I started my new schedule this past week and am pleased to see that my traffic was up about 40% as far as I can tell.  It only makes sense.  Before, I was only posting about 2 times per week on average.  Since most of my readers currently are regulars with not a ton of search traffic, that meant a reader would see the article and then only come back later when something new appeared.

Now since there is new material more days each week, then I am likely to get more traffic from my regulars with more opportunity that one of my posts ends up in a weekly round-up somewhere.  I also have that many more phrases for some long tail searches to find my blog.  I figure that will only enhance any search engine traffic.

Search engine traffic is actually growing fairly nicely as well along a slow upward trend.  Currently about 27% of my traffic is from Google.  I expect that this number should continue to increase and might even be about 40% by the end of the year.

According to Google Analytics, for the past 30 days, I have had just over 1300 visitors.  I think this is a respectable number for a blog that only started at the end of May.  I would like to have about 2000 per month by the end of the year.  I think with my new schedule, I could come very close.  I did have a big month in September when one of my articles got linked from a larger blog.  I then got over 100 visitors per day for about 5 days.  That was cool!  But now, I am back to my regular level of traffic.

Earnings are OK, but certainly nothing to write home about.  I have been a little disappointed but I have come to realize that there will be a constant ebb and flow in that regard.  Eventually it all evens out in the end.  My goal is to just make about the same as I did last year and to improve upon that each year after this.

Well, I still have to get about 5 posts written for CFM over the next 6 days before I head for Honduras.  I did get a guest post for one day over the next 2 weeks leaving me 5 to go.  I have ideas for 2 of them but will need to spend some time thinking about the other 3.  Anyway, thanks for reading my blog here.  I really appreciate it and thank you for your continued support.

Plans and Happenings at CFM

I am sure you know by now that I have started my own personal finance blog at Cash Flow Mantra.  It has been live for just over 2 months so I wanted to update you on several exciting happenings that have been occurring.

Guest Posts

I have published 2 guest posts myself at other personal finance blogs.  This was a great experience although I didn't really experience much, if any, additional traffic as a result.  I may try additional guest posts in the future but am discounting the true value at this point.  I also published a guest post at Christian Personal Finance as part of an interview process for a staff writing position.  It is a competition for 2 spots and 10 authors are in the running.  I am OK with whatever happens, but I did have several visitors from the site as a result of my post.  The number was in the mid-teens, but it did help me set a daily traffic record at 62!

Finally, as far as guest posts go, I actually had someone contact me to post on CFM.  That post went live yesterday so I am officially a guest post host.  It is nice having some content without having to write it.  I could get into this and might consider one a week at the most.  I did have an idea for a contest but was planning on saving that for after the first of the year or at some time when I am busy or feeling burnt out.  I would like to have the majority of content on the site self-authored.

Page Rank Update

I heard that there was a Google PR update that occurred recently, and I am pleased to announce that CFM is now PR3.  Yippee!  I don't know if the increased traffic that I am seeing is a result of this or more exposure to my above mentioned guest post, but the last 3 days have been the most traffic ever with a record 62 visits on Wednesday.  I wouldn't be surprised if I could be getting 100 visits per day by the end of the year.

Attracting Traffic

Speaking of traffic, I will be focusing on two things for my blog.  Writing content and posting 3 times per week if at all possible and commenting on other blogs.  I have found that this social interaction is great for generating interest in my blog.  It is one of the ways that I discover new blogs.  Someone who leaves an interesting comment and has a link that I don't recognize is likely to have me visit.  If I like what I see, then I am likely to subscribe and interact.  That blogger may then visit my blog and become a regular reader.

I am still convinced that traffic has to figure into the Google algorithm somehow as an incredibly popular site must mean it is more sought after.  The result would seem to be a virtuous cycle of increasing traffic, improving PR, and better search engine placement leading to increasing traffic and on down the line.  I don't really know how the algorithm works, but it would seem logical.  Not to mention the fact that it seems to be working for me so why argue?

Yakezie Challenge and Alexa Rank

On July 1st, I joined the Yakezie Challenge with CFM.  The goal is to be a supportive community member and by working together help others market their blogs.  I have been working on this and other financial bloggers have been reading my blog as well.  This also goes back to blog commenting.  We are all pulling together to improve our visibility on the web.  My particular goal is to drop my Alexa Rank below 200,000 in the first 6 months.

Well, it seems to be working since my Alexa Rank is 340,083 but the  1 month ranking is below 200,000 so I am thinking that if I keep at it, I should be able to achieve my goal.  Now is not the time to slack off but continue to post 3 times per week and keep interacting like I have been.

Oh and by the way, I will occasionally make a little AdSense income as well.

