Tag Archives: income

Newsbytes: Interest, Income and AdWords

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Well, it’s a real long time since I did a newspost for InvestorBlogger. But here it is… what’s going on with InvestorBlogger?

July Income Report: Changes Afoot

July was less than a stellar month on income for InvestorBlogger, bringing in an approx. $471.12. I’ll be including this but from July 1st I’ll be reporting on a strictly CASH basis. In other words, only money or cash that is received in my accounts will be recorded as an income. Affiliate income that is not paid out will be noted, but since different affiliate programs and advertising vendors have varying payout regulations, it will not be counted.

Only when I have the cash in one of my accounts, PayPal or Broker or Bank, will I record it in my cash received column. Unfortunately this will mean that some income will be double counted as I haven’t received it yet cash-wise, but counted it earlier as ‘income’. So I will keep an informal record towards the end of 2008, but from July 1st I will be releasing official results shortly!

  • (what’s missing here?)
  • Bank Interest $27.06
  • Stockbroker $122.50
  • blogging $97.50
  • Advertising $165.04
  • Consulting $59.02
  • Total: $471.12

Maxxing things out: The only way to go!

It’s true – I haven’t maximized the earnings on some fronts. In fact, I checked through my accounts and figured that I could be earning about $23 more per month, just by putting more of my ‘stagnant’ cash in better earning accounts. In fact, I just double checked my figures and found out that my savings are ‘less-’ optimized. With the money in the brokerage account, I figure I could earn about another $7 per month.

Here’s to maximizing the income! Anyway, next time you get your interest statement, make sure that your account is getting a decent rate! It’s easy to be too busy and overlook such ‘little’ things: truth is, you’re only cheating yourself if you do.

Best Wishes,

Kenneth

January 2008: Financial Results, Traffic and More…

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January ended. And as usual, I’m filling visitors in on the current stats. As promised though, I’m now going to deliver the information in a new way. I’m going to be taking into account the costs (ALL costs not including taxes) that I face to give a more accurate picture of my income sources and the related costs. So we’ll look at the blog’s stats itself, Total Income and blog Expenses.

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Page Rank, Alexa and Real Rank.

As most of you now know, InvestorBlogger’s page rank is still zero. Google has not relented in its pursuit of do_follow linking. You can read more in previous months about the scandal, and why relying on Google 100% is really bad for business, but I don’t want to go over that again. It’s 2008, and it’s time to move on.

With SocialSpark coming, and the requirements for no_follow being implicit in the design, I’m readying InvestorBlogger for that opportunity slowly. In the short term, the posts within the content will go no_follow shortly. The sidebar will remain as is for the time being until the text links expire or are removed. I will be unveiling my plan for no_follow soonish and my decision on whether to submit for reinclusion for PR. I’ve already requested to be removed from Payperpost for the time being with the following email:

Dear Payperpost,

I’m very supportive of PPP and have been with PPP since 2007 the early days! However, since my PR on my primary website is now zero, the number of posts I have been able to do on my blog has dropped to practically one or two in the last three months.

As a result of this hit by Google and a PR zero, I’ve been considering using nofollow on my blog for sometime. After the end of my most recent posts, I will be making my primary blog a nofollow blog.

While in the short term I don’t particularly care about PR, SocialSpark will be using nofollow, so it is time to get ready.

However, due to my frustration with PPP not permitting nofollow blogs on their roster, I have no alternative but to request that after the blog be removed from PPP for the time being. Naturally, I hope that PPP’s TOS is updated to include nofollow blogs, but in the meantime, if I am to maintain a healthy blog and get ready for SS, I have no choice.

Please understand that I’m grateful for the work and experience that I have obtained because of what we accomplished working with PPP. I would naturally like to continue working with Izea, too, but right now I’m caught in the no-man’s land: no pr, no posts, no nofollow… And SocialSpark is still some way…

Hoping your TOS changes S O O N!

Quite clearly Izea is a company stuck between the past and the future. Payperpost is dying slowly (at least for me!) and SocialSpark is still dormant. Whither Izea? I don’t know yet, but I’m hoping that PPP makes a decision on no_follow soon as SocialSpark may still be some way off. In fact, Gordon from Customer Love recently reaffirmed the no_follow blog policy saying:

As of today, the TOS has not changed, and no-follows are addressed in section 5.4 (A), regarding the blogs themselves: “Blogs must not include nofollow tags in the robots meta tags, though Advertisers may request nofollows with their required links. (See Section 5.5 Posting Regulations.)”

