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

My Online Income Goals for 2010

I have spent the past several days coming up with a list of things that I would like to accomplish during the upcoming year as well as a list of tasks to accomplish them. To start, I would like to list the tasks that I plan on completing throughout the year and then list what I would hope to see come out of that effort.

During 2010, I plan on making Life123 and Xomba my primary sites for writing online content. I also plan on working with HubPages and eHow (again, maybe) to add to the articles I have on those sites as well. Of course, I will continue to write my blog posts. By the end of 2010 I hope to have:

• 250 total articles on Life123. I plan on writing about 20 per month on average and maintaining a steady pace throughout the year.


• 150 Xombytes (articles) on Xomba. That would require about 10 per month. I also want to post links on Xomba almost every day of the year. I plan on posting links to all of my articles that I have written so far plus adding all of the new ones. I currently have a spreadsheet that tracks what links I have added to my writings on Xomba, Shetoldme, and Snipsly. I need to do a better job of linking when I don't feel like writing.


• 150 articles on HubPages. I have 115 so that means I will just sprinkle some here and there during the year. I would like to see my HubPages results improve.


• 50 articles on eHow. I have 38 right now. I would like to add some to see if that helps the earnings there. Despite not writing anything for a few months, eHow continues to earn some money. The site has great potential, and I hope that maybe the break will have allowed me to get back into it.


• I plan on continuing to write every 2 or 3 days for this blog. That would mean 10-20 posts per month. I will be linking to these posts as well and trying to bring traffic to this blog.


• I hope to get up the nerve to create a niche website. I have a few ideas but would like to make a little more writing content first. But now that I am putting it out there, I will be forced to attempt to deliver.

I also want to organize my time better and begin carrying a notebook with me to jot down ideas that I have.

Now, what do I hope to accomplish with all of this effort. I will again look at each site and how the efforts at each will add to my ultimate online income goal for 2010:

• With 250 articles on Life123, the potential for earning is $5000. I know that is not going to happen. I would hope that by the end of 2010, half of the articles I have written have achieved the $5 payout. I would expect that by the end of the year, I could expect almost 20 articles per month reaching that level for an income of $100 monthly.


• At Xomba, I would like to think that the efforts expended will add up. I would hope that by the end of the year, I could count on $50 monthly if I add articles plus a great number of links.


• I would expect HubPages to continue to maintain steady at least. I have lost traffic over the past several months but that has been internal traffic. The search engine traffic seems to be somewhat steady. Better linking may enhance this somewhat. I would hope to earn $25 monthly through HubPages.


• eHow has been a steady performer last month and this month despite my lack of effort. I think by the end of 2010, I could continue to see about $20 per month.


• My Online Income blog will not be a big money maker. I don't ever think that it will be so I will not even place any expectations on it. However, I want to be able to help people and teach them what I am learning and share my experiences. I would like to increase traffic to the blog and reach 50 total followers with a steady readership averaging about 50 per day. I think that would get me in the top 500,000 Traffic Rank by the end of the year.

I want to thank everyone who has stopped by to read this blog. I sincerely appreciate it. Please let me know if you have any ideas to make this blog better. I am always eager to learn and would appreciate your input. Also, what are your goals for 2010? How do you plan on achieving them? I would love to hear your comments.

On an unrelated note, I am pretty miffed about the pathetic display that was the Colts game yesterday. Maybe we should just forfeit and stay home.

Halfway Thru the Month of Xomba

Well here we are, half way through the month. I called it the month of Xomba since I made a commitment to publish a link or article everyday during the 31 days of December and see what the added effort would bring. So far, I have been able to live up to that goal with the exception of one day. On that day, it was busy at work, and I ended being so tired I went to sleep at 8:30. That's OK by me since I really needed the extra rest.

I think I will be able to achieve my goal of 200 Xomblurbs by the end of the year since I currently have 163. That is just a little over 2 each day. The goal of hitting 40 Xombytes (articles) may be a little more difficult unless I get writing more. I currently have 30 so it would still be possible to achieve. I will certainly do my best.

Earnings are Decent

The result of the extra effort and focus seems to be paying off. I am getting more traffic as represented by AdSense impressions, and I have earned almost as much as I did all of the month of November. That is good news so I am motivated to continue to put in the extra effort for the rest of the month and on into the new year.

I plan on making Xomba my main site for the next several months for residual income. The problem is that I really don't know yet whether or not it will truly end up being residual. I suspect that it will have some residual aspect to it since I see Xomba ending up fairly high on some Google searches.

Xomba got a new site engineer and will be making changes to the site. Included in these will be better data reporting which will likely improve my ability to detect what people are reading and looking for at the site. I think this will be incredibly useful.

