My goal since Make Money Your Way launched on July 1st was to make $3,000 with it during its first six months. I realize that I didn’t mention net or gross, that was a gross figure I had in mind.
I am pleased to announce that this is a… WIN! I made $3,080 as of December 31st, not including Adsense for the first few months as I didn’t know how to split between RFI and MMYW.
| money in | fees | |||
| Sept | $90 | $308 | charity 10% for education projects in my village | |
| Oct | $165 | $100 | hosting | |
| Nov | $465 | $12 | domain | |
| Dec | $2,360 | $800 | staff posts (all set until May 2014!) | |
| $25 | fiverr gigs (logo, migration, tweaks, etc) | |||
| $1,592 | VA salary and Christmas bonus | |||
| $3,080 | $2,837 | |||
As you can see I barely made about $250 with MMYW those past 6 months BUT
– I donated 10% so students in my village can keep going to school
– the VA now counts as a Super Secret Website expense, not MMYW, so from January the expenses will be much lower, and she did a lot of work on Reach Financial Independence but all her salary went there.
– I have staff posts until May, but put the cost during those 6 months
– hosting is paid for 3 years
– Adsense was not added in the income because I used the same code as my other sites, and it took me 6 months to act on it and split the sites to see how much revenue each one produces, so I added it all to RFI.
The only projected expenses for the next 6 months are a $15 domain renewal in July and the odd Fiverr gig. Plus the 10% charity donation but that is a function of how much the site makes, like taxes, it is good news when that figure increases.
I am pretty confident I can now net $1,000 a month with that website from now on.
Looking back
Starting a blog from the ground is not easy. Affiliate sales and adsense are low because you have little traffic so your chances of getting a sale are very slim. Your chances of getting private advertising are even slimmer since your stats are bad and you have such a small audience.
So you have to get out of your cave, network like crazy, while generating dozens of posts to keep the site alive, promoting your content, staying on top of your stats, coding, optimizing, etc. for nothing at first. But like you see, it is an upward trend. Once the ball starts rolling, it gets better.
When MMYW got its first affiliate sale, its first 1,000 pageviews, its first backlink, the feeling was like crossing the finish line on a race. Except you still have a marathon ahead and if you stop your efforts you’ll fall.
Looking forward
The unexpected PageRank update of December 2013 was a real blessing, and should make things easier from now on. Search engine traffic is up since then, advertisers are starting to notice me, and since traffic is up, so are affiliate sales and Adsense.
I want to bump up affiliate sales in 2014, without boring you to death with product reviews (and I am too lazy to even write them so no worries there) so I will try my best to include them in some entertaining, useful content.
If you are new to blogging, please consider using them to purchase the products I recommend, your cost remains the same and you help keeping this site alive.
Check my post about starting a website here for more information.
I think I may go down to 2 posts per week, but am not sure so far. The idea would be less content, and more promotion of that content. My posts are usually around 1,000 words, some even bigger, so I feel like I am still producing decent content, instead of 300 word posts where you learn nothing, and they deserve more light than what I am currently giving them.
Speaking of post and content promotion, I need to seriously work on social media too. MMYW has around 1,500 followers on Twitter and 2,000 FB fans, which is awesome, but in order to engage more the audience, it takes a lot of time. Probably a VA project when she finishes optimizing my Super Secret Website.
Another interesting comparison was buying my third blog and comparing that to starting a blog from scratch. MMYW is my baby and it took a lot of love and effort to get off the ground, while the third site had its own traffic and revenue from day 1.
So far it looks like both sites will make roughly the same amount of money, which leads to the conclusion that if I can make the purchase price back in less than 6 months, then it was better financially to buy a blog than starting one from nothing. However, it has been a really great ride, and it is all worth it.
What do you think? Was it worth the effort?
This post was featured on How to Blog Carnival, thank you!
I’m starting a blog from scratch atm. I’m going to study part-time starting in March 14 and was seriously disappointed by the lack of valuable information I could find online. I had to browse countless discussion boards to find answers to the most basic questions I asked myself. So I decided to start a blog for people like me, where they can find a whole lot of information on part-time studying.
ANYWAY 😀 these posts are very inspiring. I think it was worth all the effort! mmyw has become one of my most favourite websites 🙂
Keep up the good work
Andrea
Thanks Andrea and good luck with your site! It is a great idea to provide the info you couldn’t find.
I definitely think it was worth the effort Pauline. I have a bunch of domains I want to turn into sites but haven’t found the time yet. One of these days.
Great job!
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At least the domains are aging, which is always a good thing.
I definitely think it was worth your time to start the second website. I just started my second website and it’s a niche site that I think will be a real challenge to build up, but if I succeed there is VERY little competition in the blogosphere and online in general, so the profits could be much higher than a personal finance website.
Interesting point about going to two posts a week. I don’t plan on cutting back, but a lot of my posts are close to a 1,000 words. I plan on continuing with posting as much as I have and just promoting older posts over time via Twitter, Facebook, and linking back to them.
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted…A Better Way to Do the 52-Week Money Challenge
That is a good approach too. That is what GRS/Simple Dollar do. IWTY posts 2-3 times a week at best, and it is just as successful, so I guess it depends on what you want your blog to be.
I always think diversification is worth it. Nice work Pauline. I have something in the works, which will also take time!
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Thank you Grayson, and good luck to you!
You got some great results! I think that networking is a must when blogging. Writing content is not enough.
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Thanks Simon! You are absolutely right, otherwise no one will notice you.
That’s unreal that you’re already making over $2K from this site! I’d say it was definitely worth the effort. I’ve decided I too need to start bumping up the social awareness of a few of my own sites. No traffic = no income.
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That’s for sure. Hiring a VA was great for that although you have to be convinced you can get a ROI.
Dude, you’re doing so well! My blog is over a year old and I don’t think I made 3k in the last 6 months haha. Keep it up!
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Thanks!
I love the thrill of all those little milestones you mention when you’re starting a new blog. I recently had a tweep with 250,000 followers tweet out a link to my of my blog posts and traffic went WILD. Exciting stuff!
Congratulations with the project – I’m enjoying following your results. Very inspiring indeed.
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Wow that is pretty awesome! Hope you keep surfing on that wave a long time.
Very impressive, Pauline. Doesn’t it feel great to achieve a goal?!
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$3k in 6 months from startup is quite a good return. Great work. I look forward to reading more MMYW in the coming year.
Bryce @ Save and Conquer recently posted…Are Retirees More Frugal?
Good for you Pauline.. you are doing very well with this site and I have no doubt your new site will do just as well if not better. Keep up the great work mate. CBB
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Hi Pauline and congrats on all your success…both online and off 🙂
All the work you have done…on all sites…has definitely been worth it…and it’s paying off which allows you to continue to live the life you want. And that is defintiely worth it!!
Take care Pauline and all the best. Continued success.
Lyle
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Wow, I’m relating to everything your saying here. Building a blog from the ground up is not easy at all. And, even building it after two years isn’t any easier. I’ve gone through many ups and downs, and recently after switching domains, have had major issues with a lot of things.
Nice job on everything you have accomplished here. You’ve accomplished much.
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Congrats in achieving your goal Pauline! I’m sure you’ll be able to grow your blogs better this 2014. Good luck.
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Wow, this is really inspiring to read Pauline. I think it’s been well worth the effort! If my blog ever makes $3000, I’ll be well happy! Your hard work has paid off.
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