Some flexibility, but it seems PPP is still in the business of selling pagerank. Oh, well. I’m moving on, even if they aren’t.

Analytics

analytics jan2008

Traffic is simply off from December. This is primarily because of the extended holidays at the beginning of the month (New Year, you remember!) and my little vacation on the 29th-31st. Both of these directly impacted traffic to the blog, with visits and pageviews down 42% and 36% respectively. A more instructive comparison is with January 2007 with visits up 164% and pageviews up over 267%. Better! Traffic will pick up again in February through to July.

Alexa Ranking

traffic rank jan2008

Alexa swings with the mood, it seems. With my little vacation this week, my weekly rank has dropped to 184K, but the more important statistic is the 3-month average of 117K. I haven’t managed to break through the 100K consistently yet… Yet! But I’ve had several weeks where I’ve been under 100K for extended periods. The odd thing is though: page views on Alexa are way above even John Chow’s blog. But is Alexa worth much? Perhaps not.

Technorati

The Technorati ranking is bouncing around like a yo-yo at the moment: one moment at 38K, the next at 49K. Who knows what is going on?

technorati jan2008

Whatever the current situation is, the rank is a big improvement over six months ago; and traffic is edging up for sure because of the stronger base of links. I’m aiming to get the blog under 10K within 3 months. But it’s going to take some work! Wish me luck.

RealRanks

RealRanks is still in its infancy, and stats aren’t quite reliable yet. Worse, its launch coincided with a quiet period for my blog, so this month’s stats aren’t impressive. What makes it look worse is that after the launch, more sites joined (good for everyone) and bumped the early members (like me) from higher slots thus making my site appear to lose its rank, when in fact the sample was quite small in November anyway.

realranks Jan2008

(All stats can be verified by clicking on the picture, except for Analytics which are NOT public).

Show me the money!

Just a few days ago, I went into great detail about my philosophy of investing for income and how well I’ve done so far. It’s well worth checking out.

Income

January income is very mixed and very unbalanced. This month I managed to earn …

  • Bank Interest: $25.20
  • Dividend Income: $226.83
  • blog Income – Advertising: $560.00 (for two sites)
  • TLA – $65.29
  • Linkworth – $77.24 (for three sites)
  • Payperpost – $14.42
  • Adsense – $6.13 (for several sites)
  • Business – $307.69
  • AdToll – $6.22
  • TopSpots – $2.32
  • Total = $1,291.34*

*there are a few other residual sources but they generally don’t generate much, like Voxant, NetAudioAds, etc. that generate only a few cents a month.

That is an incredibly impressive total, and it’s unlikely that February will come anywhere close to this, but who cares! There were big jumps in irregular and one-time inputs though the underlying average remains close.

Total Income Generated

Naturally, this means my total generated by blogging now jumps to $8430.39. Also, my revenue from writing reviews and buzzes has dropped from over $200 per month to just $40.00. In fact, last month I only wrote two reviews in the whole month. I’d love to do more as it’s something I enjoy doing, but we’ll see.

Expenses

The blog currently only has a few expenses such as hosting through Dreamhost’s VPS system and it works well. Of course, Domains and I own about ten or so all need to be paid for annually and Paypal Fees. I currently don’t advertise, though I may do so soon again.

  • Hosting – $44.67
  • Domains – $49.75
  • Fees – $20.24
  • Total = $114.66

So that’s it for January. Do check back in February to see how we’re doing. The $10,000 goal is approaching soon. I’d guess in March, but let’s hope it’s sooner! Whenever, let InvestorBlogger dot com encourage you in your financial goals in 2008.

What would you do if… (some bad news)

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streams book

(ed. Backed date post to January 30th. Written February 2nd.)

We’re often told that we need to diversify our investments to protect them. We’re given that advice to ensure we don’t put ALL our money in just a few stocks or mutual funds or bonds or options or whatever. Why? To reduce the risk that we will lose everything in a downward turn of the stock or market or economy.

Conventional Wisdom

To my amazement, this is what most people do EVERYDAY (not with their stocks, though) but with their CAREERS. They rely on these careers to provide 100% of their personal income, whether they are high-flying lawyers, multiply-skilled engineers, or teachers in elementary schools.

To offset the risk of being injured, sick or dying, employees of all income levels are encouraged by employers, government and private industry to purchase insurance to cover these risks. Of course, these policies require that the employee shoulder the lion’s share of the premium (whether or not the companies contribute). To reduce the consequences of unemployment which in our World 2.0 seems to happen with increasing regularity, employees are required to take out unemployment insurance with the government agency tasked with employee welfare. In most cases, injury, sickness, death or unemployment means a reduced income for an indefinite or permanent period.