So as you can see, there are lots of good things happening in just a few short months.  I expect many other good things to happen as well.  You could do it too.  It is simply a matter of getting out there and getting it done.  Host Gator has been a big help also.  I you are thinking of making your own site, I would recommend them.  They helped me out with their live chat every step of the way.  CFM works and will soon be paying for itself.  Feel free to click on my affiliate link banner for Host Gator above.

Six Month Goals for Cash Flow Mantra

I have started a new blog that is a little over a month old now called Cash Flow Mantra.  It is a personal finance blog with the primary focus being cash flow.  You can link to my latest posts in the sidebar at the right.  In fact, many of you have been doing so because this blog is responsible for 7.5% of my traffic over the last 30 days according to Google Analytics.  I want to say that I sincerely appreciate your support in helping me build traffic over there.

I have mentioned in previous posts that I would share with you my goals for the remainder of the year with this new blog.  I honestly haven't had much of a chance to sit down and consider them in detail.  I also haven't had the opportunity to put them down on paper so I will actually be developing them on the fly as I write this post.

First, I would like to be able to publish some quality and thought provoking articles.  I am realistic and know that I won't be able to do that for every post.  I simply don't have that many good ideas but at least a couple absolutely knock-out articles each month is possible along with lots of other good articles on personal financial topics.  As part of the Yakezie Challenge, I will need to publish at least twice per week.  I certainly want to be able to maintain that pace at a minimum.  I would like to have a total of 100 posts by the end of the year.  I am currently at 17 and feel that 12 per month is reasonable.

Next, I would like to be able to get my Alexa rank down to 200,000 by the end of the year.  That is one of the primary goals of the Yakezie Challenge.  I think that this is possible but I will need to grow traffic and probably need to increase it 4 or 5-fold.  As the number of posts increases, the amount of search traffic would be expected to increase as well and could actually surpass my current levels of traffic.  I would also retain and hopefully grow my social readers at the same time.

I don't expect to earn a lot in the first six months, but I would like to see the total slowly grow.  I think this might happen as the search engine traffic grows.  I will not be targeting keywords necessarily but plan on writing what I view as quality content letting the chips fall where they may.  I would expect that by after one year, I should at least be able to cover my hosting expenses of $10 per month.  I currently have enough money in my PayPal account to cover one full year's worth of hosting expenses.  Plus I am getting close to payout with the HubPages Ad Program which would provide another $50 or five months of hosting fees.

I would like to also get some advertising on the site which could help.  As the traffic builds and Alexa rank declines, I might be able to get someone to advertise on the site.  Right now I have a special going, so hop on over and check it out.  Now would be a good time to get in on the ground floor as I build up the site.

These are the main goals that I would have for the site for the remainder of 2011.  I think they are reasonable and achievable but will require that I put forth some effort.  I can't simply ignore the site after a few posts.  I am continuing to interact with other financial bloggers by commenting which has helped me enjoy the best initial traffic success that I have ever had.  I will have to keep working hard in order to meet my goals, but plan on having some fun in the process.

My First Guest Post

As you know, I have been working on a new site since the Panda update.  It is through Weebly and I had to pay for the domain name and hosting for a year.  It cost me all of $40 but half of the AdSense views go to them and half to me.  It is a format with which I was familiar having written for the "content farms" which share revenue.  Since that model is broken, I decided to start my own site.  My only goal is for the site to break even by next February and then I can decide what to do from there.

I have been working hard to develop traffic by doing blog commenting and regularly interacting on other personal finance blogs to develop my name and personality.  I decided to contact one of these blog owners about writing a guest post.  He was receptive to the idea so I sent him a post, he liked it, and posted it on his site.  I am so thrilled!  It has a link to my site.  I can use Google Analytics to report on the impact later.  I am sure you are curious so here is the post:

Options Trading: Intrinsic Value and Time Value

Mark at buylikebuffett.com has a great site.  He is a professional investor and writes great posts.  If you have any interest at all in stock investing, be sure to check out his site.  He is also a great blogger.  I appreciate his willingness to let someone untested guest post for his site.  I do need to get busy later today and write the follow up piece.  I will let you all know when it is up and let you know about the results as well.

Anybody here ever write a guest post?  What did it do for your traffic?  Did you keep any regular readers?  Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Photo credit: The McClouds

Starting to Get Search Engine Traffic

It may not be the best traffic (photo credit: Derek Harper), but I am starting to get some search engine traffic at my new site, Optionsdude.com.  It seems that the majority of that traffic is coming to the various posts on my blog through several longer tail keywords.  I can't tell you how exciting this is so soon after starting the site.  Unfortunately, the bounce rate is pretty high and minimal time has been spent on the site, but there has been one visitor who spent more than 1 minute!

