Last month was a record month and this one is a doozy… $4100! Oh ya. Good timing too since I’m somehow managed to spend a ridiculous amount of money here in Kigali in my first five weeks. I think I’m getting the hang of living cheaply here now, though. I guess its obvious that I’m pretty happy with August’s results!

Earnings Breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $342 - Boo to Google. I’m working hard at getting my living in New York site listed for my main keywords but it’s just not happening. The long tail search results are good, but as far as the major keywords, my site’s nowhere to be found. Once they kick in I could see my Adsense jump up by quite a bit… but I’ve been waiting for that to happen for months. Normally it’s just a waiting game but now I’m really putting a push on getting quality links.
• Affiliate Sales - $655 - My three travel insurance affiliates are contributing pretty evenly now which is what I wanted… now I just need to work at growing them all. I have a few ideas but it’s not a priority at the moment. I added a visa service affiliate to my working holiday visas website but I’m not sure yet if I made any sales. I’ll add them onto next month’s report and let you know how it does.
• Advertising - $2827 - Huge month! I rescued a $950 ad sale from the depths of my spam box which was pretty sweet, plus I had $950 renewal with another company. A few other sales here and some renewals there and all of a sudden I’m at my best month ever. Pretty lopsided in favour of the ol’ ad sales but I’m not going to complain.
• Ebook Sales - $273 - I think I did well with ebook sales this month due mostly to a mention in the HODR newsletter that went out to several thousand people who are both interested in volunteering and also in donating to HODR. Perfect match! I think they’ll mention me again in the next one with more of an emphasis on the fact that half the proceeds will be donated to them. A few reviews were posted on some popular websites which I think helped. I didn’t do any guest posting or spend any time on promoting the ebook myself, so it was a pleasant surprise to sell so many copies this month.

This is the first huge month I’ve ever had. When I talk about my earnings goals I’m always hoping for a steady $2500 so earning over $4000 came as a pleasant surprise. I do think it’s realistic to earn at that level consistently but I would need to have a pretty big renewal lined up each month. If advertising on the internet continues to gain in popularity like I think it will then this isn’t unrealistic. The lopsidedness makes me a bit uneasy but I’m encouraged to see my affiliate sales above $500 again.

I’ve abandoned the link building efforts for now and I’m working on a few fun things to keep my sanity. I’m finally getting my indie travel in Africa website started and I imagine I’ll start work soon on a local NGO’s site. I’ve also dreamed up a possible partnership idea which I think has a lot of potential and I’m waiting to see how that unfolds.

I’ve decided to stick around here until the end of October partly because I really want to get on top of things and also because I moved into a cheaper room in my house ($300 a month) and mostly because I’m having a good time here. I’m off to Kenya for two weeks in the middle of September to catch up with a friend, relax on the beach and maybe chase animals in the Masai Mara, so it might not be as productive a month. But I’ve been working a lot and I think I could use the break.

So that’s all from me. I’m really enjoying the work I’m doing now and excited to see that it is possible to pull off some pretty big numbers with this gig.

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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!

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I earned $2145 in June with a big advertising deal at the last minute leading the charge. I did start doing some work this month albeit at a ridiculously slow pace. I’ve been in Durban for about 12 days now and I’m only really kicking things into gear with less than a week to go before I head off once again.

My focus is on promoting my ebook and building links to some sites I’ve had built for awhile but haven’t done SEO for. It’s not the creative stuff I love, but it needs to be done. I doubt there will be any results from the link building for awhile, but bit by bit I hope it’ll help in the long run. At the very least it’s nice, for once, to say that I’m actually doing some work!