Dumb and Dumber

Given these risks, and the single source of income philosophy most employees share, you’d think people would be willing to look after their money sensibly. Well, it doesn’t happen. How? Because these self-same individuals then go borrow money at multiples to their current annual or monthly salary to buy houses, higher interest personal loans for cars, and usurious rates for credit card purchases. The items they then buy are then used, used up, consumed or thrown out even before the payments are finished. In nearly every case, the item’s value is depreciated considerably by time, such that hi-fi, TV, washing machines, etc which may last more than five years are often replaced before or just after the personal loan that financed their purchase expires. It still shocks me, once I realized how we were encouraged to play the game, that we all fall into this trap without so much as a look over our shoulder.

It can’t happen to me!

Given the risks employees hold to themselves and their jobs, and given the lifestyles that their jobs and careers finance, when misfortune happens (and it does), it comes as a shock. It is a shock that causes a lot of immediate distress IN ADDITION TO any emotional distress that are directly caused by the misfortune itself. An example:

John Smith works in a car assembly plant in Michigan (for one of the ‘Big Three’). It’s just after Christmas in 2008, and there’s news of closures across the US. The company is losing market share, has the wrong products in its showrooms, and is losing money by the truckload. Massive closures come. For John Smith, who has worked there 15 years since high school, it’s a personal disaster.

He is informed that he’ll lose his job in three weeks. Of course, he’ll get compensation. But still he loses his entire career at once; he’ll lose his teammates (similarly fired); and he’s going to face an uncertain future until he retrains or finds new work at the Toyota plant (where rates are 30% lower for the same work).

Worse, he just bought his own new 4×4 on a car loan; his family owe $17500 dollars on credit card; the house is 100% financed (and the realty market is also suffering); and his bank balance shows $400. Tuition payments, taxes, cable bills, etc. are also eating into his already reduced income. And there is NO emergency money. In addition to his personal worries, he’s a period of difficult financial uncertainty, too. (This is a fictitious example).

Yes, it can. Yes, it does. It might just happen to YOU!

In May 2005, I caught bronchitis, and that was the start of a journey that took a number of weird turns. I was forced to stay home for over 10 days as I was sick and feeble. Bronchitis isn’t pleasant by any means, unfortunately, I didn’t get it treated properly the first few days meaning that my recovery time was longer than it should have been. However, it allowed me a chance to think about Multiple Sources of Income in a very personal way. I had just leafed my way through the book by Robert Allen’s book of the same name.

Read Wednesday’s post “A Man WITH A Plan” to find out what that plan was.

InvestorBlogger’s Quick Recap: Posts, links, and Carnival News

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Another week is nearly over, it’s lunch time in New York City soon, and stomachs are grumbling, so I’ll fill you in on the InvestorBlogger news as you crunch through your sandwich at your desk or on your Asus Eee PC or wherever you are.

It’s been a busy week on InvestorBlogger, though the posting schedule is definitely slower than in the last part of 2007. I’ve slowed down the posting schedule, and lengthened the posts over the last few weeks as I’ve been seeking to explore in more depth the world of investing, business, blogging, and technology and the neat intersection of these four areas.

The Week’s Posts (or most of them!)

So here’s a quick recap of the posts that I’ve done this week:

Last Saturday, I started work on the new theme which I shared with readers, and I challenged them with the question – New Theme: Is it time to revitalize your blog? – in which I looked at different ways you can find a new look for your blog;

Then on Sunday, I took some lovely sunset pictures with my Lumix camera; and the weather was so mild, it was a wonderful trip!

On Monday, I declared war against Google with my ultimatum – Going to War Against Google’s Hubris: Three Actions You Can Take Today. Of course, a quick trip through the archives will show that this is a theme I’ve dwelt on before;

On Tuesday, I blogged about promotion and your blog or business in which I challenged readers not to focus too much on the nickels and dimes and this post was a challenge to write as it brought together some ideas I’d been thinking about for a while;

On Wednesday, I examined a website that was promoting e-minis as a way to trade online, and I was surprised that such a method was available;

And on Thursday, I challenged those of you with a windfall on what you should do when you strike it rich; sudden wealth syndrome can lead to some disastrous consequences, and smaller amounts seem to generate bigger problems!

Then on Friday, I wrote Adios Adsense, which was a swansong for Google as much as for Adsense. I really hope I’m wrong about Google, but it looks like the Google Machine is beginning to believe too much of its own hype.

