income

2 Years Online: An anniversary for nearly $12000 extra income

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I promised that I would be switching to cash accounting rather than counting each penny as I earned it. But then I realized that I’d be making the switch mid-year and in some cases I would be double counting some income, creating a false total.

Then in August, the changes that I had been planning for the blog for a while finally came together: InvestorBlogger became a multi-channel blog with separate and identifiable ‘channels’ on Finance and Blogging. Those two are perhaps the strongest streams. Three additional channels were created for minor stuff, and so InvestorBlogger Dot Com has increased page views, readership, readers, RSS readers, page time and much more. Though each of the channels is still slowly building up steam, the benefits have been positive so far.

Since August 1st, I’ve published a number of great articles in both the primary channels, as well as the occasional piece in the others. I’ve worked hard on the SEO of each piece, including keywords, descriptions for both blogs and posts. I’ve added sitemaps for humans as well as search engines. I’m also extending advertising by joining new networks and working hard to promote the site on AdWords.

While I’ve been doing all of this, income to the blog has dropped somewhat to a less than spectacular $390.27 for August. This brings the total to a grand sum of $11,962.38. This is not bad for two years work and focus. I’ve really succeeded in making an extra $6000 or approx. $498.50 per month over 24 months.

So at this point, rather than switch to cash accounting. I will be ending these ‘consolidated’ accounts as I split the blog into two major parts. It’s quite difficult to know exactly where to put these reports. Rather than that, I’ll be splitting the reports into two: Online Income and Offline Income. Of course I’ll be keeping a track of the income myself, you’ll need to do a little detective work! Online Income will in future be posted in the Blogging Channel, while Offline Income will be posted in the Finance Channel.

So what did I learn? A number of things actually. I’ll be sharing them as the blog takes on these new directions.

Should I blog about my own finances?

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One of the reasons I set up my blog on DollarTravels was to encourage me to put more effort into my financial life. While I’ve been very succesful as a blogger, and earned not a small amount of money!, I haven’t really posted any personal financial details on any of the blogs I write before. I do share my credit card spending from month to month, but I don’t share my expenses, my cashflow or my investment holdings at all.

I’ve already settled part of this discussion in my mind: I’m resolved to start posting my investment holdings at some point, but my own financial situation: somehow that seems like a whole new ballgame.

Privacy: is it that important?

Unlike Flexo who writes fairly anonymously, a lot of people in Taiwan actually know me, and they know where I live and work. So this would be highly personal reporting and attributable to some they know. I’m not yet convinced that this is a good thing. An article in Business Week that featured another Money Blog actually has a source that is attributable, known and trackable. I don’t know if this is something I would like to be. Part of me urges caution, part of me wants to celebrate success and share failure with EVERYONE! I’m torn.

Breaking Taboos

Coming from Britain, where I grew up and with friends, personal financial details were rarely shared amongst even the closest relatives. We were brought up such that you didn’t talk about death, sex, politics, religion, health, and money! While some of these seem obviously inappropriate at certain times, such proscription seems so intolerable that it’s a wonder anyone was able to learn anything about any of these sensitive topics. So for me to discuss some aspects of our financial situation, it’s definitely running counter to my experience as a child or younger person.

The Power of the External

Having seen my blog help me focus my mind more on generation money through the number of routes that I choose, I can see how having an external pressure, a barometer, an audience, etc.. can help me keep on the straight and narrow. Perhaps it will stop me splurging on a third 28″ monitor or a brand new BMW when I can ill afford, perhaps not. Even the failures will provide a good lesson: I’m ever hopeful that our ‘shared experience’ online will help others develop their own self-discipline, goals and means, even when I have demonstrably failed.

So what should I do? Reveal ALL my personal financials, lift the veil on some of finances (e.g. Net Worth and Investments), or keep them away from prying eyes? Comment your answer if you dare. I’ll be making a decision by September 1st. I’d like to say that some from my audience helped me gain perspective whichever outcome I decide.

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!

  • Bank Interest    $27.06
  • Stockbroker    $122.50
  • Blogging    $97.50
  • Advertising   $165.04
  • Consulting    $59.02
  • Total: $471.12

Google AdWords: Does it make Ad Sense?

One of the new things I’m trying is bringing traffic from AdWords. I finally signed up for a Google AdWords account; had my cards accepted and am now running ads for one of my pages. it’s pretty easy to set up, I was surprised. I’ve set up five different ads with different styles advertising my Make Money page. I’ve already had 6 clickthroughs already. I’m not expecting the campaign to yield any real traffic but so far the clicks are clicking away just as fast! 🙁

Perhaps the links on the page are too confusing or there are just too many links on that page. Anyway, at least I’m now learning the ropes of using AdWords type words. I am beginning to think up new ways to monetize this, but it’s all very new to me! Any tips? Any one?

I’ll be doing a post on this shortly once I have enough clicks to write a proper story about the whole thing!

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