Earnings Breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $392 - Another consistent month for Adsense which is all I can ask when I’m not doing much to push the earnings forward. At least they’re not going backwards! If things go to plan, the work I do now will eventually lead to a rise in Adsesne earnings, especially with my living in New York and London 2012 Olympics sites which are finally showing signs of life with Google.
• Affiliate Sales - $477 - For the first time, my main affiliate World Nomads was beaten out by a combination of other travel insurance affiliate programs from the Trade Doubler network. My Clixgalore affiliates also did well and it looks like my old staple, World Nomads, is on the out. There are things I could do to improve sales, I think, but it’ll take a lot of work.
• Advertising - $1157 - I had a bunch of renewals and one huge, last-minute deal that really turned June into a good month instead of the usual average month of around $1500.
• Ebook Sales - $119 - My ebook had another terrible month but it was expected after doing fairly badly the previous month. The key in making sales is promotion and I haven’t been able to do any for awhile. I’m working on guest posts and spreading the word but I will need to find some new avenues. I would like to someone get the message out to college and university students but I’m not totally sure how to tap that market.

The first half of June was spent watching football and hanging out with my friends. The second half has been spent doing bits of work and bits of time wasting. With more travels in my future, I really need to get a lot done over the next week from filing my tax return for last year to making some annoying phone calls to doing a lot of guest post and article writing to finishing up the final touches on some of my websites. I’m really happy with June and I have a couple of pending payments which should start me off really well going into July.

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I earned $1660 in May which wasn’t nearly as good as my crazy April, but considering my computer broke and I really did nothing this time, I am not going to complain. Have I mentioned how much I love passive income?

Earnings Breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $430 - Adsense started off amazingly and tailed off a bit towards the end of the month. I had my first ever $30+ day which was pretty good and I’m seeing great earnings per click for a couple of new sites… now I just need to get more traffic to them.
• Affiliate Sales - $349 - The earnings for my main (and dwindling) affiliate were matched this month by my three other affiliate networks combined. The other affiliates are creeping up in earnings which I’m happy to see. I think I can bring my main affiliate back from the brink but it’ll take a bit of work.
• Advertising - $758 - This month was all renewals and I had no surprise emails wanting to buy advertising off of me. Renewals are encouraging and I rarely see people cancel links they’ve bought unless they’re for small amounts. I’m hoping things stay that way!
• Ebook Sales - $133 - My ebook did amazingly shite this month but I’m not surprised given I did almost zero promotion. Actually, that’s not true… I did that TV interview (having trouble getting the video but I will try) on local TV that seemed to result in a couple of sales but, other than that, I’ve been quiet in this area. When my computer died it made doing this really tricky. It is interesting to see how important constant promotion is. I have lots of ideas but they will probably have to wait another month before I execute.

June will be another write off month for me. I’m meeting up with some friends and travelling around to World Cup games. I’ve met up with these two friends before during the Olympics with high hopes of sneaking away to do some work and it didn’t work then, so I’m not expecting it to work now. I think I will enjoy myself and I might even leave my computer behind in Cape Town and plan on working hard in July instead of kidding myself.

I’m pretty excited about the World Cup, seeing my friends and checking out Africa a bit. I’m going one-way with few plans so if anyone will be in the area and wants to meet up, let me know. Or if anyone has any suggestions on things to do, please get in touch!

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I earned $3030 in April. Yep. I am pretty happy about that. It’s my first ever plus $3000 month and it took me by surprise, as always. My computer died on my so my good month came at a great time.

Earnings Breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $440 - Adsense gave me one of my best months with a niche site of mine contributing to that. The site does well from April to about June so it will be nice to have some income from there.
• Affiliate Sales - $600 - My affiliate sales are starting to spread out more evenly which means less pressure on my main affiliate which continues to die out slowly. It’s encouraging to see the others start to produce more and more each month.
• Advertising - $1570 - I didn’t have many link renewals but I had a bunch of new advertising deals pop up which really gave me a boost this month.
• Ebook Sales - $420 - My ebook did well in April with 60 sales. I did a lot of promotion and it resulted in a good number of sales. It seems pretty evident to me how writing articles, offering books for review etc. directly result in sales so I will get back into that once I get home. Ebook sales for May are already sluggish and I doubt they’ll pick up without promotion.

That’s all for now! I have to run off to work. I need to go figure out how to plaster some walls with concrete.

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I earned $1630 in March which is about where I want to be with my earnings at this point. I always seem to talk about how little work I have done on my sites and how I’m happy to still be making an income and this month is more of the same. I don’t spend much money here at all so I’m hoping to pad my bank account a bit before heading to South Africa in June.

