I very nearly wrote that I was not going to post my earnings this month. But I’ve thought and thought about it, and I want to post them because of what this blog is about and because others inspire me by posting theirs. Although they may be up and down, I am hoping one day these monthly posts will prove to be a good record for myself and others to look back on.
Some Of The Reasons I Don’t Like Earnings Posts:
- We all have different aims, needs and goals – earning $1000 could be a lot to one person and very small to another.
- As much as I don’t like this fact, sometimes IM is about pure luck – some may seem more lucky than others!
- We all have different strengths, and some of us take longer to realise what those strengths are.
- Some earn more from “active” efforts than “passive” efforts (I only post my passive).
- IM is tough and the pressure of not earning as much as others can be really big at times.
With that out of the way, I’ve decided to post my earnings in spite of those problems. I’m at the stage where I really feel like I’m doing things my way now and I’ve given into the fact that I can’t keep up with everyone else. I can’t keep up with Google, I can’t keep up with the best way to get backlinks, I can’t even keep up with my own site rankings!
In the past month I’ve all but abandoned most of my sites, and I’m carefully considering ways to create just a few true authority websites. Alongside my more passive projects, I know it’s going to be slow. I’ve got to accept that we’re all on our own separate journeys in IM. I know I’m going to view others’ earnings sometimes and feel bad, but that’s going to happen regardless of whether I post my own earnings or not. Like I said above, I hope my own earnings posts can encourage others and be a great record to look back on.
October: Reasons Why This Was My Best Month Ever
Before I start I want to add that I’ve done nothing for any of my niche sites in October. No backlinking, not even checking rankings or anything. I only worked on holiday-related stuff. I think it’s going to be the same until January. This probably sounds very bad to a lot of you niche site builders, but honestly my days of working on my old bad sites are done. I’ll let them earn what they earn passively, but I’m moving onto useful product reviews and authority niche sites from now on.
There’s one reason why I did better in October than any other month and that’s because of Clickbank. Unfortunately, though, those Clickbank sales didn’t come from my standard niche sites. They came from my PLR ATM affiliate promotions and a few people choosing to sign up to things through my affiliate link. I say unfortunately because I don’t think the trend is going to carry on as strong in November, but we’ll see.
Why October Wasn’t So Great
In September I lost my best Adsense site – it was earning $100+ per month. Needless to say, Adsense took a big hit (Back to my June-July level) but still did OK considering I’ve sold off most of my small niche sites now. I actually changed my crappy micro niche sites and took Adsense off them all just to be careful. I added Amazon links instead, and did make a few sales on them which is some consolation.
My Halloween site did TERRIBLY. I don’t know why, but I know I have to learn something from it. Because it was getting traffic and clicks to Buy Costumes, but only ONE PERSON from the people who clicked actually bought some costumes! I earned £8 measly pounds! I honestly don’t even know how it’s possible. I had three posts that linked to Amazon instead of Buy Costumes and I made more from Amazon. Maybe that’s my lesson, or maybe I wasn’t attracting the “buyers” to this site for some reason. A lot of my traffic was coming from images.
My Halloween site wasn’t a waste of time though. I’m pretty sure that, if I put a little effort in to keep it running, I’ll have a much more authoritative site for next year. It already gets so many long tail searches, which is great as a lot of the costumes will be popular for years to come.
So What Did I Earn?
Still nothing huge by any means but I definitely exceeded my $500 goal. You can click here to view my earnings page. As for November, I have no idea what to aim for. If I make $500 I will be happy.
No related posts.
Congo rats on your October success Ruth
I forsee you breaking the $1K mark by the end of the year. Keep up the good work, you continue to inspire and motivate us all.
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Gabriel – Thank you
I am not sure about hitting $1K though there’s no harm in trying!
Hi Ruth,
Well done for your Oct earnings – I’d be very happy with that!
Thanks for your honesty and openness – although it must be difficult when deciding whether to show your earnings, it does help us newbies get an insight (and a realistic one!) into the highs and lows of internet marketing.
You mentioned you lost your best Adsense site? Was this because you sold your site? Do you put Adsense on all your sites? I’ve not got into Adsense yet and can’t make my mind up about it (need to get off the fence, me thinks!).
Good luck with your continued success!
Julie´s last [type] ..IPK CHRISTMAS SITES
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Julie – I really like Adsense and I look forward to the payout each month BUT I had put it on some very small sites and that’s why I lost my biggest earner – Google didn’t like it and told me to shape up or they would disable my account. I was lucky I got a chance to take action, so basically I took Adsense off all my small sites. I still keep it on sites that have more content and are considered useful – that’s the main thing you have to be careful about with Adsense.
If you want to read more about my warning here’s the post I wrote about it: http://www.webcareergirl.com/adsense-setbacks-confirmation-that-i-made-the-right-decision.html
I like how you post only your passive income results. That is, after all, the goal…Too often we see gurus publishing their massive ‘passive’ earnings but what we don’t realize is that they had to work 15 hours a day for 6 months to earn that ’3 day income’.
