It’s update time again on the 3 month make money blogging challenge.
The blog has started to see its first trickle of pay-per-click (PPC) ad revenue. It’s a good thing, but the overall amount is absolutely nothing to get excited about. If anything I’m starting to doubt that this site will reach the goal of a three figure income during its third month. I’ve been way too hands-off with it. As of today that will change, and I’ll salvage whatever I can out of it.
That said, there is some good news here. The ad revenue so far, while miniscule, is backing up the market assumption I made based on my past experience and keyword research before launching. This is going to be a great PPC site in the long haul. I picked the right niche and am putting up the right keyword-targeted (while still highly informational) content. Clicks are paying at over a dollar each on average right now (in line with other sites I’ve run in the general niche).
I want to put more emphasis on the affiliate programs though. One or two good affiliate sales is enough to reach the earnings goal for the month while I wait for PPC ad revenue to pick up as traffic slowly grows.
That’s where it stands now. I need to get my butt in gear with posting and doing a bit of marketing over the next couple of weeks, and with a little bit of luck an whole lot of effort who knows? Maybe we’ll still see the goal met after all.
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Brie Wallace
Crystal
Lucy Smith
Sonya Carmichael ...
When do we get your next update?! I would love to hear how it is going and what tips you would offer up to others. My blog is still purely a labor of love as I have received no income from it yet! I think I have been a bit naive in my approach- not wanting the integrity of my message to be compromised by my desire for that residual income. (To use SEO in my writing or not? To push those affiliates to my readers or not? More google ads or less?) Finding your blog has shown me that one does not have to destroy the other. I have learned so much in just the last hour scouring your site! Thanks for laying it all out for us. It’s so helpful when someone is willing to be open about their own numbers and methods!
I don’t think there have been any changes since the last update. I’ve still been incredibly neglectful of the site. While the per-click ad revenue is good, the overall revenue is next to nil because I haven’t been doing anything to drive traffic there. I’m actually already taking a longer term approach — just hired someone to put together a post for me which I’ll be answering in another post — taking two approaches to the same issue. It was my own fault for planning this in a holiday lead-up time when I knew I’d be busy clearing up client work before my breaks and prepping for major updates and features coming on this blog. When I get a chance I’ll poke around the stats and add a bit to the site for an update.
Just curious about the blog challenge. I just recently found this site and it’s so informative, but I was really curious and would like an update on the blog challenge.