Xomba is a great way of making some money online. If you would like to get paid for your social bookmarking efforts please join under my Xomba referral link. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to ask since I will be happy to let you know more about my Xomba experience and will be brutally honest in the process.

My Xomba Commitment for December

I have always heard that Xomba was a good way to make money and have even made a respectable amount myself for the amount of effort expended. But I never really got around to developing a true commitment and focus for the site. That is all going to change for the month of December 2009.

For the month of December, I am making Xomba my primary residual income site. I plan on putting up a link or two or three everyday for the entire month. Plus, I plan on writing several original articles for the site so that by the end of the month I have 40 articles and 200 links.

So far these first 7 days, I have been able to live up to the task and devote some time each day on the site and the early indications are that it will prove to be worthwhile. I already am on pace to have more AdSense impressions and earnings by the end of December than I had for November. The results seem to be tracking the amount of effort, and that is good in my mind. I still don't know what long-term residual potential might exist, but I think that information will come in time. When it does, I will be sure to share with you.

You may or may not know that I am a featured writer for Xomba in the Money & Investing section. I have an article pending and when that gets on the front page, I can only imagine that the impressions and earnings will benefit. I plan on writing 2 or 3 more for the month as well to include in my overall efforts.

Here are a few of the links to my Xomba featured articles since they don't have a widget:

Money and the American Dream
Investing in Gold at Record Prices...A Good Idea?
I Am Earning Real Passive Income Now
Selling the Same Shares Twice (Part 1)

Also, if you want to join Xomba, I will benefit if you use this referral link. It doesn't cost you anything since the additional percentage of AdSense impressions comes from Xomba and not you. So, give Xomba a try to provide backlinks to your own work and earn money at the same time. I think you will like the earning potential.

As always, thanks for reading and following this blog. I appreciate all the comments that you share.

Passive Income Goals for December 2009

If you have been following this blog, you will realize that I feel it is important to write down goals. It gives you a sense of accountability and forces you to identify those actions which need to be accomplished. Even if you don't get it all done, you still get more done than if you didn't have any goals written down.

So, these are my online passive income goals for December 2009 divided according to the various content sites for which I write:

Hubpages: I really don't have any goals for December. Traffic there has been decreasing for me, and I want to see if I can generate better traffic on other sites as I improve my article count elsewhere. I would like to see the current traffic hold steady and will continue to link where appropriate.

eHow: I won't do anything at eHow either since I want to focus my efforts elsewhere. I have a hard time writing an article only to have it deleted in the future. I suppose I should publish and earn as much as possible and then republish elsewhere after it is deleted. That could be a viable strategy.

InfoBarrel: It is unlikely that I will do anything on this site except check to see if my deleted eHow articles are no longer indexed and then publish on IB. That would give me a little extra content there.

Life123: I will spend some time on this site in December for sure. I hope to be able to earn $15 in December as opposed to the $10 I earned in November. I also plan on being able to move up to the next level and be able to contribute up to 40 articles per month. I hope to be able to contribute 10 rather quickly and an additional 5 articles when I have moved up. That would bring my grand total articles to 25 by the end of the year. Currently I have 268 out of 500 views needed to move to the next level.

Xomba: I plan on spending some more time here as well. I want to start to fully assess the earning power of Xomba. I plan on posting something each and every day during the month. I plan on being able to post 10 articles during the month. Currently I have 26 so that means I need to have 36 by the end of the year.

Triond: I have just recently started writing for Triond. I am mildly encouraged and hope to write five more articles during the month to add to this site.

My Online Income: I plan on posting as I have been. It is nice to be able to write and post on a regular basis. It is unfortunate that this blog doesn't make any more money than it does. But, every little bit helps. Over time it will add up.

My November AdSense impressions will be close to the amount for October. That is pretty good in my opinion considering there was 1 less day and that the last four days saw no traffic due to Thanksgiving and no publishing on my part for the same reason. I hope to see December have similar if not slightly better results such that a foundation for 2010 has been formed.

Earnings are down in November as well primarily to the decreased number of clicks. That's OK. I am hoping that a baseline exists that can be built upon going into the new year. I would suspect I will see similar results for December.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out those Life123 articles so I can move up to the next level.

A Few Words About Xomba

First of all, I would like to say a warm and heart-felt "Thank You" to all of my followers. I have noticed that there are 11 now. I never expected to have so many of you. I certainly appreciate that you have taken the time to come by and look over what I am writing. Thank you so much!

