July was my best month so far coming in at $3134! Yay! It would have actually been about $550 better than that too because I sealed a deal in the last week of July. They haven’t gotten back to me yet with the content for the ad though, so I’ll have to tack it onto next month. So August will start off nicely.
I’ve been spending ridiculous hours working but I don’t think I’ve even seen the results of this hard work yet. A lot of my focus at the moment is on building links to my London 2012 Olympics site which I want to have very well positioned when the event finally rolls around. I’ll shift my focus this week to building links to some new sites in an effort to boost my Adsense earnings in the more immediate future.
Earnings Breakdown:
- Google Adsense – $355 – Steady as always, but I’m sick of steady. I want to get my Adsense earnings up to $500-600 per month by the end of the year and further up to $1000 by early next year. I’ve been saying this for ages but this time I have a plan and I think it can be done. I have two niche sites in particular with pretty lucrative keywords… I just need to drive traffic to the sites. Easy, right?
- Affiliate Sales – $1223 - My World Nomads sales came back to life this month to lead the charge but they were closely followed by the affiliates I have on Tradedoubler. My Clixgalore affiliates weren’t far behind, either. The affiliates I have on my moving to London site have been doing a lot better than I thought they would and I’m about to add a visa service program to my popular working holiday visas website so hopefully that adds a new revenue stream. I’m excited to finally have this area diversified instead of counting on a single affiliate like I used to. I’m not sure if this was just a freaky flukey good month or the sign of things to come but I’m going to aim to get affiliate earnings up to a steady $1500 each month by the end of the year.
- Advertising – $1395 - It seems like this revenue stream is one that I can start counting on. I have an impressive set of renewals almost every month plus there seems to be new interest each month too. It just seems to be a bit unpredictable because I can’t really come up with a plan of action to increase income in this area – it just sort of happens. I’m happy to ride the wave for as long as the advertisers are happy, though.
- Ebook Sales – $161 – I did a lot of promotion early in July which didn’t really result in too huge a month for my my ebook. I know that sales for ebooks are likely to drop off after launch unless new markets are found so I will be employing a PR type person who actually wrote and promoted her own book to find me some new markets and write press releases and stuff like that that I have no desire to do. She’s written for me in the past and I think she knows her stuff so I’m curious to see where this leads.
I got to Kigali on July 19th and I’ve pretty much been working non-stop since then with a bit of exploring and a few nights out thrown in so I don’t go completely insane. I have a clear plan of what needs to be done to kick this operation up to the next level and I’m ready to put the work in to get there. My average monthly earnings for the year so far is almost $2200 which is much better than the $1500 a month I’ve been floating around for as long as I can remember.
My goal is to be earning $3000 steadily by the end of this year. This time, instead of just throwing numbers out there, I actually have a plan to get it done. I have four websites (two Adsense and two affiliate sites) that have never been promoted so building links to them is key. Plus I will be putting a big push on promoting my living in New York site because I know that it can be as strong as the similar London site. Once I’m happy with the links I’ve built (I’ll probably spend all over August on this task… blah) then I’ll move onto my new project.
I’m motivated! I’m excited! I’m looking forward to… well, moving forward!
Kirsty, you can also add credit cards ads on your working visa website. I think Visa card is running a campaign these days which ask you to use Visa card for international business/holiday travel.
Well done for a good month!
I tend to find that hard work can take 3-6 months to come back as increased income, even building links can take a while for them to mature and give you improved serps.
Its kind of frustrating in way to not get more instant rewards and it can also be a dangerous thing because in three months time when you reap the rewards you might take your foot off the gas and become complacent, although I can’t see that being the case for you.
WN.
Oh Wow! You had a good start for August rush. Very impressive! Although quite a challenge for you to earn more to target 3000 per month. That’s already enough for most people like you never knew on your journey to life misadventure.
Congrats, this is a great number! Do you know how much each site contributes to the earnings?
Congratulations on another good month. You’ve really motivated me to keep working on my own projects. Thanks for sharing the good news and being an inspiration to us all!
Great stuff Kirsty..
Now that you have a place sorted and your going to be working all August you should see it to $3500 by xmas..
I havent been doing this long and now setup a online business with a friend and without webbys ebook/forum and this site for inspiration i would still be working away for other people..
keep up the good work.
Wow these are great earnings, its great to see that you can travel the world and still earn these numbers. Keep up the good work and Im sure you will reach your goal soon.
Found you via Karol’s Twitter link. First time to your site and the London one. Have begun blogging in earnest myself recently and one of my goals is to get to the 2012 Olympics. Looks like you can help get me there, so I’m all in. Congrats on your continued success!
