Update: Somehow, I completely forgot to include the $2.66 that I earned from HubPages in January. Thus, the monthly (and year-to-date) income should be $58.93.
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January 2012 earnings took a dip from last month, but a post-holiday drop-off was anticipated. Naturally, I’m not wild about the decrease in earnings, but with only about three months of income under my belt I don’t have any historical data for comparative purposes. (In other words, aside from strictly looking at the numbers, I can’t determine whether the decrease shoud be viewed as “good” or “bad” – or anything other than “expected.”) That being the case, I choose to be optimistic in my outlook. Here’s the breakdown:
AdSense: $56.27 (-13% compared to last month’s $64.79)
Affiliate sales: $0.0 (earnings last month were $60.81)
Book sales: $0.0 (earnings last month were $2.66)
Total: $56.27 ( -56% compared to last month’s $128.26)
Year-to-Date Income: $56.27
Again, the bulk of the AdSense revenue ($55.02) came from WebAnswers, making it my top-performing revenue source for the third consecutive month. The remainder of the revenue came from article-writing sites.
Affiliate sales diminished, but I’m not terribly upset because it was expected. The trick now is to build back up.
Last but not least, I did not record any royalties from book sales, but as before I haven’t put much effort into promotion. I will try to put some additional effort into this and see if sales can be ramped up a little (I know, I know: I say that every month, but this time I mean it!)
In retrospect, I’m still happy with where I am at the moment. Although I haven’t yet hit my goal of earning $5/day, I’ve been fortunate enough to make money every month since I started; now I’ve just got to find ways to start expanding my little fiefdom here, and see if I can make it into an empire. I’m having a little luck in that I’ve stepped up my efforts in some areas where I’ve been neglectful in the past (see my 30-Hubs-in-30-Days Challenge). Hopefully this will add meaningfully to the bottom line.
Anyway, my goal now for February 2012 is to earn $5/day or a total of $145 by the end of the month. For those of you keeping track, here are the sites and resources I’m using as the foundation for building my own passive income streams:
- WebAnswers.com
- InfoBarrel
- Bluehost.com
- Hubpages.com
- Squidoo
- Seekyt.com
- Bukisa.com
- Infopirate.org
- Socialadr
- Instant Article Wizard
- The Best Spinner
- Unique Article Wizard
- Market Samurai
- Niche sites
- Amazon.com
- Books (self-published)
***Please note that many of the links above are affiliate links, which means that I will earn a commission if you purchase products or services via the links I have provided. More information about these products and services is available on my Resources page.
As before, the Q&A site WebAnswers is still the earnings champ as far as I’m concerned, and I recommend them as the first stop for anyone looking for a venue to begin earning online. I’m also a firm believer in article-writing, so any of the revenue-sharing sites – InfoBarrel, Bukisa, Seekyt, etc. – are also great.
Last but not least, I’ve removed Shetoldme.com from my list of resources. I don’t have any issues with the site, but they are now a paid service and I’m simply trying to minimize the number of resources I use that have an out-of-pocket cost. (Some, of course, are well worth the price – e.g., Market Samurai.) On the other hand, I’ve added Socialadr, a bookmarking service that gets you lots of free backlinks.