Now About Xomba

Xomba is rapidly becoming my second favorite site for making money online. It is only second to HubPages at this time and could even end up in the top spot. Why is this you ask? Well, Xomba is actually two sites in one. It is a social bookmarking site that can help drive traffic to your other sites and articles, and it is an article writing site. AdSense is displayed next to both your links (called Xomblurbs) and articles (called Xombytes).

You can put up links to interesting articles that you find on the web or link to your own articles. You have to include a minimum 50 word summary of the article. I can do this in 2-3 minutes while watching football on TV. The site definitely works for driving traffic since I have received 23 visits to the 20 Hubs I have linked. I previously went through and linked to all my eHow articles as well.

The best part is the earning potential. Xomba has been responsible for about 30% of my AdSense revenue so far this month. That is with a whole lot less effort than what I am spending at HubPages. I need to start spending more time at Xomba. If you want to read a little bit more about Xomba, I posted an article over at HubPages.

Also, if you would like to join please consider using this referral link since I will get 10% extra AdSense ads displayed from Xomba's cut. The typical split is 50:50.

Quick SEO Update

I posted an article on InfoBarrel. I took me three tries to get accepted and not be "overly promotional". But, it is done. That makes 3 spokes in my 6 spoke link wheel.

I must be in the sand again since I have been unable to find the blog post for the past 24 hours in the first 500 results. I envision some pimply faced computer nerd at Google reading all this and laughing while he moves my post back and forth in the results. Who knows what the answer to SEO really is? I suspect quality content is the best thing anyway.

PS--I might make AdSense payout this month. It is going to be close given the current pace. I need to hustle over at Xomba.

That's all I had for today. Again, thank you for reading.

Featured Writer at Xomba!

Hello, everybody. I am very excited and want to share with everyone here that I was accepted as a featured writer on Xomba in the Money & Investing section of the Business category. And now, my first article has appeared on the front page of Xomba. Go there and take a look before it disappears. Here is a link to the actual article in case it moves before you get there:

Money and the American Dream

I am hoping that the exposure will be one way to help boost traffic and eventually earnings. I am required to post at least one 300 word article every two weeks which should be very easy given the amount of writing I can do and my passion for the topic. Since Xomba has proven to have the potential for earnings, this will be a great way to start getting more articles onto the site.

Xomba also seems to show up well in the search engines. I was searching Google yesterday for one of my articles on HubPages, and the link that I had posted on Xomba actually showed up above the HubPages article by about one full page. I was impressed.

Traffic at HubPages Down

Speaking of HubPages, my traffic there the past two days has been down significantly. I don't understand it. I suppose it is just random chance, and I shouldn't be so hyper looking at the traffic results so often. I should just keep writing more quality stuff. Here is my latest article on HubPages:

Michael Vick, Pete Rose, and Ethics in Sports

The cool thing is that traffic at this blog is getting better and increased over 100% in the past 30 days. It won't take long at this rate, and I will be getting more traffic here than over at HubPages. I suppose that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. I would like to see this blog do well especially since it has the potential to help and encourage people.

Well, that is all I had for now. I mainly wanted everyone to know about Xomba and encourage everyone to go for it. In case you didn't know, I am not a professional writer but was still accepted. Yippee!! Until next time.

Xomba Really Showing Promise for Online Income

I think Xomba is the real thing. I have been a member there for 16 days now, posting links to useful and interesting sites on the internet as well as trying to build links to my own articles on eHow. I have also written a few articles as well. The site graphics aren't all that appealing to me, but the site is fairly straight-forward and easy to use. And, the best part is--I am making income online.

Earning Money on Xomba

I really can't believe that I am actually earning money on Xomba. In my 16 days there, I have earned $1.87 in my Adsense account. That's over $0.11 per day. I don't think many of the other sites I have been to have started out so strong. This just seems to hold immense promise. My goal was to earn about $10 for the month on Xomba. I don't know if I will do it, since I haven't posted at my goal rate. But, that's OK. Life can be busy sometimes. If you want to begin earning money online at Xomba, here is my referral link:

http://www.xomba.com/referral/777d849c

Applied as Feature Writer

I think Xomba holds so much promise that I applied today as a feature writer for the Money & Investing section. If you have read any of my work at HubPages or eHow, you know that I have a great passion and interest in the topic. I am not a professional writer by any means but hope that my love of the subject comes through in my articles. I figure the exposure would be good for all my work. I will just have to see if I am accepted. I will be sure to let everyone here know if I am.

That was all I had for today. Traffic everywhere seems to be respectable but my online income is simply lousy. Each and every day I am falling farther and farther behind on my $2 daily goal. But, the good thing is that I am earning something everyday on one of the sites where I write. That is positive. And I am earning without clicks all the time (which kinda confuses me). I is only a few pennies but eventually it adds up.

Now that is truly all. Til next time.