Saturday evening’s post will look at Izea’s new RealRank and compare that with some competitors. So do check back later this weekend or subscribe to our feed! You can also check out our Carnival of Making Real Money for more great reading, as well as our wonderful archives.  This week’s carnival will be published Sunday as usual.

Do check out the newest advertisers on the blog. But most important of all, have a wonderful weekend!

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Rosemary’s Thoughts, 123beta, Right Truth, Adam’s Blog, Shadowscope, The Amboy Times, Cao’s Blog, Big Dog’s Weblog, Leaning Straight Up, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Adeline and Hazel, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Allie is Wired, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, Stix, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, Celebrity Smack, Global American Discourse, The Pink Flamingo, CORSARI D’ITALIA, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

December 2007 Income Report

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Well, December has come to a close, and with it, 2007. How have we done this month? Well, it’s been a roller coaster few months.

With Christmas coming at the tail end, and a drop in traffic since the week prior to Christmas until the end, this month’s stats are way off the recent trend. We’ll see in January whether November’s stats can be repeated.

Page Rank, Alexa and Real Rank.

With a page rank at zero, I was quite surprised to see a jump in traffic from Google by over 73%! Proof again, that it is just Toolbar PR that is being penalized.

stats for December 2007

Compared to November, actual visits have been fairly constant, but page views, uniques and average time on the site all took a dive! I guess the preoccupation with Christmas affected my blog quite significantly. Taken in a broader context, traffic has grown leaps and bounds since December 2006. Uniques have grown by over 600% alone.

Alexa is also on the up again, most recently recording 111K, though this figure is somewhat subjective as Alexa isn’t the most reliable of sources. And Technorati is still hovering under 50K.

Payperpost’s new Real Ranking has been working for over a month now, and though it has created some buzz, the stats are all over the place. I’m hoping that as the figures become more established, the numbers settle a bit.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the nofollow debate. Am I going to add ‘nofollow’ to this blog? It’s unlikely at the moment that I will… because I don’t see the rational. Google doesn’t want me to pass PR through my links, so then how is PR going to be calculated if everyone goes nofollow… I’m sorry I just don’t get it. In the meantime, there is no movement from either Payperpost or Text Link Ads on nofollow.

Show me the money!

Financial results are posted below:

Payperpost: $22.00
* Google : $11.90
* Adlinks : $89.41
Stocks: $139.02
Hosting : $0.00
Bank A/C Interest : $25.78
*Other Incomes: $10.59
Loan: $307.69
Total: $614.51

*I’ve been experimenting with two other ad networks, AdToll and Scratchback, both of which have generated some income, but I’m very uncertain of the actual income as of now as both started late in the month. I tend to book income as it comes in, rather than when it enters my bank account – this figure sometimes changes.
Without the loan interest (a private loan I made a few years to our business), the total income would be nothing to write home about. Apart from links, there has been relatively little new income in December. But that’s okay. I’ve always tried to spread my income among a variety of sources so that I’m not reliant on the ups and downs of one particular source.

In the months ahead, I’m busy on building both interest and dividend income as my primary interest, simply because that’s where my money is right now. The decision on going nofollow is still pending. While I’m not waiting for Google’s decision (I could care less about what their monopolistic behavior is), I would like to be involved with Izea. I think we’ll see some really interesting ideas coming from SocialSpark.

2008 is going to be an interesting year, that’s for sure!

August 2007 Results – Summer Slump is over… :)

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 Well, this month in some ways was a banner month for partly financial and partly non-financial reasons. In fact, in late August, we passed the $5,000 mark for the first time for our annual (non-job roll) income, which included money in almost all the categories below. Also, this month was the first birthday of InvestorBlogger. Moreover, this month we finally reach the 1,000 unique visitors per month mark, and already we’re comfortably passed that level! I’ll be adding an “Advertising” page soon.

On to August’s income:

Payperpost: $84.81
Google : $4.45
SR/ReviewME/Other : $68.63
Adlinks : $60.89
Stocks: $75.46
Hosting : $0.00
Bank A/C Interest : $22.55
Business: $0.00
Total: $316.79

Well, paid blogging has been responsible for a number of posts this month, though the actual number of paid posts dropped to 11. Payperpost provided the bulk of the money, almost eight of the eleven posts, two were from SponsoredReviews and one was freelanced.  In fact, the last one was the most fun to write on Credit Reports.

The bank account interest rose about 10% since last month, due to rising interest rates and a further term deposit that also provided income this month. I’m 90% of the way to reaching my goal on that score. Of course, the stocks have lost about 15%~20% in value in the last few months, since reaching a high of nearly $13,600. However, with dividends still coming in, there is some protection to the downside.