I am also generating daily traffic by commenting on blog posts from blogs that I find on the Yakezie Personal Finance Blog Network at Yakezie.com.  There are a lot of good bloggers that are part of the network.  I know that I will never be able to have a blog like one of those, but maybe someday, I could come close.

By commenting daily, I am able to get a handful of visits daily which provides just enough motivation to keep going.  I did have one day last week which had no traffic at all, but that was the only one over the past 30 days.  My plan is to continue to read various blog posts and make relevant comments on ones that I might be able to add to the discussion.  I will do this as I continue to try and add content to my site.  Adding content is a little slow going right now, but I did add a page this past week.  Maybe I can get something up tomorrow also.

I would like to see the number of visits to the site surpass the number to this blog by the end of the year.  It will be tough going, but I think I can do it.  I will need to post some links to some of the various articles after I get more content up.  I really have yet to try and backlink any individual pages other than with a few blog comments.

I also want to say that I am seeing some of my pages in Google for some of the longer tail keywords that I have been following.  I am on page 2 for one and page 4 for another.  Too bad there is little monthly search traffic for these words, but at least I know the process is working.  Again maybe by the end of the year, I can get some serious ranking done for some of these keyword phrases with backlinking.

The bottom line is that the progress is somewhat slow for me since I don't spend 8 hours per day on the internet.  But at least there is progress.  Oh and by the way, I have earned $1.10 on the site, so I only have $38.90 to break even!

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.

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.

A Traffic Surprise

I am not sure how I feel about surprises.  Usually if someone says they have a surprise for you, it is good.  Otherwise they say they have bad news or ask you to sit down first.  In keeping with that tradition, my traffic surprise is a good one.  At least as far as my online writing goes, the only surprises that can occur when it comes to traffic are good ones!

At HubPages, there are little red arrows next to your articles in the stats section that mean your traffic is going up.  Two little arrows mean that it is going way up.  Well, I have two articles there today which had two little arrows by them.  I was totally shocked and wanted to figure out where all the traffic was coming from.  I went to the articles and clicked on the stats section that reveals details about that particular article.  (I think it is wonderful to have this information available at the click of a mouse courtesy of HubPages.)

The first one that I looked at had essentially doubled its views over the past 24 hours.  It turns out that someone had posted a link at Reddit.com so a lot of the additional traffic had come from that site.  The article is about Lasik surgery and getting a free TV.  Obviously, someone found that somewhat interesting.  Here is the link to the actual article:

Have Lasik Eye Surgery and Get a Free TV!

The other one has been published for quite some time (since July 2009) and was something I wrote as part of the weekly HubNugget topics.  I hadn't noticed but 20% of the views have come in the last 30 days with a significant portion in the last 24 hours.  Mind you significant to me means double digits.  Nonetheless, I went to the stats page and noticed that the traffic was coming from Google.  There is also a tab that allows you to see the search terms that are leading to the article.  I did this and found that people were searching the phrase "golf as a hobby".  I did this myself and found that I was in the first position.  How exciting!

Needless to say, I am pretty pumped and hoping that the mini-spike in traffic will persist.  I am hoping to get another article written today.  I already made a few links and just plan to keep working since you never really know what can happen when you have content out on the internet.  Here's to many pleasant surprises to all who read this blog! 

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.

Having Fun Watching Traffic

I recently put a Live Traffic Feed widget from Feedjit on my blog.  In case you hadn't noticed, it is down the right side at the very end of all of the other widgets and links, etc. that populate that area of the blog.  I think it is a fun little widget to follow.  I am enjoying seeing all the different world locations of all the visitors that are coming to read this blog.  I have seen visitors from Russia, Indonesia, Australia, England, and all over the United States.

I can also look to see when the visitors have stopped by.  It is obvious to me when I am looking at my blog, and I can see who stopped by while I was sleeping.  Some folk on the internet have some crazy hours!  I can also keep a mental note of how much traffic is stopping by between my own visits and how far apart visitors are stopping by.  I can tell that traffic has slowed down just a touch since there is a little bit longer time between visits.  Someday, it will be really exciting to see the whole widget filled with visits in the past few hours only.

Anyway, just thought I would point out this nifty little tool that I placed on my blog and how much fun I am having with it.  It is nothing earth shattering but does help me realize how much smaller the internet is making the world.  I always enjoy visiting new places and am enjoying seeing all of the world locations.  Why don't you comment and let me know where you are from so I can see you on the Live Traffic Feed?  LOL!

Revamping Old Content

In my last post, I mentioned that one of the ways I hope to generate more traffic in the upcoming year is by revamping old content.  I managed to do this successfully with one of my early articles on HubPages simply by changing the title.