Earnings Breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $390 - Adsense in up which is always encouraging. Not much else to say since I haven’t really done anything in an attempt to increase my Adsense earnings. Well, I have, but I haven’t done the link building yet for those new sites so, until I do, it’ll likely be more of the same in this area.
• Affiliate Sales - $383 - My main affiliate is continuing to suck but I’ve set up something else on my moving to London website which is starting to pay off a bit. I’ve also been talking to them about ways to increase my earnings using other affiliate programs and tweaking my website a bit. Now that my ebook is done I will have more time to tinker with that stuff.
• Advertising - $605 - This month was all renewals or continuing monthly payments. I’m working on another big deal though for April which is good since I don’t have any renewals due next month.
• Ebook Sales - $252 As many of you know, I wrote an ebook recently and launched it in mid-March. I sold 36 copies which was a little less than I had expected (I was hoping to sell 50) but not by much. The promotion I plan to do hasn’t really kicked in at all yet and I think that I will have a few slow months and possibly some really good months, depending on what sort of exposure I get each month. I’m really excited to see how all of this works and will report back on it all. Mostly I’m excited to finally have a product to sell and I think it’s a really good one too which is even better.

Now that my ebook is done and I have some promotion done and reviews and guest posts in the pipeline, I can start working again on my websites. The net connection here in Haiti is surprisingly good, although now that we’re up to over 100 volunteers, there have been some bandwidth issues. But I’m hoping to spend some time writing articles and building links in an attempt to get my newest sites producing for me. I’m actually kind of looking forward to getting back into web development and SEO stuff.

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I earned $2341 in February and with flights to Haiti to pay for and pints to buy in London, the timing couldn’t be better and I’m breathing a little sigh of relief.

Earnings Breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $328 - More of the same with Adsense but with February being a short month, it’s actually a better result than it looks.
• Affiliate Sales - $390 - My main affiliate is continuing its downward spiral but a couple others are stepping up to the plate a bit more each month. I have ideas for how to put a push on these other two affiliates but, as always, need the time to implement.
• Advertising - $1623 - Woop woop! This month was huge for advertising with $350 in renewals, $330 in monthly payments and just over $900 in new sales. I love those emails out of the blue asking to advertise and that was what happened this time as well. It’s not predictable but when it works, it works.

I wasn’t able to do any work on my sites in February and I haven’t actually done a thing for several months since I’ve been working on my ebook so I really couldn’t be happier! I have been waiting for the passive income bubble to burst and for things to nosedive for months now and everything seems to keep chugging along as normal, always seeming to average out to my goal of around $1500 a month.

The outlook for the next several months doesn’t look great for working but, with my ebook almost finished, I will be able to dedicate my free time in Haiti to my sites instead of to writing about volunteering for hours at a time. I didn’t have much luck last time in Haiti just because the work life and play life were both so full-on but this time around I’m going to try to make a better effort.

I’m about to board my plane to London! I won’t have any time to spare while I’m in London but I will be in and around Glasgow for a week from March 5th. If anyone is around and wants to meet up, drop me a line.

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January was an improvement with earnings coming in at $1347. For the third or fourth month in a row I haven’t done much work so I’m obviously pretty happy that the money continues to roll on in. I am completely aware that I have to get back into work mode but I didn’t manage to get anything done in Kuala Lumpur and won’t be able to do much until the end of February when I leave Indonesia for London.

Oh ya! I bought a ticket to London for March 1st. The plan is to head there to attempt to get a visa for Pakistan and, if that doesn’t work out, I will probably head to Haiti. The Pakistan plan is good for working online and I’m hoping it works out. The Haiti plan isn’t so good for web work but it’s too tempting not to go. Either way I will have something interesting to keep me busy for a few months.