My Halloween sites did not do as well as I had hoped either. I made a touch more than $1,000 from entirely too many sites. The funny thing is that on November 1st, I got most of my rankings back (talk about a conspiracy theory).
Dusty´s last [type] ..Organizing My Passive Income Streams
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Dusty – Yes very true! Oh that reminds me, I also forgot to talk about expenses as that’s another tricky area. Sometimes total earnings can be a lot more than profit after expenses are factored in.
Well at least your sites did better than mine (though granted I only had one semi-large site) – but that sucks about the rankings coming back Nov 1! Does sound odd to me!
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Dusty – Oh one more thing – is that a new blog you’ve started? I haven’t noticed you blogging for a while, so is that where you’re going to post from now on?
Yeah. I needed a place to put my ramblings so I started P.I.S. – which is what my earnings are:) CTB is simply a guest post blog now, so if anyone wants free links…..
I always love reading the stuff you, James, Tiffany, etc create and wanted to get back to sharing the stuff that I have learned over my 12 months as an internet marketer.
Dusty´s last [type] ..Organizing My Passive Income Streams
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Dusty – That’s great, I missed following along your IM journey stuff.
I am glad you chose to post your earnings. I love seeing these posts, as they motivate me to continue when I feel like there’s no hope for residual income! I really need to start building sites and working less for upfront pay.
Kecia´s last [type] ..Dating Tips for Men PLR
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Kecia – I’m really glad it helps, confirms one of my reasons for continuing
It’s hard to find a balance between upfront money and niche sites as the latter can be very slow going in terms of earning. But also the PLR you’re doing should eventually become more passive too!
Hi Ruth
Thanks for willing to share the earnings opening. One thing I want to ask is this: why has your earnings growth been slower than expected? I don’t mean to be rude but somehow I don’t think your workflow is right or else the growth will not be as slow.
I am not an expert by any means. I made USD170 in May from adsense but grew that to USD860 last monnth but looks like it will break 1k this month.
Given that I am only doing this part time, I am concern (as your reader) that there might be something that is missing from your current business process. I run a real business as my full time job and I understand how important processes are to achieve the right outcome.
Anyway, I hope you don’t treat this negatively. I just think this might be something worth discussing.
Aaron´s last [type] ..How to target higher paying keywords for Adsense
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Aaron – Well, you’re right in some ways – there have definitely been problems with my focus which I have always realised (I wrote quite a big post about it recently which you can check out here: http://www.webcareergirl.com/from-now-on-my-plan-is-to-focus.html)
I would always flit from one thing to the next without ever giving things a real go. I think this is something a lot of people in IM share in common. Looks like things are going well for you and you’re probably more focused than I’ve been!
Aside from that, though, I do want to point out that I don’t work at my niche sites full time. I do other “active” work online which I don’t include in my earnings reports.
Hi Ruth,
Sorry about assuming you were full time on it. My bad.
Focus is really key. I had about 70 domains when I was just at the 170 level. I decided that enough was enough. So, I looked through all my sites, picked the one that has the most potential and work on it for several months.
I even analyzed which pages and keywords were making the most money and backlinked them until they are number one.
This make me realise I don’t need many sites or even pages to make money. Just a couple of winning pages that the income will come.
Aaron´s last [type] ..How to target higher paying keywords for Adsense
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Aaron – Sounds like you had the right idea. I was all over the place too. I like the fact that you said even just pages make you money. I got rid of most of my niche sites though I decided to start kind of from scratch as I’m not really happy with any of them. Things are going to be slow but I guess I had to learn my lesson!
Why not post them, they look great! And it looks like those are just your passive streams, I imagine you are doing quite well with the PLR business.
Carrie´s last [type] ..Progress Update – 1 Site Focus – 5 weeks
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Carrie – Thanks, October was definitely great though I don’t feel it’ll last. But yeah I have been doing well with all the PLR etc too which is nice
Hi Ruth,
I, like so many other people, am very glad that you have decided to continue reporting your earnings publically. It really is nice to read about how much “real people” are making and shows how long the process takes to actually get past the various payout levels.
I have just added my own earnings summary page and it is nice to look back and remember where things start to get better.
I still have a lot to learn but I am happy to go at my own pace and not try to battle with the big boys. There is plenty of online money to be made whatever niche you choose.
Good luck with your PLR challenge.
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Tiptopcat – Glad you’re pleased to see them – and looks like October was a good month for you!
Boy, Ruth. I could have written this post. I am just coming off a record month, but the first five days of November have been abysmal. Plus, I think that I still trying to find my strengths and feel like I have no idea what I am doing at times. Anyway, on a more positive note, the price of gold and silver is up and I am heavily invested in both in my retirement accounts. So, the day isn’t turning out to be all that bad.
kidgas´s last [type] ..Set Several Records in October 2010
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Kidgas – The ups and downs can be tough sometimes! But good news about the gold and silver
Twitter: TheAvgGenius
says:
Ruth – nice! Sweet earnings – I can’t keep up with you in profit streams (you’re more skilled in web design – I’m NOT at all – new theme? That’s great!).