Congratulations Kirsty. It’s really inspiring to hear you doing so well. Good luck with keeping up the work with Kigali’s slow internet!
Congrats on the record month Kirsty. It’s motivating and very handy to see someone lay out their exact income and where it comes from, rather than the generic rounding to the nearest $100 total that anyone else disclosing their income seems to do. So I thank you for these updates ^_^
You are an inspiration to budding entrepreneurs everywhere! I it clear your earnings post has a huge following, and not without good reason. Are you looking for a way to cash in on this?
Great stuff Kirsty!! This is exciting, I’m checking out your links now
Actively working on adding to my income streams, that is my goal for this year!! Hope all is well.
Congratulations again Kirsty! Continue pouring your time on worth moments of your life. Spread the love.
Fantastic month Kirsty, congratulations.
What I am particularly impressed by is the diversity of your online income streams. If you can keep ramping things up over the next few months you should reach you $3000 p/m goal for 2011. I find the key is putting the work in while on the road (avoiding the myriad distractions), although saying that I often enjoy settling down for a while and spending time on the business.
Congratulations again.
Thanks everyone! I’m pretty pumped… it’s easy to stay motivated with months like this. Plus it’s nice to see so many people feel inspired.
@uzi Thanks for the tip. To be honest, I’m really lazy about adding affiliates to my sites. I like to take the time to find really good fits and integrate them well which takes a lot of work so I don’t like to do it. But I’ll be on the hunt for more now that I’m motivated.
@WN I never seem to notice my hard work paying off n an obvious way. As in, work on Site X for three months to get Adsense up and then see an increase in Adsense. It seems a bit more sporadic than than because my work is rarely focused on just one thing. At the moment I have some clear targets so it’ll be easier to see if my work pays off.
@connectednomad Not off the top of my head but I would work it out. Adsense is easy to see and with my affiliates, some of them tell me the page the sale came from, and some don’t. For advertising I could also break that down. I would probably only ever try to figure it out if I were going to sell one of my sites.
@steven I don’t expect to be at $3500+ each month until Xmas but if I can have one month hit that target or even a couple more +$3000 months instead, I will be super happy. I was languishing around $1500 for years and not caring so much but I really want to take things to the next level. I have some big plans for next year if I can kick the earnings up!
@elizabeth Welcome! I guess I will see you at the Olympics.
@erin That’s the hardest part… I’ve got so many ideas and I’m actually motivated to get even the boring work done but the internet isn’t playing nice. It gives me an excuse to hang out in cafes with a faster connection, but that’s getting expensive.
@adventurerob I love reading other people’s earnings reports too. I just discovered this guy – http://smartpassiveincome.com/ – through Brooke’s blog and he does updates. He’s a fair way ahead of me and uses much different methods (he’s mostly into iPhone apps) but it keeps me pushing forward.
@bruce Not really. I’m not too interested on cashing in on everything I do.
@rodderz The new found diversity is what I’m really pumped about, too. I think that’s what will keep me from having some random terrible month. One of the income streams might suffer but it’s not likely that they’ll all crap out at the some time. At least I hope it isn’t!
Congrats on your best month yet! That is very rewarding to see website income climbing like that. Good luck on building that up to $3500 per month. As you get more backlinks for your new sites I’m sure you’ll start getting closer to that goal.
well its pretty impossible to track when hard work pays off I suppose, even my 3-6 month predictions are very seasonal and so many other factors involved.
e.g. you might work really hard on a project, get income flowing in, then take a hit in the serps or lose your PPC position and thats it, income can drop to zilch!
Probably no different to any other business I guess.
Wow Kirsty!!! Over 3,000 in one month way to go!!! Looking forward to hearing you increase your earnings even more for your website, and hoping you share with us along the way how you achieve it
Stay motivated Girl, you’ll get it!
Till then,
Jean
Those are great earnings for July. I hopefully will be able to get my blog up to that point in a year or so.
Wow! I’m so excited for you. I love reading these monthly earnings reports… I hope I can eventually make a bit more money from my site. It’s going to take more work than I have time for at the moment, but when things slow down I plan on doing it thanks to your insight!
For me your Google Adsense earning bit surprising because now a days most of complaining about Adsense earning, that now they not earning with Google Adsense, but good your income inspiration for people.
I have been neglecting a bit my websites lately and reading about your success, it motivates me to do what it takes to grow my income online. Thank you.
Many congrats on this great performance. I am pretty much pleased with your good work.You put really very helpful information. Keep it up. Keep blogging. Looking to reading your next post.
Your the bomb girl!!! Congrats on a great month. Your living the life. I’m so jealous. The London site looks great. I think it’s going to do great. Keep it up!!!