Earnings Breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $319 - Yay! Adsense is back over $300 after a scary month in December. January started as a slow month which was a bit of a worry, especially since in past years January has usually seen my Adsense earnings jump up a lot. It’s not at $500 where I want it, but it’s moving in the right direction.
• Affiliate Sales - $498 - My main affiliate program is still sucking but others are stepping up finally. I’ve set up some programs on my moving to London site which are a perfect fit and the early results are promising. I have a couple more products from the same company to add so hopefully that will be what bumps me up to above $500 consistently.
• Advertising - $530 - It was a month mostly of renewals and I also did a few new deals for monthly payments. I have stopped pursuing direct advertising but I’m still always open to it so it’s nice that people are still coming to me occasionally.

January was good and February will probably be more of the same until I get off my arse and get some serious amounts of work done. The good part is I have the sites built, I just need to dedicate a lot of time to building links and attempting to get them into Google.

But that’s for March… in the meantime it’s more of the same in Sumatra, Indonesia. We’ve moved onto building houses and I get to play with a circular saw which is fun and it’s nice to be building houses instead of destroying them.

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I will keep this short because I’m on the world’s most frustrating net connection at the moment and I need to get offline soon so I don’t go insane. December was a pretty bad month for earnings coming in at $1111. I didn’t do much web work last month but in past months I was still able to earn a decent amount despite being a slacker. It is starting to look like I will need to put some serious graft in soon to stop things from slipping further. I’m still not spending much money though so at least I have that.

Earnings Breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $227 - This is scary. Adsense has been the one steady thing with me being able to count on over $300 a month. But things are looking better in January already so I’m hoping December was a blip.
• Affiliate Sales - $300 - My main affiliate program sucked more than ever but some others have picked up a bit of the slack. Still, earnings in this area seem to be dropping and dropping. I have a plan but I don’t have the time to work on it until I get back to Kuala Lumpur in early February.
• Advertising - $584 - This month started out pretty bad in this area as well but things picked up due to some late deals.

I’m actually surprised I cleared a grand this month as things were looking terrible up until last week. I’m not spending much money at the moment but that will all change once I hit South Africa during the World Cup so these low-earning months are a bit of a concern. But I can hardly expect to make money without working for it so I have only myself to blame. I’m happy to earn less and spend less for now but once I leave Sumatra in March-ish, I will need to have another plan. But I’ll worry about it then.

Happy New Year everyone!

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I earned $1560 this month which, for doing a grand total of zero hours of work on my sites, I’m really happy with. My target earnings per month is $1500 so being able to earn that while leaving my sites unattended has proven to me that this really is passive income. The best part about earning $1500 is that I have spent about $100 in
the month I’ve been here so most of that money is headed straight for
my ailing bank account.

Earnings Breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $334 - Another drop in Adsense but I have a bunch of sites completed that could bump this up if I’m ever able to get them going. I really need to focus on building links and getting my sites into the search engines because, at the moment, they’re nowhere to be seen.
• Affiliate Sales - $380 - My main affiliate program is on the way out and I haven’t got anything going at the moment to replace it. I have some affiliate sites up and ready to go but I need to do a lot of SEO before they’ll start paying off.
• Advertising - $846 - This was made up of my usual $400-ish of monthly subscription payments along with a new, six month deal with an advertiser on my moving to London site. The new advertiser is a perfect fit and I’ve set up a few affiliate programs with them too that I think my site’s readers will find really useful.

I have all the sites in place I think I will need to kick my earnings up to the next level but, as I’ve mentioned, I need to spend a lot of time doing SEO to get visitors and get them earning. It’s impossible to get much work done in Indonesia due to a terrible internet connection and unreliable power so there’s not much I can do about it for now. I’m heading to Kuala Lumpur today to eat hamburgers, have hot showers, drink mocha frappuccinos and do some work for a week and SEO will be my focus. I have about seven new sites that need attention but I’m going to focus on two and see if I can get things going a bit in the week I have.

I’m loving it here in Indonesia but I’m in need of a break. I’ve been sick for the past week and I’m looking forward to having my own room, a decent net connection, a western toilet and eating lots of yummy food.The work here isn’t too physically demanding but the hot and/or rainy weather makes it challenging. Plus, while I like the food, I’m in need of some variety, namely green vegetables that haven’t been boiled to death.

Next time I write I will be in KL stuffing my face!

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