Do you think you’ll be selling themes as well? I remember you were designing themes for your flipped properties, have you considered ThemeForest or the like – where you can develop/sell a theme (like your PLR)?
Anyhow, your earnings are fantastic, thanks for sharing them.
JamestheJust on Elance´s last [type] ..Magic Submitter Kixass
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
James – I will let you in on a little secret about the theme design. I don’t do it from scratch (would have no idea) but I either customize woothemes or use artisteer: http://www.webcareergirl.com/recommends/Artisteer
I have thought about adding PLR website packages (theme + articles) but no time to experiment with it so far!
You must have been reading my mind when you wrote this post. I too am having internal debates over posting my earnings. I am definitely not earning what I wanted to be and posting my earnings feels like I am failing, but I started posting my earnings to be accountable and let others see what it really takes to make money in internet marketing.
I’m actually looking forward to the new year and setting some new goals for myself. I always feel like a new year means a new start and already planning what I want to get done by the end of this year so I can concentrate on the things I want to next year.
Tiffany´s last [type] ..My Online Passive Income Earnings for October
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Tiffany – I feel exactly the same about working hard until the end of the year. Seems there’s so much to do – I’m really looking forward to a fresh start in the new year
As for your earnings, I obviously understand how you feel. You’ve just gotta do what’s right for you.
Interesting to read about your Halloween site. Mine was also just blah with only a bit over $100 in sales despite decent traffic and plenty of clicks. In fact, I remember sending an email (twice) to CJ because the number of clicks but lack of sales just didn’t make sense. lol.
But i’m with you on next year. As both of our sites will gain authority status by then and we’ll “crush it” in 2011. I love how my site turned out and really think it will do well in due time.
Great October recap, Ruth. Onward and upwards we go!
Cheers,
Missy
Missy @ iPhone 4 Covers Blog´s last [type] ..iPhone 4 Cover from Energizer Makes Debut
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Missy – Yeah I was almost thinking there was a problem with CJ too! I think I’m going to have to stick with Amazon next year.
Month on month something cool is happening so I am sure even if Nov isn’t higher something good will come along and eventually all your hard work is going to pile on and bring what you are aiming for.
Forest´s last [type] ..Lottery winners who lost it all
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Forest – thanks
I think you’re right.
I think it is important to post your earnings, because you can look back on it in 1-5 years.
I know I only make around a hundred dollars a month right now-I believe it inspires somebody/somewhere.
…plus I just like reading them!
Kelly´s last [type] ..October Earnings plus Site Updates
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Kelly – I do think you’re right. And glad you like reading them
Congrats on the October income Ruth that’s great. Just looking at your monthly incomes you are gradually increasing each month which is fantastic.
I did terrible in October but so far November is looking a bit better for me, so I hope that I can keep it up.
I hope you have lots more success and reach $1k a month real soon
Sheryl´s last [type] ..Internet Marketing PLR Articles – Big Pack
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
Sheryl – Thanks, and I’m glad November is looking better for you! Ups and downs all seem to be part of this unfortunately :/
Don’t be discouraged.. making money online is definitely NOT easy. It does take a while.. (some longer than others) to realize what’s working for you. But my best advice would be to keep doing your research.. You say you’re not good at finding the best places to build backlinks. Just do a little googling around for that. You’ll be surprised about how much info you find on where to build backlinks! Just keep doing a little at a time. Another advice I can give you.. is try to focus on one main site first.. then when you’ve established that site and it’s doing well on it’s own without you having to do a ton of work on it, you can try to build another site. At least that’s the way I’ve done it and it seems to be working okay for me so far.. I just haven’t gotten around to building a new site yet lol. Time is of the essence for me lately, but yeah.. don’t be discouraged! Keep making money online!!! There are so many people that don’t even know it’s possible to do so. You’re more fortunate than them all!
TriNi @ Make Money Online´s last [type] ..Total Money Made Online In October!
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
TriNi – Thanks for your encouragement. Lol it really isn’t easy. With backlinks, I know how to get them but I am just really bad at keeping track of what really works. There are so many methods it makes my head spin! I think you have a really good point about working on things one site at a time. I am going to try to do this
Congrats Ruth on your October earnings. Like TriNi said don’t get discouraged. It does take time and effort when it comes to building sites and getting backlinks to them. It’s not an easy process but it is very rewarding. My October wasn’t nearly as good as yours but like you I’m hoping November will be a blast. Keep up the good work Ruth and don’t give up or get discouraged she see every milestone as a learning experience and a chance to grow and expand.
WAHM Bri´s last [type] ..Download Tim Bekkers Free Money Training Package
Twitter: webcareergirl
says:
WAHM Bri – Thanks for visiting here and for the encouraging words. Good luck to you too!