The article was first published on June 8, 2009 and did not generate a lot of interest.  It took learning about keywords and search over the ensuing 3 months or so, but I figured that the problem with the article was the title.  To illustrate, compare these two titles:

(1)  Ease Into Stocks Positions a la Livermore

(2)  Trade Stocks Like Jesse Livermore

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the first title was the original which did not generate a lot of traffic (I think it might have been under 30 views through October).  After learning a little about keywords and search, I changed the title (without altering the article at all) to the second iteration.  Now the article is getting an average of 1 view per day.

Granted that may not seem like a lot of traffic for some niches and authors, but for me, I am pleased that the change was positive.  I suspect that if I look at some of my other early articles from last summer, I could make similar adjustments with additional positive results on traffic.

Currently, this article is on Google page 6 when searching for Jesse Livermore.  The only link that I have made to the article is at Xomba.  Plus I have the HubPages RSS feed on this blog.  I will often see this article show up as a "Hot Article" since it will tend to get a few surges of traffic now and again.  With a little more promotion, it is possible that I could do even better.

Anyway, the point was that maybe I could review several of my poorer performing, evergreen articles and revamp the titles and my keyword targets.  Maybe this would result in more traffic.  Having a better sense of what people might be searching for in Google is one of the keys to making money online.  Like I said, I have learned a lot in the past year and plan to keep learning.  

Google Now Tops at HubPages

I have been waiting for this day since last fall. I thought that it might happen before the end of this month, and here it happened, on the 31st.

Google is now the top traffic source for my articles at HubPages. Prior to this afternoon, HubPages itself was the top traffic source. But slowly over the past several months, I have been getting a little more traffic from Google so that each and every day, the gap was closing.

Early on, I always wondered how people could get so much traffic from the search engines. Most of my traffic had been internal traffic and so I was amazed at what I had heard. But over time, the articles gradually worked their way into the search results. Truly patience has been virtuous in this regard.

Now, over 80% of my traffic overall at HubPages comes from various search engines including Google (US and international versions), Yahoo, and a little from Bing. All in all, it was a pretty exciting day for me. I look forward to being able to compare the amount of traffic in coming months and years.

In the Top 1 Million!!

I am so excited. I logged on to Alexa this morning and checked my Traffic Rank. I was in the top 1 million websites in the world! I wasn't sure if I would be able to make it into the top million by the end of the year, but I made it.

I want to thank each and every one of you who has come to read my blog. I especially want to thank those of you who stop by on a regular basis and comment. I really appreciate it and owe the impressive Traffic Rank to you all. Thanks so much.

I am in the process of looking back at where I have been this year and considering what I would like to accomplish in the upcoming year. I will be putting all of this information together in a post later this week.

In the meantime, I hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday season. This post is short since I don't want to take too much time away from my family. Needless to say, others feel the same since traffic has been pitiful the last several days. I am not too concerned, however, since I expected it to be this way. Earnings are suffering too. But, it doesn't bother me near as much now as it did in August and September. I have come to expect that traffic and AdSense will ebb and flow.

Anyway, enjoy the day and relaxation. I will be posting 2010 goals soon.

HubPages Traffic is Falling Apart (Maybe)

For those who don't know, HubPages was the first major site for which I started writing the last week of May of this year. It is the site at which I have been most active, having written 115 Hubs (articles) to this point. Granted, some of them are just absolutely pitiful since I was learning as I was writing. I think my writing is getting better now that I have learned about various aspects of writing such as keywords and search engine optimization. But I would like to make a few comments on the trend of my HubPages traffic which I have noticed over the past few months.



I am a stats junky and keep lots of data pertaining to my traffic and AdSense impressions. In September, HubPages comprised just about 75% of my total AdSense traffic. In October that number was 60% and in November just 55%. Now for the first 5 days of December, my HubPages traffic is just under 40% of my total traffic. Both this blog and my Xomba traffic have been increasing to make up the difference since total AdSense impressions in September and October were virtually identical.



I have heard that November and December are usually down months for internet traffic since people are focused on the holidays. I certainly saw that during the four day Thanksgiving weekend. As it stands now, traffic will be down about 10% during December compared to November but it is hard to make an accurate assessment only 5 days into the month.



Even though HubPages traffic is falling apart, I will say this much for it. For the last 30 days, my Google search engine traffic is nearly as much as my internal HubPages traffic. I view this as a good thing since search engine traffic is much more valuable than other Hubbers reading my articles. I am hoping that the traffic will find a base and that any growth represents organic search engine traffic growth. That would be a great consolation to the traffic decrease.