Time to review my monthly earnings again. I am still struggling to turn that corner to make real money online. I have had some successes this month, but not enough to make a real difference. I have not made any Clickbank sales at all this month (the Clickbank income showing this month is from August), but I have made 18 Amazon sales (11 on co.uk and 7 on .com) which has brought in $26 in income overall.
I have made a tentative start this month on an authority blog which I am intending will be my main project. However, I am not expecting this to make any money for a little while yet.
So here are my totals for September (bearing in mind this is the money I have actually received):
Clickbank: $14.86
Private advertising: $30
Surveys: $90.38 (YouGov: $77.91, Pinecone: $12.47)
Swagbucks: $5
Squidoo: $2.60
Zlio: $1.67
Total = $144.51
Still rather short of where I want it to be, but not too bad I guess.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Choosing a Niche for an Authority Blog
I am well aware that in my making money online efforts I have been guilty of flitting from one thing to another in my frustration at the lack of money that I am making. I decided some time ago that I needed a single main project to focus on. That single project, I decided, should be an authority blog. I did originally think that rather than a blog I would write a series of linked Squidoo on a single niche, but I abandonded that idea as I did not think this would do I what I wanted. I have decided to chart my progress on this new project here.
So the first task then is to choose a niche. The main criteria for a niche for an authority blog is that it has to be a subject that you are interested in and know something about. After all, you are going to have to write regularly about the subject and be willing to research any areas that you don't know much about. If you try and focus a blog on something that you think might be lucrative but have little interest in then you will quickly lose interest. In my case I have decided on a niche that is quite broad based on the idea that it needs to be in order to ensure that I can keep coming up with new things to say.
If you are not sure what to choose then think about what you enjoy talking about with friends and what you regularly seek information about. Is there anything that if you were put in front of a group of people what you could talk about and sound reasonably knowledgeable. Tempting though it might be, you should avoid making your authority blog about making money online - there are already far too many out there!
Next take a look at other blogs in your niche and look at how many subscribers there are, how many comments are left, etc. to give you an idea of traffic and popularity. Also take a look at their posting schedule, what sort of things they write about and how they are monetized.
I have already chosen my niche and confident that I have enough to say so I am ready to start.
So the first task then is to choose a niche. The main criteria for a niche for an authority blog is that it has to be a subject that you are interested in and know something about. After all, you are going to have to write regularly about the subject and be willing to research any areas that you don't know much about. If you try and focus a blog on something that you think might be lucrative but have little interest in then you will quickly lose interest. In my case I have decided on a niche that is quite broad based on the idea that it needs to be in order to ensure that I can keep coming up with new things to say.
If you are not sure what to choose then think about what you enjoy talking about with friends and what you regularly seek information about. Is there anything that if you were put in front of a group of people what you could talk about and sound reasonably knowledgeable. Tempting though it might be, you should avoid making your authority blog about making money online - there are already far too many out there!
Next take a look at other blogs in your niche and look at how many subscribers there are, how many comments are left, etc. to give you an idea of traffic and popularity. Also take a look at their posting schedule, what sort of things they write about and how they are monetized.
I have already chosen my niche and confident that I have enough to say so I am ready to start.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Total Earnings for August 2011
Another month passed and time to report my earnings. It feels that it has been pretty slow going recently, but at least this month I have received my second Adsense cheque. However, I have made no Clickbank sales at all (Clickbank income showing this month is from last month's sales). I have made 10 Amazon sales, although these were all pretty small.
Here are the totals:
Adsense: $101.22
Clickbank: $35.72
Swagbucks: $5.00
Squidoo: $1.49
Surveys: $6.50 (Pinecone)
Hits4Pay: $25.18
Private advertising: $40.00
Total = $215.11
Thanks to the Adsense payout this month's payment wasn't actually too bad after all.
Here are the totals:
Adsense: $101.22
Clickbank: $35.72
Swagbucks: $5.00
Squidoo: $1.49
Surveys: $6.50 (Pinecone)
Hits4Pay: $25.18
Private advertising: $40.00
Total = $215.11
Thanks to the Adsense payout this month's payment wasn't actually too bad after all.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Zlio Bites the Dust
Zlio was a service where you could easily build your own shop in a matter of minutes. You did not sell your own products, you received a commission for every item sold by the various retailers that you could worked with Zlio. It's a straightforward concept and one that proved very popular. However, Zlio have been losing money over the last few years and it seems that they have finally accepted that they are not going to be able to turn this around. So now Zlio will be closing down on 11th September 2011 and all shops will cease to be from that point.
It seems that the fatal blow was Zlio losing a court case against a SEO company who said that they would be able to improve the standing of Zlio shops in Google searches. Also they have had to pay damages to the SEO company for making the dispute public on Twitter.
I have three Zlio shops, none of which make me hardly any money. Having said that I have put very little energy into promoting them and getting traffic to them. In truth I have no problem with letting them go as I really gave up on trying to make any money on them quite some time ago. So really it means that I have 3 less sites to worry about and means I can stop fretting about the fact they are not getting any traffic. I had various plans in my head to improve traffic to these shops which would have involved lots of work. I am quite glad now that I never got around to doing anything about it!
It seems that the fatal blow was Zlio losing a court case against a SEO company who said that they would be able to improve the standing of Zlio shops in Google searches. Also they have had to pay damages to the SEO company for making the dispute public on Twitter.
I have three Zlio shops, none of which make me hardly any money. Having said that I have put very little energy into promoting them and getting traffic to them. In truth I have no problem with letting them go as I really gave up on trying to make any money on them quite some time ago. So really it means that I have 3 less sites to worry about and means I can stop fretting about the fact they are not getting any traffic. I had various plans in my head to improve traffic to these shops which would have involved lots of work. I am quite glad now that I never got around to doing anything about it!
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