Expanding My Online Empire

My online income for 2009 was less then in 2008 but my income for this year is already my best ever with a few months to go.  I am not really sure why I am seeing such a nice improvement in income this year but I think it is a combination of putting in more work and luck.  I don’t really know a lot about making money online.  I barely have enough technical knowledge to write a blog but by sticking with it I have started to get some good results.

My online income is still not quite enough to live on but it is getting close.  That is why I have decided to expand my online empire. My current goal is to add one source of online income per month until the end of the year.  I currently have four sites that make money. One of the sites makes very little money but it requires very little work so it is still a good deal.  I also have two sites that aren’t currently making money.  One of the sites hasn’t been monetized yet but I have a special monetization method in mind for it.  The other site I will either sell or completely revamp.

To reach my goal of making a full-time income from my sites I have decided to launch some niche sites.  I already have three blogs and I don’t have time for another one.  A niche site will take quite a bit of time to launch but afterward should not require too much time.  I have been taking a lot of inspiration from the niche site duel at Smart Passive Income.  I already have an idea for my niche site and I will be using information I have learned from reading about the niche site duel to get the site started.

Since lots of people ask me how to make money online and I am usually not sure what to tell them I have decided to share with you the process of launching the niche site.  The first update should be sometime next week.  Thanks to all of you who have helped me make money online.

Online Income Report – August 2010

It was another great month for online income.  I made over $1000 for the second month in a row.  There is a good chance I will make over $1000 this month as well.  It just depends on whether one of my affiliate companies pays me on time.  I’m reporting the money I actually received rather than the money I earned.  Since I generally don’t receive money until the month after I earn it my online income reports are more reflective of my earnings for the prior month.

Here are my income sources for August.

Google Adsense – $265.99

Text Links – $43.12

Affiliate Sales – $91

Direct Ad Sales – $727.97

Total   $1128.08

I’m not sure how long I can continue selling the ads without killing my page rank but I’m probably going to find out.  I’ve already made almost as much in direct ad sales this month as last month.  My Google Adsense revenue will be way up this month because I had an article featured on Yahoo Finance that brought a lot of very clicky traffic to one of my other sites.  I’m trying to build up my affiliate income so my revenue streams will be more diversified.  I have made some progress but I am still in the process of trying to improve it further.  My goal of making a full-time living from my web sites no longer seems too far-fetched.

Online Income Report – July 2010

Here is a breakdown of my online income for July. I am reporting the income I received in July not the income earned. Much of the income received in a month was earned in a previous month so the monthly income figure is not always indicative of the current income trend. Anyway, I received money from the following sources in July.

  • Google Adsense – $255.64
  • Kontera – $108.70
  • Text Links – $39.40
  • Direct Ad Sales – $458
  • Affiliate Sales – $285
  • Ehow – $11.86

Total                  $1158.60

It was a great month for online income.  This is the first time I have made it over four figures.  My income was helped by a large amount of direct ad sales and an accumulated affiliate payout.  My income will most likely go down in August but I already have a couple more ad sales lined up and quite a bit in affiliate sales due me giving me a shot at making the four figure mark once again.  If I can keep my income going like this I might become a five figure blogger for the first time ever.  This would be especially great considering 2009’s online income was less than 2008.

July Income – $1519.91

Here is a breakdown of my income for July.

Online Income

$1067.96

Interest

$12.35

Stock Dividends

$22.79

Mystery Shops

$373.52

Bank Bonuses

$20

Survey/Cashback

$23.29

Total

$1519.91

It was a good month for income.  My online income was my best ever.  Making a $1000 in a month has been a goal of mine for a while but I don’t think I’ve even made it over $800 before.  One of the reasons my online income was higher in July was because I had a couple of months of affiliate income owed to me that finally arrived.  Most of the increase was from the direct sale of links.   There was a large increase in people contacting me wanting to purchase links on one of my sites.   Most of the income was from links paid for a year upfront.  There are also a couple of links that pay monthly and a couple more people I’m still negotiating with so I will still make at least a little from selling links this month.  I doubt I will make a $1000 again this month but I should make at least $600 which I am pretty happy with.

Mystery shopping income will go down because I have a regular job now and won’t have as much time for mystery shopping.  Some of the shops I did last month won’t pay me until this month though so I should make at least $200 from mystery shops this month.

My new job is working for a non-profit and it doesn’t pay much but it should still cause my total income to increase over last month. Although if I could count on making $1500 a month every month without a job I wouldn’t worry about a job and just concentrate on increasing my alternative sources of income.   It would be nice to have all my money come from alternative income and passive income but that might take a while.

Online Income Report – May 2010

When I share my monthly income totals people often ask for more details about my online income. To satisfy people’s curiosity I am now going to have a monthly report detailing how I made my online income. For the month of May I made $580.69 in online income. I am counting the money I actually received, not the money I earned but will be paid later. Most money I earn online is paid the next month so any efforts I make to increase my online income this month will not actually show up until the next month. Here is breakdown of my sources of income.

Google Adsense  –  $346.81

Text Links –              $42.26

Direct Ad Sales –    $71.47

Affiliate Sales –       $120.15

Since my Adsense is paid a month after I earn it I already know it is going to be down significantly this month.  My affiliate sales are going to be up significantly though and will more than offset the Adsense decline.  Going forward I plan to keep my affiliate sales up and build my Adsense back up as well.  I would like my other sources of income to be larger than Adsense in order to be less dependent on Adsense for income.  The Adsense income seems to fluctuate quite a bit and I usually can’t figure out what is causing the changes.  If there is any other information about my online income you would like to know, just ask.  I’m willing to hear any tips you have for increasing my online income too.