My Adlink sponsors have been very generous this month, too. Please do visit them if you have the chance. At least you can check out the product/services they are selling!

Where to from here? Well. I’m still sitting on nearly $2,000 of cash that’s in a bank account. It’s not very efficient, though because the amount is only earning about 0.4% interest. I’ve looked at higher interest rates in foreign currencies, esp. the US Dollar, which in Taiwan would earn about 4.35% pa, at least double the local rate. And I’m nearly16% in cash in my stocks as well. I guess, I’m prevaricating… so I’ll need to do something soon. Putting things off is NOT the best financial rationale, really!

Car Depreciation

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I found a great website that helps value your car’s depreciation. Obviously a lot depends on condition, driver, mileage, etc… but it might help figure a base value to start from:

http://www.ncbuy.com/auto/calc.html?show=1007

I’m not sure exactly how the depreciation is calculated but anyway, it’s a start. But the initial year’s depreciation is quite a shocker.

Kenneth

Assets vs. Liabilities

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A reprise of Rich Dad Poor Dad.There has been much discussion of the authenticity of RDPD’s and the background of the author. You can read about that at other blogs: Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Liar Dad, Thief. However, one criticism of the book is below along with my own interpretation of RDPD’s theories.

Jeff writes – “You tried to demonstrate that a house is a liability because you pay property tax on it. That is irrelevant. You also have to pay a tax on your car (license fee). Does that make your car a liability? You pay taxes on your income. Does that mean that earned income is a liability?”

Actually, RDPD clearly defines an asset as something that puts money in your pocket and a liability as something that takes money out of your pocket. So, if you live in your house, you pay a mortgage, taxes, etc., it is effectively a liability because the money comes out of your salary to pay this stuff. In other words, the house is costing YOU money.

Whereas if you rent out a house to someone who pays rent, as long as the rental income covers ALL expenses (inc. taxes) plus a little, the house becomes an ASSET, ie. it is making money for you.

In truth, this is a simplification of the situation, as in a balance sheet, a house with a mortgage would be recorded twice, as an Asset and a Liability. Anyway, he makes an interesting point that our passion for buying houses to live in really isn’t such a great way to make wealth (except through capital gains) as it produces no regular benefit.

But I do think he makes an interesting point: somethings that we attribute as having asset value aren’t really assets at all. A Car is a quickly depreciating asset, and if you are paying car loans, some of the time, the net difference between the value of your car and your outstanding loan may turn it into a clear liability on your personal balance sheet, esp. in the first six months where you haven’t paid anything off, and the car has suffered the sharpest decline in its value.

“A house is an asset, period. ”

Another point that RDPD makes is that yes, the house is an asset, but the question is whose? If you buy a house and its price decreases, your mortgage (assuming you have one) shifts into negative equity position, ie. if you sold, you would still have to repay the amount of the loan beyond the sale price of the house. Could it be said to be an asset then?

And if you don’t believe, do you honestly think that housing prices will keep heading up as they have been doing so… Mmm…

Does this clarify things a little?

What I admire is RDPD’s ability to string simple observations out to a whole book! That’s quite an achievement. I did enjoy playing the game, though it is pricy.

Kenneth

The Daily Latte

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How the money goes…?

latte

Yes, those $3 a day habits do really add up!

Let’s see:
$3*365 = $1095 per year.

That doesn’t include the overpriced confections, cakes or cookies.

So you could really save quite a lot of money this way!

I used to enjoy going to *$ onholiday in the UK. The sandwiches were fresh and delicious about three years ago. Last summer, I went. All I could find was stupid stuff that didn’t look good, wraps, I think. What happened to their excellent sandwiches?
It’s the same in Taiwan, the food quality of many of their cakes leaves a lot to be desired, and I even complained once to no avail, because one cake I bought was so awful, I threw 95% of it away.

Moreover, their food preparation is going downhill seriously. So with some careful choices you could really find a better way to save your money AND have good fresh food.

Kenneth

Should I go back to work?

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What do my readers think? Should I go back to work or keep working on my business?

Our school is now not really able to pay me much of a salary, because of the lack of profits in the coming six months. We’re facing a cash shortfall at home as well in the short term, because both of our incomes are dependent on the business.

I have considered going back to work, to stabilize our family income, but I wonder if that would take away from the experience of, and need to, looking at our business and trying to make the machine work better.

I’d appreciate some input on this matter from readers… so comment